Tuesday, October 27, 2026

had to go into French Wikipedia to translate French page to English (nicolas Flamel) from French Wikipedia

I thought maybe I could shift the whole page to French and then when I moved it back it would be in English but that didn't seem to happen either for whatever the reason through the Google Translate I have at my site that shifts everything to another language. So, we will see. Nope. wasn't able to figure out a way to translate Nicolas Flamel page in French to English so far.

Finally found out a way to do this. I had to go into the French Wikipedia and I found a way to translate it to English from there finally.

Here it is: 

Begin quote: regarding Nicolas Flamel from French wikipedia then Translated into English

Wikipedia

Nicolas Flamel

public scribe of the 14th/15th century
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Nicolas Flamel (born around 1330 or 1340 , , 2on in Pontoise –( in Paris ) is a Parisian bourgeois of the 14th century , public writer , copyist and sworn bookseller [ 1 ] .  

Nicolas Flamel
Nicolas Flamel, French Philosopher, by Balthasar Moncornet (1600-1670).
Biography
Birth
Towards
Pontoise (?) (?)
Death
Activities
Spouse
Nicolas Flamel's signature
Signature.

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The Two Faces of Nicolas Flamel  : as a pious donor as he had himself represented in 1402 on the portal of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Ardents (engraving from the Critical History of Nicolas Flamel and Pernelle his wife by Abbot Villain in 1761), and as an alchemist in the romantic portrait from the Historical Gallery of Popular Celebrities (1840)

His career, his marriage to Pernelle, a wealthy, widow and his real estate investments secured him a comfortable fortune, which he, at the end of his life, to piious foundations and constructions. This fortune, amplified by rumor, given rise to the myth that made him an Alchemist Who had Succeeded in His Quest for the philosopher's stone, capable of transmuting base Metals into gold. Because of this reputation, several alchemical treatises were-issued to him, from the late 15th to The 17th centuries , the most famous being The Book of Hieroglyphic Figures, published in 1612. These, " the most popular of French alchemists never practiced alchemy [ 2 ] ."     

Biography

Illumination of the entry of Queen Isabeau of Bavaria into Paris.
The entry of Queen Isabeau of Bavaria into Paris in 1389 , (illuminated manuscript from the 15th century , British Library ) .  

For a person of the time not belonging to the nobility, a large amount of documentation exists on Nicolas Flamel [3]: the acts of the parish of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie, collected in the 18th century , various personal  Documents of him and his wife his will, as well as descriptions and illustrations, after his death, of the religious buildings and monuments that he had built.  

Flamel, public scribe and sworn bookseller

Nicolas Flamel was born around 1340 (rather than around 1330 as often stated [ 4 ] ), (2) in " Pontoise , seven leagues from Paris " [ 5 ] . In his youth, he escaped the Black Death of 1348 , which wiped out between a third and half of the European population. His life was spent in Paris during the Hundred Years' War , from the Battle of Crécy in 1346 to that of Agincourt in 1415. In 1389, he must have witnessed, along with all the Parisian burghers dressed in red and green, the entry into Paris of Queen Isabeau of Bavaria , and before his death in 1418 , he lived through the Parisian turmoil of the civil war between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians and the Cabochien revolt ( 1413 ) [ 6 ] . From the 13th century , the foundation of universities , as well as the development of secular literature and reading among the nobility and upper middle class, led to the secular establishment of Copying and Enlightenment workshops , which until then had been the preserve of monasteries. These workshops were established in large cities, and in Paris [ 7 ] .    

Map from 1552 depicting the Paris of Nicolas Flamel, from his house at the corner of rue de Marivaux and rue des Écrivains to the Cemetery of the Innocents
The Paris of Nicolas Flamel, from his house at the corner of rue de Marivaux and rue des Écrivains to the cemetery of the Innocents - Plan by Truschet and Hoyau (1552) known as the "  plan of Basel  ".

He a bent career in Paris as a copyist and public scribe , in a small shop adjoining the church of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie [ 8 ] , on the Rue des Écrivains . He have been the elder brother, or a relative, of Jean Flamel , secretary and librarian to the great bibliophile John I of Berry (of the Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry ) [ t1 ] , [ 9 ] . He later bought a house opposite the shop, on the corner of the rue des Écrivains and the rue de Marivaux (renamed Nicolas - Flamel Street in 1851 [ 10 ] ), where he lived and set up his workshop, under the sign of The Flower of Lys [ 7 ] . This house, decorated with engravings and religious inscriptions, and with the maxim "  Let be content with his possessions, He who has not enough nothing has nothing  "testified to the luxurious affluence by Flamel at that time, while this attendance, compared to other, much more bourgeois residences of the period, dos not appear to have been exceptional [ 11 ] . The Rue de Rivoli , much wider, now covers the Rue des Écrivains, the site of Flamel's house, and most of the church, of which only the Saint James Tower Remains (built at the beginning of the 16th century , a century after Flamel's death).  

Probably after 1368 [ 12 ] , he became a sworn bookseller (sworn because he had to take an oath at the University of Paris ) [ 13 ] , a member of the privileged category of "  booksellers, parchment makers, illuminators, writers, and bookbinders, all tradespeople belonging to the various sciences and known in the Middle Ages by the generic term clerics. They were dependent on the University and not on the jurisdiction of the Provost of Paris, like other merchants  " [ 14 ] . They were notably exempt in principle from the taille ( direct taxes ). Flamel even tried in 1415 to invoke this privilege to avoid paying a tax [ 15 ] .

Nicolas and Pernelle

Illumination of the portal of the church of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie.
Portal of the church of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie, financed in 1389 by Nicolas Flamel, and on which he had himself represented with his wife.

Around 1370 , he married a twice-widowed woman, Pernelle [ 16 ] , and in 1372 they made a mutual bequest of their property before a notary, a gift that was renewed several times, and which excluded Pernelle's sister and her children from her inheritance [ 17 ] . Having no children of their own, the two Flamel spouses began to finance pious works and constructions.

In order to empty the mass graves in the Cemetery of the Innocents , the bourgeois of Paris had charnel houses built all around it in the 14th and 15th  centuries ,  where the exhumed bones were piled up and left to dry, high above arcades . In 1389, Nicolas Flamel had one of these arcades built and decorated, on the side facing the Rue de la Lingerie , where there were also shops run by public scribes. Engraved there, around a black man representing death, were Nicolas Flamel's initials in Gothic script , a poem, and religious inscriptions, " scriptures to move people to devotion, " according to Guillebert de Mets in his Description of Paris (1434) [ 18 ] . In the same year, he financed the restoration of the portal of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie , having himself depicted there in prayer with his wife, at the foot of the Virgin Mary , Saint James and Saint John .  

Pernelle died in 1397. Just before her death, her family tried to have the mutual bequest between the spouses annulled. A lawsuit ensued between the heirs of Pernelle's sister and Nicolas Flamel, which the latter ultimately won [ 19 ] . After his wife's death, he continued to finance religious buildings and engaged in real estate investments in and around Paris.

In 1402, he had the portal of the church of Sainte-Geneviève-la-Petite rebuilt . This church was located on the Île de la Cité , along the rue Neuve-Notre-Dame , on the site of the present-day " parvis Notre-Dame - place Jean-Paul-II ". It was called Sainte-Geneviève-des-Ardents from the beginning of the 16th century and was destroyed in 1747. Her statue, in a long hooded robe and with a writing desk , the symbol of her profession, was placed in a niche next to the portal . [ 20 ] In 1411 , he financed a new chapel for the Saint-Gervais hospital (which was opposite the church of Saint-Gervais ), and appears to have contributed to the restoration of the churches of Saint-Côme and Saint-Martin-des-Champs . [ 20 ] In 1407 , he had a tomb erected for Pernelle in the Cemetery of the Innocents , on which he had an epitaph in verse engraved [ t 2 ] .   

Drawing of the arch of the Little Charnel House in the Cemetery of the Innocents.
The arcade of the Little Charnel House in the Cemetery of the Innocents , built by Nicolas Flamel in 1407 - drawing by Charles Louis Bernier in 1786.

In the same year, he had a new archway built (the one that would primarily attract the attention of alchemists ), this time on the side of the charnel house on Rue Saint-Denis , and had it decorated with sculptures. He was again depicted there with his wife, praying at the feet of Christ , Saint Peter , and Saint Paul , surrounded by angels, and with his initials NF in writing cases. Below this was a frieze of five bas-reliefs representing various conventional religious figures  : a winged lion, angels, a resurrection scene, two fighting dragons, etc. Below that, three panels depicted the Massacre of the Innocents , which had given its name to the cemetery. The iconography of these sculptures is similar to that of other funerary monuments in the Cemetery of the Innocents [ 21 ] . Such constructions and ornamentation were common at the time  : in 1408, the Duke of Berry had the Tale of the Three Dead and the Three Living sculpted on the portal of the cemetery church , and in 1423-1424, he commissioned the large fresco of the Dance of Death to be painted on the arcades of the southern charnel house (along the Rue de la Ferronnerie ). In 1786 , during the complete destruction of the Cemetery of the Innocents, several drawings of it were made by Charles-Louis Bernier ( 1755-1830 ) , including the Flamel arcade [ 22 ] .

