ABSTRACT
Little is known about the life of Bassett Jones, the author of the most ambitious alchemical poem of the English Renaissance, but its outlines reveal a man of learning deeply immersed in philological study, medicine, and an alchemy that was both practical and spiritual. 1 Born about 1616, Jones was the grandson on his mother’s side of Thomas Bassett, esquire and high sheriff of Miskin, Glamorganshire, and the son of a landed gentleman of the same county. He entered Jesus College, Oxford in 1634 and subsequently studied at the university of Franeker (in Friesland), where he could have pursued both medicine and alchemy, though it is in his work on English grammar some years later that he recalls the connection with his Dutch alma mater. 2 He may also have studied elsewhere on the continent, and he may even have taken a medical degree, though there is no record of his having practiced medicine. 3
