This book is a popular and fascinating account of the development of alchemy and the great masters of the past. The book is replete with interesting quotes from little-known works, stories about adepts, their dedicated work, the Great Work, and their unexpected discoveries. The Author, not inclined to simplify the views of alchemists, shows how in the age of number, measure and weight, the intellectualization of alchemy took place and a new branch of knowledge was formed – chemistry.