Photo of the Nicolas-Flamel inn.
The house of Nicolas Flamel or house "  at the large gable  ", at 51, rue de Montmorency , today the Nicolas Flamel inn .

Also in 1407, Flamel had several houses built to house the poor, and on which one can see "  a number of figures engraved in the stones with a Gothic N and F on each side  " [ 23 ] . The best known, and the only one that still exists today, is the House of Nicolas Flamel ,all known as "  the house with the large gable  ", Montmorency Street (Today at No . 51 ). Besides the initials of Flamel and various figures including musical angels, it bears the inscription : " We men and women laborers living in the porch of this house which was made in the year of grace one thousand four hundred and seven are bound by each right to say every day a Pater Noster and a Hail Marying to God that his grace grant pardon to the poor sinners who have passed away. Amen." "Now known as the " House of Nicolas Flamel ", while there is no evidence that he ever lived there, it is reputed to be one of the oldest houses in Paris.       

Flamel also owned a number of houses in Paris and the surrounding villages, some of which provided him with income, but others which wase and in abandoned ruins [ 23 ] . With the success of his business as a copyist and bookseller, and the contribution of his wife Pernelle, widowed married before marriageing him, these real estate investments, made in the context of the economic depression of the Hundred Years' War , robbely contributed to his fortune [ 24 ] .

Tombstone and Will

Photo of Nicolas Flamel's tombstone.
Tombstone of Nicolas Flamel, 1418 , Paris , Cluny Museum .
Will of Nicolas Flamel, November 22, 1416, National Archives, Q/V/1461

He died on, and was buried in the church of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie where his tombstone was placed on a pillar below an image of the Virgin. The church was destroyed at the end of the revolutionary period , around 1797. The tombstone was however preserved, and bought by an antique dealer from a fruit and vegetable seller on rue Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie , who was using it as a stall for her spinach [ 25 ] . Purchased in 1839 by the Paris City Hall , it is currently in the Cluny Museum [ 26 ]  : “  The late Nicolas Flamel, formerly a writer, bequeathed in his will to the work of this church certain rents and houses, which he had acquired and purchased during his lifetime, to perform certain divine services and distribute money each year as alms to the Quinze-Vingt, the Hôtel-Dieu and other churches and hospitals of Paris. May prayers be offered here for the deceased [ t3 ] .  ” His bones, as well as those of his wife Pernelle, who was buried with him, were then transferred to the catacombs of Paris [ 27 ] .

The number and ostentatious nature of his pious foundations, which were in fact relatively modest, and the accumulation in his will (preserved today in its original form at the National Archives of France [ 28 ] after the transfer of the archives of the Quinze-Vingts Hospital [ 29 ] , as well as in copy at the National Library of France ) [ 30 ] of bequests of small amounts probably contributed to amplifying the importance of his fortune in the memory of the time [ 31 ] . Shortly after his death, Guillebert de Mets, in his Description of the City of Paris ( 1434 ), speaks of Flamel as the " scribe who gave so much alms and hospitality and built several houses where tradespeople lived downstairs and from the rent they paid, poor laborers upstairs were supported ." And as early as 1463 , during a trial concerning his inheritance, a witness already said that " [Flamel] was reputed to be half as rich as he actually was " [ 31 ] . It was in this context that the rumor arose that he owed his wealth to the discovery of the alchemists' philosopher's stone , capable of transforming metals into gold.    

The Legend of the Alchemist

How to become an alchemist

The chapter title is taken from Paul Veyne 's How to Write History and from the work How to Become an Alchemist ? by the hyperchemist François Jollivet-Castelot who, in the Belle Époque , promoted a " hyperchemistry " which would have reconciled alchemy and modern chemistry.   

The myth of Nicolas Flamel the alchemist is the result of several phenomena in the alchemical tradition. First of all, from the 15th century  onwards , there was a belief in the alchemical origin of certain bourgeois fortunes in the Middle Ages  : besides Flamel (the most well-known), this was the case of Jacques Cœur (c. 1400-1456) [ 32 ] , Nicolas le Valois (c. 1495-c.1542) (the largest fortune in Caen and founder of the Hôtel d'Escoville ) [ 33 ] , or even the German merchant Sigmund Wann (de) (c. 1395-1469) [ 34 ] . Then came pseudepigraphy , by which alchemical treatises were attributed to ancient ( Aristotle , Hermes Trismegistus , etc. ) or medieval ( Albertus Magnus , Thomas Aquinas , Raymond Lull , Arnaud de Villeneuve , etc.) authorities, to compensate for " the marginality of a discipline that was never truly integrated into academic knowledge " [ 31 ] . Finally, with the Renaissance , " the use of allegorical language and pictorial symbolism became systematic " in alchemical texts ; this led, from the mid- 16th century onwards , to an " alchemical exegesis " that sought hidden meaning in biblical texts as well as in the narratives of Greco-Roman mythology (notably the legend of the Golden Fleece ), and finally in the symbolic decorations of medieval architecture [ 31 ] .           

The earliest trace of this legend is a late 15th - century  text , Le Livre Flamel [ 35 ] , which is in fact the French translation of a 14th -  century Latin treatise , Flos florum ( The Flower of Flowers ), then attributed to Arnaud de Villeneuve [ 36 ] . This text enjoyed some circulation, and a short version was translated into English in the mid- 16th century [ 37 ] . Other treatises were attributed to Flamel during the 16th century [ 38 ] . This is notably the case with Le Livre des laveures (The Book of Washes) , which is in fact the French translation of the 14th - century Latin treatise Rosarius by the English alchemist John Dastin [ 39 ] : on a 15th - century manuscript [ 40 ] , the owner's name has been scratched out and replaced with Flamel's [ 41 ] .     

Illuminated drawing of the two dragons.
The figure of the two dragons, at the origin of the alchemical interpretation of the arch of Nicolas Flamel, to whom the poem of the Philosophical Summary  was attributed :
These two sperms, without a doubt,
Are represented by two dragons,
Or worse serpents, it is said:
One having terrible wings,
The other wingless, very horrible.
The dragon represented without wings,
Is sulfur, the thing is such,
Which never flies
from the fire, that is the first dish.
The other serpent which bears wings,
Is quicksilver, which the wind carries away,
Which is feminine seed,
Made of water and earth for mine.
Yet it does not remain in the fire,
But flies away when it sees its hour [ 42 ] .

At the same time, the idea emerged that an alchemical meaning was hidden in the religious allegorical figures that adorned the arcades of the Cemetery of the Innocents . The first trace of this is found in the book De antiquitate et veritate artis chemicæ ( On the Antiquity and Truth of the Chemical Art ) (1561) by the alchemist Robert Duval (a treatise that would be placed at the beginning of the first volume of the great alchemical anthology Theatrum Chemicum of 1602)  : “  To this category of fictions belongs the enigma of Nicolas Flamel, which depicts two serpents or dragons, one winged, the other not, and a winged lion , etc.” This idea is also found in prose commentaries from the second half of the 16th century on the poem Le Grand Olympe ( which offers an alchemical interpretation of Ovid ’s Metamorphoses ) [ 43 ] . Also in 1561, Robert Duval, in his collection of alchemical poems De la Transformation métallique : Trois anciens tractés en rithme françois , attributed the Sommaire philosophique to Flamel , undoubtedly because it also featured the motif of the two dragons (the dragon being one of the principal alchemical symbols) [ 43 ] . The poem, which is addressed to " Who wants to have the knowledge / Of metals & true science / How it is necessary to transmute / And to transform from one to the other " [ 44 ] , takes up the classical alchemical theory which holds that all metals are composed of two " seeds " : sulfur, fixed and masculine, and mercury (quicksilver), volatile and feminine.         

The legend was repeated several times from 1567 to 1575 by the influential Paracelsian physician Jacques Gohory [ 45 ] . It then incorporated one of the most hackneyed topos of alchemical literature since the Emerald Tablet , and which suited the bookseller Flamel well  : the discovery of an ancient book containing the secret of the philosopher's stone [ 46 ] . It was first Noël du Fail who introduced it in 1578 by citing, in support of the miraculous cures of Paracelsus , the most famous alchemists among whom " Nicolas Flamel, Parisian, who from being a poor writer, and having found in an old book a metallic recipe which he tested, was one of the richest of his time, witnesses to this are the superb buildings which he made at the cemetery of St. Innocents, at St. Genevieve of the Ardennes, at St. Jacques la Boucherie, where he is in half relief, with his writing desk at his side, and the hood on his shoulder, estimated to be rich, he and his Perronelle (that was his wife) by fifteen hundred thousand crowns, besides the immense alms and endowments which he made " [ 47 ] . The idea took hold, for it can be found in 1592 in a note at the end of a manuscript of an alchemical text, The Letter of Almasatus [ t 4 ] , [ 48 ] , [ 31 ] .  

The legend became so popular that it was mocked in 1585 by Noël du Fail (who had apparently changed his position) in his Contes et Discours d'Eutrapel (1585) [ 49 ] , while Flamel appeared as an alchemist and author of the Sommaire Philosophique in the entries for the Bibliothèque françoises by La Croix du Maine (1584) and Antoine du Verdier (1585). La Croix du Maine also reports rumors circulating at the time that Flamel's wealth did not come from his alchemical talents, but from the fact that he had appropriated the debts of the Jews, who were then being expelled from Paris ( Charles VI had signed an edict of expulsion in 1394). It was to conceal this fact that he supposedly claimed to have discovered the philosopher's stone and financed pious foundations.

