THE MIRROR OF MASTER JEAN DE MEHUN

Philosophers formerly of several kinds and variously spoke through their writings, as if by enigma and almost nebulous voice, they left us on some noble science above all the others in an almost incomprehensible obscurity and under veil of despair completely destroyed: and that not without reason. And therefore advises you that in all writings you put your mind entirely on these seven chapters, where the transmutation of metals is contained, and often resolve in your heart the beginning, middle and end, and such subtlety in them you will find that you will have the accomplishment of what you desire.

Chapter I: Definitions of Alchemy.

In several books of the ancients there are several definitions of this art, the intention of which in this chapter must be considered because Hermes says: Of this science, Alchemy is a corporeal science of one and by one simply composed very precious, together by knowledge, & knowing effect, & by similar natural commission into a kind of better transmuting effect. Another says, Alchemy is a science which is taken and taught to transform any kind of metal into another, and this by its own medicine, as it appears in several books of the Philosophers. And because Alchemy is a science which learns to make & generate a medicine which is called elixir, of which when we project onto imperfect metals or bodies, in a moment of projection they will become entirely perfect.

Chapter II. Natural principles & procreations of mineral things.

Secondly I will declare the natural principles & procreations of mineral things.

On which first it must be noted that the mineral principles of mining are Quick silver, & Sulfur: from these all metals and all mineral things are generated: of which several are species and diverse. How much (I say) nature has always proposed, and tends to the perfection of Gold. But the various accidents which occur transform the metals, as we find quite clearly in the books of the Philosophers.

For according to the purity & impurity of the two aforesaid, Quick Silver & Sulphur, pure & impure metals are generated, namely, Gold, Silver, Tin, Lead, Copper, Iron, of the nature of which know is, purity and impurity, or filthy superfluity, and that their fault receives these words,

On the nature of Gold.

Gold is a perfect body generated from a lively, pure, fixed, clear, red Silver, & from a clean, fixed, red, non-adherent Sulfur, & there is nothing that it fails, & no fault has in him.

On the nature of Silver.

Silver is a clean, pure, almost perfect body, procreated from a lively, pure, almost fixed Silver, clear, white & Sulfur-like: & it only needs very little fixation & color with weight.

Of the nature of Tin.

Tin is a clean, impure body, made, procreated of a living silver, pure, fixed, & not fixed, clear, white in its manifest, & red in its hidden & occulted & of similar sulfur, & it does not need as decoction alone or digestion.

From nature to Lead.

Lead is a foul & dirty, & imperfect body, procreated from an impure living silver, not fixed, terrestrial, stinking, in no way white, in its manifest or appearance, & red in its hidden or concealed: & of similar sulfur, burning of some part, and lacking purity & fixation, with color & fire.

From the nature of Copper.

Copper is a filthy and imperfect body, generated from an impure, non-fixed, earthly living silver, of a boiling red, not clear, and similar to Sulphur: it lacks fixation, and to be pure and clean, with the weight: & fi has too much impure color, & non-adherent earthiness.

On the nature of Iron.

Iron is a filthy & imperfect body, generated from an impure living silver, too fixed, boiling earthly, white & red, not clear, & similar to Sulphur, & it failing fusion, purity, & weight, & if has too much of filthy fixed sulfur, & boiling earthliness. And therefore the said Alchemist must note all these things here.

Chapter III. From which things the material of the Elixir must be drawn.

To the above-mentioned things the procreation of both perfect and imperfect metals has been sufficiently determined. Now let's return to the imperfect matter that we must select and make perfect. Since it is quite well known by the preceding chapters, that from quick silver and sulfur all metals are generated: and as their impurity and filthiness corrupts, and seeing that there is nothing that must be put with the metals that did not come from them, it is quite well known to us that no strange thing (which did not take its origin from them) is sufficient and has the power to make them perfect, or to effect their transmutation new.

