The Virtue and the Property of the Quint Essence of All Things
THE VIRTUE AND THE
PROPERTY
OF THE QUINT ESSENCE
OF ALL THINGS
JOHANNES DE RUPESCISSA
The consideration of the QUINT ESSENCE of all transmutable things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is called the Book of familiarity of Philosophy, of the Gospel of the said our Lord Jesus Christ, & poor evangelizing men.
BOOK FIRST
SALOMON says in the seventh chapter of the book of Knowledge: God has given me the true knowledge of the things which are: so that I may know the disposition of the whole earth, & the virtues of the Elements, the beginning, the consummation, & the middle of times, the changes of years, & the divisions of times: the course of years, the dispositions of the stars, the natures of animals, & the wrath of beasts, the force of the winds, & the cogitations of men, the differences of plants & the virtues of roots: & have known all things secret & manifest, because the worker of all things has taught me through wisdom. And in the 16th century. chapter of the book of Proverbs it says: Our Lord has made all things for himself. Therefore by the demonstration above, the scripture infallibly concludes, that all the universal Philosophy which the said Solomon had in the above words by revelation of the spirit of God, must for this reason be usefully applied for the service of God, & of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, & for evangelizing men , & for the entire body of JESUS - CHRIST mystic, who devoutly obeys & serves him. And thus the title of this book is approved in few words. For this reason I considered that the time I spent on the desire and desire of worldly Philosophy, more than five years before I entered the order, in the very renowned study of Toulouse, and then after more on the other, five years since I was in the order: and this through vain disputations, & much noise of useless words, praises, reading of various authors, both in particular and general studies; trying, as long as it is possible, to redeem the time spent, and recover the lost, and the time that has passed and forgotten to put back into memory; so that from him, through the command of JESUS - CHRIST, I may obtain merit, & eternal glory, for the time to come: & what was harmful to me through my guilt, may be profitable to me & eternal life, through the want from Jesus Christ.
reveals the uses which I saw in Philosophy, which were shown to me by the spirit of God in my great necessity: at which time although I was bad, God came to me with pity & compassion, so that I could reveal to poor evangelizing men, the means that those who have despised riches for love of the Gospel; may without the teaching of man, lightly & without great expense cure their bodily illnesses, & human miseries, by means of the goodness of God: & also that they may avoid & flee the occasions & things which prevent & harm holy prayers & necessary contemplations: & resist the temptations of the devils, which they give to men because of certain diseases: & be delivered from all such things, that they may devoutly obey & serve with all their power to our Lord Jesus -Christ.
Now since I write this book only for holy men, from whom by the power of God they will receive so many goods & utilities, it must be concluded that I will participate in their prayers, benefits & merits, which they will henceforth make through the means of this book, JESUS CHRIST the commander & willing thus, like it or not:
For whatever is the cause of the cause, it is the cause & occasion of the thing caused. And so as a reward for the time vainly spent in Philosophy, daily I will receive new merits: not so much only the time of ten years which I used in worldly Philosophy, but undoubtedly more than a thousand years to come before the end of the World. Now is evident the means by which I can recover the time spent, which I have misused. I therefore pray to this God, so gentle and merciful, devoutly and humbly with all my power, who has deigned to reveal to me, poor decrepit and miserable sinner, several secrets of worldly Philosophy, that he does not allow this book to fall into the hands of those who are greedy, tyrants, and unworthy, and who want to use it to have money: but allow it to those who are good, just, holy, worthy, and perfect evangelizing workers, who by the look, mercy and pity of the only God in will want to use. And our Lord Jesus Christ wants to prevent all those who want to do the opposite, as the greedy desire. O what a great evil it would be if this book fell into the hands of worldly men, and at the notice of tyrants, and in the service of the reprobate!
the work of Jesus Christ by means of this book, thus on the contrary the tyrants, reprobate & worldly people will be able to abuse it & persevere in riches & wickedness. Moreover, as far as it is possible for me, I order and make this book only for the usefulness of the saints and good people, and place it in the custody and protection of JESUS - CHRIST, and without further words, I want to reveal the secrets, according to the order of the titles which I will put below. The first secret is, that by the virtue that God has given to Nature, which is subject to the service of man, we can remove the damages and annoyances of old age, which prevent the works of those who are great evangelizing men, wanting to heal by evangelical work, & desire to recover youth, & regain the strength of youth: but it is not to the same degree. Which thing is a greater secret than any other in all nature. How this can be done will be demonstrated in the next chapter.
CANON I
ALL Philosophers have been hindered & worked in this thing: namely to seek the created thing, suitable for the use of men, which can preserve from putrefaction the body which is subject to corruption: & in preserving it, keep it from diminishing: & if it were possible, perpetuate it in being. For this is the thing that all men naturally desire, never to be corrupted, and never to die. However, the great Catholic Philosopher Saint Paul, in the second epistle he wrote to the Corinthians, in the fifth chapter says: And truly, we who are in this tabernacle of the body, groan being burdened (that is to say with diseases) yet that we do not want to be stripped (i.e. of the body) but to be clothed over it (of this body) so that we do not die. To this cause he adds: so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. These are the words of Saint Paul. Certainly very few Philosophers have arrived at the knowledge of such a thing: as we obviously see: because the doctors of our time, who burn with covetousness and ardor for money and honors, were not able for money during our time to do such things to any Princes or lords; & cannot ignore it: & also God does not want the greedy to know it. But for that men are commanded to die once (as our very true Philosopher Saint Paul says, work in this mortal life to seek something that can make our body, which is mortal, immortal. Mainly by what God says in the third chapter of Genesis: And now there is danger that Adam will put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat of it, and live forever .
The Lord God therefore sent him out of the garden of Eden: to plow the ground, from which he had been taken. Thus the man was driven out, and Cherubim colloquiated towards the east of the said garden of Eden, and a resplendent sword, cutting on both sides to guard the way of the tree of life. It would therefore be false to say that God gave to Adam outside of paradise nothing by which he could live forever, seeing that he had cast him out of it, that he might eat of the fruit of life, to live. eternally. Certainly we have this infallibly in the text of holy scripture, That God has prefixed & ordained to each one his term of life which cannot be escaped or passed by human means or study.
As Job said: The days of a man are short, the number of his months are for you. You have ordered its terms, which will not go beyond. So it is a useless and vain thing to seek help to prolong the term of our life. It therefore remains for us to seek the thing which can guard and preserve our body from putrefaction until the end ordained by God for our life, & maintain it in health: & if it is sick heal it, & being debilitated or almost dead on restore until the foreordained death, according to the term said, comes. However, it is no more in our power to completely avoid & escape death beyond the ordered & predicted term, than to dodge the strike of lightning, a sudden fall, or a violence & impetuosity that we commit at the same time. against us.
Now it remains to be said that we watch for and consider death which can come to us before the end, through illness, corruption of the body, and lack of virtue. Now reason shows us that it is a vain and fantastic thing to want to preserve a corruptible body, by means of a rotten thing & subject to corruption: & to beautify it with a thing liable to become withered & ugly: & to make it or make it incorruptible, by a thing which is defective and ends, & to cure a sick person, with an unhealthy thing: & to reform something, by means of a deformed thing. So the root of life is, guards against corrupting anything that is joined with it: & mainly the flesh, & also nourishes the virtue of life: & increases & replenishes the spirit & understanding: & digests every raw thing, & reduces to equality every dispersed thing, & removes every superfluous thing of whatever quality: & restores every lost quality; & makes natural humor abound; & pursues to light the natural fire which is feeble.
And believe certainly, that there is none of the four elements which is such, nor any thing containing in it the material composition of the elements: for all such things are subject to corruption & transmutation: & every corruptible thing, is diseased, & the feeble thing added to its like, increases it. Now because all Physicians have worked materially, and have been helped by such corruptible things, which are elementary, or composed of the Elements, they have never been able to reach the secret that we seek. But you can tell me: Since all things which are corporeal in this world are elemental for the usefulness of bodies, or composed of the elements, therefore men cannot find in this century the root of life, which can give life the body until the last term of man's life, prefixed & ordained by God.
Inquisition of our Heaven, or of the Quint essence.
CHAPTER I
We respond faithfully to the above-mentioned things, that we must seek a thing which is of such a nature with respect to the four qualities of which our body is composed, as is the sky with respect to the four elements. Now the Philosophers have called Heaven, the Quint essence, with regard to the four elements: for Heaven in itself is incorruptible & immutable: not receiving in itself mutations or foreign impressions: if it were not by the command of God: likewise also the thing that we seek, with regard to and respect for the four qualities of our body, is the Quint essence, in itself incorruptible, if it remained eternally: and is neither hot nor dry with fire: neither damp nor cold with water: neither hot nor humid with air: neither cold nor dry with earth: but this Quintessential essence, valid for contrary things, just like the incorruptible Heaven: for when it is necessary, it sheds wet rain, sometimes hot, sometimes cold, and other times dry.
This is the root of life, the Fifth Essence, which the Most High God created in nature, necessities of the body, until the last term that God has constituted of our life. I told you that God the Almighty created the Quint Essence which we attract from God's created body of nature, by human artifice. And I will name it by three names, which were imposed on it by the Philosophers. They call it Ardent Water, Soul & Spirit of Wine: & Water of Life. And when you want to keep it secret & hidden, you will name it Quinte essence, because it has the nature of the Quinte essence. The great Philosophers never wanted to declare this name to men, but wanted the truth to be buried with them. Now that it is not humid and cold with the element of water, the demonstration is manifest: because it is burned, which thing is repugnant and contrary to elemental water, that it is not hot nor humid, like air, it is obvious: because the air is corrupted sooner than anything, as it appears in the generation of spiders and flies.
And this Quint essence remains incorruptible, if it is kept well closed, so that it does not steal. That it is not cold and dry as the earth is, it clearly demonstrates: because it is as active as possible, and warms sovereignly. And also that it is not hot & dry like fire, it obviously shows: because it refrigerates hot diseases, & reduces & annihilates them as we will see below. But also that it gives incorruption, and guards against corruption and rottenness, we see by this, that it is drawn from fire.
For if any bird, or piece of flesh, or fish is put or poured into this water, it will keep it from corrupting, while it is in this water. How much more can it preserve the flesh of our living and animated body from corruption? This is the Quint essence of the human heavens, which created the great God for the conservation of the four qualities or elements of the human body, as well as Heaven for the conservation of the whole World. And know for certain, that the Philosophers of today, and also the Physicians, are completely ignorant of this Quint essence, and the truth of it. But with the help of God I will reveal to you below its teachings. I have taught you until now a wonderfully secret thing: namely the Quint Essence, which we call the human Heaven.
Inquisition of the sun, to yawn influence & the principle of life in us: & to adorn our Sky.
CHAPTER II.
Thus as the high Heaven neither influences nor flows only through it the conservation in the World, & the marvelous influences, but by the virtue of the Sun, & the other Stars: all thus our Quint essence wants to be adorned with the marvelous Sun & worthy of admiration, resplendent, incorruptible & equal, against which Sun the fire cannot may have no power, to be able to corrupt him. For this reason I tell you in unfeigned charity , and in good conscience, that this illuminated and resplendent Sun, which cannot be corrupted by fire, and which influences incorruptibility and the root of life in our body, as I I said above to be possible, which also is created for the ornament of our Heaven, & to increase the influence of the Quint essence, can be taken in the hand: & constituted & placed it, God of glory, in the power of men.
And I also for the charity of God, for what I speak to evangelizing holy men, will name him by his own name, and will reveal him to you comprehensively. This one Sun, is real gold, gathered from real earth or river mines. Because alchemy gold, which is composed of corrosive things, destroys Nature. The gold of God is called by the Philosophers, Sun, because it is son of the Sun of Heaven, and is generated by the influences of the Sun, the bowels and veins of the earth.
And the Sun gives him influence, nature, color, and incorruptible substance, not simply, but by effect. Therefore the Quint essence is of the nature and color of the Sky: and our Sun has adorned it, just as the Sun adorns the Sky. These two things combined together influence us. I tell you truly, the conditions of the Heaven of heavens, & of the celestial Sun. For it is possible in mortal nature to preserve life, & to restore it, & perennially to bring back the flourishing youth, such as before it was, & to give abundance of desired & desired health.
Inquisition of the nature of the Stars to adorn our Sky: to help the influences of our Sky & the Sun: & to give & influence the principle of life in us.
CHAPTER III
If (as Solomon testifies in the first chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes) all things are of greater labor & difficulty than man can say: among the other wonderful things that God has created in this world, there are to whom sovereignly astound & amaze. Because no medicinal spices have the virtue of attracting the superfluous humors of a member, & not the other.
So like Hiera picra, which only attracts the humors of the head, the collar, the chest, and not the navel, nor lower, & no others attract the humors from the navel, & lower , but not from the upper members. Now it is a very difficult thing (even for the great Philosophers) to know how this is done, & why, as the sovereign Philosopher Jean Heben Mesué Damascenus, says at the beginning of his book Simple Medicines. We must not look for a cause, other than that they have it from heaven.
And how, and in what part of the sky, he was unable to explain it. However, he was so learned and so well renowned that all Doctors call him their Evangelist, and those who in truth understand by the incomprehensible light of God the cause of things worthy of admiration, which worldly Philosophers have not known, they are renowned by their successors, fantastic & of no importance.
And for what truth must be preferred to all false infamy, & bad noise, I will diligently seek the nature of the Stars necessary to adorn our Sky, so that the influences of our said Quinte essence, & of the aforementioned Sun, are increased, as much as the influence of the Sky & the Sun is increased, by the influence of the other Stars. And note, that all Stars of Heaven have their singular influence by the command & ordinance of God: & each Star has its own property, & influence on a determined & certain thing.
Like the Star of the Pole, has its influence on the magnet stone & on iron; the Moon, on the water of the Sea: the Sun, on gold: the Moon on silver: the Images of men of Heaven, on human bodies: the image of the Sheep of Heaven, on the terrestrial Sheep . And so as the Carpenter with his pain in his hand making arks, forges them no less in his understanding than if he had no pain: so God governs the World no less, if he has given such influences to the Stars, so that they influence things as much as God wants, and not more.
Now believe then and hold this for certain, that between the Stars and the Images of the Sky on the one hand, and the earthly things on which they have singular influences on the other hand, there is such a great bond of love (as Aristotle says ) that rather Heaven would break, that in these base things Nature would endure nor suffer an empty rupture. Therefore, I will reveal to you here the influence of these things, & the bond of love between the celestial bodies, & the things that suit them & agree with them down on earth. Consider & see how those who go to the sea rub a needle against the stone of magnet, & make it rotate against the Star of the Pole. Why does this needle always turn without fail, towards the said Pole, and not elsewhere?
Certainly it is because both iron and magnet, by the command of God, by the influence of this Star, are generated in the earth: and have in their nature and influence the property of this Star. And for this the needle always turns towards the Star, as towards its fellow. Why is it that whenever the Moon rises, the flow of the sea always begins to rise, & when it comes to the middle of the Sky, the flow begins to descend? And when it reaches the West, the said flow begins to rise again, until the Moon comes to the corner of the earth: therefore the flow begins to descend again: until the Moon begins to rise again. And according to these points of the Moon, the Sea always ebbs and flows twice a day. However, this does not happen when the Sun reaches the points in the Sky named above.
For this reason the ebbs and flows of the Sea follow the Moon, and not the Sun. By which it is sufficiently proven that the Moon has a singular influence on the waters, which follow the said Moon by invisible connection, just as a man naturally follows the woman he loves, by invisible connection, just as he who is hungry is linked to meat, by invisible binding; and he who is thirsty, to drink. And in this regard I say this truly for example, that the Stars which have influence on the head, on the neck, and on the chest of man, such as the Stars of Aries, Taurus, and Gemini, influence singularly on Hiera picra, for this reason they have singular force by the command of God the creator, to attract the humors of the head: of the collar, & of the chest, & not of the lowest limbs. So I tell you spices which attract the moods of the knees, legs & feet, which receive singular influences from the Stars of Capricornus, Aquarius & Pisces.
And so can be said of all the other Signs. So if you want to heal the sick head, with the help of the Quint essence, & the Sun, you will increase the influence of the Quint essence & its Sun, if you put them with our Stars which are generated by the influence of the sign of Aries, as is Hiera picra, & several other similar ones, the similar one can say of all the other members. And in this way, wonderful with the help of God, & will seem to be a miracle of the cure that you will do on anyone, as I will show you below, if you understand correctly.
Revelation of the Secret of the magisterium of the Quint essence: & how, & by what means our Quint essence is adorned with the Sun, & the Stars, so that the influence & health of marvelous life is increased by the magisterium of the work of the first investigation.
CANON II.
Do not think that I told a lie, for what I called the Quint essence, fiery Water: and that I told you that the Philosophers and Doctors of today have not reached the knowledge of it, although fiery water is commonly found everywhere, because the magisterium of the Quint essence is hidden, and there has never been more than a very renowned Theologian who heard something of the secrets and magisterium of it. And if affirms for truth, that the Quint essence is fiery water, and is not fiery water. Now God of Heaven wishes to put caution in the hearts of evangelizing men, for whom I am writing this book, so that they do not show to reprobate man this secret of the very great God of Heaven, which is very worthy of being well noted. Now I tell you the truth.
The way of making fiery water, from which we attract the Quint essence.
