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Laboratories of Art pp 157–179Cite as

Goldsmiths and Chymists: The Activity of Artisans Within Alchemical Circles

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Part of the book series: Archimedes ((ARIM,volume 37))

Abstract

The study of early modern alchemical practitioners has recently expanded from the work and writings of natural philosophers to include the labors of artisans. Yet there remains relatively little clear documentation about the specifics of such artisanal chymical practices or about the degree of significant epistemic exchange that may have taken place between artisans and better-known chymists. This paper examines several gold- and silversmiths who were part of an extended alchemical network that stretched across the Netherlands, France, and England in the mid-seventeenth century. The silversmith Anthoni Grill (and to a lesser extent his brother Andries) worked on refining and transmutational processes with impressive chymical expertise and eventually achieved international notoriety and social and financial success. Grill built large laboratories, managed laborants, engaged in collaborations, mined texts for information, and shared results. Several Parisian goldsmiths were likewise tied into this chymical network where they exchanged experimental and theoretical information with such figures as Kenelm Digby, Samuel Cottereau Duclos, and Johann Rudolf Glauber. In England, George Starkey found that the expertise of gold- and silversmiths could, alternatively, be inconvenient when trying to sell alchemical metals. The documentation provided here blurs the boundary between artisans and natural philosophers, at least in chymistry.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For an overview of the history of alchemy, see Principe, Secrets of Alchemy. On the use of the term ‘chymistry’. see 84–5. For a study of the words chemistry and alchemy and their changing referents, see Newman & Principe, “Alchemy vs. Chemistry.”

  2. 2.

    Principe, “Diversity in Alchemy,” and “Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton.”

  3. 3.

    On the interplay of theory and practice in alchemy, see Newman & Principe, Alchemy Tried in the Fire, esp. 92–206.

  4. 4.

    For example, see Nummedal, Alchemy and Authority, which details the roles and status of ‘entrepreneurial’ chymists in German courts. For a sense of the broad sweep of early modern alchemical practice, see Moran, Distilling Knowledge.

  5. 5.

    See Smith, Body of the Artisan.

  6. 6.

    Principe & DeWitt, Transmutations; and Brinkman, Alchemist in de prentkunst. Lennep, Art et alchimie, is also useful, especially for its illustrations, but suffers from an inaccurate understanding of alchemy and its practice.

  7. 7.

    On transmutation histories, see Principe, Secrets of Alchemy, 167–70, Aspiring Adept, 93–8, 108–11; and Newman, Gehennical Fire, 3–13.

  8. 8.

    Classic treatments of the Hartlib Circle include Turnbull, Hartlib; and Webster, Great Instauration.

  9. 9.

    Young, Johann Moriaen, 226–9, 231. Young translates Aurifaber as goldmaker (which would have been aurifactor) rather than as goldsmith. The identification of Aurifaber as Grill is made in Hartlib’s Ephemerides for 1650, Hartlib Papers (hereinafter HP) 28/1/49B. For Worsley, see Leng, Benjamin Worsley. On Küffler, the son-in-law of the inventor Cornelius Drebbel, see Young, Johann Moriaen, 52–7; and Principe, Aspiring Adept, 85–6.

  10. 10.

    Eeghen, “Grill’s Hofje.”

  11. 11.

    Lorm, Amsterdams goud en zilver, 44–7, 54–6, 59–60; brief biographies on 506–7 by Dirk Jan Biemond. I am grateful to Dr. Lorenz Seelig for this reference, and for his generous and invaluable comments upon this paper.

  12. 12.

    Gelder, “Haagsche bekerschroef.”

  13. 13.

    Eeghen, “Grill’s Hofje,” 50.

  14. 14.

    “Aurifaber, non procul ab aedibus meis 12 florenorum millibus fundum sibi coëmit, in quo praeter domicilium sex laboratoria diversa exstruit, jam de opere certus non tam nostro, quam suo ipsius, isto inquam opere quod ex lectione, partim Paracelsi partim Glauberi, propriâ meditatione consequutus est […] novit praeterea ex quolibet Talco argentum vel aurum elicere prout Talcum dispositum et ditatum a Natura est. Haec porrò scientia peperit audaciam illam ut non dubitaret 25 florenorum millia aut amplius in emendo fundo et exstruendis ad opus necessariis, impendere in quo etiam quàm citissimè perficiendo nulli labori parcit, nullum non movet lapidem […].” (Moriaen to Worsley, 31 March 1651, HP 9/16/3A–4B, on 4A).

  15. 15.

