Alchemy, as far as was permitted laid bare,
or Arcane Concordance, for all candidates of Alchemy.

to all candidates of Alchemy,
before they undertake the most difficult physical work with life at stake,
or at least with their goods and reputation in danger,
according to the pious admonitions of the Adepts, most necessary,
by a retired priest of the Order of St Benedict,
for the City of God against the City of Babylon.



Translated to English from the book:
ALCHIMIE. Cod. 35/34 - BASILIUS MATZKE. „Alchymia quantum licuit denudata ... a sacerdote jubilato O. S. B. pro civitate dei contra civitatem Babylonicam … conscripta.“ ist das Produkt der beinahe 50 Jahre andauernden alchimistischen Studien des P. Basilius Matzke. Die Abschrift mit Federzeichnungen wurde von P. Placidus Sartore angefertigt.

after many years of alchemical study and very many attempts made at the matter, especially indeed through divine illuminations, with only those things reserved which can be revealed only to a pious friend under the necessary conditions, written in the briefest and most orderly way.

Blessed is the rich man who has not gone after gold, who could have transgressed and did not transgress; therefore his goods are established in the Lord, and the whole Church of the Saints will recount his alms.
Ecclesiasticus, ch. 31.

The wise man will seek out the wisdom of all the ancients and will give himself to the prophets. He will preserve the accounts of men of renown, and will at the same time enter into the subtleties of parables.
In the same book, ch. 39.

Chapter 1.

On the requisites closest to the Philosopher’s Stone,
without which no genuine transmutation of imperfect metals,
much less of base things, into silver or gold can be brought about.

1.

According to Arnold of Villanova, (of that most ancient original Chemistry, most painstakingly, yet hitherto in vain, attacked by Kircher, the first master in Europe), the proximate matter to be taken for working out the Philosopher’s Stone is that which consists in minerals, from which silver and gold are produced by nature.

2.

From these the seeds of silver and of gold are to be carefully drawn forth by art, which consist in a water that does not wet the hands, and in an incombustible oil floating upon the water.

3.
To draw these out, various menstruums are required, to be produced from choice materials indicated in the hieroglyphic table of Trithemius and Basil Valentine:
these are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra also, Scorpio, the Bow-bearer, the Boar, the Amphora, Pisces.




Translator: This same emblem is found in the book: "The Golden Tract Concerning The Stone of the Philosophers" from the compilation of The Hermetic Museum Volume 1


4.

Among these materials, the one most necessary is at the same time most deeply hidden, revealed only enigmatically by the Sibyl; this revelation is found in the Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa of Jacob Manget, vol. I, p. 55.

5.

As the foundation of the whole of alchemy, all the Hermetic philosophers assign that saying of the Emerald Tablet: “that which is below is as that which is above,” whereby the sympathy between the firmaments above and [the things] below is indicated, inasmuch as they are produced from the same primordial Chaos.

Chapter 2

On the Labours of Hercules.

§ I.
For obtaining the water that does not wet the hands.

6.

From Aries, Taurus, and quicklime let nitre be produced.

7.

From Gemini, by means of the animal magnet, let the spirit be drawn off by distillation to dryness, the dead head meanwhile being preserved, through a portion of the magnet it must be rectified, if any red drops have passed over. This must always be observed in similar cases.

8.

The spirit, having been distilled, is again to be drawn off by distilling from the mine of common salt. Let this operation be repeated until the spirit of salt predominates over the fixed spirit from Gemini.

Note. If this point of transcension be omitted, neither in natural things nor in spiritual is the perfection that can be attained in this life obtained.

9.

Let rectified spirit of wine be drawn off by distillation from tartar calcined to whiteness.

10.

Let the spirit of salt, with this spirit of wine, the point of transcension being observed, be mixed, and brought to a better union and let the union be rectified.

By means of this spirit the First Tincture is easily extracted from the dead head, no. 7.

11.

Take rectified generous wine in double proportion to the Gemini, and by means of the vegetable magnet, by distilling draw off the spirit to dryness, and from it extract the Second Tincture by means of the First Tincture.

