ANNOTATIONS ON THE RESEARCH OF THE UNIVERSAL WORK

Translated from the Latin of ORTELIUS

Firstly, the celestial rays by the conjunction of the stars descend from the sky to the earth, and to the earth through the pores of it to the center, are the agent in our matter.

Which being pushed back from above by the archaea mixes with a certain liquor, of earthly substance which is the patient.

And according to the various quality of the places, or materials of the earth and the influence of the stars, various kinds of metals and minerals are made or generated from these two mixed substances.

The first matter of metals is not that which should be taken for the work of philosophers, because the intention of nature and that of the philosophers are different.

The intention of philosophers is not to generate metals, but to do something more excellent.

So it would be neither the same material nor the same process, but it would be necessary to take another material and use another method.

It is nevertheless true that in some way it imitates nature in its process, and that it draws its material from the same source and the same principles as nature, so that the material of art can in some way resemble to the matter of nature, but it is not absolutely the same.

The last material on which nature has finished is that on which the artist must begin.

Nature has finished her work in gold, so the artist must take gold.

All things multiply by their own kind, so we must extract the seed from the gold for our work.

Nature generates and multiplies all things in the male and the female, or in the agent and the patient, and in this it is necessary for art to imitate nature.

The agent or form of art will therefore be the said seed of gold, which will appropriate and assimilate the matter to be multiplied and the patient, will be what the philosophers call their mercury which will serve as a ferment to enhance and multiply the tincture. And we must not stick to the letter of what the philosophers say: because it sometimes happens that what acts at the beginning suffers later and on the contrary.

Although the agent and the patient are of different sexes, they must nevertheless be of the same origin, because nature rejoices and joins to its nature, preserves itself and multiplies in its nature, because nature overcomes, receives and retains the nature. Therefore, as the seed of gold in its own generation had its origin from heavenly influence, so also in its generation and multiplication, the philosophical mercury must be drawn from the rays of the Sun and the Moon and the other stars. So that one is a dissolving air, the other a dissolving air, one is volatile, the other fixed, from the conjunction of which the royal child son of the Sun must be born.

The earth is the receptacle of all celestial influences, especially since being universal and spiritual, they can only fall under our senses by being clothed in a body, and this body must also be simple and indeterminate, and it there is none other than the earth which is so well known.

We therefore conclude that the earth is the first subject on which the artist must work, what is the subject and the philosophical magnet which attracts and corporifies celestial influences; that the first material of the work, as well as that of the metals, participates in the sky and the earth, and that it owes its origin to both, it is nevertheless diverse in some way for certain consideration and diversity.

The sky is therefore the father of matter, the earth is the mother, as the emerald table says, because on it we see that the essential parts of the philosopher's stone are two, namely matter and nature. shape.

The material is the double or philosophical mercury, which takes its origin in the earth and participates in it, it is the lower material of the stone.

The form is philosophical sulfur, or aurific seed extracted from living gold. It takes its origin from the sky and is the upper part of the stone.

There are also two kinds of methods or preparations, which are wet and dry. Mercury or mercurial water.

Dry is water or mercury which does not wet the hands, wet is mercurial water which wets the hands.

Text of the first chapter of Ortelius commentator of Sendivogius Therefore since the sky is the father of the stone and the earth is the mother, we must seek in this earth the material or mercurial part, which will serve us as a magnet to attract abundantly there formal part or celestial sulfur, &c.

Explanation

It is not that it does not contain sulfur in itself, and if that were not the case, it would not have the virtue of attracting anything else, since it is true that everything aspirates. its like, and that from itself metals are formed in the earth, but because we want to make something more perfect than metal, we believe that it is appropriate to multiply the sulfur or vital fire in our matter, especially if we want it to do our universal work by itself, without the addition of metal or metallic sulfur , which I do not believe is absolutely necessary for the particular projections where gold can be used.

The difficulty of this point is to know what earth we must take for this subject, for although the philosophers say that it is found everywhere, which we cannot call into doubt, since it gives being to all things and that nothing can exist without it.

Nevertheless, we are convinced that the philosophers did not draw it indifferently from all kinds of earths, but that they knew and made use of those which are the most abundant in niter and more akin to the metallic and aurific nature.

Now we see that the philosophers tell us that gold is made from mercurial water introduced into red earth.

We will therefore choose a red earth rather than any other, which some have called Adamic earth, because of its color, as much as the word Adam means (they say) in the Hebrew language homo russo, a red man, and claim that Adam the first man was formed from such earth.

And because there is a lot of red earth in various places, we still believe that this is the best that is found in or near the mines, and according to the opinion of some, the best is found on the side of East.

