A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY HOAX 591 



BASIL VALENTINE: A SEVENTEENTH-CENTUKY HOAX 



By PROFESSOR JOHN MAXSON STILLMAN 



STANFOED UNIVERSITY 



ALL who are at all familiar with the early history of chemistry will 

 recall the prominent place given to a writer who wrote under the 

 name of Basil Valentine and in the early history of the sciences was 

 generally assigned to the fifteenth century. His knowledge of chemistry 

 was for that time remarkably advanced, falling chronologically, as it 

 appeared, between the writings of the medieval alchemists, Albertus 

 Magnus, Arnoldus de Villanova, Eaimundus Lullus and Eoger Bacon, 

 and those of the later authors Paracelsus and Agricola. The histories 

 of chemistry by Ferdinand Hoefer in France 1842-3 and by Hermann 

 Kopp of Germany 1843-7, which have served largely as the basis for 

 later histories of that period, both accepted from earlier sources the 

 works of Basil Valentine as of the latter part of the fifteenth century, 

 though with some evident uncertainty as to this period. Both Kopp and 

 Hoefer mark the work of Basil Valentine as closing the alchemical 

 period, and ascribe to Paracelsus the inauguration of the medical chem- 

 ical or iatrochemical period. 



Examination of the writings of the so-called Basil Valentine and of 

 the writings ascribed to Paracelsus made it apparent that many of the 

 most important facts of chemistry as well as many of the theoretical 

 ideas which Paracelsus announced and made the basis of his revolu- 

 tionary influence upon chemistry and medicine were contained in the 

 works of Basil Valentine. 



Thus to Basilius was awarded the priority of the announcement of 

 many chemical observations and experiments and their applications to 

 the uses of medicine, and to Paracelsus was credited the making of 

 these ideas influential for progress. 



Paracelsus was born in 1493 and died in 1541. The chemical litera- 

 ture extant previous to his time and which may claim to be of impor- 

 tance, apart from the slight contributions of the ancients, was comprised 

 in manuscripts or printed books attributed to Gheber, Albertus Magnus, 

 Eaimundus Lullus (or Lully), Eoger Bacon and Arnoldus de Villa- 

 nova, though many of these writings are known to be forgeries of much 

 later date than are the genuine writings of these men. 



The works of Paracelsus were published, some few during his life 

 time, but most of them from twenty to fifty years after his death. 

 They were collected and published by Huser in Basel in 1589-91, 



