Alchemy, The Turba Philosophorum or Assembly of The Sages - A. E. Waite (1896)

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THE TURBA PHILOSOPHORUM.
ALCHEMY
THE
TURBA PHILOSOPHORUM
OR
ASSEMBLY OF THE SAGES

CALLED ALSO THE BOOK OF TRUTH IN THE
ART AND THE THIRD PYTHAGORICAL SYNOD
AN ANCIENT ALCHEMICAL TREATISE TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN, THE CHIEF

READINGS OF THE SHORTER CODEX, PARALLELS FROM THE GREEK
ALCHEMISTS, AND EXPLANATIONS OF OBSCURE TERMS
BY
ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE

TRANSLATOR OF " THE HERMETIC AND ALCHEMICAL WRITINGS
OF PARACELSUS."
Xonbon
GEORGE REDWAY
1896
LIBRARY
PREFACE,
nnHE
Tuvha Philosophorum
is
indisputably the
most ancient extant treatise on Alchemy in

the Latin tongue, but it was not, so far as can
be ascertained, originally written
compiler or editor, for in
many
in
Latin
respects
the
it
can
scarcely be regarded as an original composition,
wrote either in Hebrew or Arabic
however, the
work, not only at the present day, but seemingly

during the six or seven centuries
quoted as an authority by
all
adepts, has been familiar only in

It is not,
is
when
it
was
the alchemical
its
Latin garb.
of course, certain that the original
irretrievably lost,
the Arabic
and Syriac
manuscripts treating of early chemistry are

preserved
in
various libraries
been
numbers in the
of Europe, and have only
considerable
imperfectly
Unfortunately,
explored.
the present editor has neither the opportunity
nor the qualifications for undertaking such a

task.
There are two codices or recensions of The

Turba Philosophorum, which
from
one
following
another.
pages
the
What
differ
is
second
considerably
called in
recension,
the
is
appreciably shorter, clearer, and, on the whole,

the less corrupt of the two, but they are both
Preface.
ii.
bad
in a
The
state.
longer recension has been
chosen for the text of the following translation,
because
it
seemed desirable to give the work
The
in its entirety.
variations of the second
recension are appended usually in foot-notes,
but where the reading of the text
so corrupt
is
as to be quite untranslatable, the
editor has
occasionally substituted that of the alternative
and has
version,
most cases indicated the
in
course pursued.
Monsieur Berthelot's
invaluable
translation of the Byzantine
been largely made use
to
of,
and
text
Alchemists has
.
the
illustrate
between the Greek Hermetic

fourth
century and the Turba.
writers of the
striking analogies
It is to this great scholar
owe
and
we
scientist that
the discovery of these analogies,
some
of
which are very
clearly indicated in a chapter
devoted
the
to
part of
la
Science
forming
au
Moyen
Age."
It
which has always been

an Arabian source,
to
Alchemy
the
Greek
Alchemy,
referred
rightly
connects
which
Antique
and
sur la Transmission de
from M. Berthelofs researches, that
follows
Latin
subject,
" Essai
his
with
preceded
the latter
was
Arabian
itself
Science,
are also enabled to identify, for the
and that with perfect

sages, to
whom
all
because
derived from Greece.

first
We
time,
certainty, those ancient
the Latin literature makes
Preface.
iii.
requent and reverent allusion

they
that
are
Zosimus,
we now know
Panopolite,
the
the adepts of the school of Democritus, and the

other writers preserved in the Byzantine collec-
M.
tion.
Berthelot, however, infers that the
Greek influence found

not a
phorum was
in
Turba
The
direct
Philoso-
influence,
but
was derived mediately through channels

which are now unknown
In any case
the Turba summarises the author's preceding
Geber, and
it
is
is
therefore the
most valuable, as
the most ancient, treatise
which
The
on Alchemy,
exists in the Latin language.
chief printed versions of The Turba Philo-
sophoruntj are
those of the " Theatrum Chemi-
cum," the *'Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa," and

that of the smaller collection entitled " Artis
There are some translawork existing in German and some

French. Those in the latter language are
Auriferae Tractatus."
tions of the
also in
specially remarkable for the very slender

in
which they represent the
way
The
original.
versions contained in Salmon's " Bibliotheque
des Philosophes Alchimiques," and in the
**
Trois
Anciens Traictes de la Philosophic Naturelle,"

are instances
in
manuscript
in point.
is
known
and it will be found

amongst the treasures
It is
in
One English
version
to the present editor,
the British
Museum
of the Sloane collection.
rendered, however, from the French, and
Preface,
iv.
has been found useless for the purposes of this

translation.
It
may be added
that the great collections of

"
*'
Alchemy, such as the
Theatrum Chemicum
and Mangetus, contain colloquies, commentaries, and enigmas which pretend to elucidate
the
mysteries
of
The
Turba
Philosophorum,
While they are of a considerably later date,

they at the same time belong to the early
period of Latin Alchemy.
It may be added
also that the editor has collected a consider-
able
amount
of material concerning this curious
work, which the limits of the present volume

preclude him from
utilising.
Arthur Edward Waite.
The Turba Philosophorum,

Taken from an Ancient Manuscript Codex,
more perfect than any edition
published heretofore.
^^mhe
Epistle of Arisleus, prefixed to the
Words
^V
of the Sages, concerning the purport of this
^H
Book, for
^H
same being as here follows
BA
the Benefit of Posterity,
RISLEUS,*
XJL
and
the
begotten of Pytha-
goras, a disciple of the disciples
by the grace of thrice great Hermes,

learning from the seat of knowledge,
unto
all
who
come
health and mercy.

