Willard, T. (2007) Alchemy in the Theater, Museum, and Library, 1602-1702.pdf

8/10/2019 Willard, T. (2007) Alchemy in the Theater, Museum, and Library, 1602-1702.pdf

1/19

MYSTICAL METAL OF GOLD

ESSAYS

ON

ALCHEMY

AND

RENAISSANCE CULTURE

Edited

by

STANTON J. LINDEN

Washington State

Uni

versity

AMS PRESS, INC.

New York


2/19

Contents

Introduction

Part One: Lives and Works of the Alchemists

JoNATHAN HuGHES

The

Humanity of Thoma Charnock, an Elizabethan Alch mi t

M ICHAEL WILDING

A Biography of Edward Kelly, the Engli h Alchemi t and As oci-

ate of

Dr.

John Dee

L

YNDY

ABRAHAM

A Biography of the English Alchemist Arthur Dee, Author of

Fasciculus

Chemicus and Son of Dr. John Dee

Part

Two: Alchemical Artifacts:

Texts,

Collections,

and Classifications

VLADIMIR

KARPENKO

Witnesses of a Dream: Alchemical Coins and Medals

R. IAN McCALLUM

Alchemical Scrolls Associated with George Ripley

GEORGE R. KEISER

Preserving the Heritage: Middle English Verse Treatises in Early

Modem Manuscripts

THOMAS WILLARD

Alchemy in the Theater, Museum, and Library, 1602-1702

v

vii

3

35

91

117

161

189

215


3/19

vi MYSTICAL METAL OF GOLD

Part Three: Spirit and Flesh

MI

HAEL

T. WALTON

Alchemy, Chemistry, and the Six

Days

of Creation

PETER J FoR HAw

Subliming Spirit :Physical-Chemistry and Thee-Alchemy in the

Work of Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1605)

UR

ZULA SZULAKOWSKA

The

Alchemical Medicine and Christology of Robert Fludd and

Abraham von Franckenberg

Part

Four: Alchemy and Seventeenth-Century

English Authors

YAAKOV

MA

ETTI

233

255

277

This i the famou stone : G orge Herbert's Poetic Alchemy in

The Elixir 301

ALAN RUDRUM

The

e fragment I have shored against

my

ruins : Henry

Vaughan, Alchemical Philosophy, and the Great Rebellion 325

STANTON

J

LINDEN

Smatterings of the Philo opher's Stone: Sir Thomas Browne

and Alchemy 339

Part Five: New Directions

PENNY BAYER

From Kitchen Hearth to Learned Paracelsianism: Women and

Alchemy in the Renaissance

LAURINDA

S DIXON

The Cure of Folly by Hieronymus Bosch: Alchemy, Medicine,

and Morality

GYORGY E SzONYI

Representations of Renaissance Hermetisrn in T wentieth-Cen-

tury Postmodem Fiction

Contributors

Index

365

387

405

425

429


4/19

7

Alchemy n the Theater Museum and

Library 1602 1702

Thomas Willard

When

alchemy went to press in

the

sixteenth century, and alchemical

manu-

cripts were printed and published, the activity of alchemy wa made in r a ingly

public. The quest for the Philosophers' Stone and

for

the Gr at Elixir r Pana

ea

was Lss strictly secret. The alchemist's workplace was till a priv te pace but

no longer a secret one. The work done there was increa ingly op n t pu lie

crutiny. The process continued in the

eventeenth

century, a imp rtant t x

were collected in

Large

antho logies and more recent text wer

anth I

gized

alongside the classics.

Most scholars agree

that

of the great antho l gi of alch my in th arly

modern period, the Largest and be t organized were the Theatrum Chemicum, he

Mu.saeum

Hermeticum,

and the

Bibliotheca

Chemica Curiosa.

1

The

titl can b

translated as the Chemical

Th

eater, the Hermetic Mu eum, and th '' uri-

ous Chemical Library -curious in the sense of elaborat . The m taphor in

these titles suggest that alchemy was moving still farther ut f privat pace

in the period when the anthologies first appeared, the peri d from 1602 t 1702.

The

English words theater, museum, and Library were ev lving, al ng

with their Latin counterparts, and were being applied to more public space

Theater still had its etymological sense of a

cons

pectus r view, along

with the more common dramatic sense, but was coming t be u ed as the

operating theater where surgery or anatomy might be performed. Mus um

still referred to a private rudy or collection, like

the

Wunderkammer r

chamber

of

curiosities, but

was

associated increasingly with public pace like

the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (1683) and the Museo Kircherian in Rome

(before 1678). Finally, Library

was

still used most often for a per ana l collecti n

of books, or for the room or shelf where it was housed, but was appli d t

institutions like the Bodleian Library (1620).

2

Those who introduced the n w

anthologies, whether as printers or editors, were aware of these po sibilities and

played

on

them in remarks to their patrons and readers. In the

next

three

sections, I sha ll discuss each anthology in terms of both its original plac of

publication

and

its metaphorical space.

For a buyer in search of alchemical texts in the year 1600--at least for a buyer

at the annual Frankfurt Book

Fair-the

book of choice was Artis Auriferae ( Of

the

Art

of Alchemy ). Printed in Basel

by

Konrad Waldkirch, this anthology

215


5/19

216

o ntain e dthirty-four separate wo

rk

in two

oc

tavo vo lume .

3

W aldkir h

had

r prinrcd an

anth

ology

of

fered by Pet r Perna of Ba

el

in

1572

and ba d n

earlier antho log ics hy Perna and hi pee rs, including the printers yri ac Jac b

f

Frankfurt

a

nd

Joha

nn

P tr i f

Nurnberg.

4

W a

ld

k

ir

ch would add an

th

r

vo lume in

16

10, when he re

print

ed

th

e

fir

t two in a new e

diti

on, bringing th

to tal number of t

xt

s to forty -five, but

by

thi s time his a

nth

o logy had b n

r

eplac

cd by a much larger one.

Tl T hcatr

um

hemicum wa the crea tion of Lazaru Ze tzner and wa kept

urr

n t

hy rwo gener

at

ions

of

hi he ir . First printed in four volume in 1

602,

ir was

x

pand

d

fi

ve v lum e in

16

22 a

nd

to

ix

in 1

662. Th

e

fir

st

f

ur

vo lumes, whi h t g th r in lu led

14

3 separa te te

xt

, were reprinted by Z tzn r

in 1614 , an

d

th

fiv

-volum editi on wa reprinted in 1659 and 166 0.

