1st century CE · alchemical author
Pseudo-Democritus
Δημόκριτος
Known · ProbableNot attested in Alexandria.
The unknown author of the Physika kai Mystika and the other books on dyeing and making gold, silver, gems and purple that went under the name of the philosopher Democritus, the oldest layer of Greek alchemy. They have been linked to Bolus of Mendes, a Hellenistic writer on natural sympathies, and are commonly dated to the 1st century CE.
Our device: Their emblem is a dyer's vat. No portrait of any of these people survives. The emblems are our devices.
On the shelves
- Pseudo-Democritus, Natural and Secret Matters (Physika kai Mystika) and the Four Books · 1st century CE (perhaps earlier) · Survives in fragments
In the show
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Sources (2)
- M. Martelli, The Four Books of Pseudo-Democritus (Leeds: Maney, for the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, 2013)
- L. M. Principe, The Secrets of Alchemy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013)