It crossed borders in 1583, the Belgian Paracelsian Gérard Dorn , translating into Latin passages from the Philosophical Summary [ 50 ] , and it is found again in Germany in 1605 and in England in 1610 [ 51 ] .

All the ingredients were in place for the appearance in 1612 of the most famous work attributed to Flamel  : The Book of Hieroglyphic Figures .

The Book of Hieroglyphic Figures

Frontispiece of the work.
Title page of Three Treatises on Natural Philosophy .

In 1612, Three treatises on natural philosophy not yet printed , by Pierre Arnauld Sieur de la Chevallerie, Poitevin [ 52 ] , appeared in Paris . Besides two treatises in Latin and French versions by Artephius and Synesius , there is a text in French  : “ The hieroglyphic figures of Nicolas Flamel, as he placed them in the fourth arch that he built at the Cemetery of the Innocents in Paris, through the enterment the main gate of the street S. Denys, and Taking the Right Hand ; with the explanation of them by the one Flamel .”    

The work presents itself as a translation from Latin of a text by Flamel written between 1399 and 1413. Following the alchemical literature trope of the discovery of an ancient book [ 53 ] , Flamel recounts that he acquired for two florins a mysterious and ancient book in Latin, made of "  three times seven leaves  " of bark bound in a copper cover "  entirely engraved with letters and figures  " [ 54 ] . On the first leaf is the title " The Book of Abraham the Jew, Prince, Levite Priest, Astrologer and Philosopher, to the Jewish people, by the wrath of God, scattered in Gaul, greetings. DI " [ 55 ] . This book, written by a “ very learned man ,” explains that, “ to help his captive nation pay tribute to the Roman emperors, and to do something else, which I will not mention, he taught them the transmutation of metal into common words […] except for the first agent, of which he said nothing, but rather […] he painted and depicted it with great artifice ” [ 55 ] . The text of the Book of Abraham the Jew thus explains the process of the Great Work (which Flamel does not repeat) without specifying its initial ingredient, the materia prima ( the alchemists’ raw material ), which is only revealed through mysterious illuminations, described but not reproduced in the Book of Hieroglyphic Figures .      

Despite the help of his wife Pernelle, Nicolas Flamel failed at the Great Work for twenty-one years (the same number of years as the book has leaves) he could not understand the illuminations [ 56 ] . He then we have pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela , where he met an old Jewish doctor who converted had, and who finally Explain the illustrations to him [ 57 ] .

Back in Paris, he finally succeeded in transmuting mercury into silver, then into gold, the : “  I made the projection with red stone on a similar quantity of mercury […] which I truly transmuted into almost as much pure gold, certainly better than common gold, softer and more pliable  ” [ 58 ] .

Drawing of the archway in the Cemetery of the Innocents.
The arch of the cemetery of the innocents in The Book of Hieroglyphic Figures .

With the fortune thus acquired, Flamel and his wife  founded and rented fourteen hospitals in this city of Paris, built three chapels from scratch, decorated seven churches with large donations and good rents, with several repairs in their cemeteries, in addition to what we had donated at Boulogne, which isly less what we donez here here  ” [ 59 ]  (much more than the donations and works of the historical Flamel). And Flamel had " hieroglyphic figures " painted on an archway in the Cemetery of the Innocents,  which have both a theological interpretation and a "  philosophical interpretation to the teachings of Hermes  ” [ 60 ] . He first gives a brief theological explanation  ; this, “  the two united dragons [...] are the sins are which naturally intertwined [chained to one another]  ; for one is born of the other  : some of these can be driven out, as they come easily, for they fly towards us at all times.” And who have no wings can be driven away, just as is the Sin against the Holy Spirit  ” [ 61 ] . He gives then, in a much more extress manner, an explanation of the al-chemical meaning, an explanation in which the symbolism of colors plays a large part  : “  These are the two principles of philosophy that the wise did not to dare to show to their own children. The below, without wings, is the fixed, or the male  ; the above one is the volatile, or the black and dark female [...] The first is called sulfur, or heat and dryness, and the last quicksilver, or frigidity and moisture. These are the sun and the moon of mercurial source [ 62 ] ...  ”

Dating and attribution

Cover of the book The Voyage of the Fortunate Princes.
The Voyage of the Fortunate Princes (1612) alchemical novel by Béroalde de Verville [ 63 ] , the possible true author of the Book of Hieroglyphic Figures .

No original medievals of either the Book of Hieroglyphic Figures or the Book of Abraham the Jew [ 64 ] Have been found. Two Latin manuscripts of the Book of Figures have recently been unarthed, but it turns out that these are "  Latin translations  " of the French text of 1612 made at the beginning of The 17th century [ 65 ] .  

In fact, Everything That indicates this is a text written the late 16th and early 17th centuries [ 66 ] : the vocabulary (starting with the word Hieroglyph ), the anachronisms (the text quotes the name of the alchemist Lambsprinck , mentioned first by Nicolas Barnaud in 1599). The true source is a famous Collection of medievalchemical treatises, The Artis auriferae , published in 1572 (In Hieroglyphic figures , the alchemical theories are often presented in the same order, but sometimes in reverse order).    

According to Claude Gagnon, P. Arnaud de la Chevallerie is the pseudonym of Beroalde of Verville (1556-1626) (in the form of the imperfect anagram"  Arnauld de Cabalerie  "), a writer interested in alchemy and the Kabbalah, and best known today for histire satire The Way to Achieve (1617). In support of this theory, Gagnon found in a note by a 17th - century Bibliographer We have copy of the Bibliothèque francoise of The Cross of Maine , the title of a work by Béroalde : The adventures of Ali el Moselan respond in his conquests Slomnal Caliph, Paris 1582, translated from the Arabic of Rabi el Ulloe de Deon [ 67 ] . “ Slomnal Caliph " being an anagram of " Nicolas Flamel ", and " Rabi el Ulloe de Deon " that of " Beroalde of Verville ”. Another element is that Béroalde de Verville published, in the same year and with the same publisher as The hieroglyphic figures , the Palace of the Curious in which he warns his alchemist readers against “ who those deceived you, and who under the fine tales of Flamel & others spy on your souls, to ruin them ” [ 68 ] .             

This attribution, however, has not convinced some specialists of Béroalde de Verville [ 69 ] . On the Other Hand, Bruno Roy Takes Up Gagnon's hypothesis on the author of the Hieroglyphic figures  : "  , Béroalde's Flamel is much more appealing to us than the true bigoted, megalomaniacal, and litigious bourgeois who lived in the 14th century" [70]. Another lead is the discovery by François Secret in early 17th-century alchemical manuscripts   of The name of a " Sieur of  the Chevalry of  Chartres  " (therefore rather from Beauce than Poitou), but about nothing who more is known [ 71 ] .

Fortune of the myth

Excerpt from a work by Grillot by Givry.
The hieroglyphic figures on the arcade of the Cemetery of the Innocents surrounded by figures from the Book of Abraham the Jew .

This text was an immediate success and popularized the myth of Flamel, who become the quintessential French alchemist [ 72 ] . Besides the fact that supposedly his fabulous fortune, traces of which was still visible in Paris, testified to his success in the search for the philosopher's stone, this success may have been bet parties to the fact that, during the Counter-Reformation , Flamel presented himself as an alchemist revering the Virgin and the Saints [ 73 ] , while the discipline dominated was by the Reformed alchemists of the " Paracelsian revival "without which other alchemical literary hoaxes emerged also, destined for success : Salomon Trismosin (appearing in 1598), the supposed master of Paracelsus (1493/4-1541), Basil Valentine (1600), who was said to have been a 15th- century Benedictine monk , as well as the Rosicrucian manifestos (1614-1615) and The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz (1616).    

The Book of Hieroglyphic Figures through pransales re-editions and translations [ 74 ] . As already mentioned, pseudo-Latin originals were forged. The figures from the Book of Abraham the Jew , which are merely described in the 1612 edition, were quickly reproduced in manuscripts [ 75 ] and in subsequent editions. This tradition continued into the 18th Century , when a work it up Uraltes chymisches Werck (1735) Appear in German in Erfurt : “ A very ancient chymic work by Rabbi Abraham Eleazar, which the author wrote parties in Latin and Arabic, parties in Chaldean and Syriac, and who was subsequently was to our German language by anonymous author ” [ 31 ] , and which contains a new version of the figures from the Book of Abraham [ 76 ] .     

Other texts were attributed to Flamel. In 1619, along with the Traicté du Sulphre by the Polish Michael Sendivogius , appeared a Thresor de Philosophie ou Original du Desir desiré by Nicolas Flamel , which is none other than a French version of the Thesaurus philosophiae by Efferarius Monachius ( 14th century ). The attribution is probably linked to the Livres des laveures , which begins with "  The desired desire, and the price that no one can value  " [ 80 ] . The same is true for Le Grand Esclairsissement de la Pierre Philosophale pour la transmutation de tous les métaux (1628), a French translation of the Italian treatise Apertorio alfabetale (1466 or 1476) by Cristoforo Parigino ( Christophe de Paris ) [ 80 ] .