5

T hi

fin

al v e r s i n in

lu

ded 20 1 te

xt

in six

octa

vo volum es with m rc than v n

thou

sand

pag s.

6

Fo

r hce r size , thi a

nth

o logy is unrivale

d

in

th

lit r

at

ur

of

al

h my.

Laza

ru s Zetzncr wa s born in tras bourg in 1551 and pen t mo t of hi

life

th . H

r

bably ppr nticcd to

th

S trasb urg printer B rnhardt J bin, wh

busin

ss h

e

tc

k v r in 1

59

4. He b an to publi h b

oo

k

und

r

hi

o

wn

n m

in

15 5

and b am o ne f

th

e c ity ' most pro lific printer , averag ing n

foliosheet (t

w

fo li

o

pages)

every day

f th

e yea r.

7

He adapted hi m tt

,

cie

nti

a

im

muwbili immutabl kn wl edge ), fro m J bin's s

api

e

ntia

constans ( c n ta n

wisdom), and he printed a imilar

lin

f b oks, in te nd ed primarily f

r th

a

ad

emi

ma

rk

et

(

s e Fi

g.

L) .

J bin

print

ed bo k of musica l tabla

tur f

r

th

lu

te , an d

Zet

zner

print

ed a Ta

bl

a

rurbu

ch f organ mu ic. Jobin c

ate

red to

th

e

mark t in me li

al

tex , including

th

e alte rnative medicine of Paracel u . Zet-

zn r, meanwhile, printed th

fir

t encyclopedia of gyneco logy and a large r

man

ph a

rm

a p ia, b

ut

he al o re

print

ed key tex t of Parae lsian medi in

e

li

tcd

by

Joha

nn

Hu

se

r.

9

B th p

rint

ed a variety f classical and

hum

ani ti

t

xt

s.

Ze

tzn r was pa rt way

th

rough a four-volume set of

Andr

eas Alciat' c m-

p le

tc work

at

th time of hi dea th , in 1616.

10

His las t publication wa pe

rh

ap

his

be t kn wn : J h ann Valentin Andreae's Chy

mi

sche Hochzeit Chris

ti

ani Ro sen-

creutz

hemic l W dd ing of hri

tian

Rose

nkr

e

ut

z ),

print

ed

in 1616,

tw

year

af

ter

th

e

firs

t Ro ic

ru

c ian manife to . Zetzner had already

print

ed a

th logi-

ca l b k

by Andr

ea , a nd hi he ir later i

ss

ued his reasse

ss

ment of Rosicrucian-

i m in a bo k n

th

e T ow r of Babel

(Turri

s Babel).

11

There are myste rie urr unding the place of Zetzner' busine . The min r

my te

ry

is

th

at most of his b

oo

ks are said to be

print

ed in

Ar

ge

nt

ora

tum, th

e

R man nam f

tr

a bourg, a city on

the

west ba

nk

of

the Rhin

e

in th

e old

kingdom of Burgundy

and

mode

rn

day France . His G erman language book ar

a id to be printed in S

tr

aburg, which indica tes

th

e same city on th e

Rhin

and n t

th

e

to

wn of

th

at name

in

Pomerani a.

Th

e gr

ea

ter my tery is

th

at sev ral

of hi books are said to be

print

ed in Fra

nkfurt

or o

ther

place , even at

tim

e

wh n he wa pro lucing books in tra bourg. Th e reasons are more likely

eco-

nomic

th

an politica l or re ligio u . Mo t of these boo ks are works of humani tic

cho lar

hip

:

co

mm

e

nt

arie on

Ari

s

totl

e sa

id

to be

print

ed

in

C olog

ne

or Fra

nk-

furt, where th e Alci

at

b oks were also printed. However,

th

e first four volum


6/19

Alchemy

in

the

Theate

r, Mus

eum,

and Library,

1

602

-

1702 2L7

THEATRUM CHEMJCUM

PR IPUOS

SELECTORUM

AUCTO-

RUM TRACTATUS DE CHE

MIET LAPlDIS PHILOSOPHICI

Anriquitate, vetitate, jure, prstantia, op e -

rationibu.s, continens:

In

grattam

V er C hemi , medicin

Che-

mcstudosoum

utqui

uberrimam inde

opmorum

e -

medorummessemfacerepoterunt c o n g e s t u m

inSex

p rt

es

seuvolumisn digestum

;

S N

U LIS VOLUMINIBUS,

SUO A

UCTORUM ET LIBRORUM

Catalogo prim is pagellis : rerum vero& ve rbo-

rum Indice

postrem

is annexo.

OLUM N PRIMUM.

ARGENTORATI,

Sumptibus

HERE DUM

EBERH.

ZETZNERI

M

D

c L

1

X

M

Fi g. 1.

Titl

e page

of

Th

eatr

um

C hemicum

with [ rin ter' device.

f the 1602 Th ea

trum

purport

to

be

printed

in Ur el., a town n

rth

f Frankfur ,

where Zetzn r seems

to

have

printed

no thing

els

e. Perhap he p

ut

w rk ut on

commis ion to

ot

h

er

printers, having t o many other pr jeers for hi tra bourg

hop.

More like

ly, though, he ant

icip

ated

str ng

dem

an d

and

wanted a pre

r

un

large r

than

the

2,000

cop

ies

permitted

und

er trasb urg city

ta tut

e .

He

re

printed

individual tracts from the

Theatrum

in

Stra

bourg,

12

and reprinted

a ll

four volumes

there

in 1614.

Zetzner

dedicated

the first four

vo

lume of the

Th

ea trum

to

the duk f

Wi.irttemberg and elector of Saxony. Knowing

th

at

Duke

Fr

ederick

the

Fi

rs twa


7/19

218

MYSTIC

AL

METAL

OF

GOLD

a 1 ver and patron of th ea te

r,

Zetzner sa id he had chosen the te

xt

s at great

co

t

and labor

and

had et them out as in a theater

( quasi

Theatrum ) so that they

co

uld be p 1leasurab ly contemplated and judge d like performances in th e mo t

beautiful

th

ater

(

veu

lti

pulcerrim

o

h

eatro").

