Natural and mysterious questions
Physica et mystica
Φυσικά και μυστικά ( Physika kai mystika )
Author: Bolos of Mendes - Greece
The transcription of this text is due to the research, compilation and translation work of Marcelin Berthelot and Charles-Émile Ruelle. This text translated from Greek, comes from the work Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs , 1887 – 1888. They mainly used for their work the Manuscript of Saint Mark (Gr.Z.299 bs. Marcian Library) dating from the 10th – 11th centuries .
1. Put into a pound of purple, a weight of two obols of iron slag, macerated in seven drachmas of urine, put on the fire until boiling. Then, removing the decoction from the fire, put the whole in a vase. First removing the purple, pour the decoction on the purple and leave to soak for a night and a day. Then, taking four pounds of marine lichen, pour water so that there are four fingers of water above the lichen, and hold (the mixture in this state) until it thickens; then filter, heat and pour on the wool laid out beforehand. Tread what is too loose, so that the juice penetrates the wool thoroughly; then leave two nights and two days. Then take and dry in the shade; pour off the juice.
Then take the same juice and, in two pounds of this juice, put water, so as to reproduce the first proportion. Hold in the same way (the mixture in this state), until it thickens; then having filtered it, put wool in it, as at first, and leave a night and a day. Then take and rinse in urine, then dry in the shade.
Take alkanet, crush; put four pounds of sorrel and boil with urine, until the sorrel is diluted; having filtered the water, put the alkanet, cook until thickened and, having filtered the alkanet again, put the wool. Then wash with urine, and after that with water. Dry in the same way in the shade, Expose the wool soaked in urine to the vapors of seaweed, for 2 days.
a. These are the ingredients of purple: the seaweed called false purple, the coccus, the marine color, the alkanet of Laodicea, the cremnos, the madder of Italy, the phyllanthion of the West, the purple worm, taken from the pink of Italy. These colors were esteemed above all by our predecessors. Those which do not give a fixed dye are of no value. Such are the cochineal of Galatia, the color of Achaia, which is called laccha, that of Syria which is called rhizion, the shell and the double shell of Libya, the shell of Egypt from the maritime region which is called pinna, the plant called isatis, and the color of upper Syria which is called murex. These colors are not solid, nor esteemed among us, except that of isatis.
3. Having gathered these notions from our aforesaid master, and knowing the diversity of matter, we have endeavored to make the natures agree. But, our master having died before we were initiated, and at a time when we were still occupied with the knowledge of matter, we were told that we should try to evoke him from Hades. And I endeavored to attain this goal, by invoking him directly with these words: With what gifts do you reward what I have done for you? After these words, I remained silent. As I invoked him several times, asking him how I could make the natures agree, he told me that it was difficult for him to speak without the permission of the Demon (genie). And he only uttered these words: "The books are in the Temple.
Returning to the Temple, I began to inquire whether I might be given possession of the books; for he had not spoken to me of these books in his lifetime, having died without having made any testamentary disposition. He had, it is said, taken poison to separate his soul from his body; or else, as his son says, he had swallowed poison by mistake. Now, before his death, he intended to show the books to his son only, when he had passed the first years of life. None of us knew anything about these books. Since after making inquiries we had found nothing, we took great pains (to know) how substances and natures are united and confounded. But when we had effected the compositions of matter, the time having come for a ceremony in the Temple, we made a feast together. So, as we were in the naos, suddenly a certain column opened, but we saw nothing inside. Now, neither he nor anyone else had told us that his father's books had been deposited there. Having advanced, he led us to the column; leaning over, we saw with surprise that nothing had escaped us, except this precious formula which we found there:
“Nature enjoys nature; nature triumphs over nature; nature masters nature.
We were very surprised that he had gathered all his writing in so few words.
"I too have come to bring to Egypt the treatise on natural (questions), so that you may rise above the curiosity of the vulgar and of confused matter."
CHRYSOPEA
4. Taking mercury, fix it with the metallic body of magnesia, or with the metallic body of Italian antimony, or with apyrous sulphur, or with selenite, or with baked limestone, or with alum of Milo, or with arsenic, or as you shall hear. Put the white earth (thus prepared) on copper and you will have copper without shade. Add yellow silver and you will have gold; with gold (the result) will be chrysocorail reduced to a (metallic) body.
The same effect is obtained with yellow arsenic and sandarac properly treated, as well as with cinnabar completely transformed. Mercury alone produces copper without shadow. Nature triumphs over nature.
