Women Alchemists and the Paracelsian Context in France and England, 1560–1616

• Published in: Early modern women Vol. 15; no. 2; pp. 103 - 112
• Main Author: Bayer, Penny
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies 01.03.2021; The University of Chicago Press; University of Chicago Press
• Subjects: Chemistry; Early modern period; Philosophy; Theology; Universe; Women; England; France
• ISSN: 1933-0065; 2378-4776
• DOI: 10.1353/emw.2021.0025

Medicine and theology were accepted concerns of early modern noble and gentlewomen, and also arenas within which Paracelsian alchemy developed. It is therefore not surprising to find that some educated women engaged actively in Paracelsian alchemy in both its spiritual-philosophical and medicinal aspects, although the extent of this engagement is only beginning to be fully explored. Debus first highlighted the Paracelsian debate in England and France, describing Paracelsianism as growing out of a fusion of medieval alchemical and neo-Platonic ideas into a renewed tradition in which nature became a vast chemical laboratory, investigable through an alchemy grounded in prayer, imagination, and faith." Paracelsian ideas, in Paracelsus's own writings or the explications of others, were characterized by an occult interpretation of the universe, which newly emphasized chemistry in medicine, belief in observation of nature, reliance on hermetic, neo-Platonic, and neo-Pythagorean philosophy, and location of alchemy and chemistry within a wider universe of theology.