Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (Joannes Aurelius Augurellus) (1441–1524) was an Italian humanist scholar, poet and

alchemist Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

. Born at

Rimini Rimini ( , ; or ; ) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. Sprawling along the Adriatic Sea, Rimini is situated at a strategically-important north-south passage along the coast at the southern tip of the Po Valley. It is ...

, he studied both laws in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

and

Padova Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of ...

where he also consorted with the leading scholars of his time. At Florence he befriended

Marsilio Ficino Marsilio Ficino (; Latin name: ; 19 October 1433 – 1 October 1499) was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was an astrologer, a reviver of Neo ...

(1433-1499) and

Angelo Poliziano Agnolo (or Angelo) Ambrogini (; 14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494), commonly known as Angelo Poliziano () or simply Poliziano, anglicized as Politian, was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scholars ...

(1454-1494) and later while teaching

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

Treviso Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...

joined Aldo Mantius' humanist circle in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

. Apart from his academic and literary work he practically experimented in

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

and provided colour

pigment A pigment is a powder used to add or alter color or change visual appearance. Pigments are completely or nearly solubility, insoluble and reactivity (chemistry), chemically unreactive in water or another medium; in contrast, dyes are colored sub ...

s for his friend the ''Hermetic'' painter

Giulio Campagnola Giulio Campagnola (; ) was an Italian engraver and painter, whose few, rare, prints translated the rich Venetian Renaissance style of oil paintings of Giorgione and the early Titian into the medium of engraving; to further his exercises in grad ...

(born ca. 1480) He is best known for his 1515 allegorical poem on the making of gold, ''

Chrysopoeia In alchemy, the term chrysopoeia () refers to the artificial production of gold, most commonly by the alleged transmutation of base metals such as lead. A related term is argyropoeia (), referring to the artificial production of silver, often ...

'', which was dedicated to

Pope Leo X Pope Leo X (; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521. Born into the prominent political and banking Med ...

; leading to the famous but forged anecdote that the Pope had rewarded Augurello with a beautiful but empty purse as an

like him should on his own to be capable of replenishing it — he was actually bestowed with a

sinecure A sinecure ( or ; from the Latin , 'without', and , 'care') is a position with a salary or otherwise generating income that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval church, ...

at the cathedral of

.Cfr. Martels (1993), p. 124; Idem (1994), p. 979. Augurello's other works include ''Carmina'' (1505), ''Geronticon liber'', ''Iambici libri'', and ''Sermonum libri''.

Notes

Bibliography

*Allegretti, Antonio: ''De la Transmutatione de metalli. Poema d’alchimia del XVI secolo''. Mino Gabriele (ed.). Rome 1981. *Dal Canton, Giuseppina: ''Giulio Campagnola 'pittore alchimista’ ''(I). Antichità viva 16/5 (1977), pp. 11–19. *Eadem: ''Giulio Campagnola 'pittore alchimista’ ''(II). Ibid. 17/2 (1978), pp. 3–10. *Haskell, Yasmin: ''Round and Round we go: The Alchemical 'Opus circulatorium’ of Giovanni Aurelio Augurelli''. Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 59 (1997), pp. 585–606. *Kühlmann, Wilhelm: ''Alchemie und späthumanistische Formkultur. Der Straßburger Dichter Johann Nicolaus Furichius (1602-1633), ein Freund Moscheroschs''. Daphnis 13 (1984), pp. 101–135. *Martels, Zweder von: ''The Chrysopoeia (1515) of Ioannes Aurelius Augurellus and the importance of alchemy around 1500''. Studi umanistici piceni 13 (1993), pp. 121–130 *Idem: ''The Allegorical Meaning of the 'Chrysopoeia’ by Ioannes Aurelius Augurellus.'' Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Hafniensis. Proceedings of the Eight International Congress of Neo-Latin Studies. Copenhagen 12 August to 17 August 1991. Rhoda Schnur et al. (edd.). Birmingham-New York 1994, pp. 979–988. *Idem: ''Augurello's 'Chrysopoeia' (1515) : a turning point in the literary tradition of alchemical texts''. Early Science and Medicine 5, 2 (2000), pp. 178–195. *Pavanello, Giuseppe: ''Un maestro del quattrocento. Giovanni Aurelio Augurello.'' Venice 1905. *Reiser, Thomas: ''Mythologie und Alchemie in der Lehrepik des frühen 17. Jahrhunderts. Die 'Chryseidos libri IIII’ des Straßburger Dichterarztes Johannes Nicolaus Furichius (1602-1633)''. Tübingen 2011, pp. 51–58. *Secret, François: '' 'Chrysopoeia’ et 'Vellus aureum’, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 38'' (1976), pp. 109–110.
Weiss, Robert: Augurelli, Giovanni Aurelio. DBI 4 (1962), pp. 578-581.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Augurello, Giovanni 1441 births 1524 deaths 15th-century alchemists 15th-century writers in Latin 16th-century alchemists 16th-century writers in Latin Didactic poets Italian poets Italian male poets Italian Renaissance humanists Italian alchemists Italian-language poets