Johannes de Rupescissa

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Johannes de Rupescissa , French Jean de Roquetaillade , German occasionally Johann vom Gespaltenen Felsen , (* around 1310 in Marcolès Castle ( Cantal ) near Aurillac , Auvergne ; † probably 1366) was a Franciscan , alchemist and apocalyptic visionary in southern France. He is attributed to the Joachimites or spirituals and combined ideas to a quintessence called "supernatural" substance hidden in the matter , with prophecies of an imminent end of the world in an " apocalyptic " alchemy unique for the Middle Ages .

From a Rupescissa manuscript, ca.1350

Life

He studied philosophy and the liberal arts for five years in Toulouse , where his intensive preoccupation with alchemy began, and in 1332 he joined the Franciscan order, where he continued his studies mainly in theology. Between 1340 and 1344 he was in the Minorite Monastery of Aurillac. There he began to spread prophecies and visions (among other things, he saw the Antichrist in the form of a child in China). Due to false prophecies and radical criticism of the Church (he advocated Franciscan poverty and criticized the papacy in Avignon and the common simony ) he was imprisoned by his superiors in 1344 and transferred from one monastery to another (1344 Figeac, followed by Martel, Brive , Donzenac, Limoges, Saint-Junien as well as Toulouse and 1347 Rieux). In 1349 he came to Avignon to meet before Pope Clement VI. To defend. - He was supposed to go to the monastery in Castres , but he convinced the monks accompanying him to bring him to Avignon. - A first trial began at the end of 1349, but remained imprisoned in Avignon until November 1356, after a new trial started in 1354 failed to discover any heretical views. A milder form of captivity was maintained, even when he was under Innocent VI in 1360 . was brought to the Brignoles Castle . The last news from him is from December 1365. He received various donations from the apostolic chamber, but was ill and in a Minorite monastery in Avignon.

Although he was locked up for over twenty years, he was provided with writing materials (and expensive parchment ) in prison, and sometimes books. In prison he wrote Visiones seu revelationes (1349) and 1356 Vade Mecum in tribulatione and Liber Ostensor . His visions and prophecies are influenced by the Franciscan spirituals (Joachimites, Petrus Johannis Olivi ), but he goes far beyond that and sees the study of the Bible, prophecies and nature (alchemy) as a means of overcoming the apocalypse and the Reign of the Antichrist.

An alchemist also influenced by the Joachimites was the English Franciscan Roger Bacon, who was born around a hundred years before Rupescissa .

plant

Seven of his 30 or so works have survived. His visions had an impact on the corresponding late medieval and early modern literature. They are interwoven with autobiographical information especially about the time of his captivity.

His alchemical works were written around 1350. He was influenced by the writings of Arnaldus de Villanova , Ramon Llull , Roger Bacon , Geber (or the writings that were ascribed to them). He propagated the him, according to time already known and about by Taddeo Alderotti of traditional methods for production of spirits distilled alcohol (alcohol) as a general remedy that prolonged the life, and called it quinta essentia or aqua vitae . This fifth essence - in allusion to Aristotle in addition to the classic four elements earth, fire, water, air - was of heavenly origin and counteracted the pernicious and destructive influences of the earth such as disease and old age and was not subject to their degradation. According to Rupescissa, it is given by God to preserve the body as he created the sky to save the world (and thus something like a human heaven according to Rupescissa ). The fact that it mediates corruptibility (as long as it does not escape) shows the preservation of meat in alcohol, but it does not convey immortality, which God himself would have denied Adam in Paradise. According to Rupescissa it is similar to water, but in contrast to it flammable, similar to air, but not warm and humid (and does not give birth to insects spontaneously), it is very hot and warm there, not like the cool, dry earth, it is not like fire , as it heals and cools fever, but has some qualities of all four elements. Alchemical techniques would bring it to light in the sublunar world on earth. According to Rupescissa, it could in principle be taken from all elements of nature, e.g. B. Plants (which, like organic material from animals, he only mentions in passing), minerals, metals (especially gold, mercury, antimony), albeit in a less perfect form than with alcohol. He gives several examples, including the conversion of mercury with Roman vitriol (iron or copper sulfate) and sale petrae , which was also a stage in the process of making the philosopher's stone (according to Rupescissa, a compound of mercury and Roman vitriol, i.e. sulfur ), which he describes in Liber lucis. He first amalgamated gold , pulverized it and treated it with vinegar (acetum) or urine, antimony (in the form of sulphide ore) he also treated with acetum and then distilled it. His approach is often the treatment with mineral acids followed by sublimation and distillation. Several of his influential books on this were later printed. They also contain information on distilling techniques. His works (some of the few medieval alchemical works that can safely be assigned to an author) also show that the ideas of medicinal chemistry go back far before the iatrochemistry of Paracelsus and his followers. The influence of his Liber de consideratione quintae essentiae can be seen in the fact that it is preserved in around 130 manuscripts, including translations into English, French and Swedish (by Peder Mansson), and as early as the 15th century in French and Latin (editor Guillelmo Graterolo) were printed. He also influenced doctors, pharmacists and alchemists such as Hieronymus Brunschwig , Walther Hermann Ryff , Conrad Gessner and Paracelsus in German-speaking countries . a. further developed and distributed by Philipp Ulstad .