Knowing that Frederick

wa

s

a lover of formal

ga

rd ens, Zetzner

invit

ed

him

to browse through the tex ts in

the Theatrum as he would enter a marvelous ga

rd

en, we ll cultivated and artfully

arrang d, where a

ll

kinds

of

hea lthy herbs could be plucked along

with

va

ri

us

fl ower an

d

fruit , ach with its own u e and pleasure .'

These statements upp rted the title page promise that the Thea

trum

wa

intende

d

- pecially for stud nt of chemical med icine, hav ing been

c

o

llecte

d

by th e g

ra

ce f stude

nt

s

of Tru

e Chemistry and Chemical Me

dicin

e, in ord er

that th y can reap a

pi

ntiful harv e t f honest remed ies from it. With the

mphai on Vera Che

mia

and its students, Zetzner conceded th at th ere was a

false co

un.r

erp art,

th

e alchemy professed by dece ivers a

nd

se lf-deceiver

s.

A good

Lutheran, he proceeded on th e a sumption th at his readers would want the true

alch emy. In the fourth v lume, as he addr

es

eel th e candid reader who had

p r eve rcd

thr

ugh the first three, he hoped th e reader h ad derived some benefit

and tru ted, perhap

di

singenuous

ly, th

at

the

reader could now pr duce ophi stic

gold. But he warned the reader not to ove rlook the universa l work of salvation ,

c mpared t which a ll else i labor and sorr

w.

14

In

1

622,

Zetzner's

heirs, led by Eberhardt Zetzner,

pr

oduc d a fifth volume.

Th

ey ackn wledged th e as i ranee of Isaac Habrecht, M.D., in gather ing manu-

sc ripts, perhap unaware

that

Habrecht took many items from

th

e Artis Auriferae.

ln

a preface t

the

reade

r,

the

heirs

co

ntinued

th

e

the

atri ca l metaphor as

th

ey

as

ked the read r t tolerate a few rogues among

th

e ade

pt

s:

A in th

eatr

ica l actions

the

characters are introd uced, not only of the

king, m

ag

nate, and prince, but often of rustics and se

rv

a

nt

s and not

eld om of beggars, lepe rs, and foo ls, so in th is spectacle of chemical

a

uth

ors we introduce for lev ity not only

the

fops

but

armed soldiers,

in

order that spectators may bring

li

ght and show discrimination eve n as

th

ey are

in

tru

cte

d.' '

Th

e ca t of characters is traig

ht

o

ut

of T erence

and

Plautus,

complete with

alazon

and miles glori

osus-ch

arac ters also found in stude

nt

plays like those

of

Johannes Reuchlin, the famed cabbalist.

16

Indeed, several tracts in

th

e

fir

st four

volum

es

are in th e form of dialogues.

17

One

was turned in to a masque for the

Jacobean stage.

18

In 1661, the heirs of Eberhardt Zetzner released the six

th

and final volume

of the Theat;um. It con isted of alchemical tracts written in German or Fre

nch

and translated

in t

o La

tin

by Johann Jacob Heilma

nn,

M.

D.

, of

Zweibruck

and

Johann Frederic Beza, M.D., of Strasbourg.

Heilmann

dedicated the volume

to

his benefacto r, Frederick, count of

the

Palatine, the son of the ill-fated

kin

g of

Bohemia and a relative

of

Frederick of Wi.irttemberg, to

whom the

first four

volumes had been dedicated. Like Lazarus Zetzner nearly sixty years earlier, he

a ked his pa

tr

on to tolerate the range of speakers

in

the volume, including

all


8/19

Alchemy

in

the Th eater, Mu seum, and

Librar

y,

1602-

17

02 219

type of foes, mockers, ridic

ul

ers, and sophists till immer ee l in

th

e hadow f

ignorance.

19

However, he wrote a a researcher, not as a book eller, and showed

no sign

of wantin

g a larger public.

lnd

eed, he a

dele

I

a e

cond

dedicati n

t

an anonymous disciple of C hortolasseus and

the

s n

of Sendivo

g

iu

,

th

e most

celebrated Herm

et

ic Philoso

pher

of our ag .

20Cho

rto lasseus

wa

s a p eud nym

used

by

Johann Grasshoff, a

fo

llower

of

Michae l Sencl iv gi us and

th

e Paracelsian

d

ctrine

s e p u

se

d

by

Senclivog

iu s;

he probably organi

zed

an esoteric group, to

whom he addres eel the

cabala

chemica in a tract that Heilmann tran lat d.

21

As

if t how his esoteric colors, Heilmann igncd

himse

lf a lov r f th phy

a

nd

phi losophy in the eco

nd

dedication,

at

a time when th e new term

t

heoso-

phy was as oc iated largely with Paracels ians and Ro icrucians

In

add ition t

the

dedication

s,

Heilmann wrote a pr face t

the

reader

wh ere in th e

truth

of the Ph ilosopher ' Stone is d m n trated from criptur

sacred and pr

phane

a

nd thr

ugh a c nspectus f

th

experiment f men

of

trasbourg and Basel in our century.

2

He t uted

the

accomp

li hm

ents of hi

co untrymen and placed

them

in a lit

erat

context.

Hi

s ope

nin

g nten e qu tes

Horace on

the

dangers

of

placing trust in any one pers n, cites

Ovid's f

abulous

ta le of Jason and the Go lden Fie ce, and refer t the emp ror i cletian'

ban f alchemy boo k

s w hi

ch Edward

Gibb

n would call the

first aut

hentic

event in the hi to ry of alchymy.

24

Heilmann

recogn iz d th at there we re fu rth r

unpublished works

of

alchemy, in everal vernacular tngues , an

I

hoped that

his example

of

translation in

the

plain styl

( plan

o

sty

lo

)

w uld en oura

gc

other

to

bring these works

to

pre .

25

In 1625,

three

years

af

ter Zetzner's heirs added the fifth volume,

th

e

Fr

ankfun

p

rinter Lu

cas )ennis published a ve

ry

differe

nt

kind of alch mical a

nth

ol gy.

Whereas

the

Th eatrum Chemicum and it predecessor, Artis Auriferae, c ncen-

trated on the cia sic texts of alchemy, Jenni 's Musa eum He

rm

eticum ffered

rece

nt

tracts by

German

alchemist

s, tran

slated in to L

atin

and illu trated with

remarkable copperplate

eng

ravings . The original anthology included only ten

tracts,

but

nevertheless offered a comprehens

iv

e

account of

alchemy.

