Ludus Puerorum or Womens Labor and Childrens Play

TREATISE CALLED

LUDUS PUERORUM - "THE WORK OF WOMEN AND THE PLAY OF CHILDREN"

Begins Auspiciously.

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Womens Work and Childrens Play - Version 1 Translated from Latin
Womens Labor and Childrens Play - Version 2
LVDVS PVERORVM - Latin Version

The progress of the work is called the whole work of women, and the play of children. After entering the work, the subtle investigator of divine nature continues the process. Therefore, these words are not fables nor worthy of contempt. Indeed, you should attend to these words in such a way that the texts of the ancient books do not deceive you—for they sometimes transpose words, as the philosopher Apusius says in the book On the Secrets of Nature.

However, a threefold play of children must precede the work of women. For children play with three things:

First, with very old gifts.
Second, with urine.
Third, with coals.

The first play provides the matter of the stone.
The second play augments the soul.
The third play prepares the body for life. For from the flower of blood is made salt of stone, with the first play of children.

Side Note: Blood, salt of stone.

Once this is done, it remains to animate it and frequently dissolve it with its counterpart in water, using the two other plays of children, which are necessary up to the third heat of our elixir in the work of women, which is their task to cook. Let him who can grasp it, grasp it.

Moreover, our stone, which philosophers call "oes," is that in which are the first elements of minerals: and the tincture, the calx and the soul, spirit, and fixed and volatile body. Not just any mercury, but that around which nature began its first operations and determined them by its first acts toward the nature of metal—yet left the thing imperfect. Therefore, if you extract it from that in which it is found and begin to work with it, beginning where nature left off, you will find in the imperfect thing something perfect—and you will rejoice, as the king Geber said.

And this matter from which the stone is extracted is possessed by both the poor and the rich. It is the work of women and the play of children, and its flower is the stone. Therefore, take in the name of God that thing which is not perfect. For nothing can be made from what is already perfect, because the species of perfect things are not changed by their nature but rather corrupted.

Nor is that thing from which our stone is extracted, or the matter of the stone, entirely imperfect—for according to art, nothing could be made from what is completely imperfect, since art cannot introduce the first dispositions of nature. But it is a thing midway between perfect and imperfect bodies, and what nature has not perfected in it—but only begun—can by art be brought to perfection.

Therefore, the philosopher Fledius says: "Since man is the most worthy of creatures, for whose sake and love all things were created and are subject to him—and that thing whose body is not held in esteem, for in it is that which preserves health and youth, and repels diseases and weaknesses from man and metals, and consumes all superfluity—this our elixir operates upon the bones beyond the medicines, drinks, and confections of Galen, Hippocrates, Avicenna, and other philosophers—even repelling leprosy from man."

Hence Albert says in his Minerals: "The greatest virtue is in every man, and especially in the head, between the teeth, so that in the graves of ancient dead, gold has often been found in our time between the teeth in small, elongated grains." Because such a mineral virtue could not exist except in man, and this mineral virtue is in our elixir. And so it is said that the stone is in every person. And Adam carried with him from Paradise the material from which our stone or elixir is drawn in every man.

Hence Arnold says that it was never the intention of the philosophers that our stone should be from the principles of minerals—that is, fixed quicksilver and sulfur—but from perfect bodies in which there is a perfect mixture of fixed quicksilver and excellent living sulfur. When the body is mixed with spirits, it becomes one with them such that they are never separated—just as water mixed with water, because all things are reduced to the nature of their own homogeneity.

For the philosophers would not have said, unless bodies were turned into non-bodies, nothing could be accomplished in this art. Mark these words well; note the mysteries, for this work reveals what our stone is, since the principle of all philosophers dissolved the stone in this way. If our stone were from the first principles of minerals, it would be necessary to sublime it, calcine it, fix it, and finally dissolve it—which is contrary to all philosophers. Thus, they say: unless bodies become non-bodies and vice versa, you do nothing. Therefore, it must be concluded: the beginning of our work is the dissolution of our stone, because dissolved bodies are reduced to the nature of spirit, and are more fixed. For the dissolution of the body is the coagulation of the spirit.

Hence the philosopher Anaxagoras: our stone is from minerals. Hence Liliator says: "From this gold and our gem, from pure gold we buy many things." The philosopher Alphidius says: "Coagulate quicksilver with the body of the magnet."

The philosophers did not mean by quicksilver that which is seen, nor by magnet what is commonly seen. But by quicksilver they understood the moisture of that mixture, which is the radical moisture of our stone. And by magnet they understood the entire mixture from which this moisture is extracted—which art calls our quicksilver. This moisture runs in the fire, and in that same fire it dissolves the whole compound, congeals it, blackens, whitens, reddens, and perfects it.

The philosopher Alphidius says: In our stone, without composition, are sun and moon, in virtue and power, and quicksilver in nature. For if this were not in our stone and compound, they would not make either sun or moon. And yet it is neither common gold nor common silver. Because the sun and moon that exist in our work, without the stone or compound, are better than the vulgar sun and moon, since the sun and moon existing in our compound and stone are living and green—while the vulgar sun and moon are dead. Therefore, the sun and moon in our stone and compound are present potentially, not visibly.

What Our Stone Is Like in Touch, Weight, Taste, and Smell

Mithridates says to Plodius: The touch of our stone is soft, and there is more softness in it than in its own body. Its weight is heavy. Its taste is most sweet, though its nature is sharp. Indeed, its odor, before composition, is heavy and fetid, and it removes the smell from a dead body. Also, its odor is foul and likened to the smell of tombs.

Therefore, I know no other stone that is similar to this one in effect. And in this stone are contained the four elements, and it is likened to the world and the composition of the world, nor is there another stone found in the world for our art. And whoever seeks another stone for our work, his intention will be entirely frustrated.

How Our Stone Ought to Be Known by Its Circumstances

And if you do not understand now, you will never understand the stone. The philosopher Hali and the king in the Turba say: Our stone is found at all times, in every place, and among all people, etc.

Arnold of Villanova says: You should firmly hold that the expense of our most noble art does not exceed the price of two gold coins at its initial purchase—that is, the first operation. However, the medicine must be long accustomed to the fire, just as a child is nourished at its mother's breast.

The same Arnold says: There are three minerals from which our stone must be extracted. From any vegetable, quicksilver can be drawn and emanate, which contains in itself the four elements, from which the physical stone can be made.

But not from excrement. Nevertheless, know that God, the most high creator, has created three principal and most excellent kinds of Mercury by nature:

One in minerals, namely that of the sun and moon;
Another among vegetables, namely in the vine;
A third among animals, namely in the liver.

Side Note: From which the stone is constituted.

From these three Mercuries, then, is drawn the living Mercury which the philosophers seek. It contains in itself the four elements and four colors. From this quicksilver, the Philosopher's Stone is especially to be taken. For the best quicksilver—whether mineral, vegetable, or animal—is that which is golden and clear. And such quicksilver is to be chosen for our stone, because its color is like wind in its belly, as Hermes says.

The Vessel or Philosophers’ Egg, in Which Our Stone Must Be Placed to Be Perfected by Fire and Art

Morienus. If the ancient sages had not discovered the proper measure of the vessel in which our Stone should be placed, they would never have attained the perfection of this magistery.

Hence King Haly says: Know the manner or measure of our vessel of the Work, for the vessel is the root and beginning of our magistery. And this same vessel is as the womb in animals, because in it they generate and conceive generation, and are likewise nourished. Therefore, unless the vessel of our magistery be suitable, the whole work is destroyed, and our Stone produces no effect of generation, because it finds no vessel fit for generation. Hence John Austrius the philosopher says: It suffices to place the Stone once in our vessel, and to seal it until the whole magistery is completed. For what is beyond that comes from evil, because due to excess, the quicksilver is without doubt not turned into red nor into white. Thus, all the rest serves to conceal the art.

For example: In the generation of a human being, the vegetative soul is never placed more than once in the matter of the seed. But if it were imposed a second time, one would destroy the other—due, say, to the rawness of the blood, or the entrance of air, or the superfluity of the mother. And therefore women who expose themselves to many and various men rarely conceive. And if they do conceive, they bring forth an abortion. For if the raw be added to the cooked, the undigested to the digested, they do not nourish the fetus but kill it. The reason is that the fetus is nourished only by menstrual seed and grows until it is brought forth into the light.

And so King Haly, speaking of our vessel, says: Let there be compression in our vessel, and therefore it should be filled to the measure of one pound and no more. For there are winds in our Stone between our vessel and the matter of the Stone enclosed therein. If they are not well sealed, they escape, and thus the magistery is destroyed.

Morienus says: Take an egg, that is, a vessel, and fiery things. Strike it with a sword, and take its soul—this indeed is the sealing. The Philosopher says: Preserve the vessel and its sealing, so that it may be powerful in preservation. For the water which was first in the earth could not flee, but returned again above the vessel to its earth, and thus the earth will bear the water through the mediation of fire, which was first in its own body—that is, earth.

Albertus Magnus, on the generation of our Stone, thus says: Place is the beginning of generation, and the place is made generative by the properties of the heavens, which properties flow into it through the roots of the stars. And what the elemental and celestial powers do in natural vessels, they likewise do in artificial ones—if, however, the artificial vessels are well formed in the likeness of the natural ones.

Here Plato says: Just as through the motion of the firmament there is a revolution of the elements, through which revolution the subtle bodies strive to ascend upward, and what is heavy remains below, so also it is in the work of skilled alchemists. Therefore, the vessel must be well sealed, through which the whole firmament revolves in its circuit. For what is sought in our work is that which comes forth from the elements.

Hermes says: The philosophers’ vessel is their water. Note: under vegetable Mercury, the matter and spirit are contained and preserved by its viscosity.

To Understand What Things Enter into Our Work and Magistery

Morienus says: Know that by tormenting the bodies of minerals and spirits in the Work—namely sulfur, arsenic, auripigment (orpiment), etc., which are commonly known—absolutely nothing is found in them. But our Work, and that of the Philosophers, is most honorable.

Hence Jacob the Philosopher says: It is clear that our Work is composed of body, spirit, and soul, and not from the mineral spirits—such as quicksilver, sulfur, arsenic, or sal ammoniac—for all those are vain and useless, and strictly speaking are not spirits except equivocally. Rather, they are bodies, although they may be converted into smoke, and in themselves have no constancy. Therefore, they cannot be the root of our blessed Work—neither by themselves nor when joined with anything else do they succeed or benefit.

On the Division of the Stone into the Four Elements, and the Property of Each Element Present in the Stone

Johannes Austri, the Philosopher, says: Every body is either an element or composed of elements. But every composition and generation consists of the four simple elements. Therefore, it is necessary that our Stone be reduced to its first matter and the origin of its sulfur and mercury. Then it must be divided into elements—otherwise, it cannot be purified, nor reduced to fine powder, nor can its parts properly enter [into composition] unless its body is divided into the smallest parts.

Then indeed its parts can be well purified and, through their commonalities, well united, and the elixir that is sought is produced. For the experiment destroys its specific form and induces a new species. Hence, after the division of the elements, nothing appears nor is touched except water and earth, because air and fire are never seen in our Stone, nor are their powers perceived, except in the purer elements—because they have become rare and simple, so that they cannot be seen with the bodily eyes. Therefore, such a Stone thus extracted suffices for you to reduce it to the simple effect of its power.

Also, four elements are in it: fire, air, water, and earth. There are also four principles or qualities: hot, moist, cold, and dry. Of these principles, two are friendly to each other and two are enemies.

Likewise, two are active and two passive. Two ascend, and the other two descend. One is in the middle, and another is beneath that. And the reason is: a contrary is not united with its contrary except through a medium. Therefore, what is not contrary is naturally united. For example, hot and dry are united in themselves, because they are not contrary; those two elements, fire and air, unite naturally. But hot and cold are not united except through a medium—namely, moist and cold—because they cannot remain together on their own, since one always opposes the other.

Now, moist and cold can well exist together, but hot and cold gather and disperse what is of the same kind (homogeneous), dissolving and freezing; moist and dry gather and disperse by constricting and moistening.

The operation of the elements, therefore, is simple generation and natural transformation. Thus it is evident that all things are altered by heat and cold, simply generated and naturally transformed. For heat and cold give life to matter, but when the acting forces are overcome, it becomes clear how things vary in their parts—because not everything comes from anything, but only the determined from the determined. For no generation occurs except from things compatible in nature.

Arnold also speaks of the operations and effects of the elements:
Earth dries and fixes, water cleanses and washes, air and fire cause flow and impart color.

Side Note: The effect of the elements.

Therefore, there must be much water and much air, because the abundance of tincture will be as great as the abundance of air. For water is a purifying agent and the efficient cause of the brightness of the whole body and of the medicine.

Side Note: Much water.

Hence it is that frequent distillation is the cleansing of the elements. And just as water is joined with air, so is earth with fire. For earth, when calcined, is fiery, and fire predominates in it. Water, too, is frozen and thickened with earth and air. And although it is one and the same substance, it has diverse effects conforming to the elements. Therefore, our water or our Stone is also called by various names. For water performs two operations upon the earth: it washes it and it tints it. Inasmuch as it washes, it is called water; inasmuch as it tints, it is called air. First, the water is separated, then the air. Fire, which is conjoined with air, increases heat and consolidates and removes the superfluous moisture from the water itself. It presses down and compacts that which is rare and soft.

Likewise, fire and air agree in quality and are therefore hardly separated from one another. They are also purified together like water. When, therefore, the water is first purified with a gentle fire, the air and fire are separated more difficulty and only finally from the earth, which, after being calcined, remains dry almost like fire.

Also, air is better than water, because although water washes the earth and whitens it—producing the marriage of tinctures—yet it is air that tinges the earth, infusing it with soul and fusibility. And note well what I have said, and from your operation you shall have a stone reduced to water and earth only, and you will use the dry Stone for fire and air alone.

Air, to be sure, is the oil of the tincture, the Sun the soul, and the ointment of the philosophers, which brings the entire magistery to perfection. Air is tinted water, and its tincture is fire, because the water itself is the body, and air is the spirit carrying the fire. The oil, moreover, is the likeness of the soul dwelling in the body, and this oil is never extracted from the body except by means of water through long decoction with fire. For water is the spirit extracted, and oil is like the soul in the body—and nothing else.

Arnold again speaks concerning the effects of the four elements.

Side Notes: The elements live from one another.

Air nourishes fire just as water nourishes earth. For fire lives from air, and air lives from the element of water, and water from the element of earth. Fix, therefore, earth and water so that air can be fixed in water; because if you have thoroughly killed water, you have killed all the elements and they are dead. Yet it is true that water hardly rises without earth, and it never rises without the body of a fruit, in which while the seed dies it can give fruit, because earth remains fixed in itself; therefore it also fixes and retains the other elements with itself.

But water, being cold and moist, purifies and constricts the earth, for cold and moist is the constrictor of dryness. Yet it is true that moisture quickly receives impressions and quickly lets them go, but dryness receives impressions heavily and lets them go heavily. Therefore moisture and dryness embrace and temper one another, and dryness is acquired from moisture by partial continuation. Thus moisture easily receives impressions and dryness grasps moisture firmly, so it holds the impression firmly and all fire endures.

Wherefore because of moisture, dryness is prevented from separating from itself, and because of dryness, moisture is prevented from flowing freely. Air surrounds water, clarifies and reddens the earth, and tinges it so that it may be fit for extension and fusion. Fire matures the entire composite, refines it, reddens it, anoints and consolidates the air, constricts the coldness of earth and water, and reduces them to a better complexion and quantity.

Heavy elements, such as earth and water, help with adhesion and rest. Light elements, such as fire and air, help more with fusion and tincture.

Hence Aristotle says: "I divide the stone for you into four operations, that is, four elements."
When, therefore, you have these — water from air, and air from fire, and fire from earth — then you will have full art and tincture. Arrange, therefore, the earthly substance by distillation into moisture and heat, until they come together and join and neither differ nor separate. And then add to them two operative virtues, namely water and fire. For if you allow water alone, it will whiten; but if you add fire, it will redden by the largess of nature and the Creator, etc.

On the separation of the elements in our stone, to be understood philosophically.

Rasis the philosopher says:
Know for certain that the philosophers never understood that our stone is divided into the four elements separately, as foolish alchemists do, as is clearly shown by what Arnold says:
Know for certain that the elements are not divided in our stone according to substance, but rather according to virtue, because no pure and simple element is found except in its own sphere alone.

However, it is true that the active and passive qualities of the elements, according to some predominance, can be separated and divided from one another; for example, when viscous water and its substance are separated, in which coldness predominates, then it is said that water is separated.

But when the more dense substance is separated, in which heat dominates, then it is said that air and fire or the aerial and fiery substance are separated.

Whoever is able to grasp this, let him take it; and whoever is not, let him not meddle with the science and art. Therefore, to conclude:
Our water is extracted from the pure substance and not from any other action. But fire is from the dry substance and not from any other, because in them there is a greater tincture.
As for the earth, I do not care what color or substance it is of, so long as it is subtle, clear, fixed, etc.

On the true philosophical putrefaction of our stone.

Arnold in his Rosary says:
In our work, putrefaction is necessary, because nothing born, growing, or animated ever happens without putrefaction.

Side Notes: Whence fusion

For if there is no putrefaction, it cannot be melted nor dissolved. And if it is not dissolved, it will be reduced to nothing. Therefore, our putrefaction is neither foul nor unclean but is a mixture of water with earth, and earth with water in the smallest parts until the whole body becomes one. Hence Morienes the philosopher says:
In the putrefaction of our stone, spirit is united with body and is consumed in it. And unless water were consumed with earth, the colors would not appear. Also, our putrefaction is nothing else than the mortification of the moist with the dry. And our putrefaction does not happen without moist and dry, because the earth is contained in dryness and cannot by itself arise; the reason is that the heavy cannot ascend above, nor the light remain below with the heavy, by their thrust and resistance, but each is the beginning and end of the other.

Hence King Hali says:
Know that unless you sublimate the body until it becomes water, the water will not putrefy wholly, nor can it freeze except through fire. For fire freezes the mixture of our stone. And likewise, we dissolve bodies so that heat adheres to their depths. Thus only fire changes water and earth from their natures and colors.

How our water is blackened by its own nature, listen to Johannes Austrus.

Side Notes: Black solution.

Johannes Austrus says:
Indeed, our copper, the more it is cooked, the more it is dissolved and blackened, and it becomes a more subtle and spiritual water.

Side Notes: White coagulation.

Secondly, the more it is cooked, the more it thickens and dries, and becomes of greater whiteness.

Side Notes: Red fixation.

Thirdly, the more it is cooked, the more it is colored and reddened, and becomes the tincture of the intention of redness.

Since it is necessary that our stone first becomes black, this is thus proved:
Because the generation of one thing does not happen without the corruption of another. But the corruption of putrefaction does not happen except by the heat acting in the moist.

But heat acting in the moist first produces blackness; therefore it clearly follows that the beginning of our work is the nigredo, the head of the crow.

Side Notes: Head of the crow.

Therefore the philosopher says in the crowd:
When you see the blackness of that water occur, then know the body is liquefied. Then the light fire must be continued over it until it conceives a dark mist which it has produced. The whole intention of all philosophers is and was that the body now dissolved enters into black powder, and becomes whole and one, and the pure water receives the water as its own nature. Hence the Rosary philosopher says:
You must boil that blackness of the water with a light fire until it is blackened in its own water, that is, until the whole becomes water. Then water mixes with water, and water embraces water, so that they cannot be separated from each other.

The unwise and false alchemists hear this and think the water is the water of the common folk. But if they had read the books of the Philosophers, they would know that this water is the pregnant water, which, joined inseparably with its body, becomes one and permanent water.

Hence Avicenna says:
As long as the blackness appears, the dark woman rules, and she is the primary force of our stone, because unless it first becomes black, it cannot become white or red, since red is composed of white and black.

The work of whitening follows. And how our stone ought to be whitened.

Hear the Rosary: Our medicine is one in essence and in mode of action, because it is necessary that this same medicine, namely the white, never becomes red, nor can it be reddened, unless it first was white. And the reason for this is that no one can pass from the first to the third except through the second. Likewise, there is no passage from black to yellow except through white, because yellow is composed of much white and the purest black.

Therefore, since we cannot make medicine white and red unless it first is black and then white, and also white medicine and red medicine do not differ in essence but differ in this: that the red more strongly induces subtilization and a longer decoction in the regimen of its fire. And this is because the end of the white work is the beginning of the red work, and that which is completed in one is begun in the other.

For all the mastery of our work begins and ends in one way, namely by cooking.

Hence Rosarius says:
The quicksilver sublimated from our copper, from which all things are made, is pure water and true tincture. For from our copper is made the white sulfur, which whitens our copper and by which the spirit is retained so that it does not flee. But that sulfur cannot redden our copper unless you first work it to white, because only white sulfur whitens our copper.

Therefore it is clear that the beauty of our air will be as great as the whiteness of the sulfur. Hence in the crowd of philosophers it is said:
In the white color the spirits are united and cannot flee.

Therefore it is commanded:
Whitely the laton (copper alloy), and break the books, lest your hearts be corrupted.

For the earth, when it has rotted and been purified with water — when it has been purified from the blackness — withdraws and is whitened. And then the dark thing will perish, and the man will ascend above the woman and take away his blackness.

And so then Mercury, that is, the fugitive servant, will penetrate the body, and the spirit will be confined in the dry, and then the black, corrupting and deforming, will cease, and it will become white and bright.

Hence philosophers in the crowd say:

Our magnesia, when whitened, does not permit the spirit to flee, nor will the shadow of the air appear any longer. For it itself is the fixed white sulfur, which colors, perfects, and converts all bodies into white.

Hence the philosopher says:
If the quicksilver is pure, the power of white sulfur will coagulate it into white and not burn it, and this is the best thing that alchemists can have and convert it into white, because nature contains nature within itself, and truly they are joined in marriage with each other.

And there is not more than one nature, which in every degree converts its own operation into another nature, because nature rejoices and is glad, and nature surpasses nature, and nature contains nature, teaching it to struggle against fire.

Yet there are not diverse natures nor many: but only one nature, having within itself all natures and things sufficient for our art, because in one order nature begins and finishes its work.

How our stone ought to be reddened — hear the Rosary.

Unless you first whiten our copper, you cannot make it red, because no one can pass from one extreme to the other except through the middle. This is to say: no one can come from black to yellow except through white, since yellow is composed of much white and the purest black.

Therefore, whiten the black and redden the white, and you will have mastery.

Just as the year is divided into four parts, so is our blessed work. For first is winter, that is cold, moist, and rainy. The second season is spring, which is warm, moist, and blooming. The third season is summer, which is warm and dry, that is, reddish. The fourth season is autumn, which is cold and dry, and the time for gathering the fruit.

By this arrangement we dye natural things until they bring forth fruit to our desire, because now winter has passed, the rain has gone, the night has receded, and flowers have appeared in our earth, and the time of ripening has come.

But when we stand upon the white rose, only then shall we obtain this effect, converting metallic and diseased bodies into white by art and operation.

And when you see that whiteness rising above, be joyful and certain that in that whiteness the redness is hidden.

And this redness ought not to be extracted but only governed by fire until it becomes entirely red.

And so it consequently appears that the color of redness is created chiefly from the completion of digestion.

For blood is not generated in man unless it be first carefully cooked in the liver; and after that redness, you should by no means impose any other thing or matter until the redness is perfected by cooking.

For in the time of summer and the fruiting season, the flooding of rainy waters corrupts the fruit, therefore it is necessary to burn with dry fire without moisture until it reddens with perfect redness.

Therefore, do not cease if the redness appears somewhat slowly.

Just as the first digestion of the stomach whitens the eyes, so the second digestion which takes place in the liver reddens all things.

Therefore it is clear from what has been said first, that with increased fire after whiteness, from the first colors, you will have redness.

In the middle of these colors, a yellow will appear.

But that yellow color is not stable, for after yellow quickly arises red, by which plainly our work is completed, since then it will have the power of the male, and convert every incomplete body into true gold.

Hence the Philosopher says:
If the sulfur is pure and bright with redness, and the fire in it is simple and not burning, it will be the best thing which alchemists can receive, so that from it they make gold, etc.

Again on the natural and reciprocal circular proximity of the elements to one another.

Albertus Magnus says: It must not be kept silent that in all things which relate to each other circularly by generation, the transition between them is easier, because they have more affinity among themselves.

Hence it is that silver more easily becomes gold than from another metal. Therefore, Nature wisely arranged that the elements communicate their qualities circularly to each other, so that circular transmutations happen from them, and from the circular transmutation of the elements metals arise.

For example, Earth communicates its dryness to Fire; Fire, in turn, communicates its heat to Air; Air communicates its moisture to Water; Water communicates its coldness to Earth; and Earth again its dryness to Fire.

Thus, in a circle, the matter of Earth desires to become the form of Fire, because Fire, as if thirsty, naturally acts upon Earth and converts the matter of Earth into its form.

Again, the same matter of Earth desires to become the form of Air, which is naturally sensitive to Fire. Therefore it acts upon Fire and Earth matter.

And Fire, which had formed Earth into its form, then that matter naturally desires to become under the form of Water.

Water, sensing this, acts upon Air and upon that matter which was Fire, Air, and Earth, and thus converts it into its form.

Then that matter naturally desires to be under the form of Water.

Water, sensing this, acts upon Air and upon that matter which was Fire, Air, and Earth, and thus converts it into its form.

Therefore, when that matter has been fashioned in all forms of the elements, it naturally desires all at once.

The elements, sensing this and as if quarrelling, all naturally desire to be together because they are active and passive and contrary.

From that contrariety and quarrel, the elemental forms are destroyed and remain under the elemental form.

But regarding itself, that is by the circular transmutation of the matter of the elements, it becomes elemental.

Hence the blessed Thomas Aquinas on the form of the elements in the same body united says:

“I saw and made by art cooperating with nature.

For I took a certain sulfur, which was of fiery nature, and I transmuted it into pure water, which by art I again transmuted into air and water.

And when I wished to transmute it into Earth, so that the Earth might become purer, I found a certain stone, very bright, red, transparent, and clear.

And in it I beheld all the forms of the elements and also their contrarieties in that matter of the stone, not through knowledge but through its power or appetite.

From the redness I beheld the form of Fire.

From the transparency, the form of Water.

From the clarity, the form of Air.”

Wherefore Arnoldus in his Propria 10 says:

“The most blessed father Hermes the philosopher says that metals consist of four elements, and that each element in its matter abounds with the four elements, since a simple element is not given to us.

Also, in the matter of metals it is necessary that the elements have one common matter of bodies, which is common to the form of the elements, so that through them they may be transmuted.

And that same matter which was water is also that of air, earth, and fire.

Therefore there are four qualities or powers proceeding from the being of the elements, and any one of these can be said to be of elemental matter.

And these powers are: heating, cooling, dryness, and moisture.

And two of these qualities are active, namely heat and cold;

Two are passive, namely moisture and dryness.

Therefore there are two elements by comparison to elemental things, namely active: fire and water;

And quasi two passive, namely earth and air.

So as much as active and passive are to one another, they communicate in nature.

Hence it is that one element communicates its quality to another, so that by circulating it may convert it into itself and transmute.”

Side Notes: Proximity of metals

It is also to be known that common to all metals is that their matter is very close to each other in nature, power, and potency.

Hence Albertus Magnus says:
Because in the works of nature, he learned by direct sight that from one origin live waters can arise, and in one part there was gold, and in another silver, yet the matter was one but the place was different in heat.

Therefore, the diversity of the place of purification and digestion of the metal produces diversity according to species.

Recapitulation of the whole work of Alchemy and our stone according to the intention of all philosophers

Plato says: The craftsman of our work must first dissolve the stone. Then coagulate it, for our work is nothing other than to make a perfect solution and coagulation. Hence Rosarius says: Unless everything is turned into water, it never attains perfection. Therefore, one must never use any mixture or grinding throughout the whole course of our work, but only revolve around the permanent water, whose power is a spiritual blood, a tincture without which nothing is made. For in our operation, the body is turned into spirit, and the spirit into body. Thus the mixed things are reduced into one and united with one another. For the body incorporates the spirit through the tincture of the blood, because everything that has spirit also has blood.

For every thing whose root is earth and water becomes dying. That is to say, the earth becomes water, and is conquered by the qualities of water. Such is the solution of the body and the coagulation of the spirit and vice versa. For they have one operation, because one is not dissolved unless the other coagulates.

Therefore, at the beginning of the work, you unite the sun through the moon and coagulate by the sun, for effects will appear from this, since the lower part is pressed down, because naturally the higher dominates the lower.

Hence the King Hali and philosopher say: These two, namely the solution of the body and the freezing of the spirit, are in one operation and one does not happen without the other. The reason is that body and soul, when united together, each acts in its own solution.

For example, when earth and water are joined together, water tries to dissolve the earth with its moisture, virtue, and property, which makes the earth more subtle than it was before and renders it similar in body, so that it becomes water; and conversely, water thickens with earth and becomes similar to earth in density, because earth is denser than water.

