JOSÉ RODRÍGUEZ-GUERRERO,
Algunos datos Desconocidos sobre
las Relaciones entre Alquimia y Mitología.
pp. 9-29.
Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between alchemy
and mythology during the Late Antiquity and Middle Ages. The earliest
record occurs in the writing of an anonymous paradoxographer of the
6-7th
Century. It was not an alchemical interpretation but a rational account
of the myth which includes alchemical elements. Other similar approaches
can be found in Haraxes of Pergamum, John of Antioch and the Suda.
At the same time I will try to find some reasons for the absence of
alchemical explanations of myths in the Greek alchemists.
A medieval alchemist called Ibn Umail developed some alchemical allegories
inspired by classical myths, but he doesn’t make explicit reference to
mythological creatures. Finally, Pietro Bono, written around 1330, seems
to have been the first author to recognize alchemical operations
under the veil of myths.
JOSÉ
RODRÍGUEZ-GUERRERO, Desarrollo y
Madurez del Concepto de Quintaesencia Alquímica en la Europa Medieval
(s. XII-XIV).
pp. 30-56.
Abstract:
The quintessence was a key element in late medieval alchemy. I will
discuss the origin of the concept from its vague beginnings in the 13th
Century, well summarized by Restoro d’Arezzo (ca.1282), to the critical
meeting in the early 14th century. I will focus my research on a
treatise entitled Liber super textum
hermetis (pre.1325) signed by an alchemist called Hortulanus (Jakob
Ortlein of Nördlinger, probably a dominican monk). The full version consists of two sections. The first is a
less-known guide to elaborate a pure quintessence or “Stone of Life”,
which seems to be an alcoholic compound obtained by
distillation and rectification of wine. Hortulanus thought of alcohol as
the quintessence almost a quarter of century before John of Rupescissa's
book De quinta essentia. The second section of the Liber super
textum hermetis is a popular
commentary on the Emerald Tablet that usually circulated as an
independent work. It was first printed in Nuremberg by Johannes Petreius,
as part of the alchemical compilation know as In hoc volumine de
alchemia continentur hæc (1541). It defines quintessence as the first of all things
created by God, the pure element of which the cosmos was made.
JOSÉ
RODRÍGUEZ-GUERRERO, El
Manuscrito 7443 de la Biblioteca Nacional de España. Identificación de
su origen, autor y contenidos.
pp. 57-69.
Abstract:
The Biblioteca Nacional de España Ms 7443 is an alchemical manuscript of
the sixteenth century. The manuscript's contents make it possible to
identify the compiler as a gentleman called Manuel Franco de Guzman. The
contents, along with their mode of presentation and the manuscript's
general appearance, make it possible to situate him within the culture
of the Spanish Renaissance, and more specifically within alchemical
culture in the transition from Middle Ages to Renaissance.
JOSÉ
RODRÍGUEZ-GUERRERO & ELENA CASTRO SOLER,
La Epistola super quinta
essentia de Luis de Centelles. Edición y Estudio.
pp. 70-89.
Abstract:
The Epistola super quinta essentia (1552) addresed to Dr. Manresa
by Luis de Centelles is an example of the alchemical debate between
Spanish alchemists. We will try to to establish the sources of the text
and its main topics. The author perpetuates themes and forms of the
medieval treatises (materia prima, humidum radicale,
etc.). He try to find an accord between alchemical theories and the
philosophical models established by Aristotle. At the same time, it will
be useful to exmine the Epistola under a sociological perspective,
because of the personal disputes between Manresa and Centelles. Their
debates and hard discussions, sometimes offensives and unsuitables,
reveal enormously diverse understandings of what the “real” alchemy was
for renaissance alchemists.
JOSÉ
RODRÍGUEZ-GUERRERO, Vendedores
de Panaceas Alquímicas entre los Siglos XVI y XVII.
pp. 90-99.
Abstract:
The alchemical panaceas were one of the major products to be advertised
in Early Modern popular culture. This essay summarized some cases of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Some alchemists, physicians and
charlatans combined alchemical practice with broader involvement in the
dynamic cultural, economic and domestical scene of the Early Modern
Europe. Their efforts were focused on patiens who had been frustrated by
traditional galenic medicine. Their medical activities have been
overlooked, but precisely because in different ways they were
well-connected actors in the social and popular milieux of the european
cities, they can offer valuable insights into how they built their
identity and perceived competence and success all across Europe. Their
panaceas opens up unexpected perspectives on the both domestic and
commercial applications. By following these charlatans from hospitals to
courts, and from tribunals to the popular markets, and analysing their
books also enriches our view of medicines distributed in Europe and
approved by the medical authorities.
