Alchemy And Authority In The Holy Roman Empire

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Alchemy and Authority in the Holy Roman Empire

Tara Nummedal
Alchemy and Authority in the Holy Roman Empire Book PDF

Author : Tara Nummedal
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 279 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2008-09-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9780226608570

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Alchemy and Authority in the Holy Roman Empire by Tara Nummedal Pdf

What distinguished the true alchemist from the fraud? This question animated the lives and labors of the common men—and occasionally women—who made a living as alchemists in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Holy Roman Empire. As purveyors of practical techniques, inventions, and cures, these entrepreneurs were prized by princely patrons, who relied upon alchemists to bolster their political fortunes. At the same time, satirists, artists, and other commentators used the figure of the alchemist as a symbol for Europe’s social and economic ills. Drawing on criminal trial records, contracts, laboratory inventories, satires, and vernacular alchemical treatises, Alchemy and Authority in the Holy Roman Empire situates the everyday alchemists, largely invisible to modern scholars until now, at the center of the development of early modern science and commerce. Reconstructing the workaday world of entrepreneurial alchemists, Tara Nummedal shows how allegations of fraud shaped their practices and prospects. These debates not only reveal enormously diverse understandings of what the “real” alchemy was and who could practice it; they also connect a set of little-known practitioners to the largest questions about commerce, trust, and intellectual authority in early modern Europe.

The Business of Alchemy

Pamela H. Smith
The Business of Alchemy Book PDF

Author : Pamela H. Smith
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 324 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 1997-05-25
Category : History
ISBN : 0691015996

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The Business of Alchemy by Pamela H. Smith Pdf

In showing how an overriding concern with religious salvation was transformed into a concentration on material increase and economic policies, Pamela Smith depicts the rise of modern sicence and early capitalism in the 16th- and 17-century world of the Holy Roman Empire. Smith uses as example the life of Johann Joachim Becher (1635-1682), whose ideasfrom alchemy to economicstypify those of his generation. 30 photos.

Anna Zieglerin and the Lion's Blood

Tara Nummedal
Anna Zieglerin and the Lion s Blood Book PDF

Author : Tara Nummedal
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2019-02-14
Category : History
ISBN : 9780812295931

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Anna Zieglerin and the Lion's Blood by Tara Nummedal Pdf

In 1573, the alchemist Anna Zieglerin gave her patron, the Duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, the recipe for an extraordinary substance she called the lion's blood. She claimed that this golden oil could stimulate the growth of plants, create gemstones, transform lead into the coveted philosophers' stone—and would serve a critical role in preparing for the Last Days. Boldly envisioning herself as a Protestant Virgin Mary, Anna proposed that the lion's blood, paired with her own body, could even generate life, repopulating and redeeming the corrupt world in its final moments. In Anna Zieglerin and the Lion's Blood, Tara Nummedal reconstructs the extraordinary career and historical afterlife of alchemist, courtier, and prophet Anna Zieglerin. She situates Anna's story within the wider frameworks of Reformation Germany's religious, political, and military battles; the rising influence of alchemy; the role of apocalyptic eschatology; and the position of women within these contexts. Together with her husband, the jester Heinrich Schombach, and their companion and fellow alchemist Philipp Sommering, Anna promised her patrons at the court of Wolfenbüttel spiritual salvation and material profit. But her compelling vision brought with it another, darker possibility: rather than granting her patrons wealth or redemption, Anna's alchemical gifts might instead lead to war, disgrace, and destruction. By 1575, three years after Anna's arrival at court, her enemies had succeeded in turning her from holy alchemist into poisoner and sorceress, culminating in Anna's arrest, torture, and public execution. In her own life, Anna was a master of self-fashioning; in the centuries since her death, her story has been continually refashioned, making her a fitting emblem for each new age. Interweaving the history of science, gender, religion, and politics, Nummedal recounts how one resourceful woman's alchemical schemes touched some of the most consequential matters in Reformation Germany.

