An Anthology of British Alchemy

Elias Ashmole, Theatrum chemicum Britannicum. London: John Grismond for Nathanael Brookes, 1652.

Elias Ashmole was not only an antiquarian and book collector, who gave his name and a large collection of ethnographic objects to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, but he was also seriously interested in alchemy. In the wake of the compilations of alchemical texts published on the Continent, Ashmole added to the stock of alchemical lore by compiling a volume of British alchemical texts, noting that, although English alchemical authors were greatly esteemed on the Continent, they were neglected in their own country. Some thirty works are included, ranging chronologically from Sir Thomas Norton and Sir George Ripley - two of England’s most famous medieval alchemists - to a work by William Backhouse, practising alchemist and tutor to Ashmole.