Michael Maier — Nine Newly Discovered Letters

Abstract

The authors provide a transcription, translation, and evaluation of nine newly discovered letters from the alchemist Michael Maier (1568–1622) to Gebhardt Johann von Alvensleben (1576–1631), a noble landholder in the vicinity of Magdeburg. Stemming from the final year of his life, this correspondence casts new light on Maier's biography, detailing his efforts to secure patronage amid the financial crisis of the early Thirty Years’ War. While his ill-fated quest to perfect potable gold continued to form the central focus of his patronage suits, Maier also offered his services in several arts that he had condemned in his printed works, namely astrology and “supernatural” magic. Remarks concerning his previously unknown acquaintance with Heinrich Khunrath call for a re-evaluation of Maier's negotiation of the discursive boundaries between Lutheran orthodoxy and Paracelsianism. The letters also reveal Maier's substantial contribution to a work previously ascribed solely to the English alchemist Francis Anthony.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Jennifer Rampling, Erik Leibenguth, Tillmann Taape, and the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments and help.

Notes

1 See the definition of the term by André-Jean Festugière, La Révélation d'Hermès Trismégiste. Tome 1, L'astrologie et les sciences occultes (Paris: Gabalda, 1944), VIII [=new ed. in 1 vol. by Nicolas Roudet (Paris: les Belles Lettres, 2014), 8]: “Dans la première [partie de la “Révélation d'Hermès Trismégiste”], qui paraît ici, je considère les écrits, nombreux et dispersés, où Hermès traite de l'astrologie et des sciences occultes, c'est-à-dire de l'alchimie, de la magie et de cette thérapeutique, fondée sur les sympathies et antipathies secrètes entre les êtres de la nature, dont les Kyranides hermétiques sont l'un des plus curieux témoins.”

2 To date the most important texts dealing with Maier are: James B. Craven, Count Michael Maier: Doctor of Medicine, Alchemist, Rosicrucian, and Mystic, 1568–1622 (Kirkwall: Peace, 1910); Bruce T. Moran, The Alchemical World of the German Court: Occult Philosophy and Chemical Medicine in the Circle of Moritz of Hesse (Stuttgart: F. Steiner, 1991), 103ff.; Karin Figala and Ulrich Neumann, “Ein früher Brief Michael Maiers an Heinrich Rantzau,” Archives internationale d'histoire des sciences 35 (1985): 303–29; Karin Figala and Ulrich Neumann, “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. Zweder R. W. M. von Martels (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 34–50; Karin Figala and Ulrich Neumann, “‘Author Cui Nomen Hermes Malavici’: New Light on the Bio-bibliography of Michael Maier (1569–1622),” in Alchemy and Chemistry in the 16th and 17th Centuries, ed. Piyo Rattansi and Antonio Clericuzio (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1994), 121–47; Erik Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock: Die ‘Cantilenae intellectuales’ Michael Maiers, Edition mit Übersetzung, Kommentar und Bio-Bibliographie (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2002); Hereward Tilton, The Quest for the Phoenix: Spiritual Alchemy and Rosicrucianism in the Work of Count Michael Maier (1569–1622) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2003); George-Florin Calian, Spiritual Alchemy and the Function of Image: Coincidentia Oppositorum in Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens (Budapest: CEU, Budapest College, 2009).

3 Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 3, observed that few of Maier's letters had survived; those known to him are listed within his comprehensive bibliography (477–82).

4 Cf. Allan G. Debus, The English Paracelsians (London: Oldbourne, 1965), especially 142ff.

5 Figala and Neumann, “New Bio-bibliographical Material,” 34f.; Figala and Neumann, “Author Cui Nomen Hermes Malavici,” 121ff.; Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 24–64; Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, passim.

6 Figala and Neumann, “New Bio-bibliographical Material,” 46; Figala and Neumann, “Author Cui Nomen Hermes Malavici,” 135f.

