COLLECTION OF ANCIENT GREEK ALCHEMISTS

Marcellin Berthelot

DEMOCRITAN TREATIES

II. i. DEMOCRITUS

II. ii. DEMOCRITUS AT LEUCIPPE

II. iii. SYNESIUS THE PHILOSOPHER HAS DIOSCORUS ON THE BOOK OF DEMOCRITUS.

OLYMPIODORUS II. i. — DEMOCRITE NATURAL AND MYSTERIOUS QUESTIONS

1. Put in a pound of purple, a weight of two obols of iron slag, macerated in seven drachmas of urine, put on the fire until boiling. Then, removing the decoction from the fire, put everything in a vase. First removing the purple, pour the decoction over the purple and leave to soak overnight and a day.

Then, taking four pounds of sea lichen,[1] for water so that there are above the lichen four fingers of water, and hold (the mixture in this state) until it thickens; then filter, heat and pour over the wool prepared in advance. Tread what is too loose, so that the juice penetrates the wool thoroughly; then leave for two nights and two days. Then take and dry in the shade; for out the juice.

Then take the same juice again and, in two pounds of this juice, put water, so as to reproduce the first proportion. Hold likewise (the mixture in this state), until it thickens; then having filtered it, put wool in it, as before, and leave it overnight and overnight. Then take and rinse in urine, then dry in the shade.

Take alkanet,[2] grind; put four pounds of sorrel and boil with urine, until the sorrel is diluted; having filtered the water, put the alkanet, cook until thickened and, having filtered the alkanet again, put the wool. Then wash with urine, and after that with water. Dry in the same way in the shade, Expose the wool soaked in urine to the vapors of the seaweed, for 2 days.

To. Here is what goes into the composition of the purple: the seaweed called false purple,[3] the coccus,[4] the marine color,[5] the alkanet[6] of Laodicea, the cremnos,[ 7] Italian madder, Western phyllanthion,[8] purple worm,[9] derived from, Italian rose. These colors were estimated among all by our predecessors.Those who don't give a fixed tincture are worthless. Such are the cochineal of Galatia, the color of Achaia, which is called laccha, that of Syria which is called rhizion, the shell and the double shell of Libya, the shell of Egypt of the maritime region which is called pinna, the plant called isatis, and the color of Upper Syria called murex. These colors are not solid, nor esteemed among us, except that of the isatis.[10]

3. Having collected these notions from our aforementioned master, and knowing the diversity of matter, we have endeavored to make the natures agree. But, our master having died before we were initiated, and at a time when we were still concerned with the knowledge of matter, we are told that we should try to evoke him from Hades.And I strove to achieve this goal, invoking it directly with these words: With what gifts do you reward what I have done for you? After these words, I remained silent. As I invoked him several times, asking him how I could reconcile the natures, he told me that it was difficult for him to speak without the permission of the Demon (genie). And he only uttered these words: “The books are in the Temple.

Returning to the Temple, I began to inquire if I could be put in possession of the books; for he had not spoken to me of these books during his lifetime, having died without having made any testamentary dispositions. He had, it is said, taken a poison to separate his soul from his body;or else, according to his son, he had accidentally swallowed poison. However, before his death, he intended to show the books to his son only, when the latter would have passed the first age. None of us knew anything about these books. As after making investigations we had found nothing, we took terrible pains (to know) how substances and natures unite and merge. But when we had effected the compositions of matter, the time having come for a ceremony in the Temple, we had a feast together. SO, as we were in the naos, all of a sudden a certain column opened up, but we saw nothing inside. Now, neither he nor anyone had told us that his father's books had been deposited there. Having advanced, led us to the column;leaning over, we saw with surprise that nothing had escaped us, except this forest. precious mule that we found there:

“Nature enjoys nature; nature triumphs over nature; nature masters nature.

We were very surprised that he had collected all his writing in so few words.

“I also come[11] to bring to Egypt the treatise on natural (questions), so that you may rise above the curiosity of the vulgar[12] and the confused matter. ****************** CHRYSOPEE 4. Taking mercury, fix it with the metallic body[13] of magnesia,[14] or with the metallic body of antimony of Italy

, or with apyre sulphur, or with selenite, or with of baked limestone, or with Milo alum, or with arsenic,[15] or as you shall see fit.


Put the white earth (thus prepared) on copper and you will have copper without shadow.[16] Add yellow money[17] and you will have gold; with the gold (the result) will be chrysocorail[18] reduced to a (metallic) body.

The same effect is obtained with yellow arsenic[19] and sandarac[20] suitably treated, as well as with completely transformed cinnabar. Mercury alone produces shadowless copper. Nature triumphs over nature.[21]

5. Treat the silver pyrite, which is also called siderite, according to usage, so as to make it fluid. Now, it will be rendered fluid by means of gray or white litharge, or by means of Italian antimony.Then dust with lead (I don't just say with lead, so that you don't make a mistake, but with lead from Coptos) and with our black litharge, or as you see fit. Heat, then put in the material of the dummy yolk and dye.[22] Nature enjoys nature.

6. Treat pyrite until it becomes incombustible,[23] after losing its black color. Treat it with brine, or with uncorrupted urine, or with sea water, or with oxymel, or as you will think fit, and cook until it becomes like chaff. of gold which have not undergone the action of fire. That done, mix it with apyre sulphur, or yellow alum, or Attic ocher, or whatever suits you. Then add silver, to have gold; and gold, to have the golden shell. Nature dominates nature.[24]

7. Manufacture of yellow gold. — Taking claudianos,[25] make it shiny and treat it according to custom, until it turns yellow. Therefore turn it yellow (to turn yellow I do not speak of the stone, but of the useful part of the stone).[26] Now you will turn yellow with decomposed alum, with sulphur, or with arsenic, or with sandarac, or with limestone, or with what you will. And if you add this compound to silver, you will get gold; if you add it to gold you will get gold shell.[27] The victorious nature dominates nature.

8. Make the cinnabar[28] white by means of oil, or vinegar, or honey, or brine, or alum;[29] then yellow by means of misy, or sory,[ 30] or rosacea, or apyre sulphur, or as you will hear.Throw (the mixture) on silver and you will obtain gold, if you have performed the dyeing with a view to gold; or electrum, if you have operated on copper.[31] Nature enjoys nature.

9. Blanch the caddy of Cyprus according to custom, I mean the one that has been refined. Then make it yellow; now you will turn it yellow with calf's bile, or turpentine, or castor oil, or horseradish, or with egg yolks, all substances that can turn it yellow; then throw the mixture on gold. For gold will be obtained by means of gold and gold liquor. Nature triumphs over nature.[32]

10. Treat the androdamas[33] with harsh-tasting wine, or sea water, or urine, or brine, all substances which can extinguish its natural strength.Dilute with Chalcedonian antimony, then treat again with sea water, or pure brine, or mixed with vinegar. Wash until the black color of the antimony is gone.[34] Grill or bake, until the material has yellowed;[35] then boil in native sulfur water.[36] Cast on the silver, and when you put in apyre sulphur, you will get gold liquor.[37] Nature dominates nature.

11. Taking white earth, I mean that obtained from white lead, and scoriae of silver,[38] or antimony from Italy; then magnesia, or even white litharge, bleach. Now you whiten (this earth) with sea water or softened brine, or water from the sky: I mean by exposing it to dew and to the sun, so that (this earth) reduced to powder becomes white like white lead.Melt and put copper blossom[39] and scraped rust (I mean the one that has undergone the treatment); or very weathered burnt copper, or chalcite; and throw in blue,[40] until the matter becomes solid and compact, an effect which will be easily obtained. What is obtained in this way is molybdochalcum.[41] Make sure wing product is a light shade: if this is not the case, do not blame the copper, but rather yourself, since you will not have performed a good operation. Prepare, then, a metal of a light tint, divide it, and add the substances capable of making it yellow; cook, until the yellow color is obtained. Add it to any kind of metallic body, because copper of a light tint, by becoming yellow, tints any kind of body.[42]Nature triumphs over nature.

12. Dilute with apyre sulphur, sory and rosacea. Sory is a rough, bluish material always found in misy: it is called green rosacea.[43] Cook it over a moderate heat for three days, until it turns yellow.[44] Throw it on the copper, or on the silver made by us, and you will have gold.[45]

Lay the metal reduced to sheets in vinegar, rosacea, misy, alum, Cappadocian salt, red natron, or whatever you like, for three or five or six days, until rust, then dye.[46] Because rosacea makes gold out of rust. Nature enjoys nature.

13. Mixture for dyeing. Treat the Macedonian chrysocolla,[47] which resembles copper rust, by diluting (it) in heifer's urine, until it is transformed.For nature is hidden within (substances). When the chrysocolla will be transformed, dip it in castor oil, putting it over the fire several times and dyeing it. Then put to cook with alum, after having previously diluted with misy, or apyre sulphur; yellow and dye all metal gold.[48]

14. O natures which produce natures,[49] O majestic natures which triumph over natures by transformations, O natures which charm natures in a supernatural way! Such, then, are the things which concern great nature. There are no other natures superior to these in the tinctures; there are none equal, nor inferior. All these things are carried out by means of dissolution.O my brethren in prophecy, I know that you have not been inclined to disbelief, but to astonishment; for you know the power of matter. While young people are embarrassed and do not believe what is written, because they are dominated by their ignorance of the subject; not knowing that the children of doctors, when they want to prepare a medicine suitable for healing, do not undertake to do so with reckless impetus; but They first try which substance is hot, which other joined to this one effects a medium mixture; what substance is cold or wet, and what condition it must be in to promote average mixing. And that's the way they make the medicine they're for healing.

15. But these, who propose to prepare the cure of the soul and the deliverance from all pain, do not realize that they will be embarrassed by proceeding with an impulse devoid of discernment and reason. Indeed, believing that we hold fabulous and non-symbolic speeches, they do not test the species: so as to see for example if such species is good for cleaning, such other accessory; such good for dyeing, such for producing the complete combination; whether such is suitable for giving gloss; while such other is to be avoided in relation to gloss. They do not seek whether such a substance will come out of the background (dyed matter); if such other will resist fire, and if such other by its addition will make the body more resistant to fire.So, for example, how salt cleans the surface of copper and even its internal parts; and how it rusts[50] the outer parts, after pickling, and even the inner parts. And then, how the mercury whitens the external parts of the chrysochalcum and cleans them, and how it whitens the internal parts; how it is eliminated on the surface and how it will be eliminated from the internal parts. If young people were practiced in these matters, they would not fail in the preparations undertaken hastily. Because they do not know that a single species transforms up to ten species of contrary natures. In fact, a drop of oil is enough to make a large quantity of purple disappear, and a little sulfur can burn many species.This is what we had to say about dry substances,

16. Now let's talk about liqueurs. Taking Pontic rhubarb, grind it into sour-flavored amino wine. Bring to waxy consistency, spread on silver leaf,[51] to produce gold.[52] Give the thickness of the nail and use an even thinner layer of the preparation; place it in a new vase, sealed on all sides; heat gently until it penetrates to the center of the leaf. Then put the foil[53] in the rest of the preparation.

Dilute in the wine prescribed for this use, until the liquor thickens. Put the leaf in there immediately, before it is still cold. Let ambition be. Then taking (the leaf), melt and you will find gold.If the rhubarb is old, mix in an equal quantity of celandine, which you will have previously macerated according to custom; indeed celandine has an affinity for rhubarb. Nature enjoys nature.

17. Take saffron from Cilicia;[54] dilute the saffron flowers in the juice of the vine prescribed for this purpose and make a liqueur, in the ordinary manner. Dip the silver leaves in it, until the color pleases you. And if it is a sheet of copper, it will be better: purify the copper beforehand, according to use. Then taking from the aristolochia plant, two parts; saffron and celandine, a double dose: put in the consistency of wax and, after having coated the leaf, work according to the first step you will be surprised at the result.

Indeed the saffron of Knidos has the same action as mercury; like cassia has the same action as cinnamon. Nature triumphs over nature.

18. Taking our lead made infusible,[55] by means of the earth of Chios, the stone of Paros and alum; melt it on a fire of straw and project on pyrite.

Take (on the other hand) saffron, safflower, oechomene flower,[56] celandine, saffron marc and aristolochia; dilute them in very strong vinegar and make a liqueur, according to usage; then let the lead soak into rhubarb, and you will find gold.[57] That the composition also contains a little sulphur. Nature dominates nature.

ig.This matter of Chrysopeia, accomplished by natural operations, is like that of Pammenes, who taught it to the priests in Egypt. But do not be surprised if only one species accomplishes such a mystery.[58] Don't you know that the multiplicity of preparations, even with much time and pain, does not heal the iron fracture; while human excrement[59] immediately succeeds. In diseases which require the use of caustics, the multiplicity of remedies is useless; while quicklime alone, properly applied, cures the disease. Often the variety of treatments in ophthalmia has the effect of doing harm; while the thorny buckthorn is a plant which succeeds well, in any affection of this kind.It is therefore necessary to disdain this set of vain and untimely materials and to use only natural (suitable) substances.[60] Now judge from this whether any can do the work, without the natures previously stated. But if we can't do anything without them, why do we love this fantasy of various materials? Why, among us, this competition of numerous species tending to the same result, given that a single nature triumphs over the All?

Let's see the composition of the species, in view of the Argyropée.

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MANUFACTURE OF ASEM[61]

20. Fix the mercury[62] obtained from arsenic or sandarac, or prepared as you will hear; project (it) on copper and iron[63] treated with sulphur, and the metal will turn white.[64]

The same effect is produced by bleached magnesia,[65] transformed arsenic[66],[67] calcined cadmium, sandarac[68] apyre,[69] bleached pyrite,[70] and white lead[71 ] cooked with sulphur. You will soften the iron by putting magnesia, or sulfur,[72] half as much, or magnetic stone in a small quantity; for the magnetic stone has an affinity for iron. Nature charms nature.

z s. Taking the steam[73] previously described, cook it in castor oil[74] or horseradish, with the addition of a little alum. Then taking tin, purify with sulfur according to use, or with pyrite,[75] or as you will see fit. Incorporate with the steam (mercurial) and mix. Cook on an enveloping flame, and you will find a product analogous to white lead.This preparation whitens all kinds of bodies (metallic). Mix in the projections the earth of Chios,[76] or asterite, or selenite, or whatever you like; for selenite mixed with mercury whitens all kinds of bodies. Nature triumphs over nature.[77]

22. White magnesia:[78] blanch it with brine and lamellar alum, in sea water;[79] or in natural juice, I speak of lemon juice; or in sulfur vapour. For the smoke of sulfur being white, whitens everything. Some also say that the smoke of the cobathia[80] whitens (the magnesia?) Mix there after the whitening an equal quantity of dregs, so that it becomes very white.After taking 4 ounces of whitish copper, I speak of orichalcum, melt them and gradually throw in 1 ounce of prepurified tin, stirring from below (the crucible) with the hand, until until the substances have married. Project half of the white preparation in this way, and this will be the first operation; for whitened magnesia does not make metallic bodies fragile, and does not dull the luster of copper.

23. Taking white sulfur, whiten it by diluting it in the sun, with urine, or with alum and brine of salt. Native sulfur is by far the whitest. Dilute it with sandarac, and heifer's urine, for 6 days, until the preparation becomes similar to marble. When it has become so, there will be a great mystery there;for it whitens copper, it softens iron, it makes tin compact,[81] and lead not very fusible; it solidifies metallic substances and fixed dyes. Sulfur mixed with sulfur renders metallic substances sulphurous, because they have a great affinity for it. Natures charm natures.[82]

24. Grind the clean litharge with sulfur, or cadmium, or arsenic, or pyrite, or oxymel,[83] so that it is no longer fluid. Cook over a very clear fire, after consolidating the vase. Hold the composition in the state, adding to it boiled limestone, soaked in vinegar, for 3 days, so that it becomes cleaner for pickling. So project (on the metal) the preparation that has become whiter than the white lead. It often becomes yellow, if the fire has been excessive;but if it turns yellow, then it is no longer useful to you; because it is a matter of bleaching the metallic bodies. So cook it properly and throw it on any metallic body intended to be bleached. If the litharge loses its fluidity, it can no longer become lead again. But it happens easily, for the nature of lead is easily transformed into many others. Natures triumph over natures.

25. Taking saffron from Cnidus, grind it in sea water or brine and make a liquor; put on the fire and dye sheets of copper, lead, iron, until the result pleases you.[84] (These leaves) thus become white.Then take half of the preparation, and dilute with sandarac, or white arsenic, or apyre sulfur, or what you will, and give (to the mixture) the waxy consistency. Coat the leaf and place in a well-luted new vase, according to use. Place over a sawdust fire for a whole day. Then, having removed (from the fire), place in a pure liquor, and the copper will be white, very white. Make the surplus like the craftsman; for Cilicia saffron whitens with sea water and yellows with wine. Nature charms nature.

26. Take white litharge and grind it with bay leaves, Cimolian earth, honey and white sandarac, and make a viscous mixture. Coat the metal with half of the preparation, then put on the fire according to use.Dip in the rest of the preparation, after having diluted with water and poplar wood ash; for mixtures without proper substance[85] operate well without fire. The dyes[86] are thus made capable of resisting heat, even aided by liquids. Nature triumphs over nature.

27. Taking the sublimated vapor described above, grind with alum and misy, and after soaking with vinegar, throw in a little white cadmium, or magnesia, or quicklime, so that a metallic body another is formed. Grind with very white honey; make a liquor, in which you can dye hot what you want; let it drop and the transformation will be accomplished. Add to the composition a little apyre sulfur, so that the preparation penetrates inside.[87]Nature dominates nature.

28. Take 1 ounce of arsenic, half an ounce of natron, 2 ounces of the skin of the tender leaves of the peach tree, half (an ounce) of salt, 1 ounce of mulberry juice, shale alum an equal quantity. Dissolve everything together in vinegar, or urine, or liquid lime,[88] until a (homogeneous) liquid is formed. Heat-dye the darkened (oxidized) sheets of the metal in it and you will get a shadowless (shiny) metal.[89] Nature dominates nature.

29. Put aside all things useful for gold and silver, and there is nothing left; there is nothing more to expound except the rise (evaporation) of sublimated vapor and water;[90] but I purposely pass over these things in silence, as they feature extensively in my other writings.Enjoy this writing.[91]

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II. ii. — DEMOCRITUS TO LEUCIPPE

(Book V of Democritus addressed to Leucippus.)
Democritus to Leucippus, his friend, greeting.[92]

Know what there was about these arts of the Egyptians, O Leucippus, in the books of the Persian prophets.[93] I wrote in the vulgar dialect; because it is the one that best suits the subject; but the book itself is not vulgar; for it contains mystical, ancient and very reasonable riddles; riddles that the ancestors and kings of divine Egypt exposed.[94]

As for me who am your friend, I will use reasonable riddles, such as no one has written for me among the initiated Egyptians.You, doctor, who have an alert mind, I will take care to explain everything openly to you. The work includes whitening and yellowing, as well as softening and firing of copper ore. I leave aside the dye; but later I will return to all the singular products which are made by means of this copper mime and cinnabar. You can make gold with cadmium and other species, by calcinations and alloys, and make unique products.

