Renaissance MedievalisCRRS Publications Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies Victoria University in the University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario MSS 1X7 Canada Tek: 416/585-4465, Fax: 416/585-4430 Email: cns.publications@utoronto.ca © 2009 by the Centre for Reformation and Remaissance Studies All Rights Reserved Printed in Canada Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Renaissance medievalisins / edited by Konrad Eisenbichler, (Essays and seudies ; 18) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7727-2085-0 1, Remassance. 2. Medievalism. 3. Middle Ages. I. Eisenbichler, Konrad If, Victoria University (Toronto, Ont). Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies III, Series: Essays and studies (Wictoria University (Toronto, Ont). Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Seudies) (CB361.R42 2009 940.241 (€2008-904599-8 Cover illustration: “Allegorical Portrait of Dante.” Florentine, 16th century. Courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Cover design: Paragraphics Typesetting and production: Becker Associates CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ConrrrBurors Intustraions Ierropuction Konrad Fisenbichler ‘Tue Constantiy Cuancinc Continuum Continuity and Change in Italian Universities Between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance Paul F. Grendler ‘What Counted as an “Antiquity” in the Renaissance? Alexander Nagel and Christopher 8. Wood Leone Ebreo’s Appropriation of Boccaccio’s De genealogia deorum gentilium James Nelson Novea ‘The Fables of Bidpai feom the Middle Ages to the Renaissance Donald Beecher Shakespeare's Reformed Virgin Gary Walter APPROPRIATING FOR CURRENT PURPOSES Self-Fashioning in the Mediterranean Contact Zone: Giovanni Battista Salvago and His Africa Overo Barbaria (1625) E, Natalie Rothman SS 2B 15 33 75 93 107 1237, Joan of Arc and the Crusade: Memorising Medieval Examples to Improve a Renaissance King ae Lidia Radi 8. Carnivalising Apocalyptic History in John Bale’s King Johan and Three Laws Brian Gourley 169 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ee eee ‘The articles in this volume originated as presentations at the international : conference on “Renaissance Medievalisms” held at Victoria College in 9. The Puzzle of Pucelle or Pussel: Shakespeare's the University of Toronto on 6-7 October 2006. I am profoundly Joan of Arc Compared With Two Antecedents rea | grateful to the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at Philippa Sheppard © Victoria College for hosting this conference and to dott. Gianni Cicali, Mr. 1s: Early Modern Women’s Writing __. Jessie Pachike, and Dr. Kim Yates for helping me organize and run it. fries reeay Soi id Generous funding for the conference was received from the Social Peeve ag __ Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, as well as ftom | Victoria University (Office of the President, Office of the Principal, the _ CRRS itsel9, from a number of units at the University of Toronto (the PON THE Past = ee - School of Graduate Studies, the Centre for Medieval Studies, the Institute 11, Medieval Philosophy in the Late Renaissance: The Case for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, and the of Internal and External Time in Scotist Metaphysics 29 | departments of English, Fine Art, History, and Spanish and Portuguese), Michael Edwards from the Toronto Renaissance and Reformation Colloquium, and, last but certainly not least, from the [stituto Italiano di Cultura (Toronto). Without their strong support this conference would not have been 12. Medieval Geography in the Age of Exploration: “The Pardle of Facions in its English Context : 249 sible ‘chard Ratswell a Beet 1 would also like to thank Professor Olga Zorzi Pugliese, Director 13. “Now Iwill beret Loe a oul ee ‘ _of the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, for stepping in ‘The Existence of Fabulous Beasts in Renaissance Hiistoriae Naturales uest Series Editor” of the “Essays and Studies” series for this volume | Hans Peter Broedel 287 8 to provide a much needed arm’s-length distance from the peer few process for this collection. Finally, I wish to express my thanks and those of the contributors Hp this volume to the two anonymous evaluators