VMs: "Georg Barchius" reference at the U. Complutense de Madrid

[Jorge Stolfi <stolfi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

Several weeks ago I called your attention to a mysterious reference to
an alchemist(?) named "Georg Barchius", found in the following page at
the Universidad Complutense in Madrid:

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  http://www.ucm.es/info/folchia/Blibros.htm

    Barchius, Georg
        --Pyrosophia, Leiden, 1698.
        --Liber singularis de alchimia, Lyon, 1699.
        --Elementa chemiae quibus subiuncta est conjectura 
          lapidis philosophici imaginibus repraesentata,
          Leiden, Theodor Haak, 1718.
        --Traité de la pierre philosophale, Lyon, Derain, 1720.
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Unfortunately, those references are incorrect: as pointed out by Rafal
and others, the four books above were written by another person, a
certain Johann Conrad Barchusen (1666-1723).

So why are those books listed under "Georg Barchius"? The person who
created the above page (the anonymous web-editor of Grupo Folchia
<folchia@xxxxxxxxxxx>) wrote:

    > The name "barchius" appears in [some] edition of Barchusen's
    > works at the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid. While I was doing my
    > "Tesis Doctoral" I've seen it. I'll see my notes again and I'll
    > go to the National Libray someday nextly, may be this week. Then
    > I'll write you again and, I hope, can [tell] you more about it.
    > But be sure that if the name Barchius is [associated] with the
    > works of Barchusen in our web, [it must] be for any reason. So I
    > think that Barchius is a latinized form used in [some] edition
    > and it hasn't any relation with the Barschius you're looking
    > for. Now I'm analizing some correspondence between A. Kircher
    > with J. Caramuel. In other side I'm doing the same with the
    > relation between Lana-Terzi (You know him?) and A. Kircher to
    > try to establishe a relation with the three ones and alchemy.
    > Sorry for my bad English.
    > 
    > GRUPO FOLCHIA
    > Historia de la Farmacia
    > Facultad de Farmacia, U.C.M.
    > Plaza de Ramón y Cajal, s/n
    > 28040-MADRID
    > Tlfno.: 91.394.17.95
    > e-mail: folchia@xxxxxxxxxxx
    > web: http://www.ucm.es/info/folchia/

Well, I then placed a query to the UCM librarians, which, after being
bounced around several library branches, eventually got this reply:

    > We would like to inform you that we have not found any reference
    > to Georg Barchius in our catalogues. We have got some works by
    > Johann Conrad Berchusen, among them Elementa chemiae quibus
    > subiuncta est conjectura lapidis philosophici imaginibus
    > repraesentata, Leiden, Theodor Haak, 1718. I have personally
    > checked Berchusen's books and there is not any reference to
    > Georg Barchius. [Thus] I do not consider that the source of this
    > information has been retrieved from the University Complutense
    > Library. Looking forward to having offered you some useful
    > information
    > 
    > Best regards
    > Mercedes Cabello
    > Biblioteca Histórica de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Well, so we again reach a dead end --- unless the Folchia web-editor
gets a chance to follow the trail for her/himself, and has better luck
than Ms. Cabello.

All the best,

--stolfi

PS. And now for some esoteric stuff: Recently I managed to glimpse a
few additional bits of my Mystic Vision #2, now identified as Roman
Polanski's "The Ninth Portal". (Curiously, in Polanski's Portugal
people speak Spanish and have Spanish names. Presumably his Macbeth
spoke Welsh and was Prince of Denmark.) Alas, the gentleman in the
movie whose Luciferophoric invocation quite literally backfired was
named Boris Balkan, and thus can be assumed to be of East Asian
extraction only under an exceedingly generous interpretation of
"East".

MORAL OF THE STORY (a): on second thoughts, "The Sandpiper" wasn't
that bad a movie after all. MORAL OF THE STORY (b): For deeper and
longer-lasting enlightenment, it is strongly recommended that
prescription eyeglasses be worn while experiencing Mystic Visions.

My eyeglasses were in place, and I was fully awake, when Mystic Vision #3
hit me a few weeks ago. It was the end of a half-crazy documentary by
a certain Thomas Allen, who set out to prove that the libretto for
Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" was actually written by Casanova -- not
Antoine the noted Voynichologist, but Giacomo the noted gynecophilist.
A key piece of evidence was a sheet of paper containing a few stanzas
from a draft version of the libretto, with corrections, all in
Casanova's hand. That document is now in the Prague Municipal Archives
--- whose tidy but manuscript-laden shelves were briefly shown in the
movie! (Damn, since he was there, he could have had a quick look into
the folder labeled "Baresch, G.", couldn't he...)

At least, *this* Mystic Vision conveniently ended with its own, 
quite explicit, MORAL OF THE STORY: "Questo è il fin di chi fa mal..."