Promethean Ambitions
Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature
Su tesis: la disputa arte-contra-naturaleza atraviesa Occidente — «The contest between man and nature is a theme as old as Western civilization» — y la alquimia fue su campo de batalla privilegiado desde el siglo XIII «Newman — Promethean Ambitions (2004) · p. 27». El marco que estructura todo es aristotélico: el arte PERFECTIVO (medicina, agricultura, alquimia) contra el MIMÉTICO (pintura, escultura) «Newman — Promethean Ambitions (2004) · pp. 33, 132». Documenta la sentencia de Avicena en verbatim — «Quare sciant artifices alkimie species metallorum transmutari non posse» — y su interpolación: circuló como si fuera de Aristóteles, y todavía en el siglo XVIII se la refutaba creyéndola dogma aristotélico «Newman — Promethean Ambitions (2004) · pp. 53, 128, 308».
1041 afirmaciones · 1 fuente · 1 atribución
Atribución
se consigna, jamás se afirma«Newman — Promethean Ambitions (2004) · p. 11»
Cadena de la obra
el testimonio procesado, en esmeraldaAfirmaciones
1041 entradas — la voz de la obra, con su pasajeLa tesis: la disputa arte-vs-naturaleza atraviesa Occidente — «The contest between man and nature is a theme as old as Western civilization» — y la alquimia fue su campo de batalla privilegiado desde el siglo XIII.
El marco aristotélico que estructura todo: «The arts either, on the basis of Nature, carry things further (epitelei) than Nature can, or they imitate (mimeitai) Nature» — el arte PERFECTIVO (medicina, agricultura, alquimia) contra el MIMÉTICO (pintura, escultura).
La sentencia de Avicena, verbatim: «Quare sciant artifices alkimie species metallorum transmutari non posse» — traducida por Alfred of Sareshal en el Liber de congelatione.
LA INTERPOLACIÓN confirmada: el De congelatione se adjuntó a las traducciones de la Meteorología y «emphasized with particular clarity in the fourth book of Aristotle’s Meteorology» — la sentencia circuló COMO SI FUERA de Aristóteles, y todavía Kölreuter (1761–66) la impugna creyéndola dogma aristotélico.
La carrera demonológica de la sentencia: Alberto Magno la usa para delimitar el poder de los demonios, y el Malleus maleficarum abre su primer folio citando el edicto antialquímico de Avicena.
La réplica canónica de los alquimistas: «alchemy should know that species cannot be transmuted» —la ampliación a los «subjects of species» es de Alberto, no del dictum— — se transmutan individuos, no especies.
La decretal de Juan XXII, «Spondent quas non exhibent», condena la alquimia como fraude; tras ella la apologética se vuelve religiosa: la Margarita pretiosa de Petrus Bonus (1330–39) hace de la alquimia un donum dei con linaje profético.
La contraofensiva inquisitorial: el Contra alchimistas de Eymerich (1396) — los demonios pueden reunir riquezas ocultas pero no crear metales; invocarlos es «to abandon God and to adhere to the demon».
La Summa de pseudo-Geber define el oro EMPÍRICAMENTE, sin forma sustancial: «If anyone should be able to induce these qualities in a given parcel of matter, then let him call that matter 'gold'» — la línea que llega a la esencia nominal de Boyle y Locke.
El homúnculo paracelsiano (De natura rerum, publicado por Bodenstein en 1572, autenticidad debatida): esperma putrefacto 40 días en el venter equinus, alimentado con el arcanum sanguinis humani 40 semanas — «a miracle . . . and a secret above all secrets»; su contraparte femenina es el basilisco.
La genealogía pre-paracelsiana del ser artificial: el anthroparion de Zósimo, el cuento de Salaman y Absal que Avicena habría comentado, la receta del «animal racional» del Liber vaccae pseudo-platónico, y el golem como su contraste «duro».
Alonso Tostado transmite el experimento atribuido a Arnaldo de Vilanova, que «smashed his gestating homunculus before it could acquire a rational soul».
La rivalidad con las artes visuales: Jean de Meun ya la formula (la alquimia transmuta de verdad, la pintura solo figura); Leonardo critica informado; Vasari registra artistas arruinados por la alquimia (Parmigianino); Varchi distingue archimia vera, sofistica y falsa — «l'arte non genera l'oro, ma la natura mediante l'arte».
Palissy reinterpreta la piedra filosofal como PETRIFICACIÓN — legó a Pierre de l'Estoile «which he affirmed to be a skull (teste de mort)» —de la «philosophers’ stone (pierre philosophale)» de su relato—.
Newman objeta la «noninterventionist fallacy»: la alquimia escolástica ya era ciencia investigadora, y la cadena Themo Judaei → Sennert → Bacon → Boyle traslada el vocabulario del arte perfectivo a la filosofía experimental.
«In several lengthy articles Lawrence Principe and I have argued that the term “alchemy” needs to be rethought.» — Newman declara, con Lawrence Principe, que el término alchemy hay que repensarlo: no nombraba una disciplina separada de la química, sino su sinónimo histórico
«Only around the beginning of the eighteenth century did transmutational alchemy come to be strictly segregated from chemistry, and even then there was considerable overlap in some quarters.» — data la separación entre alquimia transmutatoria y química recién a principios del siglo XVIII, y aun entonces la acota: quedó traslape en algunos sectores
«Nonetheless, the term “alchemy” (alchimia or alchemia in Latin) and its variations in European vernacular languages was strongly associated with the transmutation of metals and other substances in the Middle Ages, both before and after it came to be associated with medicine.» — sostiene, pese a esa sinonimia, que alchimia sí quedó fuertemente asociada a la transmutación de metales en la Edad Media, antes y después de vincularse con la medicina
«Even though alchemy was seldom if ever exclusively about transmutation, it came to be viewed as the transmutational art par excellence.» — establece la asimetría que sostiene el libro: la alquimia casi nunca fue solo transmutación, pero se la vio como el arte transmutatorio por antonomasia
«The reality of the situation, then, is that medieval and early modern alchemical texts typically included a wide range of chemical technologies alongside the elusive goal of transmuting metals, and yet the discipline tended to be seen both by practitioners and by those outside the discipline primarily in terms of its transmutational goals.» — adjudica esa percepción a los dos lados a la vez, practicantes y externos, aunque los textos incluyeran un abanico amplio de tecnologías químicas
«where the focus is not on the technological or experimental content of alchemical texts themselves» — acota el objeto del libro: no la técnica ni el contenido experimental de los textos alquímicos, sino el uso que se les dio para discutir el límite entre arte y naturaleza
«From the thirteenth century on, alchemy came to be viewed by Scholastic and other authors as the epitome of human attempts to transmute one substance into another.» — fija el siglo XIII como el momento en que autores escolásticos y otros convierten a la alquimia en el epítome del intento humano de transmutar una sustancia en otra
«It was the goal of transmutation that served both to elevate the art to a status above all other arts and to plunge it into the depths of Dante’s Hell, where the alchemists Griffolino d’Arezzo and Capocchio da Siena are forced for eternity to contemplate their aping counterfeit of nature.» — señala el doble efecto de esa meta: elevó el arte por encima de los demás y lo hundió en el Infierno de Dante, con Griffolino de Arezzo y Capocchio de Siena
«Pope John Paul II, driven by fears that the impact of biomedical research on human nature will soon deprive life of its dignity, warns of the “Promethean ambitions” implicit as he sees it in much contemporary science.» — abre con la voz que da título al libro: Juan Pablo II advierte de las ambiciones prometeicas que ve implícitas en buena parte de la ciencia contemporánea
«Part of our fear stems from the feeling that humans are being increasingly outclassed by machines.» — diagnostica el temor contemporáneo como sensación de estar siendo superados por las máquinas
«Even fashion models are beginning to feel threatened by their virtual counterparts—the New York Times has reported that modeling agencies have begun using cyberspace personalities such as “Webbie Tookay” in their clothing advertisements.» — ilustra ese desplazamiento con un caso de 2004: las agencias de modelos empezaron a usar personalidades de ciberespacio en la publicidad de ropa
«Clearly the answer must be no, since Leon R. Kass, chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics, recently raised a minor sensation by assigning Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1843 story, “The Birth-Mark,” to his fellow committee members as required reading for their deliberations on human cloning.» — registra el hecho que motiva su objeción: Leon R. Kass, presidente del President’s Council on Bioethics, asignó a sus colegas el cuento de Hawthorne como lectura obligatoria sobre clonación
«With Georgiana’s consent, Aylmer concocts an elixir that succeeds in eliminating the birthmark, but with one unfortunate side effect—it also kills Georgiana.» — resume la trama del cuento de Hawthorne: el elixir borra la marca de nacimiento y de paso mata a Georgiana
«There is every reason to seek moral guidance in the classics of literature.» — concede primero lo que después va a acotar: buscar guía moral en los clásicos literarios le parece enteramente razonable
«The key problem, illustrated clearly by the council’s published discussion, stems from the treatment of literature in a historical vacuum.» — localiza el defecto no en acudir a la literatura sino en tratarla en un vacío histórico
«With all due respect to the council, our reaction to Aylmer is not a “natural” or “necessary” one born of universal, diachronic human emotion without the aid of prior tutelage.» — objeta al consejo por su nombre: la reacción del lector ante Aylmer no es natural ni necesaria ni brota de una emoción humana diacrónica, sino que está aprendida
«Nor did Hawthorne merely draw on his own sense of moral outrage to “invent” the subject about which he wrote so skillfully.» — niega la otra mitad del supuesto: Hawthorne no inventó el asunto desde su propia indignación moral
«Indeed, the council’s discussion failed to notice that Hawthorne himself, in composing “The Birth-Mark,” drew upon a much older tradition of debating the hubris implicit in human beings’ godlike power over the natural world.» — adjudica el origen del cuento a una tradición mucho más antigua de debate sobre la hybris del poder humano, que la discusión del consejo no advirtió
«What is not immediately evident, however, is that the very language in which Hawthorne clothes his discussion of the powers of art versus nature is itself drawn from a centuries-old debate about the legitimacy of alchemy and its claim to refashion nature in the image of man.» — sostiene que el lenguaje mismo de Hawthorne procede de una disputa secular sobre la legitimidad de la alquimia y su pretensión de rehacer la naturaleza a imagen del hombre
«In Hawthorne’s words, the alchemists “imagined themselves to have acquired from the investigation of nature a power over nature.”» — cita la fórmula del propio Hawthorne sobre los alquimistas, que se creyeron dueños de un poder sobre la naturaleza obtenido de investigarla
«If we are going to view current debates on the limits of science in the context of literary traditions, it is imperative that we fully understand the history of the alchemical debate upon which Hawthorne and similar authors drew.» — deriva de ahí su imperativo metodológico: si se van a leer los debates actuales sobre los límites de la ciencia con tradiciones literarias, hay que entender antes la historia del debate alquímico del que salen
«Even the most casual reader of Hawthorne cannot fail to see that the “chemist” Aylmer is really an alchemist.» — identifica al químico Aylmer como alquimista, y lo da por evidente hasta para el lector más distraído
«But as with Hawthorne, Shelley was not creating this fantasy or its attendant philosophical dilemmas out of whole cloth.» — extiende el mismo argumento a Mary Shelley: tampoco ella fabricó de la nada la fantasía ni sus dilemas filosóficos
«Would this mouse then be the same as its sexually generated counterpart? Not if one consults the twelfth-century Arabic philosopher Averroes, who explicitly raises this puzzle.» — plantea el dilema de lo sintético frente a lo generado y lo remite a Averroes, que ya lo formula explícitamente
«Averroes explicitly applied the same argument to the gold produced by alchemists.» — adjudica a Averroes la extensión de ese argumento al oro de los alquimistas: la voz es del comentarista árabe, no de Newman
«And lest we prejudice the discussion, it must be admitted that vitamin C from natural sources may well contain impurities that do make it differ from the pure, synthesized variety.» — se abstiene de dar la disputa por saldada a favor de lo sintético: admite que la vitamina C de origen natural puede llevar impurezas que la hagan distinta
«Even if we could not perceive these differences with our most powerful tests, they might still be present.» — concede que la indistinguibilidad empírica no cierra la cuestión, porque las diferencias podrían seguir ahí sin ser detectables
«As in the contemporary incarnation of these questions, the medievals and early moderns felt that they were coming perilously close to playing god and transgressing the boundaries imposed on man and nature by a wise Creator.» — sostiene la continuidad del temor: medievales y modernos tempranos sintieron que rozaban el jugar a Dios y traspasaban los límites impuestos por un Creador sabio
«The famous Catalan physician of the late thirteenth century, Arnald of Villanova, was said to have smashed his gestating homunculus before it could acquire a rational soul, driven by the fear that this would be a mortal sin.» — consigna la leyenda de Arnaldo de Vilanova con su marca de reserva —se decía que— : habría destrozado su homúnculo en gestación antes de que adquiriera alma racional
«Like Leon Kass and the members of his presidential council—fearing the “manufacture” of human beings and the consequent dehumanization that this might imply—early modern theologians already worried that humanity would soon be relegated to the status of a soulless artisanal product.» — traza el paralelo entre el consejo de bioética y los teólogos modernos tempranos, que ya temían ver al ser humano rebajado a producto artesanal sin alma
«Babies produced in bottles, their sex and other characteristics predetermined in the laboratory, form a desideratum extending well into the Middle Ages.» — data el deseo de los bebés de probeta con sexo y rasgos predeterminados bien adentro de la Edad Media
«Artists of such varied stripe as Leonardo da Vinci and the French potter Bernard Palissy attacked alchemy as an irreligious fraud that claimed for itself the creative powers of God.» — documenta la acusación desde el bando de las artes visuales: Leonardo y el alfarero Bernard Palissy atacaron la alquimia como fraude irreligioso que se arrogaba el poder creador de Dios
«It was the painters, sculptors, and ceramicists who really held the key to imitating nature, not the bragging simulators of gold, silver, and precious stones.» — reconstruye la pretensión rival de los artistas, que se reservaban a sí mismos la llave de imitar la naturaleza
«Alchemists and visual artists were in an immediate sense rivals in the business of re-creating nature, even if the former claimed to replicate a natural product while the latter were engaged in its representation.» — formula la asimetría entre los dos bandos: los alquimistas decían replicar el producto natural, los artistas representarlo
«Here already we witness a restricted instance of the now commonplace rivalry between art and science, based on their differing attitude toward nature.» — lee esa rivalidad como caso restringido y temprano de la que hoy se da entre arte y ciencia, fundada en su distinta actitud ante la naturaleza
«Since the powers of demons stood or fell with those of the alchemist, the legitimacy of alchemical claims acquired an importance that it would otherwise probably not have had.» — explica por qué la disputa alquímica pesó tanto: la potencia de los demonios se medía con la del alquimista, y eso dio a las pretensiones alquímicas una importancia que de otro modo probablemente no habrían tenido
«The fourth chapter examines the most controversial of all alchemical claims—namely the tradition associated with the itinerant preacher, lay physician, and alchemist Paracelsus von Hohenheim, which claimed that he could create a homunculus.» — anuncia el capítulo cuarto sobre la más controvertida de las pretensiones alquímicas, la del homúnculo en la tradición de Paracelso
«Although this was an argument between siblings rather than strangers, we need no reminder that such close and personal encounters are often the most unpleasant to both parties.» — caracteriza la disputa entre alquimistas y artistas como pleito entre hermanos, y por eso mismo especialmente áspero
«A close analysis of this neglected debate will show that several of the reigning beliefs prevalent in the historiography of science are open to serious and sustained objection.» — declara el blanco historiográfico del libro: varias creencias dominantes en la historiografía de la ciencia quedan expuestas a objeción seria y sostenida
«Our present-day perception that science and technology are rapidly outpacing nature had surprising antecedents in the ancient world.» — sostiene que la percepción actual de una técnica que rebasa a la naturaleza tiene antecedentes sorprendentes en el mundo antiguo
«Some thirty extant Greek epigrams of later date describe the marvelous cow, most of them mocking, and some quite bawdy.» — cuenta el material sobre la vaca de Mirón: unos treinta epigramas griegos conservados, la mayoría burlones y algunos subidos de tono
«In one epigram, Myron is accused of lying when he said that he made the cow, since it must surely have hardened into bronze naturally.» — resume el chiste de uno de los epigramas: acusan a Mirón de mentir al decir que hizo la vaca, porque debió endurecerse en bronce por sí sola
«Another accuses him of being a second Prometheus, since like the ancient titan, he has made a living being.» — registra el otro extremo del mismo motivo: otro epigrama llama a Mirón un segundo Prometeo por haber hecho un ser vivo
«Yet another brags (in the voice of the cow itself ) that a calf will moo upon seeing it, a bull will try to mount it, and a herdsman will attempt to lead it into his herd.» — apunta el criterio antiguo de éxito mimético: que el ternero mugiera, el toro intentara montarla y el pastor quisiera llevársela al hato
«Finally, the cow provides the pretext for an epigram describing the contest between art and nature.» — localiza en esos epigramas el pretexto para el certamen entre arte y naturaleza que dará título a su capítulo
«A century after Myron, the famous painter Apelles was incensed when he learned that the judges of an art contest had been bribed.» — introduce el caso de Apeles, indignado al saber que los jueces de un certamen habían sido sobornados
«Deciding to “challenge nature itself,” he subjected a painting that included horses to the judgment of other quadrupeds rather than to that of the corrupt judges.» — narra la respuesta de Apeles: someter su cuadro de caballos al juicio de cuadrúpedos en vez del de los jueces corruptos
«Only when confronted with the mastery of Apelles’ own art did they neigh, signifying their failure to distinguish mimicry from model.» — consigna el desenlace y su lectura: los caballos relincharon, es decir, fallaron en distinguir la imitación del modelo
«The skill that could rival the gods in re-creating nature was also the trickery that fooled the eye.» — formula la ambivalencia antigua del arte: la misma destreza que rivaliza con los dioses al recrear la naturaleza es el engaño que burla al ojo
«Although it would be wrong to say that the mythical Daedalus was representative of Greek artists in general, ancient divisions of the disciplines did include all manual pursuits under the general rubric of “arts.”» — acota el alcance del ejemplo de Dédalo —no representa al artista griego en general— y a la vez consigna que las divisiones antiguas metían todo oficio manual bajo la rúbrica de las artes
«The activities with which Daedalus was associated display the breadth and complexity contained within the once synonymous Greek and Latin terms techn¯e and ars, which have parted company in modern English to form the roots for our “technology” on the one hand and “art” on the other.» — señala la escisión moderna que el griego techne y el latín ars no conocían: de ahí salen, separadas, technology y art
«According to him, even machines owe their invention to the mimicry of nature.» — transmite la tesis antigua, atribuida a Demócrito, de que hasta las máquinas deben su invención a la imitación de la naturaleza
«The saw mimics the form of a jawbone, and the process of baking bread imitates the steps involved in eating and digesting grain.» — da los ejemplos con que la tradición sostenía esa derivación: la sierra copia la quijada y hornear pan repite los pasos de comer y digerir el grano
«Seneca himself rejects this historical theory, not because it is absurd, but because it demeans the philosopher by relegating him to the status of technician.» — adjudica el rechazo de Séneca a un motivo de casta, no de argumento: la teoría le rebaja el filósofo a técnico, no le parece absurda
«Aristotle put it (Politics I 1 1252b1–5), “nature makes nothing as the cutlers make the Delphic knife, in a niggardly way, but one thing for one purpose;» — cita a Aristóteles en la Política sobre la economía de fines de la naturaleza, que no hace un cuchillo délfico multiusos
«The same attitude existed with regard to the technai more broadly. Although they might be clever simulacra of nature, they could not themselves be natural.» — extiende esa actitud a las technai en bloque: podían ser simulacros ingeniosos de la naturaleza, pero no ser naturales
«For this reason, Aristotle says (II 1 193b, 8–9), “men propagate men, but bedsteads do not propagate bedsteads.”» — cita el criterio aristotélico que separa lo natural de lo artificial por el principio interno de reproducción
«Whether Plato is entirely sincere in his attack on painting is a matter of debate, but the language that he uses is remarkable, and resonates with the examples» — se abstiene de decidir si Platón habla en serio al atacar la pintura, y se queda con lo que sí puede sostener: que su lenguaje resuena con los demás ejemplos
«He produces his deceptions in the same way that water refracts light and makes an object appear bent when submerged.» — recoge el símil platónico del pintor como productor de engaños, al modo del agua que hace parecer torcido lo sumergido
«Such an art was “perfective,” in the sense that it brought nature to an end that would not be realized otherwise.» — define el arte perfectivo por su efecto y no por su materia: lleva a la naturaleza a un fin que no alcanzaría de otro modo
«The most famous example of such perfecting of nature by the visual arts is surely the story of Zeuxis, commissioned to paint a likeness of Helen of Troy by the inhabitants of Croton.» — pone a Zeuxis, encargado por los crotoniatas de retratar a Helena, como el caso más famoso de perfeccionamiento de la naturaleza por las artes visuales
«Already in Aristotle’s time, Hippocratic medicine had come to epitomize the former type of art, since the physician did not generally lead the human body to an unnatural state, but merely brought it to its natural condition of health by eliminating impediments.» — adjudica a la medicina hipocrática el papel de epítome del arte perfectivo: no lleva el cuerpo a un estado antinatural, solo le quita los impedimentos
«From an Aristotelian perspective, it is one thing to improve upon nature, and quite another to improve nature itself.» — formula la distinción que gobierna el libro entero: mejorar lo que la naturaleza da y mejorar a la naturaleza misma son cosas distintas
«In addition, an Aristotelian perfective art could also be mimetic, in the sense that it could imitate natural processes used in order to lead nature to greater perfection.» — niega que perfectivo y mimético se excluyan: un arte perfectivo aristotélico también puede imitar procesos naturales, y precisamente para llevar la naturaleza más lejos
«He claims that “art imitates nature,” using this fact to justify the imposition of technical terms such as “boiling” and “roasting” onto natural phenomena.» — adjudica a Aristóteles el uso del tópico como licencia terminológica: si el arte imita a la naturaleza, cabe describir procesos naturales con palabras de cocina
«Since artisans have learned their operations by imitating nature, it is unproblematic to use their technical language in describing the natural processes that they have copied.» — reconstruye la razón del argumento: el vocabulario técnico del artesano vale para lo natural porque de lo natural fue copiado
«The purely imitative type of art, on the other hand, which merely mimics nature without perfecting it, had already received Plato’s dismissive treatment, as we saw above.» — contrasta las dos ramas: el arte meramente imitativo, que no perfecciona nada, ya había recibido de Platón un trato desdeñoso
«Painting and sculpture were among the paradigmatic mimetic arts, and they had nothing to do with perfecting nature in the Aristotelian sense.» — sitúa la pintura y la escultura como artes miméticas paradigmáticas, ajenas por completo al perfeccionamiento de la naturaleza en sentido aristotélico
«Indeed, when Galen contrasted nature’s work to that of man, he used precisely the example of the great sculptors as a foil—“For Praxiteles and Phidias and all the other statuaries used merely to decorate their material on the outside, in so far as they were able to touch it; but its inner parts they left unembellished, unwrought, unaffected by art or forethought, since they were unable to penetrate therein and to reach and handle all portions of the material. It is not so, however, with Nature.”» — cita a Galeno, no a sí mismo: los grandes estatuarios solo adornaban la superficie de su material porque no podían penetrar en su interior, y la naturaleza sí
«The great sculptors, for all their skill, “could not turn wax into ivory or gold, nor yet gold into wax.”» — remata el argumento galénico con su límite material: la destreza del escultor no convierte la cera en marfil ni el oro en cera
«Galen even went so far in another work as to deny that man could make true, homogeneous mixtures.» — registra hasta dónde llegó Galeno en otra obra: a negarle al hombre la capacidad de hacer mezclas homogéneas verdaderas
«Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History, claims that human luxury has conquered nature in the matter of perfumes and is challenging it in the realm of dyes.» — trae a Plinio como testigo de la fórmula del vencimiento: el lujo humano habría vencido a la naturaleza en los perfumes y la estaría desafiando en los tintes
«Yet there is nothing in Pliny’s text to suggest that he meant anything more than the sort of contest between art and nature that Myron and Zeuxis had already entered into with their deception of animals.» — acota de inmediato ese testimonio: nada en el texto de Plinio da a entender más que el certamen mimético de Mirón y Zeuxis
«Nature is beaten only to the degree that the ersatz product fools the beholder or suits his purposes more than the natural one.» — define ese vencimiento como puramente relativo al observador: la naturaleza pierde solo en la medida en que el sucedáneo engaña o sirve mejor
«The writers on mechanical subjects effectively made “conquest of nature” a third category of its own.» — adjudica a los autores de mecánica la creación de una tercera categoría, la conquista de la naturaleza, junto a lo mimético y lo perfectivo
«The ancient writers on mechanics, to the contrary, saw themselves as making natural objects behave in a fashion that was fundamentally unnatural.» — marca la diferencia de esa tercera vía: los mecánicos se veían haciendo que objetos naturales se comportaran de un modo radicalmente antinatural
«The changes that they imposed were not to be measured merely in terms of human aisth¯esis, but in regard to the nature of things in themselves.» — señala el desplazamiento decisivo: el cambio mecánico ya no se mide por la percepción humana sino por la naturaleza de las cosas mismas
«The Mechanical Problems begins with the claim (847a1ff.) that marvelous phenomena can be produced either when we do not know the cause of a thing or when art is induced to act “against nature” (para physin).» — data en el arranque mismo de los Mechanical Problems la doctrina de lo maravilloso por causa oculta o por arte que obra contra la naturaleza
«Quoting the Greek poet Antiphon, pseudo-Aristotle says, “Mastered by Nature, we o’ercome (kratoumen) by Art.”» — atribuye al pseudo-Aristóteles, citando a Antifonte, la divisa de la conquista: dominados por la naturaleza, vencemos por el arte
«Aristotle argued that these “primary qualities” existed within the four elements and provided the means by which they could be transformed into one another.» — expone la doctrina aristotélica de las cualidades primarias como el mecanismo por el que los elementos se transforman entre sí
«The law of the lever applies regardless of the material constitution of the lever, being determined solely by the distance from the motive agent to the fulcrum and the distance from the fulcrum to the body to be lifted.» — observa que la ley de la palanca no depende de la constitución material del instrumento, sino solo de distancias
«Mechanics, like carpentry and painting, was not a perfective art, since it did not work with the elemental qualities to bring them to their internally determined goal.» — concluye la clasificación: la mecánica, como la carpintería y la pintura, no es arte perfectivo porque no trabaja las cualidades elementales hacia su fin interno
«an iron lever could not breed new levers any more than a painted horse could assuage its hunger by eating its painted hay.» — aplica a la máquina el criterio aristotélico del lecho: una palanca de hierro no engendra palancas, ni un caballo pintado sacia su hambre con heno pintado
«The very term m¯echanomai, the verbal form of the Greek word for machine, was often used in a negative sense, to mean the act of deceitful contrivance.» — apunta el lastre semántico del vocablo: el verbo griego de máquina se usaba con frecuencia para el ardid engañoso
«Pseudo-Aristotle’s focus on apparent marvels produced by hidden causes and by those that act against nature links him to the Daedalean tradition of wonderful yet deceptive machines, such as self-moving statues and simulacra of animals.» — enlaza al pseudo-Aristóteles con la tradición dedálica de máquinas prodigiosas y engañosas, estatuas que se mueven solas y simulacros de animales
«but in fact they are not, as the genuine Aristotle stressed in his description of Daedalean automata in the De anima.» — separa las dos voces con cuidado: el Aristóteles auténtico, en el De anima, subraya que los autómatas dedálicos no están vivos
«The making of machines is no longer a mere mimicry of nature, but an actual triumph over it.» — fecha en los Mechanical Problems el cambio de meta: fabricar máquinas deja de ser imitar la naturaleza para ser triunfar sobre ella
«Pappus then relates that mechanics includes the disciplines of metal working, house building, carpentry, and painting, along with the construction of machines proper.» — documenta la extensión antigua del término mecánica en Pappus: metalurgia, construcción, carpintería y pintura junto con las máquinas
«Pappus adds that some mechanicians are called wonder workers (thaumasiourgoi) because they make automata, trying to imitate the movement of animated beings by means of ropes fashioned from gut and grass.» — consigna el nombre que Pappus da a los constructores de autómatas, obradores de maravillas, y el medio con que imitaban lo animado
«Both Pappus and Cassiodorus seem to view the imitation of life as the crowning achievement of the mechanical tradition, the ultimate example of art conquering nature.» — se concede aquí un grado de certeza medido —parecen ver— al atribuir a Pappus y Casiodoro la imitación de la vida como cima de la tradición mecánica
«Wood and iron remain wood and iron even after they have been fashioned into the form of a lifelike automaton.» — fija el límite de esa cima: la madera y el hierro siguen siendo madera y hierro dentro del autómata más vivaz
«The grapes of Zeuxis and the cow of Myron may have fooled the unwary, like the statues of Daedalus, but ultimately they left the duped bird or bull unhappy.» — mide el éxito mimético por su fracaso final: las uvas de Zeuxis y la vaca de Mirón engañaron al incauto, pero dejaron insatisfechos al ave y al toro
«Nature may have been bested, but it had not been replicated.» — formula en una línea la distinción que separa a la alquimia de las demás artes: vencer no es replicar
«And yet alchemy eventually provided a focus to the discussion of art and nature that had no parallel in antiquity either in terms of sustained interest or interplay of theory and practice.» — sostiene que la alquimia acabó dando al debate arte-naturaleza un foco sin paralelo antiguo, ni por continuidad de interés ni por juego entre teoría y práctica
«alchemy was a “perfective art,” and yet it differed from medicine in that its goal was the creation of a physical object rather than the acquisition of a physical state (health).» — clasifica la alquimia como arte perfectivo y la separa de la medicina por su meta: un objeto físico, no un estado del cuerpo
«These efforts proved necessarily abortive, of course, but they provide us with an unusually transparent porthole into the mind of premodern man.» — concede sin rodeos el fracaso material de la empresa y reivindica su valor como ventana a la mente premoderna
«The origins of alchemy are ambiguous by any standard.40 Yet one thing is fairly clear.» — se abstiene sobre los orígenes de la alquimia, ambiguos según cualquier criterio, y solo entonces avanza lo que le parece bastante claro
«But in its development, an extraordinary thing happened. The alchemists began to view the products of their workshops as no different from the natural exemplars upon which they based their designs.» — data en el desarrollo de la disciplina el paso decisivo: los alquimistas empezaron a ver sus productos como indistintos de los ejemplares naturales
«There is in fact nothing to make us think that this spectacular artisanal technology viewed itself as really replicating natural products as opposed to imitating them and providing aesthetic improvements.» — declara una búsqueda negativa sobre la tecnología artesanal egipcia: nada indica que se creyera replicando productos naturales y no imitándolos con mejoras estéticas
«Despite the rather late date at which the papyri were copied or composed, they contain a technology that probably represents the earliest stage in the history of alchemy.» — data los papiros de Leiden y Estocolmo con su grado de certeza a cuestas: pese a la copia tardía, la tecnología que traen representa probablemente el estadio más antiguo
«Although the terms for gold making (poi¯esis chrysou) and silver making (poi¯esis argyrou) appear there, it is by no means clear that the recipes are intended to produce genuine gold and silver as opposed to similitudes of the noble metals.» — se abstiene de leer las recetas como transmutatorias: aparecen los términos de hacer oro y plata, pero no está claro que busquen oro y plata genuinos y no similitudes
«The compiler adds that this “simulation” (phantasia) will work best in the case of a ring.» — cita al compilador del papiro, que llama simulación a su propia receta y la recomienda sobre todo para un anillo
«And yet, around the time that the Leiden and Stockholm papyri were being copied, other alchemists were making precisely the claim that they could not just simulate, but replicate, natural products.» — sitúa el corte doctrinal en el mismo momento de los papiros: otros alquimistas ya reclamaban replicar, no solo simular
«A fragmentary Physika kai mystika attributed in the Greek alchemical corpus to “Democritus” seems actually to have been composed or reworked in the second century of our era, although it may be based on a lost original by Bolos.» — adjudica el Physika kai mystika con doble reserva: atribuido a Demócrito en el corpus griego, compuesto o rehecho en el siglo II, quizá sobre un original perdido de Bolos
«The full fruition of this grafting of Greek philosophical ideas onto the chemical technology of ancient Egypt did not occur, however, until somewhat later.» — fecha el injerto de la filosofía griega sobre la tecnología química egipcia como fruto tardío, no simultáneo
«No longer content with the goal of simulating natural products, Zosimos views alchemy as providing the means by which nature itself can pass from an imperfect state to a regenerate one.» — adjudica a Zósimo el salto de meta: la alquimia como medio para que la naturaleza misma pase de un estado imperfecto a uno regenerado
