Alchemy and Authority in the Holy Roman Empire
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Su tesis: la figura del alquimista FRAUDULENTO definió el campo — «the fi gure of the fraudulent alchemist—the Betrüger—became a central locus for working out what alchemy was in the Holy Roman Empire» — y el libro «seeks to reintegrate them into the social and cultural landscape of early modern Europe»: no doctrina sino oficio, contratos, laboratorios y juicios «Nummedal — Alchemy and Authority (2007) · pp. 25, 31». El alquimista es figura temprana de mérito: «an example of a particularly early modern fi gure, a new, recognizable social type whose status depended not on birth, but on skill» «Nummedal — Alchemy and Authority (2007) · p. 31».
La unidad de análisis es el contrato: Sömmering promete al duque una tintura «of a tincture for transmuting metals within a fi xed period of time in exchange for the tidy sum of two thousand thaler» «Nummedal — Alchemy and Authority (2007) · p. 20», los príncipes transfieren al alquimista el riesgo entero del fracaso «Nummedal — Alchemy and Authority (2007) · p. 166», y los laboratorios se estratifican como los talleres: «Just as artisanal workshops still had both master artisans and apprentices, laboratories often had both alchemists and Laborant» «Nummedal — Alchemy and Authority (2007) · p. 152».
El cierre pasa por la horca: las ejecuciones por Betrug — Honauer con vestido dorado en horca de hierro, Mühlenfels en Stuttgart en 1606 — atrajeron «unprecedented levels of attention» al vínculo alquimia-fraude, y la conclusión es política: «Alchemical fraud resonated widely because it was always about asserting authority» «Nummedal — Alchemy and Authority (2007) · pp. 175, 167, 168, 199».
821 claims · 1 source · 1 attribution
Attribution
recorded, never asserted«Nummedal — Alchemy and Authority (2007) · portada»
The chain of the work
the processed witness, in emeraldClaims
821 entries — the work's own voice, with its passageLa tesis: «the fi gure of the fraudulent alchemist—the Betrüger—became a central locus for working out what alchemy was in the Holy Roman Empire» [«fi gure», con la ligadura partida por el OCR]
El programa: «this book seeks to reintegrate them into the social and cultural landscape of early modern Europe»
«Alchemists offer an example of a particularly early modern fi gure, a new, recognizable social type whose status depended not on birth, but on skill»
Ante el estancamiento minero, «Investing in alchemists was one solution.»
Recoge la cuádruple tipología del campo — alchemia medica, transmutatoria, technica, mystica — y habla de «early modern alchemies» en plural, sin definición única (terminología de Müller-Jahncke y Paulus).
Defiende su término frente al neologismo de Newman/Principe: «I prefer the term “alchemy” for this study because it» —la frase salta a la nota y sigue allí—
La «persona alquímica» como marco: «a cultural identity that simultaneously shapes the individual in body and mind and creates a collective» — erudito, artesano y profeta a la vez.
El contrato tipo: «The alchemist vowed to produce one loth (or 14.62 g) of a tincture for transmuting metals within a fi xed period of time in exchange for the tidy sum of two thousand thaler»
La promesa económica del emprendedor, en voz de Sömmering al duque Julius: «you will enjoy two hundred thousand thaler yearly more than before».
La mecánica del patronazgo: «Distance as well as intimacy defined one's power.»
La retórica de la petición alquímica: «claims to revelation or to some form of special insight, a rich embroidery of authoritative opinion, personal experience, intrigue, and divine inter» —«intercession», partido por el renglón— (sobre el análisis de Moran).
Distingue transmutación particular (con particularia de bajo rendimiento) y universal: «which could transmute any metal and did so with much higher yields».
El contrato documenta el dinero: «I have received four thousand gulden from the Most Luminous, High-Born Prince and Lord, Lord Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg.» (contrato de Wagenmann vom Hoff).
«occupied a middle ground between alchemist and Laborant» — dicho de los practicantes, no de los laboratorios: los espacios estaban tan diferenciados como cualquier otro taller de la época.
«The fi re was the heart of all alchemical work and was thus the natural center of any laboratory» — sobre el Alte Lusthaus de Stuttgart, convertido en laboratorio por Friedrich I en 1596.
La jerarquía del laboratorio, en voz de Kircher: «It was my prerogative to order and prescribe their method; theirs to execute my orders.» — con la distinción salarial y de riesgo entre Laborant y Alchemist.
El estatus contractual como defensa judicial: Stocker «argued that he could not be held responsible for the alchemical promises he was accused of falsely making because he was just employed as a Laborant».
«Secrecy was an area of compromise» — gestionada en el espacio (salas separadas) y en las llaves cruzadas: «The two of them should have each other's keys [abgewechselte Schlussel], so that neither can get in without the other».
«The execution of real alchemists for Betrug drew unprecedented levels of attention to the putative connection between alchemy and fraud.» — indagaciones de Wilhelm V y Friedrich I; August I de Sajonia coordinó al menos once investigaciones.
Con la Carolina de Carlos V (1535) la alquimia dejó de ser delito autónomo y quedó encuadrada como Betrug: «Fraud was a broad category that encompassed offences such as counterfeiting coins, falsifying seals or official papers.»
La ejecución ejemplar: «Honauer wore a golden garment, both serving as a symbolic reminder of his false promises.» — horca de hierro de treinta pies; y su confesión: «Out of great fear I contrived against His Grace the scheme with the three quentlein of gold».
El mecenas como evaluador escéptico, en voz del elector Augusto: «Therefore we reject it as fruitless fraud,” he wrote, “and we have the impression that the Augsburger [i.e., the inventor’s agent] was lacking money and therefore pretended such great things»
Por qué los príncipes creían: «from the foundations of accepted religious and philosophical opinion,» —la frase cruza de plana y sigue «transmutation was possible and justifi ed»— y Karpenko explica los «éxitos» por oro oculto en los materiales.
La conclusión: «Alchemical fraud resonated widely because it was always about asserting authority.»
Recoge el elogio contemporáneo de Paracelso: «Paracelsus is the most well-known philosopher and was certainly sent by Lord God to us on this earth.» — llamado «German Hermes Trismegistus»; y su definición del arte: «alchemy's purpose … is to make arcana [or medicines] and apply them to illnesses».
Documenta el Examen fucorum pseudo-chymicorum de Maier (Frankfurt: De Bry, 1617) contra los falsos químicos: «If he doesn’t really possess it [i.e., the alchemical secret], then it is as if he had sold wind and empty words for money» — compilado sobre la Warnungs-Vermahnung de Khunrath, citada punto por punto.
Y la exigencia formativa de Maier: «sensible operation or manual experimentation . . . is blind without previous theory».
Rudolf II como «prince-practitioner» (término de Moran, junto a Moritz de Hessen-Kassel); su orfebre imperial Hans Müller describió la transformación de una bala de plomo en oro; Tadeáš Hájek fungía de gatekeeper de alquimistas.
Hallazgo para nuestro nodo: documenta a Michael Sendivogius trabajando fuera de Stuttgart, en Kirchheim — empleado del complejo de laboratorios de Friedrich I de Württemberg.
Los cuadernos de «George Starkey (alias Eireneus Philalethes)» como ventana a la práctica diaria del laboratorio, vía Newman y Principe.
Resuelve el seudónimo de la Warnungs-Vermahnung: «Thrasybulus is a Greek form of Khun-rath, "Bold in Counsel," and Ricenus is anagram of Khunrath’s fi rst name, Heinrich» — y la sátira del escarabajo: «if a gold beetle comes fl ying over to you, saying that he knows how to make gold and silver».
La Chymische Hochzeit (1616, sin autor explícito; autoría probable de Andreae) juzga al falsario en la balanza: «You have forged false and spurious books, fooled and swindled others, thereby lowering the royal dignity in everyone's eyes.»
El contrato bohemio de 1577 entre Vilém Rožmberk y Claudius Syrrus abre con bendición: «contract between lord [Rozˇmberk] and Claudius receive the blessing of God» [la fuente compone «Rozˇ» por Rož]
Brahe y la divulgación selectiva desde Uraniborg: «I shall not shrink from discussing these matters openly with noblemen and princes» — y Libavius retratando Uraniborg como lugar de oscuridad.
El caso Anna Zieglerin: acusada de brujería y ejecutada; posible chivo expiatorio y presunta fuente de ideas de Sömmering; su manuscrito propio sobre la preparación de la piedra está datado el 1 de abril de 1573.
El precepto del secreto en el Libellus de Alchimia (asignado a Albertus Magnus, hoy tenido por pseudónimo): «The fi rst precept is that the worker in this art must be silent and secretive and reveal his secret to no one»
El De anima in arte alkimiae de pseudo-Avicenna da siete pruebas para distinguir el oro artificial del natural.
La entrada latina del arte: Robert of Chester, 1144 — «Since what Alchymia is, and what its composition is, your Latin world does not yet know, I will explain in the present book.» — con las etimologías: «The word alchemy itself (al-kimia) came from Arabic, as did alkali (al-qali), alcohol (al-kuhl)».
El marco legal medieval: la decretal Spondent quas non exhibent de Juan XXII (1317) y la ordenanza de Núremberg de 1493, antes del encuadre de la Carolina.
El corpus paracelsiano espurio, con editor responsable: Liber vexationum y Manuale de lapide vía Bodenstein; Thesaurus thesaurorum y Tinctura physicorum vía Toxites; y «an anonymous treatise from around 1550–70 that was among the most popular alchemical tracts in German, “Vom Stein der Weisen” (On the philosophers’ stone), was attributed to Paracelsus already in 1575».
El Testamentum (1332), «the oldest and most infl uential» del corpus pseudo-luliano, mencionado por Sömmering.
«The Augsburger Reichsmünzordnung of 1556 declared the ducat to be the official unit of gold currency in the Holy Roman Empire.» — En la tabla de pesos, medidas y monedas con que abre el libro, Nummedal fija la unidad de cuenta en que están escritos los contratos alquímicos que edita más adelante.
«Although not quite as widely used as the ducat, the gold gulden (or rheinischer gold gulden) was widely used as a unit of currency in trade in the sixteenth century.» — Junto al ducado corría el gulden de oro, la otra unidad en que se cifran los pagos de corte que documenta.
«Sömmering claimed to know how to transmute base metals into silver and gold.» — La oferta de Sömmering al duque Julius se consigna como reclamo del propio alquimista, no como capacidad constatada por la autora.
«The inventions and cures he had to offer, however, extended far beyond this core alchemical skill.» — Nummedal adjudica al oficio un alcance mayor que la transmutación: el mismo hombre ofrecía invenciones y curas, y por ahí entraba a la corte.
«Sömmering promised to return Duke Julius’s money should he fail.» — Cláusula del contrato de Wolfenbüttel: el alquimista se obligaba a devolver el dinero si fallaba, de modo que el riesgo quedaba de su lado.
«Kettwig had obtained his prestigious position as Kriegs- und Kammerrat (military adviser and counselor) at Julius’s court through his contact with one of Sömmering’s assistants, but in No vem ber of 1573 Kettwig’s criminal past caught up with him.» — Data el origen del conflicto de corte en un detalle de red clientelar: el futuro denunciante Kettwig debía su propio puesto al círculo del alquimista al que luego acusó.
«Zieglerin complained to Julius that “your beloved consort has hurled her blazing fury at us.”» — Voz de la acusada, no de la autora: en su queja al duque, Zieglerin nombra la hostilidad de la duquesa Hedwig como causa de su desgracia.
«God knows I mean this truly and from my heart,” Katharina pledged, “I will not cease to ask God to enlighten Your Dearest’s and my dear brother’s heart and spirit and turn it away from these cursed, sinful, godless people.» — Voz de una carta de corte, la de la marquesa Katharina de Brandenburgo, que pide a Dios apartar al duque de los alquimistas.
«Kettwig claimed that Sömmering and his assistants were frauds. He alleged that they had presented themselves under false names and title, and that in fact they knew nothing of nature’s secrets.» — El cargo de Kettwig tal como Nummedal lo resume del expediente: nombres y títulos falsos, e ignorancia del arte. Es la acusación, no un hecho establecido.
«As transparent as the motivations behind Kettwig’s denunciation were, however, Sömmering realized that it could easily be his undoing.» — La autora apunta que los móviles del denunciante estaban a la vista y que aun así la denuncia bastaba para hundir al acusado.
«According to the allegations, the alchemists were not simply impostors who stole Duke Julius’s money; their crimes included adultery, murder (of a courier), attempted poisoning (of Duchess Hedwig), sorcery (involving a variety of charms, including a love philter and a formula for becoming invisible), illicitly copying keys to Duke Julius’s chambers, stealing state papers, and inventing an imaginary alchemical consultant, Count Carl von Oettingen.» — La lista entera de cargos del proceso, donde el propio expediente registra un consultor alquímico inventado por los acusados; la autora lo consigna como ficción de la defensa, no como persona.
«Philipp Sömmering’s career in Wolfenbüttel dramatically illustrates the fact that, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, alchemists were not simply fi gments of the European literary or philosophical imagination, but very real purveyors of practical techniques, inventions, and cures.» — Su adjudicación de fondo: el alquimista no es figura literaria sino proveedor real de técnicas, invenciones y curas.
«Although some alchemists practiced their art successfully and many even made careers of it, others, like Philipp Sömmering, found themselves facing the accusation that they were Betrüger: frauds or impostors.» — Las dos salidas del mismo oficio quedan en el mismo plano: carrera lograda o acusación de Betrüger.
«Because we now believe that one of early modern alchemy’s central claims—the transmutation of base metals into gold—is impossible, we tend to assume that anyone who professed the ability do so in the past was either a cheat or a fool.» — Nummedal objeta la lectura retrospectiva que convierte en tramposo o tonto a todo el que prometió transmutar, por sabernos hoy imposible la transmutación.
«To Sömmering’s contemporaries in the Holy Roman Empire, however, the link between alchemy and fraud was not yet naturalized, cemented by modern categories of truth and falsehood.» — Y adjudica a los contemporáneos otra situación: para ellos el vínculo entre alquimia y fraude todavía no estaba naturalizado.
«Rather, the Betrüger were thought to be a problematic subcategory of alchemists, akin perhaps to the false beggars who lurked among the honest poor in early modern cities.» — El Betrüger no era el alquimista sino una subcategoría problemática dentro del oficio, con el símil de los falsos mendigos entre los pobres honrados.
«Strikingly, central European efforts to defi ne this elusive fi gure were often articulated in the negative, by creating a kind of alchemical evil twin: the fraudulent alchemist, or, in German, Betrüger.» — La definición del alquimista se articulaba en negativo, por contraste con un gemelo maligno.
«When alchemists like Sömmering were turned over to the courts under charges of fraud, legal authorities took up questions about alchemy and its practitioners from within the parameters of jurisprudence.» — Cuando el caso pasaba a los tribunales, la pregunta por la alquimia se replanteaba dentro de los términos de la jurisprudencia.
«The notion of fraud, then, became not only a way for alchemists to discuss their own art, but also a focal point for a much broader discussion about alchemy’s cultural meaning.» — La noción de fraude no fue solo instrumento interno del gremio: la autora la adjudica también como foco de una discusión cultural más ancha sobre qué significaba la alquimia.
«For this reason, this book takes fraud as a point of entry into early modern alchemy, exploring the many valences of this concept and how they functioned to defi ne and shape alchemical practice and its cultural meaning in the early modern Holy Roman Empire.» — Declara su puerta de entrada metodológica: estudiar el fraude para llegar a la práctica, no al revés.
«Historians of science, however, have used trial records much less frequently, particularly those from secular courts.» — Señala una laguna de oficio en su propia disciplina: los historiadores de la ciencia han usado poco los expedientes judiciales, y menos aún los de tribunales seculares.
«The voices of accused criminals have come to us in highly mediated form, and the power dynamic involved in confessions recorded under the threat or use of torture makes them particularly problematic.» — Y pone por delante el límite de esas fuentes: son voces muy mediadas, y la confesión bajo amenaza de tortura las vuelve especialmente problemáticas.
«As Natalie Zemon Davis has noted, however, the tales people told, even under the pressure of life and death, “can still be analyzed in terms of the life and values of the person saving his neck by a story.”» — Para no descartarlas por eso, se apoya en Natalie Zemon Davis: el relato contado para salvar el cuello sigue siendo analizable como relato.
«In either case, the fact that everyone involved in her case found it convincing that a woman could even be an alchemist, let alone a source of alchemical ideas, demonstrates that a female alchemist was at least within the limits of the conceivable; this, in itself, is an important insight.» — Su lectura del caso Zieglerin se abstiene de decidir si fue alquimista: lo que el expediente muestra es que a nadie del proceso le pareció inconcebible que una mujer lo fuera.
«Precisely what role alchemy played in the emergence of modern science is still a matter of vital debate, but few would fi nd it possible to talk about the Scientifi c Revolution without mentioning alchemy, if only because so many of the major fi gures in seventeenth-century science, including Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle, were fascinated by alchemy and deeply engaged with it.» — Consigna que el papel de la alquimia en el surgimiento de la ciencia moderna sigue en disputa, y que aun así Newton y Boyle la vuelven imposible de omitir.
«In contrast to a traditional view that saw princely patronage of alchemy as either irrelevant or an attempt to withdraw from an increasingly difficult political world into arcane mysticism, this work collectively argues that alchemy was a part of an active engagement with that world, part of an official court philosophy.» — Objeta la lectura tradicional del mecenazgo principesco como fuga mística: la bibliografía reciente lo lee como parte de una filosofía oficial de corte.
«In studies of noble patrons who devoted their intellectual and fi nancial energies toward alchemical pursuits, historians such as R. J. W. Evans, Bruce Moran, and Pamela Smith have found that alchemy had a particular ideological resonance with early modern rulers.» — Nombra a quiénes atribuye esa lectura: Evans, Moran y Smith adjudican a la alquimia una resonancia ideológica con los gobernantes.
«We still know surprisingly little, however, about the lives and labor of the vast majority of alchemical practitioners themselves and how they fi tted into the social and cultural fabric of early modern Europe.» — Su abstención, dicha como tal: de la vida y el trabajo de la inmensa mayoría de los practicantes se sabe sorprendentemente poco.
«There is also a disadvantage to putting fi gures such as Newton and Boyle at the center of a history of alchemy, however, in that it can create a misleading impression of the typical early modern alchemist.» — Objeta poner a Newton y Boyle en el centro: da una impresión engañosa de cómo era el alquimista típico.
«Numbers alone make these entrepreneurial alchemists a signifi cant enough presence in the cities and courts of the Holy Roman Empire that they should take center stage in any history of alchemy.» — Su argumento para el desplazamiento es de número: los alquimistas emprendedores eran demasiados en ciudades y cortes como para no ocupar el centro del relato.
«For many in central Europe, alchemy potentially was even a very profi table career, only one of many entrepreneurial ways to climb the social ladder and cross boundaries—both social and geographic—in the early modern period.» — Adjudica a la alquimia el estatuto de carrera posible, y aun rentable, dentro del repertorio de ascensos sociales de la época.
«Like any courtier, they sought princely favor; like other skilled artisans, they sought work contracts; and like so many others, they sometimes fell afoul of the law, ending their lives on the gallows.» — La fórmula con que resume el oficio: buscaban favor como cortesanos, contratos como artesanos y a veces terminaban en la horca como cualquiera.
«Rather than operating outside a burgeoning commercial economy, the growing pool of people who claimed to be alchemists in the sixteenth century took advantage of it.» — Contra la imagen del alquimista al margen del mercado, sostiene que el gremio creció aprovechando la economía comercial.
«They peddled practical books, secrets, techniques, and labor in a vibrant market for alchemical goods and services.» — Qué se vendía, en concreto: libros prácticos, secretos, técnicas y mano de obra, en un mercado activo de bienes y servicios alquímicos.
«Nearly constant warfare, Renaissance building projects, and courtly splendor drained princely coffers.» — La causa de la demanda, por el lado del comprador: la guerra continua, la construcción y el fasto cortesano vaciaban las arcas del príncipe.
«The importance of mining in central Europe made alchemy seem especially promising there.» — Y por qué el centro de Europa: el peso de la minería hacía que la alquimia pareciera ahí especialmente prometedora.
«These efforts to use alchemy to address problems of mining and territorial fi nance suggest a more prominent place for alchemy in European economic history, not just as a metaphor, but also as a practice.» — Su reclamo para la historia económica: la alquimia entra en ella no como metáfora, sino como práctica dirigida a la minería y a la hacienda territorial.
«Early modern patrons and practitioners viewed it as precisely such a technology, however, which could offer a solution to early modern economic concerns.» — La adjudicación de época, dicha en voz de los actores: mecenas y practicantes la veían como tecnología, no como filosofía abstracta.
«The sheer number of princes in the empire created a large pool of potential patrons, while the diversity of courts ensured that several varieties of alchemy could fi nd support.» — El número de príncipes daba la bolsa de mecenas, y la diversidad de cortes permitía que convivieran varias alquimias a la vez.
«In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there was as yet no consensus about how to defi ne alchemy.» — Data la ausencia de consenso: en los siglos XVI y XVII todavía no había acuerdo sobre cómo definir la alquimia.
«For this reason, it makes more sense to think in terms of early modern alchemies, directing our eye toward the confl icts, contradictions, and multiple layers of meaning that characterized early modern European alchemical practices.» — De ahí su decisión de escribir en plural, alquimias tempranas, para dejar a la vista los conflictos y las capas de sentido.
«As we enter the world of early modern alchemy, it is essential that we preserve this messiness, rather than trying to oversimplify alchemy or, worse, anachronistically to privilege one kind of alchemy over others based on our modern categories.» — Y la regla de método que se impone: preservar el desorden en vez de privilegiar retrospectivamente una alquimia sobre las otras.
«Instead, Müller-Jahncke and Paulus stress the diversity within the alchemical tradition itself, a legacy of alchemy’s many historical uses and the differences among its innumerable authorities.» — La terminología que toma prestada es de Müller-Jahncke y Paulus, y lo que subraya es la diversidad interna de la tradición.
«To alchemia technica Müller-Jahncke and Paulus ascribe “recipes oriented toward praxis” such as metallurgy and dye and ink manufacture, while alchemia mystica encompasses the more “mystical-christological” varieties of alchemy that sought above all understanding of God through his work in nature.» — El reparto completo de esa terminología: alchemia technica para las recetas orientadas a la praxis, alchemia mystica para las variedades místico-cristológicas.
«These terms, even if they were not the actors’ own, capture very well the different directions in which the alchemical tradition pulled its early modern practitioners, while quite rightly including them all within the broad category of alchemy.» — Declara el límite de esos términos dentro de la misma frase en que los adopta: no son categorías de los actores.
«Nevertheless, practitioners themselves often perceived contradictions among the various strains in the alchemical tradition and criticized their colleagues for privileging the wrong aspect of the alchemical arts.» — Y consigna que el desacuerdo era de los propios practicantes, que se reprochaban entre sí privilegiar el aspecto equivocado del arte.
«It would have been difficult to distinguish between the day-to-day alchemical operations of a scholarly alchemist and those of a more practical “goldmaker”; both worked in the laboratory, even if the goals of their alchemical work were different, if not contradictory.» — Su adjudicación de práctica: en el día a día del laboratorio no se distinguía al alquimista erudito del goldmaker, aunque los fines fueran opuestos.
«Disagreements about alchemy’s goals—whether it was to aid in healing, a reform of knowledge, the production of things, or an understanding of God—exposed rifts in the Holy Roman Empire’s community of alchemical practitioners.» — Lo que dividía al gremio no eran las operaciones sino los fines: sanar, reformar el saber, producir cosas o entender a Dios.
«Successful alchemical works were rare and wondrous indeed, but not impossible.» — Consigna la expectativa de época sin arbitrarla: la obra alquímica lograda se tenía por rara y admirable, no por imposible.
«Not only natural philosophers and Paracelsian physicians, but also court ladies, pastors, apothecaries, Jews, and even “a maiden from Frankfort” studied alchemy and plied their art, if only to varying degrees of success.» — La nómina social del oficio tal como la levanta de los archivos: damas de corte, pastores, boticarios, judíos y hasta una doncella de Fráncfort.
«Hardly the preserve of a few chosen adepts alone, alchemy was clearly accessible to a large section of the populace in the sixteenth century.» — De ahí su tesis de acceso: la alquimia no era coto de unos pocos adeptos sino cosa de un sector amplio de la población.
«Precisely because there was no alchemical guild or college to regulate practice and licensing, or an alchemy faculty at the universities to prescribe an authoritative curriculum, no single method of alchemical training prevailed.» — La razón institucional que adjudica: sin gremio, sin colegio y sin facultad universitaria, no había un método de formación que se impusiera.
«This lack of consensus opened the door to an unusually varied group of aspirants drawn from many segments of society; it also increasingly created battles over alchemical authority as the sixteenth century neared its end.» — Y el doble efecto de ese vacío: entra gente de toda condición, y hacia fin de siglo arrecian las peleas por la autoridad alquímica.
«Although some natural philosophers, physicians, and other medical practitioners were increasingly looking beyond the written word and observing nature directly in the sixteenth century, texts were still a primary locus of natural knowledge.» — Matiza el giro hacia la observación directa: en el siglo XVI el texto seguía siendo el lugar primero del saber natural.
«According to Sömmering, the medieval physician explained the generation of metals and minerals in the earth and “describes splendidly” the basic components of all metals, mercury and sulfur; Arnald (or rather pseudo-Arnald, for it is unlikely that he wrote the texts that appeared in his name) also offered practical explanations of the “philosophical fi re” and how to multiply metals by means of art (künstlich).» — En la lista de lecturas que Sömmering recomienda al duque, la propia autora marca la atribución: pseudo-Arnald, porque es improbable que Arnald escribiera lo que corre a su nombre.
«Although Sömmering promised that Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1225–74) would “bring great understanding,” he especially praised Bernhard as a font of knowledge about mercury, confessing that Bernhard’s description of the “treasure of the secret,” presumably the process for making the philosophers’ stone, was his favorite book.» — El mismo consejo de lectura, con el gusto personal del alquimista dentro: Bernhard de Treviso sobre el mercurio como su libro preferido.
«Disagreement about the possibility of metallic transmutation and the limits of human technology took center stage in what William Newman has described as the “alchemical debate of the late Middle Ages.”» — Nombra a quién atribuye el rótulo del debate medieval sobre transmutación y límites de la técnica humana: William Newman.
«As Michela Pereira has noted, the very fact that the alchemical tradition “implied linguistic transfers from the beginning”—that is, that so many alchemical texts had already been translated from Greek into Arabic and then into Latin—made alchemists especially “likely candidates to use the vernacular in writing”» — Y toma de Michela Pereira la explicación del paso a la lengua vulgar: una tradición ya traducida del griego al árabe y al latín tenía el trasvase incorporado.
«This double regimen ensured that the Latin and vernacular operated side by side in laboratory operations; practitioners who simultaneously read texts in Latin and spoke to each other in the vernacular might use both languages in books as well.» — El doble régimen en la práctica: se leía en latín y se hablaba en vulgar dentro del mismo laboratorio, y los libros heredaron esa mezcla.
«For all of these reasons, in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries alchemical texts began to appear in French, Italian, Catalan, Czech, and English and in a wide range of genres, including recipes, poems, images, and prose treatises.» — Data la aparición de los textos vulgares entre fines del XIII y principios del XIV, en francés, italiano, catalán, checo e inglés.
«The German language alchemical tradition seems to have begun around 1415–19 with the Buch der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit (Book of the Sacred Trinity), which likened the process of creating the philosophers’ stone to the death and resurrection of Christ.» — Data el arranque de la tradición alemana hacia 1415-19 con el Buch der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit, que equipara la obra de la piedra con la muerte y resurrección de Cristo.
«Texts certainly continued to circulate in manuscript even a century after the invention of the printing press; indeed, until the middle of the sixteenth century, it is likely that most alchemical texts remained in manuscript form (and this is especially true if one takes into account recipe books).» — Su reserva sobre la imprenta: hasta mediados del XVI lo probable es que la mayoría de los textos alquímicos siguiera en manuscrito.
«When Sömmering recommended Sternhals’s Ritter Krieg to Julius, for example, he could only have had a manuscript in mind, since this fi fteenth-century text would not be available in print for another two decades.» — El caso que lo prueba en concreto: el Ritter Krieg que Sömmering recomienda no estaba impreso todavía, así que solo pudo pensar en un manuscrito.
«Nevertheless, from the middle of the sixteenth century onward printers seem to have discovered a healthy market for alchemical texts, particularly those that dealt with medicine and the transmutation of metals, since they issued sixteenth-century editions of older treatises attributed (both pseudonymously and authentically) to authorities such as Raymond Lull and Bernhard of Treviso.» — Data el descubrimiento del mercado por los impresores desde mediados del XVI, con reediciones atribuidas —auténtica o seudónimamente— a Lull y a Bernhard de Treviso.
