"Lady Alcumy"

This thesis explores the advent of gentlewomen's chymical activities in Elizabethan England. In the sixteenth century, chymistry gained widespread currency under Queen Elizabeth I. This thesis argues that the queen's significant chymical interests contributed to her iconography, thereby bridging England's previously discrete chymical and female realms. It shows that Elizabeth's influence and fundamental societal changes enabled women, beginning with the gentry, to acquire and apply chymical knowledge. Four case studies highlight the queen's impact on her female subjects through an examination of primary manuscript and printed sources. The Protestant gentlewomen Grace Mildmay, Mary Sidney Herbert, Margaret Hoby and Margaret Clifford may first have encountered chymistry in the manifestation of their religious beliefs through charitable healing, but they developed their knowledge in very different ways. Evidence of their engagement with chymical practitioners and writings provides context for their activities. Shared motivations led to divergent practices, indicating that chymistry in Elizabethan England took as many forms as there were practitioners. This thesis asserts the crucial importance of community to early modern chymists, noting courtly links and overlapping social circles. It contributes to limited historiography on Elizabethan alchemy as well as female alchemists

Alchemy · Art · Art history · Gentry · Historiography · Irish · Literature · Performance art · Political science · Protestantism · Sociology · Classics · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Medical History and Innovations · Philosophy · Religious studies

• A history of magic and experimental science

  Lynn Thorndike•1923

  Incluir item

• The Bible, Protestantism, and the Rise of Natural Science

  Open Access•Peter Harrison•Bible, Protestantism, and the…•1998

  Incluir item

• Spenser's Faerie Queene and the Cult of Elizabeth

  Robin Headlam Wells, Robin Wells•Spenser's Faerie Queene and the…•2023

  Incluir item

• Duessa’s Trial and Elizabeth’s Error

  Open Access•Amelia Hadfield, Andrew Hadfield•The Myth of Elizabeth•2003

  Incluir item

• Nineteen Eighty-Four

  Open Access•Everett Mendelsohn, Helga Nowotny•Nineteen Eighty-Four•2012

  Incluir item

• The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages

  Brian Tierney, M B Reeves et al.•The American Historical Review•1971

  Incluir item

• Art and Magic in the Court of the Stuarts

  Vaughan Hart•Art and Magic in the Court of the…•2002

  Incluir item

• Order and Disorder in Early Modern England

  Open Access•Anthony Fletcher, John Stevenson•Order and Disorder in Early…•1985

  Incluir item

• Medical Authority and Englishwomen's Herbal Texts, 1550–1650

  Rebecca Laroche•Medical Authority and Englishwomen'…•2016

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• A Translation of John Dee's “Monas Hieroglyphica” (Antwerp, 1564), with an Introduction and Annotations

  C H Josten•Ambix•1964

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• Gender and Scientific Discourse in Early Modern Culture

  Kathleen P Long•Gender and Scientific Discourse…•2016

  Incluir item

• Debating Gender in Early Modern England, 1500–1700

  Open Access•Cristina Malcolmson, Mihoko Suzuki•Debating Gender in Early Modern…•2002

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• The English Reformation Revised

  Open Access•Christopher Haigh•English Reformation Revised•1987

  Incluir item

• The King's Two Bodies

  Norman F Cantor, Ernst H Kantorowicz•The American Historical Review•1958

  Incluir item

• The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages

  Elwood E Mather•Sixteenth Century Journal•1995

  Incluir item

• Gender, Sex and Subordination in England 1500-1800

  Katherine French, Katherine L French•Sixteenth Century Journal•1996

  Incluir item

• Spenser's Faerie Queene and the Cult of Elizabeth

  Marcia Muth, Marcia Finley Muth•Sixteenth Century Journal•1984

  Incluir item

• Thomas Tymme and Natural Philosophy

  Bruce Janacek•Sixteenth Century Journal•1999

  Incluir item

• With Faith and Physic

  Michael F Graham•Sixteenth Century Journal•1996

  Incluir item

• Faith, Medical Alchemy, and Natural Philosophy

  Bruce Janacek•Sixteenth Century Journal•1999

  Incluir item

• Early Modern Women Poets

  Susan Ahern, Susan W Ahern•Sixteenth Century Journal•2002

  Incluir item

• Paracelsian Moments

  William E Burns•Sixteenth Century Journal•2004

  Incluir item

• The Bible, Protestantism, and the Rise of Natural Science

  Sheila J Rabin•Sixteenth Century Journal•1999

  Incluir item

• Emblems and Alchemy

  Marie Michelle Strah•Sixteenth Century Journal•1999

  Incluir item

• Birth, Marriage and Death, Ritual, Religion, and the Life Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England