*
An
Abladus.
after
wisheth
testify that
my
ancient gloss describes Arisleus as the son of
M. Berthelot supposes him
to be
synonymous
with the Aristenes of the second recension {Eleventh Dictum)
and of the Exercitationes on the Turba, which are found

in the first
volume of the Bibliotheca Chemica.
the similarity of the

are
name, and the
mutilated in the
fact that
Beyond
most names
Turba, there seems no reason to
suppose that the compiler intended to connect Pythagoras

with alchemical traditions through Aristeus, the sophist of
the time of Antoninus.

The Turha Phiiosophorum.
Pythagoras,*
master,
the
Italian,
master of the wise and chief of the

Prophets, had a greater
gift
God
of
and of Wisdom than was granted to

Therefore
any one after Hermes.
he had a mind to assemble his disciples, who were now greatly increased,
and had been constituted the chief
throughout
persons
regions
all
for
the discussion of this most precious

Art,
that
foundation
to
might
Iximidrus,
be the
first
be
He
posterity.
for
commanded
council,
words
their
of
then
highest
speaker,
who
said :t
The Greek
make no mention
describes
alchemists of the Byzantine Collection

of Pythagoras,
and the
tradition
which
him as an adept of the Hermetic Mystery must
be referred to an Arabian origin, to the treatises of El

Habib, the Kitab-al-Firhirst, and the true Geber, where
alchemical writings
attributed
to
this
sage are freely
quoted.
fThe French version of Salmon has the following distinct

" The beginning of the book, the Turba of the
variations
Philosophers, in which Arisleus has gathered together the
sayings of the
introducing
more
prudent
Pythagoras
the
among
the
Philosopher,
collecting the opinions of the scholars.
scholars,
that
The book
by
Master
is
also
called the Third Pythagorical Synod, instituted concerning
The Turba Philosophorum.
The First Dictum.
IxiMiDRUS
saith
beginning of
things
all
Nature, which
is
that the
testify
a Certain
is
perpetual, coequalling
and that the visible natures,

with their births and decay, are times
herein the ends to which that nature
rings them are beheld and summoned.*
Now, I instruct you that
the stars are igneous, and are kept
within bounds by the air.
If the
humidity and density of the air did
all things,
Occult
But
Philosophy.
scholar, Eximidrius, to
commanded
Pythagoras
begin the
discourse,"
&c.
his
The
French translator seems to have summarised the recensions
which he had collected, and to have put them, to some

extent, in
own words.
his
Here, however, he follows
mainly the text of the second recension, the chief variation

being that instead of " Occult Philosophy " the original
reads " the vegetable stone."
*
The same French Translation interprets this obscure

" The beginning of all things is a
passage as follows
certain nature
decocts
all
it is
perpetual, infinite
But
things.
it
nourishes and
and the times
this nature
of
corruption
and generation
which
attained unto, and which the universal nature
it is
nourishes and decocts."

passage, as follows
are
'*
are,
as
it
were, the terms by
The second recension varies the last

The actions and passions thereof
known and understood only by those
knowledge
of the
Sacred Art
is
to
whom
given."
B2
The Turba Philosophonim.
not exist to
separate the flames of
the sun from living things, then the
Sun would consume all creatures.

But God has provided the separating
lest
air,
He has created
up.
Do you not
that which
should be burnt
observe that the Sun
when
it
rises in
overcomes the air by its

and that the warmth penetrates
from the upper to the lower parts of
the heaven
heat,
the air?
If,
then,
the
air
did
not
presently breathe forth those winds

whereby creatures are generated, the
Sun by its heat would certainly destroy
all that lives.
But the Sun is kept
in check by the air, which thus con-
quers because
Sun
to its
it
own
unites the heat of the
heat,
and the humidity
own humidity. Have

you not remarked how tenuous water
of water to
is
of
drawn up
its
by the action
the Sun, which thus
into the air
the heat of
helps the water against itself?
If the
water did not nourish the air by such

tenuous moisture, assuredly the
would overcome the
air.
The
Sun
fire,
The Turba Philosophoruw.
extracts moisture from the
therefore,
water, by
means
quers the
water
there
fire
are
is
of which the air con-
Thus, fire and

between which
itself.
enemies
no consanguinity,
for the fire
is hot and dr}^, but the water is cold

and moist. The air, which is warm
and moist, joins these together by its
concording medium
between the
humidity of water and the heat of
;
thus placed to estab-
fire
the air
is
lish
peace.
And
look ye
how
there
from the tenuous
shall arise a spirit
vapour of the
all
air,
because the heat
humour, there
necessarily issues something tenuous,
which will become a wind. For the
heat of the Sun extracts something
tenuous out of the air, which also
becomes spirit and life to all creatures.
being
joined
the
to
All this, however, is disposed in such
manner by the
will
coruscation appears
of
when
God, and a
the heat of
Sun touches and breaks up a cloud.

