Transcription
I've often wondered what it would be like to be a fly on the wall if the great philosophers and mystics of history could converse and debate. What would Aristotle have to say to Sartre? Siddhartha Gautama to the Stoic Chrysippus? Confucius to Thomas Aquinas? Or Nagarjuna to Schopenhauer? Duns Scotus to Deleuze? Lao Tzu with the Gnostic Valentinus? And on and on.
I can even recall when I was a kid, watching an episode of Star Trek where Data was playing cards on the holodeck with Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking. And it inspired me. Such a sense of wonder to even contemplate such geniuses in a single room, as positively awe-inspiring. Such a dream isn't new. In fact, one of the greatest texts of occult sciences imagines just such a debate on the topic of cosmology and alchemy.
In this episode, I want to introduce and explore the Turba Philosophorum, or the Conference of the Philosophers, one of the most popular alchemical textbooks of the Middle Ages. In this important text, a conference of some of the most important natural philosophers is imagined to gather together and debate the fundamental nature of physical reality and its transformation through the art and science of alchemy.
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But now, let's turn to the Conference of the Philosophers, the Turba Philosophorum, one of the most enduringly popular of all texts of alchemy. I'm Dr. Justin Sledge, and welcome to Esoterica, where we explore the arcane in history, philosophy, and religion.
[Music]
Alchemical literature is marked by its symbolism, obscurity, and prodigious ability to simultaneously conceal and reveal its meaning. However, not all alchemical texts are so painfully difficult. The Turba Philosophorum, or the Conference of the Philosophers, is just such an exception. Now, that doesn't mean that it's easy by any means, but the text functions much more like an alchemical textbook, containing both theoretical speculation but also practical alchemical experiments. And indeed, this explains the popularity of the Turba through the centuries, from the Middle Ages right up to the rise of modern chemistry.
So, what is this alchemical textbook, the Turba Philosophorum, or the Conference of the Philosophers? Simply put, the text is structured as a debate between ancient philosophers concerning cosmology generally and alchemy specifically. Though I have to admit that I'm doing a bit of euphemizing. The translation of the title "Turba" in Latin doesn't really mean "conference." It really comes from the Greek word that means something like "tumult" or "turmoil," but also has a sense of a "crowd" or, better, a "mob." So, "Conference of the Philosophers" doesn't really communicate that. In Latin, the sense is much more like the "din of the philosophers" or the "chaos of the philosophers," where one imagines a somewhat raucous, as much as philosophers ever get raucous, at any rate, a sort of raucous conversation and debate with people interrupting each other and talking over each other and things like that. So, the idea of the Turba Philosophorum, you should hear is something like the debates among the philosophers.
Regardless of the title, the text itself features a range of philosophers, including some pretty obscure names: Exi Medrus, Exundrus, Anaxagoras, Pandofus, Arisa Lucas, Lucastor, Pitagarus, and Eximinus, all debating first about cosmology, or the origin and structure of the cosmos, followed by a more specifically alchemical section which details operations which cover a wide range of applications, from metallic transmutation to the dyeing of fabrics.
Now, some of those philosophers I mentioned, like Anaxagaris or Pythagoras, should sound basically familiar to anyone who's studied some pre-Socratic philosophy. But who is Emixedris or Arisalus? Well, the answer to this mystery also gives us a clue as to the origins of the Turba itself. The text first appears in European manuscripts in the 13th century and was first printed in the Arraphiri Artis printed at Basel in 1572, one of the most important collections of alchemical texts.
As you may know, alchemy was introduced into Europe with the translation of the *Liber de Compositione Alchemii*, or the Book on the Composition of Alchemy, by Robert of Chester on the 11th of February, 1144. If you're curious about this first and foundational alchemical text, make sure to check out my episode on it in the card above. Also, I'm still pushing for the idea of having an official Alchemy Day on February the 11th. Now, how we might celebrate Alchemy Day, I have really no idea, but maybe you could let me know what you think in the comments.
The Turba itself also entered into Europe pretty early on, really only a generation or so after the *De Compositione*, but before the composition of the alchemical masterpiece, the *Summa Perfectionis* of Pseudo-Geber. So, what about those other unusual names for the philosophers in the Turba? Well, in Latin, they do seem unusual, but if you retrofit them into Arabic, they start to make a lot more sense. Of course, alchemy first appeared in the Alexandrian world of the late classical period, but was quickly absorbed into the Islamicate world, where it was greatly developed. Specifically, it was during the Islamic period of alchemical research that the mercury-sulfur theory of the metals developed, which would underwrite the entire project of metallic transmutation, or the attempt to convert a base metal like lead into a noble metal like gold.
