The Rosier alchimie de Montpellier is a translation into the Langue d'Oc of the Rosarius philosophorum, an alchemical sum written in Latin and attributed to the doctor of the medieval West, the illustrious Arnaud de Villeneuve.
It is one of the most important alchemical treatises, a major work to which alchemists will constantly refer until the dawn of the 19th century. It contains the secrets of gold and panacea; Aristotle, Avicenna and Pythagoras, Roger Bacon and Gerber providing the theoretical material. It cannot be understood outside the philosophical and medical context, even religious of the end of the Middle Ages. And beyond the patronage of figures as prestigious as that of Arnaud de Villeneuve or Raymond Lully, his study revives several questions including those, essential for this period of history, of experimentation and the popularization of scholarly texts .
The Rosari thus presents an example of scientific prose in the langue d'oc, at a time when Latin was gradually giving way to the vernacular.
Text translated from the Langue D'Oc.
The operation is carried out by mercury alone, because it contains in itself the sun and the moon (gold and silver) and has the power to reduce them to their [primary] nature and matter. But, as mercury contains [also] earthy impurity, additive without inflammation, and aqueous substance, it is necessary to remove its superfluities and make up for their deprivation, if from mercury we wish to produce a finished elixir.
, purifying it [either] with ordinary salt and vinegar in a glass vase — a sort of crucible —, [or] by sublimation with ground glass (1) and common salt prepared. And, once this thing done, throw it in boiling water until it reduces to the form it had before. For otherwise, until he is prepared in this way, it is not good to operate from him. Avicenna says it well: “When you begin the work, the first thing you must do is to sublimate the mercury and then reduce it to its first natural state (2).
"Then in this pure mercury you will put the pure substances, that is to say gold and silver, as much as you want - in other books however we find that for a pound of silver or but we must put twelve pounds of mercury: first eight pounds and then four other books. Then bring these things together over low heat until you see the entire body converted into mercury. Then put it all in a glass vase in the water bath. Then distill it all through the filter and constantly adding mercury put back into the bath what cannot pass until all has passed. Be careful, when you notice a black liquor supernatant on the new substance, pick it up and keep it aside well covered. Know that it is the oil and that it is the true sign of dissolution. Indeed, what is dissolved rises and follows the coldness from above and, rising, it detaches itself from the things below. For being like an aerial body, it always seeks to be higher. So keep it safe so it doesn't go up in smoke.
Know that the operations to make silver and gold are identical. This medicine, in fact, is in essence one and in the manner of making one, except that for gold there is in addition, in the color, the addition of citrinity which comes from the purer substance of fixed sulphur. This is the only difference that exists between the medicine of gold and that of silver: in the medicine of gold one needs said fixed sulphur, [of color] vermilion or yellow, whereas the medicine of silver needs only a fixed, pure white sulphur . This is why these two bodies, gold and silver, are enough for you.
Because they look more like what you're looking for. Know however that you must work a lot in the dissolution, in the sublimation and the refining of the said bodies. Being stronger than other bodies, they need greater application and continuous operation (3). It is indeed necessary to dissolve these bodies [which are] large and both reduce them in the matter of mercury and this with the same mercury without other calcination. It is the safest even if the operation is longer. So take your time while operating. Be careful not to extract the dyes in haste. Restrain your desire to operate quickly. For in this art the first error is assuredly to hasten, error which burns all your works and puts it out of reach. Indeed if you make too much fire at the beginning of the mixtures, the tinctures will be corrupted, all the medicines being corrupted by excess of heat. So hold on and arm yourself with patience, grind, cook and don't get tired of starting over. For things that are soaked in water soften and [the more you grind, the more you will soften and the more you will soften (4)] the more you will refine the coarse things until they are completely separated from each other (5 ). Then the spirit impregnates the body and all that is impregnated by it is entirely dissolved.
Know that the impregnation [of the body by the spirit] is carried out by continuity of the soft fire. For by contrition, by inceration and by assation, the linked parts are detached because of the viscosity of water, a viscosity which is specific to bodies. Thus the dissolved bodies are reduced to the nature of the spirit. Then they don't come off . They can't anymore. Sort of like water mixed with water. The reason is that Nature rejoices when the husband mates with the wife.
As for things that resist dissolution, they do not have their parts made subtle, unless you succeed in softening them. This is why, friend, you must act in the dissolution of the stone in such a way that the purer parts are separated from those which are not so that, heavy things and impure once extracted, the work is done with the lighter and purer ones and it reaches perfection.
We operate in the following way: when the stone is dissolved, take everything you find dissolved, put everything in a glass vase — a cucurbit — underground, well covered with hot horse manure for thirty days. This is done with a view to a better corruption and decomposition and to, by the effect of the burial and that of the decoction, remove the burning from the soul. That's why in this way and thanks to the natural heat of the manure, you cook it completely so that everything boils together and everything returns to its raw material, which is in truth mercury. Thus by this dissolution described above, the authority of Aristotle is fulfilled, who says: “Let the artisans of alchemy know that they cannot transmute substances . Which is true unless,” as Aristotle then adds, “they are reduced to their raw material. (6) ” Then they can be changed into a form other than the ones they were in at the start. Not however all the species, but what is distinct from the species (7) transmutes, because it is corruptible, made and fabricated from sensible acts and operations. Know that matter indeed in no way cannot be destroyed unless it still remains in some form. From where as soon as the proper form of the body is dissolved, immediately another new form enters this body, a corrupted form, of black color, of a stinking odor and with a very subtle and discontinuous contact. These are the signs of the perfect dissolution of the body. For the heat operating in the humid first engenders the darkness which the philosophers call the crow's head. Here begins our work, beginning which consists in dissolving our stone in mercury or in the water of mercury.
At first, sublimate the mercury, then dissolve it so that it becomes again as before, then incorporate it strongly with the body, fattening well and stirring over low heat until the reduction of the whole to its first nature. One acts thus to obtain a sulfur and a mercury [compounds] of this matter of which gold and silver are composed underground. For if you have really dissolved it , you will have made me genuine sulfur and mercury, of which we can undeniably make gold and silver. However know that this art is only for the rich and the powerful of this world. The reason is that whoever knows him has an eternal treasure. Three things are essential to it.
First, a very subtle technique on the part of the operator, [second], manual skill and, [finally], good judgment, which certainly requires wealth, wisdom and books (8).
