Elias Ashmole

Elias Ashmole (May 23, 1617 – May 18, 1692) was an antiquarian, collector, politician and student of astrology and alchemy. He supported the royalist side during the English Civil War, and at the restoration of Charles II he was rewarded with several lucrative offices. Throughout his life he was an avid collector of curiosities and other artifacts, many of which he acquired from the traveller, botanist and collector John Tradescant, and most of which he donated to Oxford University to create the Ashmolean Museum. He also donated his library and priceless manuscript collection to Oxford.

Alchemy and the Tradescant Collection

During the 1650s, Ashmole devoted a great deal of energy to the study of alchemy. In 1650 he published Fasciculus Chemicus under the anagrammatic pseudonym James Hasholle. This work was an English translation of two Latin alchemical works, one by Arthur Dee. In 1652, he published his most important alchemical work, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, an extensively annotated compilation of alchemical poems in English. The book preserved and made available many works that had previously existed only in privately-held manuscripts. It was avidly studied by other alchemists.

Related Topics:
1650s - Alchemy - 1650 - Fasciculus Chemicus - Anagram - Pseudonym - Arthur Dee - 1652 - Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum

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In 1653, the alchemist William Backhouse, who had made Ashmole his alchemical "son", confided the secret of the Philosopher's Stone to Ashmole when he believed himself to be close to death. (The Philosopher's Stone was a substance or object that had the power to convert base metals to gold, among other mystical virtues: its discovery was one of the key goals of European alchemists.) Ashmole is said to have passed the secret on to Robert Plot, the first keeper of the Ashmolean Museum. Ashmole published his final alchemical work, The Way to Bliss, in 1658. There is no evidence of him personally carrying out any actual experiments (or "operations", in the alchemical jargon of the time).

Related Topics:
1653 - William Backhouse - Philosopher's Stone - Robert Plot - The Way to Bliss - 1658

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Ashmole met the botanist and collector John Tradescant around 1650. Tradescant had, with his father, built up a vast and renowned collection of exotic plants, mineral specimens and other curiosities from around the world. Ashmole helped Tradescant catalogue his collection in 1652, and in 1656 he financed the publication of the catalogue, the Musaeum Tradescantianum. In 1659, Tradescant, who had lost his only son and heir ten years earlier, legally deeded his collection to Ashmole. Under the agreement, Ashmole would take possession at Tradescant's death. When Tradescant did die in 1662, his widow Hester contested the deed, but the matter was settled in Chancery in Ashmole's favor two years later.

Related Topics:
John Tradescant - 1650 - 1656 - 1659 - 1662 - Chancery

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