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Alchemy Academy archive October 1999 Back to alchemy academy archives. Subject: ACADEMY : Finis Gloriae Mundi - Juan de Valdes Leal Date: 1 Oct 1999 From: Adam McLean Regarding the painting used in the publicity for the Finis Gloriae mundi, this seems to be by the 17th century Spanish artist Juan de Valdes Leal. Does anyone have any further information on this artist, and how his work seems relevant to alchemy? I tried to find some information about him on the Web but there seems to be little available. I will look him up in the University Library next week, but would welcome any information in the meantime. Adam McLean Subject: ACADEMY : Finis Gloriae Mundi - Juan de Valdes Leal From: Marcella Gillick Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 Dear Adam, I'm sure you've found the following biblio yourself on the Net, but I think the synopsis I've appended of his Allegory of Death, hints at the artist's leanings. You can view this disturbing image at:-
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/v/valdes/indes.html Subject: ACADEMY : Finis Gloriae Mundi - Juan de Valdes Leal From: Adam McLean Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 I was labouring under the impression that the picture of Juan de Valdes Leal was somehow relevant to Fulcanelli and alchemy. Somehow I thought I had seen this painting before in one of Canseliet's books but I just checked this and it does not appear to be so. I would not want to waste people's time by chasing a connection between Juan de Valdes Leal and alchemy which may only exist in the designer of the Liber Mirabilis web page ! Adam McLean Subject: ACADEMY : Finis Gloriae Mundi - Juan de Valdes Leal From: Hans Hammerschlag Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 Juan de Valdés Leal [Spanish Baroque Era Painter, 1622-1690] Valdes Leal was quite a famous Baroque painter, known for his vivacious brushwork and magnificent use of a superb array of colors, for which he has been associated with being kind of an antecesor of the decorative tones of the rococo style. He was also involved with the Sevilla Cathedral, and specifically so designed in 1664 the marble slab with inscriptions and the coat of arms of the Sepulveda family there. With regards to the painters association to alchemy, will try to look for concrete references. Some additional references about his work as follows : Beruete y Moret, Aureliano. Valdés Leal: Estudio critico. Madrid, 1911. Gestoso y Pérez, José. Biografía del pintor sevillano, Juan de Valdés Leal. Seville, 1916: 208. Lafond, Paul. Juan de Valdés Leal. Paris, 1923: 92-93. Nieto, Benedicto. La Asunción de la Virgen en el arte. Madrid, 1950: 158. Trapier, Elizabeth Du Gué. Valdés Leal: Spanish Baroque Painter. New York, 1960: 48. Angulo Iñiguez, Diego. Pintura del siglo XVII. Ars Hispaniae 15. Madrid, 1971: 383. Kinkead, Duncan T. Juan de Valdés Leal (1622-1690): His Life and Work. London and New York, 1978: 185-186, 420-422, no. 101, fig. 89. Valdivieso, Enrique. Juan de Valdés Leal. Seville, 1988: 145, 252, no. 122, pl. 113. Valdes Leal. Exh. cat. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain, 1991: no. 60, 198, repro. 199. One of his famous paintings is "La Asuncion de la Virgen"  Subject: ACADEMY : Some small queries (1) Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 From: Catherine Fox-Anderson Dear Eve, J. Garcia Font, en su Historia de la alquimia en Espana, (1995, Edicion MRA, ISBN 84-88865-04-X), says that Arnaldo de Vilanova was born of humble origens sometime between 1235-1250. He was Valencian, which has a unique dialect, I believe related to Catalan. I assume this is the Castillian spelling of his name. Perhaps Jose Rodriguez could clarify; I have seen his first name spelled "Arnau de Vilanova", which I think is closer to the catalan. Jose? I'd be curious for confirmation, as well. Thank you and good luck. Catherine Subject: ACADEMY : Labiche, Theatre From: Diane Zervas Hirst Date: Sun, 3 Oct 1999 I am writing to udate the Academy re my request about Labiche and a possible Theatre alchimie. Stanislas Klossowski de Rola sent me some useful information, and I am able to confirm that, as he suspected, E. Labiche did not write/edit an alchemical text, the fifth volume of which was seen by Matisse and Rouault in the house of Gustave Moreau. This false assumption appears twice in articles/books on Moreau to my knowledge: in P.-L. Mathieu, 'La bibliotheque de Gustave Moreau' in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, april 1978, pp. 155-162, and in 'Gustave Moreau, Maitre imagier de l'orphisme par Victor Segalen', Fontfroide, Bibliotheque artistique et litteraire, 1990. What they were all looking at was, indeed, vol. V of Labiche's 10-volume Theatre (complete theatrical works), 1888. Also, those who search the British Library catalogue on-line are well-advised to consult the printed catalogue as well, as I have found many books not included on the on-line version. Thank you for your help, Diane Zervas (Hirst) Subject: ACADEMY : De essentiis essentiarum Date: Sun, 3 Oct 1999 From: Sophie Page I wonder if anyone could help me with information or bibliography concerning the (c.thirteenth century) alchemical work, the 'De essentiis essentiarum', at times attributed to Thomas Aquinas, but in the incipit addressed to Robert of Anjou by a 'Thomas