MYSTICAL METAL OF GOLD

ESSAYS ON ALCHEMY
AND RENAISSANCE CULTURE

Edited by
STANTON J. LINDEN
Washington State University

AMS PRESS, INC.

New York
 Contents

Introduction vii

Part One: Lives and Works of the Alchemists

JoNATHAN HuGHES
The Humanity of Thoma Charnock, an Elizabethan Alch mi t 3

MICHAEL WILDING
A Biography of Edward Kelly, the Engli h Alchemi t and As oci-
ate of Dr. John Dee 35

L YNDY ABRAHAM
A Biography of the English Alchemist Arthur Dee, Author of
Fasciculus Chemicus and Son of Dr. John Dee 91

Part Two: Alchemical Artifacts: Texts, Collections,

and Classifications

VLADIMIR KARPENKO
Witnesses of a Dream: Alchemical Coins and Medals 117

R. IAN McCALLUM
Alchemical Scrolls Associated with George Ripley 161

GEORGE R. KEISER
Preserving the Heritage: Middle English Verse Treatises in Early
Modem Manuscripts 189

THOMAS WILLARD
Alchemy in the Theater, Museum, and Library, 1602-1702 215

v
vi MYSTICAL METAL OF GOLD

Part Three: Spirit and Flesh

MI HAEL T. WALTON
Alchemy, Chemistry, and the Six Days of Creation 233

PETER J. FoR HAw

Subliming Spirit :Physical-Chemistry and Thee-Alchemy in the
Work of Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1605) 255

UR ZULA SZULAKOWSKA
The Alchemical Medicine and Christology of Robert Fludd and
Abraham von Franckenberg 277

Part Four: Alchemy and Seventeenth-Century

English Authors

YAAKOV MA ETTI
"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 365

LAURINDA S. DIXON
The Cure of Folly by Hieronymus Bosch: Alchemy, Medicine,
and Morality 387

GYORGY E. SzONYI
Representations of Renaissance Hermetisrn in T wentieth-Cen-
tury Postmodem Fiction 405

Contributors 425
Index 429
 7
Alchemy in 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 Less 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 anthologies and more recent text wer anth I gized
alongside the classics.
Most scholars agree that of the great anthol 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 Theater," 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 "conspectus" 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 anal 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 shall 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
216

o ntain e d thirty-fo ur separate work in two octavo vo lume .3 W aldkir h had

r prinrcd an antho logy offered by Pet r Pern a of Ba el in 1572 and ba d n
earlier antho log ics hy Perna and hi pee rs, including th e p rinters yri ac Jac b
f Frankfurt and Jo hann P tr i f Nurnberg.4 W a ld k irch wo uld add an th r
vo lume in 1610, wh en he re printed the fir t two in a new editio n, bringing th
to tal numbe r of t xts to fo rty -five, bu t by this tim e his antho logy h ad b n
r eplac cd by a mu ch large r one.
Tl T hcatrum hemicum wa th e crea ti o n of Lazaru Ze tzn er and wa kept
urr n t hy rwo ge nerat io ns of hi he ir . First printed in fo ur vo lume in 1602,
ir was ·xpand d fi ve v lume in 1622 and to ix in 1662. The first f ur
vo lumes, whi h t g th r in lu led 143 se parate text , were reprinted by Z tzn r
in 16 14 , an d th fiv -volum editi o n wa reprinted in 1659 and 1660. 5 T hi
fin al v ers i n in luded 20 1 te xt in six octavo volumes with m rc than v n
tho u sand pag s.6 Fo r hce r size , thi antho logy is unrivale d in th li t ratur
of al h my.
Laza rus Zetznc r wa s born in trasbo urg in 1551 and pen t mo t of hi life
th ere . H pro bably appre nti ccd to th S trasb urg printer B rnh ardt J bin, wh
busin ss he tc k v r in 1594. He b an to publi h book und r hi own n m
in 15 5 and b am o ne f th e c ity' · mos t pro lific printer , averag ing n
fo liosheet (tw fo lio pages) every day f the yea r.7 He adapted hi m tt , cientia
immuwbili ("immutabl kn wledge") , fro m J bin's sapientia constans ("c n ta n
wisdo m" ), an d he printed a imilar lin f b oks, in tend ed primarily fo r th
a ademi mark et ( se Fig. L) . J bin printed bo k of musica l tablatur f r th
lu te , an d Zetzner printed a T ablarurbuch f organ mu ic. Jobin cate red to the
mark t in me li al tex , including the alte rnative medicin e of Paracel u . Zet-
zn r, meanwhil e, printed th fir t encycl opedi a of gynecology and a large r-
man pharm a p ia, but he al o re printed key tex t of Parae lsian medi in
e li tcd by Johann Huse r. 9 B th printed a variety f class ical and humani ti
t xts. Ze tzn r was pa rt way through a fo ur-volume set of Andreas Alciat' c m-
ple tc wo rk at th tim e of hi death , in 1616.10 His las t publicatio n wa perhap
his be t kn wn: J h ann Valentin And reae's Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosen -
creutz (" hemi c l W dd ing of hri tian Rosenkreutz" ), printed in 1616, tw
yea r after th e first Ro icruc ian manife to . Zetzner h ad already printed a th logi-
ca l b k by Andrea , and hi he ir later issued his reassessment of Rosicruci an -
i m in a bo k " n th e T ow r of Babel" (Turris Babel). 11
There are mysterie urr undin g the place of Zetzner' busine . The min r
my tery is th at most of his books are said to be printed in Arge ntoratum, th e
R man nam f tra bourg, a city on the west bank of the Rhine in the o ld
kingdo m of Burgundy and modern day France. His G erman language boo k ar
a id to be printed in "Straβburg," which indica tes the same city on the Rhin
and n t the town of that name in Po merani a. The greater my tery is that sev ral
of hi books are sa id to be printed in Frankfurt o r o ther place , even at time
wh n he wa pro lucing books in tra bourg. The reasons are mo re likely eco-
no mi c th an po litica l or re ligio u . Mo t of these books are works of humani tic
cho lar hip: commentarie o n Aristotle sa id to be printed in C o logne or Frank-
furt, wh ere th e Alciat b oks were also printed. H owever, the first four volum
 Alchemy in the Theater, Museum, and Library, 1602- 1702 2L7