5. Treat the silver pyrites, which is also called siderite, according to custom, so as to make it fluid. Now, it will be made fluid by means of the gray litharge, or the white, or by means of the antimony of Italy. Then sprinkle with lead (I do not say simply with lead, so that you do not make a mistake, but with the lead of Coptos) and with our black litharge, or as you will hear. Heat, then put into the matter some artificial yellow and dye. Nature enjoys nature.
6. Treat the pyrites until it becomes incombustible, after having lost its black color. Treat it with brine, or with uncorrupted urine, or with sea water, or with oxymel, or as you hear, and cook until it becomes like gold flakes which have not undergone the action of fire. This done, mix with it apyrous sulphur or yellow alum, or Attic ochre, or whatever suits you. Then add silver, to have gold; and gold, to have the golden shell. Nature rules nature.
7. Manufacture of yellow gold . — Taking some Claudianos, make it bright and treat it according to custom, until it becomes yellow. Therefore yellow it (by yellowing I do not speak of the stone, but of the useful part of the stone). Now you will yellow with decomposed alum, with sulphur, or with arsenic, or with sandarac, or with limestone, or with what you please. And if you add this compound to silver, you will obtain gold; if you add it to gold, you will obtain shell gold. Nature victorious dominates nature.
8. Make cinnabar white by means of oil, or vinegar, or honey, or brine, or alum; then yellow by means of misy, or sory, or couperose, or apyrous sulphur, or as you shall hear. Throw (the mixture) on silver and you will obtain gold, if you have operated the dye with a view to gold; or electrum, if you have operated on copper. Nature enjoys nature.
9. Bleach the cadmium of Cyprus, I speak of that which has been refined, according to custom. Then make it yellow; now you will yellow it with calf's bile, or turpentine, or castor oil, or horseradish oil, or with egg yolks, all substances which can yellow it; then throw the mixture on gold. For gold will be obtained by means of gold and gold liquor. Nature triumphs over nature.
10. Treat the androdamas with wine that is bitter to the taste, or with sea water, or with urine, or with brine, all substances that can extinguish its natural force. Dilute with antimony of Chalcedon, then treat again with sea water, or with brine pure, or mixed with vinegar. Wash until the black color of the antimony has disappeared. Grill or cook, until the matter has yellowed; then boil in water native sulphur. Throw on the silver, and when you have put in apyrous sulphur, you will obtain gold liquor. Nature rules nature.
11. Taking white earth, I mean that which is obtained from white lead, and silver slag, or Italian antimony; then magnesia, or white litharge, make it white. Now you make it white (this earth) with sea water or softened brine, or water from the sky: I mean by exposing it to dew and the sun, so that (this earth) reduced to powder becomes white like white lead. Melt and put in copper flower and scraped rust (I speak of that which has undergone the treatment); or else burnt copper very altered, or chalcite; and throw in blue, until the matter becomes solid and compact, an effect which will be easily obtained. What is thus obtained is molybdochalcum. Make sure that the product is of a light tint: if it is not so, do not blame the copper, but rather yourself, since you will not have done a good operation. Prepare then a metal of a light tint, divide it and add the substances capable of yellowing it; cook, until the yellow color is obtained. Add it to every kind of metallic body, because copper of a light tint, by becoming yellow, colors every kind of body. Nature triumphs over nature.
12. Dilute with apyrous sulphur, sory and couperose. Sory is a bluish, rough material, which is always found in misy: it is called green couperose. Cook it on a moderate fire for three days, until it becomes yellow. Throw it on copper, or on the silver manufactured by us, and you will have gold.
Put the metal reduced to sheets in vinegar, couperose, misy, alum, Cappadocian salt, red natron, or whatever you like, for three or five or six days, until rust forms, then dye. For couperose makes gold out of rust. Nature enjoys nature.
13. Mixture for dyeing . Treat the Macedonian chrysocolla, which resembles copper rust, by diluting it in heifer's urine, until it is transformed. For nature is hidden within (the substances). When the chrysocolla is transformed, immerse it in castor oil, passing it over the fire several times and dyeing. Then put it to cook with alum, after having previously diluted it with misy, or apyrous sulfur; yellow and dye all the metal in gold.
14. O natures that produce natures, O majestic natures that triumph over natures by transformations, O natures that charm natures in a supernatural way! Such then are the things that concern the great nature. There are no other natures superior to these, in tinctures; there are none equal, nor inferior. All these things are executed by means of dissolution. O my brethren in prophecy, I know that you have not been inclined to incredulity, but to astonishment; for you know the power of matter. While young people are embarrassed and do not give credence to what is written, because they are dominated by their ignorance of matter; not knowing that the children of physicians, when they wish to prepare a medicine fit to cure, do not undertake to do so with an inconsiderate enthusiasm; but they first try what substance is hot, what other combined with it produces an average mixture; what substance is cold or humid, and in what condition it must be to favor an average mixture. And it is in this way that they prepare the medicine which they intend for the cure.
