The King who shows himself to all the world in his purple mantle,

that is:

The unadulterated truth of our chemical operation
in the preparation of the universal tincture,
reveals itself, without any dark manner of speech,
from two very ancient manuscripts
and manifests itself in its glorious taste.

Which a lover of philosophy has wished
to have brought to print and brought to light
for the service of his needy neighbour.

Frankfurt,
published by Samuel Tobias Hocker,
1711.




Translated from German book called:
Der Sich aller Welt zeigende König in seinem Purpur-Mantel, Das ist: Die ohnverfälschte Warheit unserer Chymischen Operation in Bereitung der Universal-Tinctur, entdecket sich ohne eintzige dunckle Redens-Arth auß zweyen uhr-alten Manuscriptis, und offenbahret sich in seinem herrlichen Geschmuck: Welches zu Dienste seines bedürfftigen Nächsten zum Druck befördern und an Tag geben wollen

This book have small treatise at the end of the book called "Tinctura Rosarum".

---

It is the Stone which the wise honour.

Since I have resolved to describe the practice of the blessed Philosophers’ Stone, and, so far as is granted me, to explain their parables and figurative ways of speaking, I would first, in all earnestness, admonish whoever has undertaken to devote himself to the study of our hallowed art to beware of false paths and to seek the way of truth.

But the true philosophers have only a single way to come to this, our precious art, which is to recognise the hallowed Nature; its beginning is the grace of the Lord, and its goal the love of one’s neighbour.

The Light wells forth from the will of the great God, and the science is a complete knowledge of Nature. Their practice consists in the knowledge how one must divide the metallic principles, free them from their inborn curse, and again reunite them in a proper equality and bind them indissolubly.

By this the more imperfect is perfected (made perfect) and brought into such a fixed and fire-resisting body that it can endure every fire of tribulation and, unhindered, as a spiritual body, penetrate through all the closed doors of Nature.

“Make use of venerable Nature,” says Diomedes, “for Nature is not amended by adding to it anything extraneous or foreign; introduce neither powder nor water nor any other thing, for diverse things do not amend our Stone.”

Therefore in no wise must many things be regarded in this our art, or now this, presently another, be taken and chosen as the matter of the Stone; still less should time, cost, and labour be spent in vain on unnatural things, for our art does not consist in a multitude of things (as Geber says).

For it is one thing, one stone, one medicine, in which the whole mystery consists and upon which it depends; to it we add no foreign thing, except that in its preparation we remove what is superfluous. For through it and in it are all things necessary to the art, many different ways are to be found in the philosophical books, yet you should nevertheless know that there is no more than a single true way.

Seek this one rationally, and do not rely on the bare letter; rather, consider beforehand whether it agrees with Nature, look to the concord of the authors, and ponder well where they have written anything darkly, for in this all their secret lies hidden. The rest is only circumlocution, to lead the unworthy astray.

Pray and read diligently, and exercise yourself with your hand; then your labour will be blessed. All the writings of the true philosophers are in agreement, even though they may seem so different. Their many denominations and names arise not so much from the materia lapidis as from the variation of their labour; for the beginning, the middle, and the end are noticeably changed, whereby the names also change.

The matter of the Stone, and where such is to be obtained, they conceal; and when they do indicate it, this happens only by way of a covering, so that they name another subject, but understand the right one beneath it. But if you rightly consider the generation of animals, you will find the same; for every generator naturally begets its like, and whatever you sow, that also shall you reap: for from man nothing is generated but man.

SOL does not bear three letters in its word in vain, and thereby shows openly that it is the true subject of our Hermetic art; for assuredly it is a subjectum super omnia lucens, a subject shining above all things.

If therefore you would measure and compare the perfect body with the more-than-perfect, dimension and gauge it well, consider your labour rightly, and in all other things follow the rules of the wise masters, who write that a small error in the beginning becomes very great at the end.

But concerning the nature of the Sun the following is reported:

Sol est corpus perfectum, Dominus Lapidum, Rex & caput omnium aliorum, in igne non corrumpitur, nec minuitur, sed melioratur, in ea humiditate quae non alteranda humectatur.