Th

e ec-

ond,

definitive edition, i

ss

ued more

th

an fifty year later, brought

th

t ta l to

twenty-two.

26

Raised in Frankfurt, where

hi

s mo

th

er married in to a

prominent

family f

engravers, the De Bry s, ) ennis published some

of

the most beautifu l book in

the

ent

ire

hi

story of alchemy.

Hi

s

first

importa

nt

publications were

th

e book

of Michael Maier, a

student

of mythology as well as alchemy and a leading

apologist for

the

new intell

ect

ual movement known

as

Ro icrucian. ]e

nni

s pub-

lished at Least six works by Mai

er

, including

the

encyclopedic

Symbola

Aureae

M

ensae,27

as

well

as

the

alchemical emblem bo ks of Daniel Cramer, Dan iel

Mylius, and Daniel

Sto

ltz iu s, a

ll

with striking engravin

gs

by

the

gifted

Matth

au

Merian, who had married

in t

o

hi

s family. )ennis be gan

to

pub li h imilar books

in

German

, first

by

Paracelsus a

nd hi

s

fo ll

owers,

th

en by other alchemist .

2

ln

1625,

he

published a small anthology of G erman alchemical texts, which he

expanded somewhat later in

the

year. Recognizing that there would be a large r

market for a

Latin

anthology, he commi

ss

ioned

tran

slations

by th

e poet Daniel


9/19

220

MYSTlCAL METAL OF GOLD

Meisner, who had translated alchemical works for

him before. He also commis,

i ned c pperplate illustrations from Merian, who had taken over the De Bry

firm

of engraver .

29

His

Musaeum Hermeticum

of 1625 included ten full texts,

everal of which would become classics of alchemical poetry and art.

The

volume

began with

The

Golden Tractate of Hermes, quite possibly the work of

Ora shoff; it ended with The Book ofLambspringk, a series of emblems and ep,

igrams.

The

choice of title

may

indicate ]ennis's realization that the striking

cop-

p rplate illustrations would prove the book's stongest selling point.

The

engraved

title page and the frontispiece both feature Apollo and the nine muses. Reused

in the corrected and expanded edition of 1677,

30

both showed Apollo playing

ER NCOFURTI

pudHemnnum

ande

Fig.

2.

Engraved title page of

Musaeum

Hermeticum.

the

lyre in

a central position.

On

the title page (Fig. 2), Apollo

is

shown with

the muses and their

instruments-lute,

harp, viol, and

horns-at

the top center

of the page. They are flanked by Athena and Hermes and, beyond them, by the

phoenix and pelican. Below the birds are representatives of the four elements,

each with a symbolic animal: eagle and squirrel on the left, salamander and sea

serpent

on

the right. Below these are the king and queen with their emblems,


10/19

Alchemy

in

the Theater, Museum, and Library, 1602- 1702 221

the sun and moon.

And at

the bottom center is the Goddess Nature holding

the Light of Nature: a sx ponedstar in a radiant circle. She is followed

by

a

benighted philosopher with lantern and spectacles and

another

behind him.

1

The

words are in the center, between Apollo and Nature, surrounded

by ym

bolic designs. One implication is that Apollo ing th song of Nature and th

lements, but

is

guarded

by Athena

and Mercury,

that

i ,

by

wisdom and secrecy.

Like the novels of Stendhal, the museum of Jenni i intended

forth

happy

few.

The

message i

reinfo

reed

by

the frontispiece which face the print d title

page (Fig. 3). Here Apollo sits underground with three mu e

on

each ide.

Fig.

3. Frontispiece in

Musaeum Hermeticum.

Directly above him there

is

another muse who holds the same Light

of

Nature,

and

on

either side there is a muse representing one component of Solomon's

seal: the upward pointing triangle

that

signifies

fire

or the downward pointing

triangle

that

signifies water.

The

four elements are represented in vignettes in

the four corners, while the day and night skies are shown in the circle above

and below Apollo and the muses. Each arc

of

the circle shows seven bodie : the

sun, the moon, and the

five

known planets. They correspond

to

each other,

above and below the earth, and this suggests they also correspond to Apollo

and the six muses, who then represent gold and the other six metals, thought


11/19

222


to grow underground in the arne way that trees grow above ground. At their

feet is a well with a pulley that could pull a bucketful of prima

materia

from

which the physical creation

is

said to have been formed.

The

epigram explains

the

illu tration above it and the book to which it

is

attached:

What is above is here below;

What

heaven shows

is

also found

on

earth.

Fire and water are contraries.

Be happy if you can join them. Enough said.

The epigram is

that

of Daniel Meisner of Commotatu in Bohemia (modern day

Ch

mut v in the Czech Republic), who translated the tracts in the book.

It

echoes

the

sentiment f

th

Emerald Tablet:

that

there are hidden correspon-

denc between heaven and earth and

that

the person who understands them

will b fortunate. ]ennis's museum is not quite open to the public, then. It is a

place of musing, but only a

few

are to be admitted. Hence the Pansophic

d orman Janitor Pansophus) who presides over

the

expanded version. In a series

f four folding plates, on folio-sized pages, the doorman exhibits the Mosaical

Hermetic Science ( Scientia Mosaico-Hermetica ) that one has to understand

in rd r t enter the museum and make sense of its contents.

32

Jenni

was

approximately thirty-five when the

Musaeum

first appeared, but

he died within the next five years. Some of

the

famous plates from his alchemical

books were reprinted during the next generation.

Then,

in 1678, Hermann van

Sande printed an expanded edition of the

Musaeum

Hermeticum, which added

another dozen tracts from Latin texts that ]ennis had printed and the copperplate

commissioned to go with them.

The

son

of

a Frankfurt printer, van Sande may

have inherited or otherwi e acquired the business of ]ennis, whose line was

similar to his own. In what may have been his first printed book, he published

in 1664 the new chemical ideas of Johann Joachim Becher, the self-styled

Chemical Oedipus.

33

Five years later, he reissued one

of

]ennis's last books, a

natural history of

coral.

34 He ventured into rhetoric and politics, but concen-

trated

on

science books, especially fine reprints.

When he

undertook his most

famous work, toward the end

of

his career, he was able to use the original cop-

perplates.

