PHILOSOPHIA SALOMONIS
or: Secret Cabinet of Nature and Art
of the wise King Solomon,
revealed by the so-called Great and Little Farmer,
true possessors of the Royal Stone.

Augsburg, 1753.
[Published] with the heirs of the late Johann Jacob Lotter.



Translated from the book:
Philosophia Salomonis, oder Geheimes Cabinet der Natur und Kunst des weisen Königes Salomons : eröffnet durch den sogenannten grossen und kleinen Bauer, wahren Besitzern des königlichen Steins

Hermes.
In the higher sphere, in the midst, is the vein of the fountain this is the philosophers’ first rule.

Arros.
All metals, with respect to purity, are of the same substance; they differ only by impurity and by greater or lesser digestion.

Preface.

To the Christian reader beforehand, God’s grace.

Although in alchemical matters since, as you should know, these are not my profession I have never concerned myself with hands-on operations; yet I have nevertheless to a right knowledge of the true powers of the creatures of Almighty God affords no small pleasure and delight. For when I, at times out of necessity at other times also for enjoyment read through some little philosophical book, I nevertheless observe this much from it: that in every thing there is something more than the four elements, and that these are only a receptacle or dwelling of an indwelling, heavenly, imperishable, solely operative spirit and fifth essence. Furthermore, that in the Philosophers’ Stone there lie such superabundant and incredible secrets as are beyond all human understanding.

Thus it is quite easy to set forth, to persuade and to prove indeed, as it were, to point with the finger the true certainty of the most praiseworthy Order of the R. C. For if such lofty secrets are hidden in Nature (of which I wish to indicate only a few) and become known to God-fearing hearts, why then, by virtue of Christian love, should they not have and practise a godly brotherhood among themselves?

Master Petrus Bonus Lombardus in his Margarita preciosa novella, ch. 6, so thinks; the same is testified by St. Augustine in the Summa confessionum, and by other most enlightened and godly men besides, namely that the wise man and foremost in the saving faith next to all the other heathens stands Plato, who lived more than 300 years before the birth of our Redeemer and Saviour Jesus Christ, and who has described in the holy Gospel of the holy Evangelist and Apostle John, chap. 1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was [etc.],” in such order down to, “There was a man sent from God [etc.].”

Whence this science came to Plato, and that the holy John kept such formalia verbo tenus (word for word), let each man consider. The cited Margarita assigns it to the Philosophers’ Stone; and, in my judgment, not without reason, as will appear from the following points and from other books, more may certainly be inferred.

In the Revelation of the Secrets of Alchemy, made public by M. Henricus Vogelius, pastor at Lützelstein, you will find in book 4, chap. 7, that the heathen recognized the Creator from the creature; that they perceived an image of the Holy Trinity (three distinct Persons) in one single, inseparable Essence as Lombardus likewise attests in chap. 13 and that this can readily be demonstrated by common alchemical operations. He further reports that the heathen, by the Light of Nature, came to know that God’s Son would become Man; that a Virgin would be Mother; that Jesus Christ has a twofold birth one from eternity, the other in time and other points concerning His person besides.

Item: that man is the little world; that original sin is inborn in him; that there is only one Mediator between God and men, who redeemed the human race by His suffering and death; that human strength and doing are nothing, but God’s Word is powerful and salutary; that God works mightily through means; that good works follow of themselves and without compulsion; and that man becomes a partaker of the holy body and blood of Jesus Christ; how man is born, dies, and rises again, that God will create a new heaven and a new earth, etc.

Of the visible manifestation of the creation of heaven and of the earth, and of all that is therein as well as many other very lofty secrets without number you will find in this little book. Read alongside it concerning this Harmonia Luminis Gratiae & Naturae; the Fama and Confessio of the Most-Illuminated Brotherhood of the R.C.; M. Valentin Weigel; Philippe de Mornay, De veritate religionis Christianae; Mutio Pansa, De osculo Ethnicae & Christianae Religionis; Franciscus Tidicaeus, Microcosmus; Alexander von Suchten, etc. And although these are in part matters of faith and conscience, articles of knowledge from the revealed Word of God the Book of Grace stand plainly before our eyes.

Now the Almighty God has also written this same image into the Book of Nature, that is, into heaven and earth and all that is in them, so that these two books agree together, as is clear as day. How then could Nature, the fairest of creatures, be contrary to God the Lord, in which the Creator has taken such great delight and by which He still daily works according to His good pleasure?

Thus it is quite possible for the heathen, by this natural book and by God’s blessing, to come to the Book of Grace, as also without any doubt the philosopher-magi, or Wise Men from the East, were guided first by the means of natural light, and afterwards by the supernatural appearance of the star to Bethlehem. Why then should anyone still doubt what the godly brethren of the R.C. set forth, with whom the wisest King Solomon and the ancient sages, as well as certain moderns such as the Echo of the Fraternity, Julianus de Campis, etc. agree?

Further, consider in the Wonder-Book of God, namely the Holy Bible, Exod. 28, what the Urim and Thummim were in the breastplate of Aaron of the high priest.

Likewise, how the holy priests consulted the Lord by means of it: as in 1 Samuel 23 and 30, David inquired of the LORD by the Urim; and in chap. 28 Saul laments that the Lord answered him neither by dreams, nor by the Urim, nor by the prophets.

Mark also how Moses burned the incombustible gold (Exod. 32); how the same comes to be from a small powder of earth (4 Esdr. 8); how the same becomes transparent like glass (Apoc. 21). Consider how fire became a thick water (2 Macc. 1). Weigh, whether not by the holy blood of Jesus Christ which flowed upon the accursed earth that the same earth was sanctified again.

Consider also how the creatures, against their will subjected to vanity, long for their deliverance, groan and rejoice (Rom. 8). But enough of this for the present only be not a “foolish salt,” nor of a hardened heart.

As to these little treatises: the first two, as is stated within, were written by a Doctor of Law; understand also that their titles are The Peasant (the Greater and the Lesser), and that this one is Lilium inter spinas. The other version indeed appeared earlier, but very faulty, incorrect, and by half omitted, as you will find on comparing it; its author, in a Latin copy he is called Franciscus Grellius.

Therefore, kindly reader, be pleased for this time to accept this; and if I perceive that my diligence meets with your approval, I shall see to it that yet more splendid things of the same kind come to light.
With this I commend you to the grace of God.

---

Opened Casket

of Nature’s greatest secret.

First: The Great Peasant / Farmer.

The prospering from Him who is the Beginning and the End.

The holy Apostle James says, chap. 1: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, from the Father of lights, with whom is neither change nor shadow of turning.”

Paul says, 1 Cor. 3: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gives the increase.”

Alanus Phil.: Son, set thy heart more upon God than upon the Art, for it is a gift of God, and to whom He will He shares it; therefore have rest and joy in God, and thou hast the Art.

Alphidius: Son, thou shouldst know that thou canst not come to this Art unless thou hast first cleansed thy heart and mind toward God and hast been heartily reconciled with Him; when thereupon God sees that thou art of an upright and well-meaning disposition, then by grace He will let you rule over this Art.

Dionys. Zach. fol. 69: It befits you first, with patience and constancy, to read the philosophers untiringly before you stretch out your hand to the work; always ask God for His grace and help. For no one comes to this Art through luck or without danger rather through prayer than through other means, though means must indeed be used.

Rex magnus et Philosophus Hermes, in the book De unitate entis:
“Turn yourself wholly to that which is above you; raise the keys of your understanding toward the radiance of the higher Substance. Then with your eyes you will unceasingly behold its ineffable and lofty beauties, and another light that surpasses all lights.

You will marvel and make no account of all the works of the world; in your heart you will wish for and long after death before its due time; you will chasten and mortify your body; beyond this you will deny and hate your very soul; you will praise the King of kings and God of glory with fair hymns of praise. And the Word of the Father which has so greatly loved us and is the Father’s heart we should worship and love with all our heart and soul, wonder at so great a treasure and glorify Him, so that at last we may be deemed worthy of fellowship with God and be filled through Him with grace to whom be praise and honor for ever and ever. Amen.”

These testimonies or proofs I have set down here so that no one should get it into his head to bring the matter about by himself (by whatever means). No before all else God must be prayed to for it, since it is the highest thing that God has created next after the human soul; and this [soul] is a mirror of all things above and below, wherein God’s nature may be sufficiently seen as in a mirror. It is the mercury of life, without which no man, animal, or plant can live; on this read Clangor buccinae, fol. 475 at the beginning, fol. 468 at the end, [and] fol. 474 at the end.

Therefore, my dear friend and brother in Christ Jesus whoever you may be, to whom I entrust this secret out of Christian love keep God before your eyes; read the philosophers, not the writings of the sophists; work with patience; you will behold wonders. If you obtain it, misuse it not, or God’s punishment will follow you at the heels. Be truly silent. For this cause I charge you for your welfare, and you shall give account of it on the Last Day. Amen.

The most mighty and most wise king Geber writes (ch. 1, part 1 of the Summa perfectionis): whoever does not understand the initial foundations and causes of metallic growth is already far removed from our art, for he has no firm root on which to found and establish the certainty of his undertaking. The excellent philosopher Arnold of Villanova also confirms this in the following words:

Whoever does not understand or know the root of the minerals as compounded by Nature does not understand the first and natural beginning of their growth; it follows that he understands the Art even less. For the excellent magus and philosopher Aristotle the chemist likewise says that such a man will by necessity never attain the end of these matters. These thorough admonitions of the most wise men serve our intent and undertaking well.

For when he there speaks of the materials of the blessed Stone as the Rosarium maius, fol. 219, explains he says that all error springs from this: that the true ground and origin of the genuine materials of the Stone are hidden from them and sealed. And from this (he goes on) it follows that he who does not know the right beginning will never reach the desired end. For he who does not know what he is seeking also does not know what he will find. Therefore all who seek without a true foundation must doubt and flounder until God Almighty shows them other means which seldom happens.

Now since all the philosophers faithfully warn and admonish everyone who undertakes to prepare himself for this high divine art and mystery to take serious heed to the series, course, or progress of Nature how Nature is and proceeds, which the artist must follow like an ape for Art cannot create or make anything in the fundamental beginning.

No: it is already made by Nature; nor does it need to be made (as we shall see later). He is no master but a servant of Nature, for he must serve Nature and come to its aid. For Nature cannot so quickly separate the impure from the pure within the earth as the artist can outside it; therefore the outward, stinking sulphur must be separated from the true kernel as will follow.

Therefore I would insist that we follow the faithful warnings of the philosophers, namely how Nature generates and bears the metals in the earth, which every true artist must follow. For all the philosophers call after Nature; and every thing brings forth its like and loves its like.

And Hermes, king and philosopher, [teaches that] nothing foreign what has not sprung from, or been composed with, the metallic matter has power to compel the metals or to change or transmute them. Count Bernhard likewise shows (fol. 20): every substance chiefly has its own proper seed from which it springs forth, and the same is increased by seed alone and by no other. And he adds (fol. 21) that thus also the metals are born and multiplied by seed.

Before I treat this point along with the requisites or things belonging to it, I think it best first to take up the whole series in general, and thereafter each thing in particular according to the order of contents, which I am bound to describe; for from the generalities the particulars can the more easily be recognized and considered.

But first of all, in describing this high Art and divine wisdom which, figuratively, is a secret of natural philosophy one must take heed and observe this: the subject, the matter or chaos impurum as the philosophers call it, which Nature has brought in the earth into a metallic form but has left imperfect, must be painstakingly cleansed by the artist without heat.

For as soon as the outward warmth is greater than that which is within, the metallic spirit at once flees out, and cannot be brought to act in dead bodies; as one sees in all metals they are all dead, because their life in the fire has escaped and flown away. Therefore they are without power and efficacy.

The whole first operation or action up to the composition or conjunction is nothing else than that the matter must be sublimed, that is, made subtle (as will be discussed below); as Hermes says: “Make the coarse subtle.” And herein many points occur which the philosophers, for the sake of the unlearned, have set under special headings: purificatio, sublimatio, solutio, mundificatio, subtiliario, etc.

Yet at bottom it is nothing else than a cleansing of the remaining sulphurous foulness, and then a dissolution of the body, so that it becomes the salt of the metals, be brought to the salt of the metals or into the philosophical water. When this has been cleansed to the utmost, it is so fair, pure, and virtuous indeed far more so (for the spirit of its life is still in it, which common gold or silver lack) than common gold or silver can ever be.

Now when this purified mercury, or salt of the metals, is set with its like, then first the water, or mercury, strives to dissolve the earth, so that the earth may come into the subtlety of the water. This happens when the nature and property of the water have enclosed and overcome the earth. Afterwards the earth begins again to grow in the water, rising and falling; it is then brought to thickness and so fixed that thereafter it remains constant in every fire this occurs as soon as the property of the water is overcome.

A very great part of our mastery lies in the dissolution of the body or corporeal mass in the water (yet all this happens only when the composition has been accomplished), which the philosophers call putrefaction, a rotting or corruption. Without this, the circular change of the metals, one into another, cannot come to pass (Zach., fol. 78, also bears witness to the cause); for the destruction of the one is the generation of the other especially when such putrefaction or corruption and generation have their origin and beginning from one single ground.

For all metals spring from one root, as will be set forth at length. The Stone of the Wise arises from a small thing, and yet from it there comes the noblest treasure namely from the sperma or seed of our gold, which, through the conjunction or coupling, is cast into the womb of Mercury; and this is then the nearest matter from which such high and precious treasure proceeds.

The very nearest materia (understand: when Nature first lifts the due portion into the earth) is the natural or seminal moisture, which from both parts, or from both parents, is raised up in their conjunction and cohabitation unto generation; for only such seminal moisture or vapour of body and of spirit are the essential parts of the lapis or stone. Thus also from two natures the third must be born one standing in the place of the agent or begetter, the other in the place of the patient or suffering thing in their working together.

From this it follows incontrovertibly that one must lixiviate, draw forth, and take the subject or the matter of the Elixir, or of the highest medicine that is to change the imperfect metals and make them perfect, from the vilest things which take their origin from the fountains or springs of the first minerals; and it can be taken from no other thing in the world than from the mineral ore (minera), from which all metals grow and have their origin, are to be made.

From what all metals have their first origin will, in a special account of the birth of the metals, suitably follow; for it is the will and final opinion of all the philosophers that we should take only the inward, true, pure, and simple elements, and cook and boil them with a cool, moist warmth. And they say: if it be done in any other way, it is of no use.

They also say: Take the most pure, freshest, clearest, nearest and best thing from or out of our metallic ores; raise it up to the tops of the mountains, or to the firmament of heaven, and bring it down again to its roots then all is accomplished, and thus you have found the rectification of the One Thing. How this proceeds will afterwards be reported and explained in a special explication or narration of the points of sublimation.

Further: whoever wishes with profit to seek or accomplish the Tincture of the wise must first recognize the root of the minerals; out of this the high work must be effected, for the knowledge of bodies and of the origin of natures is the thing that makes the thing easy. Thus this Tincture or Medicine may also, most fitly, conveniently, and preferably, be taken from corporeal things which Nature has already brought into a metallic form or shape things which agree with the same nature and correspond with one another.

This point shall afterwards be sufficiently explained in the philosophers’ sayings, will be explained and shown; and truly such a Tincture is to be sought and found both in bodies and in the spirits of nature, since both are found to be of one and the same nature and property only that the said tincture is obtained from bodies with more difficulty, and from spirits more easily and more readily, though not more perfectly for preparing upon the imperfect metal.

For the white way, as also the red, both proceed from one root and foundation, namely from that ferment or agent which is added to our Mercury; as Morienus testifies: from one thing the work of the white indeed earlier than that of the red is completed and established; for it is only one stone and one operation, which by fire and cooking in a vessel is slowly and gently digested and brought to a fixed and incombustible white or red stone.

But this also is necessary: one must and shall take the form or figure of the Great Elixir from the power of its nearest materials, in which it has been set and hidden by Nature.

It must likewise be observed that no foreign waters or powders are to enter into the composition of the Stone in the secunda operatione (Zach., fol. 103). For a thing accords best with that which is most nearly akin to it and of its own nature and property; and if something foreign be added to it, then at the end of the work there will not come forth what one had supposed, but everything will take on another form and effect.

For no true generation of a thing can occur unless it proceeds from something that is of its own nature and property. Nature allows herself to be neither changed nor bettered except within her own nature; Nature delights in her own nature; Nature requires, or has an appetite for, her own nature; she embraces it, unites herself with it, rightly governs it, consorts with it, brings it forth, changes it, overcomes it, keeps it with herself, renews it, multiplies it, makes it white and red, tinges it, and exalts her very own nature and essence so testifies Bernard, Count of Treviso, and other philosophers.

Furthermore, it is especially necessary that the grosser earthly parts of the elements through which the [matter] is burned and spoiled be removed by artificial preparation or separation and be wholly divided from the pure metallic substance. Otherwise the metallic body, because of the impurity that befalls it from a natural defect, cannot well be resolved and opened. Therefore the metallic form must be taken away; and this is done by gentle boiling and digestion, by dissolving and coagulating, so that you may bring it to the pure quintessence, to a clear mercurial water or crystalline salt of the metals, which is nothing else than a purified sulphur that does not burn because it is only the pure natural warmth into which the natural moisture is poured in.

Then the fire, made mild, has this nature and property: that it joins together the parts that belong together ever more closely and securely per minima that is, it most inwardly permeates and binds water with water and it destroys the lower, baser parts yet further, utterly consumes them, and transmutes and changes them into a very true ash.