Painting depicting Nicolas Flamel.
Nicolas Flamel, French Philosopher by Balthasar Moncornet (1600-1670), allegedly after an engraving by Rembrandt .

In 1655, Pierre Borel , physician to Louis XIV and the first bibliographer of alchemy, reported in his * Tresor de recherches et antiquitez gauloises et françoises * [ 81 ] a number of rumors circulating about Flamel  : King Charles VI had supposedly sent his Master of Requests, M. de Cramoisy, to inquire about his wealth, and Flamel had allegedly bought his silence with a *matras* (vase) full of projection powder (one of the forms of the philosopher's stone )  ; Flamel's house had supposedly been searched for the * Book of Abraham the Jew* , which was finally found by Cardinal Richelieu shortly before his death in 1642 [ t 5 ] . It was also said that Richelieu had an alchemist named Dubois executed, who presented himself as the heir to Flamel's secret [ t 6 ] .

At the same time, the Parisian historian Henri Sauval (1623-1676) was more doubtful  : “  The hermeticists who search everywhere for the Philosopher's Stone without being able to find it have meditated so much on some portals of our churches that in the end they have found there what they claim. […] They distill their minds to extract the essence of Gothic verses and figures, some in the round, others scratched, as they say, on the stones both of the house on the corner of rue Marivaux, and of the two Hospitals that he [Flamel] had built on rue de Montmorency [ t 7 ] .  ”

Flamel in the Age of Enlightenment

Alchemy did not disappear with the 18th century and the Enlightenment . But although it retained a certain scientific credibility ( Newton , during his alchemical studies, was interested in the " hieroglyphs " of the Book of Figures and the Book of Abraham the Jew [ 82 ] ) , because it did not seem possible to demonstrate the theoretical impossibility of transmutation, the failure of its practical realization gradually accentuated its moral and social disrepute during the century. It was increasingly perceived as a ruinous chimera, as in Fontenelle ( Histoire de l'académie des sciences 1722) and in Montesquieu in one of his Persian Letters (1721) [ 83 ] : Rica recounts that he met a man who was ruining himself because he believed he had achieved the great work, and who told him : " This secret, which Nicolas Flamel found, but which Raymond Lulle and a million others always sought, has come down to me, and I find myself today a happy follower . "       

Along with the transmutation of metals, the prolongation of life was another goal of alchemy, in the form of the elixir of long life (sometimes also called potable gold ). During the time of the Count of Saint-Germain , who claimed to be immortal, the belief arose that Nicolas Flamel and his wife Pernelle were still alive. In 1712, Paul Lucas , the king's antiquarian and a great traveler, reported, somewhat skeptically, in his * Voyage du Sieur Paul Lucas, fait par ordre du roy dans la Grece , l' Asie Mineure , la Macedoine et l' Afrique  : Contenant la description de la Natolia , de la Caramanie , & de la Macedoine * [ 84 ] , that a dervish he met in Turkey claimed that the philosopher's stone prolongs life by a thousand years, offering as proof that he had met Nicolas Flamel in India three years earlier. His wife Pernelle was also not said to have died in 1397 but to have settled in Switzerland, joined in 1418 by her husband. The legend continued and it was said that Flamel had met Count Desalleurs, French ambassador to Turkey from 1747 until his death in 1754 [ 85 ] , and in 1761, with his wife and son, he was said to have been seen at the opera [ t8 ] .

In 1758, Abbot Étienne-François Villain published a thorough study on the history of his parish of Saint-Jacques la Boucherie, in which he refuted the legend of Flamel the alchemist, asserting firstly that Flamel's wealth was far from being as considerable as was recounted, for example, by Nicolas Lenglet Du Fresnoy in his * Histoire de la philosophie harème* (1742), who claimed that Flamel's pious foundations had been "  more considerable than those made by Kings and Princes  ." Furthermore, Villain emphasized that the * Livre des figures hiéroglyphiques* was an apocryphal work attributed to its supposed translator, Pierre Arnauld de la Chevallerie [ 86 ] . He was vigorously attacked by Antoine-Joseph Pernety , known as Dom Pernety, a former Benedictine monk with a passion for Hermeticism, whose views were echoed by Fréron in his journal L'Année littéraire . Meanwhile, Villain, supported by the Jesuits of the Journal de Trévoux , published a more comprehensive study in 1761  : Histoire critique de Nicolas Flamel et de Pernelle sa femme; recueile d'Actes anciens qui justificent l'origine et la médiocrité de leur fortune contre les imputations des alchimistes (Critical History of Nicolas Flamel and Pernelle, His Wife; Collected from Ancient Acts that Justify the Origin and Mediocrity of Their Fortune Against the Imputations of the Alchemists ). Pernety particularly criticized Villain's historical method  : "  Can one reasonably imagine that a Hermetic Philosopher should openly present himself as such  ? And did Abbé V… really think he would find Flamel the Philosopher in the annuity contracts, receipts, etc., of Flamel the private man  ?" […] Was it really necessary to use more than 400 pages to overwhelm us with the minute details of these rents, these receipts, etc., of Flamel behaving like a good Christian bourgeois  ? Would Abbot V… want to convince himself that Flamel deserves the name of Philosopher, that in the contracts he made, in the receipts he received or gave, he is signed, Nicolas Flamel, Hermetic Philosopher [ 87 ]  ?  Pernéty maintains that there is a Breviary of Flamel, dated 1414. This Breviary, which is found in two illustrated manuscripts of the 18th century [ 88 ] , which uses vocabulary and syntax unknown in the 15th century and which quotes The Book of Hieroglyphic Figures , is itself a later apocryphal work [ 89 ] .  

Abbé Villain's conclusions were also vigorously attacked by the Ardennes alchemist Onésime Henri de Loos (1725-1785) [ 90 ] in his * Flamel vengé, son adeption défendé, et la tradition rétablissement dans son puissance contre les actes, les insultes de l'ignorance, contre les fictions et les impostures de la critique* [ 91 ] . He concluded  : "  The commentary on hieroglyphs is not and could not have been the work of a speculative philosopher, who only combines ideas, who gropes for principles, and tries to skillfully draw conclusions from them. On the contrary, it is the masterpiece of a man consummate in practice, a collection of the finest and most delicate observations of a master accustomed to seeing and seeing well  ; and who, by the power of a genius aided by habit, divines everything, explains everything, and traces it back to the secret causes of nature's crises. No book is so full of these traits that characterize an eyewitness  : no book is less suitable for a beginner; it is made only for initiates. For this reason, no doubt, it is more precious and more esteemed. No one will reproach Flamel for having led them into a labyrinth, since he declares from the outset that he is closing the door, and that it will never be opened unless the key is found elsewhere. All this, carefully considered, and referring to the other reasons I have given, justifies the exclusion of Monsieur de la Chevallerie and Gohorry  . ”

Flamel in the contemporary era

Illuminated manuscript depicting Frollo in front of the archway of the Cemetery of the Innocents.
Claude Frollo , the archdeacon and alchemist of Notre-Dame de Paris , meditating in front of the arch of the Cemetery of the Innocents .

With the advent of modern chemistry at the end of the 18th century, alchemy lost all its scientific credibility and suffered a considerable decline as a discipline. But "Romanticism invented the image of a cursed, misunderstood, heroic, and persecuted alchemical science " [ 92 ] . Flamel became its quintessential figure , especially in France. In 1828, the young Gérard de Nerval wrote a play about him ( Nicolas Flamel ), as did Alexandre Dumas in 1856 ( La Tour Saint Jacques ). Frollo , the alchemist archdeacon in Victor Hugo 's Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) , goes to meditate before the hieroglyphic figures in the Cemetery of the Innocents [ t9 ] . In 1842, he was the hero of Le Souffleur , a fantastic tale by Amans-Alexis Monteil in his Histoire de Français des divers états, aux cinq derniers siècles [ 93 ] .   

Extract from the engraving on the portal of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Ardents.
Nicolas Flamel - portrait of Nicolas Flamel (1893) by Albert Poisson After the engraving on the portal of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Ardents from Abbot Villain 's Critical History of Nicolas Flamel and Pernelle his wife  (1761) : "  Is not this adept the very type of the true alchemist cease, workinglessly, never weary, never-dearing Dividing, his time between prayer, study, and the laboratory, desiring science only for its own own, sake and then, his goal, using the wealth he acquired for good works, to live continuing soberly for himself? What other alchemist could offer us such a full life? Others, Sethon, Kelley, Bacon, offer us a more eventful, more dramatic existence, but one less rich in psychological details [ 94 ] .  "

The founder of occultism , Éliphas Lévi , asserts in his History of Magic  : "  Popular tradition maintains that Flamel is not dead and that he buried a treasure under the tower of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie. This treasure, contained in a cedar chest covered with blades of the seven metals, would be nothing other, say the enlightened adepts, than the original copy of the famous book of Abraham the Jew, with its explanations written in the hand of Flamel, and samples of the projection powder sufficient to change the Ocean into gold if the Ocean were Mercury  " [ 95 ] .