«As is now well known from Frances Yates’s pioneering work, although some Hermetic writings (most prominently the Asclepius dialogue) were familiar to medieval scholars, Marsilio Ficino’s translation of part of the Hermetic corpus into Latin in 1463 and subsequent publication of it in 1471 ushered in a new wave of enthusiasm for the writings of this ancient magus.» — Atribuye a Frances Yates la historia ya sabida de la entrada del corpus hermético, y data la traducción de Ficino en 1463 y su impresión en 1471.
«The Hermetic texts, which were actually composed in the fi rst centuries CE by a variety of authors and were deeply infl uenced by Neoplatonism, inspired a revival of the mystical elements of alchemy in the early modern period.» — Y consigna la datación filológica del corpus como dato: escrito en los primeros siglos de nuestra era por varios autores, con fuerte influjo neoplatónico.
«The fi rst printed alchemical compendium, for example, the Nuremberg printer Johannes Petreius’s De alchimia of 1541, included sections of pseudo-Geber’s Summa perfectionis (ca. 1300), as well as Roger Bacon’s Speculum alchemiae and the Hermetic Tabula smaragdina.» — El contenido del primer compendio impreso, el De alchimia de Petreius, 1541: pseudo-Geber, Roger Bacon y la Tabula smaragdina.
«The compiler of the most well known of these printed collections, the Rosarium philosophorum of 1550, arranged quotes (at times quite lengthy) from, among others, Hermes Trismegistus, Arnald of Villanova, Aristotle, Democritus and Maria Prophetissa.» — Y el del Rosarium philosophorum de 1550, que ordena citas de Hermes, Arnald, Aristóteles, Demócrito y Maria Prophetissa.
«Compendia such as the Rosarium distilled the vast alchemical tradition into a more manageable form, both in Latin and the vernacular German, thus making it more widely available to a literate public with a growing interest in alchemy.» — La función que adjudica al compendio: destilar la tradición a un formato manejable y ponerla, en latín y en alemán, al alcance de un público lector.
«In the 1560s, Paracelsus’s followers Adam von Bodenstein (1528–77), Michael Toxites (1515–81), and Gerhard Dorn (ca. 1530–after 1584) began to collect and publish his works, gradually establishing a corpus of Paracelsian texts.» — Data la formación del corpus paracelsiano en los años 1560 y nombra a sus tres editores: Bodenstein, Toxites y Dorn.
«Dorn, in particular, played a key role in identifying, publishing, and interpreting (sometimes also falsifying) Paracelsian manuscripts.» — Y adjudica a Dorn, dentro de esa misma tarea editorial, el papel de identificar, publicar, interpretar y a veces falsificar.
«He sought to reorient the art away from the production of gold and toward medicine, disparaging alchemists who sought only to transmute metals.» — La posición de Paracelso según ella: reorientar el arte de la producción de oro hacia la medicina, con desprecio de los transmutadores.
«But Paracelsus was never entirely consistent in his voluminous writings, and readers could easily fi nd places where he seemed to support the possibility of producing alchemical gold.» — Pero pone el límite en la misma página: la obra es inconsistente y el lector encontraba pasajes donde parece admitir el oro alquímico.
«As Joachim Telle has noted, “in De mineralibus, one fi nds no sign of that Paracelsus, present elsewhere, who sought to defeat the fundamental beliefs of alchemists active in the transmutation of metals.”» — Para esa inconsistencia cita a Joachim Telle sobre el De mineralibus, donde no aparece el Paracelso enemigo de los transmutadores.
«These Kunstbücher divulged the secrets of illuminating manuscripts, dying and cleaning fabrics, and working with metals.» — Los Kunstbücher como vía de acceso: divulgaban secretos de iluminación de manuscritos, tintorería y trabajo del metal.
«An indication of alchemy’s widening appeal, one early Kunstbuch even offered its readers alchemical arcana gleaned from a “famous alchemist from Mainz,” Petrus Kertzenmacher.» — Y por ahí entra la alquimia al manual doméstico, con arcanos atribuidos a un famoso alquimista de Maguncia, Petrus Kertzenmacher.
«Kertzenmacher’s booklet, which was issued (and edited differently) by two different printers, instructed his readers primarily in the technical aspects of alchemy, disclosing the techniques, materials, and equipment needed for the most basic alchemical operations.» — Qué enseñaba en concreto ese librito: técnicas, materiales y equipo de las operaciones alquímicas más básicas, en dos ediciones distintas de dos impresores.
«The book even included a translation into German of frequently used Latin words with which a less well-educated audience may not have been familiar, such as sol (sun, or gold) and luna (moon, or silver).» — El detalle que hace usable el manual: traduce al alemán los términos latinos de uso corriente, sol por oro y luna por plata.
«In fact, Renaissance readers could fi nd so many texts about alchemy that they were confronted with what Ann Blair has called “information overload.”» — Adjudica a Ann Blair el nombre del problema del lector renacentista, la sobrecarga de información.
«He who has them [i.e., good books], should then take care to read them in a certain order. And at all times make a note of where the philosophers disclose one or more secrets. Because where most of them agree [concordiren], there they speak the truth.» — La regla de lectura que Sömmering le propone al duque para salir de esa sobrecarga: cotejar libro con libro y fiarse de donde concuerdan.
«Maria Prophetissa (before the early 3rd century CE) believed that God gave alchemy specifi cally to the Jews as his chosen people.» — Consigna la creencia de Maria Prophetissa como creencia, no como dato: que Dios dio la alquimia a los judíos como pueblo elegido.
«Although it is unclear how such divine illumination really happened and to whom, this formulation of the donum dei persisted in medieval and early modern European texts.» — Su abstención sobre el donum dei: no está claro cómo ocurría esa iluminación ni a quién, y aun así la fórmula persistió hasta la modernidad temprana.
«According to legend, this transfer of divine wisdom was to occur face-to-face, never in writing, and traditionally was accompanied by vows of secrecy.» — El precepto legendario de la transmisión: de viva voz, cara a cara, nunca por escrito, y con voto de secreto.
«the art “is not of the world, but can be understood only from the true sons [of alchemy], or from those to whom they have revealed and taught the exalted secret in person out of particular favor and inclination.”» — El arte no es del mundo y solo se entiende de los verdaderos hijos, o de quien lo reveló en persona por favor particular.
«Legendary stories like Norton’s reinforced the idea that alchemy was knowledge reserved only for the very few, and, moreover, that those few must be chosen; in other words, one could not simply decide to become an alchemist.» — El efecto de esas leyendas sobre el oficio: la alquimia queda como saber de unos pocos elegidos, y uno no podía decidir por sí mismo ser alquimista.
«In a sense, Sömmering tried to position himself as the master who might reveal alchemy’s divine secrets to Duke Julius.» — Contra ese fondo lee la maniobra de Sömmering, que se ofreció al duque en el papel del maestro que entrega el secreto.
«There he paid a wood-carver fi ve thaler to teach him two of alchemy’s most basic operations: distillation and sublimation.» — Y contra la leyenda pone el expediente: la formación real fue pagarle cinco thaler a un tallista de madera para que le enseñara destilación y sublimación.
«The fact that philosophers, other alchemists, apothecaries, and even unlikely sources like the wood-carver all seemed to have had learning and skills useful to Sömmering is itself an indication of how widespread the elements of alchemical knowledge were by the mid-sixteenth century.» — Lo que ella deduce de esa lista de maestros improbables: hacia mediados del XVI los elementos del saber alquímico circulaban por todas partes.
«Paracelsus claimed that during his own Wanderjahren he had sought out the “the true art of medicine” not only from learned doctors, but also “from barbers, bathers, learned doctors, wives, those who make a habit of black magic, from alchemists, at cloisters, from nobles and commoners, from the clever and the simple.”» — El modelo itinerante en voz del propio Paracelso, que dice haber buscado el arte verdadero también entre barberos, bañeros, esposas y gente de magia negra.
«In his carefully constructed narrative about his training in the alchemical arts, Hirschenberg told Rozˇmberk, “As soon as I fi nished my modest studies, I began to wander through various lands, during which time in truth I kept company not only with many learned men I came across, but I also learned something from a man from another village.”» — Y la misma retórica en la carta de Hirschenberg a Rožmberk, que la autora marca como narración cuidadosamente construida, no como biografía llana.
«Some sovereigns arranged tutelage more formally in contracts, stipulating that an alchemist teach as a part of his or her employment.» — Adjudica al contrato la formalización de esa tutela: algunos soberanos estipulaban por escrito que el alquimista enseñara como parte del empleo.
«The trio promised to teach the royal family “both in writing and orally” “the fundamentals and principles of the Art of Alchemy (by which the tincture or philosophers’ stone, or the principium movens, naturally transmutes quicksilver and other imperfections to a perfect metal, namely to gold and silver).”» — El texto del contrato de 1610, que promete enseñar por escrito y de viva voz los fundamentos del arte y define la tintura como lo que transmuta el mercurio en metal perfecto.
«It was still considered a honorable and prized art, but by the sixteenth century, princes and practitioners seeking alchemical arcana no longer had to rely on the good fortune of fi nding that rarity, the alchemical adept, nor did they have to wait for God to bestow the gift upon them.» — El desplazamiento que data en el siglo XVI: para conseguir arcanos ya no hacía falta topar con el adepto raro ni esperar el don de Dios.
«In part because of the diffusion of alchemical knowledge through books, aspiring alchemists in the sixteenth century could fi nd plenty of people willing to share their knowledge—usually for a price.» — La causa que le atribuye es la difusión impresa, y el precio queda dicho: había mucha gente dispuesta a compartir su saber, casi siempre por dinero.
«In this new marketplace of secrets, alchemy was available to princes, philosophers, physicians, and pastors—in short, to anyone with the money and enthusiasm to seek it out.» — El resultado es un mercado de secretos abierto a príncipes, filósofos, médicos y pastores, es decir a cualquiera con dinero y entusiasmo.
«As the Italian mining expert Vanoccio Biringuccio pointed out in 1540, the fi elds of alchemy, distilling, goldsmithing, and metalworking were kindred arts in that they were all “works of the fi re.”» — En voz de Biringuccio, 1540: alquimia, destilación, orfebrería y metalurgia son artes hermanas por trabajar con fuego.
«Thurneisser was able to transform himself from goldsmith to mine operator, to Paracelsian physician, and fi nally to alchemist because these various operations all shared similar vocabulary, materials, tools, and skills.» — Su explicación de por qué se podía pasar de un oficio a otro: la carrera de Thurneisser corre sobre vocabulario, materiales, herramientas y destrezas compartidos.
«As the early seventeenth-century learned alchemist Michael Maier put it, “the work of the goldsmith and of other metalworkers must not be unknown to [the would-be alchemist].”» — En voz de Michael Maier: el aspirante a alquimista no puede ignorar el trabajo del orfebre y del metalúrgico.
«All of these skills were indispensable to the alchemist as well, so much so that Maier remarked that the art of the assayer was “not only extremely useful for the future chymicus, but absolutely necessary.”» — Y el mismo Maier sobre el ensayador: arte no solo utilísimo para el futuro chymicus, sino absolutamente necesario.
«Both authors expressed their skepticism about transmutational alchemy in these printed works, but neither could ignore the contributions of the alchemists altogether.» — Consigna el escepticismo de los autores de los manuales mineros sobre la transmutación, y a la vez que ninguno pudo prescindir de lo aportado por los alquimistas.
«Ercker granted that “assaying is a very excellent, ancient, and useful art which, like all the other arts that work with fi re, originated very long ago as an outgrowth of alchemy.”» — El caso concreto, en voz de Ercker: el ensaye viene de antiguo como brote de la alquimia.
«Pamela Long has argued that this literature all “shared a common context that included the early modern capitalist expansion of mining.”» — Atribuye a Pamela Long el marco común de la literatura minera y metalúrgica: la expansión capitalista de la minería.
«These books were less helpful, however, as a resource for alchemical theory, or the larger philosophical context in which many (although not all) practitioners operated;» — Y pone el límite de esa literatura para el alquimista: servía para la práctica, no para la teoría ni para el marco filosófico.
«As the alchemist and physician Michael Maier noted, “sensible operation or manual experimentation . . . is blind without previous theory”; therefore, the true alchemist must have not only a familiarity with mining and metallurgy, but also a rigorous education in the liberal arts.» — En voz de Michael Maier, con el modal dentro: la operación sensible o experimentación manual es ciega sin teoría previa.
«Poetry, grammar, rhetoric, and logic, he claimed, were necessary even to be able to read alchemical texts properly.» — El programa formativo que Maier exige empieza por las letras: poesía, gramática, retórica y lógica hacían falta hasta para leer los textos.
«As Maier argued, “from these arts and sciences [alchemical] authors chose all of their terminology and allegorical descriptions, all of which will remain incomprehensible and obscure to someone seeking the hidden truth in them, if he is not well-versed in them.» — Su razón, en voz de Maier: la terminología y las descripciones alegóricas salieron de esas artes, y sin ellas el texto queda cerrado.
«According to Maier, “indeed, in all of physics or nature, in all of medicine there are no precepts or principles, no causes or effects which the science of Chymia does not borrow and take for itself.”» — Y la ambición del arte según Maier: no hay precepto, causa ni efecto de la física ni de la medicina que la Chymia no tome para sí.
«It is important to recognize, however, that not all of Maier’s contemporaries came to alchemy with this kind of training.» — La autora acota de inmediato la exigencia de Maier: no todos sus contemporáneos llegaron a la alquimia con esa formación.
«Indeed, plenty of practitioners were quite successful without it, just as others claimed to be alchemists without the fi rsthand experience in assaying that Maier demanded.» — Y consigna que a muchos les fue bien sin ella, incluso sin la experiencia de ensaye que Maier reclamaba.
«In De re metallica, Agricola claimed that the “many arts and science of which a miner [i.e., mine investor] should not be ignorant” included philosophy, medicine, astronomy, surveying, arithmetic, architecture, drawing, and the law.» — El paralelo minero, en voz de Agricola: al inversor de minas se le piden filosofía, medicina, astronomía, agrimensura, aritmética, arquitectura, dibujo y derecho.
«By the same token, knowledge of mining, metallurgy and natural philosophy were useful, but not essential, to students of alchemy, particularly given the many other resources for alchemical knowledge upon which they might draw.» — Su adjudicación matizada: minería, metalurgia y filosofía natural eran útiles para el aprendiz de alquimista, pero no imprescindibles.
«Yet clearly there was a wide variety of practitioners of alchemy, with diverse backgrounds and varied goals.» — De donde su conclusión sobre el gremio: practicantes de orígenes y metas muy distintos, sin un solo camino.
«As the various Latin, French, and Flemish inscriptions printed with The Alchemist made clear, Brueghel (1525–69) offered early modern viewers a morality tale of the futility of alchemy, warning those who were tempted that it could only destroy families and households.» — La lectura de la estampa: las inscripciones impresas con The Alchemist de Brueghel entregan una moraleja sobre la futilidad del arte y la ruina de la casa.
«However clear Brueghel’s moral with respect to alchemy, he offers only an indeterminate representation of the alchemist: was he an honest—if greedy—Hausvater, a bumbling fool, or a scholar?» — Pero separa la moraleja de la figura: aun con la moral clara, Brueghel deja indeterminado si el alquimista es padre de familia codicioso, bufón o erudito.
«For alchemy to be meaningful as a social practice, rather than just as a private activity, its practitioners needed to develop a recognizable identity as alchemists that could mediate between individuals and the society and culture in which they lived and practiced.» — Su planteamiento del problema de la identidad: para que la alquimia fuera práctica social y no actividad privada hacía falta una identidad reconocible que mediara.
«Lorraine Daston and H. Otto Sibum recently have suggested the concept of the scientifi c persona as a fruitful way to think about this problem in the history of science generally.» — Toma para eso el concepto de persona científica de Lorraine Daston y H. Otto Sibum.
«In contrast to the modern sense of mask as a “topos of insincerity” that disguises a more genuine self, Daston and Sibum point to the ancient meaning of the mask, “the dramaturgy of masks as makers, not destroyers of true identities.”» — Y con ellos invierte el sentido moderno de la máscara: no tópico de insinceridad, sino dramaturgia que hace identidades verdaderas.
«They insist, in other words, on the productive work of the persona, its function as an interface “between the society that must grant signifi cance to a persona and the individuals who must embody it,” and on “the hybrid character of the persona concept between individual and society.» — El concepto queda definido como interfaz entre la sociedad que da significado a una persona y los individuos que han de encarnarla.
«Alchemists could model themselves on scholars and cultivate an emotional detachment, as Gadi Algazi has described it, retreating into their studies (or laboratories) to escape the troubles of the world.» — El primer modelo disponible era el del erudito, con el desapego emocional que Gadi Algazi describió: refugiarse en el estudio o el laboratorio.
«The alchemical persona, it turned out, was deeply embattled from the outset, as contested among practitioners themselves as by outside observers of alchemy’s fortunes.» — Su adjudicación central sobre esa persona: nació disputada, tanto entre los propios practicantes como fuera.
«Moreover, the persona also turned out not to be something that alchemists could simply assert; the persona had to be culturally and socially meaningful and credible, which meant that alchemists had to reckon with broader social and cultural expectations as well as their own self-image.» — Y no bastaba con proclamarla: tenía que ser creíble socialmente, de modo que el alquimista debía contar con expectativas ajenas.
«In the sixteenth century, however, literary sources put forth a different set of possibilities: the alchemist as fool, corrupt merchant, and criminal; in short, as Betrüger.» — Frente a ese esfuerzo, las fuentes literarias del XVI ofrecían otro juego de figuras: tonto, mercader corrupto y criminal, es decir Betrüger.
«In the absence of formal institutions to shape the alchemist’s identity, these cultural discourses became all the more important in shaping just who alchemists were and where they fi tted in the early modern social and cultural landscape.» — Y por faltar instituciones formales, adjudica a esos discursos culturales el peso de definir quién era alquimista.
«Alchemy is not for those with a “simple soul,” pseudo-Geber argued, who lack intelligence and whose “head, being full of much smoke, cannot receive the true intent of natural things.”» — En voz de pseudo-Geber: el arte no es para el alma simple, cuya cabeza llena de humo no recibe la intención verdadera de las cosas naturales.
«Those with a “mobile soul,” on the other hand, do not have enough focus and commitment: “passing from one opinion to another, and from one wish to another wish, . . . [they] are so mobile that they can hardly fi nish the slightest thing that they intend.”» — Y tampoco para el alma móvil, que pasa de una opinión a otra sin terminar lo que empieza.
«But even the most model alchemical practitioners, pseudo-Geber acknowledged, might face difficulties: problems “approaching from beyond, from contingent fortunes and mishaps.”» — El mismo pseudo-Geber admite el límite exterior: al practicante modelo pueden llegarle estorbos de fortuna y accidente.
«The alchemist must also be focused, “of constant will in work, so that he does not at one time presume to try one thing, and another time another”; he must also be committed to carry the work out to its conclusion.» — Los requisitos de carácter que prescribe: voluntad constante en la obra, sin saltar de una cosa a otra, y compromiso de llevarla al final.
«The alchemist must have “a good temper, and be little given to anger, lest due to the fury of his wrath, he demolish and destroy his work just begun.”» — Incluido el temperamento: buen humor y poca ira, no sea que en su furia destruya la obra recién empezada.
«Interestingly, pseudo-Geber gave great weight to the alchemist’s frugality, pointing out that alchemical work could be expensive.» — La autora subraya el peso que pseudo-Geber da a la frugalidad, porque el trabajo alquímico salía caro.
«It is not necessary to consume your goods since, if you are not ignorant of the principles of art that we teach you and you understand them rightly, you will arrive at the complete magistery for a small price.» — Con la promesa que acompaña a esa frugalidad: entendidos rectamente los principios del arte, se llega al magisterio completo por poco dinero.
«Finally, the alchemist must have God’s blessing, “since our art is reserved by the divine power, and He who is most glorious, sublime, and fi lled with all justice and goodness extends it to and withdraws it from whomever He wills.”» — Y la condición última, que devuelve el arte a Dios: reservado al poder divino, que lo da y lo quita a quien quiere.
«alchemists (not unlike medieval scholars or clerics) should be either of independent means or reliant on patronage or some sort of benefi ce.» — De ahí el requisito económico que la autora extrae del texto: renta propia, mecenazgo o beneficio, como los eruditos y clérigos medievales.
«Reasoning is not sufficient for the investigation of the same [i.e., the philosophers’ stone],” Bonus wrote, “but one must believe that the end of it can be thus, and so must summon up a profound faith.» — El giro profético en voz de Petrus Bonus: la razón no basta para la piedra, hace falta creer que su fin es posible y convocar una fe profunda.
«Yet adopting the artisan’s persona posed a different set of problems, for it carried with it a set of economic, kinship, religious, and political roles that were not entirely appropriate for alchemy.» — El modelo artesanal traía su propio estorbo: cargaba papeles económicos, de parentesco, religiosos y políticos que no encajaban del todo con la alquimia.
«For example, the inquisitor general of Aragon, Nicholas Eymerich, criticized alchemy on precisely this point in his Directorium inquisitorum (1376), objecting to alchemists’ claims to access the supernatural.» — El reparo eclesiástico, con nombre y fecha: Nicholas Eymerich, inquisidor general de Aragón, objeta en 1376 la pretensión alquímica de acceso a lo sobrenatural.
«The fact that pseudo-Geber highlighted the importance of the alchemist’s physical body, however, serves as a useful reminder that alchemical tradition did not simply emphasize the mind and spirit.» — Su lectura de pseudo-Geber sobre el cuerpo del alquimista sirve de recordatorio: la tradición no era solo cosa de mente y espíritu.
«As Gadi Algazi has shown, for example, celibacy ceased to be the rule among scholars in the late fi fteenth century, as they increasingly married and founded households; in doing so, they also transformed what Algazi has called the learned habitus, reorganizing domestic space and cultivating emotional detachment as ways “to live in the world while retaining an otherworldly image.» — Con Gadi Algazi data el cambio del erudito: hacia fines del XV deja de regir el celibato, y con el matrimonio se reorganiza el habitus docto.
«Alchemists, on the other hand, did not organize their work around guild and workshop, nor were they perceived to be among the many corporate bodies constituting the urban commune.» — El desajuste del modelo artesanal: los alquimistas no organizaban su trabajo por gremio y taller ni se los contaba entre los cuerpos de la comuna urbana.
«Furthermore, alchemists such as pseudo-Geber specifi cally advocated avoiding “every sort of secular business,” rejecting the artisan’s engagement in the world.» — Y desde dentro se predicaba lo contrario del artesano: pseudo-Geber pedía evitar todo negocio secular.
«Moreover, as Pamela Smith has shown, the work of the alchemist came to be the paradigmatic example of the artisanal ability to imitate and improve nature that was so central to the development of natural knowledge in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.» — Con Pamela Smith apunta el crédito del otro lado: el trabajo del alquimista quedó como ejemplo paradigmático de la capacidad artesanal de imitar y mejorar la naturaleza.
«Alchemists could not simply assert their new persona, in other words, and assume that it would prevail; the persona also had to fi nd broad social and cultural acceptance and recognition.» — Repite el requisito de credibilidad: proclamar la persona no bastaba, hacía falta aceptación social amplia.
«In this regard, early modern alchemists ran into difficulties, because they were not the only voices proposing an alchemical persona.» — Y ahí ubica la dificultad: los alquimistas no eran los únicos que proponían una persona alquímica.
«This newer, competing persona was the alchemist as Betrüger, and it turned up in the works of prominent humanists such as Francesco Petrarch, Sebastian Brant, and Desiderius Erasmus.» — La persona rival era el alquimista como Betrüger, y sus voceros eran humanistas de peso: Petrarca, Brant y Erasmo.
«Some medieval alchemical authors had already sketched out a kind of false alchemist: the sophist, whose understanding of alchemy was as shallow as his transmutations, altering only the surface qualities of metals, not their true nature.» — Antes ya existía un falso alquimista de factura interna, el sofista, que alteraba la superficie del metal y no su naturaleza.
«Instead, they launched their attack against something new: the intention, character, and morality of the alchemist, lambasting the Betrüger as everything from greedy, addicted fools to pernicious, predatory liars.» — Lo nuevo del ataque humanista no es la doctrina sino la persona: intención, carácter y moral del practicante.
«Now the alchemist-Betrüger himself was as superfi cial as his gold: an alchemist in appearance only, not in his true nature.» — De ahí la figura que resume el cargo: el Betrüger tan superficial como su oro, alquimista solo en apariencia.
«As William Newman has demonstrated, alchemy engaged these schoolmen because it lay at the heart of a debate about the power of art, or technology, in relationship to nature.» — Atribuye a William Newman la explicación del interés escolástico: la alquimia estaba en el centro del debate sobre el poder del arte frente a la naturaleza.
«Historians of medieval alchemy have argued that both the vernacularization of alchemical texts and the rise of “literary witnesses” to alchemy, as Michela Pereira has called them, in the fourteenth and fi fteenth centuries are evidence of the diffusion of alchemical ideas beyond the fairly narrow world of university-educated scholars.» — Y a Michela Pereira el término testigos literarios, con el que la historiografía data la difusión del saber más allá del mundo universitario.
«This late medieval shift in genre and audience was absolutely crucial for debates about alchemy, for it turned what had been a largely philosophical and theological debate about alchemy into one about the alchemists as a social type.» — El efecto de ese cambio de género y de público, que es su punto: el debate deja de ser filosófico y teológico y pasa a ser sobre el alquimista como tipo social.
«These “literary witnesses” increasingly wrote about alchemists as the kind of person one might encounter in the marketplace, or even, as in Dante’s Inferno, in the fi nal circle of hell.» — Los testigos literarios lo escriben ya como alguien que uno encuentra en el mercado, o en el último círculo del Infierno de Dante.
«In the sixteenth-century Holy Roman Empire, however, Chaucer was insignifi cant in comparison to Petrarch; this was particularly true after the appearance in 1532 of an extraordinarily successful illustrated German translation of De remediis, entitled Von der Artzney bayder Glück, des guten und widerwertigen, made Petrarch’s text accessible to German vernacular readers who may not have known the Latin original.» — Para el Sacro Imperio del XVI el peso lo tiene Petrarca, no Chaucer, y sobre todo desde la traducción alemana ilustrada de 1532.
«Alchemists appeared, for example, in Sebastian Brant’s (1457– 1521) astonishingly successful satire Narrenschiff (Ship of fools, 1494)» — La otra vía de difusión de la figura fue la sátira: el Narrenschiff de Brant, de 1494.
«Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim (1486–1535) addressed the subject as well in his treatise on the uselessness of art and knowledge, De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum (On the vanity and uncertainty of arts and sciences, written in 1526, published in 1530), as did Johannes Clajus (1535–92), somewhat later, but more directly, in his cleverly titled 1586 Altkumistica» — Y la lista sigue con Agrippa en el De incertitudine y con Johannes Clajus en su Altkumistica de 1586.
«Together, these and other authors constructed a signifi cant critical discourse around alchemy, drawing on the fool, merchant and criminal to make the alchemist into a potent symbol of human foibles.» — El resultado que adjudica al conjunto: un discurso crítico que hace del alquimista un símbolo de las flaquezas humanas, armado con el tonto, el mercader y el criminal.
«Von der Artzney bayder Glück, the 1532 German edition of Petrarch’s De remediis utriusque fortune, established the image of the alchemist as fool, the pitiful victim of a hopeless obsession with alchemical success.» — La imagen que fija la edición alemana de 1532 de Petrarca es la del alquimista como tonto, víctima de una obsesión sin salida.
«Reason declares, and “all reports that it happened to some are fabricated by people who have found it expedient to believe so.”» — Voz de la Razón en el diálogo de Petrarca, no de la autora: los relatos de éxito se dan por fabricados por quienes convenía creerlos.
«Reason concludes that alchemy ultimately will lead to “needless worries, a foolish heart, a disfi gured and grimy mouth, blinded eyes, and painful poverty, and worst of all, the name of a fraud and a dissolute rascal» — Y el desenlace que la Razón pronostica: cuitas inútiles, boca ennegrecida, ojos ciegos, pobreza y el nombre de fraude.
«Reason, however, tries to dispel this delusion, insisting, “You have easily congealed mercury (or quicksilver) or accomplished some other fantasy, but you are now as far as ever from the end of your undertaking.» — El argumento con que la Razón desarma la ilusión: haber cuajado el mercurio no acerca en nada al fin de la empresa.
«I tell you that the art you refer to is nothing else but the art of lying and cheating [betriegen].» — El cargo de Petrarca dicho en su forma más corta: el arte que se invoca no es sino arte de mentir y engañar.
«And yet, Petrarch insists, these claims are untrue, and so anyone who propagates them is a liar;» — Nummedal reconstruye el razonamiento: si las promesas son falsas, quien las propaga es mentiroso.
«On the one hand, he hints that they are con men—knowing liars who self-consciously spread falsehoods in order to take advantage of those gullible enough to believe them.» — Y anota la ambigüedad que Petrarca deja abierta entre embaucador consciente y engañado.