«He argues that in order for the alchemist to succeed, Nature (physis) must be “forced to the investigation” (ekthlibomen¯e pros t¯en z¯et¯esin), whereupon she, suffering (talaina), will take on successive forms until her punishment renders her spiritual.» — traduce el argumento de Zósimo en sus propios términos violentos: la naturaleza ha de ser forzada a la indagación y sufrir formas sucesivas hasta espiritualizarse
«At times Zosimos even expresses his goal of radically transforming nature in graphic and violent terms.» — caracteriza el registro del propio Zósimo, que expresa a veces en términos gráficos y violentos su meta de transformar la naturaleza
«Using this apparatus with the technology supplied by the papyri, one could produce radical changes in the colors and properties of the metals, which Zosimos interpreted as the requisite integration of pneuma and body.» — explica cómo Zósimo lee el resultado del aparato: los cambios de color y propiedades del metal son para él la integración requerida de pneuma y cuerpo
«One can safely say that this was also the attitude of the artisans who composed the Leiden and Stockholm papyri—their hope was to fool the eye of the beholder and perhaps even that of the assayer, but not to alter the nature of matter in a fundamental way.» — adjudica a los artesanos de los papiros una intención limitada: engañar al ojo del comprador y aun al del ensayador, no alterar la materia de raíz
«Ancient engineers, on the other hand, characteristically spoke of “conquering” nature directly by means of machines, but again they did not dream of changing one substance into another by means of their levers, pulleys, windlasses, and gears.» — contrasta la retórica de los ingenieros antiguos —conquistar la naturaleza— con lo que no llegaron a soñar: cambiar una sustancia en otra
«The rather unusual example of Vitruvius, who accentuated the similitude between machines and nature by arguing that manmade mechanisms mimicked the heavenly spheres, was a rare case in the history of mechanics.» — declara excepcional a Vitruvio, que acercaba máquina y naturaleza al hacer de los mecanismos remedos de las esferas celestes
«in the form of statues that were supposedly brought to life by means of a ritual» — consigna con marca de reserva la meta del teúrgo: estatuas que supuestamente cobraban vida por un ritual
«According to the famous Asclepius of Hermes Trismegistus, the magician would gather various materials having a sympathy toward one another and to a particular divinity.» — atribuye al Asclepio hermético la técnica del mago: reunir materiales con simpatía entre sí y hacia una divinidad determinada
«claiming that humans were incapable of following nature in the making of homogeneous mixtures.» — recoge el límite estricto que la tradición galénica pone al hombre en este terreno: no puede seguir a la naturaleza en la hechura de mezclas homogéneas
«Here was a discipline that claimed not only to imitate nature by deceiving the senses, but to replicate it in every detail.» — sitúa la singularidad de la alquimia en su pretensión doble: no solo imitar engañando a los sentidos, sino replicar en cada detalle
«The charge of “playing God,” commonly leveled against the pioneers of genetic engineering today, was already raised against those medievals who would change the order of the natural world.» — traza la continuidad de la acusación: el reproche de jugar a Dios que hoy recae sobre la ingeniería genética ya pesaba sobre los medievales
«Even though they could not change the natural tendencies of the elements, the mechanicians could produce unheard-of effects by means of simple machines such as pulleys, levers, and gears.» — acota lo que sí lograban los mecánicos: efectos inauditos con máquinas simples, sin alterar las tendencias naturales de los elementos
«From pseudo-Aristotle in the third century b.c.e. to Pappus of Alexandria some six centuries later, engineers had been stressing that they could “conquer” the natural world by means of their machines.» — traza en seis siglos la continuidad del tópico mecánico de la conquista, del pseudo-Aristóteles a Pappus de Alejandría
«The unique and forceful character of the alchemists’ claims to emulate—and not merely imitate—the products of the natural world did not go unnoticed.» — sostiene que el carácter único de la pretensión alquímica —emular y no meramente imitar— no pasó inadvertido a sus contemporáneos
«As we will see, the Scholastic writers of the High and Late Middle Ages were keenly aware of the unique character of the alchemical claim to replicate natural products.» — anuncia la tesis del capítulo siguiente: los escolásticos de la Baja Edad Media eran muy conscientes de lo peculiar de esa pretensión
«Nor was this debate restricted to the ethereal realms of the Scholastic disputation—it permeated the alchemical texts themselves, and even found its way into the popular imagination by its incorporation into vernacular poetry.» — niega que la disputa quedara encerrada en la disputatio escolástica: permeó los textos alquímicos y llegó a la imaginación popular por la poesía vernácula
«The present chapter provides an introduction to this rich and complex topic, but since it has barely been touched by scholarship, we can hardly hope to plumb its depths.» — se abstiene expresamente de agotar el tema, por lo poco que la erudición lo ha tocado
«The debate around the legitimacy of alchemy provided a focal point for the consideration of human art in general.» — eleva la disputa sobre la legitimidad de la alquimia a foco de la reflexión sobre el arte humano en general
«Avicenna denies that alchemists can ever make genuinely natural products, for the following reasons:» — presenta el núcleo de la posición de Avicena antes de desglosarla: al alquimista se le niega de raíz la fabricación de productos genuinamente naturales
«Art is weaker than nature and does not overtake it, however much it labors.» — traduce el primer axioma del De congelatione, que es de Avicena y no suyo: el arte es más débil que la naturaleza y no la alcanza por mucho que se afane
«they can make similar things, and tint a red [metal] with yellow so that it seems gold, and tint a white one with the color that they want until it is very similar to gold or copper.» — recoge lo único que Avicena concede al alquimista: teñir un metal rojo de amarillo hasta que parezca oro, es decir, semejanza y no identidad
«For the differences of the metals are not known, and since the difference is not known, how will it be possible to know whether it is removed or not, or how it could be removed?» — cita el argumento epistémico de Avicena, que es el más fuerte de los suyos: si la diferencia específica del metal no se conoce, no cabe saber si se quitó ni cómo quitarla
«This idea, which al-Kind¯ı had already expressed in his own attack on alchemy, is probably based on the ancient belief that all arts are learned by imitating nature.» — adjudica el precedente a al-Kindi y se concede un grado de certeza al remontar la idea, probablemente, a la creencia antigua de que toda arte se aprende imitando
«Avicenna has simply stated an implicit consequence, that the copy cannot equal its model.» — reduce la aportación de Avicena a explicitar lo que ya estaba implícito: que la copia no puede igualar a su modelo
«The second proposition in De congelatione, that the species of the metals cannot be transmuted, employs the Aristotelian opposition of species (nau» — sitúa la segunda proposición del De congelatione en el aparato aristotélico de género y especie, ya empleado por al-Farabi
«Unlike al-F¯ar¯ab¯ı, however, Avicenna believes that the mere fact of belonging to a single genus (metallic substance) does not mean that the individual species (the different metals) can be transmuted among themselves.» — marca la divergencia entre los dos: para Avicena compartir el género sustancia metálica no autoriza a transmutar entre sí las especies
«In general terms, Avicenna adhered to Aristotle’s theory of mixture (De generatione et corruptione 328a10–12), which distinguished genuine mixture (mixis) from mere juxtaposition of tiny particles (synthesis).» — adscribe a Avicena la teoría aristotélica de la mezcla, que separa la mixtura genuina de la mera yuxtaposición de partículas
«Avicenna was also an early proponent of the belief in a dator formarum (giver of forms), according to which this new substance-changing form did not emerge out of matter, but was imposed from without by the celestial intelligences, the rulers of the planets, which acted as proxies of the divine will.» — adjudica a Avicena un papel temprano en la doctrina del dador de formas: la forma nueva no emerge de la materia, la imponen desde fuera las inteligencias celestes
«The primary qualities remained somehow in the mixture, but as mere accidents of the immaterial entity that united the elements into a new substance—the substantial form—and this accidental status was true a fortiori for the “secondary qualities” of the metals, such as taste, color, and weight.» — explica la consecuencia que hunde a la alquimia en este esquema: sabor, color y peso quedan como accidentes, no como la sustancia del metal
«It was reserved to God and the celestial intelligences to have real access to the substantial forms that underlay the phenomena surrounding us.» — consigna el cierre teológico del argumento: el acceso real a las formas sustanciales queda reservado a Dios y a las inteligencias celestes
«They are created by the Creator and Determiner of things, God Almighty.» — cita a Ibn Jaldún, no a Avicena, sobre el origen de esas diferencias: las crea el Creador y Determinador de las cosas
«Their real character is utterly unknown and cannot be perceived.» — remata con la cláusula de inaccesibilidad de Ibn Jaldún: el carácter real de esas diferencias es del todo desconocido e imperceptible
«In the same way, gold cannot be developed from its matter in a day or a month.» — recoge el argumento temporal de Ibn Jaldún: el oro no se desarrolla de su materia en un día ni en un mes
«Its customary course (of development) can be changed only with the help of something beyond the world of nature and the activity of the crafts.» — consigna la salida que Ibn Jaldún deja abierta y que no es técnica: solo algo de fuera del mundo natural y del oficio puede alterar ese curso
«Nature always takes the shortest way in what it does,” he says, and in accordance with the principle that art is weaker than nature, it follows that the alchemists cannot abbreviate nature’s methods.» — encadena el principio de la vía más corta con el de la debilidad del arte para negar al alquimista todo atajo
«the products of alchemical success can be viewed only as “miracles or acts of divine grace, or as sorcery.”» — señala adónde empuja esa negación: el éxito alquímico solo cabe leerlo como milagro, gracia divina o hechicería
«the true substance of minerals is inaccessible to the alchemist, for man “cannot make himself equal to the Creator—may His name be sublime—in the creation of substances.”» — cita el pseudo-aristotélico Secreto de los secretos en su forma más tajante: el hombre no puede igualarse al Creador en la creación de sustancias
«In the latter case, the spontaneously generated animal cannot itself generate other animals sexually.» — expone el criterio de Averroes por su consecuencia reproductiva: el animal de generación espontánea no engendra sexualmente
«Indeed, sexually and spontaneously generated animals must be essentially different, since they have different causes.» — formula el principio averroísta que decide todo el caso: causas distintas dan productos esencialmente distintos
«Averroes believed that alchemical gold could never be genuine, however much it might share the sensible properties of its natural exemplar.» — atribuye a Averroes la tesis del oro nunca genuino por mucho que comparta las propiedades sensibles de su ejemplar natural
«like his Persian forerunner, did not mean to limit this restriction on human technology to the replication of gold.» — advierte que la restricción de Averroes, como la de Avicena, no se limitaba al oro sino a la tecnología humana entera
«A vast literature came into being during this period, in which original Latin alchemical texts were produced under various pseudonyms.» — data en ese periodo la aparición de una vasta literatura alquímica latina original escrita bajo seudónimo
«the manuscripts bear only the ascription to Aristotle, it appeared to many Scholastic authors that the Avicennian De congelatione was really by the Stagirite.» — documenta la falsa atribución que da fuerza a todo el hilo del libro: los manuscritos solo traen el nombre de Aristóteles, y los escolásticos leyeron como suyo el texto de Avicena
«In a world where Aristotle was referred to customarily as “the prince of the philosophers,” or simply as “the philosopher,” the integration of the De congelatione as a stowaway within the Meteorology added immense prestige to the Avicennian text.» — mide el efecto de esa infiltración: colado dentro de la Meteorología, el texto aviceniano hereda el prestigio del príncipe de los filósofos
«Albert is an early representative of what can only be called a Scholastic tradition of using alchemy to determine the powers of demons.» — nombra la tradición que el libro reconstruye y coloca a Alberto en su inicio: usar la alquimia para medir el poder de los demonios
«For him, the claim of alchemy to transmute species represents the ultimate assertion of human power in the natural world.» — explica por qué la alquimia sirve de vara: para Alberto, transmutar especies es la afirmación máxima del poder humano sobre la naturaleza
«Peter had presented the position that “the magic arts work by means of the power and knowledge of the devil, which power and knowledge is granted to him by God.”» — cita a Pedro Lombardo, no a Alberto: las artes mágicas obran por el poder y el saber del diablo, y ese poder se lo concede Dios
«While the Bible grants them this, Peter points out that the magicians had no power against the gnats that provided the third plague against the Egyptians at Exodus 8:18.» — consigna el límite escriturario que Pedro Lombardo encuentra: los magos de Egipto nada pudieron contra los mosquitos de la tercera plaga
«To him, this indicates that the power of magic is an illusion and that the marvelous deeds of the magi are really permitted to them only insofar as God wills it.» — adjudica a Pedro Lombardo la conclusión de que el poder mágico es ilusión y solo se permite en la medida en que Dios lo quiere
«Otherwise, the demons would themselves be creators (creatores) like God Himself, a possibility that Peter resolutely denies.» — señala el motivo de fondo de esa negativa: de otro modo los demonios serían creadores como Dios
«Peter suggests that demons merely collect the otherwise separated and hidden “seeds” of things in order to produce their marvels.» — introduce el recurso que atraviesa todo el capítulo: los demonios solo reúnen las semillas ocultas y separadas de las cosas
«What is remarkable about Albert’s use of the Sciant is that he has omitted all reference to the metals, making Avicenna’s dictum apply not only to them but to species in general.» — adjudica a Alberto una ampliación que no está en el dictum: al omitir la mención de los metales, hace valer la sentencia de Avicena para las especies en general
«All that they can do is join natural agents with natural patients, although their superior knowledge and speed allow them to do this more effectively than man.» — acota el poder demoníaco a juntar agentes y pacientes naturales, con la ventaja de un saber y una rapidez superiores a los del hombre
«Therefore it seems that if the power of art worked in the transmutations of bodies, as in alchemy, that demons would be able to do this much more powerfully.» — reproduce el argumento de la objeción escolástica: si el arte transmuta cuerpos como en la alquimia, los demonios podrían hacerlo con más fuerza
«If man can actually transmute species, it follows that demons, who are much more powerful than man, can also do so.» — expone la inferencia que hace peligrosa a la alquimia: si el hombre transmuta especies, también los demonios, que son mucho más poderosos
«In his solution to the question, he modestly admits that only God and the angels can know for a certainty whether demons have this power.» — consigna la abstención expresa de Alberto: admite con modestia que solo Dios y los ángeles pueden saber con certeza si los demonios tienen ese poder
«Nonetheless, Albert asserts that the doctrines of churchly authority allow one to suppose that demons cannot induce a permanent substantial form into matter except in the case of beings that arise easily from putrefaction.» — registra la salida práctica que Alberto se concede pese a esa abstención: la autoridad eclesiástica permite suponer que no, salvo en los seres que nacen de la putrefacción
«The third [type of transmutation] occurs through the stripping off of properties, and the imposition of others through liquefaction, cibation, sublimation, and distillation, which the alchemists effect: and in this fashion by means of a quite well-known operation, bread, ink, and the like come into existence.» — traduce la tercera clase de transmutación de la clasificación de Alberto, la de los alquimistas, con sus operaciones y sus ejemplos domésticos
«In the later text he ascribes this to the shortcoming of alchemical practitioners, however, while in the Sentence-commentary he apparently views it as a weakness of the art itself.» — documenta un cambio de posición dentro del propio Alberto: en el texto tardío culpa a los practicantes, en el comentario a las Sentencias parecía culpar al arte mismo
«species, it followed that demons could not really perform the wonders that were ascribed to them, at least not by art.» — muestra el engranaje del argumento: negada la transmutación al arte, quedan negados los prodigios demoníacos, al menos los hechos por arte
«Albert’s own position, as we saw above, is that alchemy cannot transmute species, at least not by the method of stripping off accidents» — resume la posición de Alberto con su cláusula restrictiva a cuestas: la alquimia no transmuta especies, al menos no por el método de despojar accidentes
«Near the end of the question, however, he hints that there may be another way by which alchemy can really transmute metals by aiding nature—“art of itself cannot induce a form, as was said before, but it can help nature.”» — localiza la grieta que Alberto deja al final de la cuestión: el arte no induce forma por sí, pero puede ayudar a la naturaleza
«Thomas begins his question by asking “whether demons can induce a true corporeal effect in corporeal matter.”» — enuncia la cuestión de Tomás de Aquino en sus términos: si los demonios pueden inducir un efecto corporal verdadero en la materia corporal
«Moreover, demons do not work except by the method of art.» — aísla la premisa que hace de la alquimia el tope del poder demoníaco: los demonios no obran sino por el método del arte
«Demons cannot act on matter by means of their minds alone, as God can.» — consigna el límite tomista: los demonios no obran sobre la materia con la sola mente, como sí puede Dios
«Despite the belief of Avicenna that matter automatically “obeys” separated substances like demons and angels, a view that the Persian philosopher expressed in his commentary on Aristotle’s De anima, demons can act on matter only by means of art.» — registra el desacuerdo sin armonizarlo: contra la tesis de Avicena sobre la materia que obedece a las sustancias separadas, Tomás deja a los demonios solo el arte
«Hence demons act only as ministri to nature, assistants rather than principal agents.» — fija la categoría en que quedan los demonios: ministros de la naturaleza, ayudantes y no agentes principales
«Once again employing the seminal reasons of Augustine, Bonaventure says that alchemists and demons do not produce their marvels by means of their own power, but by that of the “seeds” that they assemble and coax into their full maturity.» — adjudica a Buenaventura la equiparación de alquimistas y demonios por su modo de obrar: no por poder propio, sino por el de las semillas que reúnen y llevan a madurar
«At the same time, however, the treatment of alchemy by theological writers spread out into different genres of literary production.» — observa que el tratamiento teológico de la alquimia se derrama hacia géneros literarios distintos, y con eso justifica el rastreo que sigue
«found alchemy useful precisely because it was not in itself demonic, but an art known to man» — explica por qué la alquimia servía de patrón a los teólogos: no era demoníaca en sí, era un arte conocido por el hombre
«By this logic, therefore, the induction of a sensitive form implies that art can also impose a nonsensitive one, such as that of a metal.» — reconstruye el argumento a fortiori de la objeción: si el arte induce una forma sensitiva, con más razón podría imponer la de un metal
«a horse can be generated only in the menstrual blood of its mother, but bees, which are less perfect, can be organized directly from the rotting body of a bull, and wasps can come from a putrescent horse.» — recoge la escala de generación espontánea que la escolástica daba por hecha: el caballo requiere sangre menstrual materna, las abejas salen del toro podrido y las avispas del caballo
«Even though they are less perfect than animals produced by corruption, they still require a determinate place of production, namely the belly of the earth.» — expone el argumento del lugar determinado aplicado a los metales: aun siendo menos perfectos, necesitan el vientre de la tierra
«The conclusion, then, is the same one that Thomas had already drawn—the alchemists are doomed to failure because they try to make their metals on the surface of the earth.» — adjudica a Gil de Roma la misma conclusión que ya había sacado Tomás: los alquimistas fracasan porque hacen sus metales en la superficie de la tierra
«His reply is that glass has the same relation to the metals as a spontaneously generated animal to one produced from parents.» — recoge la analogía con que Gil neutraliza el contraejemplo del vidrio: es a los metales lo que el animal de generación espontánea al nacido de padres
«In each pair, the former do not require a determinate place of generation, while the latter do.» — aísla el criterio que sostiene esa analogía: unos no requieren lugar determinado de generación y los otros sí
«As for electrum, that is merely a mixture of gold and silver and is not germane to a discussion of transmutation.» — descarta el electro como caso: es mezcla de oro y plata y no viene al caso de la transmutación
«Returning to the argument about Pharaoh’s serpents, Giles responds that a sensitive form may be more noble than that of a metal» — consigna la respuesta de Gil a la analogía bíblica de las serpientes del faraón, que concede la mayor nobleza de la forma sensitiva sin conceder la consecuencia
«But the issue of alchemy has gone on in Giles’s work to live a life of its own, though still in a theological context.» — señala el desprendimiento del tema: en la obra de Gil la alquimia empieza a vivir por su cuenta, todavía en marco teológico
«The Canon episcopi, composed around the beginning of the tenth century, and later incorporated into the famous encyclopedia of canon law, the twelfth-century Decretum of Gratian, expresses a rather skeptical view toward magic that was common in the early Middle Ages.» — data el Canon episcopi a comienzos del siglo X y su incorporación al Decreto de Graciano en el XII, con su escepticismo característico ante la magia
«Taking the view that these are not real phenomena but illusions induced by Satan, the Canon episcopi explicitly rejects the idea that anyone—even Satan himself—can really change his shape or species» — expone la doctrina del Canon episcopi: las metamorfosis son ilusiones satánicas, y ni el propio Satanás cambia realmente de forma o de especie
«But later commentators, trained in the Aristotelianism of the medieval universities, would indeed see an interdiction on the transmutation of species in the Canon episcopi.» — documenta el desplazamiento de sentido: comentaristas formados en el aristotelismo universitario leyeron ahí una prohibición de transmutar especies
«Perhaps already thinking in these terms, a well-known commentator on Gratian’s Decretum, in which the Canon episcopi was embedded, explicitly directed it toward alchemy in the mid to late thirteenth century.» — se concede solo un quizá al motivo, pero data el hecho: un comentarista conocido del Decreto dirigió el canon contra la alquimia a mediados o finales del siglo XIII
«Oldrado replies that alchemists do not transmute species, but merely produce one species of metal from another species of metal.» — recoge la escapatoria de Oldrado da Ponte, que salva la alquimia negando que transmute especies: solo produce una especie de metal a partir de otra
«Although his defense would have a huge impact on subsequent canon lawyers, however, it exercised little effect on the writers of witchcraft manuals, who were for the most part happy to condemn alchemy along with demonolatry.» — mide el alcance desigual de esa defensa: enorme entre canonistas, nulo entre los autores de manuales de brujería
«Oldrado’s interesting evasion of the Canon episcopi may well have originated in alchemical texts themselves, as we will soon see when we examine the alchemists’ rebuttals of their adversaries.» — se concede un grado de certeza al conjeturar que la evasiva de Oldrado salió de los propios textos alquímicos
«The cause is that he [the devil] knows how to apply actives to passives, as appears in those things that the magicians of Pharaoh did.» — traduce el pasaje de Alfonso de Spina donde el poder del diablo se reduce a aplicar activos a pasivos, como los magos del faraón
«devil may cause one man to be converted to a serpent, bird, or plant—this is impossible for him.» — consigna el límite tajante que Alfonso pone al diablo: convertir a un hombre en serpiente, ave o planta le es imposible
«many perverse Christian alchemists are deceived, having pacts with demons, [and] believing that they transmute iron into gold through their art.» — traduce la acusación de Alfonso contra los alquimistas cristianos: engañados y con pactos demoníacos, creen convertir hierro en oro
«Alfonso clearly thinks that alchemical transmutation is an illusion imposed on alchemists who have, perhaps unwittingly, sold their souls to Satan.» — adjudica a Alfonso la lectura de la transmutación como ilusión impuesta sobre quienes vendieron su alma, acaso sin saberlo
«For humans to be carried through the air by demons would violate or exceed the ordained power of nature.» — recoge el argumento con que Samuel de Cassinis niega el vuelo de las brujas: excedería el poder ordenado de la naturaleza
«But the very presence of this “form of art,” even when the demon uses purely natural agencies, is enough to ensure that his product will not measure up to its model in nature.» — aísla el mecanismo del argumento: basta la presencia de una forma de arte para que el producto del demonio no alcance su modelo natural, aunque use agentes naturales
«Both men see the failure of alchemy as a direct support for the Canon episcopi’s view that witches cannot travel at incredible speeds or change their shapes.» — muestra el uso judicial del fracaso alquímico: Alfonso y Cassinis lo toman como apoyo directo del Canon episcopi contra el vuelo y la metamorfosis de las brujas
«Demons do not work except by art. But art cannot give a true form.» — reduce a dos proposiciones el silogismo tomista que el Malleus hereda: los demonios solo obran por arte, y el arte no da forma verdadera
«It does not follow, however, that demons absolutely cannot transmute species or induce forms.» — marca la inversión que introduce el Malleus: de las premisas heredadas no se sigue la imposibilidad absoluta
«The reader will be quite familiar with this claim, for it stems precisely from the tradition inaugurated by Albertus Magnus and elaborated by Thomas that we have already discussed in this chapter.» — adjudica la genealogía de esa premisa a la tradición que abre Alberto Magno y elabora Tomás
«All the same, Kramer and Sprenger’s argument is that demons cannot in fact transmute species or induce forms—whether substantial or accidental—by means of art alone.» — precisa el punto exacto en que Kramer y Sprenger conservan el límite: por el arte solo, los demonios no transmutan especies ni inducen formas
«they do explicitly deny that man can transmute higher species, such as the more “perfect” animals that are not capable of undergoing spontaneous generation» — consigna lo que el Malleus sí niega expresamente al hombre: transmutar las especies superiores, las que no admiten generación espontánea
«In the hands of the two Dominican inquisitors, alchemy became yet another tool for dismantling the limitations placed on demonic power by skeptical writers of the Middle Ages.» — invierte el uso habitual de la alquimia: en manos de los dos inquisidores dominicos sirve para impugnar los límites que los escépticos habían puesto al poder demoníaco
«Hence Kramer and Sprenger, intent on aggrandizing the power of witches, undermine the Thomistic argument that limited the alchemists’ ability to impress forms on matter.» — adjudica el motivo del giro: para engrandecer el poder de las brujas, Kramer y Sprenger socavan el argumento tomista que limitaba al alquimista
«This little treatise may well be a translation from Arabic, although no corresponding text in that language has yet been discovered.» — declara una búsqueda negativa sobre el Libro de Hermes: puede muy bien ser traducción del árabe, pero no se ha hallado texto correspondiente en esa lengua
«As we will see, the more philosophically inclined among the medieval alchemists eagerly assumed the role of responding to Avicenna’s attack on alchemy.» — anuncia la contraofensiva: los alquimistas medievales de vena filosófica tomaron a su cargo responder al ataque de Avicena
«In doing so, they provided a comprehensive defense of their art, but one that carefully maintained a position for alchemy as the apex of human endeavors in the realm of artisanship.» — acota el alcance de esa defensa: reivindica la alquimia como cima del quehacer humano, pero dentro del terreno artesanal
«Nor does art make all these things; rather it helps nature to make them.» — traduce la fórmula del Libro de Hermes que traslada el peso de la producción a la naturaleza y deja al arte como auxiliar
«The Book of Hermes continues this empirical approach when the author arrives at the products of chemical technology per se.» — caracteriza el método del Libro de Hermes como empírico también al llegar a los productos de la tecnología química
«Hence he can say that art does not “make all these things; rather it helps nature to make them,” meaning that art leads nature to a perfection that would otherwise be unattainable.» — lee la fórmula del Libro de Hermes en clave de arte perfectivo: ayudar a la naturaleza significa llevarla a una perfección inalcanzable de otro modo
«We have now seen how an early alchemical text, the Book of Hermes, dismantled the rigid claim that art and nature led to essentially different products.» — balancea el tramo recorrido: un texto alquímico temprano ya desarma la tesis rígida de que arte y naturaleza dan productos esencialmente distintos
«But they are transmuted accidentally, improperly, and mediately, for in them there is no capability for change, nor a common, changeable subject, nor an immediate subject of the action of change, for they are not the immediate subject of the transmuting action itself—all these follow, rather, from the action of another subject.» — traduce la distinción técnica con que el Breve breviarium salva la transmutación: las especies cambian de modo accidental, impropio y mediato
«Therefore the species of silver, which is “argenteity,” is not transmuted into the species of gold, which is “aureity.”» — consigna la formulación escolástica del caso en términos de argenteidad y aureidad, que son formas específicas y no metales
«Nor does argenteity become aureity, since species cannot be transmuted, because they are not per se subjected to sensible actions» — aísla la razón que da el tratado: las especies no se transmutan porque no están sujetas por sí a acciones sensibles
«Paul’s text opens with the claim that nature is subject to intellect.» — resume la premisa con que abre Paul de Tarento y que invierte la jerarquía aviceniana: la naturaleza está sujeta al intelecto
«When the intellective soul causes the hand to pen a letter, “the hand does not write by the motion alone of nature, but as ruled by intellect through art.”» — recoge el ejemplo con que Paul de Tarento lo prueba: la mano que escribe no se mueve por naturaleza sola, sino regida por el intelecto mediante el arte
«Thus Paul concludes that “sculptors, agricultors, physicians, and the like” subject nature to themselves as their matter and instrument.» — consigna la conclusión de Paul: escultores, agricultores y médicos someten la naturaleza como materia e instrumento suyos
«But sometimes art is restricted “to an accidental, extrinsic form, as in the art of painting, sculpting, house building, and the like» — introduce la restricción que separa las artes extrínsecas —pintura, escultura, construcción— por operar sobre una forma accidental
«Paul’s distinction between arts that employ an extrinsic form and those that use an intrinsic one is entirely unproblematic, being based primarily on Aristotle’s Physics (II 1 192b9– 19), which we discussed in chapter 1.» — adjudica la distinción de Paul a la Física de Aristóteles y la declara sin problema, remitiendo a su propio capítulo primero
«The primary qualities are the hot, cold, wet, and dry that exist within the four elements.» — define las cualidades primarias como las que existen dentro de los cuatro elementos
«Among the secondary qualities, Paul lists white, black, sweet, bitter, hard, soft, sharp, and dull, a conventional listing often found among Scholastic writers.» — enumera las secundarias que lista Paul y las declara un inventario convencional entre escolásticos
«But the foresaid secondary qualities do not of themselves properly act on any nature except accidentally, for of themselves they properly act on sense alone, through their own species, according to the spiritual and intentional being that they have, and not according to their natural being, except accidentally.» — traduce el pasaje donde Paul de Tarento reduce las cualidades secundarias a un obrar sobre el sentido: sobre la naturaleza solo actúan por accidente
«Paul drives this message home by invoking a well-known Scholastic doctrine— the secondary qualities are mere epiphenomena that act on man’s soul by means of an equivocal “intentional” being.» — nombra la doctrina escolástica en que se apoya Paul: las cualidades secundarias son epifenómenos que obran sobre el alma por un ser intencional equívoco
«qualities may be caused by the primary—and Paul is not very clear on this point—the path of causation is a one-way street.» — objeta a su propia fuente por falta de claridad y aun así fija lo que sí se sigue: la causación va en una sola dirección
«The case is otherwise with the perfective arts, such as medicine and agriculture.» — contrapone el caso de las artes perfectivas, medicina y agricultura, a las que operan con cualidades secundarias
«The physician deals with “complexions,” namely the mixtures of the four humors that are each characterized by a pair of primary qualities— blood being hot and wet, phlegm wet and cold, melancholy cold and dry, and choler dry and hot.» — detalla en qué consiste trabajar con cualidades primarias en medicina: las complexiones de los cuatro humores, cada una con su par de cualidades
«The agriculturalist, on the other hand, employs the natural virtues residing in seeds and fruits, which are themselves transmutative powers rather than mere “passive accidents” such as color and shape.» — muestra el equivalente agrícola: las virtudes de semillas y frutos son potencias transmutativas, no accidentes pasivos como el color y la figura
«For this reason, the work of physicians and agriculturalists is essential rather than accidental.» — saca la consecuencia que interesa a la alquimia: el trabajo del médico y del agricultor es esencial y no accidental
«Paul adds that “since nature in all things makes, and art only administers, joins and rules, the effect must surely be attributed to nature rather than to art, or to nature under art.”» — consigna la cláusula con que Paul devuelve el mérito a la naturaleza: el arte solo administra, junta y rige, y el efecto hay que atribuirlo a la naturaleza bajo el arte
«the genuine alchemist is like the physician and agriculturalist in using the primary qualities of matter, by which means he works real transmutations of substance.» — sitúa al alquimista genuino del lado del médico y del agricultor por trabajar con las cualidades primarias de la materia
«If he uses the materials from which nature herself makes the metals, namely sulfur and mercury, he will have an advantage even over physicians, since he will be employing the primary qualities in a simpler state, before they have been broken down and diluted by blending, as they are in drugs.» — consigna la ventaja que Paul reclama para el alquimista sobre el médico: azufre y mercurio traen las cualidades primarias en estado más simple que los fármacos
