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1. Daten
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Geboren: Basel, 5 Aug 1531
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Gestorben: Cologne, 8 Jul 1596
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Dateinfo: Daten gesichert
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Lebensspanne: 65
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2. Vater
Beruf: Kaufmann
Sein Vater, Jacob Thurneysser, war Goldschmied.
Keine Informationen zu den finanziellen Verhältnissen.
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3. Nationalität
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Geburt: Basel, Schweiz
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Beruf: Berlin, Deutschland, und Italien
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Tod: Köln, Deutschland
4.Bildung
Schulausbildung: keine Universität
Er erlernte auch den Beruf seines Vaters, war aber zu der gleichen
Zeit der Famulus eines Dr. Huber, eines Arztes und Alchemisten in Basel.
Er besuchte nie eine Universität.
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5. Religion
Lutherisch (angenommen), katholisch
Er war ein Protestant (ich glaube ein Lutheraner) für den größten
Teil seines Lebens, aber konvertierte zum Katholizismus gegen Lebensende.
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6. Wissenschaftliche Disziplinen
Vorrangig: Alchemie
7. Mittel zu seiner Unterstützung
Vorrangig: Kaufmann, Gönner, Medizin
Zweitrangig: Militär, Kunst, Publikationen
Er wurde gezwungen, aus Basel zu fliehen, nachdem entdeckt wurde, daß
er goldbeschichtetes Blei als pures Gold verkaufte. Er verbrachte einige
Zeit in Holland, Norddeutschland, Frankreich und England und arbeitete
als Goldschmied, Waffenhersteller und Soldat.
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1552, he returned to Germany and joined the army of Albert, Margrave of
Brandenburg.
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1553, he was captured by the Saxon army and put to work in the mines at
Tarenz in the Inn Valley.
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Following his release, he worked as a goldsmith and smelter in Nuremberg.
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1558, he returned to the Tirol where he ran a mine and smelting facilities.
His success brought him to the attention of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria.
1560-70, he was in the service of the Archduke, on whose instruction Thurneysser
traveled to England, France, Bohemia, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and North
Africa to acquaint himself with metallurgical methods and medicines.
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1571, Thurneysser published a book in Frankfurt an der Oder which brought
him to the attention of Johann Georg, Elector of Brandenburg. After Thurnysser
successfully treated the Elector's wife, Sabina, he was made court physician
in Berlin at the high salary of 1352 Taler. He also conducted a medical
practice in Berlin. In addition, he acted as adviser on metallurgy and
mining, and established a huge laboratory-- employing up to 300 people--at
the Greyfriars monastery in Berlin for the production of saltpeter, mineral
acids, alums, colored glass, drugs, essences, and amulets. He also founded
a printing house which published calendars, prognostications, alchemical
and medicinal tracts, and other polemics. (Since his books often contained
words in languages he did not know, he was publically accused of harboring
in his ink pot a devil who dictated to him.) Thurnysser became rich; he
owned a large library, art collection, and a kind of natural history museum.
He had agents in a number of German and Polish cities who advertised and
sold his wares. In 1576, there was an outbreak of plague and Thurneysser
fled with the court. In the years that followed, his second wife died,
his business suffered terribly, and he became the object of increasing
criticism from his colleagues.
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1580, he returned to Basel, where he purchased an estate, "Zum Thurn,"
and styled himself Leonhard Thurnysser zum Thurn. He married the daughter
of the Basel patrician Hebrott. Unfortunately, all of the large sum of
money which he brought with him to Basel was given to his wife by the Basel
town council in the divorce proceedings that followed.
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More or less broke, he returned to Brandenburg, reentered the service of
Johann Georg, and spent some years trying to make gold. After failing to
transmute a large amount of silver, he finally left and traveled to Italy.
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Ca. 1591, he found a patron in Ferdinand de' Medici. At this time he converted
to Catholicism.
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He returned to Germany shortly before his death in 1596.
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8. Patronage
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Type: Court Official
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His first major patron was Archduke Ferdinand of Austria.
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By far his most significant patron was Johann Georg, Elector of Brandenburg
(see above).
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While in Johann Georg's service he consulted with various other nobility
and royalty, sometimes employing up to 10 or 12 secretaries for his correspondence.
Among those he flirted with in this manner were the deranged Duke Albert
Frederick of Prussia, Frederick II of Denmark, and Stephen Báthory,
King of Poland. This flirtation does not seem to have been a great success;
after dedicating Historia sive descriptia planatarum to Báthory
and receiving less honorarium than he expected, he dedicated the next edition
to Johann Georg.
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Ferdinand de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, was his last patron.
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9. Technological Involvement
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Types: Metallurgy, Pharmacology, Medical Practice
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His factory in Berlin produced pharmaceutical products. He also worked
in metallurgy for periods of his life.
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He had a medical practice on top of everything else in Be rlin.
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10. Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaften
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Mitgliedschaften: keine
Er führte eine Art alchemistische Schule in Brandenburg, welche
den berühmten Apotheker Michael Aschenbrenner zu seinen Studenten
zählte.
Quellen
I. Heidemann, Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, 38, 226-9.
A. Hirsch, Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Aerzte aller Zeiten
und Voelker (3rd ed., Munich, 1962), 5, 582-3.
John Ferguson, Bibliotheca chemica (London, 1906, 1954), 2: 450-5.
[Z5524.A35 G54]
Nicht verfügbar und nicht konsultiert
J.C. Moehsen, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Wissenschaften in der
Mark Brandenburg (Berlin-Leipzig, 1783), 55-198. It appears that Moehsen
is the definitive source on Thurneysser.