Jones, Peter Murray (Author)
This essay reinserts friars into the story of alchemy and medicine in late medieval England. Much of the evidence for the activity of friars, mostly Franciscans, is to be found in a Latin text compiled in 1416–1425, the Tabula medicine. Here friars appear as sources for remedies, and a significant number of these remedies are alchemical. The quintessence found in the writings of John of Rupescissa is used for a variety of medical complaints. Some of the alchemical remedies are selected for closer examination here. These include distillations of human blood which are recommended by brother Robert Winstanton for use in surgery, either to knit flesh together or to cut through it. Natural balsam was in very short supply in Western Europe, though it served as a panacea for multiple ailments. The friars offer a number of different recipes to make artificial balsam, ranging from comparatively simple distillations through to the use of multiple fractional distillations to produce the finest of all balsams. The friars found that distilled waters made with herbs were more effective than herbal simples without distillation in the treatment of many different complaints.
...MoreArticle Andrew Campbell; Lorenza Gianfrancesco; Neil Tarrant (2018) Alchemy and the Mendicant Orders of Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (pp. 201-209).
Article
Ciola, Graziana;
(2013)
Giovanni di Rupescissa: autobiografia, profezia e leggenda
(/isis/citation/CBB001420842/)
Thesis
Matus, Zachary Alexander;
(2010)
Heaven in a Bottle: Franciscan Apocalypticism and the Elixir, 1250--1360
(/isis/citation/CBB001560805/)
Book
DeVun, Leah;
(2009)
Prophecy, Alchemy and the End of Time: John of Rupescissa in the Late Middle Ages
(/isis/citation/CBB001020324/)
Book
De Vun, Leah;
(2009)
Prophecy, Alchemy, and the End of Time: John of Rupescissa in the Late Middle Ages
(/isis/citation/CBB000951056/)
Book
Zachary A. Matus;
(2017)
Franciscans and the Elixir of Life: Religion and Science in the Later Middle Ages
(/isis/citation/CBB460933825/)
Article
Rampling, Jennifer M.;
(2013)
Depicting the Medieval Alchemical Cosmos
(/isis/citation/CBB001253156/)
Book
Hughes, Jonathan;
(2012)
The Rise of Alchemy in Fourteenth-Century England: Plantagenet Kings and the Search for the Philosopher's Stone
(/isis/citation/CBB001214743/)
Article
Elisabetta Ulivi;
(2011)
L'ultimo testamento di Luca Pacioli con altri documenti inediti
(/isis/citation/CBB184381808/)
Book
Jennifer M. Rampling;
(2020)
The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700
(/isis/citation/CBB983185229/)
Book
Freudenthal, Gad;
(2011)
Science in Medieval Jewish Cultures
(/isis/citation/CBB001232565/)
Article
Peter Murray Jones;
(2021)
Early Franciscans in England: Sickness, Healing and Salvation
(/isis/citation/CBB279233012/)
Thesis
DeVun, Leah;
(2004)
John of Rupescissa and the States of Nature: Science, Apocalypse, and Society in the Late Middle Ages
(/isis/citation/CBB001562126/)
Article
Bolens, Guillemette;
(2011)
La présence du cadavre et son efficacité sémiotique: Morphée chez Geoffrey Chaucer et Caïn dans Mactatio Abel
(/isis/citation/CBB001250363/)
Article
DeVun, Leah;
(2008)
The Jesus Hermaphrodite: Science and Sex Difference in PremodernEurope
(/isis/citation/CBB001030606/)
Article
Boucher, Caroline;
Dumas, Geneviève;
(2012)
Medical Translations and Practical Compilations: A Necessary Coincidence?
(/isis/citation/CBB001250260/)
Book
Miles, Margaret R.;
(2008)
A Complex Delight: The Secularization of the Breast, 1350--1750
(/isis/citation/CBB000774278/)
Book
Bartolomeo Bologna (da);
Francesca Galli;
(2021)
Il «De Luce» di Bartolomeo da Bologna. Studio e edizione
(/isis/citation/CBB534320587/)
Article
Hugoniot, Christophe;
(2011)
Una bevanda di apostasia: il comos mongolico nell'Itinerarium di frate Guglielmo di Rubrouck
(/isis/citation/CBB001320885/)
Thesis
Rampling, J M;
(cited 2010)
The Alchemy of George Ripley, 1470--1700
(/isis/citation/CBB001567236/)
Article
Rampling, Jennifer M.;
(2008)
Establishing the Canon: George Ripley and His Alchemical Sources
(/isis/citation/CBB000850635/)
Be the first to comment!