Between Wonder and Science: Alchemy in Augurello’s Mini-Epic Chryrsopoeia (1515)
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Thomas Willard
Abstract
When Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (ca. 1453–1524) set out to write his longest poem, which he planned more than a decade before its publication in 1515, he was determined to write about wonders of nature that he would observe with the eye of scientist while using the evocative language and style of his favorite ancient poet. Having spent time at the Platonic Academy headed by Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), where he embraced the ideals of Renaissance Humanism captured in the Latin motto “ad fontes” (back to the sources), he planned to write in the language and style that Vergil (70–19 B.C.E.) used in the Georgics, a set of four didactic poems about tilling the soil, raising plants, caring for farm animals, and beekeeping (before 39 B.C.E.). His continuation of the Georgics would go below the soil to describe how metals were thought to grow there and to mature into the most precious metal, gold. It would also describe the work of the alchemist’s laboratory and the project of producing gold within a year rather than over a century or more. Hence the title of his epyllion (mini-epic), Chrysopoeia (from the Greek words for ‘gold’ and ‘making’). But whereas the alchemists of the late Middle Ages in Europe used what he considered barbaric language, he would write as Vergil did; and whereas they made unbelievable claims, he would use reasoned language, moving from the experiences reported by others, to personal observation, and finally to dreams. First printed before any other text on alchemy, Chrysopoeia was frequently reprinted in the next two centuries and appeared in the two largest anthologies of Latin alchemical texts. The translator of the first complete English edition uses the English verb ‘wonder’ and its derivatives to render the Latin verb ‘mirare’ and such derivatives as ‘miranda.’ Both verbs, in English and Latin, are used with two senses, depending on the context: to look at a thing of wonder and to feel the emotion of wonder.
Abstract
When Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (ca. 1453–1524) set out to write his longest poem, which he planned more than a decade before its publication in 1515, he was determined to write about wonders of nature that he would observe with the eye of scientist while using the evocative language and style of his favorite ancient poet. Having spent time at the Platonic Academy headed by Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), where he embraced the ideals of Renaissance Humanism captured in the Latin motto “ad fontes” (back to the sources), he planned to write in the language and style that Vergil (70–19 B.C.E.) used in the Georgics, a set of four didactic poems about tilling the soil, raising plants, caring for farm animals, and beekeeping (before 39 B.C.E.). His continuation of the Georgics would go below the soil to describe how metals were thought to grow there and to mature into the most precious metal, gold. It would also describe the work of the alchemist’s laboratory and the project of producing gold within a year rather than over a century or more. Hence the title of his epyllion (mini-epic), Chrysopoeia (from the Greek words for ‘gold’ and ‘making’). But whereas the alchemists of the late Middle Ages in Europe used what he considered barbaric language, he would write as Vergil did; and whereas they made unbelievable claims, he would use reasoned language, moving from the experiences reported by others, to personal observation, and finally to dreams. First printed before any other text on alchemy, Chrysopoeia was frequently reprinted in the next two centuries and appeared in the two largest anthologies of Latin alchemical texts. The translator of the first complete English edition uses the English verb ‘wonder’ and its derivatives to render the Latin verb ‘mirare’ and such derivatives as ‘miranda.’ Both verbs, in English and Latin, are used with two senses, depending on the context: to look at a thing of wonder and to feel the emotion of wonder.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Miracles, Wonders, and Human Existence Globally and in the Pre-Modern Age: Also an Introduction 1
- (False) Miracles, Doctors and the potentia of Saints in the Gaul of Gregory of Tours 107