The occultists and hermeticists, Albert Poisson , Fulcanelli [ 96 ] , Eugène Canseliet [ 97 ] , and Serge Hutin , rejected Abbé Villain's conclusions and continued to assert that Flamel had been an alchemist [ 98 ] . He naturally finds his place in the long succession of grand masters of the Priory of Sion , between 1398 and 1418, in the Secret Files of Henri Lobineau by the mystifier Pierre Plantard (and thus appears in Dan Brown 's The Da Vinci Code ).

In 1929 , Nicolas Flamel inspired simultaneously Andre Breton in the Second Surrealist Manifesto and Robert Desnos in an article, "  The Mystery of Abraham the Jew  " for the journal Documents [ 99 ] . Breton established an "  analogy of purpose  " between alchemical and surrealist research [ 100 ] and, adoptive, the idea of Flamel as an alchemist, compared what "  Abraham the Jew  " and "  Hermes  " had been for him to what Rimbaud and Lautréamont , in particular, represented for the surrealists, precursors and initiators [ 101 ] . , However by "  reducing the 'philosopher's stone' to being the symbol of the triumph of the imagination, Breton in no way behaviors as an adept [but] diverts the alchemical tradition and empties it of its metaphysical scope for the benefit of its poetic value  " [ 102 ] .

Among academic historians, as early as 1941 , the medievalist Lynn Thorndike [ 103 ] completely rejected the myth of Flamel the alchemist, which was confirmed by the work of Claude Gagnon, Robert Halleux and Didier Kahn .

The vision of alchemy today, however, remains largely dependent on the antagonistic and complementary views of 19th - century positivism and occultism , and Flamel, along with his contemporary Paracelsus , is the figure to whom Zeno, the 16th - century physician, astrologer and alchemist, refers in Marguerite Yourcenar 's The Abyss (1968) [ t 10 ] , which was based in particular on " three great modern works [at the time] on alchemy : Marcellin Berthelot , La Chimie au Moyen Âge , 1893 ; CG Jung , Psychologie und Alchemie , 1944 ; J. Evola , La Tradizione ermetica , 1948 " [ 104 ] .       

The character of Flamel the alchemist still appears today in esoteric literature, but also in popular literature, comics and even video games [ 105 ] .

"  To each their own Flamel  : the readers of the 17th century had theirs , we have Marguerite Yourcenar's, which is in no way inferior to the previous one, and Spirou readers have a Gold Maker to introduce them to the wonders of the alchemical dream " [ 106 ] .  

Tribute and legacy

Nicolas Flamel in fiction

Movies

Television

In the television series The Companions of Eleusis (1975), Nicolas Flamel and Lady Pernelle are often mentioned.

It is also mentioned in episode 3 of season 1 of the television series Flynn Carson and the New Adventurers ( The Librarians )  : "  The Lair of the Minotaur  ".

Theatre and opera

Novels

Comics and cartoons

  • The Gold Maker , 1977, 20th album of the Adventures of Spirou and Fantasio : he is the inventor of a gold-making machine .  
  • The War of the Geniuses , 1983, in the Leonard  series : he appears during arguments between Leonard and Albert.
  • The Secret of Nicolas Flamel , 1989, short story created by Bom and Seron in the tribute album to Gil Jourdan and Maurice Tillieux The Investigations of their friends .
  • Willy Vassaux, The Philosophers by Fire / Nicolas Flamel , 1990  : main character.
  • The Alchemist's Testament ( Parts 1 and 2 ) from the Blake and Mortimer television series , 1997. 
  • Belphégor , "  Master Flamel's Secret  ".
  • Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (season 1, episode 7) : Edward Elric mentions the " Flamel codex " which speaks of the philosopher's stone , 2005.
  • The Blood Brother , 2016, three albums about alchemy and Nicolas Flamel.

Video games and board games

  • Assassin's Creed Unity , 2014, a series of three missions entitled The Secret of Flamel aims to find Nicolas Flamel's laboratory in Paris and seize his Elixir of Life before the members of a monastic cult.
  • Full Metal Daemon Muramasa, 2009.
  • Artus and the Secret Grimoire , 2004.
  • Nicolas Flamel's School , 2021, by Lalex Andrea , published by Jyde Games.