for the press; their ‘comments and suggestions were very much welcomed by all of us. 14, Medieval Universes and Early Modern Worlds: | Conceptions of the Cosmos in Johannes Kepler's Sorin Gabrielle Sugar 303 15, Elias Ashmole’s Theatram Chemicuan Britannicune (1652) ‘The Relation Between Antiquatianism and Seience in | Seventeenth-Century England ae Vittoria Feola RAD EISENBICHLER 345 InpExEras ASHMOLE’s THEATRUM CHEMICUM BRITANNICUM (1652): THE RELATION BETWEEN ANTIQUARIANISM AND SCIENCE IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND Virrorta FEoLa In his Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, published in London in 1652, Elias timole (1617-1692) consciously exploited medieval metaphysical po- order to intervene in Tnterregnum debates about eduction cand the dissemination 1g Ashmole hi and his intellectual world of antiquaries and natural philosophers that formed the context for the production of this compendium will argue 1e Theatrum was not idy nature empirical They were also examples of medieval vernacular literature. They al poems, which were recipes iy perorations on the practice ieatrum was meant to be a cata~ sophers and vernacular poets, The 's Theatrum reveals that Renaissance Medievalism influence into the Scientific Revolution and this should ompt further andlysis of the early modem uses of medieval sources,322 Renaissance Medievali Bias AsHMOLE’s THEarrum Cueaicum Brivannicum 323 Eas ASHMOLE AND 11s WoRLD: INTERREGNUM DEBATES ON EDUCATIONAL REFORMS: AND THE USE OF THE VERNACULAR Oughtred shared with several members of Gresham College the view | that England needed more “vulgar” teachers of mathematics That is, non-academics who could instruct the nobility and gentry in the uses of applied mathematics to improve their technical knowledge: this was a lias Ashmole was born in 1617 in Lichfield, Staffordshire, where hig ‘pre-tequisie for an incceate of the country’s manaetar and cone Ie attended the local grammar school. He then attended Brasenose College English trade was to expand, Oughtred saw a farther need, wht oes fae ‘Oxford, and completed his education by reading for the bar at # _ a large increase in the number of available textbooks, By the late 1640s a Temple. During the Civil War he fought for the king; as a resil certain English rhetoric was heard about the need for empirical, ‘mathe- Commonwealth authorities sequestrated his lands. At the beginning | { matical’ subjects, reflected in Oughtred’s teachings. It rested on the the 1630s, therefore, Ashmole had a financial problem to solve: Hi _ sumptions that, fist, mathematical knowledge was useful for its applica- so by marrying a widow twenty years his senior who was very rich ind f Sons in developing sea power and it ought to be encouraged; secondly, in This allowed Ashmole to devote his life to what he loved most: t otder for mathematical knowledge to increase and therefore have an impact pursuit of learning, He thus became a great collector, especially of Eng England’ mariime power, ieshould etcolave in English, ansexips rclating to natural philosophy and history.* Ashmole is All this was more easly said than done, however. Gresham College remembered for the eponymous museum that he founded in Oxfo _was an exception. Most lectures at Oxford and Cambridge were still 1683, while his efforts on bebalf of educational reforms dunt _being delivered in Latin and the universities did not place much emphasis Interregnum have received litle scholarly attention. | on practical, empirical knowledge.* For example, they did not have an Ashmole discovered his love for learning in the early 1640s ¢ | mnatomical theatre or a laboratory for the performance of alchemical he became a pupil of the mathematician William Oughtred (167471 ‘periments. In fact, it was Ashmole’s Museum that gave Oxford Uni- who persuaded him to attend the public lectures at Gresham Co _vessty, as late as 1683, its first alchemical laboratory and its first profes- This was a London institution founded by Sir Thomas Greil orship of chemistry, as well as its first anatomical table.” But in the late (1518-1579), merchant and financier, who but ehe Royal Exchat [1640s and carly °50s that was far in the future, and a debate raged in London. Gresham endowed seven professorships: in Divinity,” England about the need for educational reforms implying a more empiri- Rhetoric, Music, Physic, Geometry, and Astronomy. The peculiat j | One of Backhouse’s projects was to translate into English and publish a corpus of French medieval metaphysical poems, together with | an alchemical treatise, In 1644 he translated into English verse The pleasant | Founteine of Knowledg: First Written in French Anno 1413, by John de la 4 Founteine of Valencia in Henault, as well as Jean de Meun’s Planctus Nature: | The Complaint of Nature Against the Erroneous Alchymist (both now MS. Ashm. 58). Jean de Meun (4. 