DOCSLIB.ORG

Alchemist Sendivogius and Sigismund III Vasa

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Alchemist Sendivogius and Sigismund III Vasa ART AND IMAGES IN PSYCHIATRY SECTION EDITOR: JAMES C. HARRIS, MD Alchemist Sendivogius and Sigismund III Vasa Man was created of the Earth, and lives by virtue of the Aire; for there is in the Aire a secret food oflife...whose invisible congealed spirit is better than the whole earth. Michael Sendivogius, 16501(p20) LCHEMY WAS INTRODUCED ally involved in alchemical transforma- Following medieval Arabic writers, to a new generation in 1997 tion experiments. Michael Sendivogius alchemists concluded that 2 ingredi- with the publication in the (1566-1636), a Polish nobleman and one ents they named mercury (fluid prin- United Kingdom of the first of that century’s best-known alchemi- ciple) and sulfur (dry inflammable prin- Abook of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter se- cal adepts and physicians, resided in ciple) naturally combined underground ries, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Prague for some years. He conducted al- to make various metals. Too much of the Stone.2 The connection to alchemy was re- chemical experiments there while con- fluid mercury was present in tin and lead, moved from the title of the US edition currently serving as courier for the em- metals that easily melted. Too much sul- where, with the author’s reluctant per- peror and liaison to the Polish Court. fur was present in hard metals like iron mission, Sorcerer’s Stone was used in- Sendivogius is memorialized by Polish and copper. Gold was the perfect ad- stead. The publisher feared that Ameri- artist Jan Matejko in his alchemical mixture. Thus, turning one metal into can parents would not buy a book for their painting that shows Sendivogius with another required adjusting the propor- children with “philosopher” in the title. Sigismund III Vasa (cover), King of Po- tions of mercury and sulfur. This might Despite the revised naming, the book does land, on the first floor of the palace in take thousands of years underground. To indeed deal with alchemy and refers to a the royal chamber near a fireplace. An speed the process in their laboratories, historical figure, Nicolas Flamel (early alchemical experiment has just been alchemists proposed a material agent of 1330s-1418), now age 665 years in the completed. Sendivogius, kneeling on his transmutation they called the philoso- book. Flamel was believed to have ac- right knee, reaches back from the fire to pher’s stone or elixir. Thrown on mol- complished the 2 major goals of al- offer the king a coin that has been trans- ten metal, the elixir would effect the chemy: creating the philosopher’s stone, muted into gold. The king’s retinue ea- transformation into gold. The method allowing him to turn lead into gold, and gerly watches the finale of this experi- of preparation of the philosopher’s stone making the elixir of life, thus achieving ment. On the left, Mikolaj Wolski, the was a closely guarded secret to prevent immortality for himself and his wife. In Grand Marshal of the Crown and a long- the unscrupulous from misusing it. Rowling’s book, archvillain Lord Volde- standing financial supporter of Sendi- Thus, alchemists wrote their books in mort seeks the philosopher’s stone to vogius, holds a magnifying glass in his riddles and metaphor. They believed that achieve eternal life and rule the world but hand. Jerzy Mniszek, Governor of San- to perfect this process of transmuta- is thwarted by Potter, who has no such domierz (in the fur coat), leans in from tion, they must perfect themselves as desire for immortality and, in his inno- behind the king for a closer look. Seated well, for the ultimate goal was to under- cence, acquires the stone. Flamel, bored on the right, Peter Skarga, Jesuit priest stand the divine in nature. The philo- with such a long life, agrees to the de- and preacher to the king, holds a rosary. sophical alchemist believed in a kind of struction of the philosopher’s stone to pre- As illustrated in the painting, gold panvitalism, in the underlying connect- vent it from falling into the wrong hands. making, or chrysopoeia, is most com- edness of all life. Thus, the ultimate goals The Potter books present popular monly associated with alchemy.8 One al- of the alchemist were far more ambi- views about alchemy. However, the his- chemical goal was transmutation, the tious than