Which, they say, contains three kinds of salt, namely, a volatile one similar to armoniac salt, another of medium nature which is the nitre, and the third is fixed and enveloped in salt.

The difficulty now is to know if these three salts are necessary for us, or if we only need one of them, and how we must operate to extract them, without losing the one which is volatile, and which I believe us to be the most necessary, especially since Arthephius and the Cosmopolite have mentioned it.

I know well that one can object to me on this subject that philosophers call their mercury salt armoniac when it has taken birth by sublimation, as in fact it must be a true volatile salt. But how could anyone expect this to be possible if from the beginning they did not take a saline and sulfurous material. We even know that magnetine virtue is found only in the saline and sulphurous part of each material, this is seen by daily experience and if once the earth from which salt is obtained could be entirely stripped of it, assuredly it would no longer have the virtues of attracting others from the air, and when the philosopher says that the earth which has once been impregnated with it is never devoid of it, it is because he knows well that to extract salt from it one only does laundry, who doesn't do it otherwise. But if they had charred this earth for several days, it would certainly no longer have its magnetizing virtue to attract on the other hand, and what makes me judge it thus, is an operation that I formerly carried out on vitriol, from which having extracted all that it could contain of spirit, oil and phlegm, by an extremely violent fire continued for eight days, I was left with a tasteless and impalpable colcotar, from which I was unable to extract any salt, and which being exposed to the air from a window found itself in the same state twenty years later without anyone could have gotten something else out of it.

To resolve all these difficulties it is a question of several experiments, and for this purpose we are of the opinion to put here several passages taken from various authors to serve as a guide.

memory and instruction. In all things, let us not forget that putrefaction is the principal of our operations, whether for the universal way, or for the particular way, whether for the wet way, or for the dry way.

The commentator of the Cosmopolite, with the intention of adding gold to his work, relates this passage from an old manuscript.

Just as man created from the earth does not generate man from the earth, but from himself and is nourished by the earth, and grows through it to be able to generate. Likewise gold and the Moon generate gold and silver, but it causes them to be nourished beforehand with their first and pure substance, whose real name is (sulob sunembra suebur) in French ( red Armenian bowl) under which name are included all the similar ochres and terreslemnicates from which we make the sigillata earths and which have not yet passed through the fire.

The said commentator gives us types of earth, one raw, the other prepared.

By raw earth he means said city red earth that we take from the belly of the earth.

There are certain metallic mines, from which, through the conduits of the earth or the mountains, the internal water soaks and carries with it a red earth city like silt, and thus can spare us the work, which the we can see in Germany close to a forest, in the principality of Anhalt, towards the town Hertegesdau, mine of St David where the sulfur is extracted, and also in the mine of St Catherine which is not far from the previous one.

However, these bowls, unless they have received some particular nature or specification (which you will know by a vitriolic taste) can again be brought back to their original simplicity by the following preparation or reduction of beverage, where just as the earth of the vitriol, when the vitriol is once again reduced to earth by art, so that it can no longer be dissolved in water (which we are accustomed to doing by cohobation with simple water or of rain) and besides the vitriol, in the same way the yellow earth attaching itself to the lead cauldrons in the decoction of the vitriol, a red substance is prepared , because both of these substances, which are only taken for one, can be easily stripped of their particular form, and brought back to their first simplicity, subsequently surpassing all other lands in excellence and dignity whether prepared or not, which is to be noted.

By the prepared earth which he says surpasses the flood by many virtues ) he means the earth whose sulphurous property has been increased and fortified by the manure, that is to say when the earth stratified with the manure, and all put in a pit, will have been entirely converted into earth, and will at all be returned to its simplicity. For this purpose he prefers human excrement to all others, then sheep droppings, which he says are very clean and very convenient, because they are closer to the nature of nitre, which is neither too fixed. , nor too volatile, afterward he says that the pigeon's rebis imitates armoniac salt, and that horse droppings have the nature of alkali salt.

The preparation he wants to be made of the said land is one.

Although, he says, it can be started at any time, nevertheless it is appropriate to choose the month of September to begin.

Make a pit in ordinary earth the height of a man and put the raw earth with the excrement you like, then cover with a board or a lid pierced with several holes, and leave like this without touching it until the month of March, when the snow will have all melted, you will remove your material reduced to earth to use it as we will say below.