Well, if you take those strange names in Latin and imagine what they might have been in an Arabic text, the mystery kind of appears solved. We have Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Anaxagaris, Empedocles, Alcmaeon, Leucippus, Exapantus, Pythagoras, and Xenophanes, who's who of pre-Socratic philosophers. Curiously enough, however, these exact nine philosophers are also grouped together in Hippolytus's third-century text, *The Refutation of All Heresies*. Why they appear in Hippolytus, but also in the Turba Philosophorum in the same grouping, isn't clear, but it is weird. Further, that they would be debating cosmology is also unsurprising and reveals the deep genius of the author of the Turba Philosophorum.
Side note: "Turba Philosophorum" always strikes me as a power-up you would get in a video game, like like Mega Man or something. But "Turba" is different from "Turbo." They come from different root words in Latin and Greek, respectively. Whatever, it's not "Turbo Philosophy," but that sounds awesome.
As you may know, the pre-Socratic philosophers are famous for being more than just before Socrates. Their philosophical program, among the first like it in history, was to theorize about the fundamental substance of reality, a principle they often referred to as the *arche*. Numerous answers were put forward and debated, with the fundamental idea of water coming from Thales, the atomic theory of Democritus, or the numerical theory of Pythagoras. Here, the author of the Turba takes up these positions more or less, often less accurately to their actual historical counterparts, and sets these pre-Socratic philosophers into a speculative debate about the nature of cosmology and eventually practical alchemy.
Generally speaking, the first section of the text, that with the cosmological arguments, seeks to establish what the author takes to be the definitive position on this question. They argue that a single God is responsible for the creation of the cosmos, that the cosmos is fundamentally unified, *in toto*, all is one, and out of that structure, difference emerges, and that nature is composed of the Empedoclean or Aristotelian four elements or simple bodies: earth, air, fire, and water. The substance of every Final Fantasy game.
Now, such a program of linking ancient philosophy to the agenda of alchemy wasn't altogether new. Before the Turba, a similar program was laid out by the 5th-century alchemist Olympiodorus, though the Turba is without a doubt the most systematic treatment of that theme. And indeed, the text is highly systematic, and following the debate isn't too difficult if you have some knowledge of the positions of the various pre-Socratic philosophers and kind of already know where the debate's going to go. Though I will admit that the author of the Turba is more than happy to, let's call it, get creative with the historical positions of these philosophers in the interest of proving their threefold agenda that I mentioned just a moment ago. So, don't expect Pythagoras in the Turba to always sound like the historical Pythagoras, not that the historical Pythagoras is all that clear, though the author's knowledge of these figures and their positions really is extraordinary, given how little we know even now, given centuries of scholarship on the pre-Socratic philosophers.
So, we roughly know when the text was translated and transmitted and entered into Europe, but who actually wrote it and when? Well, we have a pretty good guess. Ruska's 1933 analysis of the text showed that the earliest quotations of the Turba occur in the works of the critically important alchemist Ibn Umail, who died sometime around 960 of the Common Era. Further, the text also makes mention of the Indian myth of the poison maiden who kills any man that she embraces. We know that that Indian text wasn't translated into Arabic until the first half of the 9th century. Finally, there is an oblique reference around that time to an alchemist named Uthman ibn Suwaid, who lived at Akhmim and also is said to have composed a work called *The Book of Controversies and the Conferences of the Philosophers*, which only survives in fragments in Arabic. So, it seems possible, indeed likely, that Uthman ibn Suwaid composed the text in Arabic around 900 of the Common Era.
Also, it's worth pointing out here that the Egyptian city of Akhmim was known in Greek as Panopolis and was a long center of learning and especially of alchemical practice. You may recall that Zosimus, probably the most famed alchemist of the late classical world, also hailed from Panopolis. Indeed, this may serve as at least some evidence of Panopolis continually serving as a site of alchemical development and innovation over the course of centuries.
As I mentioned, sadly, the Arabic original only survives in fragments, but we can always hold out hope for what may be hidden in the deserts of Egypt. The Latin edition survives, and a few different redactions and versions exist, with some including more or less dicta, or sayings, of the various philosophers. There's a long and a short, and there's some in between. So, exactly how the text was transmitted and what the exact nature of the original version was, or the original text, is still not quite clear.