the transmutation of metals. tory of science reveals that alchemy has conversion of inexpensive base metals Today alchemy is often condemned a richer history. It is a precursor to mod- such as lead into precious metals such and dismissed as pseudo science; how- ern chemistry and to Jung’s psychology as gold or silver. (We now know it is im- ever, historically it was considered se- of individuation. Carl Jung believed al- possible to transform elements by chemi- riously by renowned scientists like Isaac chemy to be the historical antecedent of cal means, but transmutation has been Newton (1642-1727) and Robert Boyle his analytic psychology as revealed in his accomplished by bombardment of lead (1627-1691). Newton mastered chem- Red Book.3,4 Jung’s last years were spent by neutrons in a nuclear reactor to pro- istry at Cambridge University but turned examining alchemical texts for analo- duce microscopic amounts of gold.) The to alchemy for reasons altogether dif- gies to his archetypal studies in his pur- alchemists were aware that miners and ferent from learning about chemistry.9 suit of psychological transformation.5 refiners recognized that lead ore com- He knew alchemy was not intended to Edinger6 summarizes the pertinence of monly contains some silver ore and sil- be the study of matter for its own sake alchemy to analytical psychology. ver ore usually contains some gold. This nor was it a natural philosophy. There The 17th century is considered the suggested to them that metals gradu- was a spiritual dimension to alchemy, as golden age of alchemy. Support for al- ally changed into one another over time. emphasized by alchemists in Rudolf’s chemy reached its apogee in that cen- Thus, through natural processes, lead court. It was the spiritual dimension of tury in Prague at the court of the Holy gradually became silver and silver gradu- alchemy that attracted Newton as he Roman Emperor Rudolf II.7 Rudolf had ally became gold.8 Because gold was re- sought the organizing force underlying an alchemical laboratory built in Prague sistant to tarnish and corrosion, it his physical experiments. Castle and invited alchemists from all seemed to them the end point in the de- Alchemists embraced both medi- over Europe to use it; he was person- velopment of metals. cine and philosophy. Alchemical phy- ARCH GEN PSYCHIATRY/ VOL 68 (NO. 8), AUG 2011 WWW.ARCHGENPSYCHIATRY.COM 771 ©2011 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 09/27/2021 sicians rejected the traditional teaching sought. In seeking the aerial food of life, and decomposed by fire and “so changed of Hippocrates and Galen, aimed at bal- Sendivogius focused on the colorless, in the nature of the air,” suggesting he ancing the 4 humors, and the use of tra- crystalline solid saltpeter (nitre or po- knew that heating saltpeter causes it to ditional plant and herbal concoctions. tassium nitrate). The major source of give off a gas. Could it have been oxy- They sought to increase the strength of saltpeter was known to be farmyard soils. gen? Drebbel belonged to the scientific plant materials by extracting essences Sendivogius assumed that the food of life elite of the time and may or may not have from plants and minerals and using met- was condensed from the air into saltpe- known Sendivogius personally but was als for treatment. The strongest early pro- ter, and when present in fertilizers, it surely familiar with his work. Modern ponent of this approach was the Swiss stimulated plant growth. Moreover, it scientists are skeptical about these claims Paracelsus10 (Theophrastus von Hohen- was the key ingredient in gunpowder and about oxygen. Alchemists kept their ex- heim, 1493-1541), physician, botanist, was used in medicines, in freezing mix- periments secret not only because of and alchemist. Paracelsus pioneered the tures, and in the production of the acid worries that they might fall into the medical use of chemicals and minerals. aqua regia (the queen of the waters), wrong hands but also in Sendivogius’ His iatrochemistry focused on the pro- which could dissolve gold. Sendivo- time to avoid censure from the church; duction of pharmaceuticals, a lucrative gius’ adherents1,11 suggest that his aerial they did not draw public attention to trade2 in the 17th century, as it is in the nitre is oxygen, a gas in the air that makes their findings. To avoid the fate of Co- 21st. Many alchemists financed their ex- life possible. When condensed into solid