«Unlike premodern medicine, which was in many ways as ineffectual at healing as alchemy was at transmuting metals, alchemy did not become a curricular topic in the medieval universities.» — marca la asimetría institucional sin adornar el dato: la medicina premoderna curaba tan poco como la alquimia transmutaba, pero la alquimia no entró en el currículo universitario
«Philosophical alchemists like Paul of Taranto were highly eager, then, to distinguish their own efforts at transmutation from those of the “sophists” or charlatans whose exposure undermined their own efforts.» — explica el interés de los alquimistas filosóficos por deslindarse: la exposición de los sofistas y charlatanes hundía también su propio trabajo
«I have argued elsewhere that the Summa perfectionis traditionally ascribed to “Geber,” the Latinized form of “J¯abir ibn Hayy¯an,” one of the most famous names in Arabic alchemy, was probably penned by Paul of Taranto himself.» — declara en primera persona su propia adjudicación, y con su grado de certeza: la Summa atribuida a Geber fue probablemente escrita por Paul de Tarento
«In the strong reading, which Geber clearly adopted, Aristotle is asserting that roasting is roasting, regardless of where it occurs or by what agency.» — distingue dos lecturas del pasaje aristotélico y adjudica a Geber la fuerte: asar es asar, dondequiera y por el agente que sea
«To Geber, it gave a clear sanction to the idea that art can succeed in imitating nature’s methods even if those methods are transposed into vastly different circumstances from those of their purely natural exemplars.» — mide el rendimiento de esa lectura para Geber: autoriza que el arte imite los métodos de la naturaleza aun trasplantados a circunstancias muy distintas
«Nature itself did not use a “quickly terminable humidity” such as the oils and salts long employed to tint metals and give them the proper physical characteristics of the metals such as malleability.» — expone el criterio con que Geber excluye los tintes: la naturaleza no usa una humedad rápidamente terminable como aceites y sales
«Art too should therefore avoid such products derived from organic sources and restrict itself to the tools of nature.» — saca la norma operativa: el arte debe evitar los productos de origen orgánico y ceñirse a los instrumentos de la naturaleza
«If the evaporation and condensation that occurred in an alchemist’s still was identical to the natural process of evaporation and condensation that we call the water cycle, and if the metallic fusion brought about in his crucible was the same as that which happens underground, it was clear that his furnace and laboratory apparatus allowed him to begin and end natural processes at will and in isolation from their normal environment.» — formula la consecuencia que da al laboratorio su estatuto: si los procesos del alambique son los naturales, el alquimista puede iniciarlos y detenerlos a voluntad y aislados de su entorno
«Geber puts it: “our intention is not to follow nature in her principles, nor in the proportion of miscible elements, nor in the manner of their mutual mixture, nor in the equalizing of the thickening heat, for all these things are impossible and unknown to us.”» — cita la renuncia explícita de Geber a seguir a la naturaleza en sus principios, que declara imposibles y desconocidos
«There is virtually no discussion of substantial form in the Summa, and it would seem that, at this stage in the author’s development, he had more or less abandoned this factotum of the Scholastics and adopted a notion of “substance” that was purely empirical.» — declara una búsqueda negativa dentro de la Summa —casi no se discute la forma sustancial— y de ahí infiere, con reserva, una noción de sustancia puramente empírica
«We say thus that gold is a metallic, yellow, heavy, silent, brilliant body, temperately digested in the womb of the earth, and washed for a very long time by a mineral water, extensible under the hammer, fusible, and able to withstand the tests of cupellation and cementation.» — traduce la definición operativa del oro en la Summa, hecha toda de propiedades observables y pruebas de ensayo
«However, anything that radically yellows a metal, leads it to equality of qualities, and cleanses it, makes gold from any genus of the metals.» — saca la consecuencia radical de esa definición: cualquier cosa que amarillee un metal a fondo, lo iguale y lo limpie, hace oro
«although we can employ tests to show that alchemical gold is false, on principle we cannot prove that alchemical gold is genuine.» — formula la asimetría probatoria que Geber acepta: las pruebas sirven para mostrar falso el oro alquímico, no para probarlo genuino
«In effect, Geber has substituted a corpuscular explanation of the conversion of base metals into gold for the hylomorphic one by which elements are mutually transmuted.» — adjudica a Geber la sustitución de la explicación hilemórfica por una corpuscular en la conversión de metales
«The full consequences of this subversive act would be realized only in the seventeenth century, with the corpuscular chymistry of Daniel Sennert and Robert Boyle.» — traza la línea larga del libro: las consecuencias de ese acto solo se realizan en el siglo XVII con la quimica corpuscular de Sennert y Boyle
«It might still lack other insensible characteristics of natural gold, such as the medical properties of the metal that supposedly aid the human heart.» — consigna el resto que la definición empírica deja fuera, con marca de reserva: propiedades médicas que supuestamente ayudaban al corazón
«The proalchemical arguments adduced by such texts as the Breve breviarium of pseudo–Roger Bacon, the Theorica et practica of Paul of Taranto, and the Summa perfectionis of Geber soon received a transformation that would serve to spread them, along with the view that alchemy’s claim to replicate natural products made it unique among the arts, throughout the courtly and popular culture of late medieval Europe.» — nombra los tres textos cuyos argumentos proalquímicos se difunden por la cultura cortesana y popular, junto con la tesis de la unicidad de la alquimia entre las artes
«was his development of a concept derived above all from the twelfth-century philosophical poet Alain de Lille’s De planctu naturae.» — adjudica la aportación de Jean de Meun al Roman de la rose y su fuente: un concepto tomado sobre todo del De planctu naturae de Alano de Lille
«Alain had inveighed against the corruption of man, seeing his wickedness to be manifested above all in the form of nonprocreative, and hence unnatural, sex.» — resume la denuncia de Alano de Lille, centrada en el sexo no procreativo como forma máxima de la maldad
«Jean shared this view, but focused as well on chastity as a hypocritical vice that led man away from his foremost duty to nature—procreation.» — marca el desplazamiento de Jean respecto de su fuente: añade la castidad como vicio hipócrita que aparta al hombre de la procreación
«Jean then proceeds to give a vivid description of “black-faced Death,” who never tires of his sport, chasing man to the ends of the earth in his quest to destroy the species, swallowing “each individual gluttonously.”» — describe la alegoría de la Muerte en el poema, que persigue a la especie devorando individuos
«It is only because of Nature’s ceaseless efforts at replenishment that Death fails in this enterprise.» — consigna el contrapeso del poema: solo el reabastecimiento incesante de la Naturaleza frustra a la Muerte
«What this soon turns into, however, is a contrast between the visual arts and the art of alchemy, very much in the spirit of Paul of Taranto.» — identifica el giro del poema hacia el contraste entre artes visuales y alquimia, y lo empareja con el espíritu de Paul de Tarento
«Men too carry out this process in a literal sense, when they make coins, but their art “does not make forms as true” as those of Nature.» — recoge el ejemplo con que el poema mide al arte: acuñar moneda repite el gesto de la Naturaleza, pero sus formas no son tan verdaderas
«But Art’s so naked and devoid of skill That he can never bring a thing to life, Or make it seem that it is natural.» — cita en verso el veredicto del poema sobre el arte: no puede dar vida ni hacer que algo parezca natural
«This is what Jean means when he alludes to the fact that Art’s creations will never be able to move, feel, or speak.» — glosa el límite que el poema pone al arte visual: sus criaturas no se moverán, ni sentirán, ni hablarán
«But this is not the end of the story—Jean does not intend to restrict all art to the status of counterfeit.» — advierte contra la lectura fácil del pasaje: Jean no reduce todo arte a falsificación
«Jean then proceeds to contrast the visual arts with the art of alchemy and to suggest that the former should learn from the latter.» — expone el movimiento del poema: contrastar artes visuales y alquimia, y proponer que las primeras aprendan de la segunda
«The products of the visual arts would always lack the internal principle of change that Aristotle took in the Physics, book 2, chapter 1, to be the hallmark of the natural product.» — da la razón aristotélica de ese fracaso: a los productos del arte visual les falta el principio interno de cambio
«Jean is simply saying that the alchemists succeed where the artists have failed, in making a genuine replication of nature.» — adjudica al poema una tesis inequívoca a favor de los alquimistas, que logran donde los artistas fracasan
«And we know That fern is glass no more than glass is fern.» — cita el verso con que el poema fija el caso del vidrio hecho de ceniza de helecho, que no vuelve helecho al vidrio
«The alchemist, by transmuting metals, makes new individuals of an existing species in the same way that Nature stamps out new individuals at her hearth.» — formula la equiparación decisiva del poema: el alquimista hace individuos nuevos de una especie existente igual que la Naturaleza en su fragua
«Despite her pitiable state, Nature is of such great beauty that the poet demurs from describing her in detail.» — consigna la abstención del poeta ante la belleza de la Naturaleza, que declara indescriptible
«He then lists the great sculptors and painters of antiquity, saying that Pygmalion, Parrhasius, Apelles, Myron, and Polykleitos would all have failed at the task.» — enumera los nombres antiguos que el poema declara vencidos por ese retrato: Pigmalión, Parrasio, Apeles, Mirón y Policleto
«All of the artists, including the greatest, have failed “to portray Nature’s so great loveliness.”» — remata el veredicto del poema sobre las artes visuales en bloque, incluidos los mayores
«Jean has argued at length that alchemy, unlike the purely mimetic arts, can replicate individual natural products.» — resume la posición del poema: la alquimia, a diferencia de las artes meramente miméticas, replica productos naturales individuales
«Jean de Meun snatched the gauntlet from the hands of the alchemists and threw it down at the feet of the very patrons of the arts responsible for the allocation of their own largesse.» — lee el gesto del poema en clave de mecenazgo: Jean arroja a los pies de los patronos de las artes el guante que había recogido de los alquimistas
«The famous Aristotelian commentators of the period, especially Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon, made a sustained attempt to bring alchemy into the fold of their Scholastic philosophy.» — adjudica a Alberto Magno y Roger Bacon un intento sostenido de incorporar la alquimia a su filosofía escolástica
«By the end of the thirteenth century, however, alchemy began to fall into serious disrepute in several quarters.» — data el cambio de clima a finales del siglo XIII, cuando la alquimia empieza a caer en descrédito serio en varios frentes
«Giles of Rome, an important commentator in his own right, came down unequivocally against alchemy in his Quodlibeta, as we have seen.» — consigna la posición inequívocamente contraria de Gil de Roma en sus Quodlibeta
«Most importantly, Pope John XXII issued a condemnation of alchemy in the form of his decretal Spondent quas non exhibent, which argued that transmutation is “not in the nature of things” and labeled alchemists as counterfeiters.» — jerarquiza el golpe mayor: la decretal Spondent quas non exhibent de Juan XXII, que declara la transmutación fuera de la naturaleza de las cosas y llama falsarios a los alquimistas
«Geber’s Summa, despite being a Scholastic defense and explanation of alchemy, had contained a variety of passages written in an initiatic language borrowed from J¯abir ibn Hayy¯an’s Seventy Books.» — señala la veta iniciática que convive con la argumentación escolástica en la Summa, tomada de los Setenta libros de Yabir
«Hence Geber says that alchemy is a donum dei (gift of God), which the Father of lights will dispense only to His faithful, the “sons of doctrine.”» — documenta la fórmula del don de Dios ya en Geber, reservado a los fieles llamados hijos de doctrina
«In a word, Peter argues that the ancient alchemists were themselves prophets, and by an extension of this logic, he suggests that Adam, Moses, David, Solomon, and John the Evangelist were all alchemists.» — adjudica a Petrus Bonus el linaje profético de la alquimia, que llega a incluir a Adán, Moisés, David, Salomón y Juan Evangelista
«Indeed, even the old poets, such as Ovid and Virgil, were really writing about alchemy under the guise of mythology, another idea that would become immensely popular in the Renaissance.» — extiende esa lectura a Ovidio y Virgilio como alquimistas encubiertos bajo el mito, y anota que la idea haría fortuna en el Renacimiento
«Despite this insistence on revelation, Peter believes that alchemy has a natural side as well as a divine one.» — consigna la coexistencia sin armonizarla: pese a la insistencia en la revelación, Petrus Bonus mantiene un lado natural junto al divino
«Peter begins by arguing that alchemy is subordinated (subalternata) to Aristotelian natural philosophy, in particular to the part of it that deals with meteorology and minerals, in the same way that architecture is subordinated to geometry and music to arithmetic.» — reconstruye la maniobra escolástica de Petrus Bonus: subordinar la alquimia a la meteorología aristotélica como la arquitectura a la geometría
«Despite the fact that Peter wants alchemical knowledge to descend directly from God, he argues here that the principles of the lower discipline are contained in the one immediately over it, in this case Aristotelian meteorology.» — marca la tensión interna de esa posición, que el propio texto no resuelve: saber revelado y a la vez principios contenidos en la disciplina superior
«Peter says that alchemy works with the intrinsic principle of change in matter, while an architect, for example, does not lead an internal form to perfection, since his building materials have no inherent tendency to become a house.» — recoge el criterio con que Petrus Bonus separa la alquimia de la arquitectura: los materiales del constructor no tienden por dentro a ser casa
«The same thing is true for the products of alchemy—although their preparation may be successive, they receive their perfect being instantaneously (in instanti).» — consigna la tesis del ser perfecto instantáneo: la preparación alquímica es sucesiva, la forma se recibe de golpe
«But in natural things where art administers, the matter is not preserved, but is continually changed so that it is disposed to a diverse form according to the changed disposition of the matter.» — expone el contraste que sostiene esa tesis: donde el arte administra lo natural, la materia no se conserva sino que cambia hasta disponerse a otra forma
«Art could provide nature with wood, cement, and nails, but [nature] would never know how to build a house or boat.» — recoge el contraejemplo con que el argumento se invierte: la naturaleza, provista de madera, cemento y clavos, no sabría construir una casa
«But a far more compelling case of a “natural” product that cannot be found in nature without human intervention is the philosophers’ stone, the marvelous agent of transmutation that converts base metals into gold.» — plantea el caso límite de la disputa: la piedra filosofal es un producto que se dice natural y que no se halla en la naturaleza sin intervención humana
«Peter admits that the philosophers’ stone must be made by art and that it is not found in the natural world: “It is impossible for nature to follow art in the generation of the alchemist’s stone.”» — consigna la concesión de Petrus Bonus, que admite que la piedra la hace el arte y no se encuentra en el mundo natural
«A variant of this approach, but without the reiterated claim that alchemical gold must employ only the materials that nature uses, had already been employed by Roger Bacon in the 1260s.» — data en Roger Bacon, hacia 1260, una variante anterior del argumento que prescinde de la exigencia de usar solo materiales de la naturaleza
«“Not only God and nature can produce this equality, but art, because art perfects nature in many ways.”» — cita la fórmula de Bacon que rompe el monopolio: también el arte produce esa igualdad, porque perfecciona la naturaleza de muchas maneras
«Although the alchemist could still claim that he produced perfect duplications of things found in nature, he could also claim, as the Book of Hermes had already done, that his productions were even better than the natural.» — expone las dos pretensiones disponibles al alquimista, duplicar lo natural o superarlo, esta última ya presente en el Libro de Hermes
«such as the anonymous commentators of the Secret of Secrets who insisted that man “cannot make himself equal to the Creator.”» — recuerda la objeción teológica que sigue en pie, la de los comentaristas anónimos del Secreto de los secretos
«Peter solves the problem in his Margarita by expanding on the old image of alchemy as a donum dei—a gift of God.» — describe la salida de Petrus Bonus: ampliar la vieja imagen de la alquimia como don de Dios
«Hence alchemy is a special dispensation, a way permitted by the Creator Himself for man to escape the limits imposed by His potentia ordinata.» — formula el estatuto que esa salida le concede a la alquimia: dispensa especial para escapar de los límites de la potencia ordenada
«On the one hand, this special status of alchemy removed it once and for all from the opprobrium of the mechanical arts, and even granted it a luster above that of medicine, but it carried a double edge, for now the claims of the alchemist would receive a new scrutiny from theological writers.» — consigna el doble filo de esa promoción: saca a la alquimia del oprobio de las artes mecánicas y la expone al escrutinio de los teólogos
«Such writers as the pseudonymous author of the Testamentum ascribed to the Franciscan tertiary Ramon Lull and written in the 1330s, or the Joachimite prophet and alchemist John of Rupescissa, who spent decades in prison for his espousal of absolute poverty, thoroughly integrated eschatological themes into their alchemy.» — nombra a los franciscanos que integran temas escatológicos: el pseudo-Lulio del Testamentum de los años 1330 y el profeta joaquinita Juan de Rupescissa
«Although it is unlikely that the genuine Arnald of Villanova wrote any alchemical treatise, there is a large corpus of alchemical works attributed to him.» — adjudica con su grado de certeza el corpus arnaldiano: es improbable que el Arnaldo de Vilanova auténtico escribiera tratado alquímico alguno
«The author says that mercury, like Jesus, is to “be taken and beaten and scourged lest by reason of pride he perish.”» — cita la analogía cristológica del pseudo-Arnaldo, donde el mercurio ha de ser tomado, golpeado y azotado como Jesús
«While pseudo-Arnald’s Tractatus parabolicus does not directly address the art-nature debate» — acota el alcance de ese tratado, que no entra directamente en la disputa arte-naturaleza aunque eleva la disciplina a un rango casi sobrenatural
«He argues that necromancers, soothsayers, astrologers, and alchemists inevitably fail in their main enterprise and then resort to the help of demons, whether openly or tacitly.» — recoge el argumento inquisitorial que mete a los alquimistas en la misma lista: fracasan y entonces recurren a los demonios, abierta o tácitamente
«In his prologue to Estrucio, Eymerich had already compared alchemists to circle squarers and others who waste their time in vain and overly curious occupations.» — consigna el desprecio previo de Eymerich, que equipara a los alquimistas con los cuadradores del círculo
«His presumed point, then, is that precious metals and stones are not necessary to human life or salvation and that the goal of replicating them is otiose.» — reconstruye con reserva expresa el argumento de Eymerich: metales y piedras preciosas no hacen falta para la vida ni para la salvación
«Eymerich concludes that they are products of nature and that art can purge and purify them from their dross.» — fija lo único que Eymerich concede al arte sobre esos productos naturales: purgarlos y limpiarlos de su escoria
«To this question Eymerich replies with a common paraphrase of Aristotle’s Meteorology(IV 381b6), stating that “art imitates nature insofar as it can.”» — recoge la paráfrasis aristotélica con que Eymerich responde, ya con su cláusula limitativa: el arte imita a la naturaleza en cuanto puede
«But Eymerich then continues in Avicennian fashion to say that “art cannot fully and perfectly imitate nature.”» — marca el giro aviceniano que endurece esa fórmula: el arte no puede imitar a la naturaleza plena y perfectamente
«Eymerich continues by arguing that nature is a “work of intelligence,” which he demonstrates by adducing examples of unthinking activity in nature.» — expone el argumento teológico de Eymerich: la naturaleza es obra de inteligencia, y lo muestra con actividades naturales sin pensamiento
«The same is true for the quicklime made by burning limestone and the oil that Mary Magdalen poured on the head of Jesus: these are things made by art, and they cannot be used to support the possibility of making a natural thing.» — recoge la respuesta de Eymerich a dos objeciones alquímicas, la cal viva y el ungüento de la Magdalena: son cosas hechas por arte y no prueban nada
«Eymerich responds that this was performed with the aid of divine power, not by art.» — consigna cómo Eymerich neutraliza el caso de la vara de Moisés: obra del poder divino, no del arte
«As we saw earlier, Thomas was unequivocal in the dismissal of alchemical gold» — recuerda que Tomás fue inequívoco al desestimar el oro alquímico
«Thomas explicitly demotes the products of art to a lower status than those of nature» — adjudica a Tomás una degradación explícita de los productos del arte por debajo de los de la naturaleza
«Hence the distillations made by man, although they may seem to reproduce the effect of natural evaporation and condensation, cannot really resolve liquids into water in the way that the natural water cycle does.» — expone el caso con que Tomás lo prueba: la destilación humana parece reproducir el ciclo del agua y no resuelve realmente los líquidos en agua
«By the principle that art is weaker than nature, rosewater and “alchemical waters” produced by distillation lack the genuine substantial form of water.» — saca la consecuencia sobre el agua de rosas y las aguas alquímicas: carecen de la forma sustancial genuina del agua
«Thomas thinks of distillation carried out in a laboratory or workshop as altering only the external accidents of a given substance.» — precisa qué le concede Tomás al laboratorio: alterar solo los accidentes externos de la sustancia
«Eymerich likewise thinks of art as being unequal to nature, and uses this point to argue that rosewater and other products of the laboratory are mere artifacts, which have no bearing on a discussion of genuine transmutation.» — muestra el uso que Eymerich hace de esa desigualdad: el agua de rosas y demás productos de laboratorio son meros artefactos que nada dicen de la transmutación
«Eymerich says that it is impossible for demons to create precious metals or precious stones, or to help alchemists create them.» — consigna el límite que Eymerich pone al demonio: no puede crear metales ni piedras preciosas, ni ayudar al alquimista a crearlos
«Although the demons are no more able to make gold than the alchemists, they can nonetheless gather it from hidden places and feign the appearance of alchemical success.» — explica cómo se salva entonces la apariencia del éxito: los demonios no hacen oro, lo reúnen de sitios ocultos y fingen
«But it is a grave sin to invoke demons, for this is “to abandon God and to adhere to the demon, to make him a god for oneself, and to make a covenant with death.”» — traduce la condena de Eymerich a la invocación demoníaca en sus términos: abandonar a Dios, hacerse un dios del demonio y pactar con la muerte
«Eymerich’s position draws directly from the well of Thomas Aquinas.» — adjudica la posición de Eymerich a la fuente tomista sin intermediarios
«The Thomistic position, spelled out more clearly in the Summa theologiae’s analysis of distillation than by its treatment of the sale of alchemical gold, emphasized the weakness of human art in relation to nature.» — localiza dónde queda mejor expuesta la posición tomista, en el análisis de la destilación y no en el de la venta de oro alquímico
«If we now turn to the early modern period, we will see that Thomas’s position found many an adherent, though few of his supporters were as vehement as Eymerich.» — anticipa la continuidad moderna del tomismo en este punto, con la salvedad del tono: pocos seguidores fueron tan vehementes
«By the end of the fourteenth century, nature and art could carry out their debate on a stage that had been carefully erected by theologians, philosophers, alchemists, and even poets.» — cierra el capítulo con el balance del escenario montado a finales del siglo XIV por teólogos, filósofos, alquimistas y poetas
«Traditionally, the central example in this discussion on the powers of art versus those of nature was the issue of alchemical transmutation.» — reitera por qué la transmutación es el caso central de toda la discusión sobre los poderes del arte frente a los de la naturaleza
«As we will see, the argument did not diminish as the effectiveness of chemical technology became more a matter of public awareness.» — niega la expectativa razonable: la disputa no mengua al hacerse pública la eficacia de la tecnología química
«Instead, the art-nature debate grew in vigor, acquiring a striking shrillness in some quarters as it entered the overheated atmosphere that preceded and followed the Reformation.» — sostiene lo contrario: el debate crece y adquiere estridencia en la atmósfera recalentada de la Reforma
«He adds that alchemists cannot really perform transmutations, although they can imprint certain accidents of gold and silver on base metals.» — consigna la concesión limitada del argumento: no hay transmutación, pero sí impresión de ciertos accidentes del oro y la plata
«It is quite impossible for alchemists to impart all the accidental qualities of gold to a base metal—although they may be able to give some of them, such as yellowness and malleability— if they cannot also induce a new substantial form.» — expone la forma técnica del argumento: sin forma sustancial nueva, no cabe impartir todos los accidentes del oro, solo algunos como el color y la maleabilidad
«To say that all the accidents of gold can be present without the substantial form of gold, therefore, is a contradiction in terms.» — formula el remate lógico de esa posición, que declara contradictorio hablar de todos los accidentes del oro sin su forma sustancial
«We already met with a related argument in Giles of Rome’s Quodlibeta, when Giles denied that alchemical gold could be the same as its natural exemplar even if the manufactured product passed the tests of the assayer.» — enlaza con el argumento de Gil de Roma, que negaba la identidad del oro alquímico aunque el producto pasara las pruebas del ensayador
«It is not surprising that most Jesuits followed Thomas Aquinas on the issue of alchemical transmutation, since Roberto Bellarmine had made him the master of theology for the Jesuit order in the 1590s.» — explica la alineación jesuita por un hecho institucional: Belarmino hizo de Tomás el maestro de teología de la orden en la década de 1590
«We cannot say, then, that a hard-line position on the art-nature distinction followed from Thomas as a necessary consequence.» — se abstiene de la generalización cómoda: la posición dura sobre arte y naturaleza no se sigue necesariamente de Tomás
«Conservative followers of Thomas include Juan de Pineda, who entered the Society of Jesus in 1572.» — sitúa a Juan de Pineda, jesuita desde 1572, entre los seguidores conservadores de Tomás
«Solomon could not really have engaged in alchemy, Pineda says, since alchemy is not a genuine art.» — recoge el argumento con que Pineda desactiva la leyenda salomónica: la alquimia no es un arte genuino
«And just as those forms of animals that (although they are natural, still, on account of their imperfection) are produced without seed by chance and accident, are not produced by nature per se and primarily, so those that are indeed produced per se and primarily by nature cannot be produced accidentally and by chance, by means of art.» — traduce el argumento de Pineda por analogía con la generación espontánea: lo que la naturaleza produce por sí y primariamente no puede producirlo el arte por accidente
«Pineda’s argument relies implicitly on the seventh book of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, where the Stagirite compares art, nature, and chance.» — adjudica el respaldo implícito del argumento al libro séptimo de la Metafísica, donde Aristóteles compara arte, naturaleza y azar
«Another conservative representative of this Thomistic tradition is Paolo Comitoli, who began his novitiate in 1559 and published the Responsamoralia in 1609.» — data al segundo conservador de la serie, Paolo Comitoli, novicio en 1559 y autor de una obra de 1609
«Comitoli’s Responsa explicitly cites the Sentence-commentary of Thomas, supporting Thomas’s distinction between celestial and igneous heat» — documenta la dependencia textual de Comitoli respecto de Tomás en la distinción entre calor celeste e ígneo
«The Coimbrans are even more explicit in their use of alchemy, for the issue “whether the industry of the chymical art can effect true gold” forms part of their commentary to book 2, chapter 1, of the Physics.» — señala hasta qué punto la alquimia entró en la enseñanza: los Conimbricenses discuten si el arte químico puede hacer oro verdadero dentro de su comentario a la Física
«Sennert says that he agrees with Aristotle that it is a weakness of the mind to seek reasons for a thing to be such and such, when we know from the facts that the thing is otherwise.» — cita la máxima con que Sennert subordina la razón al hecho, tomada de Aristóteles
«the facts are clear—the transmutation of metals is a demonstrated reality.» — consigna la posición del Sennert tardío, para quien la transmutación es realidad demostrada
«their wide dispersion in early modern university culture gives them an importance that more sophisticated treatises might lack.» — justifica el uso de manuales menores como fuente: su difusión universitaria les da un peso que a los tratados sofisticados les falta
«“Nor do natural waters alone perform this,” he continues, “but the same can also be done by art.”146» — recoge la fórmula que abre la puerta al arte en ese terreno, y no cierra el caso
«the Sennert of 1599–1600 had dismissed the possibility of transmutation as so unlikely that it was not worth arguing the point» — documenta el punto de partida contrario del mismo autor, que en 1599 la tenía por tan improbable que no valía discutirla
«the Sennert of 1618 dismissed all argument against transmutation as being sheer sophistry in the face of the facts!» — mide el vuelco: en 1618 el mismo Sennert despacha como sofistería todo argumento contra la transmutación
«The commentary printed after Magirus’s theses immediately contradicts this optimistic view, however, pointing out in Avicennian fashion that the metals belong to different species.» — registra la contradicción dentro de un mismo impreso: el comentario a las tesis de Magirus las contradice al modo aviceniano
«But nature does not transmute them, since it does not work outside of its own place [of generation]; much less does art, which is the imitator of nature.”148» — recoge el argumento del lugar de generación aplicado a fortiori: si ni la naturaleza transmuta fuera de su sitio, menos el arte que la imita
«Some pages later, however, Keckermann expressly denies that man can perform the same transmutational feat.» — documenta el desacuerdo interno de Keckermann, que páginas después niega al hombre esa misma hazaña
«It will therefore oppose the goal of the metals if men should have the art by which they could turn all metals into gold, since God wishes that many distinct metals remain in the world for His glory» — consigna el argumento providencial con que se cierra el paso a la transmutación universal: Dios quiere que subsistan muchos metales distintos para su gloria
«Eustachius says that these will “not be effected by art, but by natural causes applied by art.”» — recoge la fórmula intermedia de Eustaquio de San Pablo, que salva la letra del principio: no lo efectúa el arte, sino causas naturales aplicadas por el arte
«the Lapis philosophicus is positively bullish on the issue of transmutation.» — sitúa en el extremo optimista al Lapis philosophicus, decididamente favorable a la transmutación
«Art only acts accidentally in such a case, just as it does when someone ignites a piece of wood.» — consigna el símil con que se rebaja el papel del arte: obra por accidente, como quien prende un leño
«The truly conservative position on this topic was not to be found in Aristotle himself, but in his interpreters Avicenna, Averroes, and Thomas Aquinas.» — adjudica la posición verdaderamente conservadora no a Aristóteles sino a sus intérpretes Avicena, Averroes y Tomás de Aquino
«In fact, however, Aversa’s approach is very close to that of Geber.» — objeta la etiqueta habitual y acerca a Raphael Aversa a Geber, contra lo que su marco escolástico haría esperar
«Since the Carmelite admits that metals can become gold incrementally, by the gradual appropriation of its sensible qualities» — muestra la consecuencia que la concesión gradualista tiene para el carmelita: la forma sustancial dada en un instante queda sin trabajo
«For Aversa, as for Geber, the substantial form has ceased to do much of its work.» — formula el diagnóstico común a los dos: la forma sustancial ha dejado de hacer buena parte de su oficio
«These authors are within striking distance of Francis Bacon, who thought that the manifest qualities of gold could be added one-by-one in a process that he called “superinduction of forms.”» — traza la cercanía de esos autores con Francis Bacon y su superinducción de formas, que añade una a una las cualidades manifiestas del oro
«One could continue to analyze the early modern natural philosophy manuals, for other writers, such as the widely cited Gilbert Jacchaeus, also discuss the issue of transmutation.» — declara abierto el filón de manuales de filosofía natural que no agota, y nombra a Gilbert Jacchaeus como ejemplo
«Indeed, Ruvius went so far as implicitly to limit the perfective ability of art to the manipulation of exterior accidents.» — consigna hasta dónde llega el jesuita Ruvius: limita implícitamente la capacidad perfectiva del arte a manipular accidentes exteriores
«If we conclude our survey by turning to another type of source, we will see that the issue of alchemy in the art-nature debate was not always so temperately addressed.» — anuncia el cambio de registro que viene: fuera de los manuales, el asunto no se trató siempre con esa moderación
«The remarkable Swiss medical and religious writer Theophrastus von Hohenheim, or Paracelsus (1493– 1541) had burst upon the scene, championing alchemy as a fundamental science deeply linked to natural magic and other occult pursuits.» — presenta a Paracelso con sus fechas y su programa: la alquimia como ciencia fundamental ligada a la magia natural
«At the same time, Paracelsus is known above all for his reorientation of alchemy away from the transmutation of metals and toward the pharmaceutical application of alchemical techniques, framing the new discipline of chymiatria, or chymical medicine (iatrochemistry).» — adjudica a Paracelso la reorientación de la alquimia desde la transmutación hacia la aplicación farmacéutica, que llama quimiatría
«The Paracelsian three principles, mercury, sulfur, and salt, are no longer simply the ingredients of metals, as were the older mercury and sulfur inherited from the Arabs.» — marca la diferencia entre los tres principios paracelsianos y el par mercurio-azufre heredado de los árabes: ya no son solo ingredientes de los metales
«Although Paracelsus was heavily indebted to earlier medical alchemists such as John of Rupescissa and pseudo–Ramon Lull, it is fair to say that there is nothing in the Middle Ages as comprehensive as his cosmological iatrochemistry.» — reconoce la deuda de Paracelso con Rupescissa y el pseudo-Lulio y a la vez le concede originalidad de alcance: nada medieval iguala su iatroquímica cosmológica
