THE PRACTICE OF THE GREAT WORK OF PHILOSOPHERS

By Philippe Rouillac
Piedmontese Cordelier
1608



*
LAT score
R = Silver, Moon
X = Gold, Sun
P = Metal from which a mercury is extracted (unspecified)
*



CHAPTER I
Author's disclaimer

In my previous book of alchemy, I declared quite amply what the stone of the philosophers is; what is the matter of which it is composed, what is its nature in quality and from what substance it must be drawn.

And by the way, I have omitted to trim the false opinions of those who seek it in foreign things and also of the impostors in this art who try to freeze vulgar mercury with herbs and salts, as also of those who try to fix the moon without its solution & this in vain, similarly to those who risk increasing the sun & the moon, all of whom especially since they cannot understand what it is that the true philosophers have hidden under names: celandine, lunar, wine, brandy, tartar, egg, etc., and if you don't understand what it is to coagulate, fix and multiply, persuading yourself that it is nothing more than to remove fluxibility and superfluous humidity & increase weight & remaining color.

Commentary on Chapter I
I do not have this previous book, but then to say that this author was great & excellent, and that he has seen and experienced a lot, and have not yet seen an author who deals more truly and openly with this work. .

He takes back those who wander in this art seeking it in foreign things which are not by nature metals and which can never be united or fixed with them; he also takes up those who want to coagulate the mercury with herbs and salts, which he does with good reason, because to freeze it is to thicken it and the thickening is done by separating from it the thinner and rarer humidity; & because it is of a homogeneous substance and similar in these parts, this inspissation cannot be done except by means of something which unites in its center with it which is fixed and retains it in the violence of fire , until the said rare and superfluous moisture is separated and the thickest remains, and by this means becomes hard and metal.

He again takes up those who want to fix silver without its solution, why know you have to know the nature of the sun which is its material, is very pure lively silver which is fixed with very pure and red sulfur which gives them its citrine color but it is in very small quantity with respect to mercury. When I say its first matter, I mean in the mine of the earth in what resembles quicksilver and sulfur as in matter of all metals is similar, although it is different in purity and mixture from which diversity results. of their forms; the cause therefore why silver and the other metals take the form of sol cannot be other than that they must be reduced by artifice to similar quicksilver and similar sulfur as that which is in the sun. It is therefore necessary to reduce the said quicksilver to volatile and fluent mercury and then join it with ground prepared in lime and, by coction, the sulfur which is in the ground reduces the quicksilver to the ground because the said quicksilver (of silver) is similar to that of sol: and only the decoction remains. Here, as a particular way, the similar is made by the lapis which is universal. The particular is made by long decoction, and the universal in its moment, by the virtue of lapis.

However, except correction of the author, I experimented several times that the silver by particular way is transformed without this mutation of silver in mercury, because of mercury sublimated in no way fixed and returned in oil is made tincture which has virtue of turn it into grains of gold. And for the same reason because this oil of sublimation is of sulfur nature and that it is in gold, it separates with the help of fire the impurity of silver, the complexion in citrine, unites with it and are made the said grains of gold around which is an earthly impurity, in which are sown the said transmuted grains of gold and as the proof whether the lapis is perfect or not is on the red-hot silver lamina.

CHAPTER II
What is the material of which the philosopher's lapis is made

The sages affirm that it is made of a single thing & do not lie, because these two things, which imitating nature they take for the confection, are composed of sulfur & mercury. However they are two things because they have various forms because of their accidental qualities, one is inwardly hot and dry masculine agent & gives form to matter, and hence they called it soul, sulfur & ferment & it does not Only a small amount is needed to complete the work. The other, on the contrary, is cold, moist, passive, feminine, soothing and desiring its leaven to be joined in one, with it to perfection, the feminine is called by all the philosophers the matter of the stone, for without it,

CHAPTER III
First, what must be done for the mercury of the philosophers & the material from which it must be extracted & that it be cohobe, that is to say often amalgamated
Take therefore, in the name of God, a pound of P which is pure and frank, and which has never been implemented. File it very subtly, as much as you can, and heat it in a crucible over hot ashes.

Again and on the other hand, heat in another earthenware crucible four pounds of ใ m. In this ใm, will throw P and hold the whole on hot ashes for twenty-four hours, which passed, pour the whole into its glass still & will apply its yoke having its nose, that is to say beak, y adapt its container and distil the whole ใ what you will know by the weight because of four pounds of ใ you will have lost only two ounces.

Then let the fire die and the matter cool in the ashes, then take it out of the still & smell like ashes; triturate them into marble very subtly & put them in an earthen pot lute of other earth, which will put on the lamppost & give it the fire in and by degrees, increasing for fear that it will not melt & this by twenty- four hours, then let the fire die & cool the vessel in the furnace; then triturate your matter on the marble & reiterate the cohobation id is amalgam, coction and extraction aforesaid seven times for the least & the more times reiterate it, the more easily will be reduced to mercury & elements than if the cohobation twenty times. Then crush it & put it in a cold and humid place,

Remember well this cohobation of P, & put it in your understanding, because by similar means, you will have to cohob R and X with white and red, before conjoining them in marriage with mercury, which I will teach you below. But it is nothing but the calcination of P if it is not reduced to mercury, without which the reduction of P to it would be useless to our work.

So put the lime of P on hot ashes and soak it with its philosopher's tartar oil; and soaking it little by little, make it retain four times more than it weighs, then that being well triturated on the marble, put it in a glass vial in its damp place every six days or until what you see that the said P will be reduced to mercury, by stirring and shaking the matter four or six times a day, finally you will find four ounces of mercury from each pound of P, then, you will have the true philosophers' lapis extracted according to their intention.

Commentary on Chapter III
Here begins the practice of making the lapis of the philosophers as easily and openly expressed as ever by any author, and then it speaks from experience.

Especially since he says that it is necessary first, that the material of the said lapis be reduced to fluent mercury and that it is certain that this material from which this mercury is extracted, is only metal. It is said that this metal must be cohobed, that is to say that several times it must be amalgamated with vulgar quick mercury with said metal; then extract the said vulgar mercury and repeat this so many times that the said metal turns into fluent mercury.

This author has said and expressed everything, except the metal from which this mercury is extracted, and only named it by the letter P, which he did with good reason, yet he said far too much about the body . By the words then of the author, it is easy to collect which metal he wants to speak, because undoubtedly it is of him that he wanted to designate by the letter P because the mercury of this metal is as perfect as that gold and silver and has as much effect and virtue. He wants it to be new & has never been used, because it is often mixed with other metal.

The rest is easy to hear by the washing of which he wanted to hide the vulgar quicksilver washed & prepared with vinegar as it is easy; for by the said vulgar mercury, doubtless all the metals are transmuted & reduced to mercury neither more nor less than by several waters which are the vehicle, the liquors of the mixtures are extracted and separated from the terrestrial dryness. Thus the mercury being amalgamated with the said P by twenty-four hours, begins to loosen it from its sulfur & terrestrial dryness, which is because of the similarity that the said mercury has with the mercury of the metal.

And is said P easier to loosen from its earthly dryness than any of the other metals, because it is of heterogeneous dissimilar and ill-bonded parts, which is easily known by its effects. It is necessary, he says, to amalgamate and commix P with vulgar quick mercury and to hold them for twenty-four hours on hot ashes in the said crucible covered with another crucible without entering, and that the fire is not so violent let him exhale the mercury; thus only on hot ashes it is necessary this time, in order to quench & more easily untie said mercury from the dryness & earthiness of P; after, it is necessary to separate said mercury from P by distillation and will return alive inside said receptacle.

It seems to me that it would be better to put it in a glass matrass and get the vulgar mercury out of it, because it only comes out with a fairly violent fire and as soon as it feels the cold place it falls back from where it is. , as he could do in his bottom of the still, which he cannot do in his matrass thus lying down, because he could not climb high and will be forced to leave by the neck of the said matrass. The sure sign when he will be all out is if he no longer distills anything being in his matrass which will be lying askew. This amalgamation, coction and extraction of living mercury tends so that P turned into lime and ashes, or reduced to a finer powder, but this calcination is not to make it drier; on the contrary the lime is made more humid because of the quick mercury which by its humidity and frigidity has moistened these interior parts more, nevertheless this calcination is done to make it more suitable to separate its fluent mercury.
Then after, starting this calcination for twenty-four hours at the lamppost is necessary, so that the body of P is put in smaller and loose parts and so that, after in the reiteration of the amalgam, coction & distillation of quick mercury the body of P moistened more, you must take care that the fire is not so violent that it melts P again. For if it melts again, it would resume its first nature and you would have nothing and would have to start over.

