Johann Grasshoff

Johann Grasshoff , also Grassaeus, Crassaeus, (* after 1560 in Riga ; † 1618 ) was a German alchemist and lawyer.

After Joachim Telle, it is best known under the name Grasshoff, but the form of the name is not clearly proven from trustworthy sources. Telle cites the following forms of name: Johann Grasse, Grasseus, Grassaeus, Johann Chortolasseus.

According to Claus Priesner, he also published as Cortolasseus and Hermannus Condeesyanus, the latter pseudonym after Joachim Telle being the pseudonym of Johannes Rhenanus . According to Telle, there is no basis for an identification with Johann Walch or Hermannus Condeesyanus.

Little is known for certain about him. He studied in Frankfurt an der Oder (1581) and Helmstedt (1585) and received his doctorate in law. He then lived in Stralsund , where he received citizenship in 1591. It is often assumed that he was the legal counsel for the city of Stralsund and later lived in Livonia ( Riga ), but according to Telle this cannot be proven with certainty. From 1603 at the latest he had connections to the elector and archbishop of Cologne Ernst von Bayern and became his councilor (Consiliarus). He was known to Heinrich Khunrath , Joachim Morsius , Michael Maier , Johann Dobricius in Breslau, Jakob Martini in Lübeck and the astrologer Melchior Jöstel .

He was a follower of Paracelsus and the Kabbalah . His main work, The Little Farmer, is an allegorical representation of alchemy in the form of a first-person narration: in search of the philosopher's stone, the alchemist meets a stranger who appears as a farmer and gives him clues and the colors of his clothes indicate the stages of the opus symbolize magnum . His symbol of the Magisterium is a red and white flower together on a stem and the Materia Prima appears as a stone that is lifted from the ground. The Large Bauer after Telle a Exzerpt- florilegium an Alchemy, the metal conversion based on lead describes. His main work was highly regarded among alchemists and has been translated into Latin, English, French and Russian. It was commented on by Johann Walch, among others (edition of the Small Peasant, Strasbourg 1618) and by the Riga anagrammist “Harr certain consolation of God” (in: Mysterium occultae naturae , Hamburg 1657).

His alchemical writings were quite successful and are also printed in the Theatrum Chemicum .

Influences of his main work in literature are with Clemens Brentano (fairy tales from the house of Staremberg), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Wanderer's storm song) and Alexander von Bernus (hour of Saturn).

Fonts

• A philosophical and chemical treatise called The Little Farmer , Strasbourg 1618 and more
  • Also in different versions, The small and the large farmer (Leipzig 1744), Aperta arca artificiosissimi or the large and small farmer ( Frankfurt am Main 1617, 1687), The secrets of the large and small farmer (Leipzig 1658, with Cabala Chemica ), According to Telle, Der kleine Bauer (1618 and more) is only a partial print. Other titles were Philosophia Salomonis (Augsburg 1753), The secret of nature of the large and small farmer (1731)

Also attributed to him:

• Dyas chimica tripartita, that is six wonderful German philosophical treatises , Frankfurt 1625 (a collection of alchemical writings, published by the same publisher and partly the same texts as the first edition of the Musaeum Hermeticum , only here in German). Published under the editorship of HCD, which stands for Hermannus Condeesyanus, so the editor here may have been Johannes Rhenanus. It contains:
  • A golden treatise on the philosophical stone described by an unnamed philosopher
  • Henricus Madathanus: Aurem seculum redivivum (with the previous treatise referred to as being by living authors)
  • Basilius Valentinus : Handles about the preparation of the stone; Handles how he prepares his medicine; Closing speeches from the Sulfure Vitriolo and the Magnet; Supplement or addition
  • Lambspring (with Valentinus described as from the Middle Ages)
  • A German treatise described in 1423
  • Liber Alze vom philosophischen Steine, described for 200 years (with the previous treatise described as coming from ancient philosophers )
• Harmonia inperscrutabilis chymico-philosophicae , in 2 parts, Frankfurt 1625 (since printed under the pseudonym HCD probably also by Johannes Rhenanus, one copy was in Isaac Newton's library )

In addition to the main work, Joachim Telle performs the following works:

• Alchemical letters to Elector Ernst (1603), in: Mysterium occultae naturae , Hamburg 1657
• Totum opus philosophicum , a poem in: Cornelius Drebbel , Tractatus duo , editor Joachim Morsius, Hamburg 1621
• also various handwritten texts (shorter alchemical texts, the treatise De materia lapidis , letters to Melchior Jöstel)

literature

• Claus Priesner , Grashof (f) / Graßhof (f), Johannes (synonyms: Grasseus, Chortolasseus, Hermann Condesyanus), in: Claus Priesner, Karin Figala : Alchemie. Lexicon of a Hermetic Science, Beck 1998
• Ferguson Bibliotheca Chemica , Glasgow 1906, Volume 2, pp. 338ff
• Joachim Telle: Grasse, Grass (a) eus, Johann , in: Walter Killy, Literaturlexikon, De Gruyter
• Thomas Lederer: Johann Grasse (around 1560-1618). An alchemist in the vicinity of the Elector Ernst von Bayern (1554-1632) , dissertation at the University of Heidelberg 1993
• Thomas Lederer: Life, work and impact of the Stralsund specialist writer Johann Grasse (after 1560-1618) , in: Wilhelm Kühlmann, Horst Langer (ed.), Pommern in der alten Neuzeit, Tübingen 1994, pp. 227-238

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biographical data Telle, Killys Literaturlexikon (and Thomas Lederer). According to Claus Priesner, Alchemie 1998, p. 165 he was born in Pomerania (date of birth unknown) and died in 1623.
2. ^ Killy Literature Lexicon
3. ↑ Telle, Alchemiker im early modern Kassel, pdf
4. ↑ Born in Kassel in the 1580s, died after 1634. Grandson of Johannes Rhenanus . Personal physician to Moritz von Hessel-Kassel . Received his doctorate in Marburg in 1610 under Johannes Hartmann . Author of alchemical texts.
5. ↑ Life story according to Telle, Killy literary dictionary
6. ^ Telle, Killy Literature Lexicon
7. ↑ Dys Chymica Tripartita, 1625 , Archives
8. ^ Spanish translation , Azogue, No. 2, 1999
9. ^ Newton Project, Newton's Alchemical Library