pernicus and Galileo, Sendivogius con- periments through the sale of medi- form as saltpeter, it gives life to plants cealed his authorship of A New Light on cines. For example, Paracelsus was re- and minerals. For Sendivogius, the aerial Alchemy in an anagram and at other sponsible for introducing an early food was “Our water that wets not our times published anonymously. Al- formulation of laudanum, an opium tinc- hands, without which no mortal can live, though others advanced the study of the ture, which was widely used after the and without which nothing grows or is components of the air more thor- 1660s in a revised formulation devel- generated in the world.”1(p21) Others12 oughly than he did, Sendivogius de- oped by English physician Thomas point out that Sendivogius’ theory about serves to be remembered for his alchemi- Sydenham (1624-1689).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Alchemical Culture and Poetry in Early Modern England
    Alchemical culture and poetry in early modern England PHILIP BALL Nature, 4–6 Crinan Street, London N1 9XW, UK There is a longstanding tradition of using alchemical imagery in poetry. It first flourished at the end of the sixteenth century, when the status of alchemy itself was revitalised in European society. Here I explain the reasons for this resurgence of the Hermetic arts, and explore how it was manifested in English culture and in particular in the literary and poetic works of the time. In 1652 the English scholar Elias Ashmole published a collection of alchemical texts called Theatrum Chymicum Britannicum, comprising ‘Several Poeticall Pieces of Our Most Famous English Philosophers’. Among the ‘chemical philosophers’ represented in the volume were the fifteenth-century alchemists Sir George Ripley and Thomas Norton – savants who, Ashmole complained, were renowned on the European continent but unduly neglected in their native country. Ashmole trained in law, but through his (second) marriage to a rich widow twenty years his senior he acquired the private means to indulge at his leisure a scholarly passion for alchemy and astrology. A Royalist by inclination, he had been forced to leave his London home during the English Civil War and had taken refuge in Oxford, the stronghold of Charles I’s forces. In 1677 he donated his impressive collection of antiquities to the University of Oxford, and the building constructed to house them became the Ashmolean, the first public museum in England. Ashmole returned to London after the civil war and began to compile the Theatrum, which was intended initially as a two-volume work.
    [Show full text]
  • Narrating the Time of Troubles in Polish School History Textbooks (1918‑1989) Le Temps Des Troubles Dans Les Manuels D’Histoire Polonais (1918‑1989)
    Cahiers du monde russe Russie - Empire russe - Union soviétique et États indépendants 57/4 | 2016 Varia Narrating the Time of Troubles in Polish School History Textbooks (1918‑1989) Le Temps des Troubles dans les manuels d’histoire polonais (1918‑1989) Machteld Venken Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/monderusse/9996 DOI: 10.4000/monderusse.9996 ISSN: 1777-5388 Publisher Éditions de l’EHESS Printed version Date of publication: 1 October 2016 Number of pages: 879-902 ISBN: 978-2-7132-2542-0 ISSN: 1252-6576 Electronic reference Machteld Venken, « Narrating the Time of Troubles in Polish School History Textbooks (1918‑1989) », Cahiers du monde russe [Online], 57/4 | 2016, Online since 01 October 2018, Connection on 05 January 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/monderusse/9996 ; DOI : 10.4000/monderusse.9996 2011 MACHTELD VENKEN NARRATING THE TIME OF TROUBLES IN POLISH SCHOOL HISTORY TEXTBOOKS (1918‑1989) The crisis that jolted Central and Eastern Europe at the beginning of the seven‑ teenth century has been interpreted as an important Russian‑Polish conflict. Ever since the death of Tsar Boris Godunov in 1605, Muscovy had been suffering from a dynastic crisis. It was divided by civil war and had been invaded by Sweden and the Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1610, the elected Polish king, Sigismund III Vasa, caused uproar in Russia by installing his son Ladislaus on the Moscow throne. In 1612, the Russians succeeded in defeating the army of the Commonwealth. In the following year, they chose a new tsar, Mikhail Romanov, who established a new dynasty that was to rule the country for more than three centuries.
