Perenelle Flamel
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Perenelle Flamel (1320–1412) was the wife of the famous 15th century alchemist Nicholas Flamel. Perenelle is believed to have been a widow when she married Nicolas Flamel at the age of 30. Perenelle was also an alchemist in her own right and assisted her husband in his experiments. Some believe she was also a powerful sorceress. She was a generous benefactor who invested a part of their wealth in the building of hospitals, schools and churches for the poor. Perenelle, like her husband, has had a street in Paris, France named after her, Rue Perenelle.
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[edit] Life
There are very few confirmed details about Perenelle's place of birth and early life. She was believed to be a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. There are discrepancies in opinion to the number of marriages that she may have had prior to marrying Nicholas, with no husband(s) names verifiable. The spelling of her name varies in different translations of Nicholas Flamel's writings. It appears as Perrenelle, Petronelle, and also as Pernelle.
Like her husband, she was a devout Roman Catholic. Nicholas acknowledged that she had been painted on the door of the Chapel of St. James of the Boucherie praying at the feet of St.John as she had often done. Nicholas was an alchemist whose central quest was the search for the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life that would supposedly make a person immortal. However, Perenelle was a serious alchemist in her own right, and readily worked with her husband on the alchemical quest as his partner. It was supposedly Perenelle's nephew to whom Nicholas Flamel passed down the knowledge that he had gained from the book of Abraham the Mage (also known as The Codex), but when his descendants were later questioned about the inheritance, they seemed to have said they did not have any of the Flamel's books or his knowledge. Perenelle is reported to have died before Nicholas, and that is supported by remarks in his own writings to her nephew.
[edit] Death
Just as contentious as the amount of marriages she may or may not have had prior to her marriage to Nicholas, is the year of her death, with supportive arguments for a range of dates beginning from 1402 and extending to as late as 1418.
From one translation of Nicholas' writings, he is said to say:
"When I wrote this comment in the year 1413, the end of the year after the death of my faithful companion..."—Nicholas Flamel
Which would indicate her year of death to be 1412.
[edit] Perenelle in Fiction
Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel feature in the novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by British author J.K. Rowling. In the novel, Perenelle was born in around 1333 and lived for 658 years by drinking the Elixir of Life, dying sometime in 1992, when the Philosopher's Stone was destroyed.
Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel are two of the central characters in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by Irish author Michael Scott: Perenelle is the titular character of The Sorceress: The Secrets Of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel — "The Sorceress is Perenelle Flamel." According to Scott, Perenelle is the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter.
