Alchemy and Paracelsianism at the Casino di San Marco in Florence

[Paul Ferguson]

"This article provides a first in-depth look at the La fonderia dell’Illmo et Ecc.mo Signor Don Antonio de’ Medici, a publication that was issued at the Casino di San Marco in Florence in 1604. This work has been deemed to be lost by many scholars on the Casino, but in fact a copy of it is found in the British Library."

Full text.

https://brill.com/view/journals/nun/37/1...anguage=en

[Paul Ferguson]

Translating Forbidden Authors: New Evidence on the Alchemical Library of Don Antonio de’ Medici
Stefano Mulas

"Research into the history of alchemy and Paracelsianism in Italy has highlighted the role of Italian courts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as centres of elaboration and diffusion of alchemical knowledge. Among these, one of the best known is the Medici court which already dedicated spaces in the ducal foundry to the alchemical arts in the time of Cosimo I. This interest would remain alive with Francesco I and his son, Don Antonio de' Medici, one of the greatest supporters of Paracelsian medicine in Italy. This contribution presents previously unpublished sources, now preserved in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze and in the collection of the Biblioteca degli Intronati in Siena, that can help us reconstruct in greater detail some significant aspects of Medici alchemical engagement and can, above all, help further determine Paracelsus’s influence in seventeenth century Florence."

Full text.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...24.2338632