He also says that if we repeated these operations twenty times, he would reduce himself all to mercury being put in a humid place, but because that would be too boring, he only wants four times at least and afterwards, with with the help of the oil of tartar, it is reduced to mercury.

By the letter R he means silver and by the letter X he means gold. All these amalgamations, coctions, extractions of mercury, calcinations, & reiterations of them, & their practices, are the key to the work. Without them, nothing can be done and as we work P we must work in the same way R and X .

Oil of tartar is easily made by calcining it, being good until it is white and then letting it grind on the marble in a cold place, until it resolves all into oil and liquor . Then, it must be distilled by filter. It has a marvelous virtue of separating the quick-mercury of the metals from their terrestrial dryness, after they are prepared for this separation. For it is of a very hot nature, which is very suitable for separating heterogeneous and dissimilar things and assembling similar and homogeneous things, and this is seen in vulgar mercury sublimated or precipitated or mixed with some metal, because the said oil of sulfur will dissolve it, will separate and become lively. He says the weight of the oil of tartar and that from it, P & until he has drunk said oil four times as much as he weighs and then putting him in a cold place, the oil of tartar will come to resolve again and will complete the loosening of the mercury of said P.

And will be seen the said mercury in small grains, which being easily separated from the oil, will come to assemble with the flowing mercury because the oil resolves in itself that which is flowing mercury.

CHAPTER IV
Of the commixtion of philosophical mercury with the ferment and of what material the said lively ferment is extracted and of its separation

A) when you have thus extracted your mercury, you will have to handle it with its ferment or leaven; R is the moon, X the ground.
B) But it must be understood that this ferment or leaven can only be drawn from R and X for the white and red, according to the degree of decoction that you will give it.
C) But before marriage, said R and X must be prepared in this way.
D) First, let each of them be purged by his royal examination or ordeal so that all that is foreign is separated from it.
H) Then afterwards, let them be calcined like P and repeat the said calcinations four times at least;
F) When you have the lime of the philosophers paired according to their intention but especially since X is its suitable leaven and disposed both white and red and that X and R must be governed and cut by the same means I will only deal with X .
G) So, heat a crucible in the fire and having removed it with iron tweezers, put in it an ounce of lime of X, & do as said is. When you see that it will have been heated by the crucible and red, throw into it forty ounces of mercury of P which will have passed through the leather, and agitate it and shake it for so long that the mercury is well amalgamated and that it solved all that lime. Then throw everything into a small wooden bowl, in which there will be water and wash it so many times that no impurity remains, that is to say that the water comes out clear without no darkness. Then dry this amalgam and clean it with a small hot sponge or a white cloth until there is no more water or humidity.
H) Then the marriage of male and female is consummated.
J) The weight of which female, i.e. mercury of P, must not exceed the weight of four or five ounces of lime of X one ounce.
K) But all the more so since when this amalgamation & this marriage takes place, something of the mercury flies away. Add to it what dissolved from the said four ounces and if the whole weighed more than eight ounces, remove what will be more than five ounces, and pass it through the leather because if to one ounce of lime ferment is joined to more than four ounces of mercury, the physical solution would be done sooner, but its coagulation will be later. So you will keep this proportion so that you complete the work in the specified time of the philosophers.
L) Here I want to teach you in passing, that some philosophers do not bother so much in the preparation of lime R or X, the more so as they amalgamate them and join them with the philosophical mercury, so long as only they purge them by the royal examination; & being filed, they amalgamate them with the philosophical mercury as I said. It is true that this way is shorter, but the solution which will be made later by mercury is so late, and the work is so greatly delayed, that sometimes the worker leaves everything behind. The cause of this is that the lime is believed to be rough and compact, but the lime is kept rare heated and weathered, whereby the more easily it drinks up its mercury & the more suddenly its massive compaction is broken and attenuated; if therefore the ferment being cohobe, as said is, you marry it with the mercury of P, rather you will have the end of it. So follow this path.

Commentary on Chapter IV
The manner and mode of proceeding in this work are natural, though by art, because many things are obscure as they are. And do we see them in nature & as Aristotle says in the “first book of Meteora” that the minerals & animals of all natural species of mixed things are in the first generation, like a moist thing; which moist is like the proper seed having the virtue of arriving at form and species, in which is enclosed a natural heat which is the effective cause which leads to this form. This wetness is not like water but is mixed with dryness, however, having more wetness than dryness and which is indigestible and raw and by coction eventually matures. Thus the mercury of P and the lime of X and R mixed and amalgamated together, is the subject of humidity on which heat must have its effect. But it has its natural heat enclosed in the spirit of sulfur which is in the air, and this natural heat aided by the foreignness of the fire reduces the work to its perfection. X alone could not be this wet. It has reached maturity & its last purpose, and the sharp mercury is too cold and damp; therefore, they must be joined together and then they are the true seed of the lapis.

B) the ferment or leaven can only be X or R; X for red and R for white. But this leaven is not fixed in order to be taken from it, but only a portion by separation, since none is made if it is taken whole, and there is no other leaven.
C) Everything as well as quick mercury drawn from P must be prepared and arranged to be conjunct with R; it is also necessary that R or X be prepared to be conjunct with said mercury.
D) It is the first preparation which is that R is very strongly refined by a tenderized dish, and then well melted and blown on it, that it is pure and when at X, that it is magnetized or passed through antimony .
E) It is the second preparation such as it was said in P. However, it is not necessary to turn X or R into fluent mercury, thus only to put them in lime by reiterations of amalgamation with vulgar mercury ; coctions and calcinations to make them more willing.
G) All that is said in this letter is nothing other than amalgamation of the lime of X with the mercury of P which the goldsmiths call "mondure"; because X is many, and without there being any need to describe the practice, we will have learned it sooner, if we don't know it, from seeing it done by gilders when they want to gild; because that is easy and however it seems to me that to mix them well, it would take a greater quantity of the said mercury, because the molding must be like a very thin and subtle paste; if there is too much, it is easy to remove and pass it through the leather.
K) Note that your amalgam must be like a fairly firm paste, and not runny mercury.
L) This warning is good and necessary, many having been deceived in it, and therefore it seems that not only four times but several times the gold X must be amalgamated and calcined, so that it is of itself soft like paste and, like says Paracelsus, that he melts like wax, which must happen by frequent and repeated amalgams and extractions of mercury and calcinations.
M) It is therefore necessary to make gold lime by vulgar mercury before joining it with philosopher's mercury.

CHAPTER V
Of the mercury necessary to multiply lapis in quantity after it is made, and of its nature and from what it is extracted

A) When you have thus married this one ounce of lime with the four ounces of mercury of P, keep it diligently in its clean glass vessel, so that you cook as I will teach you after you have the secret of the multiplication of the lapis in quantity, after its perfection by means of the philosopher's mercury, and what mercury is required for the said multiplication and how it must be animated.
B) Because although the philosophers have said many things about this multiplication, however they did not want to reveal the way, what I want to do so in the first place.
C) Know that any multiplication in quantity must be made of mercury very hot inside, and very cooked, and that it is free and deprived of all coldness.
D) Such are the two mercurys, one for the white which by the aid of G must be drawn from R, the other for the red which must be drawn from X, and the mercury of these two, drawn from this way made all perfect to be joined to the lapis, without doing anything else to it.
E) Take care when you wish to multiply, that you do not multiply the red stone by the mercury of R, nor the white by the mercury of X, because you will corrupt everything.
F) But there is another low-cost mercury, equal to the quickest, and which is good for white and red depending on whether it is prepared, which the philosophers have all hidden very curiously, and which was revealed by him who taught me this work.
G) That which draws itself from P namely by preparing it as I said, and besides this animating it and warming its very coldness to it, by the coction which I will tell you below.
H) But before describing it, it must be animated as follows however. Know that I will explain the mode to red, which if you follow you cannot fail in the operation to white. If you amalgamate with R then you will do thus: take two pounds of mercury from P and in eight small glass vessels put in each of them four ounces of the said mercury extracted from P. Animate each of the said four ounces, that is to say say said four ounces together with a scruple and a half X lime.
J) And after you have washed and dried it with a sponge, and passed through the leather so many times that the lime is so dissolved and attenuated, that all of it passes with the said mercury through the leather; when you have the mercury with the beautiful red of the philosophers, suitable and arranged for the multiplication of the quantity of the red work, or white if you change the ferment these finished things, keep the materials thus mixed, the said eight remaining to know for some water until you slice them, as I will teach you.

