Domenico Manuel Caetano

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Domenico Manuel Caetano - or Cajetano -, self-proclaimed Count von Ruggiero, (* around 1670 in or near Naples ; † August 23, 1709 in Küstrin ) was a famous adventurer, impostor , alchemist and alleged gold maker of the Baroque period , whose career was mainly due to the The lust for pomp and gold of the princes, nobles and citizens, but also as a result of the high need for money during the Palatinate War of Succession , the War of the Spanish Succession and the Great Northern War .

Single sheet: execution of Caetano

Life

1695 to 1704

The impostor, who came from a humble background in Naples and later became known as Don Domenico Manuel Caetano, Count von Ruggiero, was accused of counterfeiting and fraud in gold making in Naples (as the Neapolitan confessor of the family reported to the Bavarian elector in 1699). He fled Naples to Venice in 1695 . There he claimed to own the philosopher's stone - which in truth only consisted of a worthless mixture of ash, lime and almond shells - and then presented the sensational process of the alleged gold production to a gullible audience.

Caetano often worked with gold-filled mixing spoons that were sealed with wax. During the performance, first the wax melted in the heat of the fire and later molten gold came out. The eloquent deceiver then conjured up a few pieces of gold as a skilled pocket player, promising his potential customers to create a huge gold treasure and at the end of the performance had advances paid out. Soon after, he disappeared from the lagoon city.

In the years that followed, the alchemist managed to deceive wealthy citizens, including in Verona , where he was imprisoned, but on the intervention of Pope Innocent XII. was released again. Via Genoa , Augsburg , Spain (Barcelona and Madrid), and London , he came to Brussels , where he met the Bavarian Elector Max Emanuel , who was governor of the Spanish Netherlands, and carried out alchemical experiments with him and convinced him that he could make gold. The elector made him Colonel and General Feldzeugmeister (1697) and brought him (after he had made two failed escape attempts in Brussels) under the supervision of his counselor Peter von Dulac to Munich , where he was supposed to produce gold as promised. First he was in Dulac's house in Munich, then in Burghausen under the supervision of Baron Widman. When the success did not materialize, the Bavarian elector's patience with the alleged Italian count finally ran out. In 1699 he was imprisoned in Grünwald Castle, which had been converted into a state prison - as the first prisoner. The religious paintings he used to paint his cell are still preserved today. After a year and a half, he managed to escape to the Salzburger Land , but voluntarily returned to Bavaria again to try again at goldmaking with the permission of the Elector in Burghausen. He found another victim there in the heavily indebted Cistercian monastery Raitenhaslach near Burghausen. In 1702 he escaped to Vienna, but initially could not achieve anything and returned to Bavaria, where he was again imprisoned in Grünwald. Only after the Second Battle of Höchstädt (1704) was the prisoner released by Austrian troops who had moved into Bavaria. Caetano went to Vienna , where he of Alchemy believing his fraud on the court and heavily indebted Leopold I continued. This time he received funds for his goldmaker attempts and was subordinate to Cardinal Leopold von Kollonitsch. In Vienna he also made promises of a gold tincture to Prince Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz , who was staying there . The elector and the now suspicious Kollonitsch bet a high sum (500,000 thalers) for the credibility of Caetano, which prompted him to flee Vienna to Berlin in 1705 .

1705 to 1709

Since 1705 the alleged Italian count has been fooling the Berlin population and basking in the fame of being the successor of Böttger, who fled from Berlin to Saxony in 1701 . In the presence of the heavily indebted King of Prussia and the Crown Prince, Caetano succeeded in faking the transformation of copper into gold. Originally skeptical Protestant theologian, physician and alchemist Johann Conrad Dippel was designed by Frederick I commissioned the "ability" to examine Caetanos and this managed to win the respectability force scholars to outwit and as advocates. The king no longer doubted Caetano's abilities and commissioned him to make gold from copper, mercury and other materials.

Although Frederick I was now convinced of the arts of the alchemist, he hesitated to give Caetano generous financial contributions to procure the "necessary materials". After warnings from the Palatinate Elector and the Viennese court had reached him, he demanded that Caetano's promises be kept as soon as possible. Thereupon the Italian consoled the king with a magnificent painting in which Frederick was depicted as the biblical King Solomon on a golden throne, surrounded by golden lions and the golden inscription “Restaurata aurea secula”. The suspicious king was not deterred, he threateningly insisted on his demand. This prompted Caetano to suddenly flee, which was to go to Spain, but he was imprisoned in Frankfurt am Main by Friedrich's captors.

The alleged gold maker was then brought to the Küstrin fortress for "undisturbed work". Because he was unable to do this there, the king allowed him to return to Berlin at his request. The self-proclaimed Count von Ruggiero did not deliver gold there either, instead he ran a large state, “always went for a walk with two cars” and had “the most beautiful horses and 8 to 10 servants”. At least that is how the Berliner Nouvellen reported on November 22, 1707, at the same time informing them that Domenico Manuel Caetano fled Berlin again in the fog and night. Friedrich then had Caetano looked for, and in the spring of 1708 the refugee was arrested in Frankfurt am Main and then transferred to the Küstrin fortress.