capellanus'. This is a work in nine tractates dealing with various different kinds of essences (of God, animals, minerals etc) - I am particularly interested in the essences of spirits. The De essentiis essentiarum relates to another interest of my research - the relationhip between alchemy and magic - their merging in texts (ratherthan their practice by the same people which is very common and I think the reasons for this are usually obvious). In the De essentiis for example, there is a reference to marvellous images which can turn other metals to gold (i.e. magic in the service of alchemy) and other magical uses. In another Medieval text I am studying, the Liber vacce, alchemy (the creation of a kind of golem) is used in the service of magic. A topic which appears in both genres is the revelation of (alchemical or magical) secrets by a spirit. It seems to me that there may be a comparable thread in the chemical/spiritual division? of alchemy and the (Medieval) distinction between natural magic (often using metals and minerals) and spiritual/demonic magic (some kinds of which involve mystical visions) in magic. But I am aware that this last thought is rather vague and probably fairly untenable. Does anyone have any comments on this? I am only aware of Thorndike's brief comments on the De essentiis in vol.3 of the History of Magic and Experimental Science. Thorndike lists several mss. containing copies of this text, none of which are in British libraries. I know of one Cambridge ms. (c.1400) containing a copy of it (CUL Add. 4087) but would be interested in hearing of others. Sophie Page Subject: ACADEMY : Arnau de Vilanova? From: Jose Rodríguez Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999: Catherine said: >J. Garcia Font, en su Historia de la alquimia en >Espana, (1995, Edicion MRA, ISBN 84-88865-04-X), says >that Arnaldo de Vilanova was born of humble origens >sometime between 1235-1250. He was Valencian, which >has a unique dialect, I believe related to Catalan. I >assume this is the Castillian spelling of his name. >Perhaps Jose Rodriguez could clarify; I have seen his >first name spelled "Arnau de Vilanova", which I think >is closer to the catalan. Jose? I'd be curious for >confirmation, as well. I am totally in accord with your commentary. For example there is a manuscript in Rome (Convento de los Carmelitas Descalzos, Via Sforza Pallavicini, ms A.O.III.556.A) with spiritual works of Arnau and here he explains that he is "catalan". The word "Catalan" had been designated the people from Catalonia and Valencia in the 13th and 14th centuries. The historical dates confirm that he was born in the Valencian Diocese, and his testament is in the Spanish city of Valencia too. His real name in Catalan or Valencian is "Arnau de Vilanova" as you explain. The Castillian translation is "Arnaldo de Villanueva" and in the oldest manuscripts in latin we can read "magister Arnaldus de Vilanova, physicus". At the present there are many academic scholars researching into the works attributed to him (ej. Jose Antonio Paniagua, Michael R. McVaugth, Luis García Ballester, Fernando Salmón, Eustaquio Sánchez and Joseph Ziegler into the medical and pharmacological corpus; Michela Pereira, Chiara Crisciani, Antoine Calvet and Giuliana Camilli into the alchemical corpus; Josep Perernau, Jaume de Puig, Gian Luca Potestà, Francesco Santi, Miquel Batllori into the spiritual or teological corpus). Like I said the last month there is a serious disagreement about the authenticity of all the alchemical corpus attributed to him if we read the last books and articles on Arnau de Vilanova. Nobody can guarantee by historical research the authenticity of any one of the alchemical works attributed to him. Joseph Ziegler said that Arnau is a "theologizing physician", never an alchemist. Mr Ziegler said that in their scientific form Arnau's medical writings have important religious implications: 1- Medical language, which he partly shared with the clegy and which thus enable him to perceive his art as a quasi-religious system. 2- His conviction that medicine and medical knowledge could deliver a spiritual message giving its practicioners access to secret spheres of knowledge. 3- His emphasis on the virtue of Christian love (latin. Caritas) as characteristic of the perfect physician. 4- His definition of medicine that allowed him to treat the soul and its passions. Much more significant was the impact of his medical background on the way in which he expressed his spiritual ideas and to a lesser extent on their content. In his spiritual works there is a high-level characterized by dense medical imagery (i.e. anatomy and pathology). He uses the physical body as a starting point for discussing the spiritual body. Arnau maintened that divine revelation was a possible (though not very common) source of medical knowledge, and regarded the physician as a specially chosen divine agent who was a vessel of medical truth. As a theologizin physician he saw himself following in the footsteps of Christ and Luke, Cosmas and Damian, all of whom provided both spiritual and physical health Moreover there are many problems trying to find relationships between the alchemical tracts and the medical or spiritual writings. The Frenchman Antoine Calvet and the Spaniard Joan Viñals Heras have made commentaries about this subjet but the conclusions are no longer unequivocal. Hope