And moreover, the innermost, clear and purest substance which from the beginning has been implanted in Nature’s first root must be brought into the outermost by separating the accidental, corrupting parts; that is, you should bring the inward, hidden thing into the light and cast away and destroy the outward, for it is of no use.

Therefore the philosophers will have it that one must bring the outermost into the innermost and the innermost into the outermost then one has the Art; that is, that one remove, by the special skill of the artist, the coarse, earthly, combustible, sulphurous part which appears in the outermost part of the materials; and that one bring the innermost, clear and pure substance which at the beginning was shut up in the inmost root of Nature into the outermost by separating the accidental, corrupting parts; that you bring what is inward and hidden to the light, and cast away and destroy the outward, for it is of no use.

This is easy and quite possible for an experienced artist, since the inward of every thing always stands contrary and opposed to its outward in quality and property; and there is one process for such contrary things when they are set one against the other, they are the more recognized and shine forth.

The philosophical art needs no special road (as many suppose), namely, that for this art one must make a new gold or silver, for Nature herself is accustomed to bring this forth in the passages of the earth; and thus the artist needs nothing more than, as an instrument and tool, to destroy and remove by means of our Mercury the form of the philosophical Sun or Moon when he wishes to begin the work, and so to set Nature in motion in the solution of the composite, so that by the artificial fire they may be awakened again and return from the dead to life.

But in the artificial cooking of the imperfect body it is necessary that the outward, moveable heat be so maintained in due proportion that it does not in the least exceed the inward working heat the power and virtue which makes perfect either too much or too little (as shall be set forth in its place). For if there is too much heat, the spirit of life flees away and leaves its body behind; if there is too little warmth, it will not stir itself to life or growth.

For the inward [part] is a pure, fiery, sulphurous, incombustible essence which, as it is, may be called the Light of Nature; for it is the sheen and form of all metals, which enlightens and perfects all bodies. And if the artist does not perceive this light, he can err miserably before he comes to the truth. For such a light cannot be seen unless the hidden be set into the light and the elements reversed.

Therefore Hermes says: Our spirit, which makes all the bodies of the metals alive, and which is also a natural fire, cannot be seen unless it be revealed to a man by the Spirit of God, or by a living man and declared to him. And such attainment comes about because there is only a single way to this Art; for everything that is good, says Rosarius, and is to become good, is prepared and made by one only way (although one man may use more procedures and means than another in the first operation or action which all takes place before the composition or conjunction yet after the conjunction one must again commit it to Nature, which brings it to the most desired end appointed by God).

And the simpler the artificer or master makes it, the better and safer it is; for Nature operates and works only plainly and straight, and the master must follow her. But what is evil can be prepared in many ways, and not without inevitable errors; for as soon as any unsuitable thing is to be brought into this work, many errors and inconveniences follow from that one thing, because it is something foreign and contrary, and especially because one is working against Nature of which everyone must beware.

For the perfect Elixir, or the White Tincture, compared with the perfect metals, is the most powerful form and efficacy of a thing; and when it is set into the flux of the prepared that is, purged imperfect metals, as of their nearest kindred matters added in the flow / during the flow is set with it and made like unto it, then it dyes, perfects, and tinges the metals in the greatest and most violent fire, remaining quite constant and everlasting.

This is the true medicine and perfection of men and of metals, which gladdens, renews, and transforms them; and, after God, there is no other remedy that can drive away poverty and every infirmity of the human body and keep it in perfect health an understanding to which in these times few physicians attain, though many seem to be on the right road.

In our matter which is not (as said above) prepared and made ready, it is not convenient to work; for the preparation is the secret of the art. For the preparatio of the operative thing by which a thing is brought to its term of motion, to perfection and completion so that what is imperfect is brought into the form of a perfect metal, happens only through the aforesaid working: motion, light, and warmth. For as soon as the warmth departs or is lacking, the motion or working in the thing also ceases, as is seen in eggs that are abandoned by the birds and grow cold.

And since every natural or artificial operation has, and must have, its proper time, through and within which it is brought quickly or slowly to its appointed term, and since every thing works no further beyond its form, therefore, as soon as the requisite form or shape is present, then the motion or the thing that works is completed, and henceforward it becomes a continuing operation that is nowhere separated from the matter.

Note, moreover, that the bodies must be made subtle from their grossness and impurity until they become spiritual, light, and pure; but, on the contrary, the spirits must be made bodily and thick, and become constant and abiding with the bodies. Therefore the ancients say: if you do not know how to make the bodies spiritual and the spirits corporeal, you have not yet found the right way or process to this venerable art which is nothing else than to make the dense thin and light, and the light dense and heavy; as the great King Hermes says: Crassum fac subtile, & hoc ipsum reddito, etc.

From this it is well to observe that everything thin and light is to be esteemed more worthy than what is coarse and thick, because heavy things cannot rise upward unless they are first united with the lightest things; and conversely, the light things can neither ascend nor be kept down at the bottom unless it be through the power and might of the heavy, coarse, and thick part.

For the body does not act upon the spirit, but the spirit alone acts upon the body. Yet that both may now act in and upon one another and suffer together, the bodies or earths must be compounded with the spirit that is, the fixed with the volatile exactly according to the pondus or weight of their essences; but the spirits must first be purified to the highest degree by sublimation or subtiliation.

When both have thus been resolved and dissolved, they unite indistinguishably like water mixed with water and remain so together that no strength of fire, however great, can afterwards separate them. Here the artificer must also be well instructed in the gradibus ignis, how he ought and must govern and shape the fire from the beginning to the end of the whole work; otherwise it is easily miscarried. Of this more will be said later in the larger part.

Accordingly all the Wise, the Magi, and the Philosophers advise that no tincture should be cast upon any imperfect metal, nor projection made, unless it has first been well purified; otherwise it will suffer great harm. For the tincture is not only hindered by the slags and sulphurous, stinking accidents, but for the most part the tincture remains above with great loss.

For the whole intent and meaning of the art is directed to impart perfection to common metals and bring them to completeness, since every tincture proceeds from its like among the metals (for they all go forth from the metallic root) which are to be tinged, and not from other foreign matters which have not taken their origin from the pure substance of Sulphur and Mercury.

Then learn that in all metals it can be found and proved that their prima materia is entirely one and the same in powers and virtues, and that there is also a very easy way to change one into another only that herein they differ as regards their purification and digestion: namely, that one has been digested and cooked higher and purer, and more by Nature, than another.

Therefore the impure metals must be purified by art more and better; and those that have been too little digested must be further digested; and thus, by this grade of preparation, all accidents and accidental parts which defile the impure metals are separated from them, so that only their pure, incorruptible substance remains which alone, and none other, is able to be transmuted and changed into the form of a perfect metal. In this way the operations of the acting thing are completed and accomplished in the prepared and duly disposed patient.

You should further note that only three single things (speaking respectively) are required for the perfection of the tincturing Stone; in these, if they are rightly prepared, the whole mastery of this art stands: namely, the Stone of the Sun, which denotes or encloses in itself the Red Lion, the red incombustible sulphur; next, the Stone of the Moon, in which the pure and clear incombustible white sulphur predominates, as the Clangor Buccinae in Turba, as is explained there, fol. 484. In the lunar subject there is a white sulphur; and the Stone in which our Mercury [resides] holds within itself both natures, the white as well as the red and this is the foundation of the whole mastery, since our Mercury is the earth: what one sows in it, that it brings forth.

Finally there is the third Stone, which is a mediator between the two and encloses in itself the nature of both. Nam lapis Mercurii amplexitur utranque naturam (“the stone of Mercury embraces both natures”), as said. And these three metallic and mineral species you should most carefully hide from the common, ignorant, and unworthy people, and let the fools always walk in their erring ways; for they are neither predestined nor equipped for this, and it will remain closed to them until they can bring Sun and Moon into one body which cannot and must not happen without the will of Him who lives from eternity to eternity.

For this high Art is solely the Almighty God’s highest earthly gift and present; it is kept in His hand and is given to no one, nor taken from anyone, except as He wills though it is sometimes attained through keen and lofty understanding, through prayer, through diligent and constant reading of the books and earnest striving, or through the disclosure of a faithful master; which, by God’s grace, shall also be done by me, without any doubt. For a true philosopher has God before his eyes and acts rightly; otherwise he would rather refrain altogether than for I do not make this disclosure on my own account, but for that of the One of whom report will be made.

I thank God for His abundant preservation of His wondrous works. And whoever has rightly read and understood the codices or books of the ancients will not deny that in this my methodical theory I have brought the truth to light and have disclosed, as will follow, the principles or beginnings and the secret of this holy art. May the one God grant it to all who intend to use it to the honor of His name, for their neighbor’s good, and for the edification of the Christian Church. Amen.

Now follow the main points, in which the true foundation is openly set forth indeed, so plainly that one could almost grasp it and it is easy, not difficult, though some judge otherwise.

