Abstract Summary
This paper investigates the ambivalent character of Saturn in the context of sixteenth and early seventeenth literature on mining and metalworking in relation to desires, vices and virtues. The mythical figure Saturn, the son of Father Sky (Uranus) and Mother Earth (Gaia), was in medieval and renaissance alchemy and astrology related to the metal lead. As the last of the seven planets and in greatest distance to the sun he was qualified as dry and cold. In literature and art, he enjoyed an ambivalent reputation representing plenty and wealth but also death, sexual violence (castration), cannibalism, and transience. He was perceived as the patron over the earth, woods and stones. Along with deviant figures—such as criminals, witches, magicians, frauds—miners and peasants were regularly depicted as the children of Saturn. Representing the changing fortunes of mining, he appeared as protagonist in allegorical mining festivals or as emblems on artworks and coins until the eighteenth century. Saturn in his dual nature as evil and promising figure is both an image of desire, offering wealth and affluence, and an image punishment, infamy and death. These characteristics turned him into an appropriate personification of the uncertain, dangerous, but at the same time promising mining industry. In order to analyze the promotion, provocation and management of desire in Renaissance natural philosophy, it is essential to consider economics and markets as well. In this sense, this paper seeks to qualify and continue Culianu’s thoughts.