this is of some help. Best wishes, Jose Rodríguez Subject: ACADEMY : Finis Gloriae Mundi and Juan de Valdés Leal From: Jose Rodríguez Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 I have notices about the real Finis Gloriae Mundi that supposedly Fulcanelli gave to Eugène Canseliet. The chapters "The cyclical cross of Hendaya" and "The unlimited progress of the sciences" does not appear in the original editions (1926 and 1930) of the Fulcanelli's books. Those are two fragments of the "Finis Gloriae Mundi" that Canseliet includes in the second edition of the books. See: Geneviève Dubois. "Fulcanelli dévoilé"; Eugène Canseliet. "Deux Logis Alchimiques" 2nd edition of 1979, not in the 1st of 1945. Moreover Jean Laplace found some papers and photos in relation to the book "Finis Gloriae Mundi" in the personal study of Canseliet. You can find the reference in the alchemical journal "La tourbe des Philosophes", nº 31, 1988, p14. There were some plain texts supposedly by Fulcanelli: - Le Labarum Constatinum. - L'Art et la médicine au museé de Colmar. - Base de la Multiplication. - Confrérie des Antonites. There was an index with the chapters of the real "Finis Gloriae Mundi": -------------------------------------------------------------- FINIS GLORIAE MUNDI I La décadence de notre civilisation et la déchéance des sociétés humaines -Incrédulité religieuse et crédulité mystique. -Effets néfastes de l'enseignement officiel. -Abus des plaisirs par la crainte de l'avenir. -Fétichisme à notre époque. -Symboles plus puissants qu'autrefois dans la conception matérialiste. -Incertitude du lendermain. -Méfiance et défiance généralisées. -La mode et ses caprices révelateurs. -Les initiés inconnus gouvernent seuls. -Le mystère pèse sur les consciences. II Témoignages terrestres de la fin du monde -Les quatre ages. -Les cycles successifs scellés dans les couches géologiques. -Fossiles. -Flore et faune disparues. -Squelettes humains. -L'Asiatide. -Monuments de l'humanité dite préhistorique. -Cromlechs. -Chandelier des trois croix. III Les causes cosmiques du bouleversement -Le système de Ptolémée. -L'almageste. -Erreur du système de Copernic démotrée par l'etoile polaire. -Précession des équinoxes. -Inclinaison de l'écliptique. -Variations inexplicables du pôle magnétique. -Ascension solaire au zénith du pôle et retour en sens contrire provoquant le renversement de l'axe, le déluge et la fusion à la surface du glove. ----------------------------------------------------------------- And there were the photos of two pictures of Juan Valdés Leal on the allegory of death: "Finis Gloriae Mundi" and "In Octu Oculi". Here I send you the image of the second picture. 
Subject: ACADEMY : Letter of Pope John XXII. From: Jose Rodríguez Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1999 Hermann Oeisner ("Dante in Frankreich". Berlin, Abering, 1898) mentions a fragment of a letter about the teaching of alchemy in the University of Paris that Pope John XXII sent to the king of France Philippe V. Does anyone knows the date of this letter? Thanks, Jose Rodríguez Subject: ACADEMY : Roger Caro's books From: Adam McLean Date: 5 Oct 1999 The works of the modern French alchemist Roger Caro have now been made available again. There is a new web site set up to distribute these titles. http://www.edisphinx.com The titles available are: Siphra di Tzeniutha Dictionnaire de Philosophie Alchimique Concordances Alchimiques Rituel F.A.R.+C. Bible, Science & Alchimie Commentaires G.O. Photographié Pleiade Alchimique These are available at quite modest prices and certainly much less than second hand copies of the first editions, which are very rare and expensive. Adam McLean Subject: ACADEMY : De essentiis essentiarum From: TCR Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1999 Dear Ms. Page, Although I think this may be a bit oblique to what you are looking for re: revelation by a spirit I was reminded of the instances in Alchemical accounts where a stranger appears at the door with a revelatory message about how to achieve the Alchemical goal. An example of this is discussed on pg 50-51 in Coudert in relation to Helvetius' account. Yours TCR Subject: ACADEMY : Philalethes and Child Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 From: Michael Srigley Dear Friends, My greetings to you from a newcomer, and a request for comments on the following suggestion that a piece of writing by G. W. Wedelius includes in cipher the private name of the adept, Eiraeneus Philalethes. Does any one have access to Wedelius's ed. of 1699 and could check it to see if 'ICtos' is used in the preface? Any other examples of such cryptograms in alchemical works? Tchau, Michael Srigley The Identity of Eirenaeus Philalethes In the edition of the Introitus apertus made by Michael Faustius in1706, there are three prefaces, the first written by Faustius himself, the second by George Wolfgang Wedelius, and the third by Johannus Langius, the editor of the first Latin edition of 1667. The second is oddly dated 'MDC XCVIII DXXI, but if the third group of numerals is ignored, the first two yield 1698. In the following year Wedelius issued his own edition of the Introitus, and it is likely that he is reusing its preface for Faustius's edition. This is not the only oddity in Wedelius's preface. A passage in it dealing with the real name of the adept Philaletha ends with the