Sophia Brahe and The Alchemist on This Day in History

 

The History and Mystery of Alchemy is now available on Amazon...and it is only 99 cents.

This day in history: Danish noble woman and horticulturalist Sophia Brahe was born on this day in 1559. While described as working in astronomy, chemistry, and medicine, for the time she was living in, this meant she was also involved in astrology and alchemy. 

According to astrology, a person was marked for life by the positions of the planets at the exact time of his birth. With alchemy, the adept would try to find ways to turning base metals (like iron) into gold. Other saw that alchemy might have useful medicinal contributions.

Her brother was Tycho Brahe, a great mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, and alchemist. He has been described as "the first competent mind in modern astronomy to feel ardently the passion for exact empirical facts". Most of his observations were more accurate than the best available observations at the time. He was so confident in his superiority as a mathematician that he entered into a sword duel with another man to end an argument as to who was the greatest Danish mathematician. Brahe was one of those alchemists that used that particular science to promote medicine. In his own time, Tycho was also famous for his contributions to medicine; his herbal medicines were in use as late as the 1900s.

Sophia would go on to marry Erik Lange, a man so obsessed with Alchemy that he used up most of his fortune with alchemical experiments. There is a certain irony in a wealthy man going broke in his quest for gold.

Sophia would go on to learn astronomy on her own and she authored a 900 page long genealogy that is still considered a significant source of information on the early history of Danish nobility. Today, Sophia is regarded as one of Denmark’s and Scandinavia’s first female researchers and writers. 

It is now actually possible to turn base metals into gold, though not through the alchemical process. In 1981, physicists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory changed bismuth into gold using a nuclear process. 

Paulo Coelho's best-selling book The Alchemist was published on this day in 1988. The book follows a young Andalusian shepherd in his journey to the pyramids of Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding a treasure there. Along the way he runs into an Englishman looking for an alchemist...The boy also encounters a wise alchemist who also teaches him to realize his true self. Originally written in Portuguese, the book became a widely translated international bestseller. It sold more than 150 million copies by some reports.

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