Dämonenforum

Abstract
Our understanding of the role and development of alchemy in Poland and Lithuania
is still in need of further research. However, it is already possible to present a number
of interesting cases, starting with medieval scholars and passing through humanist
intellectuals to early modern nobles and burghers. Although Michael Sendivogius was
certainly the only Polish alchemist of pan-European stature, there were many others
either lured by the dream of the Philosophers’ Stone or motivated by their thirst for
knowledge. In some cases that interest seems to be related to the revolution in science
(ultimately stemming from Copernicus), while in some others—to religious reformation
(including Polish Brethren or Socinians). A brief survey of those individuals and
circles is presented, along with some initial conclusions about the alternative channels
through which alchemy penetrated the Eastern frontiers of Europe (the Armenian
connection).

Abstract
Discorso sopra la Chimica is an early seventeenth-century manuscript on alchemy written
by the Florentine priest Antonio Neri, best known as the author of the first published
treatise on glassmaking – L’Arte Vetraria (1612) – which was widely read for centuries. The
Discorso shows a different face of Neri, that of the alchemist with a profound knowledge
of Paraselsian doctrine, dedicated to the transmutation of metals, and an advocate of
iatrochemistry. This picture is apparently incompatible with that of the technical glassmaker
and the champion of knowledge based on experience. However, even in his Discorso
the author affirms the value of experimental practice, and the experimentum has the
all-important benefit of legitimizing the validity of alchemical doctrines. Knowledge does
not come from reading the books of the sages of antiquity, but from the “practice of many
experiences.” This emphasis on experimentation constitutes a unique feature of the
Discorso. It was perhaps the ‘modernity’ of Neri’s discussion of alchemy that made the
manuscript the object of plagiarism. Careful comparison reveals that an entire chapter
of Prodromo, written by the Jesuit Francesco Lana Terzi in 1670, was copied from Neri. In
the Discorso old and new are intertwined and validate one other, showing how Neri was
a quintessential representative of his time, when scientific models that now appear
irreconcilable coexisted, often forming a complex web.
In this paper I discuss Antonio Neri and the background to his important work, reflecting on
its impact and what it tells us about a fascinating and complex period in the birth of modern
science. This is followed by a translation of the complete text of Discorso sopra la Chimica.

Eno hat geschrieben:Zum Thema Alchemie und Christentum:

Abstract hat geschrieben: The Netherlandish artist Hieronymus Bosch (14507-1516) is an individualist whose
paintings pose great iconographie problems. In HIERONYMUS BOSCH AND ALCHEMY
a theory of Bosch as an alchemistic mystic is put fonA^ard. This thesis is the
result of a comparative study of different elements and structural effects in the painter's
work. The basic hypothesis has been that the painter used a consistent terminology with
recurring graphic elements conveying essentially the same symbolic import in every
painting.
Like astrology, alchemy was an integral part of the natural science of Bosch's time,
and the painter seems to have recognized parallels between alchemy and Christianity,
both of which express a belief in the possibility of transforming base matter into a higher
substance: the alchemists believed that lead could be transformed into gold; the Bible
promises that the earthly man may be reborn as a spihtual man. Bosch may very well
have regarded himself as a true Catholic, since alchemistic symbolism does not oppose,
but rather elucidates, the Christian message. Pictorial elements in Bosch's work have
in several studies been identified as alchemistic symbols, but, apart from Wilhelm
Fraenger's essay on St. Jerome in the Wilderness, there is no comprehensive alchemistic
interpretation of a Bosch painting.
The present dissertation, HIERONYMUS BOSCH AND ALCHEMY, is focused upon
one painting, the Lisbon thptych. The choice has been the happier as the artist has here
depicted a well-known saint, St. Anthony, and this makes it easier to define his peculiarities:
we have a legend and we have Bosch's interpretation of this. Moreover, the
altar-piece gives us an opportunity of presenting a review of Bosch research, as it is one
of the artist's most frequently and thoroughly discussed works.
The ascetic hermit St. Anthony was according to the astrology of Bosch's time
regarded as a typical melancholiac, and he was therefore believed to have been born
under the influence of the planet Saturn. In HIERONYMUS BOSCH AND ALCHEMY the
writer has tried to show the presence of a Saturnian symbolism in the Lisbon triptych,
and has in this connection developed the thesis that the symbolism in question is an
expression of alchemistic mysticism as well as of astrologie belief: Bosch has described
the Saturnian St. Anthony's "temptation" as a purification through which he can attain
his religious fulfilment and find the "Philosophers' Stone".