13052) is best known (together with Guillaume de Lorris, . 1230) for his fifteenth-century French master Piece, Le Roman de la Rose. As Armand Strubel has observed, the Roman de la Rose encapsulates many of the themes of medieval metaphysical | poetry. This poetry can be characterized as produced almost entiely by _ clergymen, arguing for the benefits ofan empirical approach to the study ‘of nature, and for the creation of national literature in the vernacular. “The Roman de la Rose is thus part of the fifteenth-century nobility i An Astrological presene to his hed more modestly in 12_ seript by Christopher Heydon (MS. Ashi (MS. Ash. 297, which was pul ‘Ashmole alo owned the original ma sce marginal note on fol 6. Wharton's Keirman shmole received as a gif from the atrologer William Lilly “who in torn had obtained it aa fre copy from the publisher Nathaniel Brook. On Sande sn Lil ODND. Ana Goes wien ily arp sgh is overwhelmingly concerned with the 1650, the resule being an un working for Mind, pss. 1am preparing an aricle 1 sources about Fiske, Saunders, scripts, see Black, A Desmpive talgue, especially MSS. Ashm. 339, 421, 391, 394 (Riske), 176, 240, 43, 380, #89 (Saunders), 339, 137, 423, 242, 1445, 1420, 186 (Wharton), 186, 501, 240, 241, 243 (Lilly). aeEutas Asumoue’s THEaTRUM CHemicum BriTaNnicum 326 Renaissance Medievalisms literature, in that it presents arguments in favour of a nobility of letters | project. Backhouse gave his papers to Ashmole, perhaps hoping that his a8 opposed to the ‘old nobility of arms. Its rhetoric implies the presens favourite disciple would one day edit them.'” Ashmole, unfortunately, tation of empirical knowledge, and not military prowess, as the key never did and so they remain in manuscript form among Ashmole’s papers true nobility. And so we find in it perorations of practical alchemy as | in the Bodleian Library, where they not only constitute a physical example of empirical natural philosophy, as well as allusions to Robett example of Renaissance Medievalism, but also help us understand Ash~ Grosseteste's empirical optics (Roman de la Rese, 540). Grosseteste mole and his milieu of collectors and users of texts for scientific goals. (11752-1253) was an empirical natural philosopher who rejected Scho: 1 Ashmole did, however, finish another undertaking inspired and Iasticism. We can thus begin to see why Backhouse was interested i promoted by Backhouse: the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicur. As we shall translating and editing these poems for his seventeenth-century readers __ see shortly, this work was much in the spirit of Backhouse’s wish to wed they addressed the same concerns, namely the reform of education lon} | medieval metaphysical poetry with alchemy in English, Backhouse’s empirical lines and the use of the vernacular as a language of instruct friends, the mathematical instrument-maker Ramsey, the alchemist and learning. Robert Child (1612-1664), Dr. Levin Fludd (d. 1678), Backhouse’s Fittingly, Backhouse meant to edit these metaphysical poems to=7 nephew Thomas Henshaw (1618-1700), and others gave Ashmole, gether with Solomon Trismosin’s The Golden Fleece, or the Flower: through Backhouse’s mediation, all the manuscripts he needed."