A Dominican Connection

20th-century photograph of the old distillery at S.M. Novella.

One of the enduring mysteries about seventeenth century Florentine glassmaker Antonio Neri is the question of his religious order. It is known that he was an ordained priest in the Catholic Church and that his clerical education included a heavy dose of chemistry. There can be little doubt this seemingly disparate education was supplied at least in part by his father who happened to be the personal physician to the grand Duke of Tuscany. [1]

Antonio's first known manuscript was begun in 1598 and is dedicated to "all of alchemy." Its numerous recipes and illustrations make clear that its contents reflect a number of years of experience for the then twenty-two year old. According to rules established at the Council of Trent, his training for the priesthood could have begun no earlier than the age of sixteen. Born in 1576, he must have been ordained just before starting the manuscript, in which he prominently refers to himself as a priest. 

The question then arises, which of the many religious sects based in Florence sponsored the fledgling alchemist? We still do not know, but a strong possibility lies with the Dominicans. At first, this seems to be a counter-intuitive choice; after all, they ran the Holy Office of the Inquisition. They were charged with enforcing official Church doctrine, which among other things prohibited attempts to make gold by alchemical means. [2] While this was not an outright ban on alchemy, it was often interpreted as such since transmutation comprised a key fascination of chemical experimenters. There is no doubt that Neri tried his hand at making gold; in a manuscript of 1613 he makes direct claim to having successfully done such. [3] On the other hand, there is no evidence that he ever conflicted with the Inquisition, but it does make the Dominicans seem an odd choice.

Careful scrutiny reveals a more nuanced picture. The Dominicans in Florence operated not one but two apothecaries. The first, at their Santa Maria Novella monastery, was in continuous operation since 1221.  It continues today in private hands as the famed Officina Profumo Farmaceutica on Via della Scala. The second facility was located in the convent of San Marco, literally a few paces across the street from the entrance of the Casino di San Marco, where Antonio Neri worked as a glassmaker and alchemist around 1601. Both facilities would have required a staff fully versed in the arcane alchemical arts. The facility at San Marco was run by Fra Anselmo, the brother of the royal apothecary, who was in turn a colleague of Neri’s father. [4] 

Family connections to San Marco may extend even deeper, although details are a bit sketchy. Neri's father was convinced that a distant cousin was the venerated holy-man Filippo Neri. A couple of generations earlier, Filippo attended San Marco for his initial religious studies. The future saint was a lifelong proponent of the convent's most famous member, Girolamo Savonarola, who incidentally started to pursue a career in medicine before committing to the Church. Today, Savonarola is best known for burning books and secular art in his "bonfires of the vanities." A perhaps more balanced picture would also portray him as a reformer of Vatican excess who preceded the Protestant Reformation. He succeeded in running the Medici out of town and declaring Florence an independent republic with Jesus Christ as its king, but that is another story. 

There are indications that the continued veneration of Savonarola extended to Antonio Neri's own family, as demonstrated by the iconography in his father's chapel at what is now Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi Church. [5]   Finally, in 1564 one Tommaso Neri, a friar at San Marco was charged with writing a defense of Savonarola [6] in a late bid to canonize him. It is unknown to me if this Neri has any ties to the family of our glassmaker, but it is an intriguing possibility. 

In the end, none of this moves us any closer to finding which sect Neri belonged. The only conclusion we can draw for sure is that he lived among some interesting characters, in a fascinating city, in a remarkable period of history.


[1] Neri di Jacopo Neri, physician to Grand Duke Ferdianado I de' Medici. See Negri 1722 , p. 419.
[2] Pope John XXII issues a bull in 1317 against practice of counterfeit alchemy (coins), which soon becomes a general prohibition. 
[3] Discorso sopra la Chimica, che cosa sia, e sue Operazioni, Neri 1613. For an English translation see Grazzini 2012.
[4] The royal apothecary was Steffano Rosselli.
[5] For more see Luca, Vasetti 1996.

[6] Neri 1564.
* This post first appeared here on 19 Nov 2014.

The Dominican Connection

20th-century photograph of the old distillery at S.M. Novella.

Last week, we started to explore one of the enduring mysteries about seventeenth century Florentine glassmaker Antonio Neri, namely the question of his religious order. It is known that he was an ordained priest in the Catholic Church and that his clerical education included a heavy dose of chemistry. There can be little doubt this seemingly disparate education was supplied at least in part by his father who happened to be the personal physician to the grand Duke of Tuscany. [1]

Antonio's first known manuscript was begun in 1598 and is dedicated to "all of alchemy." Its numerous recipes and illustrations make clear that its contents reflect a number of years of experience for the then twenty-two year old. According to rules established at the Council of Trent, his training for the priesthood could have begun no earlier than the age of sixteen. Born in 1576, he must have been ordained just before starting the manuscript, in which he prominently refers to himself as a priest. 

The question then arises, which of the many religious sects based in Florence sponsored the fledgling alchemist? We still do not know, but a strong possibility lies with the Dominicans. At first, this seems to be a counter-intuitive choice; after all, they ran the Holy Office of the Inquisition. They were charged with enforcing official Church doctrine, which among other things prohibited attempts to make gold by alchemical means. [2] While this was not an outright ban on alchemy, it was often interpreted as such since transmutation comprised a key fascination of chemical experimenters. There is no doubt that Neri tried his hand at making gold; in a manuscript of 1613 he makes direct claim to having successfully done such. [3] On the other hand, there is no evidence that he ever conflicted with the Inquisition, but it does make the Dominicans seem an odd choice.

