Monteverdi grew up in Cremona as the son of an apothecary (druggist) and continued to practise alchemy throughout his career. The Gonzagas even asked Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643), a former employee, to help acquire chemical reagents and laboratory equipment. The curriculum followed the chemical medicine of Paracelsus (1493–1541), the father of modern toxicology, who was more interested in manufacturing medicines than creating gold. The first chemistry professorship in Italy ( Ad lecturam Chymiæ) was established at the University of Mantua by the Gonzaga family in 1625. Moreover, Stradivari’s young adult life was closely associated with two senior architects: Alessandro Capra (also an engineer) and Francesco Pescaroli (also a woodcarver), who may have possessed practical knowledge about wood coating and wood preservation.
So Stradivari probably knew about these chemicals for the violin business. In 1663, string makers of Padua used high-purity potash (K2CO3 obtained by heating ‘winestones’, potassium bitartrate) for cleansing, table salt for preserving, and alum for stiffening. Then there was ‘spiritual alchemy’, a system of philosophy that sought to decode the mystery of living and non-living things, intertwined with astrology, occultism and magic.Īlum, salt and potash were all employed in the practical alchemy of gut string making. In a broader sense, ‘practical alchemy’ was the technology for producing metals, medicines, perfumes, pigments and suchlike. In its narrow sense, ‘transmutation alchemy’ was the futile pursuit of turning base metals into gold. Medieval alchemy had three levels of meaning. There was also a Hebrew copy of LAS circulating in northern Italy in the 16th century, which contained marginalia about a reader’s discussions with Giovanni Battista Nazari, an alchemist who published Della tramutatione metallica sogni tre in Brescia in 1572. All the mineral additives found in Cremonese woods had been described in LAS, and were easily obtainable from local apothecaries.
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Gerard of Cremona (1114–87) translated the first practical chemistry manual into Latin: Liber de aluminibus et salibus (LAS, ‘The Book of Alums and Salts’). The word ‘alchemy’ of medieval Europe comes from the Arab al-kimiya (the prefix ‘al’ is a definite article), which may have originated from khemia (black earth) in the Coptic language or kim-iya (golden juice) in southern Chinese dialect. It is very likely that Cremonese makers had consulted experts with alchemical knowledge, but who might they be? Such chemical complexities greatly exceed the expectations of violin makers and scholars. So far, scientists have found more than two dozen ingredients in Cremonese varnishes, and at least eight mineral additives in Cremonese woods. The December 2021 digital magazine and print edition are on sale now To read it in full, click here to subscribe and login. The following extract is from The Strad’s December 2021 issue feature ‘Wood Treatment: The Magic Touch’.
‘The Alchemical Room’, an illustration in German alchemist Heinrich Khunrath’s 1595 treatise Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae
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