Artephius (or Artefius) (c. 1150) is a writer to whom a number of
alchemical
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...
texts are ascribed. Although the roots of the texts are unclear and the identity of their author obscure, at least some of them are Arabic in origin. He is named as the author of several books, the ''Ars sintrillia'', ''Clavis sapientiae'' or ''Clavis maioris sapientiae'', and ''Liber secretus''.
Confusion over identity
Alchemical
pseudepigraphy makes it difficult to identify who the historical Artephius may have been. His identity remains an open question. As ''The Secret Book of Artephius'' was respected and mentioned by
Roger Bacon many times, Artephius’ writing is dated to around 1150. One author,
Restoro d'Arezzo, conflated
Orpheus
Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with J ...
with Artephius in his ''Composizione del Mondo'' in 1282.
[Austin, H.D. 1937. "Artephius-Orpheus." ''Speculum'' 12: 251–54.] This mistake was due to a translation error, with the Arabic for Orpheus and Artephius being very similar. This transcription error gave us "Artephius", an alchemist without a historical personality.
[Levi della Vida, G. 1938. "Something More about Artefius and His Clavis Sapientiae." Speculum 13: 80–85]
Artephius has also been misidentified as a Jewish convert,
[Patai , Raphael. ‘‘The Jewish alchemists: A history and source book.’’ Princeton University Press. 1994. p. 142] Apollonius of Tyana,
Stephanos of Alexandria,
Al-Tughrai,
and
Ibn Umail.
The discovery of a 13/14th-century copy of ''Clavis Sapientia'' confirms that the text was first written in Arabic by a Muslim author.
Legacy
A
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
tradition held that Artephius had been born in the first or second century and died in the twelfth, thanks to having discovered the alchemical elixir that made it possible to prolong life. In his ''Secret Book'', Artephius indeed claims to be more than a thousand years old.
In printed form, works attributed to Artephius became well known in the seventeenth century. A work ''Artefii clavis majoris sapientiae'' was printed in Paris in 1609. Later it would also appear within Volume IV of
Theatrum Chemicum, printed originally in 1613.
Then in 1624, Eirenaeus Orandus provided an English translation of the 'secret booke'.
The Latin editions of ''Clavis Sapentia'' are highly abridged and lack the original diagrams found in the Arabic text.
Notes
Sources
*Austin, H.D. 1937. "Artephius-Orpheus." ''Speculum'' 12: 251–54.
*Levi della Vida, G. 1938. "Something More about Artefius and His Clavis Sapientiae." Speculum 13: 80–85.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Artephius
12th-century Arabic writers
12th-century alchemists
Alchemists of the medieval Islamic world
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown