The Philosophical Background of Medieval Magic and Alchemy
The Philosophical Background of Medieval Magic and Alchemy

Summary/Abstract: Modern scholars do not have a unanimous opinion about the relation between alchemy and magic. In particular, Kieckhefer and Bailey consider alchemy as part of magic, whereas Newman and Principe support the contrary, posing in this way a distinction between the disciplines. The first group of scholars associates alchemy with magic in terms of astrology and ritual procedures and the second, in turn, distinguishes alchemy as a bellwether of chemistry (Kieckhefer 1989, 133-139; Bailey 2007, 95-96; Principe and Newman 2001,385-431). Nonetheless, alchemy raised suspicion and distrust mostly because of its erroneous claims in manufacturing genuine gold. However, the influx of Arabic translations after the 11th century changed the intellectual environment of Western Europe, resulting in a different attitude towards the occult sciences as well. In this paper, I intend to shed light upon two case studies in order to synthesize the philosophical background of the aforementioned occult disciplines. First, I will present a short selection of the most important occult books that were imported from the Arabs and concurrently I will depict how these books influenced the medieval attitude towards magic and alchemy. Second, I will show how these books led to an important epistemological shift and a “scientific” rehabilitation of both magic and alchemy, and I will specify the nature of this rehabilitation relating it to ancient Greek philosophical traditions. Finally, I will provide two historiographical examples, those of William of Auvergne and of Albertus Magnus, arguing that these scholars attempted to entrench an innovative perspective towards occult sciences¹, since their work combines and associates magic and alchemy with natural philosophy.

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