    “[…] mirareris profecto si Laboratoriorum copiam, apparatum et ordinem decentem videres. Iam ipse cum Uxore in novo hospitio pernoctant, ut laborantibus matutinè et sero adesse possint, aedificium etiam celeriter progreditur sed tot ac tanta, moram tamen requirunt justam.” (Moriaen to Worsley, 26 May 1651, HP 9/16/6A).

  16. 16.

    On Glauber, see Young, Johann Moriaen, 183–98, passim; and Smith, “Vital Spirits.”

  17. 17.

    “Illa de qua Glauberus gloriari solebat, aurifabro judice, non antecellit hanc sibi usitatam, vel quò ad laborem vel quò ad lucrum […]. Aurifabri artificium aliis et utilitate et facilitate suâ praestat.” (Moriaen to Worsley, 31 March 1651, HP 9/16/3A). Grill’s method isolated the residual silver nitrate from the parting, and, rather than recovering the silver by the more usual method of precipitation with copper, instead destructively distilled the nitrate, leaving the silver as a residue and allowing much of the nitric acid used initially to be recovered as a distillate. Grill also took the unusual step of using vessels made of gold [“vasis suis aureis”], rather than of glass, for distilling the acid. Despite the cost of the precious metal, its durability (and inertness) relative to constantly breaking or exploding glass vessels, actually saved money, considering that there would be no loss of the precious metal. Hartlib might be referring either to Grill or to a member of his family still in Augsburg when he recorded that Moriaen had informed him that “the Goldsmith at Augsb[urg] made his melting or refining Pots instead of glass or earth of pure gold wherby hee hath gained or saved many thou[sand]s,” see HP 28/2/17B.

  18. 18.

    Moriaen to Worsley, 26 May 1651, HP 9/16/6A–6B.

  19. 19.

    Newman & Principe, Alchemy Tried in the Fire, 236–56.

  20. 20.

    HP 9/16/3B; “hee [Grill] adventur’s 12. hundred lb upon an Exp[eriment] of Tinne and something else in which Mr. Mor[iaen] hath also an Adventure and is a very promising busines.” (Hartlib, Ephemerides 1651, HP 28/2/15A). This figure might simply refer to the purchase of the estate, rather than to the direct costs for the tin project.

  21. 21.

    Eeghens, “Grill’s Hofje,” 50. Much more about Anthoni’s activities and aspirations could certainly be gained from a closer inspection of the many acts recorded by his notary Justus van de Ven, such as this contract with Andries, which I have not been able to examine directly.

  22. 22.

    Borrichius, Itinerarium, vol. II, 58–9, 1 February 1662.

  23. 23.

    Borrichius, Itinerarium, vol. IV, 276, 4 March 1665.

  24. 24.

    For Brechtel (or Breghtel) and his work, see Pijzel-Dommisse, Haags goud en zilver, 30: “zonder twijfel de belangrijkste en meest veelzijdige Haagse zilversmid uit de zeventiende eeuw.”

  25. 25.

    Helvetius, Vitulus aureus, 831–2.

  26. 26.

    Helvetius, Vitulus aureus, 832. Indeed, Andries is known to have died in 1665, consistent with Helvetius’s account.

  27. 27.

    Grill to Moriaen, 13 June 1657, transcribed in Moriaen to Hartlib, 22 Jun 1657; HP 42/2/10A–11B. A Latin translation exists at HP 56/1/64A.

  28. 28.

    “[I]m kleinen finde Ich guten nuzen dabey, wills im großen auch versuchen und so es woll ausfalt will ichs den H[errn] wissen laßen.” (HP 42/2/11A). The meaning is clearer in the Latin version: “In minore opere usum ejus deprehendo satis commodum, neque desinam idem probare in majori, et si quid eo proficiam, faciam Te certiorem.” (HP 56/1/64B).

  29. 29.

    Borrichius, Itinerarium, vol. III, 105–7, 6 October 1663.

  30. 30.

    On Helmontian theory, see Newman & Principe, Alchemy Tried in the Fire, 56–91. Interestingly, this idea of using the “fermentative odor” of copper scoria to effect transmutation was a pathway investigated by George Starkey—who was also a member of the correspondence network explored in this paper—during the 1650s, Newman & Principe, Alchemy Tried in the Fire, 128–35, esp. 130–1.

  31. 31.

    Borrichius, Itinerarium, vol. III, 106–7.

  32. 32.

    Anrep, Svenska Slägtboken, vol. I, 94–5. Borrichius, Itinerarium, vol. IV, 99, 27 August 1664 refers to Grill as monetarius Belga (the Dutch mintmaster).

