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Didier Kahn. Alchimie et Paracelsisme en France à la fin de la Renaissance (1567-1625). Cahiers d'Humanisme et Renaissance, vol. 80. Geneva: Librairie Droz, 2007. x + 806 pp. Ill. euro86.48 (paperbound, 978-2-600-00688-0).
Didier Kahn's numerous articles about the history of alchemy and esoteric philosophy in France are characterized by a very wide knowledge of the relevant texts, meticulous and clearly articulated readings, a phenomenal ability to ferret out pertinent archival material, and a thorough and up-to-the-minute treatment of secondary literature. The book under review is one part of his dissertation, which he finished at Université de Paris IV Sorbonne in 1998. In this first volume of a projected three-part series, he seeks to establish the chronology of the appearance of alchemical books and ideas in France. In the second installment, he will focus on the individuals and their milieu, and in the third, he will provide an overarching synthesis of and conclusions about the history of alchemy in France. Judging from the 806 pages of the first volume, Kahn's three-volume work is destined to become the definitive account of alchemy in France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries-in particular of the reception and dissemination of the works of Paracelsus in France-but it also contains many important insights about European alchemy more broadly.
In Alchimie et Paracelsisme en France, Kahn approaches the history of alchemy as part of the general history of culture, and he seeks to integrate it into the history of books and ideas in Renaissance France. His approach is that of the literary historian, and he keeps his head down in his texts, scanning the landscape, however, for developments...