¹The original letter is kept in the archive of St Alban’s College in Valladolid (Spain) Series II, file 6. A copy can be seen in Albert J Loomie, ‘Richard Stanyhurst in Spain: two unknown letters of August 1593’, Huntington Library Quarterly, 1965, 28(2): 145–55, p. 152.

²Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, ‘Iberian science in the Renaissance: ignored how much longer?’, Perspectives on Science, 2004, 12: 86–124.

³There is ample evidence of this in various articles in Enrique Martínez Ruiz (ed.), Felipe II, la ciencia y la técnica, Madrid, Actas, 1999. In English, there is only the work of David Goodman, Power and penury: government, technology, and science in Philip II’s Spain, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988.

⁴The subject of Philip II and alchemy has been treated in various studies (largely unnoticed) that have interpreted his interest from an esoteric and occultist perspective. In general they are full of errors, and make sweeping assessments on the basis of one or two facts, reflecting a lack of more detailed research in archives and libraries. This is the case of works like that of René Taylor, ‘Architecture and magic: considerations on the idea of the Escorial’, in Douglas Fraser, Howard Hibbard and Milton J Lewine (eds), Essays in the history of architecture, presented to Rudolf Wittkower, London, Phaidon, 1967, pp. 81–109; or more local articles, but ones that enjoy considerable prestige in Spanish historiography, such as Javier Ruiz, ‘Los alquimistas de Felipe II’, Historia 16, 1977, 12: 49–55; and F Javier Puerto Sarmiento, ‘La panacea áurea. Alquimia y destilación en la corte de Felipe II (1527–1598)’, Dynamis, 1997, 17: 107–40.

⁵My research in this area began with my doctoral thesis: Mar Rey Bueno, Los señores del fuego: destiladores y espagíricos en la corte de los Austrias, Madrid, Corona Borealis, 2002. Since then I have been concentrating on the role of Philip II as a collector of secrets, and the influence that his interest in alchemy had on various members of the royal circle. See Mar Rey Bueno, ‘El informe Valles: los desdibujados límites del arte de boticarios a finales del siglo XVI (1589–1594)’, Asclepio, 2004, 56(2): 243–68; idem, ‘Juntas de herbolarios y tertulias espagíricas: el círculo cortesano de Diego de Cortavila (1597–1657)’, Dynamis, 2004, 24: 243–67.

⁶When I was asked to write up this work, the editors specified that it should be a summary of the alchemical work of Philip II. I considered two options: one which looked at the bibliography published to date, and the other, which set out to present chronologically the diverse documentation of alchemical activity in the royal circle. Given that this is the first overview published in English, I judged it more appropriate to follow the second option.

⁷“… cosa extraña no poder enviaros el dinero para despedir este ejército, mas pues no le tengo. Bien veis que no se puede hacer otra cosa sino tratar con el Fúcar”. Letter from Brussels dated 8 Nov. 1557, British Library, London, Add. MSS 28264, fol. 37.

⁸“… falta tan gran suma que no se puede decir. El trabajo en que estoy es mayor que podéis pensar.” Archivo General de Simancas (AGS), Valladolid, Consejo de Juntas de Hacienda, file 34, fol. 519.

⁹“… ma non fu continuata, essendo occorsi certi dispareri fra lui ed il confessore del re, per e mani del quale passò tutta questa pratica”. Michele Soriano, ‘Relazione’, in Eugenio Alberi (ed.), Relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al Senato durante il secolo decimosesto, Florence, Società editrice fiorentina, 1839–1863, 15 vols, series 1, vol. 3 (Relazione di Spagna), 1853, p. 367.

¹⁰“Ma perchè questa invenzione è molto grata al re ed a Ruy Gómez, e venne premiato largamente quello che l’ha ritrovata, si può credere che in tempo di qualche strettezza S. M. se ne valeria senza rispetto.” (Ibid.)

¹¹Marcantonio da Mula, ‘Relazione’, in Alberi (ed.), op. cit., note 9 above, p. 397.

¹²“La materia toda se ha buelto negra, de aquí a quinze días dize el maestro lo estará más, y será acabada la putrefacción del oro (como los alquimistas dizen) ut deinde fiat generatio. En fin, después de muy negra, la materia se ha de volver parda y poco a poco blanca como nieve y después roxa, y será la obra acabada. Dios quiera que assí sea, el philósopho harto me lo certifica con exemplos y razones que para ello tiene escriptas.” Letter of 8 March 1560 from Francisco Calderón to Philip II, AGS, Secretaría de Estado, file 521, no. 79.

