230 Hutoiy of Alchemy. 



Villas OVA shines as a magician and astrologer. He was a 

 renowned prophet, and predicted that the world would come to 

 an end in the year 1 376. He was shipwrecked on the coast of 

 Genoa, in 1313. 



About the year 1560, a Treatise of Alchymy was published at 

 Paris, attributed to Nicholas Flammel. The work, however, 

 is spurious, and was merely attributed to him from his becoming 

 suddenly, as it is said, very rich. The use he made of his 

 wealth does his memory much credit : he founded hospitals, 

 repaired churches, and endowed several charitable institutions ; 

 proceedings which by no means savour of alchymy. 



Dr. Salmon, who in 1692 published one of the above-men- 

 tioned tracts, says, " Flammel was originally a poor scrivener, 

 yet left so great monuments behind him, as must convince the 

 most incredulous that he knew the secret, and performed such 

 mighty works at his own proper cost and charges, as the most 

 opulent prince in Europe can never do the like. I know," says 

 he, " a gentleman who went to view those mighty buildings 

 and their records. The archives and governors of those places, 

 he told me, own the matter of fact but deny the means, say- 

 ing, that Flammel was a very pious man, and went a pilgrimage 

 to St. James of Gallicia, for a reward of which piety the holy 

 saint bestowed that vast treasure upon him by way of miracle ; 

 thereby denying the power of art by which it was certainly 

 effected, to establish a miracle performed by the Romish 

 Saint." 



He was moreover celebrated for his hieroglyphics, of which 

 fac-similes are given in Salmon's edition. They are much of 

 the same cast as those that now adorn Moore's Almanack, 

 and quite as edifying. 



In Salmon's collection we find the " Marrow of Alchymy 

 by George Ripley, Chanon of Bridlington in Yorkshire./' 

 who was a chemist perhaps less deserving of the reputation 

 he acquired than most of his compeers. He may be quoted as 

 a chemical poet. His Compound of Alchemie, dedicated to 

 Edward IV., is rugged enough, but not unintelligible. The 

 following stanzas from the preface of this piece, given in 