«The extraordinary invective of Paracelsus’s writings engendered an equally vituperative response from more traditional physicians, who literally demonized his reputation.» — explica la respuesta que provocó su lenguaje: médicos tradicionales que demonizaron literalmente su reputación
«Yet Erastus had already written a sustained attack on traditional alchemy before the composition of his Disputationes.» — data el ataque de Erastus a la alquimia tradicional antes de sus Disputationes contra Paracelso, y con eso separa los dos frentes
«Erastus bases his most fundamental argument against alchemy on the Avicennian principle that the metals belong to different species, and species cannot be transmuted.» — adjudica el argumento de fondo de Erastus al principio aviceniano de la diversidad específica de los metales
«According to Erastus, the proximal genus under which the various metals are subsumed is “metal,” in the same way that the eggs of different avian species are all found under the genus of “egg.”» — recoge la analogía con que Erastus lo formula: los metales están bajo el género metal como los huevos de distintas aves bajo el género huevo
«No one would argue, however, that an egg can be transmuted into a different species of egg.» — consigna el remate de la analogía, que Erastus da por evidente
«From this, and similar evidence, Erastus concludes that the species belonging to the same proximal genus are never able to undergo mutual transmutation.» — formula la conclusión general que Erastus extrae: las especies de un mismo género próximo nunca se transmutan entre sí
«Erastus denies categorically that man can remove the form from any substance and thus reduce it into the proximal material from which it was made.» — consigna la negativa categórica de Erastus a la reducción a materia próxima, que era la cláusula de escape de los alquimistas
«Why should we accept that these materials are ingredients rather than mere decomposition products?» — traslada la objeción de Erastus a los tres principios: por qué tomarlos por ingredientes y no por productos de descomposición
«Does it not follow that corpses and cheese would be composed of worms, since they decay into them?» — recoge la reducción al absurdo con que Erastus la remata, con los gusanos del cadáver y del queso
«Not only does man inevitably fail at transmutation, he cannot even dissolve natural substances into their ingredients.» — mide hasta dónde llega la negativa: ni transmutar ni siquiera disolver las sustancias naturales en sus ingredientes
«Erastus says that only God and nature can make a genuine mixture.» — consigna el axioma que sostiene todo el ataque: solo Dios y la naturaleza hacen mezcla genuina
«Hence the “mixtures” made by man can always be separated by distillation or some other means, unlike natural mixtures such as the metals.» — da el criterio empírico con que Erastus distingue las mezclas humanas: se separan por destilación u otro medio
«A genuine mixture comes about only from the imposition of a new substantial form— the “form of the mixture” ( forma mixti).» — define la mezcla genuina por la imposición de una forma sustancial nueva, la forma de la mezcla
«saying that if art could “fabricate” substantial forms, the distinction between art and nature would vanish» — aísla lo que Erastus teme perder: si el arte fabricara formas sustanciales, la distinción misma entre arte y naturaleza se desvanecería
«Erastus has placed the issue of artisanal power into the context of divine creation.» — señala el desplazamiento decisivo de Erastus: el poder artesanal pasa a discutirse en el marco de la creación divina
«Thus since the origin of substantial forms is from God, and the insertion of such a form into matter should be called nothing else but a certain creation, it is clear that they who assume this for themselves—namely putting forms naturally in matter prepared in any fashion—impiously arrogate the works of divinity to themselves.» — traduce el pasaje donde Erastus llama creación a la inserción de forma en materia y acusa de impiedad a quien se la arrogue
«The alchemists are therefore nothing but irreligious impostors who assume the power of God and wage war on nature.» — consigna el veredicto de Erastus sobre los alquimistas, impostores irreligiosos que se atribuyen el poder de Dios
«In the work of Thomas Erastus, we see the culmination of the tradition inaugurated by Arabic commentators on Avicenna such as the historian Ibn Khald¯un and elaborated in the West by the inquisitor Nicholas Eymerich, a tradition that began by limiting the transmutation of species to God and ended by linking alchemy with the supernatural and even suggesting that its adherents were the followers of Satan.» — cierra la genealogía del capítulo: la tradición que empieza en Ibn Jaldún y Eymerich culmina en Erastus, ligando la alquimia a lo sobrenatural y a Satanás
«This tradition is already evident in Erastus’s Explicatio, for in describing the claim of special revelation made by Petrus Bonus and others, he mockingly says that these are indeed holy men: “for the most part impious, superstitious, astrologers, magicians, and worshippers of demons.”» — documenta el sarcasmo de Erastus contra la revelación que reclamaba Petrus Bonus: santos varones que serían impíos, supersticiosos y adoradores de demonios
«Proud of his nefarious art, the Paracelsus of the Disputationes would threaten to summon up hordes of demons during his frequent drunken moments.» — describe el retrato polémico que Erastus construye: un Paracelso que amenaza con convocar demonios en sus borracheras
«Libavius’s work contains an exhaustive rebuttal of the issues raised by Erastus and his followers in regard to the art-nature debate, but most of his points had already been made by the alchemists of the thirteenth and fourteenth century and need not be repeated here.» — sitúa la réplica de Libavius y a la vez la desactiva como novedad: sus puntos ya los habían hecho los alquimistas de los siglos XIII y XIV
«We have seen in this chapter how an attack on alchemy made in the eleventh century by Avicenna led to an extraordinary reassessment of the relationship between art and nature that polarized the medieval and early modern world into two camps.» — balancea el capítulo: un ataque del siglo XI polarizó en dos campos la relación entre arte y naturaleza
«Those who supported alchemy necessarily took a liberal position that insisted on the ability to replicate natural products by means of art.» — define el campo proalquímico por lo que se veía obligado a sostener: la capacidad de replicar productos naturales mediante el arte
«At the same time, the great theologians saw that alchemy’s claim of effecting the rapid transmutation of bodies made it unique among the arts.» — explica la atención teológica: la pretensión de transmutar cuerpos con rapidez hacía única a la alquimia entre las artes
«Unlike physicians, who also used natural agencies, the alchemists believed that they could induce nature to produce new substances by means of transmutation.» — separa a alquimistas de médicos aunque ambos usen agentes naturales: solo los primeros creían inducir sustancias nuevas
«For the alchemists to pursue these goals was to tempt God and invite the attention of demons, since it was an act of impiety to usurp the power of divine agency as embodied in nature.» — consigna el cargo religioso en su forma más nítida: perseguir esas metas era tentar a Dios y usurpar el poder divino encarnado en la naturaleza
«Eymerich extended his critique beyond the transmutation of metals to include such products of the laboratory as distilled water and oils.» — mide la extensión del ataque de Eymerich, que alcanza a productos tan modestos como el agua destilada y los aceites
«Jean accepted the arguments of high medieval alchemists and suggested that the chrysopoetic art serve as a model for art in general.» — recuerda la posición del Roman de la rose: la crisopeya como modelo del arte en general
«Other arts were doomed to relative failure in their task of imitating nature whereas alchemy alone could actually reproduce it.» — formula la jerarquía que de ahí resulta: las demás artes fracasan relativamente al imitar, y solo la alquimia reproduce
«Finally, the alchemists’ arguments for laboratory experiment and the replication of nature led in a direct and demonstrable fashion to the technological apologetics of Francis Bacon and his school.» — sostiene una filiación directa y demostrable entre los argumentos alquímicos del laboratorio y la apologética tecnológica de Bacon
«This surprising harvest of medieval Scholasticism was not a shriveled relic twisted from the branch of a withered tree, but a living fruit that would nourish the experimental science of the seventeenth century.» — objeta la imagen del escolasticismo como reliquia seca: fue fruto vivo que alimentó la ciencia experimental del siglo XVII
«Alchemy too played a part in this princely quest for the strange and rare, with its unending delight in metamorphosis.» — inserta la alquimia en el gusto principesco por lo raro, por su deleite sin fin en la metamorfosis
«We need only think of the patrons of alchemy in German-speaking lands—Ottheinrich of the Palatinate, Wolfgang von Hohenlohe» — enumera a los mecenas alemanes de la alquimia, con Rodolfo II como el mayor de todos
«Alchemy itself was originally an offshoot of the decorative arts, whose practitioners had begun in late antiquity to view their products in Pygmalion-like fashion as replications, rather than representations, of the natural world.» — data el origen de la alquimia en las artes decorativas y fecha en la Antigüedad tardía el giro que hace de sus productos réplicas y no representaciones
«Always aware of the potential charge that they too were engaged in a sort of trompe l’oeil trickery, the medieval and early modern alchemists explicitly claimed that their discipline perfected nature rather than merely imitating it.» — explica la estrategia defensiva de los alquimistas frente a la acusación de engaño visual: reclamar que perfeccionan la naturaleza, no que la imitan
«Like his source, Gundissalinus makes alchemy the science of species transmutation par excellence, not just transmutation of metallic species but of species per se.» — consigna la definición máxima que Gundisalvo hereda de su fuente: la alquimia como ciencia de la transmutación de las especies sin más
«As the attacks by Avicenna, Averroes, Thomas Aquinas, and a host of Latin followers demonstrate, it was precisely this creative ability that they viewed alchemy as arrogating to itself.» — identifica lo que los atacantes veían usurpado, y no es la técnica sino la capacidad creativa
«Gundissalinus speaks of “the science of alchemy, which is the science of the conversion of things into other species.”» — cita la definición de Gundisalvo, que hace de la alquimia la ciencia de la conversión de las cosas en otras especies
«At the same time, however, there was a strong tendency among painters and sculptors to depreciate the outright chrysopoetic goals of alchemists that found their expression in the supposed “creation” or transmutation of species.» — consigna el desprecio en dirección contraria: pintores y escultores rebajaban las metas crisopoéticas de los alquimistas
«But the disciplinary derogation engaged in by visual artists was not a one-way street.» — advierte que ese menosprecio disciplinar no iba en una sola dirección
«They were impositions upon reality that could not withstand examination—like a spurious metal, they might trick us into accepting their veracity, but a closer inspection would reveal them as mere fraud.» — recoge el símil con que se descalificaba a las artes visuales: como un metal espurio, engañan hasta que se las mira de cerca
«Such an argument could hardly be expected to receive applause from the quarters of the artists themselves, who were eagerly vying for the attentions of the same courtly patrons that the chymists hoped to impress.» — sitúa la disputa en su terreno material: artistas y químicos competían por los mismos mecenas cortesanos
«And yet, as we have seen, there was another side to alchemy that made it eminently desirable to practitioners of painting.» — marca el reverso del pleito: hubo un lado de la alquimia que resultó enteramente deseable para los pintores
«Indeed, it has recently been demonstrated that the Mappae clavicula, an early medieval treatise on the materials of the artist, had its origin in late antique alchemy.» — adjudica a investigación reciente el origen de la Mappae clavicula, tratado de materiales del artista, en la alquimia tardoantigua
«Vasari speaks of making tempera paints from pigments that derive partly from mines and partly from alchemists (parte dagli alchimisti).» — documenta el préstamo en la letra de Vasari: los pigmentos del temple vienen en parte de las minas y en parte de los alquimistas
«Although we now know that Van Eyck did not really invent oil painting, but merely improved it, the fact remains that Vasari saw this supposed discovery as stemming from the same alchemical discipline that contributed to the making of tempera.» — corrige el dato y conserva el hecho historiográfico: Van Eyck no inventó el óleo, pero Vasari atribuyó ese hallazgo a la alquimia
«The close relationship between alchemy and the technology of the visual arts was widely recognized by artists themselves.» — sostiene que los propios artistas reconocían ampliamente su deuda técnica con la alquimia
«While Vasari may have gotten some of the details wrong, his general claim was not far from the mark.» — gradúa su acuerdo con Vasari: los detalles pueden estar mal, la afirmación general no anda lejos
«The purpose of Arnaldus’s recipe, and that of Leonardo, is to improve the appearance of a debased gold alloy.» — identifica la meta común de la receta arnaldiana y la de Leonardo: mejorar el aspecto de una aleación de oro rebajada
«Since Leonardo intends the operation to be used on integral gold artifacts, he could achieve a surface enrichment of the object and hence an improved appearance.» — precisa el resultado técnico que Leonardo buscaba en objetos de oro íntegro: un enriquecimiento de superficie
«One could perhaps argue that his disdain for the subject is a mere aping of the common humanist view that alchemists are social deviants driven by greed, a position maintained by Petrarch and Erasmus, among many others.» — ofrece con reserva expresa una explicación del desdén de Leonardo: puede ser eco del tópico humanista, sostenido por Petrarca y Erasmo, del alquimista como desviado social
«Although Paul employs dove or chicken glue instead of the egg white used by Leonardo, the similarity of the two recipes reveals their dependence on the same alchemical recipe literature originating in the Egypt of the Stockholm and Leiden papyri.» — documenta la deuda técnica de Leonardo comparando su receta de perlas con la de Paul de Tarento: las dos vienen de la misma literatura de recetas egipcia
«Despite Leonardo’s manifest debt to the recipe literature of alchemy, his opinion of the discipline as a whole was far from favorable.» — consigna la tensión sin armonizarla: Leonardo debe mucho a la literatura de recetas alquímica y opina pésimo de la disciplina
«Indeed, Leonardo continues, nature does not vary the ordinary species (spezie) of things that it has created, unlike human artifacts, which are from time to time changed.» — recoge el criterio de Leonardo para separar lo natural de lo artificial: la naturaleza no varía las especies ordinarias, los artefactos humanos sí cambian
«Only nature can produce “simple things” (semplici), while man, the greatest instrument of nature (massimo strumento di natura), is limited to the production of “composites” (composti).» — traduce la distinción de Leonardo entre simples y compuestos, que reserva los primeros a la naturaleza y deja al hombre, máximo instrumento suyo, los segundos
«Leonardo then appeals to the evidence of “the old alchemists,” who have never been able to create (crear) the slightest thing that nature could make.» — recoge el argumento empírico de Leonardo contra los viejos alquimistas, que nunca han logrado crear nada de lo que la naturaleza hace
«Leonardo’s point then is that nature makes the metals directly out of the four elements, while man, who has access only to mixtures, is forced to compromise.» — reconstruye la razón de fondo: la naturaleza hace los metales directamente de los cuatro elementos y el hombre solo dispone de mezclas
«Given Leonardo’s surprising knowledge of the art-nature debate surrounding alchemy, it is only natural that he proceeds to equate the alchemical transmutation of species with the creative act of God as mediated by nature in fully traditional wise.» — califica de sorprendente el conocimiento que Leonardo tiene del debate y adjudica su conclusión a la vía tradicional: equiparar transmutación y acto creador de Dios
«The competition between the painter who wishes to impose a visual form on matter and the alchemist who hopes to draw forth the form lurking within could not emerge more strongly.» — formula la rivalidad en su forma más nítida: el pintor impone una forma visual a la materia y el alquimista pretende sacar la que acecha dentro
«So it should not surprise us that he adds a third traditional attack—that the alchemists are trying to make gold from the wrong ingredients.» — añade el tercer ataque tradicional que Leonardo hace suyo: los alquimistas parten de los ingredientes equivocados
«As Leonardo puts it, alchemists should pay a visit to the gold mines, where they would learn that nature itself does not employ sulfur or mercury in the making of gold.» — cita el argumento de mina de Leonardo: quien vaya a las minas de oro verá que la naturaleza no usa azufre ni mercurio para hacerlo
«Leonardo’s evidence for the fallacy of the sulfur-mercury theory—that sulfur and mercury are not found in gold mines—had been rebutted long before in Paul of Taranto’s Theorica et practica, showing that the objection was already hoary with age.» — objeta a Leonardo con la cronología: esa evidencia ya había sido rebatida mucho antes por Paul de Tarento, de modo que la objeción llegaba envejecida
«Leonardo concludes his comments on alchemy with an interesting comparison between it and necromancy (negromanzia).» — anuncia el cierre del pasaje leonardesco, una comparación entre alquimia y nigromancia
«Alchemy, which Leonardo sarcastically refers to as “the mother of simple, natural things,” is the sister of necromancy, presumably because both disciplines claim to work marvelous effects.» — consigna el sarcasmo de Leonardo, que hace de la alquimia hermana de la nigromancia por prometer las dos efectos maravillosos
«But alchemy is much less mendacious than its sister science, since the former really is a servant of nature (ministratrice de’ semplici, prodotti dalla natura) in that it provides the “organic instruments” that nature lacks and hence leads nature to unexpected ends, such as the production of glass.» — registra la jerarquía que Leonardo establece incluso al condenar: la alquimia miente mucho menos, porque sirve realmente a la naturaleza dándole instrumentos que le faltan
«Necromancy, on the other hand, is a mere tissue of lies» — consigna el veredicto de Leonardo sobre la nigromancia, que no le concede ni ese resto de utilidad
«We see then that Leonardo does have a grudging respect for the chemical technology of the alchemists, though he rejects their goal of “creating” the products of nature.» — resume la posición doble de Leonardo: respeto a regañadientes por la tecnología química y rechazo de la meta de crear productos naturales
«“Like all of those who attend to it,” Vasari says, Cosimo was reduced to poverty.» — recoge de Vasari el desenlace tipificado: como todos los que se dedican a ella, Cosimo acabó en la pobreza
«Despite the fact that God and nature intended Parmigianino to be a painter, he wasted his life in attempting to congeal mercury and in “seeking out that which can never be found,” namely the successful transmutation of metals.» — consigna el caso de Parmigianino tal como lo cuenta Vasari, malgastando en cuajar mercurio la vida que Dios y la naturaleza le habían destinado a la pintura
«“While racking his brain—not with thinking up beautiful devices or working with paintbrushes or paints—he would lose the whole day in dealing with coals, wood, glass vessels, and other such trinkets, which cost more in one day than he earned working for a week on the church of the Steccata; and not having other means, but needing them in order to live, he consumed himself—bit by bit—with his furnaces.”» — traduce el retrato de Vasari, donde el gasto diario del horno supera lo ganado en una semana de pintura
«We can see then that both Vasari and Leonardo view alchemy in a very jaundiced light, despite their own admission that the discipline has contributed to the material technology of the visual arts.» — balancea la posición de los dos: mirada muy adversa a la alquimia junto al reconocimiento de su aporte técnico a las artes visuales
«Vasari and Leonardo see alchemy as the discipline of transmutation par excellence, even if it lays claim to some useful ancillary technologies.» — precisa cómo la clasifican: disciplina de la transmutación por antonomasia, con tecnologías auxiliares útiles
«Kaufmann reasonably suggests that alchemy became a “negative moral exemplar” among northern artists, who saw it in religious terms as the embodiment of greed, folly, and dishonesty.» — discute con un estudioso moderno y le concede razón: Kaufmann propone que entre los artistas del norte la alquimia se volvió exemplum moral negativo
«Biringuccio admits that alchemy has led to many useful discoveries.» — consigna la concesión de Biringuccio antes de su ataque: la alquimia ha llevado a muchos descubrimientos útiles
«They are also responsible for the arts of distillation and sublimation, which in turn have led to marvelous perfumes and medicines.» — detalla el saldo positivo que Biringuccio le reconoce: destilación y sublimación, y de ahí perfumes y medicinas
«Even the calcination of limestone to produce quicklime, an essential ingredient of mortar, owes its discovery to an alchemy-like process.» — suma a esa cuenta la cal viva del mortero, cuyo hallazgo Biringuccio atribuye a un proceso de tipo alquímico
«In the attempt to construct permanent dwellings, Biringuccio says, the earliest men were trying to copy nature’s own process for making stones.» — recoge la reconstrucción de Biringuccio sobre los primeros hombres, que al buscar vivienda estable copiaban el proceso natural de hacer piedras
«Despite his acknowledgment of mankind’s debt to alchemy, however, Biringuccio has very little faith in its doctrines.» — marca el corte entre la deuda técnica reconocida y la desconfianza de Biringuccio en la doctrina
«The Persian philosopher had announced in the De congelatione that “art is weaker than nature and does not overtake it, however much it tries.”» — devuelve el axioma aviceniano al centro del argumento de Biringuccio, en su formulación del De congelatione
«Biringuccio then adds that even if man has the proper materials from which to make metals, he will still be ignorant of the proportion in which they should be mixed and of the way in which nature brings them to perfection.» — añade el argumento de la ignorancia práctica: aun con los materiales correctos faltaría saber la proporción y el modo en que la naturaleza los perfecciona
«The transmutation of metals is not work for mere humans, but a task for God Himself:» — consigna el desplazamiento teológico en Biringuccio: la transmutación no es tarea de hombres sino de Dios
«Those who knew how to do such things would be called not men but gods, for they would extinguish the insatiable thirst of avarice in this world and in the extraordinary excellence of their knowledge would far outstrip the power of Nature» — traduce la ironía con que Biringuccio mide la pretensión: quienes supieran hacerlo no serían llamados hombres sino dioses
«The Sienese artisan continues this accusation by saying that the alchemists cannot reunite spirits (volatile components) with bodies once they have removed them, for this would be “to make the dead live again.”» — recoge el argumento de Biringuccio contra la reunión de espíritus y cuerpos, que equipara a resucitar muertos
«Although the alchemists would be “blessed” if they could really surpass nature in the way that they claim, Biringuccio points out that the results of their success would be absurd.» — expone la reducción al absurdo de Biringuccio: incluso el éxito alquímico daría resultados disparatados
«What greater folly could men commit than to waste their time in following the other arts and sciences and to fail to study and learn this art [alchemy] which is so useful and so worthy, nay divine and supernatural?”» — cita la fórmula con que Biringuccio parodia la pretensión alquímica de ser el arte único y supernatural
«The problem with alchemy is that its claims make it not only the Queen of the Arts, but effectively the only “real” art, since alchemy alone can genuinely master nature.» — identifica el problema estructural que la alquimia plantea a las demás artes: sus pretensiones la vuelven no ya reina sino el único arte real
«But even this is not the greatest of their claims.» — gradúa la escalada de las pretensiones que Biringuccio enumera, y anuncia que aún queda la mayor
«They can even make carbonized wood green again, whereon it will bud and produce more wood.» — consigna una de esas pretensiones extremas: reverdecer madera carbonizada hasta que brote
«Their boasts far surpass the simple conversion of one metal into another—despite their disclaimers, they usurp the role of Creator rather than that of mere transmuter.» — saca la consecuencia que interesa al libro: las jactancias rebasan la transmutación y usurpan el papel de Creador pese a los desmentidos
«In this chapter, he divides alchemy into two branches, one of which is a “just, holy, and good way,” while the other is “sophistic, violent, and unnatural.”» — recoge la partición de Biringuccio en dos ramas, una justa, santa y buena y otra sofística, violenta y antinatural
«The sophistical type of alchemy, on the other hand, is a practice for counterfeiters and other criminals.» — sitúa la rama sofística donde Biringuccio la deja: práctica de falsarios y criminales
«Although Biringuccio admits the possibility of a “good” alchemy, he concludes the chapter by asserting his own opinion, that “these effects produce naught but resemblances, such as that of brass to gold, glass to crystal, and enamels to gems.”» — consigna la opinión propia con que Biringuccio cierra el capítulo pese a admitir una alquimia buena: solo produce semejanzas, latón por oro y vidrio por cristal
«In short, Biringuccio is merely recapitulating a distinction invented by the alchemists themselves and then expressing his own opinion that the discipline as a whole is chimerical despite its useful by-products.» — adjudica el origen de la partición a los propios alquimistas y separa de ella la opinión personal de Biringuccio
«Both Biringuccio and Leonardo deny the alchemists’ claim that they genuinely work with the intrinsic properties of matter while painters, sculptors, and other artists can only manipulate external appearances.» — identifica lo que los dos artistas niegan en bloque: que solo el alquimista trabaje las propiedades intrínsecas de la materia
«His position is strikingly close to that of Leonardo da Vinci, both in his rebuff of alchemy’s claims to equal nature and perhaps God Himself» — acerca a Biringuccio y a Leonardo por su doble gesto de rechazo y de concesión
«One obvious answer is that Biringuccio did not wish to offend those among the powerful who had a serious interest in alchemy.» — ofrece una explicación prudencial de las cautelas de Biringuccio: no quería ofender a los poderosos interesados en la alquimia
«While Biringuccio pushes this argument a bit further, by explicitly pointing out that alchemy, if true, would render all the other arts undesirable, his position is fundamentally the same as Leonardo’s.» — mide la diferencia entre los dos y la declara de grado: Biringuccio añade que una alquimia verdadera volvería indeseables todas las demás artes
«It is now well known that Cosimo I had a fonderia or laboratory erected in the Palazzo Vecchio, where botanical distillations and processes of metallurgical alchemy were carried out.» — documenta el laboratorio de Cosimo I en el Palazzo Vecchio, con destilaciones botánicas y procesos de alquimia metalúrgica
«The Lezione sui calori states that “the metals can be made in the same species by nature and art” and cites Varchi’s discussion in the Questione.» — consigna la tesis de la Lezione sui calori, que los metales pueden hacerse en la misma especie por naturaleza y por arte
«Although it may be true that some academicians were attracted to alchemy because of a Piconian interest in “man the marvel,” the reality is that transmutational alchemy presented a problem—not a solution—to anyone who wanted to extol the visual arts.» — objeta a la lectura corriente de la academia florentina: la alquimia transmutatoria era un problema, no una solución, para quien quisiera ensalzar las artes visuales
«Despite the usefulness of alchemy, Varchi says that there are many who deny the art outright, and others who take a middle way, saying that some metals and minerals can be replicated by man, but not the precious metals, gold and silver.» — registra el mapa de posiciones que Varchi encuentra, con una vía media que admite replicar metales salvo el oro y la plata
«The problem was compounded for Varchi by the fact that his philosophical upbringing derived from the thorough Aristotelianism of Boccadiferro, and the very arguments employed by the alchemists had been culled from the Stagirite himself.» — explica la incomodidad de Varchi: su formación aristotélica chocaba con que los propios alquimistas argumentaran desde Aristóteles
«But Varchi adds an interesting twist to this, which reveals his extensive knowledge of the art-nature debate.» — atribuye a Varchi un giro propio que delata su conocimiento extenso del debate
«The Canon episcopi had expressly denied “any created thing to be able to be . . . transmuted into another shape or likeness, except by the Creator,” and this had been taken to concern not only witchcraft but alchemy as early as the thirteenth century.» — recuerda el texto del Canon episcopi y su aplicación temprana, desde el siglo XIII, no solo a la brujería sino a la alquimia
«Hence, as Averroes had claimed, the mice generated at will by men who prepare putrefying matter in a certain way are not the same as the mice that nature makes from mouse parents.» — recoge el ejemplo averroísta de los ratones generados a voluntad, que no son los mismos que los nacidos de padres ratones
«And if man cannot make such “easy,” “manifest” mixtures of the elements as dogs, how can he expect to make the much “stronger” and less manifest mixtures that lead to the metals?» — reconstruye el argumento a fortiori: si el hombre no logra las mezclas fáciles y manifiestas, menos las fuertes que llevan a los metales
«Even if he could do this, how can man produce the metals in the very brief times that alchemists suggest, given that it takes nature very long periods to make them within the earth?» — añade el argumento temporal: aun pudiendo, cómo haría en tiempos brevísimos lo que la naturaleza tarda muchísimo bajo tierra
«Here Varchi has returned again to the critique of Avicenna, who had of course said that art can imitate but never overtake nature and is always weaker than its model.» — señala el retorno de Varchi al eje aviceniano, el arte que imita sin alcanzar y siempre más débil que su modelo
«But Varchi pointedly does not take that path.» — subraya la decisión de Varchi de no seguir esa vía, pese a haberla expuesto
«If it is practiced for a bad end such as counterfeiting money, on the other hand, sophistical alchemy is criminal and almost diabolical.» — consigna cómo Varchi califica la alquimia sofística según su fin: criminal y casi diabólica si sirve a la falsificación
«What is particularly insupportable, in Varchi’s view, is the alchemists’ claim that they can remove “certain substances, which are called spirits,” from all things, and then return them to those things, which is impossible, since “the dead cannot be resuscitated.”» — aísla lo que a Varchi le resulta insoportable: la pretensión de extraer y devolver los espíritus, imposible porque los muertos no resucitan
«Like Biringuccio, Varchi views this removal and reimposition of spirits as a literal resurrection of the dead and a violation of Aristotle’s rule that there can be no return from privation to a habit.» — empareja a Varchi con Biringuccio en el argumento y le añade su respaldo aristotélico: no hay retorno de la privación al hábito
«Such false alchemy also claims to be able to heal anyone of any illness immediately, making men little less than immortal.» — enumera las pretensiones de la alquimia falsa según Varchi, entre ellas curar cualquier enfermedad al instante
«This type of alchemy also boasts that it can make bronze statues that talk, which—besides being ridiculous—is nothing short of necromancy.» — consigna la estatua de bronce parlante como el caso donde Varchi ve, sin más, nigromancia
«Who cannot see, Varchi continues, that alchemy is an art like medicine and agriculture, which aids nature in achieving its goals?» — recoge la clasificación positiva de Varchi: la alquimia es un arte como la medicina y la agricultura, que ayuda a la naturaleza
«Since Aristotle had used medicine as the paradigmatic example of a perfective art in the Metaphysics and the Physics, it was an easy matter for supporters of alchemy to portray their art in a positive light by simple substitution.» — explica el mecanismo retórico que lo hacía fácil: bastaba sustituir la medicina de Aristóteles por la alquimia en el ejemplo del arte perfectivo
«Varchi responds that Avicenna was simply wrong, despite the fact that he was a great philosopher and physician.» — registra el desacuerdo frontal de Varchi con Avicena, sin descalificarlo como filósofo ni como médico
«The subsidiary claim that men cannot become wolves, cats, or other animals is clearly erroneous» — consigna hasta dónde lleva Varchi su reivindicación del cambio de especie, apoyado en la Quaestio de Themo
«Varchi follows this rebuttal with supporting information, then passes to the point attributed to Thomas Aquinas, that things produced by art and by nature necessarily differ in species.» — sitúa el segundo frente de Varchi: la tesis atribuida a Tomás de que lo hecho por arte y lo hecho por naturaleza difieren necesariamente en especie
«Varchi acquiesces to the general premise, but denies the consequence regarding alchemy.» — describe la maniobra de Varchi, que acepta la premisa general y rechaza la consecuencia sobre la alquimia
«At this point he introduces the principle that would go on to form the basis of his later Lezione sui calori, that “all heats, qua heats, are of the same species, because all produce the same effects.”» — data en este punto la aparición del principio que Varchi desarrollará después: todos los calores en cuanto calores son de la misma especie
«In fact, art is only an instrument of nature here, not a principle in and of itself.» — consigna el estatuto que Varchi reserva al arte en este terreno: instrumento de la naturaleza y no principio propio
«Varchi concludes from all this that although man may not be able to produce higher animals by art, this is not an argument against alchemy, since “art does not generate gold, but nature by means of art.”» — recoge la fórmula con que Varchi salva la alquimia sin conceder la creación: el arte no engendra el oro, lo engendra la naturaleza mediante el arte
«Varchi concedes the Avicennian principle that nature is more powerful than art and that art therefore cannot do things as perfectly as nature can» — muestra la concesión táctica de Varchi al principio aviceniano, que declara irrelevante para el caso
«Indeed, in the case of higher animals, the severed limbs are no longer members at all, but have only an equivocal being, “like paintings or marble [representations].”» — recoge el símil incómodo para las artes visuales: los miembros separados tienen ser equívoco, como las pinturas o los mármoles
«In other words, the Avicennian principle does not apply to perfective arts, but only to those that fail to operate on the internal principle of change contained in natural things.» — delimita el alcance que Varchi deja al principio aviceniano: vale para las artes que no operan sobre el principio interno de cambio
«The arts, on the other hand, belong to the “inferior region,” whose end is not contemplation, but making and operating (fare ed operare).» — consigna la región inferior en que quedan las artes, cuyo fin no es la contemplación sino el hacer y el obrar
«Although everything that Varchi has said up to this point could lead one to expect that he would continue the approach of the Questione sull’alchimia, he now abruptly shifts gears.» — advierte un cambio brusco en el propio Varchi, que rompe con la línea de la Questione sull’alchimia
«He points out that the usual way of determining the nobility of the sciences is by reference to the nobility of their subject and by the certainty of their demonstrations.» — expone el criterio habitual para jerarquizar las ciencias, por nobleza del sujeto y certeza de las demostraciones
