(Professor Dalloway)

Gabriel Garfagnini (see picture below) was born in 1114 in Italy. Garfagnini was a famous potioneer of his time. He became famous for his most important creation - the slow-acting venom that can kill Djinn Ghouls, colloquially known as the Lionheart Cure. You’ll find today that everything about Garfagnini is curious, mysterious and mystical!

Garfagnini family was one of the oldest and richest wizarding families in Italy, and they have descendants even in the present day. Gabriel was the youngest of eight children, all holders of magical powers. He grew up in a town called Altopascio, in the Province of Lucca in Italy. Altopascio was a town on the Via Francigena (see map on the right), an ancient road and pilgrim route running from France to Rome. Gabriel was more than used to see pilgrims coming and going to the Sancta Sedes or the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul… in fact, Garfagnini family gave shelter to countless pilgrims. You can easily imagine that these Pilgrims appeared tired, hungry, thirsty and most of the times with mild injuries on their feet. Though mild, those injuries could easily be infected, especially in those medieval times. You must remember that they didn’t have the medicinal knowledge we have nowadays. Curiously, the Garfagnini family, in order to treat Pilgrims, used Murtlap essence!

His family was closely related by marriages and alliances with the Canossa, a powerful family of Tuscany with muggle origins. Gabriel was a second line cousin of Matilda of Tuscany (Matilda of Canossa on the left), foundress of the Ordine di San Giacomo d'Altopascio (Order of Saint James of Altopascio) created around 1070-1080. In 1130, at sixteen years old, Gabriel joined his hometown religious order whose mission was the care of the sick. Gabriel gained practical experience working in the order’s Hospital. There, he developed an important knowledge of the human body and started studying plants’ medicinal properties and its uses in human diseases. Being a wizard, even though he had vowed (before entering in the religious order) that he would reject the use of a magical wand, he deepened and consolidated his knowledge about magical and mundane plants and potions, which in those times were often mistaken for unctions, balms, ointments or other home remedies.

Gabriel was living in a very troubled period. The Church had the leading power in those times and wanted to restore Christian access to the Holy Land, therefore, in 1091, Pope Urban II declared the First Crusade. Gabriel was not yet born when the First Crusade took place, but growing up so close to pilgrims and having such religious ties within his family, Gabriel kept nourishing the desire to participate in such a feat. Even though designated as a military religious order, the Order of Saint James of Altopascio never participated in the Crusades, limiting their scope of action to the care and protection of pilgrims in Italy. At some point, this was no longer enough for Garfagnini. In 1140 he left to France to join the Templars, a military religious order.

The Templars (see picture on the right) were known at that time for being an elite fighting force, closely connected with the Crusades, highly trained, well-equipped and highly motivated. In 1141, Gabriel initiated himself in the Templars as a monk. In 1144, Garfagnini became a Templar knight. Garfagnini fought in the Second Crusade (1147-1149) in the Siege of Ascalon in 1153. And finally… this is where Ghouls come into action! So… it was during the Second Crusade that Garfagnini created the slow-acting venom, which could be used to kill Djinn Ghouls.

Previously to the attack of Damascus in 1148 and after losing many brothers of arms because of the unexpected attacks of Djinn Ghouls that were being used as a weapon by the Saladin’s army, the miraculous potion was created. Two days before the Damascus attack, Garfagnini and his brothers in arms spread, through the alleys of Damascus, meat in an advanced state of decomposition (to avoid possible human consumption), he added portions of the venom to these pieces of meat, expecting that Djinn Ghouls would eat it - and they did! The result was not brilliant, because Djinn showed many signs of dizziness and weakness many hours before the battle allowing the Saladin’s army to reformulate their military strategy. Despite that, the truth is that when they finally attacked Damascus, there was not one single Djinn Ghoul alive. However, that advantage did not grant the Crusaders their victory and they returned home with nothing in their hands besides misdirected violence and slaughter. But… there is always a “but”, Garfagnini did not return to Europe in 1149, when the Second Crusade ended, instead, he and other Templar Knights stayed secretly in the Holy Land until 1153. It is unknown what they did there during that period, but conspiracies say that the Holy Grail or Graal is behind it.

But how did Garfagnini discover the potion’s formula? I told you before that Gabriel had great knowledge about plants and herbs, a knowledge he acquired from an early age. Adding to this, the loads of “intel” that the Templars had and everything he learnt while staying in the Holy Land, it is plausible that Garfagnini started working on a solution. None of the first attempts by Garfagnini worked because the key ingredient had yet not been added. I am referring to the fireseeds. The first drafts of the slow-acting venom made by Garfagnini included acromantula venom, moonseeds, adder’s fork, frog brains and pale poppy petals. Told by a captive soldier of Saladin that Djinn were dark creatures that only feared the light, Garfagnini started studying and searching for this key ingredient. He ended up discovering he could use fireseeds, but where to find them? Templars were a well-informed group, it took them some time, but eventually they were lead to an old hidden Alchemist underground chamber full with all sorts of the weirdest ingredients. There, Garfagnini found the fireseeds and for some time, this hidden chamber became the headquarters of the remaining Templars in the Holy Land. Garfagnini was able to create the last version formula for the slow-acting venom and test it. However, an upgraded version of this slow-acting venom would again be used in 1191 when Richard the Lionheart gave orders to apply it before the Siege of Acre. I said upgraded formula, because King Richard (son of the witch and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine) had the idea of adding cyanide to Garfagnini’s formula which, granting a slower action, allowed the effect on Djinn to go unnoticed by the Saladin’s army, who were sure of their victory, and causing a dreadful surprise when they noticed their killing weapons (Djinn) were getting burned from the inside. This brought victory to the Crusaders in the Siege of Acre which represented a turn in the Holy Land wars.

