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adammclean Member 
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I just came across this very interesting account of Nicolas Flamel. The authors explore the existing documentation on Flamel and come to the conclusion that he was not, after all a scribe, illuminator, bookseller and librarie jure of the University of Paris. They do not investigate the idea that he was an alchemist. Nigel Wilkins Nicolas Flamel Des livres et de l'or has already substantially demolished the image of Flamel as alchemist. However, the myth always wins against the facts, and few people I know take a critical view on the reality of Flamel. Patrons, Authors and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris Around 1400, edited by Godfried Croenen, Peter F. Ainsworth GoogleBooks has a substantial section of the chapter on Flamel, though there are a few missing pages ! http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ohExpvMMXF4C&pg=PA77&lpg=PA77&dq=jean+nicolas+flamel&source=bl&ots=e5l4QW8aWO&sig=3ZNLVX-RvIDTAVN2Tls9IPBDM1w&hl=en&sa=X&ei=w-YSVM2xH4W57AbynYDwCQ&ved=0CFsQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=jean%20nicolas%20flamel&f=false Last edited on Fri Sep 12th, 2014 01:52 pm by adammclean |
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Alexander Guthrie Stewart Member
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That's very interesting, it puts the history into the proper medieval context, and as you say demolishes the legend. |
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adammclean Member
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What is important is to correctly contextualise alchemical material. The Flamel story is a construct of the early 17th century and makes complete sense within that milieu, from which also emerged the Basil Valentine and Salomon Trismosin stories, among many others. It was important during this period to establish a historical depth to alchemy and thus various writers created these imagined characters. This is part of the alchemy of that time. These contrivances were part of the alchemical tradition, and we should not merely dismiss them because they had no historical basis. Similar contrivances happen in our own time - just think of Roswell. These myths seem to rapidly outgrow their erroneous basis. Scholars have to simultaneously keep both realities in their head - the fact that the late 14th / early 15th century Nicolas Flamel was not an alchemist, but there was an important and influential body of 17th and 18th century writings appearing under this name, that their authors wanted to give some historical depth. Somehow these authors felt that their insight and ideas about alchemy would not be so well received by their contemporaries, so decided to adopt the device of locating them deep in past history. |
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