Collection of treatises on medicine

by Gerard of Cremona, 1250-1260

DRINKING GOLD OF THE ANCIENTS

OR

STANCES, WITH A SMALL INTERPRETATION
ON EACH QUATRAIN

To the reader

I wanted to warn here those curious about the hermetic art that they recommend the knowledge of Nature before going beyond the quintessences of the salts and extraction of that of the sun and dyeing in any way whatsoever . For he will waste his time and suffer loss and damage by doing otherwise. This is why I have sent you this little treatise, which teaches all the method and practice that must be followed in order to know Nature and how the elements are made and daily engender various things by their movements which the ancients called circulation, of which with time is engendered the philosophical dew of which is composed the matter that must be taken to make their potable gold, true medicine and physical powder of the ancients.

Take it, then, and uncover it, and work as you will see below as long as you have brought it to perfection, from which you will be able to acquire goods, health and honors. esteemed her slow, hurry slowly.

If Thrace (Thrace,

Annotation:

These two vapors are two spirits containing the four elements, which it is necessary to consider well and profoundly as being the source and origin of all Nature because he who will not have the true knowledge of them nor will Know their true qualities and virtues will always remain ignorant of natural works and of all substances that are in the world, and the Philosopher says: "They err, they have erred, they will err because the Philosophers have not put their own agent, the most comfortable and the most The short way is therefore to quit all sophisticated books and set the mind to consider the effects of Nature.

I begin and see from the center of the earth By the fiery heat of the radiant sun
Bringing out these two spirits, and warring with each other Produces lightning and lightning in my eyes.

Notes:

There is great correspondence and sympathy between the spherical sun and the central sun, and this is what Hermes says at the beginning of his Emerald Tablet, for what is above is like what is below to perform miracles of one thing; for we see that the sun by its nature draws up the vapors and moistures of the earth, like thick smokes or dews and mists, and conducts them upwards until they have met their natural place which is the air, and when these vapors are formed into clouds and these clouds into water which, heavy and viscous,

Then by mutual agreement redoubling their careers More perfect in force towards earthly places Either dew and frost, in various ways
They both go together and do everything for the best.

Notes:

The Philosophers have considered this upward and downward movement and Pont called sublimation because in this action the subtle things are made thick and the massive and corporeal are made light and subtle; so then these naturally different spirits and after warring for a long time with each other, agree with time and make friends, joining intimately together, flying in the air and then descending together in earth by which descent is generated the ~ or philosophical dew which nourishes our earth and makes it germinate and bear double fruit, from which follows

The earth is nourished by it and all that it encloses, plants, animals, marcasite, metals,
And man himself also, who is always at war, Although not sovereign of all animals.

Here, then, is really what this dew or liquor produces for us; now as we recognize that our mother Nature with her workers & among others, that her servant the Archse takes so much trouble to teach us & discover the road and way that she takes in all her works and operations, & as without artifice it works in the same way a single and unique matter in the same vessel, and yet engenders & produces various things coming from a single matter that the Philosophers have named chaos engendered from the said two vapors or primary spirits of which one of the qualities is active and 1 'other passive,

Then more curious and filled with joy,
Rejects of the works by me formerly suffered
I approach more closely Nature my mistress
Asking her for the gifts she had given me.

Annotation:

The artist, after having recognized his past faults through ignorance which blinded him, rejoices that he enters into light and knowledge of Nature, asks her to show him the foundation of this medicine and the subject which causes and engenders the birth of this medicine so admirable and desired in the composition and operation of which he has so often erred, which it grants him as he says: She immediately listening to

my prayer
opens my eyes that nothing had opened
And opening to me from its places (Its operations of which the first is putrefaction) the customary door
Here, here are my treasures, she said, discovered.

Annotation:

O Nature, how sweet, benign and prompt you show yourself to help the sons of science by drawing them from the abyss and the dark caverns of ignorance in which they were engaged, and as a natural mother you deign to open your breast and half-open your chest to show us what you hold most dear and precious, then with your liberal hand you give us more than we deserve because you open our eyes, revealing to us the true male and female matter which produces and engenders our medicine, which once recognized we can surely work.

I know the primary origin of these spirits,
I recognize their effect, strength and power,
And although spirits nevertheless, Nature at my prayer,
Of ​​stripped form allows me to see them.

Annotation:

This is the goal and perilous passage where so many learned and unlearned operators, who have gone astray and lost in this business, take strange matters, the male for the female, the agent for the patient, the dry for the moist, water for fire: especially as these spirits being still dressed in their earthly and dark robe, it is almost impossible for man to be able to know and discern them, but being once washed and stripped of their original and superfluous impurities and stains, one can know them immediately (by the spirit that dissolves) & take from them what is necessary to accomplish and compose the magisterium.

I take them, I join them in equal measure
Inside the egg of a massive crystal, clear and shining
Then from my art assisting Nature
To the rays of the sun (central or sulphur, Arnauld also means by the sun, the fire of the athanor) I cook everything.

