This page groups esoteric texts by where they were first written. Wikipedia notes that "the earliest traditions of Western esotericism emerged in the Eastern Mediterranean during Late Antiquity, where Hermeticism, Gnosticism and Neoplatonism developed as schools of thought distinct from what became mainstream Christianity." Browsing by place of composition lets a visitor find every text written in the same region.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingTreatises whose subject is alchemy proper, the transmutation of metals and the preparation of the philosophers stone, written in the coded allegorical imagery characteristic of the art. Texts that are equally Hermetic philosophy are grouped under Hermetic and alchemical. 2 Origins
Era of CompositionLatin alchemy, from the translations out of Arabic beginning in 1144 to the seventeenth century 2 Learn More
The Alchemical Texts
This group holds texts of the alchemical tradition, the writings of the alchemists who sought the transmutation of metals and, in the spiritual reading, the transformation of the practitioner. Alchemical texts are famously written in coded, allegorical language, dense with symbolic imagery.
The browser will find the works the atlas gathers here. The entries describe each text's teaching and place in the tradition, noting the debated boundary between practical laboratory alchemy and its inner, spiritual interpretation.
Place of Composition
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. The Secrets of Alchemy
Lawrence M. Principe, University of Chicago Press, 2013ch. 1View the Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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