events

Robert of Chester completes his translation from Arabic to Latin of the Liber de compositione alchemiae, marking the birth of Western alchemy.

Robert of Chester

12th-century English scholar

Robert of Chester was an English Arabist of the 12th century. He translated several historically important books from Arabic to Latin, such as:Book on the Composition of Alchemy : translated in 1144, this was the first book on alchemy to become available in Europe Compendious…
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Arabic

Central Semitic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic, including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern…
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Latin

Indo-European language of the Italic branch

Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium, the lower Tiber area around Rome, Italy. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language in the Italian…
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Liber de compositione alchemiae

12th-century translation of an Arabic alchemical work

The Liber de compositione alchemiae, also known as the Testamentum Morieni, the Morienus, or by its Arabic title Masāʾil Khālid li-Maryānus al-rāhib, is a work on alchemy falsely attributed to the Umayyad prince Khalid ibn Yazid. It is generally considered to be the first Latin…
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Alchemy

Branch of natural philosophy

Alchemy is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first attested in a number of pseudepigraphical texts written in…
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February 11

Day of the year

February 11 is the 42nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 323 days remain until the end of the year.
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