“The Sun is a perfect body, the lord of the stones, the king and head of all the others; in the fire it is not corrupted nor diminished, but is made better; it is moistened in that humidity which is not to be altered.”

Ejus complexio est temperata, & natura directa in caliditate, frigiditate, humiditate & siccitate, nil in eo superflui invenitur, non diminuitur: est enim essentiatum ex substantia subtilissima & clarissima argenti vivi & pauca Sulphuris, puri & mundi, rubedinis, fixi & clari, tingens ipsam argenti vivi substantiam.

“Its complexion is temperate, and its nature is rightly ordered in heat, cold, moisture and dryness; nothing superfluous is found in it, it is not diminished. For it is the quintessence from the most subtle and most bright substance of quicksilver and a little sulphur, pure and clean, of redness, fixed and clear, tinging the very substance of quicksilver.”

From this it is then evident (especially also because the Philosophers’ Stone, through its like temperament removes and takes away all dregs and impurities from animal and metallic bodies) that therefore the Philosophers’ Stone must be prepared, in a material manner and also substantially, upon the body of the Sun. Omnis enim Tinctura a suo simili procedere debet – for every tincture must proceed from its like.

Yet this must not be done sophistically, but the body of the Sun must be completely broken and brought back into its first essence, so that from it one may draw out and make visible its inmost and hidden [part]. But to put this into practice, proceed thus:

Take fine gold, purified by quartation or with antimony; dissolve it in aqua regia, then draw off the watery part from it until it is of an oily nature. Next, in a cool, damp cellar, bring this oily substance by appropriate means to transparent crystals; afterwards, through putrefaction and sublimation, bring the crystals to a beautiful, shining and living white mercury. Then the body of the Sun is broken for the first time, and the materia prima is brought near at hand.

For it is certain that all things consist of it and out of it, into which they are resolved, and that all metals can be reduced into mercury. Thus the mercurial substance is, in such metals, the beginning and the first essence.

Conversio autem cineris Metallorum in spiritum est fixum volatilizare (that is: the preparation of the spirit upon the metallic ashes or crystals is the fixed made volatile). Converte igitur cinerem Regis in spiritum ut sit Mercurius, and you will obtain the true beginning of our blessed art.

This Mercury is the root, mother, and principal source of all perfect metals, in which alone are contained the exceedingly great mysteries of curing human bodies with it, and of cleansing and perfecting all imperfect metals thereby. Hence also the philosophers have said: est in Mercurio quicquid quaerunt Sapientes – “in Mercury is whatever the wise seek.”

Yet you must in no way imagine that I am speaking here of the common running mercury of the vulgar, which has no proper power of acting in itself. My discourse is directed rather toward a perfect metallic body, from which we afterwards extract the Mercury of the Wise. Noster enim Mercurius est radix in arte Chymica, cum in eo sunt omnia Metalla – “For our Mercury is the root in the chemical art, since in it all metals are present.”

For as soon as one has precipitated the Mercury of the Sun by itself in a suitable glass, one obtains such a precious medicine, which in its very smallest dose removes all human weaknesses, accidents and illnesses at the root, and presents a man wholly renewed and rejuvenated.

Since now gold is of so noble a nature, many physicians also use it in their medicines even crude and unprepared, but especially in chronic diseases such as leprosy and the like, because it cleanses the blood along with them. And such a medicine serves chiefly therefore also for man, because according to its close kinship with the human body it has its origin from there; for man is from an APHAR Minha Adamah, as Moses writes, that is, created from the dust or ashes of a red earth, upon which first the gold receives its primum ens. And in this consideration Luna also is to be taken as an appropriate specific, since it is then much more useful than other things which do not have the properties of metals in themselves, to be used.

Ast sapienti sat; qui enim destructionem auri ignorat, scit quidem quod difficilis sit, sed quam difficilis hoc ignorat.

But this is enough for the wise; for he who does not know the destruction of gold knows indeed that it is difficult, but how difficult he does not know.

Just as the philosophers are unanimously of the opinion quod melius sit aurum construere quam destruere (that it is easier to make a gold than to destroy it).

