Most Excellent Little Work of the True Natural Philosophy of Metals Full

Most Excellent Little Work of the True Natural Philosophy of Metals

by Denis Zachaire

translation to Italian by Massimo Marra – first part

LITTLE WORK OF THE NATURAL PHILOSOPHY OF METALS BY DENIS ZACHAIRE, GENTLEMAN OF GUIENNE.

Translation French to Italian by Massimo Marra
Italian to English by Mitko Janeski

PREFACE.

Since all those who have written on this divine science, rightly and with good reason called natural philosophy, have expressly forbidden its divulgation and profanation, thus, friend reader, having read and reread many and repeated times the books of the natural philosophers, and having daily reflected upon the interpretation of the contradictions, figures, comparisons, equivocations, and various enigmas which appear in infinite number in their books, I have wished to hide and conceal their resolution; to this I was able to arrive only after I had long labored in sophistications and accursed recipes, or, to speak more properly, deceptions, by which for a long time I was enveloped and imprisoned, even more than Daedalus himself was in his labyrinth.

But at last, through the continual reading of good authors of proven knowledge, such as Geber in his Summa, I came to say: returning into myself and considering the true way and method which nature uses beneath the earth for the procreation of metals, I came to know the true and perfect matter which nature itself has prepared for us in order to perfect them above the earth. Of this, experience afterwards gave me assurance, thanks to the Lord God who granted me so many favors and graces through his dear Son, our Redeemer Jesus Christ, as I shall speak of more fully in the first part of the present Little Work, wherein I shall make clear the manner by which I arrived at the knowledge of this divine work. In the second, however, I shall show which authors I made use of in my study, citing their authorities in good order and with truthful method, for the purpose of better knowing the properties and explanations of the terms of the science. In the third and last part I shall set forth the practice in such a way that it will remain hidden from the ignorant and yet be shown clearly to the true sons of science, for whom I have greatly toiled in the effort to compose the whole in the best order possible. Not wishing herein to imitate various authors who went before, who were so envious of the public good and so loving of their private advantage that they would not set forth the matter except under diverse and changing allegories, without plainly showing in their books what they meant: I knew, in my own time, one man who held so dear and so hidden certain writings that he had recovered from a Venetian gentleman, that he himself scarcely dared even to look at them by halves, evidently believing that the great work must one day come forth from those pages without his troubling himself with any effort other than that of keeping his writings in a well-locked chest.

But such persons must know that this work, so divine, cannot be given to us by a fortuitous chance, as the philosophers say when they reproach those who work on credit, as almost all operators do today; by these I do not doubt that I shall be sharply reproved and accused for having published my Little Work. They will say that I commit a great folly in thus publishing my work, and moreover in the vulgar tongue, since there is no science today so hated by the common people as this one.

But to answer them, I wish first of all that they should know, if they do not yet know it, that this divine philosophy is not at all in the power of man, and that least of all can it be known through books, unless our good God inspires it in our hearts through his Holy Spirit or by means of some living man, as I shall prove more fully in the second part of this my Little Work. It is certainly not enough merely to read of it in this small treatise. And as for the use of the vulgar tongue, let them know that in this I have done nothing new, but have rather imitated ancient authors who all wrote in their mother tongue, such as Hamec, the Hebrew philosopher, who wrote in the Hebrew language; Thébit and Haly, Chaldean philosophers, in their Chaldaic speech; Homer, Theophrastus, Democritus, and many other Greek philosophers in their Greek tongue; Abobaly, Geber, Avicenna, Arab philosophers, in their Arabic tongue; and Morienus, Raymond Lully, and various other Latin philosophers in the Latin language, so that their successors might know that this divine science had been revealed to the peoples of their nation. Therefore, if I have imitated all these authors and many others in their writings, there is no cause for wonder that I have followed their example in the manner of writing, so that those also who are now living and those who shall follow us in time to come may know that our blessed God has wished, by his holy and divine mercy, to favor also our good land of Guienne with such knowledge, as indeed he has done with other nations.

And as for what they say, that our science is hated by the common people, this is not true; for truth, as soon as it is known, is always loved. It is rather deceits and false sophistications that are hated, as I shall explain more fully in the first part.

But, they will say, since I do not clearly explain all things required for the composition of our divine work, in such a way that all those who read my Little Work may assuredly labor from it, what profit can ever be drawn from reading this work of mine? I say, a great and twofold profit. First, who could describe the great riches that are wasted nowadays in France in following all these accursed sophistications? Would to God that they might disappear forever, and that by means of the reading of my Little Work an end might be put to so many foolish expenditures. Would not that be a great profit? Not to mention the second profit which good and faithful readers may derive, by directing their studies according to the authentic method that I have given in the second part. And if God grant them the grace that they may attain that resolution which I shall describe hereafter, the third part will not be useless to them for obtaining further access to this divine practice. I call it divine because it is such that human understanding, even that of the greatest philosophers, cannot comprehend it of itself, as Geber makes clear when he reproaches those who would labor by considering only natural causes and the operations of nature: in this, he says, the operators of today fail, because they think to follow nature, which our art nevertheless cannot equal in all things.

Let such slanderers therefore cease their talk, to whom I wish to say that they should not trouble themselves to read my Little Work, for I have not composed it for them, but for the kindly, docile, and loving sons of our science. These I most humbly pray that, before undertaking the works, they may acquire understanding of all the operations necessary to the composition of our divine work, adapting them to all the sentences, contradictions, enigmas, and equivocations found in the books of the philosophers, to the point of perceiving in them no contradiction or diversity of opinions any longer. For this is the true method of knowing the truth, especially in this divine philosophy, as Razi has written most excellently, saying: he who is lazy in the reading of our books shall never be ready to prepare the matters. For each book clarifies the other, and what is lacking in one is added in another. Therefore, by that same divine will, one must never expect to find the whole procedure of our divine work wholly described and explained in due order; which was well written by Aristotle to King Alexander in answer to his request: “It is not lawful,” he says, “to ask for that which it is not permitted to grant. How then can you think that I should communicate in writing that which, even if it were written, the hearts of men could not nevertheless understand?” By this he meant to indicate, through the refusal he opposed to the king his master, that he was forbidden by divine ordinance to publish our science in terms that would be understandable to all.

Therefore today I beseech all those who, by means of my present Little Work, shall arrive at the true knowledge of this divine work, to use it to feed the poor, free the oppressed, and relieve the afflicted, for the love of our God; for it is He who has indeed benefited them with so great a good, the greatness and divine origin of which I once more pray them to acknowledge, and to make use of it according to the holy commandments. In doing this, God will cause them to prosper in their affairs; whereas in the contrary case, He may turn all things to their harm and confusion.

I beseech you therefore, faithful friend, that while reading our books you always keep the good God in mind, since every good descends from Him, and without His help nothing perfect can be had in this low world, and still less can one attain to the knowledge of this great and admirable good, unless His Holy Spirit be given to us as guide. And this shall indeed come to pass if you are not guided by avarice and are a true zealot of Jesus Christ, to whom be glorious praise for all the ages of ages. So be it.

Chapter 1 – HOW THE AUTHOR CAME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THIS DIVINE WORK.

Hermes, rightly called Trismegistus, a word commonly interpreted as meaning thrice-great, first author and prophet of the natural philosophers, after having seen by experience the certainty and truth of this divine philosophy, has well left it written that, had it not been for the fear he had of the universal judgment which the sovereign God must pronounce upon every rational creature in the last days of the end of the world, he would never have left anything of this divine science in writing, so greatly did he esteem it, and with good reason, as something great and admirable. Of this opinion have been all the principal authors who followed him. For this reason they all wrote their books in such a way, as Geber says in his Summa, as always to pursue two ends: namely, to cause the ignorant to fail, and to make clear, under the veil of variety of opinions, their principal intention to the sons of science. These must needs err at the beginning, so that, they say, having acquired the science with great pain and labor of body and mind, they may afterwards hold it the dearer and keep it more secret. And truly the best thing is not to spread it at all, since an unspeakable toil is required to acquire it, not to mention the costs and expenses that must be borne, which are great, before one may arrive at the perfect knowledge of this divine work. I speak here of those who have no other master than books, and who await inspiration from our good God, as I did for the space of ten years.

First of all, to recount the true sequence of events and the manner in which I came to this knowledge: when I was about twenty years old, after having been instructed in our own house, through the care and diligence of my parents, in the principles of grammar, I was sent to Bordeaux to study the arts in the college, because very learned professors ordinarily taught there. There I remained almost constantly studying philosophy for the space of three years, in which I made such progress, by the grace of God and the diligence of a private master whom my parents had given me, that it seemed good to all my friends and relatives (since meanwhile I had lost both mother and father, who had thus left me alone in the world) that I should go to Toulouse under the direction of the said personal master to study law. Yet I did not leave Bordeaux before having made the acquaintance of other students who had various books of recipes gathered from different authors, with which I became familiar, because my master practiced them. I was not so lazy as to leave uncopied a single sheet from all the books I could obtain, so that, before departing for Toulouse, I had copied a great thick volume of the breadth of three fingers, in which I had written various projections, one weight upon ten, another upon twenty, upon thirty, with many half-recipes for the red, one at eighteen carats, another at twenty, another again for gold of crowns, of ducats, and others finally for making it of a better color than ever. Some were supposed to endure melting, others the touchstone, others every assay, and yet others infinite further tests. Likewise for the white, one of which was to come out at ten deniers, another at eleven, another again at a teston, one at the fire-white, another at the touch, so that it seemed to me that if ever I had the means of putting into practice even the least of these recipes, I should become the happiest man in the world. And chiefly, among the tinctures that I had obtained, some were, in the title, attributed to the Queen of Navarre, others to the late Cardinal of Lorraine, others again to Cardinal de Tournon and to infinitely many other names, so that, as I understood afterwards, the greater faith might be given to them, which indeed I did at that time.

As soon as I was in Toulouse, after having confessed everything to my master, I set myself to build little furnaces. Then from the little ones I went on to large ones, so that I ended by having a whole chamber surrounded by them. Some were for distilling, others for subliming, calcining, dissolving in the bain-marie, and others again for melting. In this way, at the beginning of my efforts, I spent in one year more than two hundred crowns, which had been sent to us to maintain us for two years of study, and which were instead spent both on building furnaces and on buying coal, innumerable and infinite drugs, various glass vessels—which I bought at six crowns apiece—not counting the two ounces of gold that were lost in practicing one of the recipes, and the two or three marks of silver that were lost in practicing another. When at times a little of it was recovered, it was so acid and blackened because of the great number of mixtures prescribed by the said recipes, that it was almost wholly unusable. Thus, by the end of the year, my two hundred crowns had gone up in smoke, and my master died of a continual fever that had seized him in summer from so much blowing and absorbing heat, since he, through the great desire to bring something good to completion, never left the chamber, in which the heat was no less than what there must have been in the arsenal of Venice at the artillery forge. My master’s death was very harmful to me, because my relatives refused to send me more money than was strictly necessary to maintain me in my studies, whereas I desired nothing else than to have the means to continue.

This compelled me to return to my own home in order to free myself from the guardianship of my curators, so as to come into possession of all my paternal goods, from which I had for three years an income of four hundred crowns, which I used particularly to carry out one recipe among others, which an Italian, whom I kept with me in order to complete his own recipe, had left me at Toulouse, assuring me that he had seen the experiment accomplished. To put it into practice, I had to buy two ounces of gold and a mark of silver, which, once melted together, we caused to dissolve with aqua fortis, and then calcined by evaporation, trying to dissolve them with various other waters and distillations, so many times that in this manner two months passed before the powder was ready to make projection with it. We used it as the recipe indicated, but all was in vain, for the only profit I received from it was a diminution of weight, since of all the gold and silver I had used I recovered only half a mark, not counting the other expenses, which were not small. Thus my four hundred crowns became two hundred and thirty, of which twenty went to my Italian so that he might go and find the author of this recipe, whom he said was in Milan, in order to direct us. In this way I remained in Toulouse all winter awaiting his return, but if I had wished to continue waiting, I should still be there, for the Italian was never seen again.