«In the end, it did not matter to Petrarch whether alchemists deluded themselves or others; either way, the art was so thoroughly corrupted by falsehood that it could only lead to ruin.» — Su lectura de conjunto: a Petrarca le daba igual si el alquimista se engañaba a sí mismo o a otros, porque el arte quedaba corrompido de falsedad igual.
«For Petrarch, the alchemist served as a moral exemplar, a warning against self-delusion and a vehicle for exploring how individuals should weigh the unlikely promise of future gain against its high costs in the present.» — El uso que adjudica a esa figura en Petrarca: exemplum moral para pesar una promesa improbable contra su costo presente.
«Later humanists like Erasmus, however, increasingly directed their satirical eye toward the costs of alchemy for society at large;» — Y el desplazamiento en Erasmo, con el límite dicho: la mirada satírica se corre hacia el costo social.
«Sebastian Brant elaborated much more fully on this theme and linked it explicitly to commerce in his 1494 Narrenschiff.» — Brant desarrolla lo mismo y lo ata explícitamente al comercio.
«Petrarch probably inspired Sebastian Brant to take up the theme in both text and image in his 1494 Narrenschiff.» — Adjudica con reserva la filiación: probablemente Petrarca inspiró a Brant a tomar el tema en texto e imagen.
«Brant contributed a prefatory poem, and the printer’s preface (written after Brant’s death) explained that the book contained “many elegant and wonderfully delightful images, which have been provided for each chapter according to the design of the late learned Doctor Sebastian Brant.”» — El dato de imprenta que la sostiene: Brant firmó un poema preliminar y el prólogo del impresor atribuye a su diseño las imágenes.
«As John Van Cleve has pointed out, a central concern of the Narrenschiff is that “a preoccupation with money and property makes happiness in this world possible, but not inevitable, and salvation in the world to come impossible.”» — Con John Van Cleve fija el eje del Narrenschiff: la obsesión por el dinero hace posible la felicidad terrena e imposible la salvación.
«However well intentioned, Brant argues, alchemists will most likely reap little gain but pay a high price for their practice, for alchemy’s addictiveness destroys its practitioner and everything else.» — El cargo propio de Brant contra los alquimistas es de adicción, no de doctrina: poca ganancia y precio alto.
«For Brant, as for Petrarch, alchemy transforms everything but the metal, as families leave, patrimonies disappear, and alchemists themselves are nearly deformed by their foolish obsession.» — Y la fórmula con que la autora resume a los dos: la alquimia transforma todo menos el metal.
«Erasmus too described alchemy as almost bewitching—“a disorder so intoxicating, once it strikes a man, that it beguiles even the learned and prudent.”» — En voz de Erasmo, el arte como desorden embriagador que engaña incluso al docto y prudente.
«Money is counted out then and there for the operator to buy pots, glasses, charcoal, and other equipment needed for the laboratory,” Balbinus’s friend Lalus explains.» — En el coloquio, el dinero se cuenta ahí mismo para ollas, vidrios y carbón; es escena de comedia, no acta de laboratorio.
«The power of alchemy to transform body and soul, even if it could not transmute metals, appeared as a theme in a number of other early modern texts as well.» — Su hallazgo transversal en esta literatura: la alquimia transforma cuerpo y alma aunque no transmute metales.
«Deception was everywhere, Brant declared, bringing spiritual corruption, death, and ruin; moreover, it fl ourished because of greed and the drive for profi t.» — El cargo de Brant no es contra la alquimia sola: el engaño está en todas partes y prospera por la codicia y el afán de lucro.
«No shopkeeper’s goods have fi xed value,” Brant objected; “everyone seeks to trade in deceit, just to unload the goods, even though the quality is terrible.”» — Su ejemplo de mercado, en voz de Brant: ninguna mercancía de tendero tiene valor fijo, y todos negocian con engaño para colocar género malo.
«And yet, in Brant’s eyes, alchemical tricks were unique. Whereas the other sorts of peddlers he describes were trying to sell false products, Brant’s phony alchemists were trying to sell false knowledge.» — Y la distinción que la autora le adjudica dentro de esa denuncia: los otros buhoneros vendían productos falsos, el alquimista vendía saber falso.
«After all, the gold they produced with hollow rods really was gold, it just was not produced through an actual transmutation of quicksilver, as the alchemists led their customers to believe;» — El detalle técnico que sostiene la distinción: el oro salido de la varilla hueca era oro de verdad, solo que no venía de transmutar mercurio.
«The false merchandise that the fraud was designed to conceal, then, was not the alchemical gold or silver, but the process or recipe for creating it, which was the real item for sale in this false transaction.» — De ahí que la mercancía encubierta no fuera el metal sino la receta, que era lo que en realidad se vendía.
«The false transmutation was not meant to be an end in itself, but rather a demonstration of the quality of the real product for sale, the knowledge of how to transmute metals.» — La transmutación falsa funcionaba como demostración de calidad del producto en venta, no como fin en sí misma.
«What he did not say, however, was that all alchemists belonged on board.» — La autora marca lo que Brant no dijo, que es su reserva: no que todos los alquimistas fueran al barco de los necios.
«Brant still left open the possibility that some might succeed, and here he set up a differentiation among the deliberately deceptive alchemist (the Betrüger), the incompetent fool (the sophist), and the real alchemist, who succeeds honestly.» — Y le atribuye una distinción de tres: el engañador deliberado, el necio incompetente y el alquimista real que acierta honradamente.
«The vintner on the right and the alchemist on the left, both in fool’s caps, clearly represent the “falsity and deception” that is the subject of the chapter, as the motto below the woodcut in the original German edition makes doubly clear: “One easily sees in alchemy, as well as in the doctoring of wine, the lies and fraud there are on earth”» — La lectura del grabado: vinatero y alquimista con gorro de bufón, y el lema alemán que iguala la alquimia con el aguado del vino.
«By including alchemists among those who sell false wares, Brant brought alchemy into the arena of trade and commerce and thus fl eshed out a dimension of the Betrüger that was not yet present in Petrarch.» — El aporte que adjudica a Brant frente a Petrarca: mete la alquimia en el terreno del comercio.
«If price was pegged to the perception of worth—whether in social, cultural, intellectual, or economic terms—then deception was particularly troubling, because it revealed the fragility of the model.» — Y por qué eso inquieta: si el precio se ata a la percepción del valor, el engaño deja a la vista la fragilidad del modelo.
«By describing alchemical Betrüger as an “order,” Erasmus hinted at the existence of an alchemical underground, adding the alchemist-Betrüger to the colorful rogues’ gallery that had come to fascinate Europeans in the sixteenth century.» — Lo que Erasmo insinúa al hablar de una orden de estafadores alquímicos es un submundo, y con él suma al alquimista a la galería de pícaros.
«By suggesting that Misoponus belonged to an existing “order” of fraudulent alchemists, Erasmus alluded to the possibility that alchemical fraud was not just an isolated problem; perhaps criminal alchemists were just as pervasive and organized as Europeans imagined other vagabonds and beggars to be.» — Con la consecuencia dicha en condicional: quizá los alquimistas criminales estuvieran tan extendidos y organizados como se imaginaba a vagabundos y mendigos.
«In fact, he insinuated, criminals and alchemists might be one and the same, as someone practiced at fraudulent begging could just as easily turn those skills to impersonating an alchemist; a life of crime, in other words, could easily lead to false alchemy.» — Y la insinuación más dura: que el mendigo fingido y el alquimista fingido podían ser el mismo hombre y el mismo oficio.
«As the very fi rst beggar explains, “the fact that I stand here naked, and must go begging throughout the land, was brought about by alchemy.”» — El nexo se cierra por la pobreza, en voz del primer mendigo del texto: si anda desnudo pidiendo por el país, fue por la alquimia.
«Agrippa too drew on this as a reason to condemn alchemists, reminding his readers of God’s commandment to work: “Alchemists are of all men the most wicked [perversissimos], since indeed God commanded: you shall eat bread from the sweat of your brow, and elsewhere he said to the prophet, you will be nourished by the labor of your own hands, and so you are blessed and you will be well.» — El cargo de Agrippa es teológico y de trabajo: el alquimista sería el más perverso de los hombres por eludir el mandato de comer el pan con el sudor de la frente.
«Clajus urged his readers to shun the get-rich-quick schemes of the alchemist and to embrace instead honest Altkumist, or “old-cow-dung,” if they wanted to make gold.» — El chiste de Clajus con el que se cierra la serie satírica: si quieres hacer oro, deja el atajo y quédate con el estiércol viejo de vaca.
«Clajus concluded, All of this comes from dung, When the land is fertilized with it, And it follows that Altkumisterey Is the proper art of making gold.» — Y su conclusión rimada: del estiércol sale todo cuando abona la tierra, y por eso la Altkumisterey es el arte propio de hacer oro.
«Nevertheless, the Betrüger took hold in the European imagination because it made alchemy meaningful.» — Su explicación de por qué prendió la figura: el Betrüger volvía inteligible la alquimia.
«In this sense, the Betrüger was a personifi cation of and answer to the medieval scholarly debate about whether alchemy could ever truly surpass nature or only hope to imitate it superfi cially.» — Lo lee como personificación de un debate escolástico anterior: si el arte puede superar a la naturaleza o solo imitarla en la superficie.
«Although some, like Brant, left open a tiny possibility for true alchemical transmutation, the loudest answer, from Petrarch to Clajus, was that alchemists could only appear to be successful through their stunning powers of imitation and deception.» — Con la salvedad de Brant señalada aparte, la respuesta más sonora, de Petrarca a Clajus, fue que el éxito era imitación y engaño.
«As infl uential humanists created a negative image of the alchemist designed to serve their larger social critiques, they threatened to undermine the persona alchemists were creating for themselves.» — El daño que adjudica a esa campaña: la imagen negativa amenazaba la persona que los propios alquimistas estaban construyendo.
«Even worse, from the perspective of alchemy’s supporters, was the fact that humanists like Brant and Erasmus attracted readers who might otherwise know little about alchemy; they may have even reached the illiterate, who could not read but could view the woodcuts accompanying texts like Brant’s Narrenschiff.» — Y el agravante de alcance: Brant y Erasmo llegaban a lectores ajenos al arte, y por el grabado incluso a quien no sabía leer.
«In acknowledging the connection between alchemy and deceit taking root in the minds of German readers, alchemical authors did not simply concede defeat. Rather, they sought to take control of this discussion, repositioning themselves in the European imagination as important allies in the fi ght against alchemical Betrug, rather than perpetrators of it.» — Su tesis del capítulo: los autores alquímicos no concedieron la derrota, sino que tomaron el discurso y se recolocaron como aliados contra el fraude.
«Alchemical texts such as the Alchimyspiegel (Mirror of alchemy, 1597), Leonhard Thurneisser’s Magna Alchimia (1583), and Heinrich Khunrath’s “Treuhertzige Wahrnungs-Vermahnung eines Getreuen Liebhabers der Warheit an alle wahre Liebhaber der Naturgemässen Alchymiae Transmutatoriae; daß wegen der Bübischen Handgriffe der betriegerischen Arg-Chymisten gute Auffacht vonnöthen” (Heartfelt warning and admonition from a faithful devotee of the truth to all true enthusiasts of the natural transmutational alchemy, which necessitates close attention because of the roguish tricks of the wicked chymists) all explained how to recognize the tricks of false alchemists as a humble warning to princes and other wealthy consumers who might otherwise fall prey to alchemical treachery.» — Los tres libros con que documenta ese giro, y de paso la grafía del nombre en la fuente: el Alchimyspiegel de 1597, la Magna Alchimia de Thurneisser de 1583 y la advertencia de Heinrich Khunrath.
«Rather than giving in to increasingly negative representations of alchemists in print, therefore, these authors found a way to turn them to their own advantage, using the fi gure of the Betrüger as a foil for their own social and cultural agendas.» — La operación es de uso, no de refutación: el Betrüger queda como contrafigura al servicio de la agenda de los propios alquimistas.
«A crucial starting place for the authors of all of these books was the simple point that all alchemists were not alike.» — El punto de partida común de esos libros es de una simplicidad deliberada: no todos los alquimistas son iguales.
«They argued that there were honest alchemists as well as impostors, and that even if a few criminals falsely posed as alchemists to perpetrate their scams, surely this should not condemn the art as a whole.» — Y el argumento que se sigue: unos pocos criminales disfrazados no deberían condenar el arte entero.
«As he explained in the preface to the Alchimyspiegel, in fact, he translated these two dialogues from Latin into German precisely because he wished to demonstrate alchemy’s value as the foundation of numerous other arts,» — El traductor del Alchimyspiegel declara su motivo en el prólogo: mostrar el valor de la alquimia como fundamento de otras muchas artes.
«Caesar’s German title for this dialogue emphasized the issue of fraud, promising that “the false and despicable [Leckerisch] inventions [gedicht] and deceits will be detected.”» — Aunque el título alemán que le pone al diálogo vende otra cosa: que quedarán detectadas las invenciones y engaños despreciables.
«Then the dialogue takes a different turn, however, as the two go on to discuss the differences between “natural alchemy,” which relies on the “secrets of nature” for its success, and the type that depends on “mere fraud [lauter Betrigerey].”» — La distinción interna del diálogo: alquimia natural, apoyada en los secretos de la naturaleza, frente a la que depende del puro fraude.
«The notion that those same vagabonds and frauds [Landstreicher and Landbescheisser] (whether they are learned or not) could be at all helpful to you,” Theophrastus admonishes his friend, “is as believable as the notion that one could make ivory white with something black.”» — En voz de Theophrastus, el símil con que descarta a los vagabundos: creerles es tan creíble como blanquear el marfil con algo negro.
«Books like the Alchimyspiegel aimed to convince readers that they must learn to differentiate real alchemy from alchemical Betrug.» — Lo que estos libros piden del lector es una destreza, no una fe: aprender a distinguir la alquimia real del Betrug.
«A few authors, however, also used the issue of fraud more constructively to articulate a new dimension of the alchemist’s persona: the alchemist as a discriminating expert.» — Y de ahí sale la novedad que a ella le interesa: el alquimista como experto que discrimina.
«Alchemists too hoped to take advantage of this trend, positioning themselves alongside those who could coordinate and access all of the other practitioners necessary to statecraft, from shipbuilders to mapmakers.» — El lugar que reclamaban en el Estado: junto a los que coordinan a los demás oficios necesarios, de constructores de barcos a cartógrafos.
«Thurneisser took an anecdotal approach, linking a more abstract discussion of the qualities of the ideal alchemist to stories of alchemical deceit that had already been circulating for decades.» — El método de Thurneisser era anecdótico: pegaba las cualidades del alquimista ideal a historias de engaño que ya llevaban décadas circulando.
«His aim, he claimed, was to warn and edify potential patrons about the possible pitfalls of investing in alchemy.» — Y su propósito declarado, que la autora consigna como declaración suya: advertir y edificar al mecenas sobre los riesgos de invertir en alquimia.
«By using the term Laborant, or “laboratory worker,” he indicated his particular focus on entrepreneurial alchemists who would work for wages.» — El término que Thurneisser usa marca el objeto: Laborant, trabajador de laboratorio a sueldo, no adepto.
«Thurneisser did not hide his disapproval of farming out the labor of this most noble art to others, but he clearly also recognized that this very same practice provided him with noble support for his own work throughout his life, so he stopped short of condemning the practice altogether.» — Y la autora consigna la contradicción sin resolverla: desaprueba encargar a otros el arte noble, y a la vez de esa práctica vivió toda su vida.
«Above all, the alchemical employee should be of good moral character: true to God (“and not only in appearance,” but deep in his heart), not a drunkard, gambler, or gossip.» — El perfil moral que pide del empleado alquímico: fiel a Dios de corazón y no solo en apariencia, ni borracho ni jugador ni chismoso.
«Thurneisser also pointed out the obvious: any alchemical assistant one hired should be knowledgeable about metals, minerals, and the fi re, smelting, assaying, mining, and so on.» — El perfil técnico, dicho como obviedad: que sepa de metales, minerales, fuego, fundición, ensaye y minería.
«Finally, this ideal alchemist should be willing to endure any kind of smoke, vapors, heat, cold, hunger, thirst, or bad weather—in other words, the physical trials of alchemical work that wealthy employers preferred to avoid.» — Y el perfil físico, que dice quién no bajaba al laboratorio: aguantar humo, vapores, calor, frío, hambre, sed y mal tiempo.
«In the next section of his preface, however, Thurneisser elaborated on the theme of Betrug, delineating four different types of deceitful alchemists in general “against whom princes who love the arts and other honorable people should guard themselves most carefully.”» — La segunda parte del prólogo cambia de objeto: cuatro tipos de alquimista engañoso de los que el príncipe amante de las artes debe guardarse.
«The fi rst type of “wandering, false, betrüglicher Alchymist,” according to Thurneisser, roams the Holy Roman Empire decked out in “large chains, as well as gold-plated weapons and daggers made of white copper or some kind of mixture, and golden rings set with” all kinds of imitation gems.» — El primer tipo entra por la vista: cadenas grandes, armas doradas de cobre blanco y anillos con piedras de imitación.
«Betrüger of the second type, in contrast, arrive dressed in rags, wearing a garment so worn that “not a single louse crawls on it.” They explain that they were robbed, or in a shipwreck, and that all of their books and clothes were destroyed.» — El segundo entra por lo contrario, harapos donde no camina ni un piojo, con el cuento del robo o el naufragio.
«The third type offers his art for nothing but the necessary food, lodging, and materials while he works; in exchange, he promises to grow gold or silver “as large as a hundred-year-old oak tree” out of a initial mixture of gold, silver, and several other ingredients.» — El tercero no cobra: pide comida, hospedaje y materiales, y promete hacer crecer el oro como un roble de cien años.
«The alchemist combines the ingredients (secretly holding back the silver and gold), then claims that he needs to go and purchase one more ingredient in order to succeed.» — Y el truco del cuarto queda descrito paso a paso: mezcla los ingredientes reservándose el oro y la plata y sale a comprar el que falta.
«For Thurneisser, the initial presentation of all four of these alchemists was the heart of their deception.» — Lo que Thurneisser adjudica como núcleo del engaño no es la operación sino la presentación inicial de los cuatro.
«In his discussion of fraud, Thurneisser’s text was more detached and descriptive, suggesting that he was merely reporting the state of affairs as they were.» — La autora lee el registro del texto, no solo su contenido: en la parte del fraude Thurneisser escribe distante y descriptivo, como quien reporta.
«Thurneisser may well have encountered Betrüger in his day, but he certainly also encountered their literary counterparts in the pages of Brant or Agrippa; more important, he knew that so too had his readers.» — Y pone el límite a esa pose de testigo: los Betrüger que dice haber visto también los había leído en Brant o en Agrippa, y sus lectores igual.
«Betrug was no mere literary fi ction, Thurneisser implied, but a very real threat that any well-intentioned patron might face.» — El efecto buscado, dicho como implicación: que el fraude no era ficción literaria sino amenaza real para el mecenas de buena fe.
«The author urged his readers to take alchemically produced gold to a trusted assayer for testing, for instance, or to purchase the materials for the alchemist’s work “in various cities miles apart from each other and from different merchants, in the east, west, north, and south.”» — El consejo práctico de Khunrath al comprador: llevar el oro a un ensayador de confianza y comprar los materiales en ciudades distantes y a comerciantes distintos.
«Finally, lest the author himself be confused with those Betrüger who sell their alchemical secrets for money, he assured his readers that he wished only one thing in exchange for his advice: that good people shun “the Evil, Algemistische, and intentionally fraudulent guild of gold beetles”» — Y su cobro declarado, que es la manera de no parecer lo que denuncia: no pide dinero, solo que la gente buena huya del gremio de los escarabajos de oro.
«By the same logic, any theologian who preaches against adultery must be an adulterer; any physician who teaches about disease must be himself diseased; any jurist who lectures on the proper punishments for theft must be a thief.» — Su defensa contra la objeción de que denunciar el fraude lo vuelve a uno fraude: por esa lógica el teólogo que predica contra el adulterio sería adúltero.
«At the same time, by comparing himself to other experts (theologians, jurists, and physicians), Khunrath constructed a position of authority from which he could evaluate and resolve the problem of alchemical fraud.» — Y la autora adjudica a esa comparación con teólogos, juristas y médicos la construcción de una posición de autoridad desde donde juzgar el fraude.
«These hybrid fi gures, too, took advantage of both a burgeoning print market and their liminal position between official academic culture and the piazza or workshop to publish the artisanal “secrets of nature” that would appeal to elite audiences: the medical secrets of popular pharmacology, techniques for making soaps, perfumes and scented lotions, as well as inks, dyes, and artifi cial gemstones.» — El paralelo con los profesores de secretos italianos: mismo mercado impreso y misma posición liminal entre la academia y el taller.
«Alchemists, in fact, came to epitomize for many the union of hands and minds that drove new ways of thinking about nature in the seventeenth century.» — El crédito que resulta: el alquimista queda como cifra de la unión de manos y mente que empujó el pensamiento sobre la naturaleza en el XVII.
«At the same time, however, alchemists now had to contend with their doppelgänger, the false alchemist.» — Con su contrapartida, dicha en la misma página: ahora había que lidiar con el doble, el falso alquimista.
«By making the Betrüger a familiar character by the end of the sixteenth century, paradoxically, these authors and artists paved the way for the alchemist to succeed as a real persona in early modern Europe.» — La paradoja que ella señala: los mismos autores y artistas que hicieron familiar al Betrüger abrieron el paso a que la persona del alquimista funcionara.
«The Betrüger, in other words, made the persona of the real alchemist as discriminating expert necessary, relevant, and comprehensible to central European elites who did not want to fall prey to the transparent schemes of the false alchemists.» — Porque el Betrüger volvía necesaria y comprensible la figura del experto que discrimina, ante élites que no querían caer.
«Historians of alchemy have not devoted enough critical attention to this complicated question, tending either to simply ignore such images, perhaps regarding them as merely the irrelevant uninformed observations of outsiders, or viewing them (especially the visual sources) as refl ective of a real world of sophists (or puffers), alchemical charlatans, and true adepts.» — Objeta a la historiografía de la alquimia su trato de esas imágenes: o las ignora como observaciones ajenas o las lee como espejo de un mundo real de sopladores y adeptos.
«I have argued that these texts and images are in fact crucial to any understanding of the history of alchemy in this period, not because they can be used transparently as sources that refl ect what alchemists were really like, but, quite to the contrary, because they helped to create a meaningful persona that was a central part of early modern alchemy.» — Y declara su propio uso, que es el contrario: no valen como reflejo de cómo eran los alquimistas, sino porque contribuyeron a crear la persona.
«Practitioners’ lives were not shaped solely by persona or knowledge and skill, however, but also by a third factor: the motivations and interests of the patrons who supported alchemists and their work.» — Introduce el tercer factor de la vida del practicante, junto a la persona y la destreza: los intereses del mecenas.
«In large part, these patrons fueled the market for alchemy in the Holy Roman Empire by creating an enormous demand for it; the large number of princes (and thus potential patrons) in the Holy Roman Empire, in fact, goes a long way toward explaining why alchemical practitioners fl ourished there, as these patrons built laboratories and hired alchemists to carry out all kinds of work in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.» — Su explicación del auge en el Imperio es de demanda: muchos príncipes, muchos mecenas posibles, laboratorios construidos y alquimistas contratados.
«A century ago scholars condemned sovereigns’ interest in natural magic or alchemy as a kind of escapism, a fl ight from truly important affairs of state while the Holy Roman Empire headed toward the Thirty Years’ War.» — Recoge la lectura antigua de ese interés principesco, que lo condenaba como evasión ante la guerra que venía.
«More recently historians have defended these princes’ pursuit of “occult philosophy,” or philosophia hermetica, arguing that in the sixteenth century such philosophical interests were in fact a meaningful intellectual response to religious and political crisis.» — Y la reciente, que lo defiende como respuesta intelectual con sentido a la crisis religiosa y política.
«European rulers such as Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II or Landgrave Moritz of Hessen-Kassel turned to natural magic and hermetic philosophy, where they could locate a comforting unity to the world more fundamental than widening surface fi ssures.» — Los nombres de esa lectura son Rudolf II y el landgrave Moritz de Hessen-Kassel, que buscaban una unidad del mundo más honda que las grietas visibles.
«The philosophical universalism and irenicism characteristic of these philosophies posited a single, universal natural order that linked the entire cosmos without regard for nation or confession, offering a worldview strikingly different from the divided European reality.» — El contenido de esa promesa: un orden natural único que ligaba el cosmos sin atender a nación ni confesión.
«As part of a broader intellectual effort to understand and control nature, therefore, natural magic and hermetic philosophy offered central European princes a solution to pressing political and religious problems.» — Su síntesis del argumento ajeno: la magia natural y la filosofía hermética ofrecían al príncipe una solución a problemas políticos y religiosos.
«Because alchemy was both a philosophy of nature and a practical technology, however, it offered more direct and concrete opportunities for control as well, especially in the economic arena.» — Y su propio giro, que es el del libro: como la alquimia era además tecnología práctica, ofrecía control directo en el terreno económico.
«Alchemy was attractive to political and fi nancial elites not just as an idea, in short, but also as a technology.» — La fórmula corta de esa tesis: atractiva para las élites no solo como idea, también como tecnología.
«Alchemists’ increasing involvement in mining had profound consequences, however, as princely expectations about profi ts and yields shaped their perceptions of alchemists’ abilities.» — Con la consecuencia que le interesa: metidos los alquimistas en la minería, las expectativas de rendimiento del príncipe pasaron a medir sus capacidades.
«The bishop’s stated reason for buying Grumbach’s recipe was quite simple: the alchemical production of wealth would serve the Catholic Church.» — El caso del obispo, con su motivo declarado en el propio documento: comprar la receta de Grumbach porque la riqueza alquímica serviría a la Iglesia católica.
«Many rulers simply needed an additional source of income to make up for budgetary shortfalls, and alchemy’s promise of transmutation could easily seem to offer a solution.» — El motivo más llano que consigna: muchos gobernantes solo necesitaban ingreso adicional, y la promesa de transmutación parecía una salida.
«Reducing princes’ economic interest in alchemy solely to a desire to make gold quickly, however, would miss the much more interesting and sophisticated relationship between alchemy, mining, and fi nance in early modern central Europe.» — Pero objeta que se reduzca todo a eso: quedaría fuera la relación más interesante entre alquimia, minería y finanzas.
«Alchemy was not the only option for princes who could not balance the books—many simply took out loans from prominent banking families in Augsburg and Nuremburg—but it certainly would have been an appealing alternative.» — Y pone la alternativa realmente disponible al lado: pedir crédito a las casas bancarias de Augsburgo y Núremberg.
«Early modern princes’ involvement with alchemy must also be understood as part of their long-standing engagement with the mining industry as a source of income for the state.» — Su adjudicación de fondo para el capítulo: la alquimia principesca se entiende dentro del compromiso viejo con la minería como fuente de ingreso del Estado.
«A metallurgical innovation known as the Saigerprozess, for example, made it possible to separate silver from copper ore through the use of lead.» — La innovación que sostiene el auge, nombrada en alemán: el Saigerprozess, que separa la plata del mineral de cobre con plomo.
«The new technologies, infusion of merchant capital, and princely promotion of the mining industry proved to be a powerful combination; the output of silver, copper, and other minerals from central European mines increased phenomenally from the 1460s to the middle of the sixteenth century.» — La combinación que adjudica al alza: tecnología nueva, capital mercantil y promoción principesca, de los años 1460 a mediados del XVI.
«In Saxony, for instance, income from silver mines accounted for a quarter of the state revenue in 1470, and two-thirds in 1530.» — El dato sajón que la mide: la plata pasa de un cuarto a dos tercios del ingreso estatal entre 1470 y 1530.
«By the mid-sixteenth century, however, European mines stagnated again and the burst of productivity began to level off.» — Y data el freno: a mediados del XVI las minas europeas se estancan otra vez.
«In central Europe, silver output dropped by almost half in the second half of the sixteenth century, from an average annual production of 19,850 metric tons in 1545 to only 10,400 metric tons in 1620.» — Con la cifra del descenso en Europa central en la segunda mitad del siglo, casi a la mitad entre 1545 y 1620.
«Just as the central European mines stagnated, gold and silver from Africa and the Americas began to fl ow into Europe.» — Al mismo tiempo entra el metal de África y de América.
«American silver exports to Europe increased more than thirtyfold in sixty years, in fact, surging from 86 metric tons in the 1530s to 1,118 in the 1570s and 2,707 in the 1590s.» — La magnitud de esa entrada, medida: la exportación americana de plata se multiplica por más de treinta en sesenta años.
«The massive infl ux of American silver caused infl ation in the European market, making German silver less valuable and further diminishing the profi tability of already failing German mines.» — Y su efecto sobre el productor alemán: inflación, plata germánica menos valiosa y minas ya en apuros aún menos rentables.
«After about 1590, however, American silver imports began to decline as well, causing a slowdown in the European economy and a gap between the level of economic activity and the amount of specie available to facilitate it.» — Con el segundo golpe fechado hacia 1590, cuando también cae la importación americana y se abre el hueco entre actividad y numerario.