I am not ignorant (he then said) in what manner the rebis or human droppings must be put alone and without mixture of any earth, in putrefaction and resolution, because it is whole with the nature of the earth, as what having deposited everything until perfection and purity, she is reduced to its chaos and first matter, (from which advantage it is abbreviated and fortified by virtue of the fact that the lime leaves it the regime to the philosopher) But because it is a work more sublime than that of which we speak here, where we do not We have not undertaken to deal with things of the microcosm, but only with the fossil earth as it is found in the macrocosm, I reserve that for another place where I will discover it as a singular mystery.

There is yet another way of simplicity by which the Adamic earth (which is dug and dug towards the east, and which is left of its sand by the dew of the sky) is put into putrefaction with the said water Catholic, from which it is separated and once again joint, but because in this way it is necessary to proceed by a singular or particular method which is not suitable for the practice of this treatise, I refer the reader to the German works which were printed on subject of which here is the summary.

I faithfully warn you not to look for philosophical things in herbs, trees, animals, fats, metals, salts, vitriols or alums, things useless to intentions.

Gold nor silver can accomplish nothing and without their first being which we commonly call first matter, he is wise who knows it.

I recommend reading the will of Arnaud de Villeneuve su this subject whose beginning is in these terms.

The stone emerging from the earth filled with very clear water swells in 12 hours &c.

Text of chapter 2

The philosophers took this earth or silt and made pellets of a size to fit into a retort, which having placed in a furnace and adapted a large container. They gave the fire slowly at the beginning, then stronger so that the retort reddened, this made several colors appear.

They thus distilled 8 to 10 measures of water, then they added to it the salt attached to the neck of the retort.

Explanation of the text

This earth or silt is called steel by the Cosmopolitan, who indicates to us this distillation in his enigma by the appearance of Neptune or pellets burned with the reserved phlegm or with common water , by dissolution, filtration and coagulation, which they have joined to the aforesaid spirit and the body or terrestrial parts of their mercury has been accomplished.

Explanation

This water or liquor thus prepared from the mine of our steel, is called our magnet, because it then attracts the celestial influence of the Sun and the Moon, and by this means it enlarges and thickens into dry water crystalline, what the Cosmopolitan wanted us to understand by the old man Saturn, god of the earth.

Addition

We have above spoken of three kinds of salts which are contained in the mine of our steel, which are also found in each specified thing, which each one can extract separately, and with which thus separated, the philosophers have undertaken their operation and have achieved great things about which we will say something here .

Universal armoniac salt

Many have eagerly sought armoniac salt as the most worthy and truly royal, which they have appropriately named the salt and sulfur of nature, and also the mercury of the philosophers.

Which they obtained from recent land or any other subject by distillation and subsequent putrefaction in the proper and natural liquor or other appropriate, and by the imbibition and fixation of this liquor on its earth, then subsequently exalted by sublimation, which afterward they incerated and fixed in stone with golden oil.

Or saw it all reformed with its own spiritual water, or distilled it , thus volatile for the dissolution of one or the other luminary.

Nitre But well and artificially purified nitre is in no way inferior or posterior to armoniac salt, not only because of its easy preparation, which requires no subtlety and which can be made by simple woman's work, by which it far surpasses it, after according to the laws of art, it has been brought to the end, which is done without distillation, by the simple exuberance and ordinary livixation of the saltpeterers.

If you have knowledge of the true earth (because one is preferable to the other) at the right time.

That if you can properly purify the nitrate with your detergent, it will be even better.

But if you can in the clarification strengthen this nitre, either by celestial virtue or by earthly virtue, it will be perfectly good and you will have reason to thank God for such a light and small work, because you will be excused or delivered many difficulties and perilous work, and you will have no need of other salts, whether volatile or fixed, nor of any impregnation or astral impression, because this salt contains and includes everything that is necessary, except the seed of gold, for which it must be animated and led to its perfect concoction.

Fixed salt

As for the fixed fire which bears the name of alkali, which can be drawn from all calcined things (and even sometimes from the most contemptible fruits of calcined earth and wheat straw) it can be collocated to the sovereign degree , whether it is still cooked, or artificially pushed to redness, by the manifestation of its occult and made volatile by dissolution with its suitable vehicle in the form of clear water or sweet blood-colored oil, which has the force to distill the gold through the still, so that it becomes an oil, and the one and the other oil of gold and salt joined and fixed in stone, make a great projection.

Which must also be understood from the fixed salt of our mine which is spoken of in the text.

Now he who does not have the net or vessel of gold (as they say) to fish for that instead of gold, must take the common mercury precipitated and fixed by him alone.

Text of chapter We also take 5 or 6 measurements of air

Explanation

The author breaks his speech here where it is a question of the extraction of aerial water, which is the means by which the above-mentioned bodily and terrestrial liquor must be animated and impregnated with the rays of the stars.