35

The

unsigned preface, presumably van Sande's, gives

the

rationale

for the

expanded Musaeum:

This art is set forth in a series of treatises by different authors, which

appeared several years ago and, like

the

present volume, was entitled

A

Museum of Hermes. But many writers having discussed this subject, and

treated

it

from various points of view (so that one writes more clearly

than another, and each casts light

on

the other's meaning), some

of

my

friends, who are adepts in this Art, urged me to add to the former

collection certain treatises supplementary

of

those already given. For

though that former collection contained

the

most select writings

on the

subject, yet it was not as complete as it might have been, nor was it


12/19

Alchemy in the Theater, Museum, and

Library, 1602-1702 223

calculated to furnish to the reader in full measure the eagerly expected

fruit of this study.

To

this wish

of my

friends I have all the more readily

submitted, because its fulfilment must redound to the advantage of the

student.

6

The

bookseller

was

in contact with real alchemists, very well versed in this

art (in

hac

arte versatissimi). They urged him to expand the collection to include

other works

that

just happened t have been printed

by

the same printer with

illustrations

by

the same firm of engravers. This seems too convenient a request,

but it may well contain a core

of

truth. For the opening tract in the collection,

The

Golden Tract of the Philosophers Stone, is dedicated to the lover of the

art or technophile

(technophilius)

and addre sed generally

to

the brothers

of

the golden cross

(aureae cruces

fratribus).

7

The

anonymous author eems to be

addressing members of a secret s ciety modeled

on

the legendary brotherhood

of the Rosy Cross. He

says

he has studied alchemy for twenty-two years-both

the theory and the practice, the symbolism and the laboratory

work-and

ha

put it together in a single work with a parable over which the initiate may

ponder. Indeed, two modern interpretation of the art-one of them spiritual,

the other psychological-have used his tract as their point of departure.

3

Given

similarities to other printed books, it eems likely that the anony-

mous author

was

Johann Grasshoff, whose known works, published

by

Ze

tzner

and ]ennis among others, date from 1587 to 1623.

39

Indeed, it eem likely that

the Musaeum Hermeticum originated

as

a series

of

German text collected

by

Grasshoff and his associates and published

by

]ennis in 1625.

40

If the variou

works in the original collection may be said to cast light on each other, how

much more light can be shed

by

the further work in the expanded Musaeum?

For

that

museum for hermetic adepts

was

only a metaphoric setting.

The

published Musaeum

was

a public space because it

was

available to any book

buyer with the necessary means.

One

can imagine unbound prints of Merian's

copperplates hung at van Sande's shop in Frankfurt or his stall at the Bucher-

messe.

Here the potential buyer

can

see all fifteen

figures

of Lambspringt and all

twelve keys

of

Basil Valentine. Some may have been hand-colored

by

Merian's

descendants, perhaps

by

his gifted granddaughter Maria Sybilla Merian, a natu-

ralist in her own right. Some are imposing schemes like the large plates

of

the

Pansophic Doorkeeper. Others preserve subtle details like the conversation of

three famous alchemists in a laboratory, three monks who have written books

of

alchemy.

The

images are not unrelated. Each addresses the same broad question,

identified

on the

title page a by what means

that

true and great medicine

of

the Philosophers' Stone (by which everything suffering defect is restored) can

be found and possessed.

The

viewer who

can

answer the question, who

is

by

this point a buyer and reader, will feel at least a spiritual affiliation with the

Brothers of the Golden Cross for whom the tracts are said to be intended.

Jean-Jacques Manger was born in Geneva in 1651, a full century after the birth

of

Lazarus Zetzner, with whom

he is

often linked.

The

son of a physician, he


13/19

224

MYSTICAL METAL

OF

GOLD

tudied m dicine

at the

University

of

Valence in the Dauphine, where

he

gradu-

ated in 1678 and later taught, becoming dean of the medical faculty in 1699.

In addition to the Curious Chemical Library

of

1702,

he

published libraries

of anatomy, surgery, medical practice, medical chemistry, and general medicine

over the cour e of his long

Life.

(He Lived to the age of ninety, perhaps because

he never required medical care.)

In

all, his edited books number

an

amazing

twenty folio v Lumes, each the size of the original King James Bible with Apocry-

pha r the first folio of Shake peare's plays.

41

The

frontispiece shows Dr. Manger writing an inventory

of

his editorial

undertakings to date (Fig. 4).

The

preface to the reader begins beneath a design

showing young cherubs, left

to

right, reading, writing, and measuring books.

Manger begins

by

saying that he wanted to add

an

Alchemical Library (Biblio-

theca

Alchemica)

to his output, knowing

that the

sons

of

medicine were often

engaged in artificial preparations.

42

Here

is

a true scholar who has done his

research mericulou

ly.

Although

the

Bibliotheca's title page mentions

the Artis

Auriferae as

the book's precursor rather

than

the Theatrum

Chemicum,

Manger

ha tudied the latter carefully. He indeed quotes from Heilmann's preface to

the final volume

for

the story

of

a transmutation

that

the Strasbourg goldmaker

Philip Gi.istenhofer made for Rudolf II in 1603.

4

He provides his own summary

of the alchemical proce

s,

specifying amounts to be used

and

produced. He

de cribes his efforts to collect material in great centers of learning, including

Rome and Basel. He writes,

not as

a printer with work to sell

but as

a scholarly

editor setting forth a subject with the aid of a research assistant, one Daniel

Leclerc.

44

Manger organizes the two volumes into three parts or books with various

ections and subsections; the whole arrangement resembles

that

of a scholastic

textbook. In the first book, he offers a current overview of the subject with all

the latest i sues.

In

the second book, he gives a historical sequence

of

texts,

from Hermes to Raymond Lull, that

is,

from antiquity to the High Middle Ages.

In

the third book,

he

continues the sequence from

the

Late Middle Ages through

the Renaissance with authors ranging from Petrus Bonus in the early fourteenth

century

to

Daniel Stolcius in

the

early seventeenth.

At

the

end

of

the

second

book, which

is

also the end of the first volume, he provides an unpaginated

interlude with a beautifully realized reproduction

of the Mutus Liber,

a picture

book of 1677.

45

He thus gives what the title page promises,

the

true handling

by

all

the

most notable

men

who have sweated over

the Great

Elixir, and by

everyone who has written about gold-making from Hermes Trismegistus up

to our own time . . . in orderly arrangement with their own commentaries.