This regimen is to make clearer, brighter and cleansed of all impurities from the currently black, corrupt and stinking stone, which in no way can be undertaken without breaking the stone down into the four elements by distillation of the waters and by calcination of the rock. For two of the elements are stone in nature and two are water in nature. Those which are stony in nature are fire and earth: they are dry.
Those that are water in nature are air and water: they are moist. Know that the fire you kindle devours all the corruptions that are in the depths of things. Indeed it devours and ravages the impurities of the waters by distillation and it makes them subtle by the lightness of the air. It also reduces the size of the stone by calcination. It destroys the bitterness and saltiness of their sulphur. Our stone is therefore broken down into the four elements in order to make it more subtle and truly free from all impurity, then again to assemble it more strongly.
But never was there the birth, animation and growth of a thing if not after putrefaction. Hence it is that the elements are putrefied in order to be better digested and better separated. Know indeed that if everything, at first, is not well putrefied, we will never obtain neither melting nor dissolution and without dissolution, the work will be annihilated.
So take the previously corrupted stone and decompose it into the four elements by distillation. Initially by a low heat maintained at the same intensity. And collect its water. Then, little by little, increase the fire until you have collected all the air mixed with the fire. What remains burnt at the bottom, it is the dry and black ground. Know that the distillation of water must take place in a bain-marie. The reason is that the parts of the stone, the finest and without great heat, approaching the simple nature of water are distilled by the said bath in the composition of which only water enters. On the other hand , air and fire are distilled on the ashes. It is that, as the ashes maintain the ignition, thanks to them the heat of the air and the coarse parts of the earth rise better. This is why the water is more subtly extracted, the ashes not being the only ones to maintain the ignition (9). This is clear enough.
Break down therefore the four elements in this way, separating water with its moist substance and not with the other [substance], air and fire with the dry substance and not with the other, for in these this is the greatest tincture. Don't worry about what substance the earth would be, as long as it is a white and fixed substance. In fact, the earth dries up and fixes, water purifies and washes, air and fire color and cause flow. It is also appropriate that there be a lot of water and air: the mass of the tincture will be in proportion to what will be the mass of the air. Therefore, friend, apply yourself so that mercury predominates everything (10) in the mixture so that you obtain enough air. And if with the only mercury you can reach perfection, you will undoubtedly be the creator of the most precious perfection triumphing over nature (11). Tell yourself, however, that the cost of all that is necessary for this precious art and which is put in the capitals and in the dyes does not reach in expenditure fifty deniers of silver, counting from the first operation. Finally, know that this tincture must be shaped and nourished on the fire for as long as possible, as the little child is nourished at the breast of its mother. All things indeed feed on what composes them.
When you have decomposed the elements as we have said, you will purify them, namely by distilling the water and the air seven times and strongly calcining the earth and the fire. Know that you must distill air and water [separately (12)]. For the air is better than the water, although the water washes and whitens the earth, that it effects the marriage of the dyes. But the air tints the earth, penetrates the soul and makes it sensitive. For this it is necessary that the air and the earth be cleansed of all impurity, that they be protected from fire and from all burning until their tincture is taken. For if they burned they would have no effect, unless afterwards they were perfectly cooked in the manure. Also after each distillation, burying them in the manure is a great help in order to be able to obtain a perfect washing that signals a crystalline clarity, a transparency without faeces if not perhaps [a few] whites. As for the faeces that the water will make in each ablution or distillation, each time put them apart on the black earth that you have heaped up on it. Keep this seven times distilled water separate. She is the mercury of philosophers who alone make marriage. It is the brandy that alone purifies brass (13). As you did for white water, so you will do for red water. Because to purify they have the same way and same effect, except that the white water serves to whiten and the vermilion water serves to make vermilion. So be careful not to mix one with the other, because if you did, you would be making a big mistake.
Take the fire and the air which together you separated from the earth on the ashes, as before said, and put them to distil as you did [for] the water: what will distil is the air pure, what will remain at the bottom is the dry fire.
Observe and be attentive to what I have said in order to work the stone, for the only water and air, with humidity and, for the only fire and earth, with drought. Be assured that the air is oil, dye and gold. He is soul and balm of the philosophers thanks to which all the magisterium obtains perfection.
Understand therefore that the fire is distilled with the air, because it agrees with it in quality but not with the water because the water refuses the fire, both being contrary to each other. Therefore the air will be distilled with fire, for it is tinted water and its tincture is fire: it is body and spirit bearing fire. If therefore you mix the mercury with the fire of the stone, it will immediately become vermilion and they will always love each other. So whenever you want to turn vermilion, do it with stone fire and it will be red forever.
So put on the substance of the body, from which you want to extract the oil, pure mercury in such a quantity that it rises four fingers or more, which is better. Then (14)] put it on low heat until you see its oil — that is to say the air — rise little by little and float on the mercury. Pick it up carefully and keep it aside. However, if the mercury decreases, add other pure and hot mercury to it and start cooking it again. Do this continuously until you get all the oil and nothing remains in it that is not dissolved. Afterwards distill it all seven times through the still. For its ablution is like that of water: you will obtain it by burial and distillation . And you must do so until it becomes the color and transparency of crystal, without faeces, except perhaps a few whites. The signs are that the drops become thicker than [the drops] of water, that it [then] has a more sparkling and vivid color, that it is light as air and if you mix a little with the said water, it will float on it. So keep the air thus washed apart. He is oil, tincture and gold, soul and balm of the philosophers. It colors, it tints, it fixes and dissolves. A lamella thrice extinguished within it, he dyes it silver or gold depending on whether it is white or vermeil. Therefore be careful not to mix the oil of gold with the oil of silver nor that of silver with that of gold, for the oil of white is to white and that of vermeil vermilion. If these bodies enjoy a large quantity of oil, great will be the tincture: the mass of the tincture will be such as will be that of the oil.
Water washes and cleans only, oil dyes and colors. I 'll give you an example: if you soak a sheet in water, it wash in it. And when the sheet dries, the water goes away and the sheet remains in the state and the color that was its before, with no other difference than greater cleanliness.
But, for oil, it is something else. For if the cloth is dyed in oil, it cannot be detached from it by the heat of air or fire, unless it is destroyed entirely, and the oil can never be removed from it otherwise by washing it in water and drying it over a fire. This is why the oil is compared to the soul which is in the body, which cannot be extracted from the body except by ablution of water and desiccation of fire. Water indeed is the spirit which extracts this soul from the bodies. Know that this soul who by the said spirit is drawn from the body remains with this same spirit which extracts it from it: the spirit is the place of the soul. The soul therefore is the tincture dissolved, transported (15) in this same spirit. Just as the dye of the dyer is carried on the cloth by the water which then disappears when the cloth dries, the dye remaining fixed in the cloth thanks to the weight of the oil, so for our water which is spirit in which begins the dye of the air (16). When the water is returned to the flaky white earth, immediately the spiritual water is dried up. From then on, only the soul remains in the body, which is the tincture of the air. So the spirit holds the soul like the soul retains the body, since the soul remains in the body only by means of the spirit. So after their joining, they no longer detach , the spirit holding the soul as the soul holds the earth. So Hermes recommends looking for the soul in the stone, because it lives in the stone (17). Therefore, when you look for it, be willingly lazy. Don't be in a hurry so as to be careful that the air does not escape, because if it escapes you will not take it with the falcon. Know that the soul retains what is volatile. And with it coagulation is carried out for the sole reason that it retains the volatile. So sow [the soul] (18) in the ground puff, because it will hold it. For when it has ascended from the earth to heaven and after it has descended into the earth, it will take power and efficacy from above and from below. But do not mix the oil of gold with the oil of silver as it is said, for you would miss the mark very much.
So when you wash the oil as it is said, collect all the faeces that it will leave at each distillation and put them with fire, for they are (19) like fire, of a certain blackness tending almost towards the vermilion (20). They must be ground with the other first water, that of the first capital, [then] mix and burn them until converted into a powder completely deprived of all the moisture in the air. In the same way it is necessary to join to the earth the faeces of the water and with a violent fire calcine and this until the earth is of a very white color: that is to say entirely white, pure and without no humidity. So scorch fire with fire and earth with earth until they are pure and free from blackness.
Know that what will rise from the fire is the vermilion oil and what will rise [from the earth (21)] is the precious white oil, [ so called] because the oil that comes off the latest from the bodies is the most precious. Therefore, watch and wait for all things at their time and set each thing apart, preserve and observe each thing in a particular way for itself.
"It holds", says Plato, "in that you must, according to your ability, decompose the elements (22)". Namely, to purify the water and the air by distillation and to burn the tincture by calcination until the disappearance of the corrupted of the soul so that all is pure in the work. The sign of this is when a bit of the body is put on a tenuous piece of fiery, ruddy metal and no smoke comes out. Then surely the spirit name which will be subtle and pure will be appropriate to it, then the soul name when it is dyed and shiny, then the body name when it's like almost white and dry. The reason for this is that in each of our operations we only need pure and clear water, an oil either white or yellow, a vermilion fire, a pale and almost white earth. If you have thus prepared the elements, the earth will be perfect and capable of dissolving, the water effective in penetrating, the oil, where the fire is carried, superabundant to dye.
If therefore you do not have the elements as such, it is a sign of error. So correct your error, because it is sooner to correct than to begin a new work. Then keep each of the elements apart for themselves once they are purified and cleaned as said. Above all, let the oil be well covered and closed, because the air would consume it because of the proximity of its nature [to the oil]. Write on each bulb their respective contents so as not to forget the power and the name of each [of the elements] and not to take, when you want to operate, one for the other and that the operation is corrupted. Know that the above things are sufficient for you as to the perfect and complete ablution of the elements.
The third regime consists of the reduction of the wet water on its ground so that it recovers its lost moisture. But since the earth is composed of two bodies and the two elements are dry, hard and of the nature of stone, namely fire and earth which sympathize in dryness, you must prepare them together, both having the same preparation. Join then the size of the fire to the earth, after having extracted the air from it, and prepare them together [certainly] to shorten the operation, but [also] (23) for a better mixture of one with the other and so as not to destroy their preparation, so that one stains the other well and they do not burn themselves on the battle of the flames. For these reasons, preparing them together is safer and more appropriate.
Know that the reason for which they are prepared is to collect a greater quantity of moisture than they had. lost. For every body, when it is calcined, is discontinued because it is entirely deprived of its wateriness. Also, when the dry, arid thing is rid of its wateriness, [it is] quite willing, like one who is very thirsty, to drink and gather up the moisture it had lost.
First, you must gradually pour out the said water by heaping, mixing, grinding well and calcining over a low fire until the earth has drunk up the fifth part of its weight.
And know that you must feed her first with a little water and then with more [quantity], in the same way as you can see a child take his food and see how he is brought up.
Therefore, grind and mix the earth well and soak it little by little, from eight days to eight days, then cook it in the manure and after calcine it.
Be careful, not on high heat, but on medium heat and don't get tired of repeating this several times. Know indeed that the ground does not bear fruit, if it is not watered often by mixing well and incorporating the water. For if the trituration and incorporation of one with the other is not successful so that in the end the water becomes one with the earth, nothing you do will be useful. So constantly grinds and incorporates, then dries over low heat until the water is squeezed out, it is dried out in the body of the earth, and the earth has turned white. Because strong trituration, desiccation and assation make the earth white. However, take care to soak the earth little by little: when you see that the earth has become dry, grind it well and throw in a little more water, mixing well. Know that you must put some weight on it lest the administration of too much dryness or too much moisture will corrupt the thing, that is, it must be cooked over the fire as much as the dissolution has rejected it and imbibing that you dissolve it as much as by cooking it has been removed. That is why, each time after the calcination, grind it, mix and throw water on it in moderation, that is to say neither too much nor little. Because if you put too much, there will be an ocean of trouble and if you put too little, it will be burned and will be reduced to nothing. For this reason, very slowly and without haste, you will water the earth for eight days , then you will put it to cook in the manure, then you will burn it and do so until it has drunk water. water one- fifth of its own weight. Note that following imbibition, it must be buried for a week. Also repeat your operation several times, even if it is long, because you will not see tincture, nothing perfect, until it's done.
So when you are at work, try to retain in your memory all the signs that appear in each decoction and to probe their causes. Know that there are three colors, because when the earth comes out black, it is neither perfect nor accomplished. This is why, each time, little by little increases the fire in the calcination until by the force of the fire the earth comes out white. For in the same way as heat, when it operates on a moist thing, engenders blackness, so, when it operates on a dry thing, it engenders whiteness. Wherefore , as long as the earth is not white, grind it and incorporate it into the water. And starts calcining her again. For know that "mercury and fire wash brass and remove all darkness (24)", its preparation always being carried out with water. Hence the clarity of the earth [which] will be like that of the water. And the more it has been washed, the whiter it will be.