2. Now, the book begins thus: Take lamellar arsenic, and make metallic sheets. Put in a round pot, and burn. Then, when (the preparation) is ready, throw old milk into it, pouring it without tilting the vase. When it is coagulated, remove and dilute with alum sprinkled with heifer's urine, for seven days;then, dry in the sun; and dilute it again with brine; throw in the saline efflorescence;[95] keep for seven days, and the product is formed. Take it; dry again in the sun; put this (preparation) in a pot, cook it with castor or horseradish oil, until it turns yellow. Spray copper on it and it will whiten. The same effect is produced by sandarac. Treating the same with green matter,

3. This is how the treatment of sulphurous materials for the bleaching of copper takes place. Taking arsenic, macerate, either in salt for nine days, or in the urine of an immature child; or else, for that is better, for twenty-one days.Then dilute in lemon vinegar[97] for seven days, mixing in the white part of the lemons; then let it dry. Then, taking iron-coloured sandarac, cut it into pieces and macerate in brine for twenty-one days. Then, taking water and limestone, making a liquor, dry and preserve. Then, taking the sandarac, boil it with oil for a day; likewise boil on (a fire) sawdust, with lime and keep the water in contact for a day and a night. Afterwards, taking both equal parts, throw in a rogé.[98] Cook in castor or horseradish oil, until the material is dry, and keep. Then (taking) copper ore, similar (in color) to native coral, without operating the fusion in the manner of artisans, mix (?).First clean the glass vase (intended to contain the mixture?); then, refine in the manner I will explain later. Then spray (on the metal), and the product will be whitened.[99] Divide in two for use, as I told you above.[100] mixed (?). First clean the glass vase (intended to contain the mixture?); then, refine in the manner I will explain later. Then spray (on the metal), and the product will be whitened.[99] Divide in two for use, as I told you above.[100] mixed (?). First clean the glass vase (intended to contain the mixture?); then, refine in the manner I will explain later. Then spray (on the metal), and the product will be whitened.[99]Divide in two for use, as I told you above.[100]

4. Taking only two parts of the treated copper; arsenic and sandarac, part of each; of aluminum, half apart; and of the saffron whore, two parts; delay, for twenty-one, or fourteen, or seven days. To dilute, throw the liquid on the matter, and after having exhausted it, you will see during the delay, a change of color, similar to those of the chameleon. But when matter no longer changes and ceases to offer several appearances, then understand that you will happily obtain delay by operating, following the method of the Egyptian Prophets, in a glass vase; they lightly cook and they spit.

5. For our part, those who inspire us with confidence explain otherwise, in ordinary language, the subsequent operations. Taking the copper and placing the oily preparation in the mortar, put the product in a box and let it macerate for 31, or 21, or 15 days, mainly in horse dung;[101] then remove and keep. Dilute in the manner of doctors, throwing into the composition misy, rosacea, in suitable quantity, saffron, celandine, at the rate of one part of each against four parts of macerated rust[102]. Then melt, after having diluted with a little yolk (calf's bile), and softened with gum the product brought to a constant state by conscientiously practiced maceration. When you have diluted like doctors,add some of the watery part of the plants, along with salt efflorescence and leek juice.[103] Then taking the product, cook it in the manner of doctors in a spoon, stirring with a spatula. Grind, cook for three days: three four-hour decoctions every day. When you have finished cooking, taking care that the composition does not dry out, but retains the oily consistency, put in a glass vase; digest it little by little in manure, until the matter solidifies. Remove and dilute: keep. three four-hour decoctions each day. When you have finished cooking, taking care that the composition does not dry out, but retains the oily consistency, put in a glass vase; digest it little by little in manure, until the matter solidifies.Remove and dilute: keep. three four-hour decoctions each day. When you have finished cooking, taking care that the composition does not dry out, but retains the oily consistency, put in a glass vase; digest it little by little in manure, until the matter solidifies. Remove and dilute: keep.

Taking silver ore; earth of the most tender quality, that which some call earth of Chios or ocher, two parts; of the red lead, one part, and of the contents of the vial, two parts; dilute with the liquid part of the sulfur and cook over a regular fire: you will find a powerful body, possessing the color of cinnabar, or coral, or minium. This great wonder, this indescribable wonder, is called chrysocorail (golden coral).As for the other names it receives, the vulgar do not know them.[104] Project this substance and subject the silver to the action of fire. Hide this All[105] that we have whitewashed; for fear of envy, O Leucippus. Good health.

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II. iii. — SYNESIUS THE PHILOSOPHER A DIOSCORUS
ON THE BOOK OF DEMOCRITUS. — COMMENTS

To Dioscorus, priest of the great Serapis, in Alexandria, with the approval of God, the philosopher Synesius, greetings.

1. The letter you addressed to me on the book of the divine Democritus did not leave me indifferent; far from there. With great zeal and great effort I tortured my mind and longed to come to you.We propose to say who was this man, the philosopher Democritus, this naturalist from Abdera, who directed his investigations into all things natural and who treated natural beings. Abdera is a city in Thrace. Democritus was a very learned man who, having come to Egypt, was initiated into the mysteries by the great Ostanes, in the sanctuary of Memphis, by him and his disciples, priests of Egypt. Drawing from him his principles, he composed four books of tincture, on gold and silver,[106] on stones and on purple. By these words, drawing its principles, I hear that he wrote after the great Ostanes. Because this (writer) is the first who issued these axioms: “nature is charmed by nature; and e nature dominates nature s;and “nature triumphs over nature,” etc.

2. But it is necessary that we seek (the meaning of the writings) of the Philosopher[107] and that we learn what is the thought and what is the order of his successive teachings. That he formed two catalogs is a certain fact for us; because he made two catalogs, namely: that of the yellow and that of the white. First he cataloged the solids, then the liquors, that is, the aqueous matters, although none of these are employed in the Art. Indeed, he himself, speaking of the great Ostanes, attests that the latter had not used the projections of the Egyptians, nor their methods of cooking; but that he operated on the substances with coatings placed outside, and by making the fire act he carried out the preparation.And he said: it is the custom among the Persians to operate thus.[108] But what he says means that:

3. We come now to the speeches of the writer; let's listen to what he says.[111] First is the Rhubarb Bridge. Note the circumspection of our author. He began with plants, in order to indicate the flower;[112] for plants bear flowers. He spoke of rhubarb from Pont, because Pont-Euxin[113] is fed by the rivers that flow there. Wanting to highlight this point, he means by this[114] the exhaustion of the liquid part, the darkening[115] and the attenuation[116] of metallic bodies, or substances.

3a. Dioscorus. "And in what sense does he say: 'We were sworn not to expose anything clearly to anyone'?"

Synesius. — He said with good reason "to no one", that is to say, to no one among the uninitiated. The word person does not refer to everyone absolutely; for he himself speaks for those who are initiated and who have a trained mind.

4. Notice again what he says in the Introduction to Chrysopeia: mercury, coming from cinnabar and chrysocolla.

Q. — Do we need these kinds (of substances)?

S.—No, Dioscorus.

D.—But which do we need?

S.—You heard it said; hear it again. By speaking of the dissolution of (metallic) bodies, it is meant that you dissolve them and make waters of them;[117] so that they become fluid and darken[118] and that they are attenuated.[119]This is what is called divine water,[120] mercury, chrysocolla, sulfur apyre.

There are also other denominations. Thus whitening is a calcination, and yellowing an igneous regeneration; for such of these (substances) calcine themselves, and (such others) regenerate themselves.[121] But the Philosopher designated them by several names[122] and sometimes in the singular, sometimes in the plural, in order to exercise ourselves and see if we are intelligent; for he said, continuing his discourse: “If thou be wise and do as it was written, thou shalt be blessed; for by the method you will overcome poverty, this incurable evil”.It therefore diverts us and detaches us from vain error, in order to free us from this imagination of the plurality of materials.[123]

Pay attention to what he says in the Introduction to his book: “I too come to Egypt, bringing natural matters, so that you disdain multiple matter.[124] Now he calls natural: solid (metallic) bodies. For if these (bodies) are not dissolved and then solidified again, nothing will come to fruition for the accomplishment of the work.

5. So that we understand well that the liquids derive from the sodas, — in other words the flower,[125] — see how he expresses himself: “The products contained in the liquors are Cilician saffron, aristolochia, &c. ". By thus speaking of flowers, he made us see that waters derive from solids.And to persuade us that this is so, after having said "the urine of a prepubescent", he adds: lime water, cabbage ash water, lees water, water of alum'; and, at the end, he talks about female dog's milk. It is obvious to us that this is taken in the vulgar sense; for it is introduced as substances suitable for dissolving (metallic) bodies, natron water and lees water. See how he said: "The very object of Chrysopeia, they are the things which transform matter and produce the metals[126] and the (substances) which resist the action of fire; for apart from these things there is nothing certain. If therefore you are intelligent and you proceed as it was written, you will be blessed.”

6. D. — And how should I understand?To philosophize, I want to learn the method from you. Because if I rely only on the explanations given (previously), I will derive no benefit from it.

S.—Listen, Dioscorus, how he speaks; sharpen your mind on the text of his discourse, and apply yourself (to grasp) in what sense he says: Transform their nature, for the nature has been hidden within”.[127]

D.—O Synesius, of what transformation is he speaking?

S. — Of that of (metallic) bodies

D. — And how to accomplish it, how to transport its nature outside?

S. — Sharpen your mind, Dioscorus, and pay attention to the expressions used.

D.—How does he express himself?

S. — So if you treat (matter) as it should, you transport nature outside.These are the earth of Chios, asterite, white cadmium, etc. Notice how circumspect the author is, how he alluded to all sorts of white stuff, in order to make whitening heard. What he says, Dioscorus, therefore amounts to this Put the (metallic) bodies with the mercury and divide finely, then take another mercury. For mercury draws all things to itself. Leave to macerate for 3 or 4 days; throws the product into a botarion (matras or digestion vase), and places it on a bath of ashes which is not heated by a blazing fire, but gently heated; that is to say on a kerotaki bath. During the action of the fire, one adjusts to the botarion a Glass instrument in the shape of a breast, adapted to its upper part, with capital.[128]Receive the water that escapes through the tip of the throat and keep it for decomposition, this is what is called divine water (or water of sulfur).

It produces the transformation, that is to say the operation which brings out the hidden nature: this is what is called the dissolution of (metallic) bodies.

This (preparation), when it has been decomposed, takes the name of vinegar, or amino wine, and analogous names.

7. For you to admire the skill of the author, see how he formed two catalogs: (one) of the Chrysopeia, (the other) of the Argyropeia, and in addition two liquids: one for yellow, the other for white, that is, for gold and for silver; he named the catalog of gold, Chrysopée, and that of silver, Argyropée.[129]

D. — You speak quite well, philosopher Synesius But what is the first point of art, is it whitening or yellowing?

S. — It's more like bleaching.

D. — And why does he speak first of the yellowing?

S.—Because gold is preferred to silver.

Q. — Should we proceed thus, Synesius?

S.—No, Dioscorus; but it is necessary to exercise our mind and our thought. Here's how things worked out. Listen to him speak: “I converse with you as intelligent people, and I exercise your mind. Now if you want to know things exactly, pay attention that in the two catalogs the mercury was classified before all things, and in the yellow: which means gold; and in the white: meaning money.In (the treatise on) gold, it is said: "Mercury which comes from cinnabar). And in the (treatise on) white, it is said: the mercury which comes from arsenic or from sandarac[130]”, etc.

8 D. — So mercury is of different kinds?

S. — Yes, it is of different kinds, while being one.

D. — But if he is one, how is he of different kinds?

S. — Yes, it is of different kinds, and it has a very great power. Have you not heard Hermes say: “The honeycomb[131] is white, and the honeycomb is yellow? D.

— Yes, I (he) heard that. But what I want to learn, Synesius, teach it to me: it is the operation that you know. So does mercury take on the appearances of all bodies anyway?

S.—You have understood, Dioscorus. Indeed, just as the wax affects the color it has received; so also mercury, O philosopher, whitens all bodies and attracts their souls; it digests them by cooking and seizes them. Being therefore suitably arranged, and possessing in itself the principle of all liquidity, when it has undergone decomposition, it effects the change of colors everywhere. It forms the permanent background[132], while the colors have no proper foundation. Or rather mercury, losing its own foundation, becomes a modifiable subject by the treatments carried out on metallic bodies and on their materials.[133]

9. Q. And what are these bodies and their matters?[134]

S. — It is tetrasomy[135] and its congeners.

D.—And what are its congeners?

S. — You have heard that their materials are their souls.[136]

Q. — So the materials (metals) are their souls?

S.—Yes; for just as the carpenter, when he takes an object of wood and makes a seat, or a chariot, or something else, he is only working on the material; so also operates this art, O philosopher, when it divides the bodies. Hear, O Dioscorus: the stonecutter cuts the stone, or else the saw, in order to make it fit for his use. Similarly also the carpenter saws and carves the wood, to make a seat, or a chariot: the artist does not seek thereby to modify anything other than the form; because there is nothing there but wood.Similarly also, brass fashioned into a statue, a ring, or any other object: the artist only seeks to modify the form.[137]

In the same way also the mercury worked by us receives all kinds of forms. Attached to a body formed of the four elements, as has been said, it remains firmly attached to it and it is impossible to drive it out: it is both dominated and dominating. This is why Pebechius said he had a great affinity.

10. D. — You have solved (the difficulties) well, to philosophize. You taught me, to philosophize.

S. — So I want to come back in haste to what the author has to say, going over from the beginning what he said in indirect language: mercury (ordinary) comes from cinnabar. But all mercury is generated by (metallic) bodies.[138]

D. — Doesn't he speak here of cinnabar, in order to show that (ordinary) mercury comes from cinnabar?

S. — Cinnabar designates the yellow mercurial substance; while the white mercurial substance is mercury. In act, it exists in a white state; while in potency it becomes yellow.[139]

D. — Did not the Philosopher say: “O celestial natures, creators of natures, you triumph over natures by means of transmutations?

S.—Yes; this is why he said: “……because if you do not operate the transformation, it is impossible for the expected effect to occur. It is in vain that those who go deeper into the study of matters will trouble themselves, unless they seek the natures of the (metallic) bodies of magnesia.Because it is allowed to the operators and to those who transcribe the same teachings to employ indifferently such and such a manner. So he said, “the body of magnesia; which means the mixture of substances. This is why he says, continuing, in the introduction to (his book on) the manufacture of gold: Taking mercury, fix (it) with the (metallic) body of magnesia”. [140]

11. D. — So mercury is the element that must be preferred?

S. — Yes, because it is through it that the Whole is undone, then re-established again: according to the appropriate degree for each treatment, one succeeds with chrysocolla,[141] in other words batrachion,[142] which is found among green stones.

D.—What is chrysocolla or batrachion?What is the meaning of these words: "which is found in the green stones"?

S.—We have to look for him. So we have to know what is relative to green colors. Well! let's talk about it, according to what is relative to man. For man is the most important of all animals living on the surface of the earth. We say of the man who has grown pale,[143] that he has become green; it is obvious that, like ocher, it changes its specific quality by passing to the golden color. This is even more evident, if we compare it with lemon peel, which represents the very quality of the pale yellow color. The prosecuting author also spoke of yellow arsenic,[144] in order to show that it is indeed the specific quality of the pale color.

12. But, in order that you may see how circumspectly he has put this in detail, observe carefully in what sense he says: "Mercury which comes from cinnabar, (is) the metallic body of magnesia.[ 145] Then he adds chrysocolla He introduced the name arsenic[146] (ie masculine), in order to distinguish it from the feminine substances.[147] After the claudianos, he speaks of yellow arsenic: he first puts two yellow substances of the feminine gender,[148] then two substances of the masculine gender. It is therefore necessary to deepen and see what this can mean. How I advance, Dioscorus! Here he transforms the gold, then he takes over the caddy, then the androdamas; now , androdamas and cadmium are dry substances.It highlights the dryness[149] of bodies, and in order to make this manifest, he added decomposed alum. Notice how circumspect the author is. He wanted sensitive people com. understand in what sense he instructed them, speaking of decomposed alum; for he had to make himself heard in this, even of the uninitiated. But, so that the thing became more certain for yourself, he immediately added apyre sulphur, that is to say uncalcined sulphur. The All, that is to say the desiccated species, signifies the metallic bodies brought into unity.[150] Then He adds disaggregated pyrite, not designating any other body and without specifying. This is established as a truth, that what remains at the end is dry.Making subdivisions in this matter, He adds the minium of Pontus.[151] Thus, passing from dry substances to liquid substances, He spoke of minium, and especially that of the Bridge. For if he had not added “du Pont's, he would not have managed to make himself understood.[152] And wanting to confirm (his saying), he added the water of the native sulfur, coming from the sulfur alone.

13. D. — You have solved (the difficulties) well, to philosophize; but take heed in what sense he said: "If by purifying it with lime...

S. — O Dioscorus, you are not paying attention." Quicklime is white, and the water that comes from it is white and fluffy, and the water of sulfur, by its exhalations, whitens.For greater clarity, he immediately added: "sulphur vapour). Didn't he make it all obvious to us?

D. — Yes, you spoke well. After that (he mentions) yellow sory, yellow rosacea and cinnabar.[153]

S. — Sory and rosacea, yellow substances? What do you mean? You know they are green.[154] Having therefore in view the reduction of copper (to the metallic state), that is to say its search, or rather the dyeing of the Whole,[155] he expressed himself thus, bringing a new confirmation, and he added at the end: “After the rust has been removed, an operation called reduction, then the projection of the liquids having taken place, a stable yellowing Really the liberality of the author is made manifest here.

14. Indeed, see how immediately he brings things together in his explanation. As for substances capable of forming liquors, these are Cilician saffron,[156] aristolochia, safflower flower, blue-flowered chickweed flower. What more could he say or enumerate, in order to persuade us, if not speak of the pimpernel flower? Indeed, admire with me. He does not speak only of “the pimpernel”, but also of its flower); the word pimpernel indicating to us the ascension of water,[157] and the word flower, the ascension of the souls of these plants, that is to say that of their spirits.[158] Indeed, if this is not so, there is nothing certain.Delivered to vain efforts, the wretches who are tossed about on this sea, with a multitude of pains and fatigues, will never be able to have any profit.