6

Anticipating objections

that

the library is

not

entirely complete or perfectly

arranged,

he

can only plead

that the

pages were set almost

as

soon

as

he received

them, and

that

the book was released

as

soon

as

it

was

announced.

This

suggests

that

he has

met

a public demand. Beyond

that

he excuses himself from fur-

ther explanation:

Truly, it were

not

enough for all curious inquirers

if

a book containing

all special writings

on

the

Great

Work was

presented in a volume, unless


14/19

Alchemy in

the

Theater, Museum, and Library, 1602-1702 225

Fig. 4. Jean-Jacques Manget from frontispiece in Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa.


15/19

226

MYSTICAL METAL OF

GOLD

something was first offered about the history of alchemy, the true stone,

and the end of the art, the whole first book of our library would have to

be arranged in order

for

the curious to follow the argument. In respect

to the truth about the arrangement of this work, our library

was

easily

filled, and bound with ivory, and therefore we now abstain from fur-

ther explanations.

47

Becau e Manget did provid the necessary background in book one, the subse-

quent

books could be more casually organized; and even then,

the

subsections

with the headings are carefully listed. Manget demonstrates the genius of the

conference organizer today. Indeed, one can easily imagine the various authors

in bo k one a speakers at plenary sessions on the first day of a conference and

the authors in books two and three as subjects of papers read at concurrent

sessions over the

next

two days. Looking over the table of contents to book one

a though it were a conference program, one can see how much care went into

the choice and arrangement of topics.

After a welcome from Manget,

as

conference organizer, the first plenary

session offers a history

of

alchemy and an assessment of its claims. Olaf Barch,

reg ius profe sor of medicine at the

Univers

ity of Copenhagen, delivers an address

(dissertatio) On

the Origin and Progress

of

Chemistry. Barch makes generous

reference to the recent work of Athanasius Kircher

on

possible parallels between

the proce ses occurring underground and in the laboratory. Father Kircher ap-

pears next to ummarize his newest book, On the Subterranean World, where he

carefully reviews the claims of various alchemists but finally rejects them. This

pre entation demands an answer, and Manger has brought in two respondents:

the chemist Solomon Blauenstein and the physician Gabriel Claudero, both of

whom attempt to disprove points that Kircher has made. The second plenary

session, which follows a brief break for coffee and hot chocolate, features

an

equally prominent advocate for the truth of

the

alchemists' claims. After a

general oration

On

the Transmutation of Metals by Daniel Morhof, professor

of rhetoric at the University of Cologne, and a talk

On

Chemical Gold by

Phillip Sachs, city physician

of

Breslau,

John

Frederick Helvetius comes to

the podium to give an eyewitness account of transmutation, complete with

illustrations. A wealthy Swiss physician, living in the Hague, Helvetius (who is

Schweitzer to the German speakers in the audience) has only one explanation

for the reticence of alchemists like the one whose work

he

witnessed. The fact

remains

that

alchemists are subject to prosecution in most jurisdictions. Helve-

tius thus prepares for the morning's final speaker, Johann Faniano, professor of

law at the University of Basel, who discusses The Legality of

the

Art of Al-

chemy.

After lunch, the third plenary session takes up the question of terminology.

To begin, Pierre Jean Fabre, a physician from Montpelier, presents a paper

Explaining the Obscurities

of the Alchemists.

Then

Johann Joachim Becher,

the well-known precursor of the phlogiston theory,

48

reads The Chemical Oedi-

pus:

Solving the Mysteries of Terms and Principles. An independent scholar

from Zeeland, Theobald Hoghelande, speaks On the Difficulties of Alchemy.


16/19

Alchemy

in

the

Theater,

Museum, and Library, 1602-1702 227

Finally, Johann Ludwig Hannemann, professor of natural sciences

at

the Univer-

sity ofKiel, delivers

The

Chemical Cato: Delineating the Sophistries of Pseudo-

Chemists and the Characteristics

of the

Masters . As

the

session draws to a

close, Dr. Manget rises to inform anyone interested in the vexed matter of

terminology that a new translation and printing of William Johnson's Chemical

Lexicon is available in the publishers' display area. Having said this, he can

retire to

the

terrace for beer and schnapps, confident that the doctors seeking

continuing education credit on the shores of Lake Geneva will

not

be di ap-

pointed. They have heard three controversial

figures:

Kircher, Helvetius, and

Becher. They

have heard orations and debate, charges and countercharges. But

they have also heard it stated, and Manget himself believes,

that

there are

scrupulous practitioners

of

the art

of

alchemy along with the unscrupulous, that

there are legitimate concepts along with the bombast, and that reason can tell

the difference.

We

are left with three images

of

the alchemical anthology-the theater, mu-

seum, and library. In the Theatrum Chemicum, readers are invited to hear out

the alchemical authors and their texts much

as

they would hear actors on a

stage, choosing what is best and rejecting what is worst. In the Musaeum Hermet-

icum,

they are asked to view

the

copperplate illustrations alongside the texts

and to see how one work sheds light

on

anoth

r,

and they are con tantly

re-

minded

that

they belong to a select group. Finally, in the

Bibliotheca

Chemica

Curiosa, they are told to consider the arrang ment of works

as

though browsing

through a library and are advised to learn the classification

sy

tern o that they

can see how one book connects to another. Chemistry had further steps

to

take

before it could be called modern in any meaningful way. The next important

steps were taken between the library and the laboratory in the eighteenth

century,

as

scientists like Lavoisier succeeded in identifying the properties of

oxygen, the element

that so

puzzled Becher and others.

49

For

when alchemy

went to press,

the

laboratory fell into neglect.

The

old manuscripts were no

longer secret, but they did

not

provide

the

necessary evidence.

For England's skeptical chemist, Robert Boyle, the printing of old manu-

scripts

was

a mixed blessing.

The

new trade in chemical books made it possible

for writers to Leaue off

that

Indefinite Way

of

Vouching the Chymists

say

this

and to name

the Author or Authors,

upon

whose credit they relate it.

50

But citations

were useless to Boyle if

not

supported

by

further experimentation:

I must complain,

that

euen Eminent Writers, both

Physitians

and Philos-

ophers, whom I can easily name if it be requir'd, haue

of

late suffer'd

themselves to be so far impos'd upon,

as

to Publish and Build upon

Chymical Experiments, which questionle s they neuer try'd; for if they

had, they would,

as

well

as I,

haue found them not to be true.