¹³“… solamente se entiende en bolver a consimir el oro toda la humidad y agua que se sacó dél después de convertirlo en sal, y esto no se puede hazer syno con larga detención. Vuestra Majestad sabrá cómo ha un mes que Maese Pedro començó a trabajar en una multiplicatión de oro, y hale salido hasta agora tan bien que si halla la fixación della valdrá más que la obra principal”. Letter of 18 March 1560 from Francisco Calderón to Philip II, AGS, Secretaría de Estado, file 521, no. 79. Both letters, as well as the fragments of the Relazioni in the footnotes 9, 10 and 11, have been published by Vicente González Ramos, ‘Cuatro documentos para el estudio de la alquimia en la corte de Felipe II’, Azogue, 2000, no. 3 (http://www.revistaazogue.com).

¹⁴Goodman, op. cit., note 3 above, pp. 12–13.

¹⁵This journey was recounted in detail by Juan Cristóbal Calvete de Estrella, El felicíssimo viaje del muy alto y muy poderoso Príncipe Don Phelippe, hijo del Emperador Don Carlos Quinto Máximo, desde España a sus tierras de la baxa Alemania, con la descripción de todos los Estados de Brabante y Flandes, Antwerp, Martín Nucio, 1552.

¹⁶Annemarie Jordan, ‘Mujeres mecenas de la Casa de Austria y la infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia’, in Alejandro Vergara (comp.), El arte en la corte de los Archiduques Alberto de Austria e Isabel Clara Eugenia (1598–1633): un reino imaginado, Madrid, Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoración de los Centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V, 1999, pp. 118–37.

¹⁷Archivo General del Palacio Real (AGP), Madrid, Cédulas Reales (CR) vol. II, fols 88v–91r.

¹⁸Krista De Jonge, ‘Les jardins de Jacques Du Broeucq et Jacques Hollebecque à Binche, Mariemont et Boussu’, in Carmen Añón Feliú (ed.), Felipe II, el rey íntimo: jardín y naturaleza en el siglo XVI, Madrid, Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoración de los Centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V, 1998, pp. 191–220.

¹⁹AGP, Madrid, CR, vol. II, fol. 448v.

²⁰AGS, Madrid, Casas y Sitios Reales (CSR), file 248, fol. 123.

²¹“Hánse hecho todas las diligencias con tan buena industria y secreto, que no se ha sospechado nada, que no ha sido poco; pero, cierto, el aparejo del aposento es de manera que, si Vuestra Majestad quisiere verlo, podría siendo servido, sin que se entendiese ni ningún inconveniente”. See note 22 below.

²²Currently kept in the Archive Francisco Rodríguez Marín (Library of the Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales [CCHS], CSIC, Madrid), these documents were published in Reivindicación histórica del siglo XVI. Curso de conferencias dadas en la Real Academia de Jurisprudencia y Legislación (marzo a mayo 1927), Madrid, Imprenta de Ginés Hernández y Galo Sáez, 1928. I have worked with a copy of the original letters, generously provided by José Rodríguez Guerrero, editor of the electronic journal Azogue (http://www.revistaazogue.com) dedicated to the critical history of alchemy. Rodríguez Guerrero is currently finishing a review of this subject, and in his characteristically meticulous way, he has been able to puzzle out the identity of the anonymous alchemist whose name is never mentioned in the fourteen letters preserved. The results of his research will be published shortly in José Rodríguez Guerrero, ‘Francés Esparza en las cortes de España y Navarra: guerras de religión, espionaje político y alquimia’, Azogue, no. 6.

²³“En verdad que aunque yo soy incrédulo de estas cosas, que de ésta no lo estoy tanto. Aunque no es malo serlo, porque si no saliese, no se sintiese tanto. Pero de lo que hasta ahora se ha visto y a vos os parece, así de la obra como de las personas, no estoy tan incrédulo como lo estuviera si esto fuera así; pero ya presto veremos el fin, con todos nos acabaremos de asegurar, y muy bueno es acortarlo, como decís.” Letter of 4 Feb. 1567 from Philip II to Pedro de Hoyo, Archivo Rodríguez Marín, CCHS-CSIC, Madrid, Box 85/2.