Commentary on Chapter V
A) He does not pursue the coction of the subject of lapis until he has taught the matter of which it is to be multiplied in quantity. Which he does with good reason because this material which multiplies must be cooked for its preparation at the same degree of heat & in the same vessel of ashes as the material of the said lapis & costs nothing more, the fixed coction of one more than the other, this is why we can decook it so much and so much the seed of the said lapis in the same furnace.
B) The author, in this multiplication in quantity, intends to speak of this increase by the lapis already made, is only increased in quantity without loss of its form, nor increase in its force and virtue but hereafter, it will deal with it.
C) He describes here the nature and quality of the matter of which the said multiplication in quantity must be made, and not without cause because all matter, which turns into the nature and increase of the augmented thing, is not indifferently suitable but the said must have a similarity of relationship, and the greater this resemblance, the better the union.
D) When he says that it must be drawn by means of ใ and by frequent reiterations of amalgams and quick mercury and of the said gold and silver, and by coctions and extractions of vulgar mercury, and by triturations and imbibitions of oil of tartar, and generally everything as well as mercury is extracted from P, and at this said mercury no further preparation is needed, but are then disposed for multiplication.

CHAPTER VI
Proper vessels to put the subject of lapis and mercury to multiply in quantity, & how they are to be put in the said vessels
We will therefore return to the treatise on the vessels, which the principal matter must be put in to be decimated, and the mercury animated like the multiplication must be made of it; we have digressed to teach the mode of animating the mercury of P for the multiplication of lapis in quantity.
A) So, when you have composed this first matter of four ounces of mercury of P and one ounce of lime of X, & amalgamating them together philosophically.
B) You will have married them together, you will put it in a closed and solid glass matrix and which will be made of glass composed of ashes of ferns and sand, so that it can endure the fire for a whole year.
C) The bottom of this vessel must be spherical & round, the neck of a palm and wide so that the heated matter can easily rise & find a place of cooling.
D) The amplitude of the globe will be such that the sixteenth part of it will occupy 5/16 th . You will wash the said 1/16 th part of the said globe, this said material will swell and rise & the place will be too narrow and as matter heats up and swells, if it has no space to move and turn and rest as a body, the vessel would rupture.

Now what I said, that the glass must be fought up to the place where the surface of the material is raised, and for this purpose that the dryness defends the bottom against the violence of the fire. And only the two other parts of the top of the said vase must be luted, so that you can know and look at the colors of the said matter; & when you know and hear them, if you govern the fire moderately according to the intention of the philosophers, you will also lute the mouth of the salt womb of Hermes, so that nothing can be exhaled and again will lute it from the lut of the wise, so that nothing can come out. For if the flower of matter, warming up and rising, came out and flew away, the whole work would perish. So when you have thus added these things, you will keep them until you put the matter to cook in its furnace, as I will describe it to you here below. Now, just as you will have enclosed the first matter in the vessel of glass, so you must enclose in each of the said eight aforesaid glass matrices, four ounces of the aforesaid animated mercury for the multiplication; however the glasses will be a little less than that which contains the first material. Their neck thus a little shorter, because their neck should not go beyond the furnace like the neck of the vessel to which the said first material is. The things thus adapted and provided with lut, you will keep them until you want to cook. thus you must enclose in each of the said eight aforesaid glass matrices, four ounces of the aforesaid animated mercury for multiplication; however the glasses will be a little less than that which contains the first material. Their neck thus a little shorter, because their neck should not go beyond the furnace like the neck of the vessel to which the said first material is. The things thus adapted and provided with lut, you will keep them until you want to cook. thus you must enclose in each of the said eight aforesaid glass matrices, four ounces of the aforesaid animated mercury for multiplication; however the glasses will be a little less than that which contains the first material. Their neck thus a little shorter, because their neck should not go beyond the furnace like the neck of the vessel to which the said first material is. The things thus adapted and provided with lut, you will keep them until you want to cook.

Commentary on Chapter VI
This chapter is very easy to interpret. The vessel must be like an egg without having its neck not very long, so it is called a Philosopher's egg.
The coction of the seed or subject of the lapis has a lot to do with the natural coction and even with the minerals, because nature cooks the mineral seeds inside the earth in an enclosed and elevated place so that the vapors rising above and finding no outlets , are forced to return to the bottom or to freeze in stones, and there to condense because of the frigidity of the place that the thickening of the matter.

So it is with our philosopher's egg in which is the seed of the lapis, the high place and always colder and less hot than that below, and the coldness causes the vapor to condense and tighten and that it falls back to the bottom without getting lost as it would be if the heat were equal everywhere, this is why the figure must be round and high.

The seal of Hermès is made variously like waxes, crushed glass gums, flours! subtly moistened icelles flowers; but it is impossible to make a better lut than to squeeze the mouth of the hot vessel with scissors, as glassmakers easily do, who put a "feriaçon" glass stopper in front of the opening through which they take the molten glass from their pots, & make for this "feriaçon" a small hole the size of the orifice of the neck of the glass & put the said orifice in it and tempt it with the menus, until it is hot & begins to melt, & then take it out & cut it with scissors & when it is perfectly corked.

CHAPTER VII
Of the Construction of the Philosopher's Furnace for Cooking Stone Matter & How Vessels Are to Be Arranged Therein

Now, the furnace of the philosophers in which the lapis must be baked, which is properly called athanor of digestion, is not such as many imagine, accommodating this athanor to its furnace which they build from two or three ovens, in the one of which the material is posed and scissored. But the heat enters it by degrees according to their will, and this stove is only good for their sophistication and useless for our business.

So to make a decoction of our lapis, you will build the furnace of potter's earth mixed with horse dung and pitch, for greater firmness and solidity. The height of this furnace will be at least one cubit, the thickness of the walls three or four fingers, the diameter of the palm of a hand. In the middle of this furnace will be a lamina of iron of this shape, around which will be a little less than around the furnace. Inside this lamina, therefore, will have four fingers at the iron end, by which, being stuck in the walls of the furnace, it will be retained. Here is the figure:


And will be pierced with several openings, so that through them the heat of the fire which will be placed below can more easily pass and reach the material.
At the bottom of the stove there shall be a small door to put the lamp, which door is tightly fitted all around so that it can be opened and closed easily as soon as the fire has been lit in it. Opposite the material that will be at the philosopher's ship, will be a small square glass window so that through it we can see the colors that the material will take and increase the fire when necessary. This square piece of glass in the form of a small window will be blocked out by the stove of a small piece of ground which will be equal to the said small window of glass and join well the small room or door of ground, you will open when you wish see the material over the glass.

The lid of this stove will be all in one piece and continuous surface, all of a coming of the same material as the stove, & of the same thickness, & which will be high of a palm and will have two handles so that by icelles you can take it when you want to take it off the lid. The furnace will be closed precisely so that the heat cannot escape, except by a permit, which will be at the top of the lid, by which permit, the neck of the glass containing the philosopher's matter will pass little above & high, & around the said lid will be four holes of the size to stick in the stem of a writing pen, so that through them the fire can take air, otherwise it would suffocate and be less lively.

So the stove being thus made and dried, you will put the material there as follows: Have a dish or pot of earth which is of good round earth and which can last a whole year & endure the fire. This pot you will fill with well untied and past ashes, which will press hard and in the middle of them the glass material will hold the philosophical material, in such a way that the surface of the ashes is equal & just to the surface of the material, & either in the same plain or flatness. Then after, press the ashes hard so that they better retain the heat and the sides of the said vessel containing the animated mercury, & there is no need to bury them in ashes but it will suffice that they remain on the surface.

This done, set on the pertuated plate of iron an iron tripod three fingers high having two diameters across which will split straight at the angles of the legs of the said tripod above, so that by means of them the cold of the vessel may be thwarted. and not be offended by the continuous action of fire and gravity of materials. Put on this tripod the said issuant pot containing the various glass seals and stop the stove with its lid in such a way that the neck of the philosophical vessel goes beyond the permit which is at the top of the lid, the joints well closed except the small door in down and set it on fire which I will now tell you.