The Theatre of the World

Peter H. Marshall
The Theatre of the World Book PDF

Author : Peter H. Marshall
Publisher : Emblem Editions
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2011-03-22
Category : Holy Roman Empire
ISBN : 9780771056918

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The Theatre of the World by Peter H. Marshall Pdf

A captivating portrait of the crucible of magic, science, and religion at the court of the doomed dreamer Rudolf II in Renaissance Prague. At the end of the sixteenth century, the greatest philosophers, alchemists, astronomers, and mathematicians of the day flocked to Prague to work under the patronage of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. The Theatre of the World is the enchanting story of Rudolf II, an emperor more interested in the great talents and minds of his times than in the exercise of his power. Rarely leaving Prague Castle, he gathered around him a galaxy of famous figures: the Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, the German mathematician Johannes Kepler, and the English magus John Dee. Entranced, like Hamlet, by the new Renaissance learning, Rudolf found it nearly impossible to make decisions. He faced the threats of religious discord and the Ottoman Empire, along with deepening melancholy and an ambitious younger brother. As a result, he lost his empire and nearly his sanity, but he enabled Prague to enjoy a golden age of peace and creativity before Europe was engulfed in the Thirty Years War. "The Theatre of the World" is a beguiling and dramatic human story filled with angels and devils, high art and low cunning, talismans and stars. It offers a captivating perspective on a pivotal moment in the history of Western Civilization. "From the Hardcover edition."

Alchemical Belief

Bruce Janacek
Alchemical Belief Book PDF

Author : Bruce Janacek
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 238 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2015-08-21
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780271078038

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Alchemical Belief by Bruce Janacek Pdf

What did it mean to believe in alchemy in early modern England? In this book, Bruce Janacek considers alchemical beliefs in the context of the writings of Thomas Tymme, Robert Fludd, Francis Bacon, Sir Kenelm Digby, and Elias Ashmole. Rather than examine alchemy from a scientific or medical perspective, Janacek presents it as integrated into the broader political, philosophical, and religious upheavals of the first half of the seventeenth century, arguing that the interest of these elite figures in alchemy was part of an understanding that supported their national—and in some cases royalist—loyalty and theological orthodoxy. Janacek investigates how and why individuals who supported or were actually placed at the traditional center of power in England’s church and state believed in the relevance of alchemy at a time when their society, their government, their careers, and, in some cases, their very lives were at stake.

Everyday Magic in Early Modern Europe

Kathryn A. Edwards
Everyday Magic in Early Modern Europe Book PDF

Author : Kathryn A. Edwards
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 198 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2016-03-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9781317138341

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Everyday Magic in Early Modern Europe by Kathryn A. Edwards Pdf

While pre-modern Europe is often seen as having an 'enchanted' or 'magical' worldview, the full implications of such labels remain inconsistently explored. Witchcraft, demonology, and debates over pious practices have provided the main avenues for treating those themes, but integrating them with other activities and ideas seen as forming an enchanted Europe has proven to be a much more difficult task. This collection offers one method of demystifying this world of everyday magic. Integrating case studies and more theoretical responses to the magical and preternatural, the authors here demonstrate that what we think of as extraordinary was often accepted as legitimate, if unusual, occurrences or practices. In their treatment of and attitudes towards spirit-assisted treasure-hunting, magical recipes, trials for sanctity, and visits by guardian angels, early modern Europeans showed more acceptance of and comfort with the extraordinary than modern scholars frequently acknowledge. Even witchcraft could be more pervasive and less threatening than many modern interpretations suggest. Magic was both mundane and mysterious in early modern Europe, and the witches who practiced it could in many ways be quite ordinary members of their communities. The vivid cases described in this volume should make the reader question how to distinguish the ordinary and extraordinary and the extent to which those terms need to be redefined for an early modern context. They should also make more immediate a world in which magic was an everyday occurrence.

The Business of Alchemy

Pamela H. Smith
The Business of Alchemy Book PDF

Author : Pamela H. Smith
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2016-09-20
Category : History
ISBN : 9781400883578

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The Business of Alchemy by Pamela H. Smith Pdf

In The Business of Alchemy, Pamela Smith explores the relationships among alchemy, the court, and commerce in order to illuminate the cultural history of the Holy Roman Empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In showing how an overriding concern with religious salvation was transformed into a concentration on material increase and economic policies, Smith depicts the rise of modern science and early capitalism. In pursuing this narrative, she focuses on that ideal prey of the cultural historian, an intellectual of the second rank whose career and ideas typify those of a generation. Smith follows the career of Johann Joachim Becher (1635-1682) from university to court, his projects from New World colonies to an old-world Pansophic Panopticon, and his ideas from alchemy to economics. Teasing out the many meanings of alchemy for Becher and his contemporaries, she argues that it provided Becher with not only a direct key to power over nature but also a language by which he could convince his princely patrons that their power too must rest on liquid wealth. Agrarian society regarded merchants with suspicion as the nonproductive exploiters of others' labor; however, territorial princes turned to commerce for revenue as the cost of maintaining the state increased. Placing Becher’s career in its social and intellectual context, Smith shows how he attempted to help his patrons assimilate commercial values into noble court culture and to understand the production of surplus capital as natural and legitimate. With emphasis on the practices of natural philosophy and extensive use of archival materials, Smith brings alive the moment of cultural transformation in which science and the modern state emerged.