Therefore Albertus says in Secretum Secretorum: Know that between the solution and coagulation of the spirit there is no difference of time nor different operation, so that one is not done without the other. Just as between water and earth there is no separate part or time difference by which one is known in their operations so that one might be separated from the other, but it is one and the same operation and they are together.

Hence Arnoldus says: The work of our stone is its dissolution, knowing that in no way can the matter of the stone be destroyed unless under some form it remains.

Therefore, when the first form of the body is dissolved, immediately a new form is induced, which indeed in color is black, in smell foul, and in touch subtle.

Side Note: The foul smell of the dissolved matter and its color.

These indeed are the signs of perfect solution and putrefaction of the body.
Because the active heat first turns the moisture into blackness, which blackness is the raven’s head, and this is the beginning of our work. And so the stone is dissolved into water, which is our Mercury, and is called by the philosophers.

Hence King Hali says: The composition of our mastery is the conjunction or marriage of the frozen spirit with the dissolved body, and their conjunction and passion happens over fire. For heat is its nourishment, and the soul does not love the body, nor is it united with it by any union except through the mutual change of both; and this happens by the power of fire and heat through the conversion of their natures.

Hence Morienes says: Our mastery is nothing else but the extraction of water from the earth, and conversely water over the earth, until the earth with its water rots, which when it has rotted and purified, the whole mastery is well directed with the help of God.

Hence Plato says: Take our stone and press it into thin tablets, and put them in our vessel well closed, and roast it with a gentle fire until it is broken down. And know that the whole mastery is nothing else but to make perfect solution and coagulation; that is to say, first to dissolve, then as the water freezes, to boil it by the heat of the sun.

Followed by the method of projecting.

How our stone should be projected onto metals:
Take the weight of one denarius (a small coin), and place it upon ten weights of common mercury, washed with salt and vinegar and dried. Then put this into a crucible over the fire, and when the mercury begins to boil and emit fumes, immediately cast your white medicine onto the molten mercury. Then the medicine begins to melt on the surface like oil. Then that oil quickly enters inside, and the mercury changes color and will solidify into the form of white glass. Take this vitrified mercury from the fire, and when cooled, take one weight of it and project it onto sixty weights of molten Jupiter (tin). Then immediately stars will appear which will quickly pass.

Then cover the crucible well with live coals, and keep it in that fire for a quarter of an hour. Then remove it and melt it, and it will be very beautiful, white, and pleasing.

Followed by the method of projecting the red stone.

Melt half an ounce of mercury and half an ounce of Jupiter (tin) separately. Then place your medicine on the molten Jupiter, and keep this mixture in a crucible for a short while so that they incorporate well. You should have three crucibles:

One in which the medicine is mixed with Jupiter,

In the second, raw mercury should be placed, about half or two parts,

The third crucible should be empty.

Then the medicine mixed with Jupiter in the crucible is projected into the empty crucible. Immediately, the mercury is transferred to the crucible where the medicine was mixed with Jupiter, so that it moves well and mixes thoroughly. Then remove the whole from the fire and allow it to cool outside the fire. The other crucibles remain on the fire. When the mercury has cooled, the medicine is transferred into the empty crucible. Then the contents of the crucible that contained the medicine are emptied, and mercury is added. Continue in this manner until the medicine has frozen the mercury, which when frozen becomes red, glassy, transparent. Take one weight of this red glass and place it on 44 weights of molten Jupiter; this is a very good proportion. Then do the projection in the same manner as described above for the white medicine.

It should be noted: if the metal is brittle, then you should add more of the imperfect body, that is, of Jupiter or Saturn, if the projection is made on Saturn. In this way, you can proceed similarly with all other metals. And you should know that the addition of the imperfect body must be made gradually and in the right proportion and quantity.

For if you add too much, then you will have to discard it yourself, because otherwise the imperfect and superfluous body will not remain.

Followed by the multiple virtue of our Stone, and its ineffable medicinal effect, operation, and multiplication.

Menander the philosopher says: When you have reached the end of our work, you will no longer need to repeat it, because its action is stronger than the action of fire, in that it wholly consumes, which artificial fire does not do. For artificial fire has wood and plants, and consumes them, but not all things into parts; it leaves ashes and coals behind. But the medicine of our Stone leaves nothing behind in things, but totally converts things from their form into its own essence. Our medicine is like the ashes of fire, which in effect increases and grows in quantity, as Hermes says. And it increases and multiplies to such an extent that the operator must cease from its action for a time, affected by weariness.

And this is the poison from which the philosophers once suckled, with which stones were made alive, whose natures were diminished and reduced to a tempered nature. Therefore honor our Stone, says Hermes: When our Stone has reached its end, nothing seems more subtle than it.

Do not therefore marvel if the heavenly bodies are incorruptible in themselves, since incorruptibility has been found in the lower ones in nature, and subjected to none of the other lower bodies.

For if our Stone stood in the fire until the last day, it would never be consumed nor transmuted. And the same Hermes adds, saying: When I came to its end, such joy was mine as I had never had in the days of my life, seeing that so great an essence could be held in these lower things without elemental matter. O greatest nature of creatures, which contains what fire cannot.

How the medicine of our Stone cures all diseases and infirmities, and the method of using it.

The method of using such a medicine, according to all philosophers, is this: If you want to use our medicine or elixir for healing, then take from our elixir the weight of two florins or ducats, and add it to one pound of some confection (preparation), and consume from this confection in winter the weight of one dram. If you do this, it drives away all bodily infirmities, whatever their cause—whether hot or cold—and preserves health and youth in a person, and turns an old person into a young one, and causes gray hairs to fall. Also, our philosophical poison cures leprosy immediately. It dissolves phlegm, purifies the blood, sharpens sight and all the senses, and wonderfully sharpens the intellect above all other medicines of the philosophers. Therefore, our medicine cannot be valued in worth, because all things are made for the sake of man, etc.

This prescribed treatise is by a certain learned doctor residing in the famous city of Leipzig, transcribed from a very ancient book. This ancient book once belonged to Charles IV, Emperor of the Romans, from which also our Stone was worked and perfectly completed. He also erected and founded many monasteries of various orders, many excellent collegiate churches, and cathedrals, etc.

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LUDUS PUERORUM

OR

Treatise on Women's Labor and Children's Play

Translation from Latin by an anonymous author

Introduction

The Procession of the Work is said to be all woman's work and child's play. After entering the work, the subtle inquisitor of nature continues his progress. The words are not fabulous or contemptible, on the contrary, you must read them carefully so that the texts of the ancients, which sometimes transpose the words, do not deceive you, as A. Pipus says in his Book of Secrets.

Now, the triple game of children must precede the work of women. Because children play in three things. First, often with very old walls, second with urine, third with coals. The first game provides the material for the Stone. The second game increases the soul. The third game prepares the body for life. Indeed, from the flower of the blood, saltpeter is made by the first game of children, which once realized, it only remains to animate it and dissolve it frequently in water with its companion by two other childish games, necessary until the third heat of our Elixir in the work of women which is only to cook. Let him therefore who can understand understand. Moreover, in our Stone, which all the Philosophers sought, is found the first elements of the minerals and the tincture, the lime and the soul, the spirit and the volatile fixed body, the Mercury, not just any, but that around which nature began its first operations by which it determined it to be metallic in nature, but it left the thing imperfect. If therefore you will have extracted this thing from where it is, with it you will have begun the work, beginning with what nature left imperfect, you will find there a perfect thing, and you will rejoice, as King Geber said. This thing from which the stone is extracted, the poor as much as the rich possess it. She is the work of women and children's play, and the stone is her flower. but that around which nature began its first operations by which it determined it to metallic nature, but it left the thing imperfect. If therefore you will have extracted this thing from where it is, with it you will have begun the work, beginning with what nature left imperfect, you will find there a perfect thing, and you will rejoice, as King Geber said. This thing from which the stone is extracted, the poor as much as the rich possess it. She is the work of women and children's play, and the stone is her flower.

but that around which nature began its first operations by which it determined it to metallic nature, but it left the thing imperfect. If therefore you will have extracted this thing from where it is, with it you will have begun the work, beginning with what nature left imperfect, you will find there a perfect thing, and you will rejoice, as King Geber said. This thing from which the stone is extracted, the poor as much as the rich possess it. She is the work of women and children's play, and the stone is her flower. there you will find a perfect thing, and you will rejoice, as King Geber said. This thing from which the stone is extracted, the poor as much as the rich possess it. She is the work of women and children's play, and the stone is her flower. there you will find a perfect thing, and you will rejoice, as King Geber said. This thing from which the stone is extracted, the poor as much as the rich possess it. She is the work of women and children's play, and the stone is her flower.

So take in the name of God, this thing which is not perfect. Of a perfect thing, indeed, nothing can be done, because the species of perfect things do not change their nature, but they can be corrupted. This thing from which we extract our Stone, or the matter of the Stone, is not deeply imperfect, because, by Art, of such an imperfection nothing could be done since Art cannot annihilate the first dispositions of nature. This thing is a middle thing between perfect and imperfect bodies. What nature has not perfected in her, but only begun, by Art can be brought to perfection. Also the Philosopher Fludius says: man is the most worthy of creatures for whom by favor and love all things have been built and subjugated. Also this thing from which the body receives no esteem, nevertheless has in it that which preserves health and youth, which drives out languor and diseases of man and metals and consumes all superfluity. This is all our Elixir does, and better than any medicines, potions, and concoctions of Galen, Hypocrates, Avicenna, and other Philosophers; also he expels leprosy from man. Of this thing, Albert the Great says, in his Minerals, that a very great virtue is found in every man and especially in the head, between his teeth, so that nowadays, one has often found in ancient burials, gold in small and oblong grains between the teeth of the dead. This would be impossible if in man were not some mineral virtue, which is in our Elixir. This is why the Stone is said to be in every man. Adam brought it with him from Paradise and from this matter in each man we must extract our Stone or Elixir.

For this Arnoldus says:

"that it was never the intention of the Philosophers that our Stone was by the mineral principles namely quicksilver and sulfur (vulgar). But in the perfect bodies where there is a perfect commixture between this living moon and this excellent living sulfur."

When the body is mixed with the spirits, it becomes a single thing with them, so that one never separates from the other, just like water mixed with water, because the whole has been returned to the nature of its homogeneity. And if it were not, the Philosophers would not have said that if the bodies are not converted into incorporeal, nothing will be done in this Art. Note well these words, seal the mysteries: because in this Work is declared what is our Stone since the Principle of the Philosophers is to dissolve the Stone thus. If our Stone was composed by the first mineral principles, it would be necessary to sublimate it, calcine it, fix it and finally dissolve it, which is contrary to every Philosopher because they say that if the bodies do not become incorporeal, you will obtain nothing. In conclusion, we must therefore say that the principle of our Work is the solution of our stone because the dissolved bodies are reduced to the nature of spirits and are better fixed. So the solution of the body is the coagulation of the spirit.

From there, the Philosopher Anaxagoras says that:

"our Stone is a sublime sun and returned to the greatest mineral virtue".

From where Liliator says:

"from this gold and precious gem, we obtained a lot of pure gold".

Alphidius the Philosopher says:

"Freeze quicksilver by the body of our magnesia".

The Philosophers do not mean the quicksilver that we see, but by quicksilver they mean the humidity of this mixture which is the radical humidity of our Stone. And by magnesia, they did not mean that seen by the vulgar, but all the mixture from which we extract this humidity which we call our quicksilver. This moisture, in truth, runs in the fire and, in the same fire,

Alphidius the Philosopher says:

"In our Stone or compound, are the Sun and the Moon in virtue and power, and quicksilver in nature; for if these things were not in our Stone and compound, there would be neither Sun nor Moon".

And yet, it is not common gold nor common silver, because this Sun and this Moon which are in our Work, that is to say in Stone or compound, are better than those of the vulgar. Indeed, the Sun and Moon which are in our compound are bright and green, while those of the vulgar are dead. The Sun and the Moon of our Stone or compound are there in potency and not visibly.

Our Stone, what it is to the touch, weight, taste and smell.

Mithridates says to Plodius:

"The touch of our stone is delicate and there is more delicacy in it than in its body. Its taste is very sweet although its nature is acid".

In fact, its smell, before making it, is heavy and fetid, and it takes on the smell of a dead body. Also its smell is bad and likened to that of sepulchres. His weight is serious. I have never known another stone like it in effect. In this Stone are contained the four elements. It is similar to the world and to the composition of the world. In this world, there is no other stone for our Art and whoever will have sought another stone for our Work, will be entirely frustrated in his intentions.

How our Stone must title recognized by the circumstances.

And if you don't understand our Stone by this means, you will never hear it. Hali, Philosopher and King says in the Peat:

"Our Stone is at all times and in all places, with every man, etc..."

Arnauld de Villeneuve says:

"Keep it certain that the expenses of our very noble Art do not exceed the price of two gold coins at its first acquisition, that is to say operation. However, this medicine must become accustomed to fire, just as the child is fed on his mother's breast".

Arnaud also says:

"There are three mines from which we must extract our Stone. From any vegetable, we can extract and bring out a quicksilver which has in itself the four elements of which we can make our physical Stone; in truth, we cannot extract it from anything else. Know, truly, that God the Most High Creator, naturally made three principal and very excellent Mercurys. say in the vine. The third is in the animals, namely in the liver".

From these three Mercurys, therefore, we extract the living Mercury that the Philosophers sought, which possesses in itself the four elements and the four colors. To make the Stone of the Philosophers one takes especially this quicksilver. Indeed, this mineral, vegetable or animal quicksilver is golden and clear and it is the best. Such bright silver is taken for our Stone, because its color is like the wind in its belly, as Hermes says.

Of the vase or egg of the Philosophers in which our Stone must be placed so that by fire and Art it may be perfected.

Morien said:

"If the ancient Sages had not found the quantity of the vase in which our Stone must be put, they would never have reached the perfection of this Magisterium. Then King Hali said: "Know the measure or the degree of the vase of our Work, because the vase is the root and the Principle of our Magisterium. And this vessel is like the womb in animals, because in it they engender and conceive and also generation is nourished there. For this, if the vessel of our magisterium is not suitable, the whole work is destroyed and our Stone does not produce the effect of generation because it does not find the vessel proper to generation". Then Jean Auster, Philosopher, says:

"You just have to put the Stone once in our vase and as long as it is closed, the magisterium will be accomplished. But what is too big comes evil, no doubt because quicksilver does not change into red or white. Everything else that is said about it is to hide the Art".

