Peter's bonus

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Petrus Bonus , also Lombardus and Petrus Ferrarensis (Petrus von Ferrara), was an Italian alchemist who worked in northern Italy and in present-day Croatia in the first half of the 14th century .

His name might be Pietro Antonio Boni and he was a doctor from Ferrara who was also well versed in philosophy and alchemy. Its lifetime cannot be clearly defined. According to Giammaria Mazzuchelli , he was still alive in 1494, but today he is classified in the first half of the 14th century. According to the information in the printed edition of his key work Pretiosa margarita from 1602, the book was written in Pola from 1330 to 1339. Before that he was a city doctor in Trogir in 1323 .

He defended alchemy against contemporary attacks, held sulfur and mercury to be the basic components of metals (although sulfur causes imperfection and is only absent in gold) and saw the task of alchemy in transforming base metals into noble metals. It refers to Greek and Arabic, not Latin, authors. Including Pseudo-Geber , Rhazes , Aristotle , Plato , Pseudo- Avicenna , Morienus , Hermes Trismegistos and the Turba Philosophorum . His writing gives references to the current alchemical literature at the beginning of the 14th century. Alchemy is brought closer to theology than the other sciences, since it can only succeed with the gift of God. He connects the doctrine of the Philosopher's Stone with the Christian Trinity and the mystery of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. His writings are more philosophical and theological in nature than practical.

Fonts

  • Pretiosa margarita novella de thesauro ac pretiosissimo philosophorum lapide.
    • Printed in 1546 (Venice, publisher Janus Lacinius (Giovanni Lacini) from Calabria, abridged and with commentary), Nuremberg 1554, Basel 1572 (unabridged, publisher Michael Toxites, Introductio in divinam chemiae artem innegra ), and Montbeliard (Montisbeligardi) 1602 as Introductio in divinam chemiae artem , also in Theatrum Chemicum
    • In the first edition of 1546 were also printed: Epistola Boni Ferrariensis; Collectanea Lacinii ex Arnaldo de Villa Noua quae practicae compositionem lapidis philosophorum; Epistol sive Epitome Raymundi Lulli; Collectanea Lacinii sive breuia excerpta ex libro luminis luminum Rhasis; Collectanea Lacinii ex Alberto Magno atque diuo Thoma alijsq; Quaestio Curiosa de Natura Solis et Lunae ex Michaele Scoto.
    • German edition: Pretiosa Margarita - or newly invented delicious pearl, from the incomparable treasure and the most delicious philosopher's stone. Braun, Leipzig 1714 (publisher WG Stollen)
    • An abridged English translation was published in London in 1894 ( The New Pearl of Great Price, A treatise concerning the treasure and most precious Stone of the Philosopher , editor Arthur Edward Waite ), based on the first edition. An Italian translation with commentary by Chiara Chrisciani was published in Florence in 1976
    • also in Theatrum Chemicum and Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa
  • De secretio omnium secretorum Dei dono. printed in Basel in 1572

literature

  • Antonio Clericuzio: Petrus Bonus. In: Claus Priesner , Karin Figala : Alchemie. Lexicon of a Hermetic Science. Beck, Munich 1998, pp. 270f.
  • John Ferguson Bibliotheca Chemica. Glasgow 1906, Volume 1, pp. 115f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Peter Bonus, also Lombardus. In: Winfried Pötsch, Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Lexicon of important chemists . Harri Deutsch, 1989.
  • Chiara Crisciani: Preziosa Margarita Novella / Pietro Bono da Ferrara; Edizione del volgarizzamento con introduzione e note Florence . La Nuova Italia Editrice, 1976.
  • Chiara Crisciani: The Conception of Alchemy as Expressed in the “Pretiosa Margarita Novella” of Petrus Bonus of Ferrara. In: Ambix 20, 1973, pp. 165-181.
  • Joachim Telle : Bonus, Petrus, (Pietro Bono (Buono), Petrus Ferrariensis, Bonus Lombardus Ferrariensis) physician and alchemist (14th century) , Lexikon des Mittelalter , Volume 2, 1983.
  • JM Stillman: Petrus Bonus and supposed chemical forgeries. In: The Scientific Monthly 16, 1923, pp. 318-325.
  • Julius Ruska : L'alchimie à l'époque du Dante. In: Annales Guébhard-Séverine 10, 1934, pp. 410-417.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ So in Schmieder, Geschichte der Alchemie , 1832, p. 183.
  2. ↑ Gli scrittori d'Italia . 1762, quoted from Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica 1906.
personal data
SURNAME Bonus, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lombardus, Peter; Petrus Ferrarensis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian alchemist
DATE OF BIRTH 13th century or 14th century
DATE OF DEATH 14th Century