The King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg, who feared for his reputation, announced that Caetano would be executed as a fraud if he did not produce large amounts of gold within a year. The gold production did not succeed, of course, Caetano managed to extend the deadline by 14 days, but when he was unable to present any results at this point, Frederick I's patience was finally exhausted.

Domenico Manuel Caetano, Count von Ruggiero, was sentenced to death on August 16, 1709 by the Prussian Supreme Court and on August 23, 1709 between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. on the orders of the Prussian King, he was publicly hung from a gallows covered with tinsel in Küstrin . Soon afterwards the Prussian king had leaflets distributed in all the countries of the empire - probably as a warning to emulators - in which he announced the end of the impostor. Such a judgment was not new; other alchemists also experienced a similar fate, for example the alchemists Marco Bragadino and Georg Honauer in 1591 and 1597 .

Conclusion

Domenico Manuel Caetano belonged to Johann Friedrich Böttger (1682–1719) and Hector Johann von Klettenberg (1684–1720) among the most famous alchemists of the early 18th century. Böttger feared for his life after Caetano's end. A message from Hoym , who wrote to Flemming on September 8, 1709 : “What happened against Cajetano and how he pulls the gallows in front of Küstrin will be known to Ewer Excellence, and it will serve to the eternal glory of his royal. Your Majesty in Prussia, that they no longer allow themselves to be deceived. It seems to me that our master will wake up sometime, and our coopers may well hear the mice running very much ... ”, was the general mood at the court of Augustus the Strong . Thanks to the support of the scholar Tschirnhaus (1651–1708), Böttger was able to break new ground in laboratory and experimental research; he was allowed to manufacture European hard-paste porcelain for the first time . On the other hand, Caetano and Klettenberg, who had also been imprisoned for a few years and then ended up on the gallows, failed because of the impossibility of producing gold from other materials. Even contemporary scholars such as Robert Boyle and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz did not rule out the possibility of this in principle. It was not until the 19th century that the Russian chemist Dmitri Iwanowitsch Mendeleev (1834–1907), whose periodic table of the elements heralded the end of the fraudulent goldmakers , came to the realization that gold cannot be produced from other materials through chemical operations .

literature

  • Till Hein: “Find the Philosopher's Stone!” In: PM History , No. 1/2010, p. 42 f.
  • Klaus Hoffmann: Johann Friedrich Böttger. From alchemist gold to white porcelain. 2nd Edition. New Life, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-355-00223-2 .
  • Otto Krätz : A game about gold and power. News from the life of Don Dominico Emanuale Caetano and his crowned victims . In: Chemistry in Our Time , Volume 22, No. 2, 1988.
  • Claus Priesner : princes, citizens and fraudsters. Gold making in Germany and Europe . In: Chemistry in our time , Volume 43, 2009, pp. 214-223.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Krätz Spiel um Geld und Macht , Chemistry in Our Time, 1988, No. 2, p. 51. According to this, the father was a servant of the Duke of Laurenzano, who was in prison for counterfeiting and died there. The information is contradictory, according to an anonymous biography of Caetano he was the son of a farmer from Petrabianca and a trained goldsmith, according to other information, the son of an Englishman who learned to make gold from a Franciscan.
  2. ↑ The actual identity of Caetano has not yet been proven. It is more than questionable whether there was a relationship to the Roman noble family of the Gaetani (Caetani), as he had claimed.
  3. ↑ He may have been active on a secret mission for the Vatican. Priesner Goldmacherei in Germany and Europe , chemistry in our time 2009, p. 219, Krätz game about money and power , loc. cit., p. 54
  4. ↑ Inscriptions underneath suggest that he compared himself to the depicted Jesus carrying the cross, and in his trial in Küstrin he was also accused of such heresy in the judgment. Dross, loc. cit.
  5. ↑ in German: "Renewers of the golden age"
  6. ↑ from: Klaus Hoffmann: Johann Friedrich Böttger ... , p. 429.
  7. ↑ The judgment was intended to act as a deterrent. In any case, the gold maker Caetano had not seriously harmed the Prussian king.
  8. ↑ “The gold maker Cajetano, who was tightened up according to judgment and justice, like such on August 23, 1709, in the morning between 11 and 12 o'clock in Cüstrin on a beam studded with gold lahn, the ordinary thief gallows, and in a Romanesque habit made of similar material , all fraudulent goldmakers were hanged as a disgust and example ... “Quotation from: Klaus Hoffmann, Johann Friedrich Böttger ... , p. 433.
  9. ↑ Quotation from: Klaus Hoffmann, Johann Friedrich Böttger ... , p. 433
personal data
SURNAME Caetano, Domenico Manuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ruggiero, count of; Cajetano, Domenico; Cajetano, Domenico Manuel; Caetano, Domenico; Ruggiero, conte de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian alchemist, gold maker and impostor
DATE OF BIRTH around 1670
PLACE OF BIRTH Naples
DATE OF DEATH August 23, 1709
Place of death Küstrin , Margraviate of Brandenburg