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Giuseppe Francesco Borri

April 12, 2024

Giuseppe Francesco Borri (4 May 1627 in Milan – 20 August 1695 in Rome) was an alchemist, prophet, freethinker, physician and eye doctor.

Giuseppe Francesco Borri

Education edit

His mother, Savinia Morosini, died giving birth to him. His father, Branda Borri, was a distinguished doctor with a great passion for chemical experiments. He claimed to be a descendant of Sextus Afranius Burrus; his uncle Cesare was a professor in law in Pavia.[1] In 1644, together with his brother, Borri entered a Jesuit seminary in Rome. There he was taught by the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher, who had an important influence on him. His intolerance of ecclesiastical authority deteriorated his relationship with his teachers Sforza Pallavicino and Théophile Raynaud (Borri even led a collective rebellion of seminarists, provoking the replacement of Nicola Zucchi, the Rector, who was dismissed). In 1649/50 Borri was expelled from the seminary as he had problems with the idea of the immaculate conception.[2] He started his activity as a physician and alchemist among the pilgrims flocking to Rome for the Holy Year. In this period he met the Marquis Massimiliano Palombara, himself an alchemist, and in 1653 he took service with Federico Mirogli, as physician and alchemist. The year after he was involved in a fight, forced to seek asylum and had a vision.[3]

Prophecy edit

Borri began his propaganda, both messianic and political, with the purpose of returning to an evangelically pure religion. Borri believed religion to be the foundation of every science and scientific investigation. For him the whole world (Christian and non-Christian) should be conquered and ruled by a papal theocracy, that should trailblaze the Kingdom to come: a sort of heavenly world, a new Golden Age, where the values of a renewed and universal Christianity would triumph. Borri considered himself (at least according to the later Inquisition's records) Prochristus, the prophet and herald of the new era.

The Court of Queen Christine of Sweden edit

In 1655, Borri met Queen Christine of Sweden and probably frequented her court. In a cabinet transformed into a laboratory, the very learned Christine gave hospitality to alchemists and cabalists of different value and provenance. During the Naples Plague (1656) almost half of the population died within two years.[4] When the plague broke out in Rome, Borri provided his clients with camphor.[5] Christine fled to France; Borri went back to his hometown, Milan.

Legend edit

 
Villa Palombara

According to the legend, handed down in 1802 by scholar Francesco Cancellieri, one morning in 1657, a stranger was caught gathering herbs in the garden of Marquis Massimiliano Palombara. He was brought to the Marquis by the servants. He declared himself to be an alchemist, to have knowledge of the Marquis' alchemical researches and to be able to show him the feasibility of transmutational work, without any request or reward, and to be interested in knowing Palombara's methods and researches.

The unknown stranger, after having performed various operations under Palombara's eyes, asked for hospitality in a room near the laboratory, to be able to watch over his work; then he asked the Marquis to give him the keys to the laboratory, promising that he would explain everything to the Marquis after having completed his work; but for the moment he needed solitude and peace.

Early next morning, Palombara knocked in vain at the laboratory's door, and then at the pilgrim's room. During the night, the latter had sneaked away through a window, leaving in the adjoining laboratory only an upside-down crucible and, on the floor, a streak of gold, and a sheaf of papers covered with notes and hermetic symbols on the Great Work. Palombara ordered these symbols to be carved in several places in his mansion, and on the famous Porta Alchemica, the only surviving feature of the Villa Palombara. The mysterious alchemist was claimed to be Borri.

Milanese affair edit

 
The cathedral as it appeared in 1745.

In Milan, Borri contacted the Palagians Quietist milieu, which was widely scattered in Lombardy, and centred on Saint Pelagio's church and the prophetic charisma of Giacomo Filippo Casola, a layman who was accused of heresy by the Inquisition and shortly after died in jail. Very soon Borri became the figurehead of the Milanese movement and the fervour generated by his predication culminated in a public gathering in the square of Milan cathedral in 1658.