statement that the true name of the adept known as Eiraeneus Philalethes was "THOMAS DE VAGAN", that is, Thomas Vaughan the alchemist, the twin brother of the poet, Henry Vaughan. The long-hidden name of the celebrated Philalethes is thus trumpeted forth in bold capitals, and even if the 'De' added to his name is unexpected and seems to indicate that a Frenchman is involved, we might be inclined to accept the attribution as correct, or at least possible, were it not for two even odder sentences occurring earlier in the same passage. They run as follows: Decet idem Studium Theologos, ICtos, Historicos, Literatos quosvis. Quilibet inde habebit quod judicet, & moretur, quod delectat & prosit. Quilibet inde habebit quod judicet, & miretur, quod delectet & prosit. The first sentence is fairly straightforward except for that one word 'ICtos'. Translated it says: 'The same study is right for theologians, 'blows', historians and any literary men'. The word 'ictus' can mean 'blow', 'a sting', or 'flash of lightening'. The inclusion of a Latin word meaning 'blows' or 'stings' among the categories of men who might suitably study theology becomes odder by having its first two letters set in upper case: 'IC'. The sentence that follows can be rendered: "Anyone can obtain from this what he might decide, and be amazed as he pleases or finds to his advantage." This is almost as baffling. However, since the whole passage deals with the identity of Irenaeus Philalethes, one possibility is that the reader is being invited in the second sentence to make sense of the first sentence in the context of name-hunting, even if in the attempt he might make a fool of himself. Taking this risk, I shall see what sense can be squeezed from these two sentences. In the first sentence the capital letters form the following sequence: D.S.T.I.C.H.L . As I have for some time been trying to prove that Philalethes was not in fact George Starchey, as W. R. Newman has claimed, and that the English alchemist, Dr. Robert Child (1612-1664) has a far better claim, it was easy to find the name CHILD among these letters. But this left two of the letters, S and T, unaccounted for: It proved difficult to find a name made up of these five consonants and only one vowel. A linguist friend came up with what may be the solution.The suggestion was that T and S should be reversed and placed before Child giving the form 'TSCHILD'. This would then be a phonetic rendering by Wedelius of how Child's name should be pronounced by German speakers not accustomed to English spelling. Far-fetched as this may seem, there is some evidence that foreigners did, as they still do, find it difficult to pronounce English words from the way they were spelled. One of these was Michael Maier during the five years he spent in England. He wrote of this discrepancy between the spelling and pronounciation of English words in his Symbola aureae mensae, (Frankfurt, 1617), 495: "In this depraved state of literacy, there are many thousands of words pronounced by other nations that they [the English] cannot write as they are pronounced". He gives a pertinent example: "The word Church they pronounce Tziertz ..." (I gratefully cite this from Joscelyn Godwin, The Deepest of the Rosicrucians: Michael Maier (1569-1622) in The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited (Lindisfarne Books, 1999), 111). Maier would thus have spelled 'Child' as 'Tzchild' to indicate to a German how it should be spoken. Wedelius's 'Tschild' is a natural variant of this orthography. John Ferguson points out in his Bibliotheca Chemica (II. 194) that Irenaeus Philalethes is named 'Child' or 'Zheil' in Die Edelgeborna Jungfer Alchymia, and he suggests that 'Zheil' "appears to be but a phonetic corruption" of Child. If so, it would go back to Wedelius's 'Tschild'. A further possible indication that Wedelius's preface was thought to contain a coded name is found in a brief reference to him as the "Scavant M. Wedelius" in the Abbé du Fresnoy's own preface to his Latin and French edition of the Introitus in the second volume of his Histoire de la Philosophie Hermétique (17 ). Referring to Wedelius's earlier edition of the Introitus of 1699, he writes: Sa Préface qui est assez curieuse, se borne à rapporter quelques examples de transmutations métalliques, & à faire une exhortation très-serieuse, non seulement aux Médecins, mais même aux Théologiens, aux Jurisconsultes, aux Historiens & aux Litterateurs, pour les engager à cultiver la science Hermétique (Préface, xiv). He speaks first of all of the learned Wedelius's preface as "rather curious", which in some respects it is, and then he goes on to single out the very sentence examined earlier from which the name 'Tschild' has been extracted. We learn from the Abbé that the word 'ICtos' in it should really be 'Jurisconsultes'. Unfortunately I have not yet been able to examine the preface to Wedelius's 1699 edition of the Introitus to see if this contains 'ICtos' or 'Juriconsultos.' The two sentences discussed above are followed by the following words: Nec obstat Autorem Nomen suum dissimulisse, qui ex Anglia tamen vulgo habetur oriundus, (quae cultissima natio jam aliquot secula Chimicos Adeptos habuit, & hodiernum possidet sine dubio,) & THOMAS DE VAGAN appelatus. From this we learn that the Author had concealed his true name, and that "he was popularly held to have been born in