The editor of Azogue.
José Rodríguez Guerrero, BSc, MSc.
(Madrid, 1974) Research interest:
History of Alchemy and related fields such
as hermeticism, rosicrucianism, paracelsism. (1st – 20th centuries)
Notices about alchemical texts of all Ages
produced in Spanish territories are welcomed, because I try to create a
research library on this topic. I am
mainly interested in manuscripts and old printed books. Current research activities:
2017-2020: The
Origin of the pseudo-arnaldian alchemical corpus. I am particularly interested in the life and works of Pierre-Arnauld de Villeneuve (Occitan: Pčire Arnaut de Vilanova), who wrote a large alchemical compendia entitled Rosarium philosophorum. This work was composed in several stages from 1316 to 1340: first in three books, to which he later added a fourth. It is entirely different to other alchemical treatises under the same title. The text can be considered a transitional work between the 13th century collections of alchemical recipes explaining how to manufacture particular “elixirs” (De anima in arte alchemiae, Epistola de re recta, Liber septuaginta, De aluminibus et salibus, De perfecto magisterio, Lumen luminum, etc.) and the 14th century texts devoted to a universal and unique elixir that could transmute base metals into gold (e.g. the main part of the pseudo-Lullian and pseudo-Arnaldian corpus). I would like to prepare an edition that could make available that hitherto unknown Rosarium, because it seems to be a key text in the history of medieval science, particularly the history of “Arnaldism”. In fact, the Rosarium composed by Pierre-Arnauld is a crucially important source for understanding the origin of the alchemical corpus falsely attributed to the medieval physician Arnold of Vilanova. Alternative research activities:
The
Origin of the pseudo-lulian alchemical corpus / The identity of the
magister testamenti. Professional memberships:
Society for the History of Alchemy and
Chemistry (UK) Languajes: Spanish (native); English (fluent); French, Italian, German and Latin (fluent in reading and comprehension). |