You will take wine which is not too clear, nor too large, nor earthy, nor thick: but which is noble, delectable, tasty, and fragrant, the best you can find: and distill it through the serpentine or pipe as many times, let you make the best fiery water that you know how to make: not by brief distillation, but by drop by drop, as long as three, or seven, or ten times is distilled. And this is the fiery water which the Philosophers & Physicians of our time have not reached. Which fiery water is the material of the Quint essence, & what it is made of, which we mainly intend to deal with in this book.
For after you have drawn the most noble fiery water, you will make a distillery in the glassmakers' oven, called Circular, which will be in this way: Make a vessel in the manner of a Cherub, which is the figure of God, & has six wings, like six arms, coming back into itself: & above a round head, without a receptive point : there where there is a beak in the middle of the head, pulling downwards. And put on this vessel said fiery water, making fire beneath it, so that through the ascents, brachial, it can go up and down, day and night, that it can rise to the top of the said vessel, and by the will of God be celestially converted into the Quint essence which we seek.
And it should be noted that the best fiery water that you can make by common operation, you will not know how to make so well, unless it is mixed with the four elements materially. For this, it is indeed divinely & spiritually done, to say, that by continual ascensions & descents our Quint essence that we seek, is separated from the corruptible composition of the four elements. And this is done by ascending and descending: for the most subtle, glorified, and separated from the corruption of the four Elements, remains on high, and is not so much only by a single ascension, but by several, even a thousand times, & moreover, by continual ascension & descension, that it rises to such a great height, & comes so glorious & so strongly composed, that it is almost incorruptible, just like Heaven, & is of the nature of Heaven, for this cause we call Quinte essence. For it is such in respect of our body, as Heaven is in respect of the whole World , almost in such a way that artifice can follow Nature, as if almost by something similar, and very close.
The science to know when our said Quinte essence is made, which is not subject to the corruption of the four Elements, & is not in itself humid, hot, cold, nor dry, as are the four Elements: but is so like the Sky, & the Stars & its ornaments.
After several days you have made the circular distillation, in the above-mentioned vessel, you will open the slit which is above the head of the said vessel: which you have previously read from the lute of sapience, which is made of very subtle wheat flour, of egg mucus, & damp paper diligently fleshed & mixed together. And when you open the said sluice, if you smell such a wonderful odor, that no scent or worldly scent can be compared to it, such that it seems to have come from heaven, & from the excellence of God: so that if the vessel of the said Quinte essence is placed in a corner of the room, by the great odor of the Quinte essence, it will attract to itself by an invisible link, all those who enter into it, which is a thing worthy of admiration: therefore will be the said Perfect straight essence.
vessel & at the receptacle a Persian cloud, appearing & remanent, believe for certain that it is separated from all elements, & from the corruption of them.
You therefore have the said Quint Essence, of which you have heard spoken before, to which none of the Philosophers or Physicians of today have been able to arrive, as the Theologian above said. And if you do not see the above- mentioned signs, sign your vessel as before, and put it in the fire which we will describe below, so that by circular sublimations you achieve what you desire.
And when you find these signs so glorified in priceless odor, and inviolable cure, you will have the purity which can never be corrupted. And will not have ardor like fiery water in your mouth, nor such watery and flowing humidity, but will have a good scent, and a gentle strength to marvels. Because by circulation & sublimation within the vessel, said water will remain separated from all terrestriality, & will remain said terrestrial humidity at the bottom, & both the Sky and the Stars of which our Quint essence is composed in manner & form. And is not made like that which is composed of the four Elements: but there is a little matter so glorified and so much, that by the power of the matter, it cannot aspire to another form, and by such means it remains whole & without corruption, until God the creator destroys it. The Quint essence that we seek cannot be totally reduced to the incorruptibility of the sky, just as artifice is not comparable to Nature. However, it is incorruptible, having regard to the composition made of four Elements. Because if it were totally incorruptible, like Heaven, it would perpetuate our body.
Which thing our lord JESUS CHRIST creator of nature defends. I have now revealed to you many of the secrets, to the glory of JESUS CHRIST.
The science of generating fire without fire, to make the Quint essence without any expense: without labor, & without hindering yourself or wasting your time.
For what we intend to console & comfort with the help of our book the poor evangelizing men, to the end that their prayers & prayers are not in vain, & lost in this work, & that they are not greatly hindered & occupied in this work, I will declare to them & give them a secret drawn from the belly of the secrets of Nature's treasures, which is a thing truly worthy of admiration, & must be honored.
generated without great expense. The very wise Factor of the world has created for us two things which are proper and suitable among the others to do this.
Which thing is such. You will take the belly of a well-digested horse, man of God, I say good horse bones: and pound it in some vessel, or in a pit made in the earth, which will be rubbed or anointed everywhere with paste made of ashes. And when the said fiens is well crushed, you will put the circulation vessel in the middle, up to half, or more: because it is necessary that the head of the vessel remains outside in the air to cool, for this purpose that what is mounted at the said head of the vessel, because of the heat of the fiens, can again by virtue of the coldness of the air be converted into water, & falls, & then rises again:
And by this means, without spend, you have fire without fire, & a continual circulation of the Quint essence, without work or toil. Furthermore, I will still teach you a fire without fire, like the one before said: which is done like this: Take bunches of grapes or harvest removed from the press or winch, and make it completely as you made horse fiens , because it has marvelous & divine fire. Once again I will teach you a fire from God. In summer, you will place your well-marked vessel of circulation, against the reflection of the very hot Sun, and without doing anything about it you will let it rest at night.
Science of acquiring fiery water without great expense: for evangelizing men , who maintain strict poverty, if we did not give them money , with great difficulty would they ever have the Quint essence.
The very great God not only created a Quint essence in fiery water, but also put in almost all things a certain lasting, marvelous & celestial essence. I beg you to open your mind & understanding, so that you may know the truth. For corruptible things would immediately be destroyed and destroyed, if by a good order they were not continually preserved by means of this Quint essence. Draw the fiery water of the wine, for by means of the fiery water we draw the Quint essence. Now that which remains and remains in the vessel of distillation is not wine. For this reason note, that when the wine is converted into vinegar, this is done as is probable, when the Quint essence has come out of the wine, and has evaporated from the vessel.
Now if the Quinte Essence leaves, the wine turns sour. So in all pure wine, however cloudy or turbid it may be, except sour wine, there is the Quinte essence. Which thing is certain & true. And if you want to test it, take wine which was once good, and which is now cloudy or stinking, and put it on a distillation vessel, and you will certainly attract very good fiery water from it. It is therefore a very great secret and subtlety for the poor evangelizing holy men, to seek for our work such lost and spoiled wines, which we will have almost for nothing or for a small thing, and from these we must extract our divine magisterium.
You must carefully note and know what I am saying: the wine becomes cloudy and rots, by the putrefaction of a certain humor of water, as by a passion of fever or tremor, and in such a way the wine corrupts and spoils. But the Quint essence, because it is naturally incorruptible, it is not corrupted by this damage & corruption of the wine: but is only swallowed up by this large corrupt & turned part. The secret therefore of our magisterium is, that you know how to attract by sublimation the Quint incorruptible essence, from the corrupted & turned wine: & that the four rotten elements remain at the bottom of the vessel, like the feces & dregs. Now since you have the means to draw the Quint essence, without cost, you will certainly praise God.
The science of attracting the Quint essence in several ways: & how we can have it more easily according to its degrees & qualities: its degrees are easy & difficult according to the more or the less.
The first means, and the most singular, is that which we have already said before: and has no equal. The second way is such.
Take some of the strongest and best burning water you can have, and put it in a glass vial with a very long neck, and stop the hole with wax as best you can, and make sure there is no leakage. only have a third or half of the vial full. Then everything must be buried in the belly of a horse, prepared as we have said before. And the hole in the vial must be well sealed, and when putting it in the said belly, place the bottom of the vial at the top, and the neck at the bottom: so that by the virtue of the horse fire the Quinte essence can rise in top, towards the bottom, and the dirt & earthiness of the matter descends below to the pass. And when it has remained there several days, you will gently remove it, feel to disturb it, nor to turn: resides at the pass.
Now the control & government to separate one from the other is marvelously ingenious & subtle. Take a very sharp iron awl, and pierce the wax from which the vial is sealed, and push it so far, while still turning, that it pierces up to the Quinte essence, then pull it, and immediately this large terrestrial water which is at the neck of the said vial: & look carefully until the said water has come out, which must be carefully and diligently considered, & when the large one is all out, & the Quinte essence is ready to come out, put your finger against the hole, & turn your vial, so that what was above is below, & you will have the Quinte essence & the water drawn separately. And this is the very great mastery extracted from the most holy secrets of secrets. However, this Fifth Essence is not so good or of such great esteem as the first, nevertheless it is very noble: and you will use it secretly, because it has very great virtue.
The middle third is as follows: Take a very large vial of earth, and seal it well; then put it all inside the horse's belly: and the purity & goodness of the Quint essence will rise to the top, & the feces & earthliness will remain at the bottom. Gently attract what swims above, & leave the rest. The average quarter can be made in the fire, so much so: You will take a well-glazed glass or earthenware vessel, and tie a round glass foot above it, with a pipe, and seal the said vessel with its lid, and the rod of the glass base, and that the vessel hangs in the air with the rod above, so that what rises to the top (as when a boiling pot throws steam against the lid) can again descend into the vessel. You can do it by all this instrument, and without great expense: And it is instead of the circulation vessel, mentioned above, which we cannot always have.
The fifth means is, that at least the water be distilled from three times to seven, and continually digested. The sixth means is, that at least you have the best simple fiery water, or once or twice distilled. The seventh way is, that you take the first water that you find, provided that it burns well: for it is good for everything, as we will say hereafter.
Secret of the extraction of the Quinte essence of all other things useful & necessary to renew & conserve nature.
flesh & also eggs.
CANON III.
If you have heard what I revealed to you before, extracted from the great secrets, when I told you, that in all things the Quint essence remains pure and without corruption: it would be a very great thing if I declared to you the means to draw said Quint essence from human blood, from the flesh of all kinds of animals, from eggs, and from all similar things. Now, seeing that human blood is the most perfect work of Nature in us, insofar as it touches to increase lost youth, it is certain that Nature so perfects the Quint essence, that suddenly without great apparatus it transmutes the blood veins in pure flesh. For this reason, it is a very great thing to be able to have this Quinte essence, so propitious & suitable to nature, because in it is an admirable virtue of our starry Sky, also it does miraculous things to guard & conserve nature, like I will show below.
Take to the barbers the blood of all young, sanguine and choleric men, which they will have drawn from people who are accustomed to drinking good wine. And let the said blood rest, & remove the water that is in it, & let it dry. Then pound it with the tenth part of common salt prepared, for the Medicines of men, & put all this in a glass vial, which you will seal & smother diligently. And then put it in the belly of a horse prepared as above said, & stir it once or twice a week, so that the fire is stronger, & let it rot until the blood is all converted into water. Which thing will be done in thirty or forty days, some times more, and other times less.
So put the said water in a still, & put it to distil over a good fire & bring up everything that can rise. And whatever comes up, throw it back several times on its earthly faeces, mixing it on the marble, and then distill it, repeating it several times. And when you have the noble water of the said blood well reiterated & ratified, and you want to attract the Quint essence of it, put the said water in a circular vessel, and pass it through so much, by continuous distillations, until it is reduced to such a form, that it has the smell and scent such as the fiery water above said. And this is the Quint divine essence and more miraculous than one could believe.
Item if you want to extract the Quinte essence of capons, gelines, & any other flesh that you want, with the tenth part of common salt prepared for the Medicines of men, as I said. Put it in the belly of a horse, and leave it there until it is converted into water, then distill it as it is said before, and put the water in a circulatory distillation vessel, and have it distilled until so that it has the odor of which we spoke in the fiery water.
Science of extracting the Quint essence from all fruits, leaves, herbs, & roots.
It is necessary to tell the secret how one can attract the Quint essence of all the things that one can eat, & which are born or grow from the earth, the way is such as the above-mentioned things. That is to say, that you pound & grind in a mortar all fruits, herbs, & roots & any other herbs that you see fit, with the tenth part of common salt prepared for the Medicines of men, put it to rot as I have already said above, & distil it, then circulate it as before is said, until it has the sweetness & delectable odor of which we spoke in the chapter of fiery water: & by the commandment of God the creator, you will have & obtain what you desire.
I have here revealed to you & declared a secret that no one can understand: for although some fruits & herbs are supremely cold, others as hot as possible, others dry, others moist, others soaked, others laxatives , & the other restrictive ones, however the Quint essence drawn from the above-mentioned things is such, & has so many virtues & properties, that in a single look or wink it can have such great effects, that everyone will believe it to be impossible, & as an illusion & dreadful thing of the effect of the said work. But I pray you tell me, what effect & operation would be found in laxative things, if the Quint essence is drawn from the hellebore?
The effects of secret things should not be revealed in any way . And note well, that if no herb or fruit has such virtue in itself, seeing that this virtue comes from the Quint essence: therefore this Quint essence being drawn & purified perfectly, as we said, it will have a hundred times as many virtues, because the feces & earthiness of the composition of the four elements, prevent as much as possible, that the Quint essence mixed among them cannot have any power. Certainly in government & mastery of attracting the Quinte essence, icelle, & material things, & corrupted.
The science of drawing apart the Quint essence of each of the four elements, of all the above-mentioned things.
I will not fail to reveal the secret for a little while as you will be able to draw the Quint essence from each of the four elements which are the above-mentioned things, and set it apart. The means is such. Take the rotten thing, and into converted water, whatever you want, so as I taught you above. And be this thing from which you want to draw the four elements, human blood, reduced to water. So put this water with rotten blood in a glass still, which must be put in a vessel full of water, which we call the bain-marie: & fire under it, until the water is distilled by the spout of the said alembic, and put this water in a very clean glass vial.
And when you can no longer have water through this fire or make anything rise , you have certainly extracted from the blood only the element of water, because the fire of the said bath has no power to elevate or sublimate neither air, nor fire, nor earth. And thus these three elements remained at the bottom of the distillery. Take again the water which you have drawn, and put it back on the three elements which remained at the bottom of the still, and close the said vessel well, so that nothing can come out of it by distillation. And leave them for seven days in a bain-marie, so that they can ferment well together. Then after the seven days, put it in the still with its receptacle, and put it in the ash fire, which is stronger than that of the bain-marie, and then you will see the water rise and distill in the form of clear & yellow oil like gold.
And when no more thing will be able to rise by the force of this fire, then you have in the receptacle two elements: namely water and air.
And if you want to separate them from each other, put them in another still, and distil them in a bain-marie, and the water will rise to the top completely clear, and distill inside the receptacle: and the air will remain at the bottom of the still all alone, in the resemblance of golden oil: Which oil is called air. If you put it aside in a well-sealed bottle. Therefore fire and earth will remain together, which you will separate in this way. Take the element of water that you have already drawn, namely four books: & put them on a pound of matter of fire & earth, & put them as above said, in the bain-marie, to ferment them well for seven days. And then you will put them distill in a still, over a strong flame.
So you will see red water rising , which you will set aside. Then the black earth will remain at the bottom of the vessel, which you will set apart. This being done, take the very red water, which is distilled, in which there are two elements, namely fire and water, and put them to distill in a bain-marie, and thus the water will rise. clear, & will distill inside its receptacle: & at the bottom of the said still will remain a red oil, which is the element of fire. And in such a way you separated & set apart the four elements: namely first the element of air, then water, after fire, & earth. And note that water is expressly placed on the earth, in order to draw fire and air from said earth, because otherwise they would not rise without the help of the element of water.
Which elements you can reduce & rotate in Quinte essence, in the vessel of circulation, as it is said before, or in the vessel of ratification, & make the said elements rise seven times. Above all, it is necessary to calcine the black earth for twenty- one days, once every day, in a glassmaker's or reverberation furnace, and each time soak it in its water. I won't tell you anything else about this science, and for good reason. But praise God for the things which you have heard.
Secret of manufacturing the magisterium of the Sun, to put & include it in our sky: that is to say in our Quinte essence, so that it shines in it to influence & put in the little World, that is to say -say in our body, the light & principle of life.
CANON IIII.
It is now time that we adorn our Sky, that is to say our Quint essence: & that we put in it our Sun, that is to say gold: & the property of gold, so that it generates a very clear day throughout our life, which is very sweet, and very valid, until the last term which is ordained to us by God, which term cannot pass without the night of death. It is a very great thing to be able to put & include our Sun in our Sky. And note well, that said Quinte essence, above acquired is so very subtle, & reduced in such very great spirituality & glorification, that by its subtlety & nature always tends upwards.
For this reason it must be well bound and sealed in glass vessels, which are not pierced, & having no pores, so that it cannot escape from our hands. Our Sun however, it has quite the opposite virtue. Because it has so much power, and is so solid, that the fire, however strong and violent, by whatever device or thing it knows how to do, cannot spoil it or make it evaporate, as it appears by the device of ashes. , & of the cup, in which all the metals of the whole are spoiled & destroyed, except gold & silver.
And when we put the gold in Royal cement, which is the strongest and most corrosive, which we make from salt, old tiles, sulfur, and armoniac, the said gold refines stronger, and becomes strengthens. But if we put money in said cement, even though it is the most precious of all the world, suddenly it goes up in smoke and is lost. All this came from the very great God, who created the said gold from matter first glorified and in very worthy form, so that the form is so linked by love to the matter, and the matter so united and joined with the form, that never by virtue nor force of fire can be corrupted or separated from each other .