Above I have, for the sake of brevity and necessity, treated the high arcanum in a general way; therefore there now follows thorough instruction and proof in particular: first, to set out at length the generation or birth of minerals and metals; from this there will consequently appear the demonstration of the true materials, or subject, of the Stone with the stated circumstances, requisites, and attendant matters (which must primarily be derived from the course of Nature namely, how the metals and the like have their origin therefrom), whereupon every true philosopher and artist shall then, must proceed, since all the philosophers write and cry out that Nature is to be described, proved, and set forth.

Before I begin to explain this, it is necessary to note that the philosophers speak of three kinds of minerals:

The “greater” minerals are the metals, while they are still in their chaos or husks (as Theophrastus calls them), in Nature’s workshop that is, before they have been melted into a metal by the force of fire.

The “middle” minerals are marcasites and all such kinds in which a metallic sheen can be seen such as antimony, bismuth, mispickel (arsenopyrite), etc. From these, however, no metal will arise, though they lie long enough in the earth, for they are not a perfect blossom or bud; they have only two principles, namely sulphur and mercury; salt is lacking to them.

The third minerals are called the minora mineralia that is, the salts and the like: alum, vitriol, saltpeter, and all sorts of rocks in which no metallic form or lustre can be perceived.

I had to point this out so that there be no doubt about the name “minerals.”

Now follows the necessary explanation of the generation or birth of the metals, which the artificer must properly follow; for each thing brings forth its like, as is to be seen in all living things.

You should particularly understand from this that all metals spring from one root, one matter, one foundation and ground, and have their origin there; otherwise they would not be homogenea or consanguinea that is, of near blood-kinship. All true philosophers attest this, and experience also: for fine tin was formerly lead; likewise all gold was formerly silver as the most-illustrious Count of Treviso also reports (fols. 31–32). There he neatly sets down how the metals grow and says: first it becomes lead, then tin, then silver, then copper, and finally iron and gold. That Nature has longer to do with iron and copper is due to the impurity they take on in their birth. Anyone may read it there, and so it stands.

Dionysius Zach. (fol. 92) reports as I myself also know that a mine has often been opened before its time and only a little silver has been found, and its appearance was like lead ore; but they closed it again and, after some time forty or fifty years let it digest, and then it yielded almost good silver.

And although this seems strange (since lead is impure, whereas silver is already a very pure metal), I let no one tell me otherwise: Nature casts out the impurity of lead in the course of time, as can be shown; and the inner mercury, salt, and sulphur of Saturn (lead) are just as fair, pure, delightful, and good as ever they are in Luna and Sol as may be shown later.

That all metal springs from one root is written by the truthful philosophers who possessed the Stone, as follows: One ought indeed to give credence to an artist or craftsman when he speaks of the craft he has learned let alone to those exalted lords, the magi and philosophers.

King Geber and the Clangor Buccinae (in the Turba, fol. 473) speak very aptly of this, thus: Secundum varietatem sulphuris & ipsius multiplicationem diversa metalla procreantur in terra that is, according to the difference and multiplicity of sulphur and its increase, different metals are generated in the earth. But their first matter, from which they are made, is one and the same; and the metals differ only in accidental workings namely, that one has received in the womb of the earth a greater or lesser, tempered or intemperate warmth, and a combustible or incombustible sulphur.

On this point (he says) the whole company of the philosophers agrees; how this comes about will be given below in the section on how the metals or that out of which Nature composes them are put together. The Turba Philosophorum (fol. 579) says thus: The philosophers conceived such lofty thoughts that they wished to bring together the lowest bodies of the planets with those that stand above in the firmament; they tried this in outward appearance, brightness, and purity; and it went well with them, that is, because it has been found in the ground of truth, that the metallic bodies differ only through stronger or gentler “cooking,” but that the origin and beginning of them all is Mercury.

Hence the Turba (fol. 610) says: our Mercury is all metals; and the philosophers in this point always use the plural metalla, metallorum, metallis as if to say “of the metals, from the metals,” not “from one metal.” By this they mean that the metals are very closely akin to one another, as Count Bernard in his Parabola says when he declares that “the other six are also from the fountain, that is, from Mercury, but they have not yet earned his dignity.”

It would be too long to cite all the authorities in various languages; I will only name the doctors, that you may read them yourselves: Trevisanus Comes fol. 44; Flamel fol. 119 (at the end); Arnold in the Rosarium fols. 399 and 411; Magister Degenhardus in his tract De lapide fol. 116; Hollandus in the book Vegetabilia, at the passage on Saturn, f. 212; Bern. Agn. fol. 29; Turba fol. 277; Clangor Buccinae fol. 437; B. Ag. fol. 109; Turba 177; and the like. And in truth and in fact it is no otherwise.

Now there properly follows by what means Nature generates or gives birth to the metals in the caverns of the earth; for you must understand that Nature in the earth she has in her passages and veins, through which briny waters clear and turbid rush, lick, tear along, and flow, as is seen in mines: for the sharp, salt-laden waters are always in motion.

When the saline waters are brought down from above, all heavy things sink toward the depths; then the sulphurous vapors rise from below, ex centro terrae. Now, if the saline waters are pure and clear, and the sulphurous vapors are also pure, and they meet and encounter one another, a good metal results; if not, an impure metal results, upon which Nature must labor a thousand years, more or less, before she makes it perfect this because of the impurity either of the mercurial, salty water or of the sulphurous, impure vapor.

When the two then meet one another in a closed cleft or rock, there rises from them both a moist, dense, subtle vapor out of the innate warmth of Nature; it settles there, having no air (otherwise it would fly away). And from this vapor there then comes a mucilaginous, greasy matter, white like butter; the mathematici call it a gur. It can be smeared like butter as I can also show with it here above, either upon or outside the earth, in the hand.

This gur is often found by miners, but nothing can be made of it, because one does not know what work Nature has in hand there; it might just as well become a marcasite as a metal, the compounded matter is then, by a long, gentle and steamy cooking of Nature, brought into a metallic form or mass; and the first form of the metals is a leaden matter, in which there is always hidden a tiny grain of Luna or Sol, which, as a seed, grows continually and hastens toward the perfection of Luna therefore it is rightly called Lunaria, and even Sun-moon.

Thus Flamel (fol. 118) says one may see this in the lead mines: there is no lead-ore found from which a grain of gold or silver could not be separated. Count Trevisanus shows this sufficiently (fols. 31–32), where he orderly sets down the generations of the metals and puts lead first, then tin; of this the books of the philosophers are full.

My preceding intention concerning the generation of the metals is thus to be proved namely, that it happens and proceeds just as I have already reported and said. Concerning this the Clangor Buccinae (fol. 473) says: For each of these metals is first composed from Mercury and Sulphur, and then transformed into an earthy substance; thereafter, from these two earthy substances there rises a subtle, light, and pure vapor, and from this there come pure metals. Because of the lowest heat that is in the cavities of the earth, they are digested and cooked until all becomes of earthly substance and nature; at last it also receives a fixity (after it has lain long in the workshop) and there becomes into a metallic nature is altered and transformed.

Nic. Flamel, an excellent philosopher, writes usefully on this (fol. 152): it is certain that no foreign or contrary thing can make imperfect metals perfect or transmute them. Therefore people are rightly judged useless who think, out of animals or other vegetable things, to accomplish anything in this art; for we have minerals that are very closely akin to metals, and from these two alone namely sulphur and mercury all metals are born.

Let no one be misled here, as if they came only from these two while leaving out the salt; you should understand that in the mercurial water the salt is hidden, and the water can very soon and easily be changed into the salt of the metals, and salt can likewise be turned back into water. Moreover it has been reported that metals are generated from a saline, greenish water and a sulphurous vapor (Semita semitæ in Turba, fol. 473).

You must understand and note that the Mercury thus born the son of all metals while still imperfect, is digested in the womb of the earth by sulphurous heat or vapors; and according to the difference of this sulphurity that is, according as the sulphurous vapor is pure or impure different metals are born in the earth. But their initial matter is one and the same; they differ only in that one is more “cooked,” more affected by impure sulphurous vapors is burned more, another less; and so they are born different on this all the philosophers agree.

It would be far too long and tedious to set out here the proofs of all the philosophers, since they are all of one accord; you may read Count Bernard in the places cited. Likewise: the Turba fols. 495, 376, 476; Flamel fol. 183; Clangor Buccinae fol. 493; Turba fol. 411, and at the word ideoque fol. 569; also fols. 31, 32, 40, 44; Magister Degenhardus fol. 122; Richard Anglicus fols. 127, 310, 579; Rosinus fol. 278; Arnold in the Flos fol. 475 (at the end); Turba fols. 158, 159, 160; Flamel fol. 152.

