Early modern practical alchemy

Basil Valentine

Basil Valentine (Basilius Valentinus) is the name attached to a body of influential alchemical treatises — most notably The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony and The Twelve Keys — which first appeared in print in Germany around 1599–1604. The identity behind the name is almost certainly a pseudonym; modern scholarship most commonly attributes the texts to Johann Thölde (c. 1565–1614), a Thuringian salt works operator, with no contemporary evidence supporting the traditional claim of a fifteenth-century Benedictine monk. Whoever the actual author, the writings display genuine chemical knowledge and were enormously influential on subsequent European alchemy, introducing antimony compounds and early descriptions of mineral acids into the tradition.