Denis Zachaire (1510–1556) is the pseudonym of a 16th-century alchemist who spent his life and family fortune in a futile search for the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life.
Pursuit of alchemy
Born in 1510 to a noble and ancient family of Guienne, Zachaire was sent to school at a young age in Bordeaux under the care of a tutor hired by the family. The tutor was obsessed with alchemy and the Magnum Opus, and Zachaire quickly found himself caught up in the hysteria, pouring vast amounts of his parents' money into the mystic crucible.
Laboring tirelessly in smoke-filled chambers, Zachaire and his tutor spent over 200 crowns and his parents reduced his allowance. After returning home to mortgage his inheritance, Zachaire took up with a "Philosopher" and later with a monk, both of whom helped him spend whatever gold he had left.
In 1550, Zachaire claimed to transmute base metal into gold.
References
- "Some Fortunes Misapplied". Otago Witness. 28 September 1888. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
- Zachaire, Denis; Davis, Tenney L. (1926). "The Autobiography of Denis Zachaire: An Account of an Alchemist's Life in the Sixteenth Century". Isis. 8 (2): 287–299. doi:10.1086/358392. ISSN 0021-1753. JSTOR 223644. S2CID 143474903.
Further reading
- Tenney L. Davis, "The Autobiography of Denis Zachaire", in Isis, nov. 1925, vol. 8, 2 pp. 287–299.
- E. J. Holmyard, L'Alchimie, trad. Arthaud, 1979, p. 264–270.
- Armand Lattes, Un alchimiste gascon : Denis Zachaire (1510–1556), Académie des Sciences, Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres de Toulouse, Série 18, Tome 5, Vol. 166, 5 décembre 2004, pp. 25–28.
- Renan Crouvizier, L'authenticité de l'opuscule attribué à maistre D.Zecaire, Chrysopoeia, n° I, Collège de France, 1995.