Alchemy between pseudoscience and science. The Historical and Methodological Study

Traditionally, alchemy is regarded as an example of pseudoscience. In this paper I dispute this view and demonstrate that the practice of alchemy, in many aspects, can be interpreted as an experiment in protoscience. In the first part of the article, I introduce William R. Newman’s and Lawrence Principe’s analyses about the etymological origin of alchemy, its historiography and the origin of the separation between alchemy and chemistry. In the second part of the article I discuss different aspects on the practice of alchemy in light of the issues encountered with the inter-subjective repeatability of the experiments and the methods used to publicize the findings. In addition to the examination of the subjects researched, I also review the systematic elements found in the theoretical considerations presented by the alchemists