{
  "author": "ChronologiaOS editorial guides",
  "date": "2026-10-09",
  "department": "Technology & Instruments",
  "department_id": "TECHNOLOGY",
  "epistemic_label": "Source guide",
  "epistemic_status": "SOURCE_GUIDE",
  "period": "1st\u20137th centuries CE",
  "place": "Egypt and Byzantium",
  "public_sources": [
    {
      "publisher": "Cambridge University Press",
      "title": "Zosimos of Panopolis: Of Virtue, Lessons 1\u20133",
      "type": "Critical edition and translation",
      "url": "https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/alchemy-reader/zosimos-of-panopolis-fl-c-300-ad-of-virtue-lessons-13/0FD98882E6321A144B49317EFDB33647"
    },
    {
      "publisher": "Cambridge University Press",
      "title": "Stephanos of Alexandria: From The Great and Sacred Art of the Making of Gold",
      "type": "Critical edition and translation",
      "url": "https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/alchemy-reader/stephanos-of-alexandria-first-half-of-seventh-century-ad-from-the-great-and-sacred-art-of-the-making-of-gold/AC4A3ACFA8DCFE5999DA0329A64B3569"
    },
    {
      "publisher": "Cambridge University Press",
      "title": "Pseudo-Democritus: On Things Natural and Mystical",
      "type": "Critical edition and translation",
      "url": "https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/alchemy-reader/pseudodemocritus-first-or-second-century-ad-from-the-treatise-of-democritus-on-things-natural-and-mystical/B00116659657F0C20F64FBC1017E997B"
    }
  ],
  "publication_state": "PUBLIC",
  "read_time": "4 min read",
  "sections": [
    {
      "body": "The Cambridge Alchemy Reader presents lessons from Of Virtue by Zosimos of Panopolis, active around 300 CE. The research record stores his floruit as a scholarly date and notes that recipe parallels with other compilations are research leads, not automatic lines of dependence.",
      "heading": "Start with Zosimos",
      "source": 0
    },
    {
      "body": "Stephanos of Alexandria's Great and Sacred Art of the Making of Gold is placed in the first half of the seventh century CE, but the attribution is debated. The record keeps that debate visible and lets the uncertainty propagate to any transmission claim that uses the text.",
      "heading": "A disputed author",
      "source": 1
    },
    {
      "body": "On Things Natural and Mystical is attributed to Democritus, but scholarship places it in the first or second century CE and the record forbids identifying its author with Democritus of Abdera. Attribution and date are separate claims, each with low confidence here.",
      "heading": "A name that is not the author",
      "source": 2
    },
    {
      "body": "Three texts, three kinds of author problem: a known writer, a disputed one, and a borrowed name. How would each affect your reading of a shared recipe?",
      "heading": "A question to carry forward"
    }
  ],
  "short_title": "Who wrote the first alchemy?",
  "slug": "zosimos-stephanos-and-pseudo-democritus-alchemy-with-names-attached",
  "summary": "Three Greek alchemical texts carry three kinds of author problem: a known writer, a disputed one, and a borrowed name. Learn how each changes what a shared recipe can prove.",
  "tags": [
    "Alchemy",
    "Zosimos",
    "Stephanos of Alexandria",
    "Pseudo-Democritus",
    "Attribution"
  ],
  "title": "Zosimos, Stephanos, and Pseudo-Democritus: alchemy with names attached."
}