Afterwards summer came, accompanied by a great pestilence, which made me leave Toulouse. And in order not to abandon the companions I had known there, I went to Cahors, where I remained six months, during which I did not fail to continue my undertaking, keeping company with an old and good man who was commonly called the Philosopher, to whom I showed my notes. I asked his advice to know which recipe seemed to him the most promising, to him who had handled so many simples during his life, and he pointed out ten or twelve to me which, in his opinion, were the better ones. As soon as I had returned to Toulouse, at All Saints’ feast, after the danger of the pestilence had passed, I immediately began to put them into practice, and in this occupation I spent the whole winter, deriving from it a profit no different from that of the preceding attempts. Thus, after the feast of Saint John, I found my four hundred crowns reduced to one hundred and seventy, but I did not therefore give up pursuing my aim.

Rather, in order better to continue, I attached myself to an abbot who lived near Toulouse, who was said to possess a copy of a recipe for making our great work, which a friend of his from the retinue of Cardinal d’Armagnac had sent him from Rome, and which he kept carefully, since it was supposed to be worth two hundred crowns. Of this sum I supplied one hundred crowns and he the other half. So we began to build new furnaces, all of different forms, in order to work; and since we needed a sovereignly strong brandy-spirit to dissolve a mark of gold, we bought, in order to produce it, a cask of wine from Gaillac, from which, by means of a very large pelican, we drew our spirit. In this way, within a month, we had water passed and repassed several times in greater quantity than we needed. Then it was necessary to have various glass vessels in order to purify and subtilize it further. Afterwards we put four marks of it into two very large and thick glass retorts, in which there was the mark of gold that we had previously calcined for a month with a very strong flame-fire, and we placed these two retorts one within the other, well luted. We set them upon two large round furnaces, and spent thirty crowns on coal all at once to keep the fire going continuously for a whole year. During this period, every day we tried some little recipe, from which we drew the same profit as from our great work. As for this latter, we should still be there waiting if we had wished to wait until it had congealed in the middle of the bottom of the retorts, as the recipe promised; and not without reason, since every congelation is always preceded by dissolution, and we were not working on the proper matter, because, as experience shows us, it is not water that dissolves our gold. Thus we found in our retorts all the gold in powder exactly as we had put it in, except for the fact that it was somewhat more loosened. Of this gold we made projection upon heated quicksilver, but in vain.

If we were distressed by this, I leave it to you to imagine; above all the abbot, who, as an excellent keeper of secrets, had already told his monks that nothing remained but to melt down a beautiful lead fountain that they had in their cloister, in order to convert it into gold as soon as our work should be completed. The fountain he had melted down another time too, but only in order to have the means of making some German who was passing through his abbey work in vain, while I was in Paris. Be that as it may, he too did not cease wishing to continue the undertaking, and therefore advised me to set myself diligently to gather three or four hundred crowns, and he would provide as much again, so that I might go to Paris, the city nowadays most frequented by the various operators of this science in all Europe. There I would work with every sort of people, and if I found anything good, we would share it fraternally. I again invested the revenues of all my goods and thus went to Paris with eight hundred crowns in my purse, resolved not to leave there until I had either spent the money or found something good. But not without first incurring the ill grace of all my relatives and friends, who sought nothing else than to make me counselor of our town, since they held the opinion that I was a great jurist. Yet, notwithstanding their entreaties (after having made them believe that I was going to Court in order to obtain a high office), I departed the day after Christmas, and arrived in Paris three days after Epiphany. There I remained for a month, almost unknown to all, but after I had begun to frequent craftsmen such as goldsmiths, furnace-builders, and others, I came into contact with so many that before another month had passed I had made the acquaintance of more than a hundred operators. Some worked on tinctures of metals by projection, others by cementation, some by dissolution, others by conjunction of the essence (as they called it) of emery, others again by long decoctions; some worked on the extraction of the mercuries of metals, others finally on their fixation. Thus there did not pass a day—Sundays and feast days included—on which we did not gather at someone’s house, and often at mine, or at Notre-Dame-la-Grande, which is the most frequented church in Paris, to speak of the respective works carried out in the preceding days. Some said: “If only we had the means to begin again, we would certainly do something good.” Others instead: “If our vessel had held, we would have succeeded.” Others again: “If only we had had our copper vessel well rounded and sealed, we would have fixed mercury with the moon.” There was not one among them who had accomplished anything good who did not have his own excuse. For this reason, I certainly did not hasten to offer them money, knowing well the great expenses I had previously had to meet on credit, trusting in the assurances of others.

However, during the summer, there arrived a Greek who was esteemed a very learned man, and he addressed himself to a treasurer whom I knew, promising him very fine works. Through this acquaintance it came about that I began, together with him, to finance operations for fixing, as he said, the mercury of cinnabar. And because the Greek needed fine silver filings, we bought three marks of silver and had them filed down; he made little nails from them with an artificial paste, and mixed them with powdered cinnabar, having them cooked for a certain time in a well-covered earthen vessel. When they were thoroughly dry, he caused them to be melted or passed through the cupel, and in this way we found three marks and a little more of fine silver, which he said had come forth from the cinnabar, whereas the fine silver we had put in had gone up in smoke. Whether there was profit in it, God knows, and I as well, for I was spending out of my own purse more than thirty crowns. Nevertheless, he always maintained that there was gain to be made from it. Thus, before the following Christmas, the matter had become so well known in Paris that there was not a son of a good mother occupied with the science—that is to say, in sophistications—who had not heard tell of the cinnabar nails, just as some time later people spoke of the copper apples for fixing mercury within them by means of the moon.

While time was passing in these frivolities, there arrived a foreign gentleman, very greatly experienced in sophistications, an experience from which he ordinarily profited by selling his services to goldsmiths, with whom I made acquaintance as soon as ever I could; naturally, not without expense, since I did not wish him to think me a poor wretch. Before he was willing to reveal anything to me, I remained with him for about a year; at last he showed me his secret, which he esteemed very highly, although in truth it was nothing perfect.

Nevertheless, I informed my abbot of everything, and even sent him a copy of this gentleman’s recipe. He replied that he did not think it money wasted for me to remain yet another year in Paris, since I had found so fair a beginning, which he considered of great importance, against my own opinion; for I had always held that I ought never to use any matter which did not remain such as it appeared at the beginning, having already learned only too well that one need not labor so much in order to be wicked and enrich oneself at another’s expense. Therefore, continuing always my search, I remained another year, frequenting now some, now others, among those reputed to possess something of interest: together with the two years I had already spent there, I had remained in Paris for three years.

I had spent the greater part of my money when I received news from my abbot asking me to come and see him at once, as soon as I had received the letter. Since I did not wish to fail him in anything, seeing that we were bound by oath, I did so immediately. When I arrived, I found with him a letter that the King of Navarre—who was greatly curious about all things of good learning—had written to him. He would arrange it so that, if ever we should resolve to work for him, and if I would go to see him at Pau in Béarn in order to teach him the secret I had learned from my gentleman, and the others which he had been told I knew, he would treat me very well and reward me with three or four thousand crowns. This talk of four thousand crowns so tickled the abbot’s ears, he almost thought he had them already in his purse, that he never ceased urging me to depart for Pau. I arrived there in the month of May and remained there about six weeks without working, since the various simples had first to be procured. But when I was ready, I received exactly the reward I had expected; for although the king had a good will to do me good, being surrounded by the greatest men of the court, and also by those who had been the cause of my coming, he sent me back again with many thanks and with the promise that I should inform him if there were anything in his lands within his power to give me, such as confiscated goods or other like things, and he would gladly bestow them upon me. This reply irritated me so greatly that, without trusting his fair promises, I returned to the abbot.

But because I had heard speak of a learned religious man who was esteemed—and rightly so—wise in natural philosophy, on the road back I wished to go and make his acquaintance. He strongly turned me away from the path of sophistications, and after learning that I had studied and taken my doctorate in philosophy at Bordeaux, he told me with much zeal that it was greatly to be lamented that I had not gathered so many good books of the ancient philosophers as may ordinarily be found, and that instead I had lost so much time and so much money on credit in accursed sophistications.

I spoke to him of the operations I had undertaken, and he was promptly able to tell me what they were worth, and that such results could not endure many tests. He so completely drew me away from every sophistication, urging me instead to occupy myself with reading the books of the ancient philosophers in order to know their true matter—in which, it seemed, all the perfection of the science resided—that I at once went from him to my abbot in order to render him an account of the eight hundred crowns we had invested together and to give him half the reward I had received from the King of Navarre. When I came to him, I told him everything, and he was greatly distressed by it, and still more distressed that I no longer wished to continue the enterprise we had begun together, for he thought me a good operator. Yet his entreaties did not turn me from following the counsel of the good doctor, in view of the sound and evident reasons that he had put forward in our conversation. Having rendered an account to my abbot of all the expenses I had borne, there remained ninety crowns for each of us, and the next day we parted. I returned to my own home with the resolve to go to Paris and, once arrived there, not to leave it again without having drawn from the reading of the various books of the natural philosophers some conclusion useful for working our great work, after having taken leave of every sophistication.

After first collecting my money from my tenants, I went to Paris, where I arrived on the day after All Saints’ Day in the year one thousand five hundred and forty-six. I bought books of philosophy for ten crowns, both of ancient and of modern authors, partly printed and partly manuscript, such as the Turba of the Philosophers, the good Trevisan, the Complaint of Nature, and several other treatises which had never been printed. I had rented a small chamber in the suburb of Saint-Marceau, and I remained there for a year with a little boy who served me, associating with no one, studying these authors day and night, so that within the space of a month I had come to one conclusion, then to another, which afterwards I examined more deeply and in the end altered almost entirely, waiting until I should finally establish one in which there should be neither diversity nor contradiction with the opinions of the books of the philosophers. Yet I passed the whole year and part of the next without being able to conclude anything in my study.

Meanwhile, in this perplexity, I began again to frequent those whom I knew were working upon this divine work, since I no longer kept company with all those other operators I had formerly known who labored in all those accursed sophistications. But if I went out from my study with a mind full of vexation, this vexation only increased when I set myself to consider the diverse and variable ways in which the others worked. For if one worked upon gold alone, another proceeded with gold and mercury together, another mixed in lead, which he called sounding because it had been sublimed with quicksilver. Another converted certain metals into quicksilver by means of various simples through sublimation; another worked with artificial black atrament, which he said was the true matter used by Raymond Lull for the composition of this great work. If one worked in a single alembic, another worked in several other glass vessels, another in bronze, another in copper, another in lead, another in silver, and some in vessels of gold. Then one made his decoction with the fire of great coals, another with wood fire, another with brushwood, another by the heat of the sun, and others in the bain-marie.

In this way the variety of their operations, together with the contradictions I saw in the books, had nearly thrown me into despair, when, inspired by God and the Holy Spirit, I began to reread with great diligence the works of Raymond Lull, and chiefly his Testament and the Codicil, which I compared so deeply with an Epistle he wrote in his time to King Robert, and with another manuscript of this doctor that I had obtained, that I drew from them a conclusion altogether contrary to all the operations I had previously seen, but of such a kind that I no longer read anything in all the books that did not fit my opinion exceedingly well. Even the conclusion that Arnold of Villanova, master of Raymond Lull in this science, had written at the end of his Great Rosary accorded with it. I remained about another year doing nothing except reading and reconsidering my conclusions day and night, waiting until the term of the rent of my properties should expire, with the intention of going home to work. I arrived there in Lent, resolved to put my conclusions into practice. During Lent I laid in all that I needed and built a furnace for working, so that I might begin on the day after Easter.