7 The most comprehensive work on Staricius’ biography and works is Helmut Möller, Staricius und sein Heldenschatz: Episoden eines Akademikerlebens (Göttingen: Basta, 2003). Staricius’ published works cover a wide range of topics: a collections of songs, German translations of Rosicrucian manuscripts as well as anthologies of the writings of Paracelsus and the spiritualist Valentin Weigel (1533–1588). In 1615 he published his most famous book, the Heldenschatz, a collection of alchemical recipes which plagiarised a manuscript by Conrad Khunrath, brother of the more famous Heinrich Khunrath. He spent time in Magdeburg (1618) and Lübeck (starting in 1620), from whence he was expelled for the possession of alchemical books and for the theologically suspect company he was keeping.

8 Möller, Staricius und sein Heldenschatz, 137.

9 Siegmund Wilhelm Wohlbrück, Geschichtliche Nachrichten von dem Geschlecht von Alvensleben und dessen Besitzungen (Berlin: Zu finden bei dem Verfasser, 1829), vol. 3, 56–63; clearly Gebhardt Johann and his interest in the occult sciences deserve more detailed study. Cf. below for more details on the conflict with the priest.

10 “Familie v. Alvensleben e.V.”: http://www.familie-von-alvensleben.de/ (accessed November 12, 2013).

11 Nieder. Hauptstaatsarchiv Hannover (NHStA H), Dep. 83 A and B.

12 Peter Wilhelm Behrends, Neuhaldenslebische Kreis-Chronik oder Geschichte aller Oerter des landräthlichen Kreises Neuhaldensleben im Magdeburgischen (Neuhaldensleben: C. A. Eyraud, 1824), vol. 1, 154.

13 A Paul Jöstel from Dresden opened a pharmacy in Freiberg (Saxony) in 1582 but had to close it down a few year later; see Andreas Möller, Theatrum Fribergense (Freiberg: Georg Beuther, 1653), 149. The Paul Jöstel who wrote to Gebhardt Johann may be identical with his Dresden namesake; alternatively, he may be related to him and/or to the well-known mathematician and physician Melchior Jöstel (1559–1611) from Dresden. See Heinz Kathe, Die Wittenberger Philosophische Fakultät, 1502–1817 (Köln: Böhlau, 2002), 228.

14 “Suche in den Online-Findbüchern des Niedersächsischen Landesarchivs”: http://aidaonline.niedersachsen.de/ (accessed 12 November 2013).

15 Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 59, 68; cf. also Figala and Neumann, “New Bio-bibliographical Material,” 47f.

16 When Gebhardt Johann died in 1631 an inventory of his possessions was created, including his books. This inventory has survived (NHStA H Dep. 83 B, Nr. 90 [1]) and deserves a more detailed description and analysis in a future publication. It lists two books by Maier, but none of the manuscripts referenced in the letters are explicitly mentioned. However, they may well have still been in the possession of Gebhardt Johann at the time of his death, as the inventory refers to several unnamed manuscripts and also hints at the existence of other documents of a chemical and mathematical nature beyond the listed documents (e.g. the list of furniture mentions an iron strongbox placed in the bed chamber of Gebhardt Johann containing “chemical and mathematical things, and nativities”). The collections now at Hundisburg do contain alchemical documents attributed to Gebhardt Johann, so there is hope that a thorough search will uncover further Maier documents there.

17 Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 297.

18 Letter 4, dated 15 April 1622.

19 Letter 3, dated 14 January 1622.

20 Based on a brief allusion made by Maier in another letter (“that much-visited trading centre near the Baltic coast”), Figala and Neumann (“Author Cui Nomen Hermes Malavici,” 127) concluded that Maier's first initiation into the art of alchemy took place at Königsberg, or possibly also another town east of it; Leibenguth (Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 36, n.65) and Tilton (Quest for the Phoenix, 61–62, n.114) independently concluded that this town was in fact Danzig to the east.

21 Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 65.

22 See Figala and Neumann, “Author Cui Nomen Hermes Malavici,” passim; Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 51–53; Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 102–107.

23 Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 38, suggests that Maier may already have come across Anthony's aurum potabile during his stay in Königsberg.

24 Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 48; Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 62.

25 Letter 1, dated 4 November 1621; Letter 2, dated 26 November 1621; Letter 3, dated 14 January 1622; and Letter 8, dated 13 March 1622.