Know that most of the aqueous mercury is destroyed by multiple repetitions (25) of imbibition and by heavy incorporation, grinding and continuous assation. Then by constantly sublimating, the residue disappears. So when the earth has drunk a fifth of its own weight as it is said, put it immediately to sublimate in the strongest fire you can until it rises like a very white powder.
When on the other hand you see the earth white as snow and like a dead powder adhering to the walls of the aludel, then you will sublimate once again. But be careful not to mix in the faeces that have remained at the bottom, because it would stick with them. The earth is a fixed thing. And if that ever happened, there's no way in the world that you could untie them. Know that the powder that rises and rises from the faeces is the ashes of the ashes extracted from the earth, sublimated, honored and honourable. But what remains at the bottom, clinging to it (the earth), is ashes of ashes, underground, vituperated, damned, filth. So secondly sublime that which is ascended until it becomes white as snow, for when it is ascended white as snow, then it will be accomplished. So you will collect it with great care, gently so that it does not go up in smoke. Because it is the good that we seek. He is the flaky white earth that freezes and purifies the frozen thing. And it is arsenic (26) and white sulfur which, according to Aristotle, "is a very good thing that alchemists can take in order to make silver" (27). That's why operate boldly with her for the money. For by the manner above described is accomplished the manner in which sulfur is produced non-flammable white.
When you wish to obtain vermilion sulphur, dissolve the very white [sulphur], which you have heaped up above, in the vermilion water. And this with a good contrition, incorporation, imbibition and good decoction. And when it is well dissolved, freeze it to a stone, or [rather] until it becomes like a stone.
Then, a second time, begin again to dissolve it in the said vermilion water. Then, another time, freeze it, then, the third time, in the same vermilion water, dissolve it and then sublimate it over a very strong fire.
For know that the method of the master craftsman is to guide, to prepare the work and make it take on the color of gold.
Understand indeed that all that rises having the aspect of a powder is very white sulfur and what remains in bottom, in the bottom, is vermeil sulfur almost scarlet. It is [well] mercury converted into very real gold and this by artifice. Also through these observations it appears very clearly that the philosophers told the truth - which seems impossible to stupid people - namely when they say that the stone is one, the medicine one, the work one, but also the vase one to make the white sulfur and the vermeil sulfur together and only once . So when the seekers of this art see the said whiteness that shows itself in the vase, they know (28) that in this whiteness is found, hidden, the color vermilion. So they don't have to extract that whiteness. Rather, it should be cooked further until everything turns vermilion. And I'll give you an example: when I see in the morning that my urine is white, I recognize that it's a sign of indigestion and I know that I haven't slept much, so I go back to bed. And, when I have slept enough, I find that the urine is yellow-red, because the yellow-red color (29) of urine is only from complete digestion. And know that here is the true composition of the inflammable white and vermeil sulfur of which by the perfect regime of art is accomplished the perfect elixir to truly perfect all imperfect bodies into real silver or real gold.
You will know there that no one must sublimate the earth to [do] the work of a sophist. On the other hand, we must indeed sublimate in view of the perfect elixir which is ours. Know that all things that are sublimated are sublimated in two ways: either alone, for they are spirit; or with others who are incorporated into the spirits. For example mercury, because it is spirit, is sublimated alone. Our earth, because it is lime, is not sublimated only because it is incorporated in mercury. Therefore grind it, incorporate it, mix it with the mercury, soak it and cook them together until they become one body. Do not tire of repeating this operation several times, because, as long as it is not well incorporated nor certified with mercury, the body will not rise . It is therefore necessary that, as much as you can, you make subtle the nature of the earth and that with mercury you grind it strongly until the reduction of the two (mercury and earth) in one.
Indeed we only proceed to sublimations to bring back the bodies to the subtle nature, that is to say so that they become spirit and that it is easy to transmute the body into sun (gold) or moon (silver). We proceed to sublimation also to reduce the bodies to their first nature of mercury and sulphur. And we also proceed to this sublimation for three causes. The first because the body becomes a spirit of a subtle nature, the second because the spirit blends well with the lime, the third so that the earth takes on a white or vermilion color. From there, when the lime is sublimated for the moon, that it must be white and the white mercury also and, when it is sublimated for the sun, the lime must be vermilion and the vermilion mercury, heated with fire and beforehand certified. Know that for the sun and for the moon you can only operate well in this way. In fact, when you sublimate for the moon, take care not to mix anything with it. For the lime of the sun does not go for the moon, nor that of the moon for the sun, but put each kind alone with its kind. Put each one on an intense fire and sublimate it all.
Take care not to mix anything that remains below, at the bottom, with what has risen. Put each one aside. You will begin again to sublimate what will remain at the bottom by adding more pure mercury to it until everything has risen and take care not to put it otherwise in the work. Let the still where you sublimate the mercury be of glass and let the gourd be glazed [inside]. (30)
Let the mouth of the curcurbite be wider than the bottom so that the mercury can rise more easily. Know that the alembic must be added to the curcurbite in such a way that the mercury cannot escape, for it is sublimated only through the smokeiness of the air. This is why, if he finds an open place, he flies up in smoke destroying the work. Understand therefore what I have said to you, for these words are certainly all necessary and worthy of praise. They are enough for you for the composition of white and vermilion sulphur.
Let the white be fixed on the silver and the red sulfur on the gold. Because according to Pythagoras, "he who does not add [silver] and does not coagulate the mercury extracted from the white sulfur bodies supporting the fire is wrong in the process for the white and he who does not add [the gold] and does not coagulate the said mercury into fire-bearing vermeil sulfur is mistaken in the process for vermeil.
So useless to tire your body in what has just been said (31), because you will never be able to reach perfection (32)”, if you do not know how to do what we are now going to develop.
Otherwise you are on the wrong track. Operate wisely and not haphazardly. Know in fact that without the leaven it will not come out sun nor moon, but in place of these something else which is worth nothing, something else which does not remain or persevere in the nature of mercury, if you do not use it with the body with which you have it prepared in the beginning, that is, the sun or the moon. So assemble them (33) so that it (mercury) engenders its like and that the product of the composition becomes elixir. Because when he is joined to his body, he will not cease to operate in him until the total conversion of this one. This is why, when you want to ferment, mix together all the sulfur with its body so that everything becomes ferment, because the ferment reduces our sulfur to its nature, flavor and color by fair measure. Know that the ferment au blanc will be white and the ferment au vermeil will be vermeil. What is obvious, because, if you put the ferment of silver with the sulfur of gold, it will reduce it to its nature, but not to its color and this is the same for the ferment of gold. Also do not mix the ferment of the white sulfur with the vermeil, nor the ferment of the vermeil sulfur with the white. Know indeed that the ferment of gold is gold and that in the ferment of silver is silver. There are no other ferments on earth, for the reason that what was never fixed can never fix and what has never fixed never was fixed nor will it fix.
