rdf-syntax-grammar
mods:
  schema location: http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
  title info:
    non sort: The
    title: alchemical feminine
    sub title: women, gender, and sexuality in alchemical images
  title info:
    title: Women, gender, and sexuality in alchemical images
  name:
    name part: Warlick, M. E.
    role:
      role term: creator
    role:
      role term: author.
  name:
    name part: Shehu-Ansell, Robert
    role:
      role term: book designer.
  name:
    name part: Cox, Merlin
    role:
      role term: editor.
  type of resource: text
  genre: bibliography
  origin info:
    place:
      place term: enk
    date issued: 2025
    copyright date: 2025
    issuance: monographic
  language:
    language term: eng
  physical description:
    form: print
    extent: 305 pages : illustrations ; 31 cm
  abstract: The product of more than 25 years of research, M.E. Warlick's The Alchemical Feminine is a pioneering analysis of a hitherto neglected aspect of alchemy. Framing the subject's rich and diverse iconography within chronological, geographical, and thematic terms, Warlick's argument examines the shifting presentation and emphasis given to the feminine within an ever more masculine domain. Summarizing the book, the author notes: 'The images of women compiled in this volume evolved from alchemical philosophy, in which gendered and sexualized concepts are used to describe physical matter and laboratory processes. When alchemical imagery arose in the late Middle Ages, and over the next three centuries, images of women developed in ways that reflected wider social pressures. Building on scholarly studies of the increasing exclusion of women from public arenas in the early modern period, The Alchemical Feminine examines the transformations of alchemical images of women and the increasing of earlier feminine imagery.' When alchemy returned from the Middle East to the Latin West, metals were thought to be composed of hot, dry, fixed, Philosophic Sulphur (masculine), and cool, moist, volatile, Philosophic Mercury (feminine). In the laboratory, these lovers fused in a 'Chemical Wedding' that produced their child, the 'Philosophers' Stone,' a mysterious catalyst enabling the transformation of base metals into silver and gold. As alchemical imagery developed, women appeared as philosophers, religious figures, royal queens, sexual partners, cosmological personifications, mythological deities, allegorical symbols of Nature and the wives of fools. Herbal alchemy also had ancient roots, and it is in this realm that women as alchemical practitioners can be found. With more than 200 illustrations, this ground-breaking book examines the alchemical feminine and the thematic diversity of alchemical images of women.
  table of contents: Women and the origins of alchemy -- Asia and the Middle East -- Alchemy in the Latin West -- Stain and redemption -- The body and the vessel -- Mother nature, mother earth -- As above, so below -- Mythological metamorphosis -- The domestic alchemist --The foolish alchemist's wife -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography.
  note: M.E. Warlick ; edited by Merlin Cox ; designed by Robert Shehu-Ansell.
  note: Includes bibliographical references (page 287-305).
  subject:
    topic: Alchemy in art
  subject:
    topic: Alchemy in literature
  subject:
    topic: Alchemy
    topic: History
  subject:
    topic: Women in science
  subject:
    topic: Alchemy
    topic: History
    topic: Women
  subject:
    topic: Alchimie dans l'art
  subject:
    topic: Alchimie dans la littérature
  subject:
    topic: Alchimie
    topic: Histoire
    topic: Femmes
  subject:
    topic: Femmes dans les sciences
  subject:
    topic: Alchimie
    topic: Histoire
  classification: N7745.A4 W37 2025
  classification: 700
  identifier: 9781399947718
  identifier: 1399947710
  location:
    physical location: POD
  record info:
    record content source: TLMRT
    record creation date: 251027
    record change date: 20260406152720.0
    record identifier: in00005777841
    language of cataloging:
      language term: eng