I have already told you that the God of glory, through the influence of the seven Planets, has ordered the seven metals, the bowels and veins of the earth. As by Saturn he put the lead. And because lead has the property of Saturn, lead is called Saturn. By Jupiter he arranged the tin. And because tin has the properties of Jupiter, tin is named Jupiter. By Mars he ordered iron, and because iron has the virtues of Mars, said iron is called Mars. By the Sun, which is the noblest thing among all the Planets, he arranged gold. And because gold has the property of the Sun, we call gold Sun. By Mercury he ordered quicksilver, and because quicksilver has the properties of Mercury, we call it Mercury. Through the Moon he disposed of the silver, and because silver has the properties of the Moon, we call silver Moon. By Venus he arranged the copper. And because copper has the properties of Venus, we call copper Venus. Since it is thus that gold is arranged by the Sun, & has such properties as the Sun, & the Sun influences & throws its rays, light & color, which are the three natural principles of vegetable things & of animated life, certainly all so has the gold of God power in our body, not the gold of the alchemists.
light, heat, incorruptibility, the goodness of all goodness, & all the properties of it, to vivify our body, & preserve it in health, until the final term for us constituted & ordained by God.
Real science to include & put the Sun in our sky.
The means of the magisterium & government to include the Sun in our Sky is as follows: Take gold of God purged with cement, if you can have it: & if you are too poor, take very fine Florence florins, & make well-loose strips: and then put the said strips in the fire, on an iron palette, until they are very red and fiery, like flaming iron, and have near you an earthen vessel, well varnished, which will be the half full of good fiery water.
Then when the said gold strips are well heated and ignited, put them out in the said fiery water: and have a device to extinguish the fire very soon, so that the said water does not consume or spoil: which device is made of the said well-varnished earth, like a lid which can engulf the vessel where said water is, right down to the bottom. And if by chance you heat your gold strips in an iron pan, take care that the water does not touch the iron, but throw your gold strips into it from a good distance, being very red, & do this fifty times or more, because the more you do it, the better it will be.
And if you see that the fiery water is decreasing and diminishing too much, put it aside and take new ones, until you have accomplished the extinctions, then join all these waters together. And know for certain that God created such a virtue in fiery water, that it can draw and attract to itself all the virtues that are in gold and incorporate into itself the rays, the light, the heat, the equality , incorruptibility, durability, solidity, & all the properties of the Sun of Heaven.
After that, when you have your fiery water thus solified and golden, mix it with the Quinte essence and use it. Certainly I would not dare to extinguish the gold laminae in the Quinte Essence because I would lose it. You now truly have the incorruptible Heaven not simply but the Sun included in it for the purpose that the stronger it can give influence of light of life, & the rays of virtues for the conservation of nature, & fixation of the Quint essence.
Science as one can do only without great expense & almost for nothing, to put it & include it in said Heaven.
The perfect men who say with Saint Peter, I have neither gold nor silver: when they have great need of the virtues of our very good Sun, can have it in this way. They must ask one of their good, rich friends to lend them two good new florins, or at least one alone , and to put the said florin as it is in the fire. until it is very red and inflamed. And if he has burning water, let him extinguish it there fifty times: and if he has none, let him take good white wine, which is not too clear, nor too thick, but good, delectable, fragrant, tasty & graceful.
Because wine has the virtue of receiving within itself the influences & properties of gold. And when you have done your work to your pleasure, know for certain that the florin is as good as before, & beautiful, & of just weight. So use golden wine, or golden water, so that you live joyfully, and also that you become young again.
Science to stronger & more vividly include & imprint the virtues of our sun, in our sky.
I declared to you above the means of drawing the virtues & strengths of our Sun, but now more fully than I said above, I will teach you to print & include it more strongly in our sky: & you I will show another thing how naturally and without sin you can enchant gold and silver, so that when we hold them we will not know them.
And this means of natural enchantment is good for carrying gold and silver everywhere , without fear of Lords or Tyrants, and for keeping it in times of battles, wars, and tribulations, and especially in the time of the Antichrist. . God the Almighty and Most High created gold so incorruptible that by the force of whatever fire it may be, it does not lose its being, its color, nor its virtue. And nevertheless there is one thing which suddenly converts it as if into earth, whose secret magisterium is such: Take fine gold, and file it well, and put it in a crucible with a good quantity of quicksilver, and put on a low heat, such that it cannot evaporate, stirring it well. And then after a little while you will see your gold beneath the quicksilver, turned into shape like earth.
Then put it on high heat, so that the quicksilver goes away, or else distil it and put a still on it, & you will find in the crucible the gold calcined & reduced as in earth. And if you cannot file the said Sun, make it into the most subtle and loose blades that you can, and put them in hot silver, and you will have what you want. And if you want to make money at this point, file it, and mix it with the quicksilver sublimated on the porphyry stone, with a good quantity of Roman vitriol, and put all this in the lit coals, so that everything is well closed with the sapience bed between two well-joined tiles, & leave it on the fire for a day, or a half, or less.
And this being done, you will find everything turned to lime. Carry this lime publicly throughout the world, and there will be no man who can know gold or silver. And if you want to hide this lime at all, and carry it more secretly, mix it with melted pitch, or wax, or gum, or with anything easy to burn, and it will never be known to a living man, but all those who see it will be naturally enchanted. And if you want to untie this enchantment; put your lime, or pitch, or wax, or gum, in the ashes, and immediately your gold will become as it was before, and also your silver.
Let's return to our subject. If you want to very nobly gild our fiery water or the wine, take the lime of gold that I taught you to make above, and put it on an iron palette, or, which is better, in a silver spoon & put it to redden in the fire which you will extinguish with hot water or wine fifty times as before or more. And so you will have your liquor, and will know it will be golden a hundred times more than with the laminas. And the reason for this is such. Because fire acts and opens better and stronger in the parts of gold that are subtle and small, than it does with the solid and hard laminae of gold.
And also fiery water or wine a thousand times more easily attracts the properties of gold from small, very small parts than from large laminae, because the large parts resist water as well as fire. And know for certain that wine retains not only the properties of gold but also of all metals . For if you extinguish the lead seven times in wine or in common water, and in that wine or water you extinguish the iron several times, the said iron will attract to itself the softness of lead from everything in everything. And in this way he makes copper and other metals.
And if you quench the iron in white wine several times, and often throw molten lead into it , you will certainly find that the lead hardens. For this reason therefore, are imprinted in wine: and even more so are imprinted in good and very precious fiery water.
Way to include in our Sky the virtues of all the terrestrial Stars to include and bring into it their properties, & occult virtues.
CANON V.
The Almighty God of Heaven has given such virtue to the Quint Essence, that it can draw from all fruits, wood, roots, flowers, herbs, flesh, seeds, & spices, & from all medicinal things, all the virtues & properties, natures & effects, that God of glory, factor of Creatures, created in them. And most often said extraction is done in less than three hours. I previously revealed to you how you can attract the virtues & properties of all the above-mentioned things, through the means & help of our Quint essence.
It can therefore attract all the things necessary for all syrups: for certainly if you put a syrup in the fiery water, it will be such as the syrup before three hours, believe that it will be a hundred times better, by means of the Quinte gasoline, as if there were none.
Also take all comfort medicines in the same way, and they will comfort a hundred times more with the Quinte Essence than without it. So it is with laxative medicines, because without number the divine action which is ordained for them by God, increases as I will declare to you below. For in truth, if you take all aromatic and odorous spices, and put them in the Quinte essence, it will smell so good and have such a great smell, that you could not estimate. You will do the same with restrictive and constricting things. For if you put or seeds, or flowers, or leaves, or fruits, or cold thing, or hot , or sweet or bitter, or wet, or dry, or good or bad in our Quinte essence, such Quinte essence will have a hundred times stronger.
By this you can see, that you are instructed & taught to know how to draw & take the virtue of all transmutable things, & increase said virtue & power a hundred times more.
The science of making said Quinte essence hot to the first degree. And to know & know the things that are hot to the first degree, so that with our Quintessence, we can draw from them the Quintessence.
CANON VI.
I will declare to you now, and in another place, a great sea of knowledge, touching the knowledge of medicinal things. Certainly there are no things which are hot in the first degree, the doctors. Namely among the Herbs, aluine or strong wormwood, borage, fumitory , marshmallow, agrimony, chamomile, stechados, caltrops or river chestnuts, coriander, drop of flax or dodder, basil, spikenard or aspic. Seeds: the seed of marshmallows, braid, fisamularia, coriander , orache or good ladies, basil, dodder, rue.
Flowers: watercress, saffron, chamomile & enula campana flowers.
Roots: the roots of gladiolus, two aristolochia, or buckwheat, & agaric. Fruits: blackberries which are no longer green, sweet almonds, jujubes, ripe olives, figs, chestnuts, filberts, capers, mastic, lemon peel. Leaves: bay leaves and cloves, called mace.
Grains: wheat, white peas, rice, pods or ers, lingua avis, cubebs, grain of paradise. Gums, & Juices: lycium, sarcocolle, ladanum, musk, liquid storax. Veins of earth: glass. Flesh: the flesh of pork, horse, camel, chicken, goat, young sparrows, doves, ducks, geese, pheasants & salted fish. So if you want to mix with our Heaven the Quint essence of one of the said things, or of several, put the said things in your Heaven as much as you want, and it will attract to itself in three hours the Quint essence with all its virtues, & your Sky will be made warm to the first degree, more than it was before. O what a great science it is, to say that you know the nature of all things that can be eaten, and that you know which ones you must eat, and which you must flee and leave behind! For if you are too cold, you must use those things which are hot in the first degree: except those which are laxative: for by the laxativeness of them, they would harm you. But listen carefully to what I'm saying.
The science to include & put in our Heaven the Quint essence of all essential things which are hot to the second degree: & the knowledge of said things.
If for the illness occurring from too much cold it is not enough for you to make your Heaven from warm things to the first degree, as it is contained in the previous chapter, it is appropriate for you to draw the Quint essence from the things which are written here below, which are hot to the second degree.
Herbs: pennyroyal, amomum, royal haste or asphodels, pastenades, panax, pork, centaur, spurge, nutsedge or cyperus, ginger, mint, dill, fennel, aloe, or parrot. Seeds: the seed of ache, of daucus, or wild panet, fennel, dill, senegro, pastenades, nettles, sisymbrium, horseradish, wild saffron.
Flowers: wild or garden saffron flowers, cotula, shallot, cumin, asphodel known as royal haste. Roots: the root of ache, fennel, capers, river gladiolus, known as acorus, asarum known as cabaret, squill with stipoulle, pastenades, asphodels, peony, cyperus or tiger nut.
Woods: rhubarb, aloe wood, xylobalsamum, ebony, cloves, incense bark, & tamarix. Leaves: lemon, tamarix, & senna leaves.
Fruits: nutmeg, mastic, bitter almonds, ripe grapes, sultanas, raisins, dried figs, dates, fistica, or pistacia, walnuts & sweet plums.
Seeds: wheat bran, chickpeas, lupins, faséola, asparagus, & lemon grains. Gums & Juices: aloe, balsam, honey, wine, mastic, incense, myrrh, bdellium, lacca.
From the Veins of the earth: salt.
From the superfluities of animals: manure, urine, amber, musk.
So open your eyes, see and consider which things among these will be useful and necessary to you, to warm your body more strongly than those which are named in the first science as hot things in the first degree.
However, do not use the things here written, if you do not know what virtue they have: for none of them are poisonous. Now therefore have knowledge, so that you know how to make our Heaven hot in the second degree with all the things named above, or even with none of them.
The science to include & put in our Heaven the Quint essence of all things which are hot to the third degree: & the knowledge of them.
If it happened that the illness was very cold, and you needed our Heaven to be hot to the third degree, put the Quint essence in our Heaven of things hot to the third degree, which are written below.
Herbs : Enula campana, seséli, thyme, chamaedrys or germander, chamaepitis, called ive muscate, hyssop, tigernut or cyperus, marjoram, fuzeau, wild mint, wild pennyroyal, or catnip, oregano, pork, rue, ache, squinantum , says iuncus odoratus.
Seeds: seed of parsley, amcos, anise, seed of paradise, cashew nuts, pithimi, pork , niello or pepper, cumin, egg hubs, filer montanum known as seséli Masiliense, common street, arugula.
Flowers: flowers of fuzeau, & squinantum, known as iuncus odoratus.
Roots: root of Enula campana, squinantum, stipoule or carpenter, mente, cyperus, known as tigernut, diptam, porreaux, the two hellebores, hermodactes, serpentine, zédoaire, ginger, & centaur or gall earthen.
Woodland; gentian, polypody, cassia, asarum, turbith, galangal, long pepper, cinnamon, costum.
Leaves: oleander leaves, or rose leaves, colocynth apples, & medlars. Fruits: Indian walnut, spurge, wild cucumber, & colocynth.
Grains: darnel seed, long pepper, sour staphisium, or ragweed seed.
Gums , & Juices: hyssop syrup, scammonea, liquid pitch, Greek pitch, opopanax, asarum, euphorbium, ammonia, galbanum, juniper gum.
Earth Veins: lodestone, rock salt, nitre salt, aspaltum, mumie.
Members of animals: the goat, called beaver.
Therefore, with the above-mentioned things, you must put the heat to the third degree in your Heaven, and then you will use these things by drawing their Quint essence, after you have perfectly known their property and virtue.
The science to draw the Quint essence of all things that are hot to a quarter degree, so that you include them & put them in our Heaven when it is needed.
I will reveal to you the things that are hot at the quarter degree, that is to say at the last, for this purpose that you include the Quint essence of them in our sky when it is necessary.
Herbs: wild rue, watercress. Seeds; the seed of mustard, wild rue, garden cress, onions.
From the Woods: lepidium, known as passage, pyrethrum, known as lisander foot.
Fruits: cashew nuts. Grains: long pepper, & bay leaves.
Veins of earth: quicksilver, sulfur, lime, salt ammonia, salt nitre, petroleum, aes ustum, flos aeris.
The means of drawing the Quint essence of all cold things to the first degree, and of putting and including it in our sky.
CANON VII.
Just as I taught you how you should govern yourself in drawing the Quint essence from hot things according to the order of the four degrees, likewise I will show you the same order to attract the Quint essence from cold things. And first, I will declare to you the things which are cold in the first degree, which are such.
Herbs: rave or horseradish, oraches or good ladies, sorrel mercurial, cabbages, mallows, endive.
Seeds: the seed of mallow, plantain, roses, endive, poppons, melons, squash.
Flowers: flowers of roses, almonds, violets, lemons, faulx.
Leaves: the leaves of myrtle, or myrtle.
Fruits: acorns, & all myrobolans, tamarinds, the flesh of a lemon, olives, green plums, quinces, pears, cherries.
Grains : barley, green & dried beans, millet, paniz, myrtle grains , & starch.
Juices: cassia, & sour wine.
Earth Veins: boliarmeni, cimolia, clay, tiles, silver, silver cadmia.
Flesh: the flesh of pork, beef, goat, deer, hare, donkey, mule, wild boar , quail & fresh fish.
Certainly if you put things on it named in our Quint essence, you will cool our sky to the first degree, and will be able to use this sky in summer time.
The science to put in our sky the Quint essence of cold things in the second degree.
If our Heaven being cold to the first degree is not sufficient enough to extinguish too much heat, you will include and put in it the Quint essence of things cold to the second degree, which I name you in this chapter.
Herbs: quintleaf, psyllion known as poison ivy , solatrum, or nightshade, common lettuce, white poppy.
Seeds: lettuce seed.
Flowers: the flower of violets, water lilies, or white water, beans, & pomegranates.
Roots: pomegranate root and plantain root.
Leaves: leaves of faulx, & bugloss.
Fruits, galangal, green blackberries, rowan berries, medlars, vinegar, apples of lemons, ivy seed, perch, cucumbers, squash, melons, lemons, golden apples.
Seeds : barberry seed, sumac, lemon seeds, and quince seeds.
Gums: gum tragacanth, gum arabic, & ammonia gum.
Veins of earth: hematites, or dragon's blood, white lead, azure stone, alum, lead, silver litharge, coral.
So with the said things you will make our Heaven cold to the second degree, so that it can give and put coldness in our body: however use the said things wisely: and avoid the things that must be avoided. Certainly it is a very great science to be able to know things which are cold, if you are very cold, and by this means you will avoid things which are harmful and contrary to you: and if you are too hot, you have here in writing the cold things which you must use.
third degree, to influence our body very cold when it is necessary.
It is time that I reveal to you the means of including & putting in our Heaven the Quint essence of cold things to the third degree: which are written below .
Herbs: Virga pastoris called carding thistle, all sandalwood, hypocistis, houseleek, purslane, or porches.
Seeds: the seed of psyllion, or poison ivy, white poppy, pigtails, & henbane , or hanebane.
Fruits: mandrake apples.
Flowers : white poppy flowers.
Woods: virga pastoris wood, & all sandalwoods.
Gums & Juices: camphor, dragon's blood, hypocistis, the juice of two kinds of poppy, known as opium.
Veins of earth: plaster, spodium, & iron rust.
Things that are a quarter degree cold.
Seeds: henbane seed, black poppy seed.
Juices: opium.