For this reason such a Mercury in its operation is to be highly esteemed and regarded as a special donum Dei (gift of God). But how quickly such a one may be prepared I leave to each man’s own thoughts. Omnis festinatio ex parte Diaboli est—all haste comes from the Devil—therefore let everyone first examine himself, whether he is suited to such a work, and whether he has time and patience to carry it through.

The first operation in this our philosophical work is the sublimation; that is, the destruction or breaking down which takes place through putrefaction. Thereby the body becomes like ashes, quite unsightly and dead, so that it lies there without movement; but as soon as one awakens it again, it becomes far more apt for a noble tincture than the body itself would have been, had it remained undestroyed in its former form.

This the philosophers call their Mercury of the Wise, a spiritual earth or soil which penetrates and is to be brought to a tincture. For our subliming is nothing else than a making-volatile of a thing, whereby all the dregs are separated and divided from it. Thus the philosophers, and in particular Hermes, teach to chase all fixed bodies upward at first and to make them volatile; and only then, when they have been freed from their earthly perversity, to give them form again and to bind them. Hence they have written: fac fixum volatile, & volatile fixum – “make the fixed volatile, and the volatile fixed.”

Likewise: nisi fiant corporea incorporea, & è contra, nihil operamini – “unless bodies become incorporeal, and the incorporeal become corporeal, you will accomplish nothing.” And here we would have it that they are not separated from one another, but that they be mutually fixed and remain together.

All this, however, comes to pass through the philosophical sublimation, as Geber also bears witness when he writes:

tota perfectio artis consistit in sublimatione, & in vase ac ignis regimine; quoniam in ipsa sublimatione sunt & habentur isti modi, ut patet, scil. non modo sublimatio, sed & destillatio, ascensio & descensio, congelatio, putrefactio, calcinatio, inceratio & tinctura alba & rubra; uno igne, uno vase, unâ viâ cinerariâ, usque ad ejus finalem conservationem, de quibus Philosophi.

That is: “The whole perfection of the art consists in sublimation and in the vessel and the government of the fire; for in sublimation itself are and are contained these modes, as is evident – namely, not only sublimation, but also distillation, ascension and descension, congelation, putrefaction, calcination, inceration and the white and the red tincture – by one fire, in one vessel, in one ashy way, right up to its final preservation, as the philosophers teach.”

But the sense would become darker here, for they have written many things.

After, however, the matter has been putrefied for making a spiritual body (Mercury), which is nevertheless impossible unless in the air by philosophical sublimation and putrefaction, then take the aforesaid Mercury of the Sun and dry it on warm sand in a clean glass dish, so that all remains pure; afterwards filter it further through a semisch leather (chamois leather) three or more several times, so that all impurity may come away from it; then sublime it a twenty-first time through the arcana of the philosophers which lie hidden in the wine and must, according to the art, be separated out and prepared by the artificial spagyrist. Then you have the noble philosophical Mercury, with which all philosophical operations can be begun and prepared. Without this Mercury all toil and cost will be in vain.

If now you wish further to exalt this true matter and bring it to a higher perfection, then put your Mercury of the Sun, without any further addition, into a strong crystalline glass, which is to be measured and formed according to the astrological measure, so that the matter may keep its sphere therein in its circling course and may move about with ample room. Seal it, and guard it well in the closing together, and set it, in a wooden box, into the philosophical fire (Baln. Vap.). Govern this fire according to the degrees it requires, until the Mercury begins to melt / dissolve (which is wont to happen in eight or ten days), and is finally, by means of this vapoury and constant warmth, wholly converted into a philosophical water. Yet you should note that the wooden box in which the glass stands must also be well proportioned, so that the vapoury fire can permeate it and be able to operate according to Nature.

Likewise, the tripod in the box must be firmly fixed and wrapped with cotton wool, so that the glass may rest in it and stand unmoving. Keep on unweariedly with the balneum of vapour until, through such steady boiling, your Mercury of the Sun has become a clear, transparent and crystalline water, of which glorious water the philosophers write: unica perfectum aqua, quod fit coquendo, recoquendo & iterum coquendo—“the one perfect water, which is made by cooking, recooking and cooking again.” (For it is through and through a water which is obtained by boiling, re-boiling and boiling yet once more.)

