Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum
Encyclopedia
Elias Ashmole
Elias Ashmole was a celebrated English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer and student of alchemy. Ashmole supported the royalist side during the English Civil War, and at the restoration of Charles II he was rewarded with several lucrative offices.Ashmole was an antiquary with a...
. The book preserved and made available many works that had previously existed only in privately held manuscripts. It features the alchemic verse of people such as Thomas Norton
Thomas Norton
Thomas Norton was an English lawyer, politician, writer of verse — but not, as has been claimed, the chief interrogator of Queen Elizabeth I.-Official career:...
, George Ripley
George Ripley (alchemist)
Sir George Ripley was a famous English author and alchemist.Ripley studied for twenty years in Italy where he became a great favourite of Pope Innocent VIII...
, Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
, John Dastin
John Dastin
John Dastin was an English alchemist of the fourteenth century. Nothing is known of his life beyond the texts which are attributed to him ....
, Abraham Andrews and William Backhouse
William Backhouse
William Backhouse was a renowned English Rosicrucian philosopher, alchemist, and astrologer. He was born on 17 January 1593 at Swallowfield Park, some 5 miles south of Reading in the county of Berkshire, a younger son of Samuel Backhouse...
.
In his preface Ashmole says of himself, " I must profess I know enough to hold my tongue, but not enough to speak."