Canzone - SONG of Riginio Danielli of Justinopolis
In which the Philosophical Art of the Philosophers’ Stone is treated.

Translated from book:
Musaeum hermeticum reformatum 1692
1) Basilius Valentinus, Porta sophica, sive duodecim claves. 2) Marcellus Palingenius, Alchemical invocation. 3) George Ripley, Liber duodecim portarum, the prologue only. 4) Hermes, Tabula smaragdina. 5) Basilius Valentinus, Practica cum duodecim clavibus. 6) Lambsprinck, De lapide philosophico libellus. 7) Michael Maier, and others, Emblematical alchemical paintings, without text. 8) Riginio Danielli, Canzone

Mellon MS 93, acquired with the Duveen collection. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965



It is my delight to speak briefly
All the secrets of the Happy Art,
From the summit to the root,
Omitting nothing from the middle;
Therefore I pray the Highest Clemency
To grant me grace to open
Every Secret, and to tell
Of those who have spoken in this Science.

Whoever then wishes to follow the straight path,
Let him not seek the Art outside the natural:
Sun, Moon, and Mercury are enough
To make the good paste;
And do not put within it diverse seed,
For Nature does not join what is contrary.

Our Fathers by diverse ways
Have all come to one effect:
They have healed every imperfect body
Of various maladies.

Some have divided the Elements
The Water from the Air, I mean, and that from the Fire
And little by little, little by little,

Rectifying, they have made them shining,
and then, joined together into one essence
by the virtue of the Quintessence.

Others sublime, calcine, and dissolve,
and, in their searching, revolve;
then thus by congealing they make fixation;
but the first work is putrefaction!

But mark well, that you be not in error,
that it is one thing of which they are made
the aforesaid Elements:
the Soul, the Body, the Spirit, and the Moisture;
and in it also four, three, and one:
the Quintessence, and lime with ferment,
Mercury, Gold, and Silver,
all together, and divided in each
as in the egg the White with the Yellow,
the film, the shell, and the cock’s seed.
A clearer example cannot be found.

Yet you must take note,
that when you set your hand, and then practice
(for some hold themselves masters and very learned)
when you compound, let it not slip from your mind
that to make the paste, that it be good and fine,
it needs water and flour,
and leaven suitable to the paste;
and likewise, without leaven…

Work whether without water or without good flour our medicine
will leave your hands full of wind
and turn for you every darkness into brightness.

Our Mercury is not that of the vulgar,
and not from a dead thing, but indeed from a living one
this divine thing is formed;
and it is a healing medicine that brings
every imperfect body to the true light.

Some take the recent (fresh) Stone,
and without making it into another division
they put it in a vessel,
well sealed with a fiery seal;
then placing it in its gentle place,
and it cooks until it is perfect.

But mark well the goal,
that in Vulcan lies the whole effect;
and the whole art is done in a little vessel,
with a slow fire, and only in one small furnace.

Here it is sublimed, dissolved, and distilled;
it washes, descends, is humbled;
it waxes, putrefies, calcines, and is fixed;
here it dies and is raised up of itself.

Our Stone is of an animated (living) thing,
and precious, and mild, and gentle;
yet in price it is cheap,
considering the hidden virtue.

Only be sure you do not forget
the time, in which many have been deceived.

And also other defects
that make the workers sad and slow.

The least time is nine months,
as the courteous Philosophers attest.

It still shows many colors,
as in a meadow of flowers;
but then in the black every color clings,
and near the end it shows itself as “white.”
Then, by a longer decoction,
it all becomes of the color of Gold,
with so fair a work
that it brings gladness to every sound mind.

Another sign is yet manifest:
if your decoction is finished,
the fuming has gone out,
and it stays fixed without further trouble.

I will speak also of the projection,
which has already tripped up many persons,
since it does not smoke and makes no more motion.

See that he who does it be skilled and learned,
and take good care that you place any medicine
only upon Sun or Moon;
for one weight falls upon a thousand,
and more, if your Elixir be perfect.

Be prudent,
and hold not what I say for base.

Take one dram of the Medicine,
and ten drams of clean Mercury,
and put it at the bottom.