He was prosecuted for heresy and poisoning (the latter accusation refers to his alchemical knowledge). Meanwhile, the Inquisition arrested his followers, mostly low clergymen, many of them as young and fervent as Borri. In 1659, he was called before the Roman Inquisition, while the Milanese Inquisition was still prosecuting his followers. He was gagged, handcuffed, and dragged away.

He fled to Innsbruck and met with Rocco Mattioli. He was sentenced by default and informed of the public abjuration of his Milanese followers. After his father died, the inquisitor in Milan tried to take possession of Francesco's inheritance. The civil authorities acted with firmness, and secured the passage of the whole of the estate to his brother Cesare.[6]

Fame edit

 
Giuseppe Francesco Borri by Theodor Matham (1662)

Via the Free City of Augsburg Borri moved to free imperial city Strasbourg, where the Protestant milieu welcomed him with enthusiasm. Borri was surrounded by a circle of fervent admirers, who glorified his ability as a physician, ophthalmologist and iatrochemist. Soon he became well known among the local noblemen, and his fame spread. He seems to have visited Frankfurt, Leipzig and Dresden, and in December 1660, he arrived in Amsterdam.

Meanwhile, after the verdict was read in public, Borri's effigy was brought in procession to Campo de' Fiori in Rome, where 60 years earlier, Giordano Bruno had been executed. The effigy was hung and burned together with Borri's writings.

Princes and merchants flocked to consult the physician-alchemist, who specialized on cataract. He extended his interests beyond medicine and alchemy to include magic, cosmetics, and engineering. In April 1661, the Amsterdam burgomasters conferred on him honorary citizenship. During this period, he met Henry Oldenburg, Robert Moray, Constantijn Huygens, Franciscus van den Enden, Theodor Kerckring and Olaus Borrichius, then living in Amsterdam for his studies. Borrichius who became an admirer of Borri and his knowledge. Borri even dedicated to Borrichius a book (Chymie Hippocraticae Specimina Quinque, Köln, 1664). He was portrayed by Jürgen Ovens and engraved by Pieter van Schuppen.[7]

In Amsterdam Borri cut open the eye of a dog, expressed the lens together with the aqueous and vitreous body, instilled a liquid and showed that the eye regained its shape and the humors were reformed. He later repeated his experiment in Copenhagen on a goose.[8]

In April 1662 Borri borrowed 100,000 guilders from Gerard Demmer, a former Council of the Dutch Indies who had served the East India Company on Ambon Island, and in turn supplied him with his secret treatment.[9] Borri promised to pay back the money after two years. But Demmer died within a few days (and was buried on 5 May). Borri rented a mansion with stables and drove around in a coach. He was attended by six servants and kept a tiger in his house.[10] When Borri did not pay back anything after two years, Demmer's heirs started a trial. In January 1665 he was obliged in a verdict. Either already in 1664, but before 17 December 1665 Borri left Amsterdam, taking with a large sum of money and jewels. In 1667 he was visiting Rudolf August of Brunswick and then Hamburg.

Arrest and death edit

Borri sought refuge in Copenhagen as an alchemist at Frederick III's court, which subsidised him liberally. In Denmark, Borri had many friends and helpers like Caspar Bartholin the Younger and was preceded by his solid reputation as a scientist. Meanwhile, other subsidies came from the former Queen Christina, then residing in Hamburg, interested in the mysteries of the Philosopher's Stone. Borri regained fame and honours, becoming a trusted councillor to the king.

According to Michael White in Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer, Sir Isaac Newton attempted to contact Borri in 1669, through Newton's friend Francis Ashton. At the height of his fame, Borri's luxurious lifestyle left him penniless.

In 1670, when Christian V ascended to the throne, Borri's fortunes again began to decline, and he resolved to leave Denmark and to move to Ottoman Empire. While journeying, he was arrested in Goldingen, Moravia or the Carpathian Mountains, and thanks to pontifical pressure, was given by Leopold I, Emperor of Austria, into the hands of the Vatican.