This is the reason why, in any fermentation, one must note the weight of one and the other so that the quantity of sulphur, which is volatile, does not exceed the quantity of the fixed body. Otherwise, the bond that unites the spirit would put the unfixed to flight. Also, says the philosopher (34), "if a little sulfur is thrown on a large quantity of the body in such a way that it has power over it, it immediately transmutes it into powder which will have the same color as that of the body on which the spirit is cast, i.e. silver or gold. This is why later I indicate the weights of all.
But because the sulfur can only enter the body through water, because at each marriage the water performs the medicine between the sulfur and the ferment, "you will place first", as Avicenna reports, “the earth, because it is close to the leaven, secondly you will place the water, because it is close to the earth, thirdly the air, because it is close to the water, fourthly you will place the fire, because it is close to the air. However, do not set fire in the elixir to the white, because the elixir to the white is accomplished with three elements among which the fire is not (35). As for the vermilion elixir, it is rolled by the four wheels. Therefore, open and close, tie and untie, washes and dries up, for water is the means of uniting their tinctures of oil, air and fire. Now listen to a philosopher's saying: if you put the oil first, then the earth, the oil would be mortified in the earth, because the water would enter it. And if you put the water first and then the oil, the oil would stay on the water. And if you put the water first and then the earth, the water would be heavier than the earth. So fix the water with the earth so that it unites with it. And know that if you killed one element, you killed all four elements. If one has more soul than the other, that's no good either. Prepare therefore the leaven which is soul before the fermentation in such a way that it becomes a calcined, dissolved and hardened powder . Indeed, if you do not prepare the leaven well, the magisterium has no value.
Indeed, if you do not break down the stone into the four elements, it cannot be joined well to the body. And if you don't involve [her] with this body on which you want to project the elixir, she will not like the body. And if you don't mix the ferment with the elixir, the body, where the projection is to be made, will not be colored as it should be. And if you don't sublimate everything you put in the elixir, the gold will be sour and the silver too. And if you don't prepare not the body, it will not support the fire (36). And if you do not take care that it is not reasonably softened then made hard by your care, gold and silver will be unsuitable for the work. Therefore , the lime that is put in the elixir must be sublimated in such a way that it is at all simple and lively. When you want to project the elixir, you will make the lime of this matter of which the body where you want to project will be made. Put the leaven in it, as I indicated to you above, if it is for gold gold, if it is for silver silver.
Because marriage is nothing more than joining the ferment to the body, as I said. And note that the elixirs are simple sulfurs that must be extracted from the stone. And the body and the ferment that you mix in the elixir must become a powder two or three times sublimated. (37) Because as many times as you will sublimate a body by mixing it with the sublimated spirit, as many times you will obtain in the projection a thousand shares. So the more you lighten the body, the better you have it, so that you can throw a part [of elixir] on a hundred and a hundred on a thousand and a thousand on ten thousand and ten thousand on a hundred thousand and a hundred thousand to infinity.
Indeed, when you want to prepare our stone, know how much in it there is water, air, fire and earth. For when it is calcined (38) it will enjoy greater dryness, greater heat and less coldness. And when it is prepared, it will enjoy less heat, less dryness, less coldness and less humidity. And when you want to convert it, know how much of its first nature it has lost in each regime, because if you ignore it, the work is worthless. So when the stone is dissolved, it will be reduced to greater coldness, less humidity, less heat and less dryness. And when it is washed, it resumes in greater dampness and coldness, warmth lesser. And when it is reduced, it resumes in greater dryness, less heat, less coldness, less humidity. And when it settles, it resumes in greater heat, less humidity, less coldness, greater dryness . Hence it is that in the fixation of the stone we add to it the hot and humid mercury, prepared, in addition to that which it possessed naturally before its dissolution. Understand therefore this reversal, this dissolution or difference of the stone and from difference to difference (39), [understand] why and how this is achieved. Indeed, everything that is mutated is better, worse, or the same. If mutated to similar to self, there is no profit ; worse, there is damage; better then there is profit. So convert the stone from good to better: then the elixir will be accomplished.
Know that, in the mutation of the stone, you must expect three main colors. First black, then white and third vermeil. So be diligent in watching so that your work does not become vermilion before it is black, because it could burn the dye and perish. If it happened to you however that the vermeil was before the black, therefore correct the error by annealing everything together in pure and white water until everything becomes black. You will do the same if it turned to vermeil before being white. Also do not neglect the burial or decoction by manure. Because it removes the burn and restores lost moisture. Likewise, if the medicine does not mix well, correct by dissolving what enters. And by the combination of the two dissolutions it will penetrate into everything, because it unites with it down to the smallest. However , this is not accomplished when one dissolves in ordinary water but in the water of mercury. In the same way, know that by dissolution one carries out also an easy fusion in that which cannot be melted so that it penetrates more quickly and with the complement is transmuted. (40) For this purpose, medicine is calcined in order to dissolve it more quickly, to better purify it, to fix it, to melt it, and so that [by it] (41) the bodies can acquire a better penetration and a best impression. And an easier fusion of medicine is permitted by frequently reiterating the dissolution of the inflammable spirits, the unfixed water and fire, upon them (42); or with the oft-repeated dissolution of medicine that does not melt.
It is also a useful precaution, for the dissolution of the body of the ferment, either white or vermilion, the one you want to transmute, but also for the dissolution of the medicine, white or vermilion, whose intrusion you want to undertake with transmutation, than to fuse the medicine that does not melt . However, not all the shares must be dissolved, but [only] the dissolution of some of the shares must be carried out (43).
