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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Chapter 2: <strong>Alchemical</strong> Medicine<br />
<strong>Cecil</strong>‘s patronage <strong>of</strong> chemical medicine provides one <strong>of</strong> the best examples <strong>of</strong> his<br />
belief in alchemical principles. Increasingly in the second half <strong>of</strong> the sixteenth century<br />
medicines based on an alchemical understanding <strong>of</strong> the human body began to challenge<br />
established medical techniques. In order to examine <strong>Cecil</strong>‘s interest in these new chemical<br />
medicines this chapter first considers the background <strong>of</strong> medical practice in the<br />
Elizabethan period. It then analyses a number <strong>of</strong> case studies, both <strong>of</strong> <strong>Cecil</strong>‘s medical<br />
patronage, and attempts by practitioners to attract <strong>Cecil</strong>‘s benefaction through promises <strong>of</strong><br />
effective alchemical medicines.<br />
While recent scholarship has helped place chemical medicine within the context <strong>of</strong><br />
sixteenth century medical practice, studies on medical patronage in the period are<br />
conspicuous in their scarcity. Those studies which do exist tend to focus on continental<br />
European examples, such as Didier Kahn‘s study <strong>of</strong> King Henry IV <strong>of</strong> France‘s patronage<br />
<strong>of</strong> Paracelsian physicians. 1 One <strong>of</strong> the few English examples, Elizabeth Furdell‘s <strong>The</strong> Royal<br />
Doctors 1485-1714 (2001) reveals the complex relationship between the royal patronage <strong>of</strong><br />
chemical, or ‗irregular‘, practitioners, and the royally sanctioned London College <strong>of</strong><br />
Physicians. 2 <strong>The</strong> patronage role <strong>of</strong> leading nobles and politicians, however, has been<br />
largely overlooked.<br />
Perhaps the primary reason that historians have ignored <strong>Cecil</strong>‘s patronage <strong>of</strong><br />
chemical medicine is the lack <strong>of</strong> easily accessible sources. Whilst there is some evidence <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>Cecil</strong>‘s consultation with orthodox physicians, his interactions with unlicensed practitioners<br />
left far fewer traces. With few exceptions, even successful irregular medical physicians left<br />
1 Didier Kahn, ‗King Henry IV, Alchemy, and Paracelsianism in France (1589-1610), in Lawrence M. Principe<br />
(ed.), Chymists and Chymistry: Studies in the History <strong>of</strong> Alchemy and Early Modern Chemistry, Sagamore Beach, 2007,<br />
pp. 1-12.<br />
2 Elizabeth Furdell, <strong>The</strong> Royal Doctors, 1485–1714, Rochester, 2001.<br />
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