15. D. — And why, once again, did this generous philosopher, this skilful master, add the rhubarb from Pontus?

S.—Note the liberality of the author. He spoke of the rhubarb itself, and in order to persuade us, he added "du Pont". For is there a philosopher who does not know that the sea (pontoV) is fed on all sides by the water of rivers[159]?

D.—You have spoken truthfully, Synesius, and you have gladdened me today; for these things are not mediocre. Now please teach me further, why he spoke above of yellow rosacea;while here he adds this word, without specifying “with blue rosacea”.[160]

S. — These words, O Dioscorus, indicate the flowers, for they are yellow, but, as the water which one makes rise[161] needs to experience a fixation, he immediately added: the gum of acanthus” Then he added: “ the urine of a prepubescent, lime water, cabbage ash water, alum water,[162] natron water,[163] l water of arsenic and sulphur[164]”. Notice how he has put forward all the (substances) capable of producing dissolution and dispersion, obviously teaching us thereby the dissolution of (metallic) bodies.

16. D.—Yes, you spoke well. And in what sense did he say at the end: "female dog's milk"? Is it to show that the All is drawn from the common thing[165]?

S.—Really, you have understood, Dioscorus; but observe carefully in what sense he says: e This matter is that of Chrysopeia.

D.—What material?

S. — Who does not know that all things (in question) are volatile? For neither donkey's milk[166] nor dog's milk can withstand fire. Donkey's milk, if you leave it somewhere, for a decent number of days, ends up disappearing.

Q. What do these words mean: Such are the (substances) which transform matter; such are those which render bodies resistant to fire, being themselves volatile)? And these words Apart from these substances, there is nothing sure?

S. — It's so that the wretched think these things are true.[167]But listen again to what he says and add: “If you are intelligent and proceed as it was written instead of: “If you are skilful and discern the calculation to be employed; then you will be injured. And what else does it say? I am addressing you who are sensitive people.

So we must exercise our minds and not be deceived, so that we avoid the incurable disease of poverty and not be overcome by it ; lest, having fallen into vain poverty, we shall be unhappy, being unable to profit from our labors. We must exercise our minds, sharpen our intelligence.

17. Q. Why does he add the word project?

S. — He does not speak of the things said at the beginning, but of those which must be heard.This is why he says again: “Treat by (projection) the gold, by the golden coral; silver, by gold; copper, by gold; lead or tin, by molybdochalcum.[168] Here he has made us climb the degrees of the Art, (so that) we will not, by making vain efforts, fall into the abyss of ignorance and misunderstand the things they wanted to designate. [169] Great is the skill of the author; for after he said, “Thus was the matter of Chrysopeia exposed; He adds these words: now, and following, let us deal fully with the question of the Argyropée[170] in order to show that there are two (distinct) operations, and that the Argyropée was considered before all the others; it precedes them and, without it, nothing will be done.

18. Listen to him again when he says: “Mercury taken from arsenic, or from sulfur,[171] or from white lead, or from magnesia, or from Italian antimony. And (more) high in Chrysopeia: Mercury, which comes from cinnabar.[172] Here he says: "mercury, derived from arsenic, or white lead, etc." D.

—And how does he admit that white lead changes into mercury?

S. — He did not say that we extract mercury from white lead: but he wanted to express the bleaching of (metallic) bodies, that is to say their return (to a common form?).[173] ] Indeed, here he speaks of all the white (substances), and in the other passage, of the yellow substances, so that we understand.

See how he expressed himself: "The body (metal) of magnesia (produces only chrysocorail." There it is the body (metal) of magnesia, that of magnesia only, or that of the Antimony of Italy Let it suffice to tell you

this briefly: But the mind must be exercised beforehand, that we may discern the actions of nature, respecting the things which must be done with the aid of God.[174] Know that it is necessary first to macerate the species and, in the fusions , to bring those which have similar colors to the identity of color.The two mercurys[175] thus exert their mercurifying action, and separate in decay.With the help

of God, I will begin my commentary.[176]

**** ***************

II.iv. —OLYMPIODORE, PHILOSOPHER OF ALEXANDRIA[177]

Commentary on the book “On the action of Zosimus”, and on the statements of Hermes and the philosophers.

1. “The maceration is done from 25 mechir (February) until 25 mechir (August). All the things you can macerate and wash, leave them in (suitable) vases; and, if you can, accomplish the work of maceration, you best of the wise.[178]

It was customary among the ancients to hide the truth and things quite obvious to men, by means of allegories and (the language of) the art of the philosophers.[179] Indeed, not only have they kept these honorable and philosophical arts in the shade by their obscure and gloomy exposition;but again they have replaced the common terms by other terms: as happens when one inverts what is in the subject and what is not in the subject. You know yourself, philosopher my master, that Plato and Aristotle proceeded in the same way by allegories and modified the meaning of words. Thus Aristotle says that the substance is not in the subject, but that it is the accident which is in the subject. Plato on his side establishes the same opposition: on the one hand, he does not place the substance in the subject; And on the other hand, he places the accident in the subject. In a word, just as they have expounded many things of this nature, according to the manner which seemed suitable to them;in the same way, with regard to this honorable art, the old ones put all their application there, having for only business and for only art to expose (the facts) by means of certain considerations and enigmas; they proposed to spur on the seekers and lead them out of natural things, to direct them towards the pursuit of mysterious things: which indeed took place. This is what the present treatise will show. having for unique business and unique art to expose (the facts) by means of certain considerations and enigmas; they proposed to spur on the seekers and lead them out of natural things, to direct them towards the pursuit of mysterious things: which indeed took place. This is what the present treatise will show.having for unique business and unique art to expose (the facts) by means of certain considerations and enigmas; they proposed to spur on the seekers and lead them out of natural things, to direct them towards the pursuit of mysterious things: which indeed took place. This is what the present treatise will show.

2. "The maceration is carried out by means of silty soil".

Here the philosopher wants to speak of the earth which must be washed. Because it is necessary to wash and rewash, until the muddy part disappears, according to what the divine Mary says. Indeed any earth of this nature, containing a (metallic) body, when it is washed, is reduced to the state of ore.[180]

Thus, after a serious and purifying washing, you will find the metallic bodies in the sands; ie flakes of gold,[181] silvered or leaded (which means having the color of silver or lead), as well as stones;[182] the ore which contains the substance seeing from above. It is that which the ancients called by the proper name of silver stone, and it is permissible to find there the word whose name has four syllables and nine letters.[183]

3. The expression "from the month of mechir" does not mean anything (in itself) it was placed there, so that whoever encounters it would believe that the powder dries[184] and the manipulation depend on a certain interval of time , and that, leaving aside the straight path, he resorts to the uncertain and thorny road.

4. The expression "to be placed in vases" means terracotta digesters. Zosimus is the only one to mention it.

5. With the words “To accomplish the art of maceration”, he urges us to work effectively. And indeed the word "action" is taken here in the sense of practical operation. Know that he who macerates needs ingredients, a certain (period of) time and a favorable season.[185] So the silt washed out at that time, having been reduced to the state of sand, is dried out.

6. The expression “from the 25th of the month of Méchir, until the 25th Mésori”, means that, following the maceration, the ore is treated by fire. Now, he did not say: "after the end of mesori", he is treated by fire;but from maceration, or leaching, or rather drying.

7. The words: “All the things which you can macerate and leach,” signify the kind which contains the substance[186] and that which is obtained by drying. “All things” is the species that contains the substance; "macerate and leach" is the species obtained by drying; because we always need to use it. This is how washing takes place. These words: "the species which contains the substance" made my master see what maceration, leaching, desiccation, evaporation is. Democritus speaks somewhere of decomposed alum:[187] this philosopher (did) (not) want readers to imagine that any alums had to be taken, or that they were lost among the species, wasting (so) all their time.There are two kinds of leaching, mystical leaching and leaching in the literal sense. We have therefore spoken of mystical learning and leaching in the proper sense. The mystical washing is precisely that which is done by means of divine water.

This is the essential learning, the one whose success is assured by auspicious words and obedience (to the rules):[188] it is a question of fluid materials which flow together, that is to say of the regeneration in the metallic state of the metals which had been stripped of them, as well as of the spirits, that is to say of their souls:[189] an operation which is accomplished by the sole action of nature, and not by the hand of men, as some believe .For Hermes says: "When you have taken (some substance) after the great treatment, that is to say the leaching of the ore..." So he called the ore, substance, and the leaching, great treatment. Agathodemon speaks in the same sense. Ah! what liberality in the Philosopher! None of the elders thus threw light on the work; none called the species by its name, if not this excellent man endowed with all knowledge; for purifying washing is evidently the great treatment.

I will explain to you (now) the economy of gold soldering.

ON GOLD WELDING
8. Gold welding is [190] the art of uniting gold with gold, by operating on the gold flakes taken from the ore.How should these spangles be unified, that is to say, welded and joined together, so that the tinctorial spirit of the chrysocolla is preserved?[191]

To preserve this spirit, he says that it is advisable to employ a combustion with moderate fire, so that, following a great incandescence, unsuitable things do not occur. The fire must burn moderately and gently, lest the steam go up in smoke and be lost. This is steam, which tends to escape. This vapor is mercury. This vapour, therefore, in other words the mercury,[192] experiencing the action of fire, goes away in smoke. Now, when it goes up in smoke and comes out of the crucible, the gold flakes, those that Zosimos calls claudianos flakes, clumsily burned by the violence of the fire, also go up in smoke.[193]

9. Learn, O friend of the Muses, what the word economy means,[194] and do not believe, as some do, that manual action alone is sufficient; what is needed is also that of nature, an action superior to man.[195] When you have taken gold,[196] you must process it, and if you operate carefully, you will obtain gold.[197] And do not suppose, he says, that the dyeing will take place with certain other ideas: and certain other plants;[198] but work according to a practice conformable to nature,[199] and you will obtain the object sought.

As for the word economy, it has been used in a thousand places by all the ancients;[200] because they want to speak of the operating procedure to fix the dye.[201] But what is the fixing of a tincture?if not the fixation of some fleeting mercury. For Zosimus says: “Fixes mercury with the (metallic) body of magnesia. 10.

It has been said that gold solder is the mixture of the two substances; I know how to maintain the fixing principle which results from it in the compound. We know indeed that the vapor (mercurial)[202] is fleeting; and It is specified in a thousand places that it is not only the (mercurial) vapor which is fleeting, but also all the (substances of the same class) of the catalogue. Before and after, the philosopher attaches himself to mercury, as to all the fleeting substances of the catalog, such as those mentioned by the ancients, colors and plants, and others;because all these substances, experiencing the action of fire,[203] are fleeting.

11. As for me, I will not expose all the classes to you, considering their great number and the testimonies of the elders, all of whom agree on this point; so as not to waste time inappropriately. But I will submit a small number of things to you, as the most interesting, the easiest to understand, and beyond the reproach of futility.

He alludes here[204] to the ancients, some of whom have said futile things and wasted seekers infinite time. Know then, in your excellent science, that the ancients make three tinctures: The first is that which quickly dissipates,[205] like sulphur; the second, that which dissipates slowly, like sulphurous matters;the third, that which does not dissipate at all, like liquefied metallic bodies and stones.[206]

12. First dyeing, dyeing the copper white with arsenic, as follows.

Arsenic (sulphur) is a species of sulfur which volatilizes quickly; I mean, volatilizes in fire. All arsenic-like substances are also called sulfurs and volatiles.[207] Now the preparation is done as follows: taking lamellar arsenic, gold color, 14 ounces,[208] you cut it into pieces, you porphyrise it so as to reduce it to parts as fine as down; then you soak in vinegar, for two or three days and as many nights, the matter enclosed in a narrow-necked glass vase, carefully checking the top, so that it does not dissipate. Shaking once or twice a day, do this for several days;then, emptying the (vase), wash with pure water, only until the smell of vinegar has disappeared. Keeps the most subtle part of the substance; but do not let it run off with the water.[209] Then, leaving the mass to dry out and contract in the air, mix and grind with 5 ounces of Cappadocian salt.

However, the use of salt was imagined by the ancients to prevent the arsenic from adhering to the glass vessel. This vessel of glass is named asympoton, by Africanus. It is lute with clay;[210] a cup-shaped glass lid is placed over it. At the top, another cut envelops the whole; it is secured on all sides, so that the burnt arsenic does not dissipate.[211]

So burn it several times and pulverize it, until it turns white;white and compact alum is thus obtained.[212] Then the copper is melted with hard Nicaea copper; then you take some natron flower, you throw 2 or 3 parts of it into the bottom of the crucible to soften it.[213] You then project the dry powder (burnt arsenic), with an iron spoon; you throw in the value of an ounce for 2 pounds of copper. After that, you add in the crucible for an ounce (of copper) a little[214] of silver, in order to make the dye uniform. You still project a small quantity of salt into the crucible. You will thus have a very beautiful asèm.[215]

13. Second tincture, the one that slowly evaporates:

Burned copper,[216] rubric and analogous substances do not dissipate quickly, but slowly.But you should know that the manufacture of emerald is done this way. Take: two ounces of fine crystal; burnt copper, half an ounce. First heat the crystal, in its extreme parts, and throw it into pure water; then clean it, so that it does not have dirt. Then[217] you pulverize it in a clean mortar, without reducing it to impalpable powder; and you delay, with the rubric and the burnt copper. You melt 4 pounds worth of it over a coal fire. After struggling all around and closing the crucible at its upper part, and after heating over a very regular fire,[218] you will have what you are looking for. However, it is preferable to operate the melting in a raw clay crucible, uncooked;because in the crucibles of the goldsmiths, the emerald melts with the material of the crucible and gives rise to a shrinkage which causes the crucible to burst. It requires to be cooled in the furnace itself, and to be removed after cooling; since if you remove it while the furnace is still hot, the crucible bursts immediately.[219]

14. Third tincture, the one that doesn't dissipate at all.

We said "dissipates in fire"; and two mysteries are thereby exposed:[220] one concerns the dissipated body; the other, the body which determines the dissipation. Likewise Democritus spoke somewhere of the three ancient (tinctures):

One quickly dissipates, that is to say, by the departure of liquids,[221] or by the rise of vapour.[222]This is why he says: Substances which quickly dissipate, such as sulphur; because the sulfurs are very quick (to reduce) in smoke.

The others dissipate slowly, such are sulphurous matters. And he speaks of the principle of the fixing of the same fugitive liquids, when they become slower in dissipating (being composed by the mixture) of the fugitive (substances) with the fixed substances and the metallic bodies.[223]

Then he speaks of the third class: that which is dissipated like fusible (metallic) bodies. This is what is properly called tincture. (It is obtained) after having made the treatment and placed separately the bodies which do not dissipate and the bodies which dissipate.

Indeed it is impossible to do this (in one go);but it is by drying out gradually and until the end that with the cooperation of God we make the (substances) completely fixed.[224]

15. “Like fusible metallic bodies. It

is evident that these bodies were first dissipable by the action of fire, because they encountered nothing which could fix them; when, on the contrary, they have been brought to a complete fixity,[225] the indelible nature of the tincture has made them pass to the state of metals. These bodies received a similar name, due to their fire resistance and fixity. If the dissipable body meets the fixing agent, it acquires an indelible nature. Understand by this, the nature that exists in the All;conceive that which remains until the end, inextractable and remaining always: this is the indelible, which remains forever unalterable. Because the ancients knew all the (matters) without stability that exist in the catalog, and their object was to make intelligent people understand what are the nature of stable matters and unstable matters. This is why they established that all matter belongs either to the class of solids or to that of liquids.[226]

16. Know that this art is not practiced by means of (violent) fire. So then, they wrote as conversing with intelligent (readers), and that was their goal. Zosimus makes a particular speech on fire; nevertheless in each of his books he deals with fire, like all the ancients.Fire is the first agent, that of the entire art; it is the first of the four elements. Indeed, the enigmatic language of the ancients, by this expression the four elements, designates art. Let your virtue examine carefully in the four books of Democritus the places where he speaks of the four elements, in the language that befits a naturalist. It is explained (thus):

He first exposed the things which need fire, and which it is advisable to treat sometimes on a soft fire, sometimes on a big fire, sometimes on coals.[227]

Then he talks about the air and the things of the air, such as the animals that live in the air.

Likewise things of the waters, such as the bile, the fishes, all that is prepared by means of the fishes and by means of the waters.

Likewise he speaks of the things of the earth, such as salt, metals and plants. He separates into classes each of these beings, according to their colors, their specific and generic properties, all being capable of being male and female.

17. Knowing this, all the ancients veiled art under the multiplicity of discourses. Anyway art needs some of these things; apart from them, there is nothing certain. Democritus says it: nothing could subsist without these (elements). But know it, know that I wrote according to my power; being weak, not only in my language, but also in my intelligence.And I ask that by your prayers, you prevent divine justice from being irritated against me, for having had the audacity to write this work: May it be propitious to me in any way.[228]

Here are the writings of the Egyptians, their poetry, [229] their opinions, the oracles of the Demons, the expositions of the prophets: an infinite intelligence is necessary to embrace this subject, and it tends towards a single end.

18. Let your wisdom know that the ancients used many names for divine water. This divine water designates what one seeks, and they have hidden the object of the search under the name of divine water. I will give you a little explanation: listen, you who are in possession of all virtue. For I know the torch of your thoughts, your kindness, your patience. I want to introduce you to the spirit of the ancients; tell you how, being philosophers, they have the language of philosophers and they have applied philosophy to art, by means of science; hiding nothing from intelligent (minds), but describing all things with clarity. In this they keep their oath well.[230] For their writings deal with doctrine, not practical works. Some of the natural philosophers refer reasoning about the elements to principles, because the principles are something more universal than the elements. Let us therefore say how the first principle is more universal than the elements. Indeed, it is to him that the whole of art is reduced.Thus Agathodemon having placed the principle in the end, and the end in the principle, he wants it to be the serpent Ouroboros; and if he speaks thus, it is not (to hide the truth) out of jealousy, as some uninitiated people believe. But this is (made) manifest, O initiator, by the plural word: eggs.[231] he wants it to be the serpent Ouroboros; and if he speaks thus, it is not (to hide the truth) out of jealousy, as some uninitiated people believe. But this is (made) manifest, O initiator, by the plural word: eggs.[231] he wants it to be the serpent Ouroboros; and if he speaks thus, it is not (to hide the truth) out of jealousy, as some uninitiated people believe.But this is (made) manifest, O initiator, by the plural word: eggs.[231]

See, you who know everything, and learn what Agathodemon is. Some say that he was an elder, one of the oldest personages, who philosophized in Egypt. Others say it is a mysterious angel; or that it is the good genius[232] of Egypt. Others have called it Heaven, and perhaps we hold this language because the serpent is the image of the world. Indeed, certain Egyptian hierogrammats, wanting to trace the world on the obelisks, or to express it in sacred characters, engraved the serpent Ouroboros. But his body is studded with stars. These are the things I have explained about the principle, said Agathodemon. It was he who published the book of Chemistry.