CHAPTER VIII
The general description of the proper fire for cooking animated lapis & mercury
I certify, before Almighty God, that I want to open to you the secret of the fire of the philosophers. It is nothing to know the material and its preparation, if one does not know the fire to cook it.

It is therefore not horse dung, nor marc from bunches of grapes, nor the bain-marie nor all the other charcoal fires etc., but it is a fire having continual humidity and dryness, it is is our well-governed lamp-fire; for, if you advance it too much, if the dissolution of matter comes before its time, the work will perish. If you delay in any way because of the weakness of the heat, the work will become more perfect, however if it was too languid, it will prevent the perfection of the work. For as too great a fire destroys & corrupts the compound thing, so the cold puts to sleep & extinguishes the spirits, but the fire tempers & must nourish & counter keep its compound.

CHAPTER IX
Of the dissolution, and again in what time it must be done and by what degree of fire, and of the signs thereof

The dissolution is forty days for the earlier, or fifty days for the later. For if the dissolution is made before the forty days, the work will perish; and if after fifty days the fire is too low. Therefore, you will arrange the forces and the degrees of fire so that the solution is made in time of the fire, which will happen if you give the fire as follows: the matter being put in the furnace, put under it a lamp (1) with a wick that will be simple and of a single cotton thread and light.

Then close the little door through which you have put the lamp, so that no air enters except through the four openings of the lid of which the stove is blocked. Continue the fire for forty days until the solution is made, which will be known to you by the blackness which the philosophers call the crow's beak, as you will be able to see through the little glass window. But if you see your matter infected with redness and on its surface an oleaginous red humor swimming over it, it is a sign that you are laboring in vain. Because the matter must be black, which you will see after the forty days if you have done well and for another forty days this blackness will last,

Commentary on Chapter IX
(1) It will be good to use a wick of cloth impregnated with feather alum, as it will not burn and be the most even heat.

CHAPTER X
Continuation of the effects of putrefaction, dissolution, ablution & that it is only the same thing & that they are done by the same fire & together.
The first degree of heat remaining the matter putrefies and dissolves, which the philosophers divide into two when they say: Put your matter into putrefaction then dissolve it and do this in order to make the art more obscure; for both are made at the same time by the same degree of fire and in its same vessel, for matter, putrefying, is reduced to the first matter then the matters being strongly dissolved embrace each other and mingle in small and small ways. fine particles. Then the hot and dry part which is male sucks and is put incontinently into the mood of the patient female and begets a nobler child than them. When matter dries up, forty days pass before it loses all its blackness & then the philosophers cry: When you see blackness, often wash your matter until the water or vinegar comes out white and the matter is white, and they call this operation by three months putrefaction, solution, ablution or modification in order to obscure the spirits. It should be noted never to remove your material from the furnace when you have put it there once, nor to interrupt the fire until the end, otherwise everything would perish. Also, the first degree of fire must last three whole months, namely half before it whitens, which whiteness will begin to be born at the end of the third month.

CHAPTER XI
Of the beginning of digestion which is caused by the second degree of heat & completed by the third degree

So for the second degree of fire, increase it by half and put two cotton threads in it, & by this degree of fire you will govern the work by three months. Matter will unite & embrace so much with each other & the female will be impregnated and impregnated with the male to bear its admirable fruit; & by this means, the coagulation of the dissolution will take place and what was before spirit will take shape. But by the other three following months later, consolidation and assembly of the two materials of different qualities and of the four elements will be done.

Thus by this third degree of fire, & after having seen your matter whiten, put three cotton threads inside the lamp & thus walk through three months in which your said matter will become so white that it will overcome the snow in whiteness, will lose all its moisture, will be fixed & will withstand all silver proofs. Then it will be a medicine, a part of which will fall on a hundred parts of imperfect bodies, provided that beforehand you dissolve it in the water of the philosophers & again you dehydrate it. There is only this first dissolution and coagulation, this other mark is not yet found but it will be necessary to dissolve & freeze again this lapis with our mercury water of P and menstrual, as the first time and then it will transmute the imperfect metals. And you must not marvel at how mercury fermented with X can be used for white, for all philosophers say with one voice that no X is ever generated unless it first has was R. What they hid under this riddle when they said: Makes the one who knows how to dissolve X so much that he is no longer X but R that he knows how to do, then this R more than perfect.

CHAPTER XII
Fourth & last degree heat and its effects

It is certain that if the fire is increased by a degree which is the fourth, and if it is continued for a few other months by the coal fire, the matter will remain red as a carbuncle. Because the whiteness having passed through the heat of the fourth degree of the coals, acting in the unctuous mineral, oleaginous, pure and incombustible matter, by drying out its humidity, colors brings out in front, all the average colors between whiteness and redness; eventually all the moisture being dried up, said colors remain red.

Therefore, in order for you to arrive there, the nine months having passed by coction in a lamp fire, your matter will become so white that it cannot be whiter, because of the three wicks that you have put there from the six months until the ninth. For within these last three months (of these nine months), the fixation of spirits & matter both masculine and feminine will be completed and mixed in minor parts. Afterwards, give it the fourth degree (1) in this last degree of coal fire, and continue it for three months and when the matter dries up, it will be iridescent green in rainbow color and finally red which is the sign of moisture deprivation. Then matter will endure such great alteration that it will be almost dead; but God will give him back his soul, which is hidden in his humid fixed radical, incombustible & permanent from the fire as violent as you want, after its entire decoction by the degrees prescribed above. Because if before the last three mild months it had too much fire, it could burn, and if that happened, the work would be done.

It is therefore necessary to continue this last degree of fire of coals, that is to say of dry wood, and this for three months while keeping for each month a degree, namely the first month rather vehement, the second month more and the third very vehement. Thus after one passed, you will have a fixed matter immortal, inviolable, enduring any test, red as carbuncle.

Commentary on Chapter XII
(1) On this last degree of fire, there is no longer any danger & it would seem to me to change furnaces. The lamp fire is no longer clean here, nor hot enough. It should be put in those arches of glassmakers where they put their works.

CHAPTER XIII
Of the true sign of lapis perfection

You will experiment in a copper laminate if the material is fixed or not, because when it melts on the said red laminate in the fire, it makes smoke & if it does not pass furthermore it is not yet sufficiently cooked. So once again, you have to put it back on the fire to cook it until you see this effect. Then you will have the red lapis ready to multiply in quantity and virtue, and to project onto the moon alone. By the word only, this means that lapis red perfected for the first time has only power and virtue to transform silver into gold, not other metals nor their mercury and even less the vulgar.

CHAPTER XIV
Of the inceration of lapis in case it was not flowing and penetrating

That if the fire of the last degree by its vehemence had adhered the lapis so strongly that it did not melt after having been placed on a reddened lamina, it will have to give ours as follows; cremation is the remedy of medicine which has no entrance, for if it has no entrance it is useless; that is, if it cannot penetrate the imperfect metals and be mixed with their mercurial parts to purge them of their superfluities and to perfect their pure and clean parts. Some have continued their work and coction well but they have made little use of it for not having been able to reduce the said fusible and melting lapis.

So take your material & grind it well on the marble into an impalpable powder, washing and watering it with physical water & amalgamate it with the lava (1) of mercury. Then dry it over a graduated lamp fire, increasing it as much as you think best and at the end you will push it with a coal fire.

Again grind this material and soak it, & cook as the first time and repeat this until on a reddened sheet, it flows like wax and penetrates, enters & stains in dye in the center & internally. When you have the lapis of the philosophers, the virtue of which will be such that one weight of it will transmute forty weights of pure silver into real gold enduring any kind of trial.

Commentary on Chapter XIV

(1) That is to say bright mercury washed and purged. He does not say here the dose, nor the quantity of the mercury to make the incision, but leaves it to the arbiter of the worker, because the mercury is added there not to be transformed but to give a moist quality to the lapis. , which had been altered by calcination and the force of the fire.

