Nicolas Flamel

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Nicolas Flamel (kneeling right) and his wife Pernelle (left), after a painting under the vaults of the Cimetière des Innocents in Paris, late 15th century

Nicolas Flamel , also Nicholas Flamel (* probably 1330 in Pontoise , † around 1413 in Paris , but traditionally 1418 ), was a successful French scribe, writer, manuscript dealer and possibly real estate dealer, who posthumously achieved fame as an alchemist . Legend has it that he found the philosopher's stone and achieved immortality.

According to Claus Priesner and Didier Kahn , his reputation as an alchemist is a legend created later because his wealth could not be explained during his lifetime, and there is no evidence that he was involved in alchemy or is the author of any alchemical work.

Life

Auberge Nicolas Flamel, Rue de Montmorency 51 . The former home of Flamels from 1407 is one of the oldest preserved houses in Paris today.
Tombstone
Street sign of Rue Nicolas Flamel in Paris

Flamel came from a humble background as the son of Jews who had to convert to Catholicism . He learned the craft of copyist from his father and received thorough training from Benedictine monks . In addition to Hebrew and French, he also mastered Latin. From 1355 he was married to the widow Perenelle (Pernelle). In Paris he first worked as a public scribe and, together with his wife, ran a small shop near the church of St-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie , for which he donated a church gate in 1399. Flamel also set up a workshop nearby, which specialized in the production of precious manuscripts. Duke Jean de Berry may also be among his customers . Over time, Flamel gained considerable wealth, with which he financed numerous foundations for churches and hospices as well as feeding the poor. In return, allegorical representations according to his instructions were attached to the buildings .

In 1410 Flamel designed his own tombstone, which is still preserved today in the Musée national du Moyen Age in Paris. Contrary to a common claim, there are no arcane symbols on the stone , only depictions of the apostles Peter and Paul with Jesus Christ as the ruler of the world and Flamel himself as a decaying corpse ( Transi ) at the foot. The stone thus represents an early example of the cult of the dead widespread in the late Middle Ages, which later culminated in the numerous depictions of the dance of death .

In Paris, a street was named after Flamel. It is located between the Châtelet and Hôtel de Ville metro stations and crosses Rue Pernelle, which was named after his wife.

Attributed works

In 1561 Jacques Gohorry , himself an author of alchemical writings, published an anthology with three texts on the transmutation of metals. One of them, the Sommaire Philosophique , appeared under the name Flamels. This work has been published repeatedly and included in various anthologies.

Flamel is also credited with working on the alchemical book Livre des figures hiéroglypiques, which appeared in Paris in 1612 . In 1624 it was published in English in London (editor Erinaeus Orandus), and in 1681 in Hamburg in German ("Des famous Philosophi Nicolai Flamelli Chymic Works"). It contains a number of representations that are said to have been commissioned by Flamel to decorate the gable of the Cimetière des Innocents cemetery , which is no longer preserved today. The editor's foreword tells the story of Flamel's career as an alchemist.

In his biography of Flamel, Nigel Wilkins doubts the origin of his wealth from alchemical activity. Since his wife was widowed twice before, she likely brought a considerable inheritance into the marriage. Wilkins also said Flamel was able to make some very profitable real estate deals in connection with the turmoil of the Hundred Years War . As early as the 18th century, Flamel's authorship of the Livre des figures hiéroglyphiques had been questioned by a certain Abbé Villain. Instead, Wilkins considers it to be the work of the editor who only faked the translation. The content has been compiled from earlier alchemical writings, known details from Flamel's life and oral traditions.

Although the book is dated to the year 1399, Claude Gagnon believes, based on the vocabulary used and the ideas discussed, he can prove that it could not have been written before 1590. Arnaud de la Chevalerie, named as the editor, is actually the well-known Kabbalist François Béroalde de Verville .

Legends

Popular fantasy portrait of Flamel by Balthasar Moncornet

According to the preface to the Livre des figures hiéroglyphiques , an angel appeared to Flamel in a dream in 1357, who showed a book whose contents could only be accessed by Flamel. The book, which Flamel then actually acquired for only two florins , is said to have revealed the stages of the manufacture of the Philosopher's Stone in allegorical representations in three chapters of seven pages each. However, he only succeeded in decoding it after 21 years. To do this, he traveled to Spain, where he hoped for help from the local alchemists, which initially remained in vain. It was only on the return journey from Santiago de Compostela that an accompanying scholar named Maître Canches (also a Jewish convert) identified the book as a work with the title Habraham, Juif, Prince, Prêtre, Lévite, Astrologue & Philosophe; à la Nation des Juifs que l'ire de Dieu a dispersé dans les Gaules, etc , and provided some hints for its decoding. However, Maître Canche died before he could personally study the book that Flamel was keeping in Paris.

On January 17, 1382, a Carnival Monday - this date fell on a Friday - Flamel and his wife Pernelle are said to have succeeded in producing silver from mercury for the first time; on April 25 of the same year the production of gold.