The Alchemy of Conquest

Ralph Bauer
The Alchemy of Conquest Book PDF

Author : Ralph Bauer
Publisher : University of Virginia Press
Page : 609 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2019-10-08
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780813942551

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The Alchemy of Conquest by Ralph Bauer Pdf

The Age of the Discovery of the Americas was concurrent with the Age of Discovery in science. In The Alchemy of Conquest, Ralph Bauer explores the historical relationship between the two, focusing on the connections between religion and science in the Spanish, English, and French literatures about the Americas during the early modern period. As sailors, conquerors, travelers, and missionaries were exploring "new worlds," and claiming ownership of them, early modern men of science redefined what it means to "discover" something. Bauer explores the role that the verbal, conceptual, and visual language of alchemy played in the literature of the discovery of the Americas and in the rise of an early modern paradigm of discovery in both science and international law. The book traces the intellectual and spiritual legacies of late medieval alchemists such as Roger Bacon, Arnald of Villanova, and Ramon Llull in the early modern literature of the conquest of America in texts written by authors such as Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, José de Acosta, Nicolás Monardes, Walter Raleigh, Thomas Harriot, Francis Bacon, and Alexander von Humboldt.

Early Modern Court Culture

Erin Griffey
Early Modern Court Culture Book PDF

Author : Erin Griffey
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 550 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2021-11-29
Category : History
ISBN : 9781000480320

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Early Modern Court Culture by Erin Griffey Pdf

Through a thematic overview of court culture that connects the cultural with the political, confessional, spatial, material and performative, this volume introduces the dynamics of power and culture in the early modern European court. Exploring the period from 1500 to 1750, Early Modern Court Culture is cross-cultural and interdisciplinary, providing insights into aspects of both community and continuity at courts as well as individual identity, change and difference. Culture is presented as not merely a vehicle for court propaganda in promoting the monarch and the dynasty, but as a site for a complex range of meanings that conferred status and virtue on the patron, maker, court and the wider community of elites. The essays show that the court provided an arena for virtue and virtuosity, intellectual and social play, demonstration of moral authority and performance of social, gendered, confessional and dynastic identity. Early Modern Court Culture moves from political structures and political players to architectural forms and spatial geographies; ceremonial and ritual observances; visual and material culture; entertainment and knowledge. With 35 contributions on subjects including gardens, dress, scent, dance and tapestries, this volume is a necessary resource for all students and scholars interested in the court in early modern Europe.

Spiritual Alchemy

Mike A. Zuber
Spiritual Alchemy Book PDF

Author : Mike A. Zuber
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 9780190073046

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Spiritual Alchemy by Mike A. Zuber Pdf

"This book traces the continued existence of the spiritual alchemy of rebirth in heterodox and specifically Boehmist circles from around 1600 to the early twentieth century. The basic claim of continuity from Boehme to Atwood argued here is not new. A particularly apt expression may be found in F. Sherwood Taylor's The Alchemists of 1949, in which the founding editor of Ambix notes 'the existence of a school of mystical alchemists whose purpose was self-regeneration.' With Boehme as an important early exponent, this 'tendency culminated in 1850' with Atwood's Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery. Taylor's statement, it turns out, could hardly have been more accurate yet has so far lacked the support of a comprehensive presentation. This led Principe and Newman to describe such claims of continuity regarding spiritual alchemy as mere 'conjecture' without 'clear historical evidence.' This book marshals that hitherto elusive evidence, much of it found in obscure manuscript sources, and thus documents the continuity of spiritual alchemy that links the early-modern to the modern era"--

A Cultural History of Chemistry in the Early Modern Age

Bruce T. Moran
A Cultural History of Chemistry in the Early Modern Age Book PDF

Author : Bruce T. Moran
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2023-12-14
Category : History
ISBN : 9781350251502

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A Cultural History of Chemistry in the Early Modern Age by Bruce T. Moran Pdf

A Cultural History of Chemistry in the Early Modern Age covers the period from 1500 to 1700, tracing chemical debates and practices within their cultural, social, and political contexts. This era in the history of chemistry was notable for natural philosophy, scientific discovery, and experimental method, and also as the high point of European alchemy - exemplified by the immensely popular writings of Paracelsus. Developments in the chemistry of metallurgy, medicine, distillation, and the applied arts encouraged attention to materials and techniques, linking theoretical speculation with practical know-how. Chemistry emerged as an academic discipline - supported by educational texts and based in classroom and laboratory instruction – and claimed a public place. The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Chemistry presents the first comprehensive history from the Bronze Age to today, covering all forms and aspects of chemistry and its ever-changing social context. The themes covered in each volume are theory and concepts; practice and experiment; laboratories and technology; culture and science; society and environment; trade and industry; learning and institutions; art and representation. Bruce T. Moran is Professor of History and University Foundation Professor (emeritus) at the University of Nevada, Reno, USA. Volume 3 in the Cultural History of Chemistry set. General Editors: Peter J. T. Morris, University College London, UK, and Alan Rocke, Case Western Reserve University, USA.