And because it is indeed a thing of great admiration, that a Sage bases his intention on animals, or vegetable things which are greatly removed from them, given that there are mining mines quite close by. And we must not entirely believe that any of the Philosophers having put art to the above-mentioned things, only by similarity. But of the two things mentioned above, they are all the metals: and there is nothing that can be joined to them, except what is of them themselves.

And therefore we must take for duty, Quick Silver & Sulfur, for the material of our Stone Quick Silver alone nor Sulfur alone each by itself cannot generate metal, but by the mixture of both various metals in various kinds are generated & several mineral things: therefore it is apparent, that we must draw our matter from the commission of them both. But our final secret is very excellent, and greatly hidden in that of what mineral thing it must be made, & composed more soon: what we are required to elect, with great solicitude.

I therefore put the case that our matter is drawn in the first place from vegetable things, such as herbs, trees, or all things coming from the earth. These things must be made of live silver and sulfur, by long decoction, from which we are excused, and of their operation: seeing that Nature offers us quick silver and sulfur.

And whatever we draw from animals such as human blood, hair, urine, excrement, chicken eggs, and all things derived from animals, it is necessary that from them be made quick silver and sulfur by long decoction: of which things we are excused as above. Or if we took things directly mineral like all kinds of Magnesia, Marcassites, of Tuties, Attraments, or Vitriols, Aluns, Baurachs, Salts, & several others: it is necessary to do everything as here above, namely that it is done by decutting Quick Silver, & Sulphur: of which things as well as the preceding ones we are excused.

And if we took of the seven spirits one whole, like Quicksilver alone, or Sulfur only, or Quicksilver, & one of the two Sulphurs, or Quicksulfur, or Orpiment, or Arsenic citrine or red all alone, or accompanied , we would never make them perfect.

For when Nature does not make something perfect, without the equal mixture of the two, neither do we. From which at the time like the aforesaid Quicksilver, & Sulfur in its Nature, we are excused. Finally, if we took each one as it is, we would have to mix them, according to their due proportion, which the human mind ignores, then decook, until it coagulates into a solid mass.

And therefore we are excused for taking them both in their own nature, namely quick silver, and sulfur, since we do not know their said proportion, and we find the bodies where the above-mentioned things are proportioned, coagulated, & incorporated duly, & all as it belongs.

Keep this secret well hidden.

Gold is a perfect, male body without any superfluity or diminution: the only liquor of which, if mixed with the imperfect, made them perfect, it would be an elixir to red.

Silver is also an almost perfect feminine body, and if by its vulgar fusion it made the imperfect almost perfect, it would be elixir or white, which is not, cannot be: because they are only perfect.

And if this perfection could be mixed with the imperfect, not the imperfect with the perfect would become perfect, but rather their perfection would be diminished with the imperfect, and would be made imperfect. But if they were more than perfect, or double, or quadruple, or a hundredfold or more, still the imperfect would be made perfect.

And because Nature always opens simply, they have only simple inseparable & incommiscible perfection. And by art would not be put in Stone as leaven to shorten the work, and would therefore be reduced to their pristine, seeing that the grandeur of the volatile overcomes the grandeur of the fixed.

And because Gold is the perfect body of silver, bright red, clear and similar to sulphur: on this occasion we do not take it for the material of our Red Elixir Stone, because it is thus simply perfect, without ingenious mondification, & so highly digestible & decooked by natural heat, that with great difficulty we can open Gold & Silver by our artificial fire.

And whatever nature can do something, it nevertheless does not know how to deeply world it, or make it perfect and purified at all: because it simply opens onto what it has. And for this reason if we took Gold, or Silver for the material of the Stone, with great difficulty, or difficulty would we find fire which acts in them. And as much as we ignore fire, however we could not achieve their profound mondification & perfection, because of their very strong union, compaction, & natural composition.

And for this we are excused from taking the first to red, or the second to white, since we find a thing, or a body of a sulfur as clear or more, and similar to bright silver, on which nature has worked little or much : which with our artificial fire, & experience of our art, to its due decoction, mondification, coloring, & fixation, with our ingeniousness on this continued, we can achieve.