THEATRUM CHEMJCUM,

PRÆCIPUOS
SELECTORUM AUCTO-
RUM TRACTATUS DE CHE-
MIÆ ET LAPlDIS PHILOSOPHICI
Anriquitate, vetitate, jure, præstantia, & ope-
rationibu.s, continens:
In grattam Veræ Chemiæ, & medicinæ Che-
micæstudiosorum(ut qui uberrimam inde optimorumre-
mediorum messem facerepoterunt) congestum, & in Sex
partes seu volumisna digestum;

SINGU LIS VOLUMINIBUS,

SUO A UCTORUM ET LIBRORUM
Catalogo prim is pagellis : rerum vero & verbo-
rum Indice postremis annexo.
VOLUMEN PRIMUM.

ARGENTORATI,
Sumptibus HERE DUM EBERH. ZETZNERI
M. Dc. L 1X. .M

Fig. 1. Titl e page of Theatrum C hemicum with [ rin ter' device.

f the 1602 Theatrum purport to be printed in Ur e l., a town n rth f Frankfur ,

where Zetzn r seems to have printed no thing els e. Perhap he put w rk ut on
commis io n to other printers, having t o many other pr jeers for hi tra bourg
hop. More like ly, though, he anticipated str ng demand and wanted a pre
run large r than the 2,000 copies permitted under trasb urg city tatute . He
reprinted individual tracts from the Theatrum in Stra bourg, 12 and reprinted all
fo ur volumes there in 1614.
Zetzner dedicated the first four vo lume of the Theatrum to the duk f
Wi.irttemberg and e lector of Saxony. Knowing that Duke Frederick the Firs twa

_____
.__ - - --
218 MYSTIC AL METAL OF GOLD

a 1 ve r and patron of th ea ter, Zetzner said he had chosen the texts at grea t co t
and labor and had et them out as in a theater ("quasi Theatrum") so that they
could be p1leasurab ly contemplated and judged like performances in th e mo t
beautiful th ater (" veulti pulcerrimo ... theatro"). Knowing that Frederick was
a lover of formal ga rdens, Zetzner invited him to browse through the tex ts in
the Theatrum as he would enter a marve lous garden, well cultivated and artfully
arrang d, where a ll kinds of healthy herbs could be plucked along with vari us
fl ower an d fruit , ach with its ow n u e and pleasure.'
These statements upp rted the title page promise that the Theatrum wa
intende d - pecially for stud nt of ch emical med icine, hav ing bee n "collected
by th e gra ce f stud ents of True Chemistry and Chemical Medicine, in order
that th y can reap a pi ntiful harve t f honest remed ies from it." With the
empha i on Vera Chemia and its students, Zetzner conceded th at th ere was a
false co un.rerpart, th e alchemy professed by dece ivers and self-deceivers. A good
Lutheran, he proceeded on th e a sumption th at his readers would want the true
alchemy. In the fourth v lume, as h e addres eel th e candid reader who had
p r evercd thr ugh the first three, he hoped the reader h ad derived some benefit
and tru ted, perhap disingenuously, that the reader could now pr duce ophisti c
gold. But he warned the reader not to overlook the universal work of salvation ,
c mpared t which a ll e lse i labor and so rr w. 14
In 1622, Zetzner's heirs, led by Eberh ardt Zetzner, produc d a fifth volume.
They ac kn wledged the as i ranee of Isaac H abrecht, M.D., in gath ering manu-
sc ripts, perhap un aware that Hab recht took many items from the Artis Auriferae.
ln a preface t the reade r, the heirs continued the theatrical metaphor as they
asked the read r t tolerate a few rogues among the adepts:

A in theatrical actions the characters are introd uced, not only of the
king, magnate, and prince, but often of rustics and servants and n ot
eldom of beggars, lepers, and fools, so in this spectacle of chemical
authors we introduce for levity not only the fops but armed soldiers, in
order that spectators may bring light and show discrimination even as
they are in tru cted .' '

The ca t of characters is traight out of T erence and Plautus, complete with

alazon and miles gloriosus-charac ters also found in student plays like those of
Joh annes Reuchlin, the famed cabbalist. 16 Indeed, several tracts in the first four
vo lumes are in th e form of dialogues. 17 One was turned into a masqu e for the
Jacobean stage. 18
In 1661, the h e irs of Eberhardt Zetzner released the sixth and fin al volume
of the Theat;um. It con isted of alchemical tracts written in German or French
and translated into Latin by Johann Jacob H eilmann, M .D. , of Zweibruck and
Joh ann Frederic Beza, M.D., of Strasbourg. Heilmann dedicated the volume to
his ben efactor, Frederick, count of the Palatine, the son of the ill-fated king 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 patron to tolerate the range of speakers in the volume, including "all
 Alchemy in the Theater, Museum, and Library, 1602- 1702 219

type of foes, mockers, ridi cul ers, and sophists till immer eel in the hadow f
ignorance." 19 H owever, he wrote a a researcher, not as a book eller, and showed
no sign of wanting a larger public. lndeed, he adele I a econd dedicati n "t
an anonymous d isciple of C horto lasseus and the s n of Sendivogiu , th e most
celebrated Hermetic Philosopher of our ag ."20 Chorto lasse us was a p eud nym
used by Joh ann Grasshoff, a fo llower of Michae l Sencl iv gi us and th e Paracels ian
d ctrines e p used by Senclivogius; he probably organi zed an esoteric group, to
whom he addres eel the cabala chemica in a tract that H eilmann tran lat d. 21 As
if t how his esoteric colors, Heilmann igncd himse lf a "lo v r f th phy
and phi losophy" in the econd dedication, at a time when th e new term "theoso-
phy" was as ociated large ly with Paracelsians and Ro icrucians.22
In add ition t the dedications, H eilmann wrote a pr face t the reader
"where in th e truth of the Ph ilosopher ' Stone is d m n t rated from crip tur
sacred and pr phane and thr ugh a c nspectus f th experiment f men of
trasbourg and Base l in our century." 2 H e t uted the accompli hments of hi
co untrymen and placed them in a literat context. His opening nten e qu tes
H o race on the dangers of placing trust in any o ne pers n, cites Ovid's "fabulous
ta le" of Jason and the Golden Fie ce, and refer t the emp ror i cletian'
ban f alchemy books-which Edward Gibb n wou ld call "the first authentic
event in the hi tory of alchymy." 24 Heilmann recogn iz d th at there we re fu rth r
unpublished works of alchemy, in everal vernacula r t ngues, an I hoped that
his example of translation in the plain styl ("plano stylo") w uld en ouragc
other to bring these works to pre .25

In 1625, three years after Zetzner's heirs add ed the fifth volume, th e Frankfun
printer Lucas )ennis published a very different kind of alch mical anthol gy.
Whereas the Theatrum Chemicum and it predecessor, Artis Auriferae, c ncen-
trated on the cia sic texts of alchemy, Jenni 's Musaeum Hermeticum ffered
recent tracts by German alchemists, translated in to Latin and illu trated with
remarkable copperplate engrav ings. The original anthology included only ten
tracts, but neve rtheless offered a comprehensive account of alchemy. The ec-
ond, definitive edition, issued more than fifty year later, brought th t ta l to
twenty-two.26
Raised in Frankfurt, where his mother married in to a prominent family f
engravers, the De Brys, )ennis published some of the most beautifu l book in
the entire history of alchemy. His first important publications were the book
of Michael Maier, a student of mythology as well as alchemy and a lead ing
apo logist for the new intellectual movement known as Ro icrucian. ]ennis pub-
lished at Least six works by Maier, including the encyclopedic Symbola Aureae
Mensae,27 as well as the alchemical emblem bo ks of Daniel Cramer, Daniel
Mylius, and Daniel Stoltz ius, all with striking engravings by the gifted Matthau
Merian, who had married into his family. )ennis bega n to publi h imilar books
in German, first by Paracelsus and his fo llowers, then 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 commissioned translations by the poet Daniel
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