Veins of earth: antimony, & tutie. These are the things which, when placed in our sky, make it supremely cold. For the Philosophers have ordered nothing colder than a quarter degree.
The means to draw the Quint essence from all things which are naturally dry, to the first degree, to include them & put in our Heaven when it is necessary, to induce dryness in our body.
CANON VIII.
I will show you by the similar order as before, to draw the Quint essence from dry things. And firstly things which are dry in the first degree, which are described below.
Herbs: chamomile, stechados, houseleek, cabbages, fennel.
Seeds: the seed of henbane, senegrec.
Flowers: watercress, saffron, chamomile, enula campana.
Roots: the root of gladiolus, porreaux & zedoaire.
Leaves : lily leaves. Fruits: Indian walnut, myrobolans, tamarinds, raisins, ripe olives, & sour filberts.
Grains: barley, dried beans, cubebs, grain of paradise, wheat bran, & starch.
Gums & Juices: moult, sarcacolle, opium.
Earth Veins: Armenus bolus, cimolia, & clay.
Flesh: goat flesh, beef flesh; deer, hare, horse, camel, sheep, calf, goat, Lyon, sparrow, doves, partridges, peacocks & young pigeons.
These are the things that you will put in our Heaven, so that it attracts to itself the Quint essence of them, degree, when necessary.
The science to draw the Quint essence from dry things to the second degree: & the knowledge of them.
In this way you will extract the Quint essence from things that are dry to the second degree, when you need it, so that our Heaven influences dryness to the second degree into our body. These are dry things in the second degree.
Herbs: aluine, or strong wormwood, fumitory, mint, sour monk, amonium, royal haste, or asphodels, horseradish, virga pastoris, centaur, or earthen gall, quintleaf, nightshade, spurge, cyperus, or tiger nut, wild mint, sisymbrium or cardamine, dill, pork, coriander, sorrel, endive, dodder, or drop of flax, cumin, Turkish cucumber, basil, lemons, melons, zucchini, garden saffron, ailletz, aspic or narde & lavender .
Seeds: the seed of ache, or garden parsley, daucus or wild carrot, roses, fennel, porridge, clover, plantain, dill, sisymbrium, or cardamine, coriander, basil, endive, dodder, lemons, melons, zucchini, garden saffron. Flowers: the flowers of roses, garden saffron, cucumbers, myrtle, pomegranates, royal stalk, or asphodel.
Roots: the root of ache, or garden parsley, fennel, capers, pomegranate, acorus or river gladiolus, asarum, known as cabaret, basil, the two aristolochia or buckwheat, squill , or stipoulle, sage, asphodel, plantain, peony, cyperus or nutsedge, centaur, agaric.
From the Woods: the wood of polypody, rhubarb, aloe, xylobalsamum, ebony, cinnamon, all sandalwood , cloves, incense bark, tamarix.
Leaves: the leaves of faulx, myrtle, called nerte, oleander called rose, serpentine, or serpentine, tamarix, laurel, olive trees, colocynth, mint, lemon.
Fruits: acorns, myrobolans, lemons, cataputia called espurge, nutmeg , mace, bitter almonds, green blackberries, fistici, or pistacia, rowan berries, medlars, the peel & juice of a lemon, colocynth, quince, pears, chestnuts, pine nuts, or pine cones.
Grains: millet, paniz, ryegrass, lupine, rice, puffballs or ers, barberry or barberry, & grains of myrtle, or nerte.
Gums & Juices: aloe, lycium, new wine, incense, myrrh, ammonia, sigia, galbanum, lacca, balsam, honey.
Veins of earth, hematite or dragon's blood, plaster, white lead, azure stone, litharge, tiles, glass, coral.
Of the Flesh: & superfluities of beasts: the flesh of salted fish, musk, & amber.
You will be able to include the Quint essence of these things in our Heaven to make it such that it influences us when dryness of the second degree is necessary.
Science to include in our sky the Quint essence of dry things to the third degree.
It is reasonable that we therefore demonstrate the means of including & putting in our Heaven the Quint essence of things dry to the third degree, so that it influences dryness to the third degree in us, when it is necessary. These are the third degree dry things.
Herbs: polypody, seséli de Marseille, or filer montanum, thyme, prasium, known as marrubium, hypericum, or mille pertuis, chamaedrys or germander, chamaepitys, known as ive muscate, hypocistis, hyssop, marjoram, wild mint, pennyroyal, oregano or English marjoram, garden rue, ache, squinantum, or iuncus odoratus. Seeds: the seed of parsley, ammi, or ameos, nettles, anise, seed of paradise, carrots, pithymum, niello or pepper, cumin, Marseille seseli, or filer montanum, common rue, ache, squinantum, or iuncus odoratus, horseradish, & arugula.
Flowers; fuzeau flowers. Roots, the root of squinantum or iuncus odoratus, of diptam, of onions, of the two hellebores, of hermodactes, or death to the dog, of serpentine, of doronicum.
From the Woods: gentian wood, capers, shepherd's rod, cassia cane, asarum known as cabaret, turbith, galenga, long pepper, costum.
Leaves: hop leaves.
Fruits: galls, wild cucumbers, capers, & mastic.
Grains: grains of laurel, staphisica, or ragweed , sumac.
Gums & Juices: acacia, scammonée, vinegar, all pitch, sagapenum, assa foetida, opopanax. euphorbium, juniper gum, & hypocistis.
Veins of earth: lodestone, iron rust , spodium, soap, rock salt, & common salt, glass, aspaltum, & mumie.
Members of beasts: castoreum, which are the idiots of a gooss.
So with the Quint essence of the things said above, our Heaven will influence dryness in our body to the third degree, when it is necessary.
The science of including in our sky the Quint essence of things dry to a quarter degree, so that our said sky influences our body dryness to a quarter degree when we need it.
the extraction of the Quint essence from things dry to a quarter degree, to include it in our Heaven, with the aim that it can influence & give dryness up to a quarter degree: because this thing will be very necessary for us, when we are too excessively humid. But below are written things dry to a quarter degree.
Herbs: wild rue, watercress, black poppy, wild mint.
Seeds: mustard seed , watercress seed, black poppy seed.
From the Woods: pyrethrum, or lisander plant .
Fruits: cashew fruits, black pepper.
Veins of earth: ammonia, aes ustum, tuthia, salt, quicklime.
Flowers: flos aeris, living sulfur, oil.
So with the things before said our Heaven will influence in our body dryness to the quarter degree when it is necessary.
Teaching to extract the Quint essence of all things that are humid, to include it & put in our sky, so that it influences humidity in our body when we want. The science of including in our Heaven the Quint essence of moist things in the first degree.
CANON IX.
I come to reveal the knowledge of humid things in the first degree, so that we include in our Heaven the Quint essence of them, to influence humidity in the first degree, in us, in times of great drought. Below are written things wet in the first degree.
Herbs : enula campana, borage, mercuriale. Seeds: the seed of marshmallows, pastenades, oraches, or good ladies.
Flowers: the bean flower.
Roots: the roots of rushes and pastenades.
Des Bois: licorice wood.
Fruits: blackberries, which are ripe, jujubes, or gingeroles, ripe grapes, the flesh of lemon apples, plums, honey knife.
Grains: green bean grains, white peas, lingua avis, long pepper.
Gums & Juices: ladanum, gum Arabic, tragacanth, bdellium. Earth Veins: lead, silver, cadmia argentea.
Meat: the flesh of pork, chicks, pigeons, starlings, goslings, pheasants, quails, fresh fish, & ducks.
With the above-mentioned things you will include the humidity in our Heaven in the first degree, so that it will influence us with humidity in the first degree, when it is necessary.
Science to include second degree humidity in our sky: & the knowledge of the things necessary to do this.
It is appropriate to declare and make known things that are humid in the second degree:
Heaven the Quinte essence of these, to ensure second degree humidity in our body, when it is necessary. And are the things hereinafter written.
Herbs: marshmallow, psyllion, or poison ivy, porches, called purslane, oraches, or good ladies, common lettuce, mallow.
Seeds : the seed of mallow, lettuce, sisamus, & pigskin.
Flowers : water lily flowers, or water white flowers.
Fruits: golden apples, perch, dates, cherries, walnuts, cucumbers, squash, melons, lemons.
Seeds : phaseolas, asparagus & quince seeds.
The science to include third degree humidity in our Heaven: & the knowledge of third degree humid things.
I will now declare to you the things which are moist to the third degree.
Seeds : psyllion seed, or poison ivy, white poppy, onions.
Flowers: violet flowers.
The science of including in our Heaven humidity of things humid to the quarter degree.
This is the last consideration of the inquisition of things as it touches the qualities of the four degrees, so that we declare the things which are moist to the fourth degree, to include their Quint essence in our Heaven, to assure & insinuate the 'humidity at a quarter degree. And are these. Veins of earth: quicksilver. Vapors: snow. We have already completed with the help of God the four previous rules, & the profitable usefulness & consideration of the four degrees, namely hot, cold, dry, & humid things. Praise God for that.
The means to know all the things before said, namely which have two properties together.
I considered it very necessary to reveal the science how we can know of all the things before said, what property and what complexion it will have in conjunction with itself: because everything which is composed of the four elements, rather has several complexions and properties only one , as you will know from what follows. Now the element of water is cold & humid, air hot & humid, earth cold & dry, fire hot & dry.
And because the four primary qualities, which are hot, humid, cold, and dry, can be conjoined one with the other, and granted two together, for this reason there are only four elements. Certainly dry & wet are contrary to each other, to each other, they are never together in the same degree remaining with each other. So, if you want to know of any thing said if it is hot & humid, cold & dry, cold & wet, or cold & dry, you will look at the tables before said for hot things.
And if you find it there are called tables, write it on a paper, and say, such thing is hot in such degree.
Then afterwards look for it in the tables of damp things: and if you find it there, write similarly separately, such thing is moist in such degree. And if you do not find it in the tables of wet things, look for it in the tables of dry things, and write what degree it is. And in this way you will find the quality and complexion of this thing. Now so that you can better understand what I am saying, I will give you an example here. You will look for quicksilver in the tables of hot things: and you will find that it will be hot to a quarter degree, which thing you will write on a paper. Then you will look again for the said quicksilver in the tables of damp things: and you will find that the said quicksilver is damp to a quarter degree, write that. And by this means you found the quicksilver to be hot & humid to the quarter degree: that is to say hot to the quarter & last degree, & also humid to the last & quarter degree. And note carefully that the first degree does not reach or fully open the feeling of taste or touch. The second degree is equal to the said taste & feeling.
The third degree exceeds and passes the said feeling, but nevertheless it does not destroy it. And the quarter degree hurts very much and spoils our feelings. And from this consideration the order of the four degrees is gathered into one each thing.
The science to include & put in our sky & complexion as temperate as possible.
We will name below the very tempered things, from which we will draw the Quint essence, to include it in our Heaven, so that it influences in us a very great temperature, & a being the most equal that we could find in this world. Certainly there are things which are sovereignly so tempered & equal in their being to singularly reinforce, repair & continue our gold of God, and not the gold of man, that is to say of alchemy: & also to comfort, rejuvenate, & continue our body. And are written below.
Namely Pearls, Rosemary, Adiantos or Capillus Veneris, Lily Root, Cassia fistula, & Manna.
Therefore draw the Quint Essence from the things said above, and place it in our Heaven, so that it health, comfort of life, repair & continuation of it until the last term which is ordained to us by God. I have previously taught you the way how you must include & put in our sky the Sun & the Planets, but you will also include in our Sky the Quint essence of Pearls, cadmia aurea, & similar things, for which thing to do, you will put them into powder so fine that you cannot feel it between your fingers. Then throw said powder into our Heaven: And know for certain that all the virtue & Quinte essence of this thing will join with our said Heaven.
Teaching to include & put in our Heaven the Quint essence of attractive things, so that by the help of it we can attract & tear out the wood or iron that is in wounds.
CANON X.
The said attractive things must be warm by their nature, and are these: The lodestone, sagapenum, assa foetida, marjoram, ache, pennyroyal, petroleum oil, sulfur, gum ammonia, rye grass, aristolochia long, called sarwheat. The root of seséli Massiliense diptam, cadmia, spurge, cyclamen known as pig's bread, & ferula sylvestris, the above-mentioned things will attract out the wood or iron with putrefaction. We also pound burnt fiens, leaven, and leeches, which also have the power to attract. Let us therefore place in our Heaven the things named above, and the said Heaven will attract to itself, the Quint essence of them: and therefore it will have virtue and power of good and easily draw from any wound suddenly all the wood and iron having remained there.
The means of putting in our sky the Quint essence of things which purge harmful humors from our body.
CANON XI.
No things let go of the stomach, or cause vomiting, by dissolving and attracting penetrating things, nasty humors, similar to it, and making nature abhor humors similar to them. And certainly with the help of virtue and expulsive force, it attracts them in the stomach and bowels to this helper: who for what they cannot bear impediment, reject from them the humors.
Certainly there are no things which purge with viscosity, like mercurial: none with acuteness or subtlety, some with a salty flavor, like orch seed, or good ladies, called atriplex, others with sweetness, like cassia. But some purge one kind of mood, others another. Those which follow purge the blood: namely, cassia, mallow, mercurial juice, wild mallow & violet.
The things that purge anger are; Cretan aloe, yellow myrobolans, or citrines, aluine, capillus Veneris, rhubarb, mercuriale, small violets, whey, lettuce seed, cassia fistula, & tamarinds. The things which purge phlegm are, sarcocolla, fuzeau, cashew nuts, garden saffron, the seed is called cartamus, gnidium cocoon, turbith, colocynth, epithymum, staphisagria, known as ragweed, hermodactes, pyrethrum, euphorbium, serula sylvestris, & rock salt. The things which chase away melancholy are these: the pith of hièble, known as petit suin, the azure stone, the bolus armemus, the myrobolans chébules, epithymus, stecados, senna, chamaepithys, known as ive muscate, cuscuta, known as drop of flax, squinatum, known as iuncus odoratus. The things which purge the aqueous humors or of the nature of water, are, sarcocolla, euphorbium, coccognidium, the root of wild cucumber, and the juice of hièble, known as small juice.
These things purge red anger, and also phlegm together, colocynth, scammonea, and agaric. The things which purge phlegm and melancholy, together, are these: the polypody, the two species of hellebores, conyza, called poison ivy, the spurge, electuarium condisi, male tithy, the little centaury, & the agaric. These things purge the red anger, and also the black: myrobolans from India, cabbage juice, fumitory, nitrum, enula campana, senna, & black hellebore. All the things above named are of God miraculously created having certain virtue & property to expel from our body the mortal & superfluous harmful humors. And although there are several others having such a property, nevertheless we will not name others, other than those which are written in this chapter, When therefore you wish to put the Quint essence of these things in our Heaven to purge the blood or other harmful humors, you will take the things, according to what they are written in their chapters, and put them in our Heaven, and it will draw their virtue, nevertheless be careful to use them. And in fact, they have much more virtue being in our Heaven, because it is very necessary that you be careful & discreet.
The means of attracting the Quint essence of things that restrict & tighten, to put them in our Heaven: & the knowledge of them.
CANON XII.
All things which are constrictive and restrict are commonly of a cold and earthly nature. There are also some which tighten and join the parts, by the virtue and power of their frigidity: as does the gall, others are which generate large humors , and worms, and reinforce too much the retentive virtue, and are by too nourishing. Now styptic and constricting things, some tighten the stomach, others quench the blood. These stop the blood: namely Coral, Armenus bolus, cypress apples, sealed earth, amber, myrtle, acacia, hyacinth stone, gall, sumac, hematite stone, putty , plantain, faulx juice, tragacanth gum, gum arabic, tamarix wood ash, pomegranate flower, hypocistis, iron rust, shepherd's rod herb, alum, thutia, quintefolium, pigtails, dove's blood, cow's blood, donkey's fiens, ash from walnut bark, burnt hare's hair, plaster, clay, antimony, atramentum sutorium burned, the ashes made of hemp cloth, and in this way you will restrict and quench the blood coming out of a broken vein. Also incense restricts & stops the blood, consolidating & comforting the flesh. For this reason put the said things in our Heaven, and they will miraculously restrict and stop the blood.
The science to draw the Quint essence from the things that restrict the stomach, to put it in our Heaven, so that miraculously it restricts & tightens the stomach.
You will put these things in our Heaven: for they tighten and restrict the stomach marvelously, which are hereinafter written; that is to say, quinces, rowans, cornels, or corms, rubus camnus, green plums, pomegranates, myrtle grains, cabbages which are well cooked, green pears, dunce, cooked sea lobsters, the pressure of a hare, cooked milk, taken donkey's milk, cheese, almonds, pure wheat flour, millet, acorns, beans , black poppy seed, scab, rice, mint with vinegar , roses, cypress leaves, boli armeni, terra sigillata, mastic, coral, sumac, berberis, acacia, pomegranate flowers, spodium, ash, plantain, alum, litharge, gum tragacanth, & gum arabic. None of them tighten and comfort because of their dryness: like cubebs and cloves. So put the above-mentioned things in our Heaven, and you will have an admirable virtue to restrict and tighten the stomach.
The science to draw the Quint essence of things that harden, to include them in our Heaven, to harden our members, or other things that we want to harden.