«The identifi cation, exploitation, and production of new natural resources became central to the economic policies of late sixteenth-century princes like Duke Julius of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, Elector Au gust of Saxony, and Duke Friedrich of Württemberg.» — La respuesta política que data a fines del XVI, con sus tres nombres —la fuente parte August en dos por el escaneo—: identificar, explotar y producir recursos nuevos.
«His interest in making the mines more profi table, therefore, stemmed from both his roles as individual investor and territorial sovereign.» — Y la doble condición del príncipe, que es la clave del interés: inversor particular y soberano territorial a la vez.
«Another response was to mint coinage of baser metals—copper-silver alloys or pure copper, rather than silver; these coins began to circulate at the end of the sixteenth century.» — Una salida fue monetaria: acuñar en metales bajos, aleaciones de cobre y plata o cobre puro, ya a fines del XVI.
«Banking houses, most prominently the Fuggers in Augsburg, were able to use the bill of exchange to expand economic activity beyond the actual amount of available gold and silver.» — Otra fue crediticia, con la letra de cambio de los Fugger, que estira la actividad más allá del oro y la plata disponibles.
«He owned some entire works outright, held shares in others, and also collected regalian dues and taxes on the mining industry, which was by far the largest source of ducal income in this period.» — La posición del duque Julius en la industria, desglosada: obras propias, participaciones en otras y derechos regalianos, su mayor fuente de ingreso.
«In 1572, for example, Julius ordered his administrators to assist the surveyor Gottfried Mascopius in completing a survey (Landtafel) of the territory with an eye to its potential economic development.» — Su instrumento de gobierno del recurso, fechado en 1572: el levantamiento del territorio, la Landtafel, encargado al agrimensor Gottfried Mascopius.
«As Kraschewski has argued, the duke sought to make the mining industries in his territories more profi table so that they would bring more capital into the ducal treasury through taxes.» — Atribuye a Kraschewski la lectura del objetivo: minas más rentables para que el impuesto llevara más capital al tesoro ducal.
«The ultimate aim of Julius’s economic policy was to use the profi ts from the mining industries not only as a direct source of income, therefore, but also as a way to generate capital and then use it to subsidize local industries and protect them from the general infl ation of the sixteenth century.» — Y describe el circuito completo de esa política: la ganancia minera no solo como renta, también como capital para subvencionar industrias locales.
«Elector Au gust of Saxony has been described as “the most important early capitalist entrepreneur” as well as “one of the most successful economic policy makers [Wirtschaftspolitiker] on the German princely throne,” as evidenced by the fact that he transformed a debt of over one and a half million gulden at the beginning of his reign into a profi t of over two million gulden ten years later.» — Sobre el elector de Sajonia recoge el elogio ajeno con su prueba: una deuda de más de millón y medio de gulden vuelta ganancia de más de dos millones diez años después.
«As Alisha Rankin has argued, the activities of this electoral couple demonstrate an extensive, hands-on, experimental approach to the manipulation of nature that surely places both Au gust and Anna among those whom Bruce Moran has described as the prince-practitioners of the early modern period.» — Con Alisha Rankin coloca a August y a Anna entre los príncipes practicantes, término que atribuye a Bruce Moran.
«The electoral interest in nature in Saxony was not merely a personal hobby, but also central to the political and economic power of the court.» — Su adjudicación sobre ese interés: no era afición personal sino pieza del poder político y económico de la corte.
«As Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly has pointed out, the fact that “the theme of mining is presented again and again in court festivals is a phenomenon peculiar to Dresden.”» — Con Watanabe-O’Kelly señala lo peculiar de Dresde: el tema minero vuelve una y otra vez en las fiestas de corte.
«As Jutta Bäumel has noted, “it is fair to say that with his activities as a craftsman and his research Elector Au gust not only pursued a personal passion but an entire economic agenda.”» — Y con Jutta Bäumel cierra el punto: la actividad artesanal del elector era, además de pasión, una agenda económica.
«All of these projects proved to be wise investments for the electoral couple, bringing 250,000 gulden annually into the treasury by the 1560s, and by the end of his reign, approximately 400,000 gulden yearly.» — El rendimiento medido de esos proyectos: 250 000 gulden anuales al tesoro en los años sesenta y unos 400 000 al final del reinado.
«These new regulations not only centralized the mining industry and consolidated the bureaucracy that governed it; they also included measures to foster Saxon mining, such as tax relief for mines experiencing disruptions in productivity, multiple increases in the price of silver, and attenuation of the elector’s traditional right to 10 percent of all mining profi ts.» — El contenido de las nuevas ordenanzas mineras: centralización, alivio fiscal para minas con problemas, alzas del precio de la plata y recorte del diezmo del elector.
«Au gust not only founded a metallurgical-alchemical laboratory, known as the Goldhaus, behind the electoral palace in Dresden; he drew up the plans for the smelting furnace there himself.» — Y la instalación que corona esa política, con el detalle de mano propia: el Goldhaus tras el palacio de Dresde, cuyo horno de fundición dibujó él mismo.
«Because Württemberg was not blessed with the same mineral resources as places like Saxony and the Harz, it lacked the constellation of mining and capital that drew princes in Dresden and Wolfenbüttel into the regional economy.» — El contraste que explica el caso de Württemberg: sin los recursos minerales de Sajonia o el Harz, faltaba la constelación de minas y capital.
«Bodin’s articulation of statecraft and absolute sovereignty certainly infl uenced Duke Friedrich, imparting the lesson that the economy was an important source of princely power.» — La lectura política que le atribuye al duque Friedrich, con su fuente nombrada: de Bodin toma que la economía es fuente del poder principesco.
«By raising the standard of living of his subjects, Bodin argued, a ruler could increase tax income and thereby strengthen the power of the state.» — El argumento de Bodin en su forma operativa: subir el nivel de vida del súbdito para subir el ingreso fiscal y con él el poder del Estado.
«He also forbade the export of raw materials from his territory, displaying an early mercantilist interest in maximizing the use of local materials in production.» — Y la medida concreta que de ahí sale: prohibir la exportación de materias primas, con interés mercantilista temprano por el uso local.
«Even Emperor Rudolf II, who is often thought only to have “trod on the paths of secret knowledge with an obsession bordering on madness,” lost in his galleries and laboratories, took an interest in practical economic affairs.» — Objeta el retrato del emperador Rudolf II como pura obsesión por el saber secreto, y le adjudica interés en asuntos económicos prácticos.
«He issued a number of privileges for the exploration of new ore resources, including one in 1583 for the establishment of a new mining town—Kaiser Rudolfs Stadt (or Rudolfov).» — Con la prueba documental: privilegios de exploración de mineral, y en 1583 la fundación de una ciudad minera, Kaiser Rudolfs Stadt.
«As Pamela Long has noted, the “early modern capitalist expansion of mining” created a new audience for technical mining and metallurgical treatises in the second half of the sixteenth century.» — Con Pamela Long fija el efecto sobre el libro técnico: la expansión capitalista de la minería creó público nuevo para los tratados.
«Long has juxtaposed sixteenth-century exoteric mining treatises with alchemical writings, arguing that, whereas the authors of mining treatises emphasized openness, alchemical authors emphasized “transmission as an esoteric process, in which an authority transmitted alchemical knowledge to a few initiates usually within an apprenticeship relationship.”» — Y recoge de Long la oposición que su propio material complica: apertura en los tratados mineros, transmisión esotérica a pocos iniciados en los alquímicos.
«This connection between entrepreneurial alchemy and mining would have important consequences for the early modern practice of alchemy, as alchemists were expected to produce not merely ideas, but also increased profi ts.» — La consecuencia que ella extrae para la práctica: al alquimista ya no se le pedían ideas sino ganancias.
«Commenting on an alchemical proposal in 1576, approximately one year after Sömmering’s execution, Duke Julius confessed that he found alchemy to be worth the investment, quite literally: “Like our beloved Lord and Father [Duke Heinrich the Younger] . . . we have been so involved with alchemy that we have given over thousands of thaler to learn it. Nevertheless, it has also taken us so far that . . . we have improved our mines during our reign such that we now enjoy 480,000 gulden more yearly from various mines.”» — Voz del duque Julius en 1576, un año después de la ejecución de Sömmering: miles de thaler gastados en aprenderla y 480 000 gulden anuales más de sus minas.
«Despite his negative experience with Philipp Sömmering and his colleagues, Julius credited alchemy with nothing less than the renewal and increased profi tability of his mines.» — Su lectura de esa declaración, sin arbitrar el caso: pese a lo ocurrido con Sömmering, el duque le acreditaba a la alquimia la renovación de sus minas.
«He had not come to Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel merely to work in Julius’s salt mines, but clearly hoped to parlay his career as a salt worker into a much more infl uential position at court.» — Reconstruye la estrategia de entrada del alquimista: no llegó a Wolfenbüttel solo por las salinas, sino para convertir ese empleo en puesto de corte.
«Sömmering later denied that he had arrived with this deliberate strategy, claiming that he “had not seen himself previously as a Salzsieder, nor had he presented himself that way; rather, he wanted to conserve wood. It was not his intention, however, to make use of the Salzsieder position to make contact with Illustrissimus [Julius].”» — Y pone al lado la negativa del propio Sömmering, que en el proceso dijo no haberse presentado como salinero ni haber buscado por ahí al duque. Las dos versiones quedan.
«Sömmering’s ideas about fuel conservation and salt processing quickly led to an audience with the duke to tell him about an even more valuable secret: alchemy.» — Lo que sí queda documentado es la secuencia: del ahorro de leña y la sal a una audiencia para hablar del secreto más valioso.
«The alchemist predicted that, with his help, “after a time Your Grace will be able to achieve superb yields and profi ts for this land and its people, particularly with Your Grace’s mines, so that you will enjoy two hundred thousand thaler yearly more than before. . . . Moreover, I will share with Your Grace one loth of the Philosophical Tincture by which other lesser metals are made into gold; a principality deserves this, if not more.» — La promesa en voz del alquimista: doscientos mil thaler anuales más para el principado, y un loth de la tintura filosófica encima.
«It is likely that he intended the alchemists to help smelt the gold-bearing arsenic ore in this region, where gold was particularly thinly dispersed and difficult to mine.» — Sobre el destino real de ese trabajo la autora se queda en lo probable: fundir el mineral arsenical aurífero de la región, donde el oro venía muy disperso.
«It is unclear whether Julius, who responded positively to the proposal, understood it as a process for the transmutation of lead into copper or as a type of Saigerprozess commonly used to separate silver from copper ore using lead.» — Y declara lo que la fuente no permite saber: si el duque entendía la propuesta como transmutación de plomo en cobre o como un Saigerprozess.
«And yet this was precisely the proposal that caused Julius to exclaim how benefi cial alchemy had been to his mines, suggesting that he also regarded the process as alchemical.» — Con la consecuencia que sí registra: fue esa misma propuesta la que le hizo exclamar cuánto le había servido la alquimia.
«The close connection between the separation and the transmutation of metals was the key to metallurgical alchemical work, and it marked the space in which mining entrepreneurs found alchemists to be of the greatest use.» — Su adjudicación central sobre el oficio metalúrgico: la cercanía entre separar y transmutar era la clave, y ahí el empresario minero encontraba útil al alquimista.
«Thus, whereas in theory natural philosophers, alchemical authors, and probably also most princes recognized that there was a clear difference between Scheidekünste and transmutation, in practice, at least in the context of mining, the two commingled much more easily.» — Con la distinción hecha en el plano correcto: en teoría filósofos, autores y príncipes separaban Scheidekünste de transmutación; en la práctica minera se mezclaban.
«Honauer’s timing was astute; he arrived just as Duke Friedrich had demonstrated his interest in developing his mining industries by announcing a reward for the location of new ore deposits.» — El detalle de oportunidad en el caso Honauer: llegó justo cuando el duque Friedrich ofrecía recompensa por hallar yacimientos.
«Müller traced Honauer’s process back to an incident several years before the alchemist had come to Stuttgart, when Müller had seen Honauer make gold out of a lead bullet in a military camp in Hungary.» — El testimonio del orfebre Müller, que es voz de proceso: dice haberle visto hacer oro de una bala de plomo en un campamento militar en Hungría.
«While Honauer heated the cartridge over the fi re in a cupel, he pulled out a small golden box containing his tincture, which was in a fl ask specially made to release only a drop at a time, “like a mustard seed.”» — Y describe el dispositivo de la demostración: una cajita dorada con la tintura en un frasco hecho para soltar una gota, como un grano de mostaza.
«Above all, it made alchemy directly relevant to princes’ practical projects and created a pool of patrons willing to include alchemists among the surveyors, mining consultants, and other experts they hired to improve the productivity of their lands.» — El efecto de esa utilidad práctica: alquimistas contratados junto a agrimensores y consultores de minas para hacer rendir la tierra.
«Technological invention was prized, but so too were profi ts, efficiency, accessible supplies, and cost; princes made it clear that alchemists’ processes were useful only if they were cost effective as well.» — Y la vara con que se los medía, que es de contabilidad: el proceso servía solo si además salía a cuenta.
«Honauer, for instance, took care to point out that each zentner (one hundred pounds) of iron would produce approximately sixteen hundred gulden of gold at a cost of only forty gulden, “and two people could complete one zentner per week.”» — Por eso Honauer cotiza: un quintal de hierro daría unos mil seiscientos gulden de oro por cuarenta de costo, con dos personas por semana.
«To increase profi ts, he claimed, Duke Friedrich needed only to employ more workers: “One could also organize it like a large mine,” Honauer noted, “with a thousand men.”» — Y ofrece la escala, en su propia voz: organizarlo como una mina grande, con mil hombres.
«In this context, transmutation was important not merely for its symbolic value as a demonstration of power or unity, in other words, but as a real technique with potentially valuable economic and political results.» — Su conclusión sobre el sentido de la transmutación en este contexto: no valor simbólico de poder, sino técnica real de resultado económico y político.
«Kramer fi rst contacted Elector Au gust in Oc to ber 1583 with an offer of the philosophers’ stone, but when the stone turned out to be ineffective, Au gust concluded that “it was not yet God’s will that such a great secret should be revealed.”» — El caso Kramer, con la salida piadosa del elector cuando la piedra falla: que aún no era voluntad de Dios revelar tal secreto.
«Kramer’s description neatly exemplifi es the confl ation of transmutation and smelting; just as copper water could turn iron into copper, he suggests, so too could his Lauge, together with the composita, turn silver into gold.» — La confusión de registros en la propia oferta: si el agua de cobre vuelve cobre al hierro, la lejía con los composita volvería oro a la plata.
«Alchemical transmutation, here, was just another “invention” that could be both claimed as a kind of proto-intellectual-property and offered for sale.» — De donde su lectura del estatuto jurídico de la cosa: la transmutación como una invención más, reclamable como propiedad y vendible.
«Although Dreyecker hoped to sell the process to the Catholic Fuggers for a healthy sum, the inventor refused, as he “was not of a mind to reveal the art to great Potentates, especially not to papists.”» — Y el límite confesional del inventor anónimo, en su propia voz: no revelar el arte a los grandes potentados, y menos a papistas.
«Kramer swore that he himself did not know the details of the process, however, and that he was not directly connected with the inventor.» — Con la reserva del intermediario, que la autora consigna sin resolver: Kramer juró no conocer los detalles ni tener relación directa con el inventor.
«He authorized Kramer to bring the inventor to Saxony and to act as the elector’s agent in pursuing a deal for the purchase of the alchemical process.» — El procedimiento del elector cuando la oferta le interesa: autoriza a Kramer a traer al inventor y a actuar como su agente en la compra.
«Au gust expected Kramer’s process not only to work, but also to work efficiently, on a large scale, and with native Saxon materials.» — Y sus tres condiciones, que son de industria y no de arte: que funcione, que escale y que corra con materiales sajones.
«Finally, Au gust wanted to retain exclusive rights to this process and insisted that the inventor promise not to reveal or sell the process to anyone else once the elector had purchased it.» — Con la cuarta, de exclusividad: que el inventor prometa no revelar ni vender el proceso a nadie más una vez comprado.
«The Kramer episode, in which a silk and lead merchant from Leipzig nearly convinced the Saxon elector to purchase fi rst the philosophers’ stone and then an alchemical process, makes it clear that the princely amalgam of alchemy, commerce, and mining in the sixteenth century was a curious blend of tradition and innovation,» — Su lectura del episodio: un mercader de seda y plomo de Leipzig estuvo cerca de venderle al elector primero la piedra y después un proceso.
«At the end of the seventeenth century, Johann Joachim Becher (1635–82) would develop a sophisticated formulation of the relationship between alchemy and commerce, linking them both through a metaphor of consumption and production.» — Sitúa a fines del XVII la formulación acabada del vínculo entre alquimia y comercio, en Johann Joachim Becher.
«Smith contrasts Becher’s seventeenth-century understanding of alchemy as “an activity that mediated between noble and commercial culture” with an earlier view characteristic of courts like Rudolf II’s.» — Y recoge de Smith el contraste con la corte de Rudolf II, donde la alquimia no mediaba entre lo noble y lo comercial.
«While sixteenth-century alchemists certainly promised precious metals, their operations in the laboratory also served as a “key to nature” and, ultimately, to God.» — Con el matiz que impide reducir el siglo XVI al lucro: la operación de laboratorio era también llave de la naturaleza y, al final, de Dios.
«In this context, alchemy was but one ingredient in princes’ new approach to political economy and statecraft, one that combined traditional ways of generating income for the state (such as mining) with more modern innovations (such as centralized, capitalized economic projects).» — Su encuadre del conjunto: la alquimia como un ingrediente de una economía política que mezclaba el ingreso tradicional con proyectos capitalizados.
«For the entrepreneurial alchemists who operated in this context, princely desires for profi ts and power turned out to be crucial, shaping expectations for their work that often rested uneasily alongside alchemists’ abilities and personae.» — Y el costo de esa mezcla para el practicante: el deseo principesco de ganancia moldeaba expectativas que encajaban mal con lo que él podía hacer.
«So wrote the blind Swiss alchemist Hans Heinrich Nüschler in 1601 when he recalled how he had begun to work for Duke Friedrich of Württemberg.» — El caso Nüschler, con el dato de la fuente que corrige al resumen del extractor: es un alquimista suizo ciego, no una alquimista.
«Nüschler begged Friedrich to halt the tests, but his debt was already more than he could repay.» — El desenlace del caso: pidió al duque que parara las pruebas, y para entonces la deuda ya excedía lo que podía pagar.
«Nüschler’s unhappy story captures many of the mundane aspects of alchemy as it was practiced in the early modern Holy Roman Empire; however pious or scholarly alchemists’ goals were, of necessity their practice was often mired in the messy details of patronage, contracts, money, and tests of their abilities.» — Lo que ella extrae de esa historia infeliz: por piadosas o eruditas que fueran las metas, la práctica pasaba por mecenazgo, contratos, dinero y pruebas.
«Patrons were justifi ably wary of the scores of practitioners who approached them with processes, tinctures, powders, and philosophers’ stones.» — Y da por justificada la desconfianza del mecenas ante la cantidad de gente que llegaba con procesos, tinturas, polvos y piedras.
«The fear of false alchemists was amplifi ed by the lack of the licenses, degrees, or guild memberships that offered some sort of credential to practitioners of other trades.» — La causa institucional de ese temor: no había licencias, ni grados, ni gremio que acreditara al practicante como en otros oficios.
«Without recourse to such external markers of authority, patrons and alchemists had to invent their own methods of asserting and recognizing alchemical legitimacy; patronage and rigorously controlled demonstrations of skill, therefore, became important tools for determining who was a Betrüger and who was not.» — De donde salen las dos herramientas que estudia el capítulo: el mecenazgo y la demostración rigurosamente controlada, para decidir quién era Betrüger.
«If early modern alchemy in general was characterized by a certain fl uidity about who could practice it and what they could be expected to do, the practices that appeared around the patronage of entrepreneurial alchemy aimed to pin it down.» — Frente a la fluidez general del oficio, adjudica a esas prácticas de mecenazgo el intento de fijarlo.
«indeterminacy disappeared when alchemists were asked to put pen to paper and sign a contract promising to complete a process within a certain period of time.» — Y localiza el momento en que la indeterminación se acaba: al firmar un contrato con un proceso y un plazo.
«By formalizing alchemical practices and setting up clear criteria for success and failure, however, these practices also created new risks for alchemical practitioners.» — Con el reverso que le importa: formalizar criterios de éxito y de fracaso creó riesgos nuevos para el practicante.
«As a number of scholars have shown, prominent patrons could confer political protection, social recognition, and legitimacy for a whole range of activities that otherwise stood outside (or at the bottom of) social and intellectual hierarchies.» — Lo que el mecenas aportaba, según la bibliografía que resume: protección política, reconocimiento social y legitimidad a actividades de baja posición.
«Paula Findlen has observed, in fact, “courtly and patrician culture operated on the principle of indirect access” in this period; “if a prince made himself too readily available to his subjects, he diminished his magnifi cence.» — Y con Paula Findlen, la regla de acceso indirecto: un príncipe demasiado disponible perdía magnificencia.
«By controlling access to patrons, brokers and mediators played a crucial role in determining who counted as a legitimate alchemist and who did not.» — El poder real del intermediario, que es el punto del capítulo: al controlar el acceso, decidía quién contaba como alquimista legítimo.
«These brokers were not always alchemists themselves, but they tended at least to have some kind of related practical expertise.» — Con su perfil típico: no siempre alquimistas, pero casi siempre con alguna pericia práctica afín.
«It was ultimately Pellitius’s recommendation that opened the door for Sömmering, who then got the chance to tell Duke Julius about his alchemical projects.» — El caso concreto: fue la recomendación de Pellitius la que abrió la puerta de Sömmering al duque.
«As Härpfell assured his patron, the alchemist Haißhammer “worked himself, with his own hands, and his [alchemy] is entirely certain.”» — La forma que toma el aval en voz del intermediario Härpfell: que Haißhammer trabajaba con sus propias manos y que su alquimia era enteramente cierta.
«This possibility meant that a strategy of collaboration among alchemists could be preferable to one of denouncing one’s rivals at court.» — Y una consecuencia estratégica que la autora deduce del sistema: colaborar entre alquimistas podía convenir más que denunciar al rival en la corte.
«A surprising number of alchemists broke the unwritten rule of indirect access, however, and approached patrons directly with proposals and projects.» — Consigna también cuántos rompían la regla: un número sorprendente escribía directo al mecenas con propuestas y proyectos.
«The Saxon elector Au gust and his son Christian I, for instance, received over one thousand pages of letters from various skilled practitioners (Künstler) proposing all kinds of projects.» — La medida documental de ese flujo: más de mil páginas de cartas de Künstler recibidas por el elector August y su hijo Christian I.
«Some Künstler offered to share their knowledge of astronomy and geometry, for example, while one man even offered “a short lesson in what truth and sophistry are, and in theology, astronomy, and medicine.”» — Con muestras del catálogo, que no es solo alquímico: astronomía, geometría y hasta una lección breve sobre qué es verdad y qué es sofistería.
«Hirschenberg hereby pointed to an important distinction that alchemical authors from pseudo-Lull to Robert Boyle made between different types of transmutation.» — Adjudica a la distinción entre transmutación particular y universal una línea larga de autores, de pseudo-Lull a Robert Boyle.
«Although many had sought the universal, they had been “deceived” by the many errors in circulation and, most important, by their own ignorance.» — En voz del peticionario Hirschenberg: los que buscaron la universal fueron engañados por los errores en circulación y por su propia ignorancia.
«He now hoped that Rozˇmberk, as “a particular lover of the liberal arts and studies . . . [of] Magia and Alchimia,” could provide him with “a comfortable, quiet and safe place” to fi nish his alchemical work.» — Y lo que pide a cambio no es dinero sino sitio: un lugar cómodo, quieto y seguro para terminar su obra.
«Moran also points out the centrality of fraud to these petitions, which “inevitably contained condemnations of false philosophers and sophists.”» — Con Moran señala lo que estas peticiones traen siempre: condenas de falsos filósofos y sofistas.
«Thus, for example, an extremely lengthy petition sent to Landgrave Moritz of Hessen-Kassel by a fencing master named von Stuckhard simultaneously praised Moritz as a learned Christian prince chosen by God to receive the gift of alchemy and condemned the alchemists around him as “poisonous snakes and Basilisks.”» — El ejemplo extremo, el maestro de esgrima von Stuckhard, que alaba al landgrave como elegido de Dios y llama a los alquimistas de su entorno serpientes venenosas y basiliscos.
«On the other hand, such patronage appeals were also an opportunity for alchemists to justify their own knowledge and condemn their rivals.» — La función doble de la petición: justificar el propio saber y condenar al rival en el mismo escrito.
«By explaining where other “deceived” alchemists went astray in their pursuit of the universal philosophers’ stone, he reinforced his own superior knowledge and even suggested that he could serve as a kind of alchemical adviser.» — Y su rendimiento: explicando dónde erraron los engañados, el peticionario se ofrece de asesor alquímico.
«Not all alchemists were as rhetorically skilled as Hirschenberg and von Stuckhard, who displayed their skills as courtiers by weaving subtle (or not-so-subtle) tapestries of politics, religion, and knowledge designed to fl atter and intrigue potential patrons.» — La autora acota que no todos tenían esa destreza retórica de cortesano.
«When the assayer and author Lazar Ercker wrote to Duke Julius of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel in 1585, for example, he underscored the money, in the most concrete sense, that he could help generate.» — El caso contrario es el del ensayador Lazar Ercker, que en 1585 subraya el dinero en el sentido más concreto.
«Ercker already had connections to the Wolfenbüttel court, for he had worked for Julius’s father Heinrich as warden (Wardein) of the mint in Goslar from 1558 to 1565;» — Con la relación previa que le daba entrada: había servido al padre del duque como Wardein de la ceca de Goslar entre 1558 y 1565.
«“By the singular gift of Almighty God,” Ercker wrote, “I have invented an art using a powder, by which I can transform Rheinisch or other low quality gold in a few days to proper ducat- quality gold.”» — Su oferta, con la fórmula piadosa por delante: un arte con polvo para llevar en pocos días el oro renano a calidad de ducado.
«Ercker claimed that he could refi ne one hundred marks (about twenty-three kilograms) of Rheinisch gold gulden a week, with an extra cost of ten thaler “for the coals and all the instruments.”» — Y la cifra de rendimiento con su costo: cien marcos por semana con diez thaler de más por carbones e instrumentos.
«Even if alchemical expertise did not always reside in alchemists themselves, these gatekeepers embodied the persona that alchemists like Thurneisser and Khunrath were carving out in print: the expert who could help sort out the true alchemists from the Betrüger.» — Los porteros de corte, aun sin ser alquimistas, encarnaban la persona que Thurneisser y Khunrath dibujaban en letra impresa: el experto que separa.
«The very existence of such positions, moreover, is an indication of both the fear of fraud and just how many practitioners must have passed through the courts of the Holy Roman Empire.» — Y la existencia misma de esos puestos le sirve de indicio doble: miedo al fraude y cantidad de practicantes pasando por las cortes.
«Princes could rely in part on traditional patronage structures to sort them all out, placing their trust in those with the proper social contacts and skills in rhetorical persuasion; but they also resorted to other kinds of screening procedures, putting alchemy to the test in more concrete ways as well.» — El príncipe combinaba dos filtros: el contacto social de siempre y procedimientos concretos de prueba.
«Many patrons required demonstrative evidence of alchemical ability, insisting that potential court alchemists (particularly those who promised to make gold or other precious metals) pass a series of tests in order to prove their art.» — La forma de esos procedimientos: pasar una serie de pruebas para acreditar el arte, sobre todo quien prometía metales preciosos.
«Moravian Georg Honauer fi rst came to Stuttgart in 1596, for example, Duke Friedrich asked him to perform a series of small tests designed to evaluate the alchemist’s claim to make precious metals with a certain powder.» — El caso fechado: Honauer llega a Stuttgart en 1596 y el duque Friedrich le pide pruebas pequeñas de su polvo.
«Gadner found Honauer’s alchemical gold to be authentic; according to the results of the fi rst test, the sample was judged to be “at least as good as ducat-quality gold.”» — Con el resultado que el propio ensayador ducal firmó: el oro se juzgó al menos tan bueno como el de calidad de ducado.
«What is interesting for the modern observer is that some alchemists’ products did pass assays.» — Ella subraya lo incómodo del dato para el lector moderno: había productos de alquimista que pasaban el ensaye.
«One explanation draws directly on the arguments fi rst articulated by Petrarch and his followers: the assays came up with good quality gold because the sample did contain gold, slipped in at some point during the transmutation through sleight of hand.» — Pone primero la explicación heredada de Petrarca: había oro porque alguien lo metió con juego de manos.
«On their own, however, such polemical claims simply are not sufficient proof of actual Betrug; they must be read as arguments deeply embedded in a battle for alchemical authority, not as transparent documents of fraud.» — Y la objeta como prueba: esos textos son piezas de una batalla por la autoridad alquímica, no documentos transparentes de fraude.
