49 THE PRINCES OF LIECHTENSTEIN AND ALCHEMY A love of experimentation and interest in alchemy can also be observed in the princely House of Liechtenstein. From his father Karl Eusebius, Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein asked for the gift of a book on alchemy by the early natural scientist Jan Baptist van Helmont (1579–1644), a follower of the physician and alchemist Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known as Paracelsus, which he received with paternal guidance on its reading.8 Helmont coined the term ‘gas’ in derivation from the Greek ‘chaos’, and recognized carbon dioxide (‘gas sylvestris’) as a particular form of steam.9 In order to make this discovery he had to overcome the traditional notion of air being a uniform body or alchemical ‘element’. According to contemporary ideas, going back to Empedocles, there existed in the earthly sphere the four mutable elements of fire (fig. 3), water, earth and air. The celestial sphere was ruled by the ‘quinta essentia’, which Aristotle described as ‘ether’ – an element that differed from the earthly elements and was everlasting and unchanging. This was believed to permeate all things and was like fire without heat. All substances arose through the specific interaction of the three principles of sulphur, mercury and salt. The existence of gases was recognized, as for example in the carbon dioxide given off in beer-brewing, but not their essence as distinct substances.10 It was believed that through the action of certain physical powers, materials and substances could be transformed, or materials of lesser value neutralized in order to improve them with the principles of a higher-value material, thus imitating and accelerating nature’s processes of transmutation. Böttger had initially been kept prisoner by Augustus the Strong with the intention of producing gold (fig. 4).11 Many alchemists were bent on discovering the so-called philosopher’s stone that was not only supposed to enable base metal to be turned into precious metals but was also held to be a universal remedy. However, the method of its fabrication was a mystery, and the alchemical treatises, couched in cryptic or enigmatic language, fail to offer any precise descriptions of an approach to a solution. The book Wasserstein der Weisen (‘Philosopher’s Stone’) (cat. 8) in the Princely Collections is more of a theosophical work that includes the path to the lapis philosophorum in a process of spiritual purification. 1 As early as 1556 a copiously illustrated systematic description of mining and metallurgy in the Saxon Ore Mountains was published under the title De re metallica libri XII by the Chemnitz city physician Georgius Agricola (cat. 7). 2 In this connection, after lengthy efforts on his part, the Dresden court granted him state funds for the setting up of three glass works. 3 See Soukup 2007, 464–466. 4 Ibid. 5 Volke 2010, 40–43. 6 On this see the essay by Lehner-Jobst in the present volume, 17–39. 7 On this see the essay by Stögmann in the present volume, 55–67. 8 See Haupt 2012, 408–409, nos. 2411, 2412. 9 See Priesner 2011, 102. 10 Ibid. 11 H aving repeatedly failed to achieve any success in these endeavours, on Tschirnhaus’s advice Böttger concentrated on experiments to make porcelain. See Volke 2010, 37–38. On the part played by Tschirnhaus in the reinvention of the porcelain formula see ibid. 47–50. Fig. 3 Bartholomäus Spranger Allegory of Fire, c. 1600 Pen and ink in blue, blue wash, white highlights, on blue-toned paper LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna Inv. GR 940
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTMyNjA1