Medical Performance and the Alchemy of Plants in the Ventures of Leonhard Thurneisser zum Thurn

Abstract

Among the cross currents of social and intellectual life in the early modern era, wonder, utility, and playfulness combined to inspire curiosity and to give value to novel alchemical procedures and chemical remedies. One of the most skilful alchemical and medical performers, who brought theatrical techniques to bear upon an economy of alchemical secrets and magic, was the self-trained Paracelsian physician, mining expert, and alchemical adept, Leonhard Thurneisser zum Thurn (1531–1596). In creatively designed and illustrated books produced for a luxury market, he constructed, in words and images, theatres of procedure, instrumentation, and chemical curiosity based in traditions of Renaissance magic and Paracelsian natural philosophy. Thurneisser's books combined strategies of spectacle and performance within the context of chemical analysis, and in one text especially brought the dramatic technique of “making strange” to bear upon promoting alchemical procedures for purposes of exposing the hidden powers within plants. In staging analytical spectacles involving measurement, instrumentation, and distillation as part of the analysis of minerals, waters, and plants, Thurneisser brought together laboratory-based procedures and theoretically grounded performances within the alchemical marketplace and engaged the agency of readers in establishing the credibility of the philosophy of nature that underscored the products he produced and sold.