«First of all, as William Newman has shown, the “art-nature debate” had sensitized early modern natural philosophers and alchemists to sophisticated differentiations among different kinds of gold, particularly the much-debated difference between “natural” gold mined from the earth and “artifi cial” gold produced alchemically.» — Con Newman recuerda que el debate arte-naturaleza había afinado la distinción entre oro natural de mina y oro artificial de laboratorio.
«More immediately, textual evidence suggests that since at least the Middle Ages, both alchemists and assayers had utilized highly sophisticated techniques not only for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of metals, but also for the experimental investigation of nature.» — Y aporta el dato técnico que impide despachar el asunto: desde la Edad Media alquimistas y ensayadores usaban técnicas finas de análisis.
«One of the particularly modern characteristics of sixteenth-century assaying, in fact, was a quantitative precision that led one twentieth-century observer to note that the early modern assayer “deserves as much credit as the observational astronomer for providing numerical data and establishing the tradition of accurate measurement without which modern science could not have arisen.”» — Con el elogio que cita de un observador del siglo XX: el ensayador temprano merece tanto crédito como el astrónomo observacional por la medida exacta.
«When Duke Friedrich’s assayers tested Honauer’s gold, in other words, they did more than simply look at it to see if it “looked like gold”; they deployed sophisticated metallurgical expertise.» — De donde su conclusión sobre el caso Honauer: los ensayadores del duque no miraron si parecía oro, desplegaron pericia metalúrgica.
«Friedrich’s assayers might also have used another technique involving antimony to assay Honauer’s sample; in fact, in this instance, Friedrich specifi cally requested that “a little of the antimony be used.”» — El detalle documental de esa prueba: el propio duque pidió que se usara un poco de antimonio.
«Biringuccio credited alchemists with the discovery of this technique, noting that it “was found by some clever men (alchemists, I believe).”» — Y el crédito que Biringuccio da por esa técnica, con su propia cautela: la hallaron unos hombres hábiles, alquimistas, cree él.
«First, a principle that all metals were composed of different proportions and levels of purity of the same two materials (called sulfur and mercury) suggested that, by purifying these ingredients, one could transmute one metal into another.» — El primer principio teórico que hacía plausible la transmutación: todos los metales compuestos de azufre y mercurio en proporciones y purezas distintas.
«If alchemical transmutation worked in theory, both Friedrich’s claim to have witnessed it and reports of successful transmutations like Honauer’s suggest that it also worked in practice (although this is perhaps more difficult for the modern observer to grasp).» — Su encadenamiento, con la dificultad para el lector moderno declarada: si la transmutación funcionaba en teoría, los testimonios sugieren que también en la práctica.
«Karpenko has shown “what really happened” when alchemists appeared to have transmuted base metals into gold, revealing what he has called “the basic techniques used in these alleged transmutations.”» — Recoge a Karpenko, que reconstruye qué ocurría de verdad en esas transmutaciones alegadas.
«Karpenko explained: “His process consisted of smelting coins (preferably Brabant thalers, which are now known to contain a small amount of gold) with sea-sand and certain salts as a fl ux. A minute amount of gold was obtained in this way, which Becher mistakenly attributed to the transformation of silver into gold.”» — El ejemplo, en voz de Karpenko: fundir thaler de Brabante, que contienen algo de oro, con arena de mar y sales, y atribuir a transmutación el oro obtenido.
«Karpenko takes pains to point out that his results do not mean that transmutation is possible, but rather that alchemists misread the evidence before them as evidence of transmutation.» — Y consigna la precisión del propio Karpenko: no que la transmutación sea posible, sino que los alquimistas leyeron mal su propia evidencia.
«The more relevant question for the historian, however, is not what modern chemistry can teach us about how alchemists “misread” their own processes, but rather what exactly alchemical success meant to early modern Europeans.» — Su desplazamiento de la pregunta, que es la clave metodológica del capítulo: no qué nos enseña la química moderna, sino qué significaba el éxito para ellos.
«In their view, the reason that there was gold in the crucible at the end of the process was that the alchemist had produced it by means of transmutation (not because it had always been present).» — La razón que ellos daban del oro en el crisol: producido por transmutación, no presente desde el principio.
«Seen from this perspective, alchemical transmutation was possible in practice as well as in theory.» — Desde esa perspectiva, y solo desde ella, la transmutación era posible también en la práctica.
«In the “alchemist’s reality” Honauer did produce precious metals alchemically, just as Duke Friedrich’s assayers claimed he did; we need not invent a modern explanation simply to explain it away.» — Con su fórmula de método: en la realidad del alquimista, Honauer produjo metales preciosos, y no hace falta inventar una explicación moderna para deshacerlo.
«Rather than naively taking alchemists at their word when they promised huge sums of gold, princes thus employed concrete measures, evaluating alchemical transmutations according to the technical standards of the assayer before taking the risk of investing large amounts of money.» — Y el contrapeso que impide leer al príncipe como crédulo: evaluaba según los estándares técnicos del ensayador antes de arriesgar dinero.
«Early modern Europeans were no strangers to the contract; in fact, even ordinary people would have been likely to sign a number of them during their lifetimes.» — Sitúa el contrato alquímico dentro de una cultura general del contrato, que alcanzaba a gente común.
«The kinds of documents that alchemists and their patrons signed were part of this broad culture of the contract in early modern Europe, but they were closest to those signed by other skilled practitioners, such as painters, healers, and masons.» — Con el parentesco más cercano señalado: los contratos de pintores, sanadores y albañiles.
«In legally binding contracts, both parties set down their expectations for the relationship in terms of not only pay, but also the quality of the product, the amount of time it would take to complete, and, in some cases, the penalty for failing to complete the project.» — Qué fijaba un contrato de estos: paga, calidad del producto, plazo y a veces la pena por no terminar.
«They can also give us a sense of how early modern alchemists and their patrons understood alchemical success in their own terms.» — Y para qué le sirven a ella: para saber qué entendían las partes por éxito alquímico en sus propios términos.
«Claudius does not promise anything about the perfection of the magisterium, but he will carry out his art with all his energy and ability; may the Lord God decide about the perfection thereof.» — La cláusula del contrato bohemio que reparte el riesgo con Dios: Claudius no promete la perfección del magisterio, solo poner toda su energía.
«The mutually benefi cial nature of Syrrus and Rozˇmberk’s contract indicates that both parties had a hand in crafting this agreement.» — Su lectura del documento: el beneficio mutuo indica que ambas partes intervinieron en redactarlo.
«Finally, responding to Friedrich’s draft contract, Hofrichter noted, “I am satisfi ed with all of the clauses, points, and articles in the contract on which you have worked so hard.”» — Con la prueba de negociación en voz del alquimista Hofrichter, que se declara satisfecho con todas las cláusulas del borrador.
«To the extent that they were mutually negotiated, alchemical contracts were similar to those signed by painters and their patrons, or healers and their patients.» — El paralelo que sostiene esa lectura: contratos de pintor con mecenas y de sanador con paciente.
«As Gianna Pomata has found, in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Bologna patients and healers both participated in creating contracts that promised the restoration of health in exchange for payment.» — Con Gianna Pomata para Bolonia, donde paciente y sanador participaban en redactar la promesa de restablecer la salud.
«Like these others, alchemical contracts were not simple, formulaic documents, but were carefully negotiated by both sides.» — Su conclusión sobre el género: no eran documentos formularios sino piezas negociadas por los dos lados.
«Whereas Syrrus, for example, offered Rozˇmberk half his medicine, the alchemist Daniel Keller promised Marx Fugger one-quarter of the profi ts from his process for making one ounce of gold out of every mark of silver.» — Y la variedad de las fórmulas de reparto: media medicina para Rožmberk, un cuarto de las ganancias para Marx Fugger.
«Despite the risks involved, alchemists stood to benefi t enormously from these contracts, both in terms of support while carrying out the work and rewards upon completion of the contract.» — El lado favorable del contrato para el alquimista: sostén mientras trabaja y recompensa al terminar.
«Hans Heinrich Müller, for instance, became Hans Heinrich von Mühlenfels when Emperor Rudolf II ennobled him as a reward in 1603.» — Con la forma no monetaria de esa recompensa: Hans Heinrich Müller pasa a von Mühlenfels al ennoblecerlo Rudolf II en 1603.
«The contract not only carefully documented how much money was changing hands, but also stipulated that Wagenmann would be fully responsible for all of the expenses incurred should he eventually fail.» — Lo que documenta un contrato como el de Wagenmann: cuánto dinero cambia de manos y quién carga con los gastos si falla.
«Clauses that placed the fi nancial burden on alchemists, however, show such contracts to have been rather savvy deals from the patrons’ perspective.» — Su lectura de esa cláusula desde el otro lado: pone al mecenas en un trato astuto, no ingenuo.
«Should a process fail, contracts could ensure that the debt fell to the alchemist; should the alchemist succeed, however, the profi ts, at least in part, went to the prince.» — El reparto asimétrico dicho en una línea: la deuda al alquimista si el proceso falla, la ganancia al príncipe si acierta.
«Alchemical contracts thus had much to offer wealthy patrons, allowing them to transfer the bulk of the risk to the alchemists but retain profi ts for themselves.» — Y su síntesis: transferir el grueso del riesgo y quedarse con el beneficio.
«The temptation is great to see these contracts as foolish on the part of patrons; it might seem that, like Erasmus’s character Balbinus, princes let their hope for a miraculous source of gold or health corrupt their good sense and convince them to pour money into the pockets of deceitful alchemists.» — Objeta la lectura fácil del mecenas como necio a la manera del Balbinus de Erasmo.
«Furthermore, it is important to remember that princes entered into these arrangements with the reasonable expectation that the alchemists would indeed complete their work as stipulated by the contract— otherwise they would not have signed the agreements.» — Porque los príncipes firmaban con la expectativa razonable de que el trabajo se completara; de otro modo no habrían firmado.
«Assuming that alchemical processes could be successful, the princes stood to reap substantial profi ts from their initial investments.» — Y con la cuenta hecha: si el proceso funcionaba, la inversión inicial rendía sustancialmente.
«Jost Weyer calculated, for instance, that the augmentation process that Michael Polhaimer contracted to carry out for Count Wolfgang von Hohenlohe would have doubled Wolfgang’s initial investment.» — El cálculo de Jost Weyer sobre un caso: el proceso de aumentación de Polhaimer habría duplicado lo invertido por el conde von Hohenlohe.
«Because, like mining, large-scale alchemy was so capital intensive, such contracts were one of the few ways that ordinary alchemists could secure the resources needed to carry out their work.» — Por qué el alquimista común también firmaba: como la minería, la alquimia a escala era intensiva en capital, y el contrato era de las pocas vías a los recursos.
«Thus, by providing the supplies alchemists needed to pursue their art at court, contracts worked very much to alchemists’ advantage as well as princes’.» — De modo que el suministro de materiales por la corte jugaba a favor de las dos partes.
«The benefi ts of contracts went beyond funding, however; these agreements offered alchemists legitimacy as well.» — Y había un beneficio no financiero, que a ella le interesa más: el contrato daba legitimidad.
«On the individual level, alchemists could use the very fact that they had secured a contract with a prince as a kind of certifi cation of their skill.» — En el plano individual, tener contrato con un príncipe funcionaba como certificado de destreza.
«Remarkably, Syrrus’s contract stated this explicitly, stipulating, “His art is to be recognized wherever possible by those unacquainted with it and in ignorance of it.”» — El caso donde eso está escrito en el documento mismo: el contrato de Syrrus estipula que su arte sea reconocido por quienes no lo conocen.
«In effect, Syrrus’s contract claimed that the prince’s recognition of his skill should lend him credibility as an alchemist in the eyes of those who had not personally observed his work; the contract was to function as a de facto license.» — Con la lectura que ella hace de esa cláusula: el contrato operando como licencia de facto.
«Even when contracts did not claim this authority so explicitly, still they could be seen as a stamp of approval, a legitimization of a particular individual alchemist’s claims in a chaotic but competitive marketplace.» — Aun sin decirlo, el contrato valía como sello de aprobación en un mercado caótico y competitivo.
«A contract was evidence that to some extent an alchemist had proven his or her claims and managed to convince a patron that the purported art was worth gathering the resources to pursue further.» — Y como prueba de que el practicante había convencido a un mecenas de reunir recursos para seguir.
«For alchemists struggling to assert the persona of the legitimate alchemist in the face of literary and artistic ridicule, this kind of princely legitimation could be crucial.» — Lo que eso significaba frente a la sátira: legitimación principesca para quien peleaba por sostener la persona del alquimista legítimo.
«From the patron’s perspective, contracts constructed legally binding fi nancial arrangements that minimized risk while securing access to profi ts.» — Del lado del mecenas, el mismo documento minimizaba el riesgo y aseguraba el acceso a la ganancia.
«Many alchemists must not have been willing to accept that level of risk; alchemists who were, however, stood to gain not only absolutely crucial material support for their work, but also much-needed credibility for their claims to be legitimate alchemists, as opposed to Betrüger.» — Su balance final del trato, con la abstención sobre quiénes no firmaron: muchos no habrán aceptado ese riesgo, y quienes lo aceptaron ganaron sostén y credibilidad.
«This moment of defi nition was crucial because it provided a baseline from which patrons could later evaluate whether or not an alchemist had accomplished his (or her) goals.» — El contrato fijaba además una línea base para evaluar después si el alquimista cumplió.
«By clarifying up front, for example, how long a process should take, exactly how much it would cost, what the yield would be, and so on, princes entered into agreements with enough knowledge to later evaluate alchemists’ achievements.» — Con los términos de esa evaluación puestos por delante: plazo, costo y rendimiento.
«Any additional request for more time or materials, moreover, became in effect a supplication for special favor, for extraordinary indulgence on the prince’s part in a failing process.» — Y una consecuencia política de esa precisión: pedir más tiempo o más material pasaba a ser súplica de favor extraordinario.
«In this sense, each contract set down anew a working defi nition of alchemical success.» — De ahí su fórmula: cada contrato fijaba de nuevo una definición operativa de éxito alquímico.
«Contracts were, in essence, a way for both parties to agree on what alchemy was—not universally, perhaps, but at least so that a particular patron and an alchemist could work together to put alchemy into practice.» — Y en el fondo era el modo en que las dos partes acordaban qué era la alquimia, aunque solo entre ellas.
«In this respect, alchemists’ contracts paralleled the cure contracts that Gianna Pomata has examined in Bologna.» — Con el paralelo de los contratos de cura de Bolonia estudiados por Gianna Pomata.
«Thus, whereas cure contracts “served as an instrument to minimize the patient’s disadvantage,” alchemists’ contracts worked to the contrary: to minimize the alchemist’s disadvantage in contracting with powerful patrons.» — Pero marca la inversión del propósito: allí protegían al paciente, aquí al alquimista frente a un mecenas poderoso.
«Nevertheless, at the heart of early modern alchemical contracts lay a vast power and risk differential between patron and alchemist that would have enormous consequences.» — Y sostiene que aun así quedaba en el centro una asimetría de poder y de riesgo con enormes consecuencias.
«All alchemists, however philosophical their goals ultimately were, required some kind of laboratory in which to perform operations at the fi re.» — El punto de partida del capítulo del laboratorio: cualquiera fuera la meta, hacía falta un sitio donde operar al fuego.
«A makeshift laboratory smack in the middle of an urban kitchen, as Brueghel imagined it in his mid-sixteenth-century engraving, would permeate alchemy with a very different set of meanings and practices than a laboratory hidden away inside a princely palace.» — Y por qué el sitio importa: la cocina urbana que imaginó Brueghel carga la alquimia de sentidos distintos que un palacio.
«The plan for the imagined Chemical House, which the German schoolmaster included in the 1606 commentary on his 1597 textbook, Alchemia, was designed as a critique of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe’s laboratory at his observatory and research center, Uraniborg.» — La Casa Química de Libavius, publicada en el comentario de 1606, se lee como crítica del laboratorio de Tycho Brahe en Uraniborg.
«To Libavius, Tycho’s alchemical laboratory, tucked away on the island of Hven, exemplifi ed “Burgwissenschaft,” or “castle-science,” characterized by secretiveness, aristocratic aloofness, and dedication to the contemplative life.» — El cargo, con el término alemán: Burgwissenschaft, ciencia de castillo, hecha de secreto, distancia aristocrática y vida contemplativa.
«By modeling his own Chemical House on an urban bürgerlich house, in contrast, Libavius sought to symbolize his belief in the openness and civic engagement of his art.» — Frente a eso modela su casa sobre la vivienda burguesa urbana, para significar apertura y compromiso cívico.
«Despite these gestures toward openness, however, Libavius’s design did not abandon entirely the traditional secrecy associated with alchemy.» — Con el límite que la autora no deja pasar: el diseño no abandona del todo el secreto tradicional.
«Common Laboranten (laboratory workers) in the Chemical House were to perform more mundane alchemical processes in relatively public spaces, but the production of that arcana arcanissima, the philosophers’ stone, was still to be completed in the most private and sequestered of spaces, away from the crowd.» — La separación queda inscrita en el plano: los Laboranten en espacios relativamente públicos, la piedra en el más apartado.
«With this physical separation, Libavius claimed that the most important alchemical tasks were best left to a private space belonging to the master alchemist alone; only the privileged were to have access to alchemy’s greatest secrets.» — Y en su propia voz, la doctrina de acceso: las tareas mayores en espacio privado del maestro, solo para privilegiados.
«The Chemical House, however, remained imaginary; although it reveals a great deal about Libavius’s views of alchemy, it tells us little about where alchemists actually carried out their work.» — Su abstención sobre el valor documental del plano: quedó imaginario y dice poco de dónde trabajaban los alquimistas de verdad.
«We still have a great deal to learn about working alchemical laboratories, however.» — Y la abstención general con que abre el asunto: sobre los laboratorios en funcionamiento queda mucho por aprender.
«And yet alchemical laboratories proliferated in the early modern period as alchemy’s visibility rose.» — Data la proliferación de laboratorios en el periodo, a medida que la alquimia gana visibilidad.
«Friedrich’s laboratory came into existence in 1596, when he informed his Baumeister (chief architect) Heinrich Schickardt and his alchemical assistant Lucas Osiander the Younger that the Alte Lusthaus in the ducal garden was to be converted into an alchemical laboratory.» — El caso mejor documentado, con su fecha y sus dos ejecutores: en 1596 Friedrich manda convertir el Alte Lusthaus en laboratorio.
«Originally built in 1553 under Duke Christoph, by Friedrich’s reign the Alte Lusthaus was situated in what he described as the zoological garden (Thiergarten), between what were eventually to become a racetrack and a labyrinth.» — Con la topografía del sitio: construido en 1553, quedaba en el jardín zoológico, entre lo que serían un hipódromo y un laberinto.
«Friedrich converted the space into a laboratory and used it as his central alchemical laboratory until his death in 1608.» — Y su vigencia: fue su laboratorio central hasta la muerte del duque en 1608.
«Aside from its availability, several features of the Alte Lusthaus’s location would have made it desirable for an alchemical laboratory: its proximity to the ducal palace (no. 1) allowed Friedrich to keep an eye on his alchemists, while the laboratory’s isolation out in the garden kept the stench and smoke away from the court.» — La razón práctica de esa ubicación, que dice mucho del oficio: cerca para vigilar a los alquimistas, apartado para que el hedor y el humo no llegaran a la corte.
«The large hall was certainly well lit by day, as it contained a total of fourteen windows (including those in the corner niches) and also received light from the hexagonal stairwell.» — Contra la imagen del antro: la sala grande tenía catorce ventanas y recibía además luz del hueco hexagonal de la escalera.
«This furnace was also known as a “Faule Heinz” (Lazy Heinz) because it allowed the practitioner to add a large amount of fuel in a central chamber, which then slowly dropped down to side chambers as necessary—a particularly useful furnace for long operations that required feeding the fi re constantly (fi g. 3).» — El detalle del horno de alimentación lenta, con su apodo alemán, Faule Heinz, para operaciones largas que exigen fuego constante.
«medieval bestiary lore that the pelican fed its young with blood from its own breast, much as Christ had sacrifi ced his blood for humanity (fi g. 8).» — Y el origen del nombre del vaso pelícano en el bestiario medieval, con la analogía cristológica de la sangre.
«Assaying equipment was essential to any alchemical laboratory, and Duke Friedrich’s laboratory was well equipped to carry out such fundamental operations.» — El equipo de ensaye como pieza esencial de cualquier laboratorio, y el del duque bien surtido para esas operaciones.
«Friedrich’s alchemists probably also determined the amounts of gold or silver in samples (albeit more provisionally) by rubbing the unknown sample on a touchstone, then comparing the streak with a silver or gold assaying needle of known composition.» — Con el procedimiento provisional que también usaban: frotar la muestra en la piedra de toque y comparar la raya con una aguja de composición conocida.
«At Friedrich’s death in 1608, for instance, the laboratory was well stocked with over one hundred pounds of antimony for separating silver and gold and nearly two hundred pounds of white and yellow arsenic, which was particularly valued for its ability to “whiten” copper.» — El inventario de 1608 mide el trabajo real: más de cien libras de antimonio para separar plata y oro y casi doscientas de arsénico blanco y amarillo.
«According to a 1634 inventory, the attic then contained “many large and small glass cucurbits and other glasses, as well as many different things belonging to the laboratory.”» — Y el de 1634 sigue registrando cucúrbitas grandes y pequeñas guardadas en el desván.
«Contrary to the stereotypes, then, the Stuttgart laboratory was not hidden underground, bathed in darkness and secrecy, nor was it crammed into a corner of the palace kitchen.» — Su adjudicación frontal contra el estereotipo: el laboratorio de Stuttgart no estaba escondido bajo tierra ni metido en un rincón de la cocina.
«The rooms were well ventilated, bathed with light, and certainly at least as full of distilling vessels, assaying balances, and furnaces as any engraving or painting of an alchemist.» — Sino ventilado, lleno de luz y tan poblado de vasos, balanzas y hornos como cualquier grabado.
«And, most important, this laboratory was bustling.» — Y con el rasgo que ella subraya por encima de todos: era un sitio con mucha actividad.
«When Friedrich died in 1608, two of his personal physicians and a director of his alchemical laboratories took an inventory of “all of the transmutational and medicinal projects, in addition to raw and prepared materials, instruments, furnaces, glasses, crucibles, cupels, and other tools required for work, which are found not only in the [alchemical laboratory in the] Alte Lusthaus, but also in the other laboratories in the palace garden.”» — Lo que el inventario de 1608 abarca, en su propia enumeración: proyectos transmutatorios y medicinales, materiales, instrumentos, hornos, vidrios, crisoles y copelas.
«Although each worker apparently made an individual arrangement with Duke Friedrich, differing levels of pay and autonomy made it clear that there was a certain hierarchy within the larger ducal alchemical project.» — Su lectura de esos arreglos individuales: los distintos niveles de paga y autonomía dibujan una jerarquía dentro del proyecto ducal.
«Alchemists, in other words, were expected to have the knowledge to come up with new processes or methods, whereas the Laboranten simply executed them.» — La distinción de oficio en una línea: al alquimista se le pedía inventar procesos, al Laborant ejecutarlos.
«Thus, the inventory tells us, the Laborant Daniel Keller “only worked on that which he was instructed to do at the order of His Grace,” whereas alchemists like Hans Heinrich Nüschler arrived at court with processes and promises of their own (in Nüschler’s case, a process to extract four loth of gold out of one mark of silver).» — Con el caso documentado de las dos posiciones: Keller trabajaba solo lo que se le ordenaba, y Nüschler llegó con proceso y promesa propios.
«The Laboranten were in a far less risky position, however, because they were not responsible for the success of the process they worked on, fi nancially or intellectually.» — Y el reverso de esa subordinación: el Laborant no respondía del éxito ni con dinero ni con reputación.
«The main laboratory in the Alte Lusthaus seems to have employed mainly Laboranten working together under the direction of Duke Friedrich and his managers, but Friedrich supported other laboratories too.» — La planta principal empleaba sobre todo Laboranten bajo la dirección del duque y sus administradores.
«With the exception of Honauer, the alchemists who brought their own processes to Friedrich’s court did not work alongside the Laboranten in the Alte Lusthaus, but rather in their own laboratories (supported by their own Laboranten), either in the Neue Spital (New Hospital) nearby or on Friedrich’s property (acquired in 1600) in Kirchheim unter Teck.» — Mientras los alquimistas con proceso propio trabajaban aparte, en el Neue Spital o en Kirchheim unter Teck, con sus propios Laboranten.
«A few individuals had arrangements that gave them more autonomy in their work, though this was hardly the norm;» — Los arreglos con más autonomía existían, pero la autora los marca como excepción.
«The provision that Keller be allowed to work on his own projects as well as those Friedrich assigned to him allowed this Laborant/ alchemist a certain amount of autonomy, although it came with a catch.» — El caso de Keller, con la trampa señalada: podía trabajar en lo suyo además de lo asignado.
«In his arrangement, Keller essentially signed away his rights to his own intellectual property.» — Porque a cambio cedía lo que hoy llamaríamos su propiedad intelectual.
«Keller could do his own work in Duke Friederich’s laboratory, in other words, and presumably not risk anything if he failed, but the duke retained a right to whatever products resulted.» — El trato completo: no arriesgaba nada si fallaba, y el duque se quedaba con el derecho sobre lo que saliera.
«Hans Jacob Gohel, for instance, admitted that “he worked at his own expense and if he does not manage to do anything useful, he can be dismissed, but in the case that he discovers something useful in his arts, then he is humbly to communicate it to His Grace.”» — La misma fórmula en voz de otro empleado, Gohel: trabaja a su costa, puede ser despedido, y si halla algo útil debe comunicarlo a Su Gracia.
«All deliveries of metals or minerals were to be recorded in writing, as were all payments to the Laboranten.» — La contabilidad del laboratorio queda escrita: entregas de metales y minerales y pagos a los Laboranten, todo por registro.
«The duke employed two scribes and bookkeepers to keep track of the payments to Laboranten and deliveries to the Alte Lusthaus.» — Con dos escribanos y contadores dedicados a llevar esa cuenta.
«Occasionally individuals otherwise employed elsewhere at court were sent to work in the laboratory, as was “Andreas the Chamberboy.”» — Y con personal prestado de otras áreas de la corte, como Andreas el mozo de cámara.
«When Friedrich hired his fi rst Inspektor, Florian Kappler, in 1595, the two men set out Kappler’s duties in a contract.» — El puesto de Inspektor aparece fechado: Florian Kappler, contratado en 1595, con sus deberes puestos en contrato.
«Kappler vowed to keep an inventory of all of the materials in Friedrich’s Alte Lusthaus laboratory and the uses to which they were being put.» — Su tarea era el inventario de materiales y el destino que se les daba.
«Although his position was obviously essential to the functioning of the laboratory, Kappler was ultimately more an administrator than an alchemical practitioner in his own right.» — Y la autora lo adjudica como administrador antes que como practicante por derecho propio.
«We can make two rough distinctions among these workers (though of course such lines of demarcation were often rather fuzzy in practice): fi rst, between those employed primarily to carry out alchemical work and those hired as support staff, and second, between alchemists and Laboranten.» — Las dos divisiones con que ordena el personal, declarando de entrada que en la práctica eran borrosas: trabajo alquímico frente a apoyo, y alquimista frente a Laborant.
«He went on to explain that it would be improper for him to carry out his own experiments, “just as it is unbecoming for physicians to make compositions of medicaments, to open a vein, or insert a syringe, since this is the proper role of the pharmacist or surgeon; just as an architect does not prepare ce-» — El símil de Kircher para justificar no ensuciarse las manos: como al médico no le toca preparar el medicamento ni abrir la vena.
«Physicians, of course, were increasingly opening up veins in the seventeenth century, just as alchemists of all stripes had long gotten their hands dirty in the laboratory, but that did not make all alchemists equal.» — Y la objeción de ella al símil, sin desmentir la jerarquía: los médicos sí abrían venas en el XVII, y los alquimistas llevaban mucho trabajando con las manos.
«Certainly the majority of alchemical laboratories have eluded documentation, particularly those in ordinary spaces belonging to practitioners who did not record their work.» — Su abstención sobre la base documental: la mayoría de los laboratorios no dejó rastro, sobre todo los de practicantes que no anotaban su trabajo.
«As Steven Shapin has observed, when laboratories were installed in buildings formerly (or simultaneously) used for other purposes, they could bear the conventions and social rules of their original functions as much as they did the associations with their role as laboratories.» — Con Steven Shapin apunta que un laboratorio instalado en un edificio ajeno arrastra las convenciones de su uso anterior.
«And yet by the late sixteenth century certain features had emerged to defi ne alchemical laboratories as distinct spaces in the landscape of late Renaissance work and learning.» — Y aun así data a fines del XVI la aparición de rasgos que lo vuelven un espacio distinto dentro del trabajo renacentista.