The Turba saith: Well hast thou
the
described the
fire,
even as thou knowest
it, and thou hast believed

word
of
thy brother.
the
concerning
The Second Dictum,
ExuMDRUs
do magnify the
air according to the mighty speech of
Iximidrus, for the work is improved
thereby. The air is inspissated, and
made
also
it is
saith
and becomes
thin
grows
it
The
cold.
when
thereof takes place
warm
inspissation
is
it
divided
heaven by the elongation of the
in
Sun
its
rarefaction
is
Sun
exaltation of the
when, by the
in heaven,
the
becomes warm and is rarefied. It

comparable with the complexion of
air
is
the distinction
Spring,*
in
which
neither
is
warm nor
of time,
cold.
For
according to the mutation of the con*
CrateSf
similar comparison
where
philosophical
it
fire
is
is
used
in the
Arabian Book of
enjoined that the operation of the
upon the philosophical matter should be
regulated after the same manner as Nature regulates the

influence of the four
moreover, represents
seasons;
still
and the same
philosophy as using the same illustration.

that the
Crates.
Turba
treatise,
older expositions of alchemical
in its original
It
is
probable
form antedated the Book of
The Ttirba Philosophonim,

stituted disposition
with the altering
distinctions of the soul, so
The
altered.
Winter
is
air, therefore, is
inspis-
sated when the Sun is removed from it,

and then cold supervenes upon men.
Whereat
Turba
the
said:
Excel-
and
what thou knowest to
lently hast thou described the air,
given account of
be therein.
The Third Dictum,
Anaxagoras
saith
that the beginning of
which God
make known
those things
all
hath created
is
weight and
proportion,* for weight rules
all
things,
and the weight and spissitude of the

earth
is
weight
manifest in proportion
is
not found except in
And know,
ye
all
but
body.
Turba, that
the
spissitude of the four elements reposes

in
the earth
*
The
original
of the term pietas
for
is
the spissitude of
pietas et ratio, but the technical use
by the Hebrew or Arabic original seems
obviously to connect
it
with the sense of the Hebrew Paz,
signifying compactness.
Compare
Piezo, to press or squeeze down.
also the
Greek verb
into
fire
falls
air,
together
water;
with
the
the
fire,
from
received
the spissitude
air,
into
falls
the spissitude also of water,
increased by the spissitude of
observed
how
four elements
The same,
sated than
fire
of
the spissitude
is
Then
Thou hast well
the
conjoined in earth
therefore,
all.
and
Have you not
reposes in earth.
air,
of
spissitude
is
more
saith the
spoken.
inspis-
Turba
Verily the
more inspissated than are the

rest.
Which, therefore, is the most
rare of the four elements and is most
earth
is
worthy to possess the rarity of these

four
He
answereth
Fire
is
the
most rare among all, and thereunto

Cometh what is rare of these four.
But air is less rare than fire, because
fire is
it is warm and moist, while
warm and dry now that which is
warm and dry is more rare than the
warm and moist. Thev say unto him
;
Which element
air
He
is
of less rarity than
answereth
Water,
since
cold and moisture inhere therein, and
The Tiivha Philosophorum.
every cold humid
of less rarity than
is
warm humid. Then do they say unto

him: Thou hast spoken truly. What,
a
therefore,
e
is
of less rarity than water
answereth
Earth,
because
cold and dry, and that which
is
it
is
cold
and dry is of less rarity than that

which is cold and moist. Pythagoras
saith :
Well have ye provided, O
Sons of the Doctrine, the description
of these four natures,* out of which
God
hath created
therefore, is he
Blessed,
all things.
who comprehends what
ye have declared,
from the apex of
for
the world he shall not find an intention

greater than his
fore,
reply
make
own
Let
us, there-
perfect our discourse.
Direct
They
every one to take up
Speak thou,
our speech in turn.
Pandolfus
*" You have been
of four elements.
told
Know
that the ancients discoursed
that
it
is
by means
of these four
elements that humid and dry things are constituted, as

also things
warm and cold,
[elements] rise up and two
elements are
-are
fire
and
air
the male and the female.

fall
down.
Two
The two ascending
the two descending elements
earth and water." Olympiodorus
On
the Sacred Art.
The Turha Philosophorum.
10
The Fourth Dictum,
But Pandolfus
saith
posterity that air
from
earth,
water, which
it
is
not separated
is
under the earth.
this air did not exist, the earth
not remain above the
humid water.
Thou hast
continueth The
They answer
said
well
hidden
that
is
lest
it
in the
which
and
the earth from

that water.
is,
is
water under the earth

sustains
the
should be plunged
said water
;,
But
which
air
If
would
complete, therefore, thy speech.

he
tO'
the air hidden in the
wit,
to
signify
remains above the dry
It
it.
a tenuous matter
is
of water, and that
it,
the
moreover, prevents
being
The
therefore, to
earth,
into
overflowed by
province of the air
fill
up and
to
make
separation between diverse things, that
and earth, and it isconstituted a peacemaker

between
hostile things, namely, water and fire,
dividing these, lest they destroy one
The Turba saith
another.
If you
gave an illustration hereof, it would be
is
to say, water
He
stand.
who do
those
clearer to
answer eth
ii
not under-
An
Qgg
is
an
illustration, for therein four things are
conjoined
the visible cortex or shell
represents the earth, and the albumen,

I
or white part,
But a
the water.*
is
very thin inner cortex
joined to the
is
outer cortex, representing, as
have
medium
signified to you, the separating
between earth and water, namely, that
which divides the earth from the

water.
The yolk also of the egg
represents fire
the
cortex which
air
contains the yolk corresponds to that

*
The
allegory of the philosophical egg can be traced
to the Greek alchemists.
under this
title,
short treatise
Eggi which
is
composed of
four elements, because
world.
It
is
the stone which
is
tin,
lead.
it
The white of
native sulphur, mercury, &c.