STEFFEN DUCHEYNE,
Algunas Notas Metodológicas
sobre los Experimentos de Van Helmont.
pp. 100-107.
Abstract:
In this essay, I will discuss four significant experiments from Van
Helmont’s work in full detail: (1) the thermoscope experiment, (2) the
transmutation experiment, the ice-experiment, and (4) the willow
experiment. I will draw the main material from both Ortus Medicinae
(1648) and Dageraad (1944). These experiments have been selected
on the basis of their being methodologically relevant and sufficiently
detailed. Van Helmont had a particular and profound insight in the idea
that knowledge of nature is produced by isolating certain natural
processes or creating – or at least, trying to create as good as
possible – relatively closed physical systems, so these four experiments
are paradigmatics for his practice.
MAR REY BUENO,
Los Destiladores Reales de los
Austrias Españoles (1564-1700).
pp. 108-129.
Abstract:
In previous works I have studied the appearance and development of
Paracelsian practices in the Spanish Court through a linked series of
events that took place between 1564 and 1602. These were: the creation
of Philippine distillation laboratories, the ordenance of the
protophysician Francisco de Valles regarding distilled waters; the
concession of a patent to Diego de Santiago for the invention of a steam
distillery; the publication of the last treatise by Francisco de Valles,
dedicated to weights, measures, and distilled waters; the appearance of
a distiller on the founding staff of the Royal Apothecary, in charge of
preparing all the distilled waters and chemical medicines; and the
creation of a new post within the Court health organigram, that of
“Major Distiller”. The present essay contents a descriptive list of all
Royal Distillers and Major Distillers who manufacture chemical medicines
for the Spanish Crown.
JOSÉ
RODRÍGUEZ-GUERRERO, Un
Desconocido Tratado dedicado al Rey Carlos II : Den gesochten
Philosophael-steen gevonden de Octavio de Koker.
pp. 130-138.
Abstract:
This essay concerns an alchemical treatise dedicate to Spanish king
Carlos II. It was written in Madrid by Octavius Dekoker, a belgian
alchemist from Gent, during the year 1673. The main part of the
manuscript was written in Dutch languaje. It contains an original version
of the Nicolas Flamel's Livre des figures hieroglyphiques in Duch
verses. Another treatise develops the legend about Ramón Llull making
gold for the English king Edward III, who would use the noble metal to
finance a crusade. There is another Dutch text with an alchemical
interpretation of the discoverer of the Americas by Cristobal Colon.
Finally we can find an original treatise (beginning Seght my svaer
nue dat dagh en nacht) based upon the Sophic Hydrolith by
Johann Ambrosius Siebmacherc.
MIGUEL LÓPEZ PÉREZ,
Lastanosa, la Alquimia y
algunos Helmoncianos Aragoneses.
pp. 139-150.
Abstract:
This essay explores the alchemical interests of Juan Vincencio of
Lastanosa (1607-1681), a wealthy patron of the arts who lived in Huesca.
He provided accommodations in his palace to some alchemists and
distillers (including some aragonese followers of Van Helmont who are
not so well known) and an italian alchemist and priest, Nadal Baronio,
who prepared for Lastanosa potable gold and other chemical medicines. I
will particularly focused my research on his scientific, personal and
professional relationships with other alchemists and apothecaries who
were, like him, concerned about “chymistry” and chemical medicine.
MIGUEL LÓPEZ PÉREZ &
MAR REY BUENO, Aguas Destiladas
y Aguas Alquímicas en la España Moderna.
pp. 151-180.
Abstract:
The general preparation of mineral and distilled waters by alchemical
procedures was popularized in Spanish territories during the period that
the line of Austrian kings governed that country. Before the
mid-seventeenth century a lot of distilled waters were made, not only
for the Royal Family and nobility, but as a safe drug for general
consumption, so they are often subsumed under apothecary and it has been
noted for sale by many of the Spanish shops. Our essay presents a
commentary on the books of five apothecaries and Royal Distillers that
made a strong defense of chemical medicine: Diego de Santiago, Juan del
Castillo, Esteban Villa, Jerónimo de la Fuente Piérola and Esteban
Núñez.
JOSÉ
RODRÍGUEZ-GUERRERO, La Alquimia
en España durante el Período Modernista a través de sus Libros.
pp. 181-223.
Abstract:
This article constitutes an approach to the complex world of alchemy in
Spain during the end of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth
century. The complexity of this alchemical world is described by listing
the alchemical books published by Spanish editors. We can find a
combination of elements from different esoterical styles such as
Theosophy, Neo-gnosticism, Neo-rosicrucianism and Spiritualism. This
Modernist movement was strongly influenced by the speculations of the
modern German-French occult revival.
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