Johann Otto Hellwig

Johann Otto von Hellwig (* 1654 in Kölleda , (Electorate of Saxony); † 1698 in Bayreuth ; also Johannes Otto Helbig / Helwig) was a German traveler, doctor, alchemist and author.

Life

Johann Otto Baron v. Helwig was born as the son of the deacon Caspar Hellwig in Kölleda. He is the older brother of the similarly renowned doctor and publicist Christoph von Hellwig (1663–1721). The foundations of his education were laid in the "Schul-Pforta" , which was already known at that time . At the age of 17 he went to study in Jena , then to Erfurt , Altdorf and Basel . After obtaining his doctorate in medicine, he entered the service of the Dutch East India Company in 1675 - as a soldier (“Adelborst”), as his travel companion, Christoph Schweitzer from Württemberg, noted in the “Journal and diary of his six-year East Indian journey”. In July 1676 he arrived in Batavia and, according to Schweitzer's travel book, found a job in the pharmacy of the German doctor and businessman Andreas Cleyer :

“On the twentieth [August 1676] 12 Javans brought a snake, the length of which was 26 wooden shoes, dead in front of the general's house, which the general [= governor-general], when he saw them, ordered his doctori, named Kleyern, to be brought to his doctori, named Kleyern Otto Helwig, Med. Doct. Born in Saxony, and as a soldier shipped with me in India, anjetzo served in front of a journeyman pharmacist who opened the Schlang and had it filled out again. "

Portrait of Hellwig (from: Arcana Majora )

This was the time when Cleyer's relationships with the members of the German Academy of Natural Scientists ( Leopoldina ) deepened. Helwig also got in touch, as evidenced by an epistle printed in Batavia in 1678: "JO Helbigii [...] Introitus in veram atque inauditam Physicam epistola ex India Orientali in Europum ad [...] Academiam naturae curiosorum transmissa apertus [...]". Even here his strong interest in alchemy becomes clear. In the second half of that year, Cleyer hired the Saxon gardener George Meister , who shared a passion for exploring the East Asian flora and was later to publish a book about his observations in Asia. Hellwig, too, had meanwhile put all sorts of observations on animals, medicines and minerals on paper, which were printed in the Miscellanea curiosa of German naturalists in 1679 as observations on "various Indian things" (De variis rebus Indicis). In particular, the statements about the origin of the birds of paradise, which were still shrouded in mystery at the time (De Ave Manucodiata, seu Paradisiaca, Indis et Australi-Orientalibus Burung Aru dicta) met with some response and were later even included in French specialist encyclopedias. But that seemed to have exhausted Hellwig's interest in observing nature. While his brother Christoph was accepted into the Leopoldina in 1684 under the agnom "Galenus II", one looks in vain for Johann Christoph's name in the membership directory. Hellwig's employment at Cleyer's pharmacy ended in the late 1970s.

After his return to Europe he was electoral Palatine physician and honorary professor in Heidelberg . A few caustic remarks by the Frankfurt doctor Sebastian Scheffer have been preserved from this period . Scheffer, with whom Cleyer had made contact at the end of the 1670s, comes in a letter to Leibniz, written in January 1681, to talk about Cleyer and, in this context, also about his “half-adept” Hellwig:

“The semi adeptus only existed for 1 year, u. is still very young, is called Helbigius, a young man, as I am told of great imaginations, which is very lost in speech, sed haec inter nos. He is now in Heidelberg, u. has increased his prodromum. "

But Hellwig did not last long in Heidelberg either. An unsteady wandering life followed, which led him to France, Portugal, Italy, England, Denmark and other countries. From the philosopher's stone (Lapis Philosophorum), a substance that can be used to transform base metals such as mercury into gold or silver, he would not stop until the end of his life. In 1680 the above-mentioned letter from East India was printed in Hamburg. The following year he published an even more in-depth pamphlet in response to questions put to him by his “beloved friend Dr. CTS ”:

Thorough answer to the following three questions: I. What actually is the Lapis Philosophorum? II. What is its materia and how it must be prepared. III. And finally what should think of those laboratory technicians and gold prospectors, generally alchemists, of gentlemen = courtyards "(Heidelberg 1681).

Such a topic attracted a great deal of attention from all lovers of gold and hermetics , which was increased by the all-round attack against the alchemists at the courts. In the following year Hellwig published the translation of an alchemical text, which he ascribes to the “Asian Moor” “ Ali Puli ”. The Arabic original was translated into Portuguese by HLVAH and then translated into German by him. This was the first print of a text by “Ali Puli” at all, and since its historical existence has not yet been proven, it is quite possible that Hellwig wrote the script himself. He obviously made an impression in personal dealings. Cleyer referred to as "Lumina medicorum" (Cleyer), that is, as a lamp among doctors, which could also be meant ironically. The Duke of Gotha as well as the King of Denmark, Christian V, appointed him to their council, however, King Charles II of England even elevated him to the nobility. Among his writings, the following title reflects the colorful life of this man most impressively:

Johannis Ottonis Liber. Baronis de Hellwig Magn. Britann. Equitis S. Reg. Maj. Danic. Consiliarii & c. piae Memoriae, Arcana majora, or curious and useful description of many true physical, medicinic, chymic, alchymic, chyrurgical and economic secrets. From world-famous people, as well as Indian Braminen or world wise men, as well as Germans, Spaniards, Italians, Angels, Dutch, Danes, French, and other excellent men Manuscriptis, and Corresopondentzen, also personal experience, on his twenty years of world-wide travels, collegiate with strange diligence . Increased with different beautiful rare experiments, observations and animadversions. At the insistent request of many patrons and friends (probably higher than lower), now put in print, also provided with useful figures and necessary registers, by L. Christoph Hellwig, Phys. to Tännstädt.

