Rhapsodomancy
Divination by means of opening the works of a poet at hazard and reading the verse which first presents itself oracularly. Rhasis (or Rasi): An Arabian alchemist whose real name was Mohammed-Ebn-Secharjah Aboubekr Arrasi. He was born at Ray, in Trâk, Khorassan, about 850. In his youth he devoted himself to music and the lighter pastimes, and it was not till he had passed his thirtieth year that he turned his attention to the healing art. But having done so, he studied it to good purpose, and speedily became a most skilful physician. His natural goodness of heart induced him to turn his knowledge and skill to account in order to benefit his poorer brethren. The study of philosophy also claimed his attention and he travelled to Syria, Egypt, and Spain in search of knowledge.
He was exceedingly fond of experimenting in medicine and chemistry, and was the first to mention borax, orpiment, realgar, and other chemical compounds. The authorship of two hundred and twenty-six treatises is ascribed to him, and some of these works influenced European medicine so late as the 17th century. He firmly believed in the Rishi transmutation of metals, and wrote a glowing treatise on the subject which he presented to Emir Almansour, Prince of Khorassan. The Emir showed his gratitude in a practical fashion by giving Rhasis a thousand pieces of gold, at the same time desiring to be present during the working of some of the experiments with which the volume was plentifully illustrated. Rhasis consented, on condition that the prince supplied the necessary apparatus. No expense was spared in furnishing a laboratory for the alchemistical experiments, but unfortunately the boasted skill of the alchemist failed him and the performance ended miserably. Rhasis, who was now well advanced in years, was unmercifully beaten by the angry emir, who chose the unlucky treatise to belabour him with. This incident is said to have caused the blindness with which the alchemist was afterwards afflicted.
He died about 932 in the deepest poverty.
In his studies in chemistry he has left some results of real value, notwithstanding the time and trouble he spent in the pursuit of the philosopher's stone. Another theory which he held in common with Geber and others was that the planets influenced metallic formation under the earth's surface.
Richet, Professor: (See Spiritualism.) Richter, Sigmund: (See-Rosicrucians.) Riko, A. J.: (See Holland.) Rinaldo des Trois Echelles : A much-dreaded French sorcerer of the reign of Charles IX., who, at his execution, boasted before the king that he had in France three hundred thousand confederates, whom they could not thus commit to the flames-meaning, doubtless, the demons of the Sabbath. Ripley, George: This alchemist was born about the middle of the fifteenth century at Ripley, in Yorkshire, in which county his kinsfolk appear to have been alike powerful and numerous. Espousing holy orders, he became an Augustinian, while subsequently he was appointed Canon of Bridlington in his native Yorkshire, a priory which had been founded in the time of Henry I. by Walter de Ghent. Ripley's sacerdotal office did not prevent him travelling, and he prosecuted empirical studies at various places on the continent, while he even penetrated so far afield as the island of Rhodes, where he is said to have made a large quantity of gold for the knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Going afterwards to Rome he was dignified by the Pope, the result being that, when he got back to Bridlington, he found his brethren there intensely jealous of him. It is reported, indeed, that he even resigned his position and retired to a priory at Boston, but this story is probably unfounded, the likelihood being that Ripley the alchemist has been confounded with George Ripley, a Carmelite friar who lived at Boston in the thirteenth century, and wrote a biography of St. Botolph.
Ripley died in England in 1490, but his fame did not die with him, and in fact his name continued to be familiar for many years after his decease. He had been among the first to popularise the chymical writings attributed to Raymond Lully, which first became known in England about 1445, at which time an interest in alchemy was increasing steadily among English scholars the more so because the law against multiplying gold had lately been repealed; while Ripley wrote a number of learned treatises himself, notably Medulla Alchimice, The Treatise of Mercury and The Compound of Alchemie, the last-named being dedicated to King Edward IV. A collected edition of his writings was issued at Cassel in Germany in 1649, while in 1678 an anonymous English writer published a strange volume in London, Ripley Revived, or an Exposition upon George Ripley's Hermetico-Poetical Works.