Mary the Jewess

Maria the Jewess or Maria Prophetissa regarded as the founder of alchemy and was the most important alchemist ancient times. The Jewish woman who worked and lived between the 1st and 3rd centuries in Alexandria (North Africa), was also an inventor.

In it the Carl Gustav Jung as " axiom of Maria Prophetissa " designated maxim that which is narrated in different versions: " From one is two, two is from three, and the one of the third party is the fourth; then the two become one. " Or: " The one is to two, which is two to three, and from the third party as the A Fourth "This sentence is apparently to speculation number from the Gnostic- Neoplatonic cosmology.. The many attempts to interpret this sentence inspired Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to (seemingly) pointless " witches basics " in Faust I.

Furthermore, her invention of various devices for regulated heating of substances is attributed as the the sand bath similar Aschenbad, the acting by the fermentation heat " hotbed " ( Venter equinum ) and especially the heated pool of water bain-marie, which is named after her. Other inventions of it ought to be Kerotakis ( pressure cooker ) and the first still Tribikos the equipment; that were produced at the reflux apparatus sulfides still bear the name of the Black Maria.

A native of Egypt Greek Zosimus from Panopolis (ca. 350-420 ), she mentioned several times in his works on alchemy, but identified them falsely with Miriam, the sister of Moses. It is sometimes even confused with Maria Aegyptiaca.

Under its name of the alchemical treatise Practica circulating in artem alchimicam, which is preserved in the Collection Artis auriferae libri duo (Basel 1572). Another work is the late Excerpta ex interlocutione Mariae profetissae, sororis Moysis et Aaronis. A German version of the Latin treatise can be found in Opus Aureum A. de Villa Nova, 17th Century.