Jean de Meung
Born Jean Clopinel or Jean Chopinel at Meung-sur-Loire.
Twelfth century alchemist who owes his celebrity to his poetical genius rather than his alchemical skills; to his 'Roman de la Rose', rather than to his rhyming treatise upon the hermetic philosophy. He is also known for his translation of Boethius' 'Consolation of Philosophy'.
Jean de Meung was born about 1250, and flourished through the reigns of Louis X, Philip the Long, Charles IV, and Philip de Valois. His real name was Jean or Jehan Clopinel or Chopinel.
Jean appears to have possessed a light and railing wit, and a keen appreciation of a joke and it may well be doubted whether he was altogether sincere in his praises of alchemy. Having composed a quatrain on woman, which stigmatized her in the strongest terms, the ladies of Charles VI's court resolved to revenge their affronted honor, and surrounding him in the royal antechamber, desired the courtiers present to strip him preparatory to their inflicting a sound flagellation. Jean solicited to be heard before he was condemned and punished; and having obtained an interval of grace, set forth, with fluent eloquence, that he was certainly the author of the calumnious verses, but that they were not intended to vilipend all womankind. He referred only to the vicious and debased, and not to such models of purity as he saw around him. Nevertheless, if any lady present felt that the verses really applied to her, he was her very humble servant, and would submit to a, well-deserved chastisement.
Like most of the medieval poets, Jean de Meung was a bitter enemy of the priesthood, and he engineered with great ingenuity a posthumous satire upon their inordinate greed. He bequeathed in his will, as a gift to the Cordeliers, a chest of immense weight. As his fame as an alchemist was widespread, the brotherhood accepted the legacy in the belief that the chest contained the golden results of his quest of the Philosopher's Stone. But when they opened it, their dismayed eyes rested only on a pile of slates, covered with the most unintelligible hieroglyphics and cabalistic characters. The person responsible for this practical joke was hardly, we think, a very sincere believer in the wonders of alchemy.
See False Roses: Structures of Duality and Deceit in Jean De Meun's Roman De LA Rose (Stanford French and Italian Studies, Vol 69), L'Amour Et LA Rose: Le Grand Dessein De Jean De Meun (Harvard Studies in Romance Languages, No 41), Roman de la Rose, The Romance of the Rose, Apollonius of Tyana, Alchemy, Archangels, Angels, Angelical Stone, Critomancy, Astrology, Acutomancy, Agalmatomancy, Divination, Coscinomancy, Cleidomancy, Augur, Stoichomancy, Dowsing, Tarot, Heptameron, Demonology, Sortilege, Idolomancy, Demonomancy, Tephramancy, Anemoscopy, Eromancy, Austromancy, Chaomancy, Roadomancy, Capnomancy, Pyromancy, Meteormancy, Ceraunoscopy, Zoomancy, Christianity, Satan, Mystic Gifts and Charms - New Age Gift Shop & Wicca and Pagan Supplies, Love Spells -- Use these powerful love spells to help you find and keep your true love, The Tarot Store, The Chakra Store, Divination & Scrying Tools and Supplies, Unique Amulets, Talismans, Good Luck Charms, and Love Tokens, Powerful Witch Doctor Spell Kits, Powerful Spells - Cast by Andreika the Witch, Webmasters Make $$$, AzureGreen - Celebrating All Paths to the Divine, ISIS - Tools for Your Soul's Journey, and The Pyramid Collection - Myth, Magick, Fantasy and Romance.
Sources: (1) Spence, Lewis, An Encyclopedia of Occultism, Carol Publishing Group.
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