Reverse Transmutations
Béroalde de Verville's Parody of Paracelsus in "Le Moyen de parvenir:" An Alchemical Language of Skepticism in the French Baroque
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10426617 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael J Giordano (0000-0003-1100-7980, Wayne State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 88-137 |
| Publication date | 2003-04-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Renaissance Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-4338 • E-ISSN: 1935-0236 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1262259 |
| OpenAlex | W2312815367 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 10 |
This essay analyzes the skeptical ideas of one of the most notorious works of the French Baroque, Le Moyen de parvenir. Its author, Béroalde de Verville, described his anti-novel as "une Satyre universelle," and one of his noteworthy accomplishments was to provide his troubled age with a relatively complete and innovative skeptical language based on both esoteric and exoteric alchemy. Conceiving of his text as a critical athanor, Béroalde conducts numerous experiments in transmutation that would turn Paracelsus' concepts into a kind of prima materia. Out of this reversion to the primordial emerges a general critique of ideas and social institutions through such alchemical notions as prime and ultimate matter, quintessence, astrosophy, the arcanum, the Archeus, and the Cagastrum
Alchemy · Art · Baroque · Humanities · Literature · Skepticism · Theology · Historical and Literary Studies · History of Science and Natural History · Philosophy · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
| Citations per year | 0.05 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2004 - 2004 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |