<br><br>Mary the (also: Mary the Jew, Maria Grechanka, Maria Koptskaya) – the first female alchemist, presumably living in the 1st or 3rd . n. e .; the possible founder of the Alexandrian alchemical school, the inventor of a number of and processes used to this day.<br>Origin<br>Most historians consider Mary to be Jewish. The alchemist Olympiodorus (IV century AD) cites a famous passage, because of which Mary began to be called a Jewess. Speaking about the „sanctity” of her book (the treatise „On Stoves and Appliances” preserved in the retelling of Zosimus Panopolitus), Mary warns: „Do not touch her (if you are not from the family of Abraham) when you really are not of our kind.” The meaning of this phrase is not entirely clear, since the passage in parentheses seems to some to be a gloss inserted into the text by a later scribe.<br><br>Some have mistakenly identified Mary the Prophetess with Miriam the Prophetess (sister of Moses) or Mary Magdalene.<br><br>The Swiss researcher Kurt Seligmann believes that the nickname of Mary „Jewess” is incorrect, that she should rather be called „Mary the Greek”.<br><br>Mary is mentioned by Zosimus Panopolitus in the 4th century. in the earliest surviving alchemical treatise., as well as the Alexandrian alchemist Ostanes.<br>Discoveries<br>Maria Prophetissa was the inventor of the benmari, a specially designed water bath used in alchemy and chemistry. The bath allowed substances to be heated very slowly, and today it is used in cooking when heating sauces. She was also the creator kerokatisa – a closed vessel in which the thinnest plates of various metals were exposed to steam, and tribicosa – apparatus resembling a distillation. With the help of these devices, knowing the different boiling points of various liquids, Maria Profetissa learned to separate liquid mixtures into separate substances. These were the first steps towards the production of spirits and essences.<br>Philosophical views<br>She is credited with the statement: “One becomes two, and two becomes three, and [благодаря] the third one – the fourth. ” (Axiom of Mary) K. Jung interpreted this thought as a path to individualization.<br>