Inadvertent alchemists

Alchemists were doomed from the start in their impossible pursuit to transform base metals into gold. Luckily, they left their mark in the realms of lighting, explosives, beauty products, kitchenware and distilled spirits.

Der Alchimist by Franz Carl Spitzweg (1808–1885), oil on canvas. The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH)

Mary the Jewess or Miriam the Prophetess

What little we do know about Mary comes second-hand from the works of the Gnostic Christian writer Zosimos of…