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A way of thinking philosophically about stuff by changing it (transformation of matter).

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Alchemists did publish books but encoded their philosophies, so only they could understand. These books had many illustrations, most of them were symbols masking their true meanings.

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Many alchemical books focused on transmutation, changing metals into other metals.
In Aristotle's time, transmutation was a natural process, because metals were compounds formed deep in the earth when quantities of sulfur and mercury were crushed together.

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The alchemical metals are not compounds, they're elements
They were two types of alchemical metals, the noble metals were gold which represents the sun, and silver which represents the moon. And the base metals were mercury which represented the planet Mercury, copper for Venus, iron for warlike Mars, tin for Jupiter, and lead for slow sad Saturn.

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They were two categories for the agents of transmutation. Particulars which only did one thing, and universals meaning the "philosopher's stone" this stone could change any base metal into gold.
The search of the universal transmutation agent was the Chrysopoeia, to make a "chrysopoeian" they had to combine the correct ingredients, and then heat the mixture for a long time. Chrysopoeia required the practice of Metallurgy, which consisted on the alchemists heating the ingredients for days controlling the temperature.
Eventually, the mix of ingredients would change colors until it turned red, when that happened now you had a substance, that when heated up with base metals changed them into gold.

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Alchemy persisted because transmutation definitely produced something. We don't know precisely what did it produce because of all the codes. 

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Alchemy persisted because transmutation definitely produced something. We don't know precisely what did it produce because of all the codes. 

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The human body was understood as an alchemical workshop as chemical reactions happening in the organs, changing one kind of stuff into another.
Alchemists were also physicians, interested in making efficacious compounds called Pharmaceuticals or chematria.

Alchemy was a system for producing useful material from chematria to alcohol, alloys, pigments, perfumes, etc.

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They were multiple alchemies in medieval Eurasia.
Chinese alchemy was tied into ideas about the earth itself, the Chinese alchemists detected its vital channels of energy transmission using magnets, formalizing that the system of earth magic called "Feng Shui". Eventually, all this work led to the gunpowder invention.

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Indian alchemy focused on medicine, on forms of mercury, and on how to preserve health and hopefully create an undecayable body.

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Islamic-ate alchemy blended Aristotelian, Chinese, and Indian alchemical practices.

Jabir ibn Hayyan, born in Persia in 721 was credited with authoring three thousand texts, including texts as the Emerald Tablet, a supposedly Ancient Greek text that included a guide to create the "Philosopher's Stone"

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Today's most famous person for his work in alchemy is Paracelsus, a Swiss physician and iconoclast born in 1493.

He is famous today for the phrase "The dose makes the poison", he believed that the "Philosopher's Stone" was a universal solvent called the Alkahest that could theoretically dissolve anything, even gold.

Paracelsus introduced salt as a third element that made up all metals.
He was a critic of university natural philosophers and physicians, he admonished his alchemical colleagues not to trust the words of the ancient masters, but then he became a master himself.

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Alchemy torn between text and experiment, loyalty to tradition and iconoclasm.

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Alchemy torn between text and experiment, loyalty to tradition and iconoclasm.

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Johannes Gutenberg born in Germany in 1468, was a metallurgist who invented a process for mass-producing movable type.

He also pioneered working with oil-based ink and made teaks to the common cheese press to make his printing press.
His REAL ACHIEVEMENT was bringing all of these together into a system that made printing books more economical

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Parts of it become Chemistry but also became increasingly seen as dirty, dangerous, unsavory, low-class, etc.
They were notable alchemists in the seventeenth century like Isaac Newton.
Alchemy was attacked as superstition, it went underground for most of the eighteenth century, maintained in secret societies before dying out.

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C.C. (2018, June 11). Alchemy: History of Science #10 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxiLuz9kHi0