England, (a most cultivated country which has had alchemical adepts for several centuries, and no doubt has one now), and was called THOMAS DE VAGAN." In context, we learn that vulgo, in popular opinion, he was said to have been of English origin and, according to the same popular opinion, was called Thomas de Vagan. If all this is correct, the reader is being told that the real name of the adept is not "THOMAS DE VAGAN" but rather his friend in the Hartlib circle, Dr. Child, previously hidden as Tschild in scrambled capital letters. Wedelius ends the whole preface with what I take to be a further indication that his curious text does contain hidden matter: Vale Lector, & Phileletham instar Omnium habe, & Introitum hunc Alchimiae Universae Compendium, ubi, pauca Exoterica, Acroamatica multa offendes. Wedelius takes farewell of the reader and bids him take Phileletha as the model (of all alchemists) and his Introitus as a compendium of universal alchemy, where he will "come across few exoterica but many acroamatica". The final word 'acroamatica' is Greek for those matters that were only revealed in secret by masters to disciples. O.E.D. defines the adjective 'acroamatic' in the following way: 'Of or pertaining to hearing; privately communicated by oral teaching to chosen disciples only; esoteric, secret'. In The Advancement of Learning (1640 ed. 273), Francis Bacon distinguishes between an "Exotericall or revealed" method of teaching and "an Acroamaticall or concealed Method", the first being "magistral", the second "initiative". The question arises of whether such encipherment of a name would occur in an alchemical text at the end of the seventeenth century. This method of revealingly concealing a name was in fact used by other alchemists. George Starkey, for example, inserts two anagrams of his true name in his Pyrotechny : 'Egregius Christo' and 'Vir gregis Custos'. (see John Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica II., 401-5). Closer to Faustius's method is the way the name of Sendivogius was enciphered by Oswald Croll in his Basilica Chemica (1609). This has been finely and convincingly unravelled by Rafael T. Prinke. In the middle of page 94 of Croll's work are the following words: Magnum aliquem, cui in aeternum bene sIt, & Cumprimis egregium HeliocAntharum borEaLem, nunc in Christo quiescentem: cuiuSmodi IENtis DenIque consueVerunt latirare tempOrum currIcUliS. As Prinke writes, the capital, non-italicized letters "spell out the name of the adept so admired by Maier and Crollius: "MICHAEL SENDIVOIUS." It is the name of the Polish alchemist Michal Sedziwoj (1566-1636), better known under his Latinized name Michael Sendivogius. It is interesting that in Croll's cryptogram the G is missing, which indicates that he Latinized the Czech version of his name - Michal Sendivoy - by which he knew him in Prague" (Prinke, 'The Twelfth Adept' in The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited (Lindisfarne Books, 1999), 148). The letters 'DEI' higher on the page perhaps anticipate the religious theme of the cryptogram that follows lower down. It would seem then that there is some warrant for believing that Wedelius concealed the private name of the person believed by him to lie behind the public name, Irenaeus Philalethes in his preface to the Introitus apertus. in the Faustius's edition of 1706, seemingly first printed in 1699. Du Fresnoy seems to have detected the cipher in Wedelius's "curious preface" and draws attention to the very sentence claimed to contain the cipher in his own preface to the Introitus. Wedelius's identification of Philalethes as Dr Robert Child, alchemist, metallurgist and prominent member of the Hartlib circle as well as the befriender of George Starkey both in New and OldEngland does not prove that Child was indeed the adept. But if it is taken in conjunction with earlier claims that the adept was Robert Child, then there is a good case for reviewing the evidence. Subject: ACADEMY : 'Semaia' - a German goddess of alchemy ? From: Klaus Oberhummer Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 Dear friends, my greetings to you, I found in the book "Symbolik des Parsismus" written by Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin, 1961 on page 75, the name of a goddess called Semaia - which is written in this german book as CHMIA. I don't know how to interpret this, because the old alchemical theory states that the planets manifest in the main metals. And the relation between man and god is similar to the relation between man and these sidereal-metallic spheres symbolised in the word "Standarte(german)-Zeichen(symbol)" . Indeed the "BUND(german)" with metallic spheres is the basis of many old religions. Heaven is called Samai and is symbolised by what the author calls "planetarische Scheiben" - which maybe can be interpreted as metals. Indeed I don't know if this CHMIA is a linguistic artefact, or can be interpreted to be a root to an old chemical religion and maybe is an independent root of al-chemy. This would be another root to the word CHEMIE(german) - chemistry, which usually is derived either from the greek chyma? (Saft,Kunst?gu?) or from kemi? (black earth?) Maybe this word is of greek origin made by those men who constructed the "BUND" to the goddess CHMIA. Best regards Mag.Klaus Oberhummer Technisches Museum Wien Subject: ACADEMY : Michael Maier's Music From: Dusan Djordjevic Mileusnic Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 Dear all, I tried to find somewhere on WWW a modern transcription of Maier`s 'Atalanta Fugiens' music, but unsuccessfully. I know the thing I want is in Godwin`s new translation of 'Atalanta', (I'm not able to get the copy), and few fugues are in Read's 'Prelude to Chemistry'. I wonder if anyone might help concerning the (possible) www address? Thanx in advance. While I was searching WWW, I`ve found few pages on Michael Maier, that might be useful for someone. First, on www.bautz.de/bbkl (Biographisch-Bibliographischen Kirchenlexicon) there is an item MAIER, by Ulrich Neumann, with few article-titles not on Adam's Alchemy Articles Archive Project (like one by Jacques Rebotier, or one by Hildemarie Streich, in German. Is this the one published in Godwin's book?). There is also Michael Maier Page on www.geocities.com/~alfafox/egyspx2.htm , with some 'Atalanta' - Sacred Geometry stuff. Wishing you all, all the best, Dusan Djordjevic Mileusnic Subject: ACADEMY : Michael Maier's Music Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 From: Mike Dickman Dusan, Click on the following link: http://www.alchemywebsite.com/bookshop/mohs22.html Dobra, m Subject: ACADEMY : Nordenskjold's iron-stove Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 From: Susanna Åkerman In the exhibition "framtidstro" (future belief, i. e. hope for the future) now at Nordiska museet, Stockholm there is a section on the hope for paradise and one sub-section exhibits the iron stove of August Nordenskjold, the late eighteenth-century Finnish-Swedish alchemist who spoke of his plan of making plenty of gold to undermine the world monetary system. He also draw up a plan for a Swedenborgian utopian society in west Africa. His alchemical oven is about 1 meter high, 40 centimeters in width and with a tetradic (pyramid-shaped) top and with a small door in front. The interior of this probably portable stove is missing, there may have been a plain iron rack inside or even a brick tiling to keep the heat at constant temperature. It is a wonderfully suggestive oven in its small proportion but I wonder if iron stoves of this kind can keep the low heating temperatures necessary for the work. Are there other authentic alchemical ovens made of iron around or are the remaining ones mainly of the older type with brick, clay or stone around the furnace? Are there many older alchemical ovens still preserved today? It would be interesting to know how many alchemical ovens have been preserved and where one can see them. Susanna Åkerman Subject: ACADEMY : Nordenskjold's iron-stove From: Klaus Oberhummer Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 At the technical Museum in Vienna we have an old Ichthyol producing oven. (Trockene Destillation bituminoser Schiefer). It was used in Tyrol and the legend tells that Ichthyol stems from the blood of the Giant/god Tyr/Tuersis, who was killed by Haimo/Hoedr. Maybe this was one of the early legends that oil originates from an animal. A typical Austrian oven is the Kachelofen, which was used for alchemical purposes too. A famous oven was constructed by Johann Joachim Becher. He made gas from coal in England, but I have no picture of it. One of the most important oven series was used by the Arkanisten(Porzellanmaler) to make porcelain. It began with the Hohlspiegel(mirror) of Tschirnhaus-Boettger. At the technical museum in Vienna we have an imperial- Hohlspiegel(mirror) zur Diamantverdampfung. We have a Kerotakis and a Balneum Mariae and several distillation apparatus. At the end of the phlogistic period, Paul Traugott Meissner saw hot or cold air flowing like a liquid, and so he constructed Hei?luftheizungen(Umwalzungsprinzip). Several buildings in Vienna were heated by his constructions. Best regards, Klaus Oberhummer Subject: ACADEMY : Olomouc From: Penny Bayer Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 Dear Academy, I am trying to find out the best way to make enquiries in Olomouc about sixteenth century land ownership ( possibly by an alchemist). I wondered if anyone on this forum lives in Olomouc, or has English-speaking contacts in Olomouc, or perhaps in Prague, who could advise me? Best wishes Penny Bayer Subject: ACADEMY : Authorship of Mutus liber Bcc: ACADEMY From: Adam McLean Date: 21 October 1999 Yesterday I bought a copy of the second edition of the French version of Jacques van Lennep's 'Alchimie'. This has some additional sections at the end of the book. Among these was a note on the authorship of the 'Mutus liber'. Jacques van Lennep discusses the attribution to 'Isaac Baulot' based on the discovery of the note in the copy of the work in Marsh's Library in Dublin. I have discussed this in a posting to the alchemy e-mail discussion groups earlier this year. The 'Mutus liber' is not an entirely wordless book. Three of the plates have words upon them. The final plate has the phrase "oculatus abis" on the speech banners emerging from the mouths of the man and woman. "Having been given eyes to see, you can depart" is a rough translation. Jacques van Lennep points out something new to me, the fact that this phrase is an anagram of "Isaac Baulot". This serves surely to confirm the "Isaac Baulot" attribution. Adam McLean Subject: ACADEMY : Rituals of Initiation and Alchemy Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 