12.

By means of half of the spirit of vinegar from the Sibylline ore, let the mercurial part be drawn off by distillation, the spirit being distilled repeatedly until the spirit of vinegar is sweetened; and let the dead head be preserved.

13.

Finally, by this last spirit let the mercurial part still remaining be drawn off from Aries by distillation of the volatile [part], the better, the more often it is taken from another portion of Aries which still retains it. — The dead head is again to be kept.

14.

From the mineral magnet, reduced to powder, and with the last spirit let a little pulp (paste) be made. As it dries, the plumules that grow are to be plucked off and kept in a dry state, until by repeated sproutings a sufficient quantity of these plumules has been taken off.

From these little plumules, with the very easiest handling, is obtained

The Water that does not wet the hands.

It is not from common mercury, as Barhavius vainly attempted, nor from the regulus of antimony hardened with iron, as the very author of this, Suchtenus, admits and prudence dictates.

§ II.

for obtaining the incombustible oil.

15.

With the other half of the spirit of vinegar (see no. 12) let Hungarian vitriol be dissolved. From this red solution, when it has been filtered, the spirit is to be drawn off, the mineral magnet being applied, as above. Then let the Third Tincture be extracted from it by means of the Second.

16.

From the dead head of the Bow-bearer let the Fourth Tincture be extracted by means of the Third.

17.

From the dead head of the Sibylline ore let the Fifth Tincture be extracted by means of the Fourth.

18.

Let the Fifth Tincture be precipitated through the Egg of the Philosophers, all moisture being drawn off by distillation.

19.

The moisture that has been drawn off is to be graduated by fixed salt of nitre, as far as can be done.

20.

Let the spirit of vinegar vitriolized in no. 15, with an equal measure of spirit of nitre added, be rectified to a better union.

21.

By means of this, the Fifth Tincture, which was precipitated, is to be revived.

22.

Into a tubulated retort let the graduated moisture of no. 19 be put; without applying any external heat, let a small quantity of the revived tincture be carefully dropped in, little by little. A great fermentation arises, and the necessary liquor will pass over into the luted receiver, and must meanwhile be carefully preserved. The instillation is to be continued until the fermentation ceases.

23.

In the cooled retort most beautiful crystals grow, to be multiplied by a further dephlegmation. The moisture, however, which passes over, if it is not liquorous, is not to be mixed with the preceding liquor.

24.

From a suitable magnet let the black oil of juniper be drawn off by distillation. Let it be rectified many times through another retort and another portion of the magnet, until, deprived of combustible earth, it passes over clear and white.

25.

Lastly, by distilling let it be drawn off from the crystals of no. 23, until by repeated cohobation it has taken on a purple colour, and in the retort there remains pure white earth.

26.

In the final stage let it be distilled with the liquor of no. 22.

From this distillate, with very easy handling, there will be obtained an incombustible purple oil, floating on ordinary water, not viscous, of no taste or smell, and thus of mercurial quality. Without it only sophistical (counterfeit) gold can be obtained, whose monetary use, by decree of John XXI, according to the opinion of the Angelic Doctor and of all Adepts, is rightly forbidden under severe penalties.

This purple oil is potable gold of at least the lowest class, a quintessence appropriated to the vegetative powers of the soul, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral. It relieves the most serious diseases, otherwise incurable, not only for a brief and slight time, but radically, and indeed with the same operation heals contrary diseases, just as the sun with one and the same heat quickens, ripens, and disposes the seeds of plants, though utterly contrary, for their propagation.

Note. Except for the very lightest manipulations, all the works hitherto described are labours of Hercules, for the accomplishment of which it is not so much my old age as the straitness of my monastic condition that makes me unequal.

§ III.

On Jason’s labour, truly childish and old-womanish.

To be noted beforehand

1°. By this expression very many who are eager for the gold-bearing art deceive themselves, persuading themselves that this whole arcanum is a matter of very easy business, though they do not possess, much less read, the vast alchemical books from which even the theory alone is learned with the greatest difficulty.

