New Discovery Unveiled About Renaissance Medicines
In today’s terms, we might refer to them as proprietary blends. However, during the late 1500s and early 1600s, individual alchemists called the concoctions they created in their laboratories ‘secrets’. Thanks to a study recently published in Heritage Science, we have gained insight into the secrets of a specific alchemist from that era.
It has come to light that Tycho Brahe, renowned for his astronomical studies, had his own underground laboratory for crafting medicines, which included some unique elements. Brahe’s famous observatory, situated in his castle-like Uraniborg on the island of Ven (now in Sweden), was dismantled after his passing in 1601. A group of researchers from the University of Southern Denmark and the National Museum of Denmark analyzed five fragments salvaged from what was believed to be the site’s old garden between 1988 and 1990. These shards were suspected to have originated from the basement alchemical lab.
The researchers conducted a thorough examination of cross-sections of the shards for 31 trace elements using mass spectrometry. Among the expected elements found on the shards, such as nickel, copper, zinc, tin, antimony, gold, mercury, and lead, one surprising discovery stood out – tungsten.
Kaare Lund Rasmussen, an archaeometry expert at the University of Southern Denmark, remarked on the mysterious presence of tungsten, noting that it had not been identified during Brahe’s time. Rasmussen speculated that while tungsten occurs naturally in certain minerals, there is a possibility that Brahe had knowledge of its existence through German chemistry influences. This leads to the question of whether tungsten could have played a role in the medicines crafted by Brahe for Europe’s elite.
Rasmussen emphasized the intriguing elements found in higher concentrations on the shards, suggesting enrichment and shedding light on the substances utilized in Brahe’s alchemical laboratory. The secretive nature of medicine-making during that period meant that practitioners like Brahe kept the compositions of their remedies confidential. Brahe’s famed plague medicine, a complex concoction containing up to 60 ingredients ranging from snake flesh and opium to copper, oils, and herbs, raises the question of whether tungsten might have also been part of the final product.
Poul Grinder-Hansen, a senior researcher and museum curator at the National Museum of Denmark, highlighted the connection between Brahe’s interests in astronomy and alchemy, noting Brahe’s belief in the interrelation between celestial bodies, basic elements, and the human body’s organs. Gold and mercury, commonly used by alchemists including Brahe, were frequently incorporated into medicinal concoctions during that era.
It was common for alchemists to draw connections between the Earth’s elements, celestial bodies, and the human body. Various connections were made, such as silver being associated with the Moon and the brain, gold with the Sun and the heart, tin with Jupiter and the liver, copper with Venus and the kidneys, lead with Saturn and the spleen, iron with Mars and the gallbladder, and mercury with Mercury and the lungs. Gold was often used in medicines of that time, including those taken by Brahe. However, the role of tungsten in these associations remains unclear and is still a mystery.
