Pseudo-Geber

Pseudo-Geber (or "<a href="/facts/Middle_Latin/gyLMjaCX">Latin</a> pseudo-Geber") is the presumed author or group of authors responsible for a corpus of <a href="/facts/Pseudepigraphic/nwn5Ys67">pseudepigraphic</a> alchemical writings dating to the late 13th and early 14th centuries. These writings were falsely attributed to <a href="/facts/Jabir_ibn_Hayyan/qUTxy4kA">Jabir ibn Hayyan</a> (died c. 806–816, <a href="/facts/Latinisation_of_names/69CA5FuQ">Latinized</a> as Geber), an early <a href="/facts/Alchemy/CEx0U1Em">alchemist</a> of the <a href="/facts/Islamic_Golden_Age/yAeG2rBA">Islamic Golden Age</a>.
The most important work of the Latin pseudo-Geber corpus is the Summa perfectionis magisterii ("The Height of the Perfection of Mastery"), which was likely written slightly before 1310. Its actual author has been tentatively identified as <a href="/facts/Paul_of_Taranto/94U4x53R">Paul of Taranto</a>. The work was influential in the domain of alchemy and metallurgy in late medieval Europe. The work contains experimental demonstrations of the <a href="/facts/Corpuscularianism/I84UbILt">corpuscular</a> nature of matter that were still being used by seventeenth-century chemists such as <a href="/facts/Daniel_Sennert/7M72fzUs">Daniel Sennert</a>, who in turn influenced <a href="/facts/Robert_Boyle/6tUs448C">Robert Boyle</a>. The work is among the first to describe <a href="/facts/Nitric_acid/UDbwGp6s">nitric acid</a>, <a href="/facts/Aqua_regia/AHr1mobH">aqua regia</a>, and <a href="/facts/Aqua_fortis/UDbwGp6s">aqua fortis</a>.
The existence of Jabir ibn Hayyan as a historical figure is itself in question, and most of the numerous <a href="/facts/Arabic/A1e66hVV">Arabic</a> works attributed to him are, themselves, <a href="/facts/Pseudepigrapha/nwn5Ys67">pseudepigrapha</a> dating to c. 850–950. It is common practice among historians of alchemy to refer to the earlier body of <a href="/facts/Islamic_alchemy/NgsIdELq">Islamic alchemy</a> texts as the Corpus Jabirianum or Jabirian Corpus, and to the later, 13th to 14th century Latin corpus as pseudo-Geber or Latin pseudo-Geber, a term introduced by <a href="/facts/Marcellin_Berthelot/TaeR6uXD">Marcellin Berthelot</a>. The "pseudo-Geber problem" is the question of a possible relation between the two corpora. This question has long been controversially discussed. It is now mostly thought that at least parts of the Latin pseudo-Geber works are based on earlier Islamic authors such as <a href="/facts/Abu_Bakr_al-Razi/PC32Rzes">Abu Bakr al-Razi</a> (c. 865–925).

Pseudo-Geber open-in-new

Pseudo-Geber