The Alchemist’s Secret

Alchemists used to call the medicines they prepared “secrets.” 

Today, they are called proprietary blends. 

A new study offers insight into the secrets of one specific alchemist, Tycho Brahe. Known as an astronomer, he mixed not only medicines but also special elements. 

Brahe’s observatory was located on the island of Ven in Sweden and dismantled after he died in 1601. Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark and the National Museum of Denmark analyzed five shards (four glass, one ceramic) found in the site’s old garden during digs around 1990. The shards likely come from the basement alchemical laboratory, explained Popular Mechanics. 

The researchers cut through the shards to analyze their interior and identify 31 trace elements. They carried out the analysis with mass spectrometry, a technique that works by turning the sample’s molecules into charged ions. They found many elements that they expected, such as nickel, copper, zinc, tin, antimony, gold, mercury, and lead. They also found a surprise: tungsten. 

“Tungsten is very mysterious,” study author Kaare Lund Rasmussen said in a statement. “Tungsten had not even been described at that time, so what should we infer from its presence on a shard from Tycho Brahe’s alchemy workshop?” 

This question remains unanswered. 

While tungsten can occur naturally in some minerals, Rasmussen also suggested that Brahe had his own secret substance to create medicines for Europe’s elite. 

Tungsten likely first appeared in German chemistry and was classified as an element in the 1780s. Brahe’s concoctions were known to be influenced by German traditions. 

“Maybe Tycho Brahe had heard about this and thus knew of tungsten’s existence,” said Rasmussen. “But this is not something we know or can say based on the analyses I have done.” 

At the time, medicines were created in secret, and Brahe never shared his recipes. He was especially known for his complicated prescription for the plague, which could have included up to 60 ingredients, from snake flesh to copper and herbs. Now, researchers wonder if it also had tungsten.