  Robert Tittler•Sixteenth Century Journal•1998

  Incluir item

• Richard Eden

  David Gwyn•Sixteenth Century Journal•1984

  Incluir item

• Art and Magic in the Court of the Stuarts

  Eugene R Cunnar•Sixteenth Century Journal•1995

  Incluir item

• The Birth of the Elizabethan Age

  Eric Josef Carlson•Sixteenth Century Journal•1994

  Incluir item

• The English Reformation

  Hannah Skoda, Peter Marshall et al.•Sixteenth Century Journal•2003

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• Elizabeth I

  David B Mock•Sixteenth Century Journal•1994

  Incluir item

• The Jewel House

  Michael R Lynn•Sixteenth Century Journal•2008

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• Chaste, Silent, and Obedient

  Suzanne W Hull, Sheila Ffolliott•Renaissance and Reformation•1969

  Incluir item

• Redeeming Eve. Women Writers of the English Renaissance

  Elaine V Beilin, Joyce T Forbes•Renaissance and Reformation•2009

  Incluir item

• Gehennical Fire

  Rick Kennedy, Richard B Kennedy et al.•The New England Quarterly•1995

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• Anticipating the Apocalypse

  Open Access•Jennifer Forster•Historian•2001

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• Introduction

  Mary E Fissell•Bulletin of the history of medicine•2008

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• A View from the Streets

  Deborah E Harkness•Bulletin of the history of medicine•2008

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• Making Medicines in the Early Modern Household

  Elaine Leong•Bulletin of the history of medicine•2008

  Incluir item

• Of Chastity and Power

  Open Access•Frances E Dolan, Philippa Berry et al.•South Central Review•1991

  Incluir item

• Tudor Religious Cultures in Practice

  Open Access•Nancy Bradley Warren•Literature Compass•2006

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• Chymists and Chymistry

  Alexis Smets•Early Science and Medicine•2008

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• Alchemy Vs. Chemistry

  William R Newman, Lawrence M Principe•Early Science and Medicine•1998

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• From “Diseases of Women” to “Secrets of Women”

  Monica H Green•Journal of Medieval and Early…•2000

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• The Last Descendant of Aeneas

  Helen Liebel-Weckowicz, Marie Tanner•The American Historical Review•1995

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• Astraea

  Marvin A Breslow, Frances A Yates•The American Historical Review•1976

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• Robert Fludd and the End of the Renaissance

  William T Walker•Sixteenth Century Journal•1992

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• The Mind Has No Sex? Women in the Origins of Modern Science

  E G Phanichkul, L Schiebinger•Contemporary Sociology A Journal…•1992

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• Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London

  J Henry•The English Historical Review•2006

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• The Progresses, Pageants, and Entertainments of Queen Elizabeth I

  Thomas R Osborne, T Osborne•The English Historical Review•2009

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• Hermaphrodites in Renaissance Europe

  Kathleen Long, Kathleen P Long•Hermaphrodites in Renaissance…•2016

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• Paracelsus

  J Peter Byrne•Journal of the History of…•2010

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• John Dee and the Elizabethan British Empire in Its European Context

  Open Access•Glyn Parry•The Historical Journal•2006

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• Women in Early Modern England

  D Woolf, D R Woolf et al.•American Journal of Legal History•1998

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• The Jesus Hermaphrodite

  Leah Devun•Journal of the History of Ideas•2008

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• Frantick Hacket

  Open Access•Alexandra Walsham•The Historical Journal•1998

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• Birth, Marriage, and Death

  Lawrence Stone, David Cressy•The William and Mary Quarterly•1998

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• Gender, Sex, and Subordination in England, 1500-1800

  David Underdown, Anthony Fletcher•The William and Mary Quarterly•1997

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• George, Third Earl of Cumberland, His Life and His Voyages

  G C Williamson•Geographical Journal•1921

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• Arcana Disclosed

  Open Access•William Eamon•History of Science•1984

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• Idols of the Queen

  Louis Montrose, Louis A Montrose•Representations•1999

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• The Professions in Early Modern England

  Anne E Curry, Alba Curry et al.•The Economic History Review•1988

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• Religion and the Decline of Magic. Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England

  Robert Ashton, Keith Thomas et al.•The Economic History Review•1972

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• A Woman Down to Her Bones

  Michael Stolberg•Isis•2003

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• The Death of Nature

  Jane L Jervis, Carolyn Merchant•Technology and Culture•1982

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• The Management of a Sixteenth-Century Ironworks

  Open Access•David Crossley, D W Crossley et al.•The Economic History Review•1966

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• Health, Medicine and Mortality in the Sixteenth Century

  Gerald L Geison, Charles Webster•The Journal of Interdisciplinary…•1982

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• God and the Goddesses

  Caroline Walker Bynum•Common Knowledge•2006

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