Vol. 4, No. 8 The Stockholm Papyrus
979
I. Introduction
In a recent issue of This Journal the
writer had the privilege of publishÂÂing an English translation of the
famous Leyden Papyrus X together with a few brief comments and notes on
its history, contents, and sigÂÂnificance.1 The present
article is a similar translation of the contents of the less well-known
Stockholm Papyrus. This papyrus likewise has never been translated into
English as far as the writer is aware, although Stillman in his
interesting "Story of Early Chemistry," has paraphrased several of the
most representative recipes. It is offered here in the hope that it
will prove of some interest to teachers and students of the history of
chemistry. The contents of the papyrus are equally important for the
early history of technical chemistry and, if anything, are more varied
and comprehensive than those of the one at Leyden. As a matter of fact
the two papyri are complementary and taken together they give an
excellent cross-sectional view of the operations and aims of chemical
technology in the beginning centuries of the Christian Era. They are
the only original laboratory documents that have come down to us from
that period and hence their great value for the history of chemistry,
esÂÂpecially on account of the light they throw upon the beginnings of
alchemy.
Both
of these earliest chemical manuscripts were brought to light in the
early years of the last century by Johann d'Anastasy, the vice-consul
of Sweden at Alexandria, Egypt. This collector sold the major portion
of his invaluable collection of papyri to the Netherlands government in
the year 1828. Included in this collection of papyri was the Eeyden
Papyrus X, first translated (into Latin) and made public by Leemans in
1885. At that time it was believed by historians of chemistry that this
was the sole original document relating to chemical technology that was
dated as early as the third century A.D. In the year 1913, however,
Otto Lagercrantz, a Swedish philologist, published the Greek text with
a German translation and an extended commentary of a very similar
chemical papyrus.2 His investigations as to the source of
the papyrus developed the fact that it had been presented by Johann
dAnastasy, the discoverer of the Leyden Papyrus, to the Swedish Academy
of AnÂÂtiquities at Stockholm in the year 1832. Here it had
unfortunately reÂÂmained unnoticed for some seventy-five years until it
was transferred
1 .See This Journal, 3, 1149-66 (Oct., 1926).
2 Otto Lagercrantz, "Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis," Almquist and Wiksells, 'Upsala, Sweden, 1913.
