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Ashmole and the Pursuit of Alchemy: the Illustrations to the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, 1652

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

M. K. Corbett
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Summary

Ashmole's interest in alchemy seems to have begun about 1648. He was strongly drawn to the Rosicrucian movement, whose aims were religious: to attain to a perfect knowledge of Jesus Christ and of God's works, that is of nature. Chymia was the chosen branch of learning. Alchemists believed that by laboratory experiments they could discover the formula for the Philosophers' Stone which would lead them to the discovery of the secrets of nature. Ashmole considered that his best service to alchemy was the publication of alchemical manuscripts. Two of these have been identified as B.L., Add. 10302 and B.L., Harl. 2407. Both manuscripts belong to the fifteenth century and contain miniatures in pen and wash. The Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum included the Ordinall by Thomas Norton and Lydgate's Hermes Bird, both printed for the first time, and works by George Ripley, John Gower, Thomas Charnock, Edward Kelley and John Dee; also the Tale of the Chanon's Yeoman with Chaucer's portrait. Ashmole's chief engraver was Robert Vaughan. The engravings to the Ordinall show the quasireligious initiation ceremony and the alchemists with their equipment; those from B.L., Harl. 2407 show the emblems representing the theoretical aspects of alchemy, the serpent, the eagle and the basilisk; the sun and the moon; the young couple bathing in the Elixir, symbolizing eternal youth. At some time after 1658 Ashmole abandoned his delusions.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 63 , Issue 2 , September 1983 , pp. 326 - 336
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1983

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References

NOTES

1 Josten, C. H., Elias Ashmole (1617–1692), II (Oxford, 1966), p. 480.Google Scholar

2 Yates, Dame Frances, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (London, 1972).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Ibid., p. 238.

4 Ibid., p. 258.

5 See Ploss, E. E.et al., Alchimia (Munich, 1970).Google Scholar

6 E. Ashmole, The Way to Bliss (London, 1658), p. 175.

7 Josten, op. cit., I, pp. 52, 120.

8 Ibid., pp. 52, 357.

9 The Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum (T.C.B.), p. 470.

10 T.C.B., p. 278.

11 T.C.B. (B3V).

12 T.C.B., p. 466.

13 Singer, Dorothy Waley, Catalogue of Latin and Vernacular Alchemical Manuscripts in Great Britain and Ireland from before XVI Century (Brussels, 1928–1931), no. 448.Google Scholar

14 Letter from Professor M. L. Samuels, Glasgow University.

15 T.C.B. (A3).

16 Josten, op. cit. (note 1), II, p. 567.

17 Josten, C. H., ‘William Backhouse of Swallowfield’, in Ambix, IV, 1–2 (London, 1949).Google Scholar

18 T.C.B., p.15.

19 T.C.B., p. 420.

20 Yates, op. cit. (note 2), p. 238.

21 T.C.B., p. 28.

22 T.C.B., p. 21.

23 T.C.B., p. 57.

24 Richard Russell, ‘On Furnaces’ in The Works ofGeber (London, 1678).

25 T.C.B., pp. 96 f.

26 T.C.B., p. 375.

27 T.C.B., p. 265.

28 T.C.B., p. 116.

29 Letter from Dr. D. R. Howlett; from John Dastin, ‘Rosarium’, in Tractatus Aliquot Chemici Singulares (Geismar, 1647), no. 4, ch. ix, p. 50.

30 Josten, op. cit. (note 1), II, pp. 754 f.

31 T.C.B., p. 274.

32 T.C.B., p. 320.

33 T.C.B., p. 389.

34 T.C.B., p. 321.

35 T.C.B., p. 354.

36 T.C.B., p. 220.

37 T.C.B., p. 467.

38 T.C.B., p. 466.

39 T.C.B., p. 465.

40 Hope, W. H. St. John, ‘The Islip Roll’, Vetusta Monumenta, VII (London, 1906), pl. XXIII.Google Scholar

41 Daniel Stolcius, Viridarium Chymicum (Frankfurt, 1624), fig. XCI.

42 Josten, op. cit. (note 1). II, pp. 647 f.

43 T.C.B., p. 455.

44 John Gerarde, The Herball (London, 1636), p. 406.

45 Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physitian (London, 1652), p. 84.

46 Gerarde, op. cit. (note 44), p. 407.

47 Ashmole, op. cit. (note 6), p. 329.

48 Josten, op. cit. (note 1), I, p. 105.