An example. For the generation of man, the vegetative lime is never introduced with seed matter except once. If, on the contrary, it were introduced a second time, then one would destroy the other by the crudity of the blood or by the actual entry, or by the superabundance of matter. Thus, women who submit to a large number of different men rarely conceive. And if they conceive, they give birth to an abortion, because if one submits raw things to others, undigested to digested, they do not nourish the fetus but kill it. The reason is that the fetus feeds only on menstrual semen and grows until it comes to light.

Also King Hali, speaking of our vase, says:

"Given our vase is made the passion, that we put therefore up to the measure of a pound and no more, because in our Stone there are winds, contained between our vase and the matter of the Stone which, if they have not been well locked up, emerge from it so that the magisterium is annihilated".

Morien says:

"Take the egg, that is to say the vase and the igneous things. Strike with a sword and collect its soul: indeed, that is closure".

The Philosopher says:

"Keep the vessel and its bond so that it may be powerful in conservation. For the water which before was in the earth and could not escape, now has returned to its earth in the highest parts of the vessel, so the earth begets, by means of fire, the water which before was in its body, that is to say in the earth".

Albert the Great also said, on the generation of our Stone:

"The place is the Principle of generation and the place engenders it by the properties of the sky which influence it by the roots of the stars. And what the elemental and celestial virtues do in the natural vases, they also do it in the artificial vases, on the condition however that the artificial ones are well formed, in the manner of the natural ones".

Here Plato says:

"As by the movement of the firmament, the revolution of the elements takes place, (By this revolution the subtle bodies strive to rise upwards, while what is heavy remains below.) so it is in the work of the expert alchemists. It is therefore necessary to fortify the vase by which all the firmament is resolved in its narrow circuit. Indeed, what we seek in our Work, comes from the elements".

Hermes says:

"The vase of the Philosophers is their water. Note the subvegetal Mercury, which contains and preserves matter and spirits by its viscosity".

To know the things that enter into the work and into our Magisterium.

Morien says:

"Know that those who, in the work, martyr the bodies of minerals and spirits, that is to say sulphur, arsenic, orpiment and others of the vulgar, those do not find anything deep in them. But our Work is Philosophers and it is honourable".

From which the Philosopher James says:

"It is evident that our Work is composed of body, spirit and soul, and not of mineral spirits like quicksilver, sulphur, arsenic or salt armonia because these things are vain and useless and are not spirits, if not by equivocation, for these things are bodies although they become smoke. Besides, they do not possess constancy, therefore they cannot be the root in our blessed Work , neither on their own, nor with an adjuvant:

Of the division of Stone in the quartet of elements. And of the property of any element which is in the Stone divided into four elements.

The Philosopher Jean Auster says:

"Every body is an element or a compound of elements and every composition and generation consists of the four simple elements. This is why it is necessary that our Stone should have been reduced to its first sulphurous and mercurial matter and origin. After that it must be divided into elements, otherwise it could not be purified or broken, and its parts would have no ingrest power if its body were not divided into small parts".

That one thus purifies its parts well, and that those are well joined with the communes, thus operates the Elixir which one seeks. For experience destroys its specific form and introduces a new species. For this, after the division of the elements, nothing of them is seen, nor touched, except water and earth: because air and fire are never seen in our Stone, nor are their virtues felt except in the purer elements, and because they have become more rarefied and simple they cannot be seen with bodily eyes. Therefore, this extracted stone is enough for you provided that you reduce it to the simple effect of its virtue.

Likewise, in it are the four elements ie fire, air, water, earth. There are found the four principles or qualities: hot, moist, cold, and dry, of which two are friends and two enemies, two are passive and two are active, two ascend and two descend. One is in the middle and the other below that one. The reason is that the opposite does not unite with its opposite, except through an intermediary. Therefore, what is not contrary is united by itself. The hot and the dry unite of themselves because they are in no way contrary and these two elements, fire and air, unite well by themselves; but the heat and the cold do not unite except through an intermediary, that is to say through the humid and the cold, because they cannot stay together by themselves, one being always constrained by the other. The damp and the cold remain well together; hot and cold aggregate and disaggregate homogeneous things, but not heterogeneous ones, by dissolving and congealing. The wet and the dry aggregate and disintegrate by squeezing and wetting. The operation of the elements, therefore, is a simple generation and a natural mutation. Therefore, it is evident that all things are varied by the operation of hot and cold. They are very simply generated and transformed naturally. Hot and cold enliven matter. When the agents are defeated, it becomes obvious what the variable parts are made of, because we do not make anything out of anything,

In the same way Arnauld says, on the operations and the effects of the elements The earth dries up and fixes, the water cleans and washes, the air and the fire moreover make flow and dye. There must therefore be a lot of water, a lot of air, because there will be as much abundance of tincture as there will have been an abundance of air. Water indeed is a purifier, and it is the cause which makes the clarity of the whole body and of medicine; where it comes from that frequent distillations are the cleansing of the elements.

As water unites with earth, earth unites with fire; for charred earth is aflame and fire predominates in it, just as water is congealed and thickened with earth and air, and this though it is one substance which has different effects in accordance with the elements. So our water too, in our Stone, is called by different names.

Two waters act on the earth to wash and dye it. Since it washes, it is called water, since it dyes it is called air. First the water is separated, then the air; the fire, on the other hand, which is joined to the air, increases the heat and strengthens it, and it removes the superfluous moisture from the same water. It compresses and compacts what is rarefied and soft.

Likewise fire and air agree in quality, therefore they are difficult to separate from each other. Also they are purified together like water. While the water is first cleansed by a light fire, the air and the fire separate with great difficulty from the earth which, after it has been calcined, remains dry Almost like fire. Similarly, the air is better than the water, for although the water bathes the earth and whitens it by marrying the tinctures, yet the air tints the earth and infuses it with soul and fusibility. Mark well what I have said, and you will have the Stone in your Work of water and earth only, and you will use the dry Stone of fire and air only. the air really is oil, tincture, Sun, soul and ointment of the Philosophers which perfects the whole magisterium. The air is tinted water and its tincture is fire because the same water is body and the air is the spirit that carries fire. But the oil is likeness of soul which exists in the body, and this oil is never extracted from the body except by means of water, by long decoction. Indeed, water is an extracted spirit. The oil is like the soul in the body and nothing else. water is an extracted spirit. The oil is like the soul in the body and nothing else. water is an extracted spirit. The oil is like the soul in the body and nothing else.

Similarly, Arnauld says again of the effects of the four elements.

Air nourishes fire as water nourishes earth. Indeed, fire lives on air and air lives on the element of water, and water on the element of earth. So fix the earth and the water so that the air can fix itself in water, because if you have killed the water well, you have killed all the elements, and they are dead. Nevertheless, water does not appear without the earth, and a fruit never arises without a body in which, while it dies, the seed can give the fruit, because the earth remains fixed in itself, also it fixes with itself and retains the other elements. the water in truth, since it is cold and humid, purifies the earth and thickens it, because the cold and humid is the thickener of dryness. However, the wet is quick to receive an impression and quickly gets rid of it, also the dry and the humid unite and temper each other reciprocally. The dry acquires moisture by continuance of the parts, just as the moist easily receives and acquires an impression of the dry which holds the imprint firmly and endures any fire. Thus the wet defends the dry from its separation and the dry defends the wet from its malleability, while the air surrounds the water, clarifies and reddens the earth and tints it so that it is suitable for extension and fusion. Fire ripens any compound, it subtilizes and reddens, greases and strengthens the air, tightens the coldness of earth and water, and brings back to a better complexion, it gives quantity just as the moist easily receives and acquires an impression of the dry, which holds the impression firmly and endures all fire. Thus the wet defends the dry from its separation and the dry defends the wet from its malleability, while the air surrounds the water, clarifies and reddens the earth and tints it so that it is suitable for extension and fusion.

Fire ripens any compound, it subtilizes and reddens, greases and strengthens the air, tightens the coldness of earth and water, and brings back to a better complexion, it gives quantity just as the moist easily receives and acquires an impression of the dry, which holds the impression firmly and endures all fire. Thus the wet defends the dry from its separation and the dry defends the wet from its malleability, while the air surrounds the water, clarifies and reddens the earth and tints it so that it is suitable for extension and fusion. Fire ripens any compound, it subtilizes and reddens, greases and strengthens the air, tightens the coldness of earth and water, and brings back to a better complexion, it gives quantity clarifies and rubifies the earth and the complexion so that it is suitable for extension and fusion. Fire ripens any compound, it subtilizes and reddens, greases and strengthens the air, tightens the coldness of earth and water, and brings back to a better complexion, it gives quantity clarifies and rubifies the earth and the complexion so that it is suitable for extension and fusion. Fire ripens any compound, it subtilizes and reddens, greases and strengthens the air, tightens the coldness of earth and water, and brings back to a better complexion, it gives quantity

The heavy elements, which are earth and water, are for fixity and stillness. Light elements are more useful for fusing and dyeing. From which Aristotle says:

"I will divide the Stone for you into four operations, that is to say four elements. When, therefore, you have had water from air, air from fire and fire from earth, then you will have the complete Art and the tincture. Arrange therefore the earthy substance by distillation into moisture and heat until they meet and are no longer in disagreement or separate. I will then add two operative virtues, namely water and fire, for if you you have mixed water only, it will whiten, and if you have added fire it will redden by the bounty of nature and the Creator etc..".

Of the separation of the elements in our Stone that we must understand philosophically.

The Philosopher Rasis says:

"Know in truth that none of the philosophers has heard that our Stone is divided separately into the four elements, as fools do..."

and as it follows from what Arnauld says:

"Know in truth that in our Stone the elements are not divided according to substance but according to virtue, because an element is never found pure and simple, unless it is in its sphere".

It happens, however, that the active and passive qualities of the elements, according to some predominance, can reciprocally separate and divide, as for example during the separation of sticky water and its substance where coldness predominates; then we say that the water is separated. But if one separates the deeper substance where heat predominates, then one says that air and fire are separated and one speaks of aerial or igneous substance. Let him who can understand understand, and who cannot, that he does not interfere in Science and in Art. In conclusion, it must be said:

"Our water is extracted from the substance of the hand (sic) and not from another, because in these there is more tincture. As for the earth, I do not think of any color or substance until it is subtle, clear, fixed, etc...".

Of the true philosophical putrefaction of our Pierre.

Arnaud in his Rosary says:

"In our Work, putrefaction is necessary, because there is nothing that does not have birth or growth or soul except after putrefaction. If the body has not been putrefied, it cannot be melted or dissolved, and if it has not been dissolved, it will be annihilated".

Our putrefaction, therefore, is neither sordid nor filthy, but it is at least a commixtion of water with earth and earth with water until the body becomes a single thing. Here the Philosopher Morien says:

"In the putrefaction of our bronze, the spirits are put in the body and dry up there. And if the water is not dried up with the earth, the colors will not appear".

So our putrefaction is nothing but the death of the wet with the dry. And our putrefaction does not happen without the wet and the dry, because the earth is kept dry and cannot rise by itself. The reason is that heavy things cannot rise up, nor light things stay down with heavy things and be moved down without their help; but both are the beginning and the end of each other.

From there King Hali says:

"Know that if you have not sublimated the body until it becomes water, the water will not become completely putrid, nor will it be able to freeze except by fire".

Indeed the fire freezes the commixtion of our Stone. And similarly, we dissolve the bodies so that the heat adheres to their depth. And thus only fire transforms water and earth of their natures and colors.

How our water is blackened by its nature, hear Jean Auster.

Jean Auster says:

"First, in truth, the more our brass is cooked and the more it blackens and dissolves, and the more it becomes subtle and spiritual water. Secondly, the more it is cooked and the more it thickens and dries up becoming of a great whiteness. Third, the more it is cooked and the more it becomes colored and reddened, becoming a tincture of more intense redness".

It is necessary that our Stone first become black, which is proven thus: the generation of one only happens by the corruption of the other. But corruption by putrefaction only happens by heat acting in the moist. Now, heat acting in the moist first creates darkness: thus it becomes evident that the beginning of our Work is darkness and the crow's head.

"When you have seen the blackness come to this water, then know that the body is liquefied. It is then expedient to continue a light fire on the same until it has known a tenebrous mist which it will have generated. The intention of all the Philosophers has always been that the body now dissolved in black powder, enter into its water so that the whole becomes one thing, and pure water welcomes water as its own nature. " The Rosary of the Philosophers says : "This blackness of water must be cooked by a light fire until it is blackened in its water, that is to say until the whole becomes water. Then

indeed

,water mixes with water and water takes in water so that they cannot separate from each other".

The false alchemists and the ignorant, on hearing water, believe that it is the water of the vulgar. But if they had read the books of the Philosophers, they would certainly know that this water is pregnant with childbirth. This one however, without its body with which it was conjoined remains only one permanent water.

From there Avicenna says:

"Until darkness is apparent, the dark woman dominates, and she is the first force of our Stone; because if she does not become black before, she will not become white or red, because red has been composed by white and black".

There follows the work of laundering and how our Stone should be laundered.

Listen to the Rosary:

​​"Our medicine is unique in essence and in action and it is necessary that this medicine, namely the white one, cannot become red nor redden, if previously it was not white; and this because no one can pass from the first to the third degree except through the second".

Thus there is no transition from black to citrine except by white because citrine was composed of very pure black and a lot of white. Therefore, we cannot make this white and red medicine if before it was not black and then afterwards whitened. The white and the red medicine do not differ from each other in essence, but they differ in that the red has a greater sutiliation and a longer cooking time in the regime of its fire. And this is because the end of the white work is the beginning of the red work, and what was perfect in one must be started in the other. Indeed, all our magisterium begins and is perfected in a single way, that is to say by cooking.

The Rosary says:

"The sublime quicksilver of our brass, from which all things are made, is pure water and a true tincture. Of our brass is made the white sulfur which whitens our brass and from which the spirit is restrained so that it does not flee. But this sulfur cannot redden our brass if it has not previously worked to white, for only white sulfur whitens our brass. Therefore it is clear that our brass will be so much the more beautiful as the sulfur has been white. ".

Hence in Peat yew it is said:

"The spirits are united in the color white because they cannot flee".

This is why it is recommended:

"Whiten the brass and tear up your books, lest your hearts be corrupted".

Indeed, the earth putrefies and cleans itself with water. And when it's been cleansed, the blackness will go away and it'll be white. And now the tenebrous one will perish, and the man climbs on the woman and he removes his own darkness. Thus the Mercury, ie the fugitive serf, will penetrate the body and the spirits will be constrained in the dryness and then will cease the corrupting and deformed black and it will be made white and luminous.

Hence the Philosophers say in the Peat:

"Our magnesia does not permit spirits to flee, nor the shade of bronze to appear later. For that itself is the white and fixed sulfur which tints and perfects every body and converts it into white".