® Ramsey Treasures, in which is succinctly and methodically handled the stone of | and Child were connected with yet another overlapping circle of edu- philosophers, his excellent effectes and admirable vertues; and, the Better o atta cational reformers, that of Samuel Hartlib (d. 1662). to the original! and true meanes of perfection, invched with figures repress The Hartlid circle was 2 very important player in Interregnum the proper colours to lyfe as they sucessively appere in the pratise of this Bless debates about educational reforms. “It was not a society with a member- tworke (MS. Ashm, 1395), a contemporary work on alchemy. Alchemi ship that gathered regularly, but a more diffuse group of individuals, ‘works aimed at describing the various stages needed to make the philoso! __ widely dispersed geographically." From the late 1620s to the early 1660s, pher’s stone, the much sought-after chemical substance that could tu hundreds of people communicated with Samuel Hartlib, 2 Reformed base metals into gold and which, because it was also credited with medic -Czech émigré who had settled in England, where he acted as the properties, was often referred to as a panacea, or universal drug, Seve Intelligencer of all those seeking to improve England’s situation. After a teenth-century alchemical works were thus often compendia of informaz | decade of Civil War, English agriculture and trade were devastated. tion on chemical drugs, as opposed to traditional herbal medicines Hartlib and his circle sought for and exchanged information that might Alchemy was also a means to develop chemical substances for the increase knowledge in a Baconian, empirical fashion. In practice this improvement of the quality of soil; hence its importance for Engli meant collecting, collating, often translating, editing and publishing texts agriculture, which had been almost destroyed aftera decade of civil va Since Hartlib pursued the goal of universal reformation, this could be In other words, alchemy was a useful, empirical, ‘scientific’ subject therefore had a role to play in the debates on education reform. TI who wished to reform English education, such as the circle of intellect around Ashmole, thus naturally sought to give it a greater role. FBackhouteclected Ashmole a hi Had they been published, Backhouse’s three translations would hat he passed on all his knowledge ab formed a literary-scientific trilogy, in English, that underlined the alchemist portance of an empirical approach to the study of nature. Lack of '8Throughout Ashmole’s own interleaved copy of the Theatrum Chemiaan Bri rican there are the names ofthe people who sopplied him with manoser and ill health, however, prevented him from accomplishing such Soria fs die Me tee TiSGdea Bene that Ashmole obtained ftom Dr Flood through Robert Child and MS. Ashm. 1415, fol. 30v for evidence of more mathematical connections through which Asimole J manuscripts for the Theat }Bennett/Mandelbrote, The Garden, 157. Samuel Hartt, pasim. ¢hemical son,” chats the person to whom alchemy. This was a standard practice among See Theairam, sig. Bir where As vegetable stone328 Renaissance Medievalisms achieved only by communicating knowledge as widely and effectively possible, leading to use of the vernacula. Backhouse, Lilly and Ashmole were in touch with Harti thro Robert Child. In Hartib’s Ephemerides for March 1651 Ashmole adver tised a flea remedy of his own contrivance, and Robert Child announces Ashmole’s forthcoming Theairum Chemicim Britannicam. Containing se cerall poetcall pieces of our famous English philosophers, who have written the Hermetique mysteries in their owne Ancient language. Faithfully collected one volume, with annotations thereon, by Elias Ashmole It wes in this milie of Baconian empiricism and vernacular studies that it finally appeared London in 1652, ‘Tue THEATRUM CHEMICUM BRITANNICUM: SrRUCTURE, RECEPTION AND MopzRN Carriques, mous writers, and Ashmole’s “Final Annotation: biographical essay about the authors of the poems: Thomas No: George Ripley, Geoflrey Chaucer, John Gower, John Lydgate, J Dastin, Pearce the Black Monk, Abraham Andrewes, Thomas Robins« Richard Carpenter, Walter Redman, William Backhouse, Edward and John Dee. Apart from Chancer and the last three authors, they all cleries; most were pre-Reformation. The significance of theit dl ‘The Theatrum has been popular, both in the seventeenth cei and later, appealing to a diversity of readers. Among Ashmole’s co! eighteenth century, Horace Walpole used it asa source of inspiration a new literary genre, the Gothic novel? Among Victorian occult 20m Newton's use of Ashmole’s TCB, see hesp://seww lib sions/Footprints_of.the_Lion/| Isboratory.heml . On Boy! ay, see