Annotation:

This conjunction is necessary because it is the first way and composition of our dissolving water called mercurial and from where it is generated, because it is that which makes the separation and dissolution of the adjacent parts and is named for this effect mercury mercury, and as the sage says:

"it is indeed a simple mineral water which comes to water the earth so that it germinates and bears fruit in its time".

"nam est aqua roris maii, ipsa bluit corpora tanquam pluvialis, et dealbat et facit corpus novum ex duobus corporibus" [it is a spring dew of May (or rather maie) which washes bodies as much as it penetrates them, and whitens and of the two bodies makes a new one.]

O how precious and magnificent is this water; it is named by the Philosophers the water and the soul of the dissolved bodies, without which our medicine and work cannot succeed and have perfection, and thus: First of all

the compost dissolves in a clear wave
Spreads its power and its rich greenness
And from these two the power of the world is born.
I admire the effect and the red color.

Notes:

Truly this water has a virtue and a marvelous power on what is of its nature (because it rots it by degrees), suddenly showing its action on the materials which are pleasant to it, and as if by miracle & masterpiece , it dissolves & liquefies solid and perfect bodies by turning them into incombustible oil and permanent and penetrating tincture, which the Philosopher very well alleges, saying: "aqua ergo nostra incontinenter solvit aurum et argentum & facit oleum incombustibile quod tunc

potest commiscendi aliis corporibus imperfectis". [therefore our water immediately dissolves gold and silver and makes incombustible oil, which can then be mixed with other imperfect bodies].

These bodies therefore thus dissolved are called quick and menstrual silver, which is not without its sulfur or salt, accompanied by the luminaries which we ordinarily call sun and moon, which are the principal means by which Nature passes to perfect and accomplish the generation & to finish. 1'oeuvre,

And for the end of the work, full of jubilation
I give thanks to God, I remain joyful,
I drive care and sadness away from me
And only ask to be in heaven.

Notes:

The Philosopher, having finished medicine to perfection, only desires rest, being very happy with God and Nature, to have no such reward: the end of his work, and does not care about the world or everything that depends on it. , and Hermes said of him: Thou shalt have the glory of the world, and all obscurity shall be removed from thee before the eyes, that is to say, all ignorance poverty and sickness & after having recognized what comes from such medicine, its virtue and his power, thinks only of enjoying the eternal happiness of heaven as soon as possible, however and out of compassion he wants to instruct his brothers beforehand and draw them out of error, and speaking to those ignorant of this art he says to them :

Poor blinded people, who driven by avarice
Seek without any rest the hermetic secret
Seeing this spirit leave all artifice
Breaking all your vessels, have no regrets.

Notes:

sublimated substances and other substances entirely hostile and foreign to our work and to Nature, then afterwards some of them wanted to imagine that with such drugs they would extract mercury and that by this means they could increase the perfect metal; they made various furnaces of calcining, melting, reverberating, and scrambling their said ingredients set to blowing one year, three, five six and with great expense and trouble, even haphazardly of their lives wasted their time and reduced the all to nil, the recovery of which is such: then none of them wanted to imagine that with such drugs they would extract mercury and that by this means they could increase the perfect metal; they made various furnaces of calcining, melting, reverberating, and scrambling their said ingredients set to blowing one year, three, five six and with great expense and trouble, even haphazardly of their lives wasted their time and reduced the all to nil, the recovery of which is such: then none of them wanted to imagine that with such drugs they would extract mercury and that by this means they could increase the perfect metal; they made various furnaces of calcining, melting, reverberating, and scrambling their said ingredients set to blowing one year, three, five six and with great expense and trouble, even haphazardly of their lives wasted their time and reduced the all to nil, the recovery of which is such:

To blow is not the goal of the wise philosopher
To sublimate, to calcine, to dissolve, to freeze
Your poisons are not the subject of the work
Quit all these works, one cannot speak better.

Notes:

If those who are inquisitors & amateurs of this noble science understood and understood the intention, saying and writings of ancient Sages who all say unanimously that the matter of this philosophical powder is common and universal, not known however only to those who are of science & almost everywhere, in every house, that it falls into the hands of all people and is sold at such a low price that the poor can have as much of it as the richest, & that the practice and the work of it is so easy that a simple woman can lead it to perfection, without turning away from its accustomed task, they would be fully satisfied; follows the subject and the name of the material:

One mercury is enough, but it is that of the wise
Who hides life within him and becomes accomplished
It is fickle as long as it has water the image
The vessel of the two holds, being empty and filled.

Annotation:

In truth the mercury substance of which our medicine is composed is enclosed and imprisoned in the body of our magnesia, but those who know it know very well how to extract it in a short time and pull it out of the belly of our lion by the force and the means of our solvent or water so often alleged before and which is nothing other than a white smoke, liquid however, not wetting the hands: "

& fumus ille alums album ille aurum" [ this white smoke is this white gold].

It is therefore a first-born spirit body of nature which contains in itself the four elements, which approaching the form of water, the Philosophers have named it pontic water, which has such form and impression as it pleases his artist give him, of which here is the preparation:

One of these two spirits drawn pure from his earth
By soft vaporous fire dissolves gently
And the other which joins him in his belly encloses him
By the loving effect of a sweet embrace.