²⁴“… plega a Dios que sea así, como yo lo deseo, que siéndolo, el mayor negocio es que desde Adán acá ha sucedido.” Letter of 9 Feb. 1567 from Pedro de Hoyo to Philip II, Archivo Rodríguez Marín, CCHS-CSIC, Box 85/2. In spite of his secretary’s enthusiasm, the king remains calm, demonstrating his caution in lines such as: “You [Pedro del Hoyo] have worked well, and so am expecting good results, although I, who have seen a little of this, and seen that then it doesn’t produce great quantities, am still wary.” (“Vos [Pedro del Hoyo] lo habéis trabajado bien, y así, espero todo buen suceso, aunque yo, como he visto algo de esto y no salir después en cantidad, todavía estoy sospechoso.”)

²⁵“Muy bien ha sido consentirles que hagan lo que les pareciere, aunque a mí no me contentan estas mudanzas; pero tanto más conviene no darles causa a que digan que no se acertó por no se hacer lo que les pareció, y tanto más, pues se podrá hacer esto en estos pocos días.” Letter of 10 Feb. 1567 from Philip II to Pedro de Hoyo, Archivo Rodríguez Marín, CCHS-CSIC, Box 85/2.

²⁶Both the original prescriptions were published years later in the Chirurgía universal of Juan Fragoso, one of the texts most commonly used among Spanish surgeons of the day. Juan Fragoso, Cirugia universal, Madrid, Viuda de Alonso Martín, 7th impression, 1627, pp. 471–2. It was made up of flowers of hypericon (St John’s wort), valerian, and “blessed thistle” (Cnicus benedictus L.). Fragoso states that in 1595, a new prescription appeared for this same oil in Segovia which was said to be the authentic one. Philip II charged his new apothecary Antonio del Espinar with preparing it. According to Fragoso it was a prescription that took several days to prepare, and contained more components than those offered by Aparicio’s widow. Whatever the case, once Espinar had made it up, the royal pharmacy of Philip II used nothing else.

²⁷The title Lo que el padre fray Juan del Pozo ofrece hará en servicio de Su Majestad y lo que para cada cosa es necesario proveer heads a minutely detailed list of activities among which appears the preparation of potable gold, oil of sulphur simple or complex, artificial balsam, varnish to brighten colours, and essences of orange blossom and myrtle flower. As well as these, he claims to know the secret of how to breed a large quantity of eels in a tank, how to cultivate oranges without having to cover them to protect them from the cold, and how to find a cave containing a variety of stones not seen for three centuries. The article was sent to the royal distiller Frank Hollebecque in charge of the laboratory at Aranjuez, who had no hesitation in supporting the proposals of the friar. However Philip rejected them, noting in the margin, “leave it, it looks to me like pure fantasy” (no hay que tratar porque lo tengo por cosa de aire). This petition is to be found, unedited, in AGS, Madrid, CSR, file 261, fol. 172. I am grateful to Miguel López who generously informed me of its existence, thus enabling it to be included in this study.

²⁸Pedro Gutiérrez de Arévalo, Práctica de boticarios, guia de enfermeros, remedios para pobres, Madrid, María de Quiñones, 1634, pp. 100v–101v, where it states: “This recipe for infusion was invented and named by a Doctor of this Art, called the Doctor Pugino, and it was this recipe that was given to the pharmacy of his Majesty, that he did as he wished with it, and from whose original I made this transcription … and as until now, nobody has printed it, but it is just written down in folders like a household recipe, many parts have come to be damaged, so I will take advantage of this occasion to serve the country, that its apothecaries might have the authentic version of Pugino’s infusion.” (“Este cocimiento lo inventó y puso su nombre un Médico desta Arte llamado el doctor Pugino, y esta receta fue la que dio a la Botica de Su Magestad, para que se hiziesse en ella, de cuyo original saqué este traslado … y como hasta ahora nadie ha impreso este traslado, anda escrito en cartapacios como receta magistral, de donde viene a estar viciada en muchas partes, y pues la ocasión pide para tratar de cocimientos algo, en ninguno se puede tomar el assunto más bien que en éste, y haré de camino servicio a la República, en que tengan los Boticarios la receta verdadera del cozimiento de Pugino, tan general su uso en esta Corte como en otras partes.”)

²⁹William Eamon, ‘The charlatan’s trial: an Italian surgeon in the court of king Philip II, 1576–1577’, Cronos, 2005, 8: 3–30.

³⁰For more information about the expedition of Francisco Hernández, see José María López Piñero and José Pardo Tomás, Nuevos materiales y noticias sobre la Historia de las plantas de Nueva España de Francisco Hernández, Valencia, Instituto de Historia de la Ciencia y Documentación, 1994; Simon Varey, Rafael Chabrán and Dora B Weiner (eds), Searching for the secrets of nature: the life and works of Dr. Francisco Hernández, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2000.