Notes and references

Notes

References

  1. " Bookseller (sworn) . Merchant charged with selling copies of original manuscripts under the supervision of the University, before which he has taken an oath "   — entry "  Bookseller  " of the TLFi , on the CNRTL website . [ archive ]
  2. Didier Kahn, “ Research  on French alchemy of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries ” , Chrysopœia , V, 1992-1996 (= Kahn 1993), p. 99 .    
  3. Wilkins 1993 , p. 11 . 
  4. Wilkins 1993 , p. 13 . 
  5. The Cross of Maine The French Library (1584).
  6. Wilkins 1993 , pp. 18-19 . 
  7. Wilkins 1993 , p. 65 . 
  8. Wilkins 1993 , p. 64 . 
  9. Wilkins 1993 ch. The problem of the two Flamels .
  10. Félix Lazare Historical Dictionary of the Streets and Monuments of Paris (1855), Rue Nicolas-Flamel [ read online ] [ archive ]
  11. Wilkins 1993 , pp. 32-34 . 
  12. Wilkins 1993 , p. 66 : he is not mentioned in 1368 in the Ordinance of Charles V granting exemption from watch duty and guard duty at gates .   [ archive ]
  13. see the Oath taken by Geoffroy de Saint-Léger, sworn bookseller of the University, to faithfully exercise his office  : November 26, 1316 . [ archive ]
  14. R. de Lespinasse, The Métiers et corporations de la Ville de Paris , III, Paris 1897 cited by Wilkins 1993 , p. 66 .  
  15. Wilkins 1993 , pp. 66-67 .  
  16. Wilkins 1993 , p. 14 . 
  17. Wilkins 1993 , pp. 27-29 . 
  18. Wilkins 1993 , pp. 47-49 . 
  19. Wilkins 1993 , pp. 30-32 . 
  20. Wilkins 1993 , p. 46 . 
  21. Wilkins 1993 , pp. 53-55 . 
  22. See Charles Louis Bernier on the Gallica catalogue of the BNF . [ archive ]
  23. Wilkins 1993 , p. 41 . 
  24. Wilkins 1993 , pp. 17-18 .  
  25. Description of the tombstone formerly placed above the tomb of Nicolas Flamel in the church of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie by M. de Lagilleville - Memoirs and dissertations on national and foreign antiquities published by the royal society of antiquaries of France, volume V, 1811, p. 379-387 on googlebook .   [ archive ]
  26. Description and reproduction in the Catalogue of collections of the museums of France . [ archive ]
  27. Philippe Lefrançois, Paris souterrain , coll. Encyclopédie pittoresque, Les Éditions internationales, 1950, p. 63 . 
  28. “ The archives of the National Hospital of the 15-20s are now held at the National Archives | National Archives ”, on www.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr (accessed on  [ archive ]  )
  29. “ National Hospital of the Quinze-Vingts : Transfer of its Archives ,” on the National Hospital of the Quinze-Vingts website (accessed on   [ archive ]  )
  30. BN, f. lat 9164.
  31. Robert Halleux The Myth of Nicolas Flamel or the mechanisms of alchemical pseudepigraphy - International Archives of the History of Science - Oxford, 1983, vol. 33, no . 111 , pp. 234-255 .  
  32. Didier Kahn, “ Research  on French alchemy of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries ” , Chrysopoia , Arche , No 5 ( 1992-1996) p. 321-452 : 3. — “ A companion of fortune of Nicolas Flamel : Jacques Cœur alchemist ", p. 431-437 .          
  33. Kahn 1993 , p. 101 . 
  34. Kahn 1993 , pp. 101-102 . 
  35. Didier Kahn “  Research on French alchemy of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries ” , Chrysopœia , Archè , no 5 ( 1992-1996), p. 321-452 : 2. — “ An early witness to the birth of the myth of Flamel the alchemist : The Flamel Book (end of the 15th century ) ” , p . 387-429 . - Kahn 1993 , p. 102 .            
  36. Sylvain Matton, Some versions of the Flos florum of pseudo-Arnaud de Villeneuve . Texts edited by Sylvain Matton and presented by Antoine Calvet, Chrysopoeia, n° VI (1997-1999), p. 207-271 .  
  37. The work of Nicolas Flamel, bookseller in Paris, which did several great goods through this science to the said city which gave The Warcke of Nycolas Flamyng bowke prenter in Paris be the wiche is done great goode Kahn 1993 , p. 102 . 
  38. La Croix du Maine Bibliotheque françoise (1584) cited by Kahn 1993 , p. 103 . 
  39. This text is also sometimes attributed to Arnaud de Villeneuve . Before being attributed to Flamel as the Book of Washings, it had been translated into French under the title The True Practice of the Noble Science of Alchemy .
  40. Paris BnF (Mss.), French 19978.
  41. Kahn 1993 , pp. 111-112 . 
  42. Kahn 1993 , p. 79 . 
  43. Kahn 1993 , p. 104 . 
  44. Kahn 1993 , p. 77 . 
  45. Jacques Gohory  : Theophrasti Paracelsi Philosophiae et Medicinae utriusque universae Compendium (1567) - annotated edition of the Book of the Perilous Fountain (1572) - preface to the translation of the Fourteenth Book of Amadis of Gaul (1575) - cited by Kahn 1993 , p. 105 . 
  46. Kahn 1993 , pp. 107-108 . 
  47. Noël du Fail , preface to the Demosterion of the Paracelsian Roch le Baillif (1578) cited by Kahn 1993 , p. 107-108 . 
  48. Kahn 1993 , pp. 108-109 . 
  49. Kahn 1993 , p. 106 .  
  50. in annotations of his Latin translation of the treatises of Bernard the Trevisan and Denis Zachaire  : Bernardus Trevisanus, De alchemia liber (De chymico miraculo) - Dionysius Zacharias, Opusculum philosophiae naturalis metallorum - Annotata quaedam ex Nicolao Flamello (Summarium philosophicum) (1583), reprinted in 1602 in the Theatrum Chemicum ) – cited by Kahn 1993 , p. 107 . 
  51. Heinrich Vogel Offenbarung der Geheymnussen der Alchimy (1605) - Thomas Rawlin Admonitio Pseudo-Chymicis (London 1610) - Kahn 1993 , p. 107 . 
  52. The first name is given in the privilege (book) see the 1682 edition on Gallica.
  53. Kahn 1993 , p. 107 . 
  54. Kahn 1993 , p. 16 . 
  55. Kahn 1993 , p. 17 . 
  56. Kahn 1993 , p. 21 . 
  57. Kahn 1993 , pp. 21-23 . 
  58. Kahn 1993 , p. 25 . 
  59. Kahn 1993 , p. 26 . 
  60. Kahn 1993 , p. 35 . 
  61. Kahn 1993 , pp. 30-31 . 
  62. Kahn 1993 , p. 41 . 
  63. Frank Greiner's "Alchemy in Novel Form  : Insights into Nazari, Béroalde de Verville and Andreae" is available online at Comètes - revue des littératures d'ancien régime . [ archive ]
  64. Claude Gagnon, "The Book of Abraham the Jew or the Influence of the Impossible," in Alchemy  : Art, History and Myths , Proceedings of the 1st International Colloquium of the Society for the Study of the History of Alchemy (Paris : 14-16 September 1991). Didier Kahn and Sylvain Matton (Eds.). Paris - Milan : SEHA - Arché, 1995. 847 p. (Texts and Works of Chrysopoeia, 1) pp. 497-505 .    
  65. Claude Gagnon Comparison of the two Latins of the Book of Hieroglyphic Figures attributed to Nicolas Flamel p. 61-70 in Esotericism, gnosis & symbolic imagination : essays offered to Antoine Faivre by Richard Caron, Antoine Faivre , Joscelyn Godwin, Wouter J Hanegraaff , Peeters Publishers, 2001 [ read online ] .   [ archive ]
  66. Claude Gagnon, Description of the Book of Hieroglyphic Figures attributed to Nicolas Flamel , Montreal (Canada), L'aurore, 1977  ; Nicolas Flamel under investigation , Éditions du Loup de Gouttière, 1994.
  67. Claude Gagnon, “  Discovery of the identity of the real author of the Book of Hieroglyphic Figures  ”, Anagrom - Sorcery, Folklore, Astrology, Alchemy , Paris, Éditions Maisonneuve et Larose, no. 7-8 , 1976, pp. 106-107 . See Antoine-Alexandre Barbier, Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous Works ( 2nd ed . , 1822), p. 104 [ read online ] .       [ archive ]
  68. Béroalde de Verville Le Palais des curieux, auquel sont rassemblés plusieurs diversitez pour le plaisir des doctes, et le bien de ceux qui désirent scavoir V V e M. Guillemot et J. Thiboust (1612) p. 552-3 cited by Kahn 1993 , p. 110 .  
  69. Gilles Polizzi Blanc is the field, black the seed, the enigmatic literary figure of the Renaissance - Reformation, Humanism, Renaissance , 2004 Vol. 59, no . 59 , pp. 49-62 .  
  70. Claude Gagnon  ; from the cabal of philosophers to the philosophy of the cabalists , Philosophiques, vol.7,n.1, 1980, p. 77-84 . 
  71. François Secret History of Christian Esotericism - Yearbook of the École Pratique des Hautes Études , 5th section (Religious Sciences, 87 (1978-79) p . 394 - cited by Kahn 1993 , p. 110 .  
  72. EJ Holmyard Alchemy 1957 p. 233-242 : “ Flamel was indeed the alchemist par excellence in France ”.    
  73. Kahn 1993 , p. 111 . 
  74. in English from 1624  : Flamel's Hieroglyphics - His Exhibition of the Hieroglyphicall Figures which he caused to be painted upon an Arch in St. Innocents Church-yard, in Paris. text and illustrations on rexresearch.com - illustrations on alchemywebsite From Alchemy to Chemistry Five Hundred Years of Rare and Interesting Books . [ Archive ] [ Archive ] [ Archive ]  
  75. The oldest one, dating from the 17th century , is in the Arsenal Library : Ms. 3047.   
  76. Figures from the book of Abraham Eleazar on alchemywebsite.com. [ archive ]
  77. Kahn 1993 , p. 18 . 
  78. Kahn 1993 , pp. 18-19 . 
  79. Kahn 1993 , p. 19 . 
  80. Kahn 1993 , pp. 112-113 . 
  81. [ read online ] [ archive ] .
  82. Claude Gagnon Isaac Newton reader of Nicolas Flamel , Chrysopoeia vol 5 (1992-1996) p. 733-738 . 
  83. Letter XLV. Rica to Usbek, at*** .
  84. Paul Lucas Voyage du sieur Paul Lucas, fait par ordre du roy dans la Grece, l'Asie Mineure, la Macedoine et l'Afrique (1712) p. 106-112 on googlebooks .   [ archive ]
  85. List of French ambassadors,, ministers or residents in Istanbul from 1524 to 1840 on turquie-culture.fr. [ Archive ]
  86. An Essay on the History of the Parish of Saint Jacques la Boucherie, in which the origin of this church is; its antiquities; Nicolas Flamel and his wife Pernelle; and several other remarkable things; with plans of the construction and the territory of the parish engraved, in intaglio. An interesting work for parishioners and for those who love antiquity . By ML** V**[Illain]. Paris, 1758. - A Critical History of Nicolas Flamel and his wife Pernelle; compiled from ancient documents that justify the origin and modesty of their fortune against the accusations of the alchemists. Pernelle's Will and several other interesting documents are included. By ML V***, Paris, 1761. Life of Nicolas Flamel and his wife Pernelle..., Paris, 1762 (reprinted 1782).
  87. On this controversy see Wallace Kirsop Alchemists and Antiquaries in Enlightenment France Australian Journal of French Studies 12, 1975, 168-191.
  88. Paris BnF (Mss.)  : Français 14765, Alchimie de Flamel, par le Chevalier Denys Molinier "pensionnaire du Roy, amateur de la Science harmique" - Yale University Library collection Paul et Mary Mellon Ms 100 c. 1750-1779.
  89. Wilkins 1993 , p. 97 . 
  90. Author in 1781 of a Diadem of the Wise or demonstration of the inferior nature , Google Books. [ archive ]
  91. See Abbé Boulliot Biographie ardennaise, ou Histoire des Ardennais qui se sont fait remarquable par leurs écrits, leurs actions, leurs vertus ou leurs erreurs (1830) [ read online ] [ archive ] p. 137-143 . 
  92. Didier Kahn Alchemy - Modern West in Critical Dictionary of Esotericism .
  93. Amans Alexis Monteil History of French people of various states, in the last five centuries (1842) [ read online ] [ archive ] .
  94. Albert Poisson , Nicolas Flamel, History and Legend (reissue by L'Arbre d'or) quote on the back cover . [ archive ]
  95. Éliphas Lévi , History of Magic  : with a clear and precise exposition of its processes, its rites and its mysteries , 1860, p. 345 . 
  96. Fulcanelli The Dwellings of the Philosophers , Paris, Jean Schemit, 1930, p. 169 - re-edition Jean-Jacques Pauvert, Paris, 1965, volume I, p. 311 .  
  97. Nicolas Flamel - The Book of Hieroglyphic Figures. The Philosophical Summary. The Desired Desire , foreword by René Alleau , historical study by Eugène Canseliet , text revised and annotated by Maxime Préaud, Denoël, 1970 on esoblogs . [ archive ]
  98. .
  99. Marie-Claire Dumas 1929 - Meeting places about Robert Desnos's Mystery of the Jewish Abraham in Writings from elsewhere: Georges Bataille and the ethnologists Published by Éditions MSH, 1987 [ read online ] [ archive ] .
  100. "  I ask that it be noted that surrealist research presents, with alchemical research, a remarkable analogy of goal  : the philosopher's stone is nothing other than that which was to allow the imagination of man to take a brilliant revenge on all things, and here we are again, after centuries of domestication of the mind and mad resignation, attempting to definitively liberate this imagination through the long, immense, reasoned derangement of all the senses and everything else.  " This can be read in Breton 's writing in the Second Manifesto of Surrealism ( Complete Works I , Paris, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade , 1988, p. 819 ). 
  101. “  Everything happens in the same way, in our time, as if a few men had just been placed in possession, by supernatural means, of a singular collection resulting from the collaboration of Rimbaud, Lautréamont and a few others, and as if a voice had said to them, as to Flamel the angel  : ‘Look closely at this book, you understand nothing of it, neither you nor many others, but one day you will see in it what no one else could see.’ It is no longer up to them to be enraptured by this contemplation.  ” André Breton , op. cit. , pp. 818-819 . 
  102. Note by Marguerite Bonnet (ed.) in Andre Breton , Op. cit. , p. 1616 .  
  103. Lynn Thorndike , A history of magic and experimental science , vol V, 1941.
  104. Marguerite Yourcenar , The Abyss (1968). Author's note.
  105. For example in Shadow of Memories (2001).
  106. Brunoy Roy Claude Gagnon  : from the cabal of philosophers to the literature of the cabalists , Philosophiques , vol. 7, no . 1 , 1980, p. 77-84 on erudit.org .    [ archive ]
  107. (en) “ Next Fantastic Beasts film reveals new characters – including Nicolas Flamel ”, on Pottermore ,  [ archive ]  (accessed on)
  108. “ The Saint-Jacques Tower ”, on dumaspere.com  [ archive ] 