2°. If, in the subterranean world, the mineral earth were not reduced into little drops by putrid rain-water and immediately fixed by the fetid and defiling smoke of burning sulphur, as in fact happens in native silver, but if this were done by the water that does not wet the hands and by the incombustible oil, then the mineralogy of Philosophy, that is Nature, would furnish us with living gold, that is, the wax-like Philosopher’s Stone, which Nature has hitherto left for us to work out. Here that saying is most fully verified: where Nature ends, there art begins.

27.

Therefore, by means of the water that does not wet the hands, leaf-silver is to be reduced by grinding into a powder in the usual way splendid powder. Here it is again to be rectified by grinding with the incombustible oil until it attains a purple colour.

Note. This powder would suffice to turn into gold ten times as much common mercury; but gold of this sort, because of its excessive softness and too great an alloy, would need to be multiplied with danger of sophisticating it. Therefore ordinary gold must first be fermented by the living [gold] according to the method of Arnold of Villanova.

28.

Therefore, let living gold wrapped in wax be cast upon four times its weight of common pure gold heated in a crucible. Let it be covered with a lid and on all sides buried in coals. When the fire has gone out and the crucible has cooled, let the gold be removed. Let this fermented gold be reduced to a powder, and let the powder, wrapped in wax, be thrown upon ten times as much common mercury in a crucible that has been somewhat heated. After this, proceed as in the fermentation of gold.

The most rigorous assay test will prove that the mercury has been transmuted into ordinary gold, and that with a ten-fold profit.

§ IV.

On the multiplication, both intensive and extensive, of fermented gold, through the ingenuity and wisdom of Jason, greatest among the wise men of old.

29.

If, upon the whole mercury made golden, one quarter part of living gold were cast in due proportion, and thus fermented upon ten times its amount of lead, all the lead would be turned into gold, with a hundred-fold profit of better gold, and it would be mercurial.

30.

If, upon all the gold-made lead, a quarter part of living gold were again projected, and thus fermented upon ten times as much tin, all the tin would now be turned into gold, with a thousand-fold profit in better gold than when it was lead. But …

Conclusion

I keep silence about many and far greater matters, mindful of the fate of Trithemius and Roger Bacon. I am very content with the liberty of the children of God, and I rejoice that through this my Concordance I have been of very great help to pious and wise candidates of Alchemy; and, as far as possible, also to common folk desirous of the gold-making art, so that, just as I have already greatly benefited them, I may likewise be able to benefit them in future, lest, with their own possessions squandered, they should in the end become destitute namely of Alchemy: by which, by the king of Tyre, the Cherubim of the Temple of Solomon were made; which (Art) has been attested by the sacred letters of the most holy Pontiffs, and especially by Raymond Lull, martyr of the Church, and by a huge number of most excellent Doctors, and for me most lately by the fusion of steel; yea, it has been confirmed by judgments published with public authority.

Therefore, and with good reason, I still give no answer to my opponents, but refer them to the Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa of Jacob Manget, and especially to the works of Raymond Lull, published at Mainz in the preceding century.

Nor do you approve it only in passing, but with a well-founded and considered judgment;
and the Artist whom the Adepts foretell is, in subtle fashion, not far away.

Who by a pious use of riches will overcome their evil use;
who will provide for the pious Prince an army most excellently devout, fighting solely for the glory of God, after the manner of the Maccabees, without any fear, ardently, on account of the first resurrection, which beatifies souls, who will fight, under the most powerful assistance of God, for the first resurrection that blesses souls, and will overthrow the City of Babylon.

Then the remaining merchants will mourn, as in Apocalypse 18.

There will flourish, under one Shepherd, one fold. The envy of the devil will rage because of the happiness of the City of God far more than because of Job’s own happiness. For his greater confusion he will be allowed by God to put forward his last argument through Antichrist; and to this Christ, appearing visibly in the clouds, will reply to the citizens of Babylon with effect.

Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. Matthew 25:41.