is fire.
extant
symbolically,
the image of the
The
shell is likened to
has been named copper,

the ^gg
The
is
divine water,
The yolk
is
copperas,
oily part (? the chicken)
But the egg, symbolical as

described
is
it
water of the sea, water of alum, &c.
itself
still
not a stone, the stone of
copper, the Armenian stone, &c.
the earth, being cold and dry

iron,
is
and another on the Nomenclature of the

described as the Mystery of the Art. It is
after
it
is,
is
sometimes
the similitude of a
likened to the skin which covers the
seed
the shell
seed
the white and the yolk are the flesh, and the watery
part
is
is
the breath, or air.
12
Other air which separates the water
from the
But they are both one
fire.
and the same
namely, that which
air,
separates things
frigid,
the earth from
the water, and that which separates
from
water
the
lower air
is
the
But the
fire.
thicker than the upper
and the upper
air is
more rare and
being nearer to the
subtle,
the lower
air,
than
fire
In the egg, therefore,
air.
are four things
earth, water,
air,
and
But the point of the Sun, these
fire.
four excepted,
and
yolk,
quently,
is
in the centre of the
this is the chicken.
all
Conse-
philosophers in this most
excellent art have described the egg as
an example, which same thing they

have set over their work.
The Fifth Dictum.
Arisleus
saith:
Know that the
and not a
earth
is
all
the zones of the earth in a single
which
reason the Sun does not ascend over
hour
hill
rise in
but
if it
were
moment
plain,
flat,
for
the sun would
over the whole earth.
Thou hast spoken

Arisleus
He answereth
Parmenides
briefly,
Is
there
X,
s
Yet
saith
anything the Master has
which
I
13
bears
testify
that
otherwise
witness
God
is
left
?
one, having
never engendered or been
begotten,
and that the head of all things after

Him is earth and fire, because fire is
tenuous and light, and it rules all
things on earth, but the earth, being
ponderous and gross, sustains all
things which are ruled by fire.
The Sixth Dictum.
Lucas
You
speak only about

and each one of you
observes something concerning these.
Now, I testify unto you that all things
which God hath created are from these
four natures, and the things which
have been created out of them return
saith
four natures
into them.
In these
living creatures
are generated and die, and
take place as
Democritus,
answereth
God hath
the
all
things
predestinated.
disciple
Thou hast well
of
Lucas,
spoken,
The Ttirba Philosophorum.
14
Lucas, when dealing with the four

Then saiih Arisleus
natures
:
Democritus, since thy knowledge was

derived from Lucas,
among
to speak
is
it
presumption
who
those
acquainted with thy master

answereth:
from
me
Lucas
Albeit Democritus received
the science of natural things,
was derived from the

the Indies and from
that knowledge
philosophers of
the Babylonians
those of his
think he surpasses
own age
TuRBA
The
are well
in this
answereth
attains to that age*
small satisfaction,
he
learning.
When
will give,
but being in
he
no
his
youth he should keep silence.

The Seventh Dictum,
LocusTA
saith
All
those
creatures
which have been described by Lucas

are two only, of which one is neither
*
Whether the age indicated
is
that of the Indian
and
Babylonian adepts does not appear, but the entire episode

is
remarkable
when
it
is
borne
in
mind what great impor-
tance evidently attached to the Democritic school of Greek
seems to indicate that the Turba Philo-
alchemy.
It
sophorum
represents a tradition hostile to the tradition of
The Tnrha Philosophorum.
known nor
for
it is
saith
expressed, except by piety,
not seen or
Thou
hast
subject which,
describe
what
15
Pythagoras
entered upon a
felt.
completed, thou wilt
if
State,
subtly.
therefore,
which is neither felt,

Then he
seen, nor known.
It is that
which is not known, because in this
world it is discerned by reason without
the clients thereof, which are sight,
hearing, taste, smell, and touch.
O
is
this thing
Crowd
of the Philosophers,
not that
it
is
only sight which can
white
distinguish
know you
from
black,
and
hearing only which can discriminate
good and bad word

Similarly, a wholesome odour cannot
be separated by reason from one which
between
is
fetid,
except through the sense of
can sweetness be discriminated from bitterness save by means of

taste, nor smooth from rough unless
smell, nor
Democritus, who, accordingly, figures merely as a promising tyro, and, in
fact,
the deliberations.
remains
For
silent
throughout the rest of
" those of
his
own age
second recension reads " his contemporaries."
"
the
The Turha Philosophorum,
l6
The Turba answereth:
by touch.
Thou
hast well spoken, yet hast thou
omitted to
thing which
of
treat
is
that
particular
not known, or described^
except by reason and piety.
Are ye
none of these
but
God
Thou
fesses that
answer
and
is
a sublime
neither seen
is
perceived by reason
is
which
alone, of
Know
cognised in
is
ways
five
creature, and, as such,

felt,
Saith he
then in such haste
that the creature which
nor
reason Nature conis
a partaker.
They
spoken
truly
hast
And
excellently.
he
give a further explanation.
will
now
Know
that
this creature, that is to say, the world,
hath a
same
light,
is
which
more
natures, which
living
But
if
beings
the Sun, and the
is
subtle
than
other
all
light is so ordered that
may
attain
this subtle light
to
vision.
were removed,
they would become darkened, seeing

nothing, except the light of the
or of the stars, or of
derived from
which causes
the
all
fire, all
light
of
moon,
which are
the
Sun,
creatures to give light.
For
God
this
17
has appointed the Sun
to be the light of the world,
by reason
of the attenuated nature of the Sun.
And know
that the sublime creature
before mentioned has no need of the