The Cosmopolitan said in his enigma that this water is in all places and that no one can live without it, it is drawn by admirable means, but this one is very good which is drawn by means of our steel, which is found in the belly of Aries, few people have known it (i.e. as the occult food is in the air) and nevertheless all have seen, see and love (i.e. -say the envelope or shadow of the thing).

The same in his epilogue: nature has its own light which is not visible to our eyes, but the shadow of nature is the body to our eyes, but if someone is illuminated by the light of nature, the cloud is immediately removed from before the eyes and he can see in hindrance the point of our magnet corresponding to one or the other center of the rays, meaning of the sky and the earth, because the light of nature can come there and discover internal things for us.

Likewise every creature is life but invisibly, all things take their origin from it and live from it. There is nothing specified in it, but it mingles with all specified things.

Addition

In addition to water from the air, distilled snow water and frozen air can be used on trees in December. In summer one can take hail water, which is preferable to any other, because of its celestial impression and coruscation of lightning. The dew must not be despised in this meeting.

The way of extracting or attracting air

There are other means of attracting air in water substance of which we see a figurative one.

You must have one or more copper instruments in the way you see in the figure, which are made of two or three well joined pieces, in the lower part of which you will put a sponge which will be pressed by two pounds of marble calcined for 4 days in the glassmakers' oven, and a pound of red marble broken into pieces the size of a filbert, mixed with the said calcined marble, and thus through the small lower pipe the air will be drawn into the vessel below.

The hotter will be the room or oven where this instrument will be placed, and the more vehement will be the cold outside the window through which the upper part of the instrument will pass, the orifice of which will be narrow and only the tip will be able to pass through of a needle, all the more also, and in greater quantity you will attract your water into this instrument, which by means of the pressed sponge, will flow into the vessel below, so that in case of necessity it will be able to attract enough for the drink of a man and a horse.

I saw these vessels made of gold, silver, copper and brass, with which very cold water was attracted with which I did admirable things , and which could undoubtedly be useful on this occasion of which will speak to us elsewhere.

Text of chapter 6

If the above-mentioned spiritual water is poured and one and the other water combined in a vessel entirely exposed to the serene air and to the stars, and the celestial rays are introduced into this mixed water, but If it rains you have to take it out or cover it.

The Cosmopolitan in his epilogue says, diligently considers how the 4 elements distill the radical humidity to the center of the earth and how the terrestrial and central Sun returns it and sublimates it by its movement to the surface of the earth, also considers the correspondence of the Sun celestial and the moon have a particular force or virtue of dripping or distilling into the earth by their rays, because heat joins easily to heat, and salt to salt, and as the central Sun has its sea and raw coarse water and perceptible; Thus the celestial Sun also has its sea and a subtle and imperceptible water on the surface of the earth, the rays join the rays and produce flowers and all things.

This is why when it rains, the rain takes this life force from the air and combines it with the nitre salt of the earth (because the nitre salt of the earth is like a calcined tartar which through dryness attracts the air to itself, which air in it resolves into water, the nitrate salt of the earth has a similar force of attraction, which also was air and is joined to the fat of the earth) and being more abundant, the solar rays strike, the greater quantity of nitrate salt is produced, and consequently a greater quantity of wheat grows, and this occurs from day to day.

Addition

It is necessary to take equal weight of the water or salty liquor and the water of the air.

The glass vessel should be low and wide.

The said vessel must have a mark by which you can know the quantity of water in the air which will have been dried up by the Sun so that you can put in new water to replenish the defect in the air.

If the heat of the Sun is too vehement, you will cover the glass vessel with a branch or a twig; it must also be exposed to the full Moon.

The longer it is exposed to serenity, the better it will be.

After 3 days we obviously see that the water thickens and tends to freeze.

When crystals form that must be collected, this is the double mercury of the philosophers, which is the mother and first material of all metals.

Explanation

The Cosmopolite to the above-mentioned treatise: our celestial water which does not wet the hands but not vulgar and almost like rain, it is also called Moon and womb which receives the seed of gold.

The Cosmopolite in his treatise 11 wanted us to know by what principles this water must be prepared saying: Consider, I pray you, the simple water of the clouds which is contained in the world, the hard stones, the salts, the air , earth, fire, although it does not seem than simple water. What would I say of the earth which has in itself water, fire, salts, air, and nevertheless it seems naked in itself. O admirable nature which knows how to produce fruits, water and give them the life of air.

The same in his epilogue: the air, he says, is the matter of the ancient philosophers, it is the water of our dew from which the saltpeter of the philosophers is drawn, from which all things grow and are nourished, and is also our magnet which I have previously called steel. The air generates the magnet, and the magnet generates and makes our steel appear.