15. But these, who intend to prepare the cure of the soul and the deliverance from all pain, do not perceive that they will be embarrassed by proceeding with an impulse devoid of discernment and reason. Indeed, believing that we are holding fabulous and not symbolic discourses, they make no test of the species: so as to see for example whether this species is good for cleaning, that other accessory; that good for dyeing, that for producing the complete combination; whether that one is suitable for giving shine; while that other is to be avoided with regard to shine. They do not inquire whether this substance will stand out from the bottom (of the dyed matter); whether that other will resist fire, and whether that other by its addition will make the body more resistant to fire. Thus, for example, how salt cleans the surface of copper and even its internal parts; and how it rusts the external parts, after pickling, and even the internal parts. And then, how mercury whitens the external parts of the chrysochalcum and cleanses them, and how it whitens the internal parts; how it is eliminated on the surface and how it will be eliminated from the internal parts. If young people were trained in these matters, they would not fail in the preparations undertaken hastily. For they do not know that a single species transforms up to ten species of contrary natures. Indeed a drop of oil is enough to make disappear a great quantity of purple, and a little sulphur can burn many species. This is what we had to say about dry substances, and how one must give attention to what is written.
16. Now, let us speak of liqueurs. Taking some Pontic rhubarb, grind it in some Aminian wine of a harsh taste. Bring it to a waxy consistency, spread it on the silver leaf, in order to produce the gold. Give it the thickness of a fingernail and use a still thinner layer of the preparation; place it in a new vase, lute on all sides; heat gently until it penetrates to the center of the leaf. Then put the metallic leaf in the rest of the preparation.
Dilute in the wine prescribed for this use, until the liquor thickens. Put the leaf in it immediately, before it has cooled down yet. Let the ambition be made. Then taking (the leaf), melt and you will find gold. If the rhubarb is old, mix in an equal quantity of celandine, which you will have previously macerated according to custom; indeed celandine has an affinity for rhubarb. Nature enjoys nature.
17. Take some Cilician saffron; dilute the saffron flowers in the juice of the vine prescribed for this use and make a liqueur, in the ordinary way. Dip the silver leaves in it, until the color pleases you. And if it is a copper leaf, it will be better: purify the copper beforehand, according to the use. Then taking of the birthwort plant, two parts; of saffron and ceildonium, a double dose: make to the consistency of wax and, after having coated the leaf, work according to the first step you will be surprised at the result.
Indeed, the saffron of Cnidus has the same action as mercury; as cassia has the same action as cinnamon. Nature triumphs over nature.
18. Taking our lead made infusible, by means of the earth of Chios, the stone of Paros and the alum; melt it on a straw fire and project it onto pyrites.
Take (on the other hand) saffron, safflower, the flower of oechomenus, celandine, saffron grounds and birthwort; dilute them in very strong vinegar and make a liqueur, according to custom; then let the lead soak in rhubarb, and you will find gold. Let the composition also contain a little sulphur. Nature rules nature.
19. This matter of the Chrysopoeia, accomplished by natural operations, is such as Pammenes, who taught it to the priests in Egypt. Now do not be surprised if only one species accomplishes such a mystery. Do you not know that the multiplicity of preparations, even with much time and trouble, does not mend the fracture of iron; while human excrement succeeds at once. In diseases which require the use of caustics, the multiplicity of remedies is of no use; while quicklime alone, properly used, cures the disease. Often the variety of treatments in ophthalmia has the effect of doing harm; while prickly buckthorn is a plant which succeeds well, in every affection of this kind. We must therefore disdain this collection of vain and untimely materials and use only natural (suitable) substances. Now judge from this whether anyone can accomplish the work, without the natures previously set forth. But if nothing can be done without them, why do we love this fancy of diverse matters? Why, with us, this concurrence of many species tending to the same result, given that one nature alone triumphs over the All?
Let us see the composition of the species, with a view to the Argyropée.
ASEM MANUFACTURING
20. Fix according to usage the mercury taken from arsenic or sandarac, or prepared as you will hear; project (it) on the copper and the iron treated with sulfur, and the metal will become white.
The same effect is produced by bleached magnesia, transformed arsenic, calcined cadmium, apyrous sandarac, bleached pyrites, and white lead cooked with sulphur. You will soften the iron by putting magnesia in it, or sulphur, half as much, or magnetic stone in small quantity; for magnetic stone has an affinity for iron. Nature charms nature.