light of this
Sun, because the Sun
beneath that creature, which
is
is
more
and more lucid. This light,

more lucid than the light of
the Sun, they have taken from the light
of God, which is more subtle than their
subtle
which
is
Know
light.
world
is
also
that
the created
composed of two dense things
and two rare things, but nothing of the

dense
the
in
is
sublime
Consequently the Sun

inferior
all
answereth
rarer than
is
The
creatures.
Thou
creature.
Turba
hast excellently de-
scribed what thou hast related.
And
good Master, thou shalt utter anywhereby our hearts may be

vivified, which now are mortified by
thou wilt confer upon us a
folly,
if,
thing
great boon
*
offers
!*
The shortened
version ol
some conspicuous
the second
variations,
and
is
Recension
literally
as
i8
The Eighth Dictum.
Pythagoras
saith
existed before
all
and with
things,
was nothing, as He was

know,
ye
all
at
concerning
opinion
But
first.
Philosophers,
declare this in order that
your
God
Him
affirm that
that
may
these
elements and arcana, as well as
fortify
four
in
the
sciences thereof, at which no one can
God. Understand, that when God was alone, He

created four things fire, air, water, and
earth, out of which things He afterwards
by the
arrive save
will of
follows
" Two natures alone are described by Lucas, one
of which
reason
heaven.
felt,
is
known
neither
the other
But there
seen,
whatsoever
is
this
five senses,
same as the
as follows
not described, for
is
it is
a third connected nature, which
Now, reason
&c.
text,
till
What
is
which contains
that
is
heaven or earth.
in
substantially the
is
is
and known, and
by the help of the

which
nor realised, save by piety and
not seen and
is
perceives
ensues
is
towards the close,
As to that nature which
is
perceived
known by
reason and piety only, and is God Most High, who made
Know that the Sun is more
the light which is the Sun.
by none of these, the same
subtle than
all
is
creatures, to the
sublime;
end that
it
it
is
may
light the
world, which consists of two dense things and two rare.
Nothing
He
of the dense
himself
creatures."
is
more
is
in
the sublime creation, because
rare than the
Sun and
all
inferior
created
all
and the
inferior,
both the sublime
others,
He
because
predes-
beginning that
from the
tinated
19
all
creatures extracted from water should
multiply and increase, that they might
perform His
dwell in the world and
judgments
therein.
before
He
all.
Consequently,
created
out of which
ments,
He
created what
the four ele-
He
afterwards
willed, that is to say,
some
diverse creatures,
of which were
The
produced from a single element.*
Turba
Which are
And he: They
saith
Master?
whom He
angels,
But
Turba
the
Which,
the elements of
* In the
Book
the four elements
of Balances^
:"
.
He
and
humidity
which
God
of
air are the
God had
created
all
things of
namely, heat, cold, moisture, and
and moisture
earth,
Out
are
one of the genuine Arabian
of these elements produced
which contains heat and dryness
these elements
then,
:
caused the four qualities to issue
The combination
sesses cold
he
fire.
passage which has some analogy
After
from the ancient worlds

dryness.
fire,
fire
of Geber, there is a
with this dictum
And
O
the
are
created out of
created out of two
works
these,
is
air,
water, which pos-
which has ,warmth and
cold and dry.
By
the help of
created the superior and inferior worlds."
The Tttrba Philosophorum.
20
composed.
Hence the angels are more lucid than
the sun, moon, and stars, because they
are created from one substance, which
is
and
moon,
sun,
less
stars
dense than two, while the sun
and the stars are created from a comThe Turba

position of fire and air.
saitk
And what concerning the
Then he
creation of Heaven ?
God
Heaven out
created the
air,
whence
and
also composed of
this is
of water
two, namely, the second of the rarer

things, which
is
air,
of the denser things,
And
they
Master,
and the second

which is water.
continue thy dis-
course concerning these three, and re-
our
joice
which are
life
other answer eth
God
thy
sayings,
to the dead.
But the
you that
with
hearts
hath further
of three and
notify to
made
out of four
creatures out
;
out of three
are created flying things, beasts, and
some of these are created

water, air, and earth, some out
air, and earth.
But the Turba
vegetables
out of
of
fire,
saith
Distinguish
these divers crea-

tures one
from another.
flying things out of fire,
air,
among
spirit,
flying things,
vegetables
and
are created out of water, while
Yet
fire.
no
Whereat the Turba

and air.
Let us assume that a fire, with
water,
saith
air,
in vegetables there is
they are created out of earth,
fire, for
and
which have a
brute animals are from earth,
all
and
and water, because

all
he
fire, air,
Beasts are created out of

earth
And
21
your reverence's pardon, does reside in

vegetables. And he
Ye have spoken
the truth, and I affirm that they con:
tain
And
fire.
He
fire ?
they
answereth
of the air which

for
have
is
Whence
Out of the
is
that
heat
concealed therein
signified that a thin fire is
present in the
fire
is
air,
but the elementary
concerning which you were in doubt
not produced, except in things which
have spirit and soul. But out of four

elements our father Adam and his sons
were
*
that
created,'^
The
Olympiodorus
treatise of
observes that
is,
Adam was
of
On
fire,
air,
the Sacred
Art
the issue of the four elements, and
22
and
water,
stand,
all
likewise
ye that are wise, how every-
God
thing which
hath created out of
one essence dies not
The
Judgment.
is
Under-
earth.
Day
until the
of
death
definition of
the disjunction of the composite, but
no disjunction of that which is