«Any workspace had to have a hearth or ventilation for multiple furnaces.» — El primero es de infraestructura: hogar o ventilación para varios hornos.
«Architectural features were less important for marking alchemical spaces, however, than were the things inside.» — Pero adjudica el rasgo definitorio no a la arquitectura sino al contenido.
«Although most of the items in Stuttgart, taken individually, might have appeared in an assaying house, apothecary’s shop, or smith’s workshop, together they would have tipped off any visitor that Duke Friedrich was interested specifi cally in some kind of alchemy.» — Con el criterio del visitante: por separado, cada objeto de Stuttgart cabría en una casa de ensaye, una botica o una herrería; juntos, delatan la alquimia.
«On a deeper level, the most distinctive feature of alchemical laboratories was the fact that they occupied a middle ground among artisanal or industrial workspaces and the experimental laboratories that would become closely associated with the “new science” in the late seventeenth century.» — Su adjudicación de fondo sobre esos espacios: quedan a medio camino entre el taller artesanal y el laboratorio experimental de la nueva ciencia.
«Although alchemical practitioners certainly varied in the level of their sophistication, most brought some sort of theoretical framework to their practical work that would have enabled them to explain, for example, why it was possible to transmute copper into gold or why potable gold was such a potent medicine.» — Con la reserva sobre el nivel de los practicantes: casi todos traían algún marco teórico con que explicar por qué era posible transmutar.
«Although, for the most part, Duke Friedrich’s Laboranten were hardly scholars, their tests of recipes and processes suggest a sort of research program based on experience, if not exactly experiment.» — El caso de los Laboranten del duque, dicho con su límite: no eran eruditos, pero sus pruebas sugieren un programa basado en experiencia, si no en experimento.
«Not all alchemists viewed their work as experimental, however, and those who did may have been extraordinary.» — Y la abstención que sigue: no todos veían su trabajo como experimental, y quienes sí puede que fueran excepción.
«Noting that alchemy was “above all an attempt to understand and manipulate matter,” Newman has drawn attention to the way in which medieval alchemical texts focused on the use of quantitative measurement (in their use of the precision balance, for example) as “experimental tools for revealing the nature of matter.”» — Con Newman recoge la lectura fuerte: la alquimia como intento de entender y manipular la materia, con la balanza de precisión de instrumento.
«Signaling the importance he attributed to mining, Elector August founded the Goldhaus in 1556, three years after taking the Saxon throne.» — El Goldhaus de Dresde queda fechado en 1556, tres años después de subir el elector al trono sajón.
«He continued to introduce new techniques there throughout his reign, probably using it as an experimental laboratory for innovation in the Saxon metallurgical industries.» — Y con la función que ella le atribuye con cautela: probablemente laboratorio experimental para innovar en la metalurgia sajona.
«A small, locked wooden chest stored nearly thirty books; the majority of them had to do with processing salt, suggesting that the elector’s experiments with salt production found a home in the Goldhaus as well.» — El detalle del arcón cerrado con cerca de treinta libros, casi todos sobre el beneficio de la sal.
«The distribution of objects in each of the rooms in the Dresden Goldhaus suggests that space served to organize and differentiate among facets of alchemical work.» — Su lectura del inventario por salas: el espacio servía para organizar y separar facetas del trabajo alquímico.
«Whereas the materials in the front rooms were merely listed in relatively unprocessed forms (e.g., “pellets of copper, may contain silver”), the back room contained materials in more advanced stages, including sublimatoria, calcined sulfur, and oil of vitriol.» — El contraste entre salas: materiales sin procesar al frente, sublimados, azufre calcinado y aceite de vitriolo en la trasera.
«More important, this back room housed a variety of the kinds of powders to which practitioners commonly ascribed transmutory or medicinal powers.» — Y en esa misma sala trasera los polvos a los que se atribuían poderes transmutatorios o medicinales.
«These written materials, together with a pair of eyeglasses in another cabinet and an atlas, indicate that the alchemists in this hidden room clearly read, while the “lovely pen with several little boxes and several [pieces of] writing paper” suggest that they wrote as well.» — Con la prueba de que ahí también se leía y se escribía: unos anteojos, un atlas y una pluma con cajitas y papel.
«This partitioning of space suggests that practitioners viewed these activities as somewhat distinct from one another, if only because of the equipment they required.» — De donde deduce que los practicantes tenían esas actividades por distintas, aunque solo fuera por el equipo que pedían.
«Friedrich, in return, sent to Weikersheim one of his Laboranten, Erasmus Mittelbacher, who advised Wolfgang’s employee Jörg Spring in devising the plans for the new laboratory.» — El préstamo de pericia entre cortes, con nombres: Friedrich manda a su Laborant Mittelbacher a asesorar el plano de Weikersheim.
«Because the large masonry furnace and fi xed bellows would have taken up most of one room, Jost Weyer has speculated that the other furnaces (possibly a Lazy Heinz, assaying, and distillation furnaces as well as a “philosophical furnace” for fi nishing the philosophers’ stone) must have been located in the other.» — La reconstrucción de Jost Weyer sobre el reparto de hornos, marcada como especulación.
«However Wolfgang may have organized the space within his small laboratory, it is clear that he removed distillation work and saltpeter production to separate spaces entirely.» — Lo que sí queda claro en Weikersheim: la destilación y la producción de salitre salieron a espacios aparte.
«As Weyer has argued, however, Wolfgang’s stills also served another purpose; his employment of a full-time destillator, among other things, suggests that his court produced and sold brandy produced from these stills.» — Con Weyer añade el uso no alquímico de esos alambiques: un destilador de planta y aguardiente producido y vendido por la corte.
«The court also devoted its resources to the production of saltpeter, which, like distilled alcohol, was useful both for producing acids used in alchemical processes and in nonalchemical goods like gunpowder.» — Y el salitre, útil a la vez para los ácidos del laboratorio y para la pólvora.
«Because saltpeter works required a good water source, Wolfgang set up his outside the walls of the city near a branch of the nearby Tauber River.» — Con su razón de emplazamiento: requería buena agua, y se instaló fuera de las murallas junto a un brazo del Tauber.
«More broadly, however, the location of activities like distilling, assaying, and saltpeter production in Dresden and Weikersheim suggests that they may have occupied a slightly different conceptual space as well.» — Su hipótesis conceptual sobre esa separación: destilar, ensayar y hacer salitre ocupaban también otro espacio mental.
«These processes were absolutely essential to alchemy, and yet they were not exclusively alchemical, often existing as separate industries in their own right.» — Porque eran imprescindibles para la alquimia y a la vez no exclusivamente alquímicos, con industria propia.
«At both of these courts, they were removed from the most prized (and secretive) elements of the alchemists’ work—perhaps even the production of the philosophers’ stone—to the more public and accessible areas of the princely palace (even outside the city walls, in the case of the saltpeter works in Weikersheim).» — Y quedaban apartados de lo más preciado y secreto, en zonas más públicas del palacio o incluso extramuros.
«This placement suggests that, however essential these processes were to alchemical work, to some extent early modern alchemists and their patrons also saw them as distinct from it.» — De donde su conclusión, dicha en grado: hasta cierto punto alquimistas y mecenas los tenían por cosa distinta de la alquimia.
«I have argued thus far for a relatively loose defi nition of alchemy that can encompass all of its medical, metallurgical, transmutational, and philosophical facets.» — Recuerda que ha venido trabajando con una definición laxa, que abarca lo médico, lo metalúrgico, lo transmutatorio y lo filosófico.
«The architecture of these three alchemical laboratories, however, offers one way to refi ne this defi nition.» — Y propone afinarla por un camino material: la arquitectura de esos tres laboratorios.
«The articulation of space within working laboratories, however, suggests that practitioners and patrons did not think of these activities as one big jumble, but rather as interlocking but discreet pieces of laboratory operations.» — El resultado de ese camino: los practicantes no veían un revoltijo sino piezas engranadas y discretas de la operación.
«Space offered one way to think through and separate the different facets of alchemical practice.» — Con la fórmula que cierra el punto: el espacio como manera de pensar y separar las facetas de la práctica.
«There is no question that alchemical authors advocated concealment, often developing elaborate practices to protect their art from the uninitiated.» — Sobre el secreto no hay duda de partida: los autores alquímicos predicaban ocultamiento y armaban prácticas elaboradas para ello.
«Libavius’s imagined Chemical House, which relegated the most important alchemical processes to the innermost rooms of the house, offered one model of how space could control the fl ow of secrets by dispersing them.» — Y la casa de Libavius ofrecía un modelo de cómo el espacio controla el flujo dispersándolo.
«According to William Newman, “this division of space [in the Chemical House] . . . was not the mere product of casual expedience: It was a conscious adaptation of principles used in alchemical texts themselves to delude the unwary and prevent the overly easy acquisition of knowledge.”» — Con Newman, que adjudica a esa división de salas una adaptación consciente de los procedimientos con que los textos alquímicos despistan al incauto.
«While these textual principles were easy to implement in an imaginary building, they were more difficult to put into practice in real laboratories because the many different parties involved in entrepreneurial alchemy often had different agendas.» — Su objeción práctica a ese modelo: en un edificio imaginario es fácil, y en un laboratorio real las partes tenían agendas distintas.
«While alchemists sought to balance their need for benefactors’ support with the traditional injunction to secrecy, princes struggled to control the fl ow of alchemical arcana within laboratories, courts, and territorial states.» — La tensión queda planteada de los dos lados: el alquimista equilibrando apoyo y secreto, el príncipe tratando de controlar el flujo de arcanos.
«All but the wealthiest practitioners, however, were forced to involve others in their pursuit of alchemical arcana out of the need for funding and access to equipment and workspaces.» — La razón material de que el secreto no se sostuviera: salvo los muy ricos, todos necesitaban a otros para financiar equipo y taller.
«At best, this kind of compromise meant divulging secrets in exchange for support from a benefactor but retaining a certain amount of autonomy and privacy.» — Y el mejor arreglo posible dentro de eso: revelar a cambio de sostén y conservar algo de autonomía y privacidad.
«The contract for Duke Friedrich’s Inspektor in the Alte Lusthaus, Florian Kappler, for example, made it clear that, although he was essentially in charge of the laboratory, Kappler was not necessarily privy to everything that went on there.» — El límite del control desde arriba, escrito en el contrato del propio inspector: Kappler mandaba en el laboratorio y no estaba al tanto de todo lo que ahí pasaba.
«Sattler added fi rmly that if the alchemist “has an art [to offer], however, may he choose to notify His Grace, [who] will give him plenty to work on.”» — La instrucción del funcionario Sattler sobre el practicante suelto: si tiene un arte que ofrecer, que lo notifique a Su Gracia, que trabajo le sobrará.
«Nevertheless, princes and practitioners alike found several ways in which they could use space to preserve a certain amount of secrecy—in all of its meanings—even within the larger laboratories.» — Y aun así el espacio servía a las dos partes para guardar algo de secreto dentro del propio laboratorio grande.
«However hermetically sealed alchemical patrons and practitioners imagined their laboratories to be, their location in the semipublic arena of princely courts meant that boundaries were always permeable.» — Con el límite que ella pone a esa imagen: por hermético que se lo imaginaran, estaba en el terreno semipúblico de la corte y sus fronteras eran porosas.
«It may be that the Dresden Goldhaus was organized in this way as well, to prevent outsiders, or even Laboranten and servants, from viewing entire alchemical processes at once.» — Su hipótesis sobre Dresde, marcada como tal: quizá el Goldhaus se organizó para que nadie viera un proceso entero de una vez.
«It is striking that the more sophisticated processes were housed all the way in the back of the building, tucked away behind the stills and scales in the front rooms.» — Con el indicio material: los procesos más elaborados al fondo del edificio, detrás de los alambiques y las balanzas.
«Even so, alchemical secrets were not for everyone: “For it is not expedient or fi tting that such things become common knowledge,” Tycho continued.» — En voz de Tycho Brahe, la doctrina de la divulgación medida: no es conveniente ni propio que tales cosas se vuelvan de conocimiento común.
«By placing his entire scientifi c enterprise (and not just his alchemical laboratory) on an island, Tycho could control just who had access to his secrets, thus maximizing their value.» — Y la lectura que ella hace de Hven: poner la empresa entera en una isla era controlar el acceso y con ello maximizar el valor del secreto.
«Few others could marshal the means to realize a space for the pursuit of natural knowledge like Uraniborg, which came as close as anything to a custom-built, idealized structure for the study of nature.» — Con la salvedad que impide generalizar el caso: pocos podían costear algo como Uraniborg.
«crucially, however, these imaginary laboratories never had to be built and used in the messy indeterminate world of alchemical laboratory practice.» — Su reparo decisivo contra los planos ideales: nunca hubo que construirlos ni usarlos en el mundo desordenado de la práctica.
«The working laboratories that dotted the Holy Roman Empire were complicated by the fact that they had to balance ideals and realities, as well as the priorities of both patrons and practitioners.» — Mientras el laboratorio real tenía que equilibrar ideales, realidades y las prioridades de las dos partes.
«They were the product of compromise, coexistence, and appropriation as much as alchemical tradition and principle.» — De donde su fórmula sobre el origen de esos espacios: producto de compromiso, coexistencia y apropiación tanto como de tradición y principio.
«Nevertheless, the desire for secrecy meant different things to alchemists and their patrons.» — Y consigna que el deseo de secreto no significaba lo mismo para el alquimista que para su mecenas.
«No doubt we still have a great deal to learn about alchemical laboratories in early modern Europe.» — Su abstención al cerrar el capítulo: sobre los laboratorios de la Europa temprana queda mucho por aprender.
«Perhaps future research will uncover a private urban laboratory, where an alchemist’s molten product shared the hearth with his wife’s soup.» — Con la imagen de lo que falta encontrar: un laboratorio urbano privado donde el producto fundido compartiera hogar con la sopa de la esposa.
«Each individual laboratory was the result of a unique set of decisions that refl ected the constellation of priorities and practical realities that shaped the desire to practice alchemy and devote space and resources to it.» — Y su tesis de conjunto sobre el espacio: cada laboratorio fue resultado de decisiones únicas y de prioridades y realidades prácticas.
«I know well that for a long time Your Dearest has delighted and amused Yourself in certain arts, especially with Chimia or Alcamia.» — Voz de una carta de corte que abre el capítulo del fraude: se sabe que Vuestra Merced se ha deleitado largo tiempo en la Chimia o Alcamia.
«Indeed I have also dealt with these things for more than twenty years and [have been] rather put upon by the same people, such that I resolve repeatedly to forget about alchemy, but then once again a new process comes my way,» — Y la confesión de fatiga del propio corresponsal: veinte años tratando con esa gente, resolviendo olvidarse de la alquimia y volviendo cada vez que llega un proceso nuevo.
«Although only a minority of alchemical practitioners actually ended their careers on the gallows, their fates made a strong impression on contemporaries and later historians alike.» — Su medida del fenómeno, contra la impresión que dejó: solo una minoría terminó en la horca, y aun así el caso marcó a contemporáneos e historiadores.
«And yet the trials, convictions, and reactions to them were much more complex, revealing all the subtleties and nuances that had accumulated around the notion of alchemical fraud by the early seventeenth century.» — Por eso propone leer juicios y condenas en su complejidad, con los matices acumulados en torno al fraude alquímico.
«By using contracts to transfer as much risk as possible to alchemists, princely patrons, in effect, set them up to bear the full consequences of failure.» — Su adjudicación sobre el mecanismo: al transferir el riesgo por contrato, el mecenas dejaba al alquimista cargando con toda la consecuencia del fracaso.
«Alchemists accused of Betrug, meanwhile, resolutely insisted on their own narratives about what had gone wrong, even as they faced torture and lengthy interrogations designed to elicit confessions.» — Y consigna la otra voz sin arbitrarla: los acusados sostuvieron su propio relato de lo ocurrido incluso bajo tortura e interrogatorio.
«If humanists and artists had introduced the fi gure of the Betrüger-alchemist to a new literate urban audience, then the executions carried the persona to an even wider audience still; executions, after all, were meant to be public in the widest sense during the early modern period.» — El efecto de alcance que atribuye a las ejecuciones: llevaron la figura del Betrüger a un público mucho más ancho que el de los libros.
«These executions did not go unnoticed among alchemical authors, either.» — Y no pasaron inadvertidas entre los propios autores alquímicos.
«As William Newman has shown, this link between alchemy and demonology centered on the shared notion of changing or transmuting “species”:» — Con Newman fija el eje del vínculo medieval entre alquimia y demonología: la noción compartida de cambiar o transmutar especies.
«Those who wished to denounce the belief in demonic shape-changing as heretical tended to condemn alchemical transmutation as well, whereas those who wished to unleash the powers of demons were forced also to concede alchemists’ claims to transmute metals.» — Con la simetría que de ahí resulta: quien condenaba como herética la metamorfosis demoníaca condenaba también la transmutación, y al revés.
«Medieval scholars of canon law were not exclusively focused on alchemy’s connection to demons, however; some joined Pope John XXII (r. 1316–34) as well as a number of secular rulers in introducing a second thread into the discussion of alchemy’s legality.» — El segundo hilo de la discusión legal entra con Juan XXII y con varios gobernantes seculares.
«This line of argument centered not on alchemy’s problematic theological status, but rather on a much more worldly set of issues: the legality of alchemical gold in the marketplace and its circulation as specie.» — Y no es teológico sino mundano: la legalidad del oro alquímico en el mercado y su circulación como moneda.
«Though there is not such a thing in nature, they [i.e., alchemists] pretend to make genuine gold and silver by a sophistic transmutation.» — La decretal abre con una evaluación escéptica del reclamo alquímico, en voz del papa: pretenden hacer oro y plata genuinos por transmutación sofística.
«Interestingly, John did not dwell on this point about false transmutations, which was of such concern for Petrarch and others, but he moved quickly to the specifi c consequences of alchemical deceit: counterfeit coins minted from falsely transmuted gold and silver.» — Pero la autora subraya dónde no se detiene: no en la falsedad de la transmutación, sino en la moneda acuñada con ese metal.
«Pope John XXII did not dwell on the “art-nature question”—whether alchemists’ abilities were able to surpass nature—or even whether the belief in the transmutation of metals was tantamount to the heretical belief in demons’ powers of shape changing; rather, he sought to stop the circulation of false alchemical gold and silver as coinage.» — Y lo dice de nuevo al cerrar: ni la cuestión arte-naturaleza ni la herejía demoníaca, sino frenar la circulación del oro falso como moneda.
«Following Rampinis, Rosciate concurred that selling false alchemical gold as true gold was illicit; if the alchemical gold was true, however, he argued that its sale was unproblematic.» — La distinción del canonista Rosciate, siguiendo a Rampinis: ilícito vender oro alquímico falso como verdadero, no problemático si el oro era verdadero.
«Secular rulers in the fourteenth and fi fteenth centuries who took up the issue of alchemy’s legality, however, walked a fi ne line between condemning debased coinage and minting it themselves.» — Con la incomodidad de los gobernantes seculares, que condenaban la moneda envilecida y a la vez la acuñaban.
«the practice of alchemy per se was not thought to be illicit, except insofar as it could contribute to counterfeiting.» — El estado del derecho que resume: la práctica alquímica no se tenía por ilícita en sí, sino en cuanto podía servir a la falsificación.
«“By that art [of alchemy],” Edward proclaimed, “and through the making of metals of this sort, they will be able to do much good for us and for our kingdom.”» — Voz de Eduardo III sobre sus alquimistas: por ese arte y haciendo tales metales podrán hacer mucho bien al rey y al reino.
«“Although alchemy was named and regarded as an art by the teachers of Bible,” the ordinance read, “and although many wish to learn how to do it and practice it, nonetheless this art is so sophisticated and so hidden that as far back as human memory goes hardly anyone has managed to truly understand it or really practice it.”» — El texto de la ordenanza de Núremberg reconoce el arte y a la vez su dificultad: casi nadie, en cuanta memoria humana hay, llegó a entenderlo de veras.
«Underpinning the ordinance was the conviction that alchemical transmutation actually was possible, but extremely difficult.» — De donde la autora deduce la premisa del edicto: que la transmutación era posible, solo que extremadamente difícil.
«In order to please God Almighty and in light of the damage being infl icted because of the practice of this art, the wise council of this city for the common good and piety orders that: If someone, by the enticement and practice of this art, brings someone else to fi nancial ruin, and if, when he is denounced and brought before the court, these charges are proved to be true, then he shall be penalized in body and goods in accordance with the results of the proceedings and according the judgment of the Council.”» — El dispositivo penal de esa ordenanza: quien por atractivo de este arte arruine a otro, probado el cargo, responde en cuerpo y bienes.
«The Nuremberg city fathers, in other words, were moved to regulate the misuse of alchemy to preserve “the common good and piety” of the urban commune.» — Su lectura del motivo municipal: regular el mal uso para preservar el bien común y la piedad de la comuna.
«The ordinance from Nuremberg, however, highlighted a different set of potential alchemical misdeeds, those of the Betrüger who threatened to ruin the fi nancial and spiritual wellbeing of Nuremberg’s citizens, for whom the city council took responsibility.» — Con el desplazamiento del objeto respecto de la decretal papal: aquí el daño es el que el Betrüger hace al vecino, no la moneda falsa.
«When Holy Roman Emperor Charles V issued a new penal code for the Holy Roman Empire in 1535, alchemy» — Con la Carolina de 1535 la alquimia deja de ser delito propio.
«Tellingly, they chose to prosecute false alchemists not for witchcraft, heresy, or magic, but for the thoroughly worldly crime of fraud (Betrug).» — Y el dato que ella subraya: se persiguió al falso alquimista no por brujería, herejía ni magia, sino por el delito mundano de fraude.
«As Sebastian Brant imagined, alchemists too may have committed this type of fraud, selling false tinctures and powders to unsuspecting burghers in the cities of the Holy Roman Empire by passing them off as the true philosophers’ stone.» — El fraude que Brant imaginaba cabía ahí: vender tinturas y polvos falsos a burgueses desprevenidos como si fueran la piedra.
«If in theory the notion of alchemical Betrug drew on this broad legal defi nition of commercial fraud, however, it is important to note that the alchemical fraud trials that actually took place around 1600 focused on a much more limited type of alchemical transaction.» — Pero pone el límite entre la definición legal amplia y lo que de hecho se juzgó hacia 1600.
«Rather, the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century alchemical fraud trials zeroed in on those alchemists who were thought to have defrauded a very particular type of customer: the princes of the Holy Roman Empire.» — Porque los procesos se concentraron en un tipo muy particular de cliente defraudado: los príncipes.
«Those who went to court for alchemical Betrug were invariably the entrepreneurial alchemists, those who entered into contractual relationships with princes but in the end failed to deliver the alchemical goods and processes that they promised.» — Y en un tipo de acusado: el alquimista emprendedor con contrato incumplido.
«If the Carolina made deliberate deception central to the general crime of Betrug, the role of deception was more complicated in alchemical fraud trials.» — Con la complicación que le interesa: la Carolina hacía central el engaño deliberado, y en estos juicios el papel del engaño era más enredado.
«In principle, princes distinguished between incompetence and deception and sought to detect the difference in their pursuit of alchemists who failed to fulfi ll their contracts.» — Los príncipes decían distinguir incompetencia de engaño y buscaban detectar la diferencia.
«Hans Jacob “let it be heard” that Alexander was a fl atterer who had admitted that “he wanted to make an ape out of His Grace and was leading him by the nose.”» — El registro de una denuncia de corte, en voz del denunciante: que Alexander quería hacer un mono de Su Gracia y lo llevaba de las narices.
«Whether or not such accusations were true, they could be disastrous for the accused.» — Y la autora se abstiene de arbitrar: fueran ciertas o no, esas acusaciones podían ser desastrosas para el acusado.
«A practitioner’s fl ight could also suggest alchemical misdeeds, as the story of the ill-fated Georg Honauer illustrates.» — La fuga como indicio, con el caso Honauer de ejemplo.
«In preparation for a fi nal, large-scale demonstration, Friedrich imported to Stuttgart all of the available iron from his armory in Mömppelgart.» — Con el detalle material que después se volverá contra él: el duque hizo traer a Stuttgart todo el hierro disponible de su armería.
«He and his stablemaster simply ran away, leaving behind a huge debt in Stuttgart (somewhere between thirteen and nineteen thousand gulden).» — La huida, con la cifra de la deuda dejada atrás, entre trece y diecinueve mil gulden.
«Honauer’s case was exacerbated by the fact that he was convicted not just for alchemical Betrug, but also for pretending to be a Moravian lord (the court disputed his claims to nobility as Herr zu Brunnhoff);» — Y el agravante del cargo: no solo Betrug alquímico, también fingirse señor moravo, título que el tribunal disputó.
«Ever resourceful, Friedrich used the iron he had imported for Honauer’s alchemical work to build a thirty-foot high iron gallows on the Schloßplatz in Stuttgart.» — El detalle que cierra el círculo: con ese mismo hierro el duque mandó levantar una horca de treinta pies en la plaza del castillo.
«According to a contemporary woodcut, the gallows weighed over a ton and cost Friedrich three thousand gulden to construct.» — Según el grabado contemporáneo, pesaba más de una tonelada y costó tres mil gulden.
«Interestingly, Friedrich’s accusation of Betrug was independent from his judgment of Honauer’s ability to transmute metals.» — El punto de derecho que la autora subraya: la acusación de Betrug era independiente del juicio del duque sobre si Honauer sabía transmutar.
«In fact, as the duke confessed later to his fellow alchemical enthusiast, Landgrave Moritz of Hessen -Kassel, Friedrich chased after the runaway alchemist so vigorously precisely because he was so sure that Honauer could transmute metals:» — Al revés de lo esperable, lo perseguía porque estaba seguro de que sí sabía.
«The reason we are pursuing the deliberate and utter Landbetrueger, the supposed Brunnhoff, so heavily and fervidly is because we know well, plus an assay evidently confi rms, that he has the tincture with him . . . and he knows how to do this art [of alchemy].» — En voz del propio duque: lo persiguen porque saben, y un ensaye lo confirma, que se llevó la tintura y sabe hacer el arte.
«Duke Friedrich concluded that Honauer was a Betrüger, in other words, not because he believed the alchemist to be incompetent, but because he withheld the valuable secret from his patron in violation of their agreement.» — De donde el cargo real: no incompetencia, sino retener el secreto al mecenas en violación del acuerdo.
«Michael Heinrich Wagenmann, for instance, wisely confessed to Duke Friedrich his inability to fulfi ll to his contract with an honesty that probably saved his life.» — El contraste con Wagenmann, que confesó su incapacidad de cumplir y probablemente por eso salvó la vida.
«More typically, alchemical incompetence and the failure to fulfi ll a contract went hand in hand; in other words, when alchemists did not fulfi ll their contracts, it was usually because they simply could not.» — Aunque la autora consigna que lo común era lo otro: no cumplían el contrato porque sencillamente no podían.
«From the legal perspective, however, the alchemist’s state of mind was irrelevant.» — Y la regla jurídica, dicha sin ambigüedad: para el tribunal el estado mental del alquimista era irrelevante.
«Quite simply, Nüschler had failed to fulfi ll his contractual obligations to his patron, and he had employed deceit to cover up his failure.» — El caso Nüschler reducido a sus dos hechos: incumplió el contrato y usó engaño para tapar el fallo.
«The administrator who handled the case reduced it to its barest elements, recalling it later as essentially a matter of “a contract, which [Nüschler] had arranged with our Gracious Prince and Lord . . . for twenty thousand gulden.”» — Con la versión más escueta, la del administrador que llevó el caso: un contrato con el príncipe por veinte mil gulden.
«From the perspective of the courts (both legal and princely), in other words, the heart of trials for alchemical Betrug was the contract: whether or not it had been fulfi lled, and whether or not it had been fulfi lled honestly and truthfully.» — Su conclusión sobre el objeto de estos juicios: el contrato, si se cumplió y si se cumplió con verdad.
«In general, a fraud conviction did not automatically lead to the gallows in the Holy Roman Empire.» — Con el dato comparativo que hace saltar la desproporción: una condena por fraude no llevaba de suyo a la horca.
«If the punishments that false alchemists received seem disproportionately severe, it is because they broke contracts with and deceived princes (and thus the state), not just any citizens of the empire.» — Y su explicación: habían engañado a príncipes, es decir al Estado, no a un vecino cualquiera.
«In this sense, alchemical fraud was a crime against the state, positing the prince as victim.» — De ahí su fórmula: el fraude alquímico como delito contra el Estado, con el príncipe de víctima.
«When this relationship went awry, the fact that princes punished alchemists so ruthlessly makes it clear that they had a great deal at stake in their pursuit of entrepreneurial alchemy.» — Y lo que la autora lee en la dureza del castigo: cuánto tenían en juego los príncipes en esa alquimia emprendedora.
«The publicity surrounding the trials and executions of fraudulent alchemists around 1600 opened up the issue of alchemical Betrug to a broad audience and invited comment.» — El efecto público de esos procesos hacia 1600 fue abrir el asunto a un auditorio amplio.