ERANCOFUR TI,
Apud HermannumaSande.

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,
 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 six-pointed star 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
222 MYSTICAL METAL OF GOLD

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
 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,
3
the other psychological-have used his tract as their point of departure.
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
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." 46
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
 Alchemy in the Theater, Museum, and Library, 1602-1702 225

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

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 University 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."
 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
228 MYSTICAL METAL OF GOLD

illustrious Boyle" and gives special weight to Boyle's test of gold produced by
an anonymous alchemist.51
Nevertheless, th new book culture created a new kind of reader: the
armchair alchemi t who is unlikely to try out a process or pass on a secret. Van
Sande recognizes that people will buy the Musaeum Hermeticum for different
reasons, but reminds the candid reader that the philosopher "delights in knowl-
edge for its own ake. "52 Van Sande is removed by sixty years from Michael
Maier, translating alchemical texts in an effort to "assuage the feud between
the adherents of Dogmatic and of Hermetic Medicine."53 The armchair readers,
working in the laboratory of the imagination , would keep up the demand for
alchemical anthologies in the century of Lavoisier and Stahl, which also saw
the Deutsches Theatrum Chemicum and the Bibliotheque des philosophes chimiques.54
Echoing the tides of the older anthologies, and preserving the metaphors of the
theater and library as space wher alchemical ideas could be contemplated, the
vernac ular anthologies of Roth-Scholtz and Maguin continued the process by
which the secret science was made public.

Notes

1. ee, e.g., John Read, Prelude to Chemistry : An Outline of Alchemy, Its Literature and
Relationships (N w York: Macmillan, 193 7), 116, 166.
2. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., "library" sb. l a, 2a ; "mu eum" sb. lb; "theatre"
sb. 7.
3. John F rguson, Bibliotheca Chemica: A Catalogue of the Alchemical, Chemical and
Phannaceutical Books in the Collection of the Late }ames Young, 2 vols. (Gla gow:
Macleho e, 1906), 1: 51- 52. Ferguson's bibliography remains the best single guide
to the vast literature anthologized in the works studied here. Several facs imiles are
ava ilable, including a recent one from Martino Fine Book of Man fi eld Centre, CT.
4. Fergu on, 1: 18-19, 341-4 2.
5. C unt of the numbers of tex ts in these anthologies vary. I have followed Adam
Mclean, "Alchemical Compendia," The Alchemy Web Site <http:/ /www.lev ity.com/
alchemy/compend.html> .
6. Theatrum Chemicum, 6 vols. (Strasbourg: Heirs of l azarus Zetzner, 1659-61), 1: A2r-
v. I have used the facs imile, with a separately bound introduction by Maurizio
Barracano, Torino: Botega d'Erasmo, 1981; hereafter abbreviated TC.
7. Miriam U her Chrisman, Lay Culture, Learned Culture: Books and Social Change in
Strasbourg, 1480- 1599 (New Haven: Yale University Pres, 1982 ), 4, 6.
8. Sixt Kargel and Johann Dominica Lai , Toppel Cythar (Strasbourg: Jobin, 1575);
Bernard Schmid, T ablatur Buch (Strasbourg: Zetzner, 1607; facsimile reprint, N ew
York: Braude Brother , 1967) .
9. Israel Spach, Gynaeciorum sive de mulierum tum communibus , tum gravidarum , parien-
tium, et puerperarum affectibus et morbis (Strasbourg: Zetzner, 1597); Walther Her-
mann Ryff, New Aussgeriiste Deutsche Apoteck (Strasbourg: Zetzner, 1602);
Theophra tu Paracelsus, Opera, Bucher und Schrifften, ed. Johann Huser (Strasbourg:
Zetzner, 1603 ).
10. Andrea Alciarus, Opera Omnia, 4 vols. (Frankfurt: Lazarus Zetzner, 1616-17).
 Alchemy in the Theater, Museum, and Library , 1602-1702 229