For their dissolution is only achieved if they are converted into moisture and if the saltiness of sulfur is removed from them. Then this same body and not another is soaked, one turn after another, until it melts very dryly on a very red and burning slat. Because with these artifices and these techniques it is necessary to mix, to melt and to perfectly enter all medicine with [at the end] complement of the transmutation (44). If, however, the metal to be converted by the medicine is not of sufficient color, add more medicine to it. And, if he had too much, less medicine for gold, because for silver it cannot be too white. So [for gold] put in [less medicine and (45)] more of the body of the metal you want to convert. Likewise, if the medicine does not stay well in place through lack of fixation, help it by repeating the dissolution and coagulation and by frequent dissolutions of the non-fixed part on the fixed part until that she rests thanks to the great violence of the fire and that she does not flee above the violent fire. In the same way, if it is melted with difficulty for lack of incineration, help it with the oil and the air of the stone projecting them on it drop by drop, [and this] on low fire, until it is melted like wax. Because when you cerify, you mix more hot and humid than you mix cold and dry. And when you stare, you mix more cold and dry than you mix hot and humid.
Hear what I say, for the perfection of this work is a mutation of nature.
Everything is subject to a definite term, everything indeed exists according to a definite term and a certain disposition (46). So for everything there is a weight, for every measure there is a mode, and for every operation there is a mode of operation. So be careful in any conversion of the elixir. Here operates skilfully in order to know how much water, air, earth and fire you must put there. Otherwise if you do the opposite, the operation will have no value. For if you put more or less earth than is necessary or the elixir requires, what is more mortifies the souls, and less makes the souls moist so that we will not fix them.
As for water, the damage is similar, for if there is too much the thing becomes wet and soft, if there is little, dry and hard. For the air, it's even a pity, because if there is too much it will give too much color and if there is little there will be no color.
Also for the fire of the stone, because if there is too much everything will be burned and if there is little it will not dry up all the moisture that the fire of the stone must dry out and it will not heat it. this.
However, do not set fire to the white, even if I speak of it, because I speak here of the two elixirs (47). You must therefore note the weight of each to avoid the corruption of the work by too much dryness or, on the contrary, an excess of humidity. From there comes that ferment must always be put in according to the method of adequation. Because no offensive error will harm you if you always have recourse to the weight that I will indicate to you. Know that the thing, which in the elixir is heavier and firmer, because of its gravity can be called earth. Likewise, the ferment which unites with the sulfur takes in itself the nature of the earth mentioned above. What rises and flies is called water and air. So for this, when you unite the elements so that they are fixed in the earth, if you operate, always put more earth there than any of the other elements, because otherwise the earth would not fix the spirit, on the contrary she would go up in smoke with him. However we performs [more rationally] (48) this operation by proportioning the watering. For example: if you have one and a half weight of air, you must have two weights of water and three weights minus a quarter of earth. And know that of the ferment which is called earth you must put three times as much as you put of white sulfur — that is to say, of the earth of the stone which is called white sulfur — in such a way that, if you put a weight of white sulfur, you will put three of the ferment. Therefore as much as there is air and water, as much there must be earth (49). I will speak to you in a few words so that you understand the process. Put for the white elixir three weights of earth minus a quarter, two weights of water, a weight and a half of air and the elixir will be accomplished. However, for the sun (gold), because it is hotter than the moon (silver), you must put two weights of earth, three weights of water, three weights of air and fire one weight and a half, the weight of fire being half the weight of water.
For nothing in the world you should add or diminish anything. Because if there was too much water and not enough fire, the water would extinguish the fire.
If there was too much earth and not enough fire, it would be the same.
As for the air, it is the opposite, because the air nourishes the fire as the water nourishes the earth, because the fire lives on the air, the air lives on the silt of the water and water lives on the silt of the earth. Fixed therefore the water in the earth so that you can fix the air in the water, because if you have killed the water, you have killed all the other elements. However, the water is never fixed without the earth, “for the fruit is never born without corruption, but it is when the seed is putrefied that afterwards it produces the fruit (50). From there, because the earth is fixed in itself, that it retains with it and fixes the other elements.
But the water, because it is cold and humid, goes around the earth, surrounds it, tightens it and retains it, the cold and the humidity having the quality of tightening the drought. The damp, however, quickly receives the impression and quickly leaves it. The dry, on the contrary, the receives with difficulty and he abandons it with difficulty. Also when the dry and the moist together are combined, by the continuity of the parts the dry takes in itself the moist and an easy impression, the moist gains the dry which retains a firm impression and which endures all fire. Hence it is that the humid protects the dry from its dryness, that the dry protects the humid from its fluxibility. Likewise , the air surrounds the water, clarifies the earth and tints it so that it is able to expand and mix. The fire on the other hand ripens the whole compound, makes it subtle and vermilion, it mixes the air, it consolidates the compound. And he destroys the frigidity of earth and water, in order to bring it back to the equality of a perfect and healthy complexion. The heavy elements, therefore, which are water and earth, help more with fixation and rest, on the other hand the light elements, which are fire and air, help more with fusion and dyeing . Therefore, do not eat without drinking, nor drink before eating, but eat and drink in order, one thing after another. Indeed, greater heat than is necessary makes the body drier than necessary, and greater cold than is necessary makes the body more humid than necessary, and greater humidity than it is necessary. fits softer than necessary. Be therefore neither prodigal nor miserly, but observe the just weights according to the equality or the inequality of the complexion. Hear what I told you, because in truth I have forgotten nothing in order to clarify what is true.
So illuminate the body before putting the soul there, because the body if it is not white will never retain the spirit. So let the drinking be after the eating and not the eating after the drinking, because otherwise you will make the belly damp and the body will not collect the dryness as it should (51).
Set well, mix well and dye well: that's the whole point. So take three parts of very pure moon (silver) which has been finely beaten so that the parts are in small pieces as for gilding or silvering, water them and add to them twice as much pure and prepared mercury as it is said.
Grind well and mix them together in a porphyry mortar until the mercury has soaked all the silver and it has become like butter in such a way that not a gram of silver is found in it. So wash it with prepared and separated vinegar and common salt until the vinegar comes out pure and clear. Then remove the salt with fresh, clear water and put it to dry over low heat. Then add thereto a portion or weight of the said sublimated and white congealed sulphur, cerifying and joining the whole together until it forms like a body. Then certify with a part of its white water and then put it to sublimate, gradually giving vigor to the fire below, until all the volatile it contains is sublimated from the thing.
Then, once cooled, extract it. And what will have flown on the walls of the vase with the other part of its water reduce it on its faeces, grinding, mixing and impregnating on the fire until everything becomes pasty and then sublimate it again. Thus, each day, begin again to grind, to mix and to soak, to heat and then to sublimate, always strengthening the fire until the earth has drunk twice its weight of water and until in such a way total one cannot sublimate anything of it. that you always reduce what is always mounted on what remains below, fixed, until in the end everything remains fixed at the bottom. Because thus the fixed sulfur which is coagulated thing naturally coagulates (52) its mercury by continuously reiterating the sublimation of this one.