After having personified it, let us now inquire how it is that the principle is more universal than the elements. We say that what is for us an element, is also a principle; for the four elements constitute the first principle of bodies. But not every principle is therefore an element. Indeed the divine,[233] the egg,[234] the intermediary, the atoms,[235] are for certain philosophers the principles of things; but they are not elements.[236]

19. Let us therefore seek, according to certain signs, what is the principle of all things and whether it is one or multiple. If it is unique, is it immutable, infinite, or determined? If there are several principles, the same questions arise: are they immutable, determine, or infinite[237]?That there is therefore a single, immutable and infinite principle of all beings, was the opinion of Thales of Miletus, saying that it was the being (of water),[238] [it' that is, the being of divine water, gold ; that is, the egg[239] of divine water, gold].[240] For this is one and immutable; it is free of any apparent mutation; it is moreover infinite: indeed the divine[241] is of infinite power, and no one can number its powers.

20. Parmenides[242] also takes the divine as a principle,[243] whose power is one, immutable, determined; for this, as has been said, is one and immutable, and the energy which emanates from it is determined. Observe that Thales of Miletus, considering the essence of God, said that he is infinite;for God is of infinite power. But Parmenides, (having in view) the things which proceed from him, said that he is determinate;[244] indeed it is everywhere evident that, the power being determinate, what God produces corresponds to a finite power.[244] 245] Understand (by this) perishable things, with the exception of intellectual things. These two men, I mean the Milesian and Parmenides, Aristotle is of opinion to reject them from the chorus of naturalists.[246] Indeed, they are theologians dealing with matters foreign to natural things, and clinging to immutable things; while all natural things move, for nature is the principle of movement and rest.

21. Thales admitted water as the determined principle of beings, because it is fertile and plastic. It is fertile, since it gives birth to fish; and plastic, since we can give it the shape we want. Indeed you make water take the form you want: in whatever vase you put it, it takes the form; I mean in a setier, or in an earthen pot, or in a triangular or quadrangular vase, or finally in any other that you want. This unique principle is mobile; water indeed moves; it is determined and not eternal.[247]

22. Diogenes maintained that the principle is the air, because it is opulent and fruitful: because it engenders the birds. Air, too, is plastic; because we give it the form we want;he is one, mobile and not eternal.

23. Heraclitus and Hippasus maintained that fire is the principle of all beings, because it is the active element of all things. A principle indeed must be the source of the activity of the things issued from it, according to what some say. Fire is also fruitful; for all beings are born in warming up.

24. As for the earth, no one has made it the principle, except Xenophanes of Colophon; as it is not fruitful, no one has made it an element. And let him in whom resides all virtue[248] notice this fact that the earth has not been considered by philosophers as an element, because it is not fruitful: the meaning of this statement relates to our research . In fact, Hermes says somewhere:

“The virgin earth is found in the tail of the Virgin”.[249]

25. Anaximenes professes that the principle of all things, one, mobile, infinite, is air. He speaks thus: The air is close to the incorporeal, and as we exist thanks to its flow, it must be infinite and opulent, since it never fails.

Anaximander says that the principle is the intermediary which designates wet vapor, or dry vapor (smoke). Because wet steam is intermediate between fire and earth. In general, anything intermediate between hot and humid is vapour; while the intermediary between hot and dry is smoke.

26. Let us come to the own opinion of each of the elders, and see how each wants to establish his own and pose as head of the school, from his personal point of view.Indeed, here and there some omission has taken place, owing to the complication of our progress.

Let us therefore recapitulate in parts, and show how our (chemical) philosophers, borrowing from them the point of departure, have constructed their system. Zosimus, the crown of philosophers, whose language has the abundance of the Ocean, the new seer, generally follows Melissus in regard to art and says that art is one like God. This is what he exhibits in a thousand places at Theosebia; and his language is truthful. Wanting to free us from the confusion of reasoning and that of all matter, he urges us to seek our refuge in the one God and he says:[250] "Remain seated at your hearth, recognizing only one God and one art, and don 't go astray looking for another God;for God will come to you, he who is everywhere; he is not confined to the lowest place, like the Devil. Rest your body, and calm your passions; Thus directing yourself, you will call to yourself the divine being, and the divine being will come to you, he who is everywhere.[251] When you know yourself, then you will also know the one self-existent God; doing so you will attain truth and nature, rejecting matter with contempt. 27.

Likewise, Chymès follows Parmenides and says, “One is the All, by which the All is; for if it did not contain the All, the All would be nothing. Theologians

talk about divine things, as naturalists talk about matter.

Agathodemon, turned towards Anaximenes, speaks from the air.[252]

Anaximander speaks of the intermediate, that is, of moist vapor and dry smoke.

For Agathodemon, it is quite the sublimated vapor. Zosimus also says so; and it has been followed by preference by most of those who have made the philosophy of our art.

Hermes speaks of smoke, in connection with magnesia: “Let it, he says, burn in front of the furnace,[253] subjecting it to the action of the scales of red cobathia”.[254] For the smoke of the cobathias, being white, whitens the bodies. Smoke[255] is intermediate between hot and dry; and, in the present case, this smoke is the sublimated vapour[256] and all that results from it.But moist vapor[257] is intermediate between hot and humid; it designates humid sublimated vapours, such as those distilled by stills and similar apparatus.

38. To avoid vain phraseology, I will give you a brief transmission; I will clearly explain to you what the ancients said, O offspring of the noble Pierides, (I mean) of the nine Muses, O chief orator; because God sent you for this. Learn, by means of a writing of little price, to do the greatest things.[258] For God wants to test you on two sides, by your notorious piety to higher beings, and by your beneficial skill with regard to earthly beings. Know then, know, to shorten the things you will have to prescribe, how I will adjust my discourse to the primitive writings.

Now it has been told to you, O you most eminent men, that the ancients spoke of the four elements. Know indeed, that it is by means of the four elements that dry things and wet things are constituted; hot things and cold things,[259] male and female. Two (elements) are worn above, and two below. The two ascending elements are fire and air; the two descending elements are earth and water. So therefore, it is by means of these four (elements) that they have constituted the whole description of the art; they confined it there,[260] guaranteeing its laws by oaths. Know all the substances in the catalog yourselves, as they are constituted by fire, air, water and earth.

But for the composition to be realized exactly, ask by your prayers to God to teach you, says Zosimus; for men do not transmit (science); the demons are jealous, and the way is not found. One searches in vain for those who know it, and the writings have no precision. Matter is multiple; embarrassment occurs; and (the work) is not accomplished without great fatigue; there is struggle, violence and war. The demon Ophiuchus[261] introduces negligence into these things, hampering our seeking, creeping about from within and without, bringing sometimes negligence, sometimes fear, sometimes the unforeseen, at other times afflictions and chastisements, to make us forsake (the work). [262]But I, I will tell him Whoever you are, O demon, I will not yield to you; but I'll hold on until, having consumed (the work), I have known the result. I will not be defeated, being endowed with perseverance and struggling, relying on an honest life and philosophical purifications. So then, having collected the useful precepts of the sages, I will present them to you (beginning) from the beginning, according to the ancients; for your sagacity in the presence of a foreign language is not disconcerted by the thousands of species, both liquid and solid, of which the ancients give the catalogue. Among these various colors, some are raw, others cooked; in firing, certain bodies take on the colors and others remain there without changing color;sometimes they must be treated over a high heat, sometimes over a low heat (all circumstances) which require great circumspection in (the practice of) the art.[263] I knew the result. I will not be defeated, being endowed with perseverance and struggling, relying on an honest life and philosophical purifications. So then, having collected the useful precepts of the sages, I will present them to you (beginning) from the beginning, according to the ancients; for your sagacity in the presence of a foreign language is not disconcerted by the thousands of species, both liquid and solid, of which the ancients give the catalogue. Among these various colors, some are raw, others cooked;in firing, certain bodies take on the colors and others remain there without changing color; sometimes they must be treated over a high heat, sometimes over a low heat (all circumstances) which require great circumspection in (the practice of) the art.[263] I knew the result. I will not be defeated, being endowed with perseverance and struggling, relying on an honest life and philosophical purifications. So then, having collected the useful precepts of the sages, I will present them to you (beginning) from the beginning, according to the ancients; for your sagacity in the presence of a foreign language is not disconcerted by the thousands of species, both liquid and solid, of which the ancients give the catalogue.Among these various colors, some are raw, others cooked; in firing, certain bodies take on the colors and others remain there without changing color; sometimes they must be treated over a high heat, sometimes over a low heat (all circumstances) which require great circumspection in (the practice of) the art.[263] I will not be defeated, being endowed with perseverance and struggling, relying on an honest life and philosophical purifications. So then, having collected the useful precepts of the sages, I will present them to you (beginning) from the beginning, according to the ancients; for your sagacity in the presence of a foreign language is not disconcerted by the thousands of species, both liquid and solid, of which the ancients give the catalogue.Among these various colors, some are raw, others cooked; in firing, certain bodies take on the colors and others remain there without changing color; sometimes they must be treated over a high heat, sometimes over a low heat (all circumstances) which require great circumspection in (the practice of) the art.[263] I will not be defeated, being endowed with perseverance and struggling, relying on an honest life and philosophical purifications. So then, having collected the useful precepts of the sages, I will present them to you (beginning) from the beginning, according to the ancients; for your sagacity in the presence of a foreign language is not disconcerted by the thousands of species, both liquid and solid, of which the ancients give the catalogue.Among these various colors, some are raw, others cooked; in firing, certain bodies take on the colors and others remain there without changing color; sometimes they must be treated over a high heat, sometimes over a low heat (all circumstances) which require great circumspection in (the practice of) the art.[263] by relying on an honest life and philosophical purifications. So then, having collected the useful precepts of the sages, I will present them to you (beginning) from the beginning, according to the ancients; for your sagacity in the presence of a foreign language is not disconcerted by the thousands of species, both liquid and solid, of which the ancients give the catalogue. Among these various colors, some are raw, others cooked;in firing, certain bodies take on the colors and others remain there without changing color; sometimes they must be treated over a high heat, sometimes over a low heat (all circumstances) which require great circumspection in (the practice of) the art.[263] by relying on an honest life and philosophical purifications. So then, having collected the useful precepts of the sages, I will present them to you (beginning) from the beginning, according to the ancients; for your sagacity in the presence of a foreign language is not disconcerted by the thousands of species, both liquid and solid, of which the ancients give the catalogue. Among these various colors, some are raw, others cooked;in firing, certain bodies take on the colors and others remain there without changing color; sometimes they must be treated over a high heat, sometimes over a low heat (all circumstances) which require great circumspection in (the practice of) the art.[263] I will present them to you (beginning) from the beginning, according to the ancients; for your sagacity in the presence of a foreign language is not disconcerted by the thousands of species, both liquid and solid, of which the ancients give the catalogue. Among these various colors, some are raw, others cooked; in firing, certain bodies take on the colors and others remain there without changing color;sometimes they must be treated over a high heat, sometimes over a low heat (all circumstances) which require great circumspection in (the practice of) the art.[263] I will present them to you (beginning) from the beginning, according to the ancients; for your sagacity in the presence of a foreign language is not disconcerted by the thousands of species, both liquid and solid, of which the ancients give the catalogue. Among these various colors, some are raw, others cooked; in firing, certain bodies take on the colors and others remain there without changing color; sometimes they must be treated over a high heat, sometimes over a low heat (all circumstances) which require great circumspection in (the practice of) the art.[263]Among these various colors, some are raw, others cooked; in firing, certain bodies take on the colors and others remain there without changing color; sometimes they must be treated over a high heat, sometimes over a low heat (all circumstances) which require great circumspection in (the practice of) the art.[263] Among these various colors, some are raw, others cooked; in firing, certain bodies take on the colors and others remain there without changing color; sometimes they must be treated over a high heat, sometimes over a low heat (all circumstances) which require great circumspection in (the practice of) the art.[263]

29. These things have been said by me, in order that you may know that the thousand classes (of bodies) which the ancients establish must pass through these various operations and through a thousand more, such as pulverizations, decoctions, various decompositions, hot and cold, exposure to dew, or outdoors, and a thousand other things. This is why, because of the multiplicity of explanations and because of the treatments that are not talked about, the minds of those who approach this art are thrown into confusion. But he sets us free from all that, the God who gives us all good things.

30. Hear then, you whose spirit is inspired, what they wrote when addressing the Egyptians[264] therefore they do not clearly explain the object sought.Not only did they describe a thousand processes for making gold; but still they ritualized[265] these things. They gave the measurements of the excavations and the intervals and assigned the positions[266] of the entrances and exits of their temples, considering the four cardinal points[267] attributing the rising to the white substance, and the setting to the yellow substance . The gold mines of Arsenoéron[268] (are) at the eastern gate, that is to say that you find at the entrance of the temple the white substance. At Térénouthi,[269] in the temple of Isis, at the western entrance of the temple, you will find yellow ore, after digging (to a depth) of three and a half cubits [270] At half of the three cubits you will find a black layer.After removing it, treat (it) [and you will find a green one somewhere else].

These things relating to the gold mines, inscribed on the mountain of the East, and on the Libyan mountain, were said in a mysterious sense. Don't miss it slightly; these are great mysteries: notice that they have all been demonstrated to be true.

31. That's where he starts his operation; it is for this reason that he said: Attributing to the rising the white substance, that is to say, assigning to the origin of the operations the beginning of the day, the rising of the sun on the earth. For whitening, in relation to yellowing, is the real beginning of the operation;even when this is not done by starting immediately from there, because one waits for the decomposition to have begun without the (help of) fire.

Is it without reason that Hermes[271] wanted to make the priest understand, in addition to the beginning, this circumstance which precedes the laundering? Listen to Apollo [272] saying: "(the earth) is treated, being taken from the dawn". Now the expression “from the dawn” shows that the moment which precedes the rising (of the sun), is also that which precedes the bleaching and the beginning of all the work.

Then the completion of the whole work (by which I mean the yellowing) he attributed to the sunset, which is the completion of the whole day.The sentence: "Half the height of the three cubits, you will find a black layer",[273] was said about sulphurous materials, that is to say about our lead,[274] that that slag (a species of little value) is removed immediately after bleaching, by means of hot decomposition and fixation. (It is this lead), he says, that the prophets of the Egyptians were striving to obtain.

32. Know that this statement of the ores is an allegory.[275] Because they don't hear about minerals, but about substances.

On what do we rely (to say) that the rising has been attributed to the male, and the setting to the female? It is Adam.[276] For this, the first of all men, is issued from the four elements.[277]It is also called virgin earth[278] and igneous earth, carnal earth and bloody earth.[279] You will find these things in the libraries of Ptolemy. I said them to establish with respect to sacred things, that none of the beings were irrationally explained by the ancients. Because the sunset is attributed to the feminine element. Zosimus in his book on Action[280] (says this): "I proclaim and I call Hermes as a truthful witness, when he says: Go to Achaab the plowman[281] and you will learn He who sows wheat produces wheat”. I also say that substances are colored by substances, according to what is written.Now the fact of being dyed involves no other distinction than that of corporeal substance[282] and incorporeal substance:[283] this art admits both. He says that bodily substances are fusible (metallic) substances; while the incorporeal substances (are) the stones. It designates as not having the character of substances[284] ores and materials which have not been treated by fire, because of the necessity of this first treatment.[285]

Pelagius said to Pausiris: “Do you want us to throw him into the sea, before the mixtures are made[286]? And Hermes said, "You speak very well and with great accuracy." The sea, as Zosimus says, is the hermaphroditic element.[287]

33. (The earth) is treated, being taken at dawn, that means being still impregnated with dew.[288] Indeed the rising sun removes by its rays the dew spread on the earth, to feed on it. The earth (thus) finds itself as a widow and deprived of her husband, as Apollo also says. By divine water I mean my dew, the aerial water.[289]

See how many testimonies there are to establish that this composition needs first some liquid; in order, he says, that matter having been corrupted retains its specific character invariable. By the words "having been corrupted", he implied that it takes time for decomposition to take place. But decomposition never takes place without the help of some liquid.[290]Indeed, it is to the catalog of liquids, he says, that the mystery has been entrusted.

34. About minerals: “All the ancients were concerned about them”. As they address their speeches to the Egyptians, I will again entrust you with their testimony, because of your unbelief.

35. So Zosimus, in his Book of Fulfillment,[291] addressing Theosebia, expresses himself thus: “All the kingdom of Egypt, O woman, is supported by these three arts,[292] the art of expedient things,[293] the art of nature and the art of processing minerals. It is the art called divine, that is to say the dogmatic art for all those who deal with manipulations and those honorable arts[294], which are called the four chemical (arts). [295](This divine art), teaching what to do, was revealed to the priests alone. Indeed the natural manipulation of the ore belonged to the kings; also when a priest, or what was called a sage, explained the things he had received as an inheritance from the elders, or from his ancestors, even when he possessed (complete) knowledge of them, he did not communicate it not without reservation: for (otherwise) he was being punished. Just as the craftsmen in charge of minting the royal coinage do not mint it for themselves,[296] as they would be punished.[297]In the same way also, under the kings of Egypt, the craftsmen in charge of the operations made by the way of fire, as well as those who had the knowledge of the washing of the ore and the continuation of the operations, did not work for themselves; but they were responsible for increasing the royal treasuries. They had particular chiefs, in charge of the wealth of the king,[298] and directors-general, who exercised a tyrannical authority over the working of the ore by fire. It was a law among the Egyptians that no one divulge these things in writing. [296] whereas they would be punished.[297]In the same way also, under the kings of Egypt, the craftsmen in charge of the operations made by the way of fire, as well as those who had the knowledge of the washing of the ore and the continuation of the operations, did not work for themselves; but they were responsible for increasing the royal treasuries. They had particular chiefs, in charge of the wealth of the king,[298] and directors-general, who exercised a tyrannical authority over the working of the ore by fire. It was a law among the Egyptians that no one divulge these things in writing. [296] whereas they would be punished.[297]In the same way also, under the kings of Egypt, the craftsmen in charge of the operations made by the way of fire, as well as those who had the knowledge of the washing of the ore and the continuation of the operations, did not work for themselves; but they were responsible for increasing the royal treasuries. They had particular chiefs, in charge of the wealth of the king,[298] and directors-general, who exercised a tyrannical authority over the working of the ore by fire. It was a law among the Egyptians that no one divulge these things in writing. did not work for them-marnes; but they were responsible for increasing the royal treasuries.They had particular chiefs, in charge of the wealth of the king,[298] and directors-general, who exercised a tyrannical authority over the working of the ore by fire. It was a law among the Egyptians that no one divulge these things in writing. did not work for them-marnes; but they were responsible for increasing the royal treasuries. They had particular chiefs, in charge of the wealth of the king,[298] and directors-general, who exercised a tyrannical authority over the working of the ore by fire. It was a law among the Egyptians that no one divulge these things in writing.