You should, however, neither before nor afterwards open your glass, but let the work thus dissolved stand in its glass, and continue with the regimen of the fire until I shall tell you further what is to be done.

Concerning this the philosophers write thus: Sufficit tibi semel Lapidem in nostro vase ponere & includere, quousque totum compleatur magisterium—“It is enough for you to place the Stone once in our vessel and shut it up until the whole magistery is completed.” Likewise elsewhere: super omne mirum est, quod uno igne, uno vase fiat destillatio, calcinatio, dealbatio, rubificatio, fusio cum solutionibus—“it is above all wonder that with one fire and one vessel there are brought about distillation, calcination, whitening, reddening, and fusion with solutions.”

Now when the matter is kept in such a philosophical and vaporous fire, there finally follows a true and radical dissolution; and what has been dissolved is volatile and gradually raises itself into its own sphere, yet it settles on the circle of the glass like a film, and does not flow like common water. Therefore the philosophers have called it a solutio remota (“remote solution”).

Thus this body must be broken and resolved in itself, as the Forba says: Er solvit sich selbst, er sublimirt sich selbst, er tödtet sich selbst und machet sich wieder lebendig – “it dissolves itself, it sublimates itself, it kills itself and makes itself alive again.”

Nostra contritio non sit manibus, sed decoctione, vel putrefactione – “Our breaking-down is not by the hands, but by boiling or by putrefaction.” And so the solution or dissolution is accomplished solely through putrefaction.

For in our work putrefaction is most necessary, since without it the life of no thing, whether it be in the animal, vegetable, or mineral realm, can come forth and be obtained. And when it is not first of all brought into its putrefaction, it remains undissolved and consequently unfit for every transmutation and transformation.

But what the rotting or putrefaction effects in this work cannot be sufficiently expressed; for thereby the separation of the elements – which otherwise can in no other way be brought about – is thus perfectly accomplished, and the natural warmth drives them upwards, so that the one may be changed into the other. Such a separation is in truth a change of their nature, in that out of water comes air, out of air fire, and out of fire again an earth is renewed and prepared.

As Aristotle then writes: Cum habueris aquam ex aëre, & aërem ex igne, & ignem ex terra, tunc habebis plenam artem – “When you have water from air, and air from fire, and fire from earth, then you will have the whole art.”

Therefore the elements too are only altered, but in no way separated and parted from one another. On account of this alteration the philosophers call it a separation, which, without any discord, comes about solely through Nature; for then each [element] for a certain time in turn dominates and bears and holds the sovereignty, in order thus to accomplish its operation, so that something more glorious may come forth and arise from it.

Thus spirit, soul, and body are not properly, but sophically, separated; for the spirit leads the soul out of the body and is its dwelling-house, in which it has its rest. As the band of philosophers reports: Quod Lapis Noster ex corpore, anima & spiritu constet – “that our Stone consists of body, soul, and spirit.”

…for through the steady, unceasing cooking and putrefaction our true solution and philosophical dissolution into a water must take place; therefore the philosophers have called it unicam tantum aquam per totum, or “one single all-pervading water.”

For the moisture of the spirit (Geist or spiritus) is a water, and the moisture of the souls is an oil; hence it is also said: Vapor unctuosus est Lapis noster (“our Stone is an oily vapour”). Thus the soul is a bond of the spirit, just as the spirit is again a bond of the souls. Yet even this bond is as nothing compared with the bond of Nature. Everything must become water, if one wishes to proceed rightly.

Solvite corpora in argentum vivum nostrum, quod est aqua Magisterii, & sit aqua permanens, say the philosophers; that is: “Dissolve the bodies in our living quicksilver, which is the water of the mystery, and you will obtain our permanent water.”