In the salt of the metals all of them say are hidden body, spirit, soul, sulphur, and mercury. And to prove this Hermes says: Sal metallorum est Lapis Philosophorum “the salt of the metals is the Philosopher’s Stone”; and Et qui habet sal metallorum ille habet secretum sapientum antiquorum “whoever has the salt of the metals has the secret of the ancient wise.”

All these and others agree in this opinion: that all metals are born from sulphur and mercury, in which salt lies hidden and so indeed it is.

Since I have now clearly explained the manner, place, and nature namely, whence the metals are generated and born and since every artist ought and must follow the same, it is above all necessary that I also show, tell, and describe to them the true material, so that he may follow Nature; for on that, for the most part, everything depends. It is in vain to build when I have no materials from which I intend to build the thing.

But someone might here make objection and say: “Yes, you can name or show me the material; but who knows whether it is the right one, and whether it is even possible for metals to grow, to increase, or to be multiplied?” Since this is a most necessary point, we will therefore leave a clear explanation of the matters and prove, explain, and set it forth with several principles and irrefutable arguments and reasons.

The most wise and ingenious man Arnold of Villanova, in the Flos florum, gives the first irresistible argument and proof in these words: “Everything that grows also increases,” as is seen in trees, grain, and all things. Metals, too, grow; therefore they also, like other things, can be multiplied and augmented. That they do grow is seen by experience, as noted above: often a mine in which the ore is still imperfect is closed up again and left by Nature to grow to perfection and all experienced miners know this.

Moreover, God Almighty Himself ordained increase in the creation of all things, when He says in Genesis 1 that every thing should bring forth after its kind and multiply in the same; and of this there is no doubt. A distinguished philosopher who possessed the Stone, namely Dionysius, writes thus (fol. 78): “Everything that is appointed for perfection and completeness, and because has been left imperfect through lack of “cooking,” this can be brought to perfection by further, subsequent cooking.

Metals are destined and appointed for perfection; therefore they too can, by steady and continued cooking or digestion, be brought to completeness. This argument applies chiefly to our material, for Nature has also left it imperfect; hence the artist must come to its aid with purification and cooking, as will be shown below.

The third argument is from the certainty of transmutation or change (what people now call “tinging”). On this Aristotle says in Meteorologica IV; likewise Zach. fol. 79; also Count Bernard; Albertus Magnus and Avicenna say thus: the alchemists cannot change one metal into another unless they reduce it to its first matter. But the reduction or restoration to its first matter is quite easy and possible; therefore transmutation or change is also easy and possible.

As to this reduction or restoration to the first matter, I could conveniently speak of it here; but since my “Peasant” that is, the treatise written by me has said enough of it and may also be shown alongside, and since the philosophers’ books are full of it, I refer you there, for example to Count Bernard fols. 17, 18, 19. And mark this point well: many eminent people err in this, and suppose that when they have the Mercurium Philosophorum or Sal Metallorum that then they have the philosophers’ mercury or the salt of the metals, they already have the prima materia.

No: it becomes the true prima materia only after the conjunction has taken place of both male and female as the Count shows (fol. 21 at the end; fol. 22 at the beginning). He finally says: ista conjunctio dicitur prima materia & non prius “this conjunction is called the first matter, and not before.” Only after the conjunction or composition is it called the first matter of the Stone, or of all metals; read the Turba fols. 415, 364, and the like.

Since we have earlier, rightly and on the foundation of Nature and reasonable causes, rejected and cast out animals and plants as foreign, contrary, and unfit materials for our high work, and since we rightly place the material of the Stone among the minerals for all metals are smelted from ore (unless they are found native; then they have freed themselves from the ore like a chick from the shell) or are produced and purified by other means

the question now arises here: since we have previously distinguished three kinds of principal minerals namely majora, media, and minora mineralia from which our material must chiefly be taken, or to which we must come as near as possible: which of these is our ore or metallic mineral, the true material?

That it is or must be metallic, we shall prove below; for every thing brings forth its like, and every thing delights and loves its like and hates what is contrary to it.

The philosophers make it very tangled and motley when describing or naming the true materials. Thus Flamel says (fol. 152, at the end) that it is especially hidden from what mineral matter our Stone can be made. But some are very secretive, others very scant about the matter, and most are impure; hence many despair at this point. Clangor says (fol. 478) that he obtained only half a lot of mercury from a pound, which served for the work; Arnold of Villanova also writes of this in the Rosarium (fol. 404), likewise Zach. fols. 433, 92, 150.

For among these there are certain minerals which by nature are more cleaned, purified, and digested, and these are nearer, more convenient, and better for our work I hope, my dear friend, you will understand this; for what Nature has already done, I need not do, and that is to my advantage.

You should also fundamentally understand that from all metals the matter of the Stone, or the Philosopher’s Stone, can be prepared especially when they are still in their ore.

But as soon as they come into the fire, the tincting spirit departs and leaves its body lying dead; therefore the Rosarium (fol. 209) says: “Our Stone is a thing or matter that must never come into the fire.” I can, with the corporeal spirit that flees out of the metals, in a moment tinge Venus (copper) into a seeming Sun (gold) yet it is not lasting, because it is a volatile spirit; but one sees the possibility: then one can do it, for it is raw what would he do when, by art, it is brought so high and noble? The difficulty, however, is that some metals are too tightly bound, others too tough and hard to dissolve.

Therefore the philosophers have chosen the nearest and easiest way and have taken the matter that can most easily be opened one in which the primum ens and the generative and multiplicative power still reside so that it may come to completion all the sooner, and especially because the matter is one and the same in all metals. Why should I torment myself one or two years with dissolution when, in comparable materials, I could accomplish it in at most four, five, or six weeks, since I can obtain the very same matter by the short way as by the long?

That this is true is attested by the most renowned philosopher Avicenna (fol. 433) with these words: one should know that one metal can be brought to the Elixir much more easily than another (see also Turba, fol. 404, at the end). I say that all metals are inwardly gold and silver which anyone who understands this art well knows. Flamel (fol. 120) speaks still more plainly: from all metals (provided they have not been in any fire) the Stone can be made. “In Luna (silver),” he says, “you also find it, wherever you wish to seek it; in lead, iron, copper more surely; but I,” he says, “have found it in gold (understand: not in common gold).”

All this shall be understood when they have not yet been in any fire. This distinction is made by the Count of Tervis, fol. 16, at the end: he lets all minerals remain (understand the small and the middle minerals) as well as the metals, alone.

This little word “alone” most artists do not understand, and it makes all the difference; for when the metals go through the fire and are melted into a metallic form or mass, then they are sola, or alone, for they have lost their integral spirit and are now dead; moreover, one body is separated from and driven off the other. For one seldom finds a metal by itself; rather, Venus and Luna like to be together; Luna and Saturnus like to be together; Luna and Sol like to be together, and so on.

These composite bodies they then continue to torment, and first separate Venus and Luna, Saturnus from Luna, Luna from Sol, so that the metals are powerless, strengthless, dead, and are mere bodies alone; they can do nothing, and even Sol can do no more than it has, for they are sola, alone, and no longer body, soul, and spirit together; for the spirit has left its body, the soul also is without power: therefore it is impossible to make anything from them.

We will proceed more closely: previously there was talk of three kinds of minerals the great, the small, and the middle. The small cannot be it, for they are only salts; the middle minerals are not it either, for they are only marcasites and have only two principles, as was said above; moreover, the Count rejects all minerals that do not bear metals, indeed, he also rejects the metals themselves when they have been separated from their life.

One might here ask as well: there are so many minerals that yield metals how am I to know which are the nearest and best, from which I might easily obtain materia nostra, or the Philosophers’ Mercury?

The philosophers themselves explain this point or question, when they say that we should take such a mineral or matter as Nature has only begun to make into metals, has even brought into a metallic form or luster, yet has left imperfect such a matter we are to take.

Now we have previously heard, from the generation of the metals, that Nature first makes a mineral lead-ore, as the Count writes: the first is Saturn, and then Jupiter. This, however, one might be loath to trust; therefore I will declare my intention in such a way, and set forth the true matter, which is the nearest, that no doubt at all may remain.

Therefore open your reason, open the eyes of understanding; pray, and then you will be able to grasp it well. How it went with me concerning the materia you may see in the Treatise of the Peasant, though not everyone can understand it straightway. But I will conclude with the plain truth as clearly and succinctly as possible. May God make you discreet, so that you do not readily reveal it to another, or to one unworthy. Amen.

I have mentioned before that I wished to prove that our blessed Stone springs solely from a metallic root, and that it must also be a metallic body else how should it rectify, cure, and tinge metals of its own kind that are impure?

This is said so that you do not seek it among vegetable or animal things, although our Lapis is also animal and vegetable: for when it is resolved into a water they call it the “vegetable water,” nam vegetat proprium corpus (“for it makes its own body grow”), since it brings its own body to increase. It is animal, for it has a soul (anima), as Zach. and others explain; and that is its life, which flees from common metals in the fire then they are dead, since their spiritual essence, or tincture which should tinge, has departed. For one body cannot penetrate or tinge another body; the spirit is the coachman he must do it.

