In this interview, I spoke with Professor Alexander Roberts about Byzantine and Islamic science, especially the history of alchemy. He explained that the word “alchemy” can sometimes be misleading because many of the people we now call alchemists were really studying chemical processes, such as how metals, dyes, medicines, and other materials changed when they were mixed or heated. We also discussed how Byzantine scholars copied and commented on older Greek texts while also connecting this knowledge to practical work done by artisans, metalworkers, and doctors. Professor Roberts explained that these scholars were not always simply trying and failing to create gold. Instead, they were often debating whether a new metal mixture that looked like gold could actually be considered real gold. We also talked about the relationship between alchemy and religion, the effect of the Crusades and the sack of Constantinople on Byzantine books and scholarship, and the possibility that chemical knowledge was connected to the production and debasement of Byzantine coins. Overall, the interview showed that Byzantine alchemy was much more scientific and complicated than the popular idea of people simply trying to turn ordinary metals into gold.
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