CHAPTER XV

Of the multiplication of the forces & virtues of the lapis according to the virtue thus in quantity together

A) You will be able to multiply the forces & virtues of this lapis so much that a weight of it will transform several hundred of it into money and an imperfect body.
B) Triturate the lapis on the marble & resolve it into vegetable physical water & animal menstruation, & separate the elements & rejoin them, congeal them with their water & fix them and the virtue of the lapis will be increased tenfold. As much as this dissolves your matter again, & again coagulates it as before, thus it acquires ten times more force.

That is to say, you must do everything as at the beginning of the procreation of lapis, and the more you repeat this, the more you will acquire greater strength and virtue, as the philosophers testify. who used this multiplication. As for me, I did not do it but if I wanted to do it I would proceed this way.

The actual qualities of lapis increase by reiterations of dissolution, putrefaction and coagulation, just as the grain of wheat thrown into the ground multiplies in infinity.

Take this fusible & penetrating matter and ferment with it the mercury of P and keep it a whole year at the aforesaid degrees of fire and govern it as the first work. And after this second year, he will fall on a hundred parts of imperfect bodies and for the third time he will fall on five hundred parts of all imperfect bodies and on a hundred of mercury & because of his excessive frigidity the fourth time on a thousand and so from year to year it will multiply to a very great number.

There are two secrets to know here. The first is that lapis au blanc is ruled and ruled by nine months as above, & perfect cannot yet turn imperfect bodies into perfect silver supporting the ashen test, because it has not yet its perfect decoction. . The red lapis more thinned and fixed than the white cannot still after last year moult the imperfect ones. I confess by experience the first nine months falls on ten of the imperfect bodies and mainly on JUPITER, if they are put in the lead bath, but it will not last in the well-composed cinder. The red lapis after the first year, still falls on ten of the imperfects and makes them appear to be ground after fusion and under the hammer; but when put in antimony or royal cement, they faint; and I found nothing but my tinting or projection reduced in addition to perfect. which surpassed all the carats of the goldsmiths, so much so that if they could be added to their twenty-four carats, they would be raised to thirty.

It is therefore necessary to govern the lapis to the white after its first months as we have said of the red, and after the year it will fall to fifty and to Jupiter; the third on a hundred and the fourth on five hundred & on the vulgar mercury and not in front. It is therefore necessary to govern the lapis to the white after its first months as we have said of the red, and after the year it will fall to fifty and to Jupiter; the third on a hundred and the fourth on five hundred & on the vulgar mercury and not in front. It is therefore necessary to govern the lapis to the white after its first months as we have said of the red, and after the year it will fall to fifty and to Jupiter; the third on a hundred and the fourth on five hundred & on the vulgar mercury and not in front.

This is the first secret. The second is that we must be careful to imitate nature in this multiplication of the forces of lapis and administer matter to it justly and proportionally. And so that you may better hear this secret, remember the things that go into the composition, we took only one ounce of ferment and four ounces of mercury from P, and made it right why this weight was needed. Therefore, when you want to multiply, you must consider on how much weight falls your matter that you intend to multiply, and how much will have more force than the first ferment of the first composition; & if it has twice as much strength as the first ferment, you will have to join this second ferment with twice as much mercury & if ten times as much strength with ten times as much mercury, otherwise you will do nothing.

Commentary on Chapter XV

A) He deals here with the multiplication which is in two ways, one in quantity only & the other in quality & force, of this second he treats in this chapter, of the first he will deal with it in the following chapter. Multiplication in quantity & force is when the same body is increased by greater quantity of same body & same form, but besides that, with greater force than before. As for example if the lapis which was first made weighed five ounces & converted for this first time each ounce, into forty ounces of silver. If this same lapis is composed again & five ounces of the said lapis are found & twenty ounces of mercury of P are added thereto,

The other kind of multiplication is only in quantity of body & not in force & virtue as for example the lapis being made the first time, it will transform for each ounce forty ounces of silver, if to the five ounces you have added some five more of mercury of X, you will have ten ounces of the said augmented lapis but each of its ten ounces will not transform more than the first lapis, that is to say forty ounces of silver.

This author therefore says that the procreation of lapis is made of gold & mercury of P, that the multiplication of it in virtue, in quantity, is made of mercury of simple P & as for the multiplication of the said lapis in quantity only, that it is made of said ,mercury of P animated and cooked first. That the said lapis does not convert any metal when it was first made, except silver into gold, nor does it convert common mercury except after it has been multiplied in quantity and virtue threefold, & the reason for this is because the vulgar mercury and that of the other metals is too cold, & the natural heat of the sulfur of the lapis is still too loose to digest; but the mercury of the moon is very cold, yet it does not resist so strongly as the others, but ordinary mercury is even colder and more humid than that of metals. So the lapis cannot defeat him except after being remade three times.

B) That is to say, everything must be done as at the beginning of the procreation of lapis, for as the gold is joined with the mercury of P and dissolved and then coagulated and fixed and as all these colors appear, thus the lapis already made once must be joined again with the mercury of P and dissolved & then coagulated & fixed & passed through the same colors as the first time, because the mercury of P made by its coldness and dampness said dissolution and putrefaction.
It is easy to gather from the speeches of this author that he only gave lapis to be made once and to have pursued it by the multiplication in quantity, of which he speaks in the following chapter, and not of the multiplication in force and virtue.
As soon as the lapis begins to transmute, it is necessary to keep the rule that the author gives to increase, especially since this first lapis does not transmute anything except the moon. He does not mean to speak of the first ferment which is the ground but of the lapis already made which has the virtue of transmuting, because he says that it is therefore necessary to understand that it is necessary to know on how many parts it falls, it is therefore necessary to understand that he has the strength to transmute and therefore begin to hold the rule he writes; but previously know for the dose which is mercury from P with the lime of gold, it was prescribed namely four ounces of the said mercury and one of lime of gold and after that and the perfect lapis it is necessary to know how much it weighs and to add to it the quadruple of its weight, as in front of the said mercury.

That is to say, if at the first time that the lapis has had the strength to transmute it transmutes ten parts of metal, it will be necessary to double, that is to say instead that the menstrual was four ounces against one, it will be necessary to put eight ounces against one; if afterwards he converts a hundred of them, it will be necessary to put in ten times as much, that is to say eighty ounces against one, and more and more, the reason for this, is that the lapis, as has been said, must to be resolved & putrefied & all the more it is multiplied all the more its heat increases & therefore more difficult to resolve and putrefy, because this exuberant heat resists putrefaction. I doubt very much that this author can really assure of this thing because he has not experienced it as he confesses, also he is contrary to Augurel and the others, at the time of the reiteration of the said lapis because he says that 'it takes a year for the second reiteration & the others as well as for the first time & the said Augurel says that it only takes two months, & that in them all the colors will appear which had been seen in three years, because in three years he made his lapis.

CHAPTER XVI
Of the multiplication of lapis in quantity only

To begin, review in your memory the animated mercury that you put in small glass vials that you put to cook around the main vessel, because from it you must multiply your lapis because it has lost all its inner frigidity and its volatile lightness, being as fixed as the mercury of the ground and of the moon. That is, being animated or fermented with X, it is of the same quality & nature as the mercury of the ground, as much fixed on the fire and as much warm internally, as thus being animated with the moon does not differ in any way from the lunar mercury, from there you will draw a beautiful secret hidden from the philosophers, that by defect of the solar mercury the lapis is multiplied in quantity by the animated mercury of the said sol & moon. Above all, take care in your multiplication not to take one for the other, the white for the red, and the red for the white, because you would lose everything. And so that you do not fail, I will teach you the practice of the red which will serve you for the white by changing the ferment and the mercury.

So take mercury iz from P animated with the ground or as much ground mercury as they are equipollent. Heat one or other of the said two mercury separately, each in a crucible. Similarly, heat four ounces of fusible and penetrating lapis in another separate crucible, & when the animated mercury begins to boil and the lapis to redden, then throw the mercury into the said lapis and stir them with a little dogwood stick, until the mercury no longer appears. This done, heat again an ounce of animated mercury, and when it shall begin to boil throw it upon the matter or the ferment, which ferment I command you no more to heat, and so stir it with the said stick of dogwood till the said mercury no longer appears (1). In third place, heat another ounce of animated mercury & throw it on the said non-hot ferment & do as the other times. For the fourth time you will repeat this by throwing another ounce of said heated mercury on said ferment.