That it must be metallic is proved by the Rosarius magnus (fol. 231), where he says: “The philosophers’ Mercury is that in which Nature has worked but little, or which she has brought into a metallic form or appearance, yet has left it still imperfect”; likewise Rosar. fol. 252: “Our Mercury is not just any (substance), but that in which Nature has finished her first operation and set it into a metallic nature, yet left it imperfect.” Likewise fol. 394: “This one alone, because it is metallic, holds within itself what is necessary for the Work.” Clangor Bucc. fol. 476. Epimidius the Philosopher in the Turba: per calorem temperatum extrahitur a materia,” that is: by a gentle warmth there is drawn from a metallic matter a mucilaginous or vaporous mucilage yet it is subtle.

This is the sublimation of the philosophers; as Hermes says: “make the gross subtle, and render this very same [again].” A feces (sediment) digested, mingled, and well purified that they call the Elixir (that is, a universal medicine for men, beasts, trees, metal, and herbs), by which one alters the metals.

It would be too long to set down here all the authorities and proofs; I will list some places which you can see and look up yourselves: Arnoldus in Ros. 405. Flamel, fol. 137. Clang. fol. 475, fol. 510. Recipiamus. Flamel, fol. 141, § Lapis. Turba fol. 115, fol. 433, deficiendum. Trevis. Comes fol. 21, fol. 35. These are enough that one need not doubt that the matter of the Stone is, or has, a metallic form or figure; but this must be taken from it through dissolution, as will follow hereafter. Since it is a metallic body, it cannot tinge; therefore it must, per sublimationem physicam, be brought into spirituality, that it may penetrate and tinge.

Now follow the concordances or agreement of the philosophers, whereby I wish to prove that that which I shall name hereafter is the nearest matter of our Stone; I will set down several, among which one is nearer than the others.

First I will set the text through which, by the mercy of God, the eyes of my understanding were opened, and the same is found in Flamel, fol. 118. When the Mercurius of the metals is only a little at first congealed and becomes granular, there is soon present in it a constant little grain of gold, which, from the two seeds (sulphure pingui & sale), brings forth and begets a nourishing little shoot of our Mercury just as may be seen in the lead-mines or lead-works, where one never finds a lead ore from which there should not openly be born a constant little grain of gold or silver.

For the first binding together or congelation of Mercury is a minera of Saturn, or it is a lead-ore into which Nature has set it. This is attested also by Count Bernhard, fol. 31: the same can truly be brought to its perfection or completeness without any doubt or error; but this little fixed grain must still lodge in the Mercury and by no means be separated from its minera or lead-ore; otherwise, if it is brought out by the power of fire and made into silver, it is of no use, as follows.

For when a metal still lies and is seated in its minera or workshop, it is a Mercurius; and if the little fixed grain is separated from it, it is the same as when one plucks an unripe apple from the tree, which utterly spoils. For the little fixed grain is just like an apple, and the Mercury is the tree; now one must not separate the fruit from the tree, for it can have no other nourishment than from its own Mercury.

This text is so clear and right, so that even a very simple person can and may understand it; and this text is my first demonstration, which befell me through God’s grace. And from this single dictum alone the most solid foundation is to be taken; for all the philosophers write that one should take such a matter as Nature has only just begun and has brought into a metallic form, yet has left imperfect so he says here also. For the first form of the metals is plumbago; as the Count Trevisanus likewise attests when he says that the first is lead.

But he does not mean common lead, for that has already been in the fire and has lost its spirit or vital power the very thing that can show copper before everyone’s eyes in a golden sheen, which, however, is not lasting. This happens because the whole body has only been begun by Nature to be brought into a metal and has been left imperfect; yet one sees the possibility, for then the spirit can indeed accomplish what he wills when, by art, he is raised so high.

And this spirit must also have a body that is, the Luna or Lunaria. He is hidden in it, but can be generated in the sal metallorum. Therefore Hermes says: his father is the red Sun, but his mother the white Moon the white Luna, he says, to distinguish it from the common Luna. For this our Luna is transparent, and yet Luna is therein; which is to be shown, for from this our Luna the metallic form must be removed, otherwise they cannot, by the least parts to “permix,” that is, to mingle as water with water.

Much could be said of this, but I must keep to brevity. Yet in the resolution of the body or matter where the salt is restored this will be repeated at length.

Now let other texts follow. Likewise Flamel, fol. 120: “In the earth there grows a leaden matter, a coagulated Mercury; this one should be cast into prison and then released, whereupon the weight will be found otherwise scarcely. This leaden matter must be shut up in a vessel and there purified.

Thus from the weight one may first conclude [his meaning]; for since it is still impure, it is impossible to speak otherwise.” Likewise, in the exposition of our Work: “In the whole world there is found but a single metal in which our Mercury is commonly to be obtained. Saturn that is, lead is heavy and soft; therefore it is compared with gold, and not without cause is called ‘leprous gold’; and commonly he says: lead that has never been in any fire is leprous gold. This leprosy is taken from it in the dissolution, and it is made as clear as ever the substance of gold may be.”

Hence Clangor in the Turba, fol. 502: “Our ore has a leprous and dropsical body, like the Syrian Naaman (IV Kings 5). Wherefore he desired to wash himself seven times in the Jordan, that he might be cleansed of his inborn uncleanness.”

Flamel, fol. 116: “Therefore climb the mountain, that thou mayest obtain a vegetable, saturnine, lead-like and kingly; likewise see also a mineral root or herb: take only the juice, and cast away the husks. He cannot avoid it: he must also call the mass of lead a royal matter, for in it and from it gold is fostered and born, as has already been sufficiently shown.

Let us also hear what the worthy man Theophrastus Paracelsus holds about this, and what his materia was; for thus he speaks in the book Vexation, fol. 38: “Thus speaks Saturn of his very own nature: they have taken me for their assayer all six (understand the metals) have mustered me out from the spiritual estate, have assigned me a dwelling with a destructible body; for what they will neither be nor have, that must I be.

My six brothers are spiritual; therefore they pass through my body as often as I am fiery; and when I perish in the fire (understand in the cupel or other assays), then they also perish with me save two of the best, gold and silver, which cleanse themselves beautifully by my water and become proud [i.e., noble]. My spirit is the water that softens the frozen and hardened bodies of my brothers; but my body is inclined toward the earth: what I take into myself likewise becomes like the earth, and is made by us into one body.

It would not be good that the world knew or believed what is in me and what I can do; far better were it, if they could do for me that which is quite possible for me, they would leave all the rest of Alchemy alone and would need only what is in me and is to be accomplished with me.

The stone of cold is in me that is, my water; with it I congeal and freeze the spirits of the six metals into the bodily nature of the seventh, that is, to advance gold together with silver. This text is clear enough and needs no gloss only that it not be understood of common lead, for that has been in the fire.

There follows a passage which I copied from Theophrastus’s own hand. “Therefore,” says he, “I tell you: among the seven sick, take the sickest (that is Saturn); it is necessary that you lead him into his bath of purification and cleanse him of that which Nature, against his will, has implanted in him then you have a secret,” etc.

Arnold of Villanova, in l. nov. lum. fol. 457, says: “I testify against you that such a possibility lies in the matter, from which with my own hands (my eyes bear witness), though by another’s teaching I have made the Elixir which turns lead into gold. This I have now named to you, and it is the philosophers’ magnesia, from which the philosophers have drawn out the gold that was hidden in its body.” This agrees entirely with the foregoing sayings.

Magister Degenh., an Augustinian monk who surely possessed the Stone, says in his book De via universali: “It is a thing which inwardly corresponds to all things, and in it are also all earthly [i.e., sublunary…]” sublunary things are hidden; its tincture is above all tinctures; its virtue is against every sickness; it is a gift of the Holy Spirit; in it lies the secret of coming to the treasure of the wise.

And this is the Plumbum Philosophorum, otherwise by them called plumbum aeris, that is, lead-ore; in it there is hidden a beautiful, shining white dove, called the sal metallorum, wherein stands the highest mastery of the Work. This is the moist, prudent, and rich Queen of Sheba, clothed in a white [Allian white raiment], who would submit herself to none but the wise King Solomon. No man’s heart can fathom all this.

He adds at the end of his tract: “Truly, he is a wise man who can recognize the nature of lead.” He speaks very well when he says: the white dove that lies hidden therein, in the metals namely in those that have never yet been in any fire. But the philosophers nearly all agree that it is in Saturn; for the body of Saturn is the easiest to open and to separate, as was indicated above.

Thus, as has been said, one must take the kernel and cast away the husks, as the Dialogus Philosophiae neatly explains (fol. 14, 16). One must not take that from which the metals have come to be no, rather that which is drawn out of the metals; and it is precisely that which lies hidden in the metals.