26 Richard Hoche, “Morsius, Joachim,” Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (online edition), http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd116930241 (accessed 12 November, 2013); Heinrich Schneider, Joachim Morsius und sein Kreis: Zur Geistesgeschichte des 17. Jahrhunderts (Lübeck: O. Quitzow, 1929); NHStA H, Dep. 83 B Nr. 228, letters from Johann Staricius to Gebhardt Johann dated 25 June 1618, 14 October 1618, and the Friday before Pentecost, 1622. These business relationships confirm Leibenguth's assertion that, at the time of his move to Magdeburg, Maier was a member of a circle centred upon Morsius: see Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 62, 65.

27 Letter 3, 28, 30 (German); 31 (English).

28 Letter 2, 24. In Letter 1 (24) Maier seems to suggest Anthony is the work's “author”; later he merely becomes the “author” of the aurum potabile (Letter 2, 24; Letter 3, 28).

29 Letter 3, 28, 30 (German); 29, 31 (English).

30 Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 472–73. Leibenguth argues that Beyer's claim that Maier was responsible for the Latin text of the Panacea aurea “must rest on a misunderstanding” (Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 52, n.140). However, in his letter Beyer only states that Maier claimed to have translated the Apologia into Latin. Here Leibenguth conflates Beyer's assertion that Maier translated the Apologia into Latin with Maier's stated intention to translate the Apologia into German; see Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 473, n.84.

31 Matthew Gwynne, In assertorem chymicae, sed verae medicinae desertorem, Fra. Anthonium (London: Richard Field, 1611), 234; Gwynne (163) even employs an Italian adage to pillory Anthony as an ass.

32 Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 104–106; the spiders in question were Gwynne and Thomas Rawlin, author of the Admonitio Pseudo-chymicis (London: Allde, 1612).

33 Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 105.

34 On aurum potabile, see Chiara Crisciani and Michela Pereira, “Black Death and Golden Remedies: Some Remarks on Alchemy and the Plague,” in The Regulation of Evil: Social and Cultural Attitudes to Epidemics in the Late Middle Ages, ed. Agostino Paravicini Bagliani and Francesco Santi (Florence: Sismel, 1998), 7–39; Hereward Tilton, “Of Ether, Entheogens and Colloidal Gold,” in Alchemical Traditions: From Antiquity to the Avant-Garde, ed. Aaron Cheak (Melbourne: Numen Books, 2013), 355–420.

35 Francis Anthony and Michael Maier, Apologia veritatis illucescentis, pro auro potabili (London: Johann Legatt, 1616), 4: “Praeterea, cum fons quasi et scaturigo plerorumque Morborum sit una intemperies, quid obstat cur non eorundem propulsandorum statui possit unicum auxilium, atque hoc temperatissimum, quale est Aurum? Ipsum licet elementatum sit ex quaternario numero, aequali tamen lance librata sunt omnia sua Elementa: Nulla est unius redundantia; nullus defectus alterius; nulla repugnantia in omnibus.” This is pure Maier.

36 Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 71–72.

37 “Michael Maier, Comes Palatinus, Philosophiae [et] Medicinae Doctor, Eques Exemtus [et] Poeta Coronatus”; cf. Figala and Neumann, “Author Cui Nomen Hermes Malavici,” 122.

38 Anthony and Maier, Apologia, sigs. ¶¶4 recto-¶¶4 verso.

39 Anthony and Maier, Apologia, 2.

40 Anthony and Maier, Apologia, 99.

41 Anthony and Maier, Apologia, 100.

42 Francis Anthony and Michael Maier, The Apologie, or Defence of a Verity heretofore published concerning a Medicine called Aurum Potabile (London: John Legatt, 1616), 124–26.

43 Anthony and Maier, Apologie, 2–3, 106–107, 102 (mis-numbered between pages 109 and 110).

44 Anthony and Maier, Apologia, 20–23; while the physician Jacob Mosanus was an actual acquaintance of Maier, the testimony of “Jo. Athmestett in Pubenheimb et Weyer, Med. Dr. Sacrae Caesareae Maiestati à Cura” (20) appears to be fictional. Indeed, the fact that the patient in question is suffering from the quartan — like the reference to a physician at the imperial court — is reminiscent of Maier's own biography.

45 Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 105.

