The Sound of the Trumpet: A Marvelous and Most Attentive Treatise, Drawn from a Very Ancient Writing Clangor Bvccinæ (Clangor Buccinae)

The Sound of the Trumpet with marginal notes translated from Latin
The Sound of the Trumpet translated from German
Clangor Bvccinæ (Clangor Buccinae) Latin Version

Concerning the Philosopher's Stone, Explained Fairly Faithfully and Physically to All Philosophers

In the name of the Lord, Amen. The blare of the trumpet concerning the blessed Philosophical Stone, whose nature and operation resound with marvelous power, of which various philosophers have written diverse opinions and texts.

Thus, regarding the first essence, the first philosopher Thales of Miletus says: "The most ancient of beings is God—unbegotten, eternal." And Pythagoras likewise says: "I declare that God was before all things, and with Him nothing else existed when He was." Understand, then, that when God alone existed in the beginning, He created one substance, which we call prima materia—the first matter. And from that substance He created four other things: fire, air, water, and earth. From these four already-created elements He made everything else, both celestial and terrestrial.

Therefore, before anything else, apart from the first matter, He created the four elements. From them He later created whatever He wished—namely, various natures. Thus, God created by His word, to which He said, “Be,” and they were—namely, the four elements and all other things.

From these four elements, then, all things were created as if from a root: heaven, thrones, angels, stars, the sun, moon, sea, and all things in the sea—which are diverse and not alike, because God made their natures different, just as their origins were different. For if they had been created from one element, they would have had similar natures. But because these diverse elements, when mixed, lose their own distinct properties—since, for example, heat mixed with cold becomes neither hot nor cold, and moisture mixed with dryness becomes neither moist nor dry—therefore, the creatures arising from them have diverse natures.

Some creatures were created from a single element. For example, the angels were created from fire alone. From two elements—namely, fire and air—were created the sun, moon, and stars. That is why angels are brighter than the sun, moon, and stars, because they were created from a single, purer, more rarefied element.

The sun, moon, and stars were created from a combination of fire and air. But the souls (as philosophers say) that are infused into bodies today and every day anew in the womb of the mother are not newly created each time. They were created from fire alone, from the primordial beginning of the universe, and are preserved in the mind and power of the Creator until the appointed time, when they are to be infused into a new body, like matter lying in readiness. And this infusion is made through a medium, which is the spirit. The soul does not depart from the body unless the spirit departs and vanishes first. When the spirit goes, the soul goes too—although theologians say that the soul is created and infused into the body simultaneously. And God delights in the daily creation of new souls, created from the first matter.

Moreover, God created the heavens from water and air. The heavens are composed of two elements—one more rarefied, namely air, and one denser, namely water. From three elements God created birds, brute animals, and plants. Birds were created from fire, air, and water, since all things that have spirit among the plants were created from air, water, and earth. In plants, however, there is no material presence of fire as such. In plants, fire is hidden in the heat of the air and only exists in that form. Dense fire is found only in things that have spirit and soul.

Finally, from all four elements—fire, air, water, and earth—our father Adam and his descendants were created.

(Marginal Note: What is Death?)

And everything that God created from a single essence does not die—except on the Day of Judgment. For the definition of death is the separation of what is composed. But what is not composed has no separation, and thus there is no death in such things—such as the soul’s separation from the body.

Now, from two or three or four things being composed, whatever is composite must necessarily be separated—that is, this is death.

And know this: nothing composed, which lacks fire, eats, drinks, or sleeps. And as for the question: if angels are created from fire, why do they not eat, since it is said that fire is what consumes? The answer is: it is not simple fire that consumes, but rather dense fire.

(Marginal Note: The Twofold Nature of Fire)

For angels are not made from dense fire, but from the thinnest, most subtle form of fire—simple and rarefied. Therefore, being created from such a tenuous fire, they neither sleep, nor eat, nor drink.

Note that there are four primary qualities: heat, dryness, coldness, and moisture. They are called the primary qualities because from them all the elements are composed, and everything becomes "elemented" from them, and all compounds are formed.

And the elements are made from these simple qualities. For this reason, they have the ability to transform and convert matter from one quality into another—sometimes into dryness, sometimes into moisture, sometimes into heat, and sometimes into cold—depending on whether the division of nature has been strengthened through the blending of its elements, or weakened.

And the qualities are like the matter of the elements, into which the elements place their forms. They are also retained within them, as the nature of each element demonstrates in every generation.

Moreover, a single element by itself cannot be corrupted or generated on its own, because it does not possess sufficient nature. Therefore, it is necessary that there be more than one.

Thus, that nature is a subtle substance into which the qualities of the elements enter. Therefore, those elemental qualities draw more strongly toward that which contains more of them. In this way, the qualities function like the matter of the elements, into which the elements place their forms, and in which they are retained, as their nature demonstrates in every generation.

And in this subtle substance, they are condensed in every generation. The qualities of the elements condense themselves into this subtle substance. And if this nature were not composed of the essential subtle substance of the elements, then the impure essence of the elements would not be able to exist or have dominion within the substance.

Moreover, if each element separately, according to its own nature, were mineral in kind, then that subtle substance would not be able to penetrate it, nor enter into it, nor color it.
(Marginal note: Whence color arises)

Therefore, it is by virtue of this property that it is fitting for fire to predominate in the aforementioned substance of the elements, according to its own manner.
This is according to Raymond (Lull).

(Four Humors and Four Complexions)

Furthermore, the bodies beneath the concavity of the sphere of the moon (i.e., the sublunary world), created by the Creator, participate in the four elements and in the four natural humors:

Choler (Yellow Bile)
Blood
Phlegm
Melancholy (Black Bile)

And in the four complexions:
Heat,
Cold,
Moisture,
and Dryness.

(Marginal Notes: The Four Colors, The Four Tastes, The Four Odors, The Two Sexes, The Three Dimensions)

Four principal colors: white, black, yellow (citrine), and red.
Four tastes: tasteless, sour, sweet, and bitter.
Four odors: pleasant, foul, sharp, and faint.

Two sexes: masculine and feminine,
according to their three dimensions: height, length, and depth.

Height is that which is manifest;
Depth is that which is hidden;
Breadth (or width) partakes of both, as the medium between them.

Therefore, all bodies must be considered in all ways according to these three aforementioned dimensions.

Thus, if a body in its height is earthy, in it there is something cold, dry, melancholic, bitter, sour, foul-smelling, black, and feminine.
And consequently, in its depth it is aerial, warm, moist, sanguine, yellow (citrine), sweet, fragrant, and masculine.

If on one side it is watery, then it must be cold and moist, white, tasteless, fragrant, foul-smelling, and feminine.
And consequently, on the other side, it will be fiery, hot, dry, red, bitter, sharp, and masculine.

These are the bonds by which all bodies are joined together with one another—something that is most clearly perceived in melted bodies, such as gold, silver, lead, tin, iron, and antimony.

Each element by its nature contains contrariety, and acts upon its opposite.

And note: there are four elements—fire, air, water, and earth.
Each is composed of two primary qualities, no more.

Fire: hot and dry
Air: hot and moist
Water: cold and moist
Earth: cold and dry

Furthermore:

In fire, heat is its essential quality, and dryness is accidental.
In air, moisture is essential, heat accidental.
In water, moisture is essential, but cold is accidental.
In earth, dryness is essential, and cold is accidental.

Also: fire is properly hot, and dry by property. The greatest heat lies in fire, as the qualities arise from its very nature.

So too should one understand the other qualities of the elements.

According to Myretus, the origin of the four elements is as follows:

Earth was once water, then was transformed into stone and became rocky.
Water was once air, which then condensed and thickened into water.
Air originated from fire, since it came from thickened fire.
Fire has no origin, except its Creator.

(Marginal Note: On the degrees of the elements)

And know that earth is the body of water, and from earth man is made.
Fire ceases not from the other three elements; through it, the three persist.

Regarding the degrees of the elements:

Fire, as it exists in mixtures, is hot in the fourth degree, and dry in the third.

Thus through this mixture, the mixture of the elements is completed.

Fire is in water, because it is in air existing in earth.
And water is in fire, because it is in earth existing in fire.
And earth is in air, because it is in fire existing in air.
And so their mixture is terminable in any proportion.

Also, Raymond says at the beginning of the Theorica Testamenti:
Since the primordial principle of all things is one nature, which God created from nothing, in one pure substance, which we call the fifth essence,
in which the whole of nature is comprehended.
From this substance, divided into three parts according to its essence:

From the purest, God created the angels and the empyrean heaven,
through this clarity and truth, the pure souls participate with the angels in nature,
through which participation there is perfect union in glorification.

From the second, God created the heaven, that is, the firmament, the planets, namely the sun and moon, and all the stars.

And from the third part, which was the least pure, God created this world.

And this you are to understand not as it is commonly taught to you, but as all was created at once,
by the will of the superior Creator, without any succession of operations, and without pre-existing matter,
which would imply succession of generation—for otherwise it would not be a creation,
nor the divine work, which regards the Creator as Lord of being,
brought forth summetifically (i.e., as a perfect act of will and knowledge) from nothing into true substantial entity.

Therefore, what I have said and will now say, you must understand with a summetific (divine-intellectual) spirit,
and not in a gross or common way, for here we speak in reference to the work of nature,
to which you must be assimilated in our Magistery.

(Marginal note: “Assimilation to the Work”)

And therefore we tell you by way of example so that you may understand well, as has already been said. Because the supreme Creator divided this less pure part into fifteen parts. From one purer part God created the fifth essence, the substance of the elements, which participates with the heavenly thing. And He divided this into four parts: the first, purer, is given to fire, which God created from the second part of the nature of the elements; the second of this pure part is attributed to air, which was created from the third less pure part of the nature of the elements; and the third less pure part is given to water, which is the element created from the fourth less pure part of the nature of the elements; and the fourth less pure part is given to the earthly element, which was created from the fifth less pure part of the whole nature of the elements.

And the less perfect the nature is, the more it desires its own perfection, and it perfects one with the other through harmony of sweet properties with its fifth instrument, that is, participation with the heavenly cause. Also, this is the appetite for the perfection of nature, namely generation in corruption and corruption in generation, because its instinct or appetite does not come immediately from the Creator of nature; if it did come from Him, it would be perfect and not from the creature, it would be perfect without destruction. And therefore, since this instinct comes from nature itself, it cannot make those things perfect except it perfects them through divine intellectual knowledge, like human knowledge, which is rectified by divine intelligence.

Thus, through the mastery of our work, one can understand the nature of the first elements after the division of the third primordial substance created. Do not understand that their substance is a simple fifth element, but the substance is the third or fourth, or second, or first, elemented by the fifth part which we call primordial, and a simple substance, through which the said four elemental substances are elemented, each according to its nature as explained above.

These four elements thus created remain pure and clear by reason of their clear part of nature, from which they will be created until the time foreseen when nature ceased, or until Anathuel mentioned above; but after this, men and animals died, and the nascent earth became deficient, with destruction of generation, led from corruption to generation and from generation to corruption. Therefore, the impure resolved body remains that which has contaminated and corrupted the elements; because of this corruption, every living thing has a short duration, since nature cannot make a thing so perfect by reason of its coarse and corrupt matter as it did in its beginning.

Indeed, as it continues its operation more, it is more devastated above nature, participating in imperfection with great corruption because of the matter which daily it finds less pure among the elements; because that which it set to change it then set to compose firmer parts of the bond.

And by this, you can understand every prophecy that everything will be consumed at the end of the world when Jesus Christ will come to judge the world by fire coming from heaven, which will burn all that is not of the truth of the four elements, and everything impure and evil will be confused into the abyss, and that fire will find the composite of pure virtue, and He will rest visibly above the sphere forever. And the impure evil will fall upon the condemned, and all pure upon the blessed.

Therefore, your consideration can be enlightened that in the end everything will go to its own proper place, from where it first came. And understand also that this proper earth which we tread is not a true element, but is elemented by its true fifth element. Nor does the fifth elemental substance withdraw from the elemented body from which the earth is formed. Just as a body without a soul, and putrefaction assimilated into one, or matter without form composed, is infected by the aforesaid through reciprocal action from one element into another.

But in the center of the earth is a virgin and true element, which fire will not be able to burn on the dreadful day. And thus, about the other elements you must understand clearly with illumination, and join the principal simple material substance, which, with division, forms the formed into one contrary. (Marginal Note: Principal Substance)

With division, we have spoken to you—not of a separated substance of them, which is the fifth essence, but subtracting every principal composite element. And as I said, the earth which we tread upon is not a pure element, but an elementated one, appropriately elementated, because in its center is found what is a virgin and true element.

Marginal Notes: In the center is the virgin.

So too must you understand about the other elements: and whatever is not of the pure truth of the elements will burn and be completely annihilated on the day of judgment. And then the elements will remain clear and pure, shining on the earth like crystal.

Marginal note: Crystal clarity.

And the supreme Creator will do thus with the fire of heaven until the great world returns to the first cause, namely all the elements to their pure essence, which afterward will no longer fear the fire of heaven, because then the motion of the supernal nature will remain in it, free from all corruption.

Marginal note: Holy Trinity.

And know that there are three principles of all things: first, the artificial principle, which is God, the creator of all things. Second, the exemplary principle, which flows from Him, called His Wisdom. Third, the succeeding principle, called the matter created by Him, together with that Wisdom, which proceeds from Him and is the primordial element we call Yle, which we will explain to you if you understand us well, although it is not necessary to seek it in its simple species to begin our operation, although without the quintessence you cannot bring it to completion.

But you must seek it in its composite form, because as I have said, since all the elements are created from that said substance, they are vivified by it for creating and corrupting, as is necessary according to nature. Since every fixed thing under the moon is created and formed from that matter which is called Yle, so that from it influence flows into every elemental thing, and more into one than another as we find by nature, and that it dwells there and is its consolation; therefore be assured that no thing in the world can be created or generated without it, because it gathers the elemental body in the work of nature.

Marginal Note: What nature is.

And therefore we call it nature, and the primordial of any element, because from its simple substance the elements which are the matter of nature were purely created, without divine separation, namely water, air, fire, which are bodies elemented by the said primordial simple element, which proceeds both in them and from the intellect itself.

The Chronicle of Methaurça says:
Because the species of elements is found in the limits of the sun and in that principle, which is the primordial principle of things, therefore if you seek to understand such matter, know that it is a pure subject and union of forms, in which every form is retained with possibility, since it contains infinite flux and instability of motions, according to the diversity of extreme and middle forms which it receives into itself, through some similarity to celestial receptions of extreme and middle forms, which are born from the heavenly nature, which was of its own nature. And through others, comparing it to a vein by the direction of its possibility. And by others it is called possibility, because it has no form in itself actually, but it must be assigned a form with possibility, just as now when seeing darkness, in such a way this matter is understood as nothing by itself without understanding. And for this reason, the form of the world as it is is written to you. And in this way the elements are ordered in the world, by which any thing is generated in the way it appears, by a succeeding heat.

This is Raymond Lull.

Also, concerning fire, that is, formal heat, Eximidius says in the Turba Philosophorum:
The beginning of all things, that is, of creatures, is a certain nature, and it is perpetual and first, cooking all things, and leading them to due form and species.

Marginal Note: Fire, cause of form.

Wherefore he says perpetual and first. Perhaps some might think this refers to the first essence, namely creation, but this is not true. Rather, he says perpetual, meaning spiritual, and first, meaning more worthy than all creatures existing in the elements, because otherwise it would be false. Digesting and cooking all things, informing natural heat, by which all are led to their specific form and figure.

Philosophical Moon — Various Riddles.
Also, Ptolemy in the Almagest says: Because the sun does not heat the earth, nor impart its power to the earth except through the moon, which among other stars is more receptive of the sun’s light and heat, acting as a medium between the sun and the earth. Therefore, as philosophers say, there are two impediments that one does not impart its power to the other: namely, great distance and an intervening medium. And so it is between the sun and the earth, because the sun is far from the earth, and the moon intervenes there. Likewise, in our alchemical art, the sun does not perfect the tincture by itself except through the moon, because it is distant, and its subtlety has not yet reached it to tincture. Also because of the intervening factors, namely density and grossness. Therefore the moon is necessarily required there to refine the sun itself, making it rarefied and volatile, and to separate its impurity. Since the moon herself needs the sun’s light more than other planets, that is, metals. Hence Hermes and Aristotle say of plants: The sun is their father, the moon is their mother. Therefore, the moon is the mother and the earth the field in which the sun’s seed is sown and planted, and thus we do not need any other than the sun and moon from which our stone and our alchemy come.

Marginal Notes: Dialogue of the Sun and Moon.

Hence in the letter of the sun to the moon in the solar year when the moon begins to wane, it joins with the sun and is illuminated by it, the sun first says:
“In my sister the moon grows the degree of your wisdom, and not with any other of my servants. For I am like seed sown in good, clean, and pure earth, which grows, sprouts, multiplies, and brings profit to the sower.”

And the sun says further to the moon:
"I will give you my beauty, namely the solar light, when we are joined through the smallest parts."

Then the moon says to the sun:
"O sun, you need me just as a rooster needs a hen, and I need your operation. You are perfect in qualities, father of lights, exalted lord, great, warm, and dry. And I am the moon, growing cold and moist. When we are joined in the equal state and dwelling, in which nothing but the light is made, having with it the heavy, in that dwelling we shall be occupied together, and we will be like man and woman awaiting their noble offspring. Then I will receive from you nature by courting, that is, the soul, and I will become thin by your closeness, and we will then rejoice together in spiritual exultation, that is, in the manner of sublimated spirits, when we ascend the order of the senior superiors, and the lamp of light, namely solar light, will be poured into my lamp, that is, the lunar one, from you, the sun, and from me, the moon, there will be an infusion of light to light, that is, a mixing of luminaries, namely wine with water. And I, the moon, will restrain your flux before you, the sun, have been clothed in my blackness, the color of ink, after my solution and coagulation. When we have entered the house of love, then my body will coagulate, and I in my birth will be the rising sun, and will transform my body into solar beauty."

Then the sun replied to the moon:
"Moon, if you do this which you have said, and you do not come to me for harm, my new body will return, and thereafter I will give you a new power of penetration, that is, tincture, by which you will be powerful in the battle of fire, liquefaction, and purification, from which you will go forth without diminution and darkness, like the sun, and you will no longer be attacked as copper or lead, if you are not rebellious. Blessed is he who understands in my speech, etc."

Marginal Notes: Sulphur is in Mercury.

The virtue of the sulphur of Mercury is like the paternal seed, and the moon is the mother, that is, the proper substance of Mercury, namely the subtle aqueous mixed with subtle earth, like menstruum, and this is the argentum vivum (quicksilver) which Mercury is called by the philosophers.

Marginal Notes: Philosophers’ Mercury

For whether Mercury, that is, quicksilver, is the root in the art of alchemy, from which, through it, and in it all metals are made, as the philosophers say.

There is in Mercury whatever the wise seek. For under its shadow thrives this fifth substance, because its middle substance is unburnable, as Geber says. For nothing of this art is without it and with it, because every tincture proceeds from its like, namely from Mercury.

Marginal Note: The matter of the philosophers.
Smoky substance.

The philosophers say:
The radical principles of this smoky science, upon which it itself is founded, are these, namely: a certain matter or proper substance of quicksilver (argentum vivum) and very subtle smoky sulfur, generated by our art from the nature of the said quicksilver and sulfur, most clear and limpid, like a tear, in which the spirit of the fifth essence dwells and resides.

But this substance is not the sulfur itself, nor the quicksilver itself, as they are in their natural state in their minerals, but it is a certain part of those two, which is neither quicksilver nor sulfur, as Geber says.

This substance is the said smoky and volatile substance, existing in its own proper substance in another nature than that of quicksilver and sulfur, fixed and firm, which is a patient fire and does not flee from it, but remains fixed in it and is transformed.

Or which, through a continuous tempered decoction by the mastery of this science, together with other suitable things, is congealed into a flowing stone, fixing, coloring, and persevering in fire.

Note that the principles of this thing are two, namely: matter and agent. The matter is either quicksilver (argentum vivum) and sulfur or arsenic, which is the same. It should be noted that the Philosophers say that this quicksilver and sulfur, on which nature bases its action and operation, is quicksilver and sulfur reduced or produced into a certain watery, very subtle, very clear, very white, and most pleasant nature, which the Philosophers call quicksilver, and into a certain very subtle earthly matter, which they call sulfur, through an art that the Philosophers have wonderfully concealed.

Marginal Note: The nature that is our water.

Moreover, this quicksilver and this sulfur are one thing, and come from one thing. Because one thing is made, it is clear that the Philosophers call this quicksilver sulfur, and this sulfur quicksilver. Hence Geber: "There is one stone, one medicine, in which all the art consists." The second is the agent, whence the agent moves the matter to corruption; this is heat, which is the moving instrument to corruption. And there is no other agent in the world.*

Marginal Note: How the first matter is made.
Every passible body is reduced to its first matter through the contrary operations of its nature, which first matter is quicksilver, since it becomes the basis of all liquids and ductile things. The matter or first matter of metals is an oily vapor, having both natures in itself, namely of mercury and sulfur. Also, the oily moisture is the matter of our philosophical quicksilver, and the substance of its unctuousness is the proper essential matter of sulfur. Here you can clearly understand that you cannot fix one without the other, just as matter cannot be without some form. Therefore, sulfur stands as a temperable heat in the substance of quicksilver, and it stands there like the power of the male seed which stands in the woman’s seed, or like another generative power.

Raymundus says this:

And there is nothing in the world that is not naturally composed from the substance of the four elements, as attested by any good naturalist and according to their experience. Nor is there anything substantially different except from pure and clean sulfur and quicksilver (argentum vivum), unburnable at the first point of their creation. And this is the principle, or genus, or first matter, and the middle substance in which nature impresses its colors when forming diverse substances. These colors arise from the property of the nature of the quintessence of sulfur and quicksilver, by the instinct of their nature. From this it is clear that in every place our stone (lapis) is found according to its properties, and through this experience, we clearly recognize this first matter to be the universal matter of all things, which are formed by corruption and generation according to their composition. And just as in every thing of such matter, all the substantial, spiritual, and accidental forms of the world are taken.

Therefore, it is found everywhere and in all things, because, as Raymundus says:

Marginal Note: How the stone is made in every thing.

In all things, after their final purification, the first matter of all things is found in each one, in the form of Mercury, which matter is called generative matter, a real being, the material terminus of nature, and in which nature takes its material principles in the act of generation, because it is the first subject in nature. For then species are changed into another form than they were before, but not the species themselves, rather the individuals of species, because the individual things are subject to sensible actions and are corruptible among themselves. The species, however, being the most natural sensible actions, are not subject, and therefore are corruptible among themselves. The species of silver, which is silver-ness, is not changed into the species of gold, which is gold-ness, nor vice versa, because true species cannot be changed, but the individuals of species are well reduced to their first matter. Because with the corruption of this form and its resolution into first matter, necessarily another new form is introduced, since the corruption of one is the generation of another. But because matter in no way can be destroyed without remaining under some form, therefore, when one form of metals is destroyed, another is immediately introduced, namely by the transmutation of Mercury into Sulfur, for our operation which we intend. Also, every individual multiplies the form of its own species and not another, as Aristotle and Raymundus say.

Marginal Notes: Color and Quality of Mercury

Therefore, when the first form of the body is dissolved by a reversed elemental process into Mercury, it manifests qualities in color that are somewhat blackish, in smell foul, and in touch subtle and discontinuous. In such a simple nature there are four composite elements, separable and resolvable into the water of Mercury after putrefaction.

Marginal Notes: The Red Mercury of the Philosophers

Raymundus says this:
And when I say "Mercurial water," I do not mean bare Mercury itself, but the Mercury of the Philosophers — the red substance extracted from the minerals, containing within it the matter of sulfur and Mercury. Therefore, Lilium says: "It is necessary to gather sulfur which blackens the body." And this sulfur we call water, which blackens itself, whitens, reddens, and fixes itself. Therefore, Mercurial water is the first matter of all metals, and with it all metals are dissolved that cannot be dissolved in any other water. And if metals were not dissolved in their first matter through this Mercurial water, what is sought would not be achieved, as Aristotle says. And this work is not the work of the artisan alone, but of nature, with the artisan serving and aiding it. Albertus says: Among all the arts, alchemy most imitates nature, and this because of its decoction and augmentation, since it is decocted in metallic, fiery, red waters, mostly having form and least of matter.

For other arts imitate nature by similarity, but alchemy does so by pure truth.

Marginal Note: Disciple of Nature

Therefore, nature is not weaker because the art or the artisan only serves it; nature operates and perfects naturally. And thus it is said: "You need to labor first in the solution of the luminaries," which is the first stage of the operation for making quicksilver (argentum vivum); because the Philosophers say: Unless bodies become incorporeal and vice versa, you do nothing. And do not understand it thus, that the body becomes pure elemental water, because from such water no metallic body proceeds, since the simple does not change nor persist in the realm of nature, but the well-composed, that is the gross, for a single elemental element causes slow corruption and slow generation in itself. And therefore simple elements profit little in this art, because in them there are no primary essences of elements, in which are the virtues that change, generate, and corrupt. Therefore, simple elements are outside of generation and corruption, and this is because they do not touch natural humidity which causes all things to be born. Also, if it were reverted to water, it would then be dry by force, not by nature, like saliva or alum, and so it would liquefy by fire. Also, according to the truth of the matter, if the body should be reduced to the first element, according to those who say it must be reduced to water, water was not the first element among the elements, even though it is said and allegorized in Genesis 1, where it is said: The Spirit of the Lord moved over the waters before the creation of heaven and earth. It does not follow, therefore, that in the creation of the elements water was the first element, since the element of air and fire came first, as said above, although indeed in our operation among the visible elements which we see and touch, water is made the first element. Hence, in the art, only two formal elements are visible and tangible, namely water and earth, while virtually there are four, namely air in water and fire in earth.

Because Rasis says:
All things under the sublunary sphere, that is, below the highest heaven, are made by the artisan (opifice) from the four elements—not only by appearance but also by effect. For we call the element water the humidity of water itself; air we call the nature of water itself; fire is that power by which it burns, calcines, and dissolves bodies; earth is the very thick and gross body by itself. And so water and earth are visible and tangible to us, while the other two (air and fire) are understood within these two.

Therefore, it follows and it is necessary that in the art of alchemy metals are first reduced into Mercury, that is, quicksilver (argentum vivum), which is the matter and seed of all metals. Hence Geber says: “Mercury is cooked down and thickened in the belly of the earth by sulfurous heat that itself cooks it.”

Marginal Notes: First matter of all metals. Metals differ by decoction

And according to the variety of sulfur and its multiplication, different metals are produced in the earth; for their first matter is one and the same, but they differ only by accidental action—that is, by more or less decoction, tempered or untempered, burning or not burning. Thus, all Philosophers agree.

Since each of these, namely quicksilver (argentum vivum) and sulfur, is first converted into an earthly substance, then from these two earthly substances a certain very thin, subtle, and pure smoke is resolved, which, being cooked and digested by heat in the womb of the earth, is converted into the nature of a certain earth, thus acquiring a certain fixity and being transformed into metal.

Note:
The ultimate goal of nature’s recommendation and transmutation, both cooked and raw, that is, to which the artist naturally tends, is the substance of non-burning sulfur (sulphuris non urentis). Once converted, this is the proximate matter of our real elixir and the first and closest nature of pure metal, yet altered by the heat of its own body—that is, with that alteration by which it can more properly and closely receive its species and form, with the will of mineral nature’s concordance.

And this humidity was nothing other than quicksilver (argentum vivum), separated from the liquefied body inside and outside.

Marginal Notes: Mercury and Sulfur by the same name

With this quicksilver, the qualities of sulfur are mixed through digestion. Therefore, it is altered as nature requires by the heat of itself, by the conversion of its own nature, it is converted and coagulated into sulfur. For you can perceive by nature that no other humidity is converted more properly and promptly into the substance of sulfur than that humidity into which the qualities of sulfur are sufficiently introduced by natural ingenuity, which is effected by art.

This humidity is quicksilver in the form of clear water, like milk in the breasts, and sulfur like the seed in the testicles. That quicksilver has no contradiction arising from its own composition, so it is necessary that such quicksilver is very, very tempered with respect to the composition of its body.

Therefore, I do not say that the matter of this is not common quicksilver, with all its substance, etc.

Marginal Notes: Universal nature of Mercury

The reason why metal must be reduced to the nature of vapor is because we see all things are generated through quicksilver, by mediation, by which itself was generated.

For example: A man is born of his father by means of seed; he generates another son by means of seed; and so on for others. Therefore the mercurial nature is universal by which we are nourished and sustained, without which there is no life for animals or plants. For if it is removed from anything, corruption and death immediately follow, since it is the ferment of life and existence of all things, as the Philosopher says.

Marginal Notes: How Mercury is formed in every man

Also Raymond says: The body which is chiefly converted into the incorruptible must first be converted, so that the corruptible is first converted into the substance of sulfur and coagulated. For no quicksilver is more promptly converted into the substance of sulfur than that in which the qualities of sulfur are sufficiently introduced by dissolution. Nor does any sulfur more quickly coagulate quicksilver than that in whose substance quicksilver itself exists, naturally and by the ingenuity of art, already converted—that is, gold converted into first matter.

Then nature embraces its own nature more lovingly, rejoices more than foreign natures, as all philosophers proclaim: Nature rejoices in its own nature alone; nature conceives only its own nature.

And Hermes: Nothing fits a thing except what is closest to it in its own nature, and generates offspring like itself in that thing.

This means: If you seek the medicine that generates metals, its origin will be from metals, since species tints from its own genus, as the philosopher says.

Also, for those who have the symbol, the passage is easy.

And do not understand it thus, that metals are reduced to elemental water simply, for nothing is made from the simple but from the composite.

Here follows the beginning of the Work.

This art has four rules or steps: The first step of the process is calcination, that is, the body must first be calcined. The second is dissolution, because it must be dissolved. The third is distillation because it must be distilled or sublimated. The fourth is gentle fire with congelation. And in these four rules and steps consists the correct and true preparation. Therefore, the body and spirit of Mercury are necessary to accomplish the miracles of this work, as Geber says. And for this art, only two things are required, as Hermes says. Trust consists in two things, to which a third is added. And he says, “Three faces, that is, three species I saw in one father,”

Marginal Notes: Only three species of the art.

that is, progeny, because Morienus says, “Three species suffice for the whole mastery, namely, white smoke, that is, the fifth force, namely, celestial water, and the green lion, and the hermetic copper, from which and with which they prepare the work itself at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end.”

Marginal Notes: Temperate heat.

Likewise, Eximidius in the crowd of Philosophers says: Through temperate heat, a certain subtle oily moisture mixed with earth is extracted from the metallic matter, and well purified, which is called elixir, by which metals are transmuted.

Marginal Notes: Generating oily moisture.

Therefore, it requires that the external heat, that is, artificial or material fire, be warm and temperate, so that it does not exceed the intrinsic heat

Marginal Notes: A beautiful reason.

that is, so that the intrinsic heat retains with it its moisture which it naturally draws along, because if the external heat exceeds it, then the oily moisture mixed with subtle earth flies away from the strong fire and does not remain in the body.

Marginal Notes: Effect of temperate fire.

Therefore, whatever is superfluous, coarse, and harmful must be gradually purified, preserved, and refined by virtue and slow digestion.

Marginal Notes: Radical heat.

Also, every thing in the world, that is, every elemental body, has within itself a radical or formal heat, the cause of which it persists, and is its fixed heat by which it persists and by which its seed is multiplied. And this is in Mercury its middle substance, in gold its sulfur, which directs matter to its ends and form, and due species. And there is no thing so cold that it is not nurtured under heat, namely included within it as a root, as the philosopher says. Likewise, Mercury is its own proper tincture of the earth, very subtle, in which is retained the fire both of the sun and of the menstruum, and the subtle middle substance of Mercury, and the burden and foundation of the mastery.

Marginal Notes: Middle substance of Mercury.

And it is the matter from which our medicine is made, which takes origin from living silver, and from it it must be immediately created; to which do not introduce anything foreign in any way, except that which was born from it in the property of its nature, and in this step it is truly shown to the son of doctrine, that this matter from which we compose the medicine is not living silver in its nature, which has now been changed into sulfur, nor in all its substance, since the extreme parts, earth and water, have been separated from that middle substance. Indeed, it is the blessed stone and spirit participating in two extremes. Truly every stone, that is, sulfur made, is made from its middle substance and is simply called living silver. Because sulfur illuminates and preserves from burning, which is proper to it, as a sign of perfection.

These things [says] Raymundus.

And from one pound of Mercury, you will scarcely have half a lot, that is, two drachms, of that which the work receives in itself and contains for making the tincture or elixir: He says that hot water, that is Mercury or living silver, does not add or give more weight to the body than as much as it has or contains of metallic moisture, because the moisture of water passes away, and the metallic remains. And the bright redness of our copper transforms the metallic substance of living silver into redness and into a marvelous golden tincture. The paternal seed and the proper substance of Mercury is its mother, because its menstruum, which must be wiped away and laid aside, and only the paternal seed must be preserved and received, which is its middle substance that perfects and defends from burning. You cannot extract this seed of Mercury from Mercury, nor lay aside its menstruum, that is, the superfluous moisture from it, except by means of a coagulum that coagulates and retains such seed in Mercury, lest it also depart with the superfluous moisture, just as the coagulum of milk coagulates milk, and draws to itself and retains its better substance, that is, its middle substance. And thus the spirit, that is, the water, is not coagulated except through a body dissolved in it, since bodies make the coagulum of this milk, that is, Mercury; and such coagulum must be either the sun or the moon, dissolved in Mercury itself. But still only the moon for the white, and the sun for the white and red work, because the sun is called the hermetic copper,

Marginal Note: Copper, sun, moon are the same.

when the philosophers speak only of their sun, that is, the sun, since such things or such a thing coagulate Mercury, that is, the water of our work. Because Constans says in the crowd: Do nothing else carefully, because there are two kinds of living silver, namely fixed in copper and volatile fleeing, that is, Mercury; you must retain one and the other which is of its kind, and restrains the flight. And here you have the greatest secret. Also, Raymundus says: Because the body in this art is a metallic being in which the mineral virtue of the spirit rests; and metals are that from whose spirit every stone is composed. The spirit is called the mineral virtue in which the natures of metals rest. And every stone is composed from the spirit of metals, and that spirit, by the consideration of alchemists, is called Mercury, because it is called the first and nearest nature considered in this art and the first matter of metals, and it must still be reduced on earth as if something remained of the spirit with the earth, which said spirit is sublimated by sublimation of the fire of the third degree, and converted into foliated earth called the fifth essence of the earth of metals, and by some philosophers living silver or Mercury or the sulfur of nature.

Marginal Notes: Sulfur of nature.

And the earth then remaining below, or dust, is called dregs and slag, cursed dust that you do not need, because it is blamed dust, which vanishes with a slight blowing, still living silver is exuberant earth of the body,

Marginal notes: Exuberant living silver.

passing simultaneously with the menstruum through the alembic; and the sulfur of nature is the spirit of metals sublimated and converted into foliated earth, which is the first and nearest matter of metals. The first matter is also called foliated earth. It is necessary that the exuberant spirit be converted into foliated earth by sublimation, so that the clean is separated from the unclean, the subtle from the thick or gross terrestrial, and so that the life-giving spirit is drawn as the basilisk's gaze in animals, and sulfur in the fusion of metals. Also, it is necessary that you keep the spirit of the fifth essence if you want to make anything, which depends on the first matter, like the form of forms, which placed itself in the four honorable natures, and is called the soul of the elements.

Marginal notes: Form of forms.

And for this reason, because every substantial form descends immediately from the nearby thing, the daughter of forms. And you should not understand that this form or spirit is hot or cold, or moist or dry, nor male nor female.

But you must understand well that, by reason of its great perfection, it [the fifth essence] partakes of each of the other four natures; for without it there would be no composition in any compound, just as we clearly see and know with certain experience in the union, conjunction, and mingling of the four elements, which, due to their contrary qualities, are naturally opposed. Such opposing dualities of contrary elements could not come together in unity unless there were this honorable medium, which flows confusedly through all the elements and partakes in each of their natures, making peace between enemies.

Marginal note: Mercury and sulfur are the same in reality and in name.

These are the words of Raymundus. The virtue of the sulfur of Mercury is like the primary seed, and the moon is the mother. Therefore it is said, "its father is the sun"—that is, sulfur—and the moon is its mother—that is, the proper substance of Mercury, namely, a subtle aqueous thing mixed with subtle earth, is as it were the menstruum, and the nurse is the earth, namely the subtle earthly part in which the radical moisture resides.

Marginal note: Nourishment.

And the earth is called the mother of the elements because it carries the child in its womb. That is to say, it must be nourished from the pure first substance, and the child is called the body or foliated earth—that is, the spirit and dead body—and the work in which the spirit (in which all power resides) will be inseparably united to its subtle earthly part by great and gentle ingenuity. Join the moist to the dry, and it will rejoice, because the moist is the spirit and soul, and the dry is called the earth or dead body. Therefore, the souls of bodies cannot enter except through the mediation of the spirit. And the work is this: to make manifest the hidden (i.e., the hot and dry), and to hide the manifest (i.e., the cold and moist).

Marginal note: What our stone is.

Also, the stone is a humid aqueous spirit, but our Mercury—that is, the tincture—is extracted from an incorruptible grain, generated by divine power. And certainly, this Mercury is not vulgar [i.e., common], for it would not coagulate so quickly.

Marginal note: Purification of moist Mercury.

Also, before all else, it is beneficial to cleanse the spirit—i.e., Mercury—of its superfluities and to extract from it a substance in which no superfluous aqueous moisture is found, nor any combustible earthly substance that would corrupt the work, but only an unctuous aerial substance in which the spirit of the fifth essence lies hidden, whose mastery alone is to transform the work into its first matter. This is the greatest secret in the art, and was entirely concealed by the ancients; for it most perfectly volatilizes gold and transmutes it into spirituality.

Marginal notes: Where the fifth essence is. How the first matter is made.

The method of this operation is, as you know, etc.

Also, the tincture is the composition of the stone, fire, and air, of gold or silver.

Marginal notes: Definition of tincture.

Or thus: It is a certain compound of fire and air from gold or silver. Or thus: It is a tinging body, born and composed of two elements—namely, fire and air—from gold for the red, and silver for the white. These are the definitions insofar as the tincture is considered in this art, according to which you may note that every alchemical tincture must necessarily be made from the aforementioned metals. For like produces like, both naturally and artificially. Gold, therefore, is the principle of all that is made artificially. Whoever therefore wishes to make something fiery should not seek a stone or plant, but fire, which is the principle of ignition. Therefore, my son, if anyone wishes to make gold metaphorically, let him not seek sulfur or alum or arsenic, but rather gold, which is the principle of gold-making.

To tinge is to transform what is tinged into the nature of the tinging agent, and to remain with it without any separation—just as in nature, the fixer, the tinging agent, and the tinged are united.

Marginal notes: What the stone is.

The stone is a body composed of the fifth essence of the metals, which is otherwise called living silver, drawn from their potentiality into actuality by the mastery of all the principles of this art.

Marginal notes: What oil is.

Oil is the slimy substance of all metals floating on the menstruum after their dissolution. It is necessary that bodies be converted into oil, for if they are not converted, they will remain solid in themselves, and what we seek will not be achieved—and the deprivation of all the principles of this art would follow, and what we seek would not be achieved, and the deprivation of all the principles of this art would follow.

The menstruum is that by reason of which the bodies of metals are dissolved through natural dissolution, and their spirits are drawn from potentiality into actuality. According to this definition, it is demonstrated that the dissolution of metals should occur only with the aforementioned principle [i.e., the proper menstruum], and if it is done otherwise, nothing will result.

The elixir of the philosophers, moreover, is composed of three things: the lunar stone, the solar stone, and the Mercurial stone. In the lunar [stone] is found white sulfur, in the solar, red sulfur, and the Mercury stone embraces both natures—white and red—and this is the strength of the whole magistery.

Also, Rasis says that the white and the red both proceed from a single root, without the intervention of any other kind of body. They sprout forth from the sun; for, in the absence of the sun itself, Mercury is deprived of effect, because only from matter and form is true generation made. And he says in The Flowers of Secrets: “Make the marriage between the red man and his white wife, and you will have the whole magistery.” And in the Speculum it is said: the Philosopher’s Stone arises from a vile thing into the most precious treasure—that is, from the seed of gold cast into the matrix of Mercury through coitus, that is, the first commingling.

Hence Verax says: When gold is composed with its like, that is, with Mercury, a pregnant germ will result.

Marginal note: The first natural commingling is called coitus.

For the soul, the spirit, and the tincture can then be extracted from them by gentle fire.

Moreover, the nature of this white or red stone is such that it holds a middle place between metals and living silver (argentum vivum, i.e., mercury).

Marginal note: It is the medium.

For living silver in no way can unite with metals without a medium, just as the soul cannot be united with the body without the spirit, which holds the middle place between soul and body. And thus the spirit stands between the body and the soul. For this reason, the wise say: Our copper (aes) is like a man; it has spirit, body, and soul, because of which they said “three,” and these three are one, and in the one are three—spirit, body, and soul are one, and all come from one.

Marginal note: Three are one.

And this preparation is what they call conversion and division, because it is turned from one thing into another, just as in the natural preparation in the womb, the seed of man is converted from one state into another until a perfect human is formed, from which came its root and beginning. Nor is it changed from this [source], nor does it depart from its root and progression from thing to thing without the entrance of another thing upon it, except the menstrual blood from which the seed came—that is, from blood like it—and in that it increases from itself.

Marginal notes: Nourishment from menstrual blood. True inceration.

In the same way, the egg, without the entrance of any other thing upon it, is converted from state to state, and is divided from one thing to another, and finally becomes a flying chick—like the thing from which it had root and beginning. Similarly, all things growing from the earth rot and are changed, and corruption enters upon them; then they sprout and increase like the things from which they had root and origin.

And because of this, minerals are not nourished in order to leave their root, but everything returns to the thing it was, nor is it changed into another. And whoever says otherwise, speaks falsely. This, therefore, is the conversion and division that the wise desire.

The sperma (seed) of the philosophers is aqua viva (living water); the earth, however, is the imperfect body. This earth is rightly called the matrix, because it is the mother of all the elements. Therefore, when the seed of Mercury is united with the earth of the body, it is dissolved into the water of the seed and becomes a single water without division.

Furthermore, the whole benefit of this Art is in the sun and Mercury. For these two, when united into one, constitute the Philosopher’s Stone and possess infinite tincture. For in the red blood of the body it acquires a color even redder than blood.

Marginal note: A color redder than blood.

A small amount of such color infused into white—namely into the Moon—transforms a great quantity of white into a citrine color. The preparation of these things from beginning to end is aqua fixa honorata (honored fixed water), for that manifests the tincture at the moment of projection, and it is the mediator between contraries. It is also the beginning, the middle, and the end. Whoever understands this attains wisdom.

And note: that which is not good in the imperfect body is perfected by that which is good in the perfect body. For the perfect body, remaining in its grossness, cannot by itself have the power to separate the sulphurous earth from the imperfect mixture, nor to convert that imperfect mixture into its own perfect nature. Therefore, it is necessary that the perfect body be subtilized before it can possess such power.

It becomes subtilized when it is reduced to its living argentinity (argenteitas viva). And when the living argentinity of the perfect body becomes fixed, it fixes the unfixed living argentinity of the imperfect body.

Marginal note: On the double argentinity.

But the unfixed living argentinity in imperfect bodies—with its tendency to flee and its volatility—draws out the fixed living argentinity from perfect bodies and causes it immediately to penetrate, transform, glorify, and altogether perfect them. It is certain that every thing is from that and resolves into that from which it came. But all metals are reduced to living argentinity; therefore, they were argentum vivum (quicksilver). And thus the objection of those who say that metal species cannot be transmuted is resolved—for they are correct, unless the metals are reduced to their prima materia. Then, indeed, one has the proper seed of the metals, from which they can be generated artificially just as they were generated naturally from the proper seed of the metals.

Marginal notes: On the seed and nature.

For the argentum vivum of perfect bodies is fixed when it is cooked with sulphurous heat in the belly of the earth by a moderate or temperate action. The fixed sulphurous nature and the fixed living argentinity lie at the depths of the substance of gold and silver and form a fixed substance. And such a substance is most subtle and pure, of the easiest and finest liquefaction—very much like wax—and it is fixed against the fight of fire.

By the aforementioned sulfur and argentum vivum, they coagulate argentum vivum and convert it into the solar and lunar natures, and likewise they convert all metallic and imperfect bodies into the perfect solar and lunar nature. Therefore, by what has been said, the Art achieves in a few days or even hours what Nature accomplishes in a thousand years.

Marginal notes: The animal stone.

Note: Every fixed salt is taken as a body or as a retainer. And such a salt is extracted from calcined things; our salt, which is the tincture, is extracted from the calx (lime) of metals by putrefaction, until the whole compound sheds its nature and assumes another.

About this salt the Senior says: "First it becomes ash, then salt, and from that salt, through diverse operations, the Philosophers’ Mercury emerges."

Marginal note: Philosophers’ Mercury as animal.

Raymond says: The Art always needs calx, that is, its own proper earth, in which the greatest mineral virtue resides for hardening Mercury. For it always flows through the middle and end of the Stone—therefore, do not forget it.

Afterward, the spirit and soul must be returned to the body, and so the body shall be resurrected, and the spirit and soul must die in the body, so that the saying of the philosopher may be fulfilled:

"He who dies with me, rises with me."

Understand this as follows: the spirit—that is, Mercury—is the place of the soul, that is, of the Mercury-body. And that spirit is the dry water of the Philosophers, namely the middle substance of living Mercury. That very spirit extracts this soul from perfect bodies.

Now, the soul is the tincture dissolved in the spirit—that is, in the water of the philosophers. For just as the tincture of the vulgar is carried in its water, which dyes cloth, and the colored water flows into the cloth, and then the water evaporates and the tincture remains in the cloth—so too the water of the wise, in which their tincture is, is poured over their blessed white thirsty earth, and the water of the philosophers flows into their earth and is extended physically within it, and the earth is tinged. Then the spiritual water departs, and the soul remains in the body—that is, the tincture, because it is a subtle, invisible vapor, and its effect appears only in the body.

For our entire magisterium (great work) is accomplished with our water, and from it and through it are made all things necessary. For it alone dissolves bodies with a true philosophical solution, so that they may be converted back into water, from which they originated, as Socrates says. The secret of every thing is life—namely, water—as Hermes says: water of the air, existing between heaven and earth, is the life of each and every thing. For this water dissolves the body into spirit, and from the dead makes the living, and performs the marriage between man and woman. Indeed, the entire benefit of the Art is brought about by this.

Note: Quicksilver, or spirit, is twofold—preparatory and tinging.

The preparatory spirit dissolves the body and purifies it from corrupting causes, and extracts the tinging spirit existing in the body. Through dissolution, it draws bodies back to itself, softens their hardness, illuminates them, separates and removes darkness and impurity from their purest parts, raises and exalts bodies by reducing them to a sublime nature, and breathes into them, making the solid become spiritual. These are the benefits and effects of the spirit, or quicksilver, which prepares the body and draws out from it the tinging spirit.

But this spirit—that is, quicksilver—is at first gross, impure, and fugitive due to the sulfur encountered in the veins of the earth, which is mixed with it. However, by the operation of Art, which is performed through distillation and sublimation, it is renewed, purified, clarified, cooked, thickened, and coagulated through white and red sulfur.

This preparatory spirit is itself twofold:

The first is a dry vapor, not viscous, highly acrid, very subtle, fleeing the face of fire, but having a great power of penetration, capable of dissolving mineral bodies. This spirit is equivocally called Mercury—yet Mercury is a spirit, and therefore, in the ultimate rational term, it is called dry spirit. It must be sealed in a well-stoppered vessel. This is the intention of Albertus (Magnus), for this spirit is generated from pontic (acidic) substances and he calls it fiery dry moisture.

The second preparatory spirit is a humid vapor, not oily, but viscous, exceedingly acrid, moderately subtle, fleeing fire’s harshness easily and vanishing in it, having the power to dissolve both bodies and spirits, and existing as water in itself. This, too, Albertus and many others describe under different substances. It is also called Mercury by equivocation and comparative language, for the Philosophers say Mercury has the greatest virtue to alter and penetrate bodies—it does not rest on a plane, nor does it await fire’s trial. Thus, due to this reasoning, both are called Mercuries. From this, take your understanding of the words of the Philosophers, and your comprehension will be light both here and elsewhere, and you will see that the Philosophers do not contradict each other, as many have believed.

Marginal note: Oily is different from viscous.

Note well: oily and viscous are not the same—for from the viscous moisture, the Stone is generated, but from the oily moisture, metals are generated.

The tinging spirit is the Philosophical Mercury with its red or white sulfur, naturally mixed with it in the mine, and moderately prepared in the bowels of the earth, left to the discretion of the artisan until perfect completion.

Another kind of quicksilver is a permanent tincture, which is extracted from perfect bodies through dissolution, distillation, sublimation, and subtilization.

Marginal note: Incombustible oil.

This kind of quicksilver is called incombustible oil, soul, air, and radiance of bodies, because it gives immortal life to dead and imperfect metallic bodies and enlightens them. Therefore, extract the quicksilver or Philosopher’s Stone, both from bodies and from living silver (i.e., mercury), since they are of one nature, and you will have Mercury and Sulfur from that material, above the earth, from which gold and silver are generated in the earth.

Also, it is read in the Turba (a famous alchemical text) that whatever truth there is in the alchemical art consists in this: to join the moist to the dry, and this is granted by all the Philosophers.

For the moist, understand a liquid spirit, cleansed from all impurity, and for the dry, understand a perfect, pure, and calcined body; and truly, the operation of these two parts consists entirely in dissolving and coagulating. To dissolve is to convert the body into the nature of the spirit, but to coagulate is conversely to make the spirit corporeal, and to make the fixed volatile, and the volatile fixed—and thus you will obtain the whole magistery.

Now again concerning the beginning of the work, namely, the preparation of the first Mercury.
Note that when our stone is made, then place it with all its substance in our vessel, and tightly seal the mouth of the vessel with the clay of the magistery so that it cannot breathe, and regulate it in a gentle fire until the greater part is converted into black powder, which will happen in twenty-one days. And there these operations are completed: solution, distillation, division, putrefaction, washing, ceration, coagulation or fixation.

Also, the extraction of tinctures is the first work, until nothing remains in the body that does not ascend with the moist spirit, by which the body is moistened and is turned into clear water. However, first appears blackness, and in this first work, all becomes purified. The second work is to dissolve everything, namely the moist body, and it will become earth (that is, the stone), and water (that is, frozen within it) in the color of clear pitch.

Hence the conjunction of the two, namely the body and the spirit, is necessary. And when in the beginning of the work you see something like red grains, and in coagulation something like the eyes of fish, and like black pepper, know that you have walked the correct path. Otherwise, all the operation will be frustrated and fail, because the spirit is not properly turned into the body.

The Constant Philosopher says: Fire is coagulated and becomes air; but air is coagulated and becomes water; water is coagulated and becomes earth. Behold, by nature, enemies have come together, who, when they are compelled—that is, coagulated—become friends; but when they are rarefied, they become enemies again, namely in the separation of the elements. But if you reverse this rule, you will by contrary means turn the body into spirit. Therefore, you must thoroughly reduce everything into earth—that is, spiritualize the earth, that is, make it tinging—and you will have completed everything.

Hence Plato says: Know, all the multitude, that all thickness rests in the earth. For the thickness of fire falls into air, and the thickness of fire and air into water, and the density which is joined from the thickness of fire, air, and water falls into earth.

Gratian says how the body becomes spirit: The earth is resolved into water, the water into air, and the air into fire, and this is the path by which the body becomes spirit. Hermes likewise says: Join the male with the female in its own moisture, because without male and female, no birth is generated.

Another also says: When the king saw the water freeze itself, he was certain that the matter was true, as the desired union of sulfur with Mercury is thereby signified—understand nothing else by this.

Then follows: Let it be done in a large glass vessel, and place it into putrefaction among warm ashes, and the ashes in which the glass sits, in which the old man sits, must rise to the height of that old man—that is, to the height of the belly of the ampoule.

Thus says the Rosary, and let it stand there for forty days or more according to the quantity of the material, until it is completed. All the Philosophers generally add this, because every general action has one time in which it is perfected and concluded, as Aristotle says.

Marginal Note: The philosopher's day is a week

Mundus and Attamius in the Turba say: And let it remain in putrefaction for forty days, that is, forty weeks, day by week, as semen remains in the womb—this is nine months or so, according to the amount of matter; then cleanse it of its blackness.

Marginal Note: Caution

And the Rosary says: Be especially careful in its purification not to deprive it of its virtue, lest the active force be suffocated in any way. For the seeds of all things growing in the earth do not multiply or grow if their generative power is destroyed by some extraneous heat, as the Philosopher says. And cleanse it by distillation first with a gentle fire,

Marginal Note: Note well the method of ceration

Then distill Mercury with a slightly stronger fire. This Mercury carries with it the soul of the Sun or the Moon, depending on whether it is Sun or Moon in the composition, and do not distill it with so strong a fire that the earth—that is, the element of earth—also passes in the distillation; it suffices that only the superfluous Mercury, which cannot be dried with the body, is distilled. And what remains below in the cucurbit is our salt—that is, our earth—and it is black in color, the dragon devouring its tail,

Marginal Note: Dragon's tail

For the dragon is the matter remaining at the bottom after the water is distilled from it, and that water is called the dragon's tail, and the dragon is its blackness, and the dragon is imbibed with its own water and coagulated, and thus devours its tail.

Marginal Note: Ash at the bottom

And do not scorn the ash that is at the bottom of the vessel, for it is the diadem of your heart and the ash of the permanent ones, as Morienus says.

Marginal Note: Method of ceration

And distill it with such a heat that the body is not reduced to a solid mass, nor dried too much or burned. And distill with such a fire that when a drop begins to fall, you count sixty-eight moments, as Arnold says—or seventy, or some say eighty—before the next drop falls. And if the drop falls sooner, remove the fire, as the Rosary says. And if it falls more slowly, increase the fire slightly. And do not follow your own imagination to strengthen the fire at the end of distillation, but use a gentle fire, because, as the following verse says: "Nature delights in being moderated according to the senses."

And thus, wait for the distillation patiently until its completion.
The sign of completed distillation is that you have distilled through the alembic the middle part or more of the Mercury from the earth than you originally put in, and that the earth remains soft and liquid. As Arnold says: That earth, thus soft and liquid, place in a good glass vessel with a long neck, seal it with the seal of Hermes, and set it in warm ashes.

At first, for eight days, in warm ashes gently; in other days let the ashes be hotter, and let it remain in such heat for twenty-five natural days, or up to thirty, until the earth is dried out and remains dry at the bottom of the vessel. Then shake the vessel vigorously and suddenly by hand, because the matter (that is, the earth) will stick to the sides of the vessel.

The more putrefied the matter is, the more strongly it will stick, as the Rosary says. And if sometimes the fire is increased too much and the matter becomes too compacted in the lower parts of the vessel, then it will be necessary to crush it inside the glass with a glass pestle. And thus you will have the earth as it was before. For in our stone there are only two formal elements, namely water and earth, although all four elements are virtually present in it. And when it is said that our stone is made from four elements, this is not to be understood literally—as if it were earth, or water, or air, or fire—but only that it is a single nature which contains within it the nature and properties of all the elements.

Also, the whole magistery is this: to separate the elements from the metals, and to purify them, and to separate the natural sulfur from the metals. For the entire labor lies in this, and the whole difficulty of the magistery is in the separation of the elements and of the sulfur. This is from Raymond. But where he says, as Hermes says, “You must extract the four elements,” this is indeed nothing other than to excite the seminal powers themselves—that is, the active and passive qualities—because many expositors have naturally fallen into countless errors.

And we say that our spiritual mineral virtue is that which can be intensified and strengthened so that the power of sprouting and growing may be implanted. And if you wish to receive the mineral elements, do not take them from the beginning or the end, but from the middle, for creating the stone. For the first are too simple, and the last too coarse. When you wish to eat, take bread and leave the flour; and when you wish to make bread, take the flour and leave the wheat. This is our word and philosophical doctrine—so says Raymond.

Also, the separation of the elements is the segregation of heterogeneous things, which are accidental. And the conjunction of the elements is the accumulation of homogeneous things—that is, those from the nature of radical moisture, as the Turba Philosophorum says.

Raymond also says: Be patient in the whitening, for there lies much delay. Also, blackness is in every putrefaction and should always be greater in the work of the Sun than in the work of the Moon, as the Rosary says.

Marginal Note: Whitening is slow

Because the Sun, among all other bodies, contains the least quantity of sulfur and the greatest quantity of mercury, from which this blackness proceeds, as Geber says.

Marginal Note: Imbibition

Afterwards, take the black earth, ground, and imbibe it with Mercury so that only the matter—that is, the earth—is covered. Some want it to float above it by two or three fingers. The first method is better, because the Philosopher says: so that the yeast is not submerged. And seal the glass with the seal of Hermes as above. And this is so that the active does not separate from the passive until they reach perfect decoction. And place it in warm ashes to dry.

And do this a second time, namely by imbibing and drying, and a third and fourth, until the earth itself is sufficiently white with fixed whiteness. Also, be very careful not to mix impure Mercurial water with the purified body. For just as the clarity of the Mercurial water is, such will be the purity of the body by which it is washed. And the more the body is washed, the whiter it becomes. For the preparation or perfect coloration is done through water and fire. Therefore, if the body is not well whitened, grind it again with water and dry it once more. For thus Azoth—that is, Mercurial water—and fire wash and purify laton—that is, the black earth—and remove its obscurity, as the Philosopher says. For the preparation of the earth is always done with water; therefore, as the clarity of the water is, so also will be the clarity of the earth. And this should be done in the whitening and washing of the earth.

Therefore, do not be weary of the length of these repeated triturations and roastings. For it is a natural action, which has its movement and its time of determination, so that some things are completed in more time and some in less. The Methodus says: In forty days and nights the entire benefit and work toward whiteness is completed, after the true purification of the stone. For in its purification there can be no fixed time unless according to how well the artisan works. And in ninety days and nights, the work is completed to the red stage. And these are the true limits for such perfection. And in one hundred and fifty days and nights, with ferment, to complete perfection.

Verse:
Cooking of things is done in three times fifty days.

Pantolphus says in the Turba: Because the body in its decoction is reduced by a fourth part.

And Affantius says that the body loses a fourth part during its decoction. And during the imbibition of the black earth with Mercury, care must be taken to prevent the breaking of the glass, as the Rosary says. Therefore, it must be noted that the water must be warm, and also the matter—that is, the earth—must be warm, and the vessel must be shaken by hand and kept again in warmth, and again shaken suddenly, because the matter will stick to the sides of the vessel until the material and the whole becomes like muddy clay. Then the glass must be sealed and placed among warm ashes to dry, as mentioned above, until it becomes a dry powder.

It is especially necessary to avoid that the spirit, which dries the body, be itself dried and become volatile—for if it flies away from the body, the body cannot be perfected. Therefore, the vessel must be sealed with the seal of Hermes. For if the vessel in our art were not sealed to contain the spirit, all the power would evaporate, just as in the generation of metal: for if the vapor from which the metal is generated in the earth found an opening, it would escape, and no metal would be generated.

Thus, the active should not separate from the passive until they reach perfect decoction, as shown above. And the drying time of each imbibition is twenty-five or thirty natural days. So says Arnold, although the Rosary says: If the body, i.e., the earth, weighs one pound and twelve ounces, it will be fixed with its imbibitions in ninety days. The philosophers add: until it is completed as said. Sometimes, however, it is fixed in more or less time, depending on the diligence of the worker, and on the greater or lesser quantity of the pigmental substances.

Understand this as the total time of the imbibitions for whitening and reddening. And this solution and coagulation or drying of the black earth must be repeated four times, and on the fourth time, when the solution and coagulation—that is, drying—of this earth is complete, the earth will remain fixed and shiny, black in fracture, and when projected upon bodies, it will alter their color. And the more often this earth is dissolved and coagulated, the more penetrable and subtle it will be in its nature.

Another says: Therefore, the order of the imbibition of the earth, of warming the water, of union, drying, and calcination of the caput corvi (head of the crow) must be repeated four times, and thus you will have sufficiently washed the precious earth of the Stone and administered the decoction. This is the degree of trituration, imbibition of water, drying, and calcination of the caput corvi—you have sufficiently cleansed the black and foul earth, and brought it to whiteness through fire and calcination, so that it is ready to receive fermentation, which is the animation of the Stone itself.

Socrates says: Four decoctions must be done successively, and then it must be vivified by fermentation, and again cooked.

He says: Join it to its water and cook it, and this should be done until it melts and becomes white. Then cook it again until it reaches redness and a sweet composition. And afterwards, cook it once again with a stronger fire, and this is the last decoction, in which the body is fixed and turned into spirit. And so, in summary, there are seven decoctions: four before vivification—that is, fermentation—and then three after, which are designated by the seven operations (affaturae), as the philosopher also says.

Our bronze body is hydropic (i.e., full of moisture), and like Naaman the Syrian who was leprous, and for this reason naturally seeks the cleansing bath of regeneration seven times in the Jordan, so that it may be cleansed from innate passions and corruptions. Then you have sulfur and arsenic that do not burn, which the alchemists can use to make perfect silver.

Gratian says: Therefore whiten Laton (i.e., bronze) with Mercury, because Laton is a composite body from the Sun and Moon—an imperfect citrine body which, when you whiten and through long decoction return it to its former citrinitas, you again have Laton, ductile and of whatever quantity you please. Then you have entered through the door and have the beginning of the art. Then calcine, dissolve, and imbibe with wax, and proceed in this way through the middle, and if you make the resurrected thing penetrable, then you have reached admixtion.

Rasis, Merienus, and Assiduus say: Because the earth, when it is whitened, becomes fixed due to the fixation of the moon, but not fixed by the fixation of the sun, and therefore it tinges in the moon. And afterward, in the work, there is the leap of the moon, that is, the sublimation of the lunar moisture and the circle of the sun. Because after the extraction of the solar spirit from its dead body, there is also the restoration of the soul and the vivification of the body.

Plato says: Because every silver contains white sulfur, just as every gold contains red sulfur, and such sulfur is not found on the earth, as Avicenna says, as it consists in these two bodies. And therefore we prepare these bodies subtly so that we may have living sulfur and silver from that matter on the earth, from which gold and silver were made beneath the earth.

Practical method: Some do as follows with the earth.

When you already have the dried earth, then make it in wine, and place on it Mercury in a sixth or seventh part, so that it may dissolve; therefore first weigh it, and seal the glass with the seal of Hermes so that the flower may not escape, and with gentle heat in ashes, dry and freeze it; repeat this solution and freezing four times. After the fourth time of solution and freezing of this earth, complete, this fixed and shining earth will remain, black in fracture, and projected on bodies, it alters their color, but not with Mercury. And however many times this earth is dissolved and frozen, it will be more penetrable and subtler in its nature, as was said above, even more tending to whiteness in these four solutions and freezings. When this first so-called decoction is complete, it must be turned to others in this way.

Know the weight of the entire frozen mass, as you first knew by your discretion, and place it in a glass, and upon it put a quarter part of Mercury so that it dissolves, and seal the glass as above with the seal of Hermes, and with gentle heat dry and freeze it; and it will be a mass of a different color than the first, somewhat black and somewhat clear. But this arrangement of whitening continues after its water imbibition and drying, solution and freezing, until it becomes a white mass of perfect whitening, persevering in the fire, melting, flowing, and freezing Mercury, perfectly retaining it, and transmuting any imperfect lunar metallic body into the true one.

And if you wish your prepared elixir, second, third, and fourth times to volatilize or inhibit, this must be done with a fourth part of the elixir of Mercury.

However, if you put a greater weight of the water itself upon the body than a quarter part of it, while it is not submerged, it will be better; the body will whiten, and it will be subtler, more penetrable, and convert with a greater weight.

Also, when something is imbibed with corruption, it cannot tolerate fire, nor can fire endure corruption in itself: therefore it is necessary that the stone be masterfully extracted, purified, and separated from all its feculent corruptibles, before you presume to fix it, until it is the pure element of the first thing.

And note that the medicine which converts Mercury is subtler than that which converts bodies. Therefore, know that more labor is in whitening because of weights and mixtures than in reddening, because after whitening until reddening, no error follows. And to make red, it is said that it must be done in the same way and similar regimen in all things, as you did in whitening, and it should not again go back to the beginning, but only be multiplied and put only Mercury through solution of the earth and drying as in whitening, except that the heat is greater, and the more the soul is dissolved with its unfixed spirit, that is, its water, and coagulates, the more it multiplies, and not only in quantity but also in virtue and tincture subtlety, and in projection it converts and transmutes a great weight.

By whitening the earth, says Hali, take what descends to the bottom of the vessel, and wash it in a warm fire until its blackness is removed and its thickness recedes, and cleanse from it additions of humidity until it becomes a lime too white, in which there is no stain. Then the earth is suitable and pure to receive and nourish the soul.

Marginal notes: When the soul, that is, the ferment is inserted.

For whitening is the soul, that is, the beginning and foundation of the whole work, for after the ferment you cannot err in decoction, because it is added afterward. You will shun both ferment and whitening, that is,

Marginal notes: Because thus soul and spirit

Mercury of the body and spirit, that is, Mercury is thus a rigid air, turning into earth that does not flee, and the soul and spirit make it spiritual, pure from terrestrial, aerial, and subtle earthliness. And thus spirit and soul do not unite with the true body except in the white color,

Marginal notes: All colors.

Because then in this whitening all colors appear, which today in the world can be imagined, and then they are fixed, and agree into one color, namely whiteness. And note that this diversity of colors does not appear in our stone except in the conjunction of soul with body, as Morienus says. Only one way of fire produces various colors in it. The soul is a coloring spirit, which, having left the altered body, rejoices in it, having made it incorruptible: and so one passes into the other, and one receives the power of the other by nature’s disposition.

Senior says: The first lunar work is to wash, whiten, and putrefy for one hundred and fifty days, and the whitening of the whole, and the driving away of darkness from it. And Flidius says: Know that the beginning of the whole work is whitening, to which redness follows, then the perfection of the work; after this, by the vinegar and the nod of God, the whole perfection is made, which is to dissolve and coagulate.

And about the whitened earth, Morienus says: Because you do nothing with it without it being fermented. And because without ferment no perfect tincture is made, as the Philosophers say, just as without unfermented dough there is no good bread; so it is in our stone, since ferment is like the soul which gives life to the imperfect dead body by the spirit, that is, Mercury.

Because Aristotle says, nothing is completed except with a subtilized ferment, like the spirit. Verses: Use good water for good dough, and also ferment; in a similar way, I give these in our stone: you will find these three similar to the words of the philosophers.

And there is no other ferment than the sun for the white and red elixir, and the moon only for the white elixir, namely the gold or silver of the philosophers, not the gold or silver of nature. Hence, the ferment of gold is nothing but its sulfur, which converts white into silver, because that which is never fixed, which naturally is not and was not fixed.

The ferment is made from the pure matter of metals, that is, natural sulfur and the vapor of the elements. Also, the ferment is nothing other than from the sun and moon. And the ferment is not until the said bodies are converted into their first matter or nature, because it is necessary that the ferment should be composed from the sun and the most subtle earth. Therefore, if you do not know how to reduce the two perfect bodies into their first nature, you will not be able to have any ferment. This says Ray. Note that white ferment is made thus: Feed one part of the purest moon, finely filed or subtly made into leaves, with double its amount of very clean white mercury, grinding them together strongly in a stone mortar until the mercury absorbs the filings and becomes like butter, so that nothing is found of the filings. Then wash this ferment thoroughly with strong vinegar and well-prepared common salt until the vinegar comes out clear and very pure, and then wash the salt off with fresh water and dry the water over fire. From here, add to it one part of white sulfur, grinding everything together until it returns completely into one body. Then seal it with one part of water, and place it to sublimate, etc. In the same way, red ferment is made with the purest sun, as above, although Pantolphus says in the Turba: That no venomous tingent is generated without the sun and its shadow, as many others also agree, because there is no other ferment for the white and red tincture than the sun. Aristotle says: The white and red arise from one root, with nothing of another kind intervening.

Also, the Rosarius and Peter of Zalento say: The ferment, which is the medium that joins, if it is placed at the beginning or in the middle, the work is completed more quickly and does not need repetition. However, they do not say this as a negation. Arnold says: When you wish to ferment the aforementioned medicine, then dissolve it in the said distilled moisture, as was stated above, until it becomes watery like mercury. Then place it in a vessel over fire under full regulation until the colors appear as in the first regulation, until you have the elixir again, fusible and tinging, and then the effect of the same elixir is doubled in fermentation, quantity, and projection, etc. For in every solution and fixation it gains tenfold by multiplication, therefore the more it is dissolved, fixed, tinged, and melted, the better and more strongly the medicine operates.

Also, note this about ferment: From a perfect thing, nothing is made, because it is already perfect, as this matter or art perfects it. We have an example: leavened and baked bread is perfect in its state or being, and has reached its final end, and you will not be able to ferment it further. So it is with gold. Pure gold is brought through the test of fire into a firm and fixed body, and to ferment it further is impossible for the philosophers, unless one has the first matter of metals into which it can be resolved into first matter and into mixable elements. Let us therefore receive that matter from which gold will be, and through art it is brought into the true ferment of the philosophers, and let us change this with ingenuity into perfect matter or into the form of perfect bodies, and then finally let us begin the operation.

Side note: Here begins the work, namely when first the gold is converted into its first matter.

Therefore, many modern workers, even philosophical ones, are deceived, because they abandon the work where it should begin.
Note: Water is the spirit purging, subtilizing, and whitening the body. And ferment is the soul, which gives life to the imperfect body through the water, which it previously did not have, and brings it into a better form. Also, if our stone had only one of the two, the medicine would never easily flow, nor give tincture, and if it did, it would fly away like mercury in smoke, because there would not be in it a receptacle of tincture.

And at the hour of greatest conjunction, miracles appear, for then the imperfect body is firmly colored by means of the ferment, which ferment is the soul of the imperfect body, and the spirit, by means of the soul, is joined with the body and bound together with it in the color of the ferment, and it is joined and becomes one with them. And thus in the imperfect body, first that is extracted which is the pure from the impure, the subtle from the gross. Then it is dried and fixed, and it will be dead; then it is fermented and revived through the ferment, which is the soul. For if you do not mix ferment with the elixir, the body is not colored as it should be, because without ferment neither the sun nor the moon will emerge, but something else which does not remain in the tincture of the metallic nature, unless you have first prepared it, namely the imperfect body. Therefore, join the sulfur—that is, the imperfect body—with the ferment so that it generates something like itself, and it will become elixir. But when the sulfur, that is the imperfect body, has been joined with its body, that is the ferment, the body does not cease to act upon it until it wholly converts it into itself, that is, the ferment. Therefore, when you want to ferment, mix them together with the body, so that all is ferment, for ferment brings back or reduces our sulfur to its own nature, weight, and color in every way, and it will be white ferment for the white and red for the red, which is clear: For if you put silver ferment with gold sulfur, it will bring it back to its own nature, but not to its color; similarly, if you put gold ferment with silver sulfur, it will convert it to its nature but not to its color, and vice versa.

Therefore, do not mix white water with red, nor red with white, because with white water you will whiten, and with red you will redden. But, my son, do not think that this water is red, but white in appearance, carrying the power of reddening in effect.

Side note: Oily substance is thus generated from sticky resin.

This is from Raymond. When the body has been cleansed and incorporated with the spirit and sublimated, then both become an oily vapor. And unless the body becomes vapor, you have accomplished nothing in this work, since this is done through purified mercurial water. Therefore, whiten and wash the body, because whitening is the beginning of the whole perfect work and ferment. For if the sulfur is not sublimated, it will not have a penetrating substance and virtue, and consequently, it will not be effective for true elixir. And the mercury of the common people is called spirit; the mercury of the body is called soul. And the spirit is not joined to the body except by means of the soul, and conversely, the soul is not joined to the body except by means of the spirit, only being so subtilized that it becomes one with it and homogeneous, as its spirit is. Then they are mixable by their smallest parts and first receive the nature of the ferment and the power of tinging.

The spirit is not joined to bodies until they have been perfectly purified from their impurities, that is, until the middle substance of mercury and the body’s sulfur have been perfectly purified from their impurities. That is, their conjunction is not possible unless they first become spiritual, that is, through the transformation of each from its virtue and property. Through the conversion of their natures, they are joined in complete union, and then, thus purified, they must be joined in bodies—that is, with ferment by means of water, which makes between them marriage, that is, conjunction or union. Rasis says: Accidents cannot extend qualities unless they are joined to substances.

Also, if you want a perfect elixir to be made and to transubstantiate and to tinge every body joined with it, this cannot be done except through its solution, often repeated.

Side note: What the fifth essence is.

Hence, the fifth essence is a body distinct in itself from all elements and elemented things both in matter and in form, both in nature and in power, having in itself no contrariety, and thus no cause of corruption. This is from Thomas in his Compendium, where he sets forth the difference between element, elemented, and the fifth essence.

The method of making the solution is as follows.
After our stone has been made in the fire and purged from all filth, that is, purified from all impurity—note, that is, after the whitening and the aforementioned philosophical and spiritual purgation—then grind it into a very fine powder on a stone, and dissolve it in our celestine vinegar, and it will immediately dissolve into a most clear water, and almost spontaneously. And after the stone has been totally dissolved, as I said, then distill with our distillation, and coagulate with moderate heat, and finally calcine the first coagulation according to its method.

Side note: Reiteration is done as follows.

And know that in this solution of the stone, one part tinges many more parts of Mercury or of any body into true moon or sun, according to how the stone was prepared. And this our solution is our secret. And thus you will multiply the stone, as will be said later in the chapter on multiplication.
Likewise, the earth of the vulgar is to be separated from the philosophical earth in this way: take the calcined earth, etc., and place it in a glass or vitrified vessel, in which is boiling hot clean and pure water, and stir it with a glass rod until that which can be dissolved is dissolved. And know that good earth dissolves and becomes white water like milk. Set aside the dissolved part, and again grind the earth that remained undissolved, and add again very hot water, until you clearly see that nothing more can be dissolved. The sign of this is that the earth which remains at the bottom, when placed on wood, leaves nothing behind. The second sign is, if it is placed over fire, it neither melts nor burns. And when you see this, then take all your earth dissolved in the aforementioned water, and place it in a glass vessel, and congeal it with strong desiccation. And before it is congealed, know that you have the clean and prepared philosophical earth. Discard the other, for it is dregs and scoria; it is also called white earth. And always be careful not to roast it unless it is dry. Hence Hermes says: Sow your gold in the foliated white earth, which has been made fiery, subtle, and aerial through calcination only: Sow the gold, that is, the soul and tinging virtue, in the white earth, which by due preparation has been made white and clean, in which there are no impurities.

From this it is clear that the gold of nature is not the matter of the ferment. Rather, the gold of the philosophers is the ferment itself, which tinges.
Also, Hermes, the head of the philosophers, says: When you wish to mix the natures, O alchemists, mix the stone of gold with the moisture, which is the permanent water, and place it in its vessel over a gentle heat until it liquefies, then let it dry so that the water recedes and they unite. That imbued water, that is, dried, should have more intense fire than before until it is dry, and the earth, that is, becomes powder. This having been done, know that this is the beginning of the secret, namely to imbue and perfectly dry the water. Do this many times until the parts of the water vanish, that is, are exhausted, and its colors appear to you.

I warn you not to pour the water all at once, lest the ykesir be submerged, but rather little by little, that is, pour it seven times, grind and dry, and do this many times until the water is absorbed.

Barsen in the Turba says: And water is applied to it seven times until it drinks all the moisture and receives strength from the pressing fire, at the battle of fire, and rust is formed. Hermes says: Moisten and grind for many days, and he commands to dissolve and coagulate nine times, which are designated by the nine eagles. For in each solution and coagulation, its efficacy will increase. Hence the philosopher in the Turba: But when all investigators of this art see that whiteness appearing in the vessel, believe that redness is hidden in the whiteness.

Then you should not extract it, but cook it until all becomes red. And so, through many imbibitions of solar water, it is required that the earth be made red, also by greater administration of fire.
Again Barsen: I command them to whiten from water made white, by which they make red copper—namely, our copper. Therefore, it must first be made white before it becomes red, because there is no passage from extreme to extreme, from contrary to contrary, except through the mediating medium—that is, from blackness there is no passage to yellow or red except through whiteness. For yellowness is caused from very bright white and a little clear red essentially.

Therefore, nature shows that citrinitas (yellowness) is the perfect and complete digestion.
Nor can there be a return from citrinitas to whiteness until the compound is converted into blackness. Nor can gold be made into indivisible silver unless it is first destroyed and made black and corrupted. Nor can a better thing be made worse except through its own corruption, because the generation of one thing is the corruption of another. And this happens with the addition of the tinging substance, which is known to nature, and it is perfected. Then the ferment is applied.

The spirit dries out the body and is itself dried by the body, that is, it is perfectly purged of its phlegm.

Note: In every roasting and decoction in which spirit and body are separated and joined, you must know that the soul, which can be separated from its subject, is not conveniently separated from the fixed unless in dryness. Nor is the living conveniently joined to the dead except in moisture. But in all these things, nature does not allow sudden changes. Therefore, it must be especially guarded against lest the spirit become volatile—for if it flies off from the body, the body will remain imperfect.

Note: Sublimation is done so that the purest and lightest parts are separated from the coarse dregs of the elements, and so they may possess the virtue of the quinta essentia (fifth essence), which gives form and disposition toward a durable and perfect species.

I say, then, that the quinta essentia is the tinging soul, coloring and introducing pure form, and for the extraction of which sublimation and subtle refinement are absolutely necessary.
For through it is extracted the unctuosity of arsenic, that is, the most purified and incombustible oily nature, which is bound and mingled with dregs, scoriae, and coarser elementary materials.
Sublimation is done for no other reason than to extract the tinging soul from the body and to convert it into a penetrable spirit. Through sublimation, the body is reduced into spirit—namely, when bodily density passes into rarity.
And since bodies are heavy and weighty, as already said, if they are to be sublimated, they must be incorporated with Mercury, and refined, and cooked until from them—namely, from the Mercury and the body—one body is made.
And do not grow weary of repeating this many times, because unless Mercury is incorporated into the body, it does not ascend; and it cannot be incorporated at all unless it is first dissolved in Mercury.

Therefore, take the first water separated from all corruption, in which cook the thing called by its proper name for forty days in its vessel, and you will find the body converted into living silver (i.e., mercury). And when through sublimation it has been deprived of its blackness, it will become a sublime nature lacking shadow, that is, the coarse filth and burning of the earth.

Side note: A beautiful practice.

Therefore, as much as you are able, refine the body and cook it with purified Mercury, and when the body has absorbed and enclosed some part of the Mercury, then refine it quickly with fire—using the strongest fire you can—until it ascends in the likeness of the whitest powder, like snow, adhering to the necks of the aludel.
The ash remaining at the bottom is dregs and scoria of the bodies, vile and to be cast away, in which there is no life, because the lightest powder, which vanishes with a small puff, is nothing, excluded by nature for lack of sulfur.

Then, having discarded the dregs, perform the sublimation again of the whitest powder, without its dregs, until it becomes fixed and allows no more dregs, but ascends purely like snow. This is our pure fifth essence, and then you have the tinging soul, coagulating and purifying, and sulfur and arsenic that do not burn—by which alchemists can work, and with which they make silver.

In solar matter, although a certain part of it ascends as the whitest, yet at the bottom there remains a fire tinged with redness, like scarlet. And that sulfur converts living silver (mercury) into the most pure and true gold.
This is the most perfect composition of white and red sulfur not burning, according to the highest operation of the philosophers: you will find nothing superfluous or lacking in these sayings, but only what the philosophical truth contains.

Likewise, if you sublimate Mercury with the calxes of the two luminaries—namely, the Sun and the Moon—you will sublimate usefully and purify with ease. For in those, sublimation is an easy operation by generation. Always collect only the sublimated matter, for it is not fixed, but what remains suspended in the middle of the aludel above the dregs—for that is the subtle middle substance of Mercury, from which our medicine is made, which draws its origin from the matter of living silver: the sought good, the foliated white earth, arsenic, white sulfur, the prima materia of metals. This, says Raymond [Lully].

We make this sublimation so that bodies are reduced to a subtle nature, so that they may become like spirits, penetrating and transforming any body into true gold or silver—or to reduce them to the first matter, namely, Mercury and sulfur—and that their incorporation may be most firm, and also that they may take on the perfect color of whiteness or redness, which color cannot be made without sublimation. And do not mix what remains at the bottom with what has ascended, but keep each one separately.

But if some valuable matter remains at the bottom, repeat the sublimation with Mercury incorporated into it, until everything of the pure essence of those bodies has ascended.
For if you do not do this, do not put it into the magistery.

The alembic should be of glass, coated well with good clay, and must be joined with the subject so that Mercury cannot finally evaporate, for Mercury is not sublimated unless through aerial fineness, carrying with it the purer parts of the body. Therefore, the earth is converted into air, and the body into spirit, and density into rarity.
Ultimately, they ascend in the manner of air so that by the reason of truth they strongly acquire the power of penetrating deeply, and by the reason of perfect clarification, of perfect tincture and coloration.

Therefore, take care that the vessels are well joined, for if Mercury finds an opening, it will escape through vapor, and thus your operation will perish and your magistery will be lost.

It follows concerning the governance of fixation.

How the white and red sulfur are perfected into the perfect elixir.
Take, therefore, the aforementioned white sulfur, and fix it upon its own body, the fixed and purified white body—that is, upon silver. And the red sulfur upon its own red body, namely upon gold, as Pythagoras, the master of the Turba, teaches, saying:
That living silver, extracted from bodies by solution, subtilization, and sublimation, if it is not coagulated into white or red sulfur, sustaining fire—that is, so that it becomes fixed—has no path to whiteness or redness. Therefore, you must operate prudently and discreetly, for without ferment neither the sun nor the moon can exist. And there is no other ferment than the sun and moon. For the aforementioned sulfur, which the philosophers call “unctuous vapor,” will not remain in the essence of nature unless you join it to its purified body, so that it may generate its like.
And this is also necessary for the composition of the perfect elixir. But when the sulfur has been joined to its purified body, it does not cease from acting, totally penetrating it until it has converted all into its nature.
Therefore, when you wish to ferment, mix the sublimated body with its most purified body so that the whole becomes ferment, for the ferment brings back the sulfur of art, or philosophical sulfur, into its nature, color, and flavor.
For if the sulfur has not been sublimated, it will not have the entering substance and penetrating power, and consequently will not have the power to comprehend the true elixir, because, remaining in its density and corporality, it will not mix with things to be tinged, nor will it be able to transmute them into the form of perfect metal.
But when the body has been purified and has descended with the spirit incorporated through sublimation, then both become an unctuous vapor and subtle air, clear and stripped of burning substances, a soul of excessive penetration, freed from faults and impurities; because when joined to its purified body by means of the spirit—that is, purified mercurial water—it passes into a most pure and incorruptible being.
And unless it becomes vapor, you have done nothing in the work of this art.
Therefore whiten, wash, because the whitening is the beginning and ferment of the whole perfect work.
And this whitening henceforth does not change into diverse colors, but remains invariable and immutable.
And fix according to the precept of the philosophers in this way.

The method of fixing.

Prepare the ferment, that is, the body before fermentation, so that it is dissolved and calcined—that is, the body is dissolved and calcined by living silver, that is, living silver is separated and removed from it, and becomes pure calx or ash.
For if you do not prepare the ferment, it will be of no use. Likewise, prepare sulfur that is non-burning from the calx by sublimation, so that it becomes simple and living.
Because if you do not mix it in the elixir, the body upon which the projection of the sulfur is made will not be colored.
And if you do not purify the body which you wish to mix in the elixir, it will not guide the spirit of the body, nor retain it.
And if you do not sublimate such sulfur which you wish to send into the elixir, the gold and silver will be very dark.

And if you do not purify the spirit, it will not withstand fire, because being impure, it would not join to the body in the smallest parts.
You must also be very cautious, so that you make the elixir between hard and soft, because unless you know this, gold and silver will not be fit for work, namely for hammering or melting.
The medicine must be of a more subtle and more liquid substance, because they are bodies, and of greater fixation and retention than living silver in its nature, upon which it is projected.
For Euclid says: "Our final secret is to have a medicine which flows before the flight of Mercury."

When you wish to compose the elixir, make a calx from that matter whose body it is, and add to it its sulfur, as said above: if it is gold, from gold; if silver, from silver.
For the marriage is nothing else but to join the ferment to its body, from which you wish to make the elixir.
For the Turba says: "Join these two," that is, the ashes—namely of the perfect body—and white sulfur, that is, the imperfect body, to one another.
Wherefore the philosopher says: "First enlighten your body, and join it with spirit and a pure body, in equality," that is, in equal weight.

On the weights of the ferment, sulfur, and Mercury.

Note, it must first be known that the amount of volatile must not exceed the amount of its purified, fixed body; otherwise the bond of marriage would turn into the flight of an unfixed spirit and volatile sulfur.
The volatile must not exceed the sum of the fixed with which it is united.

Wherefore Plato says: "If a little sulfur is projected upon a multitude of body, so that it has power over it, it converts it into powder, whose color will be like the color of the body upon which the spirit of gold or silver is projected."
But because sulfurs cannot enter bodies except through water—that is, Mercury—with water their marriage is made, because it is the medium joining tinctures, that is, sulfur and ferment.
Therefore, in that arrangement you should first place the calx of the body or ferment,
Second, the water—that is, the spirit,
Third, the air—that is, the soul, or sulfurs extracted from bodies.

And to use the philosophical language and doctrine:
If you mix oil first into the earth, the oil will be deadened in the earth, for oil enters into the earth and is absorbed by it.
But if you place water first and then oil, the oil will stand above the water.
Or if you first place water and then earth, the water will be heavier than the earth.
Therefore, when you join the elements—namely water and air—so that they may be fixed in the earth:
If it is for the white elixir, always use more earth than any other of the elements. Otherwise, the earth will not fix the spirit, rather it will fly away with it.
And this must be done rationally, according to the measure of deaquation.

For example: for the lunar elixir.
If there is one and a half weight of air, there must be two weights of water, and three weights of earth, and the ferment of the earth is made three times as much as the white sulfur.
So if there is one and a half weight of white sulfur, there must be three weights of ferment, and two of water, and the elixir will be complete.
And therefore, take this caution in the composition of the true elixir, and work as said, so that you know how much to apply of earth, water, and air for the white elixir, and how much of fire for the red.

The reason is: if more earth were added than was said, it would kill the soul;
If less, the elixir would be too moist and would not be fixed.
And similarly with water: if more is added, it would be too moist and soft; if less, it would be dry and hard, and would not penetrate.
And with air, likewise, if less is added, it would not color with perfect color; if more, it would be perfectly colored in the white elixir.

But for the solar elixir, since the sun is hotter than the moon, there must be two weights of earth, three of air, three of water, and one and a half weights of fire;
for the weight of fire is half the weight of water.
And in this, there is neither addition nor subtraction.

Raymundus says:
When you wish to make the red elixir according to the tradition of the general doctrine, you summarize the teaching of making the white elixir as an example. For this method of making the white elixir does not need to be repeated, except only that for any white elementated substance, you put red elementated substance, because in the red elixir a stronger fire is applied, which reddens the whole and sublimates it like a spirit.

The weights of the elements are: two parts earth, three parts water, and the same amount plus one and a half parts of red sulfur.
First, put the earth because it participates with the ferment; second, put the water because it is the medium between earth and air; third, put the air because it is the medium between water and fire; fourth, put the fire, but the fire is fixed through the air just as water is fixed through the earth, etc., as you know.

It must be known that if purified philosopher’s stone is added to any body, and whatever way that body is destroyed, the matter of the stone always remains with that part of the body which is more purified according to the way of nature. For the matter of the stone fixes fire, so that the stone is created to be perpetual over all fire; and therefore, the more it perseveres in the fire, the more its virtue increases in quantity and quality, because the philosopher’s stone does not have a limited humidity, and although dry in experience, it is rich in an oily moisture in its hidden part, which can never be destroyed by any way.

Because if the body with which it is mixed is destroyed, its subtle or gross substance always remains according to how it was prepared, which is true and fixed matter; and therefore unless the body is destroyed, the matter or medicine created and extracted from it always perseveres. This Geber says. Another philosopher says in the Turba: Let those who investigate this art know that however much the elixir is prepared or made subtle, it is all nothing unless after preparation it is joined with the true ferment.

