thumb|geberi philosophi ac alchimistae maximi de alchimia libri tres, 1531, [http://www.chemheritage.org chemical heritage foundation] thumb|geberis philosophi perspicacissimi, summa perfectionis magisterii, 1542 pseudo-geber ("false geber") is the name assigned by modern scholars to an anonymous european alchemist born in the 13th century (sometimes identified with paul of tarantowilliam r. newman. new light on the identity of geber", sudhoffs archiv 69 (1985): 79-90), who wrote books on alchemy and metallurgy, in latin, under the pen name of "geber". "geber" is the shortened and latinised form of the name jÄbir ibn hayyÄn, a ninth century islamic alchemist. in europe for many centuries from the 14th century onward it was assumed that "geber" was identical with jabir ibn hayyan and that the books of "geber" had been translated from arabic. arabic alchemy was held in high esteem by 13th century european alchemists. pseudo-geber adopted the name of his illustrious arabic predecessor to attach more stature to his own work. the practice of adopting the name of an illustrious predecessor is called pseudepigraphy and it was not uncommon in the medieval era. similarly, a wide variety of medieval writings were distributed with the illustrious aristotle as the stated author, which were not written by the original authentic aristotle. in the domain of alchemy and metallurgy in late medieval europe, pseudo-geber's output was highly influential, arguably more influential than any other author. ==the pseudo-geber corpus and the geber problem== the following set of books is called the "pseudo-geber corpus" (or the "latin geber corpus"). the books were published by printing-press several times in the first half of the 16th century.alchemy and early modern chemistry, allen g. debus, jeremy mills publishing, 2004. isbn 978-0-9546484-1-1. they were in circulation in manuscript for roughly 200 years beforehand. the stated author is "geber" or "gebri arabis" (latin for "geber the arab"), and it is stated in some copies that the translator is "rodogero hispalensi" (latin for "rodger of seville"). *summa perfectionis magisterii ("the height of the perfection of mastery"). *liber fornacum ("book of furnaces"), *de investigatione perfectionis ("on the investigation of perfection"), and *de inventione veritatis ("on the discovery of truth"). also: *testamentum geberi *alchemia geberi being the clearest expression of alchemical theory and laboratory directions available until then &mdash; in a field where
13th-century_scientists Alchemists Impostors