Sentenced to life in prison on 25 September 1672, Borri, like his followers, was forced to perform a public act of abjuration and atonement. Borri stayed in jail until 1678. His noble friends (in particular the French ambassador, the Duke of Estrées, who was healed by Borri under a papal dispensation that permitted him to visit the sick nobleman in his mansion palazzo Farnese) obtained for him a sort of semi-liberty. In 1689 Christina of Sweden died, and the new Pope Innocent XII revoked the privileges granted to Borri. From 1691 Borri was under house arrest in Castel Sant'Angelo, where he furnished a laboratory to continue his studies, and was able go out to practise his art in the mansions of his noble friends, the prince Borghese and Borromeo.

In this period he met again his old friends and despite captivity, he regained his reputation as a healer and thaumaturge in the Roman court. Having caught a malaria, the great physician had prescribed himself quinquina's bark, the most advanced cure then available. But the bark was not available in Rome, and arrived too late, and on 16 August 1695, Borri died at the age of 68.

Works edit

  • Lettere di F. B. ad un suo amico circa l’attione intitolata: La Virtù coronata. Roma 1643
  • Gentis Burrhorum notitia. Argentorati 1660
  • Iudicium....de lapide in stomacho cervi reperto. Hanoviae 1662
  • Epistolae duae, 1 De cerebri ortu & usu medico. 2 De artificio oculorum Epistolae duae Ad Th. Bartholinum. Hafniae 1669
  • La chiave del Gabinetto del Cavagliere G. F. Borri. Colonia (Geneva) 1681
  • Istruzioni politiche date al re di Danimarca. Colonia (Geneva) 1681
  • Hyppocrates Chymicus seu Chymiae Hyppocraticae Specimina quinque a F. I. B. recognita et Olao Borrichio dedicata. Acc. Brevis Quaestio de circulatione sanguinis. Coloniae 1690
  • De virtutibus Balsami Catholici secundum artem chymicam a propriis manibus F. I. B. elaborati. Romae 1694
  • De vini degeneratione in acetum et an sit calidum vel frigidum decisio experimentalis in Galleria di Minerva, II, Venezia 1697

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Salvatore Rotta - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 13 (1971)
  2. ^ Salvatore Rotta - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 13 (1971)
  3. ^ Salvatore Rotta - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 13 (1971)
  4. ^ Scasciamacchia, S; Serrecchia, L; Giangrossi, L; Garofolo, G; Balestrucci, A; Sammartino, G; Fasanella, A (2012). "Plague epidemic in the Kingdom of Naples, 1656-1658". Emerg Infect Dis. 18 (1): 186–8. doi:10.3201/eid1801.110597. PMC 3310102. PMID 22260781.
  5. ^ Salvatore Rotta - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 13 (1971)
  6. ^ Salvatore Rotta - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 13 (1971)
  7. ^ https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/RP-P-OB-59.117
  8. ^ KOCH, HANS-REINHARD, and KONRAD R. KOCH. “Borri, the Prophet, on the ‘Restitutio Humorum’ and on Lens Aspiration in the 17th Century / Der Prophet Borri Über Die ‘Restitutio Humorum’ Und Die Linsen-Aspiration Im 17. Jahrhundert.” Sudhoffs Archiv, vol. 101, no. 2, 2017, pp. 160–83. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26385714. Accessed 2 Dec. 2022.
  9. ^ De regeeringe van Amsterdam, soo in 't civiel als crimineel en militaire (1653-1672) by Hans Bontemantel, p. 473-474
  10. ^ Francesco Giuseppe Borri: wonderdokter uit Milaan by Maarten Hell

Bibliography edit

  • G. Cosmacini, Il medico ciarlatano. Vita inimitabile di un europeo del Seicento, Laterza, Bari 2001.
  • P. Bornia, La porta magica di Roma. Studio storico, Phoenix, Genova 1983
  • L. Pirrotta, La porta ermetica, un tesoro dimenticato, Atanòr, Roma 1979
  • Alkymisten Borri ved Frederik III's Hof by Aug. Fjelstrup In: TIDSSKRIFT FOR INDUSTRI 1905

External links edit

  • Marra, Massimo. "Giuseppe Francesco Borri, between Crucibles and Salamanders". www.alchemywebsite.com. Translated by Carlo Borriello.

