Alchemy and Authority in the Holy Roman Empire (review)

Philipp Sömmering, an alchemist at the court of Duke Julius of Braunschweig Wolfenbüttel, and his fellow alchemist Anna Zieglerin, were executed in February 1575 for a potful of crimes that included deception. As Tara Nummedal argues in this wonderfully written, brilliantly conceived, and thoroughly documented study of alchemy in the Holy Roman Empire, by publicly exposing the element of fraud in contractual obligations, such events helped to define the identity of early modern alchemists. Alchemical fraud, or Betrug, became a matter of intense concern precisely because alchemy had expanded to such an extent in the sixteenth century that it supplied essential practices to the entrepreneurial programs of territorial princes. Such debates concerning fraud, as well as the depictions of alchemists as fools, corrupt merchants, and criminals in the works of humanist authors like Petrarch, Brant, and Erasmus, prompted a reaction among alchemists themselves and led to a rethinking of the alchemical persona.

Alchemical identities thus emerged as part of a dialogue among those involved in alchemical practices. Some attempted to make precious metals and gemstones. Others were skilled in metallurgy and advised on mining projects. Some created chemical medicines. These practices, Nummedal argues, were part of a continuing discourse in which success and failure, sincerity and deceit, become elements in defining what alchemy actually was. The persona of the alchemist could take many shapes. Alchemists might be scholars, artisans, merchants, or courtiers, for instance. One sixteenth-century figure, Leonhard Thurneisser, transformed himself from goldsmith to mine operator to Paracelsian physician to alchemist, making use of vocabularies, materials, tools, and talents shared by each along the way. The interaction between practical activity and social reward, between Betrüger and those wishing to claim technical expertise, helped to narrow the dimensions of alchemical authority.

Deciding on the nature of such authority was especially important to German princes who recognized the industrial potential of alchemical processes. Princely entrepreneurs like August of Saxony, Friedrich of Württemberg, and Duke Julius used contracts to spell out the precise details of processes and expectations in regard to those receiving alchemical patronage. Often, judgments about the success of promised processes involved others in court laboratories, assayers for instance, who used their own metallurgical knowledge to establish whether contractual promises had been fulfilled. Alchemists who were able to convince princes of their legitimacy, often through discrediting the claims of other alchemists, worked not in secret but in full view of others at court. Their laboratories occupied a middle ground between artisanal and industrial workspaces. Nummedal delightfully illustrates the environmental candor of such spaces by taking the reader on a stroll through the laboratory of Friedrich of Württemberg, one that was situated in the middle of the ducal gardens in Stuttgart. Where procedures failed, the question was whether the failure had resulted from unintended complications or from intentional deceit. The latter was punishable under the broad category of fraud defined within the imperial code, or Carolina. Not all failures resulted in executions, of course, but those that did nevertheless played a role, Nummedal claims, in establishing standards of alchemical legitimacy and in determining what an alchemist was not.

This is a terrific study, accessible, based in concrete archival research, and well connected to contemporary discussions. It gives new direction to thinking about the role of alchemy in the social and cultural life of early modern Europe. By diffracting the light usually focused on prominent alchemical figures in the history of science and medicine, Nummedal adds a much needed cultural dimension to the understanding of how alchemical identities were shaped in early modern Europe and to how they in turn influenced the social and intellectual world around them.