As I mentioned, the text itself can be divided into two uneven sections. The first is the cosmological debate, with the latter half being various discussions of alchemical theory and practice, representing a wide range of topics. What's maybe especially interesting at the theoretical level is that the Turba seems to represent an alchemical theory that either predates or rejects the mercury-sulfur theory developed in Jabirian circles, that is to say, esoteric Islamic circles in and around Baghdad. In this theory, mercury and sulfur act as the fundamental constituents of all metals. By subjecting a metal to various alchemical procedures, one can decompose them back into mercury and sulfur, and then by further procedures, one can purify the base metal into a noble metal, lead into gold, or tin into silver.
If you want to learn more about the mercury-sulfur theory and this alchemical practice, take a look at my episode on the *Summa Perfectionis*. You can see it in the card above. This is the single most important alchemical textbook of the Middle Ages, at least in my opinion. It's worth checking out if you want to learn more about the standard alchemical practices of the Middle Ages.
In fact, the alchemical procedures in the Turba look to me a lot more like Greco-Egyptian alchemy, which is perhaps unsurprising, given that it was a text composed in Egypt. Further, phrases like "nature rejoices with nature" are common, for instance, in the Greco-Egyptian alchemy of Pseudo-Democritus. So, I think it's at least possible that some of the alchemical procedures given in the second part of the Turba are actually Greco-Egyptian formulas, having been translated into Arabic from an original Greek text. This might also explain some of the obscure technical terms found in the Turba. It's clear that some of these are of Arabic origins, but others may be garbled Greek.
Now, these kinds of alchemical translation problems plague alchemical texts, to be honest, as I mentioned in my episode on the Emerald Tablet. So, what we may have here is a survival of Greco-Egyptian alchemy, developed in an Islamic context, but surviving only in a Latin translation in different versions. I mean, what do you expect? It's alchemy, of course it's going to be a complicated, mysterious text with a strange history.
The sections on practical alchemy are difficult to summarize, in that they're recipe-like in character, and they run the alchemical gamut. Most of them are concerned with the tinting and coloring of various metals, often things like copper coins and lead, through a wide range of means. As I mentioned in my episode on the *Formula of the Crab*, if you want to learn more about Greco-Egyptian alchemy, check out my episode on the *Formula of the Crab*. This form of alchemy was practically much more concerned with the coloring of metals rather than transmutation. This concern actually reaches all the way back into the Pharaonic period, with techniques being created and preserved by temple metallurgists.
There's also discussions on the preparation and fixing of dyes, and some discussion of what is called diplosis, or the doubling projection of various metals by fermenting them, to use the alchemical language, in various kinds of substances. Frankly, though, without a substantial knowledge of Greco-Egyptian alchemy, the procedures in this part of the text prove to be pretty obscure, and honestly, I often find myself grasping at just how to understand what a procedure is meant to do, or what the exact goal of that procedure was.
Despite this obscurity, the Turba proved to be an incredibly popular alchemical textbook, running into numerous editions and finding its way into the library of such great geniuses as Isaac Newton himself, of course, a prolific alchemist. While I can't say it's always clear, it is still a wonderfully structured text, generally free of obscurity for the sake of obscurity that you see in a lot of other medieval alchemical texts, and it's a solid place to begin one's exploration of alchemy and this vast and mysterious literature.
Sadly, there's no modern critical edition of the Turba Philosophorum, and there isn't an academic edition like the *Summa Perfectionis* produced by William Newman. The 1896 translation by A.E. Waite is probably your only bet if you want to read it in English, though I will say, like a lot of his translations, it's pretty solid and there's a lot of helpful notes there. Reprints of the Waite edition are relatively inexpensive. If you want to consult the text in Latin because you're awesome, you can find those links below to the first volume of the Arraphiri Artis, which you can also buy in pretty nice reprints, actually.
The only sustained study of the text was last performed by Ruska in his 1931 edition, but that work, while reprinted to this day, is only in German. Further important corrections to Ruska were made by Plessner in the mid-20th century. I've linked his decisive 1954 article below. Also, it's worth pointing out that Jung leans heavily on the Turba, with dozens of references haunting the notes to his work on alchemy. Again, a modern academic critical edition and translation are really desired. So, if anyone out there wants to work on a dissertation project, go forth and do.
Make sure to subscribe, check out my other content, and consider supporting my work of making this kind of information available for free here on YouTube by checking out my Patreon or perhaps thinking about a one-time donation. You can find those links below. Until next time, I'm Dr. Justin Sledge, and thank you for watching Esoterica, where we explore the arcane in history, philosophy, and religion.