All things that are too cold and too humid are those that harden the members and freeze the materials. These harden: myrtle, psyllium, or poison ivy, serpentine, houseleek, pigweeds, lentil water, solatrum, known as nightshade, henbane, and mainly its seed, because by its nature it tightens & stops the quick- money. So put things on it named in our Heaven, and it will influence so much hardness that it will be a very wonderful thing. The science of drawing the Quint essence from softening things, so that it influences softness in our members and other things, when it is needed.
Now let us say of what nature are the things which make us soft. These are those which are very warm, and do not heat up too much, and also do not dry out much: and are these: chamomile , aluin or strong wormwood, eupatory or agrimony, sweet clover, liquid storax, mastic, ammonia, bdellium , galbanum, opopanax, dried figs, marshmallow root, old oil, barley, goat, goat, goose fat, young bear, deer & veal marrow. With the above-mentioned things you will make our Heaven very softening.
The science to draw the Quint essence from things which are maturing & softening, so that they make our Heaven soft.
Let us now come to know the things which ripen & bring forth the rotten & bruised blood. And are those which are temperate or close to a thing tempered with natural heat: as are the glutinous things constricting the pores of the body, & by this means the natural heat is reinforced within, & cooks the matter which is apostulated. And are these things: ladanum, liquid storax, dill, butter, stechas, marshmallow roots, flax seed, fenugreek, wheat leavened with salt, oil, raisins, & butter, all together with said wheat: sweat of a naked man who works, did not breakfast, put with leaven. Place the above-mentioned things in our Heaven, and it will reduce to maturity all apostumes, more than one could believe.
Things that are compressive.
All the things which compress are of an earthly and glutinous nature, and even those which generate large and thick humors, and are these, hereinafter written: unleavened bread, onions, crushed wheat, pure wheat flour, dates, wild cherry pith, fat, cheese, acorns, powder picked from meslier leaves , sesame. Incisive, appetizing & cleansing things. The things which open or pierce an apostume, stume, must have the virtue of attenuating, incising, cleaning & purifying. And certainly they open the pores & conduits which are compressed, by attenuating & cutting out the sticky & thick humors, & also by cleaning their superfluities, & purging the filth from the wounds. But none of these things open outside and inside: as are those which are sticky & bitter: & smell of salt, like bitter almonds. There are also some which only open inside by the width of the interior veins: and cannot open outside, because the veins are too tight and constrained: like things which are bitter and salty in taste. , among which is aluine or strong wormwood. Certainly there are also some which are very appetizing, and have a singular virtue against great compression of the spleen: like the centipede, known as deer's tongue. None have feeble & weak virtue, & are valid for feeble operation: like the seed of nettles.
Things that are appetizers are these: capers, haste royale or asphodèle, costus, gentian, ginger, cinnamon, xylocassia, or cassia wood , asarum called cabaret, daucus called wild panet, bay seeds, hyssop, chamaedrys, known as chesnete or germander, ive muscate, anise, musk, parietaria, psyllium, known as poison ivy, wild mint, or catnip, St. John's wort, or hypericum, ache, triolet, or clover, parsley, levisticum known as levesse, celandine, stechas , hulled barley, solanum known as nightshade, endive, wormwood, known as fort blanc, dodder, known as flax drop, agaric, eupatorium or agrimony, aspic, basil, cubebs, fumitory, aloe wood, rubia known as madder, acorus known as bastard flame , aristolochia, or buckwheat, pennyroyal, peony or peoine, sisymbrium or watercress, myrrh, fuzeau, or suin, prassium, pork, onions, leaven with salt & oil, vesses or ers, fistici, cucumbers, asparagus, saffron, shallots, squill called stipoule, or carpenter, lupins, salt ammonia, nitre, seed of nettles, gladiolus, aurone, barley & bean flour, alum & vitriol, aes ustum, glass, aloe hepatica, atriplex seed, called oraches, mace, pine cones, horseradish, wheat, dill, coccognidium, soap, tamarix, mallow, sponges, sea foam, woman's milk, liquid pitch, diptam, lepidium , known as passage, staphisaigre, or lice weed, swine's gall, dog's fiens, melon seed, licorice, cassia fistula, honey, sweet wine. So put the Quint essence of these things in our Heaven, and it will have an admirable virtue to soften and mature.
The science to draw the Quint essence of biting things which bring and restore living flesh to wounds.
Below are named the things which sting and bite the sore wounds, and bring good and lively flesh to the said wounds. That is to say, incense, long aristolochia, called buckwheat, gladiolus or flame, buds or ers, silver litharge, white lead, aspalathum, or naphtha, myrrh, orach seed, tamarix seed, honey & aloe.
Put all these said things in our Heaven, when it is necessary, and it will insinuate wonderful morality.
The way to draw the Quint essence from corrosive things, to put them in our Heaven.
There is a difference between corrosive things and those which hurt or cause ulcers. And whether the corrosives are hot or not, nevertheless they must be of a dry nature, and must have the subtle substance, which is put on the flesh. Those which wound and are ulcerative must necessarily be a little more penetrating and strong, because they pierce the skin, which is harder than the flesh, just as the things mentioned above gnaw at the flesh. Certainly flaming or burning things are naturally very hot so that they can suddenly pierce, also they must be of large substance, so that by remaining for a long time on the skin, they can soften it and turn it into a liquid. By which thing we see that the element would not have the inflammatory or corrosive virtue, if it were not the size of its substance, by which it opens and acts, and also is its maintenance, and also by its haste holds the fire in her.
high would not have such great corrosive & inflaming virtue, even if by chance you take it differently. I don't think everyone understands this thing. Corrosive things are these: Burnt copper, rock salt, flos aeris, alum, vitriol, tuthie, verdigris, antimony & arsenic. Things that ulcerate & pierce, must be put on the skin, to pierce or break it, so that the superfluous humor can come out: & are these; Soap, cantharides, garlic or garlic, adarces, alum, asphodel root, or royal stalk, cuttlefish bones, also all salty, sour, strong or bitter things, are ulcerative. Inflammatory or burning things are garlic, pyrethrum, euphorbium, black pepper, quicklime, mustard, adarces, quicksilver, soap, the ashes of fig leaves, flammula. Things which tighten and dry without hardly stinging or biting, cause scars, and are powerful and sufficient enough to make wounds, and also to break and pierce them: and must not be put or applied to the body, except as little as we can make: & are such: Burnt copper, sweet clover, galls, alum, pomegranate flower , spodium, burnt sponge, burnt pumice, aloe, litharge, ground beetle, cantharid flies, lead, burnt, & white lead. Place these things in our Heaven, and they will insinuate themselves and place their virtue and property in it. The science to insinuate into our Heaven the conglutinative & consolidative force, when it is necessary.
Medicines weld & join together by means of what they are glutinous, or by cleaning the wounds, & renewing the flesh, & tightening the lips one against the other of disjointed & separated things: & are such: plaster , cypress leaves, sarcocolle, Armemis bolus, aloe, incense bark, myrrh, bdellium, litharge, pomegranate flowers, mummy, dragon's blood, asphaltum, starch, ryegrass, oak leaves & acorns, serpentine, burnt tiles, egg shell or scale, burnt fillet, & burnt hare hair. So put all these things in our Heaven, and marvelously they will insinuate themselves into it virtue and conglutinative force.
The science of including in our Heaven the attenuating or diminishing virtue.
These are the things which attenuate & diminish by virtue of their heat, because certainly they divide & separate the parts of the thing in which they open & act by their heat: just as we see honey and snow dissolve and separate near the fire. Gold the smoke being misguided between its plate separates one part from the other.
The things hereinafter written commonly do this to the human body, namely, asphodels or royal haste, cassutha, called drop of flax, aurone, ammi, rosemary flower, aristolochia, ammonia, arsenic, assa foetida, agaric, garlic, onions, balsam, cyperus, or tigernut, chamaedrys, or germander, ive muscat, chamomile, cinnamon, tuthie, capers, hemlock, alum, dried figs, coriander, wild mint, pork, agrimony, arugula, & its seed , euphorbium, senegre, hedgehog, wine lees, galbanum, lemon gum, gentian, gladiolus, hyssop, bran, mastic, wild pennyroyal, vitriol, nettle seed, xylobalsamum, pennyroyal, pine grains, peony, savine, psyllium, or poison ivy, petroleum, capsia, so-called passage, rue, nitre, fuzeau, sagapenum, turpentine, opopanax, narcissus, liquid pitch, naval pitch, stechas, centipede, sesame, flax seed, raisins, weasel blood , cow dung , lion fat, & castoreum. Put the Quint essence of things before said in our Heaven, and it will have a very attenuating virtue.
The means to include in our Heaven the virtue of things which cut, incise, or start.
All sour things, poorly cut the humors, and divide them, with the help of the heat of Heaven: but vinegar made from strong and powerful wine, because of its too great penetrating subtlety, works even in distant places: but the other sour humors exercise and carry out their operation in the next places.
These are the incisors. Agrimony, scilla, so-called stipoule, cyperus, so-called tigernut, germander, muscat, oil, black pepper, rue, nitre, honey, cepula, broth or chickpea juice , ers, or puffballs, salt & vinegar. So put in our Heaven the Quint essence of these things, and it will have marvelously incisive virtue.
The science & means to make our Heaven moisturize & cleanse the skin.
The things which cleanse the skin must be warm: nevertheless they must not be of a substance too large or earthy: and are these: Absinthe or fort, onions, chamomile, root of suin or fuzeau, root of wild cucumber, marshmallow, aurone , old oil, cheese, rosemary. With the Quint essence of these things our Heaven cleanses the skin.
The science of putting in our Heaven the Quint essence of diaphoretic, or vaporative, things.
It is necessary that evaporative medicines are by their nature hot, & make them evaporate. And are these: barley flour, anise, assa foetida, rue, pyrethrum, pitch, nitre, galbanum, salt, figs, parsley, marjoram, nettle seed, savine, bryone, called colevere , old oil, wild pennyroyal , honey, onion, horseradish, cow fiens, aurona, aristolochia, asphodel roots, wild cucumber roots. If you put the above-mentioned things in our Heaven, it will evacuate it & convert the humors into smoke, with the help of the Quint essence of them.
The science to make our Sky repercussive.
The repercussive things are those which dismiss the case & obviously remove the humors from the swollen or diseased part. Which things are of a cold nature, so that by constraining the member, & restraining the spirit, they may strengthen the expulsive virtue of the member. And are those which are hereinafter written, Cimolia, acorns, henbane, poppy, horseradish, mercuriale, lead, solanum called nightshade, hypocistis, acacia, the scourges & sinews of the vine, with which it clings & holds on to something thing, capilli Veneris, houseleek. With these things you will make our Heaven resonant.
The science to include in our Heaven the virtue & power of things that make you sleep.
The things that make you sleep are those which, because of their excessive frigidity, by constricting the nerves and blocking the conduits of the animated spirits, they bring about and cause such astonishment that we do not know what we are doing. And are these here: Black poppy, opium, mandrake, the henbane put under, the fish called torpedo, or torpin, the crushed salamander , cold water, aquatic lentil, houseleek, pigtails, psyllium or poison ivy. Put the Quint essence of things before said in our Heaven, and without fail it will immediately make you sleep, more than you could believe.
Science to include in our Heaven the virtue of biting, or biting & stinging things.
Things having a very salty flavor with sharpness or subtlety, are biting with harshness. And are these: Olives preserved with salt & water, pork, arsenic, cantharid flies, hellebore juice, wild cucumber root. If you put the Quint essence of these things in our Heaven, it will be very biting with harshness.
The science to add strength & comfort to our Heaven.
The things which purge the humors of the heart and the brain, comfort: such as these: senna, stéchas, cassutha called drop of flax, sarcocolle, all myrobolans, fumitory. Also the things that clarify & lighten the blood, comfort, like gold, silver, & pearls . Things also having some salty bitterness comfort: because by the size & thickness of their substance, also because of their bitterness, they help & support the parts of the members: & retain the spirit, by the help of which the virtues work & work: as L'absinthe forte does.
All things also which renew & restore to its first being the vital spirit or having soul, are comforting: like the Rose. None reinforce the digestive virtue of the stomach: like Cinnamon. The others, except those named above are wonderfully comforting: which are such: Ambergris, Camphor, Saffron, Sumac, Berberis called Barberry, Mente, Cyperus, called Souchet, Xilocassia, Sandalwood, Galangal, Carrots, Zédoaire, Lemon apples, & its leaves: Seed of paradise, Borage, Basil, Aspic, Cubebs, Storax, Mastic, Musk, Aloe wood, Nutmeg, Mace, Cloves, Calamus aromaticus, Scariola called Chicory. So put in our Heaven the Quint essence of these things, and they will make it so wonderfully comforting that one could not believe.
The science to put in our Heaven the strength & the virtue to remove the venom from our body.
Our Heaven will have very great virtue and power to drive the venom out of the body, if you put in it the flesh of gelines, or rooster , nuts, theriaca, large & small, turnips, garlic , & all other things which are written in the books of Physicians against venoms. Certainly with the help of these, our Heaven will acquire virtue and power against venom.
Consideration of attracting the Quint essence of mineral and metallic things.
Although above we have taught to draw the Quint essence only from the things which served our business, nevertheless we will put here more with the help of God the theory & demonstration of drawing the Quint essence from all mineral things, in other way than we did above. And first, how the Quint essence of gold should be drawn.
Which thing you will do in this way. You will reduce your gold to lime, according to the means that I taught you above in the last science of the fourth Canon or chapter. What to do, you will take distilled vinegar, or old urine, and put it in a very large glass vessel: & there must be almost four fingers' worth of said liquor.
Then throws said lime of gold inside this liquor, & put it in a very hot Sun at the height of summer, & leave it: & you will see swimming above a liquor like oil, looking like a little skin: which you will collect with a spoon, or with a feather, and put it in another glass vessel, where there is water. And in this way you will collect the said liquor several times a day, until you see that it will no longer rise or swim.
Then put the said water on the fire, so that the vinegar evaporates. And when the said water has evaporated and dried up, only the Quint essence of true gold will remain. Several Philosophers have called this Quinte essence of gold thus drawn, Incombustible Oil, to which they have placed the very great secrets of the Philosophers.
And if you put this Quint essence in our Heaven, you will be able to infallibly recover lost nature , and without a doubt bring back and regain the virtue and power of youth, and also prolong life until the last term of life which is ordained to us by God . Now I have declared and taught you a very great secret for the repair and maintenance of human nature, and serving other greater things which you must not reveal to anyone.
And note that this Oil or Quinte essence has very great sweetness & property to soothe & remove the pain of wounds & also to heal ulcers & scars & several other ailments & various diseases, more than one could believe.
The science of extracting the Quintessence of Silver, Lead, & Tin.
Although the Quintessence of silver can be extracted like that of gold, nevertheless I will teach you another way: and the great magisterium is, that you have distilled vinegar, to which you will put very good calcined tartar, with ammoniac salt in a flask, then put the lime of silver which I taught you to make above: & the tow immediately & sigil with the seal of sapience, so that the virtue does not evaporate. After this you will put it in the horse's belly, and leave it there for eight or ten days.
Then afterwards you will put it in a furnace to distill it in a glass still. You will first see the vinegar rise, and after the Quintessence of silver will rise in the form of quicksilver, which is a marvelous thing.
Which Quinte essence is such and has such great virtues and admirable works, that it is lawful for no one to reveal it.
The very high & very glorious God has so ordered & arranged the Quint essence of Quicksilver, of the Pink Cup, & of Vitriol, that we draw it invisibly with admiration. Because when we sublimate quicksilver with vitriol, the pink cup, & common salt, then the Quinte essence of quicksilver rises very white, and for certain attracts with it the Quinte essence of vitriol & the Pink Cup.
And when you have quicksilver sublimated with these two, you invisibly have the Quint essence of vitriol & the pink cup hidden in the aforementioned whiteness of quicksilver. And this Quint invisible essence is called Sulfur of the Philosophers, invisible and marvelous. And for this the Philosophers say, that their sulfur is not the vulgar nor common sulfur: which thing has not been known to many people.
This sulfur here has such a nature that it suddenly freezes Mercury, white, whiter than snow. And because they are of the same nature, we sublimate them both together. It should be noted that sublimated quicksilver has no combustible parts, and has a Quintessence which cannot be corrupted by any human device. So we say, that if you put quicksilver sublimated into corrosive water made of vitriol & saltpeter, it is certain that suddenly it will convert into amalgam & water. Now put your quicksilver, which is sublimated, with vitriol & very white common salt in the corrosive water named above, and let it remain there until the said quicksilver is completely converted into pure water. Put all this to distil, so you will see first the corrosive water rise, then afterwards the Quinte essence of Mercury & vitriol together will rise, so white, that the whiteness of the snow cannot be compared to the whiteness of this Quinte essence, & at the bottom of the vessel will remain a burnt and ugly part of the Mercury.
This being done, you must repeat the distillation of the Quinte essence into said strong water, & sublimate as above up to three times or more, as long as there remains no feces or residence at the bottom of the still, & everything rises above, & then with the help of God you will have the Quint essence of Mercury & vitriol together perfectly separated. If someone took it, it would be a very great thing: for it has great and marvelous things, since the Fifth Essence was made and became of the nature of incorruptible gold, and is more incorruptible than gold.
distilled or otherwise, and let them rest for a long time, and when you see that the quicksilver will remain at the bottom, certainly the Quinte essence of the vitriol and of the Pink Cup will remain in vinegar. And if you obviously want to approve of this, take some other vinegar, and put some iron in it several times. Then put this vinegar with the one in which is the Quinte essence of vitriol or rose cup, and you will have a very red and resplendent thing, which you will distill through a filter. Then you will put it in a large glass vessel on top, at a very small and slow fire, and collect the black clouds which will be generated above, so you will remain at the bottom the Quint essence more beautiful than all gold, which is good for heal wounds, & corrosive diseases , just as the Quint essence of Mercury cures fistulas, cankers & several other ailments.