³¹Raquel Álvarez Peláez and Francisco Fernández González, De materia medica Novae Hispaniae libri quatuor: cuatro libros sobre materia médica de Nueva España, Aranjuez, Doce Calles, 1998, 2 vols.

³²Pascual Iborra, Historia del Protomedicato en España. Edición, introducción e índice de Juan Riera y Juan Granda-Juesas, Valladolid, Universidad de Valladolid, 1987, pp. 215–16.

³³“… destilar aguas y aceites y hacer las demás cosas y concernientes a su oficio que se le mandasen para provisión de nuestra botica”. AGP, Madrid, CR, vol. V, fols 256v, 260r–v.

³⁴“… habbia V. M. comandato piu volte che me accomodino per fare una quinta essentia simple, secondo l’ordine de Raymundo Lulio, per la salute de corpi humani, la qual havea io proposto a V. M. …”. Letter from Giovanni Vincenzo Forte to Philip II, Instituto Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid, envío n°. 99, fols 302–303.

³⁵William Eamon, ‘Pharmaceutical self-fashioning, or how to get rich and famous in the Renaissance medical fashion industry’, Pharmacy in History, 2003, 45: 123–9.

³⁶AGP, Madrid, CR, vol. IV, fols 20–20v. Arigón belonged to a family of apothecaries established in Valladolid in the first part of the sixteenth century. The earliest mention of their connection with Philip II dates from 1539 when the emperor Charles V established the first house of his son and heir, the Prince Philip, and chose Jean Jacques d’Arigón (whose name later was hispanicized to Juan de Arigón) as his personal apothecary. After the establishment of the court in Madrid, he, along with his brothers José and Rafael, were charged with dispensing medicines to the various royal houses.

³⁷Philip II’s intentions in planning El Escorial were, among others, to build a church dedicated to God, a palace for his own leisure, a monastery for the Order of Hieronymites, and a temple of the sciences.

³⁸From the very beginning of the construction of the monastery, the religious community there and the officers of the crown had access to a pharmaceutical service in the town of El Escorial, organized at the orders of the king, and run by two brothers, Juan and Miguel Álvarez. The situation changed in 1573, when the monastic pharmacy was inaugurated. It was situated on the ground floor of the so-called Tower of the Infirmary. It was described by contemporaries as being large, very beautiful and clean. It was divided into three main areas: a large storage space for keeping the medicines, a rebotica (the apothecary’s preparation room) and then six rooms in the basement where syrups, infusions and juices were prepared, as well as provision for storage of tools. See Rey Bueno, Los señores del fuego, op. cit., note 5 above, pp. 59–66.

³⁹Our best description of the laboratory comes from the Murcian doctor Juan Alonso de Almela in 1594 in his Descripción de la octava maravilla del mundo que es la excelente y santa casa de San Lorenzo, el Real, monasterio de frailes Jerónimos y colegio de los mismos y seminario de letras humanas, y sepultura de reyes y casa de recogimiento y descanso después de los trabajos de gobierno. This manuscript is conserved in the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, MS. 1724. It was discovered by Gregorio de Andrés and published in the series Documentos para la historia del Monasterio de San Lorenzo el Real de El Escorial, Madrid, Imprenta Sáez, 1962, vol. 6, pp. 7– 98.

⁴⁰Diego de Santiago, Arte separatoria y modo de apartar todos los licores, que se sacan por vía de destilación, para que las medicinas obren con mayor virtud y presteza, Sevilla, Francisco Pérez, 1598. Among the most important works on the various personalities and their activities are: Sergio Caballero Villaldea, Diego de Santiago (alquimista, boticario y romancista del siglo XV). Su patria. Su profesión. Sus obras, Madrid, Imprenta Prensa Española, 1948; José Manuel Loring Palacios, ‘Aportación de los destiladores de El Escorial a la fabricación de quintaesencias’, in F Javier Campos and Fernández de Sevilla (eds), La ciencia en el Monasterio del Escorial, San Lorenzo, EDES, 1993, vol. 1, pp. 585–616; José María López Piñero and Eugenio Portela Marco, Arte separatoria de Diego de Santiago (Sevilla, 1598). Edición y estudio introductorio, Alicante, Fundación Gil Albert, 1994; Francisco Teixidó Gómez and Santiago Ferrera Escudero, ‘Alquimia, química y filosofía alquímica en la obra del extremeño Diego de Santiago’, Asclepio, 1998, 50(1): 31–47; Francisco Teixidó Gómez, ‘Aspectos médicos del arte separatoria de Diego de Santiago’, Asclepio, 1999, 51(1): 227–45; Rey Bueno, Los señores del fuego, op. cit., note 5 above, pp. 70–2; Miguel López Pérez, Asclepio renovado: alquimia y medicina en la España moderna (1500–1700), Madrid, Ediciones Corona Borealis, 2003, pp. 121–31.