Careful scrutiny reveals a more nuanced picture. The Dominicans in Florence operated not one but two apothecaries. The first, at their Santa Maria Novella monastery, was in continuous operation since 1221.  It continues today in private hands as the famed Officina Profumo Farmaceutica on Via della Scala. The second facility was located in the convent of San Marco, literally a few paces across the street from the entrance of the Casino di San Marco, where Antonio Neri worked as a glassmaker and alchemist around 1601. Both facilities would have required a staff fully versed in the arcane alchemical arts. The facility at San Marco was run by Fra Anselmo, the brother of the royal apothecary, who was in turn a colleague of Neri’s father. [4] 

Family connections to San Marco may extend even deeper, although details are a bit sketchy. Neri's father was convinced that a distant cousin was the venerated holy-man Filippo Neri. A couple of generations earlier, Filippo attended San Marco for his initial religious studies. The future saint was a lifelong proponent of the convent's most famous member, Girolamo Savonarola, who incidentally started to pursue a career in medicine before committing to the Church. Today, Savonarola is best known for burning books and secular art in his "bonfires of the vanities." A perhaps more balanced picture would also portray him as a reformer of Vatican excess who preceded the Protestant Reformation. He succeeded in running the Medici out of town and declaring Florence an independent republic with Jesus Christ as its king, but that is another story. 

There are indications that the continued veneration of Savonarola extended to Antonio Neri's own family, as demonstrated by the iconography in his father's chapel at what is now Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi Church. [5]   Finally, in 1564 one Tommaso Neri, a friar at San Marco was charged with writing a defense of Savonarola [6] in a late bid to canonize him. It is unknown to me if this Neri has any ties to the family of our glassmaker, but it is an intriguing possibility. 

In the end, none of this moves us any closer to finding which sect Neri belonged. The only conclusion we can draw for sure is that he lived among some interesting characters, in a fascinating city, in a remarkable period of history.


[1] Neri di Jacopo Neri, physician to Grand Duke Ferdianado I de' Medici. See Negri 1722 , p. 419.
[2] Pope John XXII issues a bull in 1317 against practice of counterfeit alchemy (coins), which soon becomes a general prohibition. 
[3] Discorso sopra la Chimica, che cosa sia, e sue Operazioni, Neri 1613. For an English translation see Grazzini 2012.
[4] The royal apothecary was Steffano Rosselli.
[5] For more see Luca, Vasetti 1996.

[6] Neri 1564.

Farmacia

Perfume and pasticche from the
Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella

In Florence, the followers of St. Dominic ran a well-known apothecary on the grounds of the main Dominican church in Florence, Santa Maria Novella. Started in the thirteenth century, the monks of this order became famous for their knowledge of “simples” or herbal medicines, made from the plants they grew in the large garden adjacent to the monastery. The production of rosewater dates to 1381. The monks ran a small infirmary to care for the sick in their own ranks as well as for the poor. At the suggestion of Grand Duke Cosimo II, they opened a public storefront in 1612, the same year Antonio Neri’s book on glassmaking was published. The man they put in charge of the newly renovated facility was Angiolo Marchissi, a twenty year old friar who was already an “expert,” charged with the formidable task of turning a distillery of herbal remedies into a full blown apothecary. Marchissi was given this responsibility at about the same age, perhaps a bit younger, that Neri was when he began his work at the Casino di San Marco. Although the educational details of both men are unknown, there can be little doubt that their expertise was gained through some sort of organized education in the alchemical arts. An education that was both sophisticated and practical.

The venerable Farmacia at Santa Maria Novella is still in operation today, after four centuries, near the main rail station on Via della Scala, offering soaps, perfumes and ancient herbal remedies. Now in private hands, it is a space that recalls the grandeur of Renaissance opulence under high arched ceilings. Part chapel, part chemist and part museum, great cupboards line the walls still holding century’s-old ceramic and glassware; the vials and beakers used to extract herbal potions by the monks in centuries gone by. The techniques used by apothecaries were often identical to those used by alchemists and they supplied alchemists with many of their raw materials. Less well-known is the public apothecary that was also run by the Dominicans at Piazza San Marco, across from the front entrance of Don Antonio’s Casino where Antonio Neri practiced alchemy and made glass. This apothecary was in the same complex as the monastery and convent of the church of San Marco. The back room of this storefront housed the monks “fonderia,” where medicinal concoctions were manufactured, sometimes using the herbs grown in the botanical gardens around the corner. Like many other apothecaries around Florence, the Farmacia di San Marco served as a popular meeting place for artists and intellectuals.

Tall stone tablets set into the wall outside the front door still list the products made by the monks at San Marco. In general, a sixteenth or seventeenth century apothecary dealt in medicinals, however, their inventories extended to all sorts of chemicals: including pigments used for artists paints, alchemical supplies and many of the raw materials used to color glass. At the turn of the seventeenth century, the facilities at Santa Maria Novella and San Marco were regular suppliers to the Medici and had created special fragrances for the Grand Duchess. As a practicing doctor and Grand Duke Ferdinando’s own physician, Antonio Neri’s father, would have been acquainted with these monks. This farmacia employed Fra Anselmo, who was the brother of royal apothecary Stefano Rosselli. It is not at all unreasonable to speculate that the monks at the Farmacia di San Marco were familiar to Antonio Neri as well as his father. The young priest would soon be working across the street at Don Antonio’s Casino. Finally, Neri’s good friend Emmanuel Ximenes from Flanders had an uncle by the same name who was a monk at Santa Maria Novella.