Death consists
simple, for it is one.
in the separation of the soul from the
there
is
body, because anything formed out of

two, three, or four components must
disintegrate,
stand,
and
further,
Undercomplex
this is death.
no
that
substance which lacks
fire eats,
or sleeps, because in
all
have a
spirit fire is
drinks,
things which
that which eats.*
terms him virgin earth, igneous earth, carnal earth, and
sanguineous earth, making reference to the

Ptolemy.
whom
he
There are similar references

is
identified with death.
libraries
of
Zosimus, by
in
But the carnal
Adam
of Zosimus signifies material humanity in general, and

therein
is
contained the spiritual man, whose
name no one
knoweth except Nicotheos, and that mysterious personager

the alchemist himself acknowledges to be undiscoverable.
The
substitute for his true
The nature
name
signifies light
and
fire.
of the angels, and the question whether
they eat and sleep, does not seem to have been discussed
either
by Greek, Syriac, or Arabian alchemists.
narrates that the art ot alchemy
was revealed
Zosimus
to mortals
by
Turba
The
answer eth
23
How
is
it,
Master, that the angels, being created

of
do not
fire,
that
fire is
thou assertest
eat, seeing
that which eats
And
he
Hence ye doubt, each having his

opinion, and ye are become opponents,
but if ye truly knew the elements, ye
would not deny these things.
with all whose judgment it
simple
The
eats
fire
not,
agree
is
that
but thick
fire.
angels, therefore, are not created
out of thick
fire,
but out of the thinnest
of very thin fire;

of
that which
exceedingly
being created, then,
is
most
they
thin,
And
drink, nor sleep.
simple
and
neither
eat,
the
Turba
Master, our faculties are able to perceive, for
by God's assistance we have
the fallen angels;
it
is
to
them
that the tradition of
the art must be referred as to a primary source
they also
who wrote
and
it
was
the primeval books of alchemy. It will
be remembered that magic was also one of the mysteries

unfolded by the same intelligences.
Isis
to
In the discourse of
Horus, the Mother of the Gods appears as a
prophetess
who
obtained initiation into the mysteries of
alchemy from the great angel Amnael, who desired to

possess her.
2^
exhausted thy sayings, but our faculties

of hearing and of sight are unable to
May God
carry such great things.
reward thee
since
ciples,
the sake of thy dis-
for
with the object of
is
it
instructing future generations that thou
summoned us
hast
thou wilt not
fail
Judge to come
Seeing
which
to receive from the
recompense
the
countries,
together from our
Arisleus
thou
that
of
hast
saith
us
gathered
together for the advantage of posterity,

1
think that no explanations will be
more
useful than definitions of those
four elements which thou hast taught
And
us to attain.
are,
he
None
suppose, ignorant that
Wise have propounded

God.
The
Turba
of you
all
the
definitions in
answereth
Should
your disciples pass over anything,
becomes
you,
Master,
to
it
avoid
omissions for the sake of future generations.

will
And
he:
If
it
please you,
begin the disposition here, since
envious
men
in
their
books
separated that, or otherwise
will
have
put
The Turba Pkilosophorum.

it
at the
Turba
think
end of the book.*

saith
it
it
Place
be
will
generations.
where
will
he:
the
you
future
for
place
will
it
not be recognised by the
foolish,! nor ignored
Doctrine, for
Whereat
where
it
clearest
And
25
it is
by the Sons of the
the key, the perfection
and the end.

The Ninth Dictum,
ExiMENUS
saith
God hath created
all
things by his word, having said unto
them
Be, and they were made, with the
four other elements, earth, water, air,
and
fire,
things
we
which
The
coagulated,
is
hostile to water, water
necessity of concealing the Art
chief anxieties of the Greek alchemists.
sworn
and
contrary were commingled, for
see that fire
He
to secrecy
by heaven and earth and
is
one of the
herself
Isis
hell,
is
by the four
elements, by the height and the depth, by Hermes, by
Anubis, and by the bowlings of Kerkoros.
heen required
initiated]
of us to reveal
person,"
says
'
An
oath has
nothing clearly to any [un-
Democritus
in
the
Epistle of
Synesius to Dioscorus,
t
The
reader will not
fail
to observe the artless
way
in
-which this passage betrays the whole dialogue as a literary
composition.
26
and both are hostile to

earth and air. Yet God hath united
them peacefully, so that they love one
hostile to
another.
fire,
Out
of these four elements,
therefore, are all things created
heaven
and the throne thereof; the angels; the

sun, moon, and stars; earth and sea,
with all things that are in the sea, which
indeed are various, and not alike, for
their natures have been made diverse by
God, and also the creations. But the
diversity is more than I have stated
;
each of these natures

ture,
is
of diverse na-
and by a legion of diversities
nature of each diverse.
Now
is
the
this di-
versity subsists in all creatures, because
they were created out of diverse
ments.
Had
ele-
they been created out of
one element, they would have

agreeing natures.
been
But diverse elements
being here mingled, they lose their

natures, because the dry being
own
mixed
with the humid and the cold combined

with the hot, become neither cold nor
hot;
so also the
humid being mixed
with the dry becomes neither dry nor
humid.
But when the
27
four elements
are commingled, they agree,
and thence
proceed creatures which never attain to