    [Show full text]
  • {FREE} the Collected Works of C.G. Jung: Alchemical Studies V. 13
    THE COLLECTED WORKS OF C.G. JUNG: ALCHEMICAL STUDIES V. 13 PDF, EPUB, EBOOK C. G. Jung,Gerhard Adler,R. F. C. Hull | 528 pages | 21 Aug 1983 | Princeton University Press | 9780691018492 | English | New Jersey, United States The Collected Works of C.G. Jung: Alchemical Studies v. 13 PDF Book Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review. Judith Chimowitz rated it it was amazing Nov 06, Edward rated it it was amazing Jan 11, With this admission the only thing redeemable from this book is the excellent bibliography. Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. Overall, this book discusses the philosophical and religious aspects of alchemy , as alchemy was introduced more as a religion than a science. Bollingen Tower C. As a current record of all of C. Laura rated it it was amazing Mar 12, Oct 07, Timothy Ball rated it it was amazing Shelves: tim-s-shelf. Alchemical Studies Collected Works of C. Jung, Volume Alchemical Studies C. One thing that struck me was his influence in fields, like folklore studies and the history of religions, concerned with the study of alchemy. Shelves: psychology. Read more Phone: ext. Jung began his career as a psychiatrist. Other Editions This section comes from two lectures delivered by Jung at the Eranos Conference, Ascona, Switzerland in The central theme of the volume is the symbolic representation of the psychic totality through the concept of the Self, whose traditional The psychological and religious implications of alchemy preoccupied Jung during the last thirty years of his life.
    [Show full text]
  • Alchemy Ancient and Modern
    PLATE I. EFFIGIES HlPJ^SELCr JWEDlCI PORTRAIT OF PARACELSUS [Frontispiece ALCHEMY : ANCIENT AND MODERN BEING A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE ALCHEMISTIC DOC- TRINES, AND THEIR RELATIONS, TO MYSTICISM ON THE ONE HAND, AND TO RECENT DISCOVERIES IN HAND TOGETHER PHYSICAL SCIENCE ON THE OTHER ; WITH SOME PARTICULARS REGARDING THE LIVES AND TEACHINGS OF THE MOST NOTED ALCHEMISTS BY H. STANLEY REDGROVE, B.Sc. (Lond.), F.C.S. AUTHOR OF "ON THE CALCULATION OF THERMO-CHEMICAL CONSTANTS," " MATTER, SPIRIT AND THE COSMOS," ETC, WITH 16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS SECOND AND REVISED EDITION LONDON WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LTD. 8 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G. 4 1922 First published . IQH Second Edition . , . 1922 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION IT is exceedingly gratifying to me that a second edition of this book should be called for. But still more welcome is the change in the attitude of the educated world towards the old-time alchemists and their theories which has taken place during the past few years. The theory of the origin of Alchemy put forward in I has led to considerable discussion but Chapter ; whilst this theory has met with general acceptance, some of its earlier critics took it as implying far more than is actually the case* As a result of further research my conviction of its truth has become more fully confirmed, and in my recent work entitled " Bygone Beliefs (Rider, 1920), under the title of The Quest of the Philosophers Stone," I have found it possible to adduce further evidence in this connec tion. At the same time, whilst I became increasingly convinced that the main alchemistic hypotheses were drawn from the domain of mystical theology and applied to physics and chemistry by way of analogy, it also became evident to me that the crude physiology of bygone ages and remnants of the old phallic faith formed a further and subsidiary source of alchemistic theory.
