Mary the Jewess: Biography, Facts and Career

Mary or Maria the Jewess (Latin: Maria Hebraea), also known as Mary the Prophetess (Latin: Maria Prophetissa) or Maria the Copt (Arabic: مارية القبطية, romanized: Māriyya al-Qibṭiyya), was an early alchemist known from the works of Zosimos of Panopolis (fl. c. 300 CE) and other authors in the Greek alchemical tradition. On the basis of Zosimos's comments, she lived between the first and third centuries CE in Alexandria. Marilyn French, F. Sherwood Taylor and Edmund Oscar von Lippmann list her as one of the first alchemical writers, dating her works at no later than the first century. She is credited with the invention of several kinds of chemical apparatus (e.g., the bain-marie) and is considered to be the first true alchemist of the Western world. Through Zosimos many of the beliefs of Mary the Jewess can be observed. Mary incorporated lifelike attributes into her descriptions of metal such as bodies, souls, and spirits. Mary believed that metals had two different genders, and by joining the two genders together a new entity could be made.

Quick facts about Mary the Jewess

• Full name: Mary the Jewess
• Nationality: Egypt
• Known as: Author
• Wikidata ID: Q7499

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