Therefore the amalgam being made of four ounces of animate mercury instead of ground mercury with forty ounces of lapis, they will each be of one equal part. Put this material, which weighs eight ounces, having previously been well dried, into another glass matrix and close it hermetically. Cook it for two days with very gentle coal fire, and two days later stronger, thus increasing it continuously until twelve days; and on the last days give it the fire very strong, and on the twelfth day let the fire die without touching the matter, which matter you will find reduced in mass of the same strength and virtue as the first four ounces joined; which four ounces you can multiply in infinite quantity, that is to say by keeping the same prescribed method, by amalgamating the material increased with the fourth part of its weight of animated mercury or mercury of the ground and repeating the amalgamation until there is as much mercury as ferment, then after cooking the material for a few days on fire graduated, as we taught from this secret, you can derive another. That is to know that when you have the lapis at whatever degree it has reached, there is no longer any need to redo it as at the beginning. So you will keep That is to know that when you have the lapis at whatever degree it has reached, there is no longer any need to redo it as at the beginning. So you will keep That is to know that when you have the lapis at whatever degree it has reached, there is no longer any need to redo it as at the beginning. So you will keep ioz, for you will have enough, even for all the men of the world by multiplying with the animated mercury or of that of the perfect bodies.

(1) it will turn into powder by the virtue of lapis.

Commentary on Chapter XVI

He says that after the amalgam has been made, they must be made to drink and digest; it is not that after this union of lapis & mercury it needs to be put like the first lapis in the lamp fire, no it only needs this last and perfect digestion and like the first lapis afterwards that it has become white, it is united and semi-fixed but it is not at all fixed and digested. Therefore, he must continue the fire of coals and flames, enclosed in his vessel until it turns red, which is the sign of true digestion. Thus, the said lapis and mercury must be enclosed in a long-necked glass bottle, luted as has been said, and in a sand furnace the fire must be fired by degrees for twelve days, increasing the heat from two days to two days, until it becomes as it was before in full digestion. Finally the fire must be more violent.

In concluding the chapter, I will say that following the example of this one, it is possible to see without making a soil mine by soil & mercury, by observing all the rules & considerations which I have remarked above ; that is to say that what serves as a form and an agent be in no way increased in its suitable qualities which is heat, as if the gold were reduced to lime, for it is hot and the matter is very disposed to suffer. to be transformed and it is the flowing mercury not the vulgar, because it is too raw and indigestible, but the mercury extracts from the bodies & mainly from that of the moon because it is more ripe and cooked than any of the others, & for such a reason, common mercury can be reduced by often sublimating it, & by reiteration of sublimation fixing it that it endures the fire of ignition & then uniting it in mercury flowing with oil of tartar, & then after joining it with gold lime and observing in coction the degrees of fire and all of the foregoing preservations. I believe there is no truer and more certain way for particulars that can be more verified by reason, but the true and entire truth can only be known by experience.

CHAPTER XVII
Of the projection of lapis on imperfect bodies

These things completed, it remains to explain the projection onto imperfect bodies that others have passed over in silence. The ignorant considered when they had the fused incere lapis, that they had nothing left but to throw it on the melted bodies; but the thing is quite different.

It is therefore necessary to take the medicine and to throw it on equal weight of which it was made, that is to say of X or R and then to lock them in a vessel of very thick and lute glass, to put it in the fire of fusion and to continue by three days, the first mild the second stronger and the third very strong. Then let the fire die and the matter cool to ashes.

Then project from this matter a weight of which at like force as the same weight of the above fused medicine & therein appears some small multiplication in quantity.

Moreover, it must be noted that the crucible sucks something from this medicine for it is porous for this reason, & besides these things if you fail to make the projection by the way and manner that I have told you, you will fall into great error. .

So, when the medicine is fitted, it is necessary to throw a weight of this red medicine on forty of pure moon because in the first year it could not transform the imperfect bodies, the second year will fall on a hundred of the imperfect bodies, however always the best will be to project on the moon so that when it will be better.

The projection of white medicine on Jupiter is always better. Thus, on the said Jupiter, you will project the red medicine, if you do not know how to do it on the moon, because after the moon, Jupiter is nearer to perfection than all the others and is transmuted more easily, which the experience will show you. Its pure white mercury, almost clean and almost fixed, makes it well known, it is true that its accidental sulfur is very bad, but it can be easily separated from good and mercury because they are not well mixed, which you you will know by its coldness which comes from there.

Commentary on Chapter XVII

He says at the beginning of this chapter that the lapis should not be thrown after it is made immediately on the metals. Two reasons are for this. He declares one which is for fear that the lapis does not enter partly into the crucible for its too great subtlety and thus it would be lost somewhat. And the other is so that the lapis is all the more fixed because it is one of its first qualities that the lapis is very fixed & since there is nothing more fixed than the ground & the moon & which will not pierce the crucible nor protrude being melted for a long time, provided that they are pure, it is necessary to add to them & to melt with them the lapis so that it is a permanent fixation.

Always after the conjunctions of the two bodies, it takes a fermentation and digestion that takes place over a period of time. This has been called by philosophers washes of the three days, & in this coction the exuberant digestion of the lapis with the help of the digested fire sol and lune, and sol and the moon for their great fixation arrest the lapis more strongly & give it more body than it has had. Their consistency is reduced to a meanness, for it is more fusible than sol and lune, but not so much as lapis; only the opposite is required of lapis, which must be such on the mercury, because it must be made even more fusible than lapis, as will be said in the next chapter.

You must remove the crucible from the fire almost as soon as the lapis has been thrown on the moon or the ground & the whole will become powder which must be cooked, as he says, for three days & let the glass cool so that it does not breaks and will be found in a breaking and fragile mass like cinnabar. It should be noted that lapis has the virtue of separating the earthiness & interior impurity of the metals, which in the fusion on them in the surface & impure scale, and only the lapis unites with the parts of the mercury which is in the metal; the projection to the metals depends on the great quantity of the mercury and its purity & decoction & as much as such is in the moon more than in any other, this is why soil which is made of the moon is always better.

CHAPTER XVIII
Of the projection of lapis on mercury extracted from metals & on the vulgar

Before coming to the projection, you should know that in the first year a weight of your lapis has the power to fix in gold & the moon twenty weights of mercury of imperfect bodies, & in the second one hundred weights & in the third five hundred and so in succession from year to year in infinity. But it has no force on the vulgar except in the second year, because of its too great frigidity yet a weight of the said lapis can only fix ten of vulgar mercury in gold or in the moon in the second year; fifty in the third year; two hundred and fifty and so on. However, all the transmutations of the said mercury will be done if you resolve medicine into philosophical water so that it is fusible like wax, then let it putrefy after a fortnight or in such weather that it resolves into clear water. Then extract the phlegm from it through the bain-marie, finally freeze it over a graduated lamp fire then dissolve the same material in the steam of the bain-marie and again freeze it and repeat its operations three times with the solution on the smoke of the bain-marie. Marie and then coagulation.

Then take the said mercury, in such quantity that the lapis which you will have thus prepared will be able to fix, & put it in a crucible on the coals; when the mercury begins to make a noise & to struggle, throw the said lapis over it & stir it with its dogwood stick and see that the mercury will immediately be reduced to powder. You will leave the said mercury in this degree of fire by one hour, then increase it by another hour and then even stronger by another hour.

Then you will melt it by adding borax and you will have better soil and moon than mines, to help the poor and defend the rights of poor widows & orphans, and finally to all good works, praise good and almighty God who granted me the grace of revealing this secret to you & of having approved it to you by experience & of revealing it to you.

Commentary on Chapter XVIII

It is therefore necessary that the medicine for the transmutation of the mercury of the metals should be extremely fusible, and should be liquid and loose like water, and of easy fusion like wax. The reason is that they suddenly go up in smoke, some more, others less & if they are massive, solid and compact, heavy, and of uniform material, & similar in all their parts whereby the lapis must be melting or fusing suddenly and penetrating to enter into the mercurys by the subtlety of their consistency, so that they do not go away before the lapis has entered.

It is highly doubtful what this philosophical water is, however it seems to me that it could be the very graduated & royal water composed of desiccated vitriol and cinnabar and distilled and reiterated by distillation; for he says that the dissolution of which he speaks here must not be that of which he speaks in the conjunction of the philosopher's menstruation and the lime of the ground, because this dissolution of which he speaks here is only consistency of matter more liquid than before, without there being any division of the essential parts, and however this fusibility is necessary by this water. It may be that other oils and waters, than the above, have the same effect of sudden and loose fusibility, but as it is the difference of the two species of dissolutions will be that in what is philosophical, it is done separation of the essential parts, in the other not.

