Maria the Jewess

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Artist's impression of Michael Maier from the book Symbola Aurea Mensae Duodecim Nationum (1617)

Maria the Jewess or Maria Prophetissa is considered the founder of alchemy and was the most important alchemist of the ancient world . The Jewish woman , who lived and worked in Alexandria (North Africa) between the 1st and 3rd centuries , was also an inventor .

It is to them that Carl Gustav Jung called the “Axiom of Maria Prophetissa”, which has been handed down in various versions: “One becomes two, two becomes three, and one of the third is the fourth; so the two become one. ”Or:“ The one becomes two, the two becomes three, and the third becomes the one as fourth. ”This sentence is apparently a number speculation from the Gnostic - Neoplatonic cosmology . The numerous attempts to interpret this sentence inspired Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to (seemingly) senseless " Hexeneinmaleins " in Faust .

Furthermore, the invention of various devices for the regulated heating of substances is attributed to her, such as the ash bath similar to the sand bath , the "hot bed" ( Venter equinum ) acting through fermentation heat and especially the heated water basin Bain-Marie , which is named after Mariae ( Marienbad ) her name is. Other inventions of it are the alchemical equipment Kerotakis and the first still Tribikos be; the sulphides that develop at the reflux apparatus still bear the name Maria's black today .

The Egyptian-born Zosimus from Panopolis , who wrote in Greek, mentioned her several times in his works on alchemy, but in some of his traditional versions of the text incorrectly identified her with Miriam , the sister of Moses . Sometimes she is even confused with Maria Aegyptiaca .

The alchemical tract Practica in artem alchimicam , which is preserved in the collective work Artis auriferae libri duo (Basel 1572), is circulating under her name . Another work is the late Excerpta ex interlocutione Mariae profetissae, sororis Moysis et Aaronis . A German version of the Latin treatise can be found in Opus Aureum A. de Villa Nova (17th century).

See also

literature

  • Maria the Jewess . In: Lexicon of important chemists . Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1988 ISBN 3-323-00185-0 , p. 290
  • Renate Strohmeier: Lexicon of natural scientists and women of Europe. From antiquity to the 20th century. Verlag Harri Deutsch, Thun / Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-8171-1567-9 .
  • Maria Judaica. In: Hans Biedermann: Lexicon of the magical arts. Licensed edition of the 3rd improved and expanded edition. VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 3-928127-59-4 , p. 293.
  • Chemical History Tour, Picturing Chemistry from Alchemy to Modern Molecular Science. Adele Droblas Greenberg Wiley-Interscience 2000, ISBN 0-471-35408-2 .
  • Jette Anders : 33 alchemists. The hidden side of an ancient science. Past Publishing , Berlin 2016, ISBN 9783864082047 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lexicon of important chemists.
  2. ^ Opus aureum. Frankfurt am Mayn 1604, online edition of the Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library.
personal data
SURNAME Maria the Jewess
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maria Prophetissa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Alchemist and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH between 1st century and 3rd century
DATE OF DEATH between 1st century and 3rd century