Boyle's insistence

on

returning to the laboratory made his testimony especially

valuable. Manger devotes a paragraph of his general introduction to the most


17/19

22

8 MYSTICAL METAL OF

GOLD

illustrious Boy le and gives special weig

ht

to Bo

yl

e's tes t of go ld produced by

an anonymous alc he

mi

st.51

Neve

rth

el

ess,

th new book culture created a new kind of reade

r:

the

armcha

ir

alchemi t who is unlike

ly

to try out a process or p

ass

on a secre

t.

Van

Sande recogni

zes th

at people will buy

th

e Mus

ae

um Hermeticum for differe

nt

reasons, but reminds the candid re ader that the philosopher delig

ht

s in knowl-

edge for its own ake.

52

Van Sande is removed by six

ty

years from Michael

Maier, translating alchemical te

xt

s in an effort to ass uage the feud be

tw

een

th

e adherents of Dog matic and of Hermetic Medicine.

53

Th

e armcha

ir

re aders,

working in

th

e laboratory of

th

e im

ag

ination, would keep

up th

e demand for

alche

mi

cal an

th

ologies in

th

e century of Lavoisier and

St

ahl, which

al

so saw

th

e

Deutsches Thea

trum

Chemic

um and the Bibliothequ

e des philosophes

chimi

qu

es

.

54

Echoing th e tid

es

of the o lder a

nth

ologi

es,

and preserving

th

e metaphors of

th

e

th

eater and library as space wher alchemical ideas could be contemplated, the

vern ac

ul

ar anthol

og

ies of Roth-Scholtz and M

ag

uin continued the process by

which the se cret science w

as

made public.

Notes

1. ee, e.g., John Rea d, Prelude

to

Chemist

ry

: An Ou tline of Alchemy, Its

Li

terature and

Re

la

tio

ns

hip

s

(N w Yo

rk

: Macmillan, 1937), 116, 166.

2.

Oxford

English

Dic

ti

o

nary, 2nd ed., library

sb.

l

a,

2a ;

mu

eum

sb. lb

; theatre

sb.

7.

3. John F rguson, Bibliotheca Che

mi

ca: A Catalogue of the Alche

mical

, Ch emical and

Phann

aceutical Books in the Co llection of the Late }ames Young, 2 vols. (Gla go w:

Macleho

e,

1906), 1: 51 - 52. Fergu

so n'

s bibliography remains the best single guide

to the vas t literature a

nth

olog ized in the works studied here. Se

ve

ral facs imil

es

are

ava

il

a

bl

e, including a rece

nt

one

fr

om Martino Fine Book of Man

fi

eld Ce

ntr

e, CT.

4. Fergu on, 1: 18-1

9,

341-42.

5. C unt of the numbers of tex ts in these antholog ies vary. I have followed Adam

Mcl

ea

n,

Alche

mi

cal

Co

mp endia,

The Alchemy

We

b

Sit

e

.

6. Theatrum Che

mi

cum ,

6 vol

s.

(Strasbourg: Heirs of l

azaru

s Zetz ner, 165 9

-61), 1:

A2r-

v. I have used the f

acs

imile, with a se parately bound introdu

ct

ion by Maurizio

Barracano, Torino: Bot

ega

d'Er

as

mo, 1981; hereafter abbre

vi

ated T

C.

7. Miriam U her Chrisman, La

y Cultur

e, Lea

rned Culture: Books and Social Change in

Strasbourg, 1480-1599 (New Haven: Yale University Pres, 1982 ), 4, 6.

8. Sixt Karge l and Joha

nn

Do minica Lai , Toppel Cythar (Strasbour

g:

Jobin, 1575);

Bernard Schmid,

T a

blat

ur Buch

(

St

rasbourg: Zetzner, 1607; facsimile reprint, N

ew

Yo

rk:

Braud e Brother , 1967) .

9. Israel Spach,

Gynaec

io

rum

sive de

muli

erum tum communibus , tum gravidarum , pa

ri

en-

tium, et

pu

er

pera

ru

m aff

ecti

b

us

et m

or

bis

(Strasbourg: Zetzner, 1597); Walther He

r-

mann Ryff,

New Aussgeriiste Deutsche Apoteck

(Strasbour

g:

Zetzner, 1602

);

Th

eop

hr

a tu Paracelsus,

Opera,

Bu

cher und Schriff

te

n,

ed. Johann Huser (Str

as

bourg:

Zetzner, 1603

).

10. Andrea Alciaru s, Ope ra O

mni

a, 4 vols. (Frankfurt: Lazarus Zetzner, 1616-17).


18/19

Alchemy in the Theater,

Museum,

and Library , 1602-1702 229

11. J. V. Andreae, Chymische

Hoch

ze

it

: C

hri

stiani R

osencr

eutz Anno

1451 (Strasbourg:

Zetzner, 1616); Vom Besten und Edelsten Beruff (Strasbour

g:

Zetzner, 1615); Turris

Babel sive ludiciorum Roseae Crucis (Strasbour

g:

haeredum Laza ri Zetzneri, 1617).

12 . De Magni La pidis, sive,

Benedicti

Compositione & Operatione, 2nd ed. (Strasbour

g:

Zetzner, 1613 ); compare TC, 3: 5-52. The

Uni

ve rsity of Arizo na copy

of

this edition

is sa id to be printed

ex

manu

scriptis.

13. TC, 1: A2r-v.

14 . TC, 4: AJr.

15

. TC, 5: A2v-A3r.

16 . See Eckehart Ca tholy,

Das

deutsche LustsfJiel (Stuttga rt: Kohlhammer, 1969), and

Frank Geerk, Die Geburt der Zukunft: Reuchlin , Erasmus

und Para

celsus als wegweisende

Humani

sten

(Karlsruhe: Loeper, 1996).

17

. See, e.g.,

Th

oma Mufett, Dialogus

Apologeticus (TC

,

1: 89-

108); Aegedius de Va

di

,

Dialo

gue

inter

Naturam et

Filium

Phil

osop

hia

e

(2: 85-109);

Tr

acta tu

s

D.

Th

omae

de

Aquino

Datus

Fratri Re

nald

o,

in

Arte

Alchemia (3: 278-83).

18.