Ali Puli, “an Asian Moor” (from a manuscript by the Dutch doctor Burghard de Groot, 1735)

In 1684 his brother Christoph, who was nine years his junior, kept him company for a while. However, he stayed down to earth and also made a career as a doctor and publicist. After Johann Otto's death in 1712 he published the Arcana majora (" Große Arkana ") and two years later a new version of the Curiosa Physica as a kind of last will . Otto von Hellwig's writings were reprinted in many different editions, some of which appeared in foreign language translations. He occupies a prominent place in the history of alchemy in the 17th century.

Works

• Johann Otto Helbigius: De variis rebus Indicis; puta, de Leone, Tigridibus, de rara quadam Africae ave; de Gammaris terrestribus; de Scorpionibus non venenatis; de Lacertis non venenatis; de Simiis, Lacertis ac Felibus volantibus; de vaccis marinis; de menstruo Sanguinis fluxu in Bestiis; de Hominibus caudatis; de Ave Manucodiata, seu Paradisiaca, Indis et Australi-Orientalibus Burung Aru dicta; de Ambra grisea; de Alcali nativo; de Testudinum generatione; de Gallinis Javanese bus, & Mineris Indicis . In: Miscellanea curiosa sive ephemeridum medico-physicarum Germanicarum Academiae Caesareo-Leopoldinae Naturae Curiosorum , Decuria I, Annus IX / X (1678, 1679), Observatio 194 (pp. 453-464).
• Johannis Ottoni Helbigii, Thuringi, Philosophi & Medicinae Doctoris, Introitus in veram atque Inauditam Physicam: Epistola ex India orientali in Europam ad Celeberrimam Sacri Romani Imperii Academiam Naturae Curiosorum transmissa, apertus. (Heidelberg, 1680) ( American Libraries (PDF) in the Internet Archive ).
• Johannis Ottonis Helwigii […] and the Heydelberg. University of PP Thorough answer to the following three questions: I. What actually is the Lapis Philosophorum? II. What is its materia and how it must be prepared. III. And finally what should think of those laboratory technicians and gold prospectors, generally alchemists, at gentlemen = yards (Heidelberg, 1681).
• Centrum naturae concentratum, or, A treatise on the re-drilled Saltz: in general and actually addressed to the Wise Stone, written in Arabic by Ali Puli, an Asiatic Moor, then translated into Portuguese by HLVAH and into Hochteutsche and edited by Johann Otto Helbig Rittern , Elector. Pfälzischen Rath, Leib-Medico, and at the Heidelberg University Professore Publico. (Heidelberg, 1682).
• Johannis Ottonis de Helbig: Magnae Britanniae Equitis & he. Principis-Electoris Palatini Consiliarii, Judicium de Duumviris Hermeticis Foederatis, et horum Epistola buccinatoria secunda Amico, tale petenti per Epistolam responsoriam communicatum, debitoque in bonum publicum amore nunc editum . Amsterdam 1683. Google Books (PDF).
• Curiosa Physica, or doctrine of the different natural secrets, which are set under several chapters and on the other side; Somewhat increased (Sonderhausen, 1701).
• Arcana majora, or curious and useful description of many true physical, medicinal, chymic, alchymic, chyrurgical and economic secrets (Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig, 1712).
• Curiosa physica, or thorough doctrine of different natural secrets: especially the philosophical masterpiece or so-called Lapid [em] Philos [ophorum], as it were his last testament. Published for the second time and augmented with different curious pieces by LC Hellwig. (Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig / Mühlhausen, 1714).

literature

• Hellwig, Joa. Otto. Freyherr of. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 12, Leipzig 1735, column 1293.
• Christian Wilhelm Kestner: Medicinisches Scholar Lexicon . (1740, p. 387).
• Johann Christian Poggendorff : Biographical-literary concise dictionary of the exact natural sciences 1863, Vol. 1, Sp. 1057.
• W. Michel: An East Indian letter - Andreas Cleyer's letter to Sebastian Scheffer of December 20, 1683 . In: Dokufutsu Bungaku Kenkyu , No. 41 (Fukoka, August 1991), pp. 15-98.
• W. Michel: Johann Otto Helwig . In: Engelbert Kaempfer - works . Vol. 1/2. Munich 2001, pp. 120–121.

Remarks

1. ↑ Christoph. Schweitzer's… journal and diary of his six-year East Indian journey . Tubingen 1688.
2. ↑ What is meant is a boa constrictor.
3. ↑ Writing slightly smoothed
4. ^ Reprint Hamburg, 1680
5. ^ François-Alexandre Aubert de La Chenaye-Desbois : Dictionnaire raisonné et universel des animaux ou le règne animal . (Paris, 1759, Vol. 3, p. 262)
6. ^ Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Complete Writings and Letters: 3rd series, 3rd volume, 1991, No. 162, p. 332
7. ↑ There are no writings by such an author in the Arabic literature, and there is no trace of the Portuguese version mentioned in the title.
8. ↑ Hellwig, Joa. Otto. Freyherr of. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 12, Leipzig 1735, column 1293 (devotes even more space to it than Johann Christoph).