04147nam 2200697Ia 450 991077911860332120230124183813.00-231-51934-610.7312/devu14538(CKB)2550000000105175(EBL)908742(OCoLC)818856335(SSID)ssj0000721552(PQKBManifestationID)12328559(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000721552(PQKBWorkID)10692965(PQKB)10107550(MiAaPQ)EBC908742(DE-B1597)458797(OCoLC)1024012393(OCoLC)1029834740(OCoLC)808344579(OCoLC)979753826(DE-B1597)9780231519342(Au-PeEL)EBL908742(CaPaEBR)ebr10580063(CaONFJC)MIL675019(EXLCZ)99255000000010517520080708d2009 uy 0engur|n|---|||||txtccrProphecy, alchemy, and the end of time[electronic resource] John of Rupescissa in the late Middle Ages /Leah DeVunNew York Columbia University Pressc20091 online resource (273 p.)Description based upon print version of record.0-231-14539-X 0-231-14538-1 Includes bibliographical references (p. [223]-243) and index.Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- One. Introduction -- Two. The Proving of Christendom -- Three. John of Rupescissa's Vision of the End -- Four. Alchemy in Theory and Practice -- Five. Artists and the Art -- Six. Metaphor and Alchemy -- Seven. The End of Nature -- Eight. Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- IndexIn the middle of the fourteenth century, the Franciscan friar John of Rupescissa sent a dramatic warning to his followers: the last days were coming; the apocalypse was near. Deemed insane by the Christian church, Rupescissa had spent more than a decade confined to prisons—in one case wrapped in chains and locked under a staircase—yet ill treatment could not silence the friar's apocalyptic message. Religious figures who preached the end times were hardly rare in the late Middle Ages, but Rupescissa's teachings were unique. He claimed that knowledge of the natural world, and alchemy in particular, could act as a defense against the plagues and wars of the last days. His melding of apocalyptic prophecy and quasi-scientific inquiry gave rise to a new genre of alchemical writing and a novel cosmology of heaven and earth. Most important, the friar's research represented a remarkable convergence between science and religion.In order to understand scientific knowledge today, Leah DeVun asks that we revisit Rupescissa's life and the critical events of his age—the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War, the Avignon Papacy—through his eyes. Rupescissa treated alchemy as medicine (his work was the conceptual forerunner of pharmacology) and represented the emerging technologies and views that sought to combat famine, plague, religious persecution, and war. The advances he pioneered, along with the exciting strides made by his contemporaries, shed critical light on later developments in medicine, pharmacology, and chemistry.AlchemyReligious aspectsChristianityHistoryTo 1500Religion and scienceEuropeHistoryTo 1500PharmacologyEuropeHistoryTo 1500Apocalyptic literatureHistory and criticismAlchemyReligious aspectsChristianityHistoryReligion and scienceHistoryPharmacologyHistoryApocalyptic literatureHistory and criticism.274/.05NM 7250rvkDeVun Leah1525386MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910779118603321Prophecy, alchemy, and the end of time3766737UNINA