The Secrets of Alchemy

Lawrence M. Principe, a historian of science and chemist, offers an authoritative introduction to the history of alchemy from Greco-Egyptian origins through the Arabic and Latin traditions to the early modern period. He explains how alchemists worked, how to read their coded language, and how alchemy related to the emergence of chemistry, even reproducing some recipes in the laboratory. It is an excellent, sober starting point that corrects many popular misconceptions about the subject.