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Alchemist, Scholar, Spy: The Career of Henry Wright.

  • Published In: Huntington Library Quarterly, 2023, v. 86, n. 3. P. 425 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Mansky, Joseph 3 of 3

Abstract

Two Henry Wrights have hitherto made only brief cameos in the history of Jacobean politics and ideas: Henry Wright the alchemist and spy, who gathered intelligence around the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, and Henry Wright the Machiavellian political theorist, author of The First Part of the Disquisition of Truth, Concerning Political Affaires (1616). I argue that the two were the same man. This essay follows Wright's path through the shifting terrain of Renaissance science, scholarship, and politics, from anti-Catholic espionage to Ramist reform to pseudo-Lullian alchemy to politic analysis. I piece together his colorful career as a struggling "intelligencer" purveying knowledge and pursuing patronage at the margins of the court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:Huntington Library Quarterly. 2023/09, Vol. 86, Issue 3, p425
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:History
  • Publication Date:2023
  • ISSN:0018-7895
  • DOI:10.1353/hlq.2023.a936375
  • Accession Number:179664510
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