“Some reproach Democritus and the ancients for not having mentioned these arts in proper terms, but for having expounded only those which are publicly spoken of.[299]It is unjust to reproach them for it; because they couldn't do otherwise. Being friends of the kings of Egypt, and honoring themselves to occupy the first ranks in dignity among the prophets, how could they have revealed to the public knowledge contrary to the (interests of) the kings and given to others the dominating power wealth? Even if they could have, they would not have done it; because they were jealous (of their science). The Jews alone managed to know the practice, as well as to describe and expose these things clandestinely. This is how we find that Theophilus, son of Theogen, talked about all the topographical description of the gold mines;it is marl with the description of the furnaces by Mary and the writings of other Jews. 36.

Synesius addressing Dioscorus speaks of mercury (and) of the Etesian sublimated vapour[300] and says that all the ancients know that this sublimated is white and volatile, and without substance of its own. It units with all fuse bodies; he draws them into himself, as experience has taught; the author expresses himself thus: “If you want to know things exactly, etc. — (Olympiodorus reproduces here the passage from Synesius, colored in blue). “That's why Pebechius said he has a powerful affinity. 37.

What more can we hear?This is because the worked mercury becomes receptive matter, exchanging its substance for that of any fusible (metallic) body. Deprived of its own nature, it becomes volatile.[301]

Likewise also our magnesia, or antimony (sulphurized), or pyrites, or ores, or (finally) all the metallic bodies that can be named, transformed by means of natron oil,[302] either in the vessel for spontaneous digestion,[303 ] or by the action of the bellows,[304] or by some other device, whatever name you want to call it; — I say transformed according to their natural aptitude, — are reduced to the state of ashes.[305]Indeed, the receptive body par excellence, that which is called among them the black lead, that which the prophets of the Egyptians desired to know, that which the oracles of the Demons revealed, are the dross and the ashes of Mary. 306] Because they know that these things exist from the beginning. This is why there is coloring in black and in (the course of) the operation, discoloration, ie bleaching; because the word bleaching does not mean anything other than the fact of bleaching, by deprivation of black. See the truth of all this, O sage. For you have here the fruit of all the labor of the captive; you have here what we have been looking for for centuries I know the perseverance of your wisdom.

38. Such is the key to the discourse, and the summary of the art as a whole. Don't miss any of these things slightly; for this key will open to you the doors of theory and practice; you have learned that the dross is the whole mystery. All (the philosophers) are suspended and attentive to these (dross); thousands of puzzles relate to it; books in as great a number allude to it; it is the basis of whitening and yellowing. Indeed, there are two extreme colors: white and black; white is separative, and black comprehensive. Zosimus alluding to this color says: “It surrounds the pupil of the eye,[307] as well as the rainbow. »

People without intelligence do not understand what is the separative and the comprehensive. Now the comprehensible, as well as what it comprehends, is drawn from the (metallic) bodies themselves. It is thus that from liquid essence,[308] one extracts the intimate nature of lead, as the divine Zosimus also says; and it relies on all truth and knowledge from God. This intimate nature, I say, that is to say this soul (of lead), ceasing to manifest in itself the invisible world, manifests itself in another (metallic) body, that of silver; and in silver it manifests red blood, that is, gold.

39. O my friend, you who are generous, institute your speech for my justification, employing the means of defense that your honesty suggests to you;let your gentleness and patience, in the presence of the negligence and disorder of this study, not attack the subject of the study itself, but the negligence of the form.

Thus white is separative; because white is not strictly speaking called a color. Indeed any color includes and distinguishes (certain varieties): thus black is a true color, since there are several varieties of black.[309] When they talk about colors, the minds of the uninitiated fall into confusion; but we do not deviate from common sense. The ancients know that lead is black. Now lead possesses the liquid essence; note the exactness of what we said above of an oar attracted by liquid essence.Because by its gravity it tends to descend and attracts everything to itself. Behold, all the mysteries have been revealed to you.

40. We must first provide some testimonials, then return to our opinion. Marie supposes that the lead is black from the beginning, and she says: “If our black lead is made, this is the way; because common lead is black from the start”.[310] Thus it does not speak of common lead, but of (lead) produced by art.

But “how is it produced? says Mary. “If you do not make the bodily substances incorporeal and if you do not make the bodily substances incorporeal,[311] and if of the two (bodies) you do not make one, none of the expected (results) will occur” .[ 312]

And elsewhere: “If all the metallic bodies are not divided by the action of fire, and if the sublimated vapor, reduced in spirit, does not rise, nothing will be carried through. And

elsewhere again: “Molybdochalcum is the Etesian stone.[313] All (substances) melted and poured together, (he) changes them into gold by the igneous action. Potentially, he has the virtue of cooking things raw and doubling things cooked.[314] But if you succeed in whitening or yellowing, it will no longer be only potentially, but actually. Here is what I affirm, said Marie: the molybdochalcum exists by the effect of the treatment. It

is about the treatment of the two dross[315] and the doctrine is as follows.

Treat the Etesian stone, or the Phrygian stone, with vinegar; dip (it) first in the liquor, then after having softened it, grind it and keep it.

Democritus said: “from antimony (sulphur) and litharge,[316] remove the lead” and he observes: “I do not speak in the proper sense, lest you go astray; but it is our black (lead)”.[317] Agathodemon, by means of our lead, makes the refinements; he prepares a black liquor with the lead and the (chemical) waters, a liquor intended to disintegrate the gold.

In general, they prepare black lead; for, as I have said, if common lead is black from the start, ours is black by manufacture, not being so at first.

41. Experience will serve as our master, and I will endeavor again to explain the question by truthful demonstrations, returning to our first subject. Asem does not become gold by itself, as they say; and it would not become so without the help of our work.

It is not right to belittle the old; for "the letter kills, but the spirit gives life". This word, addressed by the Lord to those who questioned him without reflection, applies to all that the elders said who dealt with these matters. He who knows the hidden art of chemistry, says to them:[318] “How should I now understand transmutation? How did water and fire, enemies and opposites to each other, opposed by nature, come together in the same (body), by concord and friendship?etc O the incredible mixture! Where does this unexpected friendship between enemies come from? »[319]

42. Here again the oracles of Apollo declare the truth, for they speak of the tomb of Osiris.[320] But what is the tomb of Osiris? He is a dead man bound and wrapped in bandages, with only his face uncovered.[321] The oracle says, pointing to Osiris: Osiris is the tightly constricted tomb, hiding all the members of Osiris and allowing mortals to see only his face. But by hiding the bodies, nature wanted to excite our astonishment. For Osiris[322] is the principle of all liquidity;[323] it is he who operates the fixation in the spheres of fire.It is thus that he binds and tightens the Whole[324] of lead, etc. 43.

Another oracle of the same God expresses himself thus: “Take the chrysolite, the one called the male of the chrysocolla,[325] that is to say the man destined for the combination. It is its drops[326] which give birth to the gold of the Ethiopian soil. There is a species of ant extracts the gold, brings it to light and enjoys it.[327] Put with him the woman of vapor, until he is transformed:[328] it is the divine water,[329] and styptic,[330] that which is called the liquor of Cyprus and the liquor of the Egyptian with golden braids.[ 331] With this (product), coat the leaves of the luminous goddess,[332] those of Cypris the blonde, and melt, including the gold in your invocation.In turn, Petasius the philosopher, speaking of the principle of the work, agrees with what has already been exposed about our lead and says

: "The sphere of fire is retained and enclosed by that of lead".[ 333] And the same , acting as his own commentator, adds: “It means from the product that comes from male water”.[334] Now it is the male water which he called the sphere of fire.[335] He said (also) that lead is so possessed by the demon[336] and delivered to impudence, that those who want to learn (the science) fall into madness, because of (their) ignorance (of its properties).

44. This is what was said from the beginning about the elements, what is proclaimed here. I said that lead is the (philosophical) egg, composed of the four elements;Zosimus also exhibits it somewhere. Now the All[337] ends in lead. Indeed, whatever species they include in the catalog, they mean the whole: “the four are one” says Marie. If you hear about ores, understand by that the metallic species); and if you hear about species, understand minerals. Indeed, the four bodies form the tetrasomy.

It is about this tetrasomy that Zosimus says: "Then the unfortunate one, [338] fallen and chained in the (metallic) body of the quadruple element, immediately undergoes the colorations desired by the one who subjects it by means of art. : such as black coloring, or white, or yellow.Then, having received the colors and, having reached adolescence little by little, it reaches old age and ends up in the quadruple element body: [which means (the whole constituted by) copper, iron, tin and lead[339]]. It ends with them in the operation of iosis, as if destroyed by these (metals) and above all unable to escape; [ie intertwined with them and unable to escape[340]]. And again it turns around with them, keeping bound with it whoever pursues it from outside, within the circular apparatus. [341] But what is the circular apparatus? if it is not the fire and the cause of the evaporation without exit, operated in the spherical vial. Just as in sickness the first blood being corrupted, new blood is formed in recovery (of health);likewise he manifests in silver the (new) tawny blood, that is to say gold.

45. Such are all the testimonies. As much as possible, I have summarized them, drawing them from many speeches; not that we lack paper;[342] indeed how much paper would suffice to exhibit the vast powers of art? Even if I were preparing a paper as wide as the sky, I could only develop here a small part of what concerns matter made corporeal. In this, our art resembles perfect and ineffable intelligence. This is why we must exercise ourselves, according to the divine Democritus [this is a comparison[343]], saying: “Therefore we must exercise ourselves and have an open and piercing intelligence.Zosimus also says: “If you are exercised, you possess the fruit of your exercises; indeed art requires intelligence, and develops through it. 46.

​​See how all things have become easy for you to understand. After having collected what was said from the beginning, I made a choice of all that was presented to you.[344]

This fact that they spoke of liquid and dry substances misleads the readers. Indeed the word “liquidity” has a double meaning. Sometimes it is a proper liquid, such as water; sometimes liquidity is called, as among craftsmen, the unctuous quality of stones.[345] However, it is impossible to express two contrary things by only one (word).

Here truly applies the saying of Petasius the philosopher, that lead is so demon-possessed[346] and presumptuous, that those who want to learn go mad and lose their minds. My dear friend, enlighten me on obscure things. All lies must disappear. For the philosophers, these models of generosity,[347] know all truth. I need forgiveness, because you may have to correct my mistakes; while they will become a veil for those to whom we are not permitted to reveal.[348]

47. One[349] attributes to lead the two contrary qualities, since it gives at the same time the sensation of a liquid body and that of a dry body. It has three properties in itself, it is white, yellow and black;[350] and it is also liquid.[351]Here also occurs (with lead) four different colors of yellow.[352] Lead has two more treatments. It is with good reason that (Petasius) makes the art rest on him; but it is wrong to attribute to it the theatrical and dazzling character,[353] the same in truth as the (stone) asteria.[354] It is because of such a nature that most of the ancients place art in lead. Zosimus puts it this way: “The All culminates in lead. And elsewhere: 'Lead is our magnesia; it is liquid in nature. Furthermore, the slag of lead resembles the slag produced by the smelting of auriferous ore.[355] It is above all for this reason that art resides in lead.

48. Thus the (metallic) body of slag, regarded by all as a product without application, vile and despised,[356] on the contrary deserves the praises which have just been awarded to it. We must think (on this subject) like all the ancients, give it back its glory and treat it with art. "Do not be intimidated by your inexperience, said Zosima, and when you see that everything has turned to ashes, then understand that everything is fine".[357] Pulverize then this scoria and exhaust it of its soluble part, wash it six or seven times in sweetened waters,[358] after each casting. These meltings take place due to the richness of the ore. By following this walk and wash, says Marie, the composition softens.

All art is based on the elements;for after the end of the iosis, a projection taking place, the stable yellowing of the liquids takes place. By doing this, you bring out the nature hidden within.[359] Indeed, transform their nature, and you will find what you seek.

This is, for us, an inexhaustible subject: so difficult is it to sufficiently praise the glory of art; it is therefore out of respect for our own subject that we end our speech.

He also alludes to the abode of the souls of the philosophers and says: “There was a spheroid, or ovoid abode,[360] facing the sunset, the side where it had its entrance; it was spiral-shaped. You will find the description of it in the speech mentioned above.

49. Art is still related to the sun and the moon;now the sun rules at sunrise, and the moon at sunset. One brings as plausible demonstrations on these things, what has been said of the ore, that is to say of the substances that one draws from it.[361]

Some macerate the sulphurous substances:[362] when the month of pharmouthi arrives,[363] they place each of the species in a cloth[364] of solid linen and a tight cloth. They boil them in sea water,[365] rejecting the broth produced and letting them bathe again in sea water. They do not know the result by sight, but by the (signs) of which Hermès in several places (when he says): “Boil in a strong linen cloth. He

himself said to boil the plant,[366] and (that) with good reason: “indeed it grows”.This increase is not a vain thing, for plants grow for food and seed production.

Many elders have mentioned boils. Mary and Democritus (said): “Wash and wash again, until the antimony has lost its black color”.[367] By this washing, they mean bleaching, as was said above.

50. Dealing now with the yellow substance, they catalog the yellow species. This is why we say: “There are two whitenings, and two yellowings; there are two compositions, one dry, the other liquid”;[368] that is, in the catalog of yellow you will find plants and minerals. You will also find two liqueurs: one in the yellow chapter, and the other in the white one.

In the chapter of yellow liquors,[369] appear the products obtained with yellow plants, such as saffron, celandine and the like.

In the list of white compositions, and among the dry matters, are all white (substances), such as the earth of Crete (chalk),[370] the earth of Cimole and other analogs.

In the chapter of white liquors are all white waters, such as beer, saps, and the own juices of plants.

Arranging all these things among the colors, they applied their care to them. Judge for yourselves, intelligent people, after having previously exercised yourselves in these (matters). As for us, disdaining all these things, according to Democritus, "we know the diversities of matter and we go to the most useful."

See in the treatise on Action, in the second book, what Zosimus says about bleaching: “There are two bleachings, as also two yellowings, one by delaying,[371] and the other by firing. Here is how one operates by delay: the operation does not simply take place, but it is accomplished in a consecrated dwelling. Outside this sacred adobe, distributed equally in all directions, are arranged around ponds and gardens, so that the zephyr blowing (not drying) the dust and not removing it out of the mortar. This is how he spoke, in mystical terms, of the place of spraying. And you yourselves, intelligent people, distinguish "the center of the dwelling"; as well as the meaning of these words: “the water features and the gardens”.

51. Hermes assumes that man is a small world (microcosm), when he says: "Whatever the great world has, man also has." The great world has terrestrial and aquatic animals[372]; man also has fleas and lice, in fact of terrestrial animals, and helminths, in fact of aquatic animals. The great world has rivers, fountains, seas; and man has intestines.[373] The great world has aerial animals, and man has cousins.[374] The great world has the breaths spread everywhere, such as the winds;[375] and man has flatuosities.[376] The great world has the sun and the moon;[377] man has his two eyes, and the right eye is consecrated to the sun, and the left eye to the moon. The great world has mountains and hills, and man has bones.[378]The great world has the sky;[379] man has the head. [380] The great world has the twelve signs of the Zodiac,[381] namely: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. Man has these things from the head, that is, from Aries, down to the feet, which answer to Pisces.

This is what the ancients express when they say that man is the image of the world; what Zosimus reports in his book of Virtue. Likewise the earth is the image of the world.

52. Can't we also dilute man and make projections of him? said the philosopher, addressing Zosimus. Now this one says: “We have proved that this (philosophical) egg is the reproduction of the universe.Hermes, too, making understood by enigma the egg in the pyramid,[382] said that the egg was properly speaking the substance of the chrysocolla and of the silver.[383] The egg is called the golden-haired world; and Hermes designates the rooster[384] as being a man cursed by the sun. This is what he says in the ancient book.[385] It is there that he mentions the mole, saying that this animal had also been a man; he had been cursed of God, for having revealed the mysteries of the sun[386] and (God) had made him blind. And in fact, if the mole rises in front of the sun, the earth no longer welcomes it until evening. He says it happened because this man had known the (mysterious) shape of the sun.[387](God) consigned him to the black earth, as having transgressed the law, and revealed the mystery to men.

53. Let us summarize all this, to shorten.[388] It is recognized that the genus (animal) exists because of its successive generations and is distinguished into species, such as the volatile beings (and those which are not), which are at hand, without any other defense than themselves. Likewise the reptiles and the quadrupeds, distinct from each other as to species, while they agree in power (of reproduction).[389] But man is superior to all animals for no reason, as Synesius writes to Dioscorus.[390] He says: “Man is the most important of all animals living on the surface of the earth. »

“The proper aim of all art, says Horus, is to have secretly taken the seed of the male;[391] while all things are male and female. As Mary says somewhere: "Unite the male and the female and you will find what is sought." Indeed without the process of this meeting, nothing can succeed, because nature charms nature, etc. 54.

Democritus, on the occasion of these things, composed four books under this title: The Principle.[392]

Mary says: “taking a sheet of silver…”; and the same, elsewhere “taking the leaf of the kerotakis[393]”. Now she calls the instrument used to heat the sheet kerotakis. [The word leaf designates (also) plant debris[394]].

And elsewhere, the same: “In the same motarion (mets) of the yellow sandarac.[Note the feminine name of the sandarac. As for the motaria, as you know, they are made with linen[395]].

And on the stele, below the figure of the male species,[396] there are these words of Mary “and with all things”; and elsewhere: “the igneous preparation”. Mary says again: “Don't touch with your hands; you are not of the race of Abraham; you are not of our race”.[397]

55. Notice that the art is special and not common, as some believe: they spoke as to ordinary listeners, capable of knowing and understanding. But you, my excellent son, collect the things that seem useful to you, advised by the philosopher in these terms: "I (you) speak as to intelligent people, exercising your minds to know what things to use".If the moderns had been practiced in these matters, they would not have failed by indiscriminately engaging in operations. And (again): “Become like the sons of physicians, in order to understand natures; indeed the sons of physicians, when they wish to prepare a salutary remedy, do not operate with inconsiderate haste, etc. This

is the sense in which it has been said that art is special and not given to all. species: “I will introduce a little explanation, setting forth the interpretation of the true nature, only with regard to the classes mentioned among us; the truth concerning the ores and the stones having been published nowhere. I tell the truth about minerals; because the classes have never been exhausted to the end.Indeed who does not know that gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, as also earth, stones, metallic ores are (extracted) from the earth and are implemented? It

is according to these (data) that they made their writing; they also exhibit the liquors drawn from the saps and juices of plants, trees, fruits, dry and humid woods. By composing liquors with these substances, they constituted the art. They shared this unique art like a tree divided into a thousand branches, and they formed a thousand classes from it.

