12th-century translation of an Arabic alchemical work
TheLiber de compositione alchemiae ("Book on the Composition of Alchemy"), also known as theTestamentum Morieni ("Testament of Morienus"), theMorienus, or by itsArabic titleMasāʾil Khālid li-Maryānus al-rāhib ("Khalid's Questions to the Monk Maryanos"), is a work onalchemy falsely attributed to theUmayyad princeKhalid ibn Yazid (c. 668 – c. 704).[1] It is generally considered to be the first Latin translation of anArabic work on alchemy into Latin, completed on 11 February 1144 by the EnglishArabistRobert of Chester.[2][a]
The work takes the form of a dialogue between Khalid ibn Yazid and his purported alchemical master,[3] theByzantine monk Morienus (Arabicمريانس,Maryānus, perhaps fromGreekΜαριανός,Marianos),[4] himself supposedly a pupil of the philosopherStephanus of Alexandria (fl. early seventh century).[5] Widely popular among later alchemists, the work is extant in manymanuscripts and has been printed and translated intovernacular languages several times since the sixteenth century.[6]
The Latin translation is for the most part based on an Arabic source,[b] though both the ArabicMasāʾil Khālid li-Maryānus al-rāhib and the LatinLiber de compositione alchemiae contain sections not present in the other.[7] The Arabic text belongs to thealchemical works associated with Khalid ibn Yazid, which are widely regarded as ninth- or tenth-centuryforgeries,[8] although it has also been argued that some of them may go back to the eighth century.[9] Since one manuscript of theMasāʾil Khālid li-Maryānus al-rāhib contains a citation from the early tenth-century workMuṣḥaf al-ḥayāt ("Book of Life") attributed toIbn Umayl (c. 900 – c. 960), the work may have been originally written in the latter half of the tenth century.[10]
The wordalchemia in the Latin title does not yet refer to the art ofalchemy, but rather to the mysterious material which alchemists claimed could transmute one substance into another (i.e., the elixir orphilosophers' stone).[11][c] The actual meaning of the Latin title is thus "the book on the composition of the elixir".[d] As the Latin translator states in his preface:
This book styles itself the composition of alchemy. And as your Latin world does not yet know what alchemy is and what its composition is, I will clarify it in the present text. [...] The philosopherHermes and his successors defined this word as follows, for instance in the book of the mutation of substances: alchemy is a material substance taken from one and composed by one, joining between them the most precious substances by affinity and effect, and by the same natural mixture, naturally transforming them into better substances.[12]
The author of the Latin preface appears to have had access to other translated sources, among them texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus (Hermetica). The emphasis on the alchemical elixir being "taken from one and composed by one" (Latin:ex uno et per unum composita) may be a reference to the short and cryptic Hermetic text known as theEmerald Tablet,[13] which mentions that "the performance of wonders stems from one, just as all things stem from one substance according to a single procedure".[14][e]
^There is some doubt about whether the attribution of the preface of the work to Robert of Chester is authentic, but the dating of the translation does not depend on this (seeDapsens 2016, p. 133 andMoureau 2020, p. 116, both referring toLemay 1990–1991 andKahn 1990–1991).
^The Arabic text (partial edition and translation into English byAl-Hassan 2004, full critical edition and translation into French byDapsens 2021) goes by different names.Moureau 2020, p. 116 and Al-Hassan 2004 still refer to the text asRisālat Maryānus al-rāhib al-ḥakīm li-l-amīr Khālid ibn Yazīd ("The Epistle of the Wise Monk Maryanos to the Prince Khalid ibn Yazid"), but Dapsens 2021 has chosen the nameMasāʾil Khālid li-Maryānus al-rāhib ("Khalid's Questions to the Monk Maryanos") for her critically established text. Manuscripts of the Arabic text are listed byDapsens 2016, pp. 124–126. The Arabic source was for a long time thought to be lost (still so inHalleux 1996, p. 889). As a result, the very existence of such an Arabic source was sometimes put into doubt (seeRuska 1924, pp. 47–48; cf. Dapsens 2016, p. 123).
^On the various definitions of alchemy in medieval Arabic and Latin sources, whose common characteristic is the transmutation of something imperfect into something better, see furtherMoureau 2020, pp. 91–101.
^As has been noted byRuska 1924, p. 36 (cf.Dapsens 2016, p. 133), the Latin wordalchemia occurs a few times in the Latin translator's preface and at the very end of the text (which is also exclusive to the Latin text, see Dapsens 2016, pp. 126–127), but in the central parts of the Latin text it occurs only once (also in the meaning of elixir, seeMoureau 2020, p. 90, note 16).