In the medicinal use of alcohol he also mixed gold (which he called the fixation of the sun in the sky), which became a common means of administering gold.

Works

  • De consideratione quintae essentiae rerum omnium. , Basel 1521 and 1561 (publisher Guglielmo Gratorolo ), 1597, Strasbourg 1616 (also French (Lyon 1549) and English editions (London 1856)).
    • Udo Benzenhöfer : Johannes' de Rupescissa 'Liber de consideratione quintae essentiae omnium rerum' German. Studies on Alchemia medica from the 15th to 17th centuries with a critical edition of the text. Steiner, Stuttgart 1989 (= Heidelberg studies on naturopathy in the early modern period, 1).
  • Liber lucis. In: JJ Manget: Bibliotheca chemica curiosa , II, Geneva 1702, pp. 80-83 and 84-87.
  • Liber secretorum eventuum, modern edition: Christine Morerod-Fattebert, Robert E. Lerner : Le Liber secretorum eventuum de Jean de Roquetaillade . Friborg: Editions universitaires, 1994.
  • Liber Ostensor , modern edition: Jean de Roquetaillade, Liber ostensor quod adesse festinant tempora. Critical edition under the guidance of A. Vauchez from Cl. Thévenaz Modestin and Chr. Morerod-Fattebert. Rome, Ecole française de Rome, 2005.
  • Vade mecum in tribulatione , 1356:
    • (1) First print edition in: E. Brown, Fasciculus rerum expetendarum ac fugiendarum , London 1690 . II, pp. 493-508
    • (2) modern editions (the authors edit different versions as Rupescissa's authentic text: Tealdi finds it in the version of the family α, according to Kaup the secondary version plena expolita ; Kaup, on the other hand, opts for the version plena , according to Tealdi the version of the secondary family δ) :
      • a) Giovanni di Rupescissa: Vade mecum in tribulatione. Critical edition by Elena Tealdi, historical introduction by Robert E. Lerner and Gian Luca Potestà, Milan: Vita e Pensiero. Dies Nova, 2015
      • b) John of Rupescissa's Vade mecum in tribulacione (1356). A Late Medieval Eschatological Manual for the Forthcoming Thirteen Years of Horror and Hardship. Edited by Matthias Kaup, London / New York: Routledge. Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West, 2017.

literature

  • Udo Benzenhöfer : Johannes de Rupescissa. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 701 f.
  • Georg Kreuzer: Jean de Roquetaillade (Johannes de Rupescissa). In: Traugott Bautz: Biographical-Bibliographical Church Lexicon. (BBKL), 2001 (and Hubert Herkommer in the 1992 edition)
  • Ludwig Hödl: Article Johannes von Roquetaillade (J. de Rupescissa) OMin († after 1365), in: Lexikon des Mittelalters , VI, 2 f.
  • Hubert Herkommer : Johannes de Rupescissa (Jean de Roquetaillade) OFM, main representative of the French Joachimites, alchemist. In: Author's Lexicon . , Volume IV, Col. 724-729
  • Leah De Vun: Prophecy, Alchemy, and the End of Time: John of Rupescisa in the Late Middle Ages. Columbia University Press, New York 2009
  • Jeanne Bignami-Odier: Études sur Jean de Roquetaillade (Johannes de Rupescissa). Paris 1952
  • Jeanne Bignami-Odier: Jean de Roquetaillade (de Rupescissa), Histoire littéraire de la France, suite du xive siècle. Volume 41, 1981, pp. 75-240
  • Robert Halleux : Les ouvrages alchimiques de Jean de Rupescissa, Histoire littéraire de la France. Volume 41, 1981, pp. 241-284.
  • Julian Paulus Johannes de Rupescissa , in: Claus Priesner , Karin Figala : Alchemie. Lexicon of a Hermetic Science, Beck 1998
  • Sylvain Piron: L'ecclésiologie franciscaine de Jean de Roquetaillade. In: Franciscan Studies. Volume 65, 2007, pp. 281-294.
  • Sylvain Piron: Le Sexdequiloquium de Jean de Roquetaillade. Oliviana, 3, 2009 (newly discovered text by Rupescissa)
  • Robert E. Lerner: John the Astonishing. Oliviana, 3, 2009
  • Ciola Graciana: Giovanni di Rupescissa: autobiografia, profezia e leggenda , in: Agostino Paravicini Bagliani (Ed.): Medieval Legends of Philosophers and Scholars / The Medieval Legends of Philosophers and Scholars , Micrologus. Natura, scienze e società medievali / Nature, Sciences and Medieval Societies, Volume 21, 2013, pp. 517-579, abstract in Hsoz-Kult
  • Felicitas Schmieder : Prophetic Propaganda in the Politics of the 14th Century: Johannes von Rupescissa. In: Wolfram Brandes , Felicitas Schmieder (Ed.): Endzeiten. Eschatology in the monotheistic world religions. De Gruyter, 2008, pp. 249-260.
  • Robert Multhauf : John de Rupescissa and the origin of medical chemistry , Isis, Volume 45, 1954, pp. 359-367
  • Franz Kampers: About the prophecies of Johannes de Rupescissa, Historical Journal, Volume 15, 1894, pp. 796-802, online
  • Lynn Thorndike A history of magic and experimental science during the first thirteen centuries of our era. I – VIII, New York 1923–1958 (= History of science society publications , New Series, 4), Volume III, p. 325 (Thorndike pointed out the importance of Rupescissa for the history of chemistry).
  • JM Pou y Marti: Visionarios, Beguinos y Fraticelos Catalanes, 1930, pp. 289-307

