Medical Performance and the Alchemy of Plants in the Ventures of Leonhard Thurneisser zum Thurn (2022)
Moran, Bruce T. (Author)
Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry
Volume: 69
Issue: 2
Pages: 95-117
Among the cross currents of social and intellectual life in the early modern era, wonder, utility, and playfulness combined to inspire curiosity and to give value to novel alchemical procedures and chemical remedies. One of the most skilful alchemical and medical performers, who brought theatrical techniques to bear upon an economy of alchemical secrets and magic, was the self-trained Paracelsian physician, mining expert, and alchemical adept, Leonhard Thurneisser zum Thurn (1531–1596). In creatively designed and illustrated books produced for a luxury market, he constructed, in words and images, theatres of procedure, instrumentation, and chemical curiosity based in traditions of Renaissance magic and Paracelsian natural philosophy. Thurneisser's books combined strategies of spectacle and performance within the context of chemical analysis, and in one text especially brought the dramatic technique of “making strange” to bear upon promoting alchemical procedures for purposes of exposing the hidden powers within plants. In staging analytical spectacles involving measurement, instrumentation, and distillation as part of the analysis of minerals, waters, and plants, Thurneisser brought together laboratory-based procedures and theoretically grounded performances within the alchemical marketplace and engaged the agency of readers in establishing the credibility of the philosophy of nature that underscored the products he produced and sold.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Fabrizio Baldassarri;
(2023)
Plants in 16th and 17th Century: Botany between Medicine and Science
(/isis/citation/CBB050747378/)
Article
Dana Jalobeanu;
(2018)
Spirits Coming Alive: The Subtle Alchemy of Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum
(/isis/citation/CBB868354009/)
Book
Kavey, Allison;
(2007)
Books of Secrets: Natural Philosophy in England, 1550--1600
(/isis/citation/CBB000774266/)
Book
Sofie Lachapelle;
(2015)
Conjuring Science: A History of Scientific Entertainment and Stage Magic in Modern France
(/isis/citation/CBB730677721/)
Article
Watt-Smith, Tiffany;
(2013)
Cardboard, Conjuring and “A Very Curious Experiment”
(/isis/citation/CBB001201229/)
Book
Miira B. Hill;
(2022)
The New Art of Old Public Science Communication: The Science Slam
(/isis/citation/CBB847395771/)
Article
Bernardo Jerosch Herold;
João Paulo Cabral;
(2023)
Observations on Portuguese natural history by Leonhard Thurneysser zum Thurn (1531–1596), including the dyes derived from Kermes vermilio and Dracaena draco
(/isis/citation/CBB167023598/)
Article
Elisa Andretta;
José Pardo-Tomás;
(2019)
Books, Plants, Herbaria: Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and His Circle in Italy (1539–1554)
(/isis/citation/CBB771737573/)
Book
Sylla, Edith Dudley;
Newman, William Royall;
(2009)
Evidence and Interpretation in Studies on Early Science and Medicine Essays in Honor of John E. Murdoch
(/isis/citation/CBB001220782/)
Article
Gabriella Bevilacqua;
(2020)
Oro, argento e pietre di colore: Alcuni esempi di amuleti medici
(/isis/citation/CBB914369554/)
Chapter
Urs B. Leu;
(2016)
The Rediscovered Third Volume of Conrad Gessner’s “Historia plantarum”
(/isis/citation/CBB639733381/)
Book
Fairman, Elisabeth R.;
Art, Yale Center for British;
(2014)
Of Green Leaf, Bird, and Flower: Artists' Books and the Natural World
(/isis/citation/CBB001500458/)
Chapter
Pantin, Isabelle;
(2013)
Analogy and Difference: A Comparative Study of Medical and Astronomical Images in Books, 1470--1550
(/isis/citation/CBB001213967/)
Article
Douglas J. Lanska;
(2022)
Evolution of the myth of the human rete mirabile traced through text and illustrations in printed books: The case of Vesalius and his plagiarists
(/isis/citation/CBB062599708/)
Chapter
Federica Rotelli;
(2023)
The Accommodation of New World Plants in Early Modern Pharmacology: The Case of Cinchona Bark and the Challenges to Seventeenth-Century Galenism
(/isis/citation/CBB309991921/)
Chapter
Fabrizio Baldassarri;
(2023)
Introduction: The World of Plants in Premodern Medical Knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB449552771/)
Chapter
Newman, William R.;
(2007)
The Homunculus and the Mandrake: Art Aiding Nature versus Art Faking Nature
(/isis/citation/CBB000774727/)
Book
Kassell, Lauren;
(2005)
Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London: Simon Forman---Astrologer, Alchemist, and Physician
(/isis/citation/CBB000501504/)
Chapter
Daxelmüller, Christoph;
(2006)
Magie zwischen Religion und Wissenschaft am Hof Rudolfs II von Habsburg in Prag
(/isis/citation/CBB001020505/)
Book
Ball, Philip;
(2006)
The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science
(/isis/citation/CBB000773329/)
Be the first to comment!