April 12, 2024
giuseppe, francesco, borri, 1627, milan, august, 1695, rome, alchemist, prophet, freethinker, physician, doctor, contents, education, prophecy, court, queen, christine, sweden, legend, milanese, affair, fame, arrest, death, works, also, references, bibliograph. Giuseppe Francesco Borri 4 May 1627 in Milan 20 August 1695 in Rome was an alchemist prophet freethinker physician and eye doctor Giuseppe Francesco Borri Contents 1 Education 2 Prophecy 3 The Court of Queen Christine of Sweden 4 Legend 5 Milanese affair 6 Fame 7 Arrest and death 8 Works 9 See also 10 References 11 Bibliography 12 External linksEducation editHis mother Savinia Morosini died giving birth to him His father Branda Borri was a distinguished doctor with a great passion for chemical experiments He claimed to be a descendant of Sextus Afranius Burrus his uncle Cesare was a professor in law in Pavia 1 In 1644 together with his brother Borri entered a Jesuit seminary in Rome There he was taught by the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher who had an important influence on him His intolerance of ecclesiastical authority deteriorated his relationship with his teachers Sforza Pallavicino and Theophile Raynaud Borri even led a collective rebellion of seminarists provoking the replacement of Nicola Zucchi the Rector who was dismissed In 1649 50 Borri was expelled from the seminary as he had problems with the idea of the immaculate conception 2 He started his activity as a physician and alchemist among the pilgrims flocking to Rome for the Holy Year In this period he met the Marquis Massimiliano Palombara himself an alchemist and in 1653 he took service with Federico Mirogli as physician and alchemist The year after he was involved in a fight forced to seek asylum and had a vision 3 Prophecy editBorri began his propaganda both messianic and political with the purpose of returning to an evangelically pure religion Borri believed religion to be the foundation of every science and scientific investigation For him the whole world Christian and non Christian should be conquered and ruled by a papal theocracy that should trailblaze the Kingdom to come a sort of heavenly world a new Golden Age where the values of a renewed and universal Christianity would triumph Borri considered himself at least according to the later Inquisition s records Prochristus the prophet and herald of the new era The Court of Queen Christine of Sweden editIn 1655 Borri met Queen Christine of Sweden and probably frequented her court In a cabinet transformed into a laboratory the very learned Christine gave hospitality to alchemists and cabalists of different value and provenance During the Naples Plague 1656 almost half of the population died within two years 4 When the plague broke out in Rome Borri provided his clients with camphor 5 Christine fled to France Borri went back to his hometown Milan Legend edit nbsp Villa PalombaraAccording to the legend handed down in 1802 by scholar Francesco Cancellieri one morning in 1657 a stranger was caught gathering herbs in the garden of Marquis Massimiliano Palombara He was brought to the Marquis by the servants He declared himself to be an alchemist to have knowledge of the Marquis alchemical researches and to be able to show him the feasibility of transmutational work without any request or reward and to be interested in knowing Palombara s methods and researches The unknown stranger after having performed various operations under Palombara s eyes asked for hospitality in a room near the laboratory to be able to watch over his work then he asked the Marquis to give him the keys to the laboratory promising that he would explain everything to the Marquis after having completed his work but for the moment he needed solitude and peace Early next morning Palombara knocked in vain at the laboratory s door and then at the pilgrim s room During the night the latter had sneaked away through a window leaving in the adjoining laboratory only an upside down crucible and on the floor a streak of gold and a sheaf of papers covered with notes and hermetic symbols on the Great Work Palombara ordered these symbols to be carved in several places in his mansion and on the famous Porta Alchemica the only surviving feature of the Villa Palombara The