Sebalt Schwertzer

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Sebalt Schwertzer , also Schwerzer, Schwärzer or Schwärtzer and Sebald, (born July 22, 1552 in Nuremberg , † January 7, 1598 in St. Joachimsthal ) was a German mining captain, merchant and alchemist .

Life

Schwertzer was the son of a Nuremberg gunsmith. He was initially employed as a merchant or partner (factor) at Johann Machnitzky in Olmütz and then an independent merchant with civil rights in Nuremberg, where he traded in luxury goods and thus came into contact with the Dresden court. Through an alchemical demonstration at the Saxon court, during which he supposedly transmuted mercury into silver, he acquired the interest of Elector August. First he was employed as an electoral merchant in September 1584 and in this role he promoted the textile industry in Saxony (linen, velvet, silk, hiring Dutch specialists) and mining. He also worked as a court alchemist, succeeding the late David Beuther. According to a popular rumor, he was temporarily imprisoned on charges of fraudulent manipulation in his alchemical gold making in the Hohenstein Fortress. The fact is, however, that August remained in the favor of the elector, who even tried to get Schwertzer dismissed as a Nuremberg citizen in order to employ him entirely, and after his death in 1586 he remained in the service of his successor Christian I , whom he also did as a merchant z. B. served in the collection of debts from Nuremberg merchants and managers of the copper slate mines in the Mansfeld region. When he died in 1591, he lost his job in Dresden and entered the service of the elector's widow Sophie von Brandenburg . His position deteriorated when his former business partner Machnitzky, who was also in Dresden, accused him of poisoning the electors with the intention of extorting money from him. Schwertzer filed a lawsuit against him, but Machnitzky enjoyed the protection of Rudolf II. In addition, there were legal disputes over unpaid claims by Schwertzer in Dresden and, in return, those of embezzlement that continued for years until Schwertzer's death. However, Schwertzer seemed to have been in the favor of the alchemy-believing emperor Rudolf II, because in August 1592 he became a miner in the imperial service in St. Joachimsthal. Rudolf II raised him to the nobility as a sword maker from Falkenberg . In 1598 he died in Joachimsthal.

Despite some allegations made against him, Schwertzer enjoyed a good reputation among alchemists, as attested by Johannes Kunckel (Collegium physico-chymicum experimentalale or Laboratorium chymicum, Hamburg 1738), who also saw a manuscript by Schwertzer in Dresden with which he was at court introduced (it was printed in 1718). Kunckel and other alchemists saw the extensive money in the estate of Elector August and Christian I as the result of Schwertzer's alchemical gold making.

In 1573 he married Margaretha Schlauerspach (1552–1594) and had at least two daughters: Susanne (1585–1631) and Juliana, who married the mayor of the mountain town of Schlaggenwald in Bohemia, Georg Stempel, who came from Nuremberg .

He is mentioned in Jean Paul's novel The Comet or Nikolaus Marggraf .

Fonts

literature

  • Richard Kell: Sebalt Schwertzer as an electoral Saxon factor and imperial mining captain, dissertation, Leipzig 1881

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ According to Schmieder Geschichte der Alchemie , Halle 1832, p. 316, which Kunckel follows, Schwertzer was of unknown origin and came from Italy to the Dresden court, where he presented an alchemical manuscript as a reference and offered to make gold from mercury, which he did apparently successfully demonstrated on May 5, 1585 in the presence of the Elector
  2. ↑ To this Schmieder, Geschichte der Alchemie, 1832, p. 311ff. Beuther learned his trade in the elector's laboratory. He died in his laboratory, possibly by suicide, in 1582 or soon after, and was employed by the Saxon Mint in Annaberg, from 1580 temporarily imprisoned for infidelity and neglect of his office, but then released so that he could reveal his alchemical procedures.
  3. ↑ http://saebi.isgv.de/biografie-druck/Sebalt_Schwertzer_%281552-1598%29
  4. ^ Baptismal register Schlaggenwald 1602-1610, pp. 337, 508
personal data
SURNAME Schwertzer, Sebalt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schwärzer, Sebald; Schwertzer, Sebald; Schwerzer, Sebald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German alchemist and mining captain
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1552
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1598
Place of death St. Joachimsthal