Art of Alchemy

The first global history of alchemy, brimming with images, by a world-leading expert "Among all the arts, it is the art of alchemy which most closely imitates nature." - Albertus Magnus (teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas), ca. 1250 Alchemists are notorious for attempting to synthesize gold. Their goals, however, were far more ambitious: to transform and bend nature to the will of an industrious human imagination. For scientists, philosophers, and artists alike, alchemy seemed to hold the key to unlocking the secrets of creation. Alchemists' efforts to discover the way the world is made have had an enduring impact on global artistic practice and expression. Brafman’s book is the first to explore how the art of alchemy globally transformed human creative culture from the ancient world to the modern scientific age, and displays the ways its legacy still permeates the world we make today.

David Brafman has been the rare books curator at the Getty Research Institute since 2002. He curated the exhibition Art of Alchemy at the Getty Center in 2017. His Ph.D. is in Classical Greek and Arabic. He was born and grew up in Brooklyn, NY.