  33. 33.

    Borrichius, Itinerarium, vol. IV, 99.

  34. 34.

    Anrep, Svenska Slägtboken, vol. I, 95.

  35. 35.

    Eeghens, “Grill’s Hofje,” 51–6; and Kroes, “Nederlands-Zweedse familie Grill,” 75–101.

  36. 36.

    Müller, Merchant Houses of Stockholm.

  37. 37.

    Eeghens, “Grill’s Hofje,” 50.

  38. 38.

    Sorbière, Diverses matieres curieuses, 176 and 180, in a letter dated 13 July 1660 to Guillaume de Bautru.

  39. 39.

    Principe, “Sir Kenelm Digby.”

  40. 40.

    Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire de Strasbourg (hereinafter BNU) MS 370.

  41. 41.

    On Duclos, see Sturdy, Science and Social Status, 107–9; Todériciu, “Biographie de Samuel Duclos,” 64–7; Stroup, Company of Scientists, and “Affaire Duclos.”

  42. 42.

    Principe, “Sir Kenelm Digby,” 16–8.

  43. 43.

    On the Bourdelot Academy, see Brown, Scientific Organizations, 231–53.

  44. 44.

    BNU MS 370, fol. 39v–41v.

  45. 45.

    Borrichius, Itinerarium, vol. III, 134, 7 Dec. 1663, items 4 and 12.

  46. 46.

    BNU MS 370, fol. 39v; Digby’s ‘loose papers’ have not survived, unless they are bound somewhere amid the 6000 pages of the newly-discovered Digby manuscripts.

  47. 47.

    Borrichius, Itinerarium, vol. IV, 267, 25 February 1665.

  48. 48.

    Bimbenet-Privat, Orfèvres, vol. I, 269–70. Jacques Caillard the Elder is mentioned by Michel de Marolles, abbé Villeloin in his contemporaneous recounting of seventeenth-century Parisian goldsmiths, see Marolles, Livre des peintres et graveurs, 57 and 126; he is also mentioned in a Parisian baptismal register dating from 1618, Archive de l’art français, 324. Some of his designs are depicted in Caillard, Livre de toutes sortes.

  49. 49.

    BNU MS 370, fol. 41r–v.

  50. 50.

    “Invisi Dn. Rosselle in plateâ Bussi, curiosum aurifabrum et gemmarium […].” (Borrichius, Itinerarium, vol. IV, 60); on 107 he is called “curiosus insignis”; further visits or information occurs on 131–3, 143–4, 165, 168, 176–7, 220, 275, 285.

  51. 51.

    On the various Roussels, see Bimbenet-Privat, Orfèvres, vol. I, 500.

  52. 52.

    Borrichius, Itinerarium, vol. IV, 108, 6 September 1664. Roussel’s lamp furnace is mentioned and sketched on 132–3, 20 September 1664.

  53. 53.

    On Dubois, see Principe, “Sir Kenelm Digby,” 11–4; note there that the sentence tagged with footnote 29 should read ‘Olaus Borrichius’ not Pierre Borel.

  54. 54.

    Borrichius, Itinerarium, vol. IV, 132.

  55. 55.

    Newman, Gehennical Fire; Newman & Principe, Alchemy Tried in the Fire; and Starkey, Alchemical Laboratory Notebooks.

  56. 56.

    Hartlib, Ephemerides 1651, HP 28/2/18A.

  57. 57.

    Starkey to Boyle, c. April/May 1651, Starkey, Alchemical Laboratory Notebooks, 20.

  58. 58.

    Hartlib, Ephemerides 1651, HP 28/2/18B. Curiously this is virtually the only entry in the Ephemerides that Hartlib wrote in German, perhaps to preserve secrecy about such an apparently dangerous undertaking. When in 1653 Starkey again succeeded in having a goldsmith buy his antimonial silver, he obtained the substantial price of 40 shillings an ounce for it, almost eight times the usual rate for ordinary silver; Hartlib, Ephemerides 1653, HP 28/2/68A.

  59. 59.

    Starkey, Secrets Reveal’d, 39.

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  1. Department of History of Science and Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Lawrence M. Principe

  2. Department of Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Lawrence M. Principe

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  1. Freie Universität, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany

    Sven Dupré

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Principe, L.M. (2014). Goldsmiths and Chymists: The Activity of Artisans Within Alchemical Circles. In: Dupré, S. (eds) Laboratories of Art. Archimedes, vol 37. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05065-2_7

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