Web links

Commons : Johannes de Rupescissa  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Udo Benzenhöfer: Johannes de Rupescissa. In: Encyclopedia of Medical History. 2005, p. 701 ("† (probably) 1365 or 1366, place of death unknown").
  2. ↑ Marina Nardone: La persuasione dolce. La tradizione del gioachimismo nella cronachistica francescana tra XIII e XIV secolo . Dissertation, Naples 2011, p. 245 f.
  3. ↑ L. Hödl, Roquetaillade, Lexicon of the Middle Ages (see literature). Hödl places him on an equal footing with Ubertino da Casale , Angelus Clarenus and Alvarus Pelagius in the reform movement of the Franciscan order of his time.
  4. ↑ At that time France was threatened by afflictions such as the Hundred Years War , famines, uprisings ( Jacquerie ) and the plague and the Pope was in exile in Avignon.
  5. ↑ The connection between the alchemical and eschatological writings and ideas is presented in DeVun's book
  6. ↑ DeVun Prophecy, alchemy and the end of time (see literature) shows that some works ascribed to Llull use ideas from Rupescissa
  7. ↑ The authorship of alchemical works traditionally ascribed to them is doubted. Rupescissa is mentioned as an alchemical author by Johannes Trithemius (Annalium Hirsaugensium), who lived a hundred years later . Multhauf, Isis (see literature). As an author of prophecies, however, he was so well known that chroniclers such as Jean Froissart and Jean Le Bel mention him.
  8. ^ Entry in Winfried Pötsch, Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Lexicon of important chemists. Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-8171-1055-3
  9. ↑ Aqua Vitae or Aqua ardens is the name for alcohol by earlier alchemical authors such as Arnaldus de Villanova, Vitalis von Furno , Thaddaeus Florentinus . Its use as medicine had been known for a long time (e.g. de Villanova, Vitalis von Furno)
  10. ↑ Walter Pagel Paracelsus , Karger 1982, p. 263ff (Sources of Paracelsus)
  11. ↑ Rupescissa identifies sulfur with the spirit of vitriol beyond the sometimes strongly philosophical speculations of early authors
  12. ↑ Actually nitric salt, but in this case the white end product he describes indicates a chloride (Multhauf, loc. Cit., P. 362)
  13. ↑ He unites these two, whereby he frees the mercury from its earthiness beforehand in several procedures , as he writes
  14. ↑ Hieronymus Brunschwig: Liber de arte distillandi de compositis. Johannes Grüninger (= Johann Reinhardi), Strasbourg 1500 (from 1519 also in German)
  15. ↑ Walther Hermann Ryff: Das New great Distillierbuch ... , Egenolff, Frankfurt am Main 1545
  16. ↑ Udo Benzenhöfer (1989), p. 198
  17. ↑ According to Benzenhöfer's edition of the Liber consideratione Brunschwig (not in the first edition of the Small Distilling Book from 1500, but only in the second expanded edition from 1505 and in his Liber de arte distillandi de compositis from 1512) and Paracelsus from 1525, although this is derogatory to Rupescissa said that he B. influenced it directly in his Gradus teaching. Printed editions of Rupescissa's work did not appear until after the death of Paracelsus. a. accessible via the books by Ulstad and Brunschwig.
  18. ↑ Multhauf, loc. cit.
personal data
SURNAME Johannes de Rupescissa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jean de Roquetaillade; John of the Split Rock
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Franciscan, alchemist and visionary
DATE OF BIRTH around 1310
PLACE OF BIRTH Marcolès ( Cantal ) near Aurillac , Auvergne
DATE OF DEATH after 1365