The Philosopher says:

"If it were pure quicksilver, the force of the unburning white sulfur would coagulate it into white: and this is an excellent thing that those who work in alchemy can have, and they convert it into white because nature contains within itself a nature and, verily, marriage unites them reciprocally. encloses a nature by teaching it to fight against fire. However, they are not different natures, nor several, but there is only one nature which has in itself all the natures and all that is sufficient for our Art, because with a single disposition nature begins and perfects its Work.

How our Stone must be reddened, listen to the Rosary.

If you have not previously whitened our bronze, you will not be able to redden it because no one can pass from one extremity to the other except through a middle. That is to say, no one can go from black to citrin except by white, because citrin was composed of a lot of white and very pure black. So whiten the black and redden the white and you will have the magisterium.

For as the year is divided into four parts, so is our blessed Work divided. Indeed, there is first winter, cold, humid and rainy. The second period is spring which is hot, humid and flourishing. Third is summer, which is a hot and dry period, ie ruddy. The fourth period is autumn, cold and dry, and it is the time to gather the fruit. By this disposition we tint natural things, until they bear fruit to the desired point; for now the winter has passed, and the rain has passed, the night has retired and in our land the flowers have appeared, the time for the cutting has come. But as well as we are on the white rose, we will only achieve this effect by converting metallic and diseased bodies into white, by Art and operation. And when you have seen this whiteness rising, be certain and happy because in this whiteness the redness has been hidden. And one must not extract this redness, but only conduct the fire until everything is made red: thus it appears that the color of the rubification is perfectly created by the complement of digestion, because in man the blood is not generated if previously it has not been carefully cooked in the liver, and after this redness there is no water or anything else placed there until it is cooked to the complement of the redness. And when you have seen this whiteness rising, be certain and happy because in this whiteness the redness has been hidden. And one must not extract this redness, but only conduct the fire until everything is made red: thus it appears that the color of the rubification is perfectly created by the complement of digestion, because in man the blood is not generated if previously it has not been carefully cooked in the liver, and after this redness there is no water or anything else placed there until it is cooked to the complement of the redness. And when you have seen this whiteness rising, be certain and happy because in this whiteness the redness has been hidden.

And one must not extract this redness, but only conduct the fire until everything is made red: thus it appears that the color of the rubification is perfectly created by the complement of digestion, because in man the blood is not generated if previously it has not been carefully cooked in the liver, and after this redness there is no water or anything else placed there until it is cooked to the complement of the redness.

It is indeed the time of summer and of fruits, that is why it is necessary to burn by dry fire without humidity until it is reddened with a perfect redness: therefore do not cease, although the red air somewhat delays in appearing. For as the first digestion of the stomach whitens everything, so the second digestion which is done in the liver reddens everything. Therefore, from what precedes, it is clear that, the fire being increased after the whiteness, you will have the redness of the first colors; while between these colors will appear the citrine. But the citrine color is not stable because immediately after the citrine, the red arises, which appearing our Work is perfect; for there will be the virtue of the male which converts every incomplete body into solar nature.

"If it was pure and clear sulfur with red, and in it was found a simple and non-burning ignite, it will be an excellent thing that the alchemists can collect, that from it they can make gold etc...".

Again on the reciprocal, natural, mutual and circular neighborhood of the elements.

Albert the Great said:

"It should not be overlooked that in everything, circularly reciprocal, by generation, the breakthrough will be all the easier if they have conformity in several points".

Hence it happens that gold is more easily made from silver than from any other metal.

Arrange nature well so that the elements communicate their qualities circularly, until circular transmutations are made of them and the elements are made of a circular transmutation. Thus, for example, the earth communicates its dryness to the fire, then the fire its heat to the air, the air its humidity to the water, then the water communicates its coldness to the earth and the earth again its dryness to the fire.

Circularly, therefore, the earth desires to be in the form of fire because the almost greedy fire acts naturally on the earth and converts the matter of the earth into its own form. Again, the same matter of earth desires to be in the form of air, which air is almost naturally avid for fire; consequently it acts on fire and earthy matter. Fire, had made the earth in its own form, now this matter naturally desires to era in the form of water. The water, eager for this thing, acts on the air and on this matter which was fire, air and earth, and thus converts it into its form. When, therefore, this matter has been molded into all the forms of the elements, it will naturally desire to be all these forms simultaneously; and the elements, greedy for this thing, want naturally and almost violently, to be simultaneously in all these forms, because they are active and passive and contrasting. From this contrast and this brawl, the elemental forms are destroyed and restored under the aspect of the elements; but relatively to itself, that is to say by circular transmutation, the matter of the elements becomes elemental.

Blessed Thomas Aquinas, said of the form of the elements united in the same body:

"I saw and made by artifice cooperating nature. I took a certain sulfur which was of an igneous nature and transmuted it into pure water which, by Art, I transmuted again into air and water. the forms of the elements and their contrasts in this matter of the Stone. I do not know from what virtue it came if not from the passion. By the redness, I became aware of the igneous form, by the diaphaneity, of the form of water and by the luminosity, of the aerial form."

Hence Arnauld in his 10 says:

There are therefore two active elements in comparison with elemental things: water and fire, and two passive ones: air and earth. As much as they are active and passive with each other, as much as they communicate in kind."

This is the reason why an element communicates its quality to another, so that by circulating the quality of this one, it can convert into this one and it is transmuted. It should also be known that this is something common to all metals that their matter is very close to each other, in nature, in virtue and in power.

Thus Albert the Great says:

"In the Works of Nature, I learned by my own experience, that living waters flow from a single origin. In a certain part it was gold, and in another silver and nevertheless this matter was unique but the place was different by its heat. Consequently, the difference in the place of purification will have made the difference according to the species."

Summary of all the work of Alchemy and of our Stone according to the assertions of all the Philosophers.

Plato says:

"Partisan of our Work must first dissolve the Stone. Then, coagulate because our Work is none other than to make a perfect solution and coagulation."

From where the Rosary says:

"What is not converted into water does not reach perfection. We must therefore never use any kind of commixtion and destruction in the whole regime of our Work, but only convert into permanent water whose force is spiritual blood, that is to say tincture without which we do nothing. In our operation, the body is converted into spirit, and the spirit into body. Indeed, thus mixed, they are reduced to a single thing and unite reciprocally The body incorporates the spirit by the tincture of blood, for everything that has spirit also has blood.

Everything whose root is earth and water becomes dead, that is, the earth becomes water and the qualities of water overcome it; thus is the solution of the body and the coagulation of the spirit and vice versa. They indeed have a unique operation because one does not dissolve unless the other coagulates. You therefore unite the Sun through the Moon and coagulate through the Sun because from there the effects will appear, since the lower part is pushed downwards and because the superiors naturally dominate the inferiors.

De la Hali, King and Philosopher says:

"Both, i.e., the solution of the body and the coagulation of the spirit, will be a single operation, and one does not do one without the other. The reason is that when the body and the soul are united together, each of these two acts upon its companion. When the earth and the water are united together, the water seeks to dissolve the earth by its moisture and its virtue, its intrinsic property, makes the earth more subtle than it was before; and it makes the earth like itself in the body so that it becomes water. On the contrary, the water becomes thick with the earth and becomes like the earth in density because the earth is thicker than the water."

Thus Albert says, in the Secret of Secrets:

"Know that between the solution and the coagulation of the spirit, there is no delay of time, nor difference of work since one does not take place without the other. Whatever the mode between the water and the earth, there is no different part, nor delay of time, so that one can recognize in their operations that one separates from the other; but there is the same and unique operation which is done simultaneously."

Arnaud says:

"The Work of our Stone is its dissolution, knowing that the matter of the Stone cannot be destroyed until it remains in some form. Once the first form of the body is dissolved, immediately a new form is assumed which, indeed, is black in color, fetid in smell, subtle in touch. Work. Thus the Stone dissolves in water which is called Mercury, ours and that of the Philosophers."

King Hali says:

"The composition of our magisterium is the freezing or marriage of the frozen spirit with the dissolved body; and its conjunction like its passion is made on fire. Heat is its nourishment, and the soul neither loves the body nor unites with it, not by any conjunction whatsoever, but by mutation of the two, which is done by the virtue of fire and heat, by conversion of their nature."

D'ou Morien says:

"Our magisterium is nothing but the extraction of water from the earth and vice versa, it is the return of water to the earth until the earth putrefies with its own water. And when it has been putrefied, then purified, the whole magisterium, with the help of God, will have been well conducted."

De la Plato says:

"Take our Stone and put it in thin strips, place it in our tightly closed vessel and give it plenty of light fire until it breaks. And know that the whole magisterium is nothing but to make a perfect dissolution and coagulation, that is to say first to dissolve then, so that the water freezes, to cook in the heat of the sun."

The manner of projecting follows.

How our Stone must be projected on the metals. Let the weight of one denarius be placed on ten weights of common mercury cleaned with salt and vinegar and then dried. Then put the crucible on the fire and when the mercury begins to boil and smoke, then immediately project the white medicine on the molten mercury. Then the medicine begins to melt on the surface, like oil. This oil then penetrates quickly and changes the color of the mercury which freezes in the manner of white glass. Extract from the fire this mercury thus vitrified, from which, cooled, one will take a weight which one will project on sixty weights of molten Jupiter; then immediately will appear stars which will pass quickly. Then cover the crucible well with live coals and leave in this fire for a quarter of an hour.

This is followed by the mode of projection of the Pierre au rouge.

Funds half ounce of Mercury and half ounce of Jupiter separately; then place your medicine on the molten Jupiter so that it remains a little thus mixed in the crucible so that they are incorporated well.

You must have three crucibles, one in which medicine is mixed with Jupiter, in the second there is raw Mercury, the third is empty. Then put the medicine melted with the Jupiter in the crucible and immediately throw in the Mercury, stirring well for a good mixture. Then remove everything from the fire and leave to cool while the other crucibles remain on the fire.

When the Mercury has cooled, let the medicine be thrown into an empty crucible, then, the medicine having been removed from the said crucible, pour the Mercury into it. You must always proceed thus until the medicine has coagulated the Mercury which, congealed in red glass, diaphanous and transparent, you project a weight of this red glass on forty-four of melted Jupiter and it will be a really good proportion.

Do with this one in the same order you followed before in the white medicine projection. It should be noted that if the metal is not frangible, you must add a greater quantity of imperfect body, ie Jupiter or Saturn if the projection was made on Saturn.

And you can do the same for all metals. You must know that you have to add the adjuvant of the bodies little by little and in the right proportion and quantity; if you affix too much, it will have to be removed because otherwise the imperfect and superfluous body would not remain.

Follows: Of the many-sided virtue of our Stone and its ineffable medicinal effect, then of Operation and Multiplication .

The Philosopher Menander said:

"When you have reached the end of our Work, you will not need to repeat it, because its action is made stronger by the fire which consumes all, which does not do the artificial fire which has wood and vegetables which it consumes, but it does not consume all the parts of things and leaves ashes and coals: now, the medicine of our Stone leaves nothing in things because it converts them completely from their form into their essence."

Indeed our medicine is like a spark of fire which in action is increased and increased in quantity as Hermes says. It increases and multiplies as much as necessary, so that the one who works in this way, stops this action at a certain point, out of boredom. And this is the poison of which the Philosophers have boasted, with which they have vivified the stones, of which the natures have been destroyed and they reduce them to a temperate nature. Therefore, do honor to our Peter.

Hermes says:

"When our Stone has come to an end, nothing finer will be seen."

Therefore, do not be surprised if the supercelestial bodies are incorruptible in themselves when, in the lower ones, it is found in the nature of the incorruptible and not subject to the other lower bodies. If our Stone were in the fire until the last day, it would not be consumed or transmuted, which Hermes expounds saying: When I came to his end, it was such joy to me as I never had such in my life, seeing that so much essence could be retained in these lower places without elemental matter.

O Nature, the greatest of creatures that contains what fire cannot!

How our medicine treats all ailments and infirmities and how to make use of it.

This is the way of using medicine according to all the Philosophers: If you want to use our medicine by mouth, then take the weight of two ducal florins for a pound of any confection and eat of this confection in winter the weight of a drachma. And that thing will drive away bodily infirmities of any kind, whether hot or cold. It preserves health and youth in man; and of an old man, she makes a young one, she makes fall the white hair.

Likewise, our philosophical poison instantly cures leprosy. It dissolves the phlegm, purifies the blood, sharpens the sight, and all the senses and the intelligence in an admirable way and beyond all the medicines of the Philosophers. Consequently, our medicine is invaluable, because everything has been done for man etc...

The treatise written above was transcribed from a very old book by a certain doctor staying in the famous city of Leipzig: This ancient book once belonged to Charles VI Emperor of the Romans according to whom he had our Peter prepared and accomplished it perfectly. He raised and founded many monasteries and many remarkable churches and collegiates and cathedrals etc...

End of the treatise known as Women's Labor and Children's Play

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LATIN VERSION

TRACTATUS
OPVS MVLIERVM ET LVDVS PVERORVM DICTVS incipit faustae.

Operis processio dicitur omne opus mulierum, & ludus puerorum, Post ingressum operis continuat subtilis indigator naturę diuæ progressum. Verba ergo ista non fabulosa sunt nec contēptu digna, imo verba ista sic attendas quod te non decipiant antiquorum librorum textus, qui verba nonnunquam transponunt vt inquit Apusius philosophus in libro de secretis naturæ.

Debet autem triplex ludus puerorum præcedere opus mulierum. Pueri enim ludunt in tribus rebus.

Primo cum muneris frequenter vetustissimis.
Secundo cum vrina.
Tertio cum carbonibus.

Primus ludus materiam lapidis ministrat. Secundus ludus animam augmentat.

Tertius ludus corpus ad vitam præparat: Ex flore nāqƺ sanguinis fit, sal petra, cum primo ludo puerorum.

Side Notes : Sanguis sal petræ.

