Bernard of Trevisan

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Bernard of Trevisan , also from Treviso , Bernardus Trevirensis was an author of alchemical texts of the 14th century, in particular Responsio ad Thomam de Bolonia (answer to Thomas von Bononia, meaning Bologna ).

Thomas of Bologna was Charles V's personal physician , so the text is before 1380, the year in which Charles V died. In the text, Bernard von Trevisan denies astrological connections in alchemy (connections to the planets as represented by Thomas of Bologna) and introduces new alchemical symbols. He rejects the sulfur-mercury theory and thinks that gold can be made from mercury alone, which contains all four elements, including the elements fire and air, which are otherwise associated with sulfur. The doctrine that the philosopher's stone consists only of mercury is also maintained in the writings of the 16th and 17th centuries that were later published under Bernhard von Trevisan. According to Trevisan, male and female elements, sun and moon, solid and fleeting come together in the Philosopher's Stone. He also compares the philosopher's stone or mercury with an egg, which contains white and yellow and produces life (the chick), and with the Christian trinity.

He is familiar with older and more recent alchemical literature (Geber, Avicenna, Rhazes, Albertus Magnus, Arnaldus von Villanova, Raymond Llull, as well as Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle, Galenos, Hippocrates).

Christine de Pisan (daughter of Thomas von Bologna) describes him as a German. According to William R. Newman , he may have been influenced by Kuno II von Falkenstein . That in turn would point to an identification with Bernhardus Trevisanus , whom José Rodriguez Guerrero identified in 2018 with Eberhard I. von der Marck-Arenberg (1305-1387).

There is also a Somme alchimique , dated 1366, of which there is also a Provencal version from 1309, so it probably does not come from this Bernard of Trevisan. Some later writings (including an autobiography in De chymico miraculo 1583) have been added and treated here under Bernhardus Trevisanus . Joachim Telle treats these together in his article in the Lexicon of the Middle Ages under Bern (h) ardus Trevisanus (see the comments on this in Bernhardus Trevisanus). This Bernhardus Trevisanus is usually classified in the 15th century in Italy according to some autobiographical information, which is very likely fictitious. The responsio was often ascribed to this, for example in a French edition in 1626.

Fonts

  • Responsio ad Thomam de Bolonia, before 1380
    • Latin editions in Morienus De re metallica , Paris 1564, J. Manget Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa , Volume 2, Geneva 1702, Artis auriferae , Basel 1610, in German in Philip Morgenstern Turba philosophorum , Vienna 1750, German and Latin in J. Tanckius Opuscula chemica , Leipzig 1605

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ José Rodríguez Guerrero: El Correctorium alchimiae (approx. 1352-1362) de Ricardus Anglicus y la versión de Bernardus Magnus de Tréveris, Azogue, Volume 8, 2014-2018, pp. 216-270.
  2. ↑ William R. Newman, in Priesner, Figala, Alchemie 1998, p. 78. An edition of the Somme Alchimique published D. Lesourd, Anagrom 7/8, 1976, pp. 3-36
  3. ↑ La response de Messire Bernard Conte de la Marche, Trevisane, à Thomas de Boulongne [sic] Medicin du roi Charles Huictiesme , Gabriel Joly, trans., In Trois anciens traictez de la philosophie naturelle, Paris, 1626
  4. ↑ According to Ferguson, Bibl. Chemica, Volume 1, p. 104, also in the first edition in De re metallica 1564, where Thomas von Bologna is referred to as the doctor of Charles VIII (France) .
personal data
SURNAME Trevisan, Bernard of
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Trevirensis, Bernardus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Alchemist
DATE OF BIRTH 13th century or 14th century
DATE OF DEATH 14th century or 15th century