For just as at the creation everything was at first water, and the Spirit of God hovered above the waters, so the beginning of our work must likewise be a water; that is, our body must, through the solution and dissolution, be brought into a water, putrefied and brought into motion, so that it circulates for a long time, rises and falls, until it is completely dissolved and turned into a clear, transparent, crystalline water. For our whole work is nothing else than a transformation of the earth into a water, and a continual boiling, until the earth enters into putrefaction. This earth putrefies with the water and cleanses itself; and when this has happened, then the whole art of our mastery is accomplished.

Nevertheless this our Stone is only a vapour and mist, which one calls an air; this rises little by little from the corporeal Mercury above itself into the height and spreads itself into its sphere, and also again falls down through the dew into the lower.

Therefore Hermes has named it an air: nam generatio geniti nostri sit in aëre, & nascens sapienter in aëre nascitur – “for the generation of our offspring is in the air, and being born, it is wisely born in the air.”

Likewise elsewhere: Alibi ascendit à terra in cœlum iterumque descendit in terram, acquirendo vim superiorum & inferiorum – “Elsewhere: it ascends from the earth into heaven and again descends into the earth, acquiring the power of the higher and the lower.”

But through the constant boiling and unceasing warmth it becomes ever somewhat thicker through this continual rising and sinking; yet it does not go quickly, because the whole body must first come up to the height of its circle. When only this period has run its course and been brought to an end, then it begins and starts to thick and brown; and even if it should still be that something corporeal could be noticed, yet in the end this also is consumed, and the body becomes through and through a spiritual being. I therefore say that this art is nothing else than to dissolve the Stone and then to coagulate it again, which must be accomplished solely through putrefaction.

Artifex enim nostri operis primò debet lapidem solvere, deindè coagulare, quoniam opus nostrum nihil aliud est quam facere perfectam solutionem & coagulationem, & nisi quodlibet vertatur in aquam, nullatenus pervenitur ad artem.

“For the craftsman of our work must first dissolve the stone and then coagulate it, since our work is nothing else than to make a perfect solution and coagulation; and unless everything is turned into water, one never arrives at the art.”

Haec enim ambo, scilicet solutio Corporis & Coagulatio Spiritus, erunt in operatione una & non sit unum sine altero. Nam solvere Corpus & coagulare spiritus est opus Naturae, sicque dissolvitur Aurum & Argentum in rebus radicalibus sui generis, & haec humiditas dicitur Aqua permanens.

“For these two, namely the solution of the body and the coagulation of the spirit, are one operation, and the one is not without the other. For to dissolve the body and to coagulate the spirit is the work of Nature; and thus gold and silver are dissolved into the radical things of their own kind, and this moisture is called the permanent water.”

Now although solution and coagulation are indeed distinct and one follows the other, yet they nevertheless have only a single operation, namely that they require the medium of warmth, so that the two principal elements, water and earth, can be plainly demonstrated and set before the eyes, as that in which the two other invisible ones, air and fire—understand here the philosophical fire—are hidden.

As soon as one notices that it coagulates and stands still, thus no longer rising up, one may be quite assured that the vera conjunctio philosophica has taken place; for it now begins and sets about thickening itself, and the elements, together with the spirit which joins the anima or soul, unite with the spiritual body into one and bind them so that they can never again be separated.

This then is the true oleum incombustibile, into which, when one puts a subtle sheet of silver, the silver is straightway transformed into Rhenish gold. Yet it is not at that time necessary to open the glass, since it can be used with the greatest profit and advantage. This oil is indestructible and no longer loses anything of its solar parts, for it is a rightly proportioned oil, upon which no loss or damage can any longer be wrought by the fire.

It is the extracted moisture of the holy part and the tincture of constancy; it belongs to the souls, which allow themselves to be drawn up only slowly and with difficulty, and only gradually leave their house or body. One must therefore proceed very subtly with it, since moreover the body of the Sun has a very moderate, tempered complexion, it cannot easily be destroyed without toil and the true means.

When now you see a citrine-brown oil in the glass, then know that its own fiery nature, that is, its sulphur, is again coming forth, which at that time, when it had become a Mercury, was occulted and hidden; sicque occultum manifestatur, & vice versa – thus the hidden is made manifest, and conversely.