perfection, except they be left
to putrefy
God
and become
by night
visibly corrupt.
further completed his creation by
means of increase, food, life, and government. Sons of the Doctrine, not without purpose have I described to you the
disposition of these four elements, for in
them
two of them
are perceptible to the sense of touch and
vision, and of these the operation and
virtue are well known.
These are earth
and water. But there are two other
elements which are neither visible nor
is
a secret arcanum
tangible, which yield naught, whereof the
never seen, nor are their opera-
place
is
tions
and
force
known, save
in the
former
elements, namely, earth and water
when
the
four
now
elements are not com-
men
accom-
mingled,
no desire of
plished.
But being mixed, departing
is
from their own natures, they become

another
meditate
thing.
very
Over
these Jet
carefully.
And
us
the
28
you speak, we
Then
will give heed to your words.
I have now discoursed, and that
he:
well.
I will speak only useful words
TuRBA : Master,
if
which
ye
Know,
made
is
Do
copper.*
spoken.
as
no
true
from
our
that
present,
all
tincture
follow
will
except
not therefore, exhaust
your brains and your money,
lest
ye fill
I will give
your hearts with sorrow.
you a fundamental axiom, that unless
you turn the aforesaid coppert into
At
appears to be a sudden transition
this point there
from cosmology to alchemy, but

that
it is
work
cesses ot the great

this not
Greek.
only
in the
of the world,
in the
language of cosmology, and
Latin mediceval writers, but also in the
The
Egg
and hence
affirms that the
thorities, the
spirit, soul,
that the term
all
is
alchemy.
Book of Crates says

and body.
is
egg
composed of the
is
philosophical copper
reference throughout
must be remembered
For example, the Byzantine fragment entitled The
Nomenclature of the
it
one of the Hermetic Methods to describe the pro-
It
is
a subject of continual
Among
the earliest au-
that copper, like
symbolical, and applies to a stage of the
Another passage describes
essential substance.
Gold
lead and copper.

is
man, has
appears from the same treatise
alchemical process.
white copper
the image
four elements.
is
The Lexicon of Chrysopeia
crude sulphur.
it
as the
said to transform only with
explains that
The Turba Philosophorutn,

white,
and make
visible coins"
afterwards again turn
until
Tincturei
it
the copper, break
and then
into redness, +
results,
therefore
up, deprive
it
ye
verily,
Burn
accomplish nothing.
29
of
it
blackness by cooking, imbuing, and
its
washing, until the same becomes white.
Then
M.
rule
it.
Berthelot has pointed out that
term nummus by the Latin alchemists

of the
meaning of
A sent,
an alloy of gold and
t
will
as, for
The
reference
is
to
silver.
Numerous preparations
be found
in the
anterior writers.
the use of the
a misconception
is
for
in the Collection of
whitening and reddening
Ancient Greek Alchemists,
example, the Combination of the White Preparation
Address of Isis
to
Horus, the recipe in the twenty-
paragraph of the Natural Questions of Democritus,
first
again in the Book of Sytiesius, the Philosopher, addressed to

Dioscorus, and elsewhere in
an
operation
with
many places.
The book
copper.
It is
invariably
addressed
by
Democritus to Leucippus says that the alchemical work

comprises the process of making white and making yellow
(red), as also the softening
copper.
is
and coction of the mineral of
According to Synesius, the process of whitening
a calcination, and
making yellow
is
an igneous regenera-
tion.
The Greek Lexicon of Chrysopeia
distinguishes
two
species of tincture, that which so permeates and scaks into
a substance as to change
its
duces a superficial colouring.
nature,
and that which pro-
30
The Tenth Dictum.
Arisleus
this work
saith:
Know that the key of
the art of Coins.*
is
Take,
body which I have shewn

you and reduce it to thin tablets.
Next immerse the said tablets in the
Water of our Sea,+ which is permanent
therefore, the
to
Water,! and, after

over a gentle
fire
it is
covered, set
it
until the tablets are
melted and become waters or Etheliae,
In this instance the term appears to be used as the
lamina the
equivalent ot tablets or
later
is
alchemy frequently
thin strips into
which
directs a metal to be cut before
it
subjected to a given treatment.
by Olympiodorus
t Pelagus, cited
the Sacred Art, quotes
Zosimus
in the Treatise
on
in definition of the sea as
the hermaphrodytic element.

\
water
The Book
is
of El-Habib says that the virtue of eternal
that of a spiritual blood.
asriiorm water, azure water,
When
also primal sulphur.
It
is
identified with
and water of sulphur.

boiled,
it
and afterwards into gold.
(arsenic) into silver,
It is
transforms the male

It is
also
said that copper is water of silver, which, after preparation,
becomes
eternal
Rulandus says that

perfect bodies,
water.
it is
Interpreting
later
writers,
the philosophical solution of
two
and he enumerates the contradictory names
which have been assigned

The reference
mouth of the vessel.
is
to
it
in
alchemy.
apparently to the closing of the
31
and the same thing.

Mix, cook, and simmer in a gentle fire
which are one

until
Brodium
produced,
is
Saginatum.
Then
Ethelise until
it
stir
in its
like
to
water of
be coagulated, and the
become variegated, which we call

Cook it, therefore,
Salt.
until it be deprived of blackness, and
the whiteness appear. Then rub it, mix
with the Gum of Gold, and cook until
Use patience
it becomes red Etheliae.
in pounding lest you become weary.
Imbue the Ethelia with its own water,
coins
the Flower of
which has preceded from it, which also

is Permanent Water, until the same
becomes
red.
Copper,* which
Burnt
the Leaven of Gold
This,
is
then,
is
Cook the
and the Flower thereof.
Permanent
Water,
which is
with
same
*
is
A short excursus On
the Diversity of
Burnt Copper
among the writings of Zosimus, where it is

many persons prepare it by means of sulphur,
preserved
noted that
and a process with sulphurated iron is quoted with high

Burnt copper is elsewhere
approbation from Democritus.

defined by the
same author as " the metal rendered bloodwhitening) and tinged within and
colour (in view of
without."
32
always with
it,
until the
water be dried
Continue the operation
up.
the water
is
consumed, and
it
until
all
becomes
a most subtle powder.