Excerpts from texts

  1. Guillebert de Mets Description of the city of Paris (1434)  : “  Gobert, the sovereign writer who composed the art of writing and quillwork, and his disciples by their good writing were considered princes, like the young Flamel, of the Duke of Berry  ; Sicart, of the King of England  ; Guillemin, of the great minister of Rodes  ; Crespy, from the Duke of Orléans  ; Perrin of the Emperor Sigemundus of Romme  ” - “  Item Flamel the eldest, writer who gave so much alms and hospitality and made several houses where tradespeople lived downstairs and from the rent they paid, were supported poor laborers upstairs.  »
  2. H. Verlet Epitaphier du vieux Paris  : VI Les Saints Innocents Paris, 1989, p. 125-126 cited by Wilkins 1993 , p. 49-50 :    

    NICOLAS FLAMEL AND HIS WIFE PERNELLE,

    THE POOR DEPARTED SOULS
    WHO ARE FORGOTTEN BY THEIR HEIRS,
    REQUESTED BY PASSERBYS
    THAT THEY PRAY TO GOD, THAT MERCY
    MAY HAVE FORGIVENESS FROM HER AND THEIR FACE,
    AND TO YOU, BY HIS GRACE,

    THE CHURCH AND THESE PLACES
    ARE IN PARIS, MOST WELL-SUITED,
    FOR EVERY POOR CREATURE
    IS RECEIVED HERE IN BURIAL
    , AND WHOEVER DOES GOOD HERE IS PLACED
    IN PARADISE. AND HIS FRIENDS

    WHO COME HERE DEVOUTLY
    EVERY MONDAY OR OTHERWISE,
    AND BY HIS POWER HAS MADE
    GIFTS, INDULGENCES, AND PARDONS
    WRITTEN HERE IN SEVERAL TABLETS,
    MOST NECESSARY AND PROFITABLE.

    NO ONE KNOWS THAT SUCH FORGIVEN ARE WORTH
    WHICH ENDURES WHEN OTHER GOOD THINGS FAIL.

    FROM MY PARADISE FOR MY GOOD FRIENDS, ONCE
    DESCENDED TO BE CROSSED

  3. Inscription on Nicolas Flamel's tombstone  :

    The late Nicholas Flamel Iadis, a writer
    in vain, bequeathed by his will to
    the works of this church certain annuities
    and houses which he had
    acquired and purchased during his
    lifetime, for the purpose of performing certain divine services
    and annual distributions of money,
    by Ausmone, to
    the fifteen wines of the Hôtel du
    Dieu and other churches and hospitals in Paris.
    May these be prayed for the deceased.

  4. “ Nicolas Flamel, a Parisian, found this book composed by Almaseti, as Flamel himself testifies by what follows, that it was found signed in his hand in an old copy. I, Nicolas Flamel, a poor writer and bookseller, a native of Paris, residing at the corner of the rue de Marivaulx, by the sovereign goodness and grace of God, found, while binding a book, the book transcribed above, whose contents I have enjoyed for this long time. This book, by the great grace of God, has given me so much wealth that I have acquired the lordship of seven parishes around Paris […], and I have done so much that in my will I left in alms more than four thousand gold crowns, as can be seen from my will signed and written in my own hand. ”  
  5. "  Also, news of his wealth reached the King's ears, who smells Monsieur de Cramoisy, Master of Requests, to find out if what he had been told true was true  ; but he found humble him, even using earthenware. But it is known by tradition that Flamel declared to himself to him, having found him honest an an man, and gave him a machete full of his his powder, which is said to have been been for a long time in that family, which they are bound by them to protect Flamel from the King's  ."
  6. story by the anonymous author of the biography of the astrologer Jean-Baptiste Morin (1583-1656) La Vie de maître Jean-Baptiste Morin, doctor of medicine and royal professor of mathematics in Paris (1660) p. 41-44 cited by Albert Poisson Nicolas Flamel: his life - his foundations - his works (1893) p. 112-114 " The other whoer person with Morin often enjoyed conversing was M. de Chavigny , who had been present at the test of the Bois made of his projection, powder in the sight and under the hand of the King, and who was charged with this this Newest gold to have manufactured it examined by the assaier of the mint, who after the last test declared it finish that is ordinarily used, and what him surprised, while is is to give the reason, was that was he found it finer after the operation was it before. Now, as this story, landless one of the most curious of which they sustained the present century, has had different faces, I thought it would not be entirely out of place to tell it it true day and to say to the honor of chemistry and pure love of that truth was no deceit in the test of the Wood made of his powder ; the crucible was taken without assignment from a merchant a, M. de Chavigny collected in the bandoliers of the guards lead that balls melted and His Majesty himself put the powdered was that given to him in small quantity in a little wax, after twisted it in paper to hold it more more; But where did the treatment of Dubois come from? It was a hidden mechanism of Providence, I understand. They wanted to extract his secret, and he he refused to reveal it, or he wast the author of the powder, as many suspect, they grew out of his delays. They had him him at arrested Rueil, where he go often to confer with His Eminence, and under the pretext of his safety, they gave him the Wood of Vincennes and bodyguards to keep him company. This punishment seemed out of unpleasant to him, and all the more harsh since he had not, on the opposite, had as much as he can, to make himself known at Court. The sole and fatal necessity of freedom the preservation he had gained by his leaving convent led him to consent to confess to Father Joseph, who, after a very thorough examination at the Calvary convent, referred to him to His Eminence.     Thus, frat of benefiting from this treatment, he became less amenable to treatment, and finally, through his words, he escaped into such dire straits that could nothing be but to appoint commissioners for him  As his life had not been regular, he had very taken in a regular and holy order, it was not difficult for them to find background to exercise the rigor of sovereign justice, of of they were which the custodians. Dubois was condemned to death for various crimes and it suffered at the hands of the executioner. But far from his secret put on trial, Cardinal Richelieu, who was not fooled, later had searched it for a laboratory he had built for this purpose in the Château de Ruel, and in that they worked for several years on the papers that were seized in Paris at the time this arrested man was man was still there  .
  7. Henri Sauval, History and Research on the Antiquities of the City of Paris, which was not published until 1724  : History and Research on the Antiquities of the City of Paris , Paris, Charles Moette and Jacques Chardon, 1724. 3 volumes  : “  The hermeticists who seek the Philosopher's Stone without everywhere being able to find it, have so much meditated on some portals of our churches that in the end they have found there what they claim. While these delighted, to discover to many wonders at Notre-Dame, could not leave, some of them, for their part, were attentively contemplating the bronze horse of the Pont-Neuf  ; And still others, at the top of the Saint-Jacques la Boucherie Tower, examined the figures at the four corners to find Flamel's hieroglyphs, even though he died in 1417 and the Tower't beat wasted until 1468, nor the ox, eagle, or added lion until 1526. For this Flamel is so so among them that they are considered himly less than William of Paris, and believe that in 1332 he blew such a powerful flame that his crucible was was every bit as good as his own;, they are not lazy in visit all frequently the places he built. They rack their brains to extract the essence of Gothic verses and figures, some in the round, others roughly hewn, as they say, on the stones of the house on both the corner of Rue Marivaux and the two hospitals he had built on Rue de Montmorency. From there they go to Sainte-Geneviève-des-Ardens, to the Hospital of Saint-Gervais, to Saint-Côme, to Saint-Martin, and to Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie, where one sees gates that he had had, where and built, almost all of them and elsewhere, one notes crosses that mysterious they consider. Four large iron andirons erected near the portal of the Hospital of Saint-Gervais and on the Rue de la Feronnerie further attribute to him what they claim, without why or what they signify. They say the same of the bas-reliefs, the figures in the round, and some paintings in the charnel houses of Saint-Innocent  ; and that that he explained even them in the book of hieroglyphic figures. , however it is certain that this book is the translation of a Latin that has never been seen.  (Volume III, pp. 56-57 )  
  8. According to Albert Poisson, Nicolas Flamel  : his life - his foundations - his works, 1893, p. 110 : " Abbé Villain himself reports, as a legend, it is true, the following fact : "Flamel, a number of years ago, went to visit Mr. Desalleurs, then French ambassador to the Porte . And what should be more interesting since the fact is almost present, last year 1761, Flamel, Pernelle and a son they had in India, appeared at the Opera. A nobleman, informed of the day when these marvelous men were to appear, was at the show, accompanied by a painter who was to draw the three prodigies " ; This passage must be found in the Life of Nicolas Flamel and Pernelle, his wife (1762) by Abbé Étienne-François Villain. BNF notice - Thierry Halay in History of Centenarians and Longevity , L'Harmattan, 2007, p. 74 specifies, without giving a source, that it was " the first performance of a comic opera by Favart , in a performance hall on Rue Royale, in Versailles " [ read online ] .       [ archive ]    [ archive ]
  9. He had perhaps risked his soul and sat in the cave at that mysterious table of alchemists, astrologers, and hermeticists, whose origins in the Middle Ages were held by Averroes, William of Paris, and Nicolas Flamel, and which extended into the East, by the light of the seven-branched candelabrum, all the way to Solomon, Pythagoras, and Zoroaster. At least, that was the assumption, rightly or wrongly. It is certain that the archdeacon often visited the Cemetery of the Holy Innocents, where his father and mother had indeed been buried with the other victims of the plague of 1466  ; but he seemed far less devout at the cross on their grave than at the strange figures adorning the tomb of Nicolas Flamel and Claude Pernelle, built right next to it. It was certain that he had often been seen walking along the Rue des Lombards and furtively entering a small house on the corner of the Rue des Écrivains and the Rue Marivaux. This was the house Nicolas Flamel had built, where he had died around 1417, and which, deserted ever since, was already beginning to fall into ruin, so much had the walls been worn away by hermits and blowers from all over the world simply by carving their names into them. Some neighbors even claimed to have once seen, through a basement window, Archdeacon Claudius digging, stirring, and hoeing the earth in those two cellars whose walls had been daubed with countless verses and hieroglyphs by Nicolas Flamel himself. It was supposed that Flamel had buried the philosopher's stone in these cellars, and the alchemists, for two centuries, from Magistri to Father Pacifique, did not cease to torment the soil until the house, so cruelly searched and turned over, finally crumbled to dust beneath their feet.
  10. Chapter 1. Zeno's Childhood  : "  Yet Zeno enrolled at Louvain, at the School of Theology. [...] The followers of Nicolas Flamel soon recognized in the timid schoolboy, always reading by the fireplace, the signs of an alchemical preoccupation  : a small society of minds more inquisitive and restless than the others opened its ranks to welcome him. Before the end of his term, he looked down on the doctors in fur robes [...]. Little by little, this disdain extended to his own Kabbalist friends, empty minds, puffed up with wind, stuffed with words they did not understand and regurgitating them as formulas.  " - Chapter 2. The Abyss  : "  As a young cleric, he had read in Nicolas Flamel the description of the opus nigrum , of this attempt at the dissolution and calcination of forms which is the most difficult part of the Great Work  ."