Let us take as an example of this phenomenon the earth and the water. For the water, when it mixes with the earth, the latter drinks it greedily because of its dryness and thickens it because of its density and makes it similar to itself in its size. For every dry thing naturally desires its moist so that in its parts it becomes continuous. This is why the experimenter of this science must know the forces of nature, be strongly attached to these last and imitate them, because Nature suffices for you or (53) [rather] she is self-sufficient, and also in all that is lacking in her perfection (54). Because Nature, who is wise, is very busy in the creation of her body and there is no end to this concern.
Also, dear friend, it is enough for you to order nature skilfully from the outside, because from the inside it acts in sufficiency for what is necessary for its work. For the movements which are proper to it as well as ours all agree with it. All form with it a single way, a single order and the best and surest method that one could not imagine, as well as one can see it in the generation of every begotten thing.
Therefore preparation and delay (55) must be at the heart of the magisterium of philosophers, that is to say those who operate in accordance with it, because the movement will never fail if it is not opposed to an opposite ( 56). Nature indeed has a certain term in which she will be pregnant, one to give birth, one to give birth, nourish and operate. So when you have impregnated the earth, wait for it to give birth and when it has given birth, feed the child until it can endure all fire, and then you can project it.
When therefore the water will be well crushed, joined and well fixed to the earth, soak it well by mixing it, soaking it little by little and watering it with a portion of its air. And then put it to sublimate doing below to start a low fire, then stronger, and repeat this until by the great continuity of the sublimation the thing becomes such that nothing rises but remains in totally fixed deposit. So below make a violent fire for a day and a night. Then the second day with its night, [make a fire] more violent. On the third day and the third night also, make it [even] more violent as is fire to melt. For thus the air is fixed with the water and in the earth. Because Nature rejoices in Nature and Nature teaches Nature to fight fire (57).
For, going to meet the volatile, it prevents escape: the bird covered with feathers is retained, below in the earth, by the one who is not covered with feathers, that is to say that the air is retained by the water (58).
Know therefore that at the bottom of the vase, where the thing mentioned above will remain fixed, you will find a crystalline lamella. Take an ounce, grind it and grind it very gently. Then impregnate her and cerify — this being the last cremation — in the way that I will indicate to you. That is to say, when you have the ounce of the said ground thing, delicately you will put it in a small glass over low heat, and there you will sprinkle it, drop by drop, with its white air, grinding well and mixing. And you will do this until it is melted like wax on the fire without giving off smoke. So, collect a little and put it on a vermilion silver slide. And when it's on it, if all of a sudden it resolves like wax, it's good, if not start again with the residue to be cemented a second time, watering little by little, drop by drop, mixing over low heat with its said air or oil white until melted like smokeless wax. Know that when you have fixed by sublimations the purest part of the earth, namely the air, all the philosophers prescribe to reiterate the sublimation of the other non-fixed part on that which is fixed until this one is also fixed. Then you have to test on the fire if it will make a good fusion: if it is positive, then the sublimation is sufficient. But if it does not give a good melt, re-sublime the unfixed until it melts like smokeless wax. Then extract it and let it cool (59). For here is the accomplished elixir, here is the invaluable thing that converts every broken body into true and perfect money. So cast a part of this elixir on a thousand parts of mercury washed with salt and vinegar and it will produce silver pure better than silver from the mine. Likewise if you project elixir on imperfect bodies, whatever they are, it transmutes them into perfect silver.
So through the method described above I have fully delivered to you the composition of the true elixir as well as all the techniques by which you can undoubtedly achieve the effect of the cause. So be careful, try to understand and practice the terms of the [different] diets I told you about. Because if you do as planned, I have no doubt that you will find them all full of truth, without any disappointment or deception. Do not believe that these processes can be done all alone, and do not believe that this (the transmutation) is done by miracle. On the contrary, be well assured that everything is achieved by the art of the philosophers and by the work. So operate as you see fit. After such advice, indeed, I cannot say more.
Know that the vermeil elixir is made in the same way as white is made. Because the vermeil is made with gold and the white with silver. Except that it is proper to put for gold, for each white thing that you have put for silver, vermilion thing, to put in the leaven instead of pieces of silver pieces of gold, and first to turn the water of mercury vermilion with stone fire. For in the operation of gold only vermeil enters, just as in the operation of silver only white.
Know that, when you want to ferment, you must add the medicine of gold, that is to say, the vermilion and inflammable fixed sulphur. And this fixing and calcining three times his weight of the prepared ferment, his own, with great skill and skill by the method of sublimation multiplying the dissolution until, as above said, the non-fixed remains with the fixed and that everything remains fixed to the bottom. For the modus operandi of this dissolution and fixation resides in a frequent reiteration of the sublimation of the non-fixed part joined (60) with great subtlety to the depths of the fixed part, and this until its imbibition and fixation with it, so that finally the non-fixed part is held and remains with the fixed (61 ). When in this way she has drunk the two parts of her vermilion water, as it is said, and they are well joined together, she is then soaked in her vermilion oil. It must be soaked by watering, sublimating it once, then watering, then another time sublimating, then watering, and this must be done as often as necessary so that everything remains fixed to the bottom. Then put it (62) on low heat for a day and a night so that it is better purified and that water and oil better settle in it (the body). Then remove it from the fire and put it in a glass vase over another small fire. Cerate it with its vermilion oil, casting it drop by drop, mixing well, until it is melted like wax without making smoke. From then on, said oil stays with the body and penetrates it to the very depths and tints it forever. Throw therefore a part of this water (63) on a thousand parts of pure silver or on a thousand parts of mercury washed with salt and vinegar: it will become very real gold, (verified) whatever the examination, and preferable seed , and by far, to the gold of the mine. For the gold which is produced from the elixir surpasses in all its properties the gold and silver of the mine. That is why the philosophers say that their gold and their silver are neither gold nor silver of the vulgar, because a very superior dose of tincture and constancy of fire is added to them. Moreover it (64) is of greater efficacy and utility in removing all disease from the bodies.
