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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University in the period. 56 A high proportion <strong>of</strong> the books related to history, theology or<br />
medicine, all preoccupations <strong>of</strong> the Elizabethan elite, whilst others reflected his scholarly<br />
interest in law. Alongside Elizabethan best sellers such as his friend Richard Eden‘s <strong>The</strong><br />
Art <strong>of</strong> Navigation (1561), were numerous books discussing alchemy, astrology, chemical<br />
medicine, and the occult. 57<br />
<strong>The</strong> presence <strong>of</strong> works such as Cornelius Agrippa‘s De Occulta Philosophia (1533) in<br />
Smith‘s library indicates the particular mix <strong>of</strong> interests common amongst Elizabethan<br />
intellectuals. 58 Popular amongst many university trained scholars, including Smith‘s fellow<br />
Cambridge graduate John Dee, Agrippa‘s book dealt primarily with the occult<br />
correspondences <strong>of</strong> cabalistic cosmogony. 59 Also present was the supposedly Rosicrucian<br />
collection De Alchimia opuscula complura veterum philosophorum (1550), dedicated to the<br />
chemical physician Paracelsus, which included alchemical works attributed to Aristotle,<br />
alongside tracts by alchemical authorities such as Raymond Lull. 60 Works such as these<br />
cemented the association <strong>of</strong> humanist attempts to restore ancient knowledge with both<br />
philosophical and practical alchemy. Smith‘s possession <strong>of</strong> Georgius Agricola‘s influential<br />
metallurgical work De Re Metallica (1556) is suggestive <strong>of</strong> the scholar turned statesman‘s<br />
instinct to apply alchemical knowledge to financially beneficial practical endeavours. 61 Long<br />
after Smith‘s death in 1577 the eminent Elizabethan scholar Gabriel Harvey wrote to<br />
<strong>Cecil</strong>‘s son Robert, paying tribute to ―the true Chymique without imposture which I<br />
learned from <strong>Sir</strong> Thomas Smith not to condemn‖. 62 It is likely Smith, as <strong>Cecil</strong>‘s tutor and<br />
friend, taught the future <strong>Lord</strong> Treasurer the same distinction between true and counterfeit<br />
alchemy.<br />
56 Smith‘s Library Catalogue printed in John Strype, <strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> the Learned <strong>Sir</strong> Thomas Smith, Kt. D.C.L.,<br />
Principal Secretary <strong>of</strong> State to King Edward the Sixth, and Queen Elizabeth, London, 1698, reprinted 1820, pp. 274-<br />
81; David Stam, International Dictionary <strong>of</strong> Library Histories, Vol. 1, Chicago, 2001, pp. 810, 868.<br />
57 Ibid., p. 279.<br />
58 Ibid., p. 278.<br />
59 Julian Roberts and Andrew G. Watson, John Dee’s Library Catalogue, London, 1990, p. 69; Yates, <strong>The</strong> Occult<br />
Philosophy, pp. 43-56.<br />
60 Strype, <strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> the Learned <strong>Sir</strong> Thomas Smith, p. 279.<br />
61 Ibid., p. 278.<br />
62 Roberts, R. A. (ed.), CMS: 1598, London, 1899, p. 160.<br />
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