However, doubters later suspected that the “Book of Abraham the Jew” was in fact a description of the hiding places in which the Jews expelled from France had buried their treasures. In Zedler's lexicon of 1735 there is a rumor that the discovery of the Philosopher's Stone was only a protective claim by Flamel to cover up the embezzlement of public funds.

Other legends revolve around Flamel's alleged discovery of the elixir of eternal life. He and his wife are said to have only faked their deaths, and treasure hunters who suspected treasures hidden in Flamel's grave would have found it empty. The alchemical writings that appeared under his name long after his death apparently contributed to these rumors. The French merchant Paul Lucas (1664–1737) brought stories back to Europe from his travels at the beginning of the 18th century about encounters between the locals in Turkey and the immortal, eternally youthful Flamel, who himself is said to have reached India. These stories are clearly similar to the legend of the eternal Jew . Similar rumors of longevity and long journeys later spread to characters like the Count of Saint Germain .

After the so-called "secret dossiers of Henri Lobineau" became known at the end of the 1960s, Nicolas Flamel, as the alleged grandmaster from 1398 to 1418, became part of the conspiracy theories surrounding the secret organization Prieuré de Sion . Although it became known that these "dossiers" were forgeries of Pierre Plantard , Flamel is still associated in popular culture with the "secret of Rennes-le-Chateau", the "treasure of the Cathars".

Aftermath

The figure of Flamel, later reshaped like a legend, appears again and again in literature.

Cover of the German edition of the first volume in Michael Scott's book series

Works

literature

  • Didier Kahn: Nicolas Flamel , in: Claus Priesner , Karin Figala : Alchemie. Lexicon of a Hermetic Science , Beck 1998, p. 136ff
  • Nigel Wilkins: Nicolas Flamel. Des livres et de l'or , édition Imago, 1993, ISBN 2-902702-77-9 .
  • Laurinda Dixon (Ed.): Nicolas Flamel, his exposition of the hieroglyphicall figures . Garland, New York 1994, ISBN 0-8240-5838-0 .
  • Helmut Gebelein: Alchemy . Hugendubel, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-89631-442-4 , pp. 155-159.
  • Léo Larguier: Le faiseur d'or Nicolas Flamel (L'histoire inconnue; 4). Édition Nationales, Paris 1936.
  • Eric Muraise: Le Livre du l'Ange. Histoire et legende alchimique de Nicolas Flamel . Julliard, Paris 1969.
  • Raphael Patai: The Jewish Alchemists. A history and source book . University Press, Princetown, NJ 1994, ISBN 0-691-00642-3 .
  • John Read: Prelude to Chemistry. An outline of chemistry; its literature and relationship . MIT-Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1966 (reprinted 1937 New York edition).
  • Gerhard Scholem : On Abraham Eleazar's book and the Esch Mezareph . In: Monthly for the history and science of Judaism , vol. 70 (1926), issue 3, pp. 202-209.
  • Jean-Michel Varenne: Nicolas Flamel. Son histoire, sa personnalité, ses influences . De Vecchi, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-7328-3315-0 .
  • Gilette Ziegler: Nicolas Flamel ou le secret du Grant Oeuvre. Histoire des Idees des Heros, des societes de la france secrete et de L'Occident . Culture-Art-Loisirs, Paris 1971.
  • Flamellus, Nicolaus. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 9, Leipzig 1735, column 1143.

Web links

Commons : Nicolas Flamel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Priesner: Geschichte der Alchemie , Beck 2011, p. 68f
  2. ↑ Flamel's tombstone
  3. ↑ Laurinda Dixon, ed .: Nicolas Flamel, His Exposition of the Hieroglyphicall Figures (1624) , New York, Garland 1994.
  4. ↑ Abbé Villain: Histoire critique de Nicolas Flamel et de sa femme Pernelle. Recueillie d'anciens actes anciens qui justifient l'origine et la médiocrité de leur fortune, contre les imputations des alchimistes , Paris 1761.
  5. ^ Claude Gagnon: Description du Livre des figures hiéroglyphiques attribué à Nicolas Flamel , Montréal (Canada), L'aurore 1977; Nicolas Flamel sous investigation , pp. 135-137, Éditions du Loup de Gouttière, 1994.
  6. ↑ Didier Kahn (textes établis et présentes par): Nicolas Flamel - Ècrits alchimiques , Les Belles Lettres, coll. "Aux Sources de la Tradition", 1993, p. 25
  7. ↑ Zedler on Alchemy: ... in his Sommaire Philosophique is said to have revealed many secrets. Some say that he won over 150,000 thalers as a result; Others, however, claim that he obtained this incredible wealth through the robbery of Jews and royal money that he had in hand ...
  8. ^ Hans Biedermann: Lexicon of the Magical Arts , licensed edition of the 3rd, improved and expanded edition, VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 3-928127-59-4 .
  9. ↑ Doctor porcellus aka Nikolas Vlamell
personal data
SURNAME Flamel, Nicolas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Flamel, Nicholas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French alchemist
DATE OF BIRTH 1330
PLACE OF BIRTH Pontoise
DATE OF DEATH 1413
Place of death Paris