Johann Moriaen

Johann Moriaen (born Nuremberg c.1591-1668) was a German alchemist and early chemist, known as an associate of Samuel Hartlib. He was active in recruiting for Hartlib's network of intellectuals, and communicating with them. [Young, Ch.3] He was a convinced pansophist. [Young, Ch.4]

With no published works, his activities have been uncovered by recent scholarship. He operated from Amsterdam [ [http://www.livesandletters.ac.uk/wd/resources/biographicalregister.html#Morian] : "He settled in the Dutch Netherlands in 1638 and it was from there that he corresponded frequently with Samuel Hartlib and his associates in England. He appears never to have come to England himself, though."] .

He matriculated at Heidelberg University in 1611, where he knew Georg Vechner, later an associate of Comenius. [Young, p.5.] He then became a Calvinist minister. He moved to Cologne, where he perhaps met Theodore Haak who was there in 1626. [Young, p.12.] . He gave up the ministry and returned to his native Nuremberg in 1627, then full of refugees from the Thirty Years War. [Young p.13.]

He met Isaac Beeckman in Dordrecht in 1633. [Young p.21.] He at this time was involved in practical aspects of optics and Paracelsian chemistry and medicine. He moved permanently to the Netherlands five years later.

His Dutch connections included the Hebraist Adam Boreel [ [https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/dspace/bitstream/1887/8260/1/3_908_019.pdf PDF] , p.245.] , and businessman Louis de Geer, a supporter of Comenius [Young p.21.] . His correspondents included George Starkey [ [http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/16190.ctl Starkey, George: Alchemical Laboratory Notebooks and Correspondence ] ] .

Notes

References

* Young, John T. (1998): "Faith, Alchemy and Natural Philosophy: Johann Moriaen, Reformed Intelligencer, and the Hartlib Circle." Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 1-8401-4282-0