46 For the letter of Beyer in question, see Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 472–73.

47 Daniel Jütte, Das Zeitalter des Geheimnisses: Juden, Christen und die Ökonomie des Geheimen (1400–1800) (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012), 206, describes the case of Abraham Colorni (ca. 1544–1599), who was asked by his patron to write a book about chiromancy — a task he felt he could not reject despite his distaste for the art.

48 There are no published astrological works from this time under the name of Heringius, and as the tracts in question contain a nativity horoscope for von Alvensleben's son, we appear to be dealing here with manuscripts written specifically for him.

49 In this case the manuscripts sent to Maier may also have included an unfinished manuscript by Heiringius which was written at the request of Gebhardt Johann to refute an anti-astrological booklet produced by the local priest with whom von Alvensleben was in conflict. See 3, 12ff. Gebhardt Johann also describes “Heiringius” as “ein treflicher orthodoxus Theologus vnd darneben auch im Edlen studio astrologico hoch erfaren.” The manuscript remained unfinished because of the death of Heiringius some time before the date of the concept (1623), but Gebhardt Johann claims to own a copy of it at that time.

50 Letter 3, 26, 28 (German); 27, 29 (English).

51 See Ernst Friedländer (ed.), Ältere Universitäts-Matrikeln: Universität Frankfurt an der Oder, 3 vols. (Leipzig: Hirzel, 1887–1891), vol. 1, 376b: [1592]. [Nr. 37]. Micael [sic] Meyerus Holsatus; M.A. am 17.6.1592, Theses Summam doctrinae de Temperamentis Corporis humani breviter complexae, ad disputandum publice; Propositae a M. Iohanne Fersio Strelensis, de quibus iuvante Deo respondebit Michael Meierus Holsatus (Frankfurt am Main: Sciurianis, 1592). On the theses see Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 48–54.

52 Cf. Günter Mühlpfordt, Die Oderuniversität Frankfurt (1506–1811) (Frankfurt an der Oder: Bezirksmuseum Viadrina, 1981), 27; Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 30, only mentions that Maier was promoted to “Magister” by Mattheus Zeysius. Maier mentions showing to Origanus the “great work” of Magnus Pegel (1547–1619), who had been his teacher during his four years at the University of Rostock. “Matrikelportal Rostock — Datenbankedition der Immatrikulationen an der Universität Rostock 1419–1945,” http://matrikel.uni-rostock.de/ (accessed 12 November 2013): Michael Meierus “Chilionensis” [=from Kiel], WS 1586/1587, Nr. 38. On Pegelius, see Otto Krabbe, Die Universität Rostock im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert (Rostock: Stiller, 1854), 736–37. Pegelius was in contact with Emperor Rudolf II and published a book on inventions that included flying machines and diving devices. That Maier was taught astronomy by Pegelius contrasts with Tilton's assumption that Maier's teacher there had been Heinrich Bruchaeus (Quest for the Phoenix, 44).

53 Both Maier and Brahe were patronised by the German humanist and governor of Holstein, Heinrich Rantzau (1526–1598); Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 46.

54 Michael Maier, Septimana philosophica (Frankfurt: Lucas Jennis, 1620), 62: “Totum enim coelum antiquis Aegyptiis huius artis peritissimis visum fuit instar tabulae rasae, aut codicis explicati, in quo stellae sint literae, seu sydera hieroglyphica, quae praecipua Philosophorum arcana ipsis involuta teneant et conservent, prae vulgo autem aliisque ignaris abscondant et celent.”

55 Maier, Septimana philosophica, 64–65.

56 The approach is reminiscent of Kepler's compromise attempt to defend a true astrology against critics of the art like Philipp Feselius as well as against the simplistic astrology of calendar makers: see Nicolas Roudet, “Le Tertius interveniens (1610), réponse de l’astrologue Kepler au médecin Feselius,” in Kepler: La physique céleste, ed. Edouard Mehl and Nicolas Roudet (Paris: les Belles Lettres, 2011), 165–205, on 167–70.

