The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley
The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley
The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley
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transmutation‖. 19 Having employed <strong>Cecil</strong>‘s former secretary Richard Eden, the Vidame<br />
clearly knew <strong>of</strong> <strong>Cecil</strong>‘s pronounced interest in alchemy.<br />
Agnello‘s previous government career and associations within Elizabethan society<br />
suggest that <strong>Cecil</strong> probably knew <strong>of</strong> the Venetian alchemist prior to the Vidame‘s<br />
recommendation. Little is known <strong>of</strong> Agnello‘s earlier life. Agnello had certainly arrived in<br />
England by the reign <strong>of</strong> Edward VI, when in 1548–9 John Baptista Agnelli & Company <strong>of</strong><br />
Venice were authorised to supply the mint with bullion. 20 At a time when <strong>Cecil</strong> was at the<br />
heart <strong>of</strong> the Duke <strong>of</strong> Somerset‘s government, Agnello provided a valuable service, bringing<br />
in 15,000 pounds weight <strong>of</strong> fine silver within seven months, before piracy and a lowering<br />
<strong>of</strong> the mint‘s price forced him to cease. 21 Agnello was one <strong>of</strong> a few entrepreneurs who<br />
took full advantage <strong>of</strong> the Treasury‘s desperate need for bullion in order to produce more<br />
debased currency, and likely enriched himself considerably as a result. Deborah Harkness<br />
has also identified Agnello as likely being the ―Johanni Baptistae Danieus‖ who gave John<br />
Dee a copy <strong>of</strong> Pantheus‘ Voarchadumia in 1559; a contention supported by the fact that Dee<br />
owned a copy <strong>of</strong> Agnello‘s Apocalypsis. 22 If so it would appear that Agnello was another<br />
Elizabethan alchemist, like John Dee, Cornelius de Lannoy and Francis Thynne, influenced<br />
by Pantheus‘ alternative alchemical procedures.<br />
Within three days <strong>of</strong> receiving the ore Agnello returned to Lok with remarkable<br />
results. From his tiny sample he had extracted ―a very letle powder <strong>of</strong> Gold‖. 23 Agnello<br />
claimed that he had succeeded where the other experts had failed because he better<br />
understood how to flatter nature, words that suggest the use <strong>of</strong> alchemical methods. 24<br />
Certainly <strong>Sir</strong> Francis Walsingham, to whom Lok was secretly reporting, considered it ―to be<br />
but an Alchamist matter suche as dyvers others before had byn brought to your Majesties<br />
19 <strong>The</strong> Vidame de Chartres to <strong>Cecil</strong>, in Crosby (ed.), CSPF 1569-71, p. 142.<br />
20 He may be the Venetian, John Baptiest, granted denization in 1541, See Pelling Medical Conflicts, p. 307n.<br />
21 Challis, <strong>The</strong> Tudor Coinage, p. 181.<br />
22 Deborah Harkness, John Dee’s Conversations with Angels, Cambridge, 1999, p. 204n.<br />
23 Lok to Elizabeth, SP 12/112/25.<br />
24 Ibid.<br />
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