Nicolas Flamel. Alchimiste de papier

Musée du Cluny

Visionary alchemist, immortal, magician, keeper of universal secrets… Nicolas Flamel is one of those figures who feed our fantasies! But what of the historical reality of this Parisian bourgeois of the 14th century? The musée de Cluny preserves one of the most tangible traces of Nicolas Flamel's existence: his tombstone. Around this epitaph and archival documents, a picture of Flamel emerges: that of a public scribe who was also a great benefactor of religious and charitable works and a shrewd real estate investor. There is no mention of the philosopher's stone in these documents, and for good reason! The legend of Nicolas Flamel the alchemist did not emerge until the end of the 15th century, nearly 50 years after his death. Over the centuries, the rumor grew, and writings purportedly by his hand spread. Nicolas Flamel soon became a source of inspiration for artists and creators of all kinds, up to today, when popular culture has seized upon the figure. An icon of Parisian heritage, Nicolas Flamel still embodies today the fascination with lost knowledge, the margins of science, and the promises of the invisible. It is all these dimensions of the man and the legend that the exhibition explores.

Source: Paris Open Data ↗