57 On Nagel, see Leigh Penman, “Climbing Jacob's Ladder: Crisis, Chiliasm and Transcendence in the Thought of Paul Nagel (†1624), a Lutheran Dissident during the Time of the Thirty Years’ War,” Intellectual History Review 20 (2010): 201–26. Nagel's 1613 manuscript of the Fama fraternitatis is held by the Wellcome Library in London: Carlos Gilly, Cimelia Rhodostaurotica: Die Rosenkreuzer im Spiegel der zwischen 1610 und 1660 entstandenen Handschriften und Drucke. Ausstellung der Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica Amsterdam und der Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel (Amsterdam: In de Pelikaan, 1995), 27.

58 Penman, “Climbing Jacob's Ladder,” 202.

59 Letter 3, 32 (German), 33 (English).

60 Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 23–24.

61 Penman, “Climbing Jacob's Ladder,” 216.

62 NHStA H, Dep. 83 B, 228, Letter from Staricius to G.J.v.A, dated the Friday before Pentecost, 1622: “sonsten hatt mir Nagelius zuentboten, das er vmb eine pillige ergözung er mir alle seine secreta vndt cabalistica sampt vndt sonderß abzuschreiben lassen vndt zuschicken wolle.”

63 Letter 4, dated 11 February 1622, 32 (German), 33 (English).

64 Robert Fludd, Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia, vol. 1, part 1 (Oppenheim: De Bry, 1617). Maier does not mention a closer relationship with Fludd. As he does so for several others (Brahe, Nagel, Anthony, Khunrath) in these letters and is generally eager to mention such relationships as credentials for his knowledge, we can probably conclude ex silentio that he had no closer relationship to Fludd: cf. Figala and Neumann, “Author Cui Nomen Hermes Malavici,” 133; Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 54; Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 27, n.109.

65 Geomancy is a form of divination achieved by creating random patterns of dots, which are then used to form figures corresponding to the astrological houses, Zodiac signs and planets in their various aspects. See Thérèse Charmasson, Recherches sur une technique divinatoire: la géomancie dans l'occident medieval (Genève: Droz, 1980).

66 C. H. Josten, “Robert Fludd's Theory of Geomancy and his Experience at Avignon in the Winter of 1601 to 1602,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 27 (1964): 327–35, on 328; Robert Fludd, Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia (Oppenheim: De Bry, 1618), vol. 1, part 2, 715–83.

67 Concept dated 16 May 1623: “verworffen vnd verdammet, vnd demnach kein Christ mit gutem gewissen sich auff das nativitet stellen befleissigen könte.”

68 For a manuscript representation of this cosmology, see Owen Gingerich and Robert Westman, The Wittich Connection: Conflict and Priority in Late 16th Century Cosmology (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988), 51.

69 Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 84f.

70 In recent years this topic has been the subject of a lively scholarly discussion: while earlier writers [e.g. R. J. W. Evans, Rudolf II and his World: A Study in Intellectual History, 1576–1612 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973), 205; W. Hubicki, “Maier, Michael,” in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, ed. Charles C. Gillispie (New York: Scribner, 1974), vol. 9, 23] had concluded from Maier's praise of Paracelsus that he was himself a Paracelsian, Stiehle [“Michael Maierus Holsatus (1569–1622): Ein Beitrag zur naturphilosophischen Medizin in seinen Schriften und zu seinem wissenschaftlichen Qualifikationsprofil,” PhD. diss., Zentralinstitut für Geschichte der Technik der Technischen Universität München, 1991] demonstrated the overwhelmingly Galenic orientation of Maier's medical practice. For his part, Leibenguth (Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 73) argued that Maier was a “conciliarist,” i.e. one of a number of physicians in the generation of Sennert who attempted to unite the Galenic and Paracelsian paradigms (cf. Joachim Telle, “Paracelsus in Deutschland: Bemerkungen zum Paracelsusbild des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts,” in Paracelse et les siens. Colloque des 15 et 16 décembre 1994 à la Sorbonne, Aries, old series, No. 19 (Paris: La table d’e’meraude, 1995), 35–50, on 40).

71 While Leibenguth (Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 71–72) depicted Maier's chief divergence from Paracelsian theory as a rejection of natural magic and the operation of a vis imaginativa, Tilton [“Review of Erik Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock: Die ‘Cantilenae intellectuales’ Michael Maiers, Edition mit Übersetzung, Kommentar und Bio-Bibliographie (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2002),” Aries 4 (2004): 232–37] demonstrated this was a misreading of the relevant passage in Maier's Themis aurea, hoc est, de legibus Fraternitatis R. C. tractatus (Frankfurt am Main: Lucas Jennis, 1618), 124–25.