I have here holyly discovered the truth to you, pray to God to support your enterprise.

let us call dew and enjoy rarefied water, of which the frozen invisible spirit is better than all the universal earth.

Idem our pontic water coagulates in the Sun and in the Moon by means of our steel by philosophical artifice, and by admirable means, by the prudent son of art.

In its enigma: this water is the water of life having the power to improve the fruit of the solar tree, so that afterwards, it makes the six trees uniform by its sole smell, without the need for to plant or graft some. No other strong or fountain water, nor drawn from various other things, can be useful for this art or work, but they are all poisonous, if they are not drawn from the rays of the Sun and the Moon by the force of our magnet or steel.

Its proper name is the water of our sea, and the water of life that does not wet the hands.

Addition

The text above wants crystals to grow during the season, which is why it is necessary to give the work time for this, lest we prevent it by rushing too much . Some (after having exposed their mixed water to the air for some time and believing it to be sufficiently impregnated with solar and lunar rays) had it half-evaporated over an ash fire, then exposed in a cold place or cold water to make crystallize, he pulled crystals with wooden tweezers, then on the remaining water he added certain quantity of new water from the air and again exposed to the serene air as before, and they continued to proceed as long as they saw that crystals were being formed.

I do not want to forget to say here that some philosophers mixed the crystals with the first raw material, they made pellets and distilled them, as we said above from the earth, which being done, they saw descend into the container the earthly spirits of dark color, and the celestial spirits of red color like blood, which water they also called double philosophical mercury but in liquid and humid form, ditto milk of the virgin, very sour vinegar.

With this menstruum they easily dissolved all the metals on the table, and the sulfur and the soul were extracted (because they let the bodies fall to the bottom with which no dissolution of gold is made if the salt fixes from the distillation is added and dissolved beforehand in the said liquor.

Then having put 3 parts of their water or menstruum on a part of gold filings, they made their extraction in half an hour.

Common mercury can also be precipitated with the appearance of several colors so that it makes a nice turbit for the medicine.

Philosophers have not cared for base metals and have only used gold and silver, both for medicine and for their philosophical works, and have achieved their intentions in various ways by means of this subject.

Second addition

I thought it necessary in this place to make mention of the dry crystalline water which is made by the oil of common salt, which artists have called soft crystals of common salt, because it deserves the name of philosophical mercury , and they have been highly esteemed as being a part of the philosophers' stone, because common salt, as being the center of the element of water, metallic generation.

Now how this dry water can be acquired, André de B. sincerely indicated and described it in his letters written to Mathiole.

Which crystals are however of less value than those which are made of common salt moistened and dried several times before, with the soul of Saturn and then distilled, because by this means the great coldness of the metal is impressed on the work, and the nitrous crystallization is fortified.

If you operate so that the crystallization takes place serenely by its own nature so that by means of the air received, its crystals are impregnated with the astral influence according to the processes of chapters 5, 6, 7, then you will only have to operate according to chapters 2, 3, 4 (which is simply made from bowl earth without any addition) because by this way you acquire the very noble magnesia of fire, which being nourished by fire, and in the fire begets and produces the true son of fire.

That if to this lively salt you add the subject of stone, and that being joint you make the distillation according to the method and the regime of the fire of the said André de B., it will be even better.

As for the means of continuing further and making soft crystals from the oil of common salt, the practice is very well described in the verses of Augurel where the reader will have resorted, and this work is 3 years old.

Because this practice is different from others (especially since there are several paths to achieve the same goal) there are certain works which are short and others which take a longer path.

It is necessary to be able to discern the various works of philosophers if we want to hear their words and their intentions, and not be rigid in relating all things to a single stone, a medicine, a vessel and a fire etc.

For even though all things do not proceed from a single root and are only one thing considered in their foundation and in the preparation, the composition must be made of matter and form, of agent and patient, nevertheless the practice of this composition is diverse, from which so many different works have taken their origin.

Hence it is that in addition to the work of three years, we find the work of three months, three weeks, and even three days which is the work of Mary the prophetess and which a philosopher or artist and indeed expert and of good mind, will be able to understand through the dialogue she had with the philosopher Aros.

Besides this there are still other works which are called the work of a natural day, of a month, of a year and of nine months.

He who ignores the difference of like and such things, must, according to the proverb, withdraw his hand from the work.

mean the time of the operation which follows the first, it can nevertheless happen that there are other mixed works of which one and the other, the preceding and the following are included in the said time, but as our intention was only to warn you in passing, we will speak no further about it.