The Turba explains this very prettily (Part I, fol. 577) and sets an example from the tree: when one wishes to beget a tree, one must not take water or the earth, but something that is of the tree itself namely the kernel or a little twig; this one then commits again to Nature you can read it again there in Ripley’s Axiomata, fol. 179. The compounded metallic clump is Bleyschweiß (literally “lead-sweat,” i.e., litharge); therefore we rightly call it lead. The property of its brightness comes from Sol and Luna.

Hermes, the great king and father of the philosophers, says in his book De Chao generali, cap. 19, fol. 268, no. 14: the principal purification of our Mercury is that one remove from it the leaden darkness or form with the help of wine, so that it is made splendid, clear, and translucent like crystalline, transparent salt.

For it cannot be otherwise: the metallic form must be taken away, namely, in order that a spiritual essence be produced, as is intended in the solution. Dionysius Zacharias, fol. 92, says that we should and must take that very same materia from which Nature in the earth has made the metals. Count Bernhard explains this: that Nature first makes a leaden materia; therefore she has set in it her first disposition and property, whereby one can also come nearest to it.

The other bodies are too hard to open, as Flamel shows (fols. 153–154), where he says: Why do we not take the pure bodies of Sol and Luna for our Work? Answer: because Nature has bound them together too tightly, so that with fire one can scarcely do anything to them. Rather we take a body in which there is the same pure Sulphur and Mercury as in silver or gold, in which Nature has worked only a little but has left it imperfect; and he goes on to say further that we must take such a thing as is not completed; for Sol and Luna are perfect, therefore they are already in their own degree. One may read further there; he even explains his modus materiarium.

Here it is also worth noting that the philosophers always use the plural bodies, metals, to the metals, of the metals they do not say a body, a metal, etc., because they wish to lead the unwise by the nose. For all metals, as shown above, proceed from one root, and from them, before they come to the fire, and especially while they are still in their ore, one can prepare the Universal in particular. Hence Roger Bacon and Flamel (fol. 137) say: nothing adheres to the metals; they also do not allow themselves to be compounded together, nor likewise to be transmuted, except with that which comes out of them, as was explained before.

It would take too long to explicate all the texts; let us merely set down the proofs, for about the matter there is no doubt at all, as will be shown by deed and in practice. Rasis says: “All the secrecy lies in lead but not in common lead.” For he adds: “You must not understand ordinary lead, lest you go astray, but our brittle and black silver dross.” And truly, in our lead there is the potency of gold and silver, though not visibly. This saying is clear enough: that Luna is in it will be demonstrated in practice, even if one cannot already see it when it is together.

But when its spirit separates itself from the body, it leaves the lunar body behind, which then shows itself like the finest silver in every assay.

Now it is undeniable that all gold was previously silver, and that gold can easily be made from silver; thus here Luna, or the Lunaria, is to be demonstrated wherefore by the high operation such a thing can readily be brought to more-than-perfection.

Maria Prophetissa, Moses’s sister, says in the Turba (fol. 322) that the fixed or constant body is from the heart of lead that is, from the inner part which lies in our lead, as said above that in Saturn, which has not yet been in the fire, there is always hidden a grain or some portion of Sol or Luna, as a seed which can then be propagated. Hence the Rosarius (fol. 265) says: our Sol or Luna, or the corpus fixum, is hidden, like the soul in a man’s body, or like fire in wood or stones.

Aurora consurgens in the Turba (fol. 220): “Behold, I have shown you the opportunity of our white lead (that is, when by resolution it has been brought into a white salt). If you know that, the rest is women’s work and child’s play.” He means to say that after the composition it is the easiest work that can be so witnesses Count Bernhard, for example: “Our work is so small and simple, indeed so easy, that if I were to tell it you in words or show it you in deed, you would not believe it.”

Zach. likewise says: if the philosophers had kept the right order, this art would be understood in a day or an hour so noble and so simple / poor however simple it is, the wise man should consider how God the Almighty has placed so high a Work into so low and despised a subject or matter (for He has always a delight in lowliness; and also so that the rich should not think of it, since they have only gold in their hearts: the base, common gold they neither know nor see) and how much more He can accomplish with lofty things.

Turba I, part, fol. 221: “In lead there is a living death; and this should be counted among the secrecy of all secrecies.” The Philosopher says: nothing is so near to gold as lead what could be clearer? The hidden gold lies dead in lead; but when its death that is, its impurity is taken from it by dissolution, it becomes living and rejoices in its like, with which it is then joined; for it is like wax in which all seals can be impressed.

Add gold to it and you obtain gold; add copper to it and it brings forth copper; and so on.” Such is proved in Ros. fol. 319; Turba fol. 406; Arnoldus in Ros. fol. 411; Turba fol. 59. “With the Sun, [it is] Sun; with the Moon, Moon; with Venus, Venus” yet that it takes on every form is attested by Nicol. Flamel, fol. 168: “Mercury,” he says, “puts on all forms, just as wax [receives] all seals.” Turba fol. 39: “In our earths there are three eyes the rising, the setting; and from them our white Saturn is born, which is the salt of the metals.” Likewise Turba I, part: “Our white castle is the seventh in number,” among the high philosophers [place] the Sun with the Moon, and also Jupiter, our Mars and Venus, in our Mercury; but Saturn is the seventh in whom they are all contained and gathered.

This is the spatula, the sword, the knife, and a separation of the wondrous births, by which one may make resistance to one’s enemies. Beside this there is also a cask with good wine, etc. What could ever be set down more plainly or clearly? He also sets beside it the means of dissolution; for in the wine-cask it is contained namely, first the wine, that is, spiritus vini, acetum vini, sal tartari, and other things besides; although other means are employed, they must not remain there, but must withdraw again after the solution.

Arnold, in Flor. flor. fol. 471, at the end: Metalla non generantur nisi ex spermate proprio (“Metals are generated only from their own seed.”)

The metals are shown to arise from none other than their own seed; this has been treated enough above. Only consider what the first metal is of this read Trevisanus, fols. 31–32; Turba, fol. 389, in the first part. “Our Elder, who seems to be death” (understand the old Saturn) “is an example of our science: in him the composition of the natures is complete namely earth, water, fire, and air and all this is in Saturn; through him, or with him, the doors of wisdom are [opened]; through him the doors of the seven metals are unlocked and opened,” as Hermes and his forefathers say.

What could be spoken more plainly? Ros. fol. 394. Blessed be the Creator of all things, who out of a mean thing hath made something precious, worthy, and high, and this because it is metallic contains within itself everything that belongs to the whole Work, etc.

Here he says that it must be taken from the least, namely Saturn; for in it Nature has planted the first metallic form, as has been sufficiently shown above. Arnoldus, in the book De Chao universali, stipulates the same; likewise Aurora consurgens in the Turba, fol. 203: “The seed of our science is drawn from a metallic body which holds within itself, in puissant wise, the virtue and power of all the metals.” With this you have already heard enough what sort of matter it is, in which all the metals are contained let this suffice. This text is as clear as broad daylight.

Master Degenhardus, Lullius, and Mathesius, in his Sarepta sermon 2, write that the matter of the metals, before they congeal into a metallic form, ought to be like buttermilk and can be smeared like butter; he calls it gur. For I myself have found such a thing in the mines where Nature has made the lead.

And when one can make such a matter here above the earth as well, that is a sure sign not only that one has the right matter, but also that one is without doubt on the right road. This I God be praised can indeed make in the hand; and within an hour it soon enters putrefaction in the warmth, so that it becomes black, then reddish, and finally red-brown. This the philosophers call lac virginis, the Virgin’s Milk.

And if one puts a little sal metallorum into our water, then it becomes like a white milk; but if one puts much therein then it becomes thick like butter and can be smeared like fat and the like. I wished duly to mention this, so that you bear no doubt about the matter; and this will be proved to you with the help of the one Creator.

Johannes Chrysippus Fanianus, a notable philosopher who, as I write, is still living and is said to possess the Stone so calls himself in order not to be known, and he speaks thus: “The physician’s hand is required for the sick and not for the healthy; likewise the philosopher’s hand is required for base and imperfect metals, not for the costly and perfect.”

Magnesia is what our materia is commonly called; this means, in the Chaldean tongue, ‘unprepared lead,’ namely as it still is as Nature has prepared it, and has not yet passed through the hand of man much less come into the fire.

Hermes says: the whole science stands in the metals, but not in the perfect ones, rather in the imperfect.

Ripley, Axiomata, (fol. 8.): “Do not believe the impostors, for our Sulphur and Mercury are only in the imperfect or unperfect metals.”

Clangor Buccinae fol. 475: “If you seek a medicine that is to generate the metals, you must not omit to seek it from the metals.”

Rosarium fol. 379: “It is Saturn who has divided my members. I (understand Sol) am he who openly lets the radiance pass into the others; this happens, after the composition, slowly, following the course I have from my father Saturn.”

