The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

y chance she threw and burned in the fire, so long, that at the length being
taken forth, and quenched in a little vinegre, it glittered with a bright
Marqeusset of golde. Wherupon ye matter being called into some question,
it was brought to certain Goldfinders in London, to make assay therof who
indeed found it to hold gold, and that very ritchly for the quantity. 13
The issue was in fact far more complicated than this tale would lead us to believe. The first
three assay masters who examined the stone declared it merely marcasite, or iron
sulphide. 14 Disheartened, Lok waited until the beginning of January 1577 to give a piece to
the Italian alchemist Giovanni Baptista Agnello. 15
Cecil had known of Agnello for some time. Born in Venice, Agnello was first
recommended to Cecil by Richard Eden‘s patron the Vidame de Chartres during a visit to
London in late 1569. The Vidame wrote to Cecil recommending ―Messer Giovanni
Baptista Agnelli as a man of honesty and industry‖ and sent the Principal Secretary a copy
of Agnello‘s book Espositione Sopra un Libro Intitolato Apocalypsis Spiritus Secreti (1566). 16 First
published in London in Italian and Latin, Richard Napier translated the work in 1623 as
Revelation of the Secret Spirit of Alchymie, describing it as ―much esteemed amongest the
learned in Italy‖ and as being useful ―in the practical search of that Chrystalline central
Salt‖. 17 The book was in two parts; the first contained Agnello‘s ―short Exposition and
allegation of sentence of the best Philosophers‖ including Raymond Lull, Arnold of
Villanova, George Ripley and Hermes Trismegistus; the second included what Agnello
claimed to be a reproduction of an unsigned alchemical treatise that he considered ―in
sentecne and learning most grave‖. 18 The Vidame further enticed Cecil with the suggestion
that ―perchance his kindness may be returned by an ounce or so of powder of
13 George Best, A True Discourse of the Late Voyages of Discoverie, for the finding of a passage to Cathaya, by the
Northweast, under the conduct of Martin Froblisher Generall, London, 1578, p. 51.
14 Michael Lok to Queen Elizabeth, 22 April 1577, TNA, SP 12/112/25.
15 Ibid.
16 The Vidame‘s suggestion that Cecil favour Agnello, probably refers to a plan Agnello had presented to the
Queen in 1569, to remedy the scarcity of England‘s smaller coins by coining lead testons. There is no
evidence of a response to his proposal. The Vidame de Chartres to Cecil, 4 November 1569, in Crosby, CSPF
1569-71, p. 142; Giovanni Baptista Agnello to Queen Elizabeth, 1569, in CSP Foreign 1569-71, p. 163.
17 Giovanni Baptista Agnello, Revelation of the Secret Spirit of Alchymie, Richard Napier (trans.), London, 1623,
pp. v,vi.
18 Ibid.
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