Note about the ferment:

It must be noted that when the elixir is joined with bodies, it must be joined in the smallest parts, as Albertus says.

Side Notes: Attachment by vapor wings

A strong and useful combination can never be made with solid things unless they are first dissolved in waters, and then mixed with each other, and in warm places, acting by natural heat or vapor proportional to itself, they connect vaporously over a competent time and space. Because the elixir must first dissolve, then prepare the body and dissolve it so that it becomes elixir, and afterwards take and join the dissolutions, namely the three parts of the elixir and one part of the aforementioned bodies. Afterward, all this must be frozen and dissolved again, and frozen again, and so repeated until everything becomes one without any separation; and all this is completed through the benefit of our Mercurial water, because with it dissolves and the elixir is prepared, and with it bodies are dissolved and prepared. It is indeed cleansing, joining, dissolving, whitening, and reddening.

Another says: But because the ferment cannot enter a dead body except through water, which makes the marriage and union between the ferment and the white earth, therefore, in every fermentation the weight of each thing must first be noted.

If therefore you want to ferment white foliated earth to make white elixir, so that it will stand in the completion of tincture over bodies diminished in perfection, then take three parts of the whitened or foliated dead body earth, two parts of reserved water of life, and one and a half parts of ferment. But the ferment must be prepared so that it becomes a fixed and subtle white lime, if your intention is to proceed to white. If however to red, then a very yellowish lime of gold is made, and there will be no other ferment, because these two shining bodies have shining coloring rays, the other bodies naturally excelling in whiteness and redness.

Then wisely place it in its vial prepared for this, and in its temperate chamber, so that it coagulates and fixes, and it will become one body. Then dissolve again with a third part of water, and dry it, and repeat this many times until you prepare the most excellent white stone by these degrees of reiteration and preparation — white, fixed, stable, incorporating the smallest parts of bodies, flowing most smoothly like fixed water, over the fire, striking mercury and all bodies diminished in perfection into true silver.

And note when this order of complement — solution, coagulation, and grinding — is repeated more times, by so much the greater the abundance, namely the goodness of this medicine is multiplied more and more. For as many times as you work upon the stone preserving its proper goodness, so many times you will gain much in its projection upon body parts diminished in perfection. Therefore philosophers praise reiteration beyond measure.

If therefore you want to ferment white earth for the red elixir, divide the white earth into two parts; increase one part for the white elixir with its reserved white water, and so it never ceases to be its own. And the other part put into its glass, that is into the furnace of its digestion, and increase the fire, until by the force and power of the digestion fire it is turned into a very red stone, like dry burnt saffron.

And if you want it to become tincture of redness, transforming the whitest elixir and coloring mercury, the moon, and every body into the true sun or solar body, then prepare three parts of its ferment with one and a half parts of purest gold, so that a most subtle lime is made, with two parts of solidified water, artificially reducing it into one chaos, connected by the smallest parts up to the hidden body. Put it in its glass, in its fire, and cook until the very red stone shines, the true bloodstone.

Then increase it again by its solidified part, namely its reserved solar water, so that gradually by the mode of stronger digestion fire you proceed in the increase of its perfection and accumulation of goodness, and reiteration of the work of its reserved part, according to its own nature, finally solidified, so that its goodness multiplies infinitely.

Thus says Raymundus.

On the method of softening the stone with moisture
Regarding the method of softening this stone:
Take the stone and grind it, then soak it in its own vessel with imbibition by the smallest parts, that is, by intervals made like dew, with one and a half parts of itself. Then decoct (gently heat) it with a mild fire until this moisture has frozen into the substance of the stone. Afterwards, gradually increase the fire from the coals little by little until whatever has been resolved from it—both from the water of sulfur and from the living moist silver—is made subtle.

Then again, whatever has sublimated, reduce it upon the dregs, grinding and soaking it with the said spirit, which abounds more excessively in moisture. By this repeated soaking with dew-like moisture, decoction, freezing, and sublimation, with successive and carefully continued fires, namely moderated by the note of our ignition as nature demands, continue until by continuous sublimation and iteration of non-flammable spirits upon the dregs, and constant motion, the whole is fixed downward according to the proportion of fire appropriate to it, with moderation.

Then make a strong fire well continued during the natural day; on the second natural day make it stronger, and on the third natural day still stronger, as a melting fire or nearly so.

When you want to wax (in-cere) the stone, put in more of the warm and moist substance than of the cold and dry. But when you have worked by the intention of fixing, then put in more of the cold and dry substance than of the warm and moist.

And if the medicine does not fully remain against the fire—that is, due to a defect of fixation—then remedy the defect either by reiterating the solution and freezing, or by sublimation of the unfixed parts through the fixed part, until it gains rest against the harshness of the fire.

Side notes: Fusion
And if you see that it cannot be melted except with gravity, that is, due to a defect of waxing, supply it by thoroughly waxing it with oil of the stone, dropping drop by drop over a gentle fire in an earthen crucible, until it flows like wax, without smoke.

Side notes: Sign of true fixation and final complement
These are from Raymundus.

On the multiplication or augmentation of the stone
First note what augmentation is. Augmentation is an addition to the preexisting quantity. Augmentation in quality and goodness is to dissolve and coagulate the tincture itself, that is, to imbibe and dry our Mercury.

Or like this: Take one part of prepared tincture, dissolve it in three parts of our Mercury, then make it in a vessel, seal the vessel, and place it among warm ashes, as stated above, until it is dried and becomes powder. Then open the glass, and again imbibe and dry as before, and do this many times; so many parts will you gain, and it will tincture more, as Arnold says.

Augmentation in quantity is: Take three parts of fixed matter that tinctures—that is, prepared tincture—and one part of the Philosophers' Mercury, make it in a vessel, seal the vessel, and put it among warm ashes, as above, and dry it to powder. Then open the glass and imbibe and dry again, etc., as above. And the water, that is, quicksilver or Mercury, adds or gives no more weight to the body than the amount of metallic moisture that remains.

Calidius, son of Isidore, says similarly: Multiplication in quantity is done by mixing the medicine in a crucible with common quicksilver, which quicksilver by mixing with the stone is converted into a red or black powder. And by repeating this process, that powder of quicksilver is put on another quicksilver, and by repetition it is converted into powder again, and so you make reiterations of quicksilver powder on another quicksilver until the quicksilver does not convert into powder but remains converted into perfect metal. This happens because the strength of the medicine is tempered with the addition of quicksilver.

Also, multiplication of tincture is nothing other than augmentation and multiplication of natural heat, which is sulfur unburning in the matter of quicksilver. It is certain that quicksilver is the matter of metals in substance, in which their brightness is fixed, because metals need nothing but a substantial nature, and the substance in which the tincture of sulfur is fixed must be material preserved from all burning, lacking any defect of total fusion, pleasant and agreeable to all metals. Therefore it is necessary that the tincture of sulfur follows such a substance and is gathered in it if you want it to be the tincture of metals. This substance must be such that it can be fixed without consumption of its moisture, without its reversion to earth, and without combustion of its own substance—and all this is quicksilver.

Therefore it is said that it is the cause of perfection necessary for metals because it is sufficient for any degree of all fusions with ignition, as is clear in lead and tin, and this through good adhesion of its parts and the strength of its noble mixture.

This is Raymondus.

The method by which the red and white medicines are multiplied in virtue and power, when you have perfected the said medicines and have made projection from them. You can artificially multiply their virtues in two ways: The first way is, dissolve in the water of its white or red Mercury, from which they were generated, until it becomes clear water, and afterward with a light decoction congeal it, and with its oils, truly wax them over the fire until they flow: Certainly its virtue will be doubled in the tincture, with all its perfections, as you will see in projection, because the weight which was projected over a thousand, then is projected over two thousand: And in this multiplication there is not great labor.

The second way of multiplying its virtues is of greater value, because if you distill any species of them separately, and in their water by burial, afterward separate the elements by distillation, first receiving the water, then the air, and its fixed substance of earth will remain, all clear in the form of powder, reduce it into that water by distillation until it drinks all, and is wholly fixed in the earth, and afterward imbibe all with its oil and with its tincture until it is well fixed, and all is melted like wax. And from that medicine project one weight upon the body which you want to convert, and you will certainly find its tincture multiplied by a hundred parts, by such a method, etc.

Again, medicine is multiplied in two ways: by the solution of heat, or by the solution of rarity. The solution of heat is, that you take the medicine placed in a glass vessel, and bury it in our moist fire for seven days or more, until the medicine dissolves into the water without turbulence; the solution of rarity is, that you take a glass vessel with the medicine, and suspend it in a new brazen pot, whose orifice is narrow, in which water boils, and the orifice is closed, so that by the rising vapor of boiling water the medicine is dissolved.

But note that the boiling water does not touch the glass vessel in which the medicine is, within a space of three fingers. And the solution is made perhaps in one day or two or three, after the medicine has been dissolved, remove from the fire to cool, fix, and freeze, harden or dry it, and so it is dissolved repeatedly, and the more resolved the medicine is, the more perfect it will be. And such a solution is the subtilization of medicine and its virtual sublimation, which the more it is repeated, the more abundantly and more parts it tinges.

Hence Rasis says: The goodness of this multiplication does not depend except on the multiplication by reiteration, sublimation, and fixation of the perfect medicine. Because the more the order of this complement is reiterated, the more its abundance operates and increases. For as many times as you dissolve more, so many times you will profit every time to project one weight over a thousand. And if at first it falls over a thousand, the second time it falls over ten thousand, the third time over a hundred thousand, the fourth over a thousand thousand, and so on to infinity. For Morigenes the philosopher says: Know for certain, that the more our stone is dissolved and frozen, the more spirit and soul are joined and retained by it, and with each time the tincture is multiplied.

Another way the medicine is multiplied is by fermentation, and the ferment for the white is the pure moon, and the ferment for the red is the pure sun. Therefore, project one part of medicine over two parts of ferment, and it will all be medicine, and place it in a glass vessel over the fire, and close it so that air neither enters nor exits, and preserve it, regulate it, and subtilize it as many times as you wish, as you did with the first medicine; one part of the second medicine will receive as much power as a hundred parts of the first medicine. Thus, by solution and fermentation, medicine can be multiplied to infinity.

The philosopher’s stone is multiplied in three ways.

The first way is by reiteration of the mark of corruption to the beginning, that is, corrupting the stone by dissolution and putrefaction, and by the conjunction of the elements, and burial in air or in earth, and by the decoctions of air and common fire. And this applies to other particular works by conjunction of the elements with foliated earth, and decoction by common fire in a similar burial. Also, both multiplications happen simultaneously if from the medicine multiplied in quantity you lead to the said two cycles, and do as has been said.

For however much the medicine passes through these two cycles to the end of completion, so much more it is multiplied in virtue because of the matter by which it is led to such subtility. From this the spirit existing in such matter multiplies its likeness, as the tip of fire existing in the basilisk’s eye multiplies its likeness in fire existing in animals, by reason of which the natural heat of each animal is suffocated, as the light of fire is extinguished by the light of the sun.

This is Raymondus.

The method of projecting all the prescribed [medicines] can thus be tried.

Take one part of the medicine, and ten parts of raw purified Mercury, so that the Mercury is heated by fire up to its summit. Then project the medicine from above, which immediately flows, penetrating minimally, then with the fire strengthened, the fused Mercury is collected, from which a small part is taken, and only as much of its living Mercury is put on the fire, and the weight is tested. If the added Mercury notably recedes, then the medicine is not sufficient for the vitreous parts. If the body in the body is not notably diminished, but the matter is still breakable, and too soft or hard, then take again a small part of this, and as much of its raw Mercury, and proceed in all things as said, until the intent is obtained.

On the projection of the medicine multiplied in virtue.

Take one part or one ounce of the medicine said to be multiplied in virtue, and from it project onto one hundred parts of Mercury. Immediately, when the said Mercury begins to heat in the crucible, it will promptly freeze, and quickly all into fixed medicine, to make projection on another Mercury. Then take one ounce, and from that second medicine, make projection onto one hundred parts of another hot Mercury, and it will still be pure all and true medicine. Then you have multiplied in your quantity the first medicine, or even the whole, or in part, which again you can multiply by dissolution, freezing, burial, etc. Because the method I said in multiplication you can multiply in virtue infinitely, and afterwards in quantity project from the last frozen medicine one weight onto one hundred of Mercury washed with salt and vinegar, and heat it over fire immediately, when you see it smoke and it freezes into gold, etc.

Convert oil, that is, with tincture, it is oil in powder tincturing in this way: Take one part of the prepared oil, and melt it over ten parts of raw Mercury, put it to digestion, and immediately that oil Mercury enters such that it does not appear, but will be white or red Mercury, according as the medicine is prepared for white or red, powderable and workable on the way, without damage, which can be further projected, as you know, always over Mercury afterwards well washed with salt and vinegar.

On the virtue, effect, and nobility of this laudable science or the philosophical tincture.

It is to be known that the ancient sages discovered four principal effects or virtues in this glorious treasure, comforting and aiding knowledge.

First, to heal the human body from many infirmities.
Second, to restore imperfect metallic bodies.
Third, to transform ignoble stones into certain precious gems.
Fourth, to make all glass ductile or malleable.

Regarding the first, all philosophers agree: When the stone, a perfected and reddened ematite, is made, it not only works wonders on solid bodies but also on the human body, about which there is no doubt.

For it cures every infirmity by taking it from within, and heals by anointing from without.

Philosophers say that if a portion of it is given in water or warm wine, it cures paralytics, lunatics, dropsies, lepers.
Other sages say that a drop of the tincture often cures by anointing. Therefore, cardiac, etheric, iliac pains, colics, jaundice, and cold diseases, epilepsy, and all sorts of fevers are cured by taking it internally, and arthritis is cured by anointing. Whatever is in a sick stomach, it removes, and it constricts and consumes all fluxes of corrupt humors by drinking or anointing, and it drives away all melancholy or sadness of the mind when taken on an empty stomach. It dries up all kidney flux. It is also the best healer of weak eyes, for it restrains the flow of tears, reduces puffiness, removes redness, softens the skin or membrane by destroying it.

Ailments such as cataracts, leukoma, corneal ulcers, horn and nail diseases, cataract, inversion of eyelids, heat, and darkened vision: all these are very easily cured by the philosophical medicine.
It strengthens the heart and spirit by drinking, relieves headaches, and helps all ear pains, swelling by anointing. It also restores hearing to the deaf and assists all ear pains and swellings, straightens contracted nerves by anointing, restores eroded teeth by washing, sweetens foul breath.

Side notes: Diseases cured by the philosophical tincture.

It also heals all kinds of abscesses by anointing or applying plasters, or by interspersing dry powder.
Ulcers, wounds, cancer, fistula, "do not touch me" sores, anthrax, ringworm, impetigo, scabies, itching, and tinea are cured by it.
Scars are smoothed so that new flesh regenerates.
Corrupt and sour wine, if mixed, is restored; calculi dissolve if drunk; poison is expelled by taking it; worms are killed if powdered on hair under the skin; if removed by anointing with the tincture.
Wrinkles on the face or all spots disappear by anointing, and it makes the face youthful.
For women in labor, it helps if taken; it expels dead fetuses by plastering; it promotes urination.
It excites and increases sexual desire, prevents drunkenness, induces memory, increases radical moisture, strengthens nature, and shows and provides many other benefits to the human body.

Because this medicine is above all medicines of Hippocrates, Galen, Alexander, Constantine, Avicenna, and all other doctors of the art of medicine, superior in smell, taste, virtue, and effect.
It is to be noted that this medicine is always a pharmacy medicine to be mixed to dispel disease.

Regarding the second, it is written that it transmutes all imperfect metals: this transmutation is quite manifest. For all that is silver it makes gold in color, substance, perseverance, weight, ductility, liquefaction, hardness, softness.

Regarding the third, it is written that it transforms stones into precious gems, as said above.
In the book of the sextarius it is said that jaspers, hyacinths, red and white corals, emeralds, chrysolites, sapphires can be formed from the very matter, and it is handed down in the priests’ book that from crystal, carbuncle, or ruby or topaz can be made through it, which excel in color and substance over the natural ones.
With these stones, and others in which this medicine is contained, it adds natural virtue by its nobility, but colors appointed to them are mixed, for every stone or gem it liquefies and softens.

Regarding the fourth, it is written that it makes glass malleable by mixing when it melts.
For this medicine is convertible into every color.
Other experiments are more sagaciously committed by artists.

Raymundus says:
This medicine also has the power to rectify every animal and vivify all plants in the time of spring by its great and marvelous heat, because if you dissolve from it the quantity of one thousandth of a grain in water, and place it in the heart of a vine in the quantity of the cavity of a hazelnut, leaves and flowers and good branches artificially grow in the month of March; and so you may do with any other plant.

Because this is reckoned a miracle and against the course of nature, because such people do not know the power of such a thing, but it is nothing other than pure natural heat infused in its radical moisture, and because nature by its instinct desires to be much, to the deeper part of any element where it operates, multiplying the natural heat of the body in the center into which it has entered.

Therefore it has the power to rectify all and to fix that virtue in them.

And this is the proven medicine of the philosophers, which to every faithful and pious investigator, willing, may our Lord Jesus Christ graciously grant, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

---

English Version #2

The sound of Trumpets - Clangor Bvccinæ.

In the name of the LORD

Amen.

The sound of a Trumpets comes from the blessed
philosophical stone which thunders here wonderfully with the generation and growth and
strength, from which the
philosophers have set many and various sayings and writings:

The first philosopher Thales Milesius says of the prima materia: The oldest of the entium God is
eternal, unbegotten.

Therefore Pythagoras also says: I say that God
was above all things, nothing was with him since he existed.

And understand that God, being alone in the beginning,
created a substantiam that we
call the primam materiam. And out of the same substance he created four other things,
the earth, the air, the water and the earth,
out of which he created everything, both high and
low.

And so, above all, without the materiam
primam, he created four elements from which he subsequently
created what he wanted, namely many natures. Therefore,
God created with his word to which he said, Be
like that, they have become, namely the four elements and
others .

Therefore, out of the same four elements, all things are
created: out of a root, the sky, the thrones,
the angels, the stars, the sun, the sea and everything that
is in the sea, which are diverse and not regardless of which
natures God has made diverse like the creations
because they are out various elements are created.

Then
when they are created from one element they have
different and equal natures because these
various elements
lose their natures when they are mixed because the warm
mixed with the cold becomes neither warm nor cold, but the wet
mixed with the dry becomes neither dry nor damp.

That's why the creatures that come out of it have different
natures.

Of which natures he created several out of one element and his angels which he alone
created out of the light and out of two elements namely out of the light
and air these three were created namely the sun
moon and stars therefore the angels alone are brighter than
the moon and stars because they are
created by a special one which is the fourth rare one, the sun and
the moon and stars are created from the Fire and Air
Composita (Fire and Air Composition), but the souls (as the philosophers say) which
are poured into the bodies today and thereafter daily are
made by New ones are not created in the mother's womb,
but are created only from the gift from the first
beginning of the universe, and are loved in the mind and
strength of the creator until the appointed time when they are to
be poured into the new body than in the previous one
Materia and such through the medium which is spirit.

And do not deviate from the body where the spirit first
deviated and became nothing. When this deviated and
became naught, the soul also deviates, although the
theologians say that the soul is poured into the body and
created in the egg-pouring.

And God amuses himself by begetting
and creating new souls every day and things like that outside of the prima materia. Again,
GOD created the sky out of water and air.

The sky is also made up of two elements: one of
the thin ones, namely the air, and the other
thick ones, namely the water, and out of three elements
God created the flying ones (bruta animalia ) the
wild animals and growing. Therefore the flying ones
are created out of the air and water because the
flying ones and all so that have a spirit in the
growing ones are created out of the air water and earth,
but there is nothing that grows faster then the fire's
materia in the growing ones is just that The element of the Fire is
hidden in the air, but the thick Fire is
not in anyone who has a spirit and a soul. But
out of the four elements, our father Adam and his sons were created
out of the water and at the same time out of the earth.

And everything that God has created from a material
that does not die on the day of judgment then the
description of death is a separation of the
composite, but what is not put together cannot be
separated and therefore there is no separation of death and
death Souls from the body.

But each one that
is put together apart from two or three must
be separated from each other, which is the property of death. And know
that no compound that lacks the Fire eats or
drinks nor sleeps, and even though the angels
are created from the Fire, why don't they eat? Because it is said that
the fire is an element that eats and consumes.

The answer will be that the bad fire does not consume anything
but the thick one.

Then the angels are not from the thickest
fire but from the least of the mild and bad
fire because they were created from the least of the fire
so they do not slack.

Note that the four first qualities or
forms are namely the dryness, the Celt and
the moisture and they are called the primary qualities then from
them all the elements are put together and are all
elementated and complexed and are the elementa of
the bad qualitatibus (qualities).

That is why they have the power
to transform from one quality to another, sometimes dry
, wet, sometimes warm, and sometimes cold,
after the division of nature is strengthened by the
complexion of its elements or weakened and the
qualities are like the material of the elements in which they
place their forms and bring them to be also
held in them, as his nature proves in every generation.

Item
an element alone cannot be corrupted or created in
it itself, then there is not a sufficient nature and therefore
you must be more. Item of the same nature is a
subtle substance into which the qualities of the elements
enter. That is why the same qualities of the elements draw
to themselves from the sea in which they have superfluous power.

And so the qualities are like the material of the elements into
which they bring their forms and are held in them
as their nature shows in every generation: and in the
subtle substance they are made fat in every
generation. And in a subtle substance
the qualities of the elements condense and thicken. And if
the same nature were not of the subtle substance
and essentiality of the elements, then the impure
essence of the elements could not exist and prevail in the
substance, and even though each element
was a mineral according to its nature, the substance could
not penetrate it or have an event or
die as a result of which the same thing happens because of the
property that the fire reigns in the substance of the
elements is so announced according to their materia.

This is
Raymundi's word. Item: The bodies
created by the creator under the hollow of the circle of the moon are
part of the four elements with the four natural wet ones
namely cholera blood phlegm and melancholia with the
four complexionibus: the worms (warm), Celt, moisture and dryness:
with the four fornemmen colors white, black, citrine and
red. Four tastes are unflavored, sweet
and bitter. Four smells good smelling sharp and gentle
with the two tribes and genders a male
and a female according to their three dimensions namely the
length height and depth.

The common height is its manifest, the depth is its
hidden, and the breadth is part of its mean. Therefore,
all bodies according to these three dimensions can
be presented in such a way that they can all be viewed as white and away.

When
the corpus is earthly in its height, there is something
cold, dry and melancholy bitter in it, sharp sawr
stinking black and womanish. And from this it certainly follows that in
its depths there is the airy, warm, moist sanguine
Citrinum, sweet, full of good smell and masculine. And when there
is no water on one side, it follows that it is cold and damp,
white and unpleasantly smelly and feminine.

And on
the other side there is certainly the fiery warm dry red
bitter sharp and manly: and that is the bond with
which all bodies are joined together
which can be clearly seen in the melted body
namely in the Gold, Silver, Lead, Zin Eijsen and Sandarich (Tin, Iron, Copper).

Then this is the property of every element that it
has contradiction in itself and acts contrary to itself. And
note the four elements are namely Fire, Air, Water and Earth Then each of these is put together
also the first two qualities, and not except
the Fire from the warm and dry, the air from the
warm and moist, the water from the cold and moisten
the earth from the cold and dry.

Likewise, the warmth
in the season is its essential quality, and the dryness is its
incidental quality. In the air the Qualitas essentialis (An essential quality) is the
moisture but the accidentalis Qualitas (Accidental Quality). In the
water the moisture is fundamental and essentially the
Celt but it is a coincidence. In the earth, drought is its
forever, but by accident. Likewise, the
Fire is warm and dry for itself but because of
the properties. Then the difference in things is greater in terms of
quality than in terms of properties.

So also understand
before other qualitatibus of the elements the same thing Mycretis says
about the Principio of the four elements:
Know that the earth
was first water, then it was
turned into a stone and became hard, the water was first air,
then it melted and became thick and in Water
transforms the Fire but it was the beginning of the Air then
it is made of thick Fire. But the Fire has no beginning
except its Creator: And understand that the earth
is the body of water, but man becomes the body of the earth.

But the Fire does not read from the three elements through
which all three of them also exist. And we say of the
Elementorum its gradibus (Its elements are steps): Then the fire after which it is
mixed is warm in the fourth degree, and dry in the
third degree. And because the Warme is in him in the first place, it is
obvious that nothing Wermer is then the Fire and that in him
is the dry thing in the other, so it is obvious when there is such
a great dryness in him who as Warme made it so quickly
and dried so soon It warms up what doesn't make history.

And the fire is cold in the fourth degree, moist but in the third
whether the same to the contrary, it wants to be warm
when it cannot be congelated into the dry so that its
celt remains and so it is more cold than moist. Sorry, I
wrote how I found it, but it seems to me
that it's a contradiction.

The air is firstly moist in the fourth
degree, secondly warm in the middle of the third degree, then the dampness
corrupts and overwhelms (obtundit) the heat.

The earth is first
dry in the fourth degree, and secondly cold in the middle of the
third.

And so the circulation of all the elements will be poured into the earth through the air , which makes the earth dry, and the air pours its moisture into the earth through the air which makes the earth dry and the dry earth expresses its dryness, which is made cold, moist and warm, the air is restored to it and refreshes the earth, its weakened and weakened earth, in turn, before the quality of the other elements of the same, the air, the moisture, the water, the cold, the earth its dryness.

And so it becomes after the same mixing of the elements. Therefore the Fire is in the water then it is in the air which is in the earth and the water is in the Fire then it is in the earth which is in the Fire and arises and the earth is in the air then it is in the Fire that Since it arises in the air and so its mixing is terminabilis and can be drawn into any comparison.

Raymundus says the same thing at the beginning of the Theorica Testamenti: Then the first beginning of everything with one another is a nature that God created out of nothing in a pure substance that we call the Quintam Essentiam (The Fifth Essence) in which the whole of nature is understood. From the same substance, divided into three parts according to their essence from the pure, God created the angels and the Cœlum Empyreum (Empyrean heaven), through this clarity and truth the pure souls share with the angels in nature, through which sharing there is a perfect union between them in the glory.

And from the other, God created the sky, which is the
firmament, the planets, namely the sun and moon and
all the stars, and from the third part, which
was not so pure and pure, God created this world.

And you have
to understand this not as it was told to you before, but as it
was created entirely at the same time according to the will of the Supreme
Creator without any succession of effects and without any
preceding material that looks to the descending
generation or arth (quam respiciat successione geminis - which he regards as the succession of twins) then
Let no creation or divine work prevent
the Lord Entitatis from looking at the Creator, which is drawn for
creation apart from nothing in the essential entity:

That's why you want to understand what I said and now want to say
with a Sumentifico Spiritu (I believe in the Spirit) and not coarse nor
mean then we are talking here after looking at the work
of nature which you can compare in our masterpiece,
so we tell you this through an example that you can give us
You probably understand what has now been said.

Then the Supreme Creator
divided this impure part into five parts. In addition to a
pure part, God Quintam Essentiam (Fifth Essence) created the
substance of the elements which is part of the
heavenly things. And he divided this into the 4th part. The first
purification is given to the God created apart
from the other part from the nature of the elements. The other pure
part is appropriated to the air which is created apart from the
third not so pure part of nature of the elements. And
the third, not entirely pure, is attributed to the Fire
which is an element created from the 4th impure part
of the nature of the elements and the 4th impure part is
assigned to the earthly element which is created from the
fifth part so not entirely pure of the whole Nature of the elements.

And the more imperfect nature is, the more it desires
its perfection and is accomplished one with the other
because of the agreement of its created properties with its
fifth instrument, which is partial to the heavenly
cause.

Item: but there is an appetite for the perfection of nature,
namely the generation into corruption and the corruption into
generation, then its stimulus and appetite do not come
without means from the creator of nature when the event
became such that the thing came from the creator and not the creature
Therefore it also defends itself perfectly and without spoiling and
therefore when it composes through the instigation of nature, she cannot
make the thing perfect unless it is accomplished
by the Divine intelligible whiteness like the
human one which is rectified by the Divine intelligibility
.

So through the masterpiece of our work
you can understand the nature of the first elements after the
division of the third substance, which is the initial one. You
should not understand what your substance is the bad fifth
element but the 3rd or 4th substance or the other or
the first which is the elemental of the 5th part, which we
call the beginning and the bad substance through which the
previously mentioned four substance elementals, each being elemental,
are explained according to their nature as above.

These 4th
elementa were created pure and clear because of the
clear part of nature by which they were created until
a certain time which came from nature or
was predicted up to Anathuel dz, but after that the
people and animals died and those who grew Earth
dries up with the destruction of the generation that was drawn
or taken before the corruption into the generation and
afterwards (ex post) from the generation into the corruption.

Therefore
this remains an impure resolute corpus, which
has poisoned and corrupted the elementa, because of which corruption
every visible thing cannot resist for long, then nature cannot
make a thing as perfect because of its coarse and
corrupted material, as it did in its beginning Yes, the more
it continues with its effect, the more it becomes corrupted about
nature because imperfection is involved in great
corruption because of the material of the elements, which is not always
very pure: then when it does now to
transform it, that is what it needed back then attach the furthest part of the
reins or ribbon together with it.

And through them
you can understand everything that prophesies that it will
be consumed at the end of the world when Jesus Christ will come
to destroy the world (seculum - a century) through the gift from heaven
fellet who will burn everything that is not of
the truth of the 4th elements and that whole people will be shamed
by the unclean and evil in the abyss of the bright (in
abyso) but that few will be found composed of
pure strength and virtue that with the blessing you will
visibly rest over the sphere for all eternity: and
evil and unclean things will fall on the wicked and everything pure
on the blessed. That's why it will become apparent to you with your reflection
that in the end everything will go to its own place,
which is why it will come in the first place.

And understand once again that
this actual earth that we third is not a true element,
but rather it is composed of its true fifth
elements. And the fifth Elementalis substantia
differs considerably from the Elemental Body from which the
Earth is formed. How the body without the soul and the
putrefactio is brought into one and compared, or the material
is put together without a shape and form, which is
poisoned and infected by the aforementioned, through the disgusting action of
the elements from one into the other.

But in the body
Centro Terræ (In the center of the Earth) there is a virgin and true element which means that
few people cannot be burned at the Last Judgment and so
you should clearly understand the other elements and
put the former materials and bad substantiam together which,
with the division, form the formed ones into a contrary one
We have spoken with the division and said that its
substantia is not separated, which is the Quinta Essentia (Fifth Essence), and
from it there is a separate composite element for each individual.

And as I have said, the earth that we third is not a
pure element but is elemented with a natural and
consistent element. Then in their center
a virgin and true elementum is found.

So you should also understand about other elements and because
there will be nothing from the pure and pure truth of the elements,
it will burn and become completely nothing on the day of
judgment.

And then the elements will
remain clear and louder in the earth, which shines like a crystal. And
the highest creator will make such a thing with the Fire of
heaven until the great world becomes the first cause (ad causam
primam - to the first case), namely all the elements will be brought into their pure Essentiam,
which essence the Fire
will not fear afterwards then as then the Motus will become prefer to the upper nature
without spoiling everything.

And you should know that the three
Principle of all things is that which is artificial and that
God is the Creator of all things, the other Principle which
is called specimens, apart from and from him which
is called his whiteness. The third following principle,
which is called the materia created by him with the
whiteness so composed by him, is the first element that we
call Yle, which we want to explain to you when you
will understand us correctly, because it is also unnecessary for you to mention such a thing in
his species Simplici to look for our effect at the beginning:
whether you can't finish it without the Quintam Essentiam
.

But you should look for it in the Specie Composita (Composite species),
then as I said, when all the elements of this
substance are created, they are
made alive by it to create and to destroy then it is necessary
as it appears through nature.

Now when every thing that stands there under the Globo Luna
is created and formed by the pre-colored material that is called
Yle, that flows from it into every
elemental thing and into one more then into the other as
we find through nature and the all there is a room or
walks and it is his comfort, so be sure and confident
that nothing in the world can
be created or conceived without it, that it binds the corpus elementary together in
the work of nature.

And that's why we call it a nature
and the first (primordial) of each element then, out of
its bad substance, the elementa that exist
purely create the materia of nature with the divine
separation, namely the Water, Air, Fire which
are elemental bodies through the pre-colored first bad
element which is in them and from which comes understanding:

The Chronica Methaurea says: Then the species of the
Elementorum is found only in the terminis (boundaries) and in the
antecedent Principio (They precede the beginning) which is the first of the things.

When you
therefore want to understand such material, you should know that
it is a purely subject and vnio of forms in which
each form is held with its power: then this fluidity
and indifference contains in itself innumerable movements according to the
diversity of the last and middle forms which it
takes into itself through a parable of the heavenly receptions
of the last and middle shapes which
is born in the heavenly nature which was of its nature. And
through others in which it compares or
explains the same vein through the direction of its possibilities.

And through
others it is called a possibility: Then it has no
form in itself but must assume the form with the
possibility of being seen through the white like the dark nut
, so this material should be understood that one
understands nothing about it and therefore becomes written the
shape of the world as it is and in this way the
elements are ordered in the world from which every thing
is generated in the way it appears through the warm
that follows.

This is what Raymundus Lulii says.
He says the same
about the Fire that is from the warm that forms de
calido formali (of the warm formal).

Eximidius in the Turba Philosophorum of all things
that is the beginning of creatures is a nature and the same eternal
and the first who cooks everything and
brings it into natural form and shape.

Why does he say the one is eternal and the first?

Maybe someone would like to understand it from the first essence,
namely creation, but it is not true. But he calls it
an eternal that is spiritual, and first that is
the more worthy of all the creatures that arise in the elements:
Then who else is wrong: who digests and cooks and
informs the natural warm with which all things become the
right and formative figure and given shape.

Mancherleij Retzel from the Philosophical Mon.

Ptolemy says the same thing in Almagesto.
Then the sun
does not make the earth warm and also
does not use the power of the earth without the help of the moon, which, among other
signs and stars, takes more of the light and energy
of the sun than the medium between the sun and the
earth.

That's why there are two obstacles, as the philosophers
say, that one does not impress its strength on the other,
namely that one is so far from the other and the medium between
them is so equal: And so between the sun and the earth
the sun is far from the earth. And because the moon
is the means in our alchemical art,
the sun alone does not bring the tincture because of the means
and help of the moon, then it is far from when
the subtlety that affects it has not yet come and also
because of the means namely the thickness and coarseness. Therefore the moon is
necessarily required to make the sun subtle and
thin and recede and to secrete its impurities.

Since it needs more of their light and the nature
of other planets is metal. That is why Hermes and
Aristotle say of the branches that Sun is its father and
Mon is its mother. That's why the Moon is the mother and field in
which the seeds are to be dried and sown and so
we don't need anything other than what our stone and our
Alchimia then became of the moon and sun.

Therefore, in the
Epistle of the Sun to the Moon in the year when the Moon
begins to be joined together with the Sun in its
lowliness and illuminated by it, the Sun first says:
In my sister the Moon changes the degree of its
whiteness and not with another except my servant.

Then I am like a seed sown on a well-pure and pure
land or dirt which sprouts and
sprouts and multiplies and brings usury to the one who so
sown.

And the Sun continues to say to the Moon: I want to
give you my beautiful one, namely the sunshine when we
are in the slightest together.

Then
the Moon says to the sun: O Sun, you need me like the
hens' hands and I need your good food.

O Sun, because you are perfect in your customs, a father
of the bright ones, a high lord and great power, warm and
dry and I, Moon, growing cold and moist when we
are joined together in the equality of status and
stay in which nothing is then the easy thing that that
has difficulty with it in which dwelling we
will be idle by staying and we will be equal to the
man and woman who strive for noble birth and discipline
then I will take from you the nature with hypocrisy
that is the soul and wants through yours relatives
become lowly and then we want to be happy and merry at the
same time with spiritual joy, that is in the way of the sublimated
spirit, when we will ascend into the order of the
highest ancient ones and the lightness of the light, namely the
Sun, will be poured into my luminaries (Lucernæ meæ ) that
is the light of the moon outside you, namely the Suns and
outside me Moon will be an infusion of the light into the
light, that is a mixing of the lights namely the
wine with the water and I namely the Moon will forbid it from
flowing before you become my swords in color like
Dinten have put on after my solution and coagulation
when we will go into the house of love then
my body will be coagulated and on my birthday
I will be the rising Sun and my body will
be transformed into the adornment of the Suns.

Then the
Sun replied to Moon: O Moon, when you do
what you said and do not harm me,
my corpus will come back, then I will
give you a new power of penetration, which is the tincture
through which you are powerful You will be in the battle of the sea of
melting and purification, from which you will go without
reduction outside the darkness like the Sun and you will
not be attacked or overcome like the Lead
Lead if you are not stubborn and resist. Blessed is
the one who understands something in these statements and
words of mine.

The strength of the sulfur of the Mercurii is like the seed of the
father and Luna the mother, that is the actual Substantia
Mercurii, namely the watery subtle mixed with the
earthly subtle is equal to the menstruum, and that is Argentum vivum, which is called
Mercurius by the Philosophis .

But because Mercurius is the Argentum vivum, the
root of the art is Alchimiæ, then out of him through it
and in him are all metals, as the philosophers say. Versus:

Everything the Wise are looking for is in the Mercurio.

Then under
his shadow this substance lives and grows, which is why
its middle substance is incombustible, as Geber says:

Then every thing of this art is from him and with him
every tincture is composed of its likeness, namely Mercurio
.

The philosophers say: The radicalia principia of this
widely called wisdom on which it is founded are
these namely a materia or unique substance of the
Argenti vivi and Sulphuris, a smoking subtlest out of the
nature of the now painted namely Argenti vivi and Sulphuris,
the brightest produced by our artifice and clear as a
threne in which lies and dwells the spirit
Quintæ Essentiæ (Fifth Essence).

But this substance is not the Sulfur itself nor
the Argentum vivum itself, as they are in their
nature in their Mineris, but is only a part of these two
, which are not Sulfur nor Argentum vivum: as Geber says:
Which of the above-mentioned substances is smoked and fleeing
and arises in its own substance, which
then becomes another fixed and solid nature in the Argenti vivi and Sulfur is
figed and transformed, which can suffer the couple and
does not flee from it but waits in it outside or which is first congelated through
the moderate boiling and confirmation through the masterpiece of this
whiteness with others that come to these into a flowing
stone that forms tinging and remains in the sea .

Note that this thing's two principles are
namely the materia and the agent. But the materia is
Argentum vivum and Sulphur or Arsenicum, which is one.

It is also to be noted that the philosophers say that the same
Argentum vivum and sulfur through which nature expresses
its action and expression is the Argentum vivum and sulfur brought
into a watery, subtle, clearest and funniest nature : which the philosophists call Argentum vivum
and
into an earthly, subtlest material, which they call sulfur
through the trick which the philosophers
have wonderfully hidden.

The same Argentum vivum and Sulfur
is one thing and consists of one thing. That it is a thing
and is obvious that the philosophers call the reported Argentum
vivum Sulfur, and the reported Sulfur Argentum vivum
.

Therefore Geber says: A stone is an artzneij in
which the entire magisterium stands.

The other principle is the agent: Therefore the same agent is
that the material brings and moves to corruption, the werme
which is an instrument that
brings and moves to corruption and depravity: and there is no other agent in the world.

Every
corpus that suffers is
brought back to its first materia through the effects of the forces so that it reflects its nature:
which first materia is Argentum vivum, because it is a part
of all things that can be melted and drawn. The materia prima
but of the metals is the fat vapor that everyone's nature contains,
namely Mercurii and Sulphuris.

Likewise,
the moist fat is the materia of our Argenti vivi Philosophici:
and the substantia of its fatness is the actual materia
essentialis of Sulphuris. In which you will be able to understand publicly
that you cannot fix one thing without the other like the
materia without a form, which is why the sulfur stands like a
complexing calor in the substantia argenti vivi, and
stands there like the strength of the male seed which
stands in it Women seed or like another procreative
power.

Raymundus says this:

And there is nothing in the world that is not naturally
composed of the substance of the four elements for the
benefit of every natural good: and according to their
experiences, there is nothing more essential than the Sulfur
and Argento vivo, which are pure and pure and incombustible in
the first point of its creation and that is the beginning,
the genus or materia prima, and the middle substance into
which nature incorporates and infects all its colors by
inscribing various substantia.

The same colors come
through the properties of the fifth nature of Sulphur and
Argenti vivi, through the incitement of their nature from the fact
that our stone is found in all places because of its
properties and through this experience we clearly recognize
that this is the prima materia of all universals through
corruption and generation are formed according to their
composition and as in every thing from such a
material everything that is in the world takes its substantial
form, spiritual and accidental:

That is why it is
found in all ears and in all things then as
Raymundus says: In all things, after their ultimate purification,
the materia prima of all things is found in each of them in the
form of Mercurii, which materia is called genus
generatiuum ens reale, terminus materialis naturæ (the genera being a real being, the limit of the material nature), in which
nature takes its principia materialia in the act of
generation it is the first subiectum in nature.

For
then the species are transformed into a different form, then they
were first transformed, and not the species,
but the individual species, then these same individuals,
being the filling or sensitive actionibus, are subjected
to the fact that they are destructive to one another.

But when
the species are universal, they are
not subject to the sensitive actionibus (sensibilibus) and therefore
they are not corruptible to themselves. But the species Argenti,
which is the silverness, is not transformed into the
form of gold, which is guildenheit (aureitas) or guildification and
neither on the other hand, namely the form of gold is not
transformed into the form of silver. Then the true and right
species cannot be transformed but the individual
species are brought into their materiam primam.

Then when its form and shape will be corrupted and
resoluted into the primam materiam, then
another new form will necessarily be brought into it or introduced then the
corruption of one is the generation of the other because but the material
cannot be destroyed in any way so that it cannot be destroyed by
one Form would therefore remain when a form of the metals
is destroyed, it is introduced into each other without any means,
namely through the transformation of Mercurii into Sulphur, to
our effect that we mean: Each
individual also multiplies the form of his own species, and not of another.

As Aristotle and Raymundus say:
When the first
form of the body is formed through the wrong elementation
in Mercurium, it is in a black color in a
stinking smell and subtly to be attacked in such a
bad nature but being the four elements
put together can be destructive and can be resoluted in water of the
Mercurii, after putrefaction.

So far Raymundus, and when
I say Mercurial water I don't want
to mean mere Mercurium but the Mercurium of the
Philosophorum, a red substance extracted from the
Mineris, which has the materia of Sulphur and Mercurium in it
.

That's why Lilius says:
It is necessary to
collect the sulfur in abundance, which swords the body. And
such sulfur we say is the water that makes itself
black and white and makes itself red and fixed.

That is why Mercurial water is the first material of all
metals and with it all metals are soluted that
cannot be soluted in other water.

And if
the metals were not
dissolved into their material primam by this Mercurial water, then this was not
brought about that one is looking for, as Aristotle says:
And this
is not the work of a craftsman but a work
of nature which the craftsman helps and
provides .

Albertus says:
Then of all the arts,
Alchimia follows nature the most and because of its
cooking and reproduction then it is
boiled in metallic fibres and red waters which contain the most
of the form and the least of the materia.

Then
the other arts follow nature in the same way,
Alchimia but with the pure truth. That is why it is not
weaker then nature then an art or art master
only serves him but it is more natural white and is
accomplished and that is why it is said: You need that you In the
solution of the Liechter you first work which
is the first degree of the effects that they become Argentum vivum.

Then the philosophers say when the bodies do not
become void bodies and the void bodies become good bodies, then
you will not harm anything. And you shouldn't understand that the
corpus became a bad, purely elemental corpus, because the
bad is not changed and does not exist on the market of
nature but rather the well put together, that
is the rough one: then an elemental element alone that makes
one slow corruption and slow generation within oneself.

And that's why the bad elements are of little use in this
art because they are not the essence of the
elements in which there are forces that transform, produce
and destroy. That's why the bad elements, apart from the
generation and corruption, are not without a cause, then they
do not stir the natural moisture that makes everything
come into being.

And although it
was immediately turned into water, it became dry by force, not by nature,
like the salts and alums, and was thus melted by
the heat. Also according to the truth of the matter when the corpus
should be brought into the first element according to the
opinion of those who say that it has to be brought into water,
the water was not the first among the elements even though they
say so and draw the saying here Moijsi's (Moses) first
book is there.

The Spirit of the Lord hovered over the water before the
creation of the heavens and the earth as follows:
Not to mention that in the creation of the elementa the water
was the element, since the elementa of air
and sea were the first, as was said above .

Although water is the first element in
our work among the visible elements that we see and touch , there are only two element formalities in art that we see and touch or fill, namely water and earth, since you otherwise have the power (virtual liter) 4. For the air is water and the earth is in the earth.

Then Rasis says:
everything that is
created under the Globo lunari and by the highest craftsman has a share with
the 4th element not only through seeing but through
effect and effect.

Then we call the watery element the moisture of the
water, the air, we call the nature of the air, the water
that has the power it has with which it burns, calcines, and
dissolves the bodies.

The earth is the thick and coarse corpus in itself and so the water and the earth are seen and felt
by us, the other two are understood in these two. Therefore it follows and must follow that in the art of Alchimia the metals are first brought into the Mercurium, which is in Argentum vivum, of which all metals are materia and sperm.

Therefore Geber says:

There is Mercury boiled and made fat in the belly of the earth by the sulphurous light of whoever boils it.

And after the transformation of the sulphur, and after its
multiplication, various metals are created in the
earth. Then their Materia Prima is one and the same but
they are different only by the accidental action, that is,
large or small decoction, tempered or untempered,
which burns or not, so
all philosophy say unanimously, then each of these, namely the
Argentum vivum and so on Sulphur is first transformed into an earthly
substance, after which
a very small smoke is released from these two earthly substances, which
is the subtlest and purest because it is
cooked and digested by the verm in the bowels of the earth and is
transformed into the nature of an earth So you take on a
fixation and are transformed into a metal.

Please note that the last term in nature is the transformation of the
cooked and raw, namely what natural way
an art master strives for and wil is the substance of the
sulfur, which does not burn when it is transformed
, it is a close materia to our Realis Elixiris, and pure metals
the first and the next nature that has changed through who
my body is, namely with the change through which it
could take on a more real and closer shape and form
with the will of the congruent (match) mineral nature.

And this moisture was no different in the Argentum
vivum, raised by the melted body inside and
out. With this Argento vivo, the
qualities of the sulfur are mixed through the movement and therefore it is changed
as nature requires through itself and its own values:
through the transformation of its nature it is transformed and
congelirt into sulfur then you can take it away through
nature other moisture more proper and finished
is then transformed into the Substantiam Sulphuris (The substance of Sulphur) into which the
quality of its own sulphur, being sufficient, has been introduced
by a natural understood which history
through an artifice which moisture is Argentum vivum in
the form of a clear water like the milk in the heat and
the sulfur, like the sperm in resticulis.

The same Argentum vivum has no contradiction that arises
from its complexion, which is why such an Argentum vivum is even tempered because of the complexion of its body.

That's why I want to know: that this materia of its own is not
common to Argentum vivum, with its entire substance. But the reason
why you have to bring a metal to the nature of the vapor
then we see that everything is created through the help
and means of Mercurii vivi, so that it can also be created itself.

As
an example. Man was begotten by his father
through means and through the seed and begets the
other son also through the seed and thus from the
others. That is why the Mercurial nature is so that we
are fed and nourished. Without Mercurium,
the life of animals and branches is not there.

When
you remove it from everything where you want,
corruption and death follow soon after because it is the ferment
of the Life and origin of all things as the philosopher
says. And Raimundus says:
the body which
is the
first to be converted
into the substantiam of the Sulphur was converted
and converted. Then there is no Argentum vivum finished
transformed into the substantiam of the sulphur, then that in
which the sulphur's quality
has been sufficiently guided through the dissolution.

Nor is there a sulphur, which
converts the Argentum vivum finished then this into which
substantia the Argentum vivum itself stands, which is now transformed
is through the understanding of nature and art that Gold is
transformed into Materiam Primam.

Then, as the surrounding
nature surrounds its own nature, the more friendly it is,
the more external it is, as all philosophers shout
and say, nature only rejoices in its nature and
nature only commends its nature.

And Hermes: it does
not agree with the thing without what is closest to it in its
nature and produces children or offspring in the thing that
are like it. That is when you look for the Artzneij that
produces the metals, then you will be the origin of the metals.

Then the species is given by its genere Tingiret. As the
philosopher says. It is also an easy passage in which the people
work together or collude with each other and you should not understand that the Metalla are brought
into bad elemental water then apart from that bad and simple nothing comes out of it but out of what is put together.

---

Now comes the approach to the work.

There are four governments or degrees in this art.

The first degree of government history with calcination, the
corpus should first be calcined.

The other with the solve then you should solve it.

The third with the distillation then it should be distilled
or sublimated.

The fourth with a mild Fire Congeliren (They would freeze) and in these four
governments or Gradibus (Steps) stands the right and goods
preparation, therefore the body and Spiritus Mercurii are twoj
necessary things of this thing and work to perform miracles
as Geber says:
the confidence stands in 2. things to which
also that third is placed and says: three faces that is
three shapes I have seen in a father that is
gender or breeding that was born there.

Then Morienus says:
then three species are sufficient for the entire
masterpiece, namely the white smoke, which is the fifth
power, namely Heavenly Water and the Green Lion and
Hermetis, its silver and with which they
prepare the work at the beginning, in the middle and at the end.

Likewise
Eximidius in the Turba Philosophorum:
through the tempered materials
a fat, moist substance is extracted from the metallic material,
which is subtly mixed with the earthly matter and is well
purified, which is called elixir with which the metals
are transformed, which is why the external
materials are required.

That is what it is Artifical and Material Fire
Tempered and brassy warm, namely that the internal
heat stays with it, it retains its moisture so that it naturally
comes with itself when the external calor (heat) is too high (si excedit - if it exceeds)
so that the fat moisture
is mixed with the subtle earthly one strong Fire and does not wait in the
body.

Therefore, everything that is superfluous, coarse and solid must be
gradually purified and made subtle through vigorous and long cooking (per lentam).

Likewise,
every thing in the world, that is, every elemental corpus, has
within itself the Calidum radicale seu formale (Warm radical or formal), through which cause it
exists and by which its seed is multiplied.

And
in Mercurio this is his middle substantia in gold, his
brimstone, which directs the materials to the end and to their
natural form.

And there is no thing so cold that it has not
been wormed and preserved under the warm, namely
when it is enclosed in it than in the root as the
philosopher says: like the Mercurii, the earth is its
actual tincture very subtle in which the light of the suns
and Menstrui is held and the subtle middle substantia
of Mercuri and the burden and foundation of the masterpiece.

And if
the material from which our medicine is made
has its origin in the Argento vivo and from it it should
be created without any means to which you
should not introduce anything else, then that comes from it in the peculiarity
of its nature and in the same step (in passu) your son
of the teaching is particularly told and shown that this material
from which we make our medicine is not Argentum
vivum in its nature when it has now turned into sulphur,
nor in its entire substance when the last or
The outermost part of the earth and water will
be separated from the same substantia.

Yes, Trauw, it is a
blessed stone and spirit that is part of the
two first ones. But even though the stone
has become sulfur from its middle substantia, it is poorly
called Argentum vivum. Then the sulfur illuminates and
decays before burning, which is his own creation as
a sign of perfection, says Raymundus.

And
in addition to a pound of Mercurii you will obviously
have the medium Lotonem, which is 2. Trachmas which takes the work
and holds it in it to make a tincture or elixir.

Calid says:
The water that is Mercurius or Argentum
vivum no longer gives weight to the body as much as it
has with it or in itself from the metallic moisture then the
moisture of the water disappears and the metallic remains.

And the white redness of our ore Transforms the
metallic substance Argenti vivi into redness and into a wonderful,
strange guilder tincture.

The father's seed and own
substantia Mercuria is his mother then ir menstrum that is
to be erased and only the father's seed is retained and
accepted, which is his middle substantia
which brings about and protects this seed of Mercuri from burning
and cannot be removed from Mercurio
either nit his menstruum, dz is that superfluous moisture
departs from him without the coagulum, which has such seeds in the
Mercurio Congulire and he does not hold it in the
superfluous moisture with it as the coagulum of the
milk coagulates the milk and its better dz is the middle
substantiam to himself.

And so the spirit, that is the
water, will not
be dissolved without the help of the body Coaguliret which is so dissolved in it because the bodies are the coagulum of this milk
that is the Mercuri and such a coagulum should be
either the Sun or the Moon so that it is in that Mercurio
solves his problem.

And yet only the Moon to the wise and the
Sun to the white and red work then the suns is
called the ore Hermetis, when the philosophers alone
speak of their ore, that is of the suns they are such and
such or is a coagulum ours Mercurium that is
our water coagulated:

Then Constans says in the Turba:
don't worry
about anything else then there are two different Argentum vivum, the fixed
one in the ore and the fleeing one like that, that's
Mercurius and one keeps the other in his sight and prevents
him the escape. And here you have the greatest secret.

Likewise Raimundus says:
The dz corpus in this art is
a metallic Ens in which the power of the mineral
spirit rests. And the metals are the spirit from which
every stone is made. The spirit, however, is
said to be a mineral force in which the natures of the metals
rest.

And every stone is
made from the metal spirit and the same spirit, according to the way the
alchemists consider it, is called Mercurius then he is called
the first and next nature as considered in this art
and the first material of the metals and can still be
said The earth was brought to the earth that something of the spirit
remained with the earth, the mixed spirit was sublimated
through the sublimation of the fire of the third degree, and
was transformed into blistered earth, which is called the
Quinta Essentia of the earths of the metals and by several
Philosophis Argentum vivum, Mercurius or Sulfur of nature.

And the earth or dust as it remains is
used as yeast or slag, a vaporized dust that you
do not need. Then it is a cursed dust that occurs
when you read a little drem: but the Argentum vivum
that you have conquered is the earth of the body, which
passes through the Alembicum at the same time as the menstruo, and the sulphur
of nature is the sublimated spirit of the metals and the there is
transformed and brought into the plastered earth, which is the
first and next material of the metals.

The Prima Materia is also called Terra foliata.

But it is necessary that the remaining
spirit is transformed into blistered earth through sublimation
so that the pure is separated from the impure, the subtle from the
thick and coarse earthly, and that the
vitalizing spirit is drawn like the
basilisis in the animals and the sulphur in the casting of
metals.

It is also necessary that you
want to do something differently, which henget and compt from the first things like the form of
all forms that has settled into the 4. venerable
natures and is called the soul of the elements and
such that then every Forma Substantialis compt comes from
without any means of the fifth related things: we want
it to be called a mother of all other formarum.

And
you should not understand that this form or spirit
is warm or cold, wet or dry, neither man nor woman: but
you should understand that because of its great
perfection it is shared with each and every one of the other
4. natures: then without in defense none Complexion in a
complex, as we see publicly and with certain
experience recognize in the bond of joining and
mixing of the four elements: which cause contradiction through
their contradictory qualities, which contradiction the
mentioned elements cannot reconcile for the fact that they
were united and became one if this was not the case Venerable means
of defense which diffuses through all the elements and is
shared with each of its natures and makes peace
between the enemies.

This is what Raymundus says.
The strength of the
Sulfur Mercurii is like the first seed and a mother,
therefore he says his father is Sun, which is Sulfur, and the Moon is
the mother, which is the actual substance of the Mercurii, namely
the subtle watery substance mixed with the earthly subtle one
like the menstruum: its teacher is the earth, namely
the earthly subtle in which it has the humidum radicale.

And the earth is called the mother of the elements then
she bears the son in her womb - that is to say that she
must nourish him outside of the pure first substance.

And the Son
is called the Corpus or Terra foliata, that is the Spiritus
or dead body and it is necessary that the Spiritus, in
which the entire power is inseparably placed,
to his subtle earthly mind with a great and lovely
understanding: do this moistly to dry it will be happy
then the wet is the spirit and soul the dry is
called the earth or dead body, therefore they cannot
enter the souls of the bodies without the spirit.

And it is
also necessary that we reveal the hidden, namely the
warm and dry, and hide the revealed,
namely the cold and moist.

Likewise the stone is a moist
water-based spirit, our Mercurius but that is the tincture
is drawn from an incorruptible grain which
was created by the divine is strong and let me
tell you that this Mercurius is not mean because he would
not be coagulated so soon.

In the same way, above all, it will
be useful and good
to clean the spirit, namely mercury, from its superfluous liquids and
to create a substance in it that you cannot find superfluous watery
moisture.

Nor is it an earthly substance that
is combustible and poisons the plant, but only its fatty,
airy substance in which the Spiritus quinte Essentiæ
is hidden, which alone is largely responsible for
corrupting the gold and transforming it into its Materiam Primam.

But it
is the greatest secret in art and
completely elucidated by the ancients that makes gold completely
flee (volatility) and transforms it so that it becomes spiritual.

Which effect is wise and away as you know &c.
Likewise the tincture is the composition of the stone of
Fire and Air of gold or silver. Or so: it is a
composite made up of the fire and air of gold or
silver. Or so: it is a tinting body that
comes from and is composed of two elements,
namely the gold and the gold, the red and the
silver the white.

These descriptions are the form in
which the tincture is viewed in this art: according to which
you can recognize that every alchemical tincture is
is necessary and comes from the
metals now mentioned.

The same thing brings something that is equal to it in nature
and that is natural and artificial then gold is the
starting point for everyone who wants to make art.

Anyone who
wants to report something should not look for a stone or
a branch, but rather the fire, which is the beginning of the
fire. That's why, dear son, when someone wants to make gold,
metaphorically, don't look for sulfur alum or arsenic,
but rather the gold, which is the beginning of gold making.

Tinging, with the Tingirting, is transforming and bringing the Tingirting into its nature and remaining
with it without any separation, as in the nature of the figuring Tingirting and the Tingirting. The stone is a corpus composed of the Quinta Essentiæ (Fifth Essence) of metals, which is otherwise called Argentum vivum, which is brought into the Actum by force (that is: because it could have become, it was made that way) (de potentia in Actum deductum - of the power brought into the Act) through the masterpiece of all beginnings of this art.

The oil is a mucilage (limositas - siltiness) of all metals that floats over the menstruation after its dissolution, but it is necessary that the bodies are transformed into oil.

If this is not the case, they will remain solid within themselves and what we are looking for will not become and This was ultimately followed by a putrifaction at the very beginning of this art.

The menstruum is that for the sake of which the bodies of the
metals are dissolved with a natural dissolution
and their spirits de potentia are brought ad actum (to act) and
according to this definition and description it is indicated
that the dissolution of the metals should not take place then begin with
the pre-melted and when If you did it differently,
there would be no good effect but nothing at all.

The elixir of the Philosophorum is
brought together from three sources, namely the Monstein Sunstone and
Mercurial. In the monster stone arises the white
sulphur, and the sun the red sulphur, and the
Mercurial stone understands the white and red of both natures
and this is the star of the entire masterpiece.

Rasis says the same thing
. The white and red come from one root
and sprout except that there is no other kind of body in between,
that is apart from the sun then when the sun
is not there or absent, the ☿ Mercury is robbed of its effect then
alone from the materia and form becomes the true one procreation.

And
in the flowers of the secret nuts it is said: Make a
flouring of the raw man and his white
wife and you will have the complete masterpiece.

And in the
Speculo it is said: the Philosophical Stone rises from a
humble thing into the most precious treasure: that is, from the seed
of gold, rejected through the Coitum into the Bermutter Mercurii,
that is through the first mixing.

That is why Verax says : when the sun is placed together
with its equal, namely Mercurio, there will be pregnant branches. Then the soul of the spirit and tincture come from them through a tempered fire.

Likewise, the nature of this wise and red stone is that
it holds the medium among the metals and Argento vivo. Then
the Argentum vivum cannot be united with the metals in
any way and with anything, just as the
soul cannot be united with the body without the
spirit, which holds the medium between the soul and the body: and
that is why the wise also say.

Like a human being, our earth has
a spirit corpus and a soul for the sake of which they
said three and these three are one and in one there are three of the
spirit, body and soul become one and all things are apart from
one.

And the preparation that they call is a transformation
and division in which it is transformed from one thing into the other,
just as the human seed in the mother
is transformed from one thing into the other in the natural
preparation until a perfect human being
is formed which was its root and beginning.

And
it is not transformed by this,
nor does it depart from its root, and from the division from one thing to
that thing without the entry of another thing beyond that:
without the blood menstruorum, out of which the seed was,
that is out of the blood which is like him and in this
he makes his own.

In the same way, an egg without the entry
of another thing above it will be transformed from one state into
another and will be divided from one thing into one thing
and will easily become a young dog that will fly like the other
from which it had the roots and beginning.

In the same way, everything in the earth changes its appearance and is
changed and corrupted, after which
they sprout from greenery and are multiplied like the
multiplied things from which they
had their roots and beginnings.

And that is why the minerals are not increased
because they emerge from their roots, but each one compensates
for what it was and is not
transformed into something else. And whoever says otherwise is denying and speaking
falsely.

That is why this is the transformation and division that the
wise want to have, just as the sperm Philosophorum is
water of life or living water, but the earth is an
imperfect corpus, which earth
is called a mother because it is the mother of all the elements.

Therefore , when
the sperm Mercurii is put together with the
When the body is grounded, it is dissolved in the water of the semen
and becomes water without division. Likewise, the entire
beneficium and benefit of this art is in the Sun and Mercuri.

Then, when they are both put together as one, they make the
stone of the Philosophorum, and have an uncealed tincture;
Then in the body it turns a color that is redder than blood.

Then
when a little of such colors
is poured into white that is in Moon, it changes the size of the white into citrine color. But the
preparation of these things from the beginning to the end is the
venerable fixed water then it reveals the tincture in the
throwing and is a mediator between the contrary ones and
it is also the beginning of the middle and last.

Whoever
understands this has grasped whiteness. And know that there
is no good in the imperfect body, that is accomplished
through the fact that there is good in the perfect body.

Then
the perfect corpus, if it remains in its coarseness, cannot
in any way or in the least have the power to
separate the sulphurous earths from the mixed
imperfect ones and to transform the same imperfect mixed ones into
its perfect nature: that is why it is necessary
that the perfect corpus is made subtle before it
has enough power.

But it is only then subtle when it has been brought to the
living silveriness. And when the same living silverness of
the perfect body is fixed, it represents the living silverness,
which is not fixed, of the imperfect body.

But the living
silverness, which is not fixed, is there in the imperfect
bodies, which, with its flight and speed, separates the
living silverness which is there fixed from the perfect
bodies and makes them
glorious and fully accomplished through the process of transformation.

Then it is certain that every thing is from and outside of
which it will be resolved against. But all metals will be
brought back to the living silver, which is how they were
before Argentum vivum.

And so
the opposition and opinion of those who say
that the Species Metallorum cannot be transformed is resolved and repealed
, which is true, as they say, when one understands why
they are not brought back ad Primam Materiam.

Then as then
one has the right and actual seed of the metals
from which the metals are created artificially. Then just as
the metals were begotten by nature from the
metals' own seed, so they can also
be begotten in part by the same seeds.

Then the
Argentum vivum of the perfect bodies is fixed when it
has been boiled by the sulphurous light in the belly
of the earth with a medium and temperate action,
but the fixed sulphuriness and the fixed living silverness are
a fixed substance in the dieffen of the substance of gold and
silver.

And such a substance is the subtlest and purest
of an easy and slight melting like wax and is
fixed over the battle of the fire.

Therefore they coagulate through
the mentioned Sulphur and Argentum vivum, the Argentum
vivum, and transform it into the sun and moon nature
(natura Solisica & Lunisica) and also transform all metallic
and imperfect bodies into a perfect sun
and moon nature.

That is why art is created beyond
what is said here, like this whiteness in a few days or
hours that nature does in 1000 years. Merck. Each
fixed salt is placed in front of a body or band and
such a salt is extracted from the calcined things and
our salt, which is a tincture
, is extracted from lime of the metals through the putrefaction until the entire
composite has laid down its nature and expressed it and a
accepts others.

Of such a salt Senior says:
firstly there will be ashes
after salt and from the same salt through various
effects the Mercurius Philosophorum.

Raymundus says:

Art always needs chalk, which is its own earth in which
the greatest mineral power is used
to make the mercury hard, then it always flows through the middle and last of the stone, so it should not be forgotten, after which the spirit and soul of the body
should reflect
and so the
corpus is awakened and the spirit and soul in the body
die so that the saying of the philosopher so
speaks became true. Whoever dies with me will also die with me again
.

Which you should understand: then the spirit, which is
Mercurius, is the place and seat of the souls and is the body of the
Mercurii and the spirit is the dry water of the
Philosophorum, namely the middle substantia ☿ Mercury, who lives there,
which spirit fills the soul of the perfect
bodies.

But the soul is the solvated tincture in the spirit, which
is the water of the Philosophorum. Then how the common tincture
is carried in its water and the cloths are tinted and
the dyed water runs into the cloth and then the
water deviates due to the drying out and the tincture remains in the
cloth. So the water of the wise, in which their tincture is,
is what they bring over their white, blessed and thirsty
earths and the water Philosophorum runs into their earths: and
is physically stretched out in them and tinctures the earth.

Afterwards
, the spiritual water leaves the place and the soul remains in
the body, which is a tincture because it is a subtle smoke
that cannot be seen and its effect or effect
does not then appear in the body. Then our entire masterpiece
will be with our water and from it and from it are all
the necessary things.

Then it dissolved the bodies with a
philosophical solution that turned them into water,
which is what they were initially like.

As Socrates says:
The secret
of every thing is life, namely water, as
Hermes says:
the water of the air that arises there and is
between heaven and earth is the life of every thing
then the same water dissolves the body in spirit and out of
that dead it makes a living and a marriage
between man and woman then it makes the whole joy of
art.

And note that the Argentum vivum or Spiritus
is twofold, namely the two tinged. The spirit prepared in this way
dissolves the body and cleanses it of the corrupting
causes and draws out the other spirit that
stands and influences the body and brings the body to itself through
the dissolution and softens its hardness.

Illuminates the
body and raises it up in which it
separates and removes their darkness and impurity from the purest parts
and exalts the bodies in which it brings them into a
higher nature and makes them subtle because it
becomes solid and spiritual. And these are the benefits and spices
of the spirit, or Argenti vivi, that prepares the body and
the tinging spirit is distinguished from him.

This spirit,
which is Argentum vivum, is primarily grossly impure and volatile
because of the sulphur, which it encounters in the various parts of the earth
and is mixed into it. Through the seasoning but the art which
history through the distillation and sublimation it is
renewed, cleaned, boiled, made thick and
coagulated by the white and red sulfur.

And this spirit that is
prepared there is of two kinds: The first is a dry vapor, not
glue-like, very sawr (multæ acedinis) very subtle, the one that
breathes the face of the couple from a light one, it has a
great power to penetrate and resolve the mineral
bodies.

And this spirit is called Mercurius in addition to the words that have many different meanings. But
Mercurius is a spirit, which is why he is also
called a dry spirit with the first word, reason.

And
it is necessary for such a spirit to
be sealed in a well-preserved oil jar and that is what Albertus wants:

Then the same spirit is produced from waterless things
(ex rebus ponticis - from Pontic matters) and he calls it wet, dry and
fertile. The other prepared spirit is moist in the vapor,
not fat, but rather chewy and sticky beyond sawr
mediocre subtlety, which easily defies the
impetuousness of the fire and which in it does not become and
perishes, it has the power and power to solve the bodies and spirit
: and is a water that arises within itself.

This is also what Albertus and many others want, even if they
describe it in other things. And this spirit is also
called a Mercurius with a very loud word, and
this is beyond comparison and concordant speech.

Then Mercurius, as the philosophers say, has the
greatest virtue and strength to transform and
permeate the body on a level, he does not stand and does not
except the test of the Fire (examen ignis non expectat - He did not wait for the examination of the fire) so
it is different from the two spirits, and for this reason
they are both called Mercurii.

In addition to these, take the
right understanding in the sayings of the Philosophorum, then
the understanding will be easy in this and another and you
will see completely that the Philosophi do not
err among themselves, as many of them
have held and viewed.

And if you notice that a different one is fat (Vnctuosum)
and a different one is glue-proof (Viscosum) then
a stone is prepared from the moist glue-proof one and produced from the
fat one but the metal. The tinging spirit, however, is the
Philosophical Mercurius with its red or white
sulphur, which is naturally mixed with it and mixed into the minerals
and veins or areas of the earth (Viscera terræ), mediocrely
prepared and sent to the good grace of the art master
until it is perfected.

The other Argentum vivum is a permanent tincture which
is extracted from the perfect bodies through
dissolution, distillation, sublimation and subtleization.

And such an Argentum vivum is called an
incombustible oil soul and air and a shine of the
body then it gives an immortal or incorruptible eternal
life to the deceased and imperfect metallic
bodies and therefore enlightens them so zeuch the Argentum
vivum or Philosophical Stone apart from those Bodies
as from the Argento vivo, then they are of the same nature, so
you will have mercury and sulfur from the same material
above the earth from which gold and silver come and
were created in the earth.

The same thing is left in the Turba, that the whole truth
in alchemical art is only this,
namely that one puts the wet with the dry and this is
permitted by all philosophy.

For the wet, I mean a spirit that is white or
moist and cleansed of all filth, and for the dry,
I mean a completely pure and calcined body:
and then this two parts are certainly present,
or are in the process of dissolving and coagulating.
Dissolving is and means transforming the body into the nature of the spirit
.

But coagulating means, on the contrary,
making the spirit corporal and that the fixed becomes fleeting
and the fleeing fixed and then you will
have the complete masterpiece.

---

Now follows again from the beginning of the work,
namely the preparation of the first Mercurii.

Remember when our stone is made, place it with
its entire substance in our vessel and close the
mouth of the vessel completely with the excrement of the masterpiece
so that it cannot breathe.

Rule it in the made fire until
most or more of it is turned into black dust
which will happen in one and twenty days and then
these distillations will happen namely the solution
distillation division putrefaction washing off ceration
coagulation or fixion.

Likewise, the extraction of the tinctures is the first step;
nothing of the body remains in the body that does not
rise with the moist spirit with which the body
is made moist and wet and transformed into clear water.

First the swords appear and in the first work
it becomes completely pure: The other thing is that the whole thing
is dissolved, the moist corpus, I mean, and that it becomes earth,
namely a stone, and earth namely congelated in it in
the color of the melted beaker Their combination
is extremely necessary, namely the body and spirit, and when you see
at the beginning of its work as red grains and in the coagulation as fish eyes and black pepper, you should know and consider that you have walked the right path.

But when the entire mixture will be in vain and perish, you do not yet know how the spirit will be transformed into a body.

Asiduus the Philosopher says:
The earth is coagulated and becomes air, but the air is coagulated and becomes water, but the water is coagulated and becomes earth. Behold, the enemies come together in one nature, which when they are attacked they become enemies, namely in the separation of the elements.

If you reverse this rule, on the
contrary, you transform the body into a spirit: That is why you must
make it completely small in the earth, that is, you must
make the earth spiritual, that is tinging and then you have
accomplished the whole thing:

That is why Plato says, you People you should all know
that every thickness rests in the earth then the thick of the
fire falls into the air and the thick of the fires and the
air falls into the water and the thick that falls out of the thick of
the fires air and earth is united that falls there into the earth.

Gratianus when asked how does the body become a spirit?

So he answered and said: The earth is
dissolved into water, the water into air and the air into air and
this is the way through which the body becomes a spirit.

Hermes says the same: Put the man and the woman
together in their own water, for without the man and woman
no son is conceived.

Another says the same: When
the king saw that the water coagulated itself, he
was certain that the thing was true and right as
indicated by the will that one has sought of the Sulfur with the
Mercurio.

You should not understand anything else.

Now follow then,
put it in a wide glass and put it in the putrefaction between
warm ashes and the ashes in which the glass stands, in which
the old one sits, they should go up to the height
of the same old one, namely to the height of the belly of the
oil jug.

So says Rosarius: and let it stand there for forty days
or more, depending on the size of the matter, until it is
accomplished. This is what all philosophers do in common:

Then every generalis actio has a time in which it
is accomplished and ends. As Aristotle says: Mundus
and Attamius say in the Turba: And put it in the
putrefaction forty days that is forty weeks a day by a week
as in the vulva the sperm shows up that is
nine months or more according to the size of the material then
clean it him from his sword.

And Rosarius says: You should be
most careful in your purification and be careful
not to stifle your virtus activa or
strangling strength in yourself.

Then the seeds of all
things that grow outside of the earth will not multiply,
nor will they grow when their generative power
is taken away by an external plant, as the philosopher
says: And purify through the distillation first with a
sweet distillate then moderately distill the mercury with
something sterckern Fire which Mercurius the souls of the
sun or moon after the sun and moon are all
there with themselves and do not distill with a strong desire
that the earths - that is the element of the earths - also
goes away in the distillation, because that alone is enough The
superfluous Mercurius is the one who cannot
be dried out with the body.

And what remains in the cucurbita is
our salt, that is our soil and if it is black in
color it is a trache that eats its tail then is the trache
The materia remains in the ground after the distillation of the water
and the same water is called the
tail of the trach and the trache is its swords and the
trache is imbibed and coagulated with its water and
so it eats its tail and you should eat the ashes like that

Basically, it is not to be disrespected, then it is the crown of your
heart and an ashes of the lasting ones: As Morienus says,
distill it with me so that the body
is not brought back into a solid lump or even too
dried out and burnt and distill it with it such a
few (fire) that when a drop starts to fall LXVIII as
Arnoldus says or LXX some say LXXX
you can count the moment before the other drop falls and when the drop
exceeds that amount, then draw out the few (fire) as Rosarius
says: But if it goes slower, multiply it Fire a little
and do not follow your previous training and imagination
to make the Fire stercker at the end of the distillation: But
with a sweet and gentle fire from which the
following verse is made: When the other is made equal
to the understanding, nature rejoices : And so
expect the distillation with the patience of fulfillment.

The sign of the completed distillation is that you have distilled the means of
Mercurii or more of the earth through the Alembicum
which you have placed over it and that the earth
remains white and melted: as Arnoldus says:

Put this white earth into a glass that has a long neck and
seal it with the seal of Hermetis and place it in warm ashes.

First of all eight days leisurely in warm ashes, the other days
the ashes should be worm and should
stand in such ash for five and twenty or thirty natural days so that
the earth is dried out and dry remains in
the bottom of the vessel then do agitation and
movement of the vessel very strongly and quickly with your hand
then the material that is the earth will attach itself to the
sides of the vessel. The more the materia is putrefied, the more
attached it is, as Rosarius says.

And since it
became several times larger (mioraretur) due to the destruction or extinction of the fire (Ignis occasu - Fire setting) and the material was stepped
on too much to the other parts of the vessel, then it is necessary that the above-mentioned grinding in the glass also takes place a glass club and so you have the earth that was first.

Then there are only two formalia elementa in our stone from which it is prepared and prepared, namely the water and earth: although all four elementa are powerfully (virtual) in it and where it is said that our stone is from the four elements, that is not the case through the written understanding (per intellectum Literalem) that it is earth, it is not water, air or water, but rather it is only a nature which has within it the nature and properties of all the elements.

Likewise, the whole masterpiece is that one separates the elementa from the metals and purifies them and separates the sulphurs of nature from the metals.

Then in this lies the whole work and the whole exhaustion of the masterpiece is in the division of the elements and the sulphur: Raymundus says this.

But when it is said, as Hermetis used to say: You have to
extract four elements, that is in truth no different than
the Seminarias Virtutes, which excite the painful or suffering
qualities, then those who want to interpret it in a more natural way,
many of whom have fallen into unseemly errors.

And we say that the same power is our spiritual,
mineral, which can be made bigger and stronger
so that the power was planted so that it
can sprout and green.

And when you want to take the mineral elements,
you should not take them from the first or last ones
but from the middle ones to create this stone: Then the
first ones are very bad (multum simplicia) and the last ones are very
rough (multum grossa). If you want to eat, take bread and
leave the meal alone, but if you want to make or bake bread,
then take it Slow down and let it go, that is our word
and philosophical teaching: Raymundus says this.

Likewise, the separation of the elements is a division and
separation of coincidences. And the combination of the elements
is that one piles together and brings together what is there
from the nature of the humidi radicalis: As the Turba
Philosophorum says: Raymundus also says:
You should have been patient
in the revelation, then there is a lot of slowness in it. Likewise
the sword is in every putrefaction, it should always
be greater in the work of the sun than in the work of the
moon.

As Rosarius says: Then the sun has the least sulfur of all bodies, but still contains within itself a
larger size of the Argenti vivi, from which these swords
come.

As Geber says: Then take the black,
grated earth and imbibe it with the sulfur, so that
alone The material that covers the earth is said to be floating
two or three fingers high above it
.

But the first is better then the philosopher
says: so that the Ysir is not drowned and seal the glass with
the Hermetis seal as was said above: But this is so
that those who do and eat like this do not
deviate from those who suffer until they come to complete boiling and
put it in warm ashes to dry. And on the other hand, you should do this
by soaking it up and drying it out, and also for the third
and fourth time until the earth is white enough with a fixed
whiteness. Be careful not to
mix the Mercurial impure water with the pure
body then as the moisture of the Mercurial water
will be, so will the cleanliness of the body with which water the body is washed and the more the body is washed,
the more
he also becomes whiter.

Then, with the preparation of its perfect fermentation,
it is coated with water and spices. Therefore, when the
body is not completely white, rub it with water, then
repeat and dry. Then the Azoth, which is the
Mercurial water, and Fire
wash the Latonem, which is the black earth, and cleanse it and
take away its darkness, as the philosopher says. Then the
preparation of the earth with the water is always about how
bright the water will be, so the earth will also be. This
shall take place in the whitening of the earth and the washing away.

Therefore, do not allow yourself to endure such a lengthy repetition
of grinding and frying. Then it is a natural
action that has its motum or movement and a certain time,
so that many
end in a larger space of time but in a few.

Methodus says: Then in 40 days and 40 nights the whole
work and work will be accomplished to the white on the right
and will be the purification of the stone. Then in a cleaning there can
be no certain specific time as according to which the master artist
works. And in 90 days and nights the work will be
fulfilled to the red. And these are the right times for
such great perfection.

And in 100 and 50 days and nights with the ferment to the
entire perfection of which this Versus was made. The
decoction of things history in one hundred and fifty days.

(Coctio fit rerum ter quinquaginta dierum. - The cooking of things takes place three times in fifty days.)

Then Pandolphus
says in the Turba: Then the body is
reduced in its decoction in the fourth part and Astantius says: That the fourth
part of the body is reduced in its decoction. And in the
composition of the moistening of the black earths with
Mercurio one should ensure that the glass does not
break as Rosarius says: Therefore one should keep and
notice that the water is warm and also the material, that
is, the earth of the same shape is warm and that The vessel should
be driven by hand and
held again in the worm and driven again quickly and quickly
then the material will hang on the sides of the vessel,
the material will bite and the whole thing will become like a torn mud. (Lutum
turbidum - Turbid mud) When everything goes together like young beer.

And then the glass should be sealed and it should be placed
between warm ashes so that it dries out, as it did above, until it
becomes dry dust. And one must be careful that
the spirit, which dries out the body and
is dried out by the body, does not become fleeting, then when it
flees from the body the body cannot
be perfect. That is why it is also required that the vessel be sealed
with Hermeti's seal. Then, where in our art the vessel
was not closed to contain the spirit,
all the power went out as in the creation of a metal.

Then when the smoke from which the metal was produced
found an open place in the earth, it blew out and
produced no metal. Therefore it is also history that those who do this
do not deviate from those who suffer until they
come to a complete decoction and are brought as
indicated above. And the time of each moistening to
dry out is 25 natural days or in 30. Arnoldus
says: although Rosarius speaks against it: When the
imperfect body that is the earth will be a pound
of 12 ounces, it will be fig with its moistening in 90
days.

The philosophers say that it
will be accomplished as said: Sometimes it will
take more or less time depending on the skill of the worm and because of
the larger or smaller size of the pigment. This
is what I understand about the entire period of moistening the whiteness and
redness. And this solution and coagulation or desiccation of the
black earths repeat four times and when the four
changes solution and coagulation that is desiccation
of the black earths is fulfilled then this earth will remain fixed and bright,
black in the fracture and when it is thrown onto the bodies
ends they are the same in his color. And the more
this earth is solvated and coagulated, the more
penetrating and subtle it will be in its nature.

Another says: That is why you will have to repeat the order of imbibition of the
earth of the retained water of the pearl, desiccation and calcination, four times and so you have sufficiently washed off the precious earth of the stone and administered the decoction. And through this degree of boiling of the water, drying out and clacination, you have sufficiently cleaned the raven's head the black and stinking earth and brought it to the whiteness by the fires power and clacination which is convenient to accept the fermentation which fermentation is the animatio or soul of the stone.

Socrates says: four decoctions are made leisurely one after the other, after which it should be brought to life through the fermentum and boiled again. Then he says: Set him with his water and boil him, until he melts and becomes white. After this one cooks again, it turns red and has a lovely composition. Then you should boil it again with stronger fermentation and this is the last boiling in which the body is fermented and transformed into a spirit and so there are seven decoctions everywhere and in total, namely four before the vivification, that is fermentation, and then three are signified by the seven roastings, as the philosopher also says: Our replacement has a dropsy body like Naamam the Syrius had a leprosy, so he sought the bath of rebirth and renewal seven times in the Jordan so that he could be cleansed of his innate suffering and corruption.

Then you have Sulfur and Arsenicum, which doesn't burn,
which the alchemists can use and with it
they make perfect silver. Gratianus says: Therefore make
the Latonem white, that is the ore with the Mercurio then
Laton is a composite body made up of the sun and
moon and imperfect citrine, which when you have
made it white and brought it to the previous citrine quality through constant boiling,
you again have a Latonem , which you
can draw in the same shape and to a size that suits you then you have
entered through the door and have the beginning of art.

And
then clacinier dissolvier and incerier and continue so
through the medium and when you awaken it and
make it permeate you have come to the end. Then Rasis, Morienus and
Assiduus say: Then while the earth is made white
it becomes fixed because of the fixation of the Mons but not fixed with the
fixation of the sun and therefore it tings in Lunam. And then in the
work of the moon there is a leap, which is the sublimation of the
moisture of the moon and the circle of the sun, then
after the extraction of the Spiritus Solaris from the dead
body, the history of both the replacement of the souls and
the making of the body alive. Plato says: Then in all silver there is white
sulfur, just as in all gold there is red sulfur, and such
sulfur is not found on earth, as Avicenna says, as
it arises in these two bodies. And that is why we prepare
these bodies very subtly so that we
have Sulfur and Argentum vivum from the same material
above the earth from which gold and
silver were made under
the earth.

Another way of destroying it:
Some people do it with the earth.

When you have the dried earth, put it in a
glass and put over it or on top of it the sixth or
seventh part of the Mercurio so that it is dissolved: Therefore
weigh it first and seal it Hermetice so that the flower does not
bloom and make it dry and congeal over it mildly
turn into ashes and such solution and congelation
repeat four times. When the fourth change with the
solution and congelation of our earths is fulfilled,
this earth will remain fixed and bright, black in the fracture
and when it is thrown onto the bodies it changes
its color but not the mercury.

And the more this earth
is solvated and congelated, the more penetrating and
subtle it becomes in its nature: As also
said above, the more it leans towards white in these
four solvations and congelations. But when this
decoction will be fulfilled, which is called the first one,
it must be transformed into the other one in this white way. You should
know the weight of the whole congelated as you first
knew through your division and put it in a glass
and put on it the fourth part of Mercurii so that it was dissolved
and seal the vessel like Hermeticè above, and make
it dry and congeal over the verme and a lump
of a different color will be the first one a little black and
clear.

But the disposition of the divination is confirmed and
continued according to the same water imbibition and
drying out solution and congelation until it becomes a white lump of a perfect divination which is emitted
in the fall and flows the mercury congelates perfectly and every imperfect metallic corpus is transformed into one Lunificum and real corpus.

And if you want to make your prepared elixir flee and imbibe with the other third and fourth change
, this should be done with the fourth part of Elixir Mercurii. But
if you put a greater weight of water
over the body then a fourth part of it will
not be drowned, it will be better, it will
make the body white and it will be more subtle and penetrating and
transformed with greater weight. Likewise, when a thing
is imbibed with corruption, the Fire cannot tolerate
it, the Fire cannot tolerate the corruption in it either,
so it is necessary that the stone
is masterfully and artificially extracted, purified and separated from all its corrupting
agents before you take it for yourself to fix it until it is
a pure element of the first thing.

And note that there is a more subtle artzneij that
transforms the mercury then this one that transforms the bodies. Therefore,
one should know that there is more work in whitening because of
the weights and mixtures then in the raw then
after the whitening there is no error or redness. And about the
reddening it is said that it should be done on the same
white and with the same government in all as you
did in his whitening and one should not
start it again from the beginning but multiply it alone and put as much
of the Mercurio through the solution of the Earth and the same
drying out as you did in whitening without only that
the verme is larger: And you should know the more the soul is dissolved and coagulated
with its spirit, which is not fixed, that is with its water,
the more it multiplies
and not not only in size but also in the
power and subtlety of the tincture and in the rejection
it will transform a great weight from the whiteness of the earth, says
Hali, Take what rises to the bottom of the vessel and wash it
off in warm water Swords are taken away
and its thickness deviates and
the blockages of moisture escape from it until
there is completely white chalk in it, not a speck. Then
after that the earth is comfortable and the soul can accept it.

Then the whitening is the beginning and
foundation of the entire work, then after this you cannot
feel it in the decoction then after the whitening, both fleeing ones, namely the
soul, that is the Mercurius of the body and spirit, that is
the living Mercurius who transform the earth into one not
fleeing and make them spiritual, pure from
earthlyness, airy and subtle: And so the spirit
and soul are not properly united with the body then in the
white colors: Then as then
all the colors that one sees in the world today appear in the same whiteness You can invent and
devise and are then attached and come
together in one color, namely the white, and about each other.

And note that the same variety of colors does not
appear in our stone when the
souls are joined to the body, as Morienus says: Only in a
change does the variety of colors in it appear.

The soul is a tinging spirit which, finally
surpassed by the corrupted body, rejoices that it
has become incorruptible. And so one goes into the other
and one takes power over the other through the order of nature.

And so Senior says: The first work of the moon (Opus
Lunare) is to wash off, whiten and purify in 150
days. And the prophecy of the whole and the driving away of the
dark nuts from him. And Flidius says: Know that the
beginning of the whole work is the whiteness on which the red follows
after that the perfection of the work: But after this,
by God's will, with the vinegar the whole perfection
which is dissolves and coagulates.

And of the earth that has been made white, Morienus says: Then you should
not do anything with it unless it has fermented. And because
without the ferment there will be no perfect tincture, as the
philosophers say, and
good bread will not be made without the fermented pasta, so in our stone when the ferment is
like the soul that gives life to the imperfect dead body
through the help of the spirit, that is the Mercurii .

Then Aristotle says: Nothing is fulfilled without the
subtle ferment as the spirit. Therefore it is said that for
a good pasta you should use water and ferment:
Likewise in our stone these three j will be
found similar to the sayings of the Philosophorum. And if there is no other
ferment then the sun of both the white and the red elixir
and the moon alone the white elixir, namely gold or
silver, the Philosophorum is not the gold or silver of nature:
therefore the ferment of gold is nothing other than its
sulfur of the white in silver then it never pretends
that what is not or has not been naturally fixed.

Likewise, the fermentum is made from the pure material of
metals, which is from the sulphurs of nature and vapors of the
elements. Item: the fermentum is no different than that of the
sun and moon. And if there is not a ferment until the
bodies are transformed into their materiam primam and nature,
then it is good and necessary that
a ferment should
be made outside of the suns and subtlest earths. Therefore, if you do not know how to bring two perfect bodies
into their first nature, you cannot
have any ferment, says Raymundus.

Mercke: So the White Fermentum will be. Spit a part of the
purest moon, very finely chopped or subtly buttered, with
twice the amount of its wool-cleaned Mercurii and at the
same time rub it completely hard in a stone mortar. The Mercurii
drinks out the same filling and becomes like butter, so
that nothing of the Limatura can be found anymore.

Then wash this ferment off finely with vinegar, which
is also strong, and common salt, which is well prepared
until a clear and very pure vinegar comes out and then
wash off the salt with sweet water and make the water
dry with the salt.

After this,
put a part of the white sulfur over it and at the same time rub it completely, bite it completely into a corpus,
then mix it with a part of the water and start to
sublimate it &c. It is precisely in this way that the Red Fermentum is created,
with the purest sun as said above, although
Pandolphus says in the Turba that no tingling poison
is conceived without the suns and their shadow, which
many others also want to say. Then there is no other
ferment, as well as the white tincture than the red tincture then the
suns.