«Thus, at the beginning of the seventeenth century authors took up the issue of the true and false alchemist with a new urgency that focused on the connections among moral depravity, entrepreneurial alchemy, and Betrug.» — Con el giro que ella data a principios del XVII: los autores atan depravación moral, alquimia emprendedora y Betrug.
«The language they used to denounce Betrüger sharpened, and gallows and punishments began to populate alchemical texts» — El lenguaje se endurece y entran las horcas y los castigos en los propios textos alquímicos.
«he explained that he had decided to publish his volume anyway because the state could easily defeat Betrug: “But where fraudulence is punished as it should be and the authorities are vigilant enough in their duties that scrupulous assayers are certifi ed through examinations [examina] and a uniform standard for the examination can be deployed, then there is no reason to be apprehensive in this respect.”» — La salida de Libavius es de policía y no de doctrina: castigar el fraude y certificar ensayadores escrupulosos por examen.
«In Libavius’s law-and-order approach to Betrug, a twin governmental strategy of testing and licensing true alchemists while punishing alchemical Betrüger would go a long way to sorting out the practice of alchemy.» — Con la estrategia doble que la autora le adjudica: examinar y licenciar al verdadero, castigar al Betrüger.
«The Virgin decides that Rosencreutz and the other “poor coupled hounds” who had opted out of the weighing the night before should ascend the scale as well, but “without any danger to them, and only in good humor.» — En la ficción de la Chymische Hochzeit, la Virgen manda pesar también a Rosencreutz y los suyos, pero sin riesgo y de buen humor.
«You should confess that you have lent credence too readily to false and spurious books; that you have thought too much of yourselves, and entered this castle to which no one invited you.» — El primer cargo de esa sentencia alegórica es de lectura: haber dado crédito con demasiada facilidad a libros falsos y espurios.
«If perhaps the majority of you simply wanted to slip in here in order to live more grandly and pleasurably, you have egged one another on to such outrage and effrontery that you have well deserved to suffer condign punishment.» — El segundo es de intención: haberse animado unos a otros a colarse en el castillo para vivir con más grandeza.
«Everyone knows that you have been involved in open whoring, adultery, debauchery, and every kind of uncleanness, all of it in defi ance of the well-known law of our kingdom.» — Y el tercero es de costumbres, con la lista entera de la impureza, contra la ley conocida del reino.
«The text clearly condemned them both for “demeaning” alchemy before the common people and using it as a selfi sh instrument for the generation of wealth rather than for what Andreae saw as its true purpose:» — La lectura de la autora sobre esos cargos: se condena rebajar la alquimia ante el vulgo y usarla como instrumento egoísta de riqueza.
«And yet, as the Virgin-President’s subsequent sentence makes clear, Andreae differentiated between those who actually committed acts of deceit and those who egged them on.» — Con la distinción que le adjudica dentro de la propia sentencia: no es lo mismo quien engañó que quien lo azuzó.
«While some were stripped naked or branded and banished, the worst punishment was reserved for the Landbetrieger.» — Y el reparto de penas, con la peor reservada al Landbetrieger.
«Watching the executions, Rosencreutz observes, “My eyes truly ran over at this execution, not so much because of the punishments, which they had well deserved for their crimes, but in refl ection on human delusion.”» — En voz del propio Rosencreutz al ver la ejecución: se le saltan las lágrimas no por las penas merecidas, sino por el engaño humano.
«Andreae’s judgment in the Chymische Hochzeit was clear. If princely patrons bore responsibility for the proliferation of Betrüger, princes themselves were redeemable and could be employed in eliminating Betrug altogether.» — Su lectura del juicio de Andreae sobre el mecenas: el príncipe responsable de la proliferación es a la vez redimible y utilizable contra el fraude.
«The Betrüger, on the other hand, were clearly guilty in his eyes of moral degeneracy, which went hand in hand with alchemical deceit; they had to executed, both as a punishment for their egregious crimes and as a deterrent to others who might be considering taking a step down the path of alchemical Betrug.» — Mientras que al Betrüger lo ve culpable de degeneración moral, y la ejecución sirve de castigo y de escarmiento.
«The connections that Andreae made between weak morals and alchemical misdeeds highlight the difference between the way that princes approached Betrug (as breach of contract) and the much larger constellation of issues alchemical authors attached to the crime.» — La diferencia que ella subraya entre los dos foros: el príncipe trataba el Betrug como incumplimiento de contrato, el autor alquímico le colgaba una constelación mucho mayor.
«One set of concerns was long-standing, namely alchemists’ fear that an indiscriminating public would turn against all alchemy simply because of a few bad apples.» — El temor viejo del gremio: que un público sin discernimiento se vuelva contra toda la alquimia por unas cuantas manzanas podridas.
«When the trials questioned the reputation of both alchemy and alchemists anew, alchemists redoubled their efforts in print to distance themselves and their art intellectually and morally from the activities of the Betrüger.» — Y su respuesta a los procesos: redoblar en letra impresa la distancia intelectual y moral respecto del Betrüger.
«The trials also raised a second issue regarding the growing commercialization of alchemy.» — Los juicios abrían además un segundo asunto, el de la comercialización creciente del arte.
«A hundred years later, alchemical expertise was still for sale in an increasing variety of forms, but the largest, most public buyers were the princes; they were the ones who built laboratories, hired alchemists, and extended huge rewards to talented alchemists.» — Con el dato que lo vuelve inevitable: cien años después de Brant, el comprador mayor y más público era el príncipe.
«It was the state’s connection to entrepreneurial alchemy that drew public attention to the art, even as it raised truly fundamental questions about how alchemy operated in a commercial context.» — De donde su tesis: fue el vínculo con el Estado lo que llevó la alquimia a la atención pública.
«Like Andreae, alchemical authors who took up these questions continued to narrate from the position of the alchemist-expert: they would guide would-be patrons away from the Betrüger and onto the path of proper alchemy.» — Y la posición desde la que estos autores narran: la del alquimista experto que guía al mecenas lejos del Betrüger.
«As he contended, “prudent is the person who distinguishes between good and bad, legitimate and illegitimate, true and false.”» — En voz de Maier: prudente es quien distingue entre bueno y malo, legítimo e ilegítimo, verdadero y falso.
«Nevertheless, he felt that the discerning eye could see that the difference between the bees and drones was “even more than a thing from its opposite, or black from white.”» — Con su confianza en que la diferencia entre abejas y zánganos se ve más aún que lo negro de lo blanco.
«Maier’s goal was to teach this acumen so that “the children of knowledge” could arm themselves against the Betrüger “with the acute understanding of an Odysseus before the harpies and sirens.”» — Y su propósito declarado: armar a los hijos del conocimiento con el entendimiento de un Odiseo ante las sirenas.
«Whoever you are, gentle reader, you will . . . distinguish the most divine of all arts, chymia, from the shams or drones and nonsense of impostors.» — El encargo al lector: distinguir la chymia, la más divina de las artes, de los engaños y sinsentidos de los impostores.
«These fi gures, of course, represent the princely patrons who dangle money before alchemical practitioners and (as Andreae argued) thereby encourage alchemical fraud.» — La lectura del emblema, que pone al mecenas en el cuadro: son los príncipes quienes agitan el dinero ante los practicantes.
«Maier’s epigram accompanying the image praises the brave worker bees, who defend themselves against this attack of lazy but nevertheless aggressive drones and fi ght them to the death.» — Con el epigrama que acompaña la imagen, en elogio de las obreras que pelean a muerte contra los zánganos.
«Because these people are exceedingly harmful both to the res publica and to chymia, they must be immediately identifi ed and guarded against.» — Y el motivo del daño, dicho en dos planos a la vez: esa gente es dañosísima para la res publica y para la chymia.
«It goes against all reason that someone who really had really mastered this great art, tested over and over again in experiments, would want to sell this knowledge to another for a piece of bread or a bit of gold.» — El argumento de Maier contra la venta del secreto: repugna a toda razón que quien de veras domine el arte lo venda por un pedazo de pan.
«All of this added up to Maier’s belief that true alchemy was not something that one could trade in the marketplace since it was, quite literally, priceless.» — Su conclusión, que la autora resume: la alquimia verdadera no se comercia porque es literalmente impagable.
«Like princes, Maier construed this cluster of offenses as Betrug; he saw it, however, not as a narrow case of breach of contract, but as a much broader set of moral transgressions.» — Con la diferencia de alcance frente al príncipe: Maier también lo llama Betrug, pero no como incumplimiento sino como transgresión moral amplia.
«Maier took Brant’s notion a step further, however, by arguing that false alchemists were as likely to disguise themselves as they were to disguise their wares.» — Y su paso más allá de Brant: el falso alquimista disfraza su persona tanto como su mercancía.
«The Betrüger “favor ceremony more than the thing itself,” Maier wrote; “I refer to as ‘ceremony’ those things which pertain to only the preparations, not to the essence of the thing.”» — En su propia voz, la distinción entre ceremonia y cosa: llama ceremonia a lo que atañe solo a los preparativos, no a la esencia.
«At worst, these practices were nothing but the tricks of the confi dence man: ruses, impersonations, deceits, and false performances designed to gain trust in order to perpetrate further frauds.» — Que en su peor versión son las artes del embaucador: engaños, suplantaciones y actuaciones para ganar confianza.
«Maier, Andreae, and others, in other words, argued that all of the things that had become a necessary part of putting alchemy into practice as a public, collaborative activity were nothing but impersonation, lies, moral corruption, and Betrug.» — El alcance de esa acusación, que es lo que a ella le interesa: cae sobre todo lo que hacía pública y colaborativa la práctica alquímica.
«Believe me, though, the time will come when the masks in this masquerade will be ripped off, and the whole world will know what swindlers lurk beneath.» — Con su profecía: llegará el día en que caigan las máscaras de esta mascarada y el mundo vea qué estafadores se ocultan debajo.
«Maier, Andreae, and other critics, however, reconfi gured these practices entirely by arguing that the enactment of the persona exposed alchemy to abuse.» — Su adjudicación sobre esa maniobra: los críticos reconfiguran esas prácticas, y hacen de la puesta en escena de la persona la puerta del abuso.
«In contrast, the true alchemist eschewed this kind of impersonation and promotion altogether, preferring alchemy as a private, solitary practice.» — El modelo que ofrecen a cambio: el alquimista verdadero como practicante privado y solitario.
«The true chymicus was to be pious, modest, and secretive about his insights, like the humble Christian Rosencreutz.» — Piadoso, modesto y reservado, a la manera del humilde Christian Rosencreutz.
«Real alchemists, Maier wrote, “should be honest and upright men, both in public and in private, of good intentions and conscientious; that is, they should have not feigned, but true spirit of the art, acquiring it neither for the abuse of God, nor for the harm of one’s fellow man.”» — En voz de Maier: hombres honestos en público y en privado, con espíritu verdadero del arte y no fingido.
«Moreover, he continued, “a true goldmaker [aurifex] who knew how to complete his work in part or entirely would keep it all to himself.» — Y su regla de secreto: el verdadero aurifex que supiera completar la obra se la guardaría entera.
«Maier viewed the bravado and bluster of the false alchemists not only as a giveaway, but also as morally objectionable.» — La bravata del falso queda tratada no solo como indicio, sino como falta moral.
«“Not the least of their moral failings is how they delight in lies, pride themselves on their own skill, and make fools out of others,” he wrote.» — Con la lista de esas faltas: deleitarse en la mentira, jactarse de la propia destreza y hacer tontos a los demás.
«This triple vice is like a hydra with many heads: if one cuts off one of them, another quickly grows in its place, and indeed more still in their place; in other words, it is the mother and propagator of many other, worse, evils.”» — Y la imagen con que las multiplica: triple vicio como hidra de muchas cabezas, madre y propagadora de males peores.
«the trials publicized the extent to which a productive, entrepreneurial alchemy had taken root in the Holy Roman Empire and was increasingly convincing to princely patrons.» — Lo que los procesos hicieron visible, según ella: cuánto había arraigado una alquimia productiva y emprendedora, y cuánto convencía al príncipe.
«From this perspective, alchemy’s success was its weakness, as it was diluted and distorted beyond recognition.» — De ahí su fórmula sobre esa incomodidad: el éxito de la alquimia era su debilidad, diluida y desfigurada.
«Maier, after all, was competing with alchemists like Georg Honauer for princely patronage, and» — Con el interés material que no oculta: Maier competía por el mecenazgo principesco con alquimistas como Honauer.
«Subsequent authors would play up the trope of defending alchemy by condemning false alchemists who peddled their deceits in books, if not in person.» — El tópico que quedaría fijado para los autores siguientes: defender el arte condenando a los falsos que venden engaños en libros.
«since they believe they have been deceived, they are not afraid to speak abusively of the art, and to topple the true philosophers together with all of their writings from their heights.”» — En voz del Via veritatis, el daño que teme: los que se creen engañados hablan mal del arte y derriban con él a los verdaderos filósofos.
«The Via veritatis went on to defend alchemy’s virtue, predictably using the false alchemists and their books as a foil for articulating the true art.» — Y su procedimiento, que ella marca como previsible: usar al falso alquimista de contrafigura para articular el arte verdadero.
«Stories of true and false alchemy, in other words, emerged in tandem.» — Su adjudicación sobre el género: los relatos de alquimia verdadera y de alquimia falsa nacieron juntos.
«The vitriolum album he describes, for example, supposedly crystallizes into gems that look like rubies.» — Con una de las trampas catalogadas: el vitriolo blanco que cristaliza en piedras con apariencia de rubí.
«Maier assumed that Khunrath’s report was largely accurate and that “these frauds and deceptions [either] have been used at some point by pseudo-chymists or could be used by impostors.”» — El crédito que Maier da al catálogo de Khunrath, ya con su propio matiz: fraudes usados alguna vez, o que podrían usarse.
«We will never be entirely sure whether or not alchemists made use of such tricks, and we will always be even more uncertain about what they were thinking when they did so.» — La abstención de la autora sobre esos trucos, doble: ni si se usaron ni, mucho menos, qué pensaban quienes los usaron.
«The authors of these texts had a stake in propagating stories of fraud, whether or not such reports were true;» — Y la razón de esa cautela: los autores tenían interés en propagar historias de fraude, fueran ciertas o no.
«By damaging the credibility of entrepreneurial alchemists, alchemists like Maier could increase their own authority in a competitive patronage marketplace.» — Porque dañar la credibilidad del alquimista emprendedor subía la autoridad propia en un mercado de mecenazgo competido.
«These alchemical authors’ own motivations should give us pause before we accept uncritically the evidence of fraud they offer.» — De donde su advertencia de método: esas motivaciones obligan a no aceptar sin crítica la evidencia de fraude que ofrecen.
«If evidence of the actual use of deliberately deceptive alchemical tricks is what we are after, we can learn much more by getting away from polemical texts like Khunrath’s and Maier’s and looking at alchemy in practice.» — Su alternativa: salir del texto polémico y mirar la alquimia en práctica.
«Authorities explicitly sought out evidence of Betrug during these trials, after all, and interrogators had recourse to torture to elicit confessions where necessary.» — Con el rasgo que hace útiles los expedientes: las autoridades buscaban expresamente evidencia de Betrug, y usaban tortura para obtener confesión.
«The documentation generated by these trials, of course, is problematic in other ways, and we must approach it carefully.» — Y el reparo inmediato: esa documentación es problemática por otras vías y hay que trabajarla con cuidado.
«Princes did not accuse alchemists of such crimes, nor did alchemists confess to them.» — El resultado negativo de esa búsqueda, que es un hallazgo: ni los príncipes acusaron de esos trucos ni los alquimistas los confesaron.
«Philipp Sömmering, for example, insisted on his good will, claiming that “he had defi nitely heard of the strict punishment by [his patron Duke Julius]. . . . However he had nothing untrue in his heart against [the duke].”» — La defensa de Sömmering en el proceso, en su voz: sabía del castigo severo y no tenía nada falso en el corazón contra el duque.
«After each count of debt, the confession reads, “He did not say whether he intended to steal it or repay it.”» — Y la fórmula que se repite en la confesión de Bragadino tras cada deuda: no dijo si pensaba robarlo o devolverlo.
«On the issue of intent, the trials offer denials, but no confessions to premeditated breach of contract.» — Su balance sobre la intención: los procesos dan negativas, no confesiones de incumplimiento premeditado.
«Ultimately, the evidence does not reveal what Nüschler was thinking, and thus we must admit its limits and leave the question of intent unresolved rather than making arguments based on assumptions.» — Con la abstención declarada en el caso Nüschler: la evidencia no dice qué pensaba, y la cuestión de la intención queda sin resolver.
«In one sense, what the Betrug trials in the years around 1600 prove is actually surprisingly limited: the trials were about contracts, not about cons (let alone demons, magic, or whatever else we might assume).» — Lo que esos juicios permiten sostener resulta sorprendentemente limitado: iban de contratos, no de timos, y menos de demonios o magia.
«This rather modest conclusion, however, belies the signifi cance of the trials for the history of alchemy.» — Aunque esa conclusión modesta no mide, según ella, lo que los juicios significan para la historia de la alquimia.
«More specifi cally, contracts structured risk so that individual alchemists bore the responsibility for alchemy’s failure, sometimes in the most dramatic fashion.» — Porque el contrato estructuraba el riesgo de modo que el fracaso del arte cayera sobre el individuo, a veces del modo más dramático.
«For the defi nition of some practitioners as frauds or impostors implied that somewhere true alchemists existed; the hopeful patron simply had not yet found one.» — Y la paradoja que cierra el libro: llamar falsos a unos implicaba que en algún lado había verdaderos, y que el mecenas aún no daba con ellos.
«As Duke Friedrich explained, “we have found from particular experience that in no other art on earth is there more fraud and falsehood [betrugs und falschs] than in the supposed art of the sophistic goldmaker who goes around with a tincture that he himself did not even make.» — En voz del duque Friedrich, con la experiencia como aval: en ningún arte hay más fraude que en el del sofístico hacedor de oro que anda con una tintura que ni él hizo.
«After all, patrons were as heavily invested in the alchemical dream as a panacea for a troubled economy as alchemists themselves were invested in its social, intellectual, and material potential.» — Su explicación de por qué el sueño no se rompía: el mecenas estaba tan invertido en la alquimia como panacea económica como el alquimista en su potencial.
«As long as alchemy’s failures could be attributed to an individual practitioner’s duplicity or incompetence, then the dream of alchemical productivity would persist and early modern princes and alchemists alike would continue their efforts to realize it.» — Mientras el fracaso se pudiera achacar a la duplicidad o la incompetencia de uno, el sueño de productividad seguía en pie.
«Thus princes signed contracts with alchemists, just as they had previously signed investment contracts with mining companies, outlining specifi c processes, expected profi ts, and fi nancial responsibilities of both parties; they also built large laboratories and created elaborate organizational structures to regulate them.» — El resumen de la mecánica: contratos como los de las compañías mineras, con procesos, ganancias y responsabilidades, más laboratorios y estructura para regularlos.
«This kind of alchemical practice was “entrepreneurial” both for the princes, who hoped it could revive or extend the failing mines that were the lifeblood of central European territories, and for the alchemists, who hoped to attract princely investment in expensive alchemical work and, perhaps, earn substantial rewards for successful alchemical projects.» — Y por qué llama emprendedora a esa práctica de los dos lados: el príncipe esperaba revivir minas y el alquimista atraer inversión y recompensa.
«These entrepreneurial alchemical practices, however, were embedded in a much more complex understanding of the fi gure of the alchemist that emerged not only from princely courts, but also from the pens of cultural commentators and alchemical authors.» — Con la advertencia de que esa práctica venía envuelta en una figura del alquimista construida también fuera de la corte.
«At the same time, humanist observers increasingly deployed the alchemist as a potent symbol of deceit and fraud, a vehicle for critiquing early modern commerce and social mobility.» — Por comentaristas humanistas que lo usaban de símbolo del engaño para criticar el comercio y la movilidad social.
«Finally, entrepreneurial alchemical practices situated the alchemist in the context of early modern state building and political economy.» — Y su tercer encuadre, el que da título al libro: el alquimista dentro de la construcción del Estado y la economía política.
«As I have endeavored to show, alchemical fraud was not a natural category; it is not somehow intrinsic to alchemy, any more than it is to physics, medicine, theology, or baking.» — Su tesis más fuerte sobre la categoría misma: el fraude alquímico no es natural ni intrínseco a la alquimia, como no lo es a la física, la medicina, la teología o la panadería.
«From Philipp Sömmering to Michael Maier, alchemists claimed authority as interpreters of alchemical tradition in part by condemning others’ failure to do so properly.» — El mecanismo que documenta de punta a punta: de Sömmering a Maier, se reclamaba autoridad condenando el fallo ajeno en interpretar la tradición.
«They made a bid for intellectual authority, hoping to establish their own credentials as upstanding alchemist-experts with special access to alchemy’s secrets as well as the social status that attended their knowledge and expertise.» — Con lo que se jugaba en esa apuesta: credenciales de experto con acceso especial al secreto y el estatus que traía consigo.
«For humanist critics and artists, meanwhile, less was at stake; alchemists were only one type of fool among the endless supply available to inspire their pens and brushes.» — Marca la asimetría de lo que arriesgaba cada bando: para el crítico humanista el alquimista era un tonto más de una provisión inagotable.
«Princes, fi nally, asserted an entrepreneurial alchemical practice in the late sixteenth century that not only increased their authority as sovereigns in the political sphere, but also affirmed their determination to mold early modern natural knowledge to their own ends.» — Y para el príncipe, la práctica emprendedora aumentaba su autoridad de soberano y afirmaba su voluntad de moldear el saber natural a sus fines.
«The princes of the Holy Roman Empire were not alone in this regard, of course, but must be seen alongside other early modern sovereigns who employed natural knowledge in early modern state and empire building.» — Con la comparación que evita el excepcionalismo: los príncipes del Imperio junto a otros soberanos que emplearon el saber natural en construir Estado e imperio.
«In providing an opportunity for all of these various groups to assert their own authority, debates about fraud revealed how much was at stake with alchemy, whether in the intellectual, social, political, or economic realm.» — Su conclusión sobre para qué sirvió el debate del fraude: dejó ver cuánto se jugaba con la alquimia en lo intelectual, lo social, lo político y lo económico.
«The battle for alchemical authority at the heart of this book, therefore, was waged on many fronts and with many agendas and results.» — La batalla por la autoridad alquímica, dicha con sus muchos frentes, agendas y resultados.
«At the center of the battle, however, were always the “Betrüger” themselves, alchemists like Philipp Sömmering, Georg Honauer, Marco Bragadino, and the others who populate this book.» — Con los Betrüger en el centro: Sömmering, Honauer, Bragadino y los demás que pueblan el libro.
«They did so—through their actions if not their words—in ways that may have been dismissed by or escaped the attention of historians, but these alchemists’ boldness and confi dence is still striking today.» — Y lo que ella les reconoce, por sus actos más que por sus palabras: una audacia y una confianza todavía notables.
«The European archives, in fact, are overfl owing with sources that document the world of natural knowledge claimed and created by artisans, sailors, empirics, artists, priests, and noblewomen—a whole range of people beyond the well-known scholars who chose print as the venue for publicly asserting their claims to knowledge.» — Su llamado de archivo, con la nómina de a quiénes falta oír: artesanos, marineros, empíricos, artistas, sacerdotes y nobles.
«We simply will not fully appreciate the scope of natural knowledge and its meanings in early modern Europe until we can incorporate the new sources and new subjects that the archives reveal.» — Con la consecuencia que extrae: no se apreciará el alcance del saber natural hasta incorporar esas fuentes y esos sujetos.
«In the end, then, any study of natural knowledge in early modern Europe must reckon not only with people like Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle, but also with people like Philipp Sömmering.» — Y la fórmula final: cualquier estudio del saber natural tendrá que vérselas no solo con Newton y Boyle, también con gente como Philipp Sömmering.
«Zieglerin is also the subject of my next book, Anna Zieglerin and the Lion’s Blood: An Alchemist’s Career in Reformation Europe.» — En nota declara que Zieglerin será el objeto de su libro siguiente, con título ya dado.
«Coincidentally, Heinrich Rantzau was also patron to Peter Maier, the father of the well-known alchemist, physician, and Rosicrucian Michael Maier.» — Y el dato de red que ella misma llama coincidencia: Heinrich Rantzau fue también mecenas de Peter Maier, padre de Michael Maier. En la plana anterior la misma fuente escribe el apellido Ratznau.
«Hoping to put these rumors to rest, Julius wrote to Philipp’s former patron, Duke Johann Friedrich of Sachsen-Gotha, and asked him to vouch for Philipp’s character, which the Saxon duke gladly did.» — El procedimiento de corte ante el rumor: el duque pide al mecenas anterior del alquimista que responda por su carácter, y aquel accede.
«The original list of charges is no longer extant.» — Con la abstención documental sobre el proceso: la lista original de cargos ya no existe.
«Inquisition records, on the other hand, have been important sources for a number of historians of science and medicine.» — Y su nota historiográfica sobre las fuentes judiciales: los registros inquisitoriales sí han sido importantes para historiadores de la ciencia y la medicina.
«The Mühlentor was roughly where the Herzog-Au gust-Bibliothek stands today.» — Con el dato topográfico que sitúa la ejecución: el Mühlentor estaba aproximadamente donde hoy está la Herzog August Bibliothek.
«In The Business of Alchemy, Pamela Smith emphasized the way in which alchemy served as a kind of metaphorical bridge between traditional princely pursuits and a more modern, mercantilist economic policy.» — Declara qué toma de Pamela Smith: la alquimia como puente metafórico entre las ocupaciones principescas tradicionales y la política mercantilista.
«I am pushing this argument one step farther, suggesting that alchemical practices also had economic value in their own right.» — Y dónde se separa de ella, dicho en primera persona: sostiene además que las prácticas alquímicas tenían valor económico por derecho propio.
«In an important article, Lawrence Principe and William Newman suggest using the term “chymistry” in studies of the early modern period to avoid the false dichotomy between a premodern (and presumably prescientifi c) “alchemy” and a modern (and presumably scientifi c) “chemistry.”» — Recoge la propuesta terminológica de Principe y Newman, con su razón: chymistry para evitar la falsa dicotomía entre alquimia premoderna y química moderna.
«throughout this study, therefore, with the understanding that I do not intend it to indicate a set of practices somehow preceding, confl icting with, or unrelated to the “new science” associated with the Scientifi c Revolution.» — Y fija el sentido en que ella conserva alchemy: sin dar a entender prácticas previas ni ajenas a la nueva ciencia.
«Bruce Moran suggests that, “although a sprinkling of interest may be found in the subject within the university, it was, as a manual art, always denied a part in the scholastic curriculum.”» — Sobre el lugar universitario del arte recoge a Moran: como arte manual, siempre se le negó parte en el currículo escolástico.
«William Newman, on the other hand, argues that alchemy’s problem in the universities was that the Sciant artifi ces, assumed to have been written by Aristotle, seemed to condemn it.» — Y a Newman con otra explicación, que no armoniza con la anterior: el estorbo era el Sciant artifices, tenido por aristotélico, que parecía condenarla.
«Aquinas repeatedly argued that art in general, and alchemical arts in particular, were weaker than nature, thus rejecting the alchemists’ claims that they could make true metals artifi cially; William Newman has attributed Aquinas’s rejection of alchemy to his “conservatism with regard to the art-nature distinction.”» — La posición de Aquino según ella, con su atribución de causa tomada de Newman: el arte más débil que la naturaleza, por conservadurismo en la distinción arte-naturaleza.
«Despite this dim view of alchemy, however, many spurious works were attributed to Aquinas in the fi fteenth century.» — Con el dato de atribución que corre en sentido contrario: pese a esa opinión, en el siglo XV se le colgaron a Aquino muchas obras espurias.
«Although he clearly was valued as an important alchemical authority in the sixteenth century and was frequently cited, very little is known about Bernhard of Treviso» — Su abstención sobre Bernhard de Treviso: muy citado y valorado en el XVI, y se sabe muy poco de él.
«He rejected the sulfur-mercury theory in his famous letter to Christine de Pisan’s father, Thomas of Bologna, in favor of the idea that mercury alone was the basis of all metals.» — Con lo que sí consigna de su doctrina: rechazó la teoría de azufre y mercurio en favor del mercurio solo como base de los metales.
«He may have been referring to the Testamentum (1332), the oldest and most infl uential text of the pseudo-Lullian corpus.» — La identificación probable de un título que Sömmering menciona: el Testamentum de 1332, el más antiguo e influyente del corpus pseudo-luliano.
«Sömmering urged Julius to read the scolia in Bernhardum “with diligence . . . because the treasure of the secret is to be discovered in it, and, apart from the process, it is the dearest little book I have.”» — Y el consejo de lectura en voz del propio alquimista: leer con diligencia los escolios a Bernhard, el librito más querido que tiene.