72 In a letter from Staricius to Gebhardt Johann dated 25 June 1618 he says with respect to Francis Anthony that he was “von den Galenischen Medicis nuhn in die 15. Jhar vff eußriste|getrucket vndt verfolget worden.”

73 Today there is an extensive and ever-growing scholarly literature on the history of esoteric traditions in Europe; eschewing its loose contemporary usage, here we use the term ‘esoteric’ in accordance with its etymology, following William Eamon, Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 46.

74 Cf. Tara Nummedal, Alchemy and Authority in the Holy Roman Empire (Chicago: University Press, 2007), 12; Nummedal describes such entrepreneurs as the peddlers of “practical books, secrets, techniques, and labour in a vibrant market for alchemical goods and services.”

75 Jütte, Zeitalter des Geheimnisses.

76 NHStA H, Dep. 83 B, 228, undated and incomplete manuscript (missing beginning and conclusion), not by Gebhardt Johann: “Ihr Gest. hette heimliche Secreta, vnd wechselte briefe mit einem der hieß Staritius …”

77 The same manuscript quotes Gebhardt Johann: “Sie hetten keine Secreta, hetten Sie aber Secreta, so wehrens Medicinische Recepta, welche Sie zu erhaltung Ihrer gesundheit ia nothwendig haben musten …”; and a little later “Johannem Staritium, welcher ein vortreflicher gelerter Man vnd ein berühmter Chÿmicus ist …”

78 NHStA H, Dep. 83 B, 228: “es auch wieder die Heÿlige Schrift vnd das gewissen, löbliche geheimnüssen ohne vnterscheit zustraffen vnd zu offenbahren …”

79 NHStA H, Dep. 83 B, 228: “das hohe Secretum naturæ Lapidis philosophici nicht allein dermassen mit verdunckelten worten beschreiben, sondern auch klerlich anzeigen, das alle, so die kunst publiciren, eines Bösen todes sterben werden, damit es ia der gottlosen welt, so alles gute misbrauchet, verborgen sein vnd bleiben möge.” This topos — ubiquitous in the literature — of an ethical or even contractual duty of the alchemist to keep certain arcana secret is succinctly expressed by Paul Jöstel in a letter dated 23 May 1616, where he states that setting down all steps of the alchemical process leading to the Philosophers’ Stone “ist die höchste verfluchte verdamnuß, nach aller philosophen meinung vnd göttlichem gebott.”

80 Letters 2 and 3.

81 This had been a standard model for organising medical practicae since the Middle Ages: see, for instance, Luke E. Demaitre, Medieval Medicine: The Art of Healing, from Head to Toe (Santa Barbara, Denver, and Oxford: Praegar, 2013).

82 A statement reminiscent of Maier's description of the Rosicrucian order's policy of not ‘prostituting’ knowledge by sharing it with unworthy people: Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 164.

83 Letter 4, 32 (German); 33 (English).

84 The concept expressed here is clearly Paracelsian in nature: Eduard Stemplinger, “Die Transplantation in der antiken Medizin: Ein Beitrag zur vergleichenden Volksmedizin,” Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin 12 (1920): 33–49.

85 It is not clear whether Maier himself coined the term “hyperphysica” as a synonym for “supernatural” or if he refers to the term as defined by Johannes Magirus in the late sixteenth century. Cf. Sachiko Kusukawa, “Nature's Regularity in Some Protestant Natural Philosophy Textbooks, 1530–1630,” in Natural Law and Laws of Nature in Early Modern Europe, ed. Lorraine Daston and Michael Stolleis (Farnham: Ashgate, 2008), 105–22, on 118.

86 This apparent reference to the imagination as a gateway to supernatural forces contrasts not only with Leibenguth (see n. 71) but also with Volkhard Wels, “Poetischer Hermetismus: Michael Maiers Atalanta fugiens (1617/18),” in Konzepte des Hermetismus in der Literatur der Frühen Neuzeit, ed. Peter-André Alt and Volkhard Wels (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 2010), 153.