So you have here, in all power, the whole work. It includes molybdochalcum, etesian stone and all golden substances, obtained by cooking and flowing together.Now these words: “the substances which flow together” do not mean anything other than the substances which liquefy simultaneously and by this agent,[399] that is to say by means of fire.

OLYMPIODORUS. — APPENDICES

APPENDIX I
Anepigraphic text. — Commentary on the Crayfish Formula. [400]

Taking the remaining dry and blackened sediment, whiten it in this way. Take lime water prepared in advance, or lime water made from alabaster ashes, as a washing powder. Throws the materials into the liquid and washes well, until the water is blackened; filter, then decants the water that comes from it.

Add more water, if you want; after reading the water digest for a few days, filter;wash the (contents of) the vase again, following the order indicated above. Then transfer the blackened water again, with the previous one. Then having digested for the same number of days, filter the contents of the vessel and wash. By doing this several times, the black color disappears on the surface, and the matter becomes a white color. As for the waters blackened before, put (them) in a glass vase and, after having lute the vase all around, let it dry and let it digest for a few days. The product passed to the state of ios must be put into the throat device. It becomes white again.

After whitening it first, as previously said, dry it and put it in a mortar; throw in some white water, (from) the previous products.Add it little by little and grind, until the material is well washed beforehand and arrives at the desired state and shape. After having dried it, put it in a still of carefully lute glass;[401] let it digest for a few days, that is to say until the ashes are thinned, then arrive at a suitable whitening. Let it fall apart and disintegrate. Expose it above the vinegar: under the influence of pungent vapours, the matter divides and becomes white like white lead coming from lead.

It is possible to produce this effect also with lime, by placing our stone above the acid vapor of the vinegar, like a sheet of lead.[402]

But to give these materials the yellow color, after the preparation has been suitably washed and dried, it must first be sprinkled with yellow water and macerated: the material thus takes on the white color: it is then necessary to dry and treat appropriately.[ 403]

Thus will have been accomplished, God helping, the practice of Justinian.

******************

This recipe applies to the transformation of a black metallic compound, such as a sulphide or a fusion residue, into a white oxide (or carbonate), by the slow action of water and air.As for the relationship between this recipe, which applies to the washing of slag, and the formula of the Crayfish, it results from the fact that the oxide thus obtained was used to prepare the alloy called molybdochalque (Introd., p. 153; see also this volume, p. law, text and note 4).

APPENDIX II

§ 51. — Redaction of L for the passage relating to the microcosm and to the macrocosm. — These variants have been given in detail in the notes to the Translation of the text.

APPENDIX III.

§ 55. — Writing by L. After the passage: "Horus to Cronammon expounding the interpretation of the true nature", the manuscript continues in these terms:

Know then, O my friends, you craftsmen of gold, that one must prepare the ores suitably and with great skill, as I have previously explained; because otherwise the operation cannot be brought to an end. Now the name of ores is given, according to the ancients, to the whole of the seven metals; because their minerals are extracted from the earth, and of a stony nature they are used. All have written on this topic.

(There are, in addition, the liquors (extracted) from plants and saps, from the juices of trees, fruits and dry and moist woods. With these data they constituted art and, treating it like a tree divided on all sides into a thousand branches, they distributed it into a thousand classes and operations.

You therefore possess here, in all power, the whole of the work of copper, that is to say the etesian stone, the golden substances, obtained by cooking and which flow together, and all that concerns the 'art. Now these words, "the substances which flow together," mean nothing other than the substances which are liquefied simultaneously and by this agent, that is to say by means of fire.

End of Olympiodorus.

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[1] Orseille.

[2] Here begins a second purple dyeing process, independent of the first. This time we proceed by means of Laccha.— The word alkanet is indicated as a common translation for the words laccha and anchusa, by the dictionaries (See also Saumaise, Plinianœ exercitationes).

In recipe 96 of the Leide Papyri (Introd., p. 48); there are also two parallel dyeing processes, one with orseille, the other with alkanet. Did these two different materials form the basis of the double dyes (dibajoi fabrics, of which the ancient authors speak)? or were these executed with the same material? The description above, reproducing twice the treatment with the orseille, is rather favorable to the second opinion.

[3] Verbatim: false shell.

[4] Kind of cochineal.

[5] Orseille.

[6] Anchusa.

[7] Unknown matter

[8] Or miscellaneous?

[9] See Salmasii Plinianae exercisees, p. 192, b, E and F. and following pages (1689).

[10] The above is the fragment of various purple dyeing processes, taken from the notes of some dyer and analogous to the recipes of the Leide Papyrus (Introd., p. 48). Then comes a magic piece, followed by an alchemical fragment: v. Origins of Alchemy, p. 150. — The current translation of the first fragment has been subjected to a new revision.

[11] This seems to be the true beginning of the treatise of Pseudo-Democritus; (the above representing superimposed shreds. The treatise itself is constituted by the two books on the white and the yellow, that is to say the Argyropée and the Chrysopée, of which Synesius speaks. [12] This expression seemed

consecrated in the expositions of secret doctrine: διὰ τὴν τῶν πολλῶν περιεργίαν, also says the Papyrus V of Leide, col. 12, l. 18 (Introd., p. 10).[13] Metal reduced from its ores, or other compounds

.

[14] This word originally meant magnetic stone; but in the Lexicon it is translated as: white lead, pyrite, female antimony (antimony sulphide in large crystals), cadmium (impure zinc oxide, mixed with copper). It also referred to tin and the alloy of copper and lead. The multiple meanings of this word have been given in the Introduction, p. 55. It seems in particular that it applied to any black or white ore capable of furnishing by its reduction a metal, an alloy, or an amalgam, white and fusible.

[15] Arsenic sulphide: either orpiment.

[16] That is, deoxidized, bleached and brought to an even luster. According to the Lexicon, p. 6: copper covered with shade, it is the flower of copper (protoxide, sub-salts, verdigris). (Introd., p. 232.)

[17] Or rather Electrum, according to the sign of B.

[18] In other words golden shell, an expression still used in goldsmithing.

[19] Orchiment.

[20] Realgar.

[21] This appears to be the general meaning of the receipts of this paragraph. Make an amalgam with the mercury, or extinguish it with any substance. Then spread the product (white earth) on the copper; this will become of a uniform silvery luster.

This earth or white paste is still designated under the name of fusible amalgam, and white preparation, at the end of the letter from Isis to Horus, p. 34.

Arsenic compounds can also bleach copper by sublimation; likewise cinnabar, either hot, or by decomposing it by some artifice. Finally, the copper whitened on the surface can then be gilded by a suitable treatment, using electrum, or gold in sheets, or in powder (gold shell).

It would therefore in fact be a process of apparent silvering of the copper, preceding a superficial gilding: which is in conformity with the analogies drawn from the Papyrus of Leide. (Introd., p. 56.)

[22] This recipe seems to mean that one must treat a silver ore (sulfide silver, steel gray color) with litharge and lead (or antimony ), so as to obtain an alloy; then this alloy is colored yellow, using a material not defined here.

[23] That is to say roast, until desulphurization and disappearance of the steel gray color of the silver sulphide, or the like.

[24] This recipe seems to express the roasting of silver pyrite, followed by treatments with liquors containing sodium chloride. Finally, a gold-colored alloy is prepared, containing either silver or a certain amount of gold, associated with copper and other metals.

[25] Alloy of lead with copper, tin, zinc, etc. (Introd., p. 244, and Glossary, p. 10).

[26] Gloss by a copyist, inserted in the text.

[27] The purpose of this recipe is to make a gold-colored alloy, with the help of arsenic (Introd., p. 67).

[28] Is it mercury sulphide, or minium? (see Introduction, p. 244).

[29] A fifteenth-century commentator wrote a mystical interpretation in the margin. “Alum, and ether, and mercury, and shadowless copper.

[30] Copper ores. See Introd., p. 242.

[31] In this recipe, it is a gold colored varnish (Introd., p. 59).

[32] This is a varnish recipe for superficially dyeing gold; or to change the color of a gold object.

[33] According to the Lexicon, p. 9: Pyrite and arsenic, ie arsenical pyrite.M and A put in the margin the sign of gold, which related to the color of these substances: at least to the origin of these recipes, and as long as they had a practical character; for later commentators have understood them in a mystical sense.

[34] The metallic sulphides are thereby changed, by virtue of a slow oxidation, into oxysulphides, and basic salts.

[35] Formation of oxysulfides.

[36] Calcium polysulphide, or analog, from the Leide papyrus. (Introd., p. 68). But the meaning of the word is more comprehensive according to the Lexicon, p. 8 and 9.

[37] That is to say, dyeing silver into gold, by superficial sulphurization.— A similar recipe is found in the Leide papyrus, following the article on sulfur water (Introd., p. [38] After cupellation. [39]

See

Dioscorides, Mat. med., V, 88. — This word designates an impure protoxide of copper and sub-salts (Introd., p. 232)

[40] Azurite, copper hydrocarbonate or the like (Introd., p. 243)

[41] Alloy of copper and lead (sometimes with antimony, etc. .). — The foregoing describes its preparation with sufficient clarity.

[42] This is a recipe for a yellow alloy (bronze or brass), based on copper and lead (and antimony).

[43] Iron protoxide sulphate, probably mixed with copper sulphate.

[44] The iron sulphate thus changes into the basic peroxide salt.

[45] That is to say, the metal will be dyed on the surface with a golden color.

[46] This sentence refers to another recipe, probably that of) the refining of gold by the dry process. (V. Introd., p. 14 to 16.)

[47] Chrysocolla means both gold alloy for welding, and malachite. (See Introduction, page 243.)

[48] It seems to be a superficial refinement, by cementation of the gold alloy.

[49] The enthusiastic charlatan reappears here.

[50] By an immediate action, it strips; while by prolonged contact and action it determines the formation of rust (copper oxychloride). All this is quite clear.

[51] This involves dyeing silver in gold using a color applied to its surface (V. Leide Papyrus and Introduction, p. 6). The same is true of the following process.

[52] That is, the superficial gold color, or varnish.

[53] Which you want to dye.

[54] In ms. A and B there is above the sign of mercury (metallic arsenic). Perhaps it is an arsenic compound. Indeed the word saffron has been applied up to our time to various yellow mineral compounds: saffron from Mars signifies an oxide or basic salt of iron; metal saffron, an oxysulfide of antimony. — Misy cru also means saffron, according to the Chemistry of Moses (published later).

[55] See Intro., p. 28, 1st recipe from the Leide Papyrus;—p. 35, 24th recipe; p. 44, 84th recipe.

[56] Echomene in the Lexicon. - Basil? — (Glossary, p. 8, footnote).

[57] This is another recipe for varnishing the surface of metals in gold.

[58] See I, xv.

[59] This is some recipe for mending iron.

[60] Note from the fourteenth century in M, at the bottom of the page: “Dregs burned with salt have the same virtue as borax for soldering.

To braze (?): sulfur and urine, and vinegar and garlic, a little salt and a little water.

A third recipe follows, with barbaric words.

[61] This title, compared to the previous award, tends to identify asem with money;which is indeed the modern meaning of the word But originally asem was a special alloy, intermediate between gold and silver, and analogous to electrum. — (Introd., p. 62.)

[62] The word mercury means here our sublimated arsenic. (Introd., p. 99 and 239.)

[63] Lesson of AB: “put copper in iron...”

[64] This recipes responds to the bleaching of a copper alloy by arsenical compounds. — The following is more obscure; but it seems to have the same meaning. — Because of this bleaching, the arsenic compounds were believed to contain a species of mercury. (Introd., p. 99.)

[65] Cinnabar sign above, in M. Is it an amalgam? (See Introd., p. 255.)

[66] Gold sign above, M. Is arsenic the color of gold (orpiment)?

[67] By fence. Silver sign above, M.

[68] The two signs (Pl. 11, l. 17; Introd., p. 108) of sal ammonia, above the words cadmie and sandarac, ML [69 ] Above, the word "exact

" , M. Which seems to indicate that the preceding signs represent a variant of the recipe, by interpretation.

[70] Above, the sign of cinnabar, M.

[71] Above, the sign of mercury, M.

[72] Above, the word “exact” in M.

[73] In A and B instead of nejelhn, the sign of mercury. Is it mercury? or arsenic?

[74] Above, the sign of sulphur, M.

[75] Above, the sign of gold, M. — Pyrite color of gold.

[76] Above, the sign of cinnabar, M.

[77] This recipe corresponds to the preparation of a composition suitable for bleaching metals by superficial amalgamation. — See Papyrus X of Leide, recipe n° 86. (Introd., p. 46.)

[78] Cinnabar sign above, M.

[79] Mercury sign above, M.

[80] Vapors of arsenical sulphides (roasted), according to the Lexique, p. 10. (Introd., p. 245.)

[81] Without shouting? — See Geber's developments. Bible. Chem. de Manget, t. I, p. 525.

[82] This is a white alloy based on lead, rendered less fusible by the addition of some other substance. All the preceding preparations are based on bleaching operated by mercury or arsenic, or on the manufacture of white alloys. Those which follow (except perhaps No. 24) are simple superficial varnishes. The same order was followed above, in the gilding recipes.

[83] See Glossary, p. 11 and 13. This is some lead salt.

[84] It is a process for superficially coloring copper, lead, or iron in white silver, using a coating. (See Leide Papyrus. Introd., p. 52.)

[85] This seems to apply to varnishes applied to the surface of the metal; as opposed to the case where the metal itself is attacked.

[86] Dyeing by varnishing.

[87] This appears to be a dyeing by amalgamation.

[88] Lime water, or milk of lime.

[89] Dyeing by amalgamation.

[90] In other words, the author refers to his other works on distillation.

[91] This is the conclusion of the two treatises relating to dyeing in gold and in asem, or silver: dyeing carried out sometimes on the surface, by direct coloring of the metal or varnishing; sometimes thoroughly, by making an alloy. These treatises consist of a series of recipes, similar to those of the Leiden Papyrus; but after which the author has added the mystical axioms relating to nature. The idea of ​​true transmutation is not manifest there.

[92] This sentence was accidentally omitted from the printed Greek text.

[93] Cp. Orig, from Alch., p. 47.

[94] There are some unintelligible words there in the Greek, owing to the errors of the copyist.

[95] Dioscorides, Mat. med., V. 128. — Introd., p. 267.

[96] The beginning of this recipe appears to be a tincture for bleaching copper using arsenic.

[97] That is, in the sour juice.

[98] Name of some vase or instrument, which is not found in dictionaries.

[99] This is another process for bleaching copper using arsenic.

[100] At the end of the previous recipe.

[101] In order to maintain a gentle warmth.

[102] Copper?

[103] Gold seaweed.

[104] This recipe is for a projection powder;it is too obscure for its meaning to be clarified. The very name of "golden coral" represents a preparation of which we do not know the exact meaning.

[105] Synonym of lead and copper alloy. (Introd., p. 153.)

[106] The first two of these books, or their extracts, are none other than the two collections of recipes on the art of making gold (or dyeing in gold) and on the manufacture of asèm (or money), which constitutes the essential part of the Treatise entitled: "Natural and Mysterious Questions". — The third is lost: however the work on the art of making glass and artificial precious stones, which we find in the Alchemical Collections, must derive its first origin from it.As for the work on purple, only a fragment of it remains at the head of the “Natural Questions”. — These various subjects have remained the common material of the old alchemical treatises, as is proved by the title which I have reproduced (Origins of Alchemy, p. 123) and the content of the Treatise of Moses, given further on.

[107] The Philosopher par excellence, Democritus.

[108] This passage seems to establish a distinction between metals colored, after melting in the crucible, by the projection of certain materials, and metals colored by coating. The coating could also constitute a simple surface varnish; or attack the metal, forming on its surface an alloy, amalgam, sulphide, or arsenide, the shade of which was more modifiable by the action of fire.(V. Introd., p. 59 and 60.)

[109] That is to say, bodies must be reduced to their last degree of division; at their quintessence, as we said later in the Middle Ages.

[110] We see appearing here the idea of ​​fixing the bodies, by removing their liquidity, or fusibility; this quality being considered as a distinct element of the bodies. (Cp. Origins of Alchemy, p. 280 and 281.)

[111] The obscure but positive recipes of Pseudo-Democritus, which are those of an experimenter, are followed by the mystical comments of a neo-Platonic philosopher.

[112] That is to say the color, fios, ἄνθος. There is a pun here.

[113] The Greek says simply: πόντος, the sea. There is another play on words whose meaning escapes us.Unless this sentence is interpreted by figure 18 of the Introd., p. 141; in which is represented a receptacle called a pontoon, in the form of a basin, and in which flows the and of a distillation, operated with the products designated here under the mystical name of flowers.

[114] See note 330.

[115] Oxidation or superficial sulfuration which destroys the luster of the metal. Metals in fact lose their luster by oxidizing and changing into powdery materials, such as verdigris, rust, etc.

[116] That is to say the reduction to their last degree of division. See note 329 above.

[117] Liquids.

[118] See note 335.

[119] See note 329.

[120] Or sulfur water.— In other words, to obtain these effects, the metals must be attacked with the help of divine water, mercury, chrysocolla and sulphur. The Greek sentence is elliptical. By affirming that one does not need these substances, the author seems to mean that these agents do not experience transmutation by themselves; they are not the fundamental matter, but the intermediaries.

[121] Should we understand by this the pyrites which, once heated, burn, roast and change into oxides, without external fuel? What about the sulphides, which can regenerate their metals by careful grilling, such as the sulphides of lead, antimony, etc.?

[122] On this multiplicity of mystical names, intended to veil science from the uninitiated, see prophetic nomenclature, Introd., p.10. These names, moreover, do not necessarily apply to the same substance; but they sometimes designate the different substances employed in the continuation of the same operation.

[123] See I, xv, p. 37 of this volume.

[124] The Greek text of Democritus given above is a little different (vp 43 of the Greek Text and p. 44 of the Translation) [125]

The coloring principle provided by a dissolution (v. Flos, Floridus. Introd., p . 232).