And what had been the exterius auri now comes forth again, namely our Mercury, quia exteriora argenti vivi Philosophorum & interiora argenti sunt exteriora auri (that is: the outer parts of our philosophical quicksilver and the inner parts of our silver are the outer parts of gold). If you understand this rightly, you understand a great secret.

Nam in occulto nostri Lapidis est caliditas & siccitas, & in manifesto frigiditas & humiditas. For in what is hidden of our Stone there is heat and dryness, and in what is manifest, cold and moisture. Quare oportet (ut dicit Turba) manifestum occultare & occultum manifestare, because the heat that is in the hidden is the element and the oil. For “the dry tinges the dry,” since the dryness of the fire tinges; and what is in the manifest is moisture and coldness. Between these it is necessary to have proportion, so that the moisture and coldness are tempered with the heat and dryness, in such a way that they do not flee from the fire.

Do therefore as follows so that the moisture and coldness may receive the heat and dryness which were in the hidden part, and thus become one substance. For cold and moisture are a watery and burning smoke that corrupts and brings forth blackness; and this Stone has one virtue and nature in what is hidden, and another in what is manifest, yet it is one complete commixture, of one and the same virtue and nature (that is, the inmost of our Stone is hot and dry, and the outer part cold and moist).

Wherefore, following the instruction of the Turba, one should strive to turn the outer within, and on the other hand to bring the inner outward. For the inner, hidden part is a fire and an element, namely the oil. The dry binds the dry, for the dryness of the fire tinges. The visible part is the moisture and cold; therefore there must be produced between them such a temperament that the moist and cold agree with the hot and dry, and no longer flee from the fire.

Bring it about, then, that the cold and moist take upon themselves the nature of the warm and dry, which was hidden, and unite with it into one. For cold and moisture are a watery smoke and burning that destroy and cause putrefaction; but the Stone has another nature and virtue in its inner part and another in its outward being, yet a perfect mingling of both such nature and property. Although I might be able to write much concerning this matter, yet for brevity’s sake I must nevertheless here break off, and show only the practice.

Therefore apply yourself diligently to keeping a due and even degree of your vaporous fire, and to renewing the same always from five days to five days. By this you obtain the citron-brown oil, which appears not unlike pomegranate peels, and finally you gain on the top a little skin; this sinks to the bottom, but soon another arises, which likewise settles to the bottom like a yellow, light and subtle sand, and this continues to act on and on until everything has been turned into a powder. Do not in any wise slacken the regimen of the fire, but continue in this manner so long until the powder becomes grey, and then little by little, the longer the more, turns black, and the Raven’s Head is fully present.

[Margin: Caput Corvi – Raven’s Head.]

The Turba teaches: “Thus are bodies dissolved through putrefaction, and a black earth is brought about; and when you see the matter blackened, rejoice, for it is the beginning of your work; for it is the blackness of the white and the head of the raven, which with the blackness of night and the brightness of day flies without wings. This is the dark earth of which the Philosophers have spoken.”

Be therefore constant in your work, bear patience, and continue unweariedly with the boiling until at last you obtain the tincture upon the water in a black colour. As soon as the blackness breaks forth upon the water, then be assured that the whole body has been destroyed and made fluid, and that now the fire, through this blackness, is burning its wings. Various colours will then arise; one colour will cast itself into another, until at length the highest whiteness again appears and lets itself be seen.

This whitening is the beginning of our mastery and the true foundation of the body, the single fermentation, which can no longer pass into any other colour, save only into the highest redness, which is its ultimate goal. When now this colour has entered, the greatest toil is ended, and nothing more is needed than to keep it in its constant warmth until it has at last again come to the highest whiteness. Then the supreme Elixir of the Wise is prepared, which transmutes and transforms all earthly imperfect bodies into the finest and foliated most fixed silver, which far surpasses all other silver in goodness.

Dealbate igitur Latonam & rumpite libros – “Whiten therefore the Latona, and tear up the books.

Let not your hearts be troubled, for our art is light and needs but slight assistance.
(That is: only bring Latona to the highest whiteness, and then tear up all the books, so that your minds may not be led astray or torn in pieces; for the art is plain and needs but little help.)