However, since I am on the dissolution by water I will reiterate here in brief all the practice of Raymond Lully to make his lapis, which agrees in some way with this author, because his whole goal is only to make the lapis flowing & melting as sudden as wax and as slender as water, and fixed. Raymond therefore takes for his subject gold and moon, as well as this author, but he does not take the same menstruation and solvent. He uses distilled waters and oils which he calls quintessence, and his intention tends to no other end than to unite and inseparably fix the said quintessence with the said soil or moon which he calls ferments. He also calls the said waters, mercury, because they are fluent like mercury and for his projection he wants it to be always made on mercury his solvent, therefore of distilled waters and various things and bodies including lime that he names lapis & variously he calls it vegetable, mineral, animal, because if its solvent water is drawn from wine and herbs, he calls it vegetable; if drawn from honey or blood, he calls it animal; and if it is drawn from metals or minerals he calls it mineral. He says that the most excellent solvent of all is the vegetable derived from wine, which he makes well rectified brandy, which he burns all, & then he joins with this brandy salt of tartar sublimated by subtle AVERAGE, & makes all this salt pass into water which salt for its great ignity and because it has body, gives its strength to the water of life to melt the ground and the moon into liquor and clear water.

And as for the animal solvent, it turns the honey, or the urine in man, into water by distillations as above, and as for the mineral, it says that the water is double because one is to calcine and putrefy ground and moon so that they are better disposed to receive the second water which is the tincture. The first water is drawn from the metals of mercury, cinnabar, Venus or mixed with any of them & this by means of the first water drawn from the half metals. The way of proceeding in his lapis is twofold, one and the greater is that he dissolves the ground and the moon which he calls lapis, by one of its three waters or solutions in clear water, and calls this calcination. For in truth, it is still only a discontinuation of the essential parts, without them being essentially dissolved, and yet it is the way and the opening to come to the dissolution of soil into liquor, horse manure or bath- married for a long space of time; then he distills this liquor over a violent fire, which distillation the solvent brings with a part of the substance of soil or moon and what remains at the bottom he adds new water and putrefies as before, then redistilled in order to draw substance from the ground or the moon to make it pass into a liquor with the solvent; and continue and iterate in this way until all moisture and radical tincture of soil or moon have passed into liquor through the still or retort, & the earthly dryness of the metal remains at the bottom in that water or liquor thus distilled. . He says that three elements are contained, viz. water which is the solvent, air or oil which is the fatter and oilier part of the moist soil or moon radical, and fire drier and red or color and separated from the three elements by the bain-marie.

For this strong gentle bath fire first passes the solvent as rarer and lighter, then through the gentle ash fire passes the air or the oil, and at the bottom remains the fire in powder red as blood if this gold which he calls fire, & as for that which remained after all the extraction of its three elements at the bottom of the still or retort, he calls it earth which he sublimates by means of water, and calls this sublimation sulfur which he says is the whole foundation of the work, & that without it nothing can be done & gives it an infinity of names as also to the others elements. Then to make them more excellent, he rectifies each of the elements & also the sulfur separately by several dissolutions & distillations. and calls this sublimation sulfur which he says is the whole foundation of the work, & that without it nothing can be done & gives it an infinity of names as also to the other elements. Then to make them more excellent, he rectifies each of the elements & also the sulfur separately by several dissolutions & distillations. and calls this sublimation sulfur which he says is the whole foundation of the work, & that without it nothing can be done & gives it an infinity of names as also to the other elements. Then to make them more excellent, he rectifies each of the elements & also the sulfur separately by several dissolutions & distillations.

So here is the dissolution of sol & moon into essential elements & parts & believable that it is done with great dexterity, long experience, and diurtinity of time & infinite labors. After the dissolution of the said elements, he gathered them to unite, coagulate and fix them and this by double fixing. The first by reiteration of distillations at low moderate heat, for such a long time that all the elements remain at the bottom in the form of curd, and if there remains some tasteless and colorless water he separates it and rejects it as being the whey, which never can be coagulated because it contains no earthly parts to strengthen it; and especially since this coagulation is long & boring, he has found a way to make the said assembly and union of the elements in a shorter time: namely by putting half of all the liquor & elements in the bottom of the still, & the other half in the other and then puts to each his yoke the spout of each of which enters the bottom one of the another, and the whole lute, distills with soft fire of ashes the whole by twenty two days and nights continuously until at the bottom, it is made like a stone or ice cube of saltpetre. And if supernatant water is formed, as said is, it separates it from what is taken & curdled or coagulated, & this is the first fixation. And to complete it, he takes this coagulated stone and without putting anything more in it,

So much for the highest work & way of proceeding by Lully, still he steals all the said elements much more strongly before bringing them together, but still the fixation finally is similar but all the more so as all his real dissolutions in elements are painful and annoying he teaches his shortest way which he calls curtation & is the second mode of proceeding to the conjunction of its lapis. It is that he contents himself with calcining, putrefying and dissolving the ground and the moon, then after dividing them into elements by distillations and all the more so as his mineral lapis is very close to the way of this author in this chapter, I will say as there is process.

It dissolves as I said sol or lune first amalgamated in lime, put in clear water by starting water or regal for twenty-five days or thirty days in horse manure or bain-marie; and the metal remains at the bottom as a wet powder on which he uses the second water and ferments it in a closed vessel, to make its tincture remain with the metal or its lime, and then with a strong heat from the bain-marie he draws the water so that nothing comes out of the tincture he calls spirit, & reiterates the tasteless water, uses it again on what remained at the bottom then ferments it, draws the tasteless water as above & repeats its operations by putting ten times of the said second water, & the tenth time, what remains at the bottom is the first fixation for which to complete and better unite the said second water with the ferment, it coagulates it with the fire of a lamp and dissolves it by the bain-marie; and repeats said coagulation by solution, until the lapis no longer wants to set and remains as oil. And says that this oil is fixed and penetrating & that it has sulphurous virtue by the union of the tincture of the said waters because of their igneous qualities, & that they coagulate the mercury in sol or moon, & according to the nature of the ferment . I wanted to briefly describe what above, to discern the difference of proceeding by various authors in the operation of lapis, & how much that I have described briefly what by Lully has been treated of it if is what according to my judgment, it will be sufficient to discover and understand easily all that that Lully has said of it very obscurely and in metaphorical terms, in several places. Because that's his whole intention.

Let's go back to our text, it therefore says that it must be left to putrefy for a fortnight. Putrefaction in this place is properly a kind of elixation, which is made by the exterior humidity which is the said physical water which Lully calls the second mineral water with the humid and foreign heat which surrounds & acts & is the efficient cause, and the said physical water the material cause. This humid surrounding heat can be either the mari-bath or the horse's dung; & the effect of this material & efficient cause is that those essential parts of the lapis already made which are terrestrial, are further subtilized and are dissolved into aqueous and airy parts, and consequently more fusible. This putrefaction must last fifteen days, until the conversion of the said dry and moist quality is entirely made and the sign is that the dissolution is very clear; for if there are at bottom some hypostases or residues, it must be rejected.

Clarification means that the terrestrial parts have become rarefied and subtilized into aqueous parts. This putrefaction must be done in a closed vessel as in a glass matrix or the bottom of an alembic covered with its yoke without beak or nose, & well sealed around the joints. This putrefaction & dissolution of the lapis in water is in no way volatile because of the dissolving water, therefore it is necessary to draw the tasteless water by the strong bath from which what is the lightest and rarest and most volatile water; and as for the thickest, it remains with the said lapis at the bottom and the said lapis is like thick, melted water in the heat of the bain-marie, but it catches and coagulates out of the fire and bath. Again this lapis is neither fixed nor the tincture of physical water well united with it, therefore, it must be completed & fixed by the second means that Llull teaches in the second fixation and the same means described here, namely that it is necessary coagulate the said lapis in a closed glass vessel, for the dry fire acting dries up the humidity & turns it into dryness. This lamp fire must be graduated and proceeds by one wire and then by two and then three, which he calls graduated fire. The author does not say here the time of this coagulation, and I believe that he did not practice it and was content to make the lapis to transform the moon and the ground except that he opens up great secrets in this dissolution & coagulation. However, the time cannot be determined but it is necessary to wait until by this dry and graduated lamp fire everything is dry, which can be done in eight days or ten days or twelve days. This reiteration is only necessary three times, but it seems to me that the best, as Lully says, is to reiterate the said coagulation by lamplight and steam solution in a bain-marie so many times that the lapis can no longer be coagulated by the lamp fire, and that a small drop thrown on a sheet of moon or Venus reddened with fire, penetrates inside without smoking.

