Alchemy and Pietism

Current DFG-funded research project »Alchemy and Pietism. Alchemical practice at the Halle Orphanage in the 18th century«

The project focuses on determining the relationship between Pietist religiosity and alchemical practices as well as theoretical adoptions from speculative alchemy at the Halle Orphanage in the 18th century.A core thesis is that the pharmacy and medicine practiced there were more closely linked to medical alchemy in the early modern period than previously assumed.

The research project started in April 2023. Starting from the observation that alchemical practices of medicine production in the 18th century were a crucial basis for the work in the laboratories of the pharmacy and medicine expedition located at the Halle Orphanage, the project researcher Claudia Weiß pursues the question of which concrete alchemical knowledge practices became effective here. In doing so, she examines which basic natural philosophical assumptions from the alchemical tradition influenced the medical views of the Pietists at the Halle Orphanage.

The aim of the project is to subject the extensive pharmacy-historical source corpus in the archive and library of the Francke Foundations – in particular the numerous surviving laboratory reports and alchemical manuscripts – for the first time to an in-depth knowledge-historical analysis with regard to alchemical practice and argumentative embedding in Pietism.

Cooperations:

There is cooperation with the research and student project »Matthäus Merian d.Ä. und die Bebilderung der Alchemie um 1600« (»Matthäus Merian the Elder and the Illustration of Alchemy around 1600«) at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and with Professor Peter Imming, Head of the Department of Pharmaceutical/Medicinal Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacy at MLU Halle. 

There is also a membership in the »Alchemy Network«, at whose workshop the project was presented on June 27, 2022 at the Gotha Research Centre. On October 14, 2024, another lecture was held there on a specific sub-topic under the heading »A theosophical-alchemical reference room around 1700? Hallesches Waisenhaus, Sulzbacher Hof and Friedrich Breckling«.

Announcement of lecture evenings »Pharmaceutical worlds of knowledge in the past and present«

November 13, 2024 and April 24, 2025, together with the Institute of Pharmacy

On the first evening (November 13, 2024), the focus will be on herbal medicine knowledge that has been gained and exchanged in different contexts in the past and present. The cooperation project “Tri-Sustain”, which researches the pharmaceutical use of African plants, will be presented - it is an association of researchers from several sub-Saharan African countries and MLU Halle. This will be set in relation to practices of pharmacological knowledge production in missions of the 17th/18th century.

On the second evening (April 24, 2025), current results from pharmaceutical history research on alchemical practice at Halle's orphanage, today's Francke Foundations, will be presented. These will be introduced by an overview of laboratory distillation techniques since antiquity. A project will also be presented that makes an outstanding manuscript source of alchemical knowledge digitally available to researchers and the general public for the first time.

Further information and the program can be found here

Announcement Workshop »Alchemical knowledge and practical laboratory work. Pharmaceutical production in the early modern period«

March 5-6, 2025, Francke Foundations

The project-accompanying interdisciplinary and public workshop will focus on medical alchemy and the early modern alchemical (knowledge) practices associated with it. The workshop aims to facilitate a professional exchange from the perspective of the history of knowledge as well as the history of pharmacy and chemistry.

Further information and the program can be found here.

Contact: weiss(at)francke-halle.de

Lecture at the 33rd conference of the Christian Knorr von Rosenroth Society: »Christian Knorr von Rosenroth and Pietism« (July 4–6, 2024, Sulzbach-Rosenberg)

Claudia Weiß gave a lecture on »Theosophical-alchemical exchange of knowledge around 1700. Connections between the Halle Orphanage, Friedrich Breckling in the Netherlands and the Sulzbach Court«. This emphasised the intense interest in the connection between alchemical and cabalistic knowledge, which linked participants in the Halle Orphanage with those at the Sulzbach Court and Friedrich Breckling (1629–1711) as a pioneer of Pietism and vehement critic within the Lutheran Church. They did not limit themselves to the field of speculative alchemy, but also dealt in detail with practical laboratory work. There was an intensive exchange of letters on these topics between Breckling and several protagonists at the Halle Orphanage, in particular the Orphanage founder and director August Hermann Francke (1663–1727). This led to the reception of alchemical and cabalistic knowledge, which was based on the work of the Sulzbach circle, in particular the civil servant and polymath Christian Knorr von Rosenroth.