«Although some believe that this means of ranking can also be applied to the arts, Varchi insists that this is “very false,” since the arts do not have demonstration as their goal and prove nothing about the “properties or passions” of nature.» — registra la objeción de Varchi a extender ese criterio a las artes, que declara muy falsa porque las artes no tienen la demostración por meta
«Some of the arts do things that can be done by art alone, and these are said to conquer nature, like architecture.» — da la primera clase de la jerarquía de Varchi, las artes que vencen a la naturaleza, con la arquitectura por caso
«Some do things that can be done alike by art and nature, such as medicine and alchemy.» — da la segunda clase, la de lo que arte y naturaleza pueden hacer por igual, donde caen medicina y alquimia
«some are conquered by it, like all the arts that do not attain the perfection of nature, of which there are many.» — da la tercera clase, las artes vencidas por la naturaleza porque no alcanzan su perfección, que son muchas
«In the Due lezioni, medicine is made the highest art because it has the noblest goal—that of healing man and keeping him in a state of health.» — consigna el criterio finalista con que Varchi corona a la medicina: el fin más noble, sanar y mantener sano al hombre
«Like medicine, architecture protects man and therefore has health as a goal, but it cannot introduce health where it was absent, as medicine can.» — gradúa la posición de la arquitectura por lo que no puede: protege la salud pero no la introduce donde falta
«From the standpoint of the perfective arts, the idea of “conquering” nature by nonnatural means was anathema.» — explica por qué las dos escalas chocan: desde el arte perfectivo, vencer a la naturaleza por medios no naturales resultaba anatema
«Their usual response, a chorus extending from the old stories about Myron, Apelles, and Parrhasius to the marvels of Renaissance trompe l’oeil, was that their art does not perfect nature but exceeds it.» — recoge la respuesta habitual de las artes visuales, sostenida desde Mirón hasta el trampantojo renacentista: su arte no perfecciona la naturaleza, la excede
«They could improve upon nature, as in the case of the ancient painter Zeuxis, who assembled the features of the most beautiful models into an ideal type, but from the common Scholastic perspective they could not improve nature itself by changing the nature of substance.» — marca el límite escolástico de esa respuesta con el caso de Zeuxis: se mejora lo que la naturaleza da, no la naturaleza misma
«But Lomazzo’s implementation of this approach did not mean that his Idea del tempio presented a positive image of alchemy.» — niega la inferencia fácil sobre Lomazzo: su astrología aplicada a la pintura no implica una imagen favorable de la alquimia
«At any rate, Lomazzo’s highly astrological approach to perfecting nature is not shared by Varchi.» — separa las dos vías de perfeccionar la naturaleza y deja la astrológica de Lomazzo fuera de la posición de Varchi
«Despite the claim of some moderns that “alchemists and artists were united by a shared view of human creativity,” transmutational alchemy was not a natural ally of the visual arts» — objeta expresamente a estudiosos modernos la tesis de una creatividad compartida: la alquimia transmutatoria no era aliada natural de las artes visuales
«While the alchemists had argued that artists were failed impostors in the business of imitating nature, Palissy replied that they had themselves misunderstood the real subject of transmutation.» — formula la contrarréplica de Palissy: los alquimistas habían entendido mal cuál es el verdadero sujeto de la transmutación
«The philosophers’ stone lay, quite literally, in the realm of petrifaction rather than in chrysopoeia.» — consigna la reinterpretación que hace singular a Palissy: la piedra filosofal pertenece al terreno de la petrificación y no al de la crisopeya
«This astonishing claim appears explicitly only on Palissy’s deathbed, however, and in order to understand its meaning, we must consider both the development of his art and his attitude to alchemy over the course of his life.» — acota la base documental de esa tesis: solo aparece explícita en el lecho de muerte de Palissy, y por eso hay que reconstruir su trayectoria
«Palissy’s fame today rests in the extraordinary pottery that he fabricated in the “rustic style,” from the mid to late sixteenth century.» — sitúa la fama actual de Palissy en su cerámica de estilo rústico de la segunda mitad del siglo XVI
«The Recepte and the Discours display an increasing hostility toward alchemy; nevertheless, I will argue that Palissy’s growing antagonism was accompanied by a developing appropriation and transmutation of the alchemists’ own goals.» — anuncia en primera persona la tesis que va a sostener: la hostilidad creciente de Palissy vino acompañada de una apropiación de las metas alquímicas
«According to his own account, Palissy’s early activities included glassmaking and glass painting, as well as drafting, cartography, and possibly surveying.» — consigna los oficios tempranos de Palissy según su propio relato, con el quizá incluido en el último
«Palissy’s involvement in the reform of Saintes in 1562 had led to his subsequent imprisonment on the charge of iconoclasm.» — data el encarcelamiento de Palissy por iconoclasia tras su participación en la reforma de Saintes
«Palissy then emphasizes the ignorance of the alchemists—they have no knowledge of the material that nature uses in making metals, “nor by what power, or how, nor in how much time the thing can reach its perfection.”» — recoge el argumento de ignorancia de Palissy: los alquimistas no saben ni la materia, ni la potencia, ni el modo, ni el tiempo de la perfección del metal
«The gift of multiplying metals has never been given by God to man, and it is folly to attempt it.» — consigna la negativa teológica de Palissy: el don de multiplicar metales nunca se dio al hombre
«More than madness, it is “a rash undertaking against the glory of God to wish to usurp that which is of his estate.”» — sube el registro de la acusación en la letra de Palissy: es una empresa temeraria contra la gloria de Dios
«we must not forget that the primary goal of his Recepte v´eritable had been precisely to teach Frenchmen to increase their wealth by the mastery of natural secrets.» — objeta a Palissy con su propio libro: la meta declarada de su Recepte véritable era enseñar a enriquecerse dominando secretos naturales
«On this basis, Palissy implicitly draws on the hexameral theology of Saint Augustine, who argued that minerals and stones were all created in one day and that none are imperfect.» — adjudica el fundamento implícito del argumento a la teología hexameral de Agustín: minerales y piedras se crearon en un día y ninguno es imperfecto
«Since God created all their species intact, it would be impious to attempt their transmutation.» — saca la consecuencia religiosa: creadas intactas las especies, intentar transmutarlas es impiedad
«His strategy in these arguments is to show that alchemists cannot even duplicate the products of God’s most humble creatures, much less gold.» — describe la estrategia argumentativa de Palissy, que rebaja el listón a las criaturas más humildes de Dios antes de llegar al oro
«He marvels, for example, at shells, the beauty of whose mother-of-pearl exceeds that of gold.» — consigna el ejemplo con que Palissy desplaza el valor: el nácar de las conchas supera en belleza al oro
«Palissy characteristically takes the emphasis off of gold as the summum bonum of man’s art and redirects the artisan toward other objects of visual beauty.» — identifica el gesto característico de Palissy: quitarle al oro el rango de bien supremo del arte y reorientar al artesano hacia la belleza visual
«Only if the alchemist can extract these same colors from the earth by his art will Palissy grant that he can make gold and silver.» — consigna la condición que Palissy impone al alquimista: que extraiga por su arte los colores de la tierra
«This non sequitur makes sense only in the context of a competition between the visual arts and alchemy, for it is precisely to the mimicry of such brilliant and lifelike colors that Palissy directed his own research in enamels and glazes.» — nombra el defecto lógico de esa condición y a la vez lo explica: solo tiene sentido como jugada en la competencia con las artes visuales
«In order to appreciate this passage fully, we must throw into relief the fact that “no painter, no embroiderer” can imitate the colors of serpents» — destaca el dato que da fuerza al pasaje: ni pintor ni bordador logran imitar los colores de las serpientes
«If you give me clear proof of all this, and could draw from the earth, by your alchemical art, the various colors, as these little animals do, I would admit that you can also draw out metallic matters and combine them, to make gold and silver.» — traduce el desafío de Palissy en su forma condicional, que reserva el reconocimiento para quien saque de la tierra esos colores
«Potters, however, are conspicuous by their absence from this litany of failure.» — apunta la ausencia elocuente de los alfareros en esa letanía de fracasos, que es donde Palissy se sitúa a sí mismo
«His glazes were the great secret of his art, by which, as he says in the Recepte v´eritable, he was able to perform the trick of Myron and fool the very animals that he represented:» — adjudica a los esmaltes el secreto del arte de Palissy y su pretensión: repetir la hazaña de Mirón engañando a los animales mismos
«“the said animals will be sculpted and enameled so close to nature that other natural lizards and serpents will often come to admire them,” as Palissy claims a dog had actually done in his studio (plates 4–5).» — cita la promesa de Palissy sobre sus animales esmaltados, que atraerían a lagartos y serpientes reales, con el caso del perro en su taller
«While the alchemists cannot make good on their chrysopoetic claims, however, Palissy claims to have successfully mimicked the colors of the natural world.» — contrapone las dos pretensiones: los alquimistas no cumplen la crisopeya, Palissy dice haber imitado con éxito los colores del mundo natural
«Jean’s argument that only alchemy evades the opprobrium that “Art’s so naked and devoid of skill/That he can never bring a thing to life,/Or make it seem that it is natural” must have seemed a direct insult to Palissy’s mimetic ambitions.» — explica el agravio de fondo: la tesis del Roman de la rose, que solo la alquimia escapa al reproche de no dar vida, tocaba de lleno a Palissy
«Responce avers that Palissy’s termes are so natural in appearance that visitors to the grotto have been amazed at them, especially by the seeming genuineness of their clothes and hair.» — recoge el elogio que el interlocutor del diálogo hace de los termes, con la ropa y el cabello por prueba de verosimilitud
«The Greek word Aplanos means “straight” or “unswerving,” but immediately after describing the placement of the motto on the frieze, Palissy adds that above this architectural element there are several admirable windows, whose merit consists in the fact that they allow no direct or perpendicular light to enter the window, for they are “crooked, humped, skewed, and strangely rusticated.”» — contrasta el lema Aplanos, que significa recto, con las ventanas torcidas, jorobadas y rusticadas que Palissy describe a continuación
«Although Palissy’s intention here is that the windows “resemble a natural rock,” there seems to be a clear play of words on the “straightness” of the constable’s motto and the twisted nature of the windows in the grotto, and indeed of the grotto as a whole.» — propone con reserva un juego de palabras entre la rectitud del lema del condestable y lo retorcido de la gruta entera
«More than that, the scales vary in size, and the ones from the reptile’s head are unlike those of the tail.» — recoge la objeción técnica del interlocutor escéptico: las escamas varían de tamaño y las de la cabeza no son las de la cola
«Similar problems occur in the imitation of plants, due to the minute size of their leaves.» — extiende esa objeción a las plantas por lo diminuto de sus hojas
«Responce replies with a story worthy of Apelles and Zeuxis.» — anuncia que la réplica del diálogo es una anécdota del género de las de Apeles y Zeuxis
«Responce’s revery was interrupted by the artist himself, who asked Responce if he found the grotto beautiful.» — consigna la irrupción del propio Palissy en la escena del diálogo
«As we can grasp from this exchange, Palissy was not content merely to copy the external shapes and colors of the natural world, but hoped even to represent its interior structure.» — saca del intercambio la ambición que separa a Palissy del mimetismo corriente: representar también la estructura interior de lo natural
«Modern analyses of Palissy’s pottery suggest that he did sometimes mix reddish and white clays in order to create the illusion of veining in stones.» — apoya esa lectura en análisis modernos de su cerámica, con su grado de certeza: a veces mezclaba arcillas para simular vetas
«Obviously, this technique could not be expected to yield the delicate internal structure of the living body» — acota el alcance de la técnica, incapaz de rendir la estructura interna delicada del cuerpo vivo
«Hence Palissy was limited, to some degree, by the nature of his medium.» — consigna el límite material del proyecto con su matiz de grado: Palissy quedaba limitado en cierta medida por su medio
«Although his lizards, snakes, insects, and even human clothing and body parts were largely made by casting from the living beings themselves, Palissy could only hope to fool the eye of the beholder.» — precisa la técnica del vaciado sobre seres vivos y su techo: aun así solo cabía engañar al ojo
«There is also a sixth terme, which has lost almost all its shape, being older than the preceding ones.» — describe el sexto terme, que ha perdido casi toda su forma por ser más viejo que los anteriores
«Despite the fact that its form has been almost utterly consumed by the air, its surface is “terribly bright,” being enameled in a turquoise color with white veins and speckles.» — consigna el contraste que interesa a la serie: consumida la forma por el aire, la superficie sigue brillante y esmaltada en turquesa
«In addition, Responce mentions other termes in passing—some are colored like chalcedony (cassidoyne), others like different sorts of jasper, others like veined or mottled sandstone, others like veined emery, and still others like bronze.» — enumera los materiales que los demás termes imitan, de la calcedonia al jaspe, la arenisca veteada y el bronce
«The topic is linked very tightly to Palissy’s theory of mineral and metallic generation within the earth, moreover, and to his ideas about the primordial materials underlying rocks and stones.» — enlaza esa progresión pétrea con la teoría de Palissy sobre la generación de minerales y metales dentro de la tierra
«There Palissy points out that salts have marvelous powers of preserving, hardening, and congealing.» — consigna las tres potencias que Palissy atribuye a las sales: conservar, endurecer y cuajar
«The tanning power of oak bark is due to a salt that is extracted from it, and the ancient Egyptians preserved mummies with salts.» — recoge las pruebas de la potencia conservadora: la sal del roble que curte y las momias egipcias
«As for the congealing and hardening power of salt, Palissy mentions the example of the alkaline ashes produced by calcining and lixiviating plants.» — recoge la prueba de la potencia endurecedora: las cenizas alcalinas obtenidas por calcinación y lixiviación de plantas
«Palissy expressly compares the formation of geodes to the crystallization of niter in the example that we considered above.» — consigna la comparación expresa de Palissy entre la formación de las geodas y la cristalización del nitro
«This is Palissy’s customary explanation for the subterranean generation of metals, in support of which he adduces the examples of naturally formed angular pyrite and marchasite crystals.» — identifica la explicación habitual de Palissy para la generación subterránea de metales, apoyada en los cristales angulares de pirita y marcasita
«Even a man could be congealed into stone or metal in this fashion, a subject to which we will return in due course.» — anota la consecuencia extrema que Palissy admite y que el capítulo siguiente recogerá: un hombre podría cuajarse en piedra o metal
«Palissy makes it clear that the art of the potter and nature’s fabrication of stones are in principle the same.» — formula la equivalencia que sostiene todo el argumento: el arte del alfarero y la fabricación natural de piedras son en principio lo mismo
«The potter, by making the accidental water exhale from the clay in his kiln, replicates the second process that we described above by which nature congeals rocks and fossils within the earth, leaving the congelative water to solidify.» — detalla el paralelo técnico: al hacer exhalar el agua accidental en el horno, el alfarero repite el segundo proceso con que la naturaleza cuaja rocas y fósiles
«Both art and nature use molds, then, although the formation of stones within the earth does not rely on the fusion of a material by heat.» — marca la diferencia que queda en pie dentro del paralelo: la formación de piedras bajo tierra no depende de fusión por calor
«There is every reason, then, to think that he viewed his making of life casts as a close replication of a natural process.» — sostiene, con la cautela de la fórmula, que Palissy veía sus vaciados del natural como réplica estrecha de un proceso natural
«His castings of lizards, toads, and snakes were not replicas of animals, but replicas of fossils.» — saca la consecuencia que reordena toda la lectura de su obra: los vaciados no replican animales sino fósiles
«The idea seems markedly less odd if we bear in mind that alchemical apologists like the fourteenth-century Themo Judaei argued that bricks and plaster of Paris made by man are really no different from the stones produced by nature.» — desactiva la extrañeza de esa tesis con un precedente alquímico: Themo Judaei sostenía que el ladrillo y el yeso hechos por el hombre no difieren de las piedras naturales
«Palissy’s knowledge of alchemy was too deep for him to have missed the obvious physical parallel of the skull gradually transformed into something precious and the change wrought on base metal by the philosophers’ stone.» — adjudica intención al gesto final de Palissy: sabía demasiada alquimia para no ver el paralelo entre el cráneo petrificado y la acción de la piedra sobre el metal base
«Geber argues that a specially pure “philosophical” mercury, made up of extremely minute corpuscles, must be induced to enter into the pores of the base metal and bond with the intrinsic mercury and sulfur that is there.» — expone el mecanismo de Geber, que hace entrar un mercurio filosófico de corpúsculos mínimos en los poros del metal base
«Once a bonding between the philosophers’ stone and the intrinsic moisture in the base metal has taken place, the base metal will become denser, being less porous, and more resistant to attack by corrosive agents and heat.» — describe el efecto que Geber espera de esa unión: metal más denso, menos poroso y más resistente a corrosivos y al fuego
«Geber expresses this idea as part of an explicitly corpuscular theory of matter, according to which objects made of small, subtle particles are denser, and thus heavier, than those made of larger, looser particles.» — sitúa esa explicación dentro de una teoría corpuscular explícita, donde las partículas menudas hacen los cuerpos más densos
«According to Palissy, fossils are often made by the penetration of congelative water into the pores separating the particles in organic matter.» — muestra el paralelo estructural con Palissy, cuya agua congelativa penetra los poros de la materia orgánica
«But the fact that Palissy’s pierre philosophale was a fossilized skull—presumably human—suggests that there was a further meaning in his cryptic use of the term.» — se concede solo un presumiblemente sobre el origen humano del cráneo y de ahí infiere un sentido ulterior en el uso críptico del término
«The rejection of alchemy by our three artisans is neither the product of mere empiricism nor, in the end, of Christianity.» — descarta dos explicaciones cómodas del rechazo de los tres artesanos, ni empirismo ni cristianismo
«Rather they viewed alchemy as a rival art» — propone en su lugar la explicación por rivalidad: la alquimia socavaba peligrosamente la meta propia de los artistas
«Premodern natural scientists viewed spontaneous generation as something that could be induced at will by mixing the proper natural ingredients and allowing them to putrefy.» — abre el capítulo del homúnculo fijando la premisa premoderna: la generación espontánea se creía inducible a voluntad
«The vessel is carefully chosen and sealed to keep out the ambient air, presumably in order to demonstrate that the snakes or toads are genuine products of the bird alone, rather than mischievous interlopers.» — apunta la precaución experimental del relato, sellar el vaso para probar que las serpientes salen del ave y no de fuera
«What we are witnessing, in fact, is an alchemy of living beings, belonging to a tradition with a long history.» — nombra el objeto del capítulo: una alquimia de los seres vivos con una historia larga detrás
«Nor did this sort of alchemy restrict itself to the replication of “less perfect” animals, such as reptiles, rats, and toads.» — advierte que esa alquimia no se limitó a los animales tenidos por menos perfectos
«In this chapter we will show that tinkering with natural human generation was a widespread topic of discussion in the Middle Ages and the early modern period.» — declara la tesis del capítulo: manipular la generación humana fue tema de discusión extendido en la Edad Media y la modernidad temprana
«This challenge to the natural order offered a beautiful opportunity to engage in eugenic and utopian speculation that provides striking parallels with the ethical and religious issues surrounding modern genetic engineering and in vitro replication of life.» — sitúa el interés actual del asunto: el paralelo con las cuestiones éticas y religiosas de la ingeniería genética y la reproducción in vitro
«Yet it is a curious irony of the subject that the exaggerated claims made for such generation in premodern times were in inverse proportion to what could actually be accomplished.» — formula la ironía que ordena el capítulo: las pretensiones premodernas crecían en proporción inversa a lo que podía lograrse
«Even now no one predicts the engineering of a synthetic human race to match the powers of the medieval golem or the Paracelsian homunculus.» — mide esa desproporción contra el presente: nadie anuncia hoy una raza sintética a la altura del golem o del homúnculo paracelsiano
«Some people get this disease when there is a great deal of moisture in the body; some indeed have been killed by it, as Alkman the poet is said to have been, and Pherekydes the Syrian (Historia animalium 556b28–557a3).» — cita a Aristóteles, no a la medicina moderna, sobre la enfermedad que la humedad del cuerpo engendra y sus víctimas ilustres
«One need only subject each of these materials to putrefaction, and it will produce its characteristic form of life.» — resume la regla operativa de la generación espontánea: someter cada material a putrefacción y obtener su forma de vida característica
«The idea that bees came into being from putrid cattle was elevated to a virtual manual art, for example in the fourth book of Virgil’s Georgics.» — documenta cómo la bugonía llegó a ser casi un oficio manual, con el libro cuarto de las Geórgicas por manual
«Needless to say the process would not succeed in reality, as a host of modern commentators have pointed out.» — consigna sin rodeos que el procedimiento no funciona, como han señalado muchos comentaristas modernos
«The ancients, however, were not beset with such doubts.» — contrapone la ausencia de esas dudas entre los antiguos
«The process of bougonia will therefore reappear in time as the basis for a frankly magical operation.» — anticipa el destino del procedimiento, que reaparecerá como base de una operación abiertamente mágica
«The supposed ability of the echen¯eis, modeled loosely on the remora, to stop ships at sea merely by attaching itself to them, was attributed to an occult quality already by Pliny the Elder.» — data ya en Plinio la explicación por cualidad oculta, con la rémora que detiene naves
«The mysterious activity of the lodestone and the supposed ability of garlic to impede that power were also occult qualities.» — suma a la lista de cualidades ocultas el imán y el poder del ajo para estorbarlo
«At the same time, Augustine’s concept of seminal reasons (rationes seminales) also offered a convenient explanation of the marvelous transmutations effected by magic» — enlaza las razones seminales de Agustín con la explicación de las transmutaciones mágicas
«Merely by subjecting the appropriate materials to putrefaction under the right conditions, he too could cause them to generate into their characteristic spontaneous types.» — extiende esa capacidad al demonio, que por la sola putrefacción bien dispuesta obtendría los tipos espontáneos
«The putative nocturnal collection of male seed by incubi or succubi, to be added to the proper passive material in order to generate giants or monsters, was merely another instance of the demonic ability to operate on the seminal reasons.» — reduce la leyenda del íncubo y el súcubo a un caso más de la capacidad demoníaca de obrar sobre las razones seminales
«Aristotle, as we have said, believed that every material substance must consist of matter and form.» — recuerda la premisa hilemórfica sobre la que se monta toda la embriología en juego
«Sperm is almost pure form, and menstrual blood is almost pure matter.» — formula el reparto aristotélico de papeles entre semen y sangre menstrual, con el casi que la fórmula conserva
«If [the male semen] gains the mastery, it brings [the material] over to itself; but if it gets mastered, it changes over either into its opposite or else into extinction.» — traduce el pasaje aristotélico donde la generación se decide como dominio de un principio sobre el otro
«To account for gender differentiation itself, then, Aristotle employs the notion that males are hotter than females.» — consigna el recurso al calor con que Aristóteles explica la diferenciación sexual
«Because of their greater heat, male embryos arrive at a greater degree of perfection than females do: as Aristotle says elsewhere (De gen. an. 775a14–16), “Females are weaker and colder in their nature [than males]; and we should look upon the female state as being as it were a deformity.”» — cita, atribuyéndolo a Aristóteles y no haciéndolo suyo, el juicio que hace de la hembra una suerte de deformidad
«Aristotle himself did not think that human beings could be born without male and female parents, but his popularizing followers were not so discriminating.» — separa la doctrina del maestro de la de sus divulgadores: Aristóteles no creía posible el nacimiento sin padre y madre
«This well-known fact has predisposed scholars to look back to late antiquity and project the theme of the homunculus onto the alchemists of that time.» — objeta una proyección historiográfica: el dato conocido predispuso a los estudiosos a retrotraer el tema del homúnculo a los alquimistas tardoantiguos
«A prominent theme in the corpus hermeticum is the Gnostic idea that the body is a prison for the soul.» — identifica el tema gnóstico del cuerpo como cárcel del alma en el corpus hermético
«Zosimos adopts this idea wholeheartedly and endues the alchemist with a strong sense of religious purpose—liberating the world from sin.» — adjudica a Zósimo la adopción plena de esa idea y el sentido religioso que da al alquimista
«He should do this literally by purging matter of its dark and heavy attributes.» — precisa cómo se cumple esa liberación en clave material: purgar la materia de sus atributos oscuros y pesados
«After each dream, Zosimos “wakes up” and interprets the strange oneiric images in terms of alchemy.» — describe la estructura del texto de Zósimo, que despierta tras cada sueño y lo interpreta en clave alquímica
«It is likely that the actual process involved is distillation, since the term used for the vessel, phial¯e, is employed elsewhere by Zosimos to mean a part of a still.» — se concede un grado de certeza al identificar el proceso como destilación, con el nombre del vaso por indicio
«It is true that this image opened up a major iconographical tradition in alchemy—the Middle Ages saw the creation of numerous illustrations of men, women, and animals in alchemical bottles (plates 6–7).» — concede lo que la imagen sí produjo, una tradición iconográfica de hombres, mujeres y animales en redomas
«Indeed, the theme became fused with the biological concept of the alchemical process as a form of Holy Matrimony—a hieros gamos—where chemical substances were thought to combine by a process like copulation and to give birth ultimately to a glorious substance called the philosophers’ stone.» — documenta la fusión de ese motivo con el matrimonio santo alquímico, donde las sustancias copulan y engendran la piedra
«For this reason we can call the anthr¯oparion of Zosimos a “pseudohomunculus.”» — acuña el término con que separa el caso de Zósimo de los homúnculos propiamente dichos
«He told him that all that was needed was some sperm of the king; this would be kept in a vessel, shaped like a mandragora (or perhaps in a mandragora used as a vessel) and Qal¯ıq¯ul¯as would apply to it a technique he knew, which would result in the production of a male son.» — resume la receta del relato árabe: esperma del rey en un vaso con forma de mandrágora y la técnica del consejero
«Qal¯ıq¯ul¯as applied his technique, and the material compound that resulted received a rational soul and became a perfect human being.» — consigna el desenlace del relato, donde el compuesto recibe alma racional y llega a ser un hombre perfecto
«These important themes, including the obsessive asceticism of the protagonists, will resurface in surprising fashion in the ongoing history of the homunculus.» — anuncia que los motivos del relato, con su ascetismo obsesivo, volverán de forma inesperada en la historia del homúnculo
«At this point Qal¯ıq¯ul¯as offers to bring Absal back to life if Sal¯am¯an will meditate with him for forty days in the cave of Serapeion.» — sigue la trama hacia el episodio teúrgico: cuarenta días de meditación en la cueva del Serapeo a cambio de devolver la vida a Absal
«Soon the image of Absal appears in the cave, and Sal¯am¯an is able to converse with her.» — describe el resultado del rito, la imagen de Absal con la que el protagonista conversa
«Eventually he even tires of Aphrodite as his meditation carries him upward into a world of increasing spirituality.» — traza la curva ascendente del relato, donde la meditación deja atrás incluso a Afrodita
«Finally he renounces carnal love altogether and assumes the kingship, as desired by his father.» — cierra el arco con la renuncia al amor carnal y la asunción del reino
«In essence, the tale of Sal¯am¯an and Absal is a Platonically inspired parable of the rejection of the physical world in favor of the immaterial world of forms.» — lee el relato en clave platónica, como parábola del rechazo del mundo físico
«But it is important to remember that the tale of Sal¯am¯an and Absal is itself not a recipe book, but a moral history intended to describe the soul’s passage from the material world to the realm of immaterial forms.» — acota expresamente el género del texto para que no se lo confunda con lo que sigue: es historia moral, no recetario
«If we merely reverse the order of the entire process, we can generate a new, living cow from rotting bees.» — expone la inversión de la bugonía que está en la base de la receta del Liber vaccae
«Although many of the details of this recipe are obscure, it is clearly rooted in the traditional literature on spontaneous generation» — concede la oscuridad de los detalles y a la vez fija la filiación: la receta arraiga en la literatura tradicional de la generación espontánea
«But The Book of the Cow itself says nothing of the sort, nor is there any compelling reason to accept the “hidden meaning” that Pingree, in apparent ignorance of the text’s dependence on the late antique literature on bougonia and spontaneous generation more broadly, claims to have extracted.» — objeta por su nombre a David Pingree su lectura de un sentido oculto, y le imputa desconocer la dependencia del texto respecto de la literatura de la bugonía
«But the product of pseudo-Plato’s in vitro conception, the rational animal, is radically different from Sal¯am¯an.» — separa los dos casos: el animal racional del pseudo-Platón es radicalmente distinto del protagonista del relato árabe
«It must then be kept in a glass or lead vessel containing milk and rainwater, and there is no indication that it can eat anything other than blood and milk.» — detalla el régimen de crianza que la receta prescribe, en vaso de vidrio o plomo y con sangre y leche por único alimento
«But the recipe in The Book of the Cow is something altogether different.» — marca el corte de propósito que separa este texto de la tradición anterior
«Instead of being weighed down by the heavy crassitude of material existence, the rational animal will literally be a being of light, informed with the pneumatic substance of human semen.» — describe la ontología del ser prometido por la receta, hecho de luz e informado por la sustancia pneumática del semen
«And yet this very fact implies that he is something other than a human, allowing his subsequent disemboweling in the service of magic.» — saca la consecuencia moral que el texto se permite: al no ser humano, cabe destriparlo al servicio de la magia
«The famous magic book Picatrix, for example, recommends that everything from fresh human brain to sweat, gall, blood, and testicles be ingested in the hope of healing debilities as varied as scabies and old age.» — sitúa esa práctica en su contexto: el Picatrix recomienda ingerir desde cerebro humano fresco hasta sudor, bilis, sangre y testículos
«Let us now pass from The Book of the Cow to an author who knew pseudo-Plato’s work and did not approve of it.» — anuncia el paso a un autor que conocía la obra del pseudo-Platón y la desaprobaba
«In reality, almost all of these works were written in the ninth and tenth centuries, as shown by Paul Kraus in his brilliant 1942 study of J¯abir.» — adjudica la datación del corpus yabiriano al estudio de Paul Kraus de 1942: casi todo se escribió en los siglos IX y X
«In a way that seems to raise the alchemist almost to the level of a god, J¯abir argues that he can not only mimic the creations of nature, but produce new ones never seen before.» — consigna la pretensión de Yabir que lo separa de todos los anteriores: no solo imitar las creaciones de la naturaleza sino producir otras nuevas
«The purpose of the rotating exterior sphere, as J¯abir makes clear, is to simulate the effects of the crystalline spheres that revolve around the earth itself and carry the celestial bodies in the Ptolemaic system.» — explica la función del aparato de esferas de Yabir, que simula el giro de las esferas cristalinas del sistema ptolemaico
«another school says that if new animals are desired, for example a winged man, it is necessary to mix the sperm of man and bird;» — recoge la variante de escuela que llega a proponer mezclar esperma de hombre y de ave para obtener un hombre alado
«Kraus linked these claims to the ancient belief that statues of the gods could be animated by placing precious stones, plants, and aromatic substances within them while performing magical rites.» — consigna la filiación que Kraus propone: la creencia antigua en estatuas de dioses animadas por piedras, plantas y aromas
«Hermes says there that “man is a great miracle” precisely because he can “make” such living gods.» — cita el pasaje hermético que funda esa pretensión: el hombre es un gran milagro precisamente porque hace dioses vivos
«And although the image itself cannot speak, it understands what is said to it and commanded; among the Polish Jews it does all kinds of housework, but is not allowed to leave the house.» — describe al golem por sus limitaciones: entiende y obedece pero no habla, y hace las labores de la casa sin salir de ella
«When this is done, the golem collapses and dissolves into the clay or mud that he was.» — consigna que la destrucción forma parte del procedimiento: retirado el nombre, la criatura se deshace en el barro que fue
«They say that a baal shem in Poland, by the name of Rabbi Elias, made a golem who became so large that the rabbi could no longer reach the forehead to erase the letter e.» — recoge la anécdota del rabino Elías, cuyo golem creció hasta ponerle la frente fuera de alcance
«He thought up a trick, namely that the golem, being his servant, should remove his boots, supposing that when the golem bent over, he would erase the letters.» — sigue el ardid del rabino, que manda al golem descalzarlo para alcanzarle la frente al inclinarse
«Rabbi Elias, portrayed here as the victim of his own hubris, is crushed beneath the weight of the monstrous creature.» — lee el desenlace como castigo de la hybris: el rabino muere aplastado por su propia criatura
«When the initial letter aleph is erased, the word becomes meth (“dead”), and the creature dies.» — explica el mecanismo verbal de la muerte del golem, con emeth que pasa a meth
«Nor do the non-Jewish sources spend much if any time describing the method for eliminating the homunculus once his welcome is worn out.» — declara una búsqueda negativa que marca la diferencia entre las dos tradiciones: las fuentes no judías apenas dicen cómo eliminar al homúnculo
«The Sefer Yetsirah is an extremely obscure text—it was sometimes interpreted as describing the way in which God made the cosmos from letters, but it could also be construed as a magical operator’s manual.» — consigna la ambigüedad del Sefer Yetsirah, leído a la vez como cosmogonía por letras y como manual de operador mágico
«But as Moshe Idel, a prominent Hebraist, points out, the Hebrew term yetzur, translated above as “foundation,” could also be translated to mean “man,”» — apoya en Moshe Idel una lectura alternativa del término hebreo, que abre el texto a la fabricación de un hombre
«Rava said: If the righteous wished, they could create a world, for it is written, “Your iniquities have been a barrier between you and your God.” For Rava created a man and sent him to Rabbi Zeira.» — cita el pasaje talmúdico donde Rava crea un hombre y lo envía a Rabí Zeira
«But the latter cleverly interrogates the golem and learns at once that the being is mute.» — consigna el desenlace del episodio: el interrogatorio descubre de inmediato que el ser es mudo
«What is interesting about this story, beyond the fact that it describes a being made from dust alone by the power of verbal magic, is, as Idel points out, that it is a story of failure.» — identifica, siguiendo a Idel, lo decisivo del relato: es una historia de fracaso
«The fully realized golem was stupid and inert—his raison d’ˆetre lay mainly in the apodictic effect of his creation: he was a demonstration of the perfection of his maker.» — define la función del golem por su efecto apodíctico: existe para demostrar la perfección de quien lo hace
«The fact that the golem was usually mute and perhaps moronic was a necessary element of the story—otherwise there would have been nothing separating the creative power of man from that of God.» — explica por qué la mudez era necesaria al relato: sin ella nada separaría el poder creador del hombre del de Dios
«In his commentary on the Song of Songs, Alemanno says that the wise cabalist knows the precise measurement and combination of the four elements that allow him to produce a mixture like human semen.» — atribuye a Alemanno una versión elemental del golem: el cabalista sabe la proporción de los cuatro elementos que imita el semen humano
«In his wisdom, he can also produce a “measured heat” like that in the womb.» — completa la receta de Alemanno con el segundo factor, un calor medido semejante al del útero
«The combination of these two factors will allow him “to give birth to a man without [the need of ] the male semen and the blood of the female, and without the [intervention of ] masculinity and femininity.”» — traduce la pretensión de Alemanno en su forma más fuerte: dar a luz un hombre sin semen masculino ni sangre femenina
«In other words, Alemanno conceives of the golem as the product of an asexual birth, a complete creatio de novo from the basic elemental constituents of the cosmos.» — clasifica esa versión como creación de nuevo a partir de los constituyentes elementales del cosmos
«Indeed, in the case of the highest, prophetic form of golem, Alemanno tells us that the cabalist does not even need the four elements or any material substance at all—he can materialize the golem directly out of the spiritual world by means of his divine letter magic.» — consigna el grado superior que Alemanno describe, un golem profético materializado sin materia alguna por magia de letras
«The golem, to conclude, inhabits a different thought world from that of our other homunculi.» — concluye separando los dos mundos de pensamiento y con eso impide asimilar el golem al homúnculo
«The ascription to Thomas Aquinas may be accidental, since the text quite prominently refers to Roger Bacon, an author whom the genuine Thomas does not rely on.» — adjudica con cautela la falsa atribución y da su indicio interno: el texto cita a Roger Bacon, en quien el Tomás auténtico no se apoya
«In this interesting encyclopedia of the sciences, pseudo-Thomas refers to the homunculus as a decisive piece of evidence against the theory that there is a female seed contributing to human generation.» — identifica el uso polémico que el pseudo-Tomás hace del homúnculo: prueba decisiva contra la existencia de semilla femenina
«Paraphrasing Aristotle, the author says that man and the sun generate a man, but that the womb should also be taken into account.» — recoge la fórmula aristotélica parafraseada, el hombre y el sol engendran al hombre, con el útero añadido
«The womb acts naturally when it preserves the semen and supplies it with a natural heat that stimulates its growth.» — reduce la función del útero a conservar el semen y darle el calor natural que estimula su crecimiento
«If this is true, I do not at all believe that this man will have a rational soul, because he is not from the union of male and female.» — traduce la reserva del pseudo-Tomás sobre el alma racional del homúnculo, negada por no venir de la unión de varón y mujer
«But there is no doubt that he will have a sensitive [soul].» — consigna lo que el mismo autor sí da por seguro, que tendrá alma sensitiva
«Pseudo-Thomas manages to evade the issue of morality here simply by asserting that the homunculus has only a sensitive rather than a rational soul.» — nombra la maniobra por lo que hace: la distinción entre alma sensitiva y racional le sirve para esquivar el problema moral
«Pseudo-Thomas continues to play down the need for females in the business of reproduction by referring to the spontaneous generation of frogs—they sometimes burst from wet soil with such speed that the vulgar believe them to rain from the sky.» — sigue el argumento del pseudo-Tomás por la vía de las ranas de generación espontánea, que el vulgo cree llovidas del cielo
«Pseudo-Thomas argues at length against the idea— championed by the genuine Thomas Aquinas—that any substance can be informed only by a single substantial form.» — documenta el desacuerdo entre el falso y el verdadero Tomás sobre la unicidad de la forma sustancial
«William is extremely unfavorable toward The Book of the Cow, a work that he knows well.» — consigna la posición de Guillermo de Auvernia frente al Liber vaccae, obra que conoce bien y desaprueba
«He condemns its practice of generating unnatural animals only to kill them at an appointed time for magical purposes.» — precisa el objeto de esa condena: generar animales antinaturales solo para matarlos a hora fijada con fines mágicos
«All of these unnatural generations are damnable practices and can perhaps lead to the production of hideous monsters, although William remains somewhat skeptical.» — registra a la vez la condena y la reserva: prácticas condenables que quizá den monstruos, aunque el propio Guillermo duda
«Thanks to the close consanguinity of the two species involved, mixed offspring can indeed be produced in the case of bears and men.» — recoge la doctrina de la consanguinidad de especies que hacía verosímil la descendencia mixta de osos y hombres
«Although no semen entered Mary’s womb, Tostado argues that Jesus’ humanity is ensured by the fact that the divine fetus was composed of the Virgin’s menstrual blood, as in the case of a normal human fetus.» — expone la solución de Tostado al caso mariano: la humanidad de Jesús queda asegurada por la sangre menstrual de la Virgen
«In ordinary human generation, however, the father’s semen mixes with the menstrual blood and gradually forms an embryo within the womb.» — contrasta ese caso con la generación ordinaria, donde el semen paterno se mezcla con la sangre menstrual
«Jesus’ growth within the womb of the Virgin was therefore solely one of augmentation, not of embryonic development.» — consigna la consecuencia técnica que Tostado saca: en la Virgen hubo aumento, no desarrollo embrionario
«Such uncultivated thinkers argue that the process of generation is due entirely to the male semen, according to Tostado.» — identifica la doctrina espermista que Tostado combate, la que atribuye la generación entera al semen masculino
«After giving a few standard examples against this spermist viewpoint, such as the fact that children often resemble their mothers, Tostado points out that if this doctrine were true, mothers would be nothing more than receptacles for semen, and would be unworthy of the name “mother.”» — recoge el argumento de Tostado que interesa al libro: si el espermismo fuera cierto, las madres serían meros receptáculos indignos del nombre
«Yet Arnald of Villanova, a highly reputed and skilled physician, did something like this in a certain vessel during his natural experiments.» — consigna la atribución del experimento a Arnaldo de Vilanova, presentado como médico reputado y hábil
«For Arnald did not wait further, breaking that vessel with the already-formed semen, lest he seem to tempt God» — traduce el desenlace del relato: Arnaldo rompe el vaso con el semen ya formado para no tentar a Dios
«Tostado clearly spells out the threat of “tempting” God by allowing the homunculus to grow into a fully developed human being.» — nombra el peligro que Tostado deja explícito: tentar a Dios dejando que el homúnculo llegue a ser un hombre completo
«Tostado passes into a consideration of demonic agency very much like that of William of Auvergne, although with subtle differences.» — empareja a Tostado con Guillermo de Auvernia en la agencia demoníaca, con la salvedad de diferencias sutiles
«He admits that the demons really do “generate giants strong in body and very powerful in ingenuity”» — consigna lo que Tostado sí concede a los demonios, engendrar gigantes fuertes de cuerpo y muy poderosos de ingenio
«Consistent with his antialchemical view that human art cannot outdo nature, however, Tostado denies that the demons can really generate such superbeings without the aid of human females» — muestra la coherencia interna de Tostado: su tesis antialquímica le obliga a negar que los demonios generen sin mujeres humanas
«It is actually the human female, like the Virgin Mary, who supplies the menstrual blood that makes her a genuine mother.» — devuelve el papel decisivo a la mujer, que como la Virgen aporta la sangre menstrual y por eso es madre verdadera
«Although the reason for this is not entirely clear, an important clue surely lies in the association made by William of Auvergne and Alonso Tostado between unnatural generation and the intervention of incubi and succubi.» — se abstiene sobre la causa y ofrece solo un indicio: la asociación que Guillermo y Tostado hacen entre generación antinatural e íncubos
«Oporinus related in a scandalous printed letter that Paracelsus was little given to prayer and as critical of Martin Luther as he was of the pope.» — consigna la fuente del retrato hostil, una carta impresa de Oporino, y su contenido: poco dado a la oración y tan crítico de Lutero como del papa
«He was a habitual drunkard and often composed his writings while intoxicated: anyone who has read the disordered ramblings of Paracelsus can believe this detail.» — concede crédito a un solo detalle de ese retrato y dice por qué: la prosa desordenada de Paracelso lo hace creíble
«Oporinus tells us that Paracelsus never changed his clothes and always threw himself on his bed with his long sword, the gift of a hangman.» — recoge otro detalle del mismo testimonio, la ropa nunca cambiada y la espada larga regalada por un verdugo
«Finally, Oporinus tells us that Paracelsus had absolutely no interest in women, and that he, Oporinus, believed that Paracelsus was still a virgin.» — consigna la afirmación de Oporino sobre el desinterés sexual de Paracelso y su creencia de que seguía virgen
«Even in the sixteenth century, Paracelsus’s peculiar lack of interest in sex was a topic of discussion.» — data ya en el siglo XVI la discusión sobre ese rasgo, de modo que no es una lectura retrospectiva
«Rumors circulated that he had been castrated as a boy—some said by a pig on a dunghill, while others claimed that the event had been perpetrated by a malevolent soldier.» — registra los rumores contemporáneos sobre una castración infantil, con dos versiones incompatibles
«The researchers were therefore able to arrive at a number of conclusions about the person of Paracelsus: he was 1.6 meters (approximately 5′3′′) tall, had lost virtually all his teeth—some from mercury poisoning—and was suffering from a serious case of mastoiditis, which may have killed him.» — resume los resultados forenses sobre los restos: estatura, pérdida de dientes en parte por mercurio y una mastoiditis grave
«At any rate, we are left with the remarkable possibility that the gender of Paracelsus may have been capable of description as either female or male.» — formula el hallazgo con su reserva intacta: queda la posibilidad notable de que el sexo de Paracelso admitiera las dos descripciones
«It is not the purpose of this book to develop an elaborate psychosexual theory in order to explain Paracelsus’s behavior.» — se abstiene expresamente de construir una teoría psicosexual para explicar la conducta de Paracelso
«It is true, nonetheless, that his writings and some of those by his followers betray an extreme ambivalence to sexuality and that much of this attitude surfaces in his own discussion of the homunculus.» — consigna lo que sí sostiene pese a esa abstención: la ambivalencia extrema ante la sexualidad aflora en su discusión del homúnculo
«To ignore the evidence of his own probable sexual disorder would therefore be a matter of scholarly negligence.» — justifica la inclusión del dato como exigencia del oficio, y conserva el probable dentro de la frase
«Although this theme had been hinted at by the Arabic writings attributed to J¯abir ibn Hayy¯an, the Paracelsians pushed it much further than their medieval forebears.» — mide el avance paracelsiano sobre lo insinuado en los escritos atribuidos a Yabir
«The generation of all natural things is of two sorts, as [there is] one that happens by means of nature alone without any art, [while] the other happens by means of art—namely alchemy.» — traduce la partición con que abre el De natura rerum: generación por naturaleza sola y generación por arte, es decir, alquimia
«In general, however, one could say that all things are born from the earth by means of putrefaction.» — consigna el principio unificador del tratado: todo nace de la tierra por putrefacción
«In incubating her egg, the hen merely supplies the necessary heat» — reduce el papel de la gallina a suministrar calor, que es lo que permite sustituirla por el arte
«More than this, if a living bird be burnt to powder and ashes in a sealed vessel and its remains be left to rot into mucilaginous phlegm in “a horse’s womb” (venter equinus—a technical term for hot, decaying dung), the same phlegm may again be incubated to produce “a renovated and restored bird” (ein renovirter und restaurirter vogel).» — traduce la receta de renovación del ave, quemada a cenizas y podrida en el vientre equino hasta volver a incubarse
«The De natura rerum goes on to announce that the death and rebirth of birds forms “the highest and greatest magnale and mystery of God, the highest secret and wonder work.”» — consigna el rango que el tratado se concede a sí mismo, muerte y renacimiento de las aves como el mayor misterio de Dios
«The basilisk is “a monster above all monsters” (ein monstrum uber alle monstra) for it can kill by its glance alone.» — presenta al basilisco en la letra del tratado, monstruo por encima de todos los monstruos que mata con solo mirar
«Being made from menstrual blood, it is like a menstruating woman, “who also has a hidden poison in her eyes» — expone la analogía misógina que el tratado establece entre el basilisco y la mujer menstruante
«It must be known, then, that it has such a characteristic and origin from impure [i.e., menstruating] women, as was said above.» — recoge la afirmación de origen que el propio tratado repite, la impureza femenina como causa del basilisco
«For the basilisk grows and is born out of and from the greatest impurity of women, from the menses and the blood of the sperm.» — traduce la fórmula del tratado sobre el nacimiento del basilisco a partir de la mayor impureza de las mujeres
«One could therefore say that for the author of the De natura rerum, the basilisk is the epitome of the female itself, a valuation that does not seem to contradict the undisputed corpus of Paracelsus.» — adjudica al autor del De natura rerum la valoración del basilisco como epítome de lo femenino y anota que el corpus indiscutido de Paracelso no la contradice
«Nor was our author alone in making this association between the basilisk and “unclean” women.» — advierte que la asociación no es idiosincrásica de ese tratado
«Tostado’s Paradoxa, for example, explicitly links the visual power of the basilisk to that of wolves and menstruating women.» — documenta el paralelo en Tostado, que enlaza la potencia visual del basilisco con la del lobo y la de la mujer menstruante
«All three are said to have the ability to “fascinate”—that is, to work harmful magical effects by means of visual emissions.» — define el término técnico común a los tres casos, fascinar por emisiones visuales
«Soon after its memorable account of basilisks and women, the De natura rerum arrives at a lengthy description of the homunculus and its mode of generation.» — señala la contigüidad textual entre el basilisco y el homúnculo en el tratado
«We must now by no means forget the generation of homunculi.» — cita la transición con que el tratado introduce el asunto
«I give this answer—that it is by no means opposed to the spagyric art and to nature, but that it is indeed possible.» — traduce la respuesta afirmativa del tratado: la generación de homúnculos no se opone al arte espagírico ni a la naturaleza
«After this time, it will look somewhat like a man, but transparent, without a body.» — consigna la descripción del producto tras el plazo prescrito, semejante a un hombre pero transparente y sin cuerpo
«As we can see, the author of the De natura rerum introduces his homunculus within the framework of the traditional question of the limits of human art.» — sitúa el homúnculo dentro del marco que el libro entero recorre, la cuestión de los límites del arte humano
«And doubly marvelous will this creature be, having grown out of sperm alone, unpolluted by the poisonous matrix from which the basilisk took its origin.» — aísla la lógica que hace del homúnculo el reverso del basilisco: crecido de esperma solo, sin la matriz que aquel tuvo por origen
«Hence the author can use the homunculus as yet another excuse to vaunt the powers of human art, which he immediately sets out to do.» — identifica la función retórica del homúnculo en el tratado, exaltar los poderes del arte humano
«The De natura rerum announces that from such homunculi, if they reach adulthood, arise marvelous beings, such as giants and dwarves.» — consigna la descendencia que el tratado promete de los homúnculos adultos, gigantes y enanos
«Because the homunculus is a product of art, in its mature state it has an automatic and intimate acquaintance with the arts, and consequently knows “all secret and hidden things.”» — expone la inferencia con que el tratado le atribuye el saber: por ser producto del arte, conoce de suyo las artes y todo lo oculto
«Not only are the demons completely absent, but the creation of the homunculus is seen as the pinnacle of human art.» — marca la ruptura con la tradición anterior: desaparecen los demonios y la creación pasa a ser cima del arte humano
«Either the author of the De natura rerum has drawn on different sources in these divergent instances or he has considerably tamed down his primary source.» — se abstiene entre dos explicaciones de las divergencias, fuentes distintas o un atemperamiento de la fuente principal
«Hermes and Virgil tried to renovate and restore themselves, and be reborn as a child; yet it did not turn out according to their purpose, but failed miserably.» — recoge la leyenda que el tratado incorpora, con su fracaso incluido: Hermes y Virgilio intentaron renovarse y renacer
«Virgilius was pickled and barrelled up according to the very unusual process which he had directed.» — resume el procedimiento del romance de Virgilio, salado y embarrilado según sus propias instrucciones
«the emperor descended to the cellar, where he found the remains of Virgilius in the barrel; and immediately judging that the disciple had murdered his master, he slew him on the spot.» — sigue el relato hasta el malentendido fatal: el emperador toma al discípulo por asesino y lo mata
«a naked child ran three times round the barrel, saying, “Cursed be the time that ye came ever here;” and with these words the embryo of the renovated Virgil vanished.» — consigna la aparición del niño que corre tres veces alrededor del barril y la desaparición del Virgilio renovado
«The author of the De natura rerum has simply appropriated the legend of Virgil’s failed resuscitation and given it a naturalistic explanation in terms of induced spontaneous generation.» — nombra la operación del tratado sobre la leyenda: apropiársela y darle explicación naturalista por generación espontánea inducida
«The impetus behind the weird laboratory program of the De natura rerum is not superstition, but the opposite.» — objeta la lectura fácil del tratado como superstición y sostiene lo contrario
«The author’s very rationalism drives him to provide a literal explanation of myth in terms supplied by the art of generating animals.» — precisa esa tesis: es el racionalismo del autor lo que lo lleva a explicar el mito al pie de la letra
«I refer to the popular tradition of the mandragora, known even in Middle High German as Alraun or Alraune.» — sitúa la tradición popular germánica de la mandrágora, ya documentada en alto alemán medio
«He denies categorically that any root shaped like a man really grows naturally:» — consigna la negativa categórica de Paracelso a que exista raíz con forma de hombre por vía natural
«I reply and say that it is not true that the Alraun root has a shape like a man, but rather it is a cheat and swindling [bescheißerei] of vagabonds, who swindle [bescheißen] the people with more than this alone, for there is indeed no root that has the shape of a man, unless it is carved and shaped; none is formed thus by God or grows thus from nature.» — traduce el desmentido de Paracelso en su propio registro, que llama estafa de vagabundos a la raíz tallada
«Otto Brunfels, bewails the fact that “false cheaters carve [Alraun] from the little root Brionia” in his herbal.» — documenta la misma queja en el herbario de Otto Brunfels, con el nombre de la raíz que se usaba
«Another German herbal writer of the same period, Leonhard Fuchs, complains of vagabonds who carve roots in a human shape complete with hair, beard, and other human features.» — suma el testimonio de Leonhard Fuchs sobre raíces talladas con pelo, barba y demás rasgos humanos
«The resulting beard and hair would then be trimmed with a sharp knife and the mandrake sold for a high price.» — describe el acabado del fraude, recortado a cuchillo y vendido caro
«One Ambrosi Zender, a self-styled student, was apprehended in Lucerne in 1562 for various offenses.» — data el caso judicial que documenta el fraude: Ambrosi Zender, detenido en Lucerna en 1562
«As it turned out, he had been selling counterfeit Alraun for the considerable sums of six and seven ducats.» — consigna los precios que alcanzaban esas mandrágoras falsificadas
«Zender had been supporting himself by the sale of such “mandrakes” for some time: he would carve them from the roots of the white lily and provide a sort of testimonial letter to the buyer, describing the uses to which the purchased Alraun could be put.» — detalla el método del vendedor, que tallaba raíces de lirio blanco y adjuntaba carta de usos
«We see then that Paracelsus was not hallucinating when he complained of cheating Alraun carvers.» — concluye a favor de Paracelso en este punto concreto: su queja tenía base documental
«he says that the homunculus, which the necromancers falsely call alreona and the natural philosophers mandragora, has become a topic of common error, on account of the chaos in which they have obscured its true use.» — recoge la triple denominación del mismo objeto según quién lo nombre y la queja por el caos que lo oscurece
«Its origin is sperm, for through the great digestion that occurs in a venter equinus» — fija el origen que el texto asigna a la mandrágora-homúnculo, el esperma digerido en el vientre equino
«In order to understand Paracelsus’s reasoning in the above passage, one must realize that he customarily employs the expression venter equinus, a technical term in alchemy for decaying dung used as a heat source, to mean any source of low, incubating heat.» — aclara un término técnico que se presta a error: en Paracelso el vientre equino designa cualquier fuente de calor incubador suave
«Although Paracelsus himself does not recommend that we dig up gallows men or try to make them, the early modern folk sources that we have been considering put a high premium on their possession.» — separa lo que Paracelso recomienda de lo que la tradición popular practicaba con los hombres de la horca
«This belief has been traced back to Avicenna and is mentioned by early modern German authors such as Brunfels.» — remonta la creencia a Avicena y documenta su circulación entre autores alemanes tempranos
«In the seventeenth century it was still believed in some quarters that such a gallows man could also be produced by burying the sperm of a young man underground and periodically feeding the developing embryo with more of the same.» — data la persistencia de la receta en el siglo XVII, con el esperma enterrado y realimentado
«Clearly the Alraun carvers had been busy to give every appearance of a gallows man to this remarkable specimen.» — adjudica el aspecto del ejemplar conservado al trabajo de los talladores, no a la naturaleza
«If we consider the powers that were ascribed to the gallows man—in addition to bringing good fortune and doubling one’s money it was sometimes said to be capable of prophesying the future and of bringing victory in battle—this similarity becomes even more pronounced.» — enumera los poderes atribuidos al hombre de la horca y con ellos refuerza el parecido con el homúnculo
«Paracelsus begins his De homunculis by observing that man has both a spiritual and an animal capacity and that when one calls a man a wolf or dog, this is a matter not of simile but of identity.» — expone la premisa del De homunculis: llamar lobo o perro a un hombre no es símil sino identidad
«It is the essence of a thing, not its appearance, that determines its identity.» — formula el criterio que sostiene esa premisa, la esencia y no la apariencia
«Now the animal body of man exists independent of the soul, and it produces a defective, soulless sperm when one is possessed by it.» — introduce la pieza clave del argumento, un cuerpo animal independiente del alma que produce esperma defectuoso
«It is from this defective, animal sperm, Paracelsus now tells us, that homunculi and monsters are produced: therefore they have no soul.» — consigna la consecuencia que Paracelso extrae: homúnculos y monstruos salen de ese esperma y por eso carecen de alma
«First, as soon as a man experiences lust, sperm is generated within him.» — reconstruye el primer paso del mecanismo, la lujuria que genera esperma de inmediato
«He has a choice at that point; he may either act on his lust and let the semen pass out, or keep it within, where it will putrefy internally.» — expone la alternativa que Paracelso plantea, emitir el semen o retenerlo hasta que se pudra dentro
«If he should allow the semen to pass out of his body, it will proceed to generate as soon as it lands on a Digestif» — consigna la otra rama del argumento, el semen emitido que genera al caer sobre algo que incuba
«Paracelsus remarks that this is also possible for women, though he adds that in their case it is more frequent for the seed to remain within once generated by lust.» — extiende el esquema a las mujeres, en quienes según Paracelso la retención es más frecuente
«The answer to this is as simple as it is shocking.» — anuncia con esa fórmula el carácter de la solución que Paracelso propone
«Addressing himself to the reader as parent, Paracelsus tells us that we must either see to it that our sons get married or else castrate them, so that the root of this evil be dug up with all its branches.» — consigna la disyuntiva paracelsiana dirigida a los padres, casar a los hijos o castrarlos
«In the case of women, there is simply no solution other than marriage.» — registra la asimetría del remedio, que para las mujeres deja solo el matrimonio
«But if man wants to keep himself chaste by force, and relying on his own strength, he should be castrated or castrate himself [beschneiden oder sich selbs beschneiden], that is, dig out the fountain where that lies of which I write.» — traduce el pasaje donde Paracelso condiciona la castidad por fuerza propia a la castración
«Here Paracelsus expands on his notion that genuine self-imposed chastity can come only with castration, since lust has the inevitable effect of generating seed.» — explica la lógica de esa exigencia: si la lujuria genera semilla sin remedio, la castidad voluntaria pasa por la castración
«A self-professed virgin is not really such unless he has eliminated the very source of his own seed.» — consigna la consecuencia más dura del argumento sobre quien se declara virgen
«To conclude this line of reasoning, men have a simple choice—either they may marry, in which case their semen is continually exhausted and used up properly, to produce ensouled children, or they should eliminate the production of further useless seed by self-castration.» — cierra el argumento del De homunculis en una disyuntiva sin tercer término, matrimonio o castración
«No doubt some will be inclined to argue that the De homunculis, being one short tract among the huge literary output of Paracelsus, should be considered an aberration.» — anticipa la objeción de que ese tratado sea una rareza dentro de una obra inmensa
«But this is not the case.» — rechaza esa salida y anuncia que va a mostrar la doctrina en otros textos
«Paracelsus seems to be saying that the generation of semen is a matter of choice, a message that he put in unforgettably Draconian terms in the De homunculis.» — atribuye a Paracelso, con su reserva de fórmula, la tesis de que generar semilla es cosa de elección
«Here Paracelsus says that men and women are born without seed.» — consigna la premisa que hace posible esa elección: hombres y mujeres nacen sin semilla
«Whenever seed has been produced, Paracelsus says, the “light of nature exists not, but is dead,” that is, the faculty of understanding has vanished.» — traduce la consecuencia cognitiva que Paracelso asocia a la producción de semilla, la muerte de la luz de la naturaleza
«Indeed, God Himself wants to have a “pure man, not a changed one”; that is, He desires a man unpolluted by the generation of semen.» — recoge la fórmula del hombre puro y la glosa que el propio libro le da
«At another point in Das buch von der geberung, however, Paracelsus makes it clear that despite God’s preference of the pure man over the impure, procreation is not a sin.» — consigna la coexistencia sin armonizarla: la preferencia por el hombre puro no convierte la procreación en pecado
«His message is basically that of the De homunculis, that a good Christian has two choices—either to use his seed for the purpose of generation or to avoid its production altogether, although Das buch von der geberung lacks the overt injunction that we can achieve the latter goal only by means of self-mutilation.» — compara los dos tratados y precisa la diferencia: en este falta la orden expresa de la automutilación
«In essence, Paracelsus seems to be erecting two orders of men—a perfectly chaste philosophical elect, which never generates seed, and a progenerative plebs.» — formula, con su reserva, la partición social que resulta: un electo filosófico casto y una plebe procreadora
«The perfect regenerated man can become a magus coelestis, an apostolus coelestis, a missus coelestis, or a medicus coelestis.» — enumera los títulos celestes reservados al hombre regenerado
«The fate of the procreative man, on the other hand, is far less clear, for in many other places Paracelsus supports legitimate marriage.» — consigna la oscuridad del otro término y la razón: en muchos otros pasajes Paracelso defiende el matrimonio legítimo
«It would exceed the scope of this book to try to resolve this vexed point in Paracelsus’s philosophy.» — se abstiene expresamente de resolver ese punto espinoso, por quedar fuera del alcance del libro
«Once the sperm has been produced, neither abstinence nor emission per se is acceptable, since both can result in the generation of uncontrolled and dangerous monstrosities.» — resume el callejón sin salida del esquema: producido el esperma, ni abstenerse ni emitir resultan aceptables
«According to Paracelsus’s De homunculis, the only proper destination for male sperm is the female womb, the one environment guaranteed not to produce a homunculus from it.» — formula la inversión que separa los dos tratados: para el De homunculis el útero es el único destino que garantiza que no haya homúnculo
«It must be known that it is impossible to know how to produce genuine silver and gold, since it is impossible to become the equal of God the Highest [equipari Deo Altissimo] in his own works.» — traduce la objeción de fondo en su formulación latina, la imposibilidad de igualarse a Dios en sus propias obras
«the Jesuit professor at Louvain, had imputed a belief in the homunculus to Giulio Camillo, the well-known writer on the “memory-theater,” and to Thomas Garzonus, but the Jesuit added that the process is “foolish, impious, erroneous and blasphemous” for three reasons.» — registra la atribución que el jesuita de Lovaina hace a Giulio Camillo y a Garzoni, y su condena en cuatro adjetivos
«Or, if one argued that God did not create the homunculus’s rational soul, the latter would have to be educed from matter at the alchemist’s behest.» — expone el dilema teológico: si Dios no crea el alma del homúnculo, habría que educirla de la materia a instancias del alquimista
«This would lead to a second theological error, that the soul is subject to generation and corruption, for what can be produced can also be destroyed.» — sigue el dilema hasta el segundo error, un alma sujeta a generación y corrupción
«Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the soul of the homunculus, having been created de novo, would lack the original sin transmitted by all other men from Adam—hence the homunculus would need no redemption from Christ.» — jerarquiza el tercer error como el más grave: un homúnculo sin pecado original no necesitaría la redención de Cristo
«Kircher’s Mundus subterraneus of 1665 would fulminate over these same ideas after suggesting that Paracelsus himself, like Merlin in the traditional story, was the son of an incubus.» — data la embestida de Kircher en 1665 y consigna su insinuación sobre el propio Paracelso como hijo de íncubo
«As Kircher asks, if the homunculus born from semen in vitro were a possibility, who would infuse the rational soul into the embryo?» — reproduce la pregunta con que Kircher devuelve el problema, quién infundiría el alma racional
«Does anyone dare think that God Himself would deign to cooperate with the “Satanic operators” (Satanicis ministris) in effecting this horrid birth?» — consigna el registro de la objeción, que llama operadores satánicos a los alquimistas
«Even the followers of Paracelsus tended to reinterpret the recipe of the pseudo-Paracelsian De natura rerum in order to avoid its obvious meaning.» — documenta la incomodidad dentro del propio bando: los paracelsianos reinterpretaban la receta para esquivar su sentido obvio
«in 1584 by his follower Gerhard Dorn contains an elaborate attempt to decode the explicit instructions of the De natura rerum into a medicinal recipe based on wheat and wine.» — da el caso concreto de esa reinterpretación, el diccionario de Gerhard Dorn que descodifica la receta en clave medicinal
«Henry More, the famous Cambridge Platonist of the mid seventeenth century, expressed his dislike of religiously oriented alchemy in a succession of diatribes against the alchemist “Eugenius Philalethes” (a pseudonym of Thomas Vaughan).» — sitúa a Henry More y el blanco de sus diatribas, el alquimista que firmaba como Eugenius Philalethes
«Cavendish, despite her reputation for eccentricity, was consistently opposed to the claims of alchemy.» — corrige la expectativa que su fama de excéntrica podría crear: Margaret Cavendish se opuso con constancia a las pretensiones alquímicas