Notes:

Here is the point and intelligence that we must have expressly in order not to be mistaken in the composition of our true medicine, because, as I said above, everything that multiplies needs the conjunction of our matter. male and female, which is only known to those skilled in the art; but there are two others which are mediators of the said matters, nevertheless contrary in quality, for one is extremely hot and dry, which is called agent, and the other cold and humid called patient, however after their preparation, conjunction and marriage desire each other, join and embrace so tenderly and so closely together and so long as they are made but one inseparable substance, so that what was fire became water and what was water became fire,

The natural sulfur all around sublimates
Mercury arrests, gently decooks
And with a living poison ceaselessly envenoms it
To serve every body as true medicine.

Notes:

Hermes, father of the philosophers has very well said and argued in his short speech, and amply spoken of the natural qualities of our medicine, saying: our work contains in itself the four elements and is of four double natures, namely male and female, agent and patient, then he declares the composition and names what it is, teaching that the sun is his father, and the moon his true mother, and that the wind carried him in his womb, and the earth is his nurse ; it is quite clear that the wind is the air, and the air is life and the life is the soul which gives birth to and nourishes all our work:

The wet becomes dry, the dry becomes wet
The black of the whiteness will soon parry
The sage after if he wants,

Annotation:

Known and duly prepared materials only ask to come to complete perfection, for you see how our water by the action of our fire reduces in its quality our material called red brass, and from hard and massive qu it was it is made subtle and liquid and:

"in tali dissolutione fit ignis lenis et continuus, donec in aquam viscosam solventur impalpabilem & tota egreditur tinctura in colore nigredinis primam, quod est signum verae solutionis". [and that in such a solution the fire be gentle and continuous until they are dissolved in impalpable viscous water and all the tincture comes out first in black color which is the sign of true solution].

This water is so pleasant & so friendly to this solar fruit that as soon as it is put with it it melts and dissolves gently like ice does in hot water, without noise, without violence, without destroying itself, gently throwing its seed and tincture in it with which it delights and rejoices for some time, after which it comes to sprout, flower and be reborn with a thousand times more strength, beauty and subtlety than it had before. Here then is the property of our dissolutive water, not that of the ignorant who use corrosive strong waters which they call regales, extractions of herbs, roots and salts which, instead of building or preserving, destroy, in short, they don't know where to go or imagine themselves to find our solvent; they go a hundred leagues from their house to fetch the stinking, muddy and foul water, and blind they have at their door and before their eyes the source of life and the clear fountain from which flow the seven streams.

I won't say more about it now, which makes sense understand, but let's discover in passing what the philosophical fire can be without which our medicine cannot come to perfection. I was curious to leaf through and read the books of learned philosophers who deal with the subject of this work, I had them search for and recover as many as I could, such as the sermon of Hermes, the commentary of Hortulain, Calid, Rasis, Roger Bacon, Flamel, the Rosary of Arnauld de Villeneuve, la Tourbe, Albert le Grand, Margarita Preciosa, Thesaurus Thesaurorum, Sinésius and an infinity of others both in rhyme and prose, and I did not find in any of the above-named either marked signs or passages dealing with fire, but at last I fell into my hands a little treatise entitled the major key of Artefius,

"ignis vero noster est minerals, aequalis, continuus, non vaporat nisi nimium excitetur, de sulphure participat, aliunde sumitur quam d materia, omnia diruit, solvit, congelat et calcinat". [our fire is therefore mineral, equal, continuous, and does not evaporate if it is not too excited, it participates in sulphur, is taken from elsewhere than matter, it upsets everything, dissolves, freezes and calcines] .

It is therefore a mineral fire, continuous, hot, vaporous and dry, altering, penetrating and digesting which broods and heats the bath or fountain where the king and queen bathe, which with the help of the artist leads our medicine to perfection:

We can then, Despising the stay and the employment of the estates.

Annotation:

It is a warning which he gives to those who possess and have attained the goal of this so much desired and precious medicine, because by it one can make admirable cures by which one can greatly profit, and recognizing the admirable effects from here it is permitted to retire to a place far from the world and noise, that is to say from the common, to consider with more leisure the marvelous and most secret effects of Nature.

We can rich and cheerful cultivate the heritage
Abandoned by his family, enjoy his loves;
One can marry to grow one's lineage
And praise the Lord for the rest of one's life.

Notes:

In short, he who has this medicine and physical powder has obtained the remedy against all necessity and what was impossible in his eyes without it, he can do and repair without fear of inconveniencing: for in a moment he can perfect what was imperfect. and heal that which is sick, making it sound and fit, as follows:

The wretch, the gouty, and the paralytic
Can without fail here find their cure
Here is the liquor and the physical powder
Which once rejuvenated the good old man Aeson.

Notes:

The Philosopher makes express mention of the virtue of this powder in the cure of these three accidents of life, ladrerie, paralysis and gout, although it is general, but this particularity is cited to imply that the said three diseases are not curable. by way and vulgar medicine, as our Artephius says, and in conclusion I will briefly describe the preparation and multiplication of it, however in a rural sense in order to open the mind to the inquisitors.

END