Jewelry

2006-01-09T06:38:36Z

69.221.146.35:

'''Jewelry''' was a diverse art during the [[middle ages]] of making items that ornamented their wearer. Items could be purely decorative, or practical items to which decoration was added to create a pleasant effect, and impression of wealth.

Jewelry included items [[modern]]ly thought of as jewelry:
*[[ring]]s, including [[seal ring]]s
*[[brooch]]es including [[annular]]s, [[pennanular]]s, [[disk brooch]]es
*necklaces
*pendants including decorative [[seal]]s, reliquaries, and much more
*decorative [[pin]]s, and also [[veil pin]]s
*bracelets
*[[earring]]s
and also other items:
*[[horse harness pendant]]s
*fancy jewelled [[belt]]s
*jewelled [[trim]] on clothing
*[[fillet]]s (head bands), [[torc]]s, [[circlet]]s, [[crown]]s, [[coronet]]s
*[[pilgrims badge]]s

Jewelry could be made from a variety of materials:
*metal wire ([[gold]], [[silver]], [[copper]], [[lead]], alloys....)
*cast [[metal]] such as [[pewter]]
*[[bead]]s from [[gemstones]], [[glass]], [[ivory]], [[shell]] and coral, [[rock]] (e.g. fossils), [[wood]] or [metal]]
*[[enamel]]ling
*carved wood or ivory (sometimes covered in other objects, e.g. painted, gilded or inset with gems)
*[[coin]]s or other keepsakes, e.g. a disk brooch or earring from a coin (although in some cases deliberate copies were manufactured).

== See also ==
*[[gemstones]]
*[[bead]]s
*[[gold]]

== References ==
*[http://www.addgr.com/jewel/elka/index.html Greek jewelry]
*[http://www.florilegium.org/files/ACCESS/jewelry-msg.html Jewelry in Stefan's floregium]

Alchemy

2006-01-09T04:03:01Z

69.221.146.35:

'''Alchemy''' was a pseudoscience of [[medieval]] times, probably influenced by the [[Egypt]]ians and the [[Greek Philosophy]] of [[Democritus]].

It is based on the idea that the world is composed of the four elements [[fire]], air, water and earth. These elements are considered to be contained in all things, the most common example being wood which "obviously" contained earth (which was why it was hard) and water (sap when squeezed out) and air (smoke when lit) and fire (you could light it). It was a nice little theory...

The basic idea of the atom as the "smallest unit of divisibility" was also formed during this time - though this truly bears little relation to the present-day concept of the atom (which is merely named after the Democritian concept). Atoms were considered to be tiny, perfect spheres and made up of one of the four above-mentioned elements...considering the scientific state-of-the-art up to that point, not a bad theory, and one which lasted surprisingly long.

One of the concepts was that, because [[lead]] and [[gold]] (the perfect metal) were from the earth element, earth could therefore be turned into lead and gold using an "appropriate catalyst" known as the [[Philosophers stone|Philosopher's Stone]]. This was a magical substance which could turn water into [[wine]], heal the sick, and as mentioned, turn really boring lumps of metal into gold and [[silver]]. Most of it though was just processes like mixing [[copper]] with [[arsenic]] to give it a silver finish, or a philosophical trick by which the alchemist's [[apprentice]], through years of hard work and training, was turned from lead (i.e. an ignorant klutz) into gold (i.e. an alchemically educated klutz).

The quest to turn lead into gold was also a spiritual one, as it represented the change of an impure substance into a pure substance - the equivalent of returning Man from his current state of sin to a state of Grace last known before the Fall.

Despite never discovering the Philosopher's Stone, alchemists did come up with a number of interesting reactions and the knowledge gathered eventually led to the foundations of modern [[chemistry]].

Alchemy also gave rise to concept of the [[panacea]], the "[[medicine]]" to cure all illnesses - also never found, but a search for it led to an interesting number of ways to [[poison]] oneself (mercury, silver and lead poisoning being numbered under the chief ways that alchemists died).

== Links ==

; [http://www.alchemywebsite.com/ The Alchemy Website] (mirrored at [http://www.levity.com/alchemy www.levity.com/alchemy]) : A site for modern alchemists; do not expect that modern alchemy is necessarily related to period alchemy.

Cunnan - User contributions [en]

Jewelry

Alchemy