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Humprecht Johann Czernin of Chudenice 1664. Alchemist's Gold


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In the numismatic collection of the National Museum in Prague is a cast gold 39 mm. medal with following inscription on the obverse EXC:mo. D: HVMBERTO. COMITI. CERNIN. D: BATRONO. 1.6.6.4. The Reverse: OFFERT. MATTHEo. M. BOHEM. CLIENS. - AVRVM HOC. CHIMICVM.
This roughly translates as, either 1) Excellency, Lord Humbert Count Cernin, Master, this was struck in 1664 by Matthew M. Bohem, your servant, his offering of Chemical(Alchemy) Gold.
or 2) Excellency, Lord Humbert Count Cernin, Master and Patron 1664. Matthew M. Bohem, your servant, offers this Chemical(Alchemy) Gold. Batrono is the problem word, if Patron is intended it should be Patrono, if struck it should be Battono.
This cast medal has been shown to consist overall of 31% gold and 69% silver but the surface is 62.5% gold.
Humprecht Czernin's Alchemist was Matthew M. Bohem he called himself, a comrade of the Augustinian monk Wenzel Seyler(another alchemist) who pretended to be able to turn tin into gold and undertook his transmutation before Leopold I.
I have this unifaced cast medal of the obverse, which might be contemporary to the original or have been made at a later date( I would think no later than early 1800's). The reverse, which I first thought was machined flat, appears on closer examination to be ground flat by hand, which points to the earlier date of c.1664, as does the patina, but I am not sure.
DSCF3854a.jpg
No references that I have found ascribe an engraver for the medal but the reverse of the gold medal is signed CM, the only two candidates for those initials and date are MAIER, CONRAD (Germ.). Mint-engraver and Medallist at Ulm, circ. 1663-1682. His issues are signed CM and CASPARO MOLO. Mint-engraver and Medallist at Rome, circ. 1625-1669.
I believe that Conrad Maier is the most likely, being German.
As for the Bohemian Count, this image will suffice for his titles.
b1-vert.jpg
Jan Humprecht Czernin, visited Venice several times and was a patron and client there, too. Plenipotentiary of Leopold i, in 1663 he
already owned 300 paintings and bought more; he lived on the Grand Canal for three years. In 1661 he had 19 works by Pietro Della Vecchia; 21 painters from the city worked for him, among whom were Liberi, Sebastiano Mazzoni, Loth, Girolamo Forabosco and Giovanni Battista Langetti. But apart from contemporary artists, Czernin also collected Giorgione, Titian and the Bassanos for his grandiose noble palace in Prague.

 

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Cernin was the Plenipotentiary of Leopold I in Vienna, and like Cernin Leopold I used alchemists. One of these was the Augustinian monk Wenzel Seyler(or Wenceslaus), the comrade of Cernin's Matthew M. Bohem, in 1677 he changed a silver medal into gold in the presence of the Emperor, by dipping it into a liquid the upper part of the medal not being immersed remained silver. A clever trick!


This is the medal


Alchemy%20Gold.jpg


Leopold and Wife surrounded by his ancestors.


To the Holiest, mightiest and most invincible Roman Emperor Leopold I, the thorough investigator of the secrets of nature, dedicates and offers this genuine sample of real and complete metallic transmutation, as a humble memorial sign of the annual feast day accompanied by the wish of blessings of any kind, a most humble servant of His Dignity, Highness and Majesty, most loyal John Wenceslas of Reinburg in the year of Christ 1677, on Saint Leopold's day, the surname of the former pious margrave of Austria, now the most gracious patron of the highest Austrian house
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