Therefore we must choose a matter, in which there is clean, pure, clear, white & red quicksilver, not completed to accomplish, but also mixed & in proportion in due manner with similar sulfur & in frozen solid mass, so that with our engine & prudence, & our artificial fire, we can achieve its intimate clarity, & purified from them, & make it such that after the accomplishment of the art, it is a thousand thousand stronger & perfect, than simple bodies decooked by natural heat.

And therefore be careful: because if in my little chapters you are subtle & ingenious, to which by manifest & patent proof I have shown you to know the matter of the Stone, you will taste this delectable, on which falls all the intention of the Philosophers .

On how to moderate & continue the Fire.

I believe that you have found (If you are not of a very hard brain and at all obscured by ignorance) by the words already said the certain matter of the blessed Peter of the learned Philosophers, on which all the work of Alchemy must be put, when we struggle to perfect the imperfect, and this with the more than perfect. And since nature gave us the imperfect only with the perfect, we need more than to perfect the material known in the chapters with our artificial work & labor.

And if we ignore the means or way of doing things, what is involved that we do not see as nature, which formerly perfected metals or worked frequently and without interruption? Do we not see that in the mines (by the continuous heat that is in the mountains of the mines) the size of the water decreases, in such a way runs through the mountain & is Sulfur? And so as we can see in the above-mentioned veins of this place, this sulfur generates (as it is said) from the fat of the Earth, also obviates to the Quick Silver (as also it is written) in the veins of the Earth , & generates the thickness of the mineral water.

In this place there by heat also lasting in the mountain, in a long time various metals are generated according to the diversity of the place, in which mining places there is heat which always lasts. And by right we must note, that the mineral mountain on the outside is of stone on all sides, closed in itself: because if the heat were to escape, metals would never be generated. If therefore our intention is to follow nature, an oven of this kind is necessary for us, in the likeness of the mountains not in size, but provided with continual heat, so that the fire that has been put there, when it rises does not find where to exit, and that the heat reverberates the closed vessel very strongly, containing in itself the material of the Stone, which vessel must be round and of glass with a small neck, or of some Earth, representing the nature or compaction of the glass.

The mouth of which must be covered or sealed with a similar covering or glue. And as the heat does not immediately touch the matter of Sulfur & Quick Silver, because the earth of the mountain is between two everywhere. Thus the fire must not immediately touch the vessel containing in itself the matter of the above-mentioned things, but it must be placed in another vessel closed in the same way, so that the temperate heat reaches the matter better and more aptly above and below, and wherever it may be. Of which speaking Aristotle in the light of lights says, that the mercury must be cooked in a triple vessel, and that the vessel be of very hard glass, or for the best of Earth possessing the nature of glass.

Accidental & essential colors that appear in the work.

Having researched and demonstrated the way of the Stone enough, you will know the certain way of doing it, by what mode, by what regime the Stone by cutting it is often transmuted into various colors: of which someone says: as many names as colors , because according to the various colors which appear in the work, their names are various by the Philosophers.

Of which the first operation of our Stone is called putrefaction, and our Stone becomes black. What someone says, When you find it black, know that in this blackness whiteness is hidden, which therefore you must draw from it its very subtle blackness. And after putrefaction it reddens, not with the true redness, of which someone says, often reddens & often takes on a citonine color, & often liquefies, & often coagulates in front of true whiteness.

And oneself also dissolves, oneself coagulates, oneself putsrefies, oneself becomes colored, oneself mortifies, oneself becomes vivified, oneself becomes black, oneself becomes white, oneself decorates itself and adorns itself with redness with whiteness, and becomes green, of which another says, cook it until it is apparent to you to have been born green, and it is its soul, according to what another says, know that in the green color the soul dominates before whiteness, also shows itself the color of a peacock, of which someone says thus, know that all the colors which are in the world or can be thought of, show themselves before true whiteness & then it comes. Another who also says that when it decooks pure and clean until it shines like the eyes of fish, one must wait for its usefulness.