«The greatest Chymists are of a strong Opinion, that they can enforce Nature, as to make her go out of her Natural Pace, and to do that by Art in a Furnace, as the Elixar, that Nature cannot in a hundred or a thousand Years; and that their Art can do as much as Nature, in making her Originals another way than she has made them; as Paracelsus little Man, which may be some Dregs gathered together in a Form, and then perswaded himself it was like the Shape of a Man, as Fancies will form, and liken the Vapours that are gathered into Clouds, to the Figures of several things.» — cita el pasaje de Cavendish que reduce el hombrecillo de Paracelso a un poso al que la fantasía presta figura, como a las nubes
«But she is unequivocal in her condemnation of the alchemical enterprise that the homunculus embodies—the surpassing of nature by art.» — identifica con precisión lo que Cavendish condena, que es la superación de la naturaleza por el arte
«Besides, it seems impossible to imitate Nature, as to do as Nature doth, because her Waies and her Originals are utterly unknown: for Man can only guess at them, or indeed but at some of them. . . .» — recoge su argumento epistémico: imitar a la naturaleza parece imposible porque sus vías y sus originales son desconocidos
«Even the pious doubts of the Secret of Secrets commentator are echoed here, in Cavendish’s complaint that the “greatest Chymists” confuse themselves with the “God of Nature.”» — traza la continuidad de la queja desde el comentarista del Secreto de los secretos hasta Cavendish
«The sober natural philosopher must realize that “we scarce see the Shadow of Natures Works,” but live in a twilight land at best, where we are apt to break our heads with errant wandering.» — consigna la imagen con que Cavendish acota el saber disponible, apenas la sombra de las obras de la naturaleza
«This is no Workmanship of Humane Skill, here is no Automaton made by Art, no Daedalus’s walking Venus, no Archytas’s Dove, no Regiomontanus’s Eagle and Fly.» — cita la enumeración de autómatas famosos con que John Edwards separa la obra divina de la mecánica
«Here Edwards ranks the homunculus among such famous mechanical automata as the brazen head of Roger Bacon and the dove of Archytas, in order to deny it any genuine self-moving principle.» — explica la operación de Edwards: colocar el homúnculo entre los autómatas para negarle principio propio de movimiento
«Even if the homunculus really can exist, it will only be a clever counterfeit of life, not a genuinely vital being.» — consigna la concesión hipotética de Edwards y su conclusión, una falsificación ingeniosa de la vida
«It is nature alone, the living testament of the divine will, that can produce true life: the alchemist and mechanician can only fabricate a pallid imitation.» — resume la tesis teológica del pasaje, que reserva la vida verdadera a la naturaleza como testamento de la voluntad divina
«Paracelsus and his epigones managed to create an image of the alchemist as a magus coelestis, approaching the creative powers of divinity itself.» — balancea lo que la tradición paracelsiana sí consiguió, una imagen del alquimista como mago celeste
«This holy magus held the keys of art and nature, and in fabricating his homunculus, could even mimic the supreme creative act of God, though on a smaller scale.» — precisa el alcance de esa imagen y su acotación de escala
«And yet, the homunculus was not universally rejected by the authors of the seventeenth century.» — advierte contra el resumen fácil del siglo XVII como rechazo unánime
«Johann Hannemann, a medical professor in Kiel, claimed that a worthy theologian had been an ocular witness of a homunculus produced by chymistry.» — documenta el caso contrario con su cadena de testimonio: un profesor de Kiel que invoca a un teólogo testigo ocular
«The De natura rerum links this process explicitly to the making of the homunculus.» — consigna el vínculo que el propio tratado establece entre la palingenesia y la fabricación del homúnculo
«When the heat source was withdrawn, the resuscitated plant would disintegrate into the ashes out of which it had been made.» — consigna el límite del experimento de palingenesia tal como se contaba: retirado el calor, la planta resucitada se deshacía en sus cenizas
«Quercetanus regarded this miraculous event as a vindication of the Polish doctor’s palingenesis and repeated it himself.» — documenta cómo Quercetanus tomó el caso por confirmación de la palingenesia del médico polaco y dice haberlo repetido
«Praetorius says that four “races” (Geschlechte) of people have been accepted by tradition— the man made by God from a clod of earth, the woman made from his rib, the children of these two made by procreation, and the “new man” born again from Christ.» — recoge la clasificación de Praetorius en cuatro razas de hombres, de la hecha de barro al hombre nuevo renacido en Cristo
«Praetorius rejects the claim of ectogenesis, but adds, interestingly, that the well-known sixteenth-century devotional writer Valentin Weigel has used it as a support for the resurrection of the body after death.» — registra la posición doble de Praetorius, que rechaza la ectogénesis y sin embargo anota su uso devocional en Valentin Weigel
«Auditor, who asserts that he can demonstrate by a natural example “that death is the highest secret, without which there may be no life in the nature of things”» — cita la tesis del personaje del diálogo: la muerte como secreto supremo sin el cual no hay vida
«Auditor continues, saying that a tree reduced to ashes, and hence to its three principles, may be brought back to life in the form of a better tree.» — recoge el ejemplo vegetal con que se sostiene esa tesis, el árbol reducido a sus tres principios y devuelto mejor
«Auditor repeatedly states that palingenesis is a symbol of die Newe Geburt in the Dialogus» — adjudica al texto una lectura simbólica declarada: la palingenesia como figura del nuevo nacimiento
«Palingenesis would reemerge in the service of natural theology throughout the seventeenth century, and would even appear in the works of that arch-empiricist, Robert Boyle, where it would serve as an unequivocal support for the resurrection of the body.» — traza la persistencia del argumento hasta Robert Boyle, a quien llama archiempirista y que lo usa a favor de la resurrección del cuerpo
«In a similar fashion, the parts of the human body must be somehow able to preserve their nature even after crumbling into dust.» — formula la transferencia del argumento vegetal al cuerpo humano reducido a polvo
«This may explain how the body of a person eaten by beasts can nonetheless be resurrected, with “its Atoms preserv’d in all their Digestions, & kept capable of being reunited.”» — cita a Boyle sobre los átomos preservados a través de las digestiones, que harían posible la reunión del cuerpo devorado
«The hero of the romance, Rosencreutz, receives an anonymous invitation to the mysterious wedding of a king and queen, delivered to him by a beautiful, winged lady.» — abre el relato de las Bodas químicas con la invitación anónima que una dama alada entrega al protagonista
«The alchemists then incubate the egg, which hatches a savage black bird: the bird is fed the collected blood of the beheaded, whereupon it molts and turns white and then iridescent.» — sigue la secuencia de colores del relato, del ave negra a la blanca y luego irisada, alimentada con la sangre del decapitado
«After a series of further operations, the bird, now grown too gentle for its own good, is itself deprived of its head and burnt to ashes.» — continúa la serie hasta la decapitación y calcinación del ave
«But in the end, the bodies of this bride and groom are reassembled out of the ashes of the unfortunate bird by placing the moistened mass into two little molds.» — consigna el paso decisivo: los cuerpos de los novios se rehacen de las cenizas del ave en dos moldes pequeños
«Upon heating, there appear “two beautiful bright and almost Transparent little Images . . . a Male and a Female, each of them only four inches long,” which are then infused with life.» — cita el resultado del calentamiento, dos figuras casi transparentes de cuatro pulgadas, macho y hembra, a las que se infunde vida
«The reader, having expected the end result to be the philosophers’ stone, may be somewhat surprised at this result.» — apunta el desvío del relato respecto de lo esperado: no acaba en piedra filosofal
«for Rosencreutz informs us that they imagined the process to have been carried out “for the sake of Gold,” adding that “to work in Gold . . . is indeed a piece also of this art, but not the most Principal, most necessary, and best.”» — cita al propio texto degradando la crisopeya: trabajar en el oro es parte del arte, pero no la principal ni la mejor
«Andreae, the author of The Chymical Wedding, was a well-known Lutheran theologian and the composer of the utopian Christianopolis.» — adjudica la autoría a Johann Valentin Andreae y la sitúa junto a su utopía Christianopolis
«Perhaps it is unnecessary to say that for Andreae, the production of homunculi is largely an allegory of spiritual regeneration with the aim of charming the reader rather than teaching him to be a Frankenstein.» — acota el sentido del texto para su autor: alegoría de regeneración espiritual, no manual de fabricación
«And indeed, the Paracelsian homunculus as pictured either in the De natura rerum or in the De homunculis is an intractable vehicle of salvation.» — explica por qué la alegoría no encaja bien con la fuente: el homúnculo paracelsiano es un vehículo indócil para la salvación
«Neither the “bodiless” product of human artisanal mastery nor the obscene and tumorous growths of unbridled lust could serve the ministrations of the regenerate soul.» — detalla los dos casos que ese vehículo ofrece y que ninguno sirve, el producto sin cuerpo y las excrecencias de la lujuria
«It is the sanctity of marriage that is celebrated here in a strangely literal rendering of the old alchemical theme of hieros gamos.» — identifica lo que celebra el relato de Andreae en su versión literal del matrimonio santo alquímico
«The oddity of The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz is that the hieros gamos theme is here taken literally—the king and queen are real people.» — nombra la rareza del texto, que toma al pie de la letra el tema del hieros gamos
«Yet their dismemberment and rebirth as homunculi are symbolic of the regeneration of the soul after passing through the darkness of confusion and unbelief into the clarity of Andreae’s Lutheran Christianity—and this they do as a couple.» — consigna la doble lectura sin resolverla: el desmembramiento y renacimiento simbolizan la regeneración del alma, y ocurre en pareja
«For we must confess that Paracelsus, or at least the author of the De natura rerum, was much closer to the spirit of Sal¯am¯an and Absal than was Johann Valentin Andreae.» — adjudica la filiación en primera persona del plural: el De natura rerum está más cerca del relato de Salaman y Absal que Andreae
«In fact it is safe to say that the last great instantiation of the homunculus made from sperm alone, the perfect male of the De natura rerum, was true to the dream of Sal¯am¯an and Absal.» — se concede el grado de certeza en la fórmula al declarar fiel a ese sueño la última gran versión del homúnculo hecho solo de esperma
«The positive evaluation of the male homunculus in the De natura rerum is not shared by its feminine twin, the basilisk, who is a symbol of unmitigated female evil.» — contrapone las dos valoraciones del mismo tratado, el homúnculo masculino positivo y su gemelo femenino como mal absoluto
«Many of the authors in this genre, accepting a generative theory that viewed the female as supplying the matter of the embryo and the male the form, saw such male parthenogenesis as a plausible means of escaping the bonds of the material world.» — explica el atractivo de la partenogénesis masculina desde la teoría generativa que daba al varón la forma y a la hembra la materia
«It is perhaps ironic then that the cause of generation by one sex alone has been advanced in recent times by lesbian proponents of gynogenesis who are intent on bringing it about by combining ova, by cloning, or by other feats of biological engineering.» — apunta la ironía del reverso contemporáneo, la ginogénesis defendida hoy desde el extremo opuesto
«Yet despite the fact that modern biotechnology has made the female version of the homunculus seem more feasible than the male, the dream of sexual segregation remains substantially the same, at least insofar as it aspires to avoid “pollution” by the opposite sex.» — sostiene la continuidad del deseo por debajo del cambio técnico: el sueño de segregación sexual sigue siendo el mismo
«Alchemy itself became an investigative science in the hands of the medieval Scholastics, and a tool for discovering the character of nature at large by means of operations performed in the laboratory.» — formula la tesis del capítulo final: en manos de los escolásticos la alquimia se vuelve ciencia indagadora y herramienta para conocer la naturaleza entera
«The noninterventionist fallacy consists of the very widely held idea, common not only among historians of science but also among students of Aristotle, that the Stagirite and his followers were fundamentally nonexperimental or even actively opposed to experiment, because experimentation involved intervention in natural processes.» — define la falacia que da nombre al capítulo y nombra a quienes la sostienen, historiadores de la ciencia y estudiosos de Aristóteles
«new evidence that the art-nature debate can throw on the issue of intervention in nature should therefore be viewed very seriously.» — justifica el peso que concede a su propio material: la disputa arte-naturaleza aporta evidencia nueva sobre la intervención en la naturaleza
«Yet all of these approaches presuppose that genuine experimentation involves some sort of active intervention in natural processes rather than the purely passive observation of nature, and this assumption leads directly to the consideration of Aristotelianism as antiexperimental.» — identifica el supuesto compartido que produce la falacia, que experimentar exige intervenir
«Does it not follow then that for Aristotle and his followers intervention in nature for the purpose of experimentation would yield a badly compromised, artifactual sort of knowledge rather than proper knowledge of nature?» — formula la inferencia que va a discutir, un saber artefactual en vez de saber propio de la naturaleza
«Experiment, in short, opens up no new access to the facts, and may succeed only in suppressing them.» — resume la posición adversaria en su forma más fuerte: el experimento no abre acceso a los hechos y puede suprimirlos
«Since experiment relies on precisely such interference, Broadie asserts, it becomes ipso facto useless in Aristotelian natural science.» — atribuye a Sarah Broadie por su nombre la conclusión de que el experimento es inútil en la ciencia aristotélica
«Dear, in particular, interprets the art-nature distinction as a rigid divide that impeded Aristotelians from using “contrived experience” to make claims about nature.» — atribuye a Peter Dear la lectura de la distinción como divisoria rígida que impedía la experiencia artificiosa
«he states, “For Aristotelians, by contrast, the philosopher learned to understand nature by observing and contemplating its ‘ordinary course,’» — cita literalmente a Dear para que la posición discutida quede en su propia letra
«This approach, associated with Francis Bacon in the early seventeenth century, postulated that knowledge of natural objects could best be acquired by replicating them.» — define el saber del hacedor asociado a Bacon: conocer los objetos naturales replicándolos
«But this, according to P´erez-Ramos, was effectively prohibited by the art-nature distinction.» — atribuye a Pérez-Ramos la tesis de que la distinción arte-naturaleza prohibía efectivamente ese camino
«Closely related to the idea that the art-nature division imposed a restriction on experiment for Aristotle and his followers is the view that Aristotelian science employed only generalized, passive observations rather than the intervention in nature imposed by laboratory research.» — distingue una segunda versión de la misma falacia, la de una ciencia aristotélica de observación pasiva y generalizada
«This idea is especially pronounced in the recent work of Lorraine Daston and Katherine Park, who expressly label Aristotelian facts as the realm of “the familiar and the commonplace” in contradistinction to the singularities that are arrived at by experiment.» — atribuye esa versión a Lorraine Daston y Katherine Park, que oponen los hechos familiares a las singularidades del experimento
«In reality, none of the authors do justice to the experimental record.» — formula su objeción en una línea: ninguno de esos autores hace justicia al registro experimental
«provides an example of contrived experience (Hist. an. VI 3 561a4–562a21, De gen. an. III 2 753b17–754a15), as do the careful dissections that underlie much of Aristotle’s biology.» — aduce como contraejemplo la anatomía de huevos en distintos estadios y las disecciones que sostienen la biología aristotélica
«Even if one should argue that Aristotle did not engage in or direct these operations himself—a claim that would be hard to demonstrate—the very fact that he uses such engagements with nature to make generalized claims about the natural world indicates that contrived experience was not for him a problem of principle.» — blinda el contraejemplo contra la objeción biográfica: aunque Aristóteles no las hiciera él mismo, las usa para afirmar cosas del mundo natural
«This general position is remarkably close to the one taken by medieval alchemists who argued that natural products could indeed be replicated by man, as long as one knew their causes and could duplicate them.» — acerca esa posición a la de los alquimistas medievales, que condicionaban la réplica al conocimiento de las causas
«This passage gives a striking approbation to the practice of duplicating a natural phenomenon by means of art for the purposes of acquiring a deeper knowledge of nature.» — lee el pasaje aristotélico del arcoíris como aprobación llamativa de duplicar un fenómeno natural para conocerlo mejor
«The material cause of the rainbow is provided by the water that makes up the drops.» — identifica la causa material del arcoíris en el agua de las gotas, que es lo que hace replicable el fenómeno
«Although it might seem that this is a purely structural connection imposed by hindsight for the purposes of writing optative history, the facts are otherwise.» — sale al paso de la sospecha de historia optativa y afirma que los hechos van en otro sentido
«Nonetheless, modern scholarship has managed to disentangle the much-contaminated texts and to distinguish the particular questions to be ascribed to the two men.» — consigna el trabajo filológico previo que permite adjudicar las cuestiones a uno u otro autor
«The answers will lead us into a realm that will force us to abandon even the most cherished preconceptions about Aristotelian science, for we will see that Themo combines Aristotle’s treatment of the rainbow with ideas drawn from alchemy to arrive at a self-conscious promotion of “maker’s knowledge.”» — anuncia el hallazgo que obliga a revisar los prejuicios sobre la ciencia aristotélica: Themo combina el arcoíris con la alquimia y llega al saber del hacedor
«Experimentation was a well-established feature of the medieval optical tradition» — data la experimentación como rasgo establecido de la tradición óptica medieval
«But as A. I. Sabra has pointed out in his study of the famous optical writer, the traditional place for discussing the rainbow was not in optical texts proper, but rather in works on meteorology.» — apoya en Sabra un dato de género que explica dónde se discutía el arcoíris, en meteorología y no en óptica
«Indeed, it was precisely the passage from Meteorology III quoted above that provided the medievals with their experimental approach to the rainbow.» — adjudica al pasaje de la Meteorología el origen del método experimental medieval sobre el arcoíris
«A few pages later, he refers to Meteorology III ’s rainbows made by oars, along with Aristotle’s conscious replication of the spectrum by means of sprinkled water, thus revealing that his ultimate inspiration was the Stagirite.» — documenta la filiación con el detalle textual, los arcoíris hechos con los remos y la réplica del espectro con agua rociada
«It is not clear whether Themo knew Theodoric of Freiberg’s treatise on the rainbow, but his debt to Albert, Witelo, and the experimental tradition stemming from Meteorology III is quite obvious.» — se abstiene sobre una filiación concreta y afirma la otra: no consta que Themo leyera a Teodorico, su deuda con Alberto y Witelo es evidente
«Linking himself to the famous fourteenth-century teaching of the intension and remission of forms, Themo argues that the substantial form of gold does not exist in the manner of a single indivisible point—rather it is capable of a certain latitude.» — recoge el recurso técnico con que Themo flexibiliza la forma sustancial del oro, que admitiría latitud en vez de ser un punto indivisible
«As for the argument of a man rapidly becoming a bull, or a bull becoming a man, Themo rebuts this by pointing out that the latter in fact happens every day when we eat beef!» — recoge la réplica doméstica con que Themo desactiva el caso del hombre convertido en toro: eso pasa a diario al comer carne
«Aristotle points out there (IV 8–9) that we can discover the dominant qualities in mixtures through operations made upon them.» — apoya el argumento en la Meteorología IV: las cualidades dominantes de una mezcla se descubren operando sobre ella
«In the same way, we learn that metals contain a certain amount of earthy material from the fact that their calcination leaves an earthy cinder behind.» — da el caso metalúrgico correspondiente, la ceniza terrosa que deja la calcinación
«The operations of art therefore reveal the true constituents of natural bodies.» — formula en una línea la consecuencia epistemológica: las operaciones del arte revelan los constituyentes verdaderos de los cuerpos naturales
«Themo’s arguments up to this point are rather interesting, but nothing he has said would prepare us for the astonishing statement that follows.» — anuncia el hallazgo que el capítulo persigue y lo marca como inesperado
«After giving a number of defenses of alchemy in particular and of art in general, Themo then presents a fully generalized credo on the advantages of what can only be called maker’s knowledge:» — nombra lo que encuentra en Themo, un credo plenamente general sobre lo que solo cabe llamar saber del hacedor
«And unless we knew how to make or to see the rainbow and its color, as well as the halo, by means of art, we would hardly be led to an understanding of the rainbow or the halo—how they come to be thus.» — traduce el pasaje central de ese credo: sin saber hacer o ver por arte el arcoíris y el halo, apenas se entendería cómo llegan a ser
«Similarly, we would hardly—or never—know the composition of gold or silver unless we knew it through art; indeed, through art we can more completely know the operation of nature.» — extiende el mismo principio a la composición del oro y la plata, conocida por el arte
«Themo has assimilated Aristotle’s notion of a perfective art, where art carries things further than nature can, to the experimental replication of a natural phenomenon.» — identifica la operación intelectual decisiva: asimilar el arte perfectivo aristotélico a la réplica experimental de un fenómeno
«What Francis Bacon would famously express in the language of “vexing nature” is here described in terms of leading natural materials to a “more perfect” result than they would attain in their unaided state.» — traza la continuidad con Bacon y a la vez marca el cambio de lenguaje, de llevar los materiales a un resultado más perfecto a vejar la naturaleza
«It was the bridge that allowed one to cross the otherwise impassable chasm separating the natural from the artifactual.» — nombra la función que el arte perfectivo cumple en todo el argumento: el puente sobre el abismo entre lo natural y lo artefactual
«Replying to the claim that art can only add agents to patients, for example, Themo admits that this is true, but asserts that many substantial forms are generated by art when it aids nature.» — muestra cómo Themo concede la premisa adversaria y niega la consecuencia: el arte junta agentes y pacientes, y con eso genera formas sustanciales
«This then allows him to debunk the notion of insensible species-determining characteristics, such as the supposed pharmacological property of gold to strengthen the human heart.» — consigna el blanco concreto que Themo desarma, las propiedades insensibles que distinguirían al oro natural
«It is a wonder (mirabile), Themo says, that anyone would admit that alchemical gold lacks all the properties of natural gold because of the latter’s putative medical qualities, “for gold does not seem much to cheer the heart of man except by removing his poverty.» — recoge la ironía con que lo remata: el oro alegra el corazón sobre todo quitando la pobreza
«But it was within the context of the traditional discussion of art and nature that the ideal of maker’s knowledge found its full enunciation as opposed to its tacit application.» — sitúa el mérito del hallazgo en el terreno correcto: la disputa arte-naturaleza es donde el saber del hacedor se enuncia y no solo se practica
«This remarkable Scholastic, Themo, working in the stimulating atmosphere of Paris in the mid fourteenth century, when the school of Jean Buridan was in full bloom, was able to articulate and generalize an experimental approach that had long been present as a current in the Aristotelian tradition of natural philosophy.» — sitúa a Themo en el París de mediados del siglo XIV, con la escuela de Buridán en plena floración
«Sennert’s own mature position on alchemy was quite clear: by 1618 at the latest he was a convinced believer in the reality of the philosophers’ stone: the 1629 edition of the De chymicorum still maintains that metallic transmutation is an incontestable truth.» — data la posición madura de Sennert con dos fechas: creyente convencido en 1618 y sosteniendo aún en 1629 que la transmutación es verdad incontestable
«As we saw in chapter 2, Erastus took a hard-line approach to the distinction between art and nature, which allowed him to argue that the products of laboratory analysis can only be artifactual.» — recuerda la posición dura de Erastus, que hacía artefactuales todos los productos del análisis de laboratorio
«The pretext for doing so is supplied by opponents of chymistry, such as Thomas Erastus, who deny that natural substances are really composed of the three Paracelsian principles, mercury, sulfur, and salt.» — identifica el pretexto polémico del que Sennert se sirve, la negación erastiana de los tres principios paracelsianos
«Such opponents continue by saying that whatever nature has mixed, art cannot dissolve, so that the tria prima must be artifacts rather than genuine components of things.» — formula el argumento adversario: lo que la naturaleza mezcló el arte no lo disuelve, luego los tria prima son artefactos
«When spirit of wine is distilled in order to make a cordial, it is the same situation as occurs in the human body when vapors rise from the liver and are drawn into the brain, or when something is evaporated by the heat of the sun.» — recoge la analogía fisiológica con que Sennert naturaliza la destilación, con los vapores del hígado y el calor del sol
«When Aristotle distinguished violent and natural corruption in the Physics and the Metaphysics, he meant to make a distinction between what happens according to “the common course of nature” and what happens contingently.» — reinterpreta la distinción aristotélica entre corrupción violenta y natural como distinción entre curso común y contingencia
«But it does not follow from the fact that an action is contingent that it should also be unnatural, “for if you consider natural causes, violent corruption is clearly natural.”» — aísla el paso lógico que Sennert niega: de contingente no se sigue antinatural
«The same glib facility is employed when Sennert addresses the Aristotelian claim that only natural products have an innate principle of “motion” (change).» — califica de suelta, casi demasiado, la manera en que Sennert despacha la objeción del principio innato de movimiento
«Sennert breezily responds that “the things that are made by means of chymistry all have this innate principle, and the heat is only an external agent that leads this emphyton horm¯en into act.”36» — cita la respuesta de Sennert, que deja el calor como agente externo y conserva el principio innato en el producto químico
«If this fails to convince them, they should examine the sublimed product on the walls of an alembic—it is obviously a “mixt” and not a pure element.» — consigna el recurso empírico de Sennert, el sublimado en la pared del alambique que es mixto y no elemento puro
«Rather they must be inspected a bit more deeply.» — formula la exigencia metodológica que se sigue: las cosas hay que inspeccionarlas más hondo
«And what is not presented to us casually must be sought from art and labor [industria].» — cita la máxima que justifica la intervención: lo que no se nos da por azar hay que buscarlo con arte y trabajo
«In order to determine whether there are intermediate principles between the elements and composed bodies, it is necessary to perform controlled resolutions in laboratory apparatus.» — expone el argumento con que Sennert justifica el aparato: las resoluciones controladas son necesarias para decidir si hay principios intermedios
«Otherwise, some of the fumes and vapors produced during sublimation and combustion will pass off into the atmosphere, making a genuine test impossible.» — da la razón técnica del vaso cerrado: sin él, humos y vapores se pierden en la atmósfera y la prueba no vale
«He is quite happy to intervene in natural processes in order to arrive at knowledge of nature.» — consigna sin rodeos la disposición de Sennert a intervenir en los procesos naturales para conocerlos
«To the contrary, Sennert views experimentation in laboratory vessels as a direct application of the Aristotelian principle of perfective art.» — adjudica a Sennert la lectura del experimento como aplicación directa del arte perfectivo aristotélico
«The chymist is merely adding actives to passives or subtracting them from one another and supplying an external agency that allows the internal principle within natural substances to come to its full fruition.» — reduce la operación del químico a añadir y quitar activos y pasivos para que el principio interno llegue a término
«This employment of the art-nature distinction to justify experiment was not mere posturing on Sennert’s part, but a genuine outgrowth of his Aristotelian outlook.» — niega que ese uso sea mera pose y lo declara consecuencia genuina de su aristotelismo
«Like the alchemists of the High Middle Ages, Sennert viewed sculpture, for example, as a paradigmatic instance of an art that imposed form from without, while failing to alter the internal principle of motion within natural substances.» — muestra la continuidad del criterio: también para Sennert la escultura impone forma desde fuera sin tocar el principio interno
«The same may be said a fortiori for the great propagandist of experimental science Francis Bacon, who also owed an open and substantial debt to the Scholastic debate on art and nature that forms the subject of this book.» — extiende con más razón esa deuda escolástica a Francis Bacon, el gran propagandista de la ciencia experimental
«Despite his perception that alchemical authors supplied Bacon with some of his technological optimism, however, Rossi found a quite different watershed in Bacon’s ruminations on the limits of human power.» — discute con Paolo Rossi: le reconoce haber visto la deuda alquímica de Bacon y le imputa haber puesto el corte en otro lugar
«Rossi’s disregard for the nuances present in the art-nature debate has led, in some instances, to regrettable consequences.» — objeta a Rossi por su nombre el descuido de los matices del debate y le imputa consecuencias lamentables
«Even in Bacon’s day this situation would have proved intolerable, since he of course did not accept every imitation of a precious stone, metal, or drug as being identical to its natural original.» — objeta esa lectura con un argumento de verosimilitud: Bacon no daba por idéntica al original cualquier imitación de una piedra o un fármaco
«He is particularly critical of previous writers on natural history, whom he accuses of using the distinction between nature and art as an excuse for ignoring the last category.» — consigna la crítica de Bacon a los historiadores naturales anteriores, que usaban la distinción como excusa para ignorar lo artificial
«When Bacon argues for the appropriateness of viewing art as a way of placing nature in bonds— of vexing nature—he explicitly equates “force and bonds” with “help and perfection.”» — localiza el punto donde Bacon iguala expresamente la fuerza y las ataduras con la ayuda y la perfección
«In a sense, Bacon is saying little more here than Aristotle did at Physics II 8 199a15–17: that art can “carry things further than nature can.”» — rebaja la novedad de esa fórmula midiéndola contra el pasaje de la Física
«This should immediately capture our attention, for Bacon is now speaking the Aristotelian language of the perfective arts.» — señala el momento en que Bacon pasa a hablar la lengua aristotélica de las artes perfectivas
«yet, like Themo Judaei, Daniel Sennert, and others in the long tradition of Aristotelian experimentalism, Bacon goes beyond the Stagirite in seeing the concept of perfective art as a license for focusing at great length on experimental intervention in nature.» — precisa a la vez la deuda y el exceso: Bacon va más allá del Estagirita al leer el arte perfectivo como licencia para la intervención experimental
«that man has in truth no power over nature, except that of motion—the power, I say, of putting natural bodies together or separating them—and that the rest is done by nature working within.» — cita a Bacon reduciendo el poder humano a la moción, juntar y separar cuerpos naturales, y dejando el resto a la naturaleza que obra dentro
«Bacon’s concluding comment, that art acting on nature consists in associating and dissociating natural bodies is also entirely traditional, indeed a commonplace among the medieval Scholastics.» — adjudica esa conclusión de Bacon a un lugar común escolástico y no a una novedad suya
«Whenever therefore there is a possibility of moving natural bodies towards one another or away from one another, man and art can do everything; where there is no such possibility, they can do nothing.» — traduce la fórmula donde Bacon fija a la vez el alcance total y el límite absoluto del arte humano
«provided this motion to or from, which is required to produce any effect, be duly given, it matters not whether it be done by art and human means, or by nature unaided by man; nor is the one more powerful than the other.» — consigna la consecuencia igualadora: dado el movimiento requerido, da lo mismo que lo produzca el arte o la naturaleza sola
«Proteus, the “Old Man of the Sea,” was a classical symbol for mutability, since he had the power to change his shape.» — presenta el símbolo clásico de la mutabilidad que Bacon adopta para la materia
«Hence in order to extract information from him, he had to be fought, and even bound.» — explica de dónde sale la violencia de la imagen: a Proteo hay que combatirlo y atarlo para sacarle información
«Pesic is quite correct in showing the identity in Bacon’s mind between the image of nature vexed and Proteus bound.» — concede la razón a un estudioso moderno en la identificación entre la naturaleza vejada y Proteo atado
«It would be a valuable project to explore this alchemical use of Proteus further.» — declara pendiente una investigación que no emprende, la del uso alquímico de Proteo
«For the moment, however, we must satisfy ourselves with the fact that Bacon himself reveals the chymical sources behind his idea that matter driven “to extremities as if with the purpose of reducing it to nothing» — se conforma con lo que sí puede documentar, que el propio Bacon revela las fuentes químicas de esa idea
«Instead, they will be forced back on themselves, in a process that is reminiscent of the heating technique commonly referred to even in modern times as “reverberation,” where the heat is concentrated within a domed, high-temperature furnace.» — identifica la técnica de horno que está detrás de la imagen, la reverberación
«Bacon then describes the value of distillations in sealed vessels, for these permit the heat to work on matter without allowing the contents to escape.» — expone el valor que Bacon da al vaso sellado, donde el calor obra sin que el contenido escape
«In a very interesting fashion, Bacon links this directly to the myth of Proteus.» — señala el enlace explícito que Bacon hace entre esa técnica y el mito de Proteo
«And therefore it is true that the power of heat is best perceived in distillations which are performed in close vessels and receptacles.» — cita a Bacon sobre dónde se percibe mejor la potencia del calor, en destilaciones hechas en vasos cerrados