mysterious alchemist was claimed to be Borri Milanese affair edit nbsp The cathedral as it appeared in 1745 In Milan Borri contacted the Palagians Quietist milieu which was widely scattered in Lombardy and centred on Saint Pelagio s church and the prophetic charisma of Giacomo Filippo Casola a layman who was accused of heresy by the Inquisition and shortly after died in jail Very soon Borri became the figurehead of the Milanese movement and the fervour generated by his predication culminated in a public gathering in the square of Milan cathedral in 1658 He was prosecuted for heresy and poisoning the latter accusation refers to his alchemical knowledge Meanwhile the Inquisition arrested his followers mostly low clergymen many of them as young and fervent as Borri In 1659 he was called before the Roman Inquisition while the Milanese Inquisition was still prosecuting his followers He was gagged handcuffed and dragged away He fled to Innsbruck and met with Rocco Mattioli He was sentenced by default and informed of the public abjuration of his Milanese followers After his father died the inquisitor in Milan tried to take possession of Francesco s inheritance The civil authorities acted with firmness and secured the passage of the whole of the estate to his brother Cesare 6 Fame edit nbsp Giuseppe Francesco Borri by Theodor Matham 1662 Via the Free City of Augsburg Borri moved to free imperial city Strasbourg where the Protestant milieu welcomed him with enthusiasm Borri was surrounded by a circle of fervent admirers who glorified his ability as a physician ophthalmologist and iatrochemist Soon he became well known among the local noblemen and his fame spread He seems to have visited Frankfurt Leipzig and Dresden and in December 1660 he arrived in Amsterdam Meanwhile after the verdict was read in public Borri s effigy was brought in procession to Campo de Fiori in Rome where 60 years earlier Giordano Bruno had been executed The effigy was hung and burned together with Borri s writings Princes and merchants flocked to consult the physician alchemist who specialized on cataract He extended his interests beyond medicine and alchemy to include magic cosmetics and engineering In April 1661 the Amsterdam burgomasters conferred on him honorary citizenship During this period he met Henry Oldenburg Robert Moray Constantijn Huygens Franciscus van den Enden Theodor Kerckring and Olaus Borrichius then living in Amsterdam for his studies Borrichius who became an admirer of Borri and his knowledge Borri even dedicated to Borrichius a book Chymie Hippocraticae Specimina Quinque Koln 1664 He was portrayed by Jurgen Ovens and engraved by Pieter van Schuppen 7 In Amsterdam Borri cut open the eye of a dog expressed the lens together with the aqueous and vitreous body instilled a liquid and showed that the eye regained its shape and the humors were reformed He later repeated his experiment in Copenhagen on a goose 8 In April 1662 Borri borrowed 100 000 guilders from Gerard Demmer a former Council of the Dutch Indies who had served the East India Company on Ambon Island and in turn supplied him with his secret treatment 9 Borri promised to pay back the money after two years But Demmer died within a few days and was buried on 5 May Borri rented a mansion with stables and drove around in a coach He was attended by six servants and kept a tiger in his house 10 When Borri did not pay back anything after two years Demmer s heirs started a trial In January 1665 he was obliged in a verdict Either already in 1664 but before 17 December 1665 Borri left Amsterdam taking with a large sum of money and jewels In 1667 he was visiting Rudolf August of Brunswick and then Hamburg Arrest and death editBorri sought refuge in Copenhagen as an alchemist at Frederick III s court which subsidised him liberally In Denmark Borri had many friends and helpers like Caspar Bartholin the Younger and was preceded by his solid reputation as a scientist Meanwhile other subsidies came from the former Queen Christina then residing in Hamburg interested in the mysteries of the Philosopher s Stone Borri regained fame and honours becoming a trusted councillor to the king According to Michael White in Isaac Newton The Last Sorcerer Sir Isaac Newton attempted to contact Borri in 1669 through Newton s