21. Taking the steam described above, cook it in castor oil or horseradish oil, with the addition of a little alum. Then taking tin, purify with sulphur according to use, or with pyrites, or as you will hear. Incorporate with the (mercurial) steam and make the mixture. Put to cook on an enveloping flame, and you will find a product similar to white lead. This preparation whitens all sorts of (metallic) bodies. Mix in the projections the earth of Chios, or asterite, or selenite, or what you wish; for selenite mixed with mercury whitens all sorts of bodies. Nature triumphs over nature.
22. White magnesia: whiten it with brine and lamellar alum, in sea water; or in a natural juice, I speak of lemon juice; or else in the vapor of sulfur. For the smoke of sulfur being white, whitens everything. Some also say that the smoke of cobathia whitens (magnesia?) Mix with it after whitening an equal quantity of lees, so that it becomes very white. After having taken 4 ounces of whitish copper, I speak of orichalcum, melt them and throw into it little by little 1 ounce of tin purified beforehand, stirring from below (the crucible) with the hand, until the substances have married. Project half of the white preparation in this way, and this will be the first (operation; for whitened magnesia does not make metallic bodies fragile, and does not tarnish the luster of copper. Nature dominates nature.
23. Taking white sulphur, whiten it by diluting it in the sun, with urine, or with alum and brine of salt. Native sulphur is by far the whitest. Dilute it with sandarac, and heifer's urine, for 6 days, until the preparation becomes similar to marble. When it has become so, there will be a great mystery there; for it whitens copper, it softens iron, it makes tin compact, and lead not very fusible; it makes metallic substances solid and fixes dyes. Sulphur mixed with sulphur makes metallic substances sulphurous, because they have a great affinity for it. Natures charm natures.
24. Grind the litharge suitable for bleaching with sulphur, or cadmium, or arsenic, or pyrites, or oxymel, so that it is no longer fluid. Cook on a very clear fire, after having consolidated the vessel. Keep the composition in this state, adding to it cooked limestone, soaked in vinegar, for 3 days, so that it becomes more suitable for pickling. Then throw (on the metal) the preparation which has become whiter than white lead. It often becomes yellow, if the fire has been excessive; but if it becomes yellow, then it is no longer useful to you; because it is a question of bleaching metallic bodies. Cook it therefore properly and throw it on any metallic body intended to be bleached. If the litharge loses its fluidity, it can no longer become lead again. Now this happens easily, because the nature of lead is easily transformed into many others. Natures triumph over natures.
25. Taking saffron from Cnidus, grind it in sea water or brine and make a liquor; put it on the fire and dye therein sheets of copper, lead, iron, until the result pleases you. (These leaves) thus become white. Then take half of the preparation, and dilute with sandarac, or white arsenic, or apyrous sulphur, or what you like, and give (to the mixture) a waxy consistency. Coat the leaf and place in a new well-lubed vessel, according to the custom. Place on a fire of sawdust for a whole day. Then, having removed (from the fire), place in a pure liquor, and the copper will be white, very white. Make the remainder as the craftsman; for saffron from Cilicia whitens with sea water and yellows with wine. Nature charms nature.
26. Take white litharge and grind it with bay leaves, Cimolian earth, honey and white sandarac, and make a viscous mixture. Coat the metal with half of the preparation, then put in the fire according to custom. Dip in the rest of the preparation, after having diluted with water and poplar wood ashes; for mixtures without proper substance work well without fire. We thus make the dyes capable of resisting heat, even aided by liquids. Nature triumphs over nature.
27. Taking the sublimated vapor described above, grind with alum and misy, and after having soaked with vinegar, throw in a little white cadmium, or magnesia, or quicklime, so that from one metallic body another is formed. Grind with very white honey; make a liquor, in which you will dye hot what you want; let it settle and the transformation will be accomplished. Add to the composition a little apyrous sulfur, so that the preparation penetrates inside. Nature dominates nature.
28. Take 1 ounce of arsenic, half an ounce of natron, 2 ounces of the skin of the tender leaves of the peach tree, half an ounce of salt, 1 ounce of mulberry juice, slate alum an equal quantity. Mix all together in vinegar, or urine, or liquid lime, until a liquid (homogeneous) is formed. Dye the darkened (oxidized) leaves of the metal with it while hot, and you will obtain a metal without a shadow (shining). Nature rules nature.
29. Take away all things useful to gold and silver, and nothing remains; there is nothing left to expound, except the rising (evaporation) of the sublimed vapor and water; but I purposely pass over these things in silence, since they figure largely in my other writings. Profit by the present writing.