From: Henrik Bogdan Dear Academy, My name is Henrik Bogdan and I am a Ph. D. Candidate at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), Department of Religious Studies. I am doing research into Western Esoteric Rituals of Initiation, and wonder if anyone could recommend any books that deals with Alchemy and Rituals of Initiation. I am primarily interested in the so-called Higher Degrees or Additional Degrees, of the Masonic tradition(s). Any books in English, French, German, Italian or Spanish are of interest to me. Best regards, Henrik Bogdan Subject: ACADEMY : Olomouc Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 From: Michal Pober Penny Bayer wrote: >I am trying to find out the best way to make enquiries in >Olomouc about sixteenth century land ownership ( possibly by >an alchemist). I wondered if anyone on this forum lives in Olomouc, >or has English-speaking contacts in Olomouc, or perhaps in >Prague, who could advise me? Penny - I think I can probably help you with this. I know archivists who travel to all the main archives here. Please let me know the information that you are seeking, perhaps offline: michal@terminal.cz It might be good if you also let me know your degree of urgency. Best Regards, Michal Pober Subject: ACADEMY : Rituals of Initiation and Alchemy Date: 21 Oct 1999 From: Adam McLean I suspect one will search very long for any references to rituals of initiation and alchemy before the 18th Century. This seems to be manifested in groups around the order of the Golden and Rosy Cross. A modern source for some of this information is Kenneth Mackenzie's Royal Masonic Encyclopaedia, 1875-1877. This is a muddled poorly researched and overly romanticised view of Masonry, but it is has been very influential in constructing the modern non scholarly view of the links between alchemy, masonic ritual, and rosicrucians. It is well worth reading to see the folly of poor scholarship and the distorted ideas to which this can lead. The best source for a historical assessment in English of the Golden and Rosy Cross is Christopher McIntosh's 'The Rose Cross and the Age of Reason'. Brill, Leiden, 1992. In this book, which is based on Christopher McIntosh's Ph.D. thesis, he documents the Gold- und Rosenkreutz order and its ritual elements. This book has many references to the source material on which McIntosh drew, especially the Kloss collection in the Library of the Grand Lodge of the Netherlands, also Fessler and Schroeder's 'Rosenkreuzerey', [1805-6]. You should try and get access to a copy, even if just for the bibliography. I expect most of the source material you will need to consult is in German. The Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam has a fine collection of this 18th century material. Adam McLean Subject: ACADEMY : Rituals of Initiation and Alchemy From: William S. Aronstein Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 Dear Henrik, The compendium of Albert Pike "Morals and Dogma of the Scottish Rite" comes to mind. In his wide-ranging and eclectic study of initiatic traditions, Brother Pike does mention alchemical antecedents. Best regards, William S. Aronstein Subject: ACADEMY : Authorship of Mutus liber Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1999 From: ME Warlick To Adam and the group, Does anyone know more about the Isaac Baulot text in Dublin? Is it a copy of the version from La Rochelle, 1677 or from Manget 1702? Could it possibly be an earlier manuscript? I may have an opportunity to look at it next summer, but need some additional information about its whereabouts, etc. to include a short discussion of it in a grant proposal. So, has anyone on this list inspected this text? Also, if anyone knows of additional studies of the Mutus Liber, besides those cited by Lennep and Adam's study, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks M. E. Warlick Subject: ACADEMY : Authorship of Mutus liber Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1999 From: Adam McLean >Is it a copy of the version from La Rochelle, 1677 or from Manget >1702? Could it possibly be an earlier manuscript? It is the printed book of La Rochelle, 1677. It has an inscription identifying it as by Baulot. Marcella Gillick looked at this last year. >Also, if anyone knows of additional studies of the Mutus Liber, >besides those cited by Lennep and Adam's study, I would greatly >appreciate it. Die Alchemie und ihr Stummes Buch [Mutus Liber]. [Edited by Eugene Canseliet.] Amsterdam. 1991. Bor, D. Z. O Kamenu Filosofu. Lamsprinck, Pojednání o filosofickém kamenu. Altus, Mutus liber. Libavius, O kamenu filosofu. Prague: Trigon, 1993. Carvalho, José Jorge de. Mutus liber. O livro mudo da alquímia. Um estudo da simbologia alquímica nas imagens do Mutus Liber, incluindo reprodução integral das pranchas de La Rochelle, 1677. São Paulo: Attar Editorial, 1995. De Rola, Stanislas Klossowski. The Golden Game. Thames and Hudson: London, 1988. Gabriele, Mino. Commentario sul "Mutus Liber". Milan: Archè, 1974. Hutin, Serge. Commentaires sur le Mutus Liber. Mezière-les-Metz: Éditions Le Lien, 1966. Martinez-Otero, Luís Miguel. Comentários al Mutus Liber. Seguida de una Hipotiposis de Magophon. Madrid: Luís Cárcamo Editor, 1986. Mutus Liber... preceded by an explicative hypotypose of Magophon [Pierre Dujols]. Stavanger. 