Skip to content An illustration for ‘The Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine’ shows that the Philosophers’ Stone must be combined with gold to produce new gold, just as a lion eats a serpent to change it into its own substance, 1651.
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Before Newton and Boyle, one of the earliest Europeans to write about the philosopher’s stone was Albertus Magnus, a German Dominican friar, philosopher and scientist who published De Mineralibus in 1260, says Greenberg. Other notable alchemists followed.
In the late 16th century, German noblewoman Anna Maria Zieglerin claimed she knew how to create the mythical substance. She presented Duke Julius of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel with several recipes, including one for Lion’s Blood, “a golden oil that she said could be used to make the philosopher’s stone,” says Nummedal.
Zieglerin attributed even greater powers to the substance. “She also said it could be used on nature to make trees bloom in winter, a barren woman fertile,” Nummedal explains, adding that a prophecy held she would use it to bear children whose birth would usher in the apocalypse. When Zieglerin ultimately failed to produce the philosopher’s stone, she was executed.
In 1597, Georg Honauer was hanged on gold-coated iron gallows, after he failed to fulfill his promise to transmute large quantities of iron into gold for Duke Friedrich I of Württemberg, says Greenberg.
Thanks to the printing press, various books circulated that purportedly broke down the steps to make the philosopher’s stone. These included The Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine (1599) attributed to Johann Thölde, Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens (1617) and Mutus Liber (1677), attributed to Isaac Baulot.
