George Starkey

George Starkey (born June 8 or 9, 1628 in Bermuda , † 1665 in London ) was an English alchemist . His students included u. a. Robert Boyle .

According to studies by William R. Newman and others, he is probably identical with an influential alchemical author of the 17th century who published under the pseudonym Irenäus Philalethes (Friend of Truth, also Eyrenäus), whose identity was long controversial, but in which one is already longer suspected an Englishman. He was previously identified with a Thomas Vaughan, among others.

Life

George Starkey grew up in a Puritan family of Scottish descent . His father George Stirk was a clergyman (minister) in Bermuda , which had been an English colony since 1620. He died when his son was nine years old.

Starkey trained at Harvard College from 1643 to 1646 , with MA and BA degrees. In 1650 he traveled to England, where he set up a laboratory in London, in which Boyle also received lessons, who later supported him financially. Starkey strongly advocated the views and methods of Johan Baptista van Helmont . Always struggling to make a living, he also received support from Samuel Hartlib and worked for a time in a metallurgical company in Bristol .

Under the pseudonym Philaletes , he wrote numerous alchemical and iatrochemical treatises, most of which were circulated as manuscripts and were only printed posthumously. They had influence u. a. to Isaac Newton , John Locke and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz . During his lifetime, Starkey kept the pseudonym top secret (also from Boyle). In the history of alchemy Karl Christoph Schmieder he is also identified with an adept from England who traveled around Europe in the middle of the 17th century, who pretended to be able to make gold, but otherwise behaved very carefully and kept a low profile.

The author Irenäus Philalethes can be distinguished from the alchemical author Eugenius Philalethes (pseudonym of Thomas Vaughan ).

Works by Irenaeus Philalethes

• The Marrow of Alchemy, being an Experimental Treatise, Discovering the secret and most hidden Mystery of the Philosophers Elixer , London, 1654
  • German edition, Kern Der Alchymie, This is a tract that has proven itself through experience, which opens up the secret and highly hidden secret of The Elixir of the Wise . Leipzig 1685, online edition of the Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library
  • German edition, Kern der Alchymie: this is a treatise that has been tried and tested through experience and opens up the secret and highly concealed secret of the elixir of the wise; divided into two parts . Vierling, Hof 1750 ( digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf )
• Secrets Reveal'd: or An Open Entrance to the Shut-Palace of the King , London 1669, in Latin as Introitus apertus ad occlusum regis palatium , Amsterdam, 1667
• Three Tracts of the Great Medicine of Philosophers for Humane and Metalline Bodies , London 1694, Latin edition Amsterdam, 1668
  • The art of the transmutation of metals , metamorphosis of metals
  • A short Manuduction to the Caelestial Ruby , Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby
  • The Fountain of Chymical Philosophy , Fount of Chemical Truth
  • German edition, Magnalia Medico-Chymica Continuata, or, continuation of the high Artzney and Feuerkunstigen secrets . Nuremberg 1680, online edition of the Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library
• An Exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Epistle to King Edward IV , London 1677
• Anonymi Philalethae Commentarius In Epistolam Georgii Riplaei . Leipzig 1685, online edition of the Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library
• At Exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Preface , London 1677
• An Exposition upon the First Six Gates of Sir George Ripley's Compound of Alchemy , London 1677
• Experiments for the Preparation of the Sophick Mercury; by Luna, and the Antimonial-Stellate-Regulus of Mars, for the Philosophers Stone , London 1677
• A breviary of Alchemy, or a commentary upon Sir George Ripley's Recapitulation: Being A Paraphrastical Epitome of his Twelve Gates , London 1677
• At Exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Vision , London 1677
• Ripley Reviv'd, or an Exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Hermetico-Poetical Works , London 1678
• Opus tripartitum , London, Amsterdam 1678
• Enarratio methodica trium Gebri medicinarum, in quibus contenitur Lapidis Philosophici vera confectio , London, 1678
• The Secret of the Immortal Liquor called Alkahest , London, 1683

Three tracts and Introitus appeared in the Museum Hermeticum in 1678 .

Writings under George Starkey

• Alchemical Laboratory Notebooks and Correspondence, editors William R. Newman and Lawrence M. Principe, University of Chicago Press 2005
• The admirable efficacy and almost incredible virtue of true oyl, which is made of sulfur-vive, set on fire, London 1660
• A brief examination and censure of certain medicines, London 1664
• George Starkey's pill vindicated, London 1663
• Natures explication and Helmonts vindication, London 1657
• Pyrotechny asserted and illustrated, London 1678
• Liquor alchahest, London 1675

literature

• William R. Newman, Lawrence M. Principe: Alchemy tried in the fire: Starkey, Boyle and the fate of Helmontian Chymystry, University of Chicago Press 2002
• RS Wilkinson: George Starkey, Physician and Alchemist. In: Ambix 11: 121-152 (1963).
• RS Wilkinson: The Problem of the Identity of Eirenaeus Philalethes. In: Ambix 12: 24-43 (1964).
• William R. Newman: Gehennical Fire. The Lives of George Starkey, an American Alchemist in the Scientific Revolution, University of Chicago Press 1994
• William R. Newman, George Starkey, in: Claus Priesner , Karin Figala : Alchemie. Lexicon of a Hermetic Science, Beck 1998

Web links

• Portrait in Galileo Project

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl Christoph Schmieder , History of Alchemy, Halle 1832, p. 389ff