Text of chapter 8

The gold and silver of the vulgar are dead, but the solids such as they are obtained from mines or from flowers and washes and which have not smelled of fire are lively and must be subtly filed. as it is found in compact, shiny form, in seeds or flakes , or as it is found in rivers or mountain mines, this will follow the literal meaning.

But yet in case of necessity, the sulfur of gold can sometimes take the place of compact natural gold, the sulfur of gold is found in the mines and marcasites of gold and which is hidden in the sand of gold washes, provided that these mines are truly imbued with the star of the Sun and that it contains no other metal than gold (the smallest part of which will be authentic to us by experience) because in such things the aureity is coming and is currently appearing, at whereas in other metallic subjects (to which some philosophers have attributed the name of bright and green gold, because of their imperfection, having regard to the great perfection of gold) the said aureate nature is found there in a certain remote power. and too distant, which, partly by progression, partly by regression can be brought to the height and perfect state of the degree of gold, not without singular work. This is why Paracelsus rightly rejects such a power of remote aureity and wants us to take the increasing aureate substances and their nature and kind when he says in his first treatise of minerals. If alchemists could find this sulfur (because it can truly be found in the solar tree) they would have reason to rejoice, because true golden sulfur is obtained from gold and not from iron or copper etc.

The Cosmopolitan in his third treatise, do not seek, he says, this point in and especially the gold of the vulgar the metals of the vulgar to which it is not, because these metals are dead, but ours are alive, having spirits , which you absolutely must take; for you must know that the life of metals is fire when they are still in their mines, and that fire is also their death, that is to say, the fire of fusion.

Paracelsus also says, the mine has greater virtue than its metal, because that in the fusion its liquors of life separate, that is to say from the salt of the sulfur of the mercury and the magnet, and leave their dead metal.

Although in itself, if we consider the thing more thoroughly, the philosopher is not obliged to restrict himself to the said things which it is difficult to buy and even to find in all places, because each dead thing can easily take on new life and be regenerated by and within its own mother.

Thus common gold and silver which are taken for dead, can be resurrected and revived by calcination and radical solution &c.

For if the body of dead gold, according to Paracelsus, being buried in the earth of the eastern ditch, has the strength and virtue of growing in substance and weight, if we add to it pigeon droppings and child's urine ( which strength and virtue of growing is certainly a mark of vigor and effectiveness) why would we not want these two things or other similar things being distilled, to be able to give a vivifying and regenerating spirit, by means of which the tincture of common gold is extracted, which is the true seed of gold, would not that which is dead be resurrected and live again by this means?

I will not speak of the mercurial waters of life which can be used, both in the dry and in the humid way, by which the body of Vulgar and dead gold is variously resurrected to serve in lively operations.

Even more, dead gold can receive a similar virtue of life with common lead, which is called the mother of metals by smelters and miners, it is calcined artificially, then it is substantiated and increased and transmuted by its radical humidity, as its first and origin vital liquor, of which the Cosmopolite speaks thus at the end of his epilogue, those who work on herbs, animals, stones and mines operate in vain, except our Sun and our Moon which are covered by the sphere of Saturn .

Idem to the general treatise: there is a metal which has the power of consume others, because he is almost like their water and true mother &c. If gold conjoins with him eleven times he throws his seed and is debilitated almost to the point of death. Now in what manner this calcination must be carried out, the same Cosmopolitan shows us in a few words in his eleventh treatise. If you give, he said, the gold and the silver to devour to our old man so that he consumes them and that he finally, ready to die, is burned, that his ashes are purified in water (this is something water to extract) cook them until this is enough and you will have a medicine to cure leprosy.

Now, dear reader, think for yourself about this work and consult experience, which will confirm to you that the more often common gold is melted with lead on the cup, the more pale it becomes, and even becomes white like silver.

What then becomes of the sulfur or splendor of gold, and it is consumed by fire, and it goes away in smoke. Certainly not, because Saturn took it into his ashes or cup, from which it can and must be removed with very great improvement and increase, its slag (because it is improved by it and receives from it more vigor and genital liquor ) this extract is the true living gold, the aurific seed and the form of the physical stone, which is in question in this chapter and in the three following, whoever has this spirit will be exempt from the work and practice of chapters 8,9,10.

Gold is also joined by fusion with the lead of the philosophers which is the spelter of starry antimony, it is pulverized and put in a closed capsule and it is calcined and it is finally reduced to a livid glass, red like a ruby (which if it is not vitrified the first time, it will have to be pushed to that point by repeated work and by addition) from which afterwards we can easily extract the dye with a notable and increased its igneous qualities.

Now because daily experience teaches experienced artists, such and similar operations, we do not need of greater education.

However, I must still add this, that the more the dissolving menses approach or the radical principles of the metals or the excellent simplicity of the elements and have affinity with them, the more excellent and worthy are they, and even more effective and more useful solutions must be estimated.

Text of chapter 9

Take 10 parts of the philosophical double mercury and one part of the said gold or silver, put in a vial of which two thirds remain empty, and sigil hermetically.

Explanation

The cosmopolite in the seventh of his treatise, it is necessary, he says, that the pores of the body open, so that it releases its sperm, at the center of which is the seed which is the air, which placed in a suitable matrix is ​​frozen and freezes with itself whatever it finds pure, or the 'impure mixed with the pure.

Addition

The Cosmopolite in his seventh treatise says, the seed of gold is drawn in two ways gently and violently, therefore if you do not want to draw the seed of gold violently by the Saturn, as has been said , you will follow the text of this chapter and begin the work gently and slowly with the dry water that nature gives us with a little help from art, which crystal clear dry water the Cosmopolitan names his other steel, of which he speaks in the ninth treatise: there is another steel which resembles this one (that is to say the metallic or saturnine, in magnetic and attractive virtue) which is of itself created from nature which knows how, through admirable strength and virtue, to draw from the rays of the terrestrial Sun what so many men have sought, and which is the beginning of our work (that is to say the other principle or ingredient of the 'work, because it takes the place of form) It seems that there is a difference between the soul of gold (as is commonly said) and the seed of gold, because the Cosmopolite by its preface , calls soul attraction pure persuasion. But the The reader must know that if the Cosmopolitan did not repute the said two substances as one, nevertheless in the artificial administration of the work, the soul of gold has the same effect as the seed. On which we must still come to the goal so that we wander, by the right path that we must follow in this extraction of soul, the way of which is twofold.

Of which ways, one is alchemistic, sophistical and impostors , when this sulfur or the soul of gold thus extracted gives an inconstant tincture, which Paracelsus calls tincture of color and not of virtue, and in the chapter where it is treated metallic sulfur he mentions.

vain dilution of ostentation, which is not done without loss of time, work and trouble.

The other way is supported by philosophical ways, by which a metal is really and constantly dyed gold in all examinations, whether it is done with profit or with loss, for although from the beginning the utility is not there so early, nevertheless we can so govern things, that the artists will derive a sufficient reward for their subsistence and their labors, of which the Cosmopolitan speaks thus: he who has the doors of nature open will be able to seek greater and higher mysteries and acquire them with the blessing of God.

Text of chapter 10

Leave it in the vaporous fire for three months, and the gold will not only open sufficiently, but also give a ruby ​​redness, which must be taken care of, because it is philosophical gold, the true seed of gold, and the other part of our stone. The rest must be thrown away because it is good for nothing.

Explanation

The Cosmopolite to the second treatise: because nature, he says, does nothing without the sperm of things, this is why the artist must acquire the sperm of gold, without which he will also only do a goldsmith without gold and silver. Now, is it that the sperm or the seed of gold is the quintessence of it, elixir, parfait or sulfur balm.

In the eleventh treatise: then put it in our fire and let it become a dry liquid, first the earth will dissolve (that is to say dry water) or into water which is called mercury of the philosophers and this water resolves these bodies of the Sun and the Moon and consumes them, so that only the tenth part remains with one part, and this will be the seed or moist metallic radical.

Addition

The text above explains sufficiently the manner in which the aurific seed must be extracted, as for the path that the philosophers took with the moist menstrual water (the preparation of which was indicated in the first addition of the seventh chapter) here it is, take 10 parts of menstruation and a part of bright gold and not of the vulgar, dissolve over slow heat, pour by inclination, let gently evaporate to half a finger, then put in a cold place, and lucid crystals will form. 'a strong yellow color, which extract with wooden tongs, put them in a hermetically sealed vial, and put in the athanor in the fire of the first degree for 42 days, and blackness will appear, in the second degree it will become ashes and we will see the peacock's tail, at the third degree the whiteness, push this whiteness to redness at a stronger fire, and at the end at the fourth degree the flame will strike the vessel, you will see a very beautiful and very lucid redness appearing separated in the glass; preserve it carefully, carefully open the vessel with a hot iron and keep the extracted redness, because it is the true philosophical Sun and the metallic seed of gold, of which a single grain will be enough for you for the whole time of your life.

