9/11/2018 John Damian - Wikipedia

John Damian
John  Damian  de  Falcuis (Italian: Giovanni  Damiano  de  Falcucci) was an Italian at the court of James IV of
Scotland. His attempts at medicine, alchemy, flying, and his advancement by the king encouraged a satirical attack by
the poet William Dunbar.

In the records of the Scottish exchequer he is called the 'French Leech' or 'Master John the French Leech' ('leech' being
an old word for a physician). He first appears in the records in January 1501. He directed the building of alchemical
furnaces at Stirling Castle and Holyroodhouse to produce the quinta essentia, the fifth element. John was then made
Abbot of Tongland. Between 1501 and 1508 he received a great deal of money and other items from the king, to make
the quintessence. These included aqua vitae (i.e. spirits of wine), quicksilver, sal ammoniac, alum, litharge, orpiment,
saltpetre, silver, sugar, sulphur, tin, verdigris, vinegar and white lead.[1] These are all standard alchemical substances
of the medieval period.

John took a hand in court entertainments, organizing the dances in Edinburgh at New Year 1504.[2] In 1507, John tried
to fly from the battlements of Stirling Castle, but broke his thigh in the process. The records of Scottish exchequer list
sums of money lost by the King playing cards with John and betting at shooting matches.[3] John resigned as Abbot of
Tongland in 1509, and James IV wrote to Pope Julius II asking that John's pension of 200 gold ducats should be
paid.[4] John Damian is still recorded at court a few months before the battle of Flodden.

Contents
William Dunbar and John Lesley
See also
External links
References

William Dunbar and John Lesley
The contemporary poet William Dunbar described Damian's career in
comic terms in A Ballad of the False Friar of Tongland, How He Fell in the
Mire  Flying  to  Turkey. According to Dunbar, Damian came from the east
and stole a priest's robes in Lombardy. In France he pretended to be a
doctor to the detriment of his patients then came to Scotland where in
'leichecraft he was homecyd' (a killer in surgery). When he failed to make
the quintessence by alchemy, he decided to fly to Turkey. But he was
attacked by birds who plucked his wings and landed up to his eyes in a
mire.[5] John Damian tried to fly from Stirling
Castle
Another poem by Dunbar, the Antichrist, first line 'Lucina shynning in
silence of the nicht', recalls a dream. Dame Fortune came to the poet and
described her wheel and the genesis of the flying Abbot. She said Dunbar would not get clerical advancement until he
saw a flying Abbot. Dunbar kept this dream to himself. But soon, turning the genre of the ballad of impossibilities on
its head, Dunbar did see a flying Abbot.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Damian 1/3
9/11/2018 John Damian - Wikipedia

A later writer, John Lesley, provided a complimentary account. Lesley mentioned the alchemy, and describes how the
failure of the enterprise began to make Damian unpopular. To counter this he announced that he would fly from
Stirling Castle, reaching France before the Scottish ambassadors. On the appointed day he put on a pair of wings made
from feathers and leapt from the highest point of the castle. Lesley says his journey ended as soon as it began, with the
bystanders uncertain whether to mourn his demise or marvel at his daftness. Damian had broken his thigh bone and
alleged that he had hoped to use only eagle feathers, but some poultry feathers supplied had sabotaged his wings. In
Lesley's text the event is placed immediately prior to his account death of Prince James in February 1508.[7] There was
a Scottish embassy to France in September 1507, so in the absence of other evidence, the attempt is usually assigned to
that date.[8]

The critic, Priscilla Bawcutt, sees Dunbar's Ballad and the Antichrist, as characterising Damian as a shape-shifter
without fixed identity. There is no other evidence for the flying attempt apart from Dunbar's poems and Lesley's later
account, and the episode of the failed flight has a number of traditional literary parallels as an example of foolish
striving for superhuman attainment. The birds who attack the flier in the poem draw attention to his lack of identity;
'all fowill ferleit (wondered) quhat he sowld be.'[9]

A late 17th century carpenter's bill for work at Stirling Castle refers to a now unknown location where 'the Devil flew
out.'[10]

See also
Franz Reichelt, later parachute pioneer

External links
Small, John, ed., The Poems of William Dunbar; The Poems, vol. 2, Scottish Text Society (1893) (https://archive.or
g/details/poemswilliamdun10dunbgoog)
Sweeney, Charlene, 'Was 16th-century Scots alchemist the first man to fly?', The Times, 7 September 2008 (http://
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article4699686.ece)
Mario M Rossi, 'L'abate aviatore', pp. 43-80, in Friendship's Garland, Essays presented to Mario Praz, vol. 1,
Rome (1966) (https://books.google.com/books?id=0PZolAKC11IC)

References
1. page 219-220 of 'Alchemy' by E. J. Holmyard, ISBN 0486262987
2. Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 2, HM General Register House (1900), cxi, 414.
3. Accounts of the Lord Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 4, HM General Register House (1902) (https://archive.org/details/
accountslordhig01offigoog) 110 etc.
4. Hannay, R. K., ed., Letters of James IV, SHS (1953), p.164-5, nos. 289, 290.
5. Small, John, ed., The Poems of William Dunbar, vol. 2, Scottish Text Society (1893), 139-143.
6. Small, John, ed., The Poems of William Dunbar, vol. 2, Scottish Text Society (1893), 149-150.
7. Cody, E. G., ed., John Lesley's History of Scotland translated by Father Dalrymple, vol. 2, SHS (1895), 124-126.
8. Small, John, ed., The Poems of William Dunbar, vol. 1, Scottish Text Society (1893), xlvii.
9. Bawcutt, Priscilla, 'Elrich Fantaysis in Dunbar', in Spiller & McClure, ed., Bryght Lanternis, AUP (1989), 171-174.
10. RCAHMS, Inventory of Ancient Monuments: Stirlingshire, vol. 1 (1963), 188

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Damian&oldid=786284461"

This page was last edited on 18 June 2017, at 13:09 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using
this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Damian 2/3
9/11/2018 John Damian - Wikipedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Damian 3/3