An Alchemist in Chains The Case Against the Mystic Johann Konrad Dippel in Altona

"This book offers a magnificent 'thick description' of the conflict between Dippel and the Reventlows - a paradigmatic analysis of arbitrary rulers and the possibilities and tribulations of a committed intellectual, regardless of whether you call him a spiritualist or a radical enlightenment thinker. Stjernfelt's art of portrayal turns the case into a reading pleasure that you cannot resist." - Martin Mulsow, Professor of Intellectual History at the University of Erfurt and Director of the Gotha Research Center

***

"Sometimes the most reasonable notions co-habit with radical, far-sighted and, even, plain crazy ideas. Giving the lie to the assumption that the Enlightenment was driven by pure rationalism uniformly pursued by its proponents, the social thinker, medic and alchemist, Johann Konrad Dippel is revealed to be almost hilariously versatile, well-travelled and engaged. Drawing out the many facets of Dippel's life and career by way of a forensic examination of his involvement in a frequently outrageous legal case brought against him by a royal couple in Altona, Frederik Stjernfelt's book provides a coruscating snapshot of Europe in the eighteenth century, the Enlightenment, the life of the court, the life of the mind and the pettiness of a society still mired in pietism." - Paul Cobley, Emeritus Professor in Language and Media, Middlesex University, London