The former chateau of Ignaz von Born in Staré Sedliště near Tachov

The now defunct chateau in Staré Sedliště was owned by the mineralogist, montanologist, chemist, Freemason and tireless supporter of scientific life, the knight Ignaz von Born (1742–1791), from 1769 to 1782. Although he only spent a few years living full-time at the chateau, it became his intellectual refuge, particularly associated with his research in the fields of mineralogy and chemistry. 

Ignaz von Born purchased the chateau in Staré Sedliště in 1769, but did not spend most of his time living there until 1772. After he had reconstructed it, it contained an extensive library, a theatre, and a botanical garden around the chateau. Born’s large mineralogical and geological collection was also located in Staré Sedliště. There, Born worked intensively on cataloguing his collection, which included 3 592 minerals, 288 rocks and 714 fossils. He based his mineralogical classification on the following botanical categories: class, order, genus and species, while in the first part of his catalogue (1772) he lists four classes – soils and stones, salts, flammable minerals and metals; in the second part (1775) he added another two classes – rocks and fossils. The characteristics of the origin of minerals were also important to Born and he studied so-called matrices, i.e. vein, overlying and underlying rocks. Born based his classification of minerals not only on their exterior attributes, but also on their inner characteristics, particularly chemical. He initially worked with phlogiston theory, although in the 1780s he accepted the results of A. L. Lavoisier’s oxidation chemistry (although this discovery was not made until 1777). The collection was considered to be the finest in Europe. In 1775 Born sold it to a buyer in England. His two catalogues served as the basis for subsequent mineralogical systematization. Born owned the chateau in Staré Sedliště until 1782, but from 1776 he lived and worked in Vienna.

Hamann, G.: Ignaz von Born und seine Zeit. In: Fettweis, G. B., Hamann, G.: Über Ignaz von Born und die Societät der Bergbaukunde. Wien 1989, s. 11–23.

Haubelt, J.: Studie o Ignáci Bornovi. Praha 1972. 

Kroupa, J.: Alchymie štěstí. Brno 2006.

Lindner, D.: Ignaz von Born – Meister der Wahren Eintracht. Wiener Freimauererei im 18.Jh. Wien 1986.

Zellweker, E.: Das Urbild des Sarastro. Ignaz von Born. Wien 1953.

(Author: )

(Author: )