Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (Joannes Aurelius Augurellus) (1441–1524) was an Italian humanist scholar, poet and

alchemist Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscience, protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in Chinese alchemy, C ...

. Born at

Rimini Rimini ( , ; rgn, Rémin; la, Ariminum) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It sprawls along the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia (the ancient ''Ariminu ...

, he studied both laws in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

and

Padova Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

where he also consorted with the leading scholars of his time. At Florence he befriended

Marsilio Ficino Marsilio Ficino (; Latin name: ; 19 October 1433 – 1 October 1499) was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was an astrologer, a reviver of ...

(1433-1499) and

Angelo Poliziano Agnolo (Angelo) Ambrogini (14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494), commonly known by his nickname Poliziano (; anglicized as Politian; Latin: '' Politianus''), was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scho ...

(1454-1494) and later while teaching

classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Veneti ...

joined Aldo Mantius' humanist circle in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. Apart from his academic and literary work he practically experimented in

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

and provided colour

pigment A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compo ...

s for his friend the ''Hermetic'' painter

Giulio Campagnola Giulio Campagnola (; c. 1482 – c. 1515) was an Italian engraver and painter, whose few, rare, prints translated the rich Venetian Renaissance style of oil paintings of Giorgione and the early Titian into the medium of engraving; to further his ...

(born ca. 1480) He is best known for his 1515 allegorical poem on the making of gold, ''

Chrysopoeia In alchemy, the term chrysopoeia (from Greek , ', "gold-making") refers to the artificial production of gold, most commonly by the alleged transmutation of base metals such as lead. A related term is argyropoeia (, ', "silver-making"), referring ...

'', which was dedicated to

Pope Leo X Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521. Born into the prominent political an ...

; leading to the famous but forged anecdote that the Pope had rewarded Augurello with a beautiful but empty purse as an

like him should on his own to be capable of replenishing it — he was actually bestowed with a

sinecure A sinecure ( or ; from the Latin , 'without', and , 'care') is an office, carrying a salary or otherwise generating income, that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval chu ...

at the cathedral of

.Cfr. Martels (1993), p. 124; Idem (1994), p. 979. Augurello's other works include ''Carmina'' (1505), ''Geronticon liber'', ''Iambici libri'', and ''Sermonum libri''.

Notes

Bibliography

*Allegretti, Antonio: ''De la Transmutatione de metalli. Poema d’alchimia del XVI secolo''. Mino Gabriele (ed.). Rome 1981. *Dal Canton, Giuseppina: ''Giulio Campagnola 'pittore alchimista’ ''(I). Antichità viva 16/5 (1977), pp. 11–19. *Eadem: ''Giulio Campagnola 'pittore alchimista’ ''(II). Ibid. 17/2 (1978), pp. 3–10. *Haskell, Yasmin: ''Round and Round we go: The Alchemical 'Opus circulatorium’ of Giovanni Aurelio Augurelli''. Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 59 (1997), pp. 585–606. *Kühlmann, Wilhelm: ''Alchemie und späthumanistische Formkultur. Der Straßburger Dichter Johann Nicolaus Furichius (1602-1633), ein Freund Moscheroschs''. Daphnis 13 (1984), pp. 101–135. *Martels, Zweder von: ''The Chrysopoeia (1515) of Ioannes Aurelius Augurellus and the importance of alchemy around 1500''. Studi umanistici piceni 13 (1993), pp. 121–130 *Idem: ''The Allegorical Meaning of the 'Chrysopoeia’ by Ioannes Aurelius Augurellus.'' Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Hafniensis. Proceedings of the Eight International Congress of Neo-Latin Studies. Copenhagen 12 August to 17 August 1991. Rhoda Schnur et al. (edd.). Birmingham-New York 1994, pp. 979–988. *Idem: ''Augurello's 'Chrysopoeia' (1515) : a turning point in the literary tradition of alchemical texts''. Early Science and Medicine 5, 2 (2000), pp. 178–195. *Pavanello, Giuseppe: ''Un maestro del quattrocento. Giovanni Aurelio Augurello.'' Venice 1905. *Reiser, Thomas: ''Mythologie und Alchemie in der Lehrepik des frühen 17. Jahrhunderts. Die 'Chryseidos libri IIII’ des Straßburger Dichterarztes Johannes Nicolaus Furichius (1602-1633)''. Tübingen 2011, pp. 51–58. *Secret, François: '' 'Chrysopoeia’ et 'Vellus aureum’, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 38'' (1976), pp. 109–110.
Weiss, Robert: Augurelli, Giovanni Aurelio. DBI 4 (1962), pp. 578-581.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Augurello, Giovanni 1441 births 1524 deaths 15th-century alchemists 15th-century Latin writers 16th-century alchemists 16th-century Latin-language writers Didactic poets Italian poets Italian male poets Italian Renaissance humanists Italian alchemists Italian-language poets