When the medicines are fixed and cerified with their white and vermilion oils until they flow like wax, if then you dissolve them in their mercury, either white or vermilion, until they become like clear water and if then you freeze them over low heat and then if you once again cherish them again with their oils until they melt dry, then their power is doubled in projection. And if, the medicines once dissolved, you distill them only once, you will multiply their power a hundredfold. The mode of multiplication of the medicines consists by burial in individually dissolving the species of each of the medicines in their water. Then decomposes their elements by distillation, taking first water, then oil, then fire. The earth will remain at the bottom. Then by means of sublimation reduced water on the earth until it has drunk it all and settled down with it. Then soak it in oil and tincture until everything settles in it and it is melted like wax. Then, as you have multiplied its tincture a hundredfold, you can project on any body you want and as much as you want.
And, if a share first converts a hundred of the other bodies, secondly it will convert into fine silver or fine gold a thousand, thirdly ten thousand, fourthly a thousand thousands.
This is why you will note that the more medicine dissolves, the better it sublimates and congeals, the better and with more abundance it operates, for in each sublimation it acquires a hundred in projection. So do not tire of repeating the dissolutions, sublimations and freezings, because, thanks to these operations, the disposition of medicine is better, it is better assembled, better fixed and it operates more perfectly.
For don't think that when I speak thus of dissolution, my intention is that the elixir becomes water. But I mean that you (65) make it subtle, as much as possible, that you divide its conjoined parts in the fixation, that its dry is converted into wet and the gross into simple, because the operation of the dissolution was invented to make subtle and not for anything else. This is why the conjunction of the body with the spirits takes place with dissolution and not with sublimation, the bodies only needing subtlety in order to unite as well as possible with their spirits. Know that subtlety consists in dissolving the thing in water, because distillation transforms the stone from power to fact by making it entirely subtle. Also, when the bodies are totally made subtle, then the spirits totally join and add to them and never again by any artifice can they be separated. For the combination of spirits with bodies is effected when the bodies become subtle so that they can retain the spirits. Because of which, who can prepare the bodies with the first subtlety will achieve the object of his desire and an excellent end .
So the whole intention of the alchemist must be concentrated on the conjunction of spirits with bodies. And the conjunction is effected when the bodies are made subtle so that the spirit and the bodies become subtle by their [sublimation, dissolution] (66), contrition and their assertion with the spirits. So understand what I say, because everything is useful and nothing is superfluous in everything I said. If however you do not understand, reread until you understand everything and then, when you understand, operate as I told you, because everything comes from the hand of Truth. Unless you tire yourself, you cannot go wrong in any way so that your work bears good fruit.
Therefore, if you do not understand my writing, do not blame me or accuse me, but accuse your ignorance, for you are not worthy to possess noble science, but you are unfortunate like the one to whom God does not want to give or allow any good.
Because it would be difficult to handle and melt together a large amount of parts, you will only take one hundred parts of a mercury purified with common salt and vinegar . Then put them in a large crucible over a flameless coal fire. And, when it begins to be hot and bubbling, throw in one part of your elixir out of the hundred parts. And know that everything will become good medicine to be projected on another purified mercury. Also throw a part of this same elixir on a hundred other parts of mercury, purified and deposited in the crucible. And when [it] begins to boil, know that again, that is to say a second time, everything will become fine medicine. Then of this elixir which has just been made throw one part out of a hundred of other mercury purified and boiling on the fire, as it is said, and know that now — that is to say at the third projection — everything will become fine gold or fine silver supporting any expertise, depending on whether the elixir you have put there beforehand is either white or vermilion.
This, then, is the rosebush of the philosophers. He wears white or red roses that smell good, he is a brief extract from the books of the philosophers with nothing superfluous or faulty. On the contrary it contains all that is necessary to complete and transmute any imperfect body into real silver and real gold according to the preparation of the elixir. I say that it also has the power, superior to all other doctors' medicines, to cure any illnesses, hot or cold, for it is hidden and of a subtle nature. Hence it preserves health, strengthens strength and virtue, makes the old young and removes all disease from the body, drives out all venom, purifies all things in the body, heals them. and keeps them healthy , purges and purifies the blood and all that is in the sensitive minds and keeps them in [the state of] purity (67).
[If an illness lasts a month, it heals in a day, if it lasts a year, it heals in three days] (68), and if the illness has been even longer, whatever it may be, in one months he healed her.
So every man should willingly know and love this medicine surpassing all other medicines and riches of the world, because whoever possesses it possesses an incomparable treasure above all the treasures of the world.
I therefore say that the intention of all this work is to take only the stone of which I spoke to you in the [previous] chapters (69), with great care to make it subtle in the first degree [of sublimation] (70) so that it becomes mercury. Then by putrefaction it passes from impurity to purity. Then, when it is broken down, let each part be purged by itself. Then, when it is dissolved, let its white or vermilion ferment be added to it until it reaches the extreme matter of subtlety and in the end it becomes volatile. Then let it be fixed until it can endure any fire. Finally, thanks to [the techniques] of dissolution and sublimation, the fixed part of the stone is added to the non-fixed so that the volatile is fixed, the fixed dissolves and is volatile (71).
Repeat this operation as often as necessary, then mix, dissolve, freeze and cook until everything stays together on the heat. And there by itself the medicine melts and flows without smoke, everything having been well mixed into one thing. For then the elixir is completed to [transmute] into true gold and true silver. Then the secret is accomplished and seizes the priceless treasure of all philosophers. That is why, my dear friend, with great application, with great inventiveness and deep meditation, with a lot of work try to obtain this thing (72).
For with this book the true elixir is accomplished and otherwise not, provided that you show great and perfect application and that you work at it without discontinue. Know that I have written for you above in full all the modalities of the work without hiding anything nor speaking in figures but [speaking] in a plenary way. I tell you, dear friend — God is witness, as can be verified in the books of philosophers and men of science — that in all this art there is contained nothing better, nor more perfect, nor more true as my aforesaid words, even if I shortened it a little so as not to make it too long. However, to good listeners, these words are sufficiently clear and sufficiently long.
Explicit from the book of the Rosier: may Jesus and his mother be blessed,
Amen.
Quote of the Day
“Also the whole Magisterium is nothing other than perfectly dissolving and perfectly congealing the Spirit: and these operations have such a connection between them, that never the Body does not dissolve, that the Spirit does not freeze nor the Spirit does not freeze, that the Body does not dissolve. Which makes Raimond Lully say that all the Philosophers have declared that the entire work of the Magisterium is only Dissolution and Congelation.”
Bernard Trevisan
Verbum Dismissum
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