This, however, did not come about without various hindrances—of the chief of which I keep silence—caused by my nearest neighbors, relatives, and friends. One said to me: “What do you want to do? Have you not spent enough on such follies?” Another assured me that if I continued buying so much coal, suspicion would arise that I was counterfeiting coin, as indeed he had already heard said. Then another would come, saying that everyone, even the greatest men of our town, found it very strange that I did not practice the gown, seeing that I was a doctor of law, in order to attain some honorable office in the city. Others, who were closer to me, continually rebuked me, asking why I did not put an end to these mad expenses, and saying that it would be better for me to save money to pay my creditors and to buy some office; moreover they threatened me that they would bring officers of justice into my house to destroy everything. First of all, they said, if you will do nothing for love of us, then at least have some regard for yourself. Consider that, though you are about thirty years old, you seem fifty, so gray does your beard appear, making you look so aged from the sufferings you have endured in pursuing your youthful follies. And with this they ordinarily importuned me with a thousand other reproaches.

You may imagine how troublesome these words were to me, especially inasmuch as I saw my work proceeding from good to better. I remained always intent upon my work, notwithstanding such adversities and hindrances as continually arose, and chiefly the danger of the plague, which during the summer was so great that it brought all traffic and trade to a halt. Thus there did not pass a day in which I did not watch with the greatest diligence for the appearance of the three colors which the philosophers have written must appear before the perfection of our divine work. I saw them, thanks be to the Lord God, one after another, so that on the very day of the following Easter I made true and perfect trial of it upon quicksilver heated in a crucible, which was converted into fine gold before my very eyes in less than an hour by means of a little of this divine powder.

How pleased I was by it, God knows. Yet I do not boast the more because of it.

After having given thanks to our good God, who had bestowed so many graces and favors upon me through his Son, our Redeemer Jesus Christ, and after having prayed to him that he would enlighten me through his Holy Spirit, so that I might use this grace to his honor and praise, on the following day I went to find the abbot in his abbey, in order to keep the promise that bound me to him; but I learned that he had died six months earlier, and I was greatly grieved by it. In like manner the good doctor was also dead, as I learned while passing near his convent. Therefore I went to a certain place there to wait for a friend and close kinsman of mine, with whom I had made an appointment at my departure, and whom I had left at my house charged and expressly empowered to sell all my paternal goods, and with these to pay my creditors and secretly distribute the rest to those who needed it, so that my relatives and others also might enjoy some fruit of the great good God had given me, without any of them perceiving it. On the contrary, as my friend told me, they thought I was in despair, and that, being ashamed of the foolish expenses I had made, I was selling everything in order to withdraw elsewhere. My friend reached me on the first day of the month of July, and we went to Lausanne, having resolved to travel and to spend the rest of my days in a certain more renowned German city with a very small retinue, so as not to be recognized even by those who, during my lifetime, shall read this book of mine in our country of France. I have wished to give this writing to my country, not so much to confess myself the author of so many foolish expenses—which indeed are ordinarily made when one pursues this science that all consider sophistical, since only a few work toward the true and divine perfection—as rather to draw back and set again upon the true path the greatest number of seekers possible.

Therefore, in conclusion of this first part, I most humbly beseech all those who shall read the present Little Work to remember what the good poet has left us in writing, namely: fortunate are those who have made themselves wise at the expense and peril of others. This so that, in reading how I came to the perfection of this divine work, they may learn no longer to depend upon vain and sophistical deceits, and may not imagine that they will attain the end by means of them. For, as I have already warned in my preliminary epistle, it is not by a fortuitous chance that one arrives there, but by long and continual study of good authors, when it is the good pleasure of our God to assist us through his Holy Spirit, since those who possess the secret very rarely make it public. I most humbly beseech God that it may please Him to grant me grace to make good use of it, and to assist all the good faithful who shall read my Little Work, that they may derive from it some profit to be used to his honor and to the praise of our Redeemer Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Chapter 2 – THE TRUE METHOD FOR READING THE BOOKS OF THE NATURAL PHILOSOPHERS.

Aristotle, in the first book of the Physics, has taught us that one must not dispute against those who deny the principles of science, but rather against those who profess them, when they put forward various arguments which they cannot resolve because of their ignorance, remaining always in doubt. It is therefore for such persons, and not for the others, that, following the example of my good master, I write. For, as the same author affirms, to dispute with such a breed of people is equivalent to discoursing of colors with men born blind, who, not having the means (that is, sight) by which to judge them, cannot be persuaded that there are different colors.

Therefore, in order that the good faithful and sincere children may derive some profit from my Little Work, finding in it relief and repose of spirit, I have taken pains, as much as I have been able, and so far as the very subject of our science permits, to compose the second part in the form of a true method, in order to avoid the great variety and confusion which ordinarily presents itself in the reading of the books of the philosophers. This leads me to use the same order that I observed in my own study, proceeding by divisions, as follows:

1. First of all, we shall show, with the help of our good God, by whom our science was invented and of which authors we have made use in the compilation of the present Little Work, making clear the reason why they have written so enigmatically.

2. We shall then prove the truth and certainty of this science by various arguments, replying to the most evident reasons that are customarily raised in order to prove the contrary; thus the diligent reader will be able to compare, from the other sections of our division, and particularly from the third and fourth part, each of our solutions with the contrary arguments that might be opposed.

3. Thirdly, we shall prove in what respect our science is natural and why it is called divine, speaking of its principal operations; here we shall declare the errors of the operators of the present day.

4. This done, we shall deduce the manner in which nature works beneath the earth, showing in what respect art can follow nature in its operations.

5. Then we shall declare the true matter that is required for making metals above the earth.

6. Finally, we shall clarify the principal terms of our science, reconciling the most necessary statements of the philosophers that appear most contradictory, and reading their books.

In this way the sincere lovers of our science may derive great profit, while our envious ordinary detractors will instead obtain from the present Little Work great confusion; I have wished to confirm my writing with the authorities of the wisest and most ancient philosophers and good authors, so that the detractors may not take as a pretext the fact that it is a new author who lays bare their impiety and their continual deceptions.

1 – OF THE FIRST INVENTORS OF THIS SCIENCE.

To say who were the first inventors of our science, we must recall the doctrine which the Apostle Saint James has left us written in his canonical epistle, namely, that everything which is good, and every gift which is perfect, is given to us from above, descending from the Father of lights, who is the eternal God. This I do not wish to apply to our subject in the general terms that might be used for all created things, but in specific terms. I say that our science is so divine and supernatural (I mean in the second operation, as shall be more fully explained in the third part of our division) that it has always been impossible, and always will be in time to come, for any man to know and discover it by himself, even if he were the greatest and most experienced philosopher in the world. For all natural reasons and experiences fail in this matter, so that it has rightly been written by the ancient authors that this science is the secret which the good God has reserved and given to those who fear and honor Him, as our philosopher Hermes says: I possess this science by no other way than through the inspiration of God. This is confirmed by Alphidius, who says: Know, my son, that the good God has reserved this science for the descendants of Adam, and chiefly for the poor and the reasonable. Geber affirmed the same in his Summa, saying: Our science is in the power of God, who, being just and benign, gives it to whom He wills. It is therefore altogether far from being in the power of men, and still less was it invented by them, insofar as it is supernatural.

But as regards the fact that it is also a natural work, that is to say, that in its first operations it follows nature, there are various opinions concerning who was its first inventor. Some say that it was Adam, others Aesculapius, others say that Enoch first knew it, while others wish it to have been Hermes, so greatly praised by the Greeks, to whom they have attributed the invention of all the occult and secret sciences. For my own part, I would willingly agree with this opinion, since it is well enough known that Hermes was a very great philosopher, as is borne witness by his works. Being such, he diligently investigated the causes of experiences and of natural things, through the knowledge of which he was able to know the true matter that nature uses in the cavities of the earth for the procreation of metals. I believe this because all those who followed him arrived, through his means, at the true knowledge of this divine work, as did Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, Zeno, Haly, Senior Razi, Geber, Morienus, Bonus, Arnold of Villanova, Raymond Lull, and many others whom it would take too long to list. From the principal among these authors we have gathered and assembled the material of the present Little Work, but with great difficulty, because, as their books can testify, they wrote in such a manner (always having the fear of God before their eyes) that it is almost impossible to arrive at the knowledge of this divine work through the reading of their writings, as Geber says in his Summa: the son of science must not despair and mistrust the knowledge of this divine work, because, by ordinarily seeking and reflecting upon the causes of natural compounds, he will attain to it. But he who expects to find it through our books will arrive there very late. For, he says in another place, the philosophers wrote the true practice for themselves, mingling together the ways of investigating the causes in order to arrive at its perfect knowledge. This caused him to place in his Summa the principal operations and the things required for our divine work in various and different chapters; for, he says, if I had placed them in order and sequence, it would be known by all in a day, or even in an hour, so noble and marvelous is it. Alphidius said the same, writing that the philosophers who preceded us hid their principal intention under various enigmas and innumerable equivocations, so that, through the publication of their doctrines, the world might not be ruined; as indeed it would be, because every occupation of labor and tilling of the earth, every commerce, and, in short, everything necessary for the preservation of human life, would be lost, since no one would wish any longer to concern himself with such things, having in his power a good so great as this. Therefore Hermes, excusing himself at the beginning of his book, says: My children, do not think that the philosophers have hidden this great secret out of envy which they bear toward the wise and well instructed, but rather in order to hide it from the ignorant and malicious. For otherwise, as Rosinus says, the ignorant would be made equal to the wise, and the malicious and wicked would use it to the harm and ruin of all the people. Similar reasons are given by Geber in his Summa in the chapter on the administration of the solar medicine, when he says that the sons of doctrine must not marvel if the philosophers have spoken obscurely in their books. It is not in order to hide the truth from them, but to conceal, under so much variety and confusion of operations, their secret from the ignorant, and nevertheless to direct and guide the sons of science to its knowledge. Therefore, he writes elsewhere, they have written the science only for themselves, while nevertheless giving the means to understand it.

This is the reason why all the books of the philosophers are full of great difficulties, and I say great because they are innumerable. For what is more difficult to see in the world than to resolve so great a contradiction among so many renowned and wise authors? Or again, to find contradictions of doctrine within a single author? This is testified by the writings of Razi, when, in the Book of Lights, he says: I have shown sufficiently in my books the true ferment required for the multiplications of the tinctures of metals, which elsewhere I have affirmed not to be the true leaven, leaving its true knowledge to him who shall have an understanding good and subtle enough to recognize it.

Moreover, if one writes that our true matter is of vile and worthless price, found among dung, as Zeno says in the Turba of the Philosophers, immediately, in the same book, another, Barseus, says: What you seek is not of little price. Another will say that it is very precious and can be found only at great cost.

Again, if one has taught to prepare our matter in several vessels and several operations, as Geber did in his Summa, there will be another who will assure us that there is need of only one vessel to perfect our divine work, as Razi, Lilium, Alphidius, and many others say.

Then when one reads in one book that one must remain nine months upon the procreation for the completion of our divine work, as Razi himself wrote, one will read in another that a year is required, as Rosinus and Plato say.

One will find terms so different and variable (in appearance, I mean), and so poorly explained, that it is impossible for men, as Raymond Lull says, to discover the truth among so many different opinions, unless the good God inspire us through His Holy Spirit or reveal it to us through some living person. The reason why we never come to know of anyone who has accomplished the work, hearing of it only after their death, is that, having obtained it with great labor, if it were possible they would hide it even from themselves, and would never reveal it to others. Therefore, following the reasons thus far set forth, one must not find it strange, as the common people do, not to see anyone who has accomplished this divine work; rather one ought to marvel, as the wise do, that anyone has arrived at its true knowledge.

2 – OF THE CERTAINTY AND TRUTH OF THE SCIENCE.

But, continuing in the order in which we have begun, we must address the second point of our division, namely whether our science is certain and genuine. Yet, before beginning, I must satisfy the delicate ears of the slanderers who, being accustomed to reproach the works of others (since their own never see the light), will say that I have ill learned the doctrine of Aristotle who, in the seventh book of the Physics, wrote: the definition is the true form of the subject defined. And thus, since I have undertaken to treat of the explanation and the true method of this science (commonly called alchemy), I ought to begin with its definition, in order better to clarify the meaning of its terms. But on this matter I shall willingly refer to the authors who have gone before me, who, having set themselves to give it a certain definition, were constrained to confess that this was impossible, as is testified, for example, by the writings of Morienus, Lilium, and various others. For this reason, in their books they assigned various and different descriptions by which they show the effects of our science, since it is in no way founded upon principles familiar to most men, as all the other sciences are.

For my own part, I shall say of it what I believe: it is a part of natural philosophy which shows the manner of perfecting metals above the earth, imitating nature as closely as possible in its operations. We call this science certain for various reasons:

1. First of all, it is held as certain among all philosophers that there is nothing more sure than the truth which appears, as Aristotle says, where there is no contradiction. Thus all the philosophers have written of this divine philosophy, following one another, some writing in Hebrew, others in Greek, others in Arabic, Latin, and various other languages. They have so well understood and agreed with one another, although they wrote under the veil of equivocations and figures (for the reasons described above), that one would swear with good reason that they had written at the same time and in the same language, whereas in truth some wrote a hundred years after others, some two hundred, or even a thousand years apart from one another, as Senior says: the philosophers seem to have written of different things under different names and likenesses, whereas in truth they have never meant but one and the same thing. Of this we have another most evident testimony in the fact that the same men who wrote books of great wisdom in other sciences also wrote in this one, which in their writings they affirm to be genuine.

2. Even if we had no other proof than the saying of the Philosopher, who says in the second book of the Ethics that that which is well done is accomplished by one mean, this would be sufficient to assure us of the truth of our science. For all those who have written of it agree on the fact that there is but one single way to perfect our divine work, as Geber says in his Summa: our science is not brought to perfection by means of a diversity of things, but by one single thing, to which we add or subtract nothing, apart from the superfluities which we separate in its preparation. The same is testified by Lilium, when he writes that all our magistery is brought to perfection by one single thing, with one single regimen and one single means. All the other philosophers have written likewise, although their sayings may appear discordant.

3. Moreover, we hold the authenticity of our science to be more than true, thanks to the most certain experience that we have seen, which, so far as concerns us, is the principal assurance, as Razi and Senior say.

4. But, in order to demonstrate it as such as best we may to those who might justly doubt it, one must agree with all the philosophers that our science is comprised under that part of natural philosophy which they have quite properly defined as operative, likening it in this respect to medicine. Now the truth and certainty of medicine cannot be demonstrated except by experience. And that it is true, when we read in its books that every choler is evacuated by rhubarb, we cannot establish this before experience shows it to us; only experience can demonstrate that choler is cured by the application of that particular simple. Thus, speaking by analogy (although our divine work cannot be compared to anything), we shall say that, if experience shows us that the fume of lead or that of atrament congeals quicksilver, this certifies us (and induces us to believe) that it is possible to prepare a most perfect medicine, similar to the natural quality of metals, and that with it we may fix quicksilver and perfect the other metals by projection, assuming that imperfect mineral compounds congeal quicksilver by reducing it to their own natural state. Much more then, the perfect ones, by means of our art and duly prepared by it, will congeal and reduce to a state like their own all the other imperfect metals, by means of the great and exuberant decoction administered by our art.

5. And to satisfy still further the curious minds of today, we shall bring forward some other argument to induce them better to believe in the truth of our science. It is certain that everything which performs the same operation as a compound is altogether similar to it, as Aristotle says in the fourth book of the Meteorics, when he declares that everything which performs the operations of an eye is an eye. Therefore our gold (that is, the gold which we make by means of our divine work) is altogether similar to mineral gold; and although all present doubts consist in verifying whether the gold we make is perfect, it seems to me that I have sufficiently proved (following the authority of the philosophers) that our science is most certain. It is true, however, it will be said, that my proofs are sufficient only for those who have had experience of our science, but not for the others, for whose use, in order that they too may have no doubt of it, I shall set forth the following reasons.

6. Aristotle, in the fourth book of the Meteorics, in the chapter on digestions, says that every thing which is disposed to be perfect, but shows lack of digestion, may by continued digestion be rendered perfect. Therefore all imperfect metals have remained such through lack of digestion, because they were made in the end to be converted into gold and, by this means, to be perfect, as experience testifies to us, and as we shall describe below in the fourth point of our division. They may therefore be perfected by means of the continual decoction which nature makes in the cavities of the earth. Our art perfects them above the earth by means of the projection of our divine work, as we shall explain later in the penultimate point of our division.

7. Moreover, if the four elements, which in some qualities are contrary to one another, as Aristotle says in the second book of Generation, are converted into one another, then much more so will the metals be, since they are all of one and the same matter and, among other things, are not contrary in their qualities. This is the reason why Hermes defined their procreation as circular, somewhat improperly, as he himself says, because metals are not procreated by nature in order to return from perfect to imperfect, so that gold should become lead or silver tin, but rather in order to be made perfect by order and continual decoction until, being perfected, they become gold, as experience clearly demonstrates. Thus their generation is not completely circular, although in part it is so.

These reasons and others like them (which I for the present omit, since this little Opuscolo of mine cannot contain every discourse that might be developed on this subject) would be sufficient to demonstrate the truth and certainty of our science, were it not for the contrary arguments which are customarily raised on the matter and which so disturb the minds of the sons of doctrine that they are always in doubt, believing now one side, now another, and thus never having rest in their spirit. But, in order that they may believe our science to be most true, I wish to reveal to them the true solution of the most forceful and evident argument that is customarily raised against it, and thus the sons of doctrine will recognize that such objections, and all others like them, possess only the appearance of truth.

All are accustomed to bring forward an objection founded upon the authority of the Philosopher in the fourth book of the Meteorics, which objection is shared by Avicenna, as Albertus Magnus says: the operators of today labor in vain to perfect metals, for they will never succeed unless first they reduce them to their first matter. When we do not reduce them, we do nothing but sophistications, as Albert himself writes, saying: all those who color metals with various kinds of simples and with different colors, without first reducing them to their first matter, are in truth nothing but cheats and deceivers.

For my part, I know well that many learned men have discussed this argument, since it is the most striking one there is. Some observe that, by projecting our divine work upon imperfect metals, we do not at all reduce the latter to their first nature; nevertheless, if in its composition we had reduced it into sulfur and quicksilver, which are the true matter of metals (as we shall explain in the fourth part of our division), then by the great perfection acquired during decoction it is afterwards sufficient to bring all imperfect metals to perfection by projection, without first reducing them to their first matter. Such was the opinion of Arnold of Villanova in his Great Rosary, and he was followed by Raymond Lull in his Testament.

But, with due honor and reverence to these two learned persons, it seems to me that to say this is to speak against the opinion of all the philosophers; for since they agree on the necessity of reducing metals to their first matter (which is accomplished by motion and corruption, as Aristotle says), they mean to imply that, through the mere melting and projection of our divine work upon the metals, these are corrupted and deprived of their first forms, which is a thought unworthy of any philosopher. Others again, as may be gathered from their books, have proposed diverse and varying solutions.

As for me, I shall say what I think of it: it is most true that, if we wished to make metals ex novo, or even if we wished to make from them earths, stones, or other such things altogether different from the metals themselves, we would certainly have to reduce them to their first matter in the manner previously described. But since we wish only to bring imperfect metals to the perfection of gold, without transforming them into new matters different from their own nature, and rather to purge and cleanse them through the projection of our divine work, so that by the great and exuberant perfection of this they may be brought to perfection, then there is no need at all to reduce them to their first matter. For it is most well known that to perfect the imperfect and to produce ex novo are two things altogether different. Otherwise it would follow that every half-cooked thing must be returned to its first matter in order to complete its cooking, which is a thought unworthy of any philosopher.

As for the other objections which are commonly raised, I am silent about them for the present, since their solutions are found in the books of good authors and, besides, the diligent and studious reader will for the most part be able to find them for himself, both by keeping in mind what we have already said and by reading what we shall say hereafter, seeing and considering that we have already resolved the most complex and difficult objection of all. Yet in this I do not wish to forget the authority of Avicenna who, speaking of the youthful contradiction of Aristotle against the doctrine of all the ancient philosophers, says: I have no lawful excuse, since I know both the thought of those who deny our science and of those who esteem it true. The former, like Aristotle and others, use reasons which have a certain appearance but are not true. The others have brought forward different reasons, but very far removed from those that are customarily considered in the other sciences. By this he meant to say that our science cannot be proved by certain demonstrations like all the others, since it proceeds in a different manner, altogether contrary to the others, concealing and hiding the meanings of its terms where the others strive to clarify them.

3 – THAT THE SCIENCE IS NATURAL, WHY IT IS CALLED DIVINE, AND WHICH OPERATIONS ARE NECESSARY TO THE WORK.

Continuing in order through my division, I shall address its third part, showing which operations are necessary to accomplish our divine work, first making clear in what way our science is natural and why it is called divine. Thus one may recognize the great and grievous errors of present-day operators.

To understand properly in what our science is natural, one must know what Aristotle taught concerning the operations of nature. He clearly showed that nature works beneath the earth, in the procreation of metals, by means of the four qualities, or (to speak more simply) the four elements called fire, air, water, and earth, of which two contain the other two—namely, the earth which contains fire, and the water which contains air. Therefore, since our matter is made of water and earth (as we shall say in the last part of our division), it is rightly called natural, because in its composition the four elements enter; of these, two are hidden from bodily eyes, namely fire and air, which must be seen with the eyes of the intellect, as Raymond Lull says in his Codicil: consider well within yourself—he says—the nature and property of the oil which the sophists have called air (because they say that it most abounds in such a quality), since your eye will not show you its differences and properties. By this he shows us that the four elements are not all manifest in our work, as many have falsely supposed, according to what we shall say further on when explaining the terms of our science.

Moreover, it is called natural because in its first operation it imitates nature as closely as possible, since it could not imitate it in all things, as Geber says in his Summa; and that this is true is assured to us by the natural philosophers who preceded us. They, for example Raymond Lull in his Epistle to King Robert and Albertus Magnus in his Treatise on Minerals, diligently investigated that the manner in which nature works beneath the earth in the procreation of metals is nothing other than the continual decoction of their first matter; a decoction which separates the clean from the unclean, the pure from the impure, the perfect from the imperfect, by continual evaporation caused by the heat of the mineral earth, partly warmed by the heat of the sun. Indeed nature, by itself, does not accomplish the whole and perfect decoction, as the good Trevisan has very well explained and as experience in the mines ordinarily shows us; for there are found there diverse metals and matters, some gross, others pure and subtle, which willingly are raised higher. Our science therefore, imitating nature in this, proceeds at the beginning, in its first operation, by sublimation, in order to purify our matter very well, since it would be impossible for it to prepare it otherwise, as Geber says in his Summa and Razi in the Book of Lights, when he says: the beginning of the work is to sublimate. This is said with good natural reasons.

This has caused those who preceded us to write that our divine work is not at all artificial, because what we do is to bring, by art, the due matter to nature, since nature cannot, by continuous action, arrive at the perfection of our divine work.

For reason of the marvelous conjunction of the elements, our work is called divine. This conjunction has been called by the philosophers the second operation, and others have instead called it dissolution, saying that it constitutes the secret of secrets. Pythagoras says of it: it is the great secret that God has wished to hide from men; Razi, in the Book of Lights, says: if you do not know the true dissolution of our body, do not begin to work, because if you ignore this, all the rest is useless. This operation is altogether impossible to know through books; one arrives at it through knowledge of natural things, which is the reason why our science is called divine, as Alexander says: our body (which is our hidden stone, without which our science is lost) cannot be known or seen by us unless the good God inspires us through His Holy Spirit or reveals it to us through some living person. This is the stone of which Hermes speaks in his fourth treatise, when he says: one must know our divine and precious stone, which creates unceasingly: defend me and I shall help you, render me my rights and I shall succor you. Of this same hidden body he speaks in his first treatise, when he says: the falcon is always upon the edge of the mountains and cries: I am the white of the black and the red of the citrine.

The reason why our science is useless without the said conjunction is that, at the birth and procreation of our divine work, the volatile part carries away the fixed with it. Thus we would not know how to make it remain fixed and permanent against the action of fire unless, through a marvelous (that is, supernatural) conjunction, we caused the fixed to retain the volatile, so that there may be accomplished what all the philosophers command, namely, to make the fixed volatile and the volatile fixed. This conjunction must be accomplished in the very instant of its birth, as Haly says in the Book of his Secrets: he who does not find our stone at the instant of its birth, it is useless for him to await any other moment, for he who has undertaken our divine work without knowing the determined hour of its birth shall gain from it nothing but pain and torment. This same conjunction is very properly called by Razi the weight and regimen of the philosophers; he advises that, where one does not know it very well, one should wholly avoid working at our divine work, saying that the philosophers have hidden nothing with greater care. Which indeed is well demonstrated in their writings. For if one says that this divine work must be accomplished on the seventh day, another says on the fortieth, another on the hundredth; one within the space of seven months, another—as Razi says—within the space of nine, another again—as Rosinus says—in the space of a year. There are not two of them who agree, whereas in truth there is but one single term, one single day, one single hour in which by decoction one must accomplish our conjunction. Nevertheless, out of the desire they had to keep it secret, they deliberately and intentionally wrote terms of time differing from one another, although they agreed very well among themselves on the fact that there is but one single term, and that, once this is known, the rest is but women’s work and children’s play, as Socrates says: I have shown you the true disposition of white lead, that is to say the true composition of our matter, which at the beginning appears black and leaden, and is afterwards made white through our continual decoction. If you know it well, the rest is but women’s work and children’s play—which means that after the said conjunction, in truth, there is no work easier than ours. And since there is need only to cook the two matters already assembled, during the said decoction one is at rest, and it is most certain that it is a very pleasant occupation, since, as Aristotle also says in the second book of the Ethics, there is more pleasure in resting than in laboring.

And that this is true is confirmed by Razi, who in the Book of the Three Words says that every dissolution, calcination, sublimation, albification, rubification, and every other operation which the philosophers have described as necessary to perfect our divine work, is accomplished in the fire, without moving. Pythagoras says the same in the Turba, writing that all the regimens required for the perfection of our divine work are realized through decoction alone. In the same book Barsenne says that in our divine work one must cook, tinge, and calcine, but all these operations are accomplished by decoction alone.

Nevertheless, in order that our slanderers may not say that all their operations are nothing but decoctions, I wish to adduce to them other sayings of the ancient philosophers, to leave them no excuse and to point out before their very eyes their own ignorance and error.

Alphidius testifies to us that in the composition of our divine work we need but one single matter, which he properly calls water, and one single action, which is cooking, and this is accomplished in one single vessel, without anything being touched.

King Solomon testifies the same when he says that, for the accomplishment of our divine work, which he calls our sulfur, we have but one single means.

Lilium wrote the same, saying that our divine work is made in one single vessel, with one single means and one single cooking.

Mahomet declares the same, saying that we have but one single means, namely cooking, and one single vessel in which to make our divine work, both the white and the red.

Avicenna was of the same opinion when, speaking more properly than the others, he said that all the dispositions, that is to say the operations, required for the composition of our divine work, are accomplished in one single double vessel.

If then it is true that our divine work is accomplished in one single double vessel and with one single cooking, the greater part of present-day operators must confess their failings and errors, for I have seen none of them who did not use three or four furnaces. There were some who, in order to perfect their work, had ten or twelve of them, one for distilling, another for calcining, one for dissolving, another for subliming, together with an infinity of vessels. But such men are still at a dead halt, and they will always remain there if they do not correct their errors.

I say nothing of the heap of separations which they practice, according to their own account, upon the four elements, because we shall have occasion to deal with this when I explain the nature of the four elements, as I clarify the terms of our science. For the present it suffices me to have shown the authentic manner and method for recognizing, almost as if by pointing them out with the finger, those who are far from the truth of our science, so as to distinguish them from those who are in the true path. For, as we have shown above and shall show further below, there is but one single means, one single way of doing it, and it must be done in one single vessel (which Raymond Lull calls hymen) and with one single furnace (which the good Trevisan calls closed, moist, vaporous, continuous, and digesting fire) without ever touching anything until the decoction is perfect. And there is certainly no need for the many muddles and the so many foolish expenses that men are accustomed to make.

I do not at all ignore that among them there may be some who, having read the books and being true clerks (for they all work on credit), will say: why do you accuse us in this way, seeing that Geber, in his Summa, teaches us various preparations both of sulfur and of quicksilver, together with the body and the spirit? And Razi, in the Book of the Perfect Mastery, testifies that the body and the spirits are prepared by different methods and teaches the manner of it. But I need not take much pains to answer them, for I have already answered them by what I have said before. For such and similar passages were written in order to hide the true preparation of our divine work, as we said in the first part of our division. Which Geber himself testifies in his Summa, in the chapter on the differences of medicines: there is, he says, one single perfect way which lightens us and relieves us from laboring in so many other preparations.

4 – HOW NATURE WORKS IN THE MINES TO MAKE METALS.

Thus, continuing in our division, I shall explain the manner in which nature works in the hollows of the earth, in the mines, for the procreation of metals. In this way it may be known in which operations art can imitate it, and consequently what is the true matter required to make metals above the earth. But since this is the principal point of our science, as Geber says at the beginning of his Summa, and Avicenna likewise, who forbids one to devote oneself to practice unless one has first studied the true foundations concerning mines, in my explanation I shall follow the principal authors and those most experienced in the practice of mines, according to the testimony of their writings.

It is held as altogether resolved and more than certain among all the philosophers that every simple which is congealed by cold abounds, in its first matter, in watery moisture, as Aristotle says in the fourth book of the Meteorics. Therefore, since melted metals are congealed by cold, one must say that they abound, in their first matter, in watery moisture. Nevertheless, Albertus Magnus (who more closely than any other studied the causes of the procreation of metals) shows very well that this watery moisture is by no means the common moisture that we can see in water and in other simples, because experience shows us that this is converted into vapor by the violence of fire, whereas melted metals are by no means converted into vapor. One must therefore say that their moisture is mixed with some other matter which retains them in the fire and prevents them from being converted into vapor by its violence. Now there is no matter that resists fire more than viscous moisture when it is mixed with the earthy and subtle part, as Bonus, the Italian philosopher, testifies, and as experience makes certain to us. Therefore we must say that the moisture of metals is of this kind.

But since we see that in metals there are moistures which are consumed by fire without the metals themselves being consumed on that account, as the experience of their purgation shows us, we must confess, with the principal authors of our science, that in the composition of metals there enter two kinds of viscous moisture. One from without, which they call extrinsic, and one from within, which they define as intrinsic. And since the first is gross and is not perfectly mixed with its earthy and subtle matter, it is easily burned and consumed by fire. But the second is very subtle and so mixed with its earthy part that both together make but one simple matter, which cannot be consumed in part by fire without being consumed altogether. From this is procreated and made the quicksilver which we commonly see, as is shown by experience (as Arnold of Villanova well said), an experience which certifies to us that the two aforesaid matters are perfectly conjoined in it. For either the earthy retains the moisture with itself, or the moisture carries it away, as Albertus Magnus says. He, in seeking the causes of metallic compositions, well understood that the reason why quicksilver is always in motion is that the moisture dominates the earthy part, just as, for the same reason (namely, because of the unspeakable and univocal commixture that binds them), the earthy part, dominating over the moist, is the cause that quicksilver does not at all wet what it touches, nor the wood in which it is kept.

Thus it is shown to us plainly enough that the sentence of Albertus Magnus is very true, when he says in his book of the Simple Metallics that the first matter of metals is viscous, incombustible, and most subtle moisture, mixed by strong and marvelous admixture with the earthy and subtle part in the caverns of mineral earths. This does not at all contradict what Geber says in his Summa, when he says that quicksilver is the true matter of metals, because nature, which is never idle, has procreated quicksilver from this matter. For this reason Bonus said very well that it is the nearest matter of metals, but that the first and principal matter is the said viscous moisture mixed with its subtle and earthy part, as Albert says. Geber declares very well the same thing when he gives, in his Summa, the definition of quicksilver: it is, he says, a viscous moisture which has been thickened with the aid of the earthy part that enters into its composition.

One must now consider very subtly the way in which nature proceeds to the procreation of all things in which it has mixed a certain matter of its own which the philosophers call the agent, since such matter does not produce itself by itself, as Aristotle says, that is to say, it does not show its effects. For nature, which is all-wise, in the procreation of metals, after having created their matter, namely quicksilver, adds to it its proper agent, namely a kind of mineral earth which is like a fatty cream, decocted and thickened by long cooking through the heat that is in the caverns of the mines. We commonly call this earth sulfur, and with respect to quicksilver it is what rennet is to milk, the man to the woman, and the agent in comparison with the subject matter. This sulfur of the philosophers is said to us to be of two kinds: one is by its own nature easy to melt, and the other is only congealed and not fusible.

Therefore, in order that nature might show the power and force of the agent, that is, of sulfur, in the matter to which it is conjoined, it caused, by means of a marvelous composition, the metals to be congealed by the action of fusible sulfur, so that they too might be fusible, just as it composed the other simple metals by means of the non-fusible action, so that they too should not be fusible: this is the case with magnesia, marcasite, and other such things. But since the agent can in no way be a material part of the compound, as Aristotle says, nature, working beneath the earth in the procreation of metals, after having mixed the said sulfur with the quicksilver by an unspeakable composition, makes and creates from it the principal metal, namely gold, separating from it (by perfect decoction) its agent, that is, the sulfur. This is the cause why gold is more perfect than all the other metals, because it is the principal and ultimate intention of nature in the procreation of metals, as experience certifies to us when it does not transmute them to a better state. And this is the reason why quicksilver mixes better and more easily with gold than with any other metal, because it is nothing other than quicksilver cooked by its own sulfur and wholly separated from it by means of the said cooking. Now, since the separation of sulfur is the cause of the perfection of gold, likewise, because of its remaining in the other metals, these are called imperfect. And here is the cause why silver is less perfect than gold, and copper more imperfect than silver, namely because of lack of cooking, since only by means of this is their agent, that is, the sulfur, separated from them.

In this is made clear the principal and greatest secret of our science. For since it must follow nature in its operations, it is necessary that before perfecting our divine work we separate from it the agent, namely the sulfur, which all the philosophers have hidden in their writings, referring us to the operations of nature, which it seems to me I have sufficiently explained.

But in order that it may be perfectly known in what our science can follow the operations of nature, it is fitting that we make clear the principal and most usual method which nature employs in the perfection of metals. We have already said that the perfection or imperfection of metals is caused by the privation or commixture of their agent, that is, sulfur, and we have shown the first method which nature uses to compose the principal and most perfect of all metals, which is gold. But it uses another method which appears different from the first, although in reality both are but one and the same, if one considers the end and the true intention of nature, which is nothing other than to purge and cleanse the metals of their sulfur. For what it accomplishes in the first method by perfect cooking, it does in the second by continual and long digestion, digesting and purifying the imperfect metals little by little, until they are reduced into gold. That this is true, experience shows us in the silver mines, where lead is ordinarily found, and in some mines the two are found so mixed together that those who are experienced in the matters of mines say (after discovering the silver, which seems almost imperfect for want of digestion) that one must leave them thus and close up the mines, so that none of the subtle matter may evaporate for thirty or forty years, and in this way the whole may be brought to perfection. Which, Albertus Magnus reports, was done in his time in the kingdom of Slavonia. And I have heard the same affirmed by a master who was greatly experienced in matters of mines.

It is therefore in this second way that nature perfects the metals, and it is this way that our art follows in its operations, namely the perfecting of imperfect metals by privation of their sulfur, which is separated through the projection which we make upon them of this divine work when the metals are molten, perfecting them into fine gold by means of a perfect and exuberant decoction administered by our art.

And just as the different methods that nature uses for the purification of metals do not cause us to find different kinds of gold (different in perfection, I mean), so the different methods that we use above ground (which are other and different from the operations of nature) bring about no difference between our gold and mineral gold, seeing that we use the same matter that nature uses beneath the earth in the mines. This is confirmed by Aristotle in the ninth book of his Metaphysics, when he says: when the agent and the matter are similar, the operations are always similar, although the means for accomplishing them are different. For the means and the matter are two different things. Therefore, if the matter is one and altogether similar, all the operations that seem at first contrary finally produce one and the same effect, as the same philosopher testifies.

Now, concerning the fact that the matter which we use to perfect metals above the earth is altogether similar to that which nature uses below the earth for the procreation of metals, Geber, in his Summa, says that our science follows nature as closely as possible. Hermes, Pythagoras, Senior, and many others say the same. Since therefore it follows nature, one must necessarily confess that it uses a similar matter, and this, in our science, can only be one. Thus we have shown sufficiently that there is but one single matter in nature, which we have called quicksilver; it is not found alone, but is rather mixed with its proper agent, which is its true sulfur.

This same matter, therefore, which the philosophers have called animated quicksilver, shall be the true matter of our science for perfecting the divine work, since such matter, without doubt, is the true matter used by nature in the hollows of the earth and in the mines in the procreation of metals, as we have sufficiently shown above.

The reason why the philosophers called it animated quicksilver is to show the difference that there is between it and common quicksilver, which has remained such, since nature has not added to it its proper agent. Therefore neither common quicksilver nor common sulfur can be the true matter of metals, as many have falsely supposed. And that this is true, experience testifies to us, since common quicksilver and common sulfur are never found mixed together in the mines. How then could they, in the hollows of the earth, be the true matter of metals and consequently of our science? Geber affirms this also in his Summa, when he speaks of its principles. And elsewhere he says very well that our quicksilver is nothing other than a viscous water thickened through the action of its metallic sulfur.

It is our true matter which nature has prepared for our art (as Valerandus Sylvensis says), reducing it into a certain species, known to the true philosophers, without further transmuting it from its state. Therefore, all the matters that we might mix together, whether metallic or not, even if nature has already prepared them, are not the true matter of our science. Thus there remain to us only two things to do, namely to purify the said matter, perfect it, and then conjoin it by cooking. It is of this matter that Razi wrote in the Book of Precepts: our mercury, he says, is the true foundation of our science, from which alone are extracted the true tinctures of metals. Alphidius declared the same when he says: take heed, my son, because the whole work of the wise philosophers resides in quicksilver alone. This is the reason why Hermes commands us to preserve this mercury well, which he calls coagulated and hidden in golden chambers. Of this same mercury Geber spoke when he says, book II, part I, chapter VII: praised be the most high God, who created this quicksilver and gave it such a power that there is none other equal to it for the perfection of the true magistery of our science. In short, there is no wise author who has written and who is not of this opinion.

Nevertheless, I know very well that the operators of today will accuse me, asking how it is possible that I dare to reprove so many learned men who have gone before us, who have left us in writing not only the theory of our science, but also its practice. In it they teach us to sublime quicksilver, which they call mercury, with vitriol and salt, and then show how one must revivify it with warm water, in order to mix it with gold, which they call sun, and by this means dissolve it so as to fix it, thus perfecting our divine work, as Arnold of Villanova wrote in his Great Rosary and Raymond Lull in his Testament.

In order that I may satisfy them, laying bare their own ignorance, I shall do nothing but follow the very authors whom they invoke, whose writings testify to us that all these diverse operations, distillations, separations of elements, reductions, and other such things, were written only in order to hide and veil the true practice of our science. In confirmation of this, Arnold of Villanova, after teaching us all these operations in the last chapter—which is the thirty-second—of his Rosary, says to us at the end of his recapitulation: we have shown the true practice and the true means for perfecting our divine work, but in words very brief, which are nevertheless sufficiently prolix for those who will understand them. In speaking of so many diverse and lengthy operations, the true preparation and practice of our divine work has always been intended. The same is testified to us at the end of the Codicil of Raymond Lull, where he answers those who would ask him why he wrote of the art when he had previously testified that one cannot arrive at the true knowledge of it through the reading of books: so that, he says, the faithful reader may be introduced and made capable in the true knowledge of our divine work, the preparation of which we have never set forth clearly. The great and diverse preparations that he taught in his books are therefore nothing other than the one sole and single practice required to bring our divine work to perfection.

There will be others who will be wiser than I and who will readily reprove me, saying: why have you written that our divine work is made of one single matter, namely of animated quicksilver alone, seeing that Geber, in his Summa, in the chapter on the coagulation of mercury, says that it is extracted from metallic bodies prepared with their arsenic? Rosinus, on the contrary, says that our divine work is made from true incombustible sulfur, and Solomon, son of David, testifies the same when he says: God has preferred above all things that are under heaven our true sulfur. Pythagoras, in the Turba of the Philosophers, wrote that our divine work is perfect when the sulfurs are conjoined one with another. Therefore our work is made of sulfur and not of animated quicksilver alone.

To answer them well and satisfy their minds, gone astray from the true path, one must remind them of what we have explained above when speaking of the matter of metals, when we showed how nature has added the proper agent to quicksilver in the mines.

5 – THE VARIOUS NAMES OF THE WORK, OF THE MATTER, AND OF WHAT IT IS.

Now, since our work has no true proper name, some have given it one name, others another, so that Lilium wrote very well that our divine work has as many names as there are things in the world. By this he meant that it has infinite names, because, although it is always the same thing, made of one single matter, nevertheless the philosophers have given it diverse and variable names according to the diversity of the colors which appear during its decoction.

Thus those who have called it animated quicksilver, as we do, have considered that our first matter, which the ancient philosophers called chaos, partakes at its beginning of, and is truly altogether similar to, the nature and matter of quicksilver, from which nature composes and perfects metals in the hollows of the earth, as we have sufficiently shown above.

Likewise, those who have called our divine work the philosophers’ stone (which today is the most widespread name) have had regard to the end of the cooking of our matter, since in the end it is fixed and no longer volatilizes in the fire, and they have among themselves the custom of calling stone whatever does not evaporate and does not sublime in the fire.

Others have invented many other names (based on diverse reasons), which it would be too long to list here, as Malvescindus says: if we call our matter spiritual, we speak the truth; if we call it corporeal, we do not lie; if we define it as celestial, that is its true name; if we call it terrestrial, we speak very properly. By this he makes sufficiently clear that the variety of names which those who went before us attributed to our divine work was caused by diverse reasons founded upon the diversity of the colors and of the other alterations which appear during the cooking.

Thus those who have called it sulfur (as the authorities that might be cited against me testify) have had regard to the final cooking in which our matter is fixed. For although at the beginning it shows the true appearance of quicksilver, since it is volatile, in the end it is said rather to be fixed. Then what had been invisible within (that is, the fixed parts which we call sulfur) becomes manifest through the continual and final cooking by which it dominates the volatile. This is the reason why our matter is no longer defined as volatile (by those who consider the final cooking), but rather as fixed sulfur, as Arnold of Villanova says in his Great Rosary when he speaks of the final cooking of our divine work: it is, he says, the true red sulfur through which quicksilver may be perfected into fine gold.

Therefore we may truthfully and rightly conclude that the matter from which we compose our divine work is only one, altogether similar to the matter which nature uses under the earth and in the mines in the procreation of metals, notwithstanding all contrary authorities and all other similar opinions that may be opposed to us. For, as Aristotle says (and as experience also shows us), diversity of names does not in itself make things diverse.

6. EXPLANATION OF THE PRINCIPAL TERMS OF THE SCIENCE.

To conclude our division, it remains for us to explain the terms of our science. I mean to explain, that is, to report, the opinions of the good and principal authors who have preceded us. These, among others, when speaking of the composition of our divine work, make use in particular of four terms, namely the four elements, the perfect ferment, the true poison, and the perfect coagulum, which they have otherwise called the male, comparing it to the female, just as they compare their rennet or coagulum to simple milk.

In order to explain properly what they mean by the four elements, it is necessary to know what all the natural philosophers have declared concerning the first matter which they call chaos, in which they say all four elements were confused, and from which these, because of their mutual contrariety, each showing its own qualities, became manifest to us. This is the reason why Alexander wrote in his Epistle that everything which showed to our ancestors the quality of heat they called fire; that which was dry and coagulated, earth; that which was moist and flowing, water; and that which was cold and subtle, airy, they called air.

Of these four elements, two are enclosed within the other two, as Razi says in the Book of Precepts: every compound is made from the four elements, of which two are hidden within the other two visible ones, namely air within water and fire within earth, as we have already said. Nevertheless, since the two enclosed ones, namely air and fire, cannot show their action without the other two, they are called the two weak elements, while the other two are called the strong ones. This is the cause why the philosophers say that compounds are perfect when the moist and the dry (that is, water and earth) are equally conjoined, with the help of nature, to the cold and the hot, that is, to water and fire. This is accomplished through the conversion of the one into the other. Therefore Alexander, in the Book of Secrets, says: if you convert the elements one into another, you will find what you seek. This saying must be very clearly understood, because, when it is well understood, it points out to us the true matter and the perfect practice of our science.

To understand it well, we must speak a little more specifically of the four elements and their nature, because they are necessary to the composition of our divine work. Hermes, when he speaks of them, says that from our earth all the other elements are created. On the contrary, Alphidius says that water is the principal element, from which are created all the other elements required for our divine work. In this there is no contradiction at all, despite what it may seem, because at the beginning of the procreation of our divine work, nothing appears but water, which the philosophers have called mercurial water. From this, when it thickens by conjunction and supernatural decoction, earth is created, without which the water is useless. Hermes therefore said very well that from earth the other elements come forth, because in the second operation it alone shows its qualities, just as only water appeared at the beginning. This caused Alphidius, Valerandus, and others to write that it is the principal element in the composition of our divine work. These are the two elements which the philosophers have commanded us to know well before devoting ourselves to the work, as Razi says in the Book of Lights: before beginning, he says, one must know well the nature and quality of water and earth, because in these two the four elements are contained. Otherwise the volatile will carry off the fixed with it, and in this way our science will be useless to us. This is the principal reason why we are commanded to convert the four elements, so that our divine work may be well qualified and made fixed, in order to resist every violence of fire, corruption of air, rust of earth, ruin and putrefaction of water, neither more nor less than mineral gold, by reason of its great perfection.

This conversion of the elements is nothing other, as Raymond Lull says, than transforming the earth, which is fixed, into volatile, and the water, which is moist and volatile, into dry and fixed. This is accomplished through continual cooking in our vessel, which must never be opened for fear that our elements may be spoiled and volatilized into smoke. The same is testified by the writings of Razi and of other philosophers, when they say that the true separation and conjunction of the four elements is accomplished in our vessel, without anything being touched by hands or feet, for—they say—our stone dissolves, coagulates, washes and purges itself, whitens and reddens itself, without anything foreign being mixed with it. Arnold of Villanova is of this same opinion in his Great Rosary, where, in few words, he says: one must not labor to kill the water, that is to say, to fix it, because, if it is dead, then all the other elements are dead also, that is, fixed.

It is by no means true that the false and sophistical separation of the four elements performed by the operators of today is well founded on these writings, and still less on the sayings of all the philosophers, who particularly forbid spoiling the simples in one’s preparations, because, they say, it is impossible for art to give first forms. Now it is wholly accepted that the four elements could not be composed without destroying them. Therefore there is no need at all to make use of this sophistical and false separation of elements for the composition of our divine work. And that it is true that such separation is false has already been sufficiently proved above, when it was said that two elements are enclosed within the other two. Therefore we cannot arrive at the perfect separation of the elements, and still less can we know their true and due conjunction. Moreover, experience shows us, as Valerandus well wrote, that the elements which they say they have separated participate in nothing of the nature of the true elements; and witness of this is their oil, which they call air, and which wets everything it touches, contrary to the natural behavior of air. It therefore suffices me to have shown this concerning the nature and quality of the elements, and of their conversion, an operation required in our science, in order to lay bare the ignorance of the present-day operators and to introduce the true sons of science to its knowledge.

Continuing then in our final division, we shall make clear what the philosophers intended by the term leaven or ferment, saying that they attributed to it two meanings, using it in the first sense when they compare our divine work to metals. Therefore, just as a little vinegar sours and converts much dough into its own nature, so our divine work converts metals into its own nature, and since that nature is gold, it converts them into gold. But since the philosophers did not use it in this meaning (which presents no difficulty), we shall now speak of the second meaning, wherein lies all the difficulty of our science. For by the term leaven they mean the true body and matter which brings our divine work to perfection; this body is unknown to the eyes, but must rather be known by the intellect. For, at the beginning, our matter appears as volatile (as we have explained above), and we must conjoin it with its own proper body, so that by this means it may retain the soul, which, by means of this conjunction (made through the spirit), shows its divine operations in our divine work. As it is written in the Turba of the Philosophers, the body has greater force than its two brothers who are called spirit and soul. By this word there is not meant what Aristotle and other great philosophers meant by it (which is worthy of note), but rather every simple is called body which, by its nature, can endure fire without any diminution, and such bodies are called fixed. The philosophers have called soul every substance which, in itself, is volatile and has the power to make the body rise above the fire; in other terms they call it volatile.

They call spirit, moreover, that which has the power to retain the body and the soul and to conjoin them together to such a degree that they cannot be separated, whether they be perfect or imperfect. And although, in truth, nothing new enters into our work either at the beginning (I mean in the first preparation), or in the middle, or at the end, the philosophers, under different aspects and by different considerations, have called one and the same substance body, soul, and spirit, as we have already sufficiently explained above.

Thus, when at the beginning our matter was volatile, they defined it as soul, because it carried the body with it; but when in our cooking that which was hidden afterwards became manifest, then the body showed its force by means of the spirit, that is to say, it retained the soul and, reducing it to its own proper nature (which is made of gold), rendered it fixed by its power and with the help of art.

Herein becomes clear the true interpretation of what Hermes wrote, namely that no tincture is made without the red stone, because, as Rosinus says, our true sun appears white and imperfect during our cooking, and is perfect when it is red in color. It is therefore this ferment of which Arnold of Villanova spoke in his Great Rosary, when he says that it shows itself in these two colors without ever being touched and without anything being mixed with it, although one might equivocate from his writings. That this is true is confirmed by Anaxagoras, who says that our sun is red and burning, and is conjoined with the soul, which is white and of the nature of the moon, by means of the spirit; although in truth the whole is nothing but the philosophers’ quicksilver. This is the same as what Morienus explains, when he says it is impossible to arrive at the perfection of our science until the moon is conjoined with the sun, because without this our science is useless, as indeed Hermes and all the other philosophers also say. Thus it appears clearly how one must understand what Razi said in the Book of Lights: at the end, at the perfection of our work, the red servant has married the white woman. This agrees with what Lilium says, that the true union of body and soul is made in the white and red color through a mean. This is accomplished in a certain time by means of our cooking, which must be governed in such a way that our matter is not spoiled by it, because, as it is written in the Turba, profit or loss in our divine work both proceed from the administration of the fire.

Therefore I would counsel, with Rasis, that no one begin to practice our science without first knowing every regimen of the fire required in the composition of our divine work, since these are very different from one another. In other words, one must apply that third term which is called poison, and this must take place in the second operation, as we said above. Not that for this reason anything poisonous must be added, and still less theriac or other foreign substances, as some have thought by resting on the appearance of the letter. One must rather be careful and watchful not to lose the proper hour of the birth of our mercurial water, in order to conjoin with it its own proper body, which we previously called leaven and now call poison, for two reasons. The first is that, just as poison brings nothing to the human body except harm, so if we miss the said conjunction at the determined hour, it brings us nothing but harm, as we have made clear above. For the same or a similar reason our mercury, which we call our mercurial water, is called poison, because it kills and fixes it; and herein is made clear the true interpretation of what Hamec says: when our matter has arrived at its term, it is conjoined with its mortal poison. And at the same time there is also made clear what Rosinus says, namely that this poison is of great price. Haly, Morienus, and all the others have testified the same. And as for what they call theriac, it is always a comparison, because, as Morienus himself says, what theriac does to the human body, our theriac does to the body of metals. What they have written on this may be applied to the conjunction of the perfect leaven when it is made at the determined hour, because by means of it our divine work is perfected. Such and similar authorities must therefore be understood in an allegorical sense and not according to the appearance of the letter, as various men have falsely supposed.

Similar is the interpretation of the last term, which is the most used and the worst understood. For the greater part understand it as a synonym for our divine work when it is perfect, saying that, just as a little rennet or coagulum curdles much milk, so a little of our matter thrown upon quicksilver congeals it and reduces it to its own proper nature. But this means to depart greatly from the truth, since by this path they conclude that our matter cannot be compared to metals, because these are already congealed. One must therefore understand that, when our mercury appears simple, then it is fluid, and is called by the philosophers milk, while its rennet or coagulum is that which we previously called leaven, poison, and theriac. Therefore, just as rennet is in nothing different from milk except by a little cooking, so our coagulum is in nothing different from our mercury except by the cooking which it has previously acquired, which is the great and supernatural secret that moved the philosophers to define our science as divine, because before it every human sense and every reason fail, as we have made clear above. And this is the coagulum which Hermes calls flower of gold, and to which the philosophers mean to allude when they say that in the coagulation of the spirit the true dissolution of the body is accomplished, and conversely, in the dissolution of the body the true congelation of the spirit is made. For by its means the whole is perfected, as Senior says: When I saw that our water (that is, our mercury) congealed by itself, I firmly believed that our science was genuine. For this same reason Alexander wrote that there is nothing created in our science which is not composed of male and female, calling our coagulum male, because it is that which acts, and all the philosophers have attributed action to the male and passion to the female, calling our mercury female, since it is upon it that the said coagulum acts and shows its power. And this is the reason why the philosophers wrote that the female has wings, because our simple mercury is volatile and is retained by its coagulum. This caused them to write that one must make the female mount upon the male and then the male upon the female; and they mean the same when, in the Turba of the Philosophers, they say that one must honor our king and the queen his wife and take good care not to burn them, that is to say, not to spoil our cooking. Because, as Arnold of Villanova said in his Great Rosary, the principal error in our divine work is hasty cooking.

Such and variable terms did the ancients use in their books; but since these are the principal ones, I would bring their explanation to an end, because, once these are well understood, the true matter is known, and in this way all the books become clear and easy to us, as the good Trevisan says.

Therefore I shall conclude with all the authors, whose writings I have collated as best I have been able, that there is but one single matter from which our divine work is composed, and this is composed of simple mercury alone, which the philosophers have called, in proper terms and without any equivocation, mercurial water and coagulated by the action of its own sulfur, and which Hermes very properly defined as flower of gold. This has acquired, through our long and continual decoction, a very great and excellent perfection which enables it, once conjoined with them by projection, to bring all imperfect metallic bodies to completion, converting them into gold as fine as mineral gold. And this for the various reasons which we have previously deduced, and by which it is now sufficiently clear why imperfect metals are perfected by such matter. For, just as there are no simples wholly different and contrary in qualities that can be mixed together perfectly, so likewise our divine work can be made only from animated quicksilver, nor can it tolerate being mixed with the sulfur that has remained in the metals for lack of digestion, as we have already said. It, however, being all-powerful and perfect by reason of its very great digestion, separates the said sulfur from the metals and perfects the quicksilver that remains into fine gold. That this is true experience shows us, because, when we make projection of it upon common quicksilver, we find it almost wholly converted into gold, which does not happen, on the contrary, with the other metals, because from a mark of some of them we do not recover even six ounces. But, for the same reasons, the more cooked the metals are, the less they diminish.

Therefore, to continue my little Opuscolo, I would bring the second part to an end and begin the third and last, in which I shall show the true and perfect practice of our science under diverse allegories; these our good God, if it please Him, will manifest to the true faithful and to the perfect lovers of the science who shall labor in reading my writings, whose true understanding He will make clear by means of His Holy Spirit, to use it for the honor of our dear Lord, brother, and true Redeemer Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and glory for all ages of ages. Amen.

THE PRACTICE SHOWN UNDER ALLEGORY

The philosophers and true cosmographers have left it written that the earth which is now habitable is divided into three principal parts, namely Asia, Africa, and Europe, which they said were situated under four regions: under the east and the west, under the south and the north. These regions are ruled and governed by various emperors, kings, princes, and great lords, each of whom holds in great esteem various and different things, both for the rarity and for the worth and singularity that they have found in them. This latter quality does not carry as much credit as the first, as experience showed me when I traveled through different countries; for in places where the number of learned men was very great, I saw, with much sorrow, the wise exceedingly poor and greatly cast off, and the ignorant rich and favored in all things. But where the lack and rarity of learned men was great, ignorance reigned so strongly that the greater part of the people—indeed almost all—were nothing but ignorant and ill-mannered folk; in these places the wise were held in very good esteem by all, and favored by the great. Thus, the lack of wealth in the mines, which are those from which gold and the other metals come to us, is the cause why some of these metals have been, and will be in time to come, held in great esteem in the greater part of these regions, just as the abundance of the same in other regions has caused those same metals to be, and to be in time to come, despised by the great lords. These perhaps highly esteem things of little or no worth, which have nothing perfect in them but appearance, and this has always dazzled their eyes, preventing them from knowing great and perfect things. These latter, moreover, angered by their manner of proceeding, withdraw themselves (as the wise willingly do when they see that the ignorant are preferred before them), resolved to show their own knowledge and power.

These regions (as now part of the world) were governed by one who subdued and strengthened them to such a degree, and with such diligence, that it was believed that before he should wish to stop, the rest of the world would submit to him by the aid of his companies, and chiefly by the counsel of his faithful steward. But while he was thus occupied, he kept company with various false foreigners who, desiring and expecting to be well received and better rewarded by emperors, kings, and other great princes [after the manner of the spies of the present day], went to these rulers to reveal what they had been able to learn of the enterprise of this good governor. But of such news the kings took no account, believing that, however much the enterprise of the said governor might be to be feared, there was no earthly power that could withstand their own.

