Abstract
The panacea first advertised in 1610 in a book called Medicinae chymicae et veri potabilis auri assertio became famous among proponents of chymi-atria all over Europe as aurum potabile Anglicanum, but as aurum putabile it was ridiculed by its adversaries. The author of the Assertio, Francis Anthony (1550-1623), is styled doctor of philosophy and medicine on the title-pages of his works, but even in his own days was considered a quack by conservative physicians. Modern historiography, following more or less the verdict of Anthony’s contemporary critics, has not been much kinder to this «chemical empiric with no medical qualifications».3 It had to be conceded, however, that Anthony at least knew fairly well how to further his own cause. For example, in 1616 he set about to prove the curative effect of his «drinkable gold» in another treatise, so he had the book published in both a Latin and a vernacular version,4 obviously trying to reach the largest number of readers possible.
Revised and expanded version of the paper «Michael Maier, Humanist, Physician, Chymicus (1569-1622): Some New Bio-bibliographical Material» read at the Colloqium on «Alchemy and Chemistry in the XVI and XVII Centuries» held at the Warburg Institute, London, 26–27 July 1989.
Acknowledgement: for relevant information, the authors are much indebted to a number of colleagues, librarians and archivists both in and outside Europe. We thank them all for their kind support, in particular the late W. Batschelet-Massini, H. Broszinsky, C. Gilly, B. Hvidt, B. T. Moran and J. Telle. We are also obliged to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for generously granting financial aid, which for three years supplied the means necessary to our research.
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Notes
Francis Anthony, Medicinae chymicae et veri potabilis auri assertio (Cambridge: C. Legge, 1610). On Anthony see British Biographical Archive, Microfiche-Edition, eds. P. Sieveking and L. Baillie, Munich: Saur, 1984-[hereafter BBA], mf. 31, panels 213-40; Dictionary of National Biography [hereafter DNB], 2 (1885), pp. 47-48; G. Clark, A History of the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1 (Oxford, 1964), pp. 201–203; A.G. Debus, The English Paracelsians (London, 1965), pp. 142-44; id., The Chemical Philosophy, 1 (New York, 1977), pp. 184-85.
Francis Anthony, The Apologie, or Defence of a Verity Heretofore Published Concerning a Medicine Called Aurum Potabile (London: J. Legatt, 1616); id., Apologia veritatis illucescentis, pro auropotabili (London: J. Legatt, 1616). The Latin version was reprinted together with the Veri potabilis auri assertio in Francisci Antonii philosophi et medici Londinensis panacea aurea sive tractatus duo de ipsius auro potabili [...] opera M. B. F. B. (Hamburg: G. L. Frobenius, 1618). The editor, who appears to have been a friend of Anthony’s, is almost certainly Melchior Breler Fuldensis Buchonius (d. 1627); on Breler, physician in ordinary to Duke August the Younger of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1579-1666), see Deutsches Biographisches Archiv, Microfiche-Edition, ed. B. Fabian, Munich: Saur, 1982-[hereafter DBA], mf. 142, pan. 126-29.
W. Hubicki, art. Maier, Michael, in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 9 (1974), p. 23; cf. J. Telle, art. Maier, in Literaturlexikon: Autoren und Werke deutscher Sprache, ed. W. Killy, 7 (1990), pp. 428 ff. References to older bio-bibliographic studies on Maier may also be found in
J. Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica, 2 (Glasgow, 1906) pp. 62–66, in
K. Figala and U. Neumann, “Ein früher Brief Michael Maiers (1568-1622) an Heinrich Rantzau”, Archives internationales d’histoire des Sciences, 35 (1985), pp. 303–29, and in id., “Michael Maier (1569-1622): New Bio-Bibliographical Material”, in Alchemy Revisited: Proceedings of the International Conference on the History of Alchemy at the University of Groningen, 17-19 April 1989, ed. Z.R.W.M. von Martels (Leiden, 1990) pp. 34-50.
The most complete bibliography available of Maier’s works is still in J. Moller, Cimbria Litterata, 1 (Copenhagen, 1744) pp. 370–80; to be supplemented by Telle, op. cit. n. 6, passim; Figala/Neumann (1990), op. cit. n. 6, passim; B. T. Moran, The Alchemical World of the German Court: Occult Philosophy and Chemical Medicine in the Circle of Moritz of Hessen (1572-1632) (Stuttgart, 1991), pp. 102-11. A critical catalogue of Maier’s writings by the present authors is well in progress. The contents of Maier’s generally known works have been epitomized by a number of authors, e.g. J. B. Craven, Count Michael Maier, Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine, Alchemist, Rosicrucian, Mystic, 1568-1622 (Kirkwall, 1910) (2nd edn, London, 1968); H.M.E. De Jong, Michael Maier’s‘Atalanta fugiens’: Sources of an Alchemical Book of Emblems (Leiden, 1969), pp. 7-14 (= Janus, Supplém., 8); J. Read, Prelude to Chemistry: An Outline of Alchemy, its Literature and Relationships (London, 1936) (3rd edn, London 1961), pp. 228-54; H. Schick, Das ältere Rosenkreuzertum: Ein Beitrag zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Freimaurerei (Berlin, 1942) (repr. Struckum s. a.), pp. 246-57; F. A. Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (London, 1972), pp. 81-90.
