Thomas Norton

Who was Thomas Norton?

Thomas Norton was an English poet and alchemist. He is known as the author of the Ordinal of Alchemy, an alchemical poem of around 3000 lines. According to Jonathan Hughes, Norton was born in Colne, Wiltshire, although he gives no evidence for this. However Reidy reckons that Norton was born in Colerne, Wiltshire, because this fits the description in the poem of the youngest alchemist being born under a cross at the end of three shires. He became an alchemist in the 1450s, and was given the secret of the stone in 1461. Later that year he became an esquire of the body to Edward IV of England, receiving fifty marks a year, and in 1465 he was warden of Gloucester castle. He began the Ordinal in 1477.

The earliest known manuscript of the Ordinal is famous for having the earliest known illustration of a scientific balance; that is, one which is enclosed by glass so as to prevent drafts disturbing the balance. This illustration also features a pelican, a vessel for repeated re-distillations of the same liquid, and several alembics stacked on top of each other for some form of distillation.