Lecture »Alchemy at the Halle Orphanage. Christian Friedrich Richter (1676–1711) – Pietist and alchemical practitioner?« (November 2, 2021)

Claudia Weiß's lecture at the colloquium »Neuere Forschungen zur Geschichte der Frühen Neuzeit und Landesgeschichte« at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg dealt with the first head of the medicine expedition and developer of the first in-house orphanage medicines, which were based on alchemical recipes. The Medication Expedition was the acquiring institution at the Halle Orphanage which was responsible for the development and production as well as the dispatch of the in-house »Waysenhaus-Arzeneyen«.

»Alchemy at the Halle Orphanage« as part of the annual exhibition on the history of medicine of the Francke Foundations 2021

The topic of »Alchemy at the Halle Orphanage« was dedicated a separate exhibition space – embedded in the context of the history of pharmacy and alchemy – as part of the annual exhibition entitled »Healing body and soul. Medicine and Hygiene in the 18th Century«. Under the heading »Substances for Healing – In the Alchemical Laboratory«, central aspects of the topic were presented in four sections: 1. protagonists: the alchemists, 2. the laboratory as a central place of alchemical activity, 3. medicines and recipes, 4. alchemical literature. In the accompanying catalogue to the exhibition the following essay by Claudia Weiß was published: »›[V]on der löblichen Kunst Alchymia‹. Alchemistische Pharmazie am Halleschen Waisenhaus im 18. Jahrhundert«.

The exhibition was flanked by an extensive supporting programme, which included a lecture by the project processor entitled »Die Essentia dulcis – das alchemische ›Aspirin‹ des 18. Jahrhunderts. Wirkmechanismen und das Rezept ihres ökonomischen Erfolgs«. The focus was on the gold tincture Essentia dulcis, based on the alchemical medicinal tradition, which was produced at the Halle Orphanage in the 18th century and shipped worldwide.

»Alchemy at the Halle Orphanage« as part of the annual exhibition on the history of geology of the Francke Foundations 2020

In her essay »›In der Erde liegen die größten Geheimnisse‹ – Von ›belebten‹ Steinen und Metallen und deren Bedeutung in der alchemistischen Arzneitradition« Claudia Weiß explores in the catalogue to the exhitition »Im Steinbruch der Zeit. Erdgeschichten und die Anfänge der Geologie«, among other things, the borrowings that the production of medicines at the Halle Orphanage in the 18th century took from the natural philosophical ideas of alchemy. Knowledge and raw materials (metals, minerals, etc.) from mining and metallurgy played an important role in alchemical laboratory work and medicine and were also indispensable for pharmaceutical-alchemical practices at the Halle Orphanage.

Source edition of three documents from the early days of the Orphanage Pharmacy and Medication Expedition 2017

A selection of three source texts from the early 18th century, all by Christian Friedrich Richter – an important protagonist of pharmaceutical-alchemical work at the Halle Orphanage – was published at the Francke Foundations in 2017:

Christian Friedrich Richter: Von der Apotheke und Artzney-Wesen bey dem Wäysenhause zu Glaucha an Halle. Drei Quellentexte zur Waisenhaus-Apotheke und Medikamenten-Expedition. Mit einer Einführung von Claudia Weiß. Halle 2017 (= Kleine Texte der Franckeschen Stiftungen 17).

Lectures at the Young Researchers' Conference of the Historical Commission for the Study of Pietism and at the Young Urban History Forum 2016

On 20 May and 10 October 2016, the processor of the project spoke on the topic »Alchemy and Halle Pietism. Alchemical Influences on the Pharmacy of the Glauchaschen Anstalten in the 18th Century« at the Young Researchers' Conference of the Historical Commission for the Study of Pietism and at the Young City History Forum of the Association for Halle City History. As a follow-up to these lectures and to her Master's thesis on the same topic, which was written shortly beforehand, the following essay appeared in »Pietismus und Neuzeit. Ein Jahrbuch zur Geschichte des neueren Protestantismus« (Bd. 43 – 2017): »Göttliche Arzneien oder Häresie? Alchemistische Pharmaka am Halleschen Waisenhaus in der ersten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts«.