This transmuted silver has, according to its weight, the true weight of gold, and in all its tests stands as a fine gold; therefore the philosophers have called it a fixed Luna.”

[Margin: Luna fixa – fixed Moon.]

Since now the art in itself is easy and should require but small assistance, we will examine closely wherein such labour may lie. For though this white medicine has already been prepared, it still may not yet be used, just as it is, for a metallic transmutation, unless it were first by some convenient means made fit to be able to penetrate into the bodies. And although all superfluous moisture and the impure nature have been wholly taken from it, so that it can now shine forth completely clarified and retains the pre-eminence before all other metals, yet it mingles with none of them without the preparation of the arcanum.

It would therefore also be inadvisable to use this tincture ‘to the white’ (ad album); for it still yet it can quite easily be brought into redness and made into a tincture ad rubrum. For the white and the red tincture spring from one root, as the wise master Arnoldus says.

For this, however, no further special way is needed, except only that one apply time and continue with constant boiling. The fire can now spoil nothing, nam in illa albedine rubor est occultus – for in that whiteness the redness is hidden. One goes on solely with the dry fire and dry calcination until it becomes red like cinnabar, and adds to it no further moisture nor anything else foreign. And when, through the length of time, it is continually exercised in this dry fire, it will at last enter into the highest redness and become fixed in the fire, so that one can use it for the red work. Yet before this redness there first appears the citrine yellow colour.

The Turba sets down the following in verses:

Ut non candescat rosa, sed luce lucescat,
Totum fervefcat, insist & fervorem quiescat,
Donec splendorem tribuat, tollatque nidorem,
Candida candorem generat, rubicunda ruborem.

That is:

“Let the rose not merely grow pale, but shine with light;
Let the whole [matter] boil, persist, and then let the heat come to rest,
Until it bestows splendour and takes away all stench;
The white brings forth whiteness, the reddened brings forth redness.”

In the redness it must stand for at least one month, until it has been brought to the very highest ruby-colour; then you will marvel at the redness and be able all the more to assure yourself of the happy outcome of your work.

As soon as you have taken it out of the glass, test it on a glowing sheet of silver; if it flows without smoke, then the tincture is prepared, and you possess such a treasure for which you can never thank God the Lord enough. This is the blessed tincture, and the treasure above all earthly treasures, which cleanses human and metallic bodies from their sordibus (filth), gives them new birth and makes them perfect. This king now stands in his adornment, decked with a threefold crown. He glitters like gold, shines like a carbuncle, and flows like wax; no fire can harm him, for he penetrates it, retains his living quicksilver, and remains unchanged in the flux.

[Margin: Tinctura]

If now you intend with this to tinge the metals, then first of all give it an ingress and proceed thus: Take 1 part of the red-prepared medicine, add to it 1000 parts of the calx of the Sun, as it has been prepared by the spagyrist, for its ferment, and grind them together upon a smooth marble, agate, or porphyry stone.

[Margin: Formatio]

Then put all this into a well-luted crucible and set it in a wind-furnace that is not too large; give it gentle fire until everything has united, and then the tincture ad metalla is finished and prepared. Yet the right time must herein be taken heed of and observed, so that one does not overlook the moment when the medium must enter in.

For although the medicine has already been brought to its perfect ripeness, yet without such a means it never at any time has any ingress (entry) to transform either a perfect or an imperfect body. It otherwise merely remains upon the molten metals like an oil standing upon water, and by degrees goes away from them, if an ingress be not imparted and given to them; for, by reason of its penetrating spirit, it pierces through all vessels and passes out of them.

But if the manipulation be well and rightly observed, then this our Philosophical Stone, in its fermentation, is changed into a brittle and glass-like mass; and when one part of this is carried upon 1000 parts of other imperfect metal in flux, it yields the most durable and best gold. But if such transmuted gold should turn out brittle, then one must add to it somewhat more of the metal, until the perfect malleability is found.

Therefore, when the medicine thrown in has flowed together with a metal in the crucible and has played with it for half an hour, insert an iron wire, and what remains hanging on it, beat that out upon a pure anvil as thin as possible. If it should then still be found not easily malleable, put more metal into it until it has become perfectly malleable. Yet a certain measure must be observed also in the melting; for when this is exceeded, the fire above refines more than below, which the philosophers can recognise.

