The REAL Nicolas Flamel

[Hermione]

I was doing a bit of light reading and I came across some historical facts on the real Nicolas Flamel.

Born in 1330, he lived in Paris where he tried several careers such as poet and painter. In 1357 he says an angel appeared to him in a dream and showed him a book. The angel said it would be incoherant to him and everyone else but someday he would learn to see something in it. Flamel then went to a bookstore and found that exact book from his dream. He bought it, and got help translating it out of Greek and discovered it was about turning metals into gold. It discribed the Philospher's Stone but didn't say what it was. Flamel searched for this item and on January 17, 1383. Scientists believe he may have found sulfer, because he discribed the smell of the item he found. He died in 1410 and remains the only person to turn metal into gold.

[Brycen05]

That's hott Merideth, It's good to know some b/g info and how much J.K. had to research to bring us HP. I wonder if all the names in HP has real significance to our "muggle" ;) world.

[Tonks]

:) I think that a lot of names have some significance from history, myths, legends, etc. ... but probably not all. Then, there are probably also names that accidentally connect to history in some way, but that JKR maybe didn't purposely intend to connect...

That's really interesting about Flamel, Meredith! Nice find! Seems to me that JKR probably used his name, the 14th century dates, and obviously the alchemy information for PS/SS...

[Tinkerbell]

Having read this, I was amazed that Mr Flamel actually existed! I then did a quick search and found the following info from virtual library online and comes from the biography listed under Flamel from the Nobel Foundation
(Magicians, Seers, and Mystics by Reginald Merton)

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There is nothing legendary about the life of Nicolas Flamel. His history rests solidly on those substantial material proofs for which men clamor if they are to believe in obvious things. To this indisputably authentic history, legend has added a few flowers. But in every spot where the flowers of legend grow, underneath there is the solid earth of truth.

Nicolas Flamel married Pernelle, a good-looking, intelligent widow, slightly older than himself and the possessor of a little property. Every man meets once in his life the woman with whom he could live in peace and harmony. For Nicolas Flamel, Pernelle was that woman. Over and above her natural qualities, she had another which is still rarer. She was a woman who was capable of keeping a secret all her life without revealing it to anybody in confidence. But the story of Nicolas Flamel is the story of a book for the most part. The secret made its appearance with the book, and neither the death of its possessors nor the lapse of centuries led to the complete discovery of the secret.

Nicolas Flamel did not, of course, regard alchemy as a mere vulgar search for the means of making gold. For every exalted mind the finding of the Philosopher's Stone was the finding of the essential secret of Nature, the secret of her unity and her laws, the possession of perfect wisdom. Flamel dreamed of sharing in this wisdom. His ideal was the highest that man could attain. And he knew that it could be realized through a book, for the secret of the Philosopher's Stone had already been found and transcribed in symbolic form. Somewhere it existed.

With Pernelle, who had helped him in his search for the Philosopher's Stone, he devoted his life to helping his fellow men. "Husband and wife lavished succor on the poor, founded hospitals, built or repaired cemeteries, restored the front of Saint Genevieve des Ardents and endowed the institution of the Quinze-Vingts, the blind inmates of which, in memory of this fact, came every year to the church of Saint Jacques la Boucherie to pray for their benefactor, a practice which continued until 1789,".

Pernelle died first; Nicolas Flamel reached the age of eighty. He spent the last years of his life writing books on alchemy. He carefully settled his affairs and planned how he was to be buried: at the end of the nave of Saint Jacques la Boucherie. The tombstone to be laid over his body had already been made. On this stone, in the middle of various figures, there was carved a sun above a key and a closed book. It contains the symbols of his life and can still be seen at his gravesite in the Musee de Cluny in Paris. His death, to which he joyfully looked forward, was as circumspect and as perfect as his life.

Hardly was Flamel dead when the report of his alchemical powers and of his concealment somewhere of an enormous quantity of gold spread through Paris and the world. Everyone who was seeking the famous projection powder, which turns all substances into gold, came prowling round all the places where he had lived in the hope of finding a minute portion of the precious powder. It was said also that the symbolical figures which he had had sculptured on various monuments gave, for those who could decipher it, the formula of the Philosopher's Stone. The sculptures and inscriptions were broken off under cover of darkness and removed. The cellars of his house were searched and the walls examined.

A man could live a thousand years if he had knowledge of the Philosopher's Stone, which, besides being knowledge of the transmutation of metals, was also knowledge of the Elixir of life. The sages possessed it and kept it for themselves. In the West, there were only a few such sages. Nicolas Flamel had been one of them.

Nicolas Flamel, after his discovery of the Philosopher's Stone, would have had no temptation to evade death; for he regarded death merely as the transition to a better state. In obeying, without seeking escape, the ancient and simple law that reduces man to dust when the curve of his life is ended, he gave proof of a wisdom that is none the less beautiful for being widespread.


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I have to say that on reading this (which I have tried to edit down!) I have a renewed respect for the amount of research JKR does and how she has managed to weave so much of this into the Septology!

[Alz]

Wow - all I can say is great work Meredith and Tinky!!
That is really cool - I had no idea he actually existed!
LOL - famed for discovering sulphur!

Nice work both of you!

[Boing]

Those are both really interesting!! Thanks for doing the extra research (like the quip about a bit of light reading, Meredith!) . . .

It certainly does give you a greater appreciation for the complexity of the writing.

[Boing]

And how's this for weird coincidences? I'm reading The Da Vinci Code right now and there is a secret society involved in the book and in the book, the author gives a list of people that were supposed leaders of the society throughout time and guess whose name is on the list??

You guessed it - Nicolas Flamel! :D

[Hermione]

Boing- that is such a good book. I really enjoyed it, but I didn't like the ending. They are making it into a movie, Tom Hanks is suposed to be in it.

Back to HP, I think it is surprising that no one has attempted to find the Philospher's Stone or make metals into gold after Nicholas. You would think SOMEONE would want to...now I want to go out and do it!

[kausarqadir]

i am surprised by the LIGHT READING done by tink and meredith....
you guys are really matching up with Hermoine.....
but i am not surprised by a REAL Nicolas Flemel because i have read once about him, as described above by Meredith.
but this second news about da vinci code is new for me....
i will look for it now

[Sir Cadogan]

Just a tiny bit of "Flameliana" ... we were in Paris for a couple of days recently, and guess how surprised I was that there is even a street named after Nicolas Flamel. It is quite central, branches off Rue Rivoli. Of course I took a picture of the street sign - here you can see it: http://www.arcor.de/palb/alben/62/3481462/400_6435646664666362.jpg

[Fortescue]

Nice sign, Sir C :D

I have been curious about exactly what Alchemy is for a while and did some research and found a very interesting website all about the subject. It has a very good search function and there is quite a lot of stuff about Flamel, and also a bunch of information about animals, and more specifically, birds of Alchemy. You guessed it - lots of information on the phoenix and its meaning in Alchemy.

Alchemy Website (http://levity.com/alchemy/)

If you do a search for Flamel several links come up from some of his own research papers to people using his theories in their own papers. There are even articles in French if that suits you. :D

[Haley's Comet]

I think we have a book in our library on alchemy here at the house, and thanks for the info on the website, Fortescue. I will look it up.

"I'm your huckleberry."