11. J. V. Andreae, Chymische Hoch zeit: Christiani Rosencreutz Anno 1451 (Stras bourg:
Zetzner, 1616); Vom Besten und Edelsten Beruff (Strasbourg: Zetzner, 1615); Turris
Babel sive ludiciorum Roseae Crucis (Strasbourg: haeredum Lazari Zetzneri, 1617).
12. De Magni Lapidis, sive, Benedicti Compositione & Operatione, 2nd ed. (Strasbourg:
Zetzner, 1613 ); compare TC, 3: 5-52. The University of Arizona copy of this edition
is sa id to be printed ex manuscriptis.
13. TC, 1: A2r-v.
14. TC, 4: AJr.
15. TC, 5: A2v-A3r.
16. See Eckehart Catholy, Das deutsche LustsfJiel (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1969), and
Frank Geerk, Die Geburt der Zukunft: Reuchlin , Erasmus und Paracelsus als wegweisende
Humanisten (Karlsruhe: Loeper, 1996).
17. See, e.g., Thoma Mufett, Dialogus Apologeticus (TC, 1: 89-108); Aegedius de Vadi ,
Dialogue inter Naturam et Filium Philosophiae (2: 85-109); Tractatus D. Thomae de
Aquino Datus Fratri Renaldo, in Arte Alchemia (3: 278-83).
18. Dialogue Mercurii Alchymistae et Naturae (TC, 4: 449-56 ); see Stant n J. Linden,
Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996), 13 1-53.
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, Epistles 1.1; Ovid, Metamorphoses, 7.1 - 165; Gibbon, The
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 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: Akademische Druck, 1970). Abbreviated hereafter
MH.
27 . Michael Maier, Symbola Aureae Mensae Duodecim Nationum (Frankfurt: Jenni , 1617;
facsimile reprint with introduction by Karl R. H. Frick, Graz: Akademi che Druck,
1972) .
28. E.g., Gloria Mundi , Sons ten Paradeiβ Taffe! (Frankfurt: Jenni , 1620); a Latin ver ion
appears in MH, 205-304.
29. Karl R. H. Frick, "Introduction," Musaeum Hermeticum, facsimile, viii-ix. Further
reference to Frick are to thi e ay.
30. The printed title page has the date 1678, but thi pr bably indicate that the book
was first offered for sa le at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the autumn of 1677; books
sold at the fair were often postdated to the following year.
31. Compare emblem 42 in Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens: Sources of an Alchemical
Book of Emblems, by H. M. E. de Jong (Leiden: Brill, 1969), 418, 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 light.
32. MH, QQQ qqq 4v. For a careful exposition of the plate ee A. E. Waite, The Secret
Tradition in Alchemy: Its Development and Records (1926; reprint, London: Stuart &
Watkins, 1969), 403-06.
33. Johann Joachim Becher, lnstitutiones Chimicae Prodromae and Oedipus Chimicus
(Frankfurt: Sande, 1664).
34. Johann Ludwig Gans, Corallorum Historia (Frankfurt: ]ennis, 1630; Frankfurt:
Sande, 1669).
230 MYSTICAL METAL OF GOLD

35. Frick, xi.

36. MH, (4v-)5r, tran lated [by Julius Kohn?] in The Hermetic Museum, ed. A. E. Waite,
2 vol . (London: Elliott, 1893), l: xii.
37. MH, 3, 4.
38. M. A. Atwood, A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery (1918; reprint, New
Yo rk: Arno, 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 ist: Sechs Herrliche T eutsche 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
sought for Rudolf 11 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
Hermete, ut dicitur Trismegisw, ad nostra usque Tempora de Chrysopoea scripserunt,
cum praecipuis suis commentariis , 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 (terra pinguis) into phlo-
gi ton.
49. ee Wilda C. Anderson, Between the Library and the Laborawry: The Language of
Chemistry in Eighteenth-Century Science (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univer ity
Pre s, 1984 ).
50. Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes, Touch-
ing the Experiments Whereby Vulgar Spagirists Are wont to Endeavour to Evince their
alt, Sulphur and Mercury to Be The True Principles 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 Hermetic Museum, 1: xi.
53. MH, 376; tran lated in Hermetic Museum, 1: 310.
54. Friedrich Roth-Scholtz, ed., Deutsches Theatrum Chemicum, 3 vols. (Nurnberg: Fels-
seckern, 1728-32); Jean Maugin de Richenbourg, ed., Bibliotheque des philosophes
chimiques, rev. ed. (Paris: Cailleau, 1740-54).

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