Johann Isaac Hollandus

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Johann Isaac Hollandus was a Flemish alchemist of the 16th and 17th centuries. He published a number of writings, some with another Isaac Hollandus, probably his father, all of which did not appear until 1600 and after. But it is not even certain whether these are really historical personalities and not pseudonyms.

The oldest manuscripts date from around 1560, the first prints from 1572. Later, until the 17th century, other authors apparently added who published under their names.

Life

The dates of their lives are controversial (older authors such as Hermann Kopp even relocated them to the 14th century or the beginning of the 15th century at the latest) and little is known about them, except that they had a reputation as excellent chemists (e.g. also with Robert Boyle ). Mostly Isaac is accepted as the father of Johann Isaac, sometimes as brothers, sometimes as a single person, others consider them to be invented figures or pseudonyms. The name Hollandus only indicates the country of origin, so even their last names are unknown. After Karl Christoph Schmieder and Edmund Oskar von Lippmann , they were probably Jews.

In their writings they reveal precise knowledge of chemical processes and procedures. They describe distillation, fermentation, putrefaction (putrefaction), the production of uric acid salts (and use them to extract colors), sodium phosphate and potassium sulfate. Some of the recipes are shown in detail. Hollandus is also said to have made high quality artificial gemstones as glassblowers, e.g. B. were praised by the Italian glassmaker and alchemist Antonio Neri , who was in Flanders (Antwerp) from 1603 to 1610. They also treat the philosopher's stone and accept the transformation of base metals with its help into gold and propagate its medicinal use (opus saturni).

Like Paracelsus, they represented a threefold division of chemistry into the kingdoms of mercury, sulfur and salt. If they were classified like older authors up to the 14th century, they would have been forerunners of Paracelsus ideas. Opponents of Paracelsus' doctrine tried to discredit Paracelsus as a plagiarist, using authors such as Hollandus or Basilius Valentinus, who sometimes dated similarly early . Hollandus probably wrote after Paracelsus, but wanted to give the impression of being published beforehand and therefore did not cite any later authors.

Ben Jonson may mention the two Holland in his play The Alchymist , which was written in 1610 after Johnson's return from the war in Flanders. Johannes Kunckel (German edition of L'arte vetraria by Antonio Neri 1679) thought he was dead when Neri visited Flanders in the early 17th century.

Fonts

  • Opera Mineralia, sive de lapido philosophico, Middelburg: Richardus Schilders 1600
    • Also includes De triplici ordine elixiris et lapidis theoria. Also in Theatrum Chemicum, Volume 3, German edition Hamburg 1716
  • De salibus et oleis metallorum 1604
  • Opus Saturni 1604
    • by Johann Thölde with Triumphal Chariot Antinomii printed by Basilius Valentinus in Nuremberg 1676. Another edition appeared with Manus philosophorum cum signaturis 1667 in Frankfurt
  • De spiritu urinae, in Theatrum Chemicum , Volume 6
  • Opera Vegetabilia, Amsterdam 1659 (publisher J. Harprecht)
  • Isaaci et JI Hollandi Opera universalia et vegetabilia, sive de lapide philosophorum, Arnheim 1617, 1670 (complete edition of their writings)
  • Collection of different tried and tested chemical writings, ... Hand of the Philosophers, Opus Saturni, Opera Vegetabilia, Opus Minerale, Cabala, de Lapide Philosophico, together with a treatise on the errors of those alchemists, Auctoris incerti , 2nd edition. Vienna: Johann Paul Krauss, 1746 (first Frankfurt 1667)
  • The Third Part of the Mineral Works Johannis Isaci Hollandi, containing the figures of his secret ovens and several other vessels and instruments, Frankfurt, Götze, 1666.

literature

  • Annelies van Gijsen: "Isaac Hollandus Revisited" in Miguel Lòpez-Pèrez, Dider Kahn, Mar Rey Bueno, ed .: Chymia: science and nature in Medieval and early modern Europe, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2010, p. 310-324.
  • Paul Diergart: The Hollandus writings. A forgery from the second half of the 16th century , Chemiker-Zeitung, Volume 43, 1919, p. 201
  • Edmund O. Lippmann : About the alchemists known under the name Hollandi, Chemische Zeitung, Volume 43, 1919, 265–267, 286–288, 301–303
  • Edmund O. von Lippmann: About the age of the alchemists JI and I. Hollandus, Chemische Zeitung, Volume 40, 1916, 85-86
  • Lippmann: To the knowledge of the alchemists named Hollandi, Chemische Zeitung, Volume 57, 1933, 233
  • Karl Sudhoff: Bibliography of Isaaks and Johann Isaaks, the Dutchman, Sudhoffs Archive, Volume 27, 1934, pp. 45-50
  • Raphael Patai: The Jewish Alchemists, Princeton University Press 1994, (Chapter 22: Isaac Hollandus and his son John Isaac)
  • Winfried Pötsch, Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Lexicon of important chemists , Harri Deutsch 1989, have entries Isaac Hollandus (junior) and Johann Isaac Hollandus (senior)
  • John Ferguson: Bibliotheca Chemica, Glasgow 1906, Volume 1, pp. 412ff
  • Julian Paulus: Isaac and Johann Isaac Hollandus, in: Claus Priesner , Karin Figala : Alchemie. Lexicon of a Hermetic Science, Beck 1998, p. 181

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Julian Paulus, article Hollandus, Claus Priesner , Karin Figala : Alchemie. Lexicon of a Hermetic Science, Beck 1998, p. 181
  2. ↑ Julian Paulus, loc. cit.
  3. ↑ You do not quote any authors of the 16th century or after, as the youngest authors Arnaldus de Villanova (Schmieder Geschichte der Alchemie, 1832, p. 210)
  4. ↑ History of Alchemy, Halle 1832, p. 210
  5. ↑ That still sounds like Schmieder, who thinks that Paracelsus copied from them
  6. ↑ Act 1, Scene 2, Subtle alludes to luck in a card game in a conversation with Captain Face: The spirits of dead Holland and living Isaac, you'd sweare, were in him . According to another interpretation, these were names of contemporary gamblers
  7. ↑ Contrary to the usual assumptions, Johann Isaac Hollandus is listed here as the father. Jean-Jacques Manget , Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa , did the same
personal data
SURNAME Hollandus, Johann Isaac
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Flemish alchemist
DATE OF BIRTH 16th Century
DATE OF DEATH 17th century