CHAPTER XIX
That lapis is beneficial to the health of the human body

The virtue of this lapis is great for the health of men. It cures all kinds of disease, either taken in powder form or in oil form which is better because taken by mouth it is more easily digested & cooked & converted into blood. Thus, being taken in oil applied to a wound or ulcer, it penetrates more easily and gives relief to the part than if it were applied in powder. Know however that this medicine must be conjoined and incorporated with the proper medicines for the cure of the disease that you want to cure; it cures gouts, chases away fever, guards against plague, cures epilepsy, leprosy, cancer, ulcers, old and inveterate wounds through the mouth, breaks calculus or stone, purges the ventricle, cools the liver, takes away old age,

For these things we give thanks to God through his son our Lord Jesus Christ, so be it.

The fire of our furnace consists in the measure & the weight of the digestion of volatile things. For this reason, when you make your fire, you must put your hand through the opening you have made above the laminate, and must said fire be such that you can hold your hand without damage. If it's too big, decrease it.

Miscellaneous Preparations.

The Halo of the work of the Stibium

Combine iz of sol and iz of mercury from Venus then pass through the retort seven or eight times, and the sol will pass through the beak of the retort.

Take a glass vessel in this shape (with a flat bottom), put your amalgam in it and place it on hot ashes without being blocked. You will see with time trees rising in your vessel which will stir in the evening and in the morning, for so long that everything is reduced to powder red as blood. It is important that the ship does not cool down or that the fire ceases at night. This powder is called halo which works wonders for health. It is used for all desperate illnesses, it is safe for health. The dose is one grain, once healed, it still serves to preserve health.

The following is for the metallic

Take some of this red powder, put it in his circulatory & over our oil of antimony in our way, & so what will be described hereafter, that it floats two fingers high.
Then lute the vessel of very good lut giving a slow fire that you will continue so long, that your red oil will be turned by a long circulation in kind of red powder. After that, insert it again with the said red oil and circulate it until it is made very thick, dry and fixed. Do this three or four times until your matter can no longer be dried out and you see that it is fixed, and melts on the red lamina, and that it penetrates it. Then, your material being thus prepared, you will take iz& throw it on ten ounces of prepared raw mercury, that is to say purified, which you will put on hot ashes until it begins to smoke or boil.

Immediately it will turn into a very red, dry powder, which you will again put in its circulatory system and over it again pour two fingers of your red oil of Venus and put on ashes over low heat to circulate. There will be a thick red oil as before, and so by this method you can multiply it ad infinitum using this leaven. When you want to use it, take iz of this medicine & throw it on ten ounces of raw mercury on hot ashes, & when it begins to smoke it will turn into red powder, from which izconverts ten ounces of mercury, venus, saturn & moon to fine sol, which I have seen with my own eyes.

To make antimony oil for use in the above operation

Take stibium which is of the best, put it into an impalpable powder then grind it well on the marble and for a long time, with the good vinegar which you know, which is the good spirit of life, then put it in a matrass & on top , this good spirit which floats the matter of four fingers. Put this matter in a boiling bath for four days, then remove the solution by inclination and put it again in spirit until it no longer colors; then take this tincture to the horse's belly and leave it in putrefaction for forty days, after which time gently distill your solvent over the sand fire, which having passed you will change your container, & the joints being well fought, you will drive out your oil, giving fire under it, and your oil will drip red as blood.

Description of the elixir of Saturn, the brass lapis of the philosophers

Take Saturn fifteen or twenty, which you will laminate & put the said laminates in a terrace or vessel; that they do not clog the bottom of the vessel which is full of vinegar, put on top another vessel fighting the joints well with good lut and put in a heat of bain-marie for six days or seven days & until that your laminates are converted into lime that you will scrape. Putting back your laminae and repeating these operations until you have seven or eight of the said lime, which the vulgar commonly call ceruse, and this lime you will grind on the marble with vinegar so long that it becomes impalpable and in form of porridge. Which lime thus prepared, you will put in a large glass matrass pouring from the top vinegar which surpasses it by three or four fingers and will leave the whole thing for fourteen days or fifteen days in a warm place like a bain-marie, & maintain in digestion stirring your matter every day with a wooden stick in the middle of which you will pour our vinegar, which we call menses.

Everything remains in a large glass vial capable of containing all our vinegars, in which he has poured trouble because the said vinegar will have dissolved and will conceive according to its power the salt of the said lime of Saturn, on the residence it is necessary to put there again vinegar as above and always continue the same operation with new vinegars until all the said lime is resolved with the body of the said vinegar and each time you remove the vinegar, grind the residence of your lime on the marble so that it is easier to dissolve. Your vinegars thus animated by the virtue of Saturn, you will put in a body of still in earth which you will put on ashes or sand in a furnace of a soft heat, and will make it evaporate until you are left with the bottom of the alembic the salt of your Saturn in the consistency of honey, & you will grind this matter again on the marble with vinegar which you will then put in a glass vessel with vinegar as above, reiterating the same operations & dissolutions of three days in three days and will pour by inclination what will be clear, putting in new vinegars continuing this until your vinegar is no more and comes out as sour as when you put it there: what you will know by your tongue. You will put all your vinegars to be sweetened in the glass still in a bain-marie and distill until your material is in the consistency of honey, and on which put new vinegar and distill. Repeat these infusions and distillations so often that your vinegar has dissolved all your matter & there remains no faeces at the bottom; which will be a sign that the salt of Saturn will be exalted and purified to its supreme degree, which you will recognize at the last distillation.

Repeat these infusions and distillations so often that your vinegar has dissolved all your matter & there remains no faeces at the bottom; which will be a sign that the salt of Saturn will be exalted and purified to its supreme degree, which you will recognize at the last distillation. Repeat these infusions and distillations so often that your vinegar has dissolved all your matter & there remains no faeces at the bottom; which will be a sign that the salt of Saturn will be exalted and purified to its supreme degree, which you will recognize at the last distillation.
Your salt remains at the bottom of your still, as white as snow, melting like wax, and sweeter than sugar; which salt has outside the coldness of the moon & inside the heat of the sun, and the said Saturn thus remains white because it is purified of all its imperfections and filth and of its leprosy, and in this way it is medicinal , clean and familiar with nature, offering a warm moist and soft inside and thus departing from our nature which cherishes gifted things, but pursue our practice:.

Take the salt or the sweetness of your Saturn prepares, which you will divide into two equal parts. Part of it you will put in a glass vessel, which you will stop hermetically and put in a furnace of ashes by making a small fire in it like the summer sun, because if you make yourself bigger, your matter will melt into oil. coagulated and the sulfur which is not fixed, which is still on the surface, would fly away, which is the cause of such a subtle fusion. And although it is pure, it is nonetheless volatile, and so that it becomes fixed, a moderate heat of forty days is necessary. Next, take some of your material and throw it at a reddened silver blade. If it smokes, it is not fixed, put it back in the same heat until it no longer smokes and the powder is citrini colors neque sit “fugilis” and sic signum erit quod sit fixum sulphur. Put therefore this powder in a glass giving it a greater fire, until the flame material incipient. Then increase your fire by degrees until the rubescat “rubini” tandem matter like is tota materia fixed sit.

And to give it the fusion, it must be done in the following way which is double: one is done by mixing with ours above, which you will have set aside & salt of tartar and armoniac first sublimated. Namely, if in this half which you have reserved there are two pounds, take a pound of salt of tartar and half a pound of armoniac, mix the whole and put in a vessel with vinegar on it, digest in a bath- marie by a few days, after extracting the vinegar by distillation, & increasing the fire, the mercury of Saturn will sublimate with which you will put your fixed sulfur above, fixing itself in the same way & same weight as will be said below.
The second way which seems to me the most certain & easy is given in vulgar Latin which we will not reproduce here.

END