Bibliography

Document used for writing the article : document used as a source for writing this article.

Sources and early studies

  • Guillebert de Mets , Description of the city of Paris , 1434 ( online at princeton.edu ) [ archive ]
  • The French libraries of La Croix du Maine , 1584, [ read online ] [ archive ] and of Antoine du Verdier (1585) [ read online ] [ archive ] - articles Nicolas Flamel
  • Pierre Borel , Tresor de recherches et antiquitez gauloises et françoises , 1655, article “  Nicolas Flamel  ”, pp. 158–163 [ read online ]   [ archive ]
  • Henri Sauval (1623-1676), History and research on the antiquities of the city of Paris , published in 1724
  • Nicolas Lenglet-Dufresnoy , JM d. R. (Jean Maugin de Richebourg), William Salmon, Bibliothèque des philosophes chimiques , 1741, [ read online ] [ archive ]
  • Étienne François Villain, Essay on a history of the parish of St. Jacques la Boucherie: where the Origin of this Church and its Antiquities are discussed , 1758, [ read online ] [ archive ]
  • Étienne François Villain, Critical History of Nicolas Flamel and Pernelle his wife: collected from ancient documents which justify the origin & the mediocrity of their fortune against the imputations of the alchemists  : the will of Pernelle & several other interesting documents have been added , 1761, [ read online ] [ archive ]
  • Jacques Albin Simon Collin de Plancy , Dictionary of Occult Sciences or Universal Directory of Beings, Characters, and Books , 1846, [ read online ] [ archive ]
  • M. Vallet de Viriville, Alchemical works attributed to Nicolas Flamel in Mémoires de la Société nationale des antiquaires de France , 1857, p. 172–197 [ read online ]   [ archive ]
  • Louis Figuier , Alchemy and the Alchemists  : A Historical and Critical Essay on Hermetic Philosophy, L. Hachette & Cie , 1860, [ read online ] [ archive ] - chapter "  Nicolas Flamel  ", pp. 195–230 
  • Albert Poisson , Nicolas Flamel, his life, his foundations, his works. Followed by the reprint of the Book of Hieroglyphic Figures by N. Flamel and the letter from Dom Pernety to Abbot Villain with the latter's reply , 1893, reprint. Nicolas Flamel: History and Legend [ read online ] [ archive ] (excerpts)
  • Nicolas Flamel - The Book of Hieroglyphic Figures. The Philosophical Summary. The Desired Desire , foreword by René Alleau , historical study by Eugène Canseliet , text revised and annotated by Maxime Préaud, Denoël, 1970
  • Élie-Charles Flamand , Nicolas Flamel, his life, his works. The Philosophical Summary - The Book of Washings - The Breviary - The Hieroglyphic Figures , Pierre Belfond Publishers, 1973, republished by Le Courrier du Livre in 1989

Modern historical works and studies

  • Claude Gagnon, Description of the 'Book of Hieroglyphic Figures' attributed to Nicolas Flamel - Followed by a reprint of the original edition and a reproduction of the seven talismans from the Book of Abraham, to which has been added the authentic Testament of the said Flamel. , Éditions de l'Aurore, Montreal, 1977
  • Didier Kahn (texts established and presented by), Nicolas Flamel - Alchemical Writings , Les Belles Lettres, coll.  "  At the Sources of Tradition  ",.Document used for writing the article
  • Nigel Wilkins , Nicolas Flamel: Books and Gold , Imago, ( online presentation ) [ archive ].Document used for writing the article
  • Claude Gagnon, Nicholas Flamel under investigation  ; followed by the annotated edition of the Book of Hierophytic Figures , Loup de gouttière, 1994.
  • Marcel Aubert, The House known as Nicolas Flamel's house on rue Montmorency in Paris , Librairie Lacour, 1992.
  • Claude Gagnon, François Béroalde de Verville alias Nicolas Flamel; The Invention of the Book of Hieroglyphic Figures, Presses Philosophiques, 2021.

Items

  • Robert Halleux, “  The Myth of Nicolas Flamel or the mechanisms of alchemical pseudepigraphy  ”, in Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences , Oxford, 1983, vol. 33, no . 111 , pp. 234-255 .  
  • Didier Kahn, “  Research on French alchemy of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries ” , Chrysopœia , Milan , Archè, no 5 (1992-1996), p. 321-452 .     
    • 2. — “  An early witness to the birth of the myth of Flamel the alchemist  : The Book of Flamel (late 15th century ) ” , pp . 387-429 .   
    • 3. — “  A companion of fortune of Nicolas Flamel  : Jacques Cœur the alchemist  ”, pp. 431-437 . 
  • Claude Gagnon
    • “  Discovery of the identity of the real author of the Book of Hieroglyphic Figures  ”, Anagrom , Paris, Éditions Maisonneuve et Larose, no. 7-8 , 1976, pp. 106-107 . Nicolas Flamel (1399) = François Béroalde de Verville (circa 1590).  
    • “  The place of Nicolas Flamel in the history of science  ”, in Understanding and mastering nature in the Middle Ages, Essays in the history of science offered to Guy Beaujouan , Champion, 1994, [ read online ] [ archive ]
    • “  Isaac Newton reader of Nicolas Flamel  ”, in Chrysopoeia , volume V, 1992-1996. p. 733-738 . 
    • “  The ‘Book of Abraham the Jew’ or the influence of the impossible  ” in Kahn and Matton, Alchemy  : art, history and myths , 1995.
    • “  Comparison of the two Latin versions of the Book of Hieroglyphic Figures attributed to Nicolas Flamel  ”, pp. 61-70 in Richard Caron, Antoine Faivre , Joscelyn Godwin, Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Esotericism, Gnoses & Symbolic Imagination : Essays in Honor of Antoine Faivre , Peeters Publishers, 2001.  

Other studies

  • Gilbert Prouteau , The Fabulous Secret of the Alchemist. Nicolas Flamel, prophet or imposter  ? (1999), published by Christian de Bartillat.
  • Jean-Michel Varenne, Nicolas Flamel - His history, his personality, his influences , 2004, published by De Vecchi.
  • Roger Facon , Fulcanelli & the Red Alchemists , Les éditions de L'Œil du Sphinx,, 140 p. ( ISBN 9791091506496 )   
  • Virginie Tilmant, Nicolas Flamel. A public writer in search of immortality , Alleur, Marabout, collection “  History and mysteries  ”, 1996, 262 p.

See also

On other Wikimedia projects  :

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External links

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