    [Show full text]
  • The Alchemist: Where Madness Meets Magic by C
    The Alchemist: Where Madness Meets Magic by C. Richard Davies EARING A LONG COAT STAINED BY many substances, a human adds the last W reagent to a vat of chemicals—his greatest creation yet. As the vat boils over, it reveals a figure taking form inside: new life, under his complete control. DJUSTING HER GOGGLES, A DWARF lights the fuse on an apple-sized sphere in her A hand. “Stand back,” she says to her allies, “And cover your ears. This one’s the biggun.” Just before the fuse is spent, she hurls it over a nearby wall—and the thunderous explosion shakes the ground and her teeth alike. Scientists of Magic Like all magic-users, alchemists seek a deeper understanding of the secrets of the universe, but approach that understanding through studies of the material world, rather than research into magic itself, pacts with strange beings, or contemplation of one’s bloodline. Some might call their researches almost scientific in nature, yet they involve as much of the arcane and the occult as the mundane. They also frequently involve obsession and even what some might call madness. Creating an Alchemist You can make an alchemist quickly by following these suggestions. First, Intelligence should be your highest ability score. Make Dexterity your next Multiclassing highest if you plan on specializing in ranged combat. To qualify for new class levels as an alchemist, Select the cantrips light, produce flame, and resistance. you must have Intelligence 13 or better. You gain Finally, choose the sage background. proficiency with alchemist’s supplies only.
    [Show full text]
  • Alchemical Reference in Antony and Cleopatra
    SYDNEY STUDIES Alchemical Reference in Antony and Cleopatra LYNDALL ABRAHAM Lepidus: Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun: so is your crocodile. (II.vii.26-7) The phrase "the operation of your sun" is a distinctly alchemical term. It refers to the opus alchymicum as a whole and is first known to occur in one of the oldest and most famous alchemical documents, the Emerald Table: "What I have said concerning the operation of the Sun is finished."1 The Tabula Smaragdina or Emerald Table, ascribed to Hermes Tris­ megistus or the Egyptian Thoth, was not only one of the most important sources of medieval alchemy, but continued to be considered as the basis of alI alchemical law by alchemists right through to the seventeenth cen­ tury. The earliest known version was discovered by E. J. Holmyard in an eighth-century Arabic text, and it was translated into Latin around the time of the thirteenth century. The first English translation appears as a part of Roger Bacon's The Mirror of Alchimy (London 1597). The con­ tents of the influential Table occur repeatedly in both Renaissance and seventeenth-century alchemical treatises, including John Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica (1564: reprinted in 1591 and included in the alchemical anthology Theatrum Chemicum in 1602), the De Alchemia (1541-Table included in full), George Ripley's The Compound of Alchymie (1591), William Bloomfield's Bloomfield's Blossoms, Thomas Norton's Ordinal of Alchemy (1477), and Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens (1617).2 In Euphrates or The Waters
    [Show full text]
  • The Philosophers' Stone: Alchemical Imagination and the Soul's Logical
    Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 2014 The hiP losophers' Stone: Alchemical Imagination and the Soul's Logical Life Stanton Marlan Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Marlan, S. (2014). The hiP losophers' Stone: Alchemical Imagination and the Soul's Logical Life (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/874 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE PHILOSOPHERS’ STONE: ALCHEMICAL IMAGINATION AND THE SOUL’S LOGICAL LIFE A Dissertation Submitted to the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Stanton Marlan December 2014 Copyright by Stanton Marlan 2014 THE PHILOSOPHERS’ STONE: ALCHEMICAL IMAGINATION AND THE SOUL’S LOGICAL LIFE By Stanton Marlan Approved November 20, 2014 ________________________________ ________________________________ Tom Rockmore, Ph.D. James Swindal, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Professor of Philosophy Emeritus (Committee Member) (Committee Chair) ________________________________ Edward Casey, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Stony Brook University (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ James Swindal, Ph.D. Ronald Polansky, Ph.D. Dean, The McAnulty College and Chair, Department of Philosophy Graduate School of Liberal Arts Professor of Philosophy Professor of Philosophy iii ABSTRACT THE PHILOSOPHERS’ STONE: ALCHEMICAL IMAGINATION AND THE SOUL’S LOGICAL LIFE By Stanton Marlan December 2014 Dissertation supervised by Tom Rockmore, Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Non De Fide, Sed De Securitate Pacis.1 Faith and Politics in the Views of Protestants in the Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1631‑32
    Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce PL ISSN 0029‑8514 Special Issue Urszula Augustyniak (Warsaw) Non de Fide, Sed de Securitate Pacis.1 Faith and Politics in the Views of Protestants in the Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1631‑32 Traditionally, political views of Polish Protestants are investigated in the context of struggle for the so‑called religious tolerance, although at the time the Warsaw Confederation was regarded not as an ‘edict of tolera‑ tion’ but a guarantee of estate privileges and a principle of the political system of the Commonwealth. Mirosław Korolko’s analysis of political arguments used in the controversy over the Confederation2 – on a par with denominational, historiosophical, legal and socio‑economic argu‑ mentation – does not explain the relation between propaganda activity and actual attitudes of Protestants as citizens. Different from Catholic, the views of Polish and Lithuanian Protes‑ tants on the relationship between religion and politics – for instance, on the genesis of monarchical power and its obligations towards the state, the subordination of the clergy to general laws, the right of the subjects to resist edicts in conflict with the laws of God – were the result of doctrinal premises formulated in the twentieth chapter of John Calvin’s Institutio religionis christianae3 and in the Sandomierz 1 A. S. Radziwiłł, Memoriale rerum gestarum in Polonia 1632‑1656, ed. by A. Przyboś and R. Żelewski, Wrocław, 1968, vol. 1, p. 85: a quote from the polemics of K. Radziwiłł and M. Ostroróg, 30 October 1632. 2 M. Korolko, Klejnot swobodnego sumienia. Polemika wokół konfederacji warszawskiej w latach 1573‑1658, Warsaw, 1974.
    [Show full text]
  • Elias Ashmole's Hermetic Reading of Gower's
    Accessus Volume 6 Issue 2 Magic, Religion, and Science Article 3 2020 Transmuting John Gower: Elias Ashmole’s Hermetic Reading of Gower’s Jason and the Golden Fleece Curtis Runstedler Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/accessus Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, and the Medieval Studies Commons Recommended Citation Runstedler, Curtis (2020) "Transmuting John Gower: Elias Ashmole’s Hermetic Reading of Gower’s Jason and the Golden Fleece," Accessus: Vol. 6 : Iss. 2 , Article 3. Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/accessus/vol6/iss2/3 This Article has been accepted for inclusion in Accessus by the editorial board of the journal and administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Transmuting John Gower: Elias Ashmole’s Hermetic Reading of Gower’s Jason and the Golden Fleece Acknowledgments I would like to thank the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, The Library of Congress in Washington, D. C. for granting permission with their image reproduction. I am indebted to the following scholars and funding bodies for their generous support and encouragement: Elizabeth Archibald, Matthias Bauer, Angelika Zirker, Chad Gunnoe, Bob Yeager, Teach@Tübingen, Durham University’s Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IMEMS), Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). I would also like to thank the anonymous peer reviewer for their invaluable feedback. This article is available in Accessus: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/accessus/vol6/iss2/3 Runstedler: A Hermetic Reading of Gower’s Jason & the Golden Fleece 1 Transmuting John Gower: Elias Ashmole’s Hermetic Reading of Gower’s Jason and the Golden Fleece1 In the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum (1652), Elias Ashmole (1617–1692) includes annotations for the fourteenth- century trilingual English poet John Gower’s (c.