The science of attracting the Quint essence of iron & copper.
The Quinte essence of iron and copper is drawn in this way. You will take their filings and put each one separately in strong vinegar with common salt, or ammonia salt, in a glass vessel, and put it in strong sunlight and heat, and then you will see iron rise, something on the said liquor, which we call Crocum ferri: and from the vessel where the copper is, a green thing will rise, which we call Flos aeris, or Verdet. And with vinegar we make white lead from filed lead, which is the quintessential essence of lead. All of the above are useful in medicine.
The science of extracting the Quintessence of Sulphur, Orpiment, & Dragon's Blood.
Certainly it will be necessary for you to pulverize the sulfur, and this done, put the powder in old urine on a very slow and small fire, and leave it there until the urine is colored, and when it is colored, drain it and set it apart. Again put more urine on top of the said sulfur, and leave it there until it is colored. Then when it is colored, drain it and put it with the first. Add the said sulfur from the urine over it again, as many times as you want, until it no longer becomes colored. This done, you will take all the said urine thus colored, together, and put them on the fire to evaporate the urine, and the Quint essence of sulfur will remain at the bottom of the vessel, which you will put in a large glass vessel, with vinegar: then put it on a small & slow fire.
So if there is nothing left of the sulfur grease, it will rise by the strength & virtue of vinegar in the form of a black mist, which you will remove with a feather. Then the Quintessence of sulfur will remain so very well purged and clean to you that the beauty of gold cannot be compared to it. You will make other similar things in this way, such as Arsenic, Orpiment, and other mineral things.
The science of attracting the Quinte essence of Antimony, & lead marcasite .
The Almighty God of Heaven is witness that I will now reveal to you a great secret, which has never been revealed to man, or at least it has been known to few. Now this is the secret of all secrets. Draws the Quint essence of antimony, the manner of which is as follows: Take antimony, and pulverize it so subtly, that having it between the fingers we do not feel it. Then put the said powder in very good distilled vinegar, and leave it there until the said vinegar is colored, which when it is colored, must be drained and put aside, then put another distilled vinegar on the said antimony , put a little fire on it, until it is colored, then drain it, & put it with the first.
And do this so many times that the said vinegar can no longer color. Then take all the said vinegars thus colored, and put them to distill in a glass still, and you will first see the said vinegar rising, then afterwards you will see a marvelous thing. Because you will see drop by drop through the spout of the still like a thousand little veins of red mining avens, like blood.
Which benoîte liqueur you will put in a separate glass vial. And having this liquor, you have a thing, to which all the treasure of the World could not be compared. Consider this very great miracle, evident & manifest. The Quintessence of Red Antimony is so sweet that the sweetness of honey cannot be compared to it. Certainly I tell you in charity of God, that human understanding could neither understand nor believe the value nor the marvelous virtue of the Quint essence of the said antimony. What do you want me to tell you?
Aristotle in the Book of the Secret of Secrets says that antimony is his lead, although he does not call it by its proper name of antimony. Believe me, for I tell you that there never was in all nature a greater secret, nor will be. Consider what I say, and be well aware that several men have worked and taken pains to be able to sublimate mineral things: managed to have the Quint essence of antimony that I told you above. If I told you a thousand times that this is the secret of secrets, I would never be enough to be able to express or declare half the secret.
This Quintessential essence removes pain from all wounds, and heals them marvelously. Her virtue is incorruptible, miraculous, and useful more than we can say. It must be rotten in forty days, being in a well- sealed glass vial: and then it does marvelous works. This is very surprising to see such a sweet thing coming out of a mineral thing. Do not believe that what I have now told you is an impossible thing. Now note well, that if the White lead is put into the distilled vinegar, and it boils for two or three hours, until the said vinegar is evaporated, as long as the said white lead remains thick like oil: this is said and called Oil of lead, & has a soft & flavorless sweetness.
But the sweetness of the Quint essence of antimony which is red, and contains in itself the secret of all secrets, is sweet, and better than all the sweetness of honey, nor of sugar, nor of any other thing whatsoever. Believe me, and review all the books of the Philosophers, and search in them for the lead of the Philosophers: you will never find its name or what it is: also you will not find any mineral thing that can be sublimated into red except quicksilver.
Work hard, and praise God for the things I have told you.
The science of reducing the sublimated quicksilver, or its separated Quint essence, into water, which thing according to the Philosophers is called Virgin's milk.
All sublimated spirits, such as quicksilver and also its Quinte essence, or sublimated arsenic, or sulfur, or salt ammonia, and understand this mainly for sublimated quicksilver, because certainly you will also reduce it in water or in Virginal milk as the Philosophers call it, the manner of which is such. Take sublimated quicksilver, or its Quinte essence, and put it in a glass or varnished vessel, which is very wide and large: and place it on the tripod of secrets, that is to say in the oven of the Philosophers, where there is a marvelous device, so that what we put there is digested equally on all sides. And thus the said oven is made. You will make the walls of the oven round, half a foot high, and on top of that you will put a sheet of iron in such a shape:
and put it in such a way, not the walls of the oven, but will be supported on the four arms, and the heat will rise between the lamina and the oven, all around. And it is understood that you must have left a small portal below near the ground, to put the coal. Then from the lamina at the top all around you will make according to the roundness that you started, your furnace, the height of half a foot or approximately.
Then afterwards you will have the potter make a vault of very round earth, to the roundness of the inside of the said furnace, with which vault you will cover your furnace, & at the side of the furnace above the lamina you will make a small window, which you will tow with a cover of earth made on purpose. And this way you have your perfect oven. You must be certain, if you have good understanding, that this oven also heats up everything around it, because the heat cannot escape from the bottom, due to the lamina which guards and prevents it: for this reason it throws itself towards the sides, & from the sides it is returned to the middle. For this reason we made our round oven on purpose.
And when you want to put your vessel in your said furnace, you will put on the blade three teeth of earth, the height of two fingers equally distant from each other. And then you will have a well-glazed earthenware bowl, which you will put on these three teeth. And in this bowl you will put three other teeth which will be less, on which you will apply and collocate your well-sealed glass vial, in which is your sublimated quicksilver, and you will cover it with another bowl of earth, which is corresponding to the one below. And let the said vial be housed between the two bowls, so that it does not touch either the bottom or the sides on either side. And for what it is to presuppose that the head, or even half of the oven can be removed, we will remove it and cover it when we want.
This is the very secret oven of the Philosophers, to the knowledge of which few people have come: & in it digestion takes place equally on all sides. When therefore you wish to convert & resolve into water or Virginal milk, the sublimated Mercury, or some other spirit, put the lamina between the tooth & the bowl with the thing diligently crushed & pulverized, & do not cover it, but cause the hot air to strike the clean material, and give it the fire of three coals, because a little fire is enough, and continue the said fire for eight natural days. And there the spirit will be calcined in a hot & dry oven.
marble; until it is impalpable. This done, put the material in a glass still, and then distil it in the water bath, on top of a cauldron of water, so that it does not touch the water with two fingers, but hangs in the water. 'air, & make a fire under the bath. And although the material of quicksilver does not touch water, nevertheless being in this hot & humid oven, it will be converted into water, because it has been well calcined, & very pulverized. So you will put your still on it, & distill your very clear virgin's milk, & it is the Quint essence of both Mercury and Vitriol mixed together, which has & contains in itself the secret of secrets. The fire of our furnace consists of the measure and weight of the digestion of volatile things. For this reason, when you make your fire, you must put your hand through the opening that you have made on the blade, and the said fire must be such that you can hold your hand in it without damage, and if the fire is too big, reduce it, & take care when fixing all volatile things, that they do not fly away.
For this reason, it is necessary to sift the material into a glass vial, and then light it on a small fire. So understand this means of drawing the Quint Essence in this part, because it is something so great that one could not believe it.
The science of making the propitious & suitable fire, which is without coal, without flame, & without light: having more operation than visible fire: & operating everything as well as the fire of hell.
The excellence of the secret of proper fire is so great that one cannot declare its virtue, and is done in this way. Take quicksilver sublimated with vitriol, & common salt: but its Quinte essence as drawn above would be better. Then after take ammonia salt , sublimated seven times or ten, as much of one as of the other, and grind them very hard, to make a very subtle powder. After that, place a well-spread marble on it , and place it at night in a very serene and peaceful air, or in a very cold cellar, and if this powder will convert into water, which you will put in a glass vessel , very strong, & well cooked: & keeps it. This water is of such great operation & effect, that if a small drop falls on your hand, suddenly, in the blink of an eye it will pierce it. Likewise, if it falls on a sheet of silver, copper, or iron, it will pierce it.
And this water or fire has such virtue, that the metals which are put in it, such as silver, copper, or tin, are by it converted into the likeness of pearls. If someone knew how to quench and moderate this fire, or water, he would certainly extinguish all fickle fire, and of Saint Anthony, in less than looking at it, and would suddenly cure all ulcers and corrosive illnesses. And note, that several scholars have named and called this thing in their books, Bitter salt, however they do not teach the magisterium of it.
The science of the magisterium of the operation of the very strong and virtuous water beyond measure.
God, creator of secrets, has done so many admirable things in Nature, that our understanding can understand very little of them, and also our tongue cannot say or recount the marvels of God, except by stuttering. For this I will reveal to you here a great secret, by showing you how you must make water which has divine operation. The magisterium is as follows:
Take very good white tartar, which is calcined, and put it in some earthenware or glass vessel, and throw on top of said calcined tartar the best fiery water that you can find, then put the screed on it. 'alambic, and have it distilled: so it will distill the very weakened fiery water, which you will remove: because it is worth nothing, except for washing wounds of the members, or for the eyes. So take your tartar, and you will find it double fortified, and you will be able to test it each time with your tongue. Then after calcining the said tartar nicely in the reverberation oven, & again put on top of the other fiery water several times, because each time it will strengthen beyond measure. And you will be able to strengthen it so much that there is no created action or operation that can be compared to it. Each time you will find your vessel broken: for this reason it is necessary that you have several vessels for the government and magisterium of it.
And if you want it to have a hundred times more virtue, crush the strong one, and place it on a marble, so that it becomes water, in a cold and humid place. Which water you will put in a strong glass vessel, and put in the said vial salt ammonia, and seal it immediately, because otherwise its virtue would disappear. The virtue of the said water is such that it heals in less than a single glance, all wounds which are made of wounds, or rache, scratches & ringworm, and also immediately heals anything leaving its place . But it is not necessary to put ammoniac salt in the said water, to heal the rachis or the wounds. And if you want to increase his virtue to the last degree, will open more than the fire of hell. Now if in the first water, in which there is no salt ammonia, you put the sublimated quicksilver, with a little heat , it will vivify it, and in the same way it will reduce all the lime in the body, and do marvelous things.
And if it happens that the fire which we taught in the previous chapter, comes to spread on the broken vessel on the ashes, carefully collect that which you will find impasto among the ashes, and put it on the marble, and it will convert & will resolve in water, as we said above, & will have such virtue & power, as said before, keep this well, because it is a great secret.
The science of knowing how to separate gold from silver, when they are mixed together.
We make several works in which there is gold and silver mixed together, as when we gild cups, ewers, and jewels of Bishops and gentlemen. So when you want to separate one from the other, put it into small strips, or file it very subtly, and then put the said strips or filings in strong water made of vitriol and saltpeter , and suddenly the only silver will dissolve into water: for this strong water has no power to dissolve gold. And by this means you have separated one from the other. And if you want to turn your gold into water, put strong water, ammonia salt, in the magisterium, and without a doubt this water will dissolve the gold into water. And this work will be useful in this, because it will dissolve the gold gilding, do as I taught you, and you will find the truth.
Excusation of the poor, no longer wanting to reveal the great secrets of admirable Philosophy.
Because according to what Catholic Philosophy says (I mean according to holy scripture) obedience is better than the sacrifice made for the sake of the victory won, for the love of the reverence that we have for the statutes & ordinances of our order, & the obedience of the prelates of the holy church of God, is to make marvelous medicines and sovereignly desired by men, which medicines not only cure our body of all ills and diseases, but also transmute imperfect metals into gold and money at a glance. Of which medicines the truth of the magisterium was revealed to me in prison by the will of God, which however I will not declare to everyone, because it is not up to those of our religion to speak of the works of the Alchemists.
& alchemy operations can & must be mixed. I protest before all evangelizing men, calling God to witness, that if by the instigation of the devil they fall into the works of alchemy, suddenly they will be reprobated. And know for sure that this is the path to perdition, because no Philosopher has written the truth in his books, except hidden and in parables, which cannot be heard or understood by the human mind. And no one can have intelligence of the great secrets of alchemy, if his spirit & understanding is not deified by high contemplation, & holy life, so much so that he not only knows the bowels of nature, but also he must knowing how to transmute transmutable things.
Which thing is known to few people. Certainly there are some who commonly meddle in this science, without having any knowledge of it, who ordinarily flee fictions and sophistications, for this reason they become falsifiers of coins, and seals of prelates and princes, being vagabonds, deceivers, and of bad life, without religion, which declares the saying of Saint Paul in the second epistle to Timothy, in the third chapter saying thus: Always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of truth. And when they cannot achieve perfect knowledge, they turn their minds to useless sophistications, and commonly end up wickedly.
As for the other very marvelous works of Philosophy, which depend on those which I have already said, and which I learned by very high illuminations and celestial inspirations, I will reveal them to you as long as it is possible for me, evangelizing men ( please God) to which I write at length. So in this will end the first book of the Consideration of the Quint Essence, to the glory & praise of God the Almighty our Lord JESUS CHRIST, & of the glorious virgin Mary, his mother, & of the holy Apostles Saint Peter & Saint Paul , & others.
Amen.
End of the first book of the Quinte Essence.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the second book of the Fifth Essence begins, which is called General Remedies.
Although the first book, which is from the consideration of the Quint essence, has in itself so many virtues and true things, that with the help of this book we can cure all curable diseases, deeply think & seek the celestial principles of Nature which I have revealed: however because all those who claim to be learned, or esteemed, do not know how to properly deduce the conclusions according to the principles, against the misfortunes of nature, I will teach in this Second book the means of finding suddenly and as a miraculous thing, remedies useful to the health of evangelizing men, so that through these divine remedies, they become noble, courageous, strong, cheerful, and ready for all laborious and difficult works.
Remedy to cure the hindrances of old age, evangelizing men, & restore or recover, with the help of God, the first youth.
The magisterium or government in the cure of the nuisances & damages of old age, to repair & renew the first youth, restore lost nature, & preserve life in joyful health, until the last term to us constituted & ordained by God, is such: You you will take the Quintessence of the fiery water ratified in the circulatory vessel until it has a good odor, as I taught you in the first book.
In which you will put the Quintessence of gold and pearls. Of this divine beverage the old man must consume evening and morning, each time the quantity of a full nut, and in a few days he will reach such great health that he will clearly feel in the strength and in the state of forty years, & will rejoice in having come to his first youth. The regime in this is to use the said Quinte essence infrequently : and must only take it to the end that youth recovered, the desired health, and nature restored to its state, can be preserved without any obvious decrease or increase . Certainly it is necessary in such a magisterium to use very good wine during one's meal, to which is added the Quinte essence of gold, and pearls too, as we said in the first book.
Remedy for death: & the magisterium & government to resurrect the dead.
In this chapter we call the dead not simply, but those from whom we rather hope for death than life: and are so close to dying, that they are abandoned by Physicians, and are deprived of the works of life, so much so that they have no feelings, provided however that they can swallow. Looking at this dead man, we want to help him and rescue him, so that suddenly he can get up, speak, and live, if it is not the last term of his life which is ordained to him by God. The magisterium of this resurrection of the dead is such: You must give to the man thus dead, the Quint essence repairing youth, as I showed you in the previous chapter.
For when he has swallowed a little of it, and put it in his stomach, or in any other way he receives it, it will influence his heart and give him rays of natural warmth and life: and you will see him manifestly resurrect, & miraculously strengthen & comfort, however natural if you want this to be done immediately, & in a single glance, so much so that we believe that it is an illusion of such a sudden, obvious miracle, take the herb of Celandine, which has the flowers, the fruit and the juice of golden color, and draws from it the four elements according to the magisterium of the first book, and puts the element of fire in the said Quinte essence the bulk of a grain of wheat, and when he has this in his stomach, he will get up immediately and speak. And then after this done, comfort the stomach with the administration of the Quint essence, and it will soon be healed, if God does not command that it dies incontinent. I tell you in truth, that this is the highest and excellent magisterium, which is in all transmutation of nature, to the knowledge of which none of the Physicians of our time has been able to achieve. And for the use of this magisterium, it is necessary that you have these things prepared.
Remedy to cure tackiness & messiness, & the means to hide it.