«Alchemy’s earliest texts, written in Greek in the fi rst through the third centuries CE, were inherited and taken up by natural philosophers writing in Arabic in the seventh through the tenth centuries.» — La cadena de transmisión que data: textos griegos de los siglos I a III retomados por filósofos naturales en árabe entre el VII y el X.
«I am grateful to William Newman for his assistance in identifying these texts.» — Con el agradecimiento que declara de quién viene la identificación de esos textos: William Newman.
«Johann Sternhals’s 1488 treatise was printed in 1595 and again in 1680:» — Un dato de imprenta que sostiene su argumento del manuscrito: el tratado de Sternhals, de 1488, no se imprimió hasta 1595.
«Pereira’s dating of Sol und Luna differs from Joachim Telle’s somewhat later dating.» — Y una discrepancia de datación consignada sin arbitrar: la de Pereira para el Sol und Luna difiere de la algo posterior de Joachim Telle.
«The Paracelsian physician and mining expert Leonhard Thurneisser (1531–96), for example, otherwise never discussed transmutational alchemy in his work but wrote a single treatise in 1584 which described in detail the transmutation of copper into gold.» — El caso que rompe la coherencia paracelsiana, con su fecha: Thurneisser nunca trata la transmutación y en 1584 escribe un tratado entero sobre cobre en oro.
«However, it might also suggest how little confl ict many practitioners actually saw between simultaneously pursuing Paracelsian medicine and alchemical gold.» — Su lectura de esa anomalía, en grado hipotético: quizá los practicantes veían poco conflicto entre medicina paracelsiana y oro alquímico.
«Even Johannes Huser, the Paracelsian physician who published and edited Paracelsus’s collected works in 1589–90, did not entirely heed the admonition to pursue alchemy solely for its medical, not metallurgical, virtues.» — Con el segundo caso, el del propio editor de las obras completas: Huser tampoco atendió del todo la admonición de quedarse en lo médico.
«Telle also notes, “In complete contrast to Hohenheim’s quest to ‘pharmaceuticize’ alchemia transmutatoria, in the mental world of his editor Huser aspects of traditional alchemy—[such as] the ‘work,’ or rather ‘goldmaking,’ a cementation method directed at the production of gold, or the practices of the fraudulent goldmaker Marco Bragadino (ca. 1545/50–1591)— play a central role.”» — Y en voz de Joachim Telle: en el mundo mental de Huser lo tradicional de la alquimia, la obra y el hacer oro, ocupa lugar central.
«The treatise was fi rst attributed to Paracelsus in “De lapide,” a treatise written in 1575 by David Beuther, an alchemist working for Elector Au gust of Saxony.» — Una adjudicación de atribución con fecha y autor: el tratado se atribuye a Paracelso por primera vez en un texto de 1575 de David Beuther.
«Although, as Eamon points out, these Kunstbücher largely have been ignored by historians of alchemy.» — Con Eamon consigna un hueco de la disciplina: los historiadores de la alquimia han ignorado en buena medida los Kunstbücher.
«The Bergbüchlein, for example, discussed the sulfur-mercury theory of the composition of metals, which Arabic alchemists introduced into alchemy.» — El contenido teórico del Bergbüchlein, con su procedencia: la teoría de azufre y mercurio que introdujeron los alquimistas árabes.
«The fact that it appeared only in Italian in the sixteenth century, however, would have limited its central European audience.» — Y el límite de circulación de otra obra: al aparecer solo en italiano en el XVI, su público en Europa central quedaba corto.
«The Bohemian historian Josef Svatek, in fact, referred to two of these regions (the Erzgebirge and Joachimstal) as “alchemical academies.”» — El rótulo que el historiador bohemio Josef Svatek dio a dos regiones mineras, el Erzgebirge y Joachimstal: academias alquímicas.
«To the question “whether he didn’t [present] himself as an artisan [Künstler] and [claim] that he could make gold out of silver,” Hört “said absolutely not, because David [Pirkheimer] took him with him to Stuttgart for the sole reason that he knows how to deal with the fi re and with distilling, and he would be a good Laborant.”» — La respuesta de Hört en el interrogatorio, que es voz de proceso: niega haberse presentado como el que hace oro de plata, y dice que lo llevaron por saber de fuego y destilación.
«For instance, when the Prague burgher Petr Hlavsa left his position as mint master for the kingdom of Bohemia in 1561, he began working as the manager of the Bohemian magnate Vilém Rozˇmberk’s Prague alchemical operations.» — Un tránsito de carrera documentado: Petr Hlavsa deja el puesto de maestro de ceca de Bohemia en 1561 y pasa a dirigir las operaciones alquímicas de Rožmberk en Praga.
«Hlavsa’s alleged introduction of a new smelting technique in the Kutná Hora silver mines in Bohemia may have driven the royal chamber into debt and caused his downfall.» — Con la causa probable de esa caída, dicha en condicional: una técnica nueva de fundición en Kutná Hora que pudo endeudar a la cámara real.
«Most satisfactorily, to my mind, Philippe and Françoise Roberts-Jones have highlighted the many contradictory messages in Brueghel’s print, rather than limiting Brueghel to a single interpretation: “This apparently unambiguous work contains contradictory ideas—each of which may fi nd echoes, suggestions, even fi rm statements, to support it among the customs, literature, or art of the time.”» — Su preferencia interpretativa declarada sobre el grabado de Brueghel: la lectura de los Roberts-Jones, que dejan los mensajes contradictorios sin reducir a uno.
«Indeed, Bonus included Moses, David, Solomon, and John the Evangelist among the founders of alchemy.» — La genealogía sagrada que Bonus da al arte: Moisés, David, Salomón y Juan Evangelista entre los fundadores.
«Anna Zieglerin, for instance, certainly drew on this dimension of alchemical tradition in the 1570s when she claimed that her alchemical knowledge, received through a kind of divine revelation, would prepare the world for the Last Days.» — Y el uso que Zieglerin hizo de esa vertiente en los años setenta del XVI: un saber recibido por revelación que prepararía al mundo para los Últimos Días.
«transferred the dry and technical arguments of writers such as pseudo–Roger Bacon and Paul of Taranto directly into the context of courtly love, where they would be evaluated by an audience comprising all levels of literate society.» — El paso del argumento técnico a la literatura cortés en el Roman de la Rose de Jean de Meun, hacia 1270.
«Dante encounters two alchemists among the falsifi ers in the tenth pit of the eighth and lowest circle of hell in canto 29 of the Inferno.» — Con el otro testigo literario: los dos alquimistas que Dante pone entre los falsarios del canto 29 del Infierno.
«I have taken all quotes here from Newman’s translation and critical edition of the Summa perfectionis.» — Declara de dónde toma sus citas de la Summa perfectionis: la traducción y edición crítica de Newman.
«I have relied heavily on the English translation in Rawski, Remedies for Fortune Fair and Foul, 1:299–301. However, I have made occasional alterations in order to better refl ect the sense of the 1532 German edition.» — Y en otra nota, la intervención propia sobre una traducción ajena: alteraciones ocasionales para ajustarse al sentido de la edición alemana de 1532.
«Edwin Zeydel, for instance, estimates that “at least one-third of all the volumes printed in Basel before 1490 show signs of his collaboration, whether they mention his name or not.”» — La estimación de Zeydel sobre el peso editorial de Brant: al menos un tercio de lo impreso en Basilea antes de 1490 lleva señales de su colaboración.
«Walther Scheidig noted: “The poet and philosopher Petrarca was the author, the German humanist and educator Sebastian Brant the editor.”» — Con el reparto de papeles que fija Walther Scheidig: Petrarca el autor, Brant el editor.
«The identity of the “Master of Petrarch,” as the woodcut designer has come to be known, was lost in the century after he fi rst designed the woodcuts in 1519.» — La pérdida de identidad del Maestro de Petrarca en el siglo siguiente a sus grabados de 1519.
«While some have identifi ed him as Hans Weiditz (before 1500–ca. 1536), the designer of the woodcuts for Otto Brunfels’s well-known herbal from the same period, others have disputed this attribution.» — Con la atribución en disputa: unos lo identifican con Hans Weiditz y otros lo discuten.
«Other scholars, however, notably Heinrich Wölfflin, have disputed this attribution.» — Y otros estudiosos, señaladamente Heinrich Wölfflin, han disputado esa atribución.
«The identities of the woodcut designers for the Narrenschiff are uncertain, as is the exact nature of Brant’s involvement in their production.» — Su abstención sobre el punto: los diseñadores de los grabados del Narrenschiff son inciertos, y también el papel exacto de Brant.
«The Narrenschiff appeared in six authorized editions and at least six pirated editions before his death in 1512; the original German text was also translated into Latin (Stultifera navis, 1497), which edition then became the basis for subsequent translations into French, English, and Dutch, making possible the book’s international fame.» — La medida de la difusión del Narrenschiff: seis ediciones autorizadas y al menos seis piratas antes de 1512, y la latina como base de las demás traducciones.
«Agrippa’s relationship to alchemy was much more complicated than this text reveals, however.» — Con la reserva sobre Agrippa: su relación con la alquimia era más complicada que lo que ese texto deja ver.
«I am grateful to Peter Forshaw for his assistance with the authorship of this text.» — Y un agradecimiento que declara de quién viene la adjudicación de autoría de un texto: Peter Forshaw.
«Andreas Libavius offered a similar justifi cation in the preface to his Alchemia, where he argued that his text would empower people to judge for themselves whether a particular alchemist was an impostor or not.» — La justificación de Libavius en su prefacio: dar al lector con qué juzgar por sí mismo si un alquimista es impostor.
«One wonders whether Boyle had Erasmus in mind when he named this character.» — Una conjetura suya, marcada como tal: si Boyle tendría a Erasmo en mente al nombrar a ese personaje.
«Although social, economic, and literary historians have long debated whether these representations of roguery can be used as evidence for the organization and culture of a subculture of vagabonds, beggars, and criminals, the best work now employs a sophisticated understanding of both literary and social history sources, as well as the way in which these interacted.» — Su posición sobre la literatura de pícaros como fuente: el mejor trabajo usa a la vez fuentes literarias y sociales y su interacción.
«The connection I have drawn between the rogue’s literature and Betrüger literature of the sixteenth century provides a useful analogy.» — Y el estatuto que da a su propia comparación: la conexión entre esa literatura y la del Betrüger vale como analogía.
«Although he focuses largely on the philosophical and medical alchemy characteristic of the court of Moritz of Hessen, Bruce Moran suggestively points to other kinds of alchemical patronage in his conclusion, noting in particular the way in which “alchemical projects could easily be turned into types of court technology” at other German courts in this period.» — Con Moran, que apunta al margen de su propio objeto cómo los proyectos alquímicos podían volverse tecnología de corte.
«As the economic historian Hermann Kellenbenz put it, the problem was a result of “the heavy debt of the princes, the nobility, and the clergy, who, with their emphatically feudal barter economy arrangements, did not yet meet the demands of an economic rhythm that was determined more and more by the urban Bürgertum.”» — El diagnóstico económico que toma de Kellenbenz: la deuda de príncipes, nobleza y clero, con economía de trueque feudal, ante un ritmo marcado por el Bürgertum urbano.
«The outcome of the alchemical work is unknown, as there are no subsequent archival documents.» — Y su abstención sobre un caso: se desconoce el resultado del trabajo alquímico porque no hay documentos posteriores.
«John Munro attributes the spur for new technologies to “the closure of many mints and a prolonged defl ation, which in turn enhanced the real value (purchasing power) of silver.”» — Recoge de John Munro otra causa del impulso técnico: el cierre de cecas y una deflación prolongada que subió el poder de compra de la plata.
«These arguments are admittedly reductionist, assuming an inexhaustible desire for more profi t as the driving force behind technological and fi nancial innovation;» — Y objeta esos modelos en su propia nota: son reduccionistas, porque suponen un deseo inagotable de ganancia como motor de la innovación.
«This move to offer Kuxen had profound consequences for the miners, however.» — El efecto social de vender participaciones mineras queda declarado como profundo para los mineros.
«As Hermann Kellenbenz and numerous other historians have pointed out, this was the moment when “labour and capital separated” because miners were no longer working for themselves in collectives, but rather for outside investors.» — Con Kellenbenz nombra ese momento: cuando trabajo y capital se separan, porque el minero deja de trabajar para su colectivo y pasa a trabajar para inversores de fuera.
«The fi rst printed treatise on mining, the Bergbüchlein (ca. 1505–10), offers a contemporary description of how these shares worked.» — Con su fuente contemporánea: el Bergbüchlein, primer tratado impreso de minería, describe cómo funcionaban esas participaciones.
«In Mexico Europeans began to mine silver in Zacatecas (1546), Compostele de la Guadalajara (1553), Sombrete and Durango (1555), Trestrillo (1562), and Parral (late sixteenth century).» — La cronología de la minería americana de plata que pone al lado, mina por mina y con fechas.
«The same year, Julius received 42 percent of his income from his mining enterprises in Rammelsberg and the Harz.» — Y el peso de la minería en el ingreso ducal, medido: 42 por ciento del ingreso de Julius venía de Rammelsberg y el Harz.
«Ebener (1511–77), was born in Nuremberg and studied in Wittenberg with Melanchthon, whom he accompanied to the Reichstag at Augsburg in 1530.» — El perfil del consejero minero Ebener, con su formación en Wittenberg junto a Melanchthon.
«He entered Julius’s service in Wolfenbüttel in 1573 as councilor on, among other things, mining matters, and assisted him in founding the university in Helstedt.» — Y su entrada al servicio de Wolfenbüttel en 1573 como consejero, entre otras cosas, de minas.
«As Pamela Long has pointed out, technical writing on mining and metallurgy after 1550 came to focus increasingly these subjects.» — Con Pamela Long data el giro de la escritura técnica sobre minería y metalurgia después de 1550.
«Theophilactus Töpfer (or Döpfer) left a number of archival traces throughout the Holy Roman Empire.» — El rastro de archivo de un practicante, dicho como tal: Theophilactus Töpfer dejó huellas por todo el Imperio.
«One can only imagine where he worked in the intervening years.» — Con la abstención inmediata sobre los años que faltan: solo cabe imaginar dónde trabajó mientras tanto.
«The use of the term “inventor” had long been standard in contracts concerning funding for the construction of mining equipment.» — Una precisión de vocabulario contractual: el término inventor venía siendo estándar en contratos de financiación de maquinaria minera.
«Five different methods were introduced earlier in the sixteenth century to deal with this, which may explain in part why the mine was bankrupt by the end of the century.» — Y una explicación tentativa de una quiebra: cinco métodos distintos ensayados en esa mina, lo que en parte explicaría su ruina a fin de siglo.
«Clearly Lazar Ercker did not identify himself as an alchemist; in fact, as Pamela Long correctly has pointed out, he was quite critical of alchemy in his published treatises.» — Sobre Ercker consigna lo que él mismo declaraba, con Pamela Long de aval: no se tenía por alquimista y criticaba la alquimia en sus tratados impresos.
«In practice, however, Ercker’s projects seem little different from those of people like Hirschenberg and Polhaimer.» — Y a la vez sostiene que en la práctica sus proyectos se parecen a los de Hirschenberg o Polhaimer. Las dos cosas quedan juntas.
«This strategy also resembles those of the “expert mediators” whom Eric H. Ash has described in sixteenth-century England in Power, Knowledge, and Expertise in Elizabethan England (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004).» — Con el paralelo inglés de los mediadores expertos que describió Eric H. Ash.
«I have seen no evidence in the documentary record in Stuttgart for the story Kopp relates about Honauer hiding a boy in a trunk, who secretly threw gold into the crucible during the process.» — Una negativa suya que conviene tener a la vista: no vio en el expediente de Stuttgart nada que sostenga la historia de Kopp sobre un muchacho escondido en un arcón.
«The ducat weighed 3.49 g, with a fi neness of 986‰ gold.» — El dato metrológico del ducado: 3,49 gramos con ley de 986 milésimas de oro.
«According to Cyril Stanley Smith, “[Lazar] Ercker’s treatment [of assaying] is not basically different from that found in any early twentieth-century book on fi re assaying.» — En voz de Cyril Stanley Smith: el tratamiento del ensaye en Ercker no difiere en lo básico del de cualquier manual de principios del siglo XX.
«Analysis in the sixteenth-century sense differs from modern chemical analysis mainly in that a pure metal or an elemental substance (rightly or wrongly so called) had to be separated and weighed.» — Con la diferencia que sí marca: el análisis del XVI exigía separar y pesar un metal puro o una sustancia tenida por elemental.
«The fi xed mass ratio between the elements and the compounds which the modern analyst weights because they are easily separable was not recognized for two centuries.» — Y la razón de época: la relación fija de masas entre elementos y compuestos no se reconoció hasta dos siglos después.
«rather, it required “as the only natural beginning the true primordial [ursprünglich] seed of such a tincture, without which one can come to neither a good middle nor end.”» — En voz de un practicante que descree de la tintura fabricada: hace falta la simiente primordial verdadera, sin la cual no hay buen medio ni buen fin.
«This distinction fi nds parallels in other trades as well. Artists, for example, could work either by selling individual paintings or (more rarely) by obtaining appointments as court painters; likewise, some medical practitioners worked as court physicians, while empirics hawked cures in the marketplace.» — El paralelo de oficios con que explica la diferencia entre alquimista de corte y suelto: pintor de corte frente a vendedor de cuadros, médico de corte frente a empírico de plaza.
«Duke Friedrich, for instance, promised Johann Hofrichter “princely protection [Schutz und Schirm] from all unreasonable force.”» — Lo que el príncipe ponía de su lado en esos tratos: protección principesca contra toda fuerza no razonable.
«Weyer has calculated that in this period one pound of quicksilver cost on average one gulden, and one pound of silver cost twenty gulden.» — Los precios con que Weyer calcula esos contratos: un gulden la libra de mercurio, veinte la libra de plata.
«The meaning of “Venetian soap [Seife]” in this context is unclear.» — Y una abstención léxica, dicha sin rodeos: no está claro qué significa jabón veneciano en ese contexto.
«In recent years historians increasingly have paid attention to the relationship between the sites of scholarship (such as laboratories, museums, and studies) and the types of knowledge produced in these spaces.» — Con la corriente historiográfica en que inscribe su capítulo del laboratorio: la relación entre los sitios del saber y el saber que producen.
«Keller also worked for Elector Au gust of Saxony in the “Goldhaus” and could well have been the same Daniel Keller who later worked for Duke Friedrich of Württemberg;» — Una identificación que deja en probable: el Keller del Goldhaus sajón podría ser el mismo Daniel Keller de Württemberg.
«Heinrich Khunrath’s well-known image of a “laboratorium-oratorium” in his Amphitheatrum sapientia aeternae (Hanau: G. Antonius, 1609) has also been the subject of several studies, including Ralf Töllner, Der unendliche Kommentar: Untersuchungen zu vier ausgewählten Kupferstichen aus Heinrich Khunraths “Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae solius verae” (Hanau 1609) (Ammersbek bei Hamburg: Verlag an der Lottbek, 1991); and, most recently, Peter Forshaw, “‘Alchemy in the Amphitheatre’: Some Considerations of the Alchemical Content of the Engravings in Heinrich Khunrath’s Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom (1609),” in Art and Alchemy, ed. Jacob Wamberg» — Y la nota que sitúa la imagen del laboratorium-oratorium de Heinrich Khunrath en su Amphitheatrum de 1609, con la bibliografía que la ha estudiado.
«From 1669 the building was used as the ducal Kunstkammer, housing the Kunst- and Altertumskabinett founded by Duke Friedrich.» — El destino posterior del edificio, con fecha: desde 1669 el Alte Lusthaus sirvió de Kunstkammer ducal.
«Jole Shackelford notes: “A key component in Libavius’s characterization of Tycho Brahe’s contemplative Paracelsian science is his portrayal of Uraniborg as a place of darkness: darkness surrounds Tycho as he looks to the heavens from his upperstory observatory, darkness envelops the chemical research conducted in the basement laboratory, and this darkness reaches out to taint the morality of Uraniborg» — En voz de Jole Shackelford, la clave del retrato que Libavius hace de Uraniborg: la oscuridad, arriba en el observatorio y abajo en el laboratorio.
«It is unclear whether there were two keys to the trunk, or two to the building.» — Una abstención mínima y característica sobre la cláusula de las dos llaves: no está claro si eran del arcón o del edificio.
«As “a prince who loves the arts,” Friedrich asked Emperor Rudolf’s permission to “possibly address himself to the above-mentioned artisan.”» — El protocolo entre príncipes para prestarse un artesano, en la fórmula de la petición: un príncipe amante de las artes pidiendo permiso al emperador.
«Duke Friedrich of Württemberg borrowed the services of this “particular well-known artisan, called the great Jewish artisan from Ferrara” from Emperor Rudolf II in 1596.» — Y el caso concreto, fechado en 1596, con el modo en que la fuente nombra al prestado: el gran artesano judío de Ferrara.
«Mühlenfels was employed as an alchemist in Stuttgart until he was executed in 1606.» — Un dato de plantilla que también es de destino: Mühlenfels trabajó de alquimista en Stuttgart hasta su ejecución en 1606.
«Although we know almost nothing about Scheinpfl ugerin, her fellow alchemists’ comments suggest that she had a certain authority» — Con la abstención sobre una mujer del laboratorio de la que casi nada se sabe, y el indicio que aun así consigna: los comentarios de sus colegas le suponen cierta autoridad.
«The former pastor Georgius Butina, who worked in the Alte Lusthaus from 1602 until 1608, “is also a bound assistant, [and] at the moment is working on his own process, with the approval of Your Grace.”» — El estatuto mixto de un empleado, en el texto del propio inventario: asistente obligado y a la vez trabajando en su proceso propio con aprobación del duque.
«Although saltpeter was used in some alchemical processes, its production was not always alchemical per se» — Y una precisión que evita inflar el objeto: el salitre se usaba en algunos procesos alquímicos y su producción no siempre era alquímica.
«Libavius, however, placed his distillation apparatus inside his sanctuary, unlike the arrangement in the Dresden Goldhaus.» — Una diferencia de diseño entre el plano ideal y el laboratorio real: Libavius mete la destilación en el santuario, al revés que el Goldhaus de Dresde.
«The author of Libellus de Alchimia, for instance, maintained that “no one should begin operations without plenty of funds, so that he can obtain everything necessary and useful for this art.”» — En voz del Libellus de Alchimia, el requisito económico dicho sin rodeos: nadie debe empezar sin fondos abundantes.
«William Eamon has articulated the multiple valences of secrecy in the sixteenth century as “esoteric wisdom, the domain of occult or forbidden knowledge, the artisan’s cunning, the moral injunctions to protect secrets from the vulgus, and the political power that attended knowledge of secrets.”» — Con William Eamon despliega los sentidos del secreto en el XVI, de la sabiduría esotérica a la astucia del artesano y al poder político que da saberlo.
«Lynn Thorndike, for example, briefl y described the arguments of the fourteenth-century fi gures John Andrea, Andrea de Rampoinis of Isernia, and Alberico da Rosciate of Bergamo, who seem to be more concerned with the selling of alchemical gold than the theological status of alchemical claims to transmutation.» — Con Thorndike consigna que los juristas del XIV se ocupaban más de la venta del oro alquímico que del estatuto teológico de la transmutación.
«Despite William Newman’s important explication of the connections between alchemy and demonology, the full import of writings in canon law with respect to alchemy are still poorly understood and would benefi t greatly from further study.» — Su llamada a investigar, con el crédito a Newman por delante: lo escrito en derecho canónico sobre alquimia sigue mal entendido.
«These authors’ opinions on the legal status of alchemy would also merit further study.» — Y la repite para las opiniones de esos autores sobre el estatuto legal del arte.
«The 1493 Nuremberg law seems to have had more bark than bite, as the city archive yields no evidence of an individual actually bringing charges under this law.» — Un resultado negativo de archivo: la ley de Núremberg de 1493 parece haber ladrado más que mordido, sin rastro de que alguien la invocara.
«The archival documents do not indicate the outcome of this case.» — Otra abstención documental: los papeles no dicen en qué terminó el caso.
«Kopp, however, cites Karl Pfaff’s claim that Stocker was imprisoned.» — Con la versión ajena consignada como tal: Kopp cita la afirmación de Karl Pfaff de que Stocker fue encarcelado.
«The fi gure of two hundred thousand ducats appears in a written report from the imperial goldsmith, Hans Müller, about his contact with Honauer over the years.» — El origen de una cifra que circula: los doscientos mil ducados vienen del informe del orfebre imperial Hans Müller.
«Muller’s letter also describes a transmutation that Honauer successfully carried out at a military camp in Hungary, the gold from which, according to the assays, was good.» — Y en esa misma carta, la transmutación en el campamento de Hungría, con ensayes que dieron oro bueno. La fuente escribe aquí el apellido sin diéresis.
«Honauer cites the other two fi gures—seven thousand gulden and the thirty-six thousand ducats monthly—in an appeal for help to Emperor Rudolf II written after he was imprisoned.» — Mientras las otras dos cifras las da el propio Honauer en una apelación al emperador escrita ya preso.
«I have not uncovered cases of alchemists’ bringing other alchemists to trial for Betrug; however, it would be fascinating to see if further archival research could uncover such cases.» — Una negativa de archivo que ella declara: no encontró casos de alquimistas llevando a otros alquimistas a juicio por Betrug.
«Res publicae, of course, can mean either the state or the public good, so it is not entirely clear whether Maier situates himself in the same line of thought as legal scholars who saw false alchemy and counterfeiting as a danger to the state, or whether he sees it as a danger to society more generally.» — Y una abstención de lectura: res publicae vale por Estado o por bien público, y no queda claro en cuál de los dos sentidos se sitúa Maier.
«Interestingly, Maier felt that the name “alchemy” had been so besmirched by this second group, the drones, that he preferred not to use it for the “true” art that he espoused; he used the term Alchymista, therefore, only in the most negative sense, as a synonym for drone, or Betrüger, reserving the term Chymicus for the true practitioners.» — La maniobra terminológica de Maier, que invierte el uso: reserva Alchymista para el zángano y guarda Chymicus para el verdadero.
«One should not make too much of this distinction between the pseudo-chymici and the drone/Alchymisti, however, for Maier did not always apply it consistently.» — Con el límite puesto de inmediato: no conviene forzar esa distinción, porque él mismo no la aplicaba con consistencia.
«The civil laws allow those engaged in trade to bargain with each other when they are buying and selling, but not to charge or pay more than one and a half times the true worth. . . . But should one be defrauded out of more than half the appropriate price, then both buyer and seller are entitled to redress.» — El texto legal sobre el precio justo: se puede regatear, no cobrar ni pagar más de vez y media el valor verdadero, con derecho a reparación si se pasa de la mitad.
«Andreae’s clergyman father Johann Andreae (1554–1601) was a practicing alchemist in the duchy of Württemberg, and his mother Maria (1550–1632) became court apothecary to Duke Friedrich in Tübingen when her husband died in 1601.» — El entorno familiar de Andreae, que explica su conocimiento del oficio: padre alquimista practicante y madre boticaria de corte del duque Friedrich.
«Andreae’s brother, a pastor, apparently spent much of his life in alchemical pursuits as well.» — Y un hermano pastor que, al parecer, pasó buena parte de su vida en empresas alquímicas.
«Andreae would have had reason to perceive some alchemists as dangerous frauds. As Donald Dickson has argued, Andreae felt that his lifelong dream “to found a brotherhood of Christians dedicated to ameliorating society’s ills,” articulated in the Chymical Wedding and Rosicrucian manifestoes, was severely damaged when the idea of such a society “became associated in the public eye with vulgar alchemy and sectarian lunacy.”» — Con Donald Dickson adjudica el motivo de su dureza: sintió que su hermandad cristiana quedaba dañada al asociarse en público con la alquimia vulgar.
«The Paracelsian Leonhard Thurneisser invoked a similar image in 1583 when he wrote that false alchemists “wear large chains, and broad armor studded with gold, and daggers of white copper or some other mixture, also exquisite clothing and golden rings.”» — La coincidencia de imagen entre autores, fechada: Thurneisser en 1583 describe al falso alquimista con cadenas grandes, dagas de cobre blanco y anillos dorados.
«Andreas Libavius too decried what he called “the presumptuous arrogance and boasting of certain people.”» — Y Libavius con el mismo blanco moral: la arrogancia presuntuosa y la jactancia de ciertas personas.
«In her study of practitioners of witchcraft and magic in London in the 1980s, anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann describes a similar situation regarding beliefs about the prevalence of black magic.» — Una analogía antropológica que ella trae para leer esa retórica: el estudio de Tanya Luhrmann sobre magos en el Londres de los ochenta.
«They talk about black magic; they usually tell you that there are black magicians elsewhere and stress that they, by contrast, are very white.» — Con la frase que hace el paralelo: hablan de magia negra, la sitúan siempre en otra parte y subrayan que ellos son muy blancos.
Concepts treated
Piedra filosofal (lapis philosophorum) — El agente universal frente a los particularia: transmuta cualquier metal «and did so with much higher yields».