- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804760324
- eISBN:
- 9780804772877
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804760324.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter draws upon a number of alchemical texts to explore the concept of the chemical wedding. As a trope, the chemical marriage has been read into one lineage of onieric, or what some authors ...
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This chapter draws upon a number of alchemical texts to explore the concept of the chemical wedding. As a trope, the chemical marriage has been read into one lineage of onieric, or what some authors term steganographic, texts, from the Romance of the Rose through The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of 1499; and in turn, through the French Renaissance “alchemical” readers Jacques Gohory (in his Commentaire du Livre de la Fontaine Périlleuse of 1572) and former goldsmith/engraver Béroalde de Verville (in his “transcription” of Colonna's text, the Tableau des riches inventions [1600], as well as in his Voyage des princes fortuneés [1610]).Less
This chapter draws upon a number of alchemical texts to explore the concept of the chemical wedding. As a trope, the chemical marriage has been read into one lineage of onieric, or what some authors term steganographic, texts, from the Romance of the Rose through The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of 1499; and in turn, through the French Renaissance “alchemical” readers Jacques Gohory (in his Commentaire du Livre de la Fontaine Périlleuse of 1572) and former goldsmith/engraver Béroalde de Verville (in his “transcription” of Colonna's text, the Tableau des riches inventions [1600], as well as in his Voyage des princes fortuneés [1610]).
William R. Newman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691174877
- eISBN:
- 9780691185033
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691174877.003.0018
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter focuses on Newton's Praxis, which has been described as his most important alchemical text. A preliminary reading of the text quickly leads one to sympathize with Westfall's claim that ...
More
This chapter focuses on Newton's Praxis, which has been described as his most important alchemical text. A preliminary reading of the text quickly leads one to sympathize with Westfall's claim that it reflects a disordered state of mind. It is not easy, at least initially, to make out the subjects described allusively in each of the first four chapters. Their disjointed snippets and quotations represent Newton's florilegium style at its densest and least approachable. But this is not the product of madness, however temporary. Rather, it is Newton's way of sifting through his sources and reassembling the disparate parts of a great puzzle distributed piecemeal among the diverse sons of art. The very materials that figured in Newton's laboratory notebooks, in his interpretations of Snyders (especially Keynes 58), and in his instructions to Fatio can be found in Praxis.Less
This chapter focuses on Newton's Praxis, which has been described as his most important alchemical text. A preliminary reading of the text quickly leads one to sympathize with Westfall's claim that it reflects a disordered state of mind. It is not easy, at least initially, to make out the subjects described allusively in each of the first four chapters. Their disjointed snippets and quotations represent Newton's florilegium style at its densest and least approachable. But this is not the product of madness, however temporary. Rather, it is Newton's way of sifting through his sources and reassembling the disparate parts of a great puzzle distributed piecemeal among the diverse sons of art. The very materials that figured in Newton's laboratory notebooks, in his interpretations of Snyders (especially Keynes 58), and in his instructions to Fatio can be found in Praxis.