For what just God, for the penalty of the sins we commit, gives us & sends illnesses, very great & detestable as it often appears, & among other illnesses, he sends us the plague of cowardice & mischief, abominable to the human lineage, ignominious, cruel & very difficult to cure, even almost impossible, that is to say when it is sent from God, like the cowardice of Emperor Constantine the Great, & of Giezi, which could never be cured , if we did not drive it out by the virtue of God. For this reason we speak here of the plague of cowardice which comes and is born in the bodies of men by corruption of nature, not of that which comes by the express command of God, but by the permission of the creator. And this disease can be taken in two ways:
That is, when the father or mother is lazy: The other way is, when one of the four main humors is rotten or corrupted in our body. The first which is from the father and the mother, is difficult, when it has lasted a long time, and is not at all impossible to cure, and in this way we mean here the healing of cowardice and mischief. And certainly, this chapter and the virtue of it is more marvelous than one could believe: because the great Princes and Lords, no time become ladresses. Receive, giving thanks to God, this heavenly secret. And know that the said Quinte essence, being mixed with the Quinte essence of gold and pearls, completely cures cowardice. And tell you in truth, that if the said disease of leprosy has held him all the time of his life, nevertheless the said Quint essence will hide it.
And the cause is such: because the said Quinte essence spoils & consumes corrupt humors of whatever condition they may be, & puts unequal humors on an equal footing, & comforts deficient health. And if by chance you suddenly get leprosy, you must use fiery water until the Quint Essence is prepared. For I tell you on behalf of our Lord JESUSHRIST, that the said Quinte essence aforesaid not only heals , but also makes fiery water, which in all extinguishes or conceals & hides said leprosy. And for this I want to tell you a beautiful, great & profitable secret, for the magisterium & government to cure leprosy.
Take water made from strawberries, which is a red fruit, coming in the month of May, and having a good scent. Certainly this strawberry water has a divine & super celestial virtue to cure leprosy. And note for certain, that if said water is mixed with the aforesaid Quinte essence, it cures marvelously from cowardice, or even only being mixed with water of life, if you have no Quinte essence. I have experimented and found that this water is very humanly sweet, and comforts nature and the stomach, and also removes venom from the body, and provokes the flowers of women, and chases away and dispels ardent moods , and also helps a lot to have children, and also to conceive. Said strawberry magisterial water is made in this way.
Take some ripe strawberries, and put them in a well-lit glass vessel, and leave them to rot for twenty-one days, then distil everything, and keep the water in glass vials, and use it. the patient. The special properties of it are such. It breaks up and removes the spots that come into the eyes, whatever the mood, provided that it does not come from something too hot, sight, whatever impediment it may have. And certainly, I saw a woman, whose face was completely covered with freshly come sour spots, due to heat and overheating, who only by washing with this water was immediately, as if miraculously, cured. The virtue of this water is a hundred times more marvelous, and has more effects and properties in it being mixed with fiery water, than without it: and a thousand times more with the Quint essence. Keep this secret, and you will not err, please God, and also you will have no need to use other medicines.
Remedy for all kinds of skin injuries and rache throughout the body.
The water of divine action, which I diligently taught you in the first book, in the thirteenth chapter, in the eighth science beginning thus, God creator of secrets, &c. heals all kinds of rashes, splits or cracks in the skin, and Saint Martin disease, and all scabs and eczemas that occur on the hands, arms, elbows, collar, shoulders, ribs , legs, at the feet, & in all the members. And when the poor evangelizing men going to preach throughout the world, hurt their feet, they will immediately be healed by the calcined tartar alone, because it has the virtue of the Quint essence, seeing that it is of the same nature. Certainly the water of divine action cures all fickle fires, scrapes, stingers, and all kinds of grievances. And those who have such illnesses must use the Quinte essence, or at the very least fiery water, so that the humors they have within the body are purged, and are brought back to a marvelous harmony.
Now to purge harmful humors, you must put in the fiery water any of the things which purge the humors according to the need, and we will declare below. Which purgative things you shall take according as they are written in the tables of things which purge, in the first book.
Remedy for Paralysis: & the magisterium in healing it.
All Philosophers are of the opinion that Paralysis comes from the abundance of sticky humors, which choke the conduits of animated, sensitive and moving virtue. And they all said, that things which are too drying, fiery, and hot, harm and prevent the healing of Paralysis. However, the things which cure this disease must be of their nature warm and humid:
incisors by attracting viscosities little by little: & comfort the nerves. And for what we don't have could find anything in human nature that was of such quality, there were few people who knew how to find the means to cure this disease, although it is very common mainly because all incisive and evacuating things are very debilitating. Certainly the members who are debilitated are spoiled & destroyed by said things. But God, creator of nature, created for the help and relief of paralytic man, our aforementioned Quint essence, which has virtue, more than all things in the world which are created for the use and utility of the bodies, which it comforts, restores, & works in them slowly. So put in said Quinte essence one of the things which purge the phlegm and the sticky and viscous humors. Like a little euphorbium, turbith, fuzeau or garden saffron called carthamus.
And then without doubt none, if the illness is curable and it is not prevented by the command of God it will soon be cured which is a miraculous thing to say. And if you want to comfort & repair nature, you will make her herbal baths, which are warm & humid, namely muscat & sage, which herbs have divine & super celestial virtue to comfort the limbs, the joints , nerves, muscles, & virtue motivates. And if you do not have the Fifth Essence ready, you will use, instead of it, fiery water which is good until you have prepared the said Fifth Essence. Because without doubt, fiery water is the infallible root for healing the body, health and animal virtue, and against all diseases, provided that a little of the Quinte essence is added, as we said above.
Pursue and continue your remedies, because a serious illness does not need a short time, but through labor and care of the cure, and over a long time, you will recover your sick person.
Remedy against those who are spoiled in the body: and who are very thin, as are men of small complexion, delicate women, small children, consumptives and ethics.
The only and infallible remedy to cure all illnesses is to use the aforementioned Quinte Essence. I have before said that it comforts feeble nature, & restores it when it is lost, & being restored & restored, it preserves & safeguards it. And if you obviously want to restore & replenish the flesh of the body of a person who is too thin & spoiled, draw the four elements from celandine, according to the means of the first book, & put the element of air which is a very good oil, with the Quinte essence, or in fiery water.
And whoever uses it, in a few days will be wonderfully restored and fatter than one could believe. And there is nothing to cure this disease, which we must compare to this Quinte essence & so-called remedies. I will teach you below the remedy for acute fever, the meats which comfort and which should be consumed by thin, ethical and consumptive people.
Remedy against fantastic passions, crazy imaginations, & annoying molestations & troubles of devils.
Certain experience shows us that choleric men are subject to any imagination, phlegmatics are given to certain others and sanguine people are prevented from others: but those who have an abundance of black anger are those who are entangled in wonderful, horrible & terrible cogitations & thoughts. For certainly this mood of black anger coming from the spleen, rises to the brain, and disturbs all the powers of it, and generates harmful imaginations, and brings forth, both while waking and sleeping, horrible disturbances and terrible thoughts. For this reason they are very timid and timid, and there is no wonder: because they carry fear with them. Such are those of whom Saturn is the arranger in their generation: and even if he is unfortunate.
And certainly the devils dwell willingly with such people, and administer to them secret thoughts , and abundance of imaginations, of which they being thus tormented, are constrained to speak to them, to argue with them, to struggle and to antagonize together, as much as those who are around them hear them. These are those who, being very tormented by melancholy and devils, sometimes despair and kill themselves. If the said disease is not by the express command of God, without doubt it can be cured by this means. It is necessary that until they are completely healed, they use the aforementioned Quinte essence, and if they do not have any, they will use good fiery water, until they have the Quinte essence, and in this fiery water put a little senna, or fumitory, or honey pith, or stone called lazuli.
And this must be used moderately, because without any doubt we will cure this illness perfectly, not only by the Quint essence, but also by fiery water with a few things which chase away black anger, purge the superfluous, cure the spleen, remove annoying thoughts, clean all its pores, bring joyful thoughts, & remove the machinations of the devils & prevent their enterprise, also annihilate the enterprises of despair, & make forget all evils, & return men to their natural good sense. And if we put rosemary, borage flowers, and epithymus in a certain quantity, it would bring certain joy.
Remedy for fear, & inconstancy: defect of heart, debilitation of strength. The way to recover boldness, strength, & virtue.
I have not told you in vain that our understanding cannot understand and our tongue cannot declare and manifest the marvelous virtues which God created in the Quintessence, not only in it, but also in its mother. , which is fiery water. If then God gave so many virtues to the fiery water, how much more did he put in the Quint essence? So take peony, angelic herb, saffron, the Quintessence of gold, & pearls, & mix everything together.
Whoever drinks it, suddenly as a miraculous thing, will lose fear, and will recover the strength that he had lost through this fear, he will not fear death, and will not be afraid of perils, and will become so wonderfully adventurous that It will be decided that he must pierce the walls of steel. Believe him who has experienced it, for certainly I speak the truth, because I have approved it. For this reason, it is a singular trick and finesse that Christian Princes wishing to wage war must have fiery water in vessels, prepared as I said, and that each of their people drinks two or three full spoons of it. when we want to start the battle. This secret must be hidden from the enemies of the church, so the Prince giving such a thing must not reveal it to anyone.
Remedy against curses, enchantments, witchcraft, & to chase away devils.
The holy scripture in the sixth chapter of Thobia obviously demonstrates to us that by the virtue that God has given to beasts, we can truly and in fact drive out devils, and remove them and keep them from dwelling in houses. As by the command of the angel Raphael in the eighth chapter of Thobie, which speaks of the liver of a fish, the heart, & the gall of the said fish, which matter is amply declared in the said book of Thobie. But to come to our point: This horrible illness can be cured by our Quint essence, when it is truly celestial, and has such an odor, that she seems to be a partaker of the glory of paradise. For it makes man rejoice, and chases away the fantastic sadnesses which the devils love. It is obvious that it is contrary to the conditions of the devils, and drives them out of man and woman . And if you want this to be done sooner, put with the said Quinte essence, the Quinte essence of gold, & pearls: & put with it, the seed of hypericum, called the herb of Saint John, or St. John's wort, this seed is called by the Philosophers, Hunted Devil. It is an approved thing that only said seed chases devils and their illusions out of homes. In our time it was given to a girl who was tormented at night by a devil, and it made her flee. Its virtue and operation would be greater if the seed was gathered with the grass, because it has in itself the influence of Jupiter, the Sun and the Planets, the influence of which the devils abhor.
And for the fact that the holy writing in the book of Thobia, nor elsewhere, does not name the fish whose heart, liver, and gall burned, by the virtue of their smoke chase away devils, the Philosophers have found by great experience , that if the gall of some fish, and mainly salvigon, be put in a box of juniper: and when those who are bewitched, enchanted or cursed by the devil go to sleep, put said gall on the lit coals, as long as the house is all filled with the smoke of the said box & fish gall, all enchantments, sorceries, fascinations, curses & even devils will be chased away by this. The virtue and property of juniper is very great, and very wonderful: and so effective, that if you make a fire of juniper wood, and put in the ashes of the said juniper a good coal of it, and that you cover it from the said wood like a burning brand, you will find fire in abundance after a year, which is a very great and miraculous thing, the seed, the wood, and everything that comes from it juniper, is of very great virtue.
The eraser from said wood is the one that writers put on parchment when they want to write. And if you want to know by experience why it cannot be burned in a year, nor consumed, this is obvious: it is because it has noble radical humidity, which is useful to our life, which receives influence from the good Planets . Philosophers, being assured by several experiments, have said that the gall of a black male dog can and is displeasing to devils. And if it is spread among a house, the curses and enchantments will suddenly cease, be made no enchantments or witchcraft in this house.
And also said the said Philosophers, that the devils have such great delight and horror in the blood of a dog, that if the walls of a house are sprinkled with it, it will be delivered from all curses, and the devils and all their power will be driven out and thrown away, and not in any other way: except by the smoke of the liver of the fish, of which the book of Thobie speaks. But if the curses and enchantments are made of beans, acorns, or other fruits, or of the needles from which the dead and shrouds of them are sewn, and cannot be removed or cured by natural things placed on them, the Philosophers have said, that if you enclose quicksilver in a cane, and cover it well, and then hide it secretly under the bed of a cursed and enchanted person, certainly the said bewitchments will cease.
There is also a holy and Catholic remedy, which is that the said enchantments are undone and untied by exorcists and priests of the Catholic church, who have the power of the church, and drive out the said devils by the virtue of the name of our Lord JESUS - CHRIST. And certainly, any suspicious remedy, and contrary to faith, must be avoided and fled. For this reason I say, that everything I have said, and that I will say below, I place it under the correction of the Roman church, and do not want to support or approve anything, except what the said church holds & approved.
Remedy for lice, itching, scalding, and such things which occur throughout the body of man.
The food of the generation of lice, of the itching, burning and chills which are in the human body, is nothing other than the rottenness of humours. Because nature throws rotten humors out of the pores of the skin. And in the orifice of the pores due to rotten humors, small worms, itching, and burning of the skin are generated, which torment men, and do not let them sleep. Now because these things only proceed from corruption, there is no remedy in the world more certain, which better or more suitably cures the above-mentioned diseases , than the thing which guards against putrefaction, and which consumes corrupt humors , this is to know our Quinte essence. And if you have none, you will use good burning water instead of this. For the said fiery water has such virtue and property of God, that it does not let dead flesh or fish rot, Even more so, it can keep living flesh from corruption.
And it is the thing that is repugnant to rot, burns, itching, and generation of lice. It happened one day that I was taken by the enemies of God and of truth, and without having done anything wrong, I was put in a very dark prison, in which I was affected by all my passions, more than one could believe: and was my body completely corrupted by the malice of the heat of prisons and irons , then I approached a servant, to whom I prayed that it would please him to have fiery water from some good holy man, friend of God and mine, which he did.
And having had it, after having washed it only once, I was suddenly , as if miraculously, cured. But I will teach you to do that its virtue will be a hundred times better: For if you put in the said fiery water of quicksilver, and staphisaria, or lice weed, its virtue will be so increased, that from the sole smell all this vermin will be extinguished, so the only smell of quicksilver is venom & poison to them. And if you put quicksilver in egg white, and grind it until it is mortified, and then tie it into a flag so that it does not fall, and carry it on you, or around you, or else , all said vermin will die & die, which I have experienced. And if you put staphiserum with the said quicksilver, its virtue will be much stronger. Note well, that the cure for lice is never incurable, according to whether God sends it and puts it in the body of a person, to make him die as it is written in the twelfth chapter of Acts; Certainly an Angel of the Lord struck Herod, because he had not given glory to God: and was consumed with vermin, and gave up the ghost. It is also written in the chronicles, that an Emperor of the Romans could not find through Physicians, in any way, a means of being freed from lice: but was eaten by vermin, and died of them.
Certainly I have declared to you the possible means of curing said lice with the Quint Essence, if you have any, or with fiery water, if it is drunk, and the body is washed with it. And in the one in which you will wash your body, you must put quicksilver and staphisaria.
Remedy to cure a poisoned man: also to drive away the venom, and how one can avoid being poisoned.
The wound of venom is healed by the thing which is mainly contrary to it. Tell me please, What thing is more contrary to death than life? Therefore, there is no thing in this world that is created however strong and virtuous it may be, which can resist venom, if not the water of life, and mainly the Quint essence, of which I spoke, because it preserves life, and increases it, also it keeps the heart: and when it is in the stomach, it immediately chases away harmful and contrary things, and certainly by some divine movement it runs to the heart, and soothes the wound.
And because it has such great virtue and power to fight against venom, it drives it outside the body, or at the very least it chases it from near the heart. Now put in the Quint essence, or in fiery water, the things which are repugnant and contrary to venom, and which comfort the heart: like, the Quint essence of gold, of pearls, of saffron, of the peony , nuts, garlic, good theriac, rue, angelica, fennel, horseradish, & the virtue of this Quinte essence or fiery water will be a hundred times better.
And also put in the Quinte essence or in the fiery water the stones which are useful in chasing away the venom and it will retain the virtue and property of these stones , and will double its virtue a thousand times: for the fiery water increases and increases the virtue of precious stones, and attracts to itself the occult and hidden natures, also the actions of them. The last and sovereign remedy as far as natural medicine is concerned is that you must put the Quinte essence of all the things said which are contrary to venom into the fiery water, or into the Quinte essence of it. fiery water if you have any. When you have conducted and brought this celestial medicine to perfection, put it in a well-closed glass vessel so that it does not evaporate in any way . And when you are afraid of being poisoned by one of your servants whom you suspect, or by one of your enemies in the name of our lord JESUS - CHRIST, you will take a little of this medicine in the morning giving thanks to God: and venom whatever it may be will not harm you that day.
Remedy against quartan fevers, & against all diseases that come to the human body, melancholy moods: & the means to purge melancholy.
The doctor is highly esteemed by everyone, if in a few days he can cure and chase away true quartan fever: because this disease, since it comes and goes over a long space of time, is therefore damaging to the rich, brings death. There are some who call themselves and reputed to be very learned, who try and pretend to be able to heal immediately, however they do nothing : but strive to hide and cover their ignorance, saying, that it is not useful or profitable to cure it. And yet we see that it is mortal when kept for a long time.
All Philosophers are of opinion, that quarantine is engendered by an abundance of melancholy which is corrupted within the body. And because this mood is earthly and of the nature of the very late Saturn, also the infirmities, illnesses and actions coming from it are late and lasting: as with some, they last more than a year. So if you want to suddenly cure this illness, and in a short time, be sure that the Quintessence alone will do it.