Text of chapter 11

Then take one part of the seed and ten parts of philosophical mercury as it is said. Explanation The Cosmopolite at the end of the fifth treatise says, who knows how to freeze water hot and join to it the spirit, (the seed of spiritual gold) certainly he will find something more precious than gold and that everything else. Let him therefore cause the spirit to separate (the prolific spirit of gold) from the water (which has been added or associated) so that it may putrefaction, and the grain or seed may appear , then having rejected the faeces, let him bring back the spirit above (the seed of gold which was raised and sublimated separately in the vessel) in water and let him join them together, because this conjunction will generate a branch dissimilar in shape, from its parents.

The same in chapter 8: every seed of itself is useless if it is not put into the due womb by art or by nature, and although this seed by itself is nobler than any creature, nevertheless its matter is that which makes the grain rot and causes the freezing of the pure point, moreover by the heat of its body it nourishes it and makes it grow.

And in the ninth treatise: when the seed is placed in the womb, it purges it and makes it a thousand times more capable of producing very good fruits.

Addition

The philosophers have kept the same proportions in the wet way in this way.

Take a grain of this seed, add 10 grains of the aforementioned menstrual water , and immediately they will join, sigil hermetically and proceed through the degrees of the athanor for 5 months until the perfection of the work.

Text of chapter 12

Put this in the athanor or philosophical furnace and leave it at gentle heat for 7 months. And then, by the grace of God, you will find what you have been looking for until now.

Explanation

The Cosmopolite in his tenth treatise: he is then governed by continuous fire for 7 months and sometimes 10, until our water consumes 3 and leaves 1, and this to the double, after which he is nourished with the milk of the virgin or from the fat of that which is born in the breasts of the earth and is preserved from putrefaction by the salt of nature, and thus is begotten this child of the second generation.

The same in the epilogue: take some air (i.e. condensed into form of nitre salt because of which in the eleventh treatise he also calls it our earth) 10 grains of living gold or of the living Moon 1 grain, put all these things in your vessel and first cook this air so that it is water, and then not water, and he says a little after, dissolve the frozen air and in it dissolve a tenth part of gold, sigilize this and work with our fire, until the air is changed powdered and having the salt of the world, various colors will appear.

In the eleventh treatise: take the nitre salt water of our earth, put in it this humid metallic radical and put in the fire of putrefaction and non-vile generation, however only in the first operation (when you have extracted the seed from the gold) govern everything with great spirit until the colors appear like a peacock's tail, govern it by digesting and do not be bored until the colors cease and only one green color appears in all and so on the others, and when you see at the bottom brown-colored ashes and almost red water, open the vessel, wet a feather in it, and anoint a piece of iron, if it is stained, promptly pour some water which we will talk about below, and pour into it as much of the said water as raw air enters, cook again over a small fire, until until it dyes again. So far has reached my experience, but this water must be the menstruum of the world drawn from the sphere of the Moon, rectified so many times that it can calcine the Sun.

We still have to talk about fire.

The fire is double, the first is continuous and which surrounds matter and it is external, which helps the internal. The second is a natural fire which digests and freezes. This natural fire is unique both in the first and second operations. Everything that it operates differently comes from the distance of the places, a single vessel would also be enough, but we use two to abbreviate, the vessel of the first work must be round, the second a little less like a vial or an egg. Matter also is unique, but it is united from two substances, so that it is vile and very precious.

I have now revealed everything both the first and the second work.

The same in its regime: our water has an intrinsic fire, and if it is helped by the continual heat, it burns three of its parts and only a very small one will remain, which could hardly be separated. imagine but of great virtue.

The concoction is done by the careful mind of a master, first for 7 months and then 10, however several colors appear, and always on the fiftieth day more or less. The same he says: it may further be improved by the testimony of scripture philosophical, first it can be exalted to ten, and then to a hundred, subsequently to a thousand, and then to ten thousand.

Addition

Follows the way in which philosophers have multiplied their work in the wet way (perhaps also in the dry way). The multiplication is done both in quality and in quantity, always with ten parts of its water or philosophical double mercury, and thus we proceed ad infinitum . The first time it does not dye, but if you put it in the fire a second time, then the thing is done and completed in two months, and one part only dyes ten parts. If you put it on fire a third time, the thing finishes in three weeks and one part in complexion one hundred.

If you do the same a fourth time, the thing is done in three days.

In the same proportion as the stone is exalted in multiplication, it also keeps the same multiplication, it also keeps the same proportion of dyeing in quantity, therefore one part if it is projected by fermentation on ten parts of very pure gold in cast iron , a medicine will be made frangible like glass and also a tincture on the bodies, especially on mercury which is an open metal.

Now the dose of the stone before it is joined to the gold is one grain given in such liquor as you please, for the use of the human body.

Praise be to the immortal God.

End of what is Ortelius.