The Alchemists

St. Albans: Paladin, 1976. Presumed First Paperback Edition. Pocketbook. 12mo in wraps; 191 pp: 8 unnumbered leaves of plates, illustrations (b&w); 19 cm Near Fine(+), a ery tight and clean copy; personal first name in ink to free endpaper; thin reading crease down spine (slight). Paperback. ISBN: 9780586082249

Uncommon thus. A "short and clear account of the alchemists, their ways of thought and their contribution to man's achievement."--Publisher | Contents: Introductory. The Ideas of the Alchemists. The Origin of Alchemical Practices. The First Alchemists. The Earliest Alchemical Signs and Symbols. Chinese Alchemy. Alchemists of Islam. The Alchemists in Europe. Alchemy in the Fourteenth Century. The English Alchemists. Alchemical Symbolism. Stories of Transmutations. From Alchemy to Chemistry. The Hermetic Philosophy. The Relation of Alchemy to Science" --Publisher. | F. Sherwood Taylor (Frank Sherwood Taylor, 1897–1956) was a British chemist and pioneering historian of science whose scholarship helped establish the serious academic study of alchemy and early chemistry. Trained originally as a chemist, he turned increasingly toward historical inquiry, combining technical competence with philological care and a strong interest in intellectual context. From 1937 until his death he served as editor of Ambix, the journal of the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry, shaping it into the principal English-language forum for rigorous work on alchemical texts, symbolism, and laboratory practice. Taylor also directed the Science Museum in London after the Second World War, where he promoted a humanistic understanding of science as a cultural achievement rather than a purely technical enterprise, a perspective reflected throughout his editorial and scholarly legacy.36