Mary the Jewess

Mary or Maria the Jewess (Latin: Maria Prophetissima), also known as Mary or Miriam the Prophetess, is an early alchemist who is known from the works of the Gnostic Christian writer Zosimos of Panopolis. On the basis of Zosimos's comments, she lived between the first and third centuries A.D.French, Taylor and 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 and is considered to be the first true alchemist of the Western world. However, The figure of Maria Prophetissima may have been developed from Miriam, a sister of Moses. (reference needed)

The primary source for the existence of "Mary the Jewess" within the context of alchemy is Zosimos of Panopolis, who wrote, in the 4th century, the oldest extant books on alchemy. Zosimos described several of Mary's experiments and instruments. In his writings, Mary is almost always mentioned as having lived in the past, and she is described as "one of the sages."

George Syncellus, a Byzantine chronicler of the 8th century, presented Mary as a teacher of Democritus, whom she had met in Memphis, Egypt, during the time of Pericles.

The 10th century Kitāb al-Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim cited Mary as one of the 52 most famous alchemists and stated that she was able to prepare caput mortuum, a purple pigment.

The early medieval achemical text ascribed to an otherwise unknown "Morienus Romanus" called her "Mary the Prophetess," and the Arabs knew her as the "Daughter of Plato" — a name which, in Western alchemical texts, was reserved for white sulfur.

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