⁴¹Jean l’Hermite, Les eaües qui s’y distillent sont de touttes sortes d’herbes, metaulx et especeries qui se peuvent penser, et en tyrent aussi les quint’essences dont les plus notables et curieuses qui s’y trouvent sont les suyvantes. Le memoire desquelles me donna un des distilateurs en la mese forme qu’il va icy mis. See Charles-Louis Ruelens, Émile Ouverleaux and Jules Jean Petit (eds), Le passetemps de Jehan Lhermite, depuis son voyage d'Espagne, 2 vols, Antwerp, J E Buschmann, 1890–1896. The original manuscript of L’Hermite’s diary is held in the Royal Library Albert I, Brussels.

⁴²Juan del Castillo, Pharmacopoea universa medicamenta in officinis pharmaceuticis usitata complectens et explicans, Cádiz, Ioannes de Borja, 1622. Castillo dedicates a large part of his Pharmacopeia to the preparation of oils (fols 251v–274v), a technique that he learned in the pharmacy at El Escorial, in particular the preparations for distillation: “I could describe many other forms of distillation, rarely used, if it was not for the fact that it is much better to watch the alchemist carrying out the operation, and seeing it, you will learn more quickly than by just hearing or reading about it. And as for essential oils, in the Pharmacy of St Hieronymus at El Escorial, and other places, seeing the process will produce better craftsmen.” (“Otros muchos modos de distillaciones pudiera poner aquí, y por ser tan poco en uso, y fuera de que si no se ben distillar con mucha dificultad los harán, y es mejor que el curioso que quiziere saber lo bea hazer a un alquimista, y viendolo lo aprenderán más presto que por dicho ni escritos. Y para quintas essencias al Escurial en la Botica de S. Gerónimo, y otras partes que biéndolo saldrán buenos maestros.” [fol. 257v.]) Castillo’s comment indicates that the laboratory at El Escorial must have been an elite centre for distillations, as it was there more than anywhere else that he had acquired his skills; these were not simple techniques, but complex processes which required the explanations of master distillers.

⁴³As the royal chronicler Luis Cabrera de Córdoba said, “It was so curious that, as his illnesses were ageing him, causing him to take simple and compound medicines, he ordered the construction of distilleries in San Lorenzo, of such a huge capacity, of extreme and varied shapes, all to such a high standard, that only a prince with his curiosity and power could undertake. And he brought Vincencio Forte and other foreign craftsmen to distill quintessential oils; substances that are called subtle, intrinsical and simple radical humour, separated into their elemental parts,which keep their properties for a long period of time, ordered by Nature to preserve individual lives. Yet if our food is made from dead matter, and the material of gold and pearls is inanimate, I do not see what good effect they [the quintessential oils] would have. The craftsmen could develop and perfect their techniques, thanks to his support; they grew in number, thanks to his communication, and they flourished, provided they worked in such a way that accorded with his aims.” (“Fue tan curioso, que envejeciéndole más las enfermedades, forzándole al uso de las medicinas simples y compuestas, mandó hacer en San Lorenzo distilatorios de capacidad grandísima y extremadas y varias figuras, con tal excelencia que solamente un príncipe tan curioso y poderoso las pudiera hacer, y truxo a Vincencio Forte y otros extranjeros artífices para sacar las quintas esencias, que llaman sustancia sutil y húmido radical intrínseco y simple, difundido en las partes elementadas, que largo tiempo mantiene las cosas en su ser, ordenada de la naturaleza para conservar individuos. Aunque si el alimento se hace de los muertos, y la materia del oro y perlas no vivió, no sé de qué efecto sea. Criáronse y habilitaron con su amparo, y perficionaron y florecieron los artífices en gran número con su comunicación, porque de poner una cosa de sí propios a como él la acomodaba, iba el parecer bien o mal.”) Luis Cabrera de Córdoba, Felipe Segundo, Rey de España, 4 vols, Madrid, Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, 1876–1877, vol. 2, pp. 392–3.