Quo facto restat ipsum animare, & frequenter cum suo compari in aquam soluere, cum duobus, alijs puerorum ludis, qui necessarij sunt, vfqƺ ad tertium calorem nostri elixiris in opere mulierū quod opus earu est coquere. Qui ergo potest capere capiat. Præterea lapis noster quem oes philosophi quasi erunt, in quo sunt prima elemēta mineraliū, et tinctura, calx et anima, spiritus, et corpus fixū & volatile, Mercurius nō quilibet, sed ille circa quem natura suas primas operatiōes incepit, & eas primis operationibus determinauit, ad naturam metallica, sed imperfecte rem illam reliquit. Si ergo ab illa re extraxeris, in qua inuenitur, et cũ ea inceperis operari, incipiendo in eo vbi natura reliquit, imperfectum inuenies in eo rem perfectam & gaudebis sicut dixit rex. Geber. Et hanc rem de qua extrahitur lapis habet tam pauperes quam diuites. Et est opus mulierum & ludus puerorum, & flos eius est lapis. Recipe ergo in Dei nomine rem illam, quæ non est perfecta. Ex perfecto enim nihil fieri potest quoniam species rerum perfectorum a sua natura non permutantur, sed potius corrumpuntur. Nec illa res ex qua noster lapis extrahitur, vel materia lapidis est pænitus imperfecta, cum secundum artem ex tali scilicet imperfecto nil fieri posset, ratio quia ars primas dispositiones naturæ inducere non potest. Sed ipsa est res media inter corpora perfecta & imperfecta et quod natura in ipsa non perficit, sed tantu incepit hoc per artem poterit reduci ad perfectum. Ideo Fledius philosophus dicit. Cum homo sit dignisimum creaturarum cuius gratia & amore omnia sunt condita eidemqƺ subiecta. Et illud cuius corpus non recipit extimationem, qm in eo est quod sanitateiuuentuteqƺ cōseruat morbos atqƺ languores ab homine & metallis repellit, & omnē superfluitate cōsumit. Et hoctotu operatur nostrū elixir super oës Galieni, Ypocratis, Auicenne, et aliorū philosophorū medicinas potationes, & confectiones quascunqƺ etiā leprā ab homine repellit. Hinc dicit Albert.

in suis mineralibus. Maxima virtus est in quolibet homine, & maxime in capite inter dentes ita qđ in sepul chrisantiquorum mortuorū inter dentes aurum in granis minutis & oblongis sæpius inuentum fuit tempore nostro. Quia quod nō possum esse nisi in homine esset ista virtus mineralis, qui virtus mineralis est in nostro elixiri. Et ideo dicitur quod lapis in quolibet homine. Et Ada portauit secū de paradiso, ex qua materia in quolibet homine lapis noster vel elixir eliciatur. Hinc dicit Arnoldus, quod nuquam fuit intentio philosophorū, quod lapis noster esset de principijs mineralium scilicet argenti viui fixi & sulphuris. Sed in corporibus perfectis in quibus est perfecta commixtio, argetum viuum fixi, & sulphuris viui optimi, Cum corpus commiscetur cum spiritibus fit vnum cum eis ita quod nunquam ab inuicem separantur, quemadmodum aqua commixta aquæ quoniam omnia ad naturam suæ homogenietatis sunt redacta. Nam philosophi nō dixissent, nisi corpora verterentur in non corpora nihil in hac arte effici. Notate bene hæc verba, signate misteria, Quoniam in hoc opere declaratur, quod sit lapis noster, cum principium omnium philosophorum sic dissolueret lapidem. Si enim lapis noster esset de primis principijs mineraliū, oporteret ipsum sublimare, calcinare, figere, & demum soluere, quod est omni philosopho contrarium. Vnde dicunt nisi corpora, fiant in corpora et econuerso nil operamini. Ergo conclusiue dicendum principium operis nostri est dissolutio lapidis nostri ratio, quia corpora soluta ad natura spiritus sunt redacta, & magis fixa. Nam solutio corporis est congelatio spiritus.

Vnde Anaxagoras philosophus lapis noster est minerali. Vnde Liliator dicit: Ex hoc auro & gemma nostra ex puro auro multa emimus. Alphidius philosophus dicit : Congelate argento viuo cum corpore magnesiæ.

Non intellexerunt philosophi argentum viuum quod videtur, nec magnesiam, quæ vulgo videtur : Sed per argentum viuum intellexerunt humiditatem illius mixtionis quæ est humiditas radicalis lapidis nostri.Et per magnesiam intellexrūt totam mixtionem de qua extrahitur ista humiditas quæ ars gentum viuum nostrum vocatur, que quidem humiditas currit in igne, & in eodem igne totū compositum dissoluit, congelat, denigrat, dealbat, rubificat, & perficit. Alphidius philosophus dicit.

In nostro lapide sine composito sunt sol & luna, in virtute & potentia, & argentum viuum in natura, quia si hoc non esset in nostro lapide & composito non facerent, nec solem nec lunam. Et tamen non est aurum commune nec argentū commune. Quia ipsa sol & luna existentes in opere nostro sine lapide vel composito sunt meliores, quam sunt sol & luna vulgares, eo quod sol & luna existentes in nostro composito & lapide sunt viui & virides. Sol vero & luna vulgares sunt mortua. Ideo sol & luna in nostro lapide et composito sunt Potentialiter & non visibiliter.

Lapis noster qualis sit in tactu, in pondere, gustu et odore.

Mitridates ad Plodium dicit. Tactus nostri lapidis mollis est, & maior mollities est in eo quam in suo corpore. Pondus eius graue est. Cuius gustus dulcissimus licet eius natura sit acuta. Odor enim eius, ante confectionem, est grauis & fœtidus & a corpore mortuo tollit odorem. Etiam odor eius est malus, & assimilatur odori sepulchrorum.

Nec ergo noui alium lapidem qui huic assimilatur in effectu. Et in isto lapide continentur, quatuor elementa, & assimilantur mundo & mundi compositioni, nec in mundo alius reperitur lapis pro nostra arte. Et quicunqƺ alium lapidem pro nostro opere quæsierit, eius intentio omnino frustrabitur.

Qualiter lapis noster debet cognosci per circumstantias.

Et si modo non intelligitis, lapidem nunquam eum intelligetis. Hali philosophus & rex in turba dicit lapis, noster inuenitur in omni tempore in omni loco, & apud omnem hominem &c. Arnoldus de no. villa dicit: Firmiter teneas quod expense nostræ nobilissime artis, non excedunt precium duorum aureorum, in prima sua emptione, id est operatione. Oportet tamen ipsam medicinam diutius assuesci super ignem, sicut puer super vbera matris enutritur.

Idem Arnoldus dicit: Tres esse mineras in quibus lapis noster extrahendus est. Ex quolibet vegitabili potest argentum viuum elici, & emanare, quod in se habet quatuor elemēta, a quo potest fieri lapis phisicus.

Abalio vero non. Veruntamen scias quod Deus creator altissimus creauit naturaliter, tres Mercurios principales, & excellentissimos in mineralibus est vnus scilicet solis & lunæ.

Et in vegetabilibus, id est inter vegetabilia est alius scilicet in vite. Tertius in animalibus, id est, inter animalia scilicet inepate.

Side Notes : Ex quo lapis constituitur.

EX his ergo tribus Mercurijs elicitur Mercurius viuus, quem philosophi querunt, habes in se quatuor elementa, & quatuor colores. De quo argento viuo sumitur, & præcipue sit lapis philosophorum. Melius enim argentum viuum siue minerale, siue vegitabile, siue animale est illud, quod est aureum & clarum. Et tale argentum viuum est assumendum pro nostro lapide quia color eius est sicut ventus in ventre suo, vt dicit Hermes

Deuase siue ouo philosophorum, in quo lapis noster ponendus est, vt igne & arte perficiatur.

Morienes. Si antiqui sapientes quantitatem vasis non inuenissent in quo lapis noster poneretur, nunquam ad huius magisterij perfectionem peruenissent.

Hinc dicit rex Hali. Cognosce modum siue gradum vasis nostri operis, quod vas est radix, et principium nostri magisterij. Et idē vas est tanquam matrix in animalibus, quia in eo generant & concipiunt generationem pariter & nutriuntur. Ideo nisi vas nostri magisterij idoneum sit, totum opus destruit, nec lapis noster producit effectum generationis, quia non inuenit vas generationi aptum. Hinc dicit Ioannes Austri philosophus: Sufficit tibi lapide in nostro vase semel ponere, & claudere quousqƺ totum completur magisterium. Quia autem amplius est, a malo est, quia propter superfluum proculdubio argento viuo non vertitur in rubeum, nec in album, Totum ergo residuum ad artis occultationem in eo ponitur.

Verbi gratia: Ad generationem hominis anima vegetabilis nunquam nisi semel imponitur materia seminis, Si autem secunda vice imponeretur, tunc vnum destrueret reliquum, puta propter sanguinis cruditate, vel aeris ingressionem, aut matris superabundantiam. Et ideo mulieres se multis & varijs viris exponentes raro concipiunt. Si vero concipiunt pariunt abortum. Quia si cruda coctis, indigesta digestis supponuntur, fœtus nō nutriunt sed occidunt. Ratio est quia fœtus de menstruali semine tantum nutritur, et crescit vsqƺ dum ad lucem producitur.

Et ideo rex Hali de vase nostro loques dicit: In vase nostro sit passio, & ideo ad mensurā vnius libre ponatur, & nō plus quia in lapide nostro sunt vente inter nostrum vas & materiam lapidis contenti. Qui si non bene fuerint obstructi euadunt, Et sic magisterium annihilatur. Morienes dicit: Accipe ouum .i. vas & igneas, percute gladio, animamqƺ cius recipe, hæc enim est clausura. Philosophus dicit. Conserua vas, et ligaturam eius vt sit potens in conseruatione. Nam aqua quę prius erat in terra, fugere nequibat, redijt iamad superiorem vasis a sua terra, & sic terra pariet aquam mediante igne quæ prius erat in suo corpore, id est, terra. Albert. magnus de generatiōe nostri lapidis sic dicit. Locus est principiū generatiōis, & locus generatus locatu per proprietates celi que proprietates influunt ei per radices stellarū. Et quod ibi virtutes elementales & cœlestes faciunt in vasis naturalibus hoc idem faciunt in vasis artificialibus. Si tamen artificialia bene formantur & ad modum naturalium. Hic dicit Plato, Sicur per motum firmamêti fitreuolutio elementorum per quam reuolutione corpora subtilia nituntur superius ascendere & id qd ponderosum est manet inferius, sic quoqƺ est in opere peritorum alchimicorum. Necesse est ergo bene munire vas per quod totum firmamentū in circuito suo reuoluitur. Nam id quod quaeritur in nostro opere est illud quod prouenit ex elemētis.

Hermes dicit: Vas philosophorum est aqua eorum. Nota sub vegetabilis Mercurius materiam et spiritus ex sua viscositate continens & conserūas.

Ad cognoscendum quæ intrant ad opus & magisterium nostrum.

Morienes dicit: Scitote quod martirisando in opere corpora mineralium & spirituum scilicet sulphur Arsenicum Auri pigmentum &c. quæ nota sunt vulgo & nil poenitus in eis reperiunt. Sed opus nostrum & philosophorum est valde honorabile. Hinc Iacobus philosophus: Claret quod opus nostrum sit compositum ex corpore spiritu & anima, & non de spiritibus mineralibus puto argentum viuum sulphure arsenico vel sale armoniaco, quia omnia illa vana sunt inutilia, & proprie non sunt spiritus, nisi equiuoce, sed potius sunt corpora, licet conuertuntur in fumum Et in se nullam habent constantiam. Et ideo non possunt esse radix in nostro opere benedicto, nec per se nec cum aliquo adiuncto proficiunt nec prosunt.

De lapidis diuisione in quatuor elementa. Et proprietas cuiuslibet elemēti existentis in lapide diuiditur in quatuor elementa.

Iohannes austri philosophus dicit: Omne corpus aut est elementum aut ex elementis compositum. Sed omnis compositio & generatio consistit ex quatuor elementis simplicibus. Quare oportet necessario vt lapis noster sit reductus ad primam materiam & originem sui sulphuris & Mercurij. Deinde diuidatur in elementa, alias depurari non potest nec comminui, nec etiam suæ partes minime possunt ingredi, nisi corpus eius diuisum fuerit in minutissimas partes.

Tunc enim bene purificentur eius partes, & per communes bene coniungūtur, & elixir quod quæritur operatur. Nam experimentum destruit eius formam specificam & nouam inducit speciem. Vnde post diuisionem elementorum non videtur ex eis quicquā nec tangitur nisi aqua & terra, quia aer et ignis nunquam videntur in nostro lapide nec eorum virtutes, sentiuntur nisi in purioribus elementis, quia rara & simplicia facta sunt ita quod oculis corporalibus videri non possunt. Ille ergo lapis sic extractus sufficit tibi vt reducas eum ad simplicem suæ virtutis effectum.

Item quatuor in eo sunt elementa scilicet ignis, aer, aqua, & terra. Ibi quatuor principia sunt siue qualitates scilicet calidū, humidū, frigidū, et siccū, quorū principiorū duo sunt amica, et duo inimica,

Item duo sunt actiua & duo passiua. Duo ascendunt, alia duo descendunt, Vnum est in medio, & aliud sub illo. Et ratio illius est quia contrarium a suo contrario nō coadunantur nisi per mediu. Igitur quod non est contrarium per se est coadunatum. Sicut calidum & siccum, per se coadunantur, quoniam in nullo contrariantur, quia illa duo elementa ignis et aer bene adunantur per se simul, sed calidum et frigidum, non coadunantur nisi per medium scilicet per humidum & frigidum, quoniam per se simul stare non possunt, cum semper vnum contrariatur reliquo. Nam humidum et frigidum bene consistūt simul, sed calidum et frigidum, congregant & disgregant homogenia & non etrogenia dissoluendo & congelando. Sed humidum & siccum aggregantur & disgregantur constringendo & humectando. Elementorum ergo operatio est simplex generatio & naturalis permutatio igitur manifestum est res vniuersas variari per calidum & frigidum. Et simpliciter generari & naturaliter permutari. Nam calidum & frigidum, viuificat materiam, cum vero vincuntur agentia, liquet quomodo secundum partes variabiles sunt, Quia ex quolibet non fit quodlibet, sed determinatum ex suo determinato, Quia nulla fit generatio nisi ex conuenientibus in natura.

Item Arnoldus dicit de operationibus & effectibus elementorum, terra dessiccat & figit, aqua mundat & abluit, aer vero & ignis faciunt fluere & tingere.

Side Notes : Effectus elementorum.

Ideo oportet quod sit aqua multa, aer multus, quia multitudo tincturæ tanta erit, quanta fuerit aeris multitudo, aqua enim purgatiuum est, & causa efficiens claritatem totius corporis & medicinæ.

