Melchior Cibinensis was a Hungarian

alchemical Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

writer active in the first part of the 16th century. He is known for the ''Processus sub forma missae'', an alchemical

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

, now dated to around 1525; it was published in the ''

Theatrum Chemicum (''"Chemical Theatre"'') is a compendium of early alchemical writings published in six volumes over the course of six decades. The first three volumes were published in 1602, while the final sixth volume was published in its entirety in 1661. re ...

'' of 1602, and formed part of a celebrated later collection ''Symbola Aureae Mensae'' from 1617 of

Michael Maier Michael Maier ( la, Michael Maierus; 1568–1622) was a German physician and counsellor to Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II Habsburg. He was a learned Alchemy, alchemist, epigramist, and amateur composer. Early life Maier was born in ...

. The identity of Melchior is still a subject of debate. The candidate proposed by

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...

was Nicolas Melchior Szebeni. This Nicolas was chaplain and from 1490 court

astrologer Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Dif ...

Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary Vladislaus II, also known as Vladislav, Władysław or Wladislas ( hu, II. Ulászló; 1 March 1456 – 13 March 1516), was King of Bohemia from 1471 to 1516, and King of Hungary and Croatia from 1490 to 1516. As the eldest son of Casimir IV Jagi ...

to whom the ''Processus'' was dedicated. It has more recently been proposed that Melchior was a pseudonym of

Nicolaus Olahus Nicolaus Olahus (Latin for ''Nicholas, the Vlach''; hu, Oláh Miklós; ro, Nicolae Valahul); 10 January 1493 – 15 January 1568) was the Archdiocese of Esztergom, Archbishop of Esztergom, Prince primate, Primate of Kingdom of Hungary, Hungary, ...

. Another name given is Menyhért Miklós.This page, in Hungarian. Szebeni in Hungarian corresponds to Cibinensis or Cibiniensis in Latin, i.e. from

Sibiu Sibiu ( , , german: link=no, Hermannstadt , la, Cibinium, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'', hu, Nagyszeben ) is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Ci ...

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

, now in Romania. Herman(n)stadt being the German name of the city, the name Nicholas Melchior of Hermanstadt or Hermannstadt is also given.

References

*Kiss, Farkas Gábor; Láng, Benedek; Popa-Gorjanu, Cosmin, ''The Alchemical Mass of Nicolaus Melchior Cibinensis: Text, Identity and Speculations'', Ambix, Volume 53, Number 2, July 2006, pp. 143–159

Notes

Hungarian alchemists Hungarian writers Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown 16th-century alchemists {{Hungary-writer-stub