87 Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 163–64.

88 Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 70f., 146; Calian, Spiritual Alchemy, 4, 18.

89 Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 44.

90 Letter 7, 38ff. (German); 30ff. (English).

91 In Letter 7, Maier contrasts “Cabalistic” communication with print publication, thus referring to esoteric, oral communication in the manner of the Jewish and Christian Cabalists. He continues with a standard Christian Cabalistic definition of the term Cabala as “the working of miracles through divine revelation and the invocation of the names of God,” and states that the best path to a true and divine Cabala is provided by the “true ground and well of Israel.”

92 Maier's quotes from the book match Khunrath's Amphitheatrum, while the inventory of Gebhardt Johann's books lists “Amphitheatrum Henrici Kuhnrath.”

93 Heinrich Khunrath, Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, Solius, Verae, Christiano-Kabalisticum, Divino-Magicum, Physico-Chymicum, Tertriunum-Catholicon (Hanau: n.p., 1609).

94 Peter J. Forshaw, “‘Paradoxes, Absurdities, and Madness’: Conflict over Alchemy, Magic and Medicine in the Works of Andreas Libavius and Heinrich Khunrath,” Early Science and Medicine 13 (2008): 53–81, on 77; Peter J. Forshaw, “Vitriolic Reactions: Orthodox Responses to the Alchemical Exegesis of Genesis,” in The Word and the World: Biblical Exegesis and Early Modern Science, ed. Kevin Killeen and Peter J. Forshaw (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 111–36, on 117–18.

95 Letter 7, 40 (German); 41 (English).

96 Michael Maier, Tractatus posthumus, sive Ulysses (Frankfurt am Main: Lucas Jennis, 1624), 29.

97 Letter 7, 40 (German); 41 (English).

98 Letter 7, 40 (German); 41 (English).

99 Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 181–82.

100 I.e. “Golden Stone,” clearly a fitting name for the son of an alchemist. The authors would like to thank Peter Forshaw for pointing this out.

101 Letter 4, 32 (German); 33 (English).

102 NHStA H, Dep. 83 B, 228, Letter from Staricius to Gebhardt Johann dated 30 August 1623.

103 Letter 3, 31 (German); 31 (English).

104 Letter 7, 34 (German); 35 (English).

105 Letter 3, 30 (German); 31 (English).

106 1 Reichsthaler = 23 Batzen.

107 Max Donebauer, “Münzverkehr in der Kipper-Periode während der Jahre 1621 bis 1623,” Numismatische Zeitschrift 18 (1886): 359–68, on 361.

108 Letter 6, 36f. (German); 37f. (English).

109 Letter 7, 42 (German); 43 (English).

110 Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 206.

111 Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 43.

112 Letter 6, 36 (German); 37 (English).

113 Figala and Neumann, “Author Cui Nomen Hermes Malavici,” 136.

114 The production of aurum and argentum potabile went hand-in-hand in the early modern alchemical laboratory, and may have involved colloidal forms of the precious metals used as both internal medicines and gilding tinctures: see Tilton, “Of Ether, Entheogens and Colloidal Gold.”

115 Tilton, Quest for the Phoenix, 203; Leibenguth, Hermetische Poesie des Frühbarock, 63.

116 NHStA H, Dep. 83 B, 228, Letter dated 8 December1622: “dis ist dß rechte Aurum potabile philiosophorum welches auch Lapram vnd ander morbos, vulgaribus Medicis incurandibus, heilet, das ander so Ein auszugk der Röte das Auri Vulgi, ist sophistisch vnd kan bey weitem nicht testiren [?] was der Autor der byden schriften davon ruhmett …Vnd zwar wan D. Mayer dß Aurum potabile veram hatte, muste er ein gross Narr sein, dß er dasselbe also liederlich solte distialiren, vnd es nicht viel mehr vollend zur Tincture machen, weil als den die schwerste vnd gefehrlichste arbeith vollbracht vnd deren man nicht so viel haben kan in andert halben Jahren, dß man 2 oder 2 viel weniger mehrem zu communiciren … diss ist aber fast lacherlich von dem gutten D. Mayer, dass er seinen vermeinten Auro potabili selber nicht trawet, Er habe sich dan mit ander Brieffen vnd gezeugnissen wie die quackselber pflegen vervaren, da ein blinder den andern leite da es doch sonsten heisset das werck lobet den meister.”

