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Lazzarelli
Lazzarelli
LUDOVIGO LAZZARELLI
CHIARA CRISCIANI
Departmentof Philosophy,Universityof Pavia
Vademecumrefers briefly to these themes when the author declares that, for love
of his disciple, "hoc arcanum Dei pono in manum animae tuae.." (f.3v).
See especially ibid., ff. 4r-5r.
" Indeed, it should be applied in a different way to the rich and the poor:
ibid., ff. 5v-6r.
18Ibid. ff. 5r-6r.
19 Ibid., f. 8r: "Imo crit
patriarca mundi inmortalis convertens omnes suos
inimicos ad suam fidem catolicam." The subject of pagan enemies, sometimes the
Turks, is a common theme in alchemical texts of the time: see, e.g., Cristoforo da
Parigi, Elucidariu.5 (ed. in L. Zetzner, Thealrum Chemicum, (Strasbourg, 1661),
6:199: with the alchemical results "Turcam ex Asia minore fugare poteris";
Antonio dell'Abbazia, Hevelazione(Chantilly, Mtis6e Cond6, ms 419 (919), ff. 45r-
47), f.46r: " [...] potresti far longhissima guera agli infideli, e agiustar il loco dove
il Signor nostro pati morte per recuperare queli che perduti crano"; f.46v: "con
questo potresti fare longhisima guerra agli infideli e aquistar il loco nel qual fo
150
dato opera de Iddio alla nostra salute." (I have transcribed part of the texts of
Antonio in C. Crisciani, "Fatichc c promesse alchemiche," in S. Borutti, cd., Me-
moria e scrittura della filosofia,forthcoming). This theme is particularly emphasized
in the alchemical text attributed to Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio, De (¿1,¡,ercu
Julii Pontificissive de lapidephilosophico(London, British Museum, ms Harley 4081,
ff. lr-40r), e.g. f.2v: "Ad turcorum mahomethanorumque ac paganorum omnium
exercitus atque potentias sine armatura ct absque ulla multorum militia ilico
constringendum, fugandum exterminandumque," and f.31r: "Et vinces tu quoque
paganorum atquc turcorum omnium turbas: non in virtute corporis nec in
armatura potentiae." Already Guilelmus Sedacer in his .Summfi(ed. P. Barthelemy,
in progress) complains that alchemy is in the hands of the infidels: this knowl-
edge must be retrieved, so that, with it, Christians (prologue to the second book):
"[...] illam terram sanctam que longissimis tcmporibus ab infidelibus et
nephandis nacionibus fuit atrocitcr conculcata et hodiernis temporibus herctice
pretractur, valeant hostiliter et viriliter acquirere et possidere" (I thank P.
Barthelemy for this reference).
20 Cf. C. Crisciani and M. Pereira, "Black Death and Golden Remedies: Some
Remarks on Alchemy and the Plague", in A. Paravicini Bagliani and F. Santi, eds.,
TheRegulationof Evil. Socialand Cultural Attitudesto E?idemic,sin tlaeLate MiddleAges
(Turnhout, 1998), 7-39; C.Crisciani, "Oro"Oro potabile traalchimia
potabile tra alchimia eemedicina:
medicina: due
due
testi in tempo di peste", in Rendicon.tiAccademiaNazionaledelleScienzedelta dei XL,
XXI,II,2 (1997), 83-93.
21 Tractatus, ff. 5v, 6rv.
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John Dastin had already done in his Visio, 'Arnold' in the Exempla,
and, in particular, Bonus himself 12 In the text at hand, the refer-
ence to the topic of 1(lpls/Christ is very brief and hence not com-
parable with the extensive treatment of it in the other texts I have
mentioned. However, the few remarks we find are sufficient to es-
tablish a definite connection between lapis/Christ and the defeat
of the enemies of the faith and thereby to imbue these practical
instructions with an eschatological tinge. The Tractatus can thus in-
clude expectations of reformatio and religious unification, topics
which Lazzarelli also develops in his Crater, although he obviously
bases them philosophically on a thorough knowledge and an
elaborate use of the Corpus Hermeticum and of the Cabala while
inserting them into the irenic hopes for peace and concord typi-
cal of certain groups of Italian humanists.2'\
The Vademecum collection is thus homogeneous and well-organ-
ized. It includes some technical texts and others that are more
theoretical. The Tractatus is anything but trivial. Considering the
work as a whole, we have here a very interesting collection, which
is at the same time quite traditional. It contains certain aspects and
topics that are, generally speaking, in harmony with Lazzarelli's
philosophical perspectives, but is does not appear to be even
slightly influenced by the radically new ideas Lazzarelli sets out in
his prologue, which provides a framework and introduction to
these texts.
3. The prologue opens with three quotations from the Tabula
smaragdina, the Secretum secretorum, and Picatrix.24 At the beginning
of the text, the name of Hermes, the father of Theologians, Magi-
cians and Alchemists is solemnly evoked. 25 He had revealed 'uno
36 Vademecum,ff. 12rv.
" This
reading is at least possible, because the dates of the two works are
close, as they were both written between 1492 and 1495 (the precise date is un-
certain).
" Cf. above,
pp. 152-153.
156
logue, the foundations and the overall meaning of what the col-
lected texts contained. This prologue in fact aimed at dignifying
natural magic/alchemy by setting it within the unifying framework
of general magic.
It seems to me that the same special relationship between frame-
work and content can also clarify the more general link between
Hermeticism and alchemy in the Quattrocento.? We may once
more start from the vantage point offered by the case of Lazzarelli.
His Hermetic approach to alchemical texts (which surely Lazzarelli
had chosen because they were consonant with his Hermetic inter-
ests for religiously qualified operative transformations) does not
involve a development of the hints offered by those texts, or a
treatment of them in a more explicitly Hermetic religious sense.
For example, Lazzarelli does not turn practical instructions into
spiritual processes, nor does he accentuate the allegorical and
initiatory language of some alchemical works he knew.
Therefore, Lazzarelli's Hermetic approach does not imply a
reformulation of alchemical terminology, theories or operations.
Rather, his intention seems to subsume completely traditional
doctrines in the framework of a high Hermetic and philosophical
evaluation of alchemy as a whole. In this way, he carries out a
dignification of these doctrines from without, leaving their content
unchanged. In other words, this means that what in the
Quattrocento was a philosophically consistent, fully restored and
culturally enhanced Corpus (the Corpus Hermeticum) did not seem
to be "embodied" in a necessary or favored way in the alchemical
perspectives of the "filii Hermetis", who instead, since the twelfth
century, had actually embodied the instances of transformation
which the Hermetic philosophy had entailed since its origin.41
Clearly, the Hermetic framework of the Corpus Hermeticum was
philosophically more important than the particular, specific disci-
plines it dealt with.
A similar interpretation can also be applied to the relationship
between magic and alchemy, which are now connected in rela-
tively new ways. This is particularly noticeable in Lazzarelli's pro-
logue, but is also present in other coeval texts.42 In my opinion, a
10 See, in
general, S. Matton, "L'influence de l'humanisme sur la tradition
alchimique," in Micrologus3 (1995), 279-345, and the essays collected in Alchimie
et philosophieà la Renaissance.
See Crisciani and Pereira, "Alchimia nella transizione", sections 5-6.
42 Cf.,
e.g., Guglielmo Fabri, De auro potabileet de lapidephilosophorum;C=iovanni
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SUMMARY