The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

From Longleat Thynne wrote for Cecil a manuscript copy of ‗Homo Animal
Sociale‘, which he submitted in October 1578. Intended to ―desplay my inwarde mynde
who alwayes dothe & shall acknowegde your undeserved curtesye‖, the work was clearly
intended as thanks for Thynne‘s release from prison. 191 ‗Homo Animal Sociale‘, written in
English and Latin, presented to Cecil Thynne‘s cabalistic view of the universe, examining
the ―Hierogliphics or letters of mysticall meaninge only knowen to their wise philosophers
& priestes‖. 192 Thynne revealed that he had become engrossed in the mystical symbolism
of the ancient alphabets after ―the lerned Cabaliste Mr Dee observinge in his booke
entituled Monas Hieroglyphica ... hiddenly left unto us a most profounde knowledge‖. 193
Both Dee and Thynne, believed that by examining the physical shapes of the ancient
alphabets they could retrieve the original magical and alchemical knowledge of the biblical
patriarchs. 194 Cecil too would undoubtedly have been familiar with the Monas Hieroglyphica
from his correspondence with Dee while it was being written.
By 1579 Thynne had shifted his attention toward another characteristically
Elizabethan interest: British antiquities. Perhaps his obsession with alchemy had proved
too costly for the perpetually indebted scholar. David Carlson suggests that there were
―substantive similarities between alchemy and antiquarianism as kinds of intellectual work
that would have made the two complementary pursuits for Thynne‖. 195 They had both
practical and theoretical foundations in common, as ―both were fundamentally acquisitive,
proceeding by amassing and interpreting a wealth of rare details‖ and required an arcane
understanding only available to the initiated. 196 As one of the writers of Raphael
Holinshed‘s massive Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1587) and as a member of the
Elizabethan Society of Antiquaries, Thynne maintained both a strong scholarly reputation
191 Francis Thynne to Cecil, ‗Homo Animal Sociale‘, 1578, BL, Lansdowne Vol. 27 No. 36.
192 Ibid.
193 Ibid.
194 Ibid.
195 Carlson, ‗The Writings and Manuscript Collections‘, p. 215.
196 Ibid., p. 216.
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