08-19-2023, 06:17 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-19-2023, 11:57 PM by Paul Ferguson.)
By Euan Roger
"Where did Geoffrey Chaucer get the inspiration for his stories? As part of my research into the hundreds of Chaucer life records in our collections, I’ve been taking a look into one of the Canterbury Tales – the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale – which may have been based on Chaucer’s experience of a real-life trial in the court of the King’s Bench, the records of which are found at The National Archives. The trial was that of William de Brumley, a chaplain from Middlesex who had been caught red-handed trying to sell four counterfeit coins to the Master of the Royal Mint at the Tower of London; coins made – it was claimed – by means of alchemy. These coins had been made from a combination of gold, silver and other ‘medicines’ (‘sal armoniak’, ‘vitriol’ and ‘golermonik’ – probably meant to read ‘bole armoniak’) by the art of alchemy which William claimed he had been taught according to the doctrine of a canon of the king’s chapel at Windsor."
https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/geo...d-alchemy/
See also:
Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration
Studies in the English Renaissance
by Stanton J. Linden
https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813192...gliphicks/
At Scribd:
https://www.scribd.com/search?query=%22D...iphicks%22
"Where did Geoffrey Chaucer get the inspiration for his stories? As part of my research into the hundreds of Chaucer life records in our collections, I’ve been taking a look into one of the Canterbury Tales – the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale – which may have been based on Chaucer’s experience of a real-life trial in the court of the King’s Bench, the records of which are found at The National Archives. The trial was that of William de Brumley, a chaplain from Middlesex who had been caught red-handed trying to sell four counterfeit coins to the Master of the Royal Mint at the Tower of London; coins made – it was claimed – by means of alchemy. These coins had been made from a combination of gold, silver and other ‘medicines’ (‘sal armoniak’, ‘vitriol’ and ‘golermonik’ – probably meant to read ‘bole armoniak’) by the art of alchemy which William claimed he had been taught according to the doctrine of a canon of the king’s chapel at Windsor."
https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/geo...d-alchemy/
See also:
Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration
Studies in the English Renaissance
by Stanton J. Linden
https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813192...gliphicks/
At Scribd:
https://www.scribd.com/search?query=%22D...iphicks%22