friend Francis Ashton At the height of his fame Borri s luxurious lifestyle left him penniless In 1670 when Christian V ascended to the throne Borri s fortunes again began to decline and he resolved to leave Denmark and to move to Ottoman Empire While journeying he was arrested in Goldingen Moravia or the Carpathian Mountains and thanks to pontifical pressure was given by Leopold I Emperor of Austria into the hands of the Vatican Sentenced to life in prison on 25 September 1672 Borri like his followers was forced to perform a public act of abjuration and atonement Borri stayed in jail until 1678 His noble friends in particular the French ambassador the Duke of Estrees who was healed by Borri under a papal dispensation that permitted him to visit the sick nobleman in his mansion palazzo Farnese obtained for him a sort of semi liberty In 1689 Christina of Sweden died and the new Pope Innocent XII revoked the privileges granted to Borri From 1691 Borri was under house arrest in Castel Sant Angelo where he furnished a laboratory to continue his studies and was able go out to practise his art in the mansions of his noble friends the prince Borghese and Borromeo In this period he met again his old friends and despite captivity he regained his reputation as a healer and thaumaturge in the Roman court Having caught a malaria the great physician had prescribed himself quinquina s bark the most advanced cure then available But the bark was not available in Rome and arrived too late and on 16 August 1695 Borri died at the age of 68 Works editLettere di F B ad un suo amico circa l attione intitolata La Virtu coronata Roma 1643 Gentis Burrhorum notitia Argentorati 1660 Iudicium de lapide in stomacho cervi reperto Hanoviae 1662 Epistolae duae 1 De cerebri ortu amp usu medico 2 De artificio oculorum Epistolae duae Ad Th Bartholinum Hafniae 1669 La chiave del Gabinetto del Cavagliere G F Borri Colonia Geneva 1681 Istruzioni politiche date al re di Danimarca Colonia Geneva 1681 Hyppocrates Chymicus seu Chymiae Hyppocraticae Specimina quinque a F I B recognita et Olao Borrichio dedicata Acc Brevis Quaestio de circulatione sanguinis Coloniae 1690 De virtutibus Balsami Catholici secundum artem chymicam a propriis manibus F I B elaborati Romae 1694 De vini degeneratione in acetum et an sit calidum vel frigidum decisio experimentalis in Galleria di Minerva II Venezia 1697See also editList of alchemistsReferences edit Salvatore Rotta Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Volume 13 1971 Salvatore Rotta Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Volume 13 1971 Salvatore Rotta Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Volume 13 1971 Scasciamacchia S Serrecchia L Giangrossi L Garofolo G Balestrucci A Sammartino G Fasanella A 2012 Plague epidemic in the Kingdom of Naples 1656 1658 Emerg Infect Dis 18 1 186 8 doi 10 3201 eid1801 110597 PMC 3310102 PMID 22260781 Salvatore Rotta Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Volume 13 1971 Salvatore Rotta Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Volume 13 1971 https www rijksmuseum nl nl collectie RP P OB 59 117 KOCH HANS REINHARD and KONRAD R KOCH Borri the Prophet on the Restitutio Humorum and on Lens Aspiration in the 17th Century Der Prophet Borri Uber Die Restitutio Humorum Und Die Linsen Aspiration Im 17 Jahrhundert Sudhoffs Archiv vol 101 no 2 2017 pp 160 83 JSTOR http www jstor org stable 26385714 Accessed 2 Dec 2022 De regeeringe van Amsterdam soo in t civiel als crimineel en militaire 1653 1672 by Hans Bontemantel p 473 474 Francesco Giuseppe Borri wonderdokter uit Milaan by Maarten HellBibliography editG Cosmacini Il medico ciarlatano Vita inimitabile di un europeo del Seicento Laterza Bari 2001 P Bornia La porta magica di Roma Studio storico Phoenix Genova 1983 L Pirrotta La porta ermetica un tesoro dimenticato Atanor Roma 1979 Alkymisten Borri ved Frederik III s Hof by Aug Fjelstrup In TIDSSKRIFT FOR INDUSTRI 1905External links editMarra Massimo Giuseppe Francesco Borri between Crucibles and Salamanders www alchemywebsite com Translated by Carlo Borriello Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Giuseppe Francesco Borri amp oldid 1209212306, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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