Editing Alembic (section)

== History ==
[[File:Alembics from Andreas Libavius Alchymia.png|thumb|upright|Alembics from a 1606 alchemy book]]

[[Dioscorides]]'s ambix, described in his {{lang|la|[[De materia medica]]}} (c. 50 C.E.), is a helmet-shaped lid for gathering condensed mercury. For [[Athenaeus]] (c. 225 C.E.) it is a bottle or flask. For later chemists it denoted various parts of crude distillation devices.

Alembic drawings appear in works of [[Cleopatra the Alchemist]] (3rd century C.E.), [[Zosimos of Panopolis]] (c. 300 C.E.), and [[Synesius]] (c. 373 – c. 414 C.E.). There were alembics with two (dibikos) and three (tribikos) receivers.<ref>{{citation |author=Marcellin Berthelot |author-link=Marcellin Berthelot |title=Introduction à l'étude de la chimie des anciens et du moyen âge |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3815b |publisher=Steinheil |year=1889 |pages=132, 135–142, 161–16}}</ref> According to Zosimos of Panopolis, the alembic was invented by [[Mary the Jewess]].<ref>{{citation |author=Edmund Lippmann |author-link=Edmund Oscar von Lippmann |title=Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie |url=https://archive.org/details/entstehungundaus00lippuoft |publisher=Springer |year=1919 |pages=48–49 }}</ref>

The anbik is described by [[Ibn al-Awwam]] in his {{lang|ar-Latn|Kitab al-Filaha}} (''Book of Agriculture''), where he explains how [[rose-water]] is distilled. Amongst others, it is mentioned in the {{lang|ar-Latn|Mafatih al-Ulum}} (''Key of Sciences'') of [[Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi|Khwarizmi]] and the {{lang|ar-Latn|Kitab al-Asrar}} (''Book of Secrets'') of [[Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi|al-Razi]]. Some illustrations occur in the Latin translations of works which are attributed to [[Pseudo-Geber|Geber]].<ref name="al-anbik" />
<gallery>
Image:Zosimosapparat.jpg|Alembic of [[Zosimos of Panopolis]]
Image:Alembic (PSF).jpg|Modern alembic
Image:AlambicCharentaisChalvignacPrulhoDistillation.jpg|Large "charentais" type alembic for distilling spirits
Image:Alambique 056.jpg|Copper [[retort]]
Image:Alembic.jpg|Glass alembic
Image:Chemical Faculty of TUG, staircase.jpg|Alembic metalwork in the staircase at the Chemical Faculty of [[Gdańsk University of Technology]], 1904
</gallery>