And then the Stone is frozen into roundness. Another also says, when you find the whiteness has been raised to the vessel, be sure that in this whiteness there, the true whiteness is hidden, and then you must take it out. However, cook it until everything is red, because between true whiteness and true redness, there is a color of ashes, of which it is said, after whiteness you cannot fail, because increasing the fire , you will reach the ashes. Of which another says, do not despise the ashes, for God will make it liquid for you: so at the end the King is crowned with the red diadem, by the permission of God.

be sure that in this whiteness, the true whiteness is hidden, and then you must bring it out. However, cook it until everything is red, because between true whiteness and true redness, there is a color of ashes, of which it is said, after whiteness you cannot fail, because increasing the fire , you will reach the ashes. Of which another says, do not despise the ashes, for God will make it liquid for you: so at the end the King is crowned with the red diadem, by the permission of God. be sure that in this whiteness, the true whiteness is hidden, and then you must bring it out. However, cook it until everything is red, because between true whiteness and true redness, there is a color of ashes, of which it is said, after whiteness you cannot fail, because increasing the fire , you will reach the ashes.

Of which another says, do not despise the ashes, for God will make it liquid for you: so at the end the King is crowned with the red diadem, by the permission of God. you will reach the ashes. Of which another says, do not despise the ashes, for God will make it liquid for you: so at the end the King is crowned with the red diadem, by the permission of God. you will reach the ashes. Of which another says, do not despise the ashes, for God will make it liquid for you: so at the end the King is crowned with the red diadem, by the permission of God.

Of the way of making the projection of medicine, on which we will want imperfect ones.

I have accomplished & put an end to my promise of great perfect mastery to make the very excellent red & white elixir. Finally we must deal with the manner of projection, what is the complement of the work, & the desired & expected joy. It must be understood that the red elixir shines endlessly, and into very pure gold transmutes all metals, and the white elixir whitens infinitely, and even any metal whatsoever to perfect whiteness. But you must know that one metal is further from perfection than another, and the other closer and closer than another.

And as much as each metal is reduced to perfection by the elixir, however the nearest ones are reduced more lightly, rather, better & more perfectly than the most distant ones. And since we find the next metal and neighbor of perfection, we are by this excused from many of the distant ones, and which are the distant and neighboring metals, and which is the closest and neighbor to perfection. But if you are Wise & ingenious in my little chapters, you will find him quite openly determined.

And whoever places his mind and engine in such a way in my mirror, that he comes to find by his industry the true matter, he will know well on which body must be made the protection of medicine for perfection. Our predecessors of this art who found it through their Philosophy, demonstrate with their fingers quite clearly the right, a path, however, quite devoid when, they say: nature contains nature: nature overcomes nature, & nature obtains its nature: rejoices & transmutes into other natures.

And in another place: all like makes flesh to like: for similarity is said because of friendship: of which several Philosophers have left a notable secret. Know that the soul enters its body early, which with an alien or foreign body, does not unite in any way. And elsewhere it is said: The soul suddenly enters its body: & if you deliberate to join it with an alienated or foreign body, you will work in vain: because the neighborhood has more conformity: & because the bodies in the regime & operation are incorporated facts: & on the contrary, the incorporated corporified: & in the end & completion the whole body is fixed spiritual fact.

And also because it is an elixir, obviously spiritual or white or red besides its nature, is so much and so greatly prepared and decooked, it is no wonder that it does not mix with the body, on which liquefied only a projection is made. It is such a painful thing to project over a thousand times a mile, and more beyond, and to penetrate it immediately, and to transmute it. For this now I will tell you a great and very hidden secret.

It is necessary to mix a part of it with a thousand, of the more neighboring body, and lock all of this very tightly, in a suitable vessel, and put it in a fixation furnace. First with slow fire, & always increasing the fire by three days, until they are inseparably conjoined. And this is the work of three turns. So again & finally a projection of each of these must be made, on other thousand parts of each body that you want closer. And this is the work of a day or an hour, or a moment, for which our admirable God must be praised eternally.

END

Printed in Lyon by Mace Bonhomme.