1985. Mutus Liber. Reproduction des 15 planches en couleur d'un manuscript du XVIIIeme siècle. Introduction et commentaire par Jean Laplace. Milan: Archè, 1979. Mutus Liber. [Preface and introduction by Patrick Riviere]. Éditions Ramuel, Villeselve, 1995. Mutus Liber. Tradução e Nota Introdutória de Miguel Angel Muñoz Moya. Barcelona: Muñoz Moya y Montraveta Editores. Biblioteca Esotérica, no. 30. 1988. Peradejordi, Julio. Cuatro Tratados de Alquimia. Barcelona: Edicomunicación, 1986. Le Triomphe Hermétique. Introduction et notes d'Eugène Canseliet. Précédées du Mutus Liber avec une hypotypose de Magophon. Denoël, Paris, 1971. Uzcategui, Oscar. Le Mutus Liber... parle. Le Livre muet de l'alchimie dévoilé par la gnose. Éditions Nemoz, 1982. Subject: ACADEMY : Rituals of Initiation and Alchemy Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 From: Michael Srigley Dear Henrik, You might find it interesting to look at the emblematic engravings of Heinrich Khunrath's 'Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae' (1609) in terms of alchemical initiation. Plate III shows figures entering a cavern above which are the words, 'Procul hic abeste profani' taken from the Eleusinian mysteries. These engravings are reproduced in 'A Christian Rosenkreutz Anthology' (1974 ed), ed. Paul M. Allen. Closer to masonic ritual is Thomas Vaughan's 'Lumen de Lumine' (1651) illustrated by an initiary scene with a blindfolded candidate. This can be found in the above 'Anthology' and the full text is given in 'The Works of Thomas Vaughan' (Oxford, 1984), ed. Alan Rudrum. Vaughan was a close friend of the freemason, Sir Robert Moray, and wrote the Preface to the English translation of the Rosicrcuian 'Fama' and 'Confessio', published in 1652. I hope this will be of some use to you, Michael Srigley Subject: ACADEMY : De essentiis essentiarum, alchemy and magic From: Jose Rodríguez Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 >I wonder if anyone could help me with information or bibliography >concerning the (c.thirteenth century) alchemical work, the 'De essentiis >essentiarum'... >The De essentiis essentiarum relates to another interest of my >research - the relationhip between alchemy and magic ... Dear Sophie: Are you researching in the relationships between alchemy and magic? It is really interesting! Right now I'm working in an article (in Spanish) dedicated to the development of the supernatural ideas (without the possibility of rational explanation. It is the foundation of a magical science), "praeter natural" ideas (without a rational explanation in the natural field) and the natural ideas (rational explanation in the natural field) in Muslim and European alchemy in the Middle Ages. One of the alchemical works in the Middle Ages with a real high-level of magical techniques is the Codex Vind. 2372 in Vienna (Austria National Library). There is a great critical edition of this codex in: HELMUT BIRKHAN, (1992), 'Die alchemistische Lehrdichtung des Gratheus filius philisophi in Cod. Vind. 2372. Zugleich ein Beitrag zur okkulten Wissenschaft im Spätmittelalter', Wien: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2 vol. The text has been dated to the second half of 14th century and explains about how to invoke marvellous stars with rare names (Ella, Minella, Fella, Sella, Stella, Enella, Eli, Peli, Oli, Sitili, etc.); how to use the 'powers' of magical stones in the alchemical operations; how to make magical receptacles called 'Sorros', 'Sopos', 'Arra', 'Alla', 'Sesses', 'Saminas', 'Renifera'... and finally how to make a magical head which speaks about astrological secrets in relation to the alchemical Opus. Concerning the work 'De essentiis essentiarum, there are many printed editions and I think that the first is: 'Opusculum praeclarum Beati Tomae Aquinatis. Quod esse et essentiis tum realibus tum intentionalibus inscribitur', in-4º, Venise, Johann Lucilius Santtriter, Girolamo de Sanctis et Francesco Bollano,1488. Manuscripts: Cambrai MS. 919 (818). 14th Century. Summa de essencia essenciarum, a beato Thoma de Aquino compilata. Cum prima causa et prima ex altitudine sapiencie... Montpellier, École de Médecine MS. 479 [Albani 910.] 15th Century. S. Tomas de esse et essentia mineralium. St. Gallen, Bibliothek Vadiana MS. 390. End of 15th Century. Liber esse et de essentia (scil. mineralium) St. Thome de Aquino. Leiden MS. Vossianus Chym. Q. 45. 16th Century [before 1574.] Thomas Capellanus, De essentiis essentiarum. Subject: ACADEMY : Articles on Kelly and Dee From: Adam McLean Date: 26th October 1999 There is an excellent and very full article on Edward Kelly by Michael Wilding in the just published issue of Cauda Pavonis. This also includes a shorter article by Urszula Szulakowska on 'Paracelsian Medicine in John Dee's Alchemical Diaries'. For those wishing to purchase a copy see the Cauda Pavonis web site. http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~english/CaudaPavonis.html Adam McLean Subject: ACADEMY : Authorship of Mutus liber From: Marcella Gillick Date: 26 Oct 1999 Dear M.E. Warlick, If you plan to view this book you may wish to visit the Marsh Library's website at:- http://www.kst.dit.ie/marsh/ (It had occurred to me that the original owner of this book may have known the author - the very extensive (French) diaries of Elias Bouhereau, the first librarian, for example, may contain some hints Best wishes Marcella |
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