Basil Valentinus

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Basil Valentinus

Basilius Valentinus is an as yet unidentified German-speaking author of alchemical writings that have been handed down in prints since 1599 and in manuscripts since the early 17th century. They have been reprinted, commented on and translated into several European languages ​​several times.

Legend and research

In these writings, Basilius Valentinus appears as a Benedictine monk . The legend locates it in the Erfurt Peterskloster and places it (with changing dates, none of which are proven by contemporary sources) mostly in the 15th century , at least before Paracelsus , with whom he developed the three-principle doctrine (Mercury, Sulfur and Sal) has in common.

While historiography was still discussing in the 18th century whether Paracelsus did not go back to Basilius, whom he had denied, modern research sees a reversed dependency, especially since the work of Basilius Valentinus was only generally available from 1599. Accordingly, the St. Basil's corpus was created not long before the end of the 16th century. The genesis of individual writings, however, has only been partially researched.

Today, the majority of researchers assume that the Hessian alchemist Johann Thölde , who published the first Basilius writings between 1599 and 1604 from Frankenhausen and Leipzig , was their actual author or at least a compiler . However, this view is contradicted on various occasions.

His writings show great experience in chemistry, for example they describe the production of acids (for aqua regia from nitric and hydrochloric acid) and their use, for example of separating water to separate gold and silver. He also describes improvements to laboratory equipment. In his main work, Triumphal Chariot of Antimony , he (like Paracelsus) describes the internal use of antimony, which according to him is used to cleanse the body of poisons (as it is also used in metallurgy to cleanse gold). The antimony ore is gently heated until it no longer smokes and then melted into a glass, which is then steeped in alcohol and vinegar and distilled several times. The resulting tincture hardly contains any antimony, which is a strong poison, and was the actual remedy. He also describes its use as an emetic tartar . The triumphal chariot first appeared in German in 1604 and was translated into Latin by the French doctor and alchemist Pierre-Jean Fabre in 1646 , and an English translation by John Harding appeared in 1661. A title illustration of an allegorical triumphal chariot first appeared in the Latin edition in Amsterdam in 1671 by Theodor Kerckring and was incorporated into the German edition by Johann Hoffmann in Nuremberg in 1676.

Prints

Writings published by Thölde (first prints):

Writings published after Thölde's death (first prints):

  • Conclusions or closing speeches. Erfurt 1622
  • Last testament and revelation of the heavenly and earthly secrets (Testamentum Ultimum). Jena 1626 in two parts (partial edition by Claromontanus), Strasbourg 1651 in five parts (complete edition by Dietzel)
    • English translation of The Last Testament and the Twelve Keys in: The Last Will and Testament of Basil Valentine , London 1671

Complete edition (including spurious writings):

  • All chemical writings, as much as there are. 2 volumes Hamburg 1677 (below), volume 1 (PDF; 33.0 MB), volume 2 (PDF; 27.3 MB)
    • In the 5th edition of 1740, additional writings were included in a third volume (reprinted until 1775), a Latin edition (Basilii Valentini scripta chymica) appeared in Hamburg in 1770.

What makes the bibliography more difficult is that after Thöldes death a section from Thöldes Haligraphia as well as Nicolaus Soleas Bergwerckschatz ("little book of the mines") was printed under the name of Basilius, so that there were always hasty identifications.

Honors

In 1845, Wilhelm von Haidinger renamed the mineral, previously known as the antimony blossom, to Valentinite in memory of Basilius Valentinus .

literature

  • Alphons Oppenheim:  Basilius Valentinus . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 125 f.
  • Allen G. Debus: Valentine, Basil . In: Charles Coulston Gillispie (Ed.): Dictionary of Scientific Biography . tape 13 : Hermann Staudinger - Giuseppe Veronese . Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1976, p. 558-560 .
  • Gerhard Görmar: Fratris Basilii Valentini Benedictine Order V Last books, which are his last testament - a so far unnoticed manuscript of the Leipzig University Library In: Sudhoffs Archiv 103,1, 2019, pp. 26–54.
  • W. Hommel: Basilius Valentinus the indestructible. In: Journal for Applied Chemistry. 32, 1, 1919, pp. 73-76.
  • Felix Fritz: Basilius Valentinus. In: Angewandte Chemie . 38, 1, 1925, pp. 325-329.
  • Karl Sudhoff : The writings of the so-called Basilius Valentinus. In: Philobiblon. 6, 1933, pp. 163-170.
  • Felix Fritz: On the Basilius Valentinus question. In: Chemiker-Zeitung. 65, 1941, pp. 353-354.
  • Gerhard Eis:  Basilius Valentinus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 620 ( digitized version ).
  • David A. Schein: Basilius Valentinus and his tinctures from antimony. Dissertation. Munich 1977.
  • Hans Gerhard Lenz, Johann Thölde - A Paracelsist and "Chymicus" and his relationship with Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel. Dissertation. Marburg 1981.
  • Claus Priesner : Johann Thoelde and the writings of Basilius Valentinus. In: Christoph Meckel (Hrsg.): Alchemy in the European history of culture and science. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1986, pp. 107-118 (= Wolfenbütteler Forschungen, 32).
  • Claus Priesner: Basilius Valentinus and the laboratory technology around 1600. In: Reports on the history of science . 20,2-3, 1997, pp. 159-172.
  • Bernhard Richter: Invisible Manuscripts: IT and the philosopher's stone. Investigations on the Corpus Basilius based on an anthology from the early 17th century. Baden-Baden 2003.
  • Joachim Telle: Basilius Valentinus. In: Killy Literature Lexicon. Berlin 2008, pp. 348-350.
  • JR Partington: A history of chemistry , Volume 2, London, New York 1961

Web links

Individual evidence

Commons : Basilius Valentinus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  1. ↑ Article Basilius Valentinus in Winfried Pötsch u. a., Lexicon of important chemists, Harri Deutsch 1989
  2. ↑ Norbert Marxer, Healing with Antimony, From Chemiatry to Chemotherapy, Pharmazeutische Zeitung 2000, No. 10
  3. ^ Friedrich Dobler: The chemical foundations of medicine by Theophrastus Paracelsus: Experimental review of his antimony preparations. In: Publications of the International Society for the History of Pharmacy , New Series, 10, 1957, pp. 76-86.
  4. ↑ Cis van Heerthum, Picturing the Triumphant Chariot of Antimony, Ritman Library 2013
  5. ^ Basilius Valentinus Chymische Schriften .