See Figala/Neumann, op. cit. n. 6, pp. 305-306, 326. On Rantzau see D. Lohmeier, “Heinrich Rantzau und die Adelskultur der frühen Neuzeit”, in Arte et Marte: Studien zur Adelskultur des Barockzeitalters in Schweden, Dänemark und Schleswig-Holstein, ed. D. Lohmeier, (Neumünster, 1978), pp. 67-84; R. J. W. Evans, “Rantzau and Welser, Aspects of Later German Humanism”, in History of European Ideas 5, 3 (1984), pp. 257–72, esp. p. 271, n. 25.
Hubicki, op. cit. n. 6, p. 23. On the Goebel family see S. Sokól, Medycyna w Gdańsku w dobie Odrodzenia (Wroclaw, 1960), passim; F. Schwarz, “Danziger Ärzte im 16.-18. Jahrhundert”, in Danziger familiengeschichtliche Beiträge, 4 (1939), pp. 31–32, or the studies by H. Scholz, e.g. “Über Ärzte und Heilkundige zur Zeit des Herzogs Albrecht von Preußen”, in Jahrbuch der Albertus-Universität zu Königsberg, 12 (1962), pp. 84-85.
On Rostock see K.-F. Olechnowitz, “Die Geschichte der Universität Rostock (1419-1789)”, in Geschichte der Universität Rostock, 1 (Rostock, 1969), pp. 3–82.
See e.g. Maier’s Verum inventum (Frankfurt: N. Hoffmann for L. Jennis, 1619), pp. 85–90.
Coelidonia, fol. 5v; the date 1608 can also be deduced from the dedication of Maier’s Cantilenae, op. cit. n. 21, fol. 4v: see J. Rebotier, “L’art de musique chez Michel Maier”, in Revue de l’histoire des religions, 182 (1972), pp. 33–34.
See ibid., sig. *** 2r: letter of Rosenberg to Croll, dated Wittingau, 31 August 1608; cf. the marginal note on sig. [**4]v and W. Kaiser, “Oswald Croll (1560-1609)”, in Zahn-, Mund-und Kieferheilkunde, 64 (1976), pp. 716–27, esp. p. 721.
Fludd’s Declaratio brevis to King James I, first published by W.H. Huffman and R.A. Seelinger, Jr., in Ambix, 25 (1978), pp. 69–92; cited after Huffman, op. cit. n. 81, p. 214.
For Philipp cf. P. A. F. Walther, “Landgraf Philipp v. Hessen, ganannt «der Dritte» oder auch «von Butzbach»”, Archivßr Hessische Geschichte und Altertumskunde, 11 (1865/67), pp. 269–403. On Mögling see the articles by J. Teile, in Literaturlexikon, op. cit. n. 6, 8 (1990), pp. 178 f., and U. Neumann, in NDB (in print). Mögling, by the way, is mentioned right after Helt in Andreae’s autobiography, op. cit. n. 88.
On Maier’s publishers see M. Sondheim, “Die De Bry, Matthäus Merian und Wilhelm Fitzer: Eine Frankfurter Verlegerfamilie des 17. Jahrhunderts”, in Philobiblon, 6 (1933), pp. 9–34.
J. Benzing, “Johann Theodor de Bry, Levinus Hulsius Witwe und Hieronymus Galler als Verleger und Drucker zu Oppenheim (1610-20)”, in Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel, 23 (1967), pp. 2952–78; E. Trenczak, “Lucas Jennis als Verleger alchemistischer Bildtraktate”, in Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 1965, pp. 324-37.
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Figala, K., Neumann, U. (1994). “Author Cui Nomen Hermes Malavici” New Light on the Bio-Bibliography of Michael Maier (1569–1622). In: Rattansi, P., Clericuzio, A. (eds) Alchemy and Chemistry in the 16th and 17th Centuries. International Archives of the History of Ideas / Archives Internationales D’Histoire des Idées, vol 140. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0778-5_6
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