Side Notes : Multa aqua

Hinc est quod frequens distillatio est elementorum ablutio. Et sicut aqua coniungitur aeri sic terra igni. Nam terra calcinata ignita est, & ei prædominatur ignis, aqua etiam est congelata, & inspissata cum terra & aere. Et quamuis sit vna & eadem substantia, habens diuersos effectus conformes elementis. Ideo etiā aqua nostra vel lapis noster diuersis appellatur nominibus. Nam aqua duo operatur in terra, nam lauit eam & tingit, in quantum lauat dicitur aqua, in quantum tingit dicitur aer. Primo separatur aqua, deinde aer, ignis vero qui est coniunctus aeri, calorem augmentat & consolidat, & superfluam humiditatem tollit ipsius aquæ. Deprimit & compactum facit illud, quod est rarum et molle.

Item ignis & aer conueniunt in qualitate, ideo vix ab inuicem separantur. Ideo etiam simul depurantur vt aqua. Cum ergo primo cum leui igne aqua mundatur, aer vero & ignis difficilius & vltimo separantur a terra, quæ terra postquam calcinata est, quasi vt ignis sicca remanet. Item aer melior est quam aqua, quia licet aqua abluit terram & dealbat, faciens matrimonium tincturarum. Tamen aer tingit terrā & infundit ei animam & fusibilitatem. Et nota bene quę dixi & habebis ex opere tuo lapidem ad aquam & terrā solum & vtaris lapide sicco ad ignem, & aerem tantum, aer sane est oleum tincturæ, sol anima & vnguentum philosophorum, quod totum perficit magisteriū, aer est aqua tincta, & eius tinctura est ignis, quoniam ipsa aqua est corpus, & aer est spiritus deferens ignem. Oleum vero est similitudo animæ in corpore existentis, quod oleum nunquam extrahitur de corpore nisi mediante aqua per longam decoctionem ignis. Nam aqua est spiritus extractus. Oleum est sicut anima in corpore & non aliud.

Item Arnoldus iterum de effectibus quatuor elementorum dicit.

Side Notes : Elementa viuunt ab inuicem.

Aer nutrit ignem sicut aqua terram nutrit. Nam ignis viuit ex aere & aer viuit de elemento aquæ, & aqua de elemento terræ. Fige ergo terram & aquam vt aer possit figi in aqua, quoniam si aquam bene occidisti, omnia elementa occidisti & mortua sunt. Verum tamen est quod aqua minime surgit sine terra, & nunquam consurgit sine corpore fructus, in quo dum moritur semen, fructū dare potest, quoniam terra manet in se fixa, ideo etiam secum figit & retinet alia elementa. Aqua vero cum sit frigida & humida mundat terram, & constringit, quoniam frigidum & humidum est siccitatis constrictiuum. Verum tamen est quod humidum cito recipit impressione & cito dimittit, siccum autem grauiter recipit impressione & grauiter dimittit. Idcirco humidū et siccū ad se inuice complectuntur & contemperantur, & adipiscitur siccum ab humido per partiū continuatione, ideo faciliter impressione recipit et acgrit humidū a sicco, vt firmiter teneat impressionem & omne ignem patitur. Vnde propter humidū prohibet siccum a sua separatione, & propter siccū prohibet humidum a sua fluxibilitate, aer vero circundat aquam, clarificat & rubificat terram & tingit ipsam vt apta sit ad extentionem & fusionem. Ignis autem totum compositum maturat, subtiliat & rubificat, & aerem perungit & consolidat, terræ & aquæ frigiditatem constringit, & ad meliorem complexionem & ad quantitatem reducit.

Elementa grauia, vt sunt terra & aqua, adfixione & quietem. Elementa vero leuia, vt sunt ignis & aer, plus iuuant ad fusionem & tincturam.

Hinc dicit Arist. Ego diuidam tibi lapidē in quatuor operationes .i. quatuor elemēta, Cū ergo has habueris aqua ex aere, et aere ex igne, et igne ex terra tunc habebis plenam artem & tincturam. Dispone ergo substantiam terream per distillationem in humiditatem & caliditatem, donec conueniant & coniungantur, et non discrepent nec diuidantur. Et tunc adiunge eis duas virtutes operatiuas, videlicet aquam & ignem. Quia si permiseris aquam solam dealbabit. Et si adiunxeris ignem rubificabit largiente natura & creatore &c.

De separatione elementorum in nostro lapide philosophice intelligenda.

Rasis philosophus dicit. Scias pro vero quod nunquam philosophi intellexerunt, quod lapis noster diuideretur in quatuor elemēta separatim, vt faciunt stulti alchimistæ, sicut clare patet per illud quod dicit Arnoldus: Scias pro vero quod elemēta non diuiduntur in lapide nostro secundum substantiam, sed bene secudum virtutē, quoniā aliquod purum & simplex elementum non inuenitur nisi in sua sphera tantum.

Verum tamen est quod elementorum qualitates actiue & passiue, secundum aliquam prædominationem possunt a se inuicem separari & partiri, vt puta dum separatur aqua viscosa & eius substantia, in qua prædominatur frigiditas, tunc dicitur quod separatur aqua.

Dum vero separatur substantia magis depressa in qua dominatur caliditas tunc dicitur quod separatur aer & ignis vel substantia aerea & ignea.

Qui hoc capere potest capiat, & qui non, de scientia, & arte se minime intromittat. Ergo conclusiue dicendo. Aqua nostra extrahitur a substantia munda, & non ex alia actione. Ignis vero ex substantia sicca & non ex alia, eo quod in eis est maior tinctura. De terra vero non curo cuius sit coloris vel substantiæ donec illa fuerit subtilis clara atqƺ fixa &c.

De vera putrefactione philosophica nostri lapidis.

Arnoldus in suo rosario dicit: In opere nostro putrefactio est necessaria, quia nunquam fit aliquid natum, vel crescens nec animatum nisi post putrefactionem.

Side Notes : Vnde fusio

Quia si putredum non fuerit, fundi non poterit nec solui. Et si solutum non fuerit ad nihilum redigetur, Nostra ergo putrefactio nō est sordida nec immunda sed est commixtio aquæ cum terra, & terre cum aqua per minima donec totum corpus fiat vnum. Hinc dicit Morienes philosophus: In putrefactione nostri eris spiritus vniuntur cum corpore & deficcantur in illo. Et nisi aqua cum terra deficcarentur, non apparerent colores. Etiam putrefactio nostra nil aliud est, quam mortificatio humidi cum sicco. Et nostra putrefactio non fit absqƺ humido et sicco, eo quod terra in siccitate continetur, nec per se surgere potest, ratio, ga nō possunt grauia superius ascedere nec leuia cum grauibus inferius manere, & detrudisine suo confortio, sed vtrumque est initium & finis alterius. Hinc dicit Hali rex. Scias quod nisi sublimaueris corpus quousque fiat aqua, aqua in toto non putrefiet nec poterit congelari nisi per ignem. Nam ignis commixtionem nostri lapidis congelat. Et similiter soluimus corpora vt caliditas adhereat profunditatibus eorum. Et sic solus ignis mutat aquam & terram a suis naturis & coloribus.

Qualiter aqua nostra a sua natura denigratur, audi Iohannem Austrum.

Side Notes : Solutio nigra.

Iohannes Austri dicit: Aes quidem nostrum primo de quanto magis coquitur, de tanto magis soluitur & denigratur, & fit aqua magis subtilis & spiritualis.

Side Notes : Coagulatio alba.

Secundo de quanto magis coquitur, de tanto magis inspissatur, & desiccatur & fit maioris albedinis.

Side Notes : Fixatio rubea

Tertio de quanto magis coquitur de tanto plus coloratur & rubificatur & fit tinctura intentionis rubedinis.

Quia autem sit necessarium quod lapis noster primo fit niger. Hoc sic probatur: Quia generatio vnius non fit nisi per corruptionem alterius. Sed corruptio putrefactionis non fit nisi per calorem agentem in humido.

Sed calor agens in humido efficit primo nigredinem, quare liquide patet, quod principium nostri operis est nigredo & caput corui.

Side Notes : Caput corui.

Ideo philosophus in turba dicit. Cum videris illi aquæ nigredinem euenire, scias tunc corpus esse liquefactum Tunc oportet ignem leuem continuare super ipsum donec conceperit nebula tenebrosam, quam peperit. Tota intentio omnium philosophorum est & fuit, vt corpus iam solutum in puluerem nigrum suam ingrediatur aquam & fiat totum, vnum, & pura aqua suscipit aquam sicut naturam propriam. Hinc dicit Rosarius philosophus: Oportet illam nigredinem aquæ, leui igne decoquere donec in sua aqua nigratur, scilicet donec totum fiat aqua. Tunc enim aqua miscetur aque, & aqua aqua amplectitur, ita quod ab inuicē non poterint separari. Insipientes & falsia Alchimistæ audiētes aquam putant eam aquam esse vulgi. Si autem libros Philosophorum legissent vtiqƺ scirent eam rem aquam esse pregnante. Quæ in absqƺ corpore suo cū cõiuncta est, facta funt vna aqua permanes.

Hinc dicit Auicenna: Quam diu apparuerit nigredo dominatur obscura fœmina, & ipsa est prior vis nostri lapidis, quia nisi primo fiat nigrum non fit album vel rubeum, eo quod rubeum ex albo & nigro est compositum.

Sequitur opus dealbationis. Et qualiter lapis noster debeat dealbari.

Audi Rosarium, Medicina nostra est vna in essentia, & in agendi modo, quoniam necessarium est, quod illa eadem medicina scilicet alba nunquam fit rubea, nec potest, rubificari, nisi primo fuerit alba. Et ratio huius est, quia nemo potest transire per primum ad tertium nisi per secundum. Sicetiam non est transitus de nigro ad citrinum, nisi per album, quia citrinum ex multo albo, & purissimo nigro est compositū. Ideo qƺ medicina albam & rubea facere nequimus, nisi primo fuerit nigra, & deinde alba etia medicina alba & rubea non differt inter se in essentia, sed in eo tm differunt quod rubea maiorē inducit subtiliatione, & longiorem decoctionem in regimine sui ignis. Et hoc est ideo quia finis operis albi, est principium operis rubei, & quod completum est in vno incipiendum est in alio. Nam totum magisterium nostri vno modo incipitur & finitur scilicet coquendo. Hinc dicit Rosarius: Argentum viuum ex ære nostro sublimatum, ex quo omnia fiunt, est aqua munda & tinctura vera. Nam ex ære nostro fit sulphur album, quod æs nostrum dealbat, & quo spiritus retinetur ne fugiat. Illud autem sulphur non poterit æs nostrum rubificare, nisi prius operatus fueris ad album, eo quod solum sulphur album æs nostrum dealbat. Quare liquet, quod tanta erit pulchritudo aeris nostri, quanta fuerit albedo sulphuris. Ideo in turba philosophoru dicitur. In colore albo spiritus vniuntur quod fugere nequeunt. Quare præcipitur. Dealbate latone, & rumpite libros, ne corda vestra corrumpantur. Terra nanqƺ cum aqua putresit & mundatur. Quæ cum mundificata fuerit nigredo, recedit & dealbatur. Et tuc peribit tenebrosum, & vir ascendit super mulierem, et aufert sibi suam nigredinem. Et sic tunc Mercurius, id est, seruus fugitiuus penetrabit corpus, & spiritus constringetur in siccum, & tunc cessabit nigrum corrumpens, & deformatum, & fiet album & lucidum. Hinc philosophi in turba dicunt:

Magnesia nostra cum dealbatur spiritus fugere non permittit, nec aeris vmbram vlterius apparescet. Ipsa nanqƺ est sulphur album fixum, quod omnia corpora tingit, perficit, & conuertit in album.

Hinc dicit philosophus: Si fuerit argentum visuum purum, coagulabit illud vis sulphuris albi non vrētis in album, et illud est res optima, quam possunt habere operates alkinam, et conuertunt illud in album, quia natura continet in se naturam, & vero matrimonio copulatur ad inuicem. Et non est nisi sola vna natura, quę in vnoquoqƺ gradu operationem suarum in aliam conuertitur natura, eo quod natura natura letatur, & gaudet, & natura naturam superat, et natura continet naturam docens eam preliare contra ignem.

Nec tamen sunt diuerse naturæ, nec plures: sed vna tantum natura est, habens in se naturas & res omnes quibus sufficit ad artem nostram, quia vno ordine natura opus suum incipit & finit.

Qualiter lapis noster debet rubificari audi Rosarium.

Nisi primo dealbaueritis æs nostrum, ipsum rubeum facere nequitis, quia nemo potest transire de extremo ad extremum, nisi per medium. Hoc est dicere: nemo potest venire de nigro ad citrinum, nisi per album, eo quod citrinum ex multo albo & purissimo nigro est compositum. Dealba ergo nigrum & rubifac album & habebis magisterium.

Quoniam sicut annus diuiditur in quatuor partes, sic etiam opus nostrum benedictum. Nam primo est hyems, id est frigidum & humidū & pluuiofum. Secundum tempus est ver, quod est calidum & humidum & floridum. Tertium tempus est æstas, quod tempus est calidum & siccum, idest rubicundum. Quartum tempus est autumnus, quod est tempus frigidum & siccum, & tempus colligendi fructum, hac dispositione tingimus res naturales donec fructum afferant ad vota, quia iam hyems transijt, imber abijt noxque recessit, & flores apparuerunt in terra nostra, & tempus putationis aduenit. Sed cum stamus supra rosam albam, solum sortiemur effectū istum, conuertens corpora metallica, & ægra in album arte & operatione. Et cum videris illam albedinem super eminentem, letus & certus esto, quod in illa albedine rubedo est occultata. Et hanc rubedinem non oportet extrahere, sed solo igne regere, vsqƺ quo totum fiat rubeum: Et sic consequēter patet, quod color rubedinis creatur maxime ex complemento digestionis. Quia sanguis non generatur in homine nisi prius diligenter coquatur in epate, & post illam rubedinem de cætero nequaquam imponas aliam vel rem aliq aliam, quousqƺ ad complementum rubedinis decoquatur. Nam tempore æstatis et fructuū inundatio aquarū pluuialiū corrupit fructū, quare oportet igne sicco absqƺ humore comburere donec rubificet rubedine perfecta:igit noli cessare quis rubeū aliqualiter tardauerit apparere.

Quia sicut prima digestio stomachi oia dealbat, sic secunda digestio quæ fit in epate omnia rubificat. Quare liquet ex primis dictis, quod igne augmentato post albedine, ex primis coloribus, habebis rubedinem. In medio tamen colorum illorum apparebit citrinum. Sed ille color citrinus non est stabilis, quia post citrinum mox oritur rubeum, quo apparete, opus nostrum est completum, quoniam tunc habebit virtutem masculi, & conuertit omne corpus incompletum in verum solificum.

Hinc dicit Philosophus. Si fuerit sulphur mundum & clarum cum rubore, & fuerit in eo ignis tas simplicis non vrentis, erit res optima, quam recipere possunt Alchimistæ, vt ex eo faciant aurum &c.