Aristotle: The white and the red spring from one root
, so that there is no thing in between that is of a different kind.

Item Rosarius and Petrus de Zalento say the fermentum
which is a compound medium when it is placed at the beginning or
middle, the work is accomplished sooner and
does not need to be repeated and yet they do not say this as a
denial.

Arnoldvs says: but if you
want to ferment the pre-mixed medicine, dissolve it in the mentioned distilled liquid as
said above until it is as strong as Mercurius, then
put it in a vessel over the water in the entire government until
the colors appear as in the first government until you
will have the elixir as before that you can pour it and that
tinting as then the effect and effect of the same elixir
has been made twice in the fermentation, great and
rejection.

Then in every solution and fixation it ascribes 10
to it in the increase because the more you dissolve, tint and
drink this medicine, the better and more powerful
it works.

Note the same thing about the fermento: apart from the
perfect, nothing becomes then it is now perfect as long as
the materia or artifice achieves it. We have an
example. A fermented or baked bread that
is perfect in its state or nature and has
come to its final end and you cannot continue to
ferment with it.

So in gold too, the refined gold is drawn through the
test of the fire (examen ignis) into a solid and fixed corpus, and
it is impossible for philosophy
to ferment further or more with it if one does not have the first material of the
metals which it was resolved into the Primam
Materiam, and into miscellaneous elements. Therefore we want to take
the Materiam from which the gold will be and
with the help of the artist we will bring it into the right
Fermentum Philosophorum, and we want to transform this
with understanding into a perfect Materiam or in a
species of perfect bodies and then we
finally want to start working.

That's why you've been cheated on them much now, even if you've already worked on Philosophicè
, and then you leave it alone
and lie there.

Please note that the water is a spirit that cleanses the corpus
subtly and makes it white and the fermentum is the soul that,
through the means of water, gives life to the imperfect body
that it did not have before and brings it back into a
better form and appearance, even in ours If stones only
protect one, then the medicine will never flow easily,
nor will there be any tincture, and when there is one, it will flow in a
smoke like Mercurius, then there will be no place in it
to accept the tincture.

And in the hour of composition
the greatest miracles appear as the
imperfect body is fermented and
colored with a solid color by means of the ferment which is the soul of the
imperfect body and the spirit is put together with the body by means of the
souls and with At the same time bound to it
in the color of the ferment, it is
put together and becomes one with them. And so in an imperfect
body first the pure will be separated from the impure,
the subtle from the gross, after which it will be made dry
and fig and it will be dead: then it will be fermented
and made alive by the ferment which is the soul
.

Then if you do not mix the ferment with the
elixir, the body will not be fermented as it should, because without the
ferment neither the sun nor the moon will go out,
but something else that will not remain in the tincture of a
metallic nature unless you
prepare the imperfect corpus . Therefore put the sulfur, which is the
imperfect body, together with this ferment so that
it produces the same thing and becomes an elixir.

But when the sulphur, that is the imperfect body with
its body, is fermento, it will be put together,
so the body does not have to act in it until it transforms it completely
into itself, namely into the fermentum. If you
want to ferment for this reason, mix it with the body at the same time
so that the whole thing is a ferment, then the ferment will bring
our sulfur back to its nature, weight and color
through all the paths that will also be there, a white ferment to
the white and a raw to the red: which is revealed
: then when you put the ferment of the silver with the
sulphur of the gold, it will bring it back to its nature but
not to its color. Likewise, when you put the
ferment of gold with the sulfur of silver, it changes it
to its nature and not to its color.

So also in contrast. Therefore you should not mix the white water
with the red, nor should you mix the red water
with the white, then with the white water you will
make it white and with the red you will make it red.

But dear son, you shouldn't just think that this
water is red, but rather look at it with the
force of making it red with the effect and effect. This
is what Raymundus says.

Now when the corpus is cleansed and incorporated with the spirit
and sublimated and then both of them become a fat
vapor and when the body does not become a vapor, you have
accomplished nothing in the work because such history occurs through the means of the
purified Mercurial water. Therefore whiten and
wash the body then the whitening is the beginning and
ferment of the entire perfect work. If the
sulfur is not sublimated, it will
not have the incoming substance and through force: and will
not count as part of the elixir be useful.

And the
common Mercuriius is called a spirit, the Mercurii of the
body but is called a soul and the spirit is
not made into the body without the soul and conversely
the soul is not made into the body without the spirit, it alone
should be made subtle it is one with him and
equal to his spirit. Then they are
mixed by the slightest and first of all take into account the nature of the
ferment and its power to tint.

The spirit is not
put together with the bodies until they
have been completely cleansed of their impurities, that is, until the
medium substantia of Mercuri and Sulphur of the body
is completely cleansed of their filth. This is not possible for their composition unless
they have first become spiritual
Through the transformation of each one of his virtues
and characteristics through the perversion of their natures,
they are put together in all sorts of ways and then when they are to be
purified they are put together in the bodies - this is a flouring between them
with the fermento through the help of the water
power is a combination
or union.

Rasis says: the accidental things cannot
extend quality unless they are associated with the substance:
Likewise, if you want the elixir to be perfected
and the transubstantiated and every corpus so
placed to it, this cannot happen then through
its openness repeated solution.

Therefore, Quinta Essentia is a corpus that
is distinct from all elements and elemental things,
both in the materia and form, as well as in the strength that
does not have in itself any contradiction and therefore no cause
of corruption. Thomas writes this in his Compendio
or a short excerpt in which he makes the difference between
the Elementirten and the Quinta Essentia.

The way to make the solution is this.

After our stone was made in the fire and
cleansed of all the filth that is uncleanness, this is
according to the divination and philosophical spiritual purification
that is told above. Then rub it in a very subtle
dust in a stone and dissolve it in our heavenly vinegar
and it will soon be
dissolved into the brightest water and immediately like a fountain of water.

And after the stone will be completely solvated, as I said,
distill with our distillation and coagulation with
tempered verme and finally Calcinire with the first
coagulation according to its type. And you should know that in the same
solution of the stone a part, many more parts of the Mercurii or
of each body
are tinged into the right mons or suns according to which the stone will be prepared. And this
our solution is our secret and so you will
multiply the stone as will be said later in the chapter about
multiplication and multiplication.

In the same way
, one must separate the common earths from the
philosophical ones: one must take the calcined earths and place them in
glass containers in which there
is pure and hottest water and drive it with a glass rod until
what can be solvated is completely solvated: and you should know
that the good earth is dissolved and the water becomes
white, namely that when it dissolves, put it in part and
rub the earth again so that it is not dissolved and again put
warm water on it until you do it publicly and
obviously you don't see anything more can be solved.

What sign is that the earth basically remained like this
is when it is placed over a piece of wood, nothing remains of it.

The other sign when it is placed over fire is that it is
not poured with anything and does not burn either. But after you
see this, take your dissolved soil in the
pre-mixed water and put it in a glass vessel. Then
you will congelate it with a strong dryness and before
it has been congelated you will know that you
have the pure and prepared philosophical soil. The others should
be thrown away. Then she's just fussing and slagging. It is also
called white earth and watch out for
not frying it unless it is dry.

Therefore Hermes says: Seet
ewer Gold in the white, flaky earth that
has been made subtle and airy through the calcination, namely so
much Seet the gold that the soul and tinging strengths in the white earth that has become
white and pure with natural preparation
there is no filth. Apart from these it is evident
that the gold of nature is not the materia of the ferment
but the Philosophorum its gold is the tinging
ferment.

In the same way, Hermes, the head of the Philosopherum, you
alchemists, says when you want to mix the natures with each other,
mix the stone of gold, the wet one, which
is a permanent water, and put it in its vessel over the mild water
until it melts, then load it so the water bites it
dried up and confirmed itself underlong.

But when the water is imbued, it is dry, so the few years
will be dry, then it will dry out and the earth will
become dust. But when this happens, you know that this is the
beginning of the secret use, namely using the water
to completely imbue and dry it. But
do this and repeat it so often until some of the water dies
that it languishes, namely that it no longer
rises and its proper colors appear to you.

But I don't tell you to pour the water at the same time so that
the IJkesir isn't drowned, but rather slowly, that's 7
times, pour it, rub it and dry it and do it repeatedly until
the water is taken away.

So Basen says in the Turba: The water is
given to him 7 times until the entire moist trinket is taken and the
power is taken over the fire during the battle of the fire and it
becomes a rust.

Hermes speaks wetly and rubs many days and
he has ordered this to be solved and coagulated with 9 changes, which changes are signified and understood
by the 9 eagles.

Then in every solution
and coagulation its effect and strength will be increased. That's
why a philosopher in the Turba says: You who research this art,
all of you together, when you will see that this white one
appears in the vessel, you will be sure that the red one
is hidden in white.

But after that you don't have to take it out, just boil
it until it becomes completely red and through so much moistening of the
water the sun will require that the earth will
be made red even through larger amounts of water.

Item Barsen: I order them to
make the Ertz white with the wisest water so that they make the Ertz Roth,
namely our Ertz. That's why it first has to become white before it
turns red, then there is no passage from the last and back
to the last or from the unsavory into the repugnant
then through a proper means that is from the Schwertze there is
no passage into Citrinum or Red without through the means
and help the white then the Citrinatis comes from the
highest white and a little clear red essentially.

That is why nature shows that citrinatio is a perfect
and fulfilled digestion. On the contrary, there can
be no passage from the citrine to the white until
the composite is transformed into black. Gold cannot
become indestructible silver unless it is destroyed and
blackened and spoils the better, nor can it
become worse through its corruption. When one
is begotten, the other spoils.

And such a story with the addition of the thing, such a
tingiret, which is a mercy and nota, is of nature and
is accomplished. And then the fermentum is put on it.

The spirit dries up the body and is
dried up by the body when it is completely
cleansed of its flegma. Please note that in every roasting and decoction
through which the spirit and body
are separated and united together, you should know that the soul can thus
be separated from its subject, which is not appropriately
separated from the fixed then in the drying the living does not become
appropriate either then placed together with the deceased
in the damp.

But in all of these, nature does not suffer the sudden
changes, so one must be careful that the
spirit does not become volatile when it escapes from the body,
so the body remains imperfect. Mercke therefore
tells the story of sublimation, that when the purest and
lightest parts are separated from the hands of the gross
elements they possess and raise the power of the fifth
essence, which forms and orders it into a defensive and
perfect form. But I call the Quintam Essentiam,
a tinged soul that ferbets and
introduces a pure form for which sublimation and subtleization were highly necessary
.

Then
the fatness of the arsenic, or the purest oil light nature, is extracted and
that is an incombustible fatness that
is bound and mixed with the yeast slags and coarser
elements. Then the history of sublimation for no other
reason than that the tingling soul
was extracted from the body and
transformed into a penetrating spirit: then through sublimation the body is
brought back into a spirit, when the thickness of the
body becomes thin.

And because the bodies
are heavy and important, as has been said above, when they
should be sublimated because of this, they must be incorporated and
sublimated with the Mercurio and also cooked until
a corpus becomes out of them, namely out of the Mercurio and body and you should
not let yourself get upset Repeat this often when
Mercurius is not incorporated into the body, it does not rise, but
it cannot be incorporated unless it
is first dissolved in Mercurio.

Therefore, take the first water,
separated from all corruption, and cook the thing
called with its name for 40 days in its vessel you will find
that the body is transformed into Argentum vivum, and when it
is dazed by the sublimation of its swords
it will be a high nature that has no shadow, that is
coarse dirty earth and burning. Therefore, the more you
can, so subtler the body and cook it with pure Mercurio
and when the corpus has taken part of the Mercurii into itself
and enclosed it, sublimate it with quick fire
and as strongly as you can until it rises in the likeness of the
whitest dust like snow that hangs on the sides
of aluminum.

(Spondilibus Aludel ad hærens - Aludel was clinging to the spondyls) the ashes but so in
The reason remains is yeast and the dross of the body
is not good and should be thrown away in which there is no life
then it is the lightest dust that easily disappears when you
blow on it a little then it is nothing then spoiled
sulfur excluded from nature When the yeasts
are thrown away, then repeat the sublimation of the
whitest dust without its yeasts until it is figured and
until it does not read other yeasts but rises like the
brightest snow, which is our purest Quinta Essentia,
and then you have a tinged soul that coagulates and
purifies and a sulfur and arsenicum that does not burn,
which the alchemists need, come and use it
to make silver.

But even if a part of the Materia Solari appears very white,
the tinged fire with red like Scarlat remains
. And this sulfur transforms the Argentum vivum into
the purest and best gold. This is the most popular composition
of the white and red sulphur, which does not burn
after the highest effect of the Philosophorum.

Then you will
find nothing superfluous or less in these sayings,
but everything that has philosophical truth in it. If you also sublimate Mercurio
with the lime of the two lights, namely the sun and the moon, you will sublimate it usefully and cleanse it quite easily. Then in them there is a slight sublimation of their effect through procreation: and always left only the sublimated in abundance then it is not fixed but in the middle stands Aludel over the yeasts then that is the subtle middle substance of the Mercurii from which our medicine is made which takes its origin and has, in addition to the Materia Argenti vivi, the sought-after good the white striped earth Arsenicum and white sulphur, the Materia Prima of the metals, says Raymundus. But we do this sublimation, that we refract the bodies into a subtle nature, because they are like a spirit that penetrates through and brings all bodies into the mon and solar or that we refract them into material primam, namely mercury and sulfur and that they are incorporated to the utmost and that they also take on the imperfect color of white and red, which color cannot happen without sublimation.

And you should not mix what remains at the bottom with
what arises, but rather set each of them
separately. But when there is still something fundamentally
left of the good material, you should repeat it to sublimate
through the mercury that is incorporated into it until everything
that is there from the pure and pure vinegar of the same body will rise : if you will not do such a thing, you should not
do it
put in the masterpiece and bring it.

The Alembicum should
be glazed and smeared with good excrement, which should
be put together with the subjecto that
Mercurius could not finally exude. Then Mercurius
is not sublimated then by the airy moisture which
carries with it the purest parts of the body and therefore
the earth is transformed into air and the body into spirit
and the thickness into thinness and finally they rise
up to the heights like air: So that because of the truth they
strongly accept the virtue and
push through into it and because of the perfect clarification,
perfect tincture and coloration.

Therefore, work diligently to ensure that
the vessels are put together. Then where Mercurius
finds his open place he flies out through the smoke and
you will die and the effect will be nullified
(annihilabitur) and your masterpiece
will be in vain.

Now the fixation follows from the government.

How the White Red Sulfur is brought into the popular elixir.

So take the pre-coated white sulfur,
fix it white over his body and that is purified
over the silver. And the red sulfur over his red
body, namely over the gold: as Phythagoras and Magister
Turbæ teach about it: In which he says that the extracted
Argentum vivum, through the dissolution and subtleization of
these bodies, is not coagulated in white or red
sulfur the fire stands out that is that it is fixed there is
no way he speaks to the white or red therefore must
appear whitish and neat then without the fermentum there can
be neither sun nor moon.

And there is no other ferment
then the sun and moon then the covered sulfur will
not remain in the essence of nature which sulfur the
philosophers call the fat vapor if you do not
put it together with his cleansed body so that it produces
the same thing for him and also That's why
what you put together becomes a perfect elixir. But when the
sulfur has been added to its purified body, it does not
stop doing or working in the same body
by penetrating it completely until it completely transforms it into its nature.

If you want to ferment for this reason, mix the
sublimated body with its well-purified body so that it
becomes entirely a ferment, then the ferment brings the
brimstone of art or the philosophizing into its natural
color and taste. Then when the sulfur will not be sublimated,
it will not have the incoming substance and through
penetrated strength and that much more so it will also
have no strength to make the goods elixir then when it
remains in its thickness and corporality, it will If things
are not mixed with tinged animals, they will not
be able to be transformed into the form of metals.

But when
the body is cleansed and incorporated with the spirit,
it rises in sublimation and then they both
become a fat vapor and are robbed of the burning substances,
a subtle breath louder and a great force through
urgent force clears a soul of the vices and filth
then and there When she is done to her purified body
by means of spirit, which is
purified with Mercurial water, she goes into the purest and incorruptible ENS.

And unless there is a mist, you have
accomplished nothing in this work and art, so wash it off with white, because the whitening is the beginning and ferment
of the entire perfect work .

Which whiteness is not
changed into disgusting or various colors but remains unchanged
and unchangeable and therefore based on the
philosophical commandment on such whiteness.

The way to act.

Make the fermentum comfortable, which is the body before
fermentation, so that it is solvated and calcined. This is the
body, which is solvated and calcined by the Argentum vivum, which
is the Argentum vivum, which is separated from it and taken away
and is then the purest lime or ash If you
don't make the fermentum right, it counts for nothing. The
same applies to the brimstone that does not burn from the
lime through the sublimation that it is bad and alive.

Then where you will not mix it into an elixir, the
body will not be fermented over which the throwing of the
sulfur is to take place: and if you do not
cleanse the body that you want it to have been mixed into the elixir, the
body will not judge the spirit either hold much less.

And unless you sublimate such a sulfur that you
want to bring and send into the elixir, the gold and silver will
be very dark. And if you do not purify the spirit,
it will not be able to withstand the evil, then the impure will not be
added to the body in the slightest. You must
also be careful that you make the elixir a medium between
the hard and soft. If you do not know this,
the gold and silver will not be able to work,
namely for slagging or pouring.

Then the medicine must
be of a subtler and softer substance than it is
a body and a greater fixation and attitude than the
Argentum vivum in its nature over which it
is thrown. Then Euclides says: our final secret is that
we have a medicine that flows from Mercurii,
but when you want to make the elixir, make a lime of the
material that is the body and leave the brimstone in it,
as I said above, it is gold If you take it from the gold it is
silver, then make it from the silver.

Then the marriage is
no different then that you
put the fermentum with his body together from which you want to make the elixir
then the Turba says: put these two together, that is the
ashes of the perfect body and sulfur, which
is white, that is the imperfect one Bodies with one another,
therefore the philosopher says: enlighten your body and
place it together with the spirit and pure body in
equality, that is, with equal weight.

Of the weights of the ferment Sulfur and Mercurii.

Remember then you must first know that the sum of the
fleeing does not exceed the sum of your cleansed and fixed
body otherwise the bond of marriage was transformed into
the flight of the spirit so is not fixed and
the fleeing brimstone does not exceed the sum of the fixed united with
it That is why Plato says that when a little sulfur
is thrown over the majority of the body, so that it has dominion over it,
it turns it into dust which will be the same color as the
color of the body over which the spirit of
gold or silver is thrown because but the sulphurs cannot
Bodies enter into existence without the water, namely the Mercurii, because
the water makes them multiply, then it is the means
to put the tinctures together, which is the sulfur and
fermentum.

Therefore, in the same disposition or
order, you should first put the lime of the body and ferment and
secondly the water that is the spirit. Thirdly,
the air should be put in place and the soul or sulfur is
removed from the body. And so that I need the talk and
teaching of the Philosophorum: when you first mix the oil
in the earth so that the oil in the earth is mortified, then
the oil goes into the earth and is devoured by it.

But if you first put the water and then the oil,
the oil will stand and float above the water or if
you first put the water and then the earth, the
water will be more important than the earth when you therefore
put the elements together, namely the water and If
they were formed in the earth when it became the white
elixir, then there should always be more of the earth than of another
element, otherwise the earth would not form the spirit
but would escape with it and this should happen according to
reason against the mass of the water as an example
of the Lunar Elixir: the air is one weight and
half of the water is two weight and the
earth is three weight and the ferment of the earth is only three times as
much as the white sulfur is when that Half the
other weight will be of the white sulphur, then three
weights or pounds should be of the ferment and
two of the water, so the elixir will be filled.

And that's why
you should be careful and take note of the
composition of the true elixir and so you should take care,
as I said, that you have created knowledge of how much you should
add from the earth, how much from the water and how much from
the air to the white Elixir and how much of the lesser to the red
cause is this when too much of the earth
was added to it, then as commanded, the soul dies: but when too
little happens, the elixir becomes too moist and not
figed.

In the same way, when there is too much water,
when it is too moist and completely white, when there is too little,
it is dry and hard and does not penetrate anything, when there is
too little air, it does not produce
the perfect color, but when there is too much So it was brewed in
perfection in the white elixir. But as far as the
elixir solar is concerned, because the sun is then the moon,
two pounds of the earth should be three pounds of the air, three
pounds of water, one pound and half of the few,
then the weight of the few is the average weight of the water
and in There is no addition or reduction to this.

Raymundus
says: If you want to make the elixir red by
describing the common doctrine and teaching, you should take the
teaching of making the elixir white as an example:
Then the modum and wise must make the elixir white

One cannot repeat it without only that you put a red element for each elemental white then in the elixir to the
red the feer is added to
make the whole red and is sublimated like a spirit.

But the weight of the elements is two pounds of earth
and three pounds of water and as much and one and
a half of red sulfur. Then first of all you should
put the earth then it is part of the fermento, secondly
the water then it is the medium between the earth
and the air. Thirdly, the Lufft is the middle between
the water and Fire. On the fourth day you should place the Fire
, but the Fire is figured through the air like the Fire through
the earth &c. as you probably know.

One must also know that when the philosophically purified
stone is put together with a body and the
body is destroyed as it wills and can, the
material of the stone always remains with the part of the body that
is more purified according to the way of nature . Then the material
of the stone forms the Fire and cannot be burned
then this stone is eternally created above all Fire. And therefore
the more he waits in the place, the more his strength
increases in size and shape then the Philosophorum
her stone has no finite or ceasing moisture and
even though it is dry in experience or to look at, it is
still Copiosus and Reüch of fat moisture in its
hidden which moisture
can never be destroyed in any way.

Then, whenever the body with which it is mixed
is destroyed, its substance always remains, subtle or gross
after it has been prepared, which is there and is a fixed
thing.

If the body is not destroyed because of this, the
material or medicine remains as it was created and drawn out
forever and ever. This is what giver says.

Another philosopher says in the Turba: All
researchers of this art should know that the entire elixir is nothing;
it is prepared and refined as it always can, unless
after preparation it
is put together with the goods and the right fermento.

Thank you for the fermento.

It should be noted that when the elixir
is put together with the bodies, this must happen through the
smallest things, as Albertus says: a violent and useful
complexion can never happen with solid and whole
things where they are not first dissolved in water and then with it
are mixed with each other and that they bond with each other in warm
ears through the mixing of the natural verms or which
is similar to them and this is
official through a time that suits them and can happen then you have to solve the elixir first then prepare
the corpus and
Solve like the elixir but then take
it and put the dissolutions or solvations together,
namely three parts of the elixir and one part of the
covered bodies, then you have to
congelate the whole thing and then solve and congelate and
repeat until the whole thing has become one thing without anything a
separation and this whole is fulfilled by the blessing
of our water of Mercurii, then with
it the elixir is dissolved and prepared or prepared and with it the
bodies are dissolved and prepared then it cleanses, dissolves,
makes white and red.

Another says: But because the ferment
cannot enter the dead body without means and the help
of the water, which makes the marriage and copulam or
binds between the ferment and the white earth: Therefore,
in every fermentation of every weight should first
be noted: If you therefore
want to ferment the white flaky earth into the white elixir that it will stand
in the complement and filling of the tincture over the
body from perfection, then
three parts of the whitened or flaky earth of the dead body
and of the water of life like that you keep
two parts and the ferment the other half part.

But the
ferment should be prepared so that it becomes a white lime
quickly and subtly when your opinion is on the white dish
. But if you want to have the red, then the lime should
be as completely citrine as the gold prepared and there will be no other
ferment. The cause is then the same two bodies being
bright and shining in which
there are shining tinging rays in which they
naturally surpass the other bodies with the white and red and take precedence over them. Afterwards you shall
put it white in its fiolam which was made for it and in its
Tempered leather that they were coagulated and fixed and a
corpus.

Then dissolve it again with the third part of
the water and make it thin and dry and repeat this
until you open it until you make the most excellent white stone
white and permanent through this degree of repetition and preparation,
which goes through the smallest of the bodies
and opens it up the swiftest of the rivers, like
the fixed water that flows over the Fires battle, tints the
mercury and all bodies of diminished
perfection in real silver. And notice that the more the
order of this fulfillment is repeated, namely solution
coagulation and trituration, the more and more
this greater superfluity, namely the goodness of medicine,
increases.

Then as often as you will act on this stone with its own
reserved goodness, you will often
become overgrown in the throwing over the bodies that are diminished by
perfection. That's why the philosophers praise the
repetition very much if you
want to ferment the white earth into the red elixir, then divide the white earth into
two parts, the one part should increase into the white elixir with
its white retained water and so it
never ceases to be and Put the other part in his glass,
which is in the furnace of his corruption, and multiply
it by the force and power of the corruption, which
is turned into the reddest stone of all, like a
dry and burnt saffron.

But if you want it to
be a tincture of the red that transforms the whitest elixir
and brings it into a different form and
tinges the Mercurium, Lunam and all bodies into the most real sun or into a
sun body, then ferment its three parts prepared with the other
half part of the purest gold that it is the
subtlest lime with two parts of the distilled water
that is artificially brought into a glass with the
combination through the smallest bit to the
hidden part of the body and put it in its glass in its
fire and boil the reddish one The stone that shines
is blood red and strong.

You should increase this again from its solitary part,
namely with its retained gold water, which you gradually continue
through the modum of the dilution of the stercker fire in the increase of its perfection and accumulation of goodness and repetition of the work from the retained part that is according to its nature and what is finally confirmed is that his goodness has been increased for all eternity or without end.

From the white to make the stone sweet with the moisture.

But to make the white of this stone sweet or
indulcorable, take the stone and in which
you rub it, place it in its container with the
moistening through the smallest, namely through the
changes that are made there like the Thaw with one
and a half parts then cook with a gentle bite
and first bite it into the substance of the stone will be congelated
then make the fire growing from Kolen leisurely and
slowly bite out of it everything that will arise dissolved
will be as much from the water of the sulfur as from the
moist Argento vivo , Then bring the sublimated again
over the yeast with rubbing and imbibing with the mentioned
spirit, which
is more in the moisture superfluous and rich.

And this is now repeated with dawender imbibition (Rorida)
decoction congelation and sublimation, with its subsequent
firea and which are diligently confirmed, namely
with the moderation or moderation of the known feistiness
which nature necessarily requires through constant
sublimation and repetition of the spirit which does not Set fire
to them, namely the yeasts, and through constant movement the
whole thing underneath them (deorsum) is figed. But when it will be fixed
according to the proportion of the Fire that is appropriate for it with
moderation, make it a strong Fire and that
is well continued through one natural day the next
natural day but make a stronger Fire and the third
natural day the strongest how to
water the fire. If you want to incense the stone, take more of
the warm and moist thing then you do of the
cold and dry one. But if you are bothered by the
idea of ​​fixing or fixing, leave more of the
cold and dry things then the warm and moist ones.

And if the artzneij does not
remain completely against the difference, that is and is history due to the lack of fixation,
so one should help and overcome the lack
either by repeating the solution and congelation
or by sublimating the part that is not fixed by
a fixed part until it takes calm and compensates against the
impetuousness of the Fire (à Speritas Ignis.) And when you
realize that it cannot be cast without difficulty, namely
due to the lack of inceration, then fill it and make
the inceration complete for it with the oil of the stone in which you drip
one drop after the other over a gentle fire in
each crucibulo, until it flows like wax without smoke,
says Raymundus.

Of the multiplication and increase of the stone.

First, note what the increase is. Namely the
large addition that will occur beforehand. And the increase in form
and goodness is as much as solvating and
coagulating the tincture, which is imbibing and
drying out with our Mercurio.

Or so: Take a part of the prepared tincture and dissolve
our Mercurii in three parts, then put it in a vessel and
seal it and put it in warm ashes, as
said above, until it all dries out and becomes dust
. Then open the glass and immediately
dry it again and make it dry as above and as often and as often as you do this,
you will grow some parts and tinge beyond measure
as Arnoldus says: The increase in size is.

Take the
fig material that is used there, which is
three parts of the prepared tincture and one part of the Mercurii Philosophorum, put it in
a vessel, seal it and put it in warm ashes as above
and dry it so that it becomes a dust. Then open the glass
and drink again and dry as above. And the
water dz is Argentum vivum or Mercurium does not add
more weight to the body than much of the
metallic moisture remains. This is what Calidius Hydori son
of the same says about the multiplication in the greater history through
the mixing of the medicine in the crucibulo with the Argento
vivo of the common man.

Which Argentum vivum
is transformed into red or
black dust by the addition of the stone and repeat that of the same dust
of the Argenti vivi is left over the other Argentum vivum and
repeat it, it is transformed into dust and so you should
repeat the dust of the Argenti vivi over other
Argentum vivum, the Argentum vivum is not
transformed into dust but remains transformed into a perfect
metal. And such history then the stercke of Artzneij is
tempered with the addition Argenti vivi.

Likewise, the multiplication of the tincture is nothing other than
an increase and multiplication of the natural verme,
which there is a sulfur that does not burn in the materia of the
Argenti vivi, because it is certain that the Argentum vivum is the
materia of the metals in the substance in which its clarity
is captured. (Infixa.) Then the metals do not require anything
but a substantial nature and the substantia in which the
tincture of sulfur is incorporated must be from the
materia that has been retained before all separation and
lack of the entire casting, dear and pleasant to all metals.

And that is why it is necessary that the sulfur tincture
follows such a substance and is read or
bound together in it whenever you want it to be a tincture of metals
and the coated substance should be such that it
could be fixed without the consumption of its moisture
and without their return to the earth and without the
burning of its own substance: and this whole is
Argentum vivum. That is why it is said: that it is the cause of the
perfection to the necessity of the metals then it is
sufficient for every degree of all castings with the moisture
as can be seen in lead and tin and the like through good
attachment of its parts and through the strength of its noble
mixing speaks Raymundus.

The white as well as the red and white artzneij are multiplied
in strength and violence. When you have performed the applied medicines
and made use of them, you can
artificially multiply and increase their virtues in two different ways
.

The first mode or way is: Dissolve them in the water
of their red or white Mercurii from which they are made until
the water becomes clear and clear: after this
congelate with a mild decoction and with their oils
you should incerirn them but over the Fire they flow.
Their certain strength will be duplicated in the tincture with all
its perfections as you will see in the rejection
then the weight or pound that was thrown over a thousand
will then be thrown over two thousand. And in
the same increase there is no great or difficult work.

The other mode of increasing their strength is a little more difficult
when you
separate each species of them separately and
separate the elements in their water through the humidification and then through the distillation in
which you take the first water and then the air and it
becomes its substance the earth remains fixed completely clearly in the form
of the dust, bring it back into the same water through the
distillation until it is completely drunk and completely fixed in the
earth and then imbiber the whole thing with its oil and
its tincture until it is completely fixed and completely fixed Pour lesset like
wax and of the same medicine throw a weight or
pound over the body that you want to transform and you will
certainly find its tincture multiplied by a hundred parts
to such white.

Again, medicine is increased in two different ways: through
the solution of the body or the solution of thinness. Through the
solution of the heat you take the medicine placed in a
glass vessel and bury it in our moist water
for seven days or longer until the medicine is dissolved in
water without clouding through the solution of the thinness which you
take the glass vessel with Artzneij and it
will be opened into a new honorable harbor which hole will be
left in which the water boils and the hole at the
harbor will be closed so that in addition to the vapor of the
boiling water the Artzneij will be solved by the rising vapor
.

Please note, however, that this boiling water should not stir the glass vessel
in which the medicine is in the space of three fingers.

And the solution is passed without danger in two or
three days after the medicine has been dissolved, so take
it from the fire so that it becomes cold and fixed and congelated and you
prepare it and dry it and so it should be dissolved openly
and the more it becomes The more resolved it is, the more perfect it is
. And such a solution is the subtleization of artzneij
and its powerful sublimation. The more it is repeated,
the more abundant and often it is tinged.
Therefore Rasis says: The goodness of this multiplication does not depend
nor arises in the multiplication and increase of
repetition with the sublimation and fixation of the
perfect medicine. Then the more the order of this
fulfillment is repeated, the more its excess
fluid chokes and multiplies.

Then as often as you sublimate the medicine beyond its
usual measure and cheapness and as often as you solve it,
you will in all circumstances become capable of weighing more than
a thousand.

And when it will first fall over a thousand, it will
fall over ten thousand times, thirdly over a hundred thousand,
fourthly over a thousand times a thousand and so on without end.
Then Morienus the Philosopher says: Consider it certain that the
more our stone is dissolved and congelated, the more
the spirit and soul are joined together and
held by them and with each change the tincture is
increased.

On another white note, the medicine is increased through
fermentation, and if the fermentum is for the white pure moon
and a fermentum for the red pure sun, therefore if
you throw one part of the medicine over two parts of the ferment,
it will be a medicine entirely: And you put it in a
glass vessel over the wall and will be kept so that the
air does not go in or out and will be kept and
governed and subtly made as openly as you want from
the first medicine such power will be adopted by a part
of the other medicine then so can the medicine
can be increased infinitely through the solution and fermentation.

The Philosophical Stone is multiplied three times.

In the first white history, through the repetition of the
known corruption at the beginning, that is, the stone
is corrupted by the dissolution and putrefaction, and
the combination of the elements and moistening in the air
or earth. And through the decoctions of the air and the
common Fires. And such to the other common
(particularia opera) work through the combination of the
elements with the leached earth and decoction of the
common few in the moistening of the dung of the same,
every increase is history at the same time when you will
move to the two years in addition to the increased medicine in size
mentioned speakers and do as has been said.

Then
how much the medicine passes through these two speakers to the
end of the limit or ending, the more it
increases in strength because of the material through which it
is brought to such subtlety, hence the spirit, and
its equality arises from such material As the
magnificence (summitas) is there in the eye of the Basilisc, which
also increases its equality in the light as it is in the animals,
for which reasons the natural beauty of every animal
is extinguished as the light of the light is extinguished by the light of the
suns will be like this says Raymundus.

The way and manner of throwing everything that is prescribed can therefore be researched.

Take a part of the medicine and a part of the
raw, purified Mercurius so that the Mercurius
becomes warm to the point of smoke during the fire. Then the artzneij is
thrown on it, which immediately flows in which the smallest ones
are penetrated by it. When then the growing Fire
is placed, one collects the cast Mercurium together,
one takes a little of it and as much of its
living Mercurii is put into the Fire and that is how it will be
tried weight . When the added Mercurius deviates so that one
notices it, the medicine is not sufficient for the other parts.

But if the corpus in the body is not noticeably
reduced but the material can still
be broken and is even too white or hard, then you take
a little bit of the raw Mercurio again and go
through all the procedures as I said has what
you want.

From the throwing of artzneij so increased in strength.

Take a part or two a lot (Vnciam) of the mentioned increased
medicine in the strength and throw over a hundred part of
the Mercurii, then the Mercurius will soon begin
to warm up with the mentioned in the crucibulo, and completely
coagulated and quickly completely into a fixed medicine to make a
rejection about another Mercurium. Then
take a Vnciam, and from the other Artzneij and make a
throw over a hundred part of the other warm Mercurii so that
the whole thing will be even louder and a real Artzneij
then you have increased your first Artzneij in size or
the whole or in part you can multiply again
through dissolution, and congelation, and moistening.

Then in the way that I have said and shown in multiplication,
you can increase in strength without end and then in
size throw in the medicine so finally coagulated a
pound (pondus) over a hundred of the washed Mercurii with
salt and vinegar and make it Soon it will be warm over the fire
when you are sure it is smoking and it will be coagulated into gold.

But the oil that comes with the tincture is transformed
into a tinging dust on this white. You take a
part of the prepared oil and pour it over a part of the raw
Mercurius, you put it to be digested and soon the oil turns
into such a Mercurium that you can't see it, but the
Mercurius becomes white or raw after the medicine
has been prepared to white or red dusty and which
you can trade in the Reijse without any damage, which you
can also throw as you always point out about
the Mercurii, then
always well washed with vinegar and salt.

About the power, flavor and nobleness of this laudable whiteness or philosophical tincture.

It is well worth knowing that the Old Whites found four
great effects and virtues in this glorious
treasury of comforting, helpful whiteness
.

Firstly, it is said that it
removes and heals the human body from many weaknesses.

On the other hand, that it renews imperfect metallic bodies
.

Thirdly, that she transforms base and despised common stones into
many delicious Kleijnot.

Fourthly, that she makes all the glasses so that you
can pull and jam them.

Of the first, all philosophers have agreed that
when the bloodstone (Lapis ematiles) is made completely red,
it will not only work miracles in the entire
body but also in the human body of which there
is no doubt. Then it is called all weakness from the inside out
(ab intra sumendo) from the outside it is said to be with smearing then the
philosophers say when one
gives it in water or warm wine to the gouty dropsy
lepers this is what they call it.

Other people say that
when you smear it a lot of roses comes out. Therefore,
the stinging in the Hertzgrüblin (Passio Cardiaca)
intestinal gout Colica, jaundice (Icteritia) Morbus Ægidii, the
falling addiction or sick day Epilepsia Morbus Comitialis, and
all species of the feathers are secreted through them when one
ingests the rigidity of the limbs (Artetica) is through
It is holy when you smear yourself and what is in a
sick stomach, it takes it away and holds you together
and consumes all the rivers of evil moisture.

When you
drink it or smear it and when you sip it sober,
it drives away melancholy and all the sadness of toil
from all kidneys (Renaticum fluxum) dries them out; it is the
best healer and also a cure for evil eyes. Then it heals
the flow of the animals, reduces the watering of the eyes, drives
away the redness and whitens the fur or coat in which it
erases the stinging white in the eyes, horn or complaint,
sniffing, resistance of the eyebrows, heat and
darkness, building of the eyes, all of which become quite
light Secreted and cured by the Philosophical Artzneij.

When you drink it, it strengthens the heart and airways
(Spiritualia). When the slacker is smeared with it, it relieves
the weight of the head. It also makes the deaf hear
and compensates for all the weight of the ears and bloated or swollen
limbs
the eaten teeth make it good again,
washed with it makes the stinking breath good, sweet and
pleasant.

They also
cause all the headaches and shivering when you smear them or put plasters on them
or put dry dust on them. The severe wounds the
cancer fistula noli me tangere, the burning revenge scales
of the in view of the grinding heat of the limbs (pruritus) and
mats which are thereby secreted the scars are
immediately thereby also new flesh grows when the
spoiled and sawn wine is mixed with it it
against fresh the tearing stone is solved when you
drink it, it expels the poison when you drink it,
the worms are also killed when you
turn them into powder.

The hair under the braid is removed
when you smear it, all the wrinkles and spots
are removed from the face, when you smear it it makes the
face young and beautiful. When women need it, in
times of childbirth, it helps with childbirth, it removes the dead fruit,
and when it is smeared on plaster, it causes urine or
causes urination. Increases and excites the coitum, prevents
pressure, makes a good memory, increases the
humidum radicale, vigorat Naturam strengthens and freshens
nature and gives many other benefits and benefits to the
human body. Then this medicine is above all medicines
Hypocratis, Galeni, Alexandri, Constantini, Avicennæ and all
other doctors of medicine, it is more delicious and excellent
in smell, taste, power and effect. And it is worth
noting that this medicine should always be mixed with the apothecary medicine
so that people can get rid of illnesses the better
.

From the other it is written that it
transforms all imperfect metals, then this transformation is evident enough.

Then everything that is silver makes it gold in color
substance which creates weights generation melting strength
and softness.

From the third it is written that it
transforms stones into precious gems as stated above in the book
Sextariæ where it is said that the Jaspen Hijacinthen
White and Red Coral Emeralds Chrisoliti (precious stone
is gold-colored) Sapphires from this material can
be formed and made. And in the Carta sacerdotum it is taught
that through them, in addition to the crystal, a carfuncicle or ruby or
topaz can become, the color and substance of the natural ones
surpass these stones and others for which this
medicine will be, it gives a natural strength with its
nobleness but so that The natural colors
are mixed into them then they are melted and softens all
the stones and precious little things.

So it is written by the virth that it makes a glass that
you can inhibit it when you mix it with it when it
melts then this medicine can be brought into all colors
but the other experiences
allow the artist to be a little more diligent.

Raymundus says that the named Artzneij also has the power
to rectify every animal and make all the branches
alive in the time of spring through its large and
wonderful verme then when you
roughly dissolve one millet grain from it in water and put it
into the core of a vine in the size of a
hazelnut, artificial leaves and flowers
and good branches will grow in the month of May: and do the same with
every branch shoot: then it will be considered a miracle
and against the course of nature for the sake of
such things Those who consider it to be allowed to do so do
not know the power of such a thing, but there is nothing else than a pure
natural thing that is cast in its humido radicali: and
because nature, through its incentive, desires to be much,
it works more towards this of every element in which it
multiplies the natural verm of the body in the center
in which it has passed.

That is why it has the power to
rectify everyone and the same power to act in them.

And that
is the tried and tested medicine of the Philosophorum which God our
Lord Jesus Christ examines faithfully for everyone and who
seeks it apart from God and
wants to give and bestow it for his benefit, who lives with the Father and the Holy Spirit
and one God reigns for
all eternity
Amen.

---

LATIN VERSION

CLANGOR BUCCINAE TRACTATVS MIRABILIS, SIMUL ET ATTENTISSIMUS, EX quadam vetustissima scriptura excerptus.

De lapide Philosophorum satis fideliter, simul & physicaliter omnibus philosophis edisserens.

IN nomine domini Amen. Buccinæ clangor de lapide benedicto philosophico, Qui operationis & virtutis genere mirabiliter intonat, De quo varias philosophi posuerunt sententias & scripturas. Vnde de prima essentia philosophus primus Thales Milesius dicit: Antiquissimum entium Deus, ingenitum, æternuȝ, Vnde & Pythagoras dicit: Dico deuȝ ante omnia fuisse, cuȝ eo nihil fuit cum fuit. Et intellige, quod Deus cum solus fuisset in principio creauit vnam substantiam, quam primam materiam nominamus. Et ex illa substantia alias quatuor res creauit, ignem, aere, aquaȝ & terram. Ex quibus iam creatis omnia creauit, tam sublimium quam inferiiorum.

Et sic ante omnia alia præter materiam primaȝ quatuor creauit elemēta, ex quibus postea quod voluit creauit, diuersas scilicet naturas. Vndeus suo verbo creauit, quibus dixit: Estote, & facta funt, scilicet quatuor elementa & alia. Ex hijs ergo quatuor elemētis omnia sunt creata tanqȝ ex radice, cœlum, throni, angeli, stellæ, sol, luna, mare, ac omnia quæ in mari sunt, quæ varia funt, & non similia, quorum naturas deus diuersas fecit sicut creationes, eo quod ex diuersis creatæ funt elementis. Nam si ex vno create essent elemento, conuenientes haberēt naturas. Sed quia hæc diuersa elementa cum cõmiscentur suas amittunt naturas, eo quod calidum frigido cõmixtum, nec calidum nec frigidum fit, humidum vero sicco mixtum, nec humidum fit nec siccum, Ideo creaturæ inde exeuntes naturas habent diuersas, Quarum creaturarum quasdam ex vno creauit elemento, et sunt angeli, quos ex solo igne creauit, & ex duobus elementis, scilicet ex igne & aere, creata sunt illa tria scilicet sol, luna, & stellæ. Ideo sunt angeli soli luna & stellis lucidiores, eo quod vno singulari quod est quartum rarius, creati sunt. Sol vero luna & stellæ ex ignis & aeris composito sunt creati, animæ auteȝ (vt dicunt Philosophi) quæ hodie & post quotidie corporib. infundunt nouo in vtero matris, non creantur a nouo sed sunt create ex solo igne ex primordiali principio vniuersoruȝ, & fouentur in mēte & potentia creatoris vsqȝ ad præfinitum tempus, quando infundi debent corpori nouo, tanqȝ materiæ præiacenti, & hoc per medium quod est spiritus infundunt corpori, Et a corpore non recedunt, nisi spiritus prius recesserit & euanuerit, quo recesso & euanito, recedit & anima, licet theologi dicant quod anima corpori infunditur, & infundēdo creatur. Et deus delectatur in hoc quod quotidie nouas creat animas, & hoc ex prima materia. Iterum creauit deus cœlum ex aqua & aere. Cœlum quoqȝ ex duobus est compositum, ex altero rariorum scilicet ex aere, & ex altero densiorum scilicet aqua Et ex tribus scilicet elementis creauit Deus volatilia, bruta animalia ac vegetabilia. Vn̄ volatilia ex igne & aere & aqua creata funt, eo quod volatilia, & omnia spiritum habentia in vegetabilibus ex aere, aqua, & terra creaţa funt, vegetabilibus tamen nihil ignis materia est. In vegitabilibus ignis elementum in aeris calore abscõditus, solum inest. Ignis autem spissus non inest nisi spiritum & animam habentibus. Ex quatuor autem elementis pater noster Adam & filij eius, ex igne, aere, aqua, simul & terra creati funt. (Marginal Note: Quid sit mors.) Et omne quod ex vna creauit deus essentia non moritur, nisi in die iudicij, Mortis enim diffinitio est compositi disiunctio. Incompositi autem nulla est disiunctio, vn̄ non est mortis et animæ a corpore separatio.