Dialogue

Mercurii Alchymistae

et Natur

ae

(TC, 4: 449-56 ); see Stant n J. Linden,

Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy

in

Eng

li

sh

Literatur

e

fr

om Chaucer to the R

estorati

on

(Lexington: University Pre ss of Kentucky, 1996), 131-53.

19.

TC,

6: *3v.

20.

TC, 6: *4r.

21. See Johann Gra eu alias Chorrolasseu ,

Area

Arcani, TC, 6: 294-380, e P

344-80.

22. TC, 6: *Sr.

23.

TC, 6: *Sv .

24.

TC

,

6:

*

Sv

; see Horace, Epist

l

es

1.1;

Ovid,

M

etamorph

oses, 7

.1

-

165;

Gibbon,

The

History

of

th

e De

clin

e

and

Fa

ll

of

th

e

Roman Empir

e,

vol. 2, ch. 13.

25. TC, 6: *8v.

26.

Musaeum

Hermeticum (Frankfurt: van Sande, 1678); facs imile reprint with introd uc-

tion by Karl R. H. Frick (Graz: Akademi sc he Druck, 1970). Abbreviated hereafter

MH

.

27 . Michael Maier,

Symb

ola Aureae Mens

ae Duodec

im Nationum (Frankfurt: Jenni , 1617;

fac simile reprint with introduction by Karl R. H. Frick, Graz: Akademi che Druck,

1972).

28 . E.g., Gloria Mundi , Sons ten ParadeiTaffe (Frankfurt: Jenni , 1620); a Lat in ver ion

appears in MH, 205-304.

29.

Ka

rl

R. H. Frick, I

ntr

oduction,

Musaeum

He

rmeticum,

facsimile, viii-

ix

. Further

reference to Frick are to thi e

ay.

30. The printed title page h

as

the date 1678, but thi pr bably indicate that the book

w

as

first offered for sa le at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the autumn of 1677; books

so ld at the fair were often pos tdated to the following year.

31. Comp are emblem 42 in

Michael Maier

's Atalanta Fugien

s: Sourc

es of

an

Alchemical

Book

of

Emblems, by

H.

M. E. de Jong (Le iden: Brill, 1969), 41 8, and commentary

on 266-72. The philo opher is said here to be l d by rea on as well

as

Nature, who

is shown holding a bouquet rather than a

li

ght.

32. MH, QQQ qqq 4v. For a careful exposition of the plate ee A. E. Waite,

Th

e Secret

Traditi

on in Alchemy: Its Development and R

ecords (1926; reprint, London: Stuart

Watkins, 1969), 403-06.

33. Joha

nn

Joachim Becher, lnstitutiones

Chimicae Prodromae

and Oed

ipus

Chimicus

(Frankfurt: Sande, 1664).

34. Joha

nn

Ludwig

Gan

s,

Corallorum

Historia (Frankfurt: ]ennis, 1630; Frankfurt:

Sande, 1669).


19/19

230


35. Frick, xi.

36. MH, (4v-)5r, tran lated [by Julius Kohn?] in

The

Herme

tic

Museum, ed. A.

E.

Waite,

2 vol . (London: Elliott, 1893), l: xii.

37. MH, 3, 4.

38. M.

A.

Atwood,

A

Suggesti ve Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery (1918; reprint, New

Y o rk:

Arn

o, 1976); Herbert Silberer, Problems of Mysticism and Its Symbolism, trans.

Smith

Ely Jelliffe (New York: Moffat, Yard, 1917).

39. Frick, xii-xiii; Ferguson, 1: 338-41.

40. Dyas

Chymica Tripartita , Das

is

t: Sechs Herrliche Teutsche PhilosoJ)hische Tractatlein

(Frankfurt: Jenni , 1625); ee Frick, viii-x.

41. Fergu n,

2:

71.

42. BCC, l: 3r.

43. BCC,

1:

3v; ee

TC, 6:

*6v-7r; thi passage provides the account

that

R.

J. W.

Evans

so

ught for

Rudolf

and His

World:

A

Study

in

InteLlectual

History

,

1576

- 1612

(

1973;

corrected reprint, L ndon: Thame Hudson, 1997), 209.

44. F rgu n, 2: 71.

45. Fergu n, I : 29-30.

46.

"Tractatus

omnes virorum Celebriorum qui in Magno

sudarunt Elixyre,

quique

ab ipso

Hermet

e,

ut

dicitur

Trism

egi

sw,

ad

nostra usque Te

mpora

de Chrysopoea scripserunt,

cum praec

ipuis

suis comm entariis , conciuno Ordine

dispo

iti exhibentur.

47. BCC , BBr.

48.

J. R.

Partington, A Short History

of

Chemistry, 3rd ed. (London: Macmillan, 1957),

85-86,

di cu e Stahl's exten ion of Becher' sulphuric earth (t

e

rra pinguis) into phlo-

gi ton.

49. ee Wilda

C.

And

erson,

Be

tw

ee

n

th

e

Library

and

the

Laborawry:

The

Langua

ge

of

Chemistry

in

Eighteenth-Century

Science (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univer ity

Pre

s, 1984

).

50. Robert

Boyl

e,

Th e

Sceptical

Chymist: or Chymico-Physical

Doubts &

Paradoxes, Touch-

ing

the Expe

riments

Whereby Vulgar

Spagirists

Are wont to Endeavour to

Evince their

a

lt, Sulphur and

Me

rcury

to Be The True Principl

es

of Things

(Oxford: Henry Hall,

1680), A4v .

51. BCC, 1: t4r; Lawrence M. Principe, The

Aspiring Adept:

Robert Boyle and His Alchemi-

cal Quest

(Princeton: Princeton University Pre ss, 1998), 104-05, identifies Manget'

ource of information

as

Gilbert Burnet.

52. MH, ( 4v; translated in

He

rmetic

Museum, 1:

xi.

53.

MH,

376; tran lated in Hermetic

Museum,

1:

310.

54. Fri edrich Roth-Scholtz, ed., Deutsches

Th

e

atrum

Ch emicum, 3 vols. (Nurnberg: Fels-

seckern, 1728-32); Jean Maugin de Richenbourg, ed., Bibliothequ

e

des philosophes

chimiques,

rev. ed. (Paris: Cailleau, 1740-54).

Documents

Willard, T. (2007) Alchemy in the Theater, Museum, and Library, 1602-1702.pdf