In this way the kindly reader has, without any darkness, had the whole spagyric art opened to him, for which he should thank his Creator and be ready to meet his needy neighbour with Christian love and to help him in his wants, so that he may not bring upon his neck the curse and everlasting damnation.

May God Almighty grant His blessing to all sons of the art therein.

Philosophical Multiplication

Since there have been but few among the philosophers who have spoken of the Multiplication, I too have resolved, in so far as brevity will permit, to give some account of it.

At the beginning no weight is needed in our work; nevertheless the end will require it of us, on account of the ingress or ferment.

As for the weight for the philosophical Multiplication, take of your medicine that is as yet un-fermented (for absque fermento it is still no tinctura ad metalla, but only a bare medicine) 1 part, which has as yet received no ingress; and 10 parts of the Mercurius Solis, which, however, has been sublimed and cleansed by means of the Arcanum Philosophorum, as has already been taught at the beginning.

Close the glass with the Sigillum Hermetis and place it in its wooden vessel or box; proceed in everything as was taught at the beginning of this process. After 5 days look at it again, and it will begin to resolve itself; this will soon come to an end…

Solution.

It dissolves itself in 40 days, and then begins to become thick and browner; thereafter there finally follows the incombustible oil (oleuum incombustibile), of which mention has already everywhere been made.

After these 40 days the oil changes into a yellow sand and becomes an ash-coloured earth, and finally black, so that all this too is completed in 40 days.

Caput Corvi.

Next the change of colours begins, which is compared to a peacock’s tail, and this may likewise last 40 days.

Cauda Pavonis – Terra foliata seu Regina (Luna).

Thereupon the whiteness appears, or the white elixir, the foliated earth, Luna, etc., which may be called that which transmutes imperfect metals into a pure, fixed silver.

After such a pure and clear elixir, the colours begin to break forth in a citron-yellow and redness, until at last the red King steps forth in his perfect purple and shows himself. He is so highly shining that he even gleams by night and shoots a radiance from himself, as the philosophers say:

Quod hic generatus sit Rex, triplici diademate coronatus, fulgens ut sol, lucens clarius carbunculo, fluens ut cera, perseverans in igne, penetrans & retinens argentum vivum & ipsumque in fluxum Leonem convertens.

“That is: Here is generated the King, crowned with a triple diadem, shining like the sun, gleaming more brightly than a carbuncle, flowing like wax, steadfast in the fire, penetrating and holding fast the quicksilver, and turning it into a flowing Lion.”

These also complete their course in 40 days.

If now you further wish to give it a ferment, then take a pure gold cast through antimony, beat it thin, dissolve it in its proper water, yet so that it stands well luted with the water for 14 days in B.V. or in dung. Then draw it over the alembic-head; pour the V.R. again upon the calx of the Sun, draw it off again; do this so often until all the ☉ Gold has risen over the head. Then put it again into a flask and draw off only ad certam partem (to the third part). Put this third part, which has remained in the flask, in a cellar and let it shoot into crystals.

Wash these with distilled rain-water and precipitate them with quicksilver; let the mercury, over gentle warmth, dip it out in a crucible; thus the ☉ Gold is turned into a subtle powder. Reverberate this in a glass that is well luted, gently for three days and nights, and so you have the gold rightly prepared. A thousand parts of this set to one part of the medicine, and proceeding therewith as in the first preparation, give it the true philosophical ferment, of which one part transmutes a thousand parts of other metals into the best and most fixed gold.

If you wish to ferment or multiply it a second time, such a tincture tinges ten times ten more; and if one repeats this a third time, then it will multiply itself yet once again in itself, as the labour will show.

I herewith conclude, and say: sapientes abscondunt sapientiam seu scientiam, os autem stulti confusione plenum est – “the wise hide wisdom or knowledge, but the mouth of the fool is full of confusion.”

Since it is not permitted to reveal anything further to the unwise.

Farewell, and be content with this.