[126] The author plays on the similarity of the words μεταλοιοῦντα and μεταλλεύοντα.

[127] Is it a question here of the regeneration of metals, latent in their ores? or the manufacture of variously colored alloys which should be dyed, not only on the surface, but in depth?

[128] This description is that of a still, with bain-marie and condensation flask (see fig. 40, Introd., p. 164).

[129] These are the two chapters of “Natural and Mysterious Questions”, p. 45 and p. 52.

[130] This shows that the word mercury meant both our mercury and our arsenic (Introd., p. 239 and 99). — We are dealing here with the tinctorial action which arsenic, as well as ordinary mercury, can exercise on metals. Hence the idea of ​​an essence common to the two agents. It seems that the observations relating to these two bodies were the starting point of the philosophers' notion of mercury, or metallic raw material, intended to be the intermediary of transmutation.

[131] That is, mercury.

[132] The notion of the first material appears here very clearly (see Origins of Alchemy, p. 265 and 267), and this with the opposite double meaning, developed in the Timaeus. On the one hand, the raw material is the permanent ground of things and thereby subsists; while, on the other hand, it is deprived of a form of its own, and experiences the modifications which correspond to the particular qualities of bodies; to their color, for example, in the present case.

[133] That is to say, mercury is: on the one hand, the first and general matter, which forms the basis of transmutation; and, on the other hand, that it loses its proper and individual character, in the execution of this one.

[134] The author distinguishes the material of the metal, that is to say its own substance, from its apparent qualities.

[135] Word which designates the set of four imperfect metals: copper, lead, tin, iron.

[136] Cp. Introd., p. 248.

[137] Cp. Aeneas of Gaza: Origins of Alchemy, p. 75.

[138] This seems to mean that every metal contains a mercurial element.

[139] This is very clear: it is a question here on the one hand of free mercury, and on the other of combined mercury, potentially existing in cinnabar, its ore.

[140] We are dealing here with a complex alloy, the metal of magnesia, probably formed by the union of the four fundamental bodies or metals, and with which mercury is associated, taken in its ordinary sense, or rather in the mystical meaning of the mercury of the philosophers (see also Introd., p. 256).

[141] Malachite; used in gold soldering. — Introduction, p. 243.

[142] Strictly speaking: green frog-colored matter. This word also means Water Buttercup.

[143] The author plays on the Pali word, wcriasanta literally yellowed and which can be derived from yellow ocher wcra. He wants to explain how chrysocolla or malachite, a green material, is used to make gold which is yellow;he therefore seeks to show the relationship of the color green to the color yellow and the transition from one to the other: these two colors or qualities of bodies being considered as having an existence of their own.

[144] Orchiment.

[145] That is to say the raw material of the metal of magnesia

[146] The author plays on the double meaning of ἀρσένικον: arsenic or masculine.

[147] It is first of all mercury, which is feminine, ἡ ὑδράργυρος; then chrysocolla.

[148] Mercury, that is to say cinnabar, and chrysocolla, opposed to claudianos and arsenic.

[149] The dryness, quality, is taken here with a substantial meaning; as above the color yellow.

[150] The end of the sentence is unintelligible, the copyist having probably repeated the preceding sentence.

[151] Introduction, p. 261.

[152] A pun on the sea, πόντος, moist matter par excellence, vp 62.

[153] A variant here indicates sal ammonia, instead of cinnabar.

[154] The word χάλκανθος couperose, expresses both blue copper sulphate, green iron sulphate and their mixtures. Sory is a basic copper sulphate, more or less ferruginous, resulting from the alteration of pyrites. But pure iron sulphate, or its mixture with copper sulphate, soon oxidizes in moist air and changes into basic salts which are yellow. These compounds can therefore change from green to yellow, by seemingly spontaneous actions.As for cinnabar, its red color is here, as before, placed under the heading of yellow.

[155] The word All, πᾶν, recurs throughout this piece with a mysterious meaning, which seems to apply to the raw material of metallic transmutations. It was properly speaking molybdochalcum, or even the metal of magnesia (see Introd., p. 153). It is always a question of studying how the same material can affect various colors, according to the treatments and the dyeing processes.

[156] Above the sign of mercury in A, B.

[157] The author plays on the resemblance of the words ἀναγαλλίς (pimpernel) and ἀναγαγεῖν (to raise). Raising the water means distillation or sublimation.

[158] The play on words continues, applying to the ascent (sublimation) of volatile matter, called spirits or flowers of metals, and assimilated to the same of plants; which flowers occur during the smelting and processing of ores. These are for us sublimated oxides (zinc oxide), or driven by gases. We still say today, in an analogous sense that goes back to the alchemists: Argentina flowers of antimony; fnc flowers; sulfur flower. One also said in the last century: flowers of antimony, for the yellow and partly oxidized sublimate formed by the natural sulphide; red flowers of antimony, for a red sulphide formed in the presence of sal ammonia; arsenic flowers, for sublime arsenious acid;flowers of ammonia salt, for this sublimated salt, flowers of benzoin, for sublimated benzoic acid, &c. (Dict. Macquer's Chemistry, 1778). — We read the same in the Lexicon Alchemioe of Rulandus, p. 216 (1612): Flos est bolus per sublimationem extractus... Flos spirituosa rei substantia est... Omnis flos per se volatilis et spirituosus.

[159] V. § 3 of this dialogue and note 372.

[160] That is to say with the sory (?)—See above, note 374.

[161] By evaporation and distillation.

[162] Variant: sal ammonia water, Fabr.

[163] Variant: molybdochalcum water, Fabr.

[164] Variant: couperose water, Fabr.

[165] Is there a play on words here, on κυνὸς (from female dog) and κοινὸς (common)?

[166] The word milk is taken here in a symbolic sense; as well as the words blood, bile, semen, etc., in the language of the Egyptian prophets or priests. (Introd., p. 10). Thus, the milk of the black cow signified mercury (Lexicon, p. 6). — The words milk of lime, milk of sulfur have been preserved down to our time in the language of chemists.

[167] The uninitiated being disappointed, because they take the names literally.

[168] Thus each metal is modified by the projection of a more precious metal, intended to transform it by changing its properties; so as to make it identical to itself (diplosis), by a sort of fermentation.Let us also recall that the recipes (7) and (60) of the Papyrus (Introd., p. 29, 41, 57) are based on a similar practice. We see how the preparation of the alloys described in the Papyrus of Leide (Introd., p. 70, and in the Natural and Mysterious Questions, p. 44 and following) has become, by a mystical interpretation, the very transmutation of metals.

[169] Probably it is about the ancient chemists, or Egyptian prophets.

[170] This award and various others, quoted by Synesius, are not found in the Natural Questions of Democritus, as we have them. It is likely that we only have an extract from the original work.

[171] Var.: couperose, Fabr.

[172] Var. sal ammonia, Fabr.

[173] That of the mercury of the philosophers?— We could also apply this passage to asem, which designates any alloy endowed with a silvery brilliance whether it has been prepared either by superficial amalgamation; either by surface bleaching with arsenic; or again, by various compositions of copper, lead, tin, or antimony. — Introduction, p. 62.

[174] This sentence has a mystical significance and implies the intervention of actions superior to those of man, — See below Olympiodorus, § 1 and § 9. [175]

That of cinnabar and that of arsenic. (Introd., p. 99 and 239).

[176] It seems by these words that the little treatise of Synesius is the extract and the preamble of a more extensive work.

[177] A adds these intervening words: “to Petasius, king of Armenia, on the divine and sacred art and on the stone of the philosophers. The various copies of this treatise offer considerable variations; especially the L manuscript, which belongs to a class apart. Petasius or Petesis (Isidore), may be an actual character; but the title of king of Armenia is fictitious, and added by some adept (v. Orig. de l'Alchimie, p. 139 and 168.) [178]

This first paragraph represents the actual text (by Zosimus, no doubt); then comes the commentary. This text originally responded to the operation of the levigation of gold ores; as shown by the insertion of the piece from Agatharchides relating to the gold mines in M.;(Orig, from Alchemy, p. 22), abridged and mutilated piece in A. This treatment of natural ores seems to have been later envisioned as symbolically representing transmutation. It is always the passage from the material and positive sense of a practical operation to a later mystical sense. Perhaps it is moreover a real operation, accomplished on the ores intended to furnish later by suitable treatments, no longer gold flakes, but an alloy imitating gold.

[179] See Origins of Alchemy, p. 29. τὰς ἀρχὰς τῶν πραγμάτων ἀποκρύψαντες (Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, V).According to the apocryphal, but ancient, letter from Plato to Denis, the philosophers used symbols, susceptible of several explanations, which made it possible to communicate the secret of the chosen people, while maintaining the others in the illusion. — We read in the Arabic Pseudo-Aristotle (Bibl. Chemica de Manget, t. I, p. 622, quote from Roger Bacon): “He who reveals natural secrets breaks the divine seal and great results result for him. foods. One encounters in books a multitude of things which one cannot understand without a master”. — According to Rhazes (same work, vol. I, p. 923): "It pleased the ancients to hide the meaning of these things under so many names that one can hardly invent new ones." —Also Morienus:“Nothing has caused more errors in this art than the multitude of names. The ancients used comparisons, riddles, poetic fables. —According to Geber (p. 918): "they wrote in such a way, that they can only be understood by God, or by the aid of his grace, &c." — This was a constant tradition, up to the time of modern science.

[180] Levigation thus isolates gold flakes and other metallic ores, which are denser than clayey materials and similar gangues, which are carried away by water.

[181] That is to say gold, or metals capable of imitating it by their alloy.

[182] Stones, ie large rock fragments, are not carried away by levigation because of their weight.

[183] ​​Allusion to the Enigma of the Sibyl (Origins of Alchemy, p. 136).The Greek word λιθάργυρος having ten letters, it is not clear how Olympiodorus applies it to this enigma; unless the last two letters count as one, or another ending is taken, such as λιθάργυρα.

[184] The projection powder, or philosopher's stone. — This paragraph seems to be a later interpolation.

[185] The necessity of a favorable period, and of a definite lapse of time, has always been recognized by the alchemists, in accordance with the doctrines of astrology. Its last expression is found in the Lexicon Alchemioe Rulandi, p. 330, in the article Mensis philosophicus (philosophical month). “It is, he says, the time of decomposition, the duration of which corresponds to the movement of the moon; it is thirty days for some;forty for the others. It responds to the making of the philosopher's stone; and may be contained in a lesser number of days, being defined by the nature of the object and the accomplishment of the work. [

186] That is to say the ore, from which the gold (or the alloy which gives the appearance) will then be extracted by the action of fire.

[187] P.47; § 7. It is probably sulphide of arsenic, changed into arsenious acid by oxidation, with the help of various operations described later in Olympiodore, § 12, and which specify the vague designations: maceration, leaching, etc.

[188] Red. from L: "Following the rules of unique and excellent work."

[189] Pure or alloyed metals are first transformed by chemical operations, which deprive them of their metallic state or appearance . Then, by fixing in it certain volatile elements (spirits) which restore their souls to the metals (inner principles of activity), they are regenerated with a color and new properties.

[190] It is the reunion of gold with gold. The gold flakes are the parts taken from the ore. The word gold also includes gold-colored alloys.

[191] It is a question of uniting the metallic flakes of gold (or of the alloy which gives the appearance thereof), in a single mass, by means of chrysocolla; giving them a uniform color, and without seeing the weld.

[192] Red.de L: “So this vapour, in other words the silver water, that is to say the (element) which attenuates the silver”. The mercury in question here appears to be metallic arsenic (Introd., p. 61, 99 and 239).

[193] This whole description is obscure, although it appears to refer to actual operations. The final mention of claudianos, an alloy of lead, copper, zinc, and other metals (Introd., p. 244), sheds some light on it; for it was a metallic alloy, intended to imitate gold. — The description applies to both pure and simulated gold, ie claudianos. It seems that real gold, as well as false gold, were first obtained in the state of flakes; which was then agglomerated by means of mercury (or rather metallic arsenic, considered as a second mercury).Then it was heated over low heat, avoiding the loss of steam, mercury, or arsenic by volatilization or oxidation.

The final mention would apply to the destruction of the alloy and the vaporization of some of its components, such as zinc, in the form of oxides, by the influence of too vigorous calcination.

[194] The word economy is used, even in the practice of our time, with the same meaning as in these texts. We say, for example: "Here is the whole economy of the process, etc." [

195] The mystical and magical side of the operations appears here.

[196] It seems that in this sentence the word gold is used successively in two different senses: When you have a metal which has the appearance of gold..., etc.; you will get real gold.You can still hear the flake metal first; then the metal agglomerated by welding.

[197] Red. from L: “You will have gold; but still works in accordance with the practice of gold”.

[198] Plants, in the same mystical sense as flowers, p. 71.

[199] That is, purely manual operations are insufficient, etc.

[200] Red. de L: “Because they want there to be in art a fixing principle, which retains fleeting substances; this principle is fire, which fixes mercury, that is to say vapor. Now it is not only mercury that flees fire, but also all the substances (of the same class) in the catalogue”.

[201] Κάτοχος fixing of a coloring matter, on a fabric, for example.

[202] Mercury itself (or metallic arsenic), used in the dyeing of metal, is volatile; but the mercury of the philosophers, fixed by the action of fire, must not be so: in such a way that the tincture of which it is apart remains fixed on the metallic background. There is a mixture of real ideas and mystical ideas.

[203] The word fleeting applies here to the tincture and to the agents which produce it. It means not only the volatility of the coloring agent, but the lack of fixity of the dye, due to oxidation or to any cause whatsoever.

[204] This is a commentator's gloss; the preceding sentence is probably from Zosimus.

[205] We had first translated gamekta by volatiles.But the meaning also seems to include the coloring bodies which disappear by liquefaction, dissolution, oxidation, etc.; that is to say, it is more general.

[206] L adds: “And the earth”.

[207] Red. from L: “Now it is dissipated under the influence of fire, etc. ".

[208] Var. AL: 4 oz.

[209] That is to say: carefully decant the deposit of the supernatant liquid.

[210] Red. from L: “Then cut the cup and fasten it on all sides. ”

[211] This description corresponds to that of a sublimation apparatus, formed of a lower container, surmounted by two cups or capitals, fitted one inside the other in the shape of an aludel .but the current description dates it back to Africanus (3rd century). We fought carefully; and the sublimated part was condensed in these capitals. — See Introd., p. 143, 146, figs. 20 and 22. The double cut corresponds to figure 22, but without kerotakis; or even in figures 26 and 27 p. 150, 151. —See also figs. 44 and 45, p. 170, 172.

[212] In this operation, the orpiment or sulphide of arsenic is slowly oxidized, so as to change it into arsenious acid. We see that the latter is designated here under the name of white alum.

[213] It is a fondant.

[214] μιλιαρσίοιον is not found in dictionaries. 'Unless it's the Latin word thousandth, Grecized.

[215] Variant of A: silver. This variant is later. The preceding recipe is a positive preparation: it is that of a white copper arsenide, analogous to the alloy called tombac. It recalls some of the fabrications of asèm from the Papyrus of Leide translated in the Introduction, p. 34, 45, 61.

[216] The author adds margarwn: verbatim, pearls; probably because this product was used to color artificial pearls. Burned copper responds to our protoxide of copper: it is a red matter (V. Introd., p. 233).

[217] Red. from L: “Then pulverize it, as well as the burnt copper and rubric, in a mortar; melt them on the fire.Fighting the crucible, closing it at its upper part and heating it over an even fire, etc.

[218] Gloss inserted in the text: “the fire must not heat one part, while not heating another part” .

[219] This is a technical process for making glass colored green, or artificial emerald. It is therefore still a tincture; but it is no longer a metal (See Origins of Alchemy, p. 220, 222, 239).

[220] Red. from L: "and that is why two mysteries are exposed".

[221] Red. de L: “but Democritus says about what quickly dissipates, that this thing dissipates in the departure of liquids, etc. ".

[222] The disappearance of the dye or coloring can take place: either by the evaporation (or the oxidation) of the matter which dyes; or by its extraction by means of a liquid, by means of which it is dissolved or decomposed.

[223] Red. de L: “As for what does not dissipate at all, he says that this tincture is truly and properly the third tincture: such are, for example, the fuse and metallic bodies. For after we have treated and arranged these (substances) separately, the dissipable matters become fixed and the non-metallic bodies change into metals”.

[224] The coloring matter is fixed following the evaporation of the liquid which contained it. It is the practice of dyeing fabrics that must be taken as a term of comparison, to understand all this.

[225] This refers to resistance to both volatilization, fusion and even dissolution.

[226] We see that liquidity is regarded here as the symbol of the ability to dissipate; and solidity, like that of fixity.

[227] Red. de L: “For, naturally, all things endowed with spirit need some of the fire, like the metallic substances, those which are connected with the culinary art, etc.;

The others need the air, like the animals that live in the air;

Others need water, like fish;

Others need soil, like plants.

But the species which are in these four elements, being male and female, have been distinguished among themselves by multiple colors and multiple and reciprocal natures, from the particular point of view and from the general point of view. The redaction of M, translated in the main text, seems the oldest; for it is more directly related to the idea of ​​classification, which is the basis of the Democritan treatise.

[228] See note 399.

[229] Or their operating procedures, the Greek word having a double meaning.

[230] Red. from A: They perjured themselves in revealing the mystery; for the writings of foreigners, etc. L adds here: “And in this they wear by mystery. L puts this sentence after the practical works.

[231] This is the assimilation between the serpent biting its tail and the philosophical egg, both emblems of the work. The majority on which the text insists seems to be that of the four elements.

[232] This is the translation of the Greek Ἀγαθοδαίμων written in two words. 'It was indeed the Greek name of an Egyptian deity.

[233] The author plays on the word θεῖον, which means both: sulfur and the divine.

[234] The philosophical egg, image of the world. L gives ὄν: being. The confusion of the two words is perhaps intentional.

[235] Instead of τὰ ἄτομα (M): A carries τὸ ἅμα: the whole; which seems to be a typist's mistake. — L, which represents a posterior arrangement τὸ ἅμα καὶ τὰ ἄτομα.That is, the last copyist added both versions.

[236] See Aristotle, Physica, l. I.

[237] Ed. de L: “That there is an immutable and infinite principle of all beings, was the opinion of the ancients. This is why Thales of Miletus said that being was one. It is for us water of sulfur and gold: it is a principle one, beautiful, immobile. [

238] Several manuscripts bear the egg, won, identified with being, one, or the world. See note (5) on page 87. — According to Thales, water was the principle of things. V. Origins of Alchemy, p.251 et seq.

[239] Same remarks.

[240] Alchemist glosses.Gold, by reason of its one, unalterable, divine character, and of the power which it communicates, is assimilated by these glosses to the universal principle.

