Alchemy

Nicolas Flamel
1330-1418
[Incidentally, his house still exists and is considered the oldest building in Paris]

I just want to draw your attention to the very early chemists and physicists--the "alchemists". Yes, they were shrouded in mystery and branded as individuals solely focused on changing lead into gold, and some were, but for the most part these people were interested in the fundamental composition of matter. Don't overlook these creative individuals.

This is a superb site on alchemy and alchemists.

Over 150 megabytes online of information on alchemy in all its facets. Divided into over 2400 sections and providing tens of thousands of pages of text, over 2500 images, over 240 complete alchemical texts, extensive bibliographical material on the printed books and manuscripts, numerous articles, introductory and general reference material on alchemy.

The Alchemy Web Site