Here one sees clearly that in and from Saturn the gold arises. Likewise Ros. Mag. fol. 382: “There is an herb that is called Saturn because of the channels or tubes; from this our Medicine is made.” Here he speaks of the matter and also of the solution; for when Saturn has now been cleansed of all its foulness and stands, in the final solution, in the water, one can put small little tubes into it, upon which the sal metallorum shoots out like saltpeter into long little rods.

One can also let it become a salt per se, or even bring it into a beautiful, shining powder; the one is as good as the other of this we shall treat in the chapter on the solution.

Masar Saracenus says: Immunditia est in primo metallo “Filth is in the first metal.” Our first metal (Saturn is the first which Nature makes) has much impurity with it, wherefore men despise it and think they cannot remove such from it nor accomplish anything with it.

Turba fols. 154–155: “The Philosophers’ Stone is a metallic matter for all metals; in both the pure and the impure there are within Sol, Luna, and Mercury.”

Isaac Hollandus, in the Mineral Book, where he treats of our Saturn, says: “It is well worth high consideration that there exists a metallic and saturnine body which one can easily dissolve and purify if one knows its right preparation; such a one may justly rejoice.”

Mercurius says: “You should know that our impure body is lead.” Turba fol. 268.

I say of the lead-ore, therefore, that everything must come out of it and through it and by it be accomplished.

Rosinus, fol. 270: “I tell you that our sulphureous living water is drawn out of lead-ore (Bleyertz); it accomplishes everything.” Item: you should know that the spirit of silver and all whiteness must be so composed out of the lead-ore, which Luna is a white stone (sal metallorum), without any blemish or impurity. This is a fine saying, wherein he declares that Luna, or Lunaria, is in the lead-ore, and that the white lunar salt is to be extracted from it.

For indeed the whiteness that shines there, when it is drawn from the saturnine body, is beautifully clear, and one sees no Luna in it; but if one throws it upon a hot plate of Venus or of Mars, it melts like wax, and the spirit of life flies off above and leaves the Lunaria very fair lying behind it which is greatly to be wondered at, for the “white Luna” of which Hermes speaks is not to be looked upon like the common Luna, since it is transparent. Fol. 273.

“Our water or salt is drawn from our lead-ore,” Turba philosophorum fol. 85. “You sons of Wisdom, you should know that without lead no tincture will be proved; for in it is the virtue and power of the whole Work,” etc. The reason is that the common man understands everything according to the letter and thinks it is common lead. Not so; for all metal, as soon as it comes into the fire, is dead. Therefore Hermes says: “Our Stone is such a thing as no fire has yet touched,” from which our Mercury comes. More of this hereafter.

Theophrastus calls it in the Manuale electrum minerale immaturum, and electrum artificiale a composite mass, made by art from all the metals; about this he wrote a special book. But this electrum is such a thing that Nature has planted in it the nature of all seven metals, yet has left it imperfect; therefore he calls it immaturum (unripe).

That from this lead all the metals spring has already been sufficiently proved see Count Bernhard, fols. 31–32. I could set down here many hundreds of the philosophers’ texts, but it is unnecessary; I have selected the clearest, and whoever reads these proofs and authorities will not be able to deny that this and no other is the true and genuine matter of the Stone; for all metals come forth from it and grow from it.

Now let us come nearer and speak of the most authentic matter. For there have been certain philosophers who, out of a whole pound, scarcely obtained a half Lot that was serviceable for the Work, as Clangor attests (fol. 478). And herein there is a great advantage: Nature has placed in one more of Mercury or of nitre-salt, and has boiled one matter more or longer than another; hence it is to be reckoned that there is more in those upon which Nature has labored most, yet has not gone beyond its proper term otherwise it would be too hard to separate out.

Of this Flamel speaks (fols. 152–153): “This is the most hidden, from which inwardly that from such a thing the nearest (matter) can or must be taken so explains Arnoldus, De vill. nov. in his Rosarium, fol. 404. There are certain middling materials, of which some are more cleansed by Nature than others, and have also been boiled and digested more and longer; and these are the better and nearest to the Work. I will here set down several that are known to me and which I have tested; I will also forward several and name the places where they may be obtained, and I think I shall thus do enough for such as need it, yet not too much.

But I admonish thee, dear brother in Christ, who receivest this my instruction, that ye fear God’s judgment since for any misuse ye must give account and that ye keep so high a secret concealed; for they are arcana (from area, which means a chest): therein should one keep them, guard them, and hide them from false people. When this is done, the dear God will also give His blessing thereto; and there is no doubt that, if the Lord is the author of a good undertaking, He will prosper his desire; then the other points shall likewise be written clearly.

For secrecy’s sake I harbor no doubt; otherwise God is not in the game, and no true faith or fidelity ought to be present. From the places alleged out of the philosophers’ books ye have sufficiently understood that they call the matter plumbum, plumbaginem, lytagyrum, plumbum aeris, and the like; all these things agree together, although one may be nearer, has had a nearer materia than another; yet from the more remote or poorer sort it can likewise be made only with greater toil and labor. One kind contains more of the metallic Mercury or Salt than another; but, as said, they all come to one and the same end.

The poorest is found in St. Joachimsthal, called there Glantz; a hundredweight yields not much above 6 or 8 lots of silver, yet they call it lead. And know this: the richer it is in silver, the nearer it stands to the Work, because Nature has already worked much in it and has often laid the little fixed grain therein; it is marked thus .

The second kind, which is better, is found in Poland at Olkusz (and also elsewhere at another place, thirteen miles from Kraków, where the king has his silver mine). This one is better; it holds more cohesion of silver than the first, and therefore is nearer to the Work; it is marked thus , and is called Bleyertz, also Silberglantz.

The third is found at Freiberg in Meissen; when it is pure it holds many little grains of Luna, for Luna is the grain of growth, whence it is called Lunaria. This one is better than the former when it is pure, but it is seldom found, and is marked .

The fourth is better still and purer, and is dug on the Hungarian borders not far from the little town of Klobuck, secretly by the citizens there for the authorities strive after therefore a citizen at Klumis/Kłobuck told me: “Klobuck has [bought up / taken down] my houses” (reading uncertain: abgekauft / abgebaut); and this kind is marked thus . They call it there in German Silber-bley (“silver-lead”).

The fifth kind is genuine, rich lead, but it has never been in any fire; it is found at Villach. It is easy to dissolve and, for you, likely the best; it often has its Lunaria with it. It is marked thus . I have used this also before; with it one can handle the solution very readily.

The sixth and best, so far as I know, is found in Meissen, though at present rarely; still, if one orders it, one can obtain it. There they call it Glaserz; it may be cut and stamped like a lead (ingot), and a hundredweight yields well 24, even 26 lots of silver. From one pound I have myself obtained 22 lots of Mercury, whereas Clangor writes that he got only half a lot from a pound but he must have had a poorer lead-ore.

There is also Glaserz at St. Annaberg, which too is rich in silver; but it does not allow itself so readily to be stamped and cut (though even there one finds some that can be stamped and cut and cannot be distinguished from other lead). I mark the former with this sign ; it too can be dissolved like the other ⟦✶⟧ which is not to be told from common lead.

Thus, my dear friend, you now have the instruction not only on account of the concordances of the philosophers, but also concerning the materials themselves.

May the eternal almighty God grant that you may use it to His honor and to your neighbor’s benefit.

How one should proceed further will follow in the second part. This treasure cannot be paid for with any gold, as Solomon says in his Wisdom, chap. 7, and silver is to be reckoned against it as but little sand.

Other things, too, about the gur and the prima materia will be shown; and there is absolutely no doubt of it for I think I have seen and experienced so much that I could also prove it by deed, though it cannot be (done here).

Thus, my dear friend, you have the whole treatise complete concerning the entire matter, in which all the philosophers agree.

It might have been shorter; but since I did not know whether the reader understands Latin or not, I have set it down twice over. Do not think it burdensome. My son, only consult the philosophers’ books you will not find it otherwise, although I can now prove by practice that the whole operation has its place. And in this point the best thing is to set the philosophers in concord and agreement with one another; for the truth lies only in the metallic root, as Count Trevisanus shows (fols. 14 & 16), and Rosarium fol. 36, Flamel fol. 147, and Rueckhl (De verbis mirificis) fol. 100 say: an evident proof of the truth is concordance or agreement.

By contrast, the foundation of lies is discord or disagreement; with that I shall leave it for now. Whoever is not satisfied even by these proofs can never be helped.

When the other points follow, everything will shine forth clearly and marvels will be seen; but I beg and implore, for God’s sake, that this my treatise be shown to no one. What you do not understand I will later explain as far as possible; but consult no one else rather pray diligently: honor, praise, and glory be to Him who lives from eternity to eternity. Amen. Keep God before your eyes, pray, read, and work: God will help you as He has helped me.

Soli Deo Gloria.