Gender and Scientific Discourse in Early Modern Culture

Kathleen P. Long
Gender and Scientific Discourse in Early Modern Culture Book PDF

Author : Kathleen P. Long
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 330 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2016-04-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317130574

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Gender and Scientific Discourse in Early Modern Culture by Kathleen P. Long Pdf

In the wake of new interest in alchemy as more significant than a bizarre aberration in rational Western European culture, this collection examines both alchemical and medical discourses in the larger context of early modern Europe. How do early scientific discourses infiltrate other cultural domains such as literature, philosophy, court life, and the conduct of households? How do these new contexts deflect scientific pursuits into new directions, and allow a larger participation in the elaboration of scientific methods and perspectives? Might there have been a scientific subculture, particularly surrounding alchemy, which allowed women to participate in scientific pursuits long before they were admitted in an investigative capacity into official academic settings? This volume poses those questions, as a starting point for a broader discussion of scientific subcultures and their relationship to the restructuring and questioning of gender roles.

Making Money in Sixteenth-Century France

Jotham Parsons
Making Money in Sixteenth Century France Book PDF

Author : Jotham Parsons
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2015-02-06
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780801454981

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Making Money in Sixteenth-Century France by Jotham Parsons Pdf

Coinage and currency—abstract and socially created units of value and power—were basic to early modern society. By controlling money, the people sought to understand and control their complex, expanding, and interdependent world. In Making Money in Sixteenth-Century France, Jotham Parsons investigates the creation and circulation of currency in France. The royal Cour des Monnaies centralized monetary administration, expanding its role in the emerging modern state during the sixteenth century and assuming new powers as an often controversial repository of theoretical and administrative expertise. The Cour des Monnaies, Parsons shows, played an important role in developing the contemporary understanding of money, as a source of both danger and opportunity at the center of economic and political life. More practically, the Monnaies led generally successful responses to the endemic inflation of the era and the monetary chaos of a period of civil war. Its work investigating and prosecuting counterfeiters shone light into a picaresque world of those who used the abstract and artificial nature of money for their own ends. Parsons’s broad, multidimensional portrait of money in early modern France also encompasses the literature of the age, in which money’s arbitrary and dangerous power was a major theme.

Early Modern Universities

Anja-Silvia Goeing,Glyn Parry,Mordechai Feingold
Early Modern Universities Book PDF

Author : Anja-Silvia Goeing,Glyn Parry,Mordechai Feingold
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 519 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2020-12-07
Category : History
ISBN : 9789004444058

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Early Modern Universities by Anja-Silvia Goeing,Glyn Parry,Mordechai Feingold Pdf

Early Modern Universities: Networks of Higher Education contains twenty essays by experts on early modern academic networks. Using a variety of approaches to universities, schools, and academies throughout Europe and in Central America, the book suggests pathways for future research.

Economies of Literature and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

Subha Mukherji,Dunstan Roberts,Rebecca Tomlin,George Oppitz-Trotman
Economies of Literature and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe Book PDF

Author : Subha Mukherji,Dunstan Roberts,Rebecca Tomlin,George Oppitz-Trotman
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 286 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2020-09-22
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9783030376512

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Economies of Literature and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe by Subha Mukherji,Dunstan Roberts,Rebecca Tomlin,George Oppitz-Trotman Pdf

Placing ‘literature’ at the centre of Renaissance economic knowledge, this book offers a distinct intervention in the history of early modern epistemology. It is premised on the belief that early modern practices of change and exchange produced a range of epistemic shifts and crises, which, nonetheless, lacked a systematic vocabulary. These essays collectively tap into the imaginative kernel at the core of economic experience, to grasp and give expression to some of its more elusive experiential dimensions. The essays gathered here probe the early modern interface between imaginative and mercantile knowledge, between technologies of change in the field of commerce and transactions in the sphere of cultural production, and between forms of transaction and representation. In the process, they go beyond the specific interrelation of economic life and literary work to bring back into view the thresholds between economics on the one hand, and religious, legal and natural philosophical epistemologies on the other.