Ex duobus autem vel tribus vel quatuor compositis, vnumquodqȝ composituȝ separari necesse est, quod est mortis. Et scito qd nullum compositum igne carens, commedit nec bibit, nec dormit. Et qualiter cum angeli ex igne sint creati, cur non commedut, cum dicitur ignem esse, quod commedit. Respondet, quod ignis simplex non cõmedit, veruȝ spissus ignis. (Marginal Note: Duplex ignis.) Noȝ enim sunt angeli ex spisso igne, verum ex tenuissimo tenuissimi ignis & simplici. Igitur ex tenuissimo creati igne non dormiunt, nec commedunt, nec bibunt. Nota quod quatuor sunt qualitates primæ, scilicet caliditas, siccitas, frigiditas, et humiditas, et dicuntur prime qualitates, quia ex ipsis omnia componuntur elementa & omnia elemētantur, & omnia complexionantur, Et elemēta funt de simplicibus qualitatibus. Ideo posse habent conuertere et mutare materia de qualitate in qualitatem, aliquando in siccuȝ, aliquando in humiduȝ, aliquando in calidum, et aliquando in frigidum, secundum quod diuisio naturæ est confortata per complexionem suorum elementorum, vel etiam debilitata. Et qualitates funt sicut materia elementorum, in quas ipsa ponunt suas formas. Sunt & in eis retente, sicut eius natura demonstrat in omni generatione. Item vnum solum elementum non potest corrumpi neque generari in seipso, quia non est ibi sufficiens natura, quare oportet esse plura.

Ite illa natura est vna subtilis substantia, in quam qualitates elementorum intrant, Ideo illæ qualitates elementorum de illo magis ad se trahunt in quo plus abundant, Et sic qualitates funt sicut materia elementorum, in quas ipsa ponunt suas formas, & in eis sunt retentæ, sicut eius natura demonstrat in omni generatione, & in subtili substantia condensantur in omni generatione, et in subtil substantia condensant se qualitates elementorum, Et si ista natura non fuisset de subtili substantia essentiali elementorum, tunc illa impura essentialitas elementorum non potuisset esse & dominari in substantia. Et etiam si quodlibet elementum seorsum secundum suam naturam esset minerale, tune illa substantia noȝ posset eam penetrare, nec ingressum habere, neque colorare. (Marginal Notes: Vnde color) Ergo propter istam proprietatem illud conuenit, quod ignis predominetur in substantia prædicta elementorum, secundum suam maneriem. Hæc Raymundus. (Quatuor humores Cõplexiões quatuor.) Item corpora sub concauitate orbis lunæ a creatore condita participant quatuor elementis, quatuor humoribus naturalibus, scilicet: Colera, Sanguis, Phlegma, & Melancolia. Quatuor complexionibus: Caliditas, Frigiditas, Humiditas, & siccitas.

(Marginal Notes: quatuor Colores Sapores
quatuor Odores quatuor Duo Sexus Tres dimensiones)

Quatuor coloribus principalibus, Album, nigrum, citrinum, rubeum. Quatuor saporibus, Insipidus, acidus, dulcis & amarus. Quatuor odoribus, bonus, fœtidus, acutus, & remissus. Duobus sexibus, masculinus & fœmininus, secundum eorum tres res dimensiones, scilicet altitudinis, longitudinis & profunditatis.

Altitudo communis, est eius manifestum, Profundum, est eius occultum, & latitudo horum medium participat. Ergo omnia corpora secundum has tres dimensiones prædictas omnibus modis habent confyderari. Idcirco corpus si in sua altitudine est terreum, in eo est quid frigidum, siccum & melancolicum, amarum, acidum, fœtidum, nigrum, & fœmineum. Et per consequens in suo profundo est aereum, calidum, humidum, sanguineum, citrinum, dulce, odoriferum masculinum. Et si in vno latere est aquaticum, sequit quod sit frigidum & humidum, album, insipidum, redolens, fœtidum fœmininum. Et per consequens in alio latere erit igneum, calidum, siccum, rubeum, amarum, acutum, & masculinum. Et hec sunt ligamina quibus corpora omnia ad inuiceȝ coniugunt, qd in corporib. liquefactis clarissime deprehenditur, scilicet auro, argēto, plumbo, stanno, ferro, & stdarico. Qiȝ de pprietate cuiuslibet elemēti est, habere in se cõtrarietate, et agere in suuȝ cõtrariuȝ.

Et nota quod quatuor sunt elementa, scilicet ignis, aer, aqua, & terra, Quia quodlibet eorum est compositum ex duobus primis qualitatibus, & non ex pluribus, sicut ignis ex caliditate & siccitate, aer ex calido & humido, aqua ex frigido & humido, terra ex frigido et sicco. Item caliditas in igne est eius qualitas essentialis, & siccitas eius qualitas accidentalis. In aere humiditas est eius qualitas essentialis, caliditas vero accidentalis. In aqua humiditas est eius principale vel essentiale, sed frigiditas est eius accidentale. In terra siccitas est eius principale principium vel essentiale, & frigiditas accidentale. Item ignis est calidus proprie & siccus a proprietate. Nam caliditas maior est in re, a qualitatibus a proprietate. Ita intellige de alijs qualitatibus elementorum. Item de principio elementorum quatuor dicit Myretis. Scito quod terra prius fuerat aqua, deinde in lapidem versa & petrosa facta est, aqua vero prius fuerat aer, deinde liquefactus est, & inspissatus & in aquam versus est, aeris autem principium ignis erat, quia ex igne spisso. Ignis vero principio caret, suo creatore excepto. (Marginal Note: De gradib. elementoru) Et nosce, quod terra corpus aquæ est, de terra autem fit homo. Ignis autem tribus non desistit elementis, quo et tria persistunt. Et de elemetorum eoruȝ gradibus dicimus. Quia ignis prout est in mixtione, est calidus in quarto gradu, & siccus in tertio.

Et quia caliditas sibi inest in primo, patet, quia nil calidius eo, et qd sicci secūdario inest ei, patet qd si esset in eo tanta siccitas, quanta caliditas, quam cito calefaceret tam cito deficcaret, quod non contingit Et aqua frigida est in quarto gradu, & humida in tertio, quia etsi tendit in contrarium, vt possit calefieri, cum non potest congelari in siccum, sua manente frigiditate, & ita magis est frigida, qua humida. Nota, scripsi sicut reperi, sed mihi videtur contrarium Aer primo est humidus in quarto gradu, secundario, calidus in medio tertij, Quia humiditas obtundit caliditatem. Terra primo est sicca in quarto, secūdario, frigida in medio tertij. Et ita fit circulatio omnium elementorum. Ignis caliditatem infundit aeri, Aer humiditatem suam per caliditatem rarefactam infundit aquæ. Aqua frigiditate sua immittit terræ per calore aeris ea deficcando. Et terra deficcata siccitate sua frigefacta, humifacta, et calefacta infundit aeri. Itap recuperat ignis caliditatem sua remissam pre qualitatibus aliorum elemētoruȝ. Aer similiter humiditatem, aqua frigiditatem, terra siccitateȝ suam. Et sic secundum istam mixtionem fit mixtio elementorum. Est ergo ignis in aqua, quia est in aere existente in terra. Et aqua est in igne, quia est in terra existente in igne, & terra est in aere, quia est in igne existente in aere. Et ita est eorum mixtio terminabilis ad quamcuce proportione. Item dicit Raymundus, in principio in theorica testameti: Quia primordiale principiū vniuersoruȝ est vna natura, quaȝ Deus creauit ex nihilo, in vna pura substātia, quam quintam essentiam vocamus, in qua tota natura compræhenditur. De ista substantia diuissa in tres partes, secundū suam essentiam de puriori, creauit deus angelos et celuȝ empyreuȝ, per istam claritatem & per veritatem participant puræ animæ cum angelis in natura, per quam participationem est inter illam perfectam vnio in glorificatione. Et de secunda creauit deus cœlum, id est, firmamentum, planetas, scilicet solem & lunam, & omnes stellas. Et de tertia parte que erat minus pura, creauit Deus istum mundum. Et istud habes intelligere, non, sicut tibi traditur, sed sicut totum fuit creatum in simul, ad voluntate creatoris superioris fine aliqua successione operatiõis, et sine materia præcedente, quæ respiciat successione generis, quia noȝ esset creatio nec opus diuinuȝ, quę respicit ad creatoreȝ dominū entitatis, ducta sumētificaliter procreatione de nihilo in vera entitate substantiali, quamobrem hoc quod dixi & iam dicam, velis intelligere cum spiritu sumentifico & non grosso nec vulgari, quia hic loquimur ad respectuȝ naturæ opus, cui habes assimilari in nostro magisterio. (Marginal Note: Assimulatio ad opus)

Et ideo tibi dicimus cum sermone exempli vt nos intelligas bene, sicut iam dictum est. Quia supremus creator diuisit istam partē minus puram in quince partes. Ex vna parte puriori creauit Deus quintam essentiam substantiam elementorum, quæ participat cum re cælesti. Et istam diuisit in quatuor partes: Prima purior datur igni, quem creauit Deus ex secunda parte de natura elementoruȝ, Secunda istius pura attribuitur aeri, qui creatus est ex tertia parte minus pura naturæ elementorum, & tertia minus pura datur aquæ quod est elementuȝ creatum de quarta parte minus pura de natura elementoruȝ, Et quarta minus pura dat elemento terrestri, quod fuit creatum de quinta parte minus pura totius naturæ elementorum. Et quāto natura est minus perfecta, tanto magis appetit perfectione sui, et perficit vnuȝ cũ altero ppter concordantiaȝ suaruȝ proprietatuȝ cũ suo quinto instrumento, id est participās cũ causa cælesti. Itē, taȝ est appetito perfectiõis nature, scilicet generatiõis in corruptione, et corruptiõis in generatione, quia eius instinctus aut appetitus noȝ venit immediate a creatore naturæ, quod si veniret res, fieret a creatore et noȝ a creatura, võ esset perfecta sine destructione, et ideo cũ venit istinctus a natura, ipsa noȝ potest facere illa reȝ perfectaȝ nisi perficiat per scientia diuina itellectuale, sicut humana, q rectificat per intelligentiam diuinam. Sic per magisteriuȝ operis nostri propter hoc potest intelligere naturam elementorum primorum, post diuisionem tertię substantiæ primordialiter creatam. Non intelligas quod eorum substantia sit simplex elementum quintum, sed substantia tertia vel quarta, aut secunda, aut prima, elementata a parte quinta quam nos vocamus primordiale, & substantiam simplicem, per quam dictę substantiæ quatuor elementales elementate sunt, quælibet secundum suam naturam sicut superius declaratum est. Ista quatuor elementa sic creata, restant vt pura & clara, ratione eoruȝ clare partis naturæ, a qua erunt creata vsqȝ ad tempus prædictum quod exiuit a natura, aut adhuc vsqȝ ad Anathuel prius predictum, sed ex post, mortui sunt homines & animalia, & nascentia terræ deficcata, cũ destructione generationis, ducta a corruptione in generationem, & ex post, a generatione in corruptionem. Itaqȝ corpus impurum resolutum manet hoc, quod contagiauit & corrumpit elementa, propter quam corruptionem omnis res viuibilis est paruæ durationis, quoniam natura non potest facere rem ita perfectam ratione suæ materiæ grossæ & corruptæ, sicut faciebat in suo principio. Imo dum magis continuat sua operatione, plus deuastatur supra naturam, imperfectione participando cum magna corruptione propter materiam quam quotidie inuenerit minus puram elementorum, quia quod ponit nuc ad immutandum ipsam, tunc ponebat componendum partes firmiores ligamenti. Et per istam potes intelligere omne propheticuȝ qd consumetur in fine mundi, quando Iesus Christus venerit iudicare sæculum per ignem venientem de cælo, qui ardebit totum illud quod non erit de veritate quatuor elementorum, & totum ab impuro & malo confundetur in abysso, & quod ignis inueniet compositum de virtute pura, & ipse supra sphæram requiescet visibiliter in sempiternum, Et malum impurum cadet supra damnatos, & omnis pura super beatos. Quamobrem potest elucidari tuę confyderatiõi, quod in fine quodlibet ibit in suum proprium locum, a quo primum venerat, Et intellige adhuc quod ista propria terra quam calcamus non est verum elementuȝ, imo est elementata a suo vero quinto elemento. Nec recedit quinta substantia elementalis a corpore elementato de quo terra est formata. Sicut corpus fine anima, & putrefactio assimilata in vnum, vel materia fine forma composita, ab antedicta infecta est, per reciprocam actionem ad elementa de vno in aliud, Sed in centro terræ est virgo & elementum verum, quod ignis non poterit ardere in die tremendo, & sic de alijs elementis tu cum elucidatione clare debes intelligere, & coniungere principaleȝ substantiam materialem simplicem, que cum diuisione formet formata in vnum contrarium. (Marginal Note: Principalis substantia)

Cum diuisione tibi locuti sumus, non separata substantia ipsorum quæ est essentia quinta, & subtrahes omne principale elementum compositum. Et vt dixi terra quam nos calcamus non est puruȝ elementuȝ, sed elementata conuenienti elementato, Quia in suo centro reperitur quod est virgo & verum elementum. Marginal Notes: In centro est virgo.

Sic & de alijs elemētis debes intelligere, Et quicquid non erit de veritate pura elementorum ardebit, & totaliter annihilabitur in die iudicij. Et tunc elementa manebunt clara & pura, in terra resplendēte sicut Cristallum.

Marginal note: Cristallina serenitas.

Et taleȝ faciet supremus creator cum cum igne cæli quousqȝ magnus mundus reuertatur ad primam causam, scilicet omnia elemēta in suam puram essentiam, que postmodum non timebit ignem cœli, quia tunc motus supernæ naturæ morabitur in illo fine omni corruptione.

Marginal note: Sancta trinitas.

Et scias quod tria sunt principia omnium rerum, scilicet artificiale & est Deus conditor omnium rerum. Secundum principium quod dicitur exemplare, manat ab ipso, quod dicitur sua sapientia. Tertium succedens principium, quod dicitur materia creata per ipsum, cum ipsa sapientia. quæ procedit ab ipso & est primordiale elementum quod nos vocamus Yle, quod declarabimus tibi si bene nos intellexeris, quod etiam non est necesse quod præsumas ipsum perquirere in sua specie simplici, pro incipiēdo nostram operationem, quamuis quod fine quinta essentia non poteris ad finem deducere.

Sed debes ipsum quærere in specie composita, quia sicut dixi, Cum omnia elementa sint creata a dicta substantia, ab illa viuificantur ad creandum & corrumpendum, quoniam necessarium est sicut apparet per naturam. Quod cum omnis res stans sub globo lune, sit creata & formata a dicta materia quod Yle vocatur, vt de illa influatur in omni re elementali, & plus in vna quam in alia sicut inuenimus per naturam, & quod ibi spatietur & est suum solatium, quapropter fis securus quod nulla res mundi potest fine ipsa creari nec generari, quia ipsa colligat corpus elementare in opere naturæ,

Marginal Note: Quid sit natura.

Et ideo nos eam vocamus naturam, & primordiale cuiuslibet elementi, quoniam de ipfius simplici substantia elementa que sunt materia naturæ, fuerant pure creata, cũ diuina separationc, videlicet, aqua, aer, ignis, quæ sunt corpora elementata per dictum primordiale simpliciter elementum, quod et in ipsis, & ab ipso intellectu procedit.

Chronica Methaurça dicit. Quia species elementorum in solis terminis inuenitur, & in dicto principio, quod principiū est primordiale rerum Idcirco si talem materiam petis intelligere, scias ipsum esse purum subiectum & vnionem formarum, in quo retinetur quælibet forma cum possibilitate, quoniam fluxus & labilitas infinitas continet motiones, secundum diuersitatem formarum extremarum et mediarum, quam in ipsam recipit, per aliquam similitudinem cœlestinarum receptionum, formarum extremarum & mediarum, quę nascitur a natura cœlesti, quæ fuit de sua natura, Et per alias, comparando eam venam directione suæ possibilitatis. Et per alios vocatur possibilitas, quia nullam formam habet in se actualiter, sed oportet formam tribuat cum possibilitate, sicut modo videndo videntur tenebræ, tali modo intelligatur ista materia nil de ipsa intelligendo. Et propterea tibi scribitur forma mūdi qualis est. Et illo modo elemēta funt ordinata in mundo, a quibus quelibet res generatur modo quo apparet, per caliduȝ succedens. Hæc Raymundus Lulij. Item de igne, id est, de calido formali dicit Eximidius in turba Philosophorum. Omnium rerum, id est, creaturarum inicium esse naturam quandam, & eam esse perpetuam & primam, omnia coquentem, & ad formam debitam & speciem perducentem,

Marginal Note: Ignis causa forme.

Quare dicit perpetua & primam. Forte aliquis intelligere t de prima essentia scilicet de creatione, sed non est verum. Sed dicit perpetuam, id est, spiritualem & prima, id est, digniorem omnium creaturarum existentium in elementis, quia aliter esset falsum. Omnia digerens & coquens, informans calidum naturale, quo omnia ad specificam formam & figuram deducuntur.

De Luna philosophica Aenigmata diversa.

Item Ptolomeus in Almagesto dicit. Quia sol non calefacit terra, nec eius virtutem terræ imprimit nisi mediante luna, quæ inter alia sydera magis solis lumen & caliditatem est receptiua, tanquam medium inter solem & terram. Quare vt dicunt philosophi, duo sunt impedimenta, quod vnum virtutem suam alteri non imprimit, scilicet distantia remota & medium interueniens. Et sic est tibi inter solem & terram, quia sol longe a terra distat, & quia ibi luna mediat. Sic quoqȝ in arte nostra alchimistica sol tincturam solam non perficit nisi mediante luna, quia remote distat, cum ad ipsam subtilitatem nondum vt tingat peruenit. Et etiam propter ipsa media scilicet densitatem & grossitiem. Quare necessario requiritur ibi luna, vt ipsum solem subtiliet, rarum & volatilem faciat, & eius impuritatem segreget. Cum ipsa magis suo lumine eget, & natura alijs planetis, id est, metallis. Ergo dicit Hermes & Aristoteles de plantis: Sol pater eius est luna Mater existit. Ergo luna mater & ager in quo solare seminarique debet semen, & sic non indigemus alio ex quo lapis noster et alchimia nostra fiat, quam solis & lune.

Marginal Notes: Dialog. solis & lunæ

Vnde in epistola solis ad lunam in anno solari quando incipit in tenuitate luna cum sole coniungi & ab eo illuminari, primo ait sol: In sorore mea luna crescit gradus sapientiæ vestræ, & non cum aliquo alio ex seruis meis. Ego enim sum sicut semen seminatuȝ in terram bonam, mundam & puram, quod nascens crescit, & germinat, & multiplicat, & adfert lucrum suo seminanti.

Et dicit vltra sol lunæ: Dabo tibi pulchritudinem meam, lumeȝ scilicet solare, cum per minima coniuncti fuerimus. Deinde dicit soli luna: O sol, tu mei indiges sicut gallus indiget gallina, & ego luna indigeo operatione tua. cum sis perfectus moribus, pater luminorum, dominus excelsus, & magnus, calidus & siccus, Et ego luna, crescens frigida & humida, quando copulati fuerimus in equitate status & mansiõe, in qua non fit aliud nisi leue, habens secum graue, in qua mansione vacabimus commonendo, & erimus simul sicut vir & mulier vacantes eius generosi partus. Tunc accipiam a te naturam adulando, id est, animam, & fiam propinquitate tua tenuis, et exultabimus tunc pariter exultatione spirituali, id est, ad moduȝ spirituum sublimatorum, quando ascenderimus ordinem seniorum superiorum, & lucerna lucis scilicet solaris infundetur lucerne mee id est, lunari, ex te scilicet sol, & ex me scilicet luna, fiet infusio lucis lumini, id est, commixtio luminarium, scilicet vinum cum aqua, & ego scilicet luna, prohibebo fluxum tuum, priusquam tu sol indutus fueris nigredine mea colore attramenti, post solutionem & coagulationem meam, cum intrauerimus domum amoris, tunc coagulabitur corpus meum, & ego in natiuitate mea ero sol oriens, etcõuertet corpus meuȝ in decorem solare. Adhęc respondit sol lunę: luna si feceris hęc quę dixisti, & non veneris mihi in nocumentum, reuertetur corpus meum nouum, & postea nouam dabo tibi penetrationis virtutem, id est, tincture, per quam potens eris in prælio ignis liquefactionis, & purgationis, ex quo ibis fine diminutione, & tenebris, sicut sol, & non impugnaberis de cætero sicut æs, plumbum, cum non sis rebellis. Beatus qui intelligit in eloquio meo &c.

Marginal Notes: Sulphur est in Mercurio.

Virtus sulphuris Mercurij est quasi semen paternum, & luna mater, id est, propria substantia Mercurij scilicet, aqueum subtile mixtum terreo subtili est quasi mēstruum, et hoc est arg. viu. quod Mercurius a philosophis nominat.

Marginal Notes: Philosophorum Mercurius

Cum aut Mercurius, id est, arg. viu. sit radix in arte alchemię, qm ex eo, per eum, & in eo sunt funt omnia metalla vt dicunt Philosophi, Versus.

Est in Mercurio quicquid quærunt sapientes. Nam sub vmbra sua viget hæc substantia quinta, propter hoc, quia sua media substantia est incõbustibilis, vt dicit Geber, Quia ois res huius artis est nisi de eo, & cũ eo, quia omnis tinctura a suo simili procedit scilicet a Mercurio.

Marginal Notes: rum. Materia philosophorum.
Substantia fumosa.

Dicunt philosophantes: Huius autem famose scientiæ radicalia principia, super quæ ipsa fundat funt ista scilicet, Quedaȝ materia vel substātia ppria argenti viui et sulphuris sumosa & subtilissima, ex natura predictorum scilicet argenti viui & sulphuris per nostrum artificium generata, limpidissima & clara, tanquam lachryma, in qua latet & habitat spiritus quinte essentiæ. Non autem est substantia ista ipsum sulphur, nec ipsum argentum viuum, prout sunt in natura sua in mineris suis, sed est quæda pars istorum scilicet duorum, que non funt argentum viuum nec sulphur vt dicit Geber. Que substantia c prædicta sumosa & volatilis in propria substantia existens in aliam quam argenti viui & sulphuris naturam fixam & firmam, quæ est ignem paciens & ipsum non fugiens, sed in eo perseuerans figitur et mutatur. Vel quæ prius per decoctionem temperatam et continuam per magisterium huius scientię cum alijs ad hęc conuenientibus congelatur in lapidem fluentem, figente, tingentem, et in igne perseuerantem.

Nota qd principia huius rei funt duo scilicet materia et agens. Materia aut est argentum viuum & sulphur seu arsenicum quod idem est. Notandum quod Philosophi dicunt, quod istud argentum viuum & sulphur super qd fundat natura suam actionem & operationem, est argentum viuum, & sulphur deductum seu productum ad aliquam naturam aqueam, subtilissimam, clarissimam, albissimam & amænissimam, quam philosophi vocant argentum viuum, & ad quandam terream materiam subtilissimam, quam vocant sulphur, per artificium, quod philosophi mirabiliter occultauerunt.

Marginal Notes: Natura quea agua nostra.

Est autem istud argentum viuum & istud sulphur vna res, & de vna re exit. Quia vna res fit patet, quod philosophi nominant dictum argentum viuum sulphur, et dictum sulphur argentum viuum. Vnde Geber: Est lapis vnus, medicina vna, in quo totum magisterium consistit. Secundum est agens, vnde agens moues ipsam materiam ad corruptioneȝ est calor, qui est instrumentum mouens ad corruptionem. Et non est aliud agens in mundo.

Marginal Notes: Quomodo fiat prima materia.
Omne corpus passibile reducitur ad sui primam materiam, per operationes suæ naturæ contrarias, quod prima materia est argentum viuum, cum ipsum fit olen omnium liquabilium & ductibilium. Materia aut prima materia metallorum est vapor vnctuosus, vtriusqȝ naturam in se habentes, scilicet Mercurij & sulphuris, Item humidum vnctuosum est materia nostri argenti viui Philosophici, & substantia suæ vnctuositatis est, ppria materia essentialis sulphuris. Vbi aperte poteris cognoscere, quod tu non potes fixare vnuȝ fine alio, sicut materia fine aliqua forma, quare stat sulphur sicut calor complexionabilis in substantia argēti viui, et stat ibi sicut virtus spermatis masculi qđ stat in semine mulieris, vel sicut alia virtus generatiua.

Hæc dicit Raymundus.
Et nil est mundi quod non sit naturaliter compositum a substantia quatuor elementoruȝ, testimonio cuiuslibet boni naturalis, & secundum suas experiētias noȝ est substantialiter aliud nisi ex sulphure et argēto viuo puris & mundis, incombustibilibus in primo puncto suæ creatiõis, & istude principium, vel genus vel materia prima, & substantia media in qua natura infigit oes suos colores, in figurando diuersas substantias. Isti colores veniunt per proprietatem naturæ quinte sulphuris & arg. viui, per instinctū suæ naturę. Ex quibus patet qd in omni loco noster lapis reperitur ratiõe suarum proprietatum, et per istam experientiam cognoscimus clare, hanc prima materiam omniuȝ rerum vniuersaliuȝ esse, quæ per corruptionem & generationem formantur secundum suam compositiōnem, & sicut in omni re de tali materia capiūt omnia mūdi sua formā substantiale, spirituale & accidentale.

Igit in omni loco reperit, & in omnib. rebus, quia vt dicit Raymudus:

Marginal Note: Quomodo lapis in omni re fit.

In omnib. rebus post vltimā sua depurationē reperitur prima materia omniū rerū in qualibet illaruȝ, in forma Mercurij, que materia dicit geng generatiuuȝ, ens reale, terminus materialis naturę, inqȝ natura capit sua principia materialia in actu generationis, quia est primum subiectum in natura, Tunc enim species in aliam formam quam prius erant permutantur, sed non quidem species, sed indiuidua specieruȝ, qm ipsa indiuidua actionibus sensibilibus sunt obiecta, eo qd inter se sunt corruptibilia. Species vero cum sint naturalissimæ actionibus sensibilibus, non sunt subiectæ, & ideo inter se sunt corruptibiles. Species vero argenti quæ est argenteitas non permutatur in speciem auri, quæ est aureitas, nec econtra, quia species veræ permutari no possunt, sed indiuidua specierū bene in suam prima reducuntur materiaȝ. Quia cũ forma istius fuerit corrupta et in primam materia resoluta, tuc etia necessario introducit alia noua forma, quia corruptio vnius est generatio alterius, sed quia materia nullo modo ita potest destrui quin sub aliqua maneat forma, vnde destructa vna forma metallorum, immediate introducitur alia, scilicet per trasmutationem Mercurij in sulphur, ad nostram operationem qua intendimus. Etiam omne indiuiduū multiplicat formam suæ speciei, & non alterius, vt dicit Aristoteles & Raymūdus.

Marginal Notes: Color & qualitas Mercurij

Et ideo soluta prima corporis forma per elemétationem conuersam in Mercurium est qualitas in colore subnigro, in odore fœtido, & in tactu subtili, & discontinuata. In tali autem natura simplici insunt quatuor elementa composita, separabilia, & resolubilia in aquam Mercurij post putrefactionem.

Marginal Notes: Mercurius rubeus philosophorum

Hæc Raymundus.
Et cum dico aqua Mercurialis, nolo intelligere Mercuriuȝ nudū, sed Mercuriuȝ Philosophoruȝ rubeæ substantię extractum a mineris in se habentibus materiam de sulphure & Mercurio. Ideo Lilium dicit: Necesse est congregare sulphur quod denigrat corpus. Et tale sulphur dicimus aquam esse, que seipsam nigrefacit, albificat, et rubificat, et ipsam fixat. Ideo aqua Mercurialis est prima materia ab omnibus metallis, & cum ea soluūtur omnia metalla, quæ in alia non possunt solui aqua. Et si metalla non soluerentur in eorum primam materiam per istam aquam Mercurialem, non fieret id quod quæritur, vt dicit Aristoteles. Et hoc opus non est opus opificis, sed naturæ, ministrante opifice & adiuuante eam. Dicit Albertus. Quia inter omnes artes alchimia plus imitatur naturam, & hoc propter decoctionem eius & augmentum, quia decoquitur in aquis metallicis, igneis, rubeis, maxime habentibus de forma, & minime de materia.

Nam aliæ artes imitantur naturam similitudinarie, Alchimia vero mera veritate.

Marginal Note: Discipulus nature.

Ideo non est debilior natura, quia ars siue artifex tantum sibi ministrat, ipsa vero naturaliter operatur, & perficitur, & ideo dicitur: Indiges quod in solutione luminariuȝ primo labores, qui primus gradus est operationis vt fiant argentum viuum; Quia dicunt Philosophi: Nisi fiant corpora incorporea, & e conuerso, nil operamini. Et non sic intelligas, quod corpus fiat simplex aqua elementalis pura, quia ex tali nullum corpus metallicum procedit, cum simplex non alteratur, nec etiam in foro nature persistat, sed bene compositum, id est, grossum, quia vnum solum elementum elementatum, tardam corruptionem facit, & tardam generationem in semetipso. Et propter hoc simplicia elementa modicum profunt in arte ista, quia in ipsis non sunt essentiæ primæ elementorum, in quibus funt virtutes quæ mutant, generat, & corrumpunt. Ideo simplicia elementa sunt extra generationem & corruptionem, & hoc propter causam, quia non attingunt naturalem humiditatem quæ omnia facit nasci. Etiam si reuerteretur in aquam esset tunc siccum, per vim, nõ per naturam ad modum saliuȝ vel aluminuȝ, & sic liquaretur ad ignem. Etiam secundū rei veritatem, si corpus deberet reduci in primum elementum, secundum istos qui dicunt quod debet reduci in aquam, aqua non fuit primū elementum inter elementa, licet dicat et allegent illud Gene.1. vbi dicitur: Spiritus dñi ante cęli & terræ creatione ferebatur super aquas, non sequit ergo quod in ipsa creatione elementoruȝ ipsa aqua fuerit primum elementum cum elementum aeris & ignis prius fuerunt vt dictum est supra, licet bene in nostra operatiõe inter elemēta visibilia quę a nobis videntur & tangunt, ipsa aqua fit primū elementum, vnde in arte solū duo funt elemēta formalia quæ videntur & tanguntur, scilicet aqua & terra, cum virtualiter sunt quatuor scilicet aer in aqua & ignis in terra.

Quia dicit Rasis: Omnia quæ sublunari globo inferius a summo condita funt opifice, quatuor participant elementis, non tantuȝ per visum, sed etiam per effectum. Nam elementū aqucum vocamus ipsius aquæ humiditatem, aerem vocamus ipsius aquæ naturam, Igne illam virtutem quam habet qua comburit, calcinat, & corpora soluit. Terra est ipsum corpus spissum & grossum per se, & sic aqua & terra a nobis videntur & tanguntur, alia duo in hijs duobus intelliguntur. Ideo sequit & oportet vt in arte alchimiæ metalla primo reducantur in Mercurium, id est in argentum viuum vnde omnium metallorum materia & sperma. Vnde dicit Geber: Iu Est Mercurius decoctus & inspissatus in ventre terræ calore sulphureo ipsum decoquente.

Marginal Notes: Prima materia omniū metalloru. Differunt metalla decoctione

Et secundum varietatem sulphuris & ipsius multiplicationem, diuersa metalla procreantur in terra, ipsorum enim prima materia est vna & eadem, ipsa tamen inter se differunt sola actione accidentali, id est decoctione maiori vel minori temperato vel intemperato, adurenti vel non adurenti. Sic concordantes afferunt omnes Philosophi. Quoniam vnumquodque illorum scilicet argentum viuum et sulphur conuertitur primo in terream substantiam, deinde ex hijs ambabus terreis substantijs resoluitur quidā fumus tenuissimus, subtilissimus & purissimus, propter calorem in visceribus terræ decoctus & digestus, conuertitur in naturam cuiusdam terræ, & sic fixionem quandam suscipit & in metallum conuertitur.

Nota, vltimus terminus naturæ recommendationis & transmutationis cocti & crudi, scilicet ad quam naturaliter tendit artista est substantia sulphuris non vrentis, quod cũ fuerit conuersum, est propinqua matería nostri realis elixiris & puri metalli prima natura & proxima, alterata tamen per calorem sui corporis, scilicet cum illa alteratione per quam magis proprie & propinquius possit suam speciem & formam suscipere, cum voluntate concordantiæ naturæ mineralis. Et hæc humiditas nil aliud fuit quam argentum viuum, erectum a corpore liquefacto intus et foris.

Marginal Notes: Mercurius & Sulphur idem nomine

Cum hoc argento viuo qualitates sulphuris funt commixtæ per digestionem. Et ideo est alteratum sicut natura requirit per suum calorem sui ipsius, per conuersionem suę naturæ est conuersum & congelatū in sulphur, quia tu potes sentire per naturam quod nulla alia humiditas conuertitur magis pprie & prompte in substantia sulphuris, quam, in quam qualitates suimet sulphuris sufficienter funt introductæ per ingenium naturale, quod fit per artificium quæ humiditas est argentum viuum in forma aquæ claræ, sicut lac in mammillis, et sulphur sicut sperma in testiculis. Illud argentum viuum non habet aliquam contrarietatem quæ sibia sua cõplexione veniat, quare necesse est, quod tale argentum viuum fit fit nimis nimis temperatum respectu complexiõis sui corporis. Quare ergo non dico, quod materia huius non est argentum viui commune, cum tota sua substantia &c.

Marginal Notes: Notavitus universalis Mercurij

Causa autem quare oporteat metallum ad naturam vaporis reducere, quia videmus omnia generari Mercurio viuo mediate, quo ipsum genitum fuit. Verbi gratia: Homo genitus fuit a patre mediante spermate, generat alium filium mediante spermate, & sic de alijs, ergo natura Mercurialis est vniuersalis qua pascimur, & nutrimur, fine ipso namqȝ nõ est vita animalium, nec plantarum, ipso enim semoto a re quacunque, statim sequit corruptio & mors, cum fit fermentum vitæ & existentiæ rerum vniuersarum, vt dicit Philosophus.

Marginal Note: Quomodo Mercurius fit in homine omni.

Item Raymudus dicit, Quod corpus quod est principale cõuertes in inconuertibile, primo conuertatur, vt prius illud conuertibile in sulphuris substantia conuertatur, & congeletur, Quia nullum argentum viuum promptius conuertitur in substantiam sulphuris qua illud in quo sulphuris qualitates per dissolutionem sufficienter sunt introductæ, nec ullum sulphur promptius argetum viuum congelat quam illud, in cuius substantia ipsum argentum viuum existit, naturæ & per artis ingenium iam conuersum, id est aurum conuersum in primam materiam. Tunc enim natura naturam amplectitur propriam amicabilius, gaudet ea magis quam extranea, vt philosophi omnes clamant, natura letatur sola eius natura, natura solam eius naturam concipit. Et Hermes: nil conuenit rei nisi quod propinquius jus est illi in sua natura, & & generat in illa re proles similes sibi. Hoc est, Si quæris medicinam metalla generantem, de metallis erit eius origo, cum species a suo genere tingat, vt dicit philosophus. Etiam in habentibus symbolum facilis est transitus, & non sic intelligas quod reducantur metalla in aquam elementalem simplicem, quia ex simplici nihil fit sed ex composito.

Sequitur Operis inceptio.

Huius artis quatuor sunt regimina siue gradus: Primus gradus regiminis fit calcinando, id est, corpus primo debet calcinari. Secundus soluēdo, quia debet solui. Tertius distillando quia debet distillari vel sublimari. Quartus igne leui congelando. Et in istis quatuor regiminibus & gradibus consistit recta & vera præparatio. Ideo corpus & spiritus Mercury funt necessaria ad perpetranda huius rei miracula vt dicit Geber. Et ad hanc artem solum duo requiruntur vt dicit Hermes. Fiducia in duabus rebus consistit, quibus & tertium adiungitur. Et dicit, tres facies, id est, tres species vidi in vno patre,

Marginal Notes: Tres species artis tantum.

id est progenie, Quia dicit Morienus, Quia tres species ad totum magisterium sufficiunt, scilicet fumus albus, id est, vis quinta, scilicet aqua cœlestis, & leo viridis, & æs Hermetis, ex qua & cum qua preparant ipsum opus in principio, in medio & in fine.

Marginal Notes: Calor temperatus.
Itē Eximidius in turba Philosophoruȝ: Per calore temperatuȝ extrahitur a materia metallica quoddam humidū vnctuosuȝ subtile terreo mixtuȝ, & optime purgatuȝ, quod elixir vocatur, quo metalla transmutantur.

Marginal Notes: Vnctuosum humidum generans.
Ergo requirit qd calor extrinsecus, id est, ignis artificialis vel materialis fit calidus temperate, ita quod non excedat calorem intrinsecum

Marginal Notes: Ratio pulchra.

scilicet vt calor intrinsecus retineat secum suum humidum quod naturaliter secum trahit, quia si calor exterior excedit, tunc humidum vnctuosum subtili terreo mixtum a forti igne euolat, nec in corpore perseuerat.

Marginal Notes: effectus ignis temperati.

Oportet igitur quod quicquid est superfluum, grossum & nocuum, per virtutem & decoctionem lentam paulatim purgetur, conseruetur, subtilietur.

Marginal Notes: Calor radicalis.

Itē quælibet res mundi id est ome corpus elementatuȝ habet in se caliduȝ radicale seu formale, causa cuiqȝ persistit, et est eius fixuȝ quo persistit, & quo multiplicatur eius semē. Et hoc est in Mercurio eius media substātia, in auro eius sulphur, quæ dirigūt materia ad fineȝ & formam, & speciem debitam. Et non est res adeo frigida quin foueatur sub calido, scilicet in ipso inclusa tanquam radice, vt dicit philosophus. Itē Mercurius est terra sua ppria tinctura, subtilis valde, in qua ignis tam solis quam menstrui retinetur, & subtilis media substantia Mercurij, & onus & fundamentum magisterij.

Marginal Notes: Media substantia Mercurij

Et est materia ex qua nostra conficit medicina, que ex argēto viuo ducit originē, & ex illa debet creari immediate, cui alienum noli aliquo modo introducere aliquid, nisi illud tale quod fuit ortum de eo in proprietate naturæ suæ, & in isto passu realiter ostenditur doctrinæ filio, quod ista materia de qua componimus medicinā non argentuȝ viuuȝ in sua natura, cuȝ iam mutatum est in sulphur, nec in tota sua substantia, cum iam extremæ partes, terræ & aque fuerint separatę ab illa media substātia. Imo est lapis benedictus, et spiritus participās duabus extremitatibus. Veruntamē quauis lapis scilicet sulphur factus fit de sui substantia media, vocatur simpliciter argentum viuum. Quia sulphur illuminat, et ab adustione conseruat, quod est sibi proprium, velut perfectionis signum.

Hæc Raymundus.
Et ex vna libra Mercurij vix medium lotonem hoc est, drachmas duas habebis, qd opus in se recipit, & in eo continet ad faciendum tincturam siue elixir: Dicit Calid: Aqua, id est Mercurius vel argentum viuum non plus ponderis adijcit vel dat corpori, nisi quantum de humiditate metallina secū habet vel in se habet, quia humiditas aquæ transit, & metallina manet, Et candida rubedo æris nostri transformat substantia metallinam argenti viui in ruborem & in tincturam aurea mirabilem. Semen paternum & propria substantia Mercurij est mater eius, quia eius menstruum, quod debet deleri & deponi, & solum semen paternum debet seruari & recipi, quod est eius media substantia quæ perficit & ab vstione defendit. Hoc semen Mercurij non potes extrahere a Mercurio nec eius menstruum, id est, humidum superfluum ab eo deponi nisi mediante coagulo quod tale semen in Mercurio coagulet et retineat, ne in humido superfluo etiam recedat, vt coagulum lactis lac coagulat, & eius meliorem substantiam, id est eius mediam substantiam ad se trahit et secum retinet. Et sic spiritus, id est aqua, non coagulatur nisi mediante corpore, quod in ea fit dissolutum, cum corpora fint coagulum lactis huius, id est, Mercury, & tale coagulum debet esse aut sol, aut luna, in ipso Mercurio soluti. Sed tamen solummodo luna ad album, & sol ad album & ad rubeum opus, quia sol dicitur æs Hermetis,

Marginal Note: Aes, sol, luna, idem funt.

cum philosophi loquuntur solū de çre ipsorum, id est, sole, quoniam talia, vel tale funt, vel est coagulum quod coagulat Mercurium, id est, aquam nostraȝ. Quia dicit Constans in turba: Nil aliud curate, quoniam duplex est argētum viuum, videlicet fixum in ære, & volatile fugiens, id est, Mercurius, retinetes vnum aliud quod est sui generis, & a fuga cohibet. Et hic maximū habetis archanum. Item Raymundus dicit. Quia corpus in hac arte est ens metallicum in quo virtus mineralis spiritus quiescit, Et metalla funt id, ex quorum spiritu omnis lapis componitur. Spiritus autem dicitur mineralis virtus, in qua naturæ metallorum quiescunt. Et omnis lapis componitur ex spiritu metallorum, & ille spiritus confyderatione alchimistarum dicit Mercurius, quia dicitur prima & proxima natura consyderata in hac arte & prima metallorū materia, & habet reduci super terram adhuc vt si aliquid de spiritu remansit cum terra, quod dictus spiritus sublimetur per sublimationem ignis tertij gradus, et conuertetur in terra foliata que dicitur quinta essentia terræ metalloruȝ, & ab aliquibus philosophis argentū viuuȝ vel Mercurius vel sulphur naturæ.

Marginal notes: Sulphur naturae.

Et terra tunc inferius manens vel puluis, dicitur fex & scoria, puluis damnatus quo non indiges, quia est puluis vituperatus, qui modica susflatione euanescit, tamē argentū viuuȝ exuberatum. est terra corporis,

Marginal notes: Argentum viuum exuberatum.

cum menstruo simul transiens per alembicum, & sulphur naturæ est spiritus metallorum sublimatus, & conuersus in terram foliatam, quæ est prima & proxima materia metallorum Prima matería dicitur etiam terra foliata, Est autem necessarium quod spiritus exuberatus conuertatur in terrâ foliatam per sublimationem, vt separetur mundum ab immundo, subtile a spisso vel grosso terrestri, & vt spiritus viuificans trahatur sicut visus basilisci in animalibus, & sulphur in fusione metallorum. Item necesse est vt custodias spiritum quinte essentiæ si aliquid vis facere, qui dependet a primatre, sicut forma formarum, quæ se posuit in quatuor naturis honorabilibus, & vocatur anima elementorum.

Marginal notes: Forma formarum.

Et propter hoc, quia omnis forma substantialis descendit immediate a re propinqua filiarum formarum. Et non debes intelligere quod ista forma vel spiritus sit calida vel frigida, vel humida vel sicca, nec masculus nec fœmina.

Sed bene debes intelligere, quod ratione suæ magnæ perfectionis ipsa participat cun qualibet aliarum quatuor naturaruȝ, quia fine illo nõ esset complexio in aliquo complexionato, sicut nos videmus manifeste & cognoscimus cum certa experientia in ligamento & coniunctione & commixtione quatuor elementorum, quæ per sua contraria qualitate repugnant, quam repugnantia diāda contraria elementa nõ possunt concordare, qd ipsa vnirentur in vnum, nisi esset hoc honorabile medium, quod vadit confuse per omnia elementa, & participat cum qualibet suaruȝ naturaruȝ, & facit pacem inter inimicos.

Marginal Notes: Mercurius & sulphur idem re nomine

Hæc Raymundus. Virtus sulphuris Mercurij est quasi semen primum, lunaqȝ mater. Inde dicit, pater eius est sol, id est sulphur, lunaqȝ mater existit, id est, propria substantia Mercurij, scilicet, aqueū subtile mixtum terreo subtili est quasi menstruū, nutrix eius terra est, scz terreū subtile in oqȝ habet humidū radicale.

