Guglielmo Gratarolo or Grataroli or Guilelmus Gratarolus (16 May 1516, Bergamo – 16 April 1568, Basel) was an Italian doctor and alchemist.
Biography
Gratorolo studied in Padua and Venice.
A Calvinist, Gratarolo sought refuge in Graubünden, Strasbourg, and finally settled in Basel in 1552. There, he taught medicine and edited a number works, particularly alchemical ones, notable among them the 1561 collection published by the printer Henricus Petrus, and reprinted in 1572.
relied heavily on the earlier printed alchemical collection De Alchemia and was in turn heavily relied upon for the Theatrum Chemicum. Gratorolo omitted only the Tabula Smaragdina and Ortulanus' commentary on it from volume 1; these had been published separately a year earlier in 1560, although falsely attributed to Johannes de Garlandia. Above all, Gratorolo wanted to publish the works of Pseudo-Lull and Pseudo-Geber. The contents of the 1561 edition are as follows:.As given in John Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica, vol. 1 (1906), 341.
Volume 1: Chrysorrhoas, sive De Arte Chymica Dialogus Giovanni Bracesco, Dialogus Ioannis Braccschi, cui titulus est Lignum vitae, in quo etiam Gebri Philosophi expositio succincta continentur In eundem Braceschuni Gebri interpretem, animadversio, authore loanne Tauladano Pseudo-Geber, De investigatione perfectionis Pseudo-Geber, Summa perfectionis Pseudo-Geber, De inventione veritatis sive perfectionis Pseudo-Geber, Liber Fornacum Roger Bacon, Rogerii Bachonis De Alchemia libellus cui titulum fecit. Speculum Alchemiae Richardus Anglicus, Richardi Anglici Libellus peri Chemeias, cui titulum fecit, Correctorium Rosarius minor Khalid ibn Yazid, Liber Secretorum Alchemiae compositus per Calid, filium Iazichi
Volume 2: Liber de Magni lapidis Compositione et Operatione, Authore adhuc incerto Sententia Ioannis Baptistae Montani, de sublimatione Pseudo-Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Rosarius philosophorum Arnaldi de Villanova Novum lumen eiusdem vel alterius Pseudo-Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Epistola Magistri Arnaldi de Villa nova super Alchymiam ad regem Neapolitanum
Pseudo-Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Practica Magistri Arnaldi de Villanova, ad quendam Papam, ex libro dicto, Breviarius librorum Alchymiae Pseudo-Albertus Magnus Alberti Magni Ratisponensis episcopi de Alchymia liber integerrimus Pseudo-Albertus Magnus, Scriptum Alberti super Arborem Aristotelis Pseudo-Lull, Apertorium Raymundi Lullii De veri lapidis compositione Pseudo-Lull, Pseudo-Lull, Practica ejusdem Pseudo-Lull, Idem de intentione Alchimistarum Pseudo-Lull, Ejusdem Summaria Lapidis Consideratio et eius abbreviationes Pseudo-Lull, Ejusdem Libellus utilissimus de Mercurio solo Liber experimentorum Pulcherrimum opus de transmutatione metallorum Capitulum valde magnum in albedine, & omnibus nobilius, ex libro qui dicitur Philosophus mirabilis Liber Mercuriorum Raymundi Lullii Intentio summaria, quae aliter dicitur Repertorium, valde utilis ad intelligentiam Testamenti, Codicilli & aliorum librorum Raymundi Lullii Aristotelis de Perfecto Magisterio exquisitum & integerrimum opus, &c. Libellus duodecim aquarum, ex libro Emanuelis Aquae rubeae Avicennas ad tingendum quatuor spiritus sublimatos albos Elixiriorum varia compositio & modus John of Rupescissa, Joannis de Rupescissa liber de confectione ver Lapidis Philosophorum Johannes Ferrarius, De lapide Philosophorum secundum verum modum formando Efferarii monachi Thesaurus Philosophiae Pseudo-Lull, Praxis universalis Magni operis, ex Raymundo De lapidis philosophorum formatione epilogus Practica Magistri Odomari ad discipulum Arcanum Philosophorum, ut ex Saturno facias aurum perfectum Perfecta Salis communis praeparatio ad lapidem philosophorum Historiola Antiqua de Argento in aurum verso Tractatus de Marchasita, ex qua fit Elixir ad album verissimum
Quaestio an Lapis philosophicus valcat contra pestem,;Perhaps a use of the philosopher's stone against the plague. Chiara Crisciani and Micheala Pereira, "Black Death and Golden Remedies. Some Remarks on Alchemy and the Plague," in A. Paravicini Bagliani, F. Santi, eds. The Regulation of Evil. Social and Cultural Attitudes to Epidemics in the Late Middle Ages (Florence: Sismel - Edizioni del Galluzzo, 1998), 7-39.
Practica Caravantis Hispani Lapidis Philosophici Nomenclaturae, & Gulielmo Gratarolo collectae Giovanni Aurelio Augurello, Ioannis Aurelii Augurelli Chrysopoeiae libri iii., et Geronticon Liber i Regimina Artis
Works De Memoria Reparanda, Augenda, Servandaque. Andream Gesner. F. & Rodolphum Vuyssenbachium, 1553; Reprint by Kessinger Publishing, 2009. Regimen omnium iter agentium. 1556. Basel: Heinrich Petri et Pietro Perna, 1561. Pestis descriptio, causa signa omnigena et praeservatio. Paris: Federicus Morellus, 1561. on gallica Regimen omnium iter agentium, postremo editum. Wendelinum Rihelium, 1563.
Bibliography
Maclean, Ian. "Heterodoxy in Natural Philosophy and Medicine: Pietro Pomponazzi, Guglielmo Gratarolo, Girolamo Cardano," in Heterodoxy in Early Modern Science and Religion, edited by John Brooke and Ian Maclean. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
References