Iterum de elementorum naturali & reciproca circularique vicinitate ad inuicem.

Albertus magnus dicit: Non est silendum, quod in omnibus quæ se habent ad inuicem circulariter per generationem, facilior est eorum transitus, eo quod in pluribus habent conuenientiam.

Hinc est quod ex argento facilius fit aurum, quam ex alio metallo, bene ergo ordinauit natura, vt elementa circulariter sibi communicarent qualitates, quatenus circulares transmutationes ex ipsis fierent, & ex circulari transmutatione elementorum feret. Vt puta terra communicat suam siccitatem igni, ignis vero caliditatem suam aeri, aer humiditatem suam aquæ, aqua vero communicat suam frigiditatem terræ, & terra iterum siccitatem suam igni. Et sic circulariter materia terræ appetit esse forma ignis, quia ignis quasi sitiens naturaliter agit in terram, & conuertit materiam terræ in suam formam. Iterum eadem materia terræ, appetit esse forma aeris, qui aer est quasi naturaliter sentiens ignem. Et ideo agit in ignem & terream materiam. Et ignis, qui fecerat terram in suam formam, tunc illa materia naturaliter appetit esse sub forma aquæ, Aqua hoc sentiens agit in aerem, & in illam materiam, quæ fuit ignis, aeris & terræ, & sic conuertit in suam formam. Tunc illa materia naturaliter appetit esse sub forma aque, aqua hoc sentiens agit in aerem & in illam materiam quæ fuit ignis, aeris, & terre, et sic conuertit in suam formam: Cum ergo illa materia fuerit in omnibus formis elementorum fabricata appetit naturaliter simul omnes. Elementa hoc sentientes, & quasi rixantes naturaliter omnes volunt simul esse, quia sunt actiua & passiua & contrariæ. Ex illa igitur contrarietate & rixa, destruuntur formæ elementales & remanent sub forma elementali, Sed quo ad se, id est per circularem transmutationem materia elementorum efficitur elementatum.

Hinc beatus Thomas de aquino de forma elementorum, in eodem corpore coniunctorum ita dicit. Vidi & feci per artificium natura cooperante. Nam accepi quoddam sulphur, quod erat naturæ igneæ, & transmutaui ipsum in aquam puram, quam per artem iterum transmutaui in aerem & in aquam, & cum volui transmutare in terram, vt terra purior fieret, inueni quendam lapidem rubeum clarissimum dyaphanum & lucidum, & in eo conspexi omnes formas elementorum, & etiam eorum contrarietates in illa materia lapidis, necio qua ex virtute nisi ex appetitu.

Ex rubedine enim respexi formam ignis. Ex dyaphanitate formam aquæ & ex luciditate formam aeris.

Vnde Arnoldus ad propriam 10. dicit: Beatissime pater Hermes philosophus dicit, quod metalla ex quatuor elementis consistunt, & quodlibet elementum in sua materia, abundat ex quatuor elementis, cum elementum simplex non nobis dureactum fit. Etiam in materia metallorum oportet, quod elementa habeant vnam materiam communem corporum, quæ sit communis formæ elementorum, ita vt per ipsa possint transmutari.

Et illa eadem materia quæ erat aquæ, sit aeris, terræ, & ignis. Sunt ergo quatuor qualitates siue virtutes progredientes ab esse elemētorum, et que libet istarum potest dici de materia elementali, Et iste virtutes sunt, calefaciendi, infrigidandi, siccitatis & humiditatis. Et duæ istarum qualitatum sunt actiuæ scilicet calidum & frigidum, duæ vero passiuæ, scilicet humidum & siccum. Sunt ergo duo elementa per comparationem ad res elementales scilicet ignis & aqua actiua, & quasi duo passiua, sicut terra & aer. Quantum ergo inter se sunt actiua & passiua, et communicant in natura.

Hinc est quod vnum elementum communicat suam qualitatem alteri, vt sic circulando qualitatem illius possit conuertere in ipsum, & transmutare.

Side Notes: Propinquitas metallorum

Est etiam sciendum quod commune omnibus metallis, quod ipsoru materia est valde propinqua ad inuicem in natura, in virtute, & potentia.

Hinc dicit Albertus magnus: Quia in naturæ operib. didicit proprio visu, quod ab vno origene possunt aquæ viuæ, & in quadam parte fuit aurum in alia argentum, que tamen materia fuit vna, sed diuersus fuit locus in calore. Ideo diuersitas loci depurationis & digestionis metalli diuersitatem secundum speciem fuerit operata.

Recapitulatio totius operis Alchimiæ, et lapidis nostri secundum intentionem omnium philosophorum.

Plato dicit, Artifex nostri operis primo debet lapidem soluere. Deinde coagulare, quoniam opus nostrum nil aliud est, quam facere perfectam solutionem & coagulationem. Vnde Rosarius dicit: Nisi quodlibet vertatur in aquam, nullatenus peruenit ad perfectionem, Ideo nunquam oportet vti aliqua commixtione & contritione in toto nostri operis regimine, sed solum versari circa aquam permanentem, cuius vis est spiritualis sanguis, est tinctura sine qua nihil fit. Conuertitur enim in nostro operatione corpus in spiritum, & spiritus in corpus. Sic enim mixta in vnum reducuntur & se inuicem vniunt. Nam corpus incorporat spiritum per sanguinis tincturam, quia omne quod habet spiritum, habet & sanguinem.

Nam omnis res cuius radix est terra, et aqua, fit moriens. Hoc est dicere, terra fit aqua, & vincuntur eum aque qualitates, sic est solutio corporis, & coagulatio spiritus & econtra. Nam vnam habent operationem, quia non soluitur vnum, nisi coaguletur reliquum. Ideo in principio operis tu aduna solem per lunam, & coagula per solem, quoniam inde apparebunt effectus, eo quod pars inferior deprimitur, cum naturaliter superiora inferioribus dominantur.

Hinc dicit Hali rex & philosophus: Hęc ambo scilicet solutio corporis, & congelatio spiritus, est sunt in vna operatione, & non fit vnum sine altero. Ratio est quia corpus & anima, quando simul coniunguntur, vtrumqƺ eorum agit in suum solutium.

Verbigratia, cum terra & aqua simul coniunguntur, conatur aqua dissoluere terram, cum sua humiditate, sua virtute & proprietate, quæ in ea facit terra subtiliorem, q̄ prius erat, et reddit eam sibi similem in corpore, ita, vt fiat aqua, & econuerso aqua inspissatur cum terra, & fit similis terræ in densitate, quia terra spissior est quam aqua.

Ideo dicit Albertus in secretis secretorum: Scias inter solutionem, & coagulationem spiritus nullam esse differentiam temporis, nec opus diuersum, ita quod vnum non fiat sine alio, quemadmodum inter aquam & terram nō est aliqua pars diuersa, nec temporis differentia, quo cognoscatur in earum operationibus, vt vna ab alia separetur sed est vna & eadem operatio, & sunt simul. Ideo Arnoldus dicit: Opus lapidis nostri est ipsius dissolutio, sciens, quod nullo modo materia lapidis possit destrui, quin sub aliqua remaneat forma.

Vnde soluta prima forma corporis, immediate inducitur noua forma, quæ quidem in colore est nigra, in odore fœtida, in tactu subtilis.

Side Notes : Faetor solutus & color eius.

Hæc enim sunt signa perfectæ solutionis, & putrefactionis corporis. Eo quod calor agens in humidum primo conuertit in nigredinem, quæ nigredo est caput corui, & hoc est principium operis nostri. Et sic lapis dissoluitur in aquam, quæ aqua Mercurius noster, & philosophorum vocatur.

Hinc dicit Hali rex: Compositio nostri magisterij, est coniunctio siue matrimonium spiritus congelati, cum corpore soluto, & sua coniunctio, & sua passio fit super ignem. Nam caliditas est eius nutrimentum, & anima non amat corpus, nec cum eo coniungitur omnimoda coniunctione, nisi per mutationem vtriusqƺ, & hoc fit virtute ignis & caloris, per conuersionem suarum naturarum. Hinc dicit Morienes: Magisteriū nostrū nō est aliud, nisi extractio aquæ a terra, Et ecōtra aquam super terrā, donec putresiat terra cum sua aqua, quæ cū putrefacta fuerit, & mundificata, totū magisteriū deo auxiliate bene derigitur. Hinc Plato dicit: Accipite lapidem nostrum, & in tabellas tenues coaptate, & ponite in vase nostro bene clauso, & assate cū igne leui, donec confringat. Et sciatis quod totum magisteriū nil aliud est quam facere perfectā solutionem & coagulationem, hoc est dicere, primo soluere, deinde vt aqua congeletur, ad calorem solis decoquere.

Sequitur modus proijciendi.

Qualiter lapis noster proijci debet ad metalla. Ponatur pondus vnius denarij, super decem pondera Mercurij vulgi, loti cum sale & aceto & exsiccato. Deinde ponatur in crusibulo super ignem, et quando Mercurius incipit feruere et fumigare, tunc statim proijce medicinam tuam albam super Mercurium fusum, & tunc medicina incipit se fundere in superficie in modum olei. Deinde illud oleum cito intus ingreditur, & tunc Mercurius in colore diuersificatur, & congelabitur in forma vitri albi, quem Mercurium sic vitrificatum extrahe ab igne, quo infrigidato, sumatur vnum pondus, & proijciatur super 60. pondera Iouis fusi, tunc statim euenient stellæ quæ cito transibunt. Tunc bene cooperiatis crusibulum cum carbonibus viuis, & stet in illo igne per quartale vnius horæ. Deinde extrahatis, & fundite, & erit pulcherrimum, album, & delectabile.

Sequitur modus proijciendi lapidem rubeum.

Fundatis mediam vntiam Mercurij, et dimidia vntiam Iouis, quodlibet seorsum, deinde pone tuam medicinam super Iouem fusum, & stet sic mixta in crusibulo aliquantulum, vt bene se incorporent, & debent esse tres crusibuli, vnus, in quo est medicina cum Ioue mixta, in secundo debet esse Mercurius crudus dimidia pars vel duæ. Tertium crusibulum debet esse vacuum.

Deinde medicina existens cum Ioue in crusibulo proijciatur in aliud crusibulum vacuum. Tunc statim Mercurius euacuetur ad crusibulum, vbi est medicina cum Ioue, vt bene moueatur, vt bene permisceatur. Deinde totum repone ab igne, & permitte infrigidari extra ignem. Alia vero crusibula semper stent ad ignem, Et cum Mercurius fuerit infrigidatus, medicina euacuetur in crusibulum vacuu. Deinde euacuetur aliud crusibulum, in quo fuit medicina, & apponatur Mercurius. Et sic semper procedens dum est, quousqƺ medicina congelauerit Mercurium, quo congelato in vitrum rubeum & dyaphanum, & transparens, huius vitri rubei ponatis vnum pondus super 44. pondera Iouis fusi, & erit valde bona proportio, Et faciatis cum eodem ordine, quo supra fecistis in proiectione medicinæ albæ. Et est notandum, si est metallum frangibile, tunc debetis plus addere de corpore imperfecto, scilicet de Ioue vel Saturno, si proiectio fuit super Saturnum. Et sic potestis per eundem modum de omnibus alijs metallis facere. Et scire debetis, quod additionem corporis imperfecti debetis addere paulatim, & in debita proportione et quantitate.

Quia si nimium apponeretis, tunc oporteret vos ipsum effundere, quoniam aliter non remaneret corpus imperfectum & superfluum.

Sequitur de Lapidis nostri multiplici virtute, & ineffabilicius medicinali effectu, & operatione & multiplicatione.

Menander philosophus dicit: Cum ad finem operis nostri perueneris, non indigebis operis nostri reiteratione, cum eius actio fortior sit actione ignis, eo quod totum consumit, quod non facit ignis artificialis, quia ignis artificialis habet ligna, & vegetabilia, & consumit ea, non tamen omnes res in partes, sed dimittit cineres & carbones. Sed medicina nostri lapidis non dimittit aliquid in rebus, sed res totaliter conuertit a sua forma in suam essentiam. Est enim medicina nostra sicut fauilla ignis, quæ in actu augmētatur, & augetur in quantitate, vt dicit Hermes. Et in tantum augmentatur & multiplicatur, quod oportet operantem ex illo ab actione cessare ad tempus tedio affectus.

Et hoc est venenum, de quo se philosophi lactauerūt, cum quo lapides viuificauerunt, quorum naturæ fuerunt diminute, & reduxerunt eos ad naturam temperatam. Quare honora lapidem nostrum, Hermes dicit: Cum lapis noster ad suum terminum peruenerit, nihil eo subtilius esse videtur.

Non ergo miremini, si corpora supercœlestia sunt in se incorruptibilia, cum in inferioribus, in natura incorruptibilitas sit reperta, nullique aliorum corporum inferiorum subiecta.

Nam si lapis noster staret in igne vsqƺ ad nouissimum diem, nunqƺ consumeretur, nec transmutaretur. Et subdit idem Hermes dicens: Cum ad eius finem perueni, tale gaudium mihi fuit, quale nunquam diebus vitæ meæ habueram, videns, quod tanta essentia sine elemētali materia in his inferioribus possit detineri. O natura maxima creaturarum, que continet quod ignis non potest.

Qualiter medicina nostra lapidis curat omnes morbos, & infirmitates, & modus utendi ea.

Modus vtendi medicina talis est secundum omnes philosophos. Si vis nostra medicina vel sanari vti, tunc recipe de elixiri nostro pondus duorum florenorum ducatorum, ad vnam libram alicuius confectionis, & commede de ista confectione in hyeme pōdus vnius dragmæ, Quod si feceris, omnes infirmitates corporales, ex quacunque causa siue calida, siue frigida fuerint, depellit, Et conseruabit sanitatem, & iuuentutem in homine, ac ex homine sene facit iuuenem, & facit cadere canos crines. Item nostrum venenum philosophicum curat lepram confestim. Flegma dissoluit, sanguinem mundificat, visum & omnes sensus acuit, ingenium miro modo super omnes medicinas philosophorū, Quare nostra medicina estimationem non habet, quoniam omnia facta sunt propter hominem &c.

Præscriptus tractatus, est per quendam doctorem in famosa ciuitate Lyps commorantem, ex vetustissimo libro exscriptus, Qui liber antiquus, fuit quondam Caroli quarti Romanorum Imperatoris, ex quo etiam laborare fecit lapidem nostrum, & perfectissime adimpleuit. Qui etiam multa monasteria diuersorum ordinum multasque egregias collegiatas Ecclesias & cathedrales erexit & fundauit &c.