Nevertheless, it was during this period in the Alchemist’s chamber that the Templars came into contact with several journals, theories, alchemy experiences and formulas hidden in there and some of them related to what we now believe, that could be the Graal.

One fact is that Templars were indeed a very rich group. Common theories said this was mostly because their members came from the richest families of Europe and also from the grand support the Catholic Church gave to them… however, other theories… particularly magical theories, say that the richness behind the Templars was due to the possession of a stone that could generate gold. We all know that the Philosopher’s Stone only appeared later, but could this have been a first attempt? The question lingers on…

(Professor Rosenquist)

Alchemy is an old practice that has centuries and centuries of history behind it. As with any practice, there were goals set that were pretty common, no matter what region that practice is performed. One of the common goals that Alchemy was founded on was the ability to turn base metals into noble metals. The most known example would be the transmutation of lead into gold. To alchemists, gold is the king of all metals. It is a sign of great achievement, status, and wealth.

If you have taken my class in Year Two, you should know about my good friend Dzou Yen (see picture on your right). Dzou Yen was a Chinese alchemist who lived during the Spring and Autumn period of the Zhou Dynasty. He is credited as the first alchemist to transmute lead into gold. Dzou had devised this formula to successfully transmute base metals into noble metals. Unfortunately this formula was hard to recreate and it was eventually lost.
After Dzou Yen had died in 240 B.C.E., people were sent to search his home for the formula but they came up empty handed. What they didn’t know was that the formula was given to Dzou’s apprentice, Zardušt, otherwise known as Zartosht. Zartosht was from the Persian part of the Seleucid Empire. He heard news of Dzou Yen’s work and set off on a journey to China in hopes of becoming his apprentice. Days before he died, Dzou Yen gave Zartosht his transmutation formula and instructed him to keep it safe and never let it fall into the hands of evil.

Zartosht travelled to the Holy Land after Dzou Yen had died. He acquired a house and set up a hidden underground chamber to continue his master’s work. Despite being Dzou Yen’s apprentice, Zartosht wasn’t able to transmute the metals through the recipe alone. After several failed experiments, he realized that the process needed to be conducted through a more concentrated medium. This concentrated medium came in the form of a magical stone known as the Holy Grail.

It was not an easy process to create the Holy Grail. Zartosht spent years in his underground chamber trying to create the perfect stone that could transmute gold from iron, which he had an abundance of. Zartosht became more reclusive and stayed in the underground chamber the longer he worked on the stone. Eventually he succeeded at creating the Holy Grail. Zartosht acquired a fortune for the gold he produced using the stone. Unfortunately, he became consumed by greed and wanted to keep the Holy Grail and the riches it produced to himself so he hid the Holy Grail. Zartosht died in 214 B.C. after setting his house on fire as a selfish attempt to destroy all evidence of the Holy Grail.

During the 2nd Crusade, the Templars stumbled across this odd cave opening near the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River. They followed the tunnel until they reached what appeared to be the back entrance of Zartosht’s old chamber. The chamber was far enough underground that the house fire didn’t reach it. Zartosht had shelves and cabinets stocked full of ingredients and tools he used to brew elixirs. Papers were scattered around the room that contained various alchemical formulas and symbols. Zartosht even had a closet in the chamber that was said to contain gold piled up to the ceiling! The Templars found several journals full of notes written in Middle Persian. However one journal in particular contained various symbols that seemed to be associated more with Chinese Alchemy, a map with what seemed to be clues, and pages upon pages of sentences in a strange language the Templars had never seen before.

The chamber became sort of a headquarters for the Templars as they tried to decipher the journal. They were eventually able to translate it and it turned out that the journal was full of clues on how to find the Holy Grail along with the lost formula of transmuting iron into gold. The Templars set off on a journey to find the Holy Grail. After many difficult trials and tribulations, the Templars found the Holy Grail and returned to Europe with it.

Garfagnini visited Alain de Lille (a French alchemist and theologian, see picture on the right) in 1153 to see if he could help him understand the stone’s power better and whether there was a chance of replicating the stone. Alain de Lille was puzzled by the Graal because nothing like it had been made before. This was at least 200 years before the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone. Plus, the Holy Grail differs from the Philosopher’s Stone as it only produces gold whereas the Philosopher’s Stone can do that along with several other functions such as the ability to cure any disease or create the Elixir of Life. The formula Zartosht hid was the instructions on how to activate the stone. I believe Garfagnini and Alain de Lille were able to figure out the formula, however they could not duplicate the stone. In fact, no one knows what happened to the Holy Grail and the formula after that. It hasn’t been found after these events and no documentation of its whereabouts exist. It’s simply a mystery yet to be solved.

(Professor Dalloway)
Well to conclude this mystical story, let me add that Gabriel Garfagnini died in 1212 in the Convent of the Order of Christ (see picture on the left) in a small village in Portugal called Tomar. This convent was the stronghold for the Knights Templar and for many scholars, Portugal is known as the Port of the Graal. Just a final note, the slow-acting venom to kill Djinn Ghouls was named after King Richard I and his victory in the Siege of Acre, in 1191. Already in Tomar, Garfagnini baptized his slow-acting venom as Lionheart Cure.