City Upon a Hill
In the shadow of Puritan New England, where scripture, law, and community shaped every aspect of daily life, a different kind of visionary emerged. Drawing on European alchemical traditions, Hermetic philosophy, and Christian reformist ideals, he believed that nature itself was a sacred text, written by the Creator and waiting to be deciphered. This episode brings you a story of religion, medicine, politics, and alchemy in an age of upheaval and imagination: the story of John Winthrop, Jr.
Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben with original music by Purple Planet.
Music
Purple Planet - After the Fall
Purple Planet - Ascension
Purple Planet - Shifting Sands
Purple Planet - In Doubt
Purple Planet - Sense of Loss
Purple Planet - Shadowlands
Sources
Primary
Comenius, John Amos. The Way of Light. Trans. E. T. Campagnac. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1938.
Fama Fraternitatis; or, A Discovery of the Fraternity of the Most Noble Order of the Rosy Cross. Trans. Thomas Vaughan. 1652. In Frances A. Yates. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, 297-322. London: Routledge, 1972.
Valentine, Basil. His Triumphant Chariot of Antimony. London: Dorman Newman, 1678.
Secondary
Black, Robert C. The Younger John Winthrop. New York: Columbia University Press, 1966.
Delwiche, Theodore R. “Fuit Ille Non Empiricus Mercenarius: Apprehensions to Alchemy in Colonial New England.” Ambix 67, no. 4 (2020): 346-365.
Hutchins, Zachary McLeod. "Domestic Alchemy: Huswifery and Gold in Colonial New England." Early American Studies 19, no. 1 (2021): 1-23.
Woodward, Walter W. Prospero’s America: John Winthrop, Jr., Alchemy, and the Creation of New England Culture, 1606–1676. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