«But yet there is a higher degree; for howsoever distillations do keep the body in cells and cloisters, without going abroad, yet they give space unto bodies to turn into vapour, to return into liquor, and to separate one part from another.» — recoge el grado superior que Bacon persigue, más allá de una destilación que aún deja a los cuerpos vaporizarse y separarse
«So as nature doth expatiate, although it hath not full liberty; whereby the true and ultime operations of heat are not attained.» — consigna el diagnóstico de Bacon sobre esa insuficiencia: la naturaleza todavía se explaya y no se alcanzan las operaciones últimas del calor
«Here and in his subsequent comments, Bacon reveals that his goal is a sort of high-pressure thermal decomposition, to be effected in the setting of a chymical laboratory.» — identifica la meta técnica del pasaje, una descomposición térmica a alta presión en el laboratorio químico
«The binding of Proteus will consist of heating matter at a high temperature without allowing the escaping vapors to collect and condense in a separate vessel.» — traduce la metáfora en operación concreta: atar a Proteo es calentar sin dejar que los vapores condensen aparte
«Bacon then describes a projected experiment for effecting this vexation of Proteus, where a block of wood will be placed in a sealed iron receptacle that closely conforms to the wood in size and shape.» — describe el experimento proyectado, un bloque de madera en un recipiente de hierro sellado y ajustado a su forma
«He recommends that a similar experiment be carried out on water, also in a sealed vessel, but with a gentler heat.» — consigna la variante con agua y calor más suave que Bacon recomienda
«By repeatedly raising and lowering the temperature over a period of time in a close vessel (thus imitating the vagaries of solar heat), Bacon hopes to make water, “the simplest of bodies, be changed in colour, odour, or taste,” which he calls “a notable entrance into strange changes of bodies and productions.”» — explica el ciclo térmico que imita las variaciones solares y lo que Bacon espera de él, cambios de color, olor o sabor en el agua
«But of the admirable effects of this distillation in close (for so we will call it), which is like the wombs and matrices of living creatures, where nothing expireth nor separateth, we will speak fully in the due place;» — cita el símil con que Bacon compara el vaso cerrado a los úteros y matrices de los vivientes, donde nada se exhala ni se separa
«It is extraordinary here to see the noble Verulam nervously extracting himself from the possible imputation of making a homunculus» — observa el gesto de Bacon al desmarcarse, nervioso, de la imputación de fabricar un homúnculo
«The fact that Bacon connects his Proteus metaphor to alchemical practice—and indeed, the majority of the experimental details provided by him to exemplify the vexing of Proteus are chymical—strongly suggests that he got the idea of using heat to drive matter to its extremes from chymistry.» — infiere de la mayoría química de sus ejemplos, con la reserva de la fórmula, que la idea le vino de la química
«There is nothing more certain in nature than that it is impossible for any body to be utterly annihilated;» — cita el principio con que Bacon cierra el paso a la aniquilación de la materia
«but that as it was the work of the omnipotency of God to make somewhat of nothing, so it requireth the like omnipotency to turn somewhat into nothing.» — completa el argumento por su simetría teológica: hace falta la misma omnipotencia para volver algo en nada que para lo contrario
«And therefore it is well said by an obscure writer of the sect of the chemists, that there is no such way to effect the strange transmutations of bodies, as to endeavor and urge by all means the reducing of them to nothing.» — documenta la atribución que el propio Bacon hace de la idea a un escritor oscuro de la secta de los químicos
«Bacon openly reveals that his source for the idea of making matter divulge its different “shapes” by attempting to reduce it ad nihilum had its origin in alchemy.» — subraya que la confesión de origen alquímico es del propio Bacon y no una reconstrucción ajena
«Among the parts of history which I have mentioned, the history of arts is of most use, because it exhibits things in motion, and leads most directly to practice.» — cita la primacía que Bacon concede a la historia de las artes por mostrar las cosas en movimiento
«Moreover, it takes the mask and veil from natural objects, which are commonly concealed and obscured under the variety of shapes and external appearance.» — recoge la imagen del desenmascaramiento con que Bacon justifica esa primacía
«The arts, unlike the other two branches of natural history, provide the human intervention that allows one to unmask nature and to reveal its true form beneath its disguises.» — explica qué aportan las artes frente a las otras dos ramas de la historia natural: la intervención humana que descubre la forma verdadera
«Agriculture, along with alchemy, was a traditional example of an art that radically altered the natures of things, as opposed to the “external” arts of sculpture and painting.» — sitúa la agricultura y la alquimia en la clase tradicional de artes que alteran radicalmente las naturalezas, frente a las externas
«Glassmaking too served as a common example in the art-nature debate of the human ability to transmute species, and we have seen authors as removed from one another in time as Roger Bacon and Benedetto Varchi using gunpowder as an example of the power of art.» — documenta el vidrio y la pólvora como ejemplos recurrentes del poder del arte, de Roger Bacon a Varchi
«Even enameling was already part of the discussion, for Themo Judaei used it as an example of a genuine mixture made by art (implicitly debunking the Galenic claim that man cannot make true mixtures).» — añade el esmaltado, que Themo usaba como mezcla genuina hecha por arte contra la tesis galénica
«Those which consist principally in the subtle motion of the hands or instruments are of less use; such as weaving, carpentry, architecture, manufacture of mills, clocks, and the like; although these too are by no means to be neglected, both because many things occur in them which relate to the alterations of natural bodies, and because they give accurate information concerning local motion, which is a thing of great importance in very many respects.» — cita la clasificación de Bacon que rebaja los oficios de la mano y el instrumento sin desecharlos
«Now Bacon was never one for keeping human activities unduly separated from one another, but here, nonetheless, we see a clear bifurcation.» — apunta que la bifurcación es llamativa justamente en un autor poco dado a separar actividades humanas
«The macro-level arts give us information primarily about perceptible local motion, as opposed to the fundamental—and invisible—material changes that occur below the threshold of sense.» — formula el criterio de la división: unas artes informan del movimiento local perceptible, otras del cambio material invisible
«Beyond this, however, it had long been a staple of transmutatory alchemy that the matter of the philosophers’ stone should be heated at a rather low, incubating temperature over a long period of time—this was the raison d’ˆetre of the philosophers’ egg, a sealed vessel made for this very purpose.» — data como antigua la doctrina del calor incubador bajo y prolongado, con el huevo filosófico hecho para eso
«The fourteenth-century Rosarium philosophorum attributed to Arnald of Villanova, for example, supports the alchemist’s ability to replicate metals on the following grounds: “with one form destroyed, another is immediately introduced, as appears in the work of rustics, who make calx out of stone and glass out of cinders.”» — documenta el argumento del Rosarium atribuido a Arnaldo, que apoya la réplica de metales con el trabajo de los rústicos
«Bacon’s appropriation of this issue in the Novum organum, explicitly developed in the context of chymistry by means of his polychrest instances, should be seen as yet another inheritance from the art-nature debate in its alchemical instantiation.» — adjudica al debate arte-naturaleza otra herencia baconiana, la de las instancias policrestas del Novum organum
«At this juncture it is appropriate to summarize the points that we have learned by considering Bacon’s debt to the debate on art and nature.» — anuncia el balance del capítulo sobre la deuda de Bacon con la disputa
«As we saw in the Quaestio of Themo Judaei, the stress on maker’s knowledge was not always merely implicit, but sometimes found direct expression in the Scholastic tradition long before Bacon.» — recuerda el hallazgo que sostiene ese balance: en Themo el saber del hacedor ya estaba dicho, no solo practicado
«Finally, we have learned that the Baconian emphasis on the acceleration of natural processes by means of heat, and even the identity of solar and terrestrial heat, are both extensive topoi in the discussion of art and nature focusing on alchemy and extending back into the heart of the Middle Ages.» — remonta a la Edad Media dos motivos baconianos, la aceleración de los procesos por calor y la identidad del calor solar y el terrestre
«My purpose in drawing these points of convergence between Francis Bacon and his forerunners who also argued for the essential identity of art and nature has not been that of belittling the famous “trumpeter” of experimental science.» — declara expresamente que su propósito no es rebajar a Bacon al mostrarle antecesores
«The fact that his early modern adversaries were also the opponents of the alchemists should not reduce Bacon’s stature, but render more intelligible his position within the developing framework of the arts in early modern Europe.» — reformula el efecto de su hallazgo: hace más inteligible la posición de Bacon dentro del marco de las artes
«Nor should it diminish Bacon’s standing in the history of science if we argue that his view on the identity of art and nature found coherent and widespread expression long before his lifetime.» — insiste en separar la anterioridad de la idea del mérito de su autor
«Rather this should clarify the exact nature of his originality, which lay elsewhere.» — sitúa la originalidad de Bacon en otro lugar del que la tradición historiográfica la había puesto
«As Peter Urbach and others have shown, Bacon did have a genuine plan for the reformulation of experimental science.» — concede a Bacon, apoyándose en Urbach, un plan genuino de reformulación de la ciencia experimental
«But having said this, we should also note that originality is not the whole story.» — relativiza el criterio mismo de originalidad como medida del aporte
«Although Bacon’s assimilation of art to nature was not new, the combination of this viewpoint with his hardheaded attitude toward experiment bore remarkable fruit in the second half of the seventeenth century.» — precisa dónde estuvo el rendimiento: no en la asimilación, sino en combinarla con su actitud dura ante el experimento
«He devoted the greater part of his life to proving by means of experiment that matter, broken into corpuscles that varied in shape and size, as well as motion, could account for the phenomena of the physical world.» — resume el programa al que Boyle dedicó su vida, explicar los fenómenos por corpúsculos de forma, tamaño y movimiento variables
«This doctrine he labeled “the mechanical philosophy.”» — consigna que el nombre de filosofía mecánica se lo puso el propio Boyle
«But since Bacon’s own sources for this view have been little studied before the present book, Boyle’s inheritance from the art-nature debate has been a terra incognita.» — declara en qué consiste la novedad de su propio libro y lo que deja al descubierto, la herencia de Boyle como terreno inexplorado
«To the contrary, it is clear that the former’s extensive reading in the chymical literature of his time allowed him to supplement and modify the views of his English forebear.» — adjudica a la lectura química de Boyle la capacidad de suplementar y modificar lo heredado de Bacon
«We will now analyze Boyle’s debt to the traditional art-nature dialogue and consider the ways in which he employs the art-nature debate against the theory of substantial forms.» — anuncia el objeto del tramo: el uso que Boyle hace del debate arte-naturaleza contra las formas sustanciales
«For there is not alwaies such a difference as many imagine betwixt the one and the other:» — cita a Boyle acotando la diferencia entre lo natural y lo artificial, que no siempre es la que se imagina
«And, indeed, the Fire is as well a Natural Agent as Seed:» — recoge el argumento del fuego como agente natural igual que la semilla, que es la pieza tomada de Sennert
«who being thus brought together, and acting according to their respective Natures, performe the worke themselves; as Apples, Plums, or other fruit, are natural Productions, though the Gardiner bring and fasten together the Sciens of the Stock, and both Water, and do perhaps divers other wayes Contribute to its bearing fruit.» — cita el ejemplo del injerto con que Boyle sostiene esa tesis: la fruta es natural aunque el jardinero junte, ate y riegue
«This too resurfaces in the Boylean passage with Carneades’ emphasis on the external “shape or Form” that a workman imposes with his tools in contrast to the powers of natural agents.» — identifica el elemento heredado que reaparece en el pasaje, la forma externa que el artesano impone con sus herramientas
«Nor is Boyle’s view of the distinction between art and nature anything so radical as the standard view depicts.» — objeta a la lectura estándar: la posición de Boyle sobre arte y naturaleza no es tan radical como se la pinta
«the difference betwixt them and those that are confessedly natural is not alwaies near so great as men are wont to imagine.”» — cita la fórmula de Boyle sobre la distancia entre lo artificial y lo naturalmente reconocido, menor de lo que suele imaginarse
«But immediately after making this argument, Boyle ironically reveals how close his own position is to Sennert and to other defenders of chymistry:» — apunta la ironía de la secuencia: acto seguido Boyle deja ver cuánto se acerca a Sennert y a los defensores de la química
«And among the Bodies themselves in whose production man’s power or skill has a share, I reckon that there is a great difference between those, wherein man gives an outward shape, such as himself designs by tools of his own making, that are alwaies external to the produc’d Body, and those (such as are most Chymical productions, besides others) wherein his chief work is to apply Physical Agents to Patients, by which means it oftentimes comes to passe, that (as in productions, that all allow to be natural) the Instruments he works by are parts of the matter itself he works upon, or at least intrinsical to it.» — cita el pasaje donde Boyle separa los cuerpos hechos con herramientas externas de los químicos, cuyos instrumentos son parte de la materia misma
«As in the Theorica et practica by Paul of Taranto or many another work of medieval alchemy, Boyle distinguishes the external operation of the sculptor from the work of the chymist, for the latter applies actives to passives in order to impose a deeper change on matter.» — adjudica esa distinción a la alquimia medieval, con Paul de Tarento por caso, y no a una invención de Boyle
«And one of the features of the Geberian tradition in alchemy was precisely the fact that it often downplayed, and sometimes even eliminated, the explanatory role of form.» — identifica el rasgo geberiano que hace posible la maniobra: rebajar y a veces eliminar el papel explicativo de la forma
«In Boyle’s view this is an unnecessary presupposition, since all that we perceive are the accidents themselves, and the species into which a given substance is placed “is nothing but an Aggregate or Convention of such Accidents” determined in large measure “by a kind of Agreement” among men.» — expone la tesis de Boyle sobre la especie como agregado de accidentes fijado en buena medida por acuerdo entre los hombres
«Let us employ the principle of parsimony then and assume that the imperceptible substantial form does not exist—what we are left with is a collection of qualities somehow linked to a given parcel of matter.» — reconstruye el paso por parsimonia: suprimida la forma sustancial imperceptible, queda un conjunto de cualidades ligadas a una porción de materia
«Boyle continues, this is precisely the way that most men think of things, and it is for this very reason that they can admit the transmutation of species:» — consigna la consecuencia que Boyle busca, que así pensada la especie admite la transmutación
«But it was by no means the exclusive Scholastic view, as Boyle himself seems to acknowledge.» — acota la generalización: esa no era la posición escolástica exclusiva, y el propio Boyle parece admitirlo
«It is not the case, however, that Scholasticism in general followed the example of Geber in tacitly abandoning the substantial form.» — niega expresamente que el abandono geberiano de la forma sustancial fuera la regla en la escolástica
«There is no mention here of a substantial form, and the term is similarly absent from the remainder of the Summa perfectionis.» — declara una búsqueda negativa sobre la Summa perfectionis: el término forma sustancial no aparece ni en la definición ni en el resto
«In fact, Boyle’s whole argument is strikingly similar to the one proffered by that most Scholastic of alchemical texts, the Summa perfectionis of Geber.» — formula la filiación que el capítulo persigue: el argumento de Boyle se parece llamativamente al del más escolástico de los textos alquímicos
«Indeed, Bacon provided an explicitly chrysopoetic recipe in his Sylva sylvarum, based on the “superinducing” of individual natures or qualities on silver.» — documenta que Bacon llegó a dar una receta crisopoética en la Sylva sylvarum, por superinducción de cualidades sobre la plata
«A second-order medicine could impose the genuine color of gold but not its weight, and so forth.» — recoge la gradación técnica de la tradición alquímica, con medicinas que imponen unas cualidades del oro y no otras
«Boyle’s approach to the “form” of gold as a mere “convention” of qualities does not distinguish him from his predecessors in chymistry, but actually demonstrates his further debt to a particular tradition within their ranks.» — niega originalidad a Boyle en este punto y la convierte en dato de filiación: su tratamiento de la forma del oro lo emparenta con una tradición química previa
«It is remarkable that a similar idea, illustrated by the same metal, is also found in the Essay Concerning Human Understanding by Boyle’s intellectual heir John Locke.» — documenta la reaparición de la misma idea, y con el mismo metal por ejemplo, en el Ensayo de Locke
«When distinguishing the “real essences” of material things, which are inaccessible to the senses, from “nominal essences,” which are the sum of the known qualities associated with a given “parcel of matter,” Locke employs the example of gold.» — expone la distinción lockeana entre esencia real inaccesible y esencia nominal como suma de cualidades conocidas
«It was in such qualities that our knowledge of the material world lay, not in the putative existence of an inaccessible substantial form.» — formula el desplazamiento epistemológico que ese giro produce: el saber del mundo material pasa a las cualidades
«Would it not follow that the substantial form was a purely otiose concept, since the ersatz product could not be distinguished from the natural except on the gratuitous hypothesis that it lacked the imperceptible substantial form of its natural model?» — plantea la pregunta que hace ociosa la forma sustancial, ya que el producto artificial no se distingue del natural sino por hipótesis gratuita
«If one could eliminate the explanatory power of the substantial form, there was one less obstacle to Boyle’s own explanation of qualities—that they derived from the shapes, sizes, and motions of individual corpuscles and from the “textures” supplied by corpuscular aggregates.» — explica el interés de Boyle en suprimir la forma sustancial: quita un obstáculo a su explicación por figuras, tamaños, movimientos y texturas
«It is perhaps no accident that Locke himself was directly involved in transmutational alchemy, and that upon Boyle’s death he engaged in an epistolary exchange with Isaac Newton on the subject of the philosophers’ stone.» — consigna, con la reserva de la fórmula, la implicación personal de Locke en la alquimia transmutatoria y su intercambio con Newton
«The basic idea behind Boyle’s approach capitalized on the fact that—as the Scholastics habitually put it—art alone could not impose a substantial form.» — muestra la inversión del argumento escolástico: Boyle se apoya justo en que el arte solo no puede imponer forma sustancial
«For, in the Experiments we are speaking of, it cannot well be pretended, or at least not well prov’d, that any Substantial Forms are the Causes of the Effects I have recited.» — cita a Boyle acotando su propia pretensión: en esos experimentos no cabe siquiera pretender que las formas sustanciales sean la causa
«In fact, this had been a key element of the traditional defense of alchemy, as we saw in the case of Daniel Sennert, who explicitly argued that the products of chymistry had the same internal principle of motion as those in nature.» — adjudica el argumento a la defensa tradicional de la alquimia, con Sennert sosteniendo que lo químico tiene el mismo principio interno de movimiento
«It was, rather, a self-styled atomist and hylozoist, indeed, a proponent of the most novel trends in natural philosophy.» — advierte que la crítica antiexperimental más dura no vino de un conservador sino de una atomista e hilozoísta
«Cavendish is famous for, among other things, making a spectacular invited visit to the Royal Society in 1667, in which spectators such as Samuel Pepys desperately tried to catch a glimpse of her eccentric habit.» — sitúa la fama de Cavendish en la visita de 1667 a la Royal Society, con Pepys entre los curiosos
«Cavendish explicitly eschewed experiment as a foundation of natural philosophy, in favor of an internally derived “rationalism.”» — consigna la posición metodológica de Cavendish, que rechaza el experimento como fundamento de la filosofía natural
«Unlike many early modern writers, she does not mean this in a complimentary sense, wherein art would genuinely replicate natural products or even make a passable copy.» — precisa el sentido peyorativo con que Cavendish usa la imitación, muy distinto del elogio corriente
«What she has in mind is the “apish” mimicry of nature that leads to a second-rate mockery of the natural exemplar.» — define la mímesis simiesca a la que Cavendish reduce el arte, remedo de segunda del ejemplar natural
«Cavendish’s belief that art can only interfere with nature in presenting its effects clearly derives from her view that art and nature stand in a relation of inferior to superior.» — deriva la posición de Cavendish de su premisa jerárquica entre arte y naturaleza
«Taken at face value, this claim is a patent non sequitur.» — objeta la validez lógica del paso, que califica de non sequitur patente
«It is highly likely that Cavendish’s position represents a distorted and exaggerated understanding of the traditional arguments against chymistry, generalizing them to other arts and to the experimental enterprise as a whole.» — propone con su grado de certeza la genealogía de esa posición: una versión distorsionada de los argumentos contra la química, generalizada a todo el experimento
«When Cavendish states that “Art cannot introduce new forms in Nature,” for example, she is repeating an objection to alchemy already found in the great Sentence-commentators of the thirteenth century, such as Albertus Magnus, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas.» — documenta la filiación frase por frase: su tesis repite una objeción de los comentaristas de las Sentencias del siglo XIII
«Similarly, her claim that “Chymists need not think they can create any thing anew; for they cannot challenge to themselves a divine power” rephrases the old elision between alchemical transmutation» — documenta la segunda filiación, la elisión entre transmutación y poder creador divino que venía del Contra alchimistas de Eymerich
«Cavendish’s intense conservatism is remarkable, to say the least.» — califica de notable el conservadurismo de fondo en una autora tenida por novedosa
«Both authors neglect the role of perfective art, and both address the issue of artifact rendering experiment invalid, although from an opposite perspective.» — empareja a Cavendish y a Boyle por lo que ninguno atiende, el arte perfectivo, y los separa por la perspectiva
«This extension, moreover, is a move that we have found explicitly stated among none of the Scholastic participants in the art-nature debate whom we have examined.» — declara una búsqueda negativa sobre los escolásticos examinados: ninguno da ese paso de generalización
«At the same time, however, we must not assume an aprioristic disdain for experiment even on the part of a conservative Aristotelian such as Erastus just because of his strong adherence to the art-nature distinction.» — previene contra la inferencia fácil sobre Erastus, cuya adhesión a la distinción no implica desdén apriorístico del experimento
«Nowhere in his antitransmutational treatise, the Explicatio quaestionis famosae, does Erastus draw the conclusion that the possibility of intervention in nature generally invalidates knowledge acquired by experiment.» — apoya esa cautela en una búsqueda negativa dentro del propio tratado de Erastus
«Although both were anchored in the philosophy of Aristotle, the former made little appeal to the Stagirite’s detailed studies of the natural world, such as the biological works, the Meteorology, and the parva naturalia.» — distingue dos ramas del aristotelismo escolástico por su relación con los estudios naturales del Estagirita
«It was this experimental branch of Scholastic Aristotelianism that would supply the basis for important elements of Francis Bacon’s “great instauration,” foundations that would receive much further development at the hands of his follower Robert Boyle.» — adjudica a la rama experimental del aristotelismo escolástico la base de elementos importantes de la instauración baconiana
«The debate on the status of art and nature reveals this debt with greater clarity, perhaps, than any other source.» — reivindica la disputa arte-naturaleza como la fuente que muestra esa deuda con mayor claridad
«Indeed, even after chemistry’s self-conscious disengagement from chrysopoeia in the late seventeenth century, the problem of art and nature remained central to the discipline.» — data el desenganche de la crisopeya a finales del siglo XVII y sostiene que el problema arte-naturaleza siguió siendo central
«Darwin’s notebooks, composed from 1836 through 1844, use the expression “transmutation of species” in a biological context.» — documenta el uso de la expresión transmutación de especies en los cuadernos de Darwin entre 1836 y 1844
«Under the right circumstances, these varieties in turn diverge and eventually become full-blown species.» — expone el mecanismo darwiniano por el que las variedades divergen hasta ser especies
«In this sense, then, Darwinian species are genuinely transmuted, so that entirely new species come into existence and old ones are extinguished.» — concede el sentido en que sí cabe hablar de transmutación en Darwin
«However much Darwin may sound like an alchemist describing his perfective art in its role of aiding nature, the transmutation of species in Darwinian biology is not, of course, the same thing as the alchemical transmutation of species.» — acota de inmediato ese paralelo para que la homofonía no se lea como identidad
«Few alchemists, with the possible exception of some J¯abirian and Paracelsian writers, thought of themselves as creating entirely new species that had never before existed in nature.» — precisa la diferencia con su excepción incluida: salvo quizá algunos yabirianos y paracelsianos, los alquimistas no se creían creando especies nuevas
«And yet even if the alchemical language of transmuting species did not mean the creation of new species per se, an obvious question arises.» — mantiene abierta la pregunta pese a la diferencia establecida
«Born in the town of Sulz and educated at the University of T¨ubingen, K¨olreuter acquired fame as a writer on the natural history of plants; Darwin knew his work well.» — presenta a Kölreuter con su formación y el dato que lo enlaza con la línea: Darwin conocía bien su obra
«As a bitter critic of preformation in both its ovist and spermist forms, K¨olreuter performed hundreds of experiments at crossing different species of plants that belonged to the same genus.» — sitúa el programa experimental de Kölreuter, cientos de cruces entre especies del mismo género contra el preformacionismo
«K¨olreuter argued that an oil contained in the hollow male pollen of a plant was similar to the alchemical sulfur principle that entered into a metal.» — documenta la analogía alquímica explícita de Kölreuter entre el aceite del polen y el principio azufre
«he could not have been more surprised if he had “seen a cat in the form of a lion.”» — recoge la fórmula con que Kölreuter mide su propio asombro ante el resultado del cruce
«But let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that K¨olreuter did not receive his exposure to the Aristotelian dogma against species transmutation directly from the alchemical authors themselves.» — plantea la hipótesis alternativa sobre la vía por la que le llegó el dogma aristotélico contra la transmutación
«K¨olreuter would retire from his hybridization experiments well before his death, but there is reliable evidence that he took up the practice of transmutational alchemy and continued with it in his later years.» — consigna con la marca de evidencia fiable que Kölreuter practicó la alquimia transmutatoria en sus últimos años
«At any rate, he was far from being the only biological writer of the period to be involved in alchemy.» — generaliza el dato con cautela: no fue el único autor de temas biológicos de la época implicado en alquimia
«On the other hand, Gmelin was keenly interested in the issue of species transmutation, as shown by his 1749 inaugural dissertation, De novorum vegetabilium post creationem divinam exortu (On the Rise of New Plants after the Divine Creation).» — documenta el interés de Gmelin por la transmutación de especies con el título y la fecha de su disertación
«Nor do we know the views of his principal teacher, the naturalist J. G. Gmelin, on alchemy.» — declara la laguna documental sobre su maestro en vez de rellenarla
«An answer to these questions would exceed the scope of this book.» — se abstiene expresamente de responder esas preguntas por quedar fuera del alcance del libro
«Whether K¨olreuter’s remarkably fruitful application of alchemical ideas to botany was the result of personal idiosyncrasy or the product of his university education remains to be seen.» — deja abierta la disyuntiva entre idiosincrasia personal y formación universitaria como origen de esa aplicación
«First, it is clear that Goethe was well aware of the homunculus recipe given by pseudo-Paracelsus in the De natura rerum.» — adjudica sin reserva la fuente de Goethe: conocía bien la receta del homúnculo del pseudo-Paracelso
«Part of his knowledge may have come from the strange Anthropodemus plutonicus of Johann Praetorius, but since Praetorius transmitted the Paracelsian homunculus faithfully, his mediation does not materially alter things.» — admite una vía intermedia posible, el Anthropodemus plutonicus de Praetorius, y explica por qué no cambia la adjudicación
«On the one hand, crystallization may have served as a way of making the homunculus less unseemly to a squeamish audience, but it was also a way of poking fun at contemporary naturalists who posited an inorganic origin of life» — ofrece dos lecturas simultáneas del cambio a la cristalización, decoro ante el público y burla de los naturalistas de su tiempo
«If we put aside the issue of crystallization rather than production from semen, the Paracelsian provenance of Homunculus becomes more evident.» — aísla la variable que oscurece la filiación y con ella a la vista deja más clara la procedencia paracelsiana del personaje
«Like the homunculus of the De natura rerum, he is “spiritual” and practically bodiless.» — enumera el primer rasgo compartido con el tratado, un ser espiritual y prácticamente sin cuerpo
«A product of art, Homunculus is intelligent beyond mere mortals and capable of having philosophical discussions upon birth.» — suma el segundo rasgo: por ser producto del arte, nace capaz de discutir filosofía
«Goethe’s conversations with his friend Johann Peter Eckermann, it becomes clear that Homunculus was intended to be a largely sympathetic character.» — apoya en las conversaciones con Eckermann la lectura del personaje como figura mayormente simpática
«As at least one Goethe scholar has put it, Homunculus is more like a Platonic daimon—a tutelary spirit— than a Christian demon.» — consigna con su atribución la lectura del personaje como daimon platónico y no demonio cristiano
«This, of course, is fully within the Paracelsian tradition, where the homunculus is described as an almost bodiless creature who knows “all hidden and secret things.”» — devuelve ese rasgo a la tradición paracelsiana, donde el homúnculo conoce todo lo oculto y secreto
«To the contrary, Goethe’s lampooning of the pedantic Wagner with his crystallization points to the empty gesturing of an excessive materialism, for it is only with the aid of Mephistopheles that Homunculus comes to be.» — lee la sátira de Goethe contra el materialismo por un detalle de la trama: sin Mefistófeles no hay homúnculo
«The mechanical approach, already in antiquity, had been that of working para physin—against nature.» — recuerda la fórmula antigua que define el enfoque mecánico, obrar contra la naturaleza
«When Descartes reduced matter to spatial extension and eliminated the Aristotelian elementary qualities from his physics, he was left with a mechanics that no longer had a “nature” against which to work.» — explica el efecto de la reducción cartesiana de la materia a extensión: la mecánica se queda sin naturaleza contra la que obrar
«The position of Hooykaas has received further elaboration in recent studies by Horst Bredekamp, Lorraine Daston, and Katherine Park, in the context of early modern Kunstkammern.» — sitúa el estado de la cuestión nombrando a Bredekamp, Daston y Park como continuadores de Hooykaas
«Only further research can provide the answer.» — se abstiene expresamente de responder si la distinción alquímica influyó en Descartes y remite a investigación futura
«While one could trace the links between Cartesianism and the eighteenth-century fascination with elaborate automata, it is more to our purposes here to consider the fate of the homunculus.» — declara qué línea deja sin seguir, la del cartesianismo y los autómatas del siglo XVIII, para volver al homúnculo
«Despite the increasing power of science over our biological destinies, however, it is safe to say that the distinction between art and nature is still with us today.» — sostiene, con la cautela de la fórmula, que la distinción entre arte y naturaleza sigue vigente pese al poder creciente de la ciencia
«The wellsprings of these dreams or nightmares run deeper than any modern bioethicist or free-market promoter of biotechnology can possibly imagine.» — sitúa la profundidad histórica de esos sueños y pesadillas por encima de lo que bioeticistas y promotores de la biotecnología alcanzan a imaginar
«The well-known chemist and writer Roald Hoffmann has emphasized that the dichotomy lives on in modern chemistry» — apoya esa tesis en un químico en activo: Roald Hoffmann señala que la dicotomía pervive en la química moderna
«One imagines that Geber or Petrus Bonus would have been very happy in such an environment, for the attitudes that they expressed over half a millennium ago have born fruit in the pharmaceutical and polymer laboratories of the present day.» — proyecta con un imagina uno la continuidad hasta los laboratorios farmacéuticos y de polímeros actuales
«Hoffmann is right to stress the perennial appeal that this bifurcation holds.» — concede la razón a Hoffmann sobre el atractivo perenne de esa bifurcación
«In this sense the alchemists were right when they insisted that art is the servant of nature, and not nature the servant of art.» — cierra el libro dando la razón a los alquimistas en un punto preciso: el arte es siervo de la naturaleza y no al revés
Conceptos tratados
Homúnculo (el hombre artificial) — El capítulo cuarto entero: de Zósimo y el Liber vaccae a la receta paracelsiana y el Homunculus del Faust II.
Sciant artifices (la sentencia de Avicena) — El hilo conductor del libro: la sentencia y sus siete siglos de transmisión.
Materia prima — La doctrina de la reducción a materia prima como cláusula de escape de la sentencia, ya en el Roman de la rose.
Piedra filosofal (lapis philosophorum) — La reinterpretación de Palissy: la piedra como petrificación, con el cráneo fosilizado como legado.