Marginal Notes: Nutritio.

Et terra dicit mater elementoruȝ, quia portat filiū in ventre suo, hoc t m est dicere, id est, qd oportet eū nutrire ex pura prima substantia, & filius dicitur corpus aut terra foliata, id est spiritus & corpus mortuuȝ, & opus quod spiritus in quo tota vis est iungetur inseparabiliter suo subtili terreo magno et suaui ingenio, iunge humidum sicco, & letabitur, quia humidum est spiritus & anima, siccum dicitur terra aut corpus mortuuȝ. Ideo animas corporum ingredi nõ possunt nisi mediante spiritu. Et opus quod manifestemus occultum, scilicet caliduȝ & siccum, & occultemus manifestum scilicet frigidum & humidum.

Marginal Notes: Quid sit lapis noster.

Itē lapis est spiritus humidus aqueus, sed Mercurius noster, id est tinctura, extrahitur ex incorruptibili grano, procreatum virtute diuina, & pro certo hic Mercurius non est vulgaris, non enim coagularetur ita cito.

Marginal Notes: Purgatio Mercurij humidi.

Itē ante omnia erit proficuum spiritum scilicet Mercuriuȝ, a suis superfluitatibus mundare, & ex eo substantiam elicere in qua non est superfluaȝ humiditatem aqueam inuenire, nec terream substantiam combustibilem opus inficientem, sed tantummodo substantiam vnctuosam aeream in qua latet spiritus quinte essentiæ. essentię, cuius solius magistraliter opus in sui primam materiam transformare, est autem maximum in arte secretum, et ab antiquis pænitus celatum, ipsum enim aurū perfectissime volatizat, & in spiritualitatem transmutat.

Marginal Notes: Ubi quinta essentia. Quomodo prima materia fiat.

Cuius operationis modus est, sicut scis &c.

Item tinctura est compositio lapidis, ignis, & aeris, auri vel argenti.

Marginal Notes: Diffinitio tincture.

Vel sic: Est quoddā compositum ex igne & aere auri vel argenti. Vel sic: Est corpus tingens ortum & compositum a duobus elementis, scilicet ignis & aeris, auri ad rubeum, & argenti ad album. Istæ diffinitiones funt prout tinctura in hac arte confyderatur, secundum quas poteris notare, quod omnis tinctura alchimistica necessario habet esse ex iam dictis metallis. Quia simile producit sibi simile in natura naturaliter & artificialiter. Nam aurum ita est principium omnibus artificiantibus. Qui ergo aliquid ignificare vult non quærat lapidem vel plantam, sed ignem, qui est principium ignificationis. Igitur fili, si aliquis voluerit aurificare metaphorice, non quærat sulphur, vel alumen vel arsenicum, sed querat aurum quod est principium aurificationis.
Tingere est tingendo tinctum in suam naturam transformare, & secum fine vlla separatione permanere, vt in natura figentis tingentis et tincti.

Marginal Notes: Quid sit lapis.

Lapis est corpus compositum ex quinta metallorum essentia. Quæ alias dicitur argentum viuum, deductum de eorum potentia in actum per magisterium omnium principiorum huius artis.

Marginal Notes: Quid sit oleum.

Oleum est limositas omnium metallorum natans super menstrū̄ post dissolutionem illorum. Est autem necessarium vt corpora in oleum conuertatur, quia si nõ conuertatur in seipsis solida remanebunt, & quod quærimus non fiet, & sequeretur priuatio omnium principiorum huius artis & quod quærimus non fiet, & sequeretur priuatio omnium principiorum huius artis.

Menstruum est id, ratione cuius corpora metallorum naturali dissolutione dissoluuntur, & spiritus eorum de potentia ducuntur ad actum, & secundum illam diffinitionem demonstratur quod dissolutio metallorum non debet fieri nisi cũ predicto principio, et si fieret aliter nihil fieret in effectu.

Elixir autem philosophorum componitur ex tribus, scilicet lapide lunari, solari, & Mercuriali. In lunari existit sulphur album, in solari sulphur rubeū, & lapis Mercurij amplectitur vtranqȝ naturam albam & rubeam, & hæc est fortitudo totius magisterij.

Item Rasis dicit, album & rubeum, ex vna radice procedunt, nullo alterius generis corpore interueniente, pullulant, id est, ex sole, ipso enim sole absente Mercurius priuatur effectu, quia ex materia et forma fit tantummodo generatio vera. Et dicit in floribus secretorum: Fac matrimonium inter virum rubicundum, & vxorem suam candidam, & totū habebis magisterium. Et in speculo dicitur, lapis Philosophicus ex re vili consurgit in preciosissimum thesaurum, id est, ex spermate auri in matricem Mercurij proiectum per coitum, id est, per commixtionem primam.

Ideo dicit Verax: Cum componitur scilicet sol cum suo simili, scilicet Mercurio, erit germen pregnans.

Marginal Notes: Nature commixtio prima dicitur coitus.

Nam anima, spiritus, & tinctura, possunt tunc ab ipsis per ignem temperatum extrahi.
Item natura huius lapidis albi siue rubei talis est, quod tenet medium inter metalla & argentum viuum.

Marginal Notes: Quod sit medium.

Nam viuum argentum nullo modo potest cum metallis vniri fine medio, sicut anima non potest vniri cum corpore sine spiritu, qui tenet medium inter animam & corpus, & sic tenet spiritus medium inter corpus & animam. Et propter hoc dicunt sapientes. Nostrum æs sicut homo habet spiritum, corpus, et animam, propter quod dixerut tria, & hec tria funt vnum, & in vno funt tria, spiritus, corpus, & anima funt vnum, & omnia funt ex vno.

Marginal Notes: Tria sunt unum.

Et hæc præparatio est, quam vocant conuersionem & diuisionem, quia vertitur de re in rem, sicut conuertitur in matrice semen hominis in præparatione naturali de re in rem, donec formatur inde homo perfectus, ex quo fuit radix eius & principium. Nec mutatur ab hac nec exit a radice sua et diuisione de re ad rem fine ingressiõe alterius rei super ipsum, nisi sanguis menstruorū ex quo fuit semen, id est, ex sanguine ei simili, & in ipso facit incremētum ex eius.

Marginal Notes: Nutritio ex mestruo Inceratio vera.
Et similiter ouum fine ingressiõe alterius rei super co conuertitur de statu in statum, et diuiditur de re in rem, & fit demū pullus volans sicut aliud a quo habuit radicem et principiuȝ. Et similiter omnia terræ nascentia, putrescunt & mutantur, & ingreditur super ea corruptio, deinde germinant & augmentantur sicut augmenta ex quibus habuerunt radicem & principium.
Et propter hoc mineralia non nutriuntur vt exeant a radice, sed redit ad id vnumquodque quod fuit, nec conuertitur ex hoc ad aliud. Et qui aliud dicit falsum dicit. Hæc est ergo conuersio & diuisio quam volunt sapientes.

Item sperma philosophorum est aqua viua, terra autem est corpus imperfectum, Quæ terra merito dicitur matrix, quia ipsa est mater omnium elementorum. Ideo quando sperma Mercurij coniungitur cum terra corporis, dissoluitur in aquam spermatis, & fit aqua fine diuisione vna. Item totū beneficium huius artis est in sole et Mercurio. Etēm ipsa in vnū coniuncta, lapide philosophorum constituunt, & tincturam habent infinitam, nam in sanguine rubi corpore acquirit colorem sanguine rubicundiorem.

Marginal Note: Color sanguie rubicundior.

Modicum quippe talis coloris in albuȝ, id est, in lunam infusum, conuertit albi magna quantitatem in citrinum colorem. Præparatio autem harum rerum a principio vsqȝ ad finem est aqua fixa honorata, nam illa manifestat tincturam in proiectione, et ipsa est mediatrix inter contraria, & ipsa eadem est principium medium & vltimum. Intelligens ista, appræhendit sapientiam.
Et nota quod illud quod non est bonum in corpore imperfecto, perficiatur per illud quod est bonuȝ in corpore perfecto, quia corpus perfectum in sua grossitie permanens, minime virtutem habere potest separandi terram sulphuream, a commixto imperfecto, & conuertendi ipsum commixtum imperfectum ad suam perfectam naturam. Necesse est ergo, quod corpus perfectum subtilietur antequam habeat talem virtutem. Est autem subtiliatum quando ad argenteitatem viuaȝ est reductum, Et cum ipsa argenteitas viua corporis perfecti fit fixa, figit argenteitatem viuam non fixam ipsius corporis imperfecti.

Marginal Note: De argēteitate duplici

Sed argenteitas viua nõ fixa quæ est in corporibus imperfectis, cum sua fuga et velocitate abstrahit argenteitatem viuam fixam, a corporibus perfectis, & facit illam ilico penetrare, transformare, glorificare, & omnino perficere. Certuȝ est enim quod omnis res est de eo, et ex eo in quo resoluitur, Sed Sed omnia metalla reducuntur ad argenteitatem viuam, ergo fuerunt argentum viuum. Et sic soluitur oppositio illorum qui dicunt species metallorum non posse transmutari, quod verum est vt afferunt ipsi, nisi ad primam reducantur materiam, Tunc enim habetur propriū sperma metallorum, ex quo metalla artificialiter generantur, sicut enim fuerunt generata metalla per naturam a proprio spermate metallorum, ita possunt generari ab eodem spermate per artem potissime.

Marginal Notes: Ide sperma & nature

Quia argetum viuum corporum perfectorum est fixum, cum fit calore sulphureo in ventre terræ decoctum actione mediocri seu temperata. Sulphureitas vero fixa, & argenteitas viua fixa, in profundo substantiæ auri & argenti funt substantia fixa. Et talis substantia subtilissima & purissima est, facillimæ, & tenuissimæ liquefactionis admodum ceræ, & est fixa super ignis pugnam. Per dictum ergo sulphur, & per dictum argentum viuum coagulant argentum viuum, & ipsum in naturam solificam & lunificam conuertunt, & etiam conuertunt omnia corpora metallica & imperfecta, ad naturam perfectam, solificam & lunificam. Ergo ex predictis operatur ars, vt ista scientia in paucis diebus vel horis, quod natura facit in mille annis, facit.

Marginal Notes: Lapis animalis.

Nota Omne sal fixum ponitur pro corpore vel pro retinaculo, Et tale sal extrahitur a rebus calcinatis, & sal nostrum quod est tinctura extrahitur a calce metallorum per putrefactionem, vsque totum compositum exuat suam naturam, & induat alienam. De tali sale dicit senior: Primo fit cinis, postea sal, & de illo sale per diuersas operationes sub Mercurius Philosophorum.

Marginal Note: Mercurius philosophorum animalis.

Dicit Raymundus: Ars semper indiget calce. i. terra sua propria, in qua maxima virtus mineralis est imposita ad indurandum Mercurium, quia ipsa semper fluit media & extrema lapidis, ideo ea non obliuiscaris. Postmodum spiritus & anima debent reddi corpori, & sic corpus resuscifari, ac spiritus & anima in corpore mori, vt verificetur dictum philosophi dicentis:
Qui mecum moritur, mecum oritur. Quod sic intellige, Na spiritus, id est, Mercurius est animæ locus, id est, Mercurij corporis, & ille spiritus est aqua sicca Philosophorum, scilicet media substantia Mercurij viui, qui scilicet spiritus extrahit hanc animam a corporibus perfectis. Ipsa autem anima est tinctura soluta in spiritu, id est, aqua philosophoruȝ. Nā sicut tinctura vulgi portatur in aqua sua, quæ tingit pannos, & aqua colorata currit in pannum, & tunc recedit aqua per exficcationem, & remanet tinctura in panno, Sic quoqȝ aqua sapientum in qua est tinctura eorum reducut super terram suam albam benedictam sitientem, et currit aqua philosophorū in terram eorum, et extenditur corporaliter in illa, & terra tingit. Deinde recedit aqua spiritualis & remanet anima in corpore, quæ est tinctura, quia est fumus subtilis, inuisibilis, et non apparet effectus eius nisi in corpore.

Nam totum magisterium nostrum fit cum aqua nostrum fit cum aqua nostra, Et ex eo & de ea funt omnia necessaria. Nam ipsa corpora soluit solutione vera philosophica, vt conuertantur in aquam, ex qua ab initio fuerut, vt dicit Socrates. Secretum cuiuslibet rei est vita, videlicet aqua, vt dicit Hermes aqua aeris inter colum & terram existens, et vita vniuscuiuscȝ rei, ipsa enim aqua soluit corpus in spiritum, & de mortuo facit viuum, & facit matrimonium inter virum & mulierem. Etenim totum beneficium artis facit.
Et nota quod argētum viuum seu spiritus est duplex: scilicet præparans & tingens.
Spiritus preparans, Corpus dissoluit & mundificat a corrumpētibus causis, et extrahit secundum spiritum in corpore existentem & tingentem, & reducit ad seipsum corpora per dissolutionem, & eorū duriciem mollificat, corpora illuminat, tenebras & impuritatem eorum a partibus purissimis segregando & remouendo erigit, et exaltat corpora reducendo ea in naturam sublimem, inspirat & subtiliat dum solidum facit spirituale. Et hæc funt beneficia & effectus spiritus seu argenti viui, præparantis corpus & extrahentis ab eo spiritum tingetem. Hic aute spiritus, id est, argentum viuuȝ primo est grossus, immundus et fugitiuus propter sulphur quod in meatibus terre sibi occurrit & int mixtum est, sed operatione artis que fit per distillationem & sublimationem renouatur, mundatur, depuratur, decoquitur, inspissatur ac per sulphur album & rubeum coagulatur.

Et hic spiritus præparans est duplex, Primus est vapor ficcus non viscosus acedinis multæ, subtilis valde, faciem ignis fugiens, de facili vim magnam penetrādi habens, minera corpora resoluens. Et hic spiritus ex vocabulis in æquiuocatione vocatur Mercurius, sed Mercurius spiritus est, ergo & ipse vltimo rationis vocabulo spiritus ficcus appellatur, & de tali spiritu necessarium est vt in ampulla bene obturata secludatur, & hoc est de intentiõe Alberti. Iste enim spiritus generatur ex rebus ponticis, & ipse vocat ipsum humidum siccum igneum.
Alius spiritus præparans est in vapore humidus, nõ vnctuosus, sed viscosus, acedinis maximæ, mediocriter subtilis, ignis asperationem de facili fugiens, & in eo euanescens, vim soluendi corpora & spiritus possidens, aqua in seipso existens. Hoc etiam vult Albertus, et quaȝ plures alij, scilicet sub alijs rebus. Et talis spiritus etiam vocabulo quiuoco vocatur Mercurius, & hoc ex comparatione et similitudinaria locutione. Nam Mercurius vt dicunt Philosophi, virtutem maximam habet alterādi et penetrandi corpora, in plano non quiescens, ignis examen non expectans, sic est de duobus spiritibus, & ratione istius ambo vocantur Mercurij. Ex istis recipe intellectum in dictis Philosophorum, & erit intelligentia leuis hic & alibi, & videbis philosophos inter se non errare sicut putauerunt multi.

Marginal Notes: Differunt vnctuosum et viscosum

Et sic notandum est, quod aliud est vnctuosum, & aliud viscosum, nam ex humido viscoso generatur lapis, sed ex vnctuoso generantur metalla.
Sed spiritus tingens est Mercurius Philosophicus cum suo sulphure rubeo vel albo, naturaliter sibi commixto, in ipsa minera, & terræ visceribus mediocriter præparato, artificis arbitrio relicto, vsqȝ ad consumationem perfectam. Aliud argentum viuum est tinctura permanens, quodaȝ corporibus perfectis extrahitur per dissolutionem distillationem, sublimationem, & subtiliationem.

Marginal Notes: Oleum incombustibile.

Et tale argentum viuum, dicitur oleum incombustibile, anima, & aer, & splendor corporum, quia corporibus metallicis mortuis & imperfectis vitā prestat immortalem, & ea illuminat. Extrahe ergo argentum viuum seu lapidem philosophicum, tam a corporibus a viuo argento, qm vnius funt naturæ, & habebis Mercurium & sulphur de illa materia, super terram, de qua aurum et argentum generatum est in terra.
Item legitur in turba, quod quidquid veritatis consistit in arte alchimistica, est iniungere seu coniungere humidum sicco, & hoc ab omnibus philosophis conceditur.

Pro humido intellige spiritum liquidum, ab omni forde mundatum, & pro ficco intellige corpus perfectum purum & calcinatum, & reuera istarum duarum partium operatio constat, vel est poenitus in dissoluere & coagulare. Dissoluere est corpus in naturam spiritus conuertere, sed coagulare est spiritū econuerso efficere corporale, & vt fixum fiat volatile, & volatile fixum, & obtinebis totum magisterium. Nuc iterum de principio operis, scilicet præparationis Mercurij primi.
Nota quod quando lapis noster factus est, tunc cum tota fui substantia in vase nostro pone, & firmiter os vasis cum luto magisterij claude vt respirare non possit, & rege in igne lento, donec ma ior pars in puluerem nigrum conuertatur quod erit in viginti vno diebus. Et ibi factæ funt istæ operationes scilicet solutio, distillatio, diuisio, putrefactio, ablutio, ceratio, coagulatio seu fixio. Item extractio tincturarum est primum opus, donec de corpore nil remaneat in corpore quod non ascendat cum spiritu humido, quor quo madificat corpus, & in aquam vertitur claram. Primo tamen apparet nigredo, & in primo opere totum fit mundum. Secundum opus est soluere totum scilicet corpus humidum, & fiet terra, scilicet lapis, et aqua scilicet cõgelata in eo in colore picis limpidę.

Vnde necessaria est coniunctio eorum, scilicet corporis & spiritus, & quando videris in principio operis eius quasi grana rubea, & in coagulatione velut oculi piscium, & quasi piperata nigra, scias te iustam semitam ambulasse. Sin autem omnis operatio frustrabitur & cassetur, non quos modo spiritus in corpus vertitur, Dicit Assiduus Philosophus: Ignis coagulatur & fit aer, ber aer vero coagulatur & fit aqua, aqua vero coagulatur & fit terra. Ecce in vnam natura inimici conuenerunt, qui cum impulsantur, id est, coagulantur, fiunt amica, cumca rarefcunt, fiunt inimica, scilicet in separatione elementorum. Quod si hanc regulam conuertas, per contrarium vertis corpus in spiritum. Oportet te ergo totum extenuare in terra, id est, terram spirituare, id est, tingētem facere, & totum peregisti.
Vnde dicit Plato: Scitote omnis turba, quod omnis spissitudo in terra quiescit. Spissum namqȝ ignis in aerem cadit, & spissum ignis & aeris in aquam, & densum quod ex ignis aeris et aquæ spisso coadunatur, cadit in terram.
Gratianus quomodo corpus fit spiritus, dicit: Terra resoluitur in aquam, aqua in aerem, & aer in ignem, & hæc est via qua corpus fit spiritus. Item Hermes dicit: Coniunge masculum cum fæmina in proprio humore, quia fine masculo & foemina nullus natus generatur.

Item alius dicit: Quando Rex vidit aquam congelare seipsam, certus fuit, quod res fuit vera sicut assignat voluntas quæsita sulphuris cum Mercurio, nil aliud intelligas. Sequitur, tunc fiat in amplo vitro, & pone eum in putrefactionem inter cineres calidos, & cineres in quibus stat vitrum in quo senex sedet debent transire vsqȝ altitudinem illius senis, scilicet ad altitudinem ventris ampullæ.
Sic dicit Rosarius, & mitte ibi stare per xl. dies vel vlterius secundum quantitatem materiæ, donec peragatur. Hoc addunt omnes Philosophi in generali, quia omnis actio generalis vnum habet tempus in quo perficitur & terminatur. Vt dicit Aristoteles.

Marginal Note: Dies philosophorum hebdomada

Dicit Mundus & Attamius in turba: Et pone cum in putrefactione per xl. dies, id est, per xl. hebdomadas, die per hebdomadā, sicut in vulua sperma moratur, hoc est nouem mensibus vel circa, secundum quantitatem materiæ, tūc munda ab eius nigredine.

Marginal Note: Cautela.

Et dicit Rosarius: Caueas tibi precipue in eius mundificatiõe à priuatione virtutis suæ, ne vis actiua suffocetur in aliquo. Nam omnium terræ nascentium semina non multiplicantur, neque crescunt si vis generatiua illorum per aliquē calorem tollatur extraneum, vt dicit Philosophus. Et munda per distillationem primo cum suaui igne,

Marginal Notes: Nota bene modum incerationis.

Deinde modice fortiori igne distilla Mercurium, Qui Mercurius animam solis vel lunæ secundum quod ibi est sol vel luna, secum portat, et non distilla ita forti igne, quod terra id est elementum terræ etiam in distillatione transeat, scilicet sufficit quod solus Mercurius superfluus qui cum corpore nõ potest exficcari: Et quod inferius in cucurbita remanet, est sal noster, id est terra nostra, & est in colore nigra, draco cauda suam deuorans,

Marginal Notes: Cauda draconis.

nam draco est materia in fundo remanens post distillationem aquæ ab ea, & aqua illa dicitur cauda draconis, & draco est eius nigredo, & dras tali co imbibitur aqua sua & coagulatur, & sic deuorat caudam suam.

Marginal Notes: Cinis in fundo.

Et cinerem qui est in fundo vasis ne vilipendas, quoniam est diadema cordis tui, & permanentium cinis, vt dicit Morienus.

Marginal Notes: Modus incerationis.

Et distilla sic tali calore, ne corpus reducatur in solidam massam, aut nimis siccaretur & aduretur, Et distilla tali igne, quod quando gutta incipit cadere qd sexaginta octo, vt dicit Arnoldus, vel septuaginta, aliqui dicunt octoginta momenta ante casum alterius guttæ numerabis, & si transscedat gutta, extrahe ignem vt dicit Rosarius. Et si tardius, auge modicum ignem, & non sequaris tuam imaginationem de fortificando ignem in fine distillationis, sed cum suaui igne, Quia versus sequentium: Sensibus æquato gaudet natura secundo.

Et sic expecta distillationem cum patientia complementi.
Signum distillationis complete est, quod mediuȝ Mercurij aut magis a terra per alembicuȝ distillasti quā imposuisti, & quod terra remanet mollis & liquida: Sicut dicit Arnoldus: Quam terram sic mollem & liquidam fac in vitro bono & longo collo, & sigilla sigillo Hermetis, & pone in cineribus calidis.
Primo per octo dies lente in cineribus calidis, alijs aut diebus fint cineres calidiores, & stet in tali calore ad viginti quinque dies naturales, vel ad triginta, vsque terra exficcetur, & remaneat arida in fundo vasis, post fac agitationem vasis cum manu fortiter, & subito, quia materia, id est, terra adherebit lateribus vasis.
Quanto magis materia fuerit putrefacta, fortius adherebit vt dicit Rosarius. Et si ibi ignis occasu maioraretur aliquotiens, quod materia esset nimis, ad inferiores partes vasis conculcata, tunc oporteret quod fieret contritio prædicta in vitro cum pistillo vitreo. Et sic habes terram quæ prius fuit. Quia solum duo funt in lapide nostro elementa formalia, scilicet aqua & terra, licet virtualiter in eo funt omnia quatuor elementa. Et vbi dicitur lapis noster est ex quatuor elementis, hoc non est per intellectum literalem quod sit terra, nec quod sit aqua, nec aer, nec ignis sed solūmodo est vna natura, quę continet in se de natura & proprietate elementorum omnium.
Item totum magisterium est hoc, diuidere elementa a metallis, & ea purificare, & a metallis sulphur naturæ diuidere. Nam totus labor est in hoc & tota magisterij fatigatio in elementorum & sulphuris diuisione, Hæc Raymundus. Sed vbi dicit vt Hermes dicit: Quatuor oportet te extrahere elementa, hoc profecto nil aliud est quam ipsas seminerias virtutes, id est, qualitates actiuas, vel passiuas excitare, quia naturaliter exponentes quam plurimi in errores inciderunt infinitos. Et nos dicimus illam virtutem nostram spiritualem mineralem esse, quæ potest intendi & fortificati, vt pullulandi & germinandi virtus inseratur. Et volens elementa mineralia recipere, non accipias de primis nec de vltimis, sed de medijs, ad creādum lapidem, quia prima funt multum simplicia, & vltima sunt multum grossa. Quando volueris commedere, capias panem & dimitte farinam, et quando volueris facere panem accipe farinam, & dimitte triticum. Hoc est verbum nostrum, & doctrina philosophica, hæc Raymundus.
Item separatio elementorum est segregare angenia quæ sunt accidentia. Et coniunctio elementorum est cumulare homogenia hoc est quæ sunt de natura humidi radicalis, vt turba philosophorum dicit.

Item Raymundus dicit: Habeas patientiam in dealbatione, quia hic iacet multa tarditas. Item nigredo est in omni putrefactione, semper maior debet esse in opere solis quam in opere lunæ vt dicit Rosarius.

Marginal Notes: Albedo tarda

Quia sol inter omnia alia corpora minoris est sulphuris quantiatis, maiorem autem quantite argenti viui continens, ex quo haec nigredo procedit, vt dicit Geber.

Marginal Notes: Imbibitio

Postea recipe terram nigram tritam, & imbibe ipsam cũ Mercurio, ita quod solumodo materia id est, terra cooperiatur. Aliqui volunt quod super eam natet per duos digitos aut tres, Primum tamen melius, quia dicit Philosophus, ne yesir submergatur, & sigilla vitrum sigillo Hermetis vt supra: Et hoc ideo, vt actiua a passivis nõ recedant, donec ad decoctionem perueniant perfectam, Et pone in cineres calidos ad exficcandum, Et hoc fac secundo, scilicet imbibendo, & exficcando, & tertiò & quartò, donec terra ipsa fatis alba est fixa albedine. Caue etiam diligenter ne misceas aquam Mercurialeȝ impuram cum corpore mūdo. Qualis enim erit limpiditas aquæ Mercurialis, talis erit & puritas corporis, per quam abluitur, et quanto magis corpus fuerit ablutum, tanto albius erit. Nam preparatione fiue perfecte colorationis propter hoc fit cum aqua & igne, Idcirco si corpus non fuerit bene album, tere ipsum cum aqua post iterato exicca, Sic enim Azoth, id est, aqua Mercurialis, & ignis, latonem, id est, terram nigram abluunt & mundificant, & eius obscuritatem aufferunt, vt dicit Philosophus Nam præparatio terræ semper est cũ aqua, ideo qualis erit limpitudo aquæ, talis & erit limpitudo terræ, Et hoc fiat in dealbatione terræ, & eius ablutione.
Non ergo tædeat te prolixitas repetitionum contritionis & assationis huiusmodi: Est enim actio naturalis quæ suum habet motum, & tempus determinationum, ita vt quædam in maiori spatio temporis, & quædam in minori terminantur. Dicit Methodus: Quia in xl. diebus & totidem noctibus completur totum benefitium & opus ad album, post veram purificationem lapidis. Quia in purificatione eius non potest esse tempus determinatum, nisi secundum quod artifex bene laborat. Et in nonaginta diebus & totidem noctibus completur opus ad rubeum. Et isti sunt veri termini, ad tantam perfectionem. Et in centum & quinquaginta diebus & noctibus, cum fermento ad perfectionem totam. Versus, Coctio fit rerum ter quinquaginta dieruȝ: Dicit enim Pantolphus in turba, Quia corpus in eius decoctione in quarta parte diminuitur.

Et Affantius dicit, quod corporis quarta pars diminuitur apud eius decoctionem. Et in impositione imbibitionis terræ nigræ cum Mercurio debet precaueri de fractione vitri, vt dicit Rosarius. Vnde debet notari quod aqua sit calida, & etiam materia, id est terra sit calida, & cum manu debet agitari vas & teneri in denuo calore, & iterum agitari subito, quia materia lateribus vasis adhærebit, donec matería & totum fiat sicut lutum turbidum. Et tunc vitrum debet sigillari, & poni inter cineres calidos ad exficcandum vt supra, vsquequo fiat puluis siccus. Et est maxime cauendum, ne spiritus qui corpus exficcat, & a corpore, exficcatur fiat volatilis, nam si volauerit a corpore, corpus perfectum esse non potest: Ideo etiam requiritur vas esse sigillatum sigillo Hermetis. Quia si vas in arte nostra non esset clausum ad inclusionem spiritus, tota vis exhalaret, sicut in generatione metalli. Quia si fumus ex quo metallum generatur in terra inueniret locum apertum, expireraret, & nullum generaret metallum.
Etiam ideo actiua a passivis non recedant, donec ad decoctionem perueniam perfectam, vt supra ostensum est. Et tempus cuiuslibet imbibitionis ad exficcandum est viginti quinque dies naturales, vel triginta, Sic dicit Arnoldus licet Rosarius dicat:Si corporis imperfectisci licet terræ fuerit vna libra xij. vntiarum, fixatur cũ imbibitionibus suis nonaginta diebus. Addunt Philosophi, donec peragetur vt dictum est. Aliquando tamen fixatur in maiori vel minori tempore, secundum induftriam operantis, & propter maiorem vel minorem quantitatem pigmentalium. Intellige hec de toto tempore imbibitionum albedinis & rubedinis. Et istam solutionem & coagulationem vel exficcationem terræ nigræ quater reitera, & quarta vice solutione & coagulatione, id est exficcatione istius terræ completa, remanebit hæc terra fixa & lucida nigrain fractura, & proiecta super corpora, alterat in suo colore, Et quantumcunqȝ hec terra pluries soluta fuerit & congelata erit penetrabilior & subtilior in natura sua. Dicit Alius: Erit ergo ordo imbibitiõis terrę, aqua referuētēr, vnionis, exficcationis & calcinationis caput corui, quater reiterandus, et sic preciosam lapidis terram sufficienter abluisti et decoctionem administrasti. Est per hoc gradus contritionis, aquæ imbibitionis, exficcationis & calcinationis, caput corui, terrãnigram & foetidam sufficienter mundasti. Et ad albedinem perduxisti, vt ignis & calcinationis, que apta est ad fermentationem suscipiendam, quæ fermentatio est ipsius lapidis animatio.

Dicit Socrates: quatuor decoctiones fieri succeffiue, & post debet viuificari per fermentum, & ite rum coqui.

Dicit enim: Iungire illum aquæ suæ & coquite, & hoc fieri debet donec liquescat & dealbabitur, post iterum coquatur vsqȝ deueniat ad rubidinem & fuauem compositionem. Et postea ite rum coquatur igne fortiori, & hæc ultima decoctio, in qua figitur & vertitur corpus in spiritum. Et ita funt in fumma septem decoctiones, scilicet quatuor ante viuificationem, id est, fermentationē, & postea tres, que designantur per septem affaturas, vt etiam dicit philosophus. Æs nostrum corpus habet hydropicum, et vt Naemà Syrus leprosum, propter quod naturaliter querit lauacrum regenerationis septies in Iordane, vt ab innatis passi onibus & corruptionibus emundetur. Tunc habes sulphur & arsenicum non vrens, quo possunt vti alchimistae, & cum eo faciunt argentum perfectum. Gratianus dicit: Dealbate ergo Latone, id est, æs cum Mercurio, quia Laton est ex sole & luna compositum corpus imperfectum citrinum quod cum dealbaueris, & per diuturnam decoctionem ad pristinam citrinitatem perduxeris, habes iterum latonem eodem modo ductibilem, & ad quantitatem tibi placitam, tunc intrasti per ostium, & habes artis principium. Et tunc calacina, dissolue, & incera, & ita procede per medium, & si resusitatum facis penetrabile, tunc admisinem peruenisti.

Dicit enim Rasis, Merienus & Assiduus: Quia terra cum sit dealbata, candida, fit fixa propter fixionem lunæ, sed non fixa fixione solis, & ideo tingit in lunam. Et postea in opere est saltus lunæ, id est, sublimatio humidatis lunaris & circulus solis. Quia post extractionem spiritus solaris a corpore suo mortuo, fit & animae restiuuio & corporis viuificatio.
Dicit Plato: Quia omni argento inest sulphur album, sicut omni auro inest sulphur rubeum, & tale sulphur non reperitur super terram, vt dicit Auicenna, sicut in istis duobus corporibus con sistit. Et ideo ista, corpora subtiliter præparamus, vt sulphur & argentum viuum de illa mate ria habeamus super terram, de qua aurum & ar gentum efficiebatur subtus terram.

Vianha practicæ. Aliqui sic faciunt cum terra.

Cum iam habes terram exficcatam, tunc fac in vino, & pone super ipsam de Mercurio sextam vel septimam eius partem, vt soluatur, quare re prius pondera ipsam, & sigilla vitrum sigil lo Hermetis ne flos fugiat, & super lento calore in cineribus exficca & congela, & istam solutio nem & congelationem quater reitera, quarta vice solutione & congelatione istius terræ, no strae completa, remanebit hæc terra fixa & lucida, nigra in fractura, & proiecta super corpora, alte rat in suo colore, sed non Mercuriu. Et quantum cunqȝ pluries hæc terra soluta fuerit & congelata, erit penetrabilior & subtilior in natura sua, vt etiam supra dictum est, etiam magis tendens ad albe dinem, in istis quatuor solutionibus & congelatio nibus: Cum vero completa erit decoctio ista quæ dicitur prima, vertendum est ad alias tali modo.

Scias pondus totius congelati, sicut sciuisti primo per discretionem tuam, & pone in vitro, & super pone quartam partem Mercurij vt soluatur, & sigilla vitrum vt supra sigillo Hermetis & super lento calore exficca & congela, & erit vna massa alterius coloris quam prima, nigra & clara aliquantulum. Continuatur autem haec dispositio dealbationis post eius aquæ imbibi tionem et exficcationem, solutionem et congelatio nem, donec fiat alba massa, perfectæ dealbationis, in igne perseuerans, fundens, fluens, & Mercurium congelans, perfecte retinens, & transmutans quodcunqȝ corpus metallicum imperfectum lunificum verum.

Et si velis elixir tuum præparatum, secunda tertia, & quarta vice volatizare vel inhibere, hoc debet fieri cum quarta parte elixiris Mercurij,

Attamen si maius pondus de ipsa aqua posueris su per ipsum corpus quam quartam partem ipsius, dum tamen non submergitur, melius erit, corpus dealbabit, & erit subtilius, penetrabilis, & cumaiori pondere conuertit.
Item cum aliqua res est imbibita corruptione non potest tollerare ignem, nec ignis in se potest pati corruptionem: quare necesse est, quod lapis sit magistraliter extractus, mundatus, & separa tus ab omnibus suis feculentis corruptibilibus, antequam tu præsumis fixare eum, quousqȝ sit purum elementum primæ rei.
Et nota quod Subtilior est medicina, quæ Mercurium conuertit quam illa, quæ conuertit corpora. Vnde sciendum, quod maior labor est in dealbando propter pondera & commixtiones, quam in rubicando, quia post dealbationem vsqȝ ad ru bificationem non sequitur error, Et pro rubeo faciendo dicitur, qd debet fieri eodē modo & simili regimine in omnibus, sicut in dealbando ipsius fecisti, & non debet iterum ire vt incipiatur a principio, sed tantum vt multiplicetur et pone tantum Mercurij per solutionem terræ & exficcationem sicut in dealbando, nisi quod calor sit maior, & quantumcunque plus soluitur anima cum spiritu suo non fixo, id est, aqua sua, & coagulatur, tanto plus multiplicatur, & nõ solum in quantitate sed cum hoc etiam in virtute & tincturæ sub tilitate, et in proiectione magnum pondus conuer tet et transmutabit.
Dealbatione terræ, dicit Hali, accipe quod descendit Fundum vasis, & ablue ipsum in igne calido, vsqȝquo auferatur eius nigredo & recedat eius spissitudo, & faceulolare ab eo additiones humiditatum, donec deueniat calx nimis alba, in qua nonerit macula. Tunc enim terra ad animam recipiendem an piendam est habilis & pura.

Marginal Notes: Quando anima id est, fermentum inseratur.

Dealbatio enim est nima id est, totius operis initium, & fundamentum, nam ex fermentum tunc errare non potes in decoctione, quia post inferatur. dealbationem vterque fugies, scilicet anima, id est,

Marginal Notes: Quia sic anima & spiritus

Mercurius corporis, & spiritus, id est, Mercuri Quia sic est us æris rigus, in non fugientem terram vertunt, & fa anima et spi ciunt eam spiritualem, mundam à terreistreitate, ae ritus. ream & subtilem. Et sic spiritus & anima non vni quatur cum corpore vero modo, nisi in albo colore,

Marginal Notes: Omnes colores.

quia tunc in ipsa dealbatione omnes colores, lores. qui hodie in mundo excogitari possunt apparent, & tunc firmantur, & in vnum colorem scilicet al bedinis conueniunt. Et nota, quod ista diuersitas colorum non ap paret in lapide nostro nisi in coniunctione animæ cum corpore, vt dicit Morienus. In vna tantum via ignis in eo nouat diuersos colores. Anima est spiritus tingens, qui demuȝ à corpore alterato superatus, eo gaudet, ipso incorrupto facto: Et sic alter in alterum transit, & alter vim alterius recipit natura disponente.

Dicit Senior: Primum opus lunare est abluere dealbare & putrefacere centum quinquaginta die bus, Et dealbatio totius, & fugatio tenebrarum ab eo. Et Flidius dicit: Scitote quod tocius operis initium est dealbatio, cui rubor succedit, deinde operis perfectio, post hanc autem per acetum nutu dei tota fit perfectio, quod eft soluere & co agulare. Et de ipsa terra dealbata, dicit Morie nus: Quia nihil cum ea facias ipsa non existente fermentata. Et quia fine fermento nulla fit tinctura perfecta, vt dicunt Philosophi, sicut nec absque pasta non fermentata it bonus panis, fic in nostro lapide, cum fermentum est sicut anima que corpori imperfecto mortuo vitam tribuit me diante spiritu, id eft Mercurio Quia dicit Aristoteles, nil completur nisi cum fermēto subtiliato, vt spiritus, Versus: Ad bona pasta vtaris aqua, nec non fermento, simili modo do in lapide nostro: Hæc tria reperies dictis philosophorum consimilia. Et non est aliud fermentum q sol tam ad album & rubeum elixir, & luna solum ad album elixir, scilicet auru vel argentū philosophorũ, nõ auru vel arge tū naturæ: Vnde fermentu auri nil est nisi sulphur suum quod albũ in argentum conuertit, quia illud nũqƺ figit, quod naturaliter fixũ non est nec fuit.

Item fermentum fit ex pura metallorum materia, id est sulphure nature & vapore elemētorum. Item fermentum non est aliud nisi a sole & luna, Et fermentum non est quousque dicta corpora conuertant in suam primam materiam seu naturam quia expedit quod ex sole & subtilissima terra fer mentum debeat componi. Quare si duo corpora perfecta nescis reducere in suam naturā primam, nõ poteris habere aliquod fermentoru. Hęc Ray. Nota fermentum album sic fit. Ciba vnam par tem lunæ purissimæ minutim limatæ vel subti liter foliatæ cum duplo sui Mercurij bene mun dissime albi, terendo simul fortiter in mortario la pideo, donec Mercurius ebibat ipsam limatu ram, & fiat quasi butirum, ita quod nil inuenia tur de ipsa limatura: Deinde ablue hoc fermetum fortiter cum aceto forti & sale comuni, bene præparato, donec acetum inde exeat clarum & bene purum, & tunc ablue sal cum aqua dulci, et aquam ad ignem exficca. Ab hinc vero superadde ei sulphuri albi partem vnam, terendo in simul totum, donec redeat totum quasi in corpus v num, Deinde incera ipsum cum vna parte aquæ, & mitte ad sublimandum &c. Sic eodem modo fit fermentum rubeum cum sole purissimo, vt supra, licet Pantolphus dicat in turba: Quod nullum venemum tigens generatur absqe sole & vmbra eius, quod volunt & plures alij, Quia non sit aliud fermentum tam ad albam quam ad rubeam tincturam quam sol. Dicit Aristoteles. Album & rubeum ex vna radice, nulla re alte rius generis interueniente pullulat.
Item Rosarius & Petrus de Zalento dicunt. Fermentum quod est medium coniungens, si poni tur in principio vel in medio, opus perficitur ci tius, nec indiget reiteratione: Non tamen dicunt hæc per abnegationem. Arnoldus dicit: Cum au tem prædictam medicinam volueris fermentare, Tunc solue eam in dicto humido distillato, sicut dictum est superius, donec sit aquatica vt Mercurius, tunc pone in vase super ignem in toto regimine, donec colores appareant vt in primo regimine, donec habueris elixir vt prius fusibilem & tin gentem, & tunc duplicatus est eiusdem elixiris ef fectus in fermentatione, quantitate, & proiectione &c. Quoniam in omni solutione & fixatione ac quirit sibi decem in multiplicatiõe, ideo quantum plus soluitur, figitur, tingitur, & funditur medici na, tantum melius & fortius operatur.
Item de fermento nota. Ex perfecto nil fit, quia iam perfectũ est, prout ista materia seu artificium perficit, Habemus exemplum: Panis fermentatus & coctus, est perfectus in suo statu vel esse, & ad suum vltimum finem peruenit, nec eo plus poteris fermentare:
Sic est in auro, Aurum purũ deductũ est per examen ignis in corpus firmum & fixum, & co amplius fermentare est impossibile apud phi losophos, nisi habeat̃ prima materia metallorum in qua resoluatur in primam materiam, & in ele menta miscibilia. Recipiamus ergo illa materiam vnde erit aurum, & mediante artificio deducitur in verum fermentum philosophorum, & mutemus hoc cum ingenio in materiam perfectam vel in speciem corporum perfectorum, & tunc demũ incipiamus operationem.

Side note: Hic primo incipitur opus, sciliacet quando primo, aurum conuersum est in primam suam materia

Quare multi moderni laborantes etiam philosophice sunt decepti, quia opus dimittunt vbi est incipiendum.
Nota, aqua est spiritus corpus purgans, subti lians & dealbans. Et fermentum est anima, quæ corpori imperfecto mediante aqua vitam tribuit, quam prius non habebat, & in meliorem formam reducit. Etiam si in lapide nostro esset tantum alterum eorum, nunquam facile fluerit medicina, nec tincturam daret, & si daret, vt Mercurius in fumum volaret, quia non esset in eo receptaculum tincturæ.

Et in hora coniunctionis maxima, apparent mi racula, tunc enim corpus imperfectum coloratio ne firma coloratur, fermento mediante, quod fer mentum est anima corporis imperfecti, & spiritus mediante anima cum corpore coniungitur, & ligatur cum eo simul in colorem fermenti, coniungitur & fit vnum cum eis: Et sic in corpore imperfecto, primo extrahitur illud videlicet eorum purum ab impuro, subtile a grosso, Deinde desiccatur & fixatur, & erit mortuum, tunc fermentatur & reuiuiscit per fermentum, quod anima. Quia si non misces fermentum cum elixir, non coloratur cor pus sicut debet, quoniam sine fermento, non ex ibit neque sol neque luna, sed aliud quod non permanet in tinctura naturæ metallicæ, nisi præ paraueris ipsum scilicet corpus imperfectum. Coniunge ergo ipsum sulphur, id est corpus im perfectum, cum eo scilicet fermento, vt generet sibi simile, & fiet elixir. Cum autem sulphur, id est, corpus imperfectum coniunctum fuerit cum suo corpore, id est fermēto, corpus nõ definit in ipsum aliud agere, quoufcȝ conuertat totum in ipsum, sd licet fermentum, Idcirco quando vis fermentare, misce simul corpore, vt totum sit fermentum quoniam fermentum redigit vel reducit sulphur nostrum, ad suam suam naturam, pondus et colorẽ, per omnem modum, qui erit & fermetũ album ad albũ, et rubeũ ad rubeũ, quod patet: Quia si po sueris fermentum argenti cum sulphure auri, rediget ad suam naturam, sed non ad suum colorẽ, similiter si posueris fermentũ auri cum sulphure argetũ conuertit ad suam naturã, et non ad suũ colorẽ & ecouerso.
Nõ ergo misceas aquã albam cũ rubea, nec econuerso aquam rubeam cum alba, quia cum a qua alba albificabis, & cum rubea rubificabis. Ve runtamen fili non putes hanc aquam esse rubeam, sed albam in aspectu, importans rubificandi poten tiam cum effectu.

Side Notes: vnctuosum generatur sic ex uisco so.