Al-Hassan, Ahmad Y. (2004). "The Arabic Original of the Liber de compositione alchemiae: The Epistle of Maryānus, the Hermit and Philosopher, to Prince Khālid ibn Yazīd".Arabic Sciences and Philosophy.14 (2):213–231.doi:10.1017/S0957423904000086. (same content also availableonline) (partial edition of the Arabic text with English translation)
Dapsens, Marion (2021).«Arabice appellatur Elixir» : les Masā’il Khālid li-Maryānus al-rāhib dans leurs versions arabe et latine (PhD dissertation).Université catholique de Louvain.hdl:2078.1/252488. (edition and French translation of the Arabic text; edition and French translation of two versions of the Latin text; study and commentary)
Manget, Jean-Jacques (1702).Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa. 2 vols. Geneva. Vol. 1, pp. 509–519. (edition of the Latin text)
Stavenhagen, Lee (1974).A Testament of Alchemy. Being the Revelations of Morienus to Khālid ibn Yazīd. Hanover: Brandeis University Press.ISBN9780874510959.OCLC01055311. (edition of the Latin text with English translation)
Bacchi, Eleonora; Martelli, Matteo (2009). "Il Principe Halid b. Yazid e le origini dell'alchimia araba". In Cevenini, Daniele; D'Onofrio, Svevo (eds.).Conflitti e Dissensi Nell'Islam. Bologna: Il Ponte Editrice. pp. 85–119.ISBN9788889465332. (contains a systematic comparison of the Arabic and the Latin text)
Carlotta, Vincenzo (2017). "La morte e la resurrezione dei corpi nelDialogo dei filosofi e di Cleopatra e nelLiber de compositione alchemiae di Morieno". In Fidora, Alexander; Polloni, Nicola (eds.).Appropriation, Interpretation and Criticism: Philosophical and Theological Exchanges Between the Arabic, Hebrew and Latin Intellectual Traditions. Textes et Etudes du Moyen Âge. Vol. 88. Barcelona and Rome: Fédération Internationale des Instituts d’Études Médiévales. pp. 93–120.ISBN978-2-503-57744-9.
Dolgusheva, Svetlana (2012).Zwei arabische Dialoge über Alchemie. DasKitāb Mihrārīs al-ḥakīm und dieMasāʾil Ḫālid li-Maryānus ar-rāhib (MA thesis). Freie Universität Berlin.
Forster, Regula (2017).Wissensvermittlung im Gespräch: Eine Studie zu klassisch-arabischen Dialogen. Islamic History and Civilization. Vol. 149. Leiden and Boston: Brill.doi:10.1163/9789004326729.ISBN978-90-04-32670-5. (see index p. 521, s.v.Masāʾil Ḫālid li-Maryānus ar-rāhib; bibliography and summary content on pp. 461–462)
Forster, Regula (2021). "Khālid b. Yazīd". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.).Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three.doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_35436.
Halleux, Robert (1996). "The Reception of Arabic Alchemy in the West". InRashed, Roshdi (ed.).Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. Vol. 3. London: Routledge. pp. 886–902.ISBN9780415020633.
Hudry, Françoise (1997–1999). "Le De secretis nature du Ps. Apollonius de Tyane, traduction latine par Hugues de Santalla du Kitæb sirr al-halîqa".Chrysopoeia.6:1–154.ISBN9788872522073.
Kahn, Didier (1990–1991). "Note sur deux manuscrits du Prologue attribué à Robert de Chester".Chrysopoeia.4:33–34.ISBN9788872522004.
Lemay, R. (1990–1991). "L'authenticité de la préface de Robert de Chester à sa traduction du Morienus".Chrysopoeia.4:3–32.ISBN9788872522004.
Rosenthal, Franz (1975) [1965].The Classical Heritage in Islam. Translated by Marmorstein, Emile; Marmorstein, Jenny. London: Routledge.ISBN0-415-07693-5.
Ruska, Julius (1924).Arabische Alchemisten I. Chālid ibn Jazīd ibn Muʿāwija. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.OCLC928821937.
Sezgin, Fuat (1971).Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, Band IV: Alchimie, Chemie, Botanik, Agrikultur bis ca. 430 H. Leiden: Brill. pp. 120–126.ISBN9789004020092.
Stavenhagen, Lee (1970). "The Original Text of the Latin Morienus".Ambix.17 (1):1–12.doi:10.1179/amb.1970.17.1.1.
Weisser, Ursula (1979).Buch über das Geheimnis der Schöpfung und die Darstellung der Natur (Buch der Ursachen) von Pseudo-Apollonios von Tyana. Sources and Studies in the History of Arabic-Islamic Science. Aleppo: Institute for the History of Arabic Science.OCLC13597803.