- Apostle’s Miracles and Kings’ Authority in West Francia (ca. 850–ca. 1050) 127
- Fecundity, Motherhood and Healing Karāmāt (Miracles): A Comparative Study of Sayyidah Nafīsah and Christian Women Saints 161
- Intertextuality and the Transcendental Miracle of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī’s Risālat al-Ghufrān (The Epistle of Forgiveness) (1033 C.E.) 189
- The Miracles of Solomon: A Comparative Study of Al-Thaʿlabī’s Qiṣaṣ Al-Anbiyāʾ and “The City of Brass,” a Tale in the Arabian Nights Collection 215
- Miracle Accounts as Teaching Aids and Learning Tools: Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum as a Mirror of Everyday Life and the History of Mentality 241
- The Ultimate Miracle: Revival of the Dead in Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria 275
- Miracle of Miracles: Improbable Choices and Impossible Outcomes in Dante’s Paradiso 299
- Miraculosa gratia: Discerning the Spirit, Discerning the Body in the Liber of Angela of Foligno and in the Vita of Clare of Montefalco 337
- Miraculous Revelation in the Middle English Pearl 375
- The Miracles of the Immaculate Conceptions in the St. Anne’s Legend and the Middle English Joseph of Aramathie 405
- “Many ferlis han fallen in a fewe ȝeris”: Debt, Obligation, Godly Presence, and Grasping the Miraculous in Piers Plowman 427
- Margery Kempe and Miracles: Guarding Understanding and Interpretation of Experience 459
- Where Has God Gone in the Vernacular Renderings of Lanfranc’s Chirurgia magna? 477
- Non vidit, sed firmiter credit – The Many Roles of Jews in Christian Miracle Narratives 505
- “Never of Myselff”: Failure and Interiority in Malory’s “The Healing of Sir Urry” 555
- Between Wonders and Miracles. The Use and Abuse of Natural Substances in the Healing Rituals of Late Medieval and Early Modern Popular Culture 581
- Between Wonder and Science: Alchemy in Augurello’s Mini-Epic Chryrsopoeia (1515) 619
- “Miraculous Light” – Natural Phenomena and Divine Salvation in the Medieval and Early Modern World 647
- Biographies of the Contributors
- Index
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Miracles, Wonders, and Human Existence Globally and in the Pre-Modern Age: Also an Introduction 1
- (False) Miracles, Doctors and the potentia of Saints in the Gaul of Gregory of Tours 107
- Apostle’s Miracles and Kings’ Authority in West Francia (ca. 850–ca. 1050) 127
- Fecundity, Motherhood and Healing Karāmāt (Miracles): A Comparative Study of Sayyidah Nafīsah and Christian Women Saints 161
- Intertextuality and the Transcendental Miracle of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī’s Risālat al-Ghufrān (The Epistle of Forgiveness) (1033 C.E.) 189
- The Miracles of Solomon: A Comparative Study of Al-Thaʿlabī’s Qiṣaṣ Al-Anbiyāʾ and “The City of Brass,” a Tale in the Arabian Nights Collection 215
- Miracle Accounts as Teaching Aids and Learning Tools: Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum as a Mirror of Everyday Life and the History of Mentality 241
- The Ultimate Miracle: Revival of the Dead in Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria 275
- Miracle of Miracles: Improbable Choices and Impossible Outcomes in Dante’s Paradiso 299
- Miraculosa gratia: Discerning the Spirit, Discerning the Body in the Liber of Angela of Foligno and in the Vita of Clare of Montefalco 337
- Miraculous Revelation in the Middle English Pearl 375
- The Miracles of the Immaculate Conceptions in the St. Anne’s Legend and the Middle English Joseph of Aramathie 405
- “Many ferlis han fallen in a fewe ȝeris”: Debt, Obligation, Godly Presence, and Grasping the Miraculous in Piers Plowman 427
- Margery Kempe and Miracles: Guarding Understanding and Interpretation of Experience 459
- Where Has God Gone in the Vernacular Renderings of Lanfranc’s Chirurgia magna? 477
- Non vidit, sed firmiter credit – The Many Roles of Jews in Christian Miracle Narratives 505
- “Never of Myselff”: Failure and Interiority in Malory’s “The Healing of Sir Urry” 555
- Between Wonders and Miracles. The Use and Abuse of Natural Substances in the Healing Rituals of Late Medieval and Early Modern Popular Culture 581
- Between Wonder and Science: Alchemy in Augurello’s Mini-Epic Chryrsopoeia (1515) 619
- “Miraculous Light” – Natural Phenomena and Divine Salvation in the Medieval and Early Modern World 647
- Biographies of the Contributors
- Index