Hæc Raymundus. Cum corpus mundatum fuerit, & cum spiritu incorporatum & sublimatum tunc ambo facta sunt vapor vnctuosus, Et nisi corpus fiat vapor, nihil in opere huius peregisti, cum hoc fiat me diante aqua Mercuriali depurata. Ergo dealba & ablue corpus, quia dealbatio totius operis perfecti est initium & fermentum. Si enim sulphur non fuerit sublimatum, substantiam ingredien tem & virtutem penetrantem non habebit per consequens ad verum elixir non valebit. Et Mercurius vulgi dicit spiritus, Mercurius cor poris dicitur anima, & spiritus non coniungitur corpori nisi mediante anima, & econuerso anima non coniũgitur corpori nisi mediante spiritu, tan tum subtilietur, vt fit vnũ cũ eo, & homogenium vt suus spiritus est. Tunc enim per minima sunt commiscibilia, & primo recipit naturam fermen ti, & virtutem tingendi.
spiritus non coniungitur corporibus, donec suis inmundicijs perfecte fuerint mundati, i. donec media substātia mercurij et sulphuris corporis fuerint a suis mundicijs perfecte mundati, id est horũ coniunctio non est possibilis, nisi prius spirituales fiant, id est per mutationem vtriusqƺ a sua virtute & proprietate, per conuersionem suarum natura rum coniunguntur omnimoda coniunctione, & tunc sic purgati debent in corporibus coniungi, id est, cum fermento mediante aqua, quæ facit in ter ea matrimonium, id est, coniunctionem siue vnionem. Rasis dicit. Accidentia non possunt quali tates extendere nisi fuerint substantijs sociata.
Item si vis vt fiat elixir perfectũ, atqƺ transsubstantias, & omne corpus sibi coniunctum tingat, hoc non potest fieri nisi per solutionem suam faes pius repetitam.

Side note: Quinta essentia quid sit.

Vnde quinta essentia est corpus per se differēs ab omnibus elementis & elementatis tam in materia quam in forma, tam in natura quam in virtu te, non habens in se contrarietatem, vnde nec cau sam corruptionis. Hæc Thomas in compendio, vbi ponit differentiam inter elemētum, elemen tatum, & quintam essentiam.

Modus faciendi solutionem talis est.

Postquam lapis noster in igne est factus & ab omni sorditie, id est purgatus est ab omni impuri tate, Nota, id est post dealbationem & philosophicam spiritualem purgationem supra memoratam. Tunc tere ipsum in puluerem subtilem valde in vno lapide, & in aceto nostro cœlestino solue, & statim soluetur in clarissimam aquam, & quasi son taneam: Et postquam lapis totaliter fuerit solutus vt dixi, tunc distilla nostra distillatione, & coagula temperato calore, & vltimo calcina prima coagulatione secundum modum suum.

Side Notes: Reiteratio sic fiat.

Et scias quod in ista solutione lapidis vna pars multo plures par tes Mercurij vel cuiuscunqƺ corporis, in lunam veram vel in solem, secundum quod lapis fuerit præparatus, tingit. Et hæc solutio nostra est secretum nostrum, Et sic multiplicabis lapidem vt postea in capitulo de multiplicatione dicetur.
Itē terra vulgi sic separanda est a terra philoso phicali: Accipienda est terra calcinata &c. & ponenda est in vase vitreo vel vitreato, in quo fit aqua munda et pura feruentissima, & cum baculo vitreo agitare debes vsqƺ quo illud quod potest dissolui dissoluatur, & scias quod bona terra dissoluitur & efficitur aqua alba sicut lac, quam dissolutam ponas ad partem, & iterum tere terram quæ remansit insoluta, & iniungas iterum aquam bene calida, vsqƺ quo facias donec aperte videbis quod nihil amplius potest dissolui: Cuius signũ est, quod terra quæ remansit in fundo posita superlignum, nihil manet. Secundum signum, si ponatur super Ignem, nequaquam funditur nec adurit. Et post quam hæc videbis, tunc accipias totã terram tuam dissolutam in aqua prædicta, & ponas in vase vi treo, & cõgelabis desiccatione forti, & priusqƺ con gelata fuerit, tunc scias te habere terram philoso phicam munda & paratam, Aliam proijtias, quia est fex et scoria: Dicitur etiam terra alba. Et caue semper ne eam asses nisi fuerit sicca. Vnde Hermes dicit: Seminate aurum vestrum, in terram albam foliatã, quæ per calcinationem facta est ignea subtilis & aerea, videlicet tantum: Seminate aurum, id est animam & virtutem tingentem, in ter ram albam, quæ præparatione debita est facta alba et muda, in qua nõ sint sordes. Ex hijs patet qđ aurum naturæ non est materia fermenti, imo aurum philosophorum est ipsum fermentũ tingens. Item Hermes caput philosophorum ait: Cũ naturas commiscere volueritis alchimistæ, lapidem auri commiscite humori qui est aqua permanens, suoque vasi imponite super leuem calorem, quousque liquæfiat, deinde dimittite quousque a rescat aqua, & se inuicem continuat, Ipsa autem aqua imbuta, id est siccata, sit ignis intentior quam prius fuerat quousque arescat, & terra, id est puluis fiat. Hoc autẽ peracto, scitote hoc esse archani initium, scilicet aqua imbuere & desiccare perfecte: Hoc vero multoties facite quousque pereant aquæ partes, id est deficiant, scilicet quod non ascendat vltra, eiusqƺ colores vobis appareat. Iubeo tamen vos non simul aquam fundere, ne ykesir submergatur, verũ paulatim, id est, septies infundite, terite & desiccate, & sic multoties facite quousque sumatur aqua.
Barsen in turba dicit: Et aqua septies imponitur ei, donec bibat totum humorē, & recipiat vim imminente igni, apud pugnã ignis, & rubigo fiat. Hermes dicit: Humectate & contrite pluribus die bus, & hoc nouem vicibus soluere & coagulare præcepit, quæ per nouem aquilas designantur, In qualibet enim solutione & coagulatione augebitur eius affectus. Vnde philosophus in turba: Videntes autem omnes huius artis inuestigato res illam albedinem apparentem in vase, rati esto te quod rubor in albedinem occultatus est.
Tunc autem non oportet vos illa extrahere, verum coquere quousqƺ totũ rubeum fiat, & sic per plures inbibitiones aquæ solaris requiritur terream rubeam fore factam, etiam per maiorem ignis administratione. Item Barsen: Precipio illis ex aqua dealbare candida, qua æs rubeum faciunt, scilicet æs nostrũ. Quare oportet quod prius albũ fiat anteqƺ rubeũ fiat, quia nõ est trãsitus de extremo nec ad extremum, de contrario in contrarium, nisi per mediũ dispensatiuum, id est, de nigredine non est transitus in citrinu vel rubeum, nisi albedine mediante, quia citrinitas causat̃ exaltissimo vel mul tum albo, & modicum rubeo claro essentialiter.

Quare natura ostēdit, qd citrinatio est perfecta & completa digestio. Nec econuerso potest esse transitus de citrino ad album, quousque compositum conuertatur in nigrum. Nec aurum potest fieri argentum indiuifibile, nisi prius destruatur, & fiat nigrum & corrumpatur, nec melius potest fieri deterius nisi per corruptionem sui ipsius, quia generatio vnius est corruptio alterius: Et hoc fit cum additione rei tingentis illud, quæ nota est naturæ, & perficitur, Et tunc fermentum imponitur.

Spiritus corpus exsiccat, & a corpore exsiccatur sciliet perfecte a suo flegmate purgatus.

Nota in omni assatione & decoctione qua spiritus & corpora separatur & associatur scire debes, quod anima separabilis a suo subiecto non commode separatur a fixo, nisi in siccissione, nec viuum commode coniungitur mortuo nisi in humido. Sed in hijs omnibus natura non patitur subitas permutationes. Ideo maxime est cauendum ne spiritus volatilis fiat, nam si volauerit a corpore, corpus imperfectum manebit.

Nota, Ideo fit sublimatio, vt segregatis partibus purissimis & leuioribusa fecibus grossorum elementorum, virtutem quintæ essentiæ possideant formantem & disponentem ad speciem durabilem & perfectam.

Dico autem quintam essentiam animam tingentem, colorantem, & formam puram inducentem, ad quam extrahendam valde necessaria fuit sublimatio et subtiliatio: Per eã namque extrahitur vnctuositas arsenici, siue natura oleoginosa purissima, & incombustibilis vnctuositatis, quæ ligata & commixta est cum fecibus, scorijs, & grossioribus elementarijs. Quia sublimatio non fit alia de causa nisi vt extrahatur anima tingens a corpore, & vt vertatur in spiritu penetrabilem, per sublimatiõem enim corpus in spiritum reducitur, scilicet cum corporalis densitas transit in rarietatem. Et cum corpora sint grauia & ponderosa vt etiam supra dictum est, si ergo debent sublimari, oportet quod cum Mercurio incorporentur & subtilientur, & coquantur, donec ex eis, scilicet ex Mercurio et corpore fiat vnum corpus, & non tædeat te hoc multoties reiterare, quia nisi Mercurius fuerit corpori incorporatus, non ascendit, incorporari autem nullatenus potest, nisi prius in Mercurio soluatur, ergo recipe primam aquam ab omni corruptione segregatam, in qua coque rem suo nomine nominatam per xl. dies in vase suo, & inuenies corpus conuersum in argentum viuum, & quando per sublimationem fuerit priuatum sua nigredine, fiet natura sublimis carens vmbra, id est, grossa terræ seculentia & adustione.

Side Notes: Practica Pulchra.

Idcirco quanto magis poteris, ipsum corpus subtilia, & cum Mercurio mundo coque, & cum aliquam partem Mercurij corpus in se hauserit & concluserit, ipsum subtilia igne cito, & fortiori quo poteris, donec ascendat in similitudine albissimi pulueris, in modum niuis, adhærens spondilibus aludel. Cinis vero in fundo manens est fex, & scoria corporum, vituperata, & abicienda, in qua nil vitæ habetur, quia puluis leuissimus, qui modica sufflatione euanescit, quoniam non est nil sulphur praut, a natura exclusum. Tunc abiectis fecibus, itera per se sublimationem albissimi pulueris sine fecibus suis, donec figatur, & quousqƺ non permittit alquas feces, sed ascendit purissimam ad nodum niuis, quae est nostra pura, quinta essentia, & tunc habes animã tingentem, & coagulantem & mundificantem, & sulphur & arsenicum non vrens, quo possunt vti alchimistæ, & cum eo faciunt argentum.
In solari autem materia licet quædam pars albissime ascenderit, tamen in fundo remanet ignis tinctus rubore, in modũ scarleti. Et illud sulphur conuertit argentu viuũ in aurũ purissimum et verissimum. Hæc est perfectissima cõpositio sulphuris albi & rubei nõ vrētis secundũ summã opeartiõne philosophoru: nil em̃ in hijs dictis superflui et diminuti inuenies, sed quæ philosophica veritas cõtinet.

Item si cum calcibus duorum luminariũ scilicet & solis & lunæ sublimaueris Mercurium, tunc vtiliter sublimabis, & mundas cum facilitate. In illis enim est facilis operationis illarum sublimatio, per generationem, & collige semper tantum solum sublimatum, quia hoc non est fixum, sed quod in medio consistit aludel supra feces, quia illud est subtilis media substantia Mercurij, ex qua nostra confitur medicina q ex argēti viui materia ducit originem, quęsitum bonu, terra alba foliata, arsenicu, sulphur albũ, prima materia metallorũ, hec Raymundus, Hanc aut̃ sublimationem facimus, vt corpora reducamus in naturam subtilē, vt sint sicut spiritus, penetrantia et redigentia omne corpus in solificum vel lunificu verum, vel vt ea reducamus in primam materiam scilicet Mercuriũ & sulphur, & vt eorum fiat firmissima incorporatio, & etiam vt assumat perfectum colorem albedinis vel ru bedinis, qui color sine sublimatione fieri non potest: Et non misceas illud, quod remanet in fundo cum eo, quod ascendit, sed segregatim vnumquodque eorum pone.
Si autem adhucinfundo aliquid de materia valente remanfit, iterabis ad sublimandum per Mercurium sibi incorparatum, donec totu ascenderit quidquid est de pura essentia ipsorũ corporum; Quia si nõ feceris, non ponas ipsum in magisteriũ.

Alembicum vero fit vitreum, bono luto circumlinitum, quod debet coniungi cum subiecto, ita vt Mercurius nõ possit exhalare finaliter, quia non sublimatur Mercurius nisi per sumositatem aeream, secum deferens partes corporis puriores, & ideo terra tunc in aerem & corpus in spiritum conuertitur, & densitas in raritatem finaliter in modum aeris ascendunt, sic quod ratione veritatis recipiunt virtutem fortiter, & in profundum penetrandi, & ratione perfectæ clarificatiõis, perfecte tincture & colorationis. Vnde ergo diligenter vide vt vasa bene iungâtur, quoniam si inueniat scilicet Mercurius locum apertũ, euolat per fumum, sicqƺ peribit & annihilabitur operatio, & magisterium tuum erit inane.

Sequitur de regimine fixionis.

Quomodo perficiatur sulphur album & rubeum in elixir perfectu. Accipe ergo sulphur album prædictum, & ipsum fige super corpus suum, album fixum & mundatum, id est supra argentum, Et sulphur rubeum supra corpus suum rubeum scilicet supra aurũ, vt docet Pythagoras magister turbę, dicẽs. Quod argentu viuũ a corporibus, du solutione, subtiliatione et sublimatione extractum non coagulatum in sulphur album vel rubeum, stinens ignem, id est, vt sit fixum, nullam viam habet ad albedinem vel rubedinem. Prudenter ergo & discrete oportet te operari, quoniam sine fermento non poterit sol nec luna esse: Et non est aliud fermentum nisi sol & luna, non enim permanebit in essentia naturæ prædictum sulphur, quod philosophi dicũt vaporem vnctuosum, nisi ipsum cum corpore suo purgato coniunxeris, vt generet sibi simile. Et etiam propter hoc vt fiat elixir perfectum id, quod componis. Cum autẽ sulphur coniunctum fuerit suo corpori purgato, nõ definit in idagere,ipsum totaliter penetrando, quousqƺ totum conuertat in suam naturam: Ideoqƺ quando vis fermëtare, misce corpus sublimatum cum suo corpore optime purgato vt totum fiat fermentum, quoniam fermentum reducit sulphur artis seu philosophicum in suam naturam, colorem, & saporem. Si enim sulphur non fuerit sublimatum, substantiam ingredientem & virtutem penetratiuam non habebit, & per consequens ad comprehendum verum elixir non habebit virtutem, quia in sua permanens densitate & corporalitate, non miscebitur rebus tingendo, nec eas poterit in formam perfecte metalli transmutare. Sed cum corpus mundatum fuerit, & cum spiritu incorporatum sublimatione descendit, tunc ambo facta sunt vapor vnctuosus & ab vrentibus substantijs spoliatus aer subtilis, clarus, nimiæ penetrationis anima a vitijs, & inquinamentis liberata: quia nem iuncta suo corpori mundato, mediante spiritu, id est aqua mercuriali purificata, transit in ens purissimum & incorruptibile. Et nisi fiat vapor, nihil in opere huius artis peregisti. Ergo dealba, ablue, quia dealbatio totius operis perfecti est initium & fermentum. Quæ quidem dealbatio ammodo non variatur in colores diuersos, sed permanet in variabilis & immutabilis, & fige iuxta preceptum philosophorum hoc modo.

Modus figendi.

Apta fermentum, id est, corpus ante fermentationem, vt fit solutum & calcinatum, id est, corpus per argentum viuum fit solutum & calcinatum, id est, argetum viuum fit ab eo separatum & remotum, & fit calx aut cinis purissimus: quoniam si non aptaueris fermentum, nil valebit, Et similiter apta sulphur nõ vrens de calce per sublimatione, vt fit simplex et viuũ, Quia si non miscueris in elixir, non colorabitur corpus supra quod fiet proiectio sulphuris, Et si non mundaueris corpus quod vis misceri in elixir, non diriget corpus spiritum, neque retinebit eum. Et si non sublimaueris huiusmodi sulphur, quod vis mittere in elixir, erit aurum & argentum multum obscurum.

Et si non mundaueris spiritum, non sustinebit ignem, quia ipsum impurum corpori non coniungeretur per minima. Oportet te etiam multum cautum esse, vt facias elixir medium inter durum & molle, quia nisi hoc scieris, nõ erit aurum & argentum habile ad operandum, scilicet malleādum vel fundendum. Subtilioris enim substantiæ & liquidioris oportet esse medicinam, quia ipsa funt corpora, & maioris fixionis & retentionis quam sit argentum viuum, in sua natura, super quibus projicitur. Quia dicit Euclides: Nostrum finale secretume est habere medicinam quæ fluat ante Mercurij fugam. Cum autem vis componere elix ir, fac calcem de illa materia cuius est corpus, & ei immitte sulphur suum, sicut supra dixi: Si est aurum, de auro, Si argentum, de argento. Quoniam sponsalitium non est aliud, nisi vt coniungas fermentum cum suo corpore, de quibus vis facere elixir. Dicit enim turba: Iunge hæc duo, id est, cineres, videlicet corporis perfecti, & sulphur album, id est corpus imperfectum ad inuicem, vnde philosophus: Illumina primo corpus tuũ, & iunge cum spiritu & corpore mundo, equalitate, id est æquo pondere.

De ponderibus fermenti sulphuris & Mercurij.

Nota, quia sciendũ est primo, qđ summa volatilis non superet summam sui corporis mūdati, fixi, alioquín ligamētum sponsalitij verteretur in fugam spiritus non fixi, & sulphuris volatilis. Volatile non superet summam fixi cum eo vniti.

Vnde dicit Plato: Si parum sulphur proijciatur super multitudinem corporis, ita vt supra ipsum habeat potentiam, conuertit ipsum in puluerem, cuius color erit sicut color corporis super quod proijcitur spiritus auri vel argenti. Sed quia sulphura non possunt corpora ingredi nisi mediante aqua scilicet Mercuri, cum aqua facit eorum matrimonium, quia est medium coniungendi tincturas, id est, sulphur & fermentum: Ideo in ea dispositione primo ponas calcem corporis seu fermenti, Secundo ponas aquam, id est, spiritum, Tertio ponas aërem, id est, animam, siue sulphura a corporibus extractu. Et vt vtar philosophico loquio & doctrina: Si miscueris prius oleũ in terra, erit oleũ mortificatũ in terra qm oleũ in terram intrat, et ab ea sorbet. Si vero prius posueris aquam postea oleũ, stabit oleũ supra aqua, aut si prius posueris aquam, et postea terram, erit aqua ponderosior terra. Cum ergo coniungis elementa, scilicet aquam & aerem vt figantur in terra: Si est ad album elixir, semper fit plus de terra quam de aliquo alio elementorum, Alioquin terra non figeret spiritum, immo secum euolaret, Et hoc fieri debet, secundũ rationem, iuxta deaquationis mensuram.

Verbi gratia: ad lunare elixir. Si est de aëre vnum pondus, & dimidium, de aqua debent esse duo pondera, & de terra tria debent esse pondera, & terræ fermentum fit ter tantum, quantum fit sulphur album. Vt si dimidium alterum pondus fuerit de sulphure albo, tria pondera debent esse de fermento, & duo de aqua, & erit elixir completum. Et ideo hanc cautelam habeas in compositione veri elixir, & ita opereris, vt dictum est, vt scias quantum debeas apponere de terra, quantum de aqua, & quantum de aere ad album elixir, & quantum de igne ad rubeum. Ratio est, quia si magis poneretur de terra quam dictum est, mortificaret animam: Si vero minus, fieret elixir nimis humidum, nec figeretur. Et similiter de aqua, si plus apponeretur, esset humidum & nimis molle, si minùs, esset siccum & durum, nec penetraret. Et si de aere similiter minus apponeretur, non coloraret perfecto colore, & si magis effet in perfectione coloratum in albo elixir. Ad solare vero elixir, cum sol sit calidior luna debent esse duo pondera terræ, tría de aere, tría de aqua, vnum pondus & dimidium de igne, nam pondus ignis est medium pondus aquæ, Et in hoc neqƺ est additio neqƺ diminutio.

Dicit Raymundus: Cum volueris elixir ad rubeum per traditionem generalis doctrinæ, doctrinam faciendi elixir ad album resumes in exemplum. Nam hic modus faciendi elixír ad album, repeti non oportet, nisi solum pro quolibet elementato albo, elementatum ponas rubeum, quoniam in elixire ad rubeum, apponitur ignis viuorius, qui totum rubificat, & sublimatur vt spiritus. Pondera vero elementorum, sunt duo pondera terræ, & tria aquæ, & totidem & vnum pondus & dimidium de sulphure rubeo. Primo enim ponas terram, quia participat cum fermento, Secundo ponas aquam, quia est medium inter terram & aerem, Tertio ponas aerem, quia est medium inter aquam & ignem, Quarto ponas ignem, sed ignis per aerem figitur sicut & aqua per terram, &c. sicut scis.
Sciendum est. Quod si lapis philosophorum purificatus adiungatur cum aliquo corpore, & quali tercunqƺ destruatur corpus, materia lapidis semper remanet cum illa parte corporis, quæ magis est purificata secundum viam naturæ. Nam lapidis materia figit ignem, ne lapis super omnem ignem perpetuus est creatus: Et ideo quanto magis in igne perseuerat, tanto plus augmentatur virtus eius in quantitate & qualitate, quia lapis philosophorũ non habet humiditatem terminabilem, & licet siccus sit in experientia, copiosus est humiditate vnctuosa in eius occulto, quæ nũqƺ potest destrui per aliquã viam. Quia si corpus cum quo commiscetur destruitur, semper remanet eius substantia subtilis vel grossa, secundu qđ fuit preparata, quæ est vera & res fixa, ideoqƺ nisi destruatur corpus, materia vel medicina de ipso creata & extracta semper perseuerat. Hæc Geber dicit. Alius Philosophus dicit in turba: Sciant oẽs inuestigatores huius artis, quod elixir quantumcunqƺ præparetur vel subtilietur, totum nihil est, nisi post præparationem cum vero fermento coniungatur.

Nota de fermento.

Notandum est quod quando elixir coniungitur cum corporibus, oportet quod coniungatur per minima, vt dicit Albertus.

Side Notes: Vapor alis annexio

Vehemens et vtilis complexioatio fieri nũqƺ potest rebus solidis, nisi prius soluantur in aquis, & tunc commisceatur ad inuicem, & in locis calidis agente calore naturali, vel sibi proportionabili vaporaliter se connectat spatio temporis competentis, Quia oportet elixir primo soluere, postea corpus præparare & solue re, vt elixir, postea vero accipere & coniungere dissolutiones, videlicet de elixir partes tres, & de corporibus prædictis partem vnã, postea oportet hoc totum congelare & iterum soluere, & con gelare & sic reiterare, donec totum factum sit vnum, sine aliqua separatione, & hoc totum completur per beneficium aquæ nostræ Mercurialis, quia cum ipsa soluitur, elixirque præparatur, & cum ipsa soluuntur & præparantur corpora. Ipsa est enim mundans, iungens, dissoluens, dealbans, & rubeum faciens.
Dicit alius: Sed quia fermentum non potest ingre di corpus mortuum nisi mediante aqua, quæ facit matrimonium & copulam inter fermentum et ter ram albam: Idcirco primo in omni fermentatione notari debet pondus vniuscuiusqƺ. Si igitur terrã foliatam albam ad album elixir volueris fermentare, vt stabit in complemento tincturæ super corpora a perfectione diminuta, tunc recipe terre dealbatæ seu foliatæ corporis mortui partes tres, & de aqua vitæ reseruata partes duas, & fermenti partem alteram dimidiam. Fermentũ autem sit præparatũ vt fiat calx alba fixa et subtilis, si ad album procedit tua intentio. Si vero ad rubeum, tunc fit calx citrinissima auri præparata, & non erit aliud fermentum, Ratio, quia ista duo corpora lucentia sunt, in quibus sunt radi tingentes splendidi, cætera corpora albedine & rubedine naturaliter excellendo.

Postea sapienter ponas in suam fiolam ad hoc deaptatam, & in chorium suum temperatum repo nas, vt coagulentur & fixentur, & fiet vnum corpus, Deinde iterum solue cum tertia parte aquæ, & exsicca, & hoc reitera pluries, donec excellentissimum lapidem album per hos gradus reiterationis & præparationis præparabis, album, fixum, stantem, per minima ingredientem corpora, velo cissime fluentem ad instar aquæ fixæ, super ignis pugnam tingentem Mercurium & omnia corpora a perfectione diminuta in verum argentum. Et nota quando plus vel pluries huius complementi ordo reiteretur, solutionis, coagulationis & contritionis, tanto huius maioris exuberatione, videlicet medicinæ multiplicatur bonitas magis & magis. Nam quoties pertractaueris super ipsum lapidem eius propriam bonitatem reseruatam, toties multas lucraberis in eius proiectione super corpora partes, a perfectione diminuta. Quare Philosophi laudant reiterationem vltra. Si igitur terram albam fermentare ad rubeum elixir volueris, diuide ipsam terram albam in duas partes, vnam partem augmentabis ad elixir album cum sua aqua alba reseruata, & sic nunquam desinit esse eius. Et aliam partem pone in vitrum suum, id est in furnum suæ digestionis, & auge sibi ignem, donec vi et potentia ignis digestionis in rubicundissimum lapidem conuertatur, veluti sicut crocus siccus combusus. Et si volueris vt fiat tincturarubedinis, elixir albissimum transformans, & tingens mercurium, lunam, & omne corpus in verissimum solem, vel solificum corpus, tunc fermenta eius partes tres cum parte altera dimidia auri purissimi præparata, vt fit calx subtilissima, cum duabus partibus aquæ solificatæ, artificialiter in vnum chaos reducens, connexione per minima, vsqƺ ad occultum corporis, & pone in suo vitro, in igne suo, & coque vt lucescat rubicundissimus lapis, sanguineus verus. Illum iterum augmentabis de parte sua solificata, reseruata scilicet aqua sua solari, vt gradatim per modum digestionis ignis fortioris procedas in eius perfectionis augmentatione, & cumulatione bonitatis, & reiteratione operis de parte sua reseruata, sibi suæ naturæ conueniente, solificata tandem, vt eius bonitas multiplicetur vsque in infinitum Dicit Raymundus.

De modo indulcorandi lapidem cum humiditate.

In modo autem faciendi huius lapidis indulcorationem:
Sumatur lapis, & terendo inbibe illum in vase suo, imbibitione per minima, scilicet per vices, factas ad modum roris, cum vna & dimidia parte sui, postea decoque cum igne leui, donec prius illa fuerit in lapidis substantiam congelata: Postmodum vigora ignem de carbonibus paulatim & paulatim, donec subtilietur ex eo quidquid resolutum extiterit, tam de aqua sulphuris quam de argento viuo humido.
Tunc iterum quod sublimatum extiterit, reduc super feces, terendo & imbibendo cum dicto spiritu, qui magis in humiditate exuberanter abundat. Et hoc iterata imbibitione rorida, decoctione, congelatione, & sublimatione, cum ignibus suis successiuis, & diligenter continuatis scilicet cum moderamine notræ ignitionis, quam natura exigit, donec per continuam sublimationem, iterationem spirituum non inflammabilium super illas scilicet feces, & continuo motu totum figatur deorsum. Cum autem fixum fuerit secundum proportionem ignis sibi appropriati cum moderamine. tunceo facias ignem fortem bene continuatum per diem naturalem, secunda vero die naturali fortiorem, & tertia die naturali adhuc fortissimum, vt est ignis fundendi, vel quasi.
Quando voles incerare lapidem, Mitte magis de re calida & humida, quam facias de frigida & sicca: Sed quando tu operatus fueris per intentionem fixandi, tunc mittas magis de re frigida & sicca, quam calida & humida. Et si medicina non manet plenarie contra ignem, hoc est per defectum Fixationis: Igitur succurretur defectui, vel per reite rationem solutionis & congelationis, vel per sub limationem partium non fixarum, per partem fixam, quousqƺ capiat quietem contra asperitatem ignis.

Side notes: Fusio

Et si tu vides, quod illa non possunt fundi nisi cum grauitate scilicet per defectum incerationis supple sibi, & integra ei incerationem cum oleo la pidis, guttando guttam post guttam, supra leuem ignem in crusibulo terreo, quousqƺ fluat vt cera, sine fumo.

Side notes: Signum veræ fixionis et ultimi complementi

Hæc Raymundus.
De multiplicatione vel augmentatione lapidis.
Nota primum quid fit augmentum. Vnde augmentum est præexistentis quantitatis additamentum, Et augmentum in qualitate & bonitate, est ipsam tincturã soluere & coagulare, hoc est Mercurio nostro imbibere & exsiccare.
Vel sic, recipe tincturæ preparatæ partem vnam, & solue in tribus partibus Mercurij nostri, deinde fac in vase, & sigilla vas, & pone inter cineres calidos, per totũ, vt supra expressum est, donec exsiccetur & puluis fiat. Deinde aperi vitrũ, & iterum imbibe, & exsicca vt supra, & quoties hoc pluries feceris, toties aliquas partes lucraberis, & vltra tingit, vt dicit Arnoldus.

Augmentum in quantitate est. Recipe materiæ fixæ quæ tingit, id est tincturæ præparatæ partes tres, & Mercurij Philosophorum vnam partem, & fac in vase, & sigilla vas, et pone inter cineres calidos, vt supra, & exsicca vt puluis fiat. Deinde aperi vitrum, & iterũ imbibe, & exsicca. &c. vt supra. Et aqua, id est argentum viuum vel Mercurius nõ plus ponderis adijcit vel dat corpori, nisi quantum de humiditate metallina manet.

Hæc Calidius filius Isydori, Item multiplicatio in quantitate fit per mixtionem medicinæ in crusibulo cum argento viuo vulgi, Quod quidem argentum viuum per admixtionem lapidis conuertitur in puluerem rubeum vel nigrum, & iterato, quod mittatur de illo puluere argenti viui super aliud ar gentum viuum, et iterato cõuertitur in puluerem, & sic facies reiterationes pulueris argenti viui super aliud argentũ viuum, donec argentum viuum non conuertatur in puluerem, sed manet conuersum in metallum perfectum. Et hoc fit quia fortitudo medicinæ temperata est cum additione argenti viui.
Item multiplicatio tincture non est aliud, nisi augmentatio & multiplicatio caloris naturalis, qui est sulphur non vrens in materia argenti viui, cum sit certum, quod argentum viuum sit materia metallorum in substãtia, in qua sua claritas est infixa, quia metalla non indigent nisi natura substantiali, Et substantia in qua tinctura sulphuris infigitur, oportet quod sit de materia seruata ab omni adustione, & defectiua totius fusionis, amabilis & placens omnibus metallis: Et ideo est necesse, quod tinctura sulphuris sequatur talem substantiam, & in illa colligatur, si vis quod sit tinctura metallorum,& dicta substantia sit talis, quod possit fixari sine consumatione suæ humiditatis, & sine reuersione illius in terram, & sine combustione suæ propriæ substantiæ, & totum hoc est argentum viuum. Quare dicitur quod illud causa perfectionnis ad necessitam metallorum, quia illusd est sufficiens ad quemlibet gradum omnium fusionum cum ignitione, sicut patet in plumbo & stanno, & hoc per bonam adhærentiam suarum partium, & per fortitudinem suæ nobilis mixtionis.

Hæc Raymundus.

Modus quomodo multiplicantur medicinæ rubea & alba, in virtute et potestate, Quando perfeceris dictas medicinas, & de illis feceris proiectionem. Duobus modis poteris artificialiter multiplicare suas virtutes: Primus modus est, dissolues in aqua Mercurij sui albi vel rubei, ex quibus fuerunt procreata, quousqƺ fiat aqua clara, & postmodú cum leui decoctione cogeles, & cũ suis oleis, inceres vero eas super igne, quousqƺ fluant: Certa sua virtus erit duplicata in tinctura, cum omnibus suis perfectionibus, sicut videbis in proiectione, quia pondus quod proijciebatur super mille, tunc proijcitur super duo millia: Et in ista multiplicatione non est magnus labor.
Secundus modus multiplicandi suas virtutes estmaioris preci, quia si distilles qualibet speciem arum singulariter, & in sua aqua per inhumationem, postmodum separabis elementa per distillationem, in recipiendo primo aquam, postmodum aerem, & manebit sua substātia terræ fixa, tota clara in forma pulueris, reduc in illam aquam per distillationem, quousque totum biberit, & sit tota fixa in terra, & postmodum imbibe totum cum suo oleo & cum sua tinctura, quousque sit bene fixum, & fundatur totum sicut cera. Et de illa medicina proijce vnum pondus super corpus quod volueris conuertere, & inuenies certe suam tincturam multiplicatam de centum partibus, per talem modum &c.
Iterum multiplicatur medicina dupliciter. Solutione caliditatis, vel solutione raritatis. Solutione caliditatis, est, vt accipias medicinam in vase vitreo impositam, & eam sepelias in igne nostro humido septem diebus vel amplius, donec medicina soluatur in aquam sine turbulentia, solutione raritatis, vt sic sumas vas vitreum cum medicina, & suspendatur illud in olla noua ænea, cuius orificium sit strictum, in qua bulliat aqua, & orificium sit clausum, vt ex vapore aquæ bullientis ascendente vapore soluatur medicina.
Sed nota quod aqua illa bulliens non tangat vas uitreum, in quo est medicina, per spacium trium digitorum. Et solutio fit forte vna die vel duobus aut tribus, postquam medicina fuerit soluta, aufer ab igne ad refrigerandum, fixandum, & congelandum, indurandum vel desiccandum, & sic soluatur pluries, & quanto plus resoluta fuerit medicina, tanto perfectior erit. Et talis solutio est medicinæ subtiliatio & eius virtualis sublimatio, Quæ quanto plus reiteratur, tanto abundantius & plus res partes tingit.
Vnde dicit Rasis. Non dependet huius bonitas multiplicationis, nisi in multiplicatione reitera tionis, sublimatione & fixatione medicinæ per fectæ. Quia quanto plus huius complementi ordo reiteratur, tanto illius exuberantia magis operatur, & augmentatur. Nam quoties magis solueris, toties lucraberis omni vice ad proijciendum vnum pondus super mille, Et si primo cadet super mille, secundo cadit super decem millia, tertio super centum millia, quarto super mille millia, & sic vsqƺ in infinitum. Dicit enim Morigenes philosophus: Scitote pro certo, quod quanto plus soluitur lapis noster, et congelatur, tanto plus spiritus & anima coniunguntur, & retinentur ab ipsis, & qualibet vice tinctura multiplicatur. Alio modo multiplicatur medicina per fermentationem, et est fermentum ad album, luna pura, et fermentum ad rubeum, sol purus. Proijciatur ergo vna pars medicinæ, supra duas fermenti, & totum erit medicina, & ponatur in vase vitreo super ignem, & claudatur sic, vt aer non intret, nec exeat, & seruetur, & regatur, & subtilietur quoties volueris, sicut fecisti de prima medicina, tantam virtutem recipiet vna pars secundæ medicinæ, quantum habuit centena pars primæ medicinæ, Sic enim per solutionem, & fermentationem poterit medicina multiplicari in infinitum.

Tripliciter lapis philosophicus multiplicatur.

Primo modo fit per reiterationem notæ corruptionis ad principium, hoc est corrumpendo lapidem per dissolutionem & putrefactionem, & per elementorum coniunctionem, & inhumationem in aero vel in terra, & per decoctiones aeris, & ignis communis Et hoc ad altera opera particularia per coniunctionem elementorũ cum terra foliata, & decoctione ignis comunis, in humatione simili. Item vtraqƺ multiplicatio fit simul, si ex medicina multiplicata in quantitate duxeris ad dictas duas rotas, & feceris sicut dictum est.
Nam quantumcunque medicina transit per istas duas rotas ad finem terminationis, tantum plus & multiplicatur in virtute propter materiam qua ad tantam subtilitatem deducitur. Ex quo spiritus existens in tali materia multiplicat similitudinem suam, sicut summitas ignis existens in oculo Basilisci, suam similitudinem multiplicat in igne existente in animalibus, ratione cuius suffocatur calor naturalis vnius cuiusqƺ animalis, sicut lux ignis per lucem solis extingitur.

Hæc Raymundus.

Modus proijciendi omnium præscriptorum, taliter potest experiri.

Sumatur vna pars de medicina, & decem partes Mercurij crudi purgati, sic quod Mercurius calefiat ad ignem, vsqƺ ad sumositatem. Ex tunc proijciatur medicina desuper quæ statim fluit, minima penetrando, tunc stato vigorato igne, Mercurius fusus colligatur, cuius recipiatur modica pars, & tantum sui Mercurij viui ponatur ad ignem, & probetur pondus. Si Mercurius additus notabile recesserit, tuc medicina nõ sufficit ad viteriores partes. Si aut corpus in corpore notabiliter diminutu non fuerit, sed materia adhuc fuerit frangibilis, & nimis mollis vel dura, tũc sumatur huius iterum modica pars, & tantum sui de Mercurio crudo, & per omnia vt dictum est procedatur, donec habeatur intentum.

De proiectione medicinæ multiplicatæ in virtute.

Accipe vnam partem vel vnciam medicinæ dictæ multiplicatæ in virtute, & de illa proijcias super centum partes Mercurij, Statim cum dictus Mercurius incipiet calefieri in crufibulo, & prompte congelabitur, & cito, totum in fixam medicinam, ad faciendum proiectionem super alium Mercurium, post accipe vna vnciam, et de illa secunda medicina, & fac piectione super centũ partes alterius Mercurii calidi, et adhuc erit puru totum, & vera medicina, tunc multiplicasti in quantitate tuã primam medicinam, vel etiam totum, vel in parte, qȝ iterum poteris multiplicare per dissolutionem, & congelationem, & inhumationem &c. Quia modum quem dixi in multiplicatione potes multiplicare in virtute in infinitum, et postea in quantitate proijce de medicina vltimo congelata, vnum pondus super centum Mercurii loti cum sale & aceto, & calefac super igne statim, cum videris ipsum fumare & congelabitur in aurum &c.

Conuertit̃ aut oleũ. i. cũ tinctura est oleũ in puluere tingente hoc modo: Sumat̃ præparati olei vna pars, et fundatur supra decē partes Mercurij crudi ponatur ad digestionem, & statim ingreditur illud oleum Mercurium talem, quod non appareat, sed erit Mercurius albus vel rubeus, secundum quod præparata est medicina ad album vel ad rubeum, puluerisabilis & tractabilis in itinere, sine damno, qui vlterius poterit proijci, vt scis, semper super Mercurium postea cum sale & aceto semper bene lotum.

De virtute, effectu, nobilitate huius laudabilis scientiæ seu tincturæ philosophicæ.

Est sciendum quod antiqui sapientes, quatuor principales effectus siue virtutes in hac gloriosa thesauri sarcha, consolatrice & adiutrice scientia reperierunt.
Primo deiť corpus humanum a multis infirmitatibus sanare. Secundo corpora imperfecta metallica restaurare. Tertio lapides ignobiles in gemmas quasdam preciosas transmutare. Quarto omne vitrum ductibile facere, siue malleabile. De primo consenserunt oẽs philosophi: Quod quando lapis ematites perfectæ rubificatus fuerit, non solum facit mirabilia in corporibus solidis, sed et in corpore humano, de quo nõ est dubium.

Nam omnem infirmitatem ab intra sumendo curat, ab extra sanat vngendo.

Dicunt enim philosophi, quod si datum fuerit de eo in aqua, vel in vino tepido paraliticis, freneticis, hydropicis, leprosis curat eos.

Alij sapientes dicunt, quod guttam rosaceam residit sæpe vngendo. Hinc vero passio cordiaca, æthica, iliaca, colica ictericia, ac morbi frigiditum epilempsi, & omnes species febrium per eam curantur sumendo plæruncqƺ, artetica per eam curatur vngendo, & quidquid est in ægroto stomacho hoc tollit, & omnem fluxum humorum peccantium stringit & consumit potando vel vngendo, omnemqƺ melancoliam siue mesticiam mentis ieiuno stomacho sumpta, repellit, omnem fluxum renaticum exsiccat. Est etiam infirmorum oculorum sanatrix optima, Nam fluxum lachrimarum stringit, lippos attenuat, ruborem depellit, pellem vel tunicam delendo mollificat.

Tela, albugo, & hugo cornu, & vngula, cataracta, inversio palpebrarum, æstus, nec non tenebræ inflaturæ oculorum: hæc omnia per medicinam philosophicam facillime curantur. Cor & spiritualia confortat potando, dolorem capitis mitigat intum, & omni dolore aurium succurrit, inflaturis temporibus vngendo. Præbet etiam surdis auditum & omni dolore aurium succurit, inflaturis, neruos compactos rectificat vngendo, dentes corrosos restaurat lauando, fœtorem anhelitus dulcorat.

Side Notes: Morbi qui curahũtur a tinctura philosophica.

Sanâtur etiam per eam omnia genera apostematum vngendo vel emplastrando, aut puluerem siccum intermittendo. Vlcera, vulnera, cancer, fistula, noli me tangere, antrax, serpigines, impetigines, stramiones, scabies, pruritus, & tinea per eam sanantur. Cicatrices per ipsam planantur, ita vt caro noua regeneratur, vinum corruptum & acidum si permiscetur, reparatur, calculus inde soluitur si bibitur, venenum expellit ipsa sumendo, occiduntur etiam vermes si in inpuluerisentur capilli sub villo, si per can vngendo remouentur. Rugas in facie, aut omnes maculas delet vngendo, & faciem iuuenilem facit. Mulieribus in partu laborantibus sumpta auxiliatur, fœtum mortuum emplastrando educit, vrinam prouocat. Coitum excitat & auget, ebrietatem prohibet, memoriam inducit, humidum radicale augmentat, naturam vigorat, Nec non multa alia bona corpori humano monstrat & ministrat. Quia hæc medicina est super omnes medicinas Hypocratis, Galieni, Alexandri, Constanij, Avicennæ, & aliorum doctorum omnium artis medicinæ, præstantior in odore, sapore, virtute & effectu, & est notandum quod hæc medicina est semper medicina apothece ad morbum depellandum permiscenda. De secundo scribitur quod omnia metalla imperfecta transmutat: hæc enim transmutatio est satis manifesta. Nam omne quod est argentum facit aurum, in colore, substantia, perseuerantia, ponde re, ductibilitate, liquefactione duricie, mollicie. De tertio scribitur, quod lapides in gemmas præciosas transformat, vt dictum est supra. In libro sextariæ dicitur, quod iaspides, hyacinti, coralli rubei & albi, Smaragdi, crisoliti, saphyri, ex ipsa materia formari possunt, & in charta sacerdotum traditur, quod ex cristallo carbũculus fiue rubinus aut topalius potest fieri per eam, qui in colore et in substantia excellunt naturales. His vero lapidibus, & alijs in quibus fuerit hęc medicina, præstat virtutem naturalem sua nobilitate, ita tamen, quod colores deputati ad ipsos admiscentur, nam omnē lapidem siue gemma liquefacit & demollit. De quarto scribitur. Quod vitrum reddit malleabile in miscendo quando liquefcit. Nam hæc medicina est conuertibilis in omne colorem. Alia vero sunt experimēta artifici sagacius cõmitteda. Dicit Raymundus. Habet etiam potestatem dicta medicina rectificandi omne animal, & viuificatomnes plantas in tempore veris, per suu magnum & mirabile calore, quia si de illa ad quantitatem vnius grani milii dissoluas in aqua, & illam mittas in corde vnius vitis, ad quantitatem cauitatis vnius auellanæ, artificiose nascentur folia & flores, & boni rami in mense Marij, & sic de qualibet alia planta facias: quoniam sic reputatur miraculum & contra concursum naturæ, propter hoc, quia tales ignorant potestatem talis rei, sed non est aliud quam purus calor naturalis infusus in suo humido radicali, & quia natura per suum instinctum appetit multum esse, ad plus profundum cuiuslibet elementi vbi operatur, in multiplicando calorem naturalem corporis in centro, cuius ipsa est ingressa. Ideo habet potestatem rectificadi omnes, & illam virtutem fixare in illis. Et hæc est probata medicina philosophorum, quam omni inuestiganti fideli & pio, volenti, præstare dignetur Dominus noster Iesus Christus, qui cum patre & spiritu sancto viuit & regnat, deus per infinita seculorum secula, Amen.