The Lallemant family, alchemists in Bourges
And also
The tops
The Lallemant became Bourges city’s richest merchants, ennobled as a bonus by the king. Gossips and jealous people turned up. What did they say? That the Lallemant family was alchemists. Hey, the tradition often says Bourges is alchemists’ capital city...
But, well: the Lallemant raised an oratory decorated with strange designs, in their town house: an angel having a pee on a clog, a bird of prey on a skull, a beehive and bees... 30 coffers full of designs and patterns which would represent the quest of the philosopher’s stone!
Besides the celling, we know now that Jean Lallemant was a member of the Round table knights of Bourges! He even was the «king». This order founded in 1486 by the merchant Jean de Cucharmois was a kind of «alchemical brotherhood».
A brotherhood which was useful for the city’s merchants, to help them and to encourage the trade. But gossips said it they were in fact an occult society! Did the Lallemant transmute metals into gold in their luxurious town house, or did they search for the eternal youth via the philosopher’s stone? It’s a mystery...