Newman, William Royall (Advisor)
Meagan Selby Allen (Author)
This dissertation examines Roger Bacon’s interest in alchemy and its role in medicine, and how it connects with the 13th century milieu in which he was writing. Alchemy, rather than solely being about transmuting base metals into noble ones, finds its greatest use in the prolongatio vitae, or the extension of human life toward its natural limits, as exemplified by the Biblical Patriarchs. Borrowing the idea of a medicine for metals from pseudo-Avicenna’s De anima, Bacon develops a 1:1 correspondence between the medicine of metals and the medicine of people. He synthesizes material from many different sources to develop a theory uniquely his: that a body of equal proportion, in which the elements are all balanced in their potencies, is not only able to exist without corruption, but can impart that incorruptibility on a different substance. Rather than needing a specific medicine for each disease, Bacon’s corpus equale for humans is universal, and works by virtue of its own equality. This dissertation also shows that Bacon, despite having many original ideas regarding the role of alchemy and a corpus equale in the prolongatio vitae, is far from alone in believing that such an extension of life is possible. There was significant interest in the prolongation of life among 13th and 14th century physicians, and how it could be accomplished. Bacon himself has a change of opinion in the three decades in which he writes about the prolongatio vitae: at the beginning, he is hesitant to assign any importance to alchemy as a tool for extending life, but in his more mature works, he considers alchemy to be one of the sciences vital to the prolongatio vitae.
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Book
Meagan S. Allen;
(2023)
Roger Bacon and the Incorruptible Human, 1220-1292: Alchemy, Pharmacology and the Desire to Prolong Life
(/isis/citation/CBB612783808/)
Thesis
Yan Liu;
(2015)
Toxic Cures: Poisons and Medicines in Medieval China
(/isis/citation/CBB849633602/)
Book
Sylla, Edith Dudley;
Newman, William Royall;
(2009)
Evidence and Interpretation in Studies on Early Science and Medicine Essays in Honor of John E. Murdoch
(/isis/citation/CBB001220782/)
Article
Chiara Crisciani;
(2018)
Death as a Destiny and the Hope of Long Life in the Latin Middle Ages
(/isis/citation/CBB657013511/)
Book
Jennifer M. Rampling;
(2020)
The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700
(/isis/citation/CBB983185229/)
Article
Matus, Zachary;
(2013)
Resurrected Bodies and Roger Bacon's Elixir
(/isis/citation/CBB001213516/)
Book
Luthy, Christoph;
Murdoch, John E.;
Newman, William R.;
(2001)
Late Medieval and Early Modern Corpuscular Matter Theories
(/isis/citation/CBB000100046/)
Article
Antoine Calvet;
(2019)
Essai sur la constitution et la transmission de corpus alchimiques latins aux XIIIe-XVe siècles: Albert le Grand, Thomas d’Aquin, Roger Bacon
(/isis/citation/CBB802268753/)
Chapter
Michela Pereira;
(2016)
Projecting Perfection. Remarks on the Origin of the "Alchemy of the Elixir"
(/isis/citation/CBB815669811/)
Thesis
Matus, Zachary Alexander;
(2010)
Heaven in a Bottle: Franciscan Apocalypticism and the Elixir, 1250--1360
(/isis/citation/CBB001560805/)
Book
DeVun, Leah;
(2009)
Prophecy, Alchemy and the End of Time: John of Rupescissa in the Late Middle Ages
(/isis/citation/CBB001020324/)
Article
Wujastyk, Dagmar;
(2013)
Perfect Medicine: Mercury in Sanskrit Medical Literature
(/isis/citation/CBB001510474/)
Article
Czaja, Olaf;
(2013)
On the History of Refining Mercury in Tibetan Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB001510476/)
Article
Cook, Harold J.;
(2011)
Markets and Cultures: Medical Specifics and the Reconfiguration of the Body in Early Modern Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB001200553/)
Article
Umberto Veronesi;
Stefan Hanß;
(2023)
“The Lute of Wisdom”: Alchemy, the Body, and Medicine in the Material Renaissance
(/isis/citation/CBB675034051/)
Article
Ernesto Riva;
Carla Camana;
(2018)
Radiografia della teriaca
(/isis/citation/CBB982733896/)
Article
Iolanda Ventura;
(2018)
Lo sviluppo della farmacopea salernitana ed il ruolo del Corpus Constantinianum per una mise au point
(/isis/citation/CBB080677978/)
Chapter
Joëlle Ricordel;
(2012)
L'utilisation raisonnée des sources dans les manuels andalousiens de pharmacologie: l'exemple du kitāb al-musta 'īnī d'Ibn Biklāriš
(/isis/citation/CBB037928833/)
Article
Mustafa Yavuz;
(2020)
Lichens in al-Biruni’s Kitab al-Saydanah fi al-Tibb
(/isis/citation/CBB643788834/)
Book
Frederick W. Gibbs;
(2018)
Poison, Medicine, and Disease in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB877960706/)
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