alchimia

Alchimia is the historical tradition, philosophy, and practice centered on transforming matter, with aims such as the transmutation of base metals into noble metals (notably turning lead into gold), the creation of an elixir of life, and the attainment of spiritual perfection. The term is derived from the Arabic al-kīmiyā and the Greek khemeía, and it encompasses a body of theory, symbolism, and experimental practice that spanned late antiquity to the early modern period across cultures. In Western and Islamic worlds, practitioners pursued chrysopoeia, hermetic philosophy, and practical knowledge of materials; common techniques included distillation, calcination, dissolution, crystallization, and fermentation. Figures associated with alchemy range from early pseudo-histories of Hermes Trismegistus to medieval and early modern authors such as Jabir ibn Hayyan, Albertus Magnus, Paracelsus, and others, whose writings linked metallurgy, medicine, and spirituality.

Regional variants included Islamic alchemy, which preserved Greek and Egyptian ideas; and Chinese alchemy, which often emphasized longevity and the pursuit of an elixir within Daoist practice. The emergence of modern chemistry in the 17th and 18th centuries contributed to a decline in alchemy as a practical program, though its legacy persisted in laboratory technique, chemical nomenclature, and the philosophical imagination of science. In contemporary contexts, alchimia is studied as a historical phenomenon and appears in literature, philosophy, and psychology as a metaphor for transformation and self-realization.