Abstract
JAMES IV of Scotland was one of the most intelligent princes in Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century. He had an active and inquiring mind, and sought to extend his knowledge by observation and experiment. His interests included medicine and surgery, physiology, alchemy, and even psychology. Thus, in 1493, he tried to determine by a direct experiment the nature of that "primitive tongue"which Ben Jonson, at a later day and in jocular mood, supposed to be High Dutch. "The king gart [caused] tak ane dum woman and pat hir in Inchekeytht [island]", wrote Lindesay of Pitscottie, "and gaif hir tua young bairnes, and gart furnische them of meit, drink, fyre and candell, claithis [clothes], witht all uther kynd of necessaris, desyrand to knaw quhat langage thir bairnes wald speik quhene they came to lauchfull aige. Sum sayis they spak goode hebrew bot as to my self I knaw not."
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Alchemy under James IV of Scotland. Nature 141, 940 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141940a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141940a0