First posted on FB 14/02/2020
Two more alchemical symbols today – sulfur and arsenic. Alchemists used this notation in texts such as those by Basil Valentine.
Valentine himself was something of a mystery. His texts claim that he lived in 15th century Germany, in Erfurt, but there is no record of his existence. The texts weren’t known until the turn of the 17th century, and what’s more, contain a reference to America. It seems likely that he never actually existed and his name was a pseudonym used by one or more alchemists of the 16th/17th centuries
There was often more than one different symbol used for each element or compound, as shown in Basil Valentine’s table from The Last Will and Testament of Basil Valentine.
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