117 NHStA H, Dep. 83 B, 228, Letter dated 12 February 1623: “Hiervon ist dem Michael Meyer noch nie etwas in Sinn kommen ob er sich gleich fur ein philosophum vermessentlich ausgeben durfen in seiner Septimana philosophica darin greuliche absurda handgreiflich zu finden …”

118 NHStA H, Dep. 83 B, 228, Letter from Staricius to Gebhardt Johann, dated 30 August 1623: “sehr schmerzlich fellt mirß zuerfahren, dß mein treuer gesell D. Majerus |: welchß ich wohl besorget :| zur vnzeit mit tode verblichen aber Gott nimpt die seinigen vndt besten hin weg; ich hatte, weiß Gott, seine sach dahinn gebracht, daß jhme vber alle victualien, holzung wohnung, 2000. Reichßtaler jhärlich salarium vom König in Schweden kraft vndt inhalt seiner majstet noch diesen augenplick bey mir ligendem handt vndt sigel versprochen vndt von gantzen Reich Schweden verwilliget waren, dß also ich zweifle, ob er der guten pottschafft würde frölicher worden sein denn ich gewesen bin selbige ihme zu pringen; aber Gott vndt das glück haben also anderß providiret, dessen wille geschehe immerdar.”

119 Allgemeine deutsche Real-Encyklopädie für die gebildeten Stände (Conversations-Lexikon), 8th ed. (Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1836), vol. 9, 310.

120 On the operation of remedies via the power of the imagination, see Maier, Themis aurea (1618 edition), 73–74.

121 “Privately and as if in secret.”

122 “Astronomy in a fundamental way with all requisites.”

123 These documents have not yet been located in the archive.

124 The name of a publisher and bookshop.

125 Probably Maier's Atalanta fugiens.

126 “Ort” is an early expression for a quarter of a Thaler: see Thomas Wozniak, Quedlinburg im 14. und 16. Jahrhundert: Ein sozialtopographischer Vergleich (Berlin: Akademie, 2013), 105.

127 Maier writes “kemandt,” which is Low German (Niederdeutsch) for “niemand” (nobody): see Gottlieb Mohnike, Ernst Heinrich Zober, and Johann Berckmanns, Stralsundische Chronik und die noch vorhandenen Auszüge aus alten verloren gegangenen Stralsundischen Chroniken (Stralsund: Löffler, 1833), 386.

128 Cf. Robert Fludd, De Naturae Simia seu Technica macrocosmi historia (Oppenheim, 1618; Frankfurt, 1624), 717: “De principio interno Astrologiæ terrestrae seu Geomantiæ.”

129 “But if I am silent, the things will speak for themselves”; cf. Cicero, Orations, ed. and trans. Nevile Watts (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1972), 80.

130 Heinrich Khunrath's Amphiteatrum sapientiae aeternae.

131 “Son of the greater world.”

132 Probably Maier's Cantilenae intellectuales de phoenice redivivo.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nils Lenke

Nils Lenke holds a Ph.D. in Computational Linguistics and works in the area of Human-Computer Interaction. In his free time, he enjoys researching the history of early modern science. Address: Waldblick 33, 53359 Rheinbach, Germany; E-mail: [email protected].

Nicolas Roudet

Nicolas Roudet holds a Ph.D. from the University of Lille 3 (2001). He has been a librarian at the University of Strasbourg since 2005. Address: 26, rue de la Lamproie, 67000 Strasbourg, France; E-mail: [email protected].

Hereward Tilton

Hereward Tilton teaches on early modern German history at the University of Exeter. He holds degrees in the history of Western esotericism and the psychology of religion, and has published work on Rosicrucianism, alchemy, and magic, most notably his book The Quest for the Phoenix: Spiritual Alchemy and Rosicrucianism in the Work of Count Michael Maier (1569–1622). Address: Department of History, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter, Devon EX4 4RJ; E-mail: [email protected].