    [Show full text]
  • Stages of Transmutation: the Visual Rhetoric of Alchemy in Sequential Art
    STAGES OF TRANSMUTATION: THE VISUAL RHETORIC OF ALCHEMY IN SEQUENTIAL ART By KATHERINE H. SHAEFFER A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS 2009 1 2009 Katherine Shaeffer 2 To my family, both by blood and of the heart 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank the members of my thesis committee, Dr. Paxson and Dr. Ault, for believing in this project. I thank my parents, James and Suzie Shaeffer, for all of their support. I also extend my thanks to Sean, Laurel, Terry, Steff, Claire, James and David, for friendship, and to Nicholas Flammel, for starting a trend. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................................................................... 4 LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................................. 6 ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 8 2 AN OVERVIEW OF ALCHEMY ............................................................................................. 16 3 ALCHEMICAL PICTURE SEQUENCES, MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ........... 26 Illustration in The Works of Geber (illustrations 1545; original text 7th Century)................. 32 Nicholas
    [Show full text]
  • Two Portraits of the Prince Ladislas-Sigismund Vasa from the Collections in Wawel Castle Re-Examined
    Rocznik Historii Sztuki, tom XXXVII PAN WDN, 2012 KATARZYNA KRZYŻAGÓRSKA-PISAREK INDEPENDENT ART HISTORIAN LONDON TWO PORTRAITS OF THE PRINCE LADISLAS-SIGISMUND VASA FROM THE COLLECTIONS IN WAWEL CASTLE RE-EXAMINED INTRODUCTION This article aims to re-evaluate the existing evidence concerning the attribution and provenance of the two portraits of the Polish Prince Ladislas-Sigismund (1595–1648), later King Ladislas IV, formerly ascribed to the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens, and now to his workshop and his school or circle respectively. Both pictures are at present in the Wawel Castle in Cracow, and are the two most important works associated with Rubens and his studio in Poland. As both paintings originally came from British collection, so they might benefit from being reviewed from this perspective. The first one is a half-length (to the knees) portrait on long-term loan from the Metropolitan Museum, New York1, described there as workshop of Peter Paul Rubens, Ladislas-Sigismund IV, King of Poland, c. 1624, oil on canvas, 49¼ ϋ 39¾ in. or 125.1 ϋ 101 cm, Inv. n. 29.100.13 (fig. 1). The second one is a full-length equestrian portrait by the school or circle of Rubens, Ladislas-Sigismund, Prince of Poland on horseback, after 1624, oil on canvas, 259 ϋ 185.5 cm, Wawel Castle, Cracow, State Collection of Art, Inv. n. 6320 (fig. 3). Later known as King Ladislas IV, the Polish Prince was the son of the King Sigismund III Vasa and his first wife Anne of Austria (1573–1598), also known as Anna Habsburg.
    [Show full text]
  • Alchemical Discourses on Nature and Creation in the Blazing World (1666)
    NTU Studies in Language and Literature 57 Number 22 (Dec 2009), 57-76 Contemplation on the “World of My Own Creating”: Alchemical Discourses on Nature and Creation in The Blazing World (1666) Tien-yi Chao Assistant Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures National Taiwan University ABSTRACT This paper examines Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World from an alchemical perspective, with special references to passages regarding the perception of the cosmos and the creation of immaterial worlds. Even though the text is not the first work addressing the Utopian theme, it is innovative in utilising alchemical allegories to present both the author’s philosophical thoughts and the process of creative writing. In order to explore the complexity, versatility and richness of The Blazing World, my reading focuses on the Empress’s discourses on nature and the narrative surrounding her creation of worlds, while at the same time draws from early modern alchemical texts, particularly the treatises by Paracelsus and Michael Sendivogius. I argue that it is necessary for modern readers to revisit the esoteric and mystical nature of alchemical imagery, in order to develop a more profound understanding of the ways in which the Duchess of Newcastle created and refined her various imaginative worlds. Keywords : alchemy, Paracelsus, Michael Sendivogius, The One, creation, Margaret Cavendish, fiction, Utopian literature. 58 NTU Studies in Language and Literature 以煉金術觀點解讀《炫麗新世界》當中的 自然觀與創世情節 趙恬儀 國立台灣大學外國語文學系助理教授 摘 要 本論文試圖從西方煉金術的角度，解讀瑪格麗特•柯芬蒂詩的奇想故事《炫
    [Show full text]