Compound of Alchemy by George
Ripley written 1471
Here are some links to sites about
George Ripley, the Alchemist
bartleby.com
re: The English Chaucerians.
The
Alchemy Web Site
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About George Ripley
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The biography below indicates that George Ripley was in possession
of great wealth, and may have been heir to the Ripley Castle,
built a few years before his birth, possibly by his father.
He may also be the Ripley to whom the Coat of Arms was granted
which is shown above.
Note that his use of the surname Ripley is in the time of great
fluidity of naming. It was a derivative of Hyrpie, the Celtic
Tribal name, with variants depending on location and grouping
(clans). 'Ripley' was a combination of 'Hyrpie' and 'Lea', signifying
woodland. 'Lea' may also be connected to settlement on the Lea
River, farther south in England, running from the west into
the area of London. Other direct relatives and descendants of
George are observed and recorded with surnames Rippon, Hyrpie,
etc.
The occupation of Alchemist seems to fit curiously well with
the Celtic tribal links. By pursuing alchemy, and receiving
the secret of the Philosopher's Stone (as stated below - where
is that secret now?) George was fulfilling a quest which was
perfectly in line with Celtic spirituality. Yet, of course,
George was a devoted Christian, in that wonderful era, before
Church Councils had set hard and fast rules about spiritual
pursuit. This spiritual climate allowed George to work with
the full blessing of the Church. Incidentally, the decree that
priests could not marry (George was a Canon) was not put in
place until the Council of Trent in 1730, so George could fulfill
his personal destiny, as father and forbear of a great family.
None of the achievement and quest described below could have
been fulfilled under later Church rigidity: hence the movements
of Protest later, which may have led to a new church, more like
the original one.
It is significant that George wrote his works in verse, rather
than prose. Again the ancient oral tradition of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon
spirituality was maintained.
In other writings by and about George Ripley, as recorded by
Gordon Ripley (Canada, 1995 and later), George states that he
has a family or clan of over 300 individuals in the Yorkshire
area at this time. He does not refer to siblings, and George
may have been an only surviving male child. Parish and other
records are difficult to find, and specific persons are shrouded
in darkness at this time. No doubt more information will appear
eventually.
It is known that the title to Ripley castle passed to the Ingleby
family, as by male succession rules, the male (Ripley) heir
who had title to the castle died with a daughter as his only
heir. She married an Ingelby. This event is shown in this family
tree, when Thomas Ingleby married Susannah Ripley (registered
as 'Hyrpe') in May 28, 1626. From that point on, the castle
has remained in the Ingleby family. IF George Ripley was the
son of the builder of the castle, then the line of descent shown
in this family tree must be close to the truth.
George Ripley [1415?-1490] was one of the most important of
English alchemists. Little is known about him, but it is supposed
that he was a Canon at the Priory of St Augustine at Bridlington
in Yorkshire during the latter part of the 15th century, where
he devoted himself to the study of the physical sciences and
especially alchemy. To acquire fuller knowledge he travelled
in France, Germany and Italy, and lived for some time in Rome,
and there in 1477 was made a chamberlain by Pope Innocent VIII.
In 1478 he returned to England in possession of the secret of
transmutation. He pursued his alchemical work, and is reputed
to have given vast sums to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem
at Rhodes to defend them from the Turks. But his labours becoming
irksome to the abbot and other canons, he was released from
the order, and joined the Carmelites at Boston, where he died
in 1490.
His name is attached to as many as five and twenty (25) different
works, most of which remain in manuscript. Whether or not they
are all by him may be doubted, and it has been asserted that
what is called the 'Vision' is not by him but is the work of
an anonymous writer of the following century. Tanner has enumerated
his books and manuscript with the libraries of Oxford and elsewhere,
where they are preserved.
Ripley adopted an allegorical approach to alchemy, and his
most important writings are his Compound of Alchemy in verse
which describes the alchemical process as undergoing twelve
stages or 'Gates', and his emblematic 'Ripley Scrowle'. The
Compound of Alchymy, was one of the most popular on the subject.
it circulated widely in manuscript. It was first printed at
London.
