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elanya at 10:46pm on 26/03/2003
elanya at 10:46pm on 26/03/2003Reading Foucault's Pendulum has also inspired me to dig out my copy of The Wordsworth Dictionary of the Occult, edited by André Nataf. And leafing through that for a concept I wanted to look up for something I'm sending ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
longpig (surprise for you, incoming, whee!), I came across the following entry, which I'm copying here. From page 132.
Flamel, Nicolas
1330-1418
Most famous of all the makers of gold.
Nicolas Flamel and his wife are so famous that they each have a street named after them in Paris
Nicolas Flamel was originally a public writer in Paris. He then acquired a bookshop and lived near the church of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie. In about 1360 he married Perrenelle and together they captured the public imagination.
History and Legend
Nicolas Flamel has left an autobiography, Le Livre des figures hiérographiques. We are told that, early on, he bought for two florins a book by Abraham the Jew containing pictures of some alchemical operations. Unable to decipher these, he went to Santiago de Compostella in the hope of meeting a Cabalist who might assist him. Happily, he met there a Jew, converted to Catholicism, who explained the secrets of the illustrations. Armed with this knowledge, Flamel returned to Paris where he worked with Perrenelle on the transmutation of metals. He wrote, 'following my book word for word, I worked with a red stone ... Towards five o'clock in the evening, I truly transmuted it into as much pure gold, better certainly than common gold.'
However, Flamel was to keep his secret, for Charles V ordered the destruction of all alchemists' laboratories. So Nicolas Flamel turned instead to the endowment of numerous religious foundations and had a gate, covered with symbolic figures, constructed at Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie. This obviously charismatic couple soon attained legendary status: as late as the 18th century, the traveller Paul Lucas claimed to have met a dervish who declared both were still alive! He was not alone; Alexis Monteil, author of the Histoire des Français des divers Etats, spoke of an 18th century intellectual who had often seen Flamel, still working in his underground laboratory.
Man and Myth
Nicolas Flamel is both an historical figure and the embodiment of a myth. Some six centuries later, the nature of this great alchemist is, intriguingly, itself the subject of a continual transmutation: from man into myth, and vice versa.
longpig (surprise for you, incoming, whee!), I came across the following entry, which I'm copying here. From page 132.Flamel, Nicolas
1330-1418
Most famous of all the makers of gold.
Nicolas Flamel and his wife are so famous that they each have a street named after them in Paris
Nicolas Flamel was originally a public writer in Paris. He then acquired a bookshop and lived near the church of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie. In about 1360 he married Perrenelle and together they captured the public imagination.
History and Legend
Nicolas Flamel has left an autobiography, Le Livre des figures hiérographiques. We are told that, early on, he bought for two florins a book by Abraham the Jew containing pictures of some alchemical operations. Unable to decipher these, he went to Santiago de Compostella in the hope of meeting a Cabalist who might assist him. Happily, he met there a Jew, converted to Catholicism, who explained the secrets of the illustrations. Armed with this knowledge, Flamel returned to Paris where he worked with Perrenelle on the transmutation of metals. He wrote, 'following my book word for word, I worked with a red stone ... Towards five o'clock in the evening, I truly transmuted it into as much pure gold, better certainly than common gold.'
However, Flamel was to keep his secret, for Charles V ordered the destruction of all alchemists' laboratories. So Nicolas Flamel turned instead to the endowment of numerous religious foundations and had a gate, covered with symbolic figures, constructed at Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie. This obviously charismatic couple soon attained legendary status: as late as the 18th century, the traveller Paul Lucas claimed to have met a dervish who declared both were still alive! He was not alone; Alexis Monteil, author of the Histoire des Français des divers Etats, spoke of an 18th century intellectual who had often seen Flamel, still working in his underground laboratory.
Man and Myth
Nicolas Flamel is both an historical figure and the embodiment of a myth. Some six centuries later, the nature of this great alchemist is, intriguingly, itself the subject of a continual transmutation: from man into myth, and vice versa.