Thus, while in their courts and great palaces there was talk of nothing but laughing, singing, amorous pursuits, habitually attending feasts, giving themselves to affectations, racing horses, arranging tournaments in order to fight in the colors of ladies, playing tennis, taking part in assemblies, esteeming pimps, chatterers, and old informers, and mocking men of learning by calling them in jest philosophers (which is a title properly belonging in these times to very few people, yet such that the great monarchs of old did not at all disdain it, just as those of today would do likewise, were they well advised)—then, I say, this good prince, all white-haired, accompanied by his good companies and his faithful steward, had the ground reconnoitered and had already laid siege to one of the principal cities of the Empire, when the emperor gathered his field army, accompanied by various kings and great lords, who all together went out to meet him. In this manner they made him raise the siege as soon as they had arrived, and not without cause, because the faithful steward was always vexing him by wishing to make him withdraw into some fortress worthy of him, in which the heat would not be so great. And then, besides the help which the inhabitants of the city brought to the enemy (making daily great and courageous sorties against the companies of the good prince), the emperor could count on fifty thousand foot soldiers and six thousand horsemen, so it was said, not counting the force of nobles and great lords who followed his banner, strengthened by a great number of artillery pieces that worked wonders in their shooting.

Therefore this good prince, after having gathered all his companies, which agreed with the good counsel of his faithful steward, raised the siege from the city (which moreover was defended by a fort partly of iron), withdrawing as best he could and in the best order possible, for he still felt weak. This caused him to leave behind, in the rear, by the counsel of the said steward, the bravest companies he had, in order always to sustain the skirmishes with the emperor’s army that followed close behind, and in this way to watch over and defend his rearguard, which was weak, save for a brook that was favorable to him. These companies, although they had much ado, fulfilled their duty so well that not one of the others was slain. There was even one who, having been struck down, was raised up again by the prowess and valor of the others.

But the skein does not unravel so easily, for on the next day the emperor followed this good prince closely with all his field, and the latter was compelled (following in this the counsel of his faithful steward) to take refuge in a fort that had always been held impregnable, because it was entirely round and founded upon a circle surrounded by walls, into which it could receive all the victuals and munitions it wished from an adjoining fortified tower, well provided with everything it needed, by means of one man alone, namely the said steward, without anyone perceiving it; no otherwise than Sultan Soliman and his men ordinarily did at Naples of Romania, passing beneath a rock, when they kept the city besieged for twenty years or more.

Now this good prince lodged all his companies near this tower, while he remained within the body of the castle in a small and fine chamber, well surrounded and furnished with all things required for the comfort of a room worthy of so great a lord. And among other things it was enriched with a beautiful and most excellent cabinet, somewhat like those seen in the duchy of Lorraine, from which he did not stir so long as he remained in the said castle, until the end of the siege, because of the great and singular pleasure he enjoyed in looking through four windows, without moving from there, and seeing the conduct of his enemies. They could do him no harm at all, since his principal gate was so well closed that there was no one who knew or was able to open it, except perhaps his chief and faithful steward, who gave such orders that during a whole year in which the emperor held him besieged they never lacked anything. At first the latter brought several assaults against him, with the aid and favor of the great lords he had with him. This compelled the good prince (who had already been so roughly assaulted) to divide all his companies under five colonel-banners, so that each should stand guard by turns and sustain the assaults that presented themselves in their respective quarters. And in order to withstand the force and the vexations which the emperor ordinarily brought against him, he took counsel with those near him, who said: “if we leave him thus, he will have just occasion to mock us, he who has formerly been in our power, since he says that he withdrew because of the ill-treatment he received. This, once we are out of here, would give him just cause for vengeance upon us and ours.”

Such and similar words caused the emperor to resolve to take him by hunger, and yet continually to irritate him with various assaults. Nevertheless, because winter was drawing near, he withdrew with part of the army, leaving the rest before the castle under the command of a great lord who had followed him on this expedition. This man did not idle at all, so that there did not pass a day without his coming to the attack, even to hand-to-hand combat. As for sorties, those inside made none at all, because the prince had forbidden them. He had been warned by his faithful steward of the order that the emperor left at his departure, not to raise the siege before a whole year had passed, or until he had surrendered. He commanded, both for the preservation of his own person and for the advancement of his kingdom, that each of the colonel-banners should bring him, during its turn, a banner captured in assaults upon his enemies; otherwise they would know his displeasure. Yet if they should, with diligence and boldness, fulfill his commands, he assured them that he himself, aided by his faithful steward, would win the colonel-banner of the enemies, even if he had to spend his whole life upon it, and would share the booty with them; let them bear their proper and natural banner, and they would become richer than all those who had besieged them.

Whether this ordinance was pleasing to these good companies, who desired nothing more than to see their prince great so that they themselves might prosper, the experience that followed has made certain testimony. For before the term came, they brought him the banners he had demanded, thanks to the good order given by his faithful steward for the duplication of the circle which a great prince of France (admirable for his knowledge) had taught him.

Now the first banner was that of the German pistoliers. The second was strewn with diverse colors of the lady-friend which the lover had worn in the assault. The third resembled greatly the standard of King François. The fourth was the same, enriched by a great and beautiful crescent. The fifth was very like the colonel-banner of the emperor, and so encouraged the heart of this good prince that he himself on the next day went to the breach, where he remained a long time, always close to his faithful steward, so attentive to his affairs. There he suffered unspeakable pain, and also great heat, which much irritated him. But in the end he kept the promise made to his companies and won the colonel-banner of the emperor.

Therefore, after having been well cleansed and refreshed by his steward, who greatly feasted him with his best victuals, which he had preserved from the beginning of the siege, he set in motion the whole camp for the sortie he made on the following day, accompanied by his good and loyal steward and by his brave companies, who all bore and had in their power the natural and proper color of their good commander (12). In such manner there is not, nor shall there be in time to come, pope, emperor, king, sultan, or great lord who does not come to render homage to him and to his. They render it still, and will render it so long as they remain in this low world, by order of the high and sovereign God, who distributes his great and admirable goods to those who fear and honor him, observing the holy commandments which his dear Son and our only Redeemer Jesus Christ has explained to us in his holy Gospel. To Him be praise and glory for all ages of ages. Amen.

THE WAY TO MAKE USE OF OUR GREAT KING FOR PROJECTION, FOR MAKING PEARLS, AND FOR HEALTH.

So that our little work may not remain imperfect, it remains for me, in order to bring the third and last part to an end, to explain the manner in which one makes the projection of our great king upon his companies, together with how it may be used for precious stones, and finally to make clear what profit the health of human bodies derives from it.

TO MAKE THE PROJECTION UPON METALS.

To convert well all imperfect metals to the nature of our great king, one must take one ounce of it, after it has been multiplied and refreshed, and cast it upon four ounces of fine molten gold; you will find all our matter friable. You shall reduce it to powder and cause it to cook for three days in a suitable vessel, well closed within the closed mountain, with the heat of the last assault. Of this powder you shall cast one ounce upon twenty-five marks of silver or copper, or upon eighteen marks of lead or tin, or upon fifteen marks of common quicksilver heated in a crucible or congealed with lead. But first it is necessary that they be well melted and heated, and immediately thereafter you will see your matter covered with a very thick scum. Then, when it has completed its operation, it will seem to you that the crucible is about to burst. Then you shall melt our matter again and find it changed into fine gold.

But if by chance you have not observed the aforesaid weights, you will find your materials in no way changed from their first color. Therefore they must then be passed through a large cupel without putting any lead into it, and three hours later the cupel will have consumed all that had not been perfected because of there not having been enough of our divine work added to it, and the remainder will stay above altogether clean. You shall pass it through the royal cement for the space of six hours, and you will find all the gold that shall have been converted with the aid of our great king, to a degree equal to that of mineral gold. And this is the procedure that Raymond taught in his Codicil, and he himself teaches the second that follows in his Testament.

THE WAY TO USE OUR DIVINE WORK FOR PEARLS AND RUBIES.

To make pearls round and of whatever size one wishes, one must cleanse and refresh our great king, immediately after his good companies have brought him back that fair white banner sown with that great crescent, without waiting for the end of the siege. And when it shall have been refreshed but once, you shall take two or three ounces of it (because it is the mercury that Raymond Lull calls exuberated), which you shall put upon ashes inside a suitable alembic, well closed, to distill them, at first over a small and gentle fire. And when with such a fire no more of it will distill, you shall change the receiver, and after having well luted it, you shall give it a good and strong fire until it distills no more. Then you shall take this second liquor and put it into a new alembic to distill it well in a bain-marie three times, one after another, each time pouring back what you have distilled upon the feces, which will be viscous and will each time dissolve with the said water in a short while. But the third time you shall cause all to distill over ashes. Then you shall take what has been distilled and put it into a new alembic to distill carefully in a bath four times, always setting the feces aside, until your distilled water is most clear and shining in whiteness, like oriental pearls; you shall use it as follows.

Put pearls that are very clear, but as small as you please, in the bottom of a small cucurbit, and pour upon them your water to the thickness of a knife’s back. Cover it carefully with its cap, and within the next three hours the pearls will melt into a white paste; but above it there will come a clear liquor, which you shall gently pour off by inclination, without stirring anything, and without omitting to put the said paste into the other alembic which, well luted and covered, you shall place in the bain-marie (as if you wished to sublime) for three days, and then remove it. This done, take a silver mold, all hollow and round, divided in the middle and gilded within, of the roundness and size that you want for your pearls, making in it a little hole in the middle, so that a small gold thread, like a hair, may pass through it. And you shall fill with the said paste, by means of a golden spatula, first one half of the mold, then immediately after the other. Then you shall place the said thread in the middle, halfway through the hole, and close the mold היט, passing and repassing the thread through the hole, so that the pearls may be well pierced. Then you shall open the mold and put your pearl upon a gold plate, covering it with a gold cover, without touching it with your hands, and cause it to dry in the shade, without the sun touching it. When you shall in this way have made all your pearls, and they are well dried, you shall string them upon the said gold thread without touching them with your hands, and put the thread into a glass tube made like a reed, having a small hole on one side and the other side completely open. Then hang the tube in a flask in which there will be the sublimed liquor, without it touching the tube. Then lute the whole carefully so that nothing may exhale from it, and expose it to the air for eight days, always without the sun touching it. Then put it in the sun for three days, stirring your flask regularly every three hours, and by the vapor of the said liquid the pearls will be perfected.

In the same way you may make rubies of whatever form and size you wish, proceeding by the same method with the red mercury, after having cleansed and refreshed it only once.

THE WAY TO USE OUR DIVINE WORK FOR HUMAN BODIES, TO HEAL THEM OF DISEASES AND PRESERVE THEM IN HEALTH.

To make use of our great king in order to recover health, one must take one heavy grain of it after its completion and dissolve it in a silver vessel with good white wine, which will be changed into a citrine color.

Then let the sick person drink a little of it after midnight, and he will be cured in one day if the illness is only of one month’s duration. And if the illness is of one year, he will be cured in twelve days; but if it has afflicted him for a long time, he will be cured in one month, using it in the manner described every night.

And in order always to remain in good health, one should take some of it at the beginning of autumn and at the beginning of spring, in the form of a candied electuary. By this means, man will live ever joyful and in perfect health until the end of the days that God shall have decreed for him, as the philosophers have written.

They have attributed such admirable operations to our divine work, because of the great and overflowing perfection that our good God has given it by means of our cooking, so that, by this means, the poor and true members of our Lord Jesus Christ and true Redeemer may be relieved and nourished.

To Him be praise and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

The End.