This whole text is made very confusing by alchemical symbolism. It is likely that originally it was written largely in two-way signs, which the copyists later transcribed and commented on in various ways.

[241] Gold sulphur. —Always the same use of words with double meanings.

[242] Réd de L: “Parmenides said that one power is immutable and infinite and that another is limited, the divine (or sulphur)”.

[243] Gold sulphur.

[244] Because all action is exercised under finite and limited conditions.

[245] It is determined as to its power L.

[246] Parmenides ἀφύσιλος.CP. Arist. fragment, no. 33, (ed. Didot); — Metaphys. I, 4, p. 472, l. 30-40. — In the Aristotelian fragment taken from Sextus Empiricus, we name Melissus and Parmenides. The text of Olympiodorus indicates "the Milesian and Parmenides", and it is the consequence of the preceding development.

[247] Rather, the author means: not infinite, not unlimited.

[248] His interlocutor. In A the word “remark” is replaced by “Acriboulos” proper name?

[249] This is enigmatic. The expression of the virgin land is found several times in the authors of this time (Orig. de l'Alch., p. 258 and 333).We also read it in Theoctonicos, in the fourteenth century (Introd., p. 210. See also note 496, below). — I interpreted the text of Hermes by saying: “Hermes associates the idea of ​​​​the earth with that of the unfertilized virgin”.

[250] Red. de L: “That is why he speaks in these terms to this woman to philosophize.

There is here some reminiscence of the ecstasy of the Alexandrian philosophers .

[252] According to L: “Look at the air as the essential. Anaximander says that the essential is the intermediary, etc.

[253] A adds: “on a white light . [

254] According to the Lexicon (p. 10): The smoke of cobathia is the vapor of arsenic.The word cobathia therefore seems to signify the red sulphide of arsenic or an arseniosulphide (see Introd., p. 245), which would produce it by its sublimation in a closed vessel. Roasting these compounds develops arsenious acid, which volatilizes, and it plays a role in copper bleaching.

[255] Καπνός.

[256] Αἰθάλη applies especially to mercury and sublimated metallic arsenic, whitening copper like mercury and thereby assimilating to a second mercury (Introd., p. 99 and 239).

[257] Ἀτμός.

[258] See note 202.

[259] See Aristotle's Active Elements, Introd., p. 247 and p. 259, 260.

[260] AL add: “in the world. [

261] Constellation, considered here as an enemy demon.

[262] This whole passage highlights the mystical side of the alchemical work.

[263] Red. from L: “In cooking, these things show the colors and the quality; because they change their colors according to the mode of manufacture on a lively fire, or on a soft fire; since there is a great circumspection to be put in the (practice of) the art. [

264] Accustomed to the language of symbols and sacred writings.

[265] It seems that we are dealing here with an alchemical interpretation of the hieroglyphics and of the processes implemented by the Egyptians to erect their temples and dig their mines. (see Introd., p. 235).

[266] Guidance.

[267] After the words: "considering the cardinal points", L continues: "indeed they attributed to the Ursa (north) the blackening, to the rising the whitening, to the south the coloration in violet, to the sunset the yellowing . On the other hand, they attributed to the rising the white substance, ie silver, and to the sunset the yellow substance, ie gold. Indeed Hermes, expresses himself thus: The gold mines of Arsenoeton are at the eastern door, that is to say that at the entrance of the temple of Isis you will find characters where it is a question white matter; and at the western entrance of the temple you will find the yellow ore; by digging (a depth) three cubits; half a cubit you will find; an open black layer.Remove it yourself (yourself) and treat it (it). Hear also Apollo saying: Let the sand be treated, being taken at dawn. Now the expression at dawn, etc. [

268] Neighbors of Arsinoe ('Arsinoh), city of Egypt founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus.

[269] Dendera and its temple dedicated to Hathor?

[270] As a result of a misreading, it was translated elsewhere, “three springs” (khgwn) instead of “three cubits. (khcwn).

[271] Here we follow the text of A the sentence, as given in the manuscripts, is not very intelligible; but the words ἀλόγως and ἱερῶν are found on the following page.

[272] The Oracles of Apollo, cited several times in alchemical writings.It was some collection analogous to the Sibylline books and the Orphica.

[273] L adds: “or green”.

[274] Lead and sulfur were expressed by the same sign (Introd., p. 114, plate V, l. 12, and Lexicon, p. 13, article Osiris).

[275] The old positive descriptions of the processing of minerals thus became symbolic accounts for the alchemists (vp 75).

[276] The four letters of Adam's name were taken to express the four cardinal points: Ἀνατολὴ, Δύσις, Ἄρκτος, Μισημβρία (see also Origins of Alchemy, p. 64). The names of Adam and Eve retained a mystical meaning among Latin alchemists. We read in the Biblioth. Philosophers and chemists, vol. IV, p.570 and 578 (1754): “Adam: red earth, mercury of the wise, sulphur, soul, fire of nature — Eve, white earth, earth of life, philosophical mercury, radical moist, spirit. Likewise in the Lexicon Alchemioe Rulandi (1612), p. 324: “Primary matter (18th sense) is the bride, Eve. We see by this that the expressions of the text: virgin earth and igneous earth. etc should be attributed to Eve. There was some clerical error on this point.

[277] L adds: “and God grants him the east”.

[278] Origin. de l'Alch., p. 64 and 333.

[279] L adds: “To Eve, the setting sun was attributed”.

[280] L adds: “about the catalog. »

[281] See above (I, xiii) this axiom, quoted in the letter of Isis to Horus, p.33: The plowman is there named Acharantus.

[282] For example metals.

[283] Oxidized or transformed metal.

[284] That is to say, not possessing the character of a definite, homogeneous being. L, after minerals, continues: "We call minerals bodies without substance."

[285] Necessary treatment to obtain definite products proper, existing by themselves and separated from the primitive confused mixture, which constituted the ores.

[286] L adds, “And this one answered” instead of Hermes.

[287] For the hermaphroditic element, Cp. Origins of Alchemy, p. 64. All this symbolic language is difficult to interpret.Perhaps it applies to the action of salt water on minerals, which it transforms by isolating certain compounds, an operation comparable to fertilization. In chemistry, even today, we say: the generation of compounds.

[288] Red. de L: "The words that it be treated, mean that it is taken at dawn and that it is impregnated with dew".

[289] That is to say, produced by condensation in the still, after reduction in aerial form by distillation.

[290] This is the axiom: Corpora non agunt nisi soluta.

[291] Origins of Alchemy, p. 183.

[292] Var. : Two. — The Greek text will be published only in the 3rd part, among the works of Zosimus.But it was thought useful to reproduce the translation here, in order to give a more complete character to the work of Olympiodorus.

[293] καιρικῶν. “Perhaps astrology.

[294] The word divine art includes the four chemical arts. We preferred to repeat the word art, instead of adopting in the second case a synonymy that would alter the meaning.

[295] That is to say the four books of Democritus: relating to the Chrysopeia, the Argyropeia, and perhaps the art of vitrifications, and the art of dyeing fabrics, in accordance with the title of old treatises preserved in manuscripts (Origines de l 'Alchemy, p. 133; — see note 326).

[296] Red. de L: “craftsmen in charge of minting royal coins and who secretly alter them for themselves”.

[297] "For they were punished if they did so" L. (Cp. Origines de l'Alchimie, p. 23, and Diodorus Siculus, l. iv, v. note on p. 76).

[298] Origins of Alchemy, p. 23.

[299] “The principal and honorable arts. L. — In the hermetic books, carried in procession, following the description of Clement of Alexandria, the treatises relating to metals and chemical industries are not mentioned (Origins of Alchemy, p. 40 and 44). Even today, manufacturers still seek to keep their processes secret.

[300] Etesian stone or chrysolite (stone of gold) according to the Lexique, p. 7. This is the caddy, which is used to make the brass.

[301] The author speaks here of the mercury of the philosophers, which constitutes the raw material of all metallic fluidity, deprived of its own substance, but capable of being associated with various metallic substances.

[302] Unknown substance.

[303] M: αὐτοματαρείῳ — In A it is the botarion (vp 65; see above all the motarion, p. 112).

[304] That is to say by heating in a furnace, with the assistance of the bellows.

[305] It is the transformation of metallic ores into oxides or similar bodies, by roasting, or after dissolution.

[306] Red. from L: “the slag and the ashes. And Marie knew that it was the lead itself, right from the start”. (vp 101).

[307] L: “Or better said the three colors of the eye.[308] That

is to say liquidity. Considered as a substance or element; or rather as the raw material of metals (note on p. 103). — This paragraph is a mixture of subtleties and allegories whose meaning is sometimes difficult to grasp.

[309] Red. from L: “but the color black is only a color strictly speaking and there are several varieties of black; for the color black is the source of all other colors. This is why discourse, etc.

[310] This seems to indicate a distinction between artificial metal and natural metal; a distinction often found among the ancients; for example for mercury (Pliny, HN, l. xxxiii, 32.42. —Introd., p. 257).

[311] That is to say, if you do not transform the metals, by removing their metallic state, and if you do not regenerate them in this state, with new properties, by uniting several metals into one. This is what we call an alloy; but it was assimilated to the true metals.

[312] Above the first word “corporals” in M, a fifteenth-century hand wrote “comment? » which passed in the text of L in the following form: « how can this happen? Above the word "two" the same hand wrote in M: "comment?" ".

[313] Also called gold stone, in the Lexicon, p. 7 (see note 517).

[314] This is diplosis, or the art of doubling the weight of gold and silver, by adding cadmium.

[315] This seems to mean that copper pyrite and lead sulphide (or antimony) are reduced together, previously slagged, that is to say roasted by a dry process, or disaggregated by a wet process, or sublimated in the form of caddies. Their simultaneous reduction provides molybdochalcum, an alloy of the two metals, which can then be combined by fusion with gold or silver to effect diplosis. This whole passage clarifies what precedes, relative to the mystery of the scoria (p. 99).

[316] This shows that antimony was assimilated to lead (Introd., p. 224, 238 and Lexicon, p. 11).

[317] The tradition according to which lead played a fundamental role in transmutation is found among the alchemists of the Middle Ages, as a memory of the Greek alchemists, whom they did not know directly.So we read in the Bible. Chem. de Manget, t. I, p. 917. “Pythagoras says the whole secret is in the lead. Hermes also says that it exists in Saturn (that is to say in lead), together with the complementary natures, earth, water, air and fire. Instead of the metallic tetrasomy, he speaks here of the four ancient elements.

[318] To those who question him.

[319] This whole passage shows how much the chemical phenomena had excited the admiration of the first observers and assumed in their minds and in their writings a poetic form. It is the first germ of the alchemical poems.

[320] Origins of Alchemy, p. 32.

[321] Mummy in its sheath.

[322] This word was translated by sulfur and lead, in the chemical language. Glossary, p. 13.

[323] According to the mystical ideas exposed here, it seems that lead, a fusible metal, was originally regarded as the support of metallic liquidity and the raw material of metals (see note 537); attributions which have since passed to mercury, the discovery of which is more recent. It is thus that lead appears originally to have played in gilding the role later attributed to mercury (Introd., p. 58).

[324] That is, molybdochalcum.

[325] Chrysolith is masculine, chrysocolla feminine.

[326] The liquid resulting from igneous treatments (vp 101).

[327] Origins of Alchemy, p. 193.

[328] Man here expresses the primitive ore; the steam woman means divine, distilled water.

[329] Red. by L. After divine water: “it is bitter; it is also called the styptic species, the ios of Cyprus, the Egyptian with golden braids, and the juice”.

[330] In the Leide Papyrus, this divine water is a polysulphide, capable of coloring metals wet and of dissolving gold dry (Introd., p. 68).

[331] Hathor or Cypris, ie copper. All this language offers the obscurity of oracles; but we catch a glimpse of the meaning of the allusions. There was an alchemical book designated under the name "Oracles of Apollo" (p. 94, note 5).

[332] It is the synonym of Aphrodite, that is to say copper (Introd., p. 104, plate I, l. 6).

[333] L: “by working with lead”.

[334] There is a play on words here, the same term meaning male and arsenic.

[335] Is it a question here of the yellow dyeing of lead (or fusible alloys confused under this name) by the vapor of arsenic sulphides, in the kerotaki instruments of fig. 20, 21, 22, etc.; or perhaps even by these molten sulphides in a certain region of the devices? v. Introd., p. 144 et seq.)

[336] Allegorical allusion to the difficulty of effecting the so-called colorations and transmutations of lead.

[337] This word means at the same time the whole of the four elements, the complete composition and the molybdochalcum (Introd., p. 153).

[338] Allegory relating to metallic matter, considered in general, and to the transformations and colorings that incorporate it into metallic alloys, until total transmutation.

[339] Gloss.

[340] Gloss.

[341] This allegorical language responds to the circulation of vapors operated in the karkinoV (Introd., p. 145). This is what the following award explains.

[342] L adds: “so as not to seem tiresome to you. "

[343] Gloss omitted in L.

[344] L adds: "I have exposed it to you, according to my power and my taste. [

345] The notion of water indeed responds to multiple meanings, among the alchemists and among the ancient philosophers (Cp. Orig. de l'Alch., p. 368).Let us quote again, to shed some light on these subtle opinions, that of Albert the Great, of Mineralibus, lib. III, c. 2; ch. 5, tr. 2: “In metals, there are two unctuous humiditys, one exterior, subtle and flammable; the other internal, retained at the bottom of the metal, and which can neither be burned nor made combustible; such is that of vitrifiable materials”. Bible. Chem. de Manget, t. I, p. 936. This theory seems close to that of Olympiodorus.

[346] L adds: “and impure. [347] According to L: “because philosophers know how to be models of generosity in the domain of true things

”.

[348] See note 399.

[349] L: "Petasius attributes..."

[350] That is to say that he himself possesses each of these three colors, or produces compounds which possess them: For example white lead, white; the litharge, yellow; lead sulfide, black.

[351] See note 543.

[352] Such are the oxides and other white (white lead), black (sulphide) compounds. red (minium), chip (dioxide), and still other colors derived from lead.

[353] This verbiage may mean that lead does not produce brightly colored compounds.

[354] White, brilliant and internally reflective precious stone. Pliny, HN, l. xxxvii, 47, distinguishes asteria, astrion, astrites and astrobolon; congeners of ceraunia and iris.Many of these reflective stones were believed to have magical properties.

[355] Cupellation, which serves to purify gold, is accomplished by means of litharge.

[356] See note 202.

[357] The Greek text of the following ten lines will be given in the works of Zosimus, III, xlvi, 2.

[358] Allusion to the sweet taste of lead salts?

[359] That is to say: you develop a coloring matter, which did not pre-exist in a sensible form.

[360] Philosophical egg.

[361] The sun is gold; the moon is silver: metals that are extracted from ores.

[362] Pyrites. Their treatment played a large role in the practices of alchemists.

[363] April, M. from a fifteenth century addition.

[364] L. adds “white”.

[365] Treatment of metal sulphides with a solution of sea salt.

[366] Are we dealing here with the swelling and exfoliation of pyrite subjected to the action of air and humidity, phenomena likened to the growth of a plant?

[367] The sulphide of antimony may thereby be changed into oxychloride.

[368] Let us recall here that the recipes of the Leide Papyrus relate to two categories, namely: on the one hand, by the dry process, silverings or gildings, as well as gold or silver color alloys; and, on the other hand, by wet process, yellow or white varnishes, as well as amalgamation colors, applied to the surface of metals (Introd., p. 57 and 60).

[369] For symmetry, the dry yellow materials are missing.

[370] All earth or white clay was called by this name.

[371] Delay preceded by spraying.

[372] AL: “young and old.

[373] A adds: “veins and varicose veins (?)” .

[374] AL adds: “midges, etc.”.

[375] AL add: “thunders and lightnings”.

[376] AL add: “ventosities, illnesses, accidents, etc. »

[377] AL, after the word « world », adds: « has two torches ».

[378] AL: “and flesh”.

[379] AL add: “and the stars”.

[380] A: “and the ears”.

[381] The enumeration of these twelve signs does not exist in M. — It is taken from AL. — This description corresponds exactly to the astrological figure of folio i of ms.2419 and the developments translated in the Introd., p. 205.

[382] In the book of the Kyranids, A K. Cp. Origins of Alchemy, p. 47.

[383] That is to say the conjunction of metals in the same composition, capable of generating gold.

[384] In the Bibl. of the Chemical Philosophers, t. IV, p. 55, We read: "the rooster taken for the symbol of natural heat, attached to Mercury, which transmits it to him from the astral sky, from the tip of the twilight of the morning dawn". Is it the same symbol?

[385] There are some disfigured old Egyptian myths here. — Are we to understand that the mole is mentioned here because it searches the earth and thus reveals gold?"Was she blinded by the brilliance of gold, likened to the sun?"

[386] That is, gold; the sign is the same.

[387] Var. in A: "The form of Chrysopeia." — The author plays on the identity of the sign of gold and the sun.

[388] These paragraphs contain a series of inconsistent notes and excerpts.

[389] This whole passage is obscure; it appears to be founded on the opposition of the terms: genus and species.

[390] PC. Synesius, § 11, p. 69.

[391] Obscure allusion to the myth of Osiris. See also the mention of the widowed earth, deprived of the fertilizing dew, that is to say of her husband as Isis, p. 96.

[392] Cp. Originde l'Alch., p. 131. l.7, ascending: “On the dissertations. »

[393] See Introd., p. 144.

[394] The word leaf is taken here for metallic blade; but the glossator recalls its other meaning, which means part of a plant. In L, instead of this sentence, there is: “the leaf is worked in the botarion”; which agrees with the figures of more modern apparatus, such as figs. 37 and 38 of the Introd., p. 162, 163.

[395] Cloth in which the mineral was wrapped, such as sandarac, which was digested in sea water. See § 49 and note 523. The part in square brackets is a gloss.

[396] Or arsenical, opposed to the female sandarac named above.

[397] Var.de L: “If you are not of our race, you cannot touch it, because art is special and not common. »

[398] A. bears Love, ἔρως, instead of Horus: on this word, Cp. Origins of Alchemy, p. 85.

[399] That is to say, the manufacture of gold-coloured metal alloys, the components of which remain united during the melting and casting of the metal, without there being any separation or liquefaction.

[400] Introduction, p. 152. — This text is reproduced here in small characters, because it is given as a development of §§ 31, 38, 40, 48 of Olympiodorus, relating to scoria (p. 95, 99, 101, 107).

[401] This seems to repeat the previous paragraph.

[402] That is to say, as in the preparation of white lead.

[403] This award is truncated; we do not perceive the agent which determines the yellow coloration.