Bragadino, Marco

One final word people actually did alchemy in early modern Europe. When they called themselves alchemists and others found this believable, I take them at their word and call them alchemists as well, whether they claimed to be able to transmute metals, access divine secrets, assay metals, or produce fantastic medicines. Whatever we think of alchemy today, it is essential to remember that many people accepted the basic principles of alchemy in early modern Europe, even the transmutation of metals, and could point to religious and natural philosophical justifications for their belief. Successful alchemical works were rare and wondrous indeed, but not impossible. Thus, when we read in the newsletter of the Fugger banking family, for example, that the alchemist Marco Bragadino "changed a pound of quicksilver into gold some days ago" in Venice, we must accept that, in the eyes of early modern Europeans, he did indeed transmute metals.25... 

For example, Marco Bragadino s. See Ivo Striedinger, Der Goldmacher Marco Bragadino (Munich Theodor Ackerman, 1928). 

Ducal Hofrat G. Wirtemberger to Duke Wilhelm V, 23 April T59T. Striedinger, Der Goldmacher Marco Bragadino, no. 348. 

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