Page 11 - Scottish Alchemists

King James IV and the Abbot of Tungland.

King James IV was a monarch who, during the time he swayed the
sceptre of Scotland (1488-1513), enjoyed the affections of his people in a
remarkable degree. His mind was acute, and while he excelled in all warlike
exercises and manly accomplishments, he was a zealous patron of learning,
and did all that lay in his power to promote the arts and sciences.

Among his other accomplishments he conceived that he possessed, and
not improbably actually did possess, considerable skill in surgery and
medicine, and it is stated by Lindsay of Pitscottie that “he was weill learned
in the airt of medicine and was ane singular guid chirurgiane; and thair was
nane of that profession if they had any dangerous cure in hand but would
have craved his adwyse.” It is not surprising that to a monarch of such tastes
the art of alchemy should have possessed the greatest attractions. The King
was aided in his scientific labours by John Damian, a foreigner of pleasing
address and great ingenuity, who in 1501-2 held an appointment in the royal
household as a physician. Bishop Leslie says that he was an Italian. In one of
the poems of Dunbar he is stated to have been a native of Lombardy, and to
have practised surgery and other arts in France before his arrival in Scotland.

In the accounts of the High Treasurer of Scotland he is styled “the
French Leich,” “Maister John the French Leich,” “Maister John the French
Medicinar,” and “French Maister John.”

Under the guidance of Damian, the King established at Edinburgh and
Stirling furnaces for prosecuting alchemical experiments, and continued
during the rest of his reign to expend considerable sums of money in
attempts to make ‘Quinta Essentia’, which should convert other metals into
pure gold, heal all diseases, and prolong human life far beyond its ordinary
bounds. The four elements, fire, air, earth, and water, then believed to be the
indispensable components of the whole of nature, were supposed to have a
fifth principle common to the four. This was the quintessence of creation,
the only true element, of which the four generic principles were nothing but
derivative forms or embodiments, and it was the idea of this principle which
guided the King and Damian in their experiments. These are referred to by
Bishop Leslie as follows: “Maister John causet the King believe that he be
multiplyinge, and utheris his inventions, wold make fine gold of uther mettal,

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