I told you above that the said Quinte essence consumes corrupt and superfluous humors, and brings nature back to equality, and makes man joyful, and chases away sadness, melancholy, and all its species. So, the cause being removed, the effects are removed. And if you want it to be done suddenly, this is the way. When you have no Quinte essence, take a pound of very good fiery water, in which you will put the pith of hyebles, and mainly white, if you can find it, and give this water to the patient to drink, the evening & in the morning two full nuts, or less, and without fail he will be cured immediately if he uses them for a while. And although this remedy is true and proven, and has great support for virtue, nevertheless I will give you a general rule: namely, that you resort to the eleventh canon of the first book, and take from the table something that you you want, of those which purge melancholy, and put a little in the fiery water, of which you will use discreetly and take very little, with the aim that the matter can be digested little by little, and that it comes out little by little . Because it is better and more profitable to act little by little than to suddenly burden nature.
The Philosophers have said that a tooth taken from a living beast, and carried on it, cures the quarantine. They also said, that if we take the juice of an herb, called chickweed, or red morgeline, and put it in the nostrils of the one who has the fourths, when he begins to be ill, he will immediately be cured. , please God:
Remedy against medical impediments, harmful substances that doctors put into our bodies.
Since the beginning of the World, the multitude of natural Philosophers have never ceased to carefully seek, and through great labor, to be able to find three things between laxative and purifying medicines . Firstly, that said laxative medicines do not intoxicate or diminish the virtues of the body. Second, that they kill no one. Thirdly, that when necessary, they work vigorously, and that without peril or danger, they can act by themselves in various and distant parts, and from them draw corrupt moods. Which three things could never be found entirely by the said Philosophers. Because we obviously see that any evacuation debilitates and injures the body: and it was never in the power or knowledge of men to be able to find a weight so fair that it can be given without harm to all sick people, because our bodies They do not have an equal action, as for the dose, or quantity & weight of thick, hard & light things.
For this reason it often happens that when said laxative medicines are given to one person, it cures him: and to another, it is the cause of his death. And this happens, no time, or because many laxative medicines are venomous, and injure and harm in one part, and in the other they cure. Learned doctors have esteemed aloe primarily among all sovereign medicines , for the fact that it hardly breaks or diminishes virtue: we also know that it comforts the members, as Jean Mesué evidently testifies in his book of simple medicines. But the omnipotent God of great goodness created the Quint essence of fiery water, strongly ratified by the vessel of circulation: which being with the Quint essence of ratified human blood, as it is said in the first book, or with the Quintessential essence of gold and pearls, consumes and equalizes all humors, and draws out all fevers, if we add things which purge corrupt humors, if there are any and it is necessary, which will be done if we mix aloe with it, because of the great violence of the disease: provided however that we do all the above-mentioned things discreetly and prudently, we will avoid the inconveniences which could occur in the future. Certainly the Quint essence, and if we cannot have one, the fiery water taken instead of it, preserves nature, and increases it, & also does not allow debilitation to be made, nor reduction of the virtue of the body.
Gold for what said Quinte essence influences life in us, & contravenes & prevents that medicines cannot cause death, provided however that laxative things are moderately used, as we will say below.
And because it is nobler than all medicines, and also because it pierces into the deep and distant parts of the body, and vigorously attracts and carries with itself all laxative medicines, it chases away and miraculously puts out bad humors. & corrupted. There is yet another thing that doctors have never been able to know, and that is when they give laxative medicines, to be able to prevent the patient who has taken them from vomiting them, because in vomiting them, the doctor 's trouble is useless, & the virtue of medicine will be null, & without operation, nevertheless the Quint essence, or the fiery water keeps him from vomiting. Now because we only put the Quint essence of laxative things among our Quint essence, or with the fiery water, from this cause there comes no appetite to vomit, because what we have taken is only a spiritual thing. However, it could well be that in the future, by vomiting we would throw out the corrupt humors being in the stomach, and evacuate them.
We must also be careful of this, that many medicines have a lot of venom, so much so that they never hurt. And because the Quintessence and the fiery water resist and are contrary to the venom, they do not allow the venoms to do them any damage. I now want to give you the remedies against the dangers which can arise in the administration of laxative medicines, given with the Quint essence, or with fiery water. The first book has already taught you that laxative medicines work more vividly with the Quint Essence, or with fiery water, than without it. And the truth appears. Now whoever would take the quantity of a medicine which some learned doctor has ordered to be taken to everyone without any danger of death, and would put it with fiery water, then give it to the patient, it would certainly cause him to die, because the medicine would make three times more operation with said water than without it. And so that you believe me, I will give you an example. I was once seriously ill in the chest, from a repletion of viscous & sticky humors. For this reason I had pills made of hiera picra & euphorbium, as small as red peas.
and then took them very late: that is to say at the end of the third hour of the night, where by the will of God the medicine worked after midnight, and took me to my room ten times. Then after that I slept very well, and then got up very healthy and cheerful, without being in any way weak in sight or limbs. Now therefore consider the true and perfect doctors, that if I had taken ten of the said pills without the fiery water, they would not have performed such an operation as the three did only with the fiery water. So we must be discreet in this: because the wise Physician must only give to a patient, one pill with fiery water, and then see how much and how it will work: then after he will give him two, then three, until that he approved the virtue & experience of medicine without danger of the person we want to cure, as of a person who is hard, or soft, because otherwise we cannot give a general rule, because we cannot equally give to any person the same medicine.
From this it appears how great is the usefulness of taking medicine with the Quinte essence, or fiery water: because it does not debilitate nature, nor the sight, and also does not kill. If you discreetly experiment with the virtues, as I said above, you will find that it chases away humors from distant places, & preserves medicines from venom, & cannot be vomited, & hardly receives venomous things, but undoubtedly preserves the heart, & heals the body. So I name & call this chapter, the Key to art & science, without the perfect & true intelligence of which, do not try to give laxative medicines. Remedy for fever continues: & the magisterium & government to cure it.
All Doctors have this opinion that continuous fever is caused by rotting blood and corruption of humors in it.
For this reason, the means of curing the said fever is to purge the blood, and to remove all corruption from it, and to equalize the disordered and unequal humors, and to repair the past and past nature, and to preserve it. & maintain when it is repaired. Certainly our Quint essence does all these said things. It can therefore perfectly cure the aforementioned continuous fever. Experience obviously shows us that fiery water throws and chases corrupt and aqueous humors out of the blood:
But because fiery water is not perfectly purified of ardor or of the four elements, we do not advise that it should be given to cure continuous fever, but rather that we should use the Quinte essence of 'icelle, which is well ratified, seeing that it is neither hot, nor dry, nor cold nor humid: as are the four elements, it perfectly cures continuous fever , even with the Quinte essence of gold & pearls. And if you want to heal it miraculously, you must have the Quint essence of human blood well ratified, as the first book fully teaches you, because this Quint essence heals perfectly, not only if you drink it, but if you only drink it. rubs all the pulses & temples, & the pulsing arteries & veins.
If you therefore put together these two fifth essences, namely fiery water and human blood, you will have a very perfect and sovereign medicine. And if you want to increase its curative virtue, put in said Quinte essence of human blood, cassia fistula, or the juice of mercuriale, in suitable proportion, and you will have the means to perfectly cure said continuous fever. And if the other humors harm the blood, take the Quint essence of the things written in the tables of the first book, which are suitable for purging the said humors, and God will help you, if you require it. So put in your heart the things you have said, and you will not make any mistakes if you govern yourself discreetly according to the rules which I gave you both in the first book and in the second.
Remedy for third fever, & the magisterium & government to cure it.
Third fever, according to what the wise Philosophers say, comes from too great an abundance of red anger, and from the rottenness and corruption of it. So if you want to heal it immediately, take some Quinte essence, and if you don't have any, take fiery water, and put in it a little Rhubarb, or Aloe Cretensis, or something else of those which are written in the tables of the first book, which purge the red anger, and also a good quantity of endive, and an herb which is called monk's head. And let the patient use this water evening and morning, and without doubt he will soon be cured.
Remedy for daily fever: & the magisterium & government to cure it.
All Physicians are of opinion, that daily fever is caused by rotting phlegm, & abundance of it. And seeing that phlegm is cold & humid, certainly our Quinte essence, or (if we we have) fiery water has such virtue & power, that it completely consumes, & uproots the wicked & too cold & watery rotten humidity , & heals it. So put in the said fiery water a little euphorbium, according to the rule of the wise Physicians: or a little fuzeau, or other things which purge the phlegm, as you will find in the tables of the first book, and use it in the evening and in the morning, and you will be immediately healed.
Remedy for acute fever: & the magisterium to cure it, & also to cure lunatics, fanatics & madmen.
Because it is necessary for the magisterium of medicine to diligently weigh and consider both words and things; for this reason I want to tell you, that fiery water is neither propitious nor suitable for curing acute fever, because said fever is in the head: because said fiery water rises to the brain, and incontinently intoxicates. It is therefore necessary to have our Quinte essence, well ratified with the Quinte essence of gold & pearls . And on the other hand to have the Quint essence of human blood well ratified. And use this in the name of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, by putting the sixth part of our aforesaid Quinte essence with the Quinte essence of rose water, & also water of violets, borage, bugloss, & lettuce : & certainly you will have celestial medicine to cure this disease. And although acute fever is commonly generated by the violence of burning anger, and burning and burning blood, and sometimes from burning black anger, sometimes from one of these humors, sometimes from two, other times from three together, for this reason said acute fever is found by the Sages, in three kinds or degrees, namely positive, comparative, & superlative.
For this, after having weighed and considered all things, you will take the Quint essence of the blood of man (because it is repugnant and resistant to all kinds of burning) and will put it with a sixth part of our Quint essence, & then give it to the patient to drink, & by the help of God he will recover immediately. And when you see that the patient begins to come back a little, you will put in the Quint essence of human blood, the fifth part of our Quint essence, and give it to the said patient to drink. And then when said patient is a little more strengthened & rebuilt, you will put in said Quinte essence of human blood, increasing our so-called Quinte essence, which he will only use when almost healed.
And for what acute fever has commonly annexed to it, mental disorder, & wickedness, or appearance of ghosts & fantastic things, you must therefore look & consider which burning humors are those which generate fever. Because if the patient says that he sees black things, the black anger is burning: if he says he sees golden things, the red anger is burning: & if he says that he sees red things, & effusion of blood, then probably none the blood is hot. And if he ever speaks while sleeping, it is a sign that the three humors mentioned above are corrupt and harmful. So, to cure someone's frenzy, madness, and rage , or at least to calm and calm them, take a good quantity of populeon, and the best vinegar you can find, and a good quantity of rue , which you will crush, and mix it with the above-mentioned things : and if you cannot have the Quint essence of human blood, mix it with this divine medicine, and wrap the patient's head with it, and put it in his nostrils. For this divine confection immediately chases away frenzy, fantastic visions, & cowardice: & restores & restores lunatics to their good sense, by giving them knowledge & discretion, & making them rest. Keep this and persevere in the work, and God will help you.
Remedy for half-third fevers, antagonizing each other, & tormenting the human body all together.
Those who in the government of medicine knew perfectly that there are three species of half-thirds which are generated in our body all together, to our great damage and loss, they knew the least means and the greatest of the engendering of said diseases, in this way. And certainly the half-third is a fever which is generated by corrupt contrary humors, as if the fever is generated in man by putrefaction of phlegm, this fever will be cold & humid, and if it is generated by putrefaction of red anger, the fever will be hot & dry. And in this way there will therefore be two diverse and contrary fevers in the same body. The ignorant Physician would judge that the said fevers of their nature are impossible to cure. For if you want to heal someone who is sick with a hot and dry fever , & you give him (as is appropriate) cold & damp things, you will increase the cold & damp fever.
And on the contrary, if you Administer hot & dry things and cold & wet things together, one will prevent the other, and there will be no cure. Therefore, if you want to cure this disease perfectly, mix our aforesaid Quint essence by half with the Quint essence of human blood, & with the Quint essence of gold & pearls, & also with the Quint essence of the things which purge the harmful humors, then give this to the patient, and without fail all the half-tier fevers will go away miraculously. Note, that in so many ways these fevers are generated in our body, as the four principal corrupt humors, can be conjoined, as phlegm & red anger is the first way. The second is phlegm and burning anger. The third is phlegm & black anger. The fourth is, phlegm & burning black anger. The fifth, phlegm & burning or burnt blood. The sixth manner is of two or more humors together.
Remedy for pestilential fever, & the magisterium & government to cure it.
It would be a fantastic and very crazy thing to seek a cure for an incurable disease, and when it is sent by the command of God to kill the people, and make them die. For which disease there is no remedy, except by the will and goodness of God. And certainly it would be very difficult for us to resist the sting.
Now therefore, if you want to know, that it is certain that God sends pestilence to the people, it appears in the book of Deuteronomy, in the twenty-eighth chapter, in which he says: Unless you obey the voice of the Lord your God; by keeping and doing all his commandments, and his ordinances, which I command you today, then all these curses will come upon you, and will apprehend you: You will be cursed in the city, also you will be cursed in the field. The Lord will make the pestilence hold on you, until the pestilence consumes you from off the earth. The Lord will strike you with swelling, & fever, & hot sickness, & burning disease, & drought, & sword, & burning wind, & jaundice, and will persecute you until he makes you perish, Moses says that, but rather God through the mouth of Moses. And a little further he says: And the Lord will strike you with the apostum of Egypt, and with hemorrhoids, and with itches , and with anger, so that you cannot be healed.
Also the Lord will strike you with forcefulness, & blindness, & what follows. And for this, for our purposes it would be a fantastic thing to think about healing the wounds incurable pestilentials, when they are sent from God, so as the holy text of the Bible says, that what cannot be cured, it would be a fantastic thing to presume to cure. And I, by the supplication of my companions, I disputed in this matter of the great pestilential plague which was the year of our Lord JESUS CHRIST current, one thousand three hundred and forty and eight. For this reason it is necessary to know that men can die in two ways, and by chance in three. In one way, it is the end that God has ordained for us of natural death, which we cannot avoid by human means. The other way is, by violent death, and in these two ways medicine has no power. The third way is, by occasion or accident occurring before the term which God has constituted us: thus as by too great repletion, or by too great abstinence, or when by despair, or neglect to avoid the danger of death we kill ourselves.
And also when God sends war and pestilence to certain people, not because he wants him to die, if through negligence he does not allow the danger of death to come: for God has ordained and constituted man right, & put it in the hand of the liberal arbiter. Therefore, if we want to work to cure the plague, I say as a general rule, that God sends the plague, through the influence of Saturn: so as the plague of cowardice, cold, cough, consumption of the body, consumptive, chest pain, & all other illnesses that come to man through the malice of pestilential cold. From the influence of Mars comes pestilential fever, with spitting of blood; pleurisy, pustules & apostumes coming under the armpits, or elsewhere: such as anthrax, charcoal, the late Saint Anthony, & such similar things.
Item of illnesses coming from unfortunate Mercury: like bumps or bumps that come under the armpits, under the eyebrows, in the beard or on the chest.
From the influence of the poorly collocated Moon comes epilepsy, horrible dreams which make men disturb and vary in speaking to them, and also make them become frantic. All which plagues & other diseases coming through the influence of the said Planets, & others sent from God, are perfectly cured & avoided by our Quint essence, if God does not expressly command that men be killed by the plague, so that they cannot be cured by the help of medicine, however good it may be.
said Quint essence is affected by the plague, it will not harm him, with the help of God. But against pestilential fever, & all burns, blackness & burns, you must add with our Quinte essence, half of the Quinte essence of human blood, & the root of the bugloss, all the herb of the sorrel, & a little hepatic aloe, euphorbia, hiera picra, & the Quinte essence of lily root, gold, & pearls, capilli Veneris & hyssop. All these things triumphantly resist such fevers and apostums. Certainly it is necessary that with the above-mentioned things there be the Quintessence of laxative things, and it must be taken at least three times a week so that it relaxes the stomach. And every morning you must take two full spoons of hot water, or a full egg, and four or five times a day a full nut of the said water taken, to prevent the corrupted air from being able to do any harm. We must also use all the things which the Philosophers say resist the plague. The pills of which they spoke must be put in the Quinte essence, or in fiery water, and there must be very few of them, because they will be very effective. The house must be perfumed three times a day, with incense, myrrh, resin, turpentine, rue, & other such things. And this is the way to perfectly cure said plagues & diseases.
Remedy to cause fever in the body of one who has the spasm, or deciduous disease: & the means of curing the said disease.
The very wise Philosophers have affirmed that it is a very good and healthy thing to bring a fever to someone who is in spasm. And also the learned and experienced say, that if you rub all the arteries of the body with the juice of the herb called flammula, or batrachium, or ranunculus, immediately the patient will have a fever, which will soothe the malice of the spasm. And because (as the Sages say) the spasm proceeds from debilitation & strain of the nerves, as it sometimes appears from the medicines that we take, in which there is hellebore.
Certainly there is nothing that can better cure said illness than the very noble Quinte essence, and (if one cannot have one) fiery water .
The Almighty God the
Father, the Son & the Holy
Spirit be praised by
the infinite centuries
of centuries,
Amen.
End of the second book of the Quinte Essence, completed in print on the XXIX. of Mars, MD XLI - 1541