The title has a woodcut border; there is an ornamental capital
E containing a portrait of Queen Elizabeth (note: Queen Elizabeth
died in 1602; George could have had nothing to do with this
cover), to whom the book is dedicated, and there is an engraved
diagram called Ripley's Wheel. Ashmole reprinted it in the Theatrum
Britannicum and added a note upon the author. He also printed
several other pieces by Ripley: 'Verses belonging to his Scrowle',
'The Mistery of Alchymists', 'the Preface to his Medulla, which
he wrote Ann. Dom. 1476, and dedicated to Geo. Nevell then Archbishop
of Yorke', and another 'Shorte Worke'. All of these, like the
'Compound of Alchymy', are in verse.
Bibliography of printed books The Compound of Alchymy. Or the
ancient hidden Art of Alchemie: Conteining the right & perfectest
meanes to make the Philosophers Stone, Aurum potabile, with
other excellent Experiments. Divided into twelue Gates. First
written by the learned and rare Philosopher of our Nation George
Ripley,... whereunto is adioyned his Epistle to the King, his
Vision, his Wheele, and other his Workes, neuer before published:...
Set foorth by Ralph Rabbards Gentleman... London Imprinted by
Thomas Orwin, 1591, small 4to. 52 folios. To quote a prayer
of George Ripley...
Memoirs of Popular Delusions Vol. 3
by Charles Mackay
While alchymy was thus cultivated on the continent of Europe,
it was not neglected in the isles of Britain. Since the time
of Roger Bacon, it had fascinated the imagination of many ardent
men in England. In the year 1404, an act of parliament was passed,
declaring the making of gold and silver to be felony. Great
alarm was felt at that time lest any alchymist should succeed
in his projects, and perhaps bring ruin upon the state, by furnishing
boundless wealth to some designing tyrant, who would make use
of it to enslave his country. This alarm appears to have soon
subsided; for, in the year 1455, King Henry VI, by advice of
his council and parliament, granted four successive patents
and commissions to several knights, citizens of London, chemists,
monks, mass-priests, and others, to find out the philosopher's
stone and elixir, "to the great benefit," said the patent, "of
the realm, and the enabling of the King to pay all the debts
of the Crown in real gold and silver." Prinn, in his "Aurum
Reginae," observes, as a note to this passage, that the King's
reason for granting this patent to ecclesiastics was, that they
were such good artists in transubstantiating bread and wine
in the Eucharist, and therefore the more likely to be able to
effect the transmutation of baser metals into better. No gold,
of course, was ever made; and, next year, the King, doubting
very much of the practicability of the thing, took further advice,
and appointed a commission of ten learned men, and persons of
eminence, to judge and certify to him whether the transmutation
of metals were a thing practicable or no. It does not appear
whether the commission ever made any report upon the subject.
In the succeeding reign, an alchymist appeared who pretended
to have discovered the secret. This was George Ripley,
the canon of Bridlington, in Yorkshire. He studied for twenty
years in the universities of Italy, and was a great favourite
with Pope Innocent VIII, who made him one of his domestic chaplains,
and master of the ceremonies in his household. Returning to
England in 1477, he dedicated to King Edward IV. his famous
work, "The Compound of Alchymy; or, the Twelve Gates leading
to the Discovery of the Philosopher's Stone." These gates he
described to be calcination, solution, separation, conjunction,
putrefaction, congelation, cibation, sublimation, fermentation,
exaltation, multiplication, and projection! to which he might
have added botheration, the most important process of all. He
was very rich, and allowed it to be believed that he could make
gold out of iron. Fuller, in his "Worthies of England," says
that an English gentleman of good credit reported that, in his
travels abroad, he saw a record in the island of Malta, which
declared that Ripley gave yearly to the knights of that island,
and of Rhodes, the enormous sum of one hundred thousand pounds
sterling, to enable them to carry on the war against the Turks.
In his old age, he became an anchorite near Boston, and wrote
twenty-five volumes upon the subject of alchymy, the most important
of which is the "Duodecim Portarum," already mentioned. Before
he died, he seems to have acknowledged that he had misspent
his life in this vain study, and requested that all men, when
they met with any of his books, would burn them, or afford them
no credit, as they had been written merely from his opinion,
and not from proof; and that subsequent trial had made manifest
to him that they were false and vain. [Fuller's "Worthies of
England."]
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