Guglielmo Gratarolo

Guglielmo Gratarolo or Grataroli or Guilelmus Gratarolus (16 May 1516, Bergamo – 16 April 1568, Basel) was an Italian doctor and alchemist.

Biography

Portrait of Grataroli from a biography by G. Gallizioli, 1788

Gratorolo studied in Padua and Venice.

A Calvinist, Gratarolo sought refuge in Graubünden, Strasbourg, and finally settled in Basel in 1552. There, he taught medicine and edited a number works, particularly alchemical ones, notable among them the 1561 collection Verae alchemiae artisque metallicae published by the printer Henricus Petrus, and reprinted in 1572.

Verae alchemiae artisque metallica

Verae alchemiae artisque metallica relied heavily on the earlier printed alchemical collection De Alchemia and was in turn heavily relied upon for the Theatrum Chemicum. Gratorolo omitted only the Tabula Smaragdina and Ortulanus' commentary on it from volume 1; these had been published separately a year earlier in 1560, although falsely attributed to Johannes de Garlandia. Above all, Gratorolo wanted to publish the works of Pseudo-Lull and Pseudo-Geber. The contents of the 1561 edition are as follows:.^[1]

Volume 1:

Chrysorrhoas, sive De Arte Chymica Dialogus
Giovanni Bracesco, Dialogus Ioannis Braccschi, cui titulus est Lignum vitae, in quo etiam Gebri Philosophi expositio succincta continentur
In eundem Braceschuni Gebri interpretem, animadversio, authore loanne Tauladano
Pseudo-Geber, De investigatione perfectionis
Pseudo-Geber, Summa perfectionis
Pseudo-Geber, De inventione veritatis sive perfectionis
Pseudo-Geber, Liber Fornacum
Roger Bacon, Rogerii Bachonis De Alchemia libellus cui titulum fecit. Speculum Alchemiae
Richardus Anglicus, Richardi Anglici Libellus peri Chemeias, cui titulum fecit, Correctorium
Rosarius minor
Khalid ibn Yazid, Liber Secretorum Alchemiae compositus per Calid, filium Iazichi
Loci aliquot practiciae ex Gebero declatali per... Joannen Braceschum Vrceanum

Volume 2:

Liber de Magni lapidis Compositione et Operatione, Authore adhuc incerto
Sententia Ioannis Baptistae Montani, de sublimatione
Pseudo-Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Rosarius philosophorum Arnaldi de Villanova
Novum lumen eiusdem vel alterius
Pseudo-Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Epistola Magistri Arnaldi de Villa nova super Alchymiam ad regem Neapolitanum
Liber perfecti Magisteri, qui Lumen Luminum nuncupatur... vocatur etiam Flos florum Arnaldi de Villanova, longe correctior & melior hactenus impressis
Pseudo-Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Practica Magistri Arnaldi de Villanova, ad quendam Papam, ex libro dicto, Breviarius librorum Alchymiae
Pseudo-Albertus Magnus Alberti Magni Ratisponensis episcopi de Alchymia liber integerrimus
Pseudo-Albertus Magnus, Scriptum Alberti super Arborem Aristotelis
Pseudo-Lull, Apertorium Raymundi Lullii De veri lapidis compositione
Pseudo-Lull, Ars intellectiva ejusdem super Lapidem Philosophorum
Pseudo-Lull, Practica ejusdem
Pseudo-Lull, Idem de intentione Alchimistarum
Pseudo-Lull, Ejusdem Summaria Lapidis Consideratio et eius abbreviationes
Pseudo-Lull, Ejusdem Libellus utilissimus de Mercurio solo
Liber experimentorum
Pulcherrimum opus de transmutatione metallorum
Capitulum valde magnum in albedine, & omnibus nobilius, ex libro qui dicitur Philosophus mirabilis
Liber Mercuriorum Raymundi Lullii
Intentio summaria, quae aliter dicitur Repertorium, valde utilis ad intelligentiam Testamenti, Codicilli & aliorum librorum Raymundi Lullii
Aristotelis de Perfecto Magisterio exquisitum & integerrimum opus, &c.
Libellus duodecim aquarum, ex libro Emanuelis
Aquae rubeae Avicennas ad tingendum quatuor spiritus sublimatos albos
Elixiriorum varia compositio & modus
John of Rupescissa, Joannis de Rupescissa liber de confectione ver Lapidis Philosophorum
Johannes Ferrarius, De lapide Philosophorum secundum verum modum formando Efferarii monachi
Thesaurus Philosophiae
Pseudo-Lull, Praxis universalis Magni operis, ex Raymundo
De lapidis philosophorum formatione epilogus
Practica Magistri Odomari ad discipulum
Arcanum Philosophorum, ut ex Saturno facias aurum perfectum
Perfecta Salis communis praeparatio ad lapidem philosophorum
Historiola Antiqua de Argento in aurum verso
Tractatus de Marchasita, ex qua fit Elixir ad album verissimum
Caput de sale alchali
Quaestio an Lapis philosophicus valcat contra pestem,;^[2]
Velus Epistola doctiss. de Metallorum materia, & artis imititatione
Practica Caravantis Hispani
Lapidis Philosophici Nomenclaturae, & Gulielmo Gratarolo collectae
Giovanni Aurelio Augurello, Ioannis Aurelii Augurelli Chrysopoeiae libri iii., et Geronticon Liber i
Regimina Artis

Works

De Memoria Reparanda, Augenda, Servandaque. Andream Gesner. F. & Rodolphum Vuyssenbachium, 1553; Reprint by Kessinger Publishing, 2009.
Regimen omnium iter agentium. 1556.
Verae alchemiae artisque metallicae, citra aenigmata, doctrina. Basel: Heinrich Petri et Pietro Perna, 1561.
Pestis descriptio, causa signa omnigena et praeservatio. Paris: Federicus Morellus, 1561. on gallica
Regimen omnium iter agentium, postremo editum. Wendelinum Rihelium, 1563.

Bibliography

Gallizioli, Giovambattista (1788). Della vita degli studi e degli scritti di Gulielmo Grataroli filosofo e medico (in Italian). Bergamo: Stamperia Locatelli.
Maclean, Ian. "Heterodoxy in Natural Philosophy and Medicine: Pietro Pomponazzi, Guglielmo Gratarolo, Girolamo Cardano," in Heterodoxy in Early Modern Science and Religion, edited by John Brooke and Ian Maclean. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

References

^ As given in John Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica, vol. 1 (1906), 341.
^ Perhaps a use of the philosopher's stone against the plague. Chiara Crisciani and Micheala Pereira, "Black Death and Golden Remedies. Some Remarks on Alchemy and the Plague," in A. Paravicini Bagliani, F. Santi, eds. The Regulation of Evil. Social and Cultural Attitudes to Epidemics in the Late Middle Ages (Florence: Sismel - Edizioni del Galluzzo, 1998), 7-39.

[1] As given in John Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica, vol. 1 (1906), 341.

[2] Perhaps a use of the philosopher's stone against the plague. Chiara Crisciani and Micheala Pereira, "Black Death and Golden Remedies. Some Remarks on Alchemy and the Plague," in A. Paravicini Bagliani, F. Santi, eds. The Regulation of Evil. Social and Cultural Attitudes to Epidemics in the Late Middle Ages (Florence: Sismel - Edizioni del Galluzzo, 1998), 7-39.

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