Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont

Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont
Franciscus Mercurius (right) with his father Jan Baptist van Helmont from the Ortus medicinae (1648)[1]
BornBaptised on 20 October 1614
Vilvoorde, Flemish Brabant
DiedDecember 1698[2]
Cölln, Holy Roman Empire
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry

Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont (baptised 20 October 1614 – December 1698[3]) was a Flemish alchemist and writer, the son of Jan Baptist van Helmont. He is now best known for his publication in the 1640s of his father's pioneer works on chemistry, which link the origins of the science to the study of alchemy.

From his early work as a physician, he became a kabbalist and together with Henry More of the Cambridge Platonists he annotated Christian Knorr von Rosenroth's translations of kabbalist texts.[4]

  1. ^ Jensen, William B. (2004). "A previously unrecognized portrait of Joan Baptist van Helmont (1579–1644)" (PDF). Ambix. 51 (3): 263–268. doi:10.1179/amb.2004.51.3.263. S2CID 170689495.
  2. ^ Biographical section in Carolyn Merchant (1979). "The Vitalism of Francis Mercury van Helmont: Its influence on Leibniz". Ambix. 26 (3): 170–183. doi:10.1179/amb.1979.26.3.170. PMID 28521588.
  3. ^ Coudert, Allison P. (1995): Leibniz and van Helmont: a chronological table, in: Leibniz and the Kabbalah. The International Archives of the History of Ideas Nr 142. Dordrecht: Kluwer pdf
  4. ^ Richard Popkin, ed. (1999). The Pimlico History of Western Philosophy. Pimlico. p. 363. ISBN 071266534X.