The Eleventh Dictum.
Parmenides
that
saith
Ye
must
men have
envious
dealt
know
volu-
minously with several waters, brodiums,

stones,
all
and metals, seeking to deceive
you who aspire
Leave, therefore,
all
after
knowledge.
these,
and make
the white red, out of this our copper,
taking copper and lead, letting these
stand for the grease, or blackness, and

tin
for
the
liquefaction.
Know
ye,
further, that unless ye rule the Nature
of Truth, and harmonize well together

its
complexions and compositions, the
consanguineous
neous, and the
with
first
the
consangui-
with the
first,
ye
and effect nothing,

because natures will meet their natures,
follow them, and rejoice.
For in them
and
are
generated,
because
they putrefy
Nature is ruled by Nature, which
act
improperly
The Turba Philosopliorum,
destroys
it,
turns
it
33
into dust, reduces
and finally herself renews

repeats, and frequently produces the
to nothing,
it,
same.
ye
Therefore look in books, that
may know
the Nature of Truth,
and what renews, what

it possesses, what neighbours it
naturally has, and how they love each
other, how also after love enmity and corruption intervene, and how these natures
should be united one to another and
made at peace, until they become
what
putrefies
it
savour
gentle in the
fire
in
similar fashion.
Having, therefore, noticed the facts in

this Art, set
If indeed,
your hands to the work.
ye know not the Natures of
Truth, do not approach the work, since

there will
disaster,
fore,
follow
nothing but harm,
and sadness.
Consider, there-
the teaching of the Wise,
how they
have declared the whole work
in this
Nature,
Nature rejoices in
and Nature contains Nature. In these
words there is shewn forth unto you the
whole work. Leave, therefore, manifold
and superfluous things, and take
saying:
34
body of
Magnesia,t in Kuhul, or in Sulphur
make the same
which does not burn
nature white, and place it upon our
Copper, when it becomes white. And
if ye cook still more, it becomes red,
when if ye proceed to coction, it becomes
I tell you that it turns the sea
gold.
itself into red and the colour of gold.
quicksilver,* coagulate in the
Know
ye also that gold
into redness save
is
by Permanent Water,
because Nature rejoices
Nature. +
in
Mercury, according to the Greek Epistle of Synesius,
is
not turned
wax, which readily assumes any colour that
like
imparted to
their souls
it,
it
for
Mercury whitens
them by
digests
is
bodies and attracts
all
and takes complete
coction,
possession of them.
The Magnesia of Alchemy
and
who
this
not
is
common
Magnesia,
remark applies equally to the Greek Alchemists,
are the inspiration of the Turba Philosophorum^ to
that treatise,
and
the later adepts.
to
treatises belonging to the school of
Cinnabar follows the term.
mentioned
in the discourse of
In one of the
Democritus the sign ot
The body
of
Magnesia
is
Synesius and Dioscorus; and
on the Metallic Body of Magnesia, Zosimus has a special

treatise with reference to the method by which it is
whitened.
According to Synesius
it
signifies the
mixture
of substances.
\
The
formulae which are so frequently repeated in the
Turba Philosophorum
Nature rejoices
in
Nature
Nature
The Turba Philosophorutn.
35
Reduce, therefore, the same by means

cooking into a humour, until the
of
hidden nature appear.

it
therefore,
If,
be manifested externally, seven times
imbue the same with water, cooking,

imbuing, and washing, until it become
red.
those
natures,
celestial
multiplying the natures of truth by the
God
will of
that potent Nature,
which overcame and conquered natures,
and caused
its
be
This, therefore,
glad
special
!*
and
God
the
natures to rejoice and

that
is
spiritual nature to
which
thereof can give what
fire
cannot.
Consequently, we glorify and
magnify
that
nothing
is
tincture,
[species]
more precious
or the
like
degree to be found.
overcomes nature
ruled by Nature:
than
the true
in
in the
This
is
which
smallest
that truth
Nature contains Nature
Nature
are derived literally from the
is
Greek
Alchemists.
*
These alchemical Grand Antiphons
literally
in
on the model of precisely similar exclamations

writers
are either
borrowed from the Greek alchemists, or are formed
" O,
Supreme Wonder
Sovereign Matter," &c.
in those
O, most happy and
36
which those investigating wisdom
For when
it is
highest operation
knew the
love.
liquefied with bodies, the
truth,
is
effected.
ye
If
what great thanks ye
Learn, therefore, that

would give me
while you are tingeing the cinders, you
must destroy those that are mixed.
For it overcomes those which are mixed,
and changes them to its own colour. And
as it visibly overcame the surface, even
so it mastered the interior. And if
!
one be volatile but the other endure

the
endures
if
joined to the other
either
fire,
the
fire.
Know
have
vapours
the
that
also,
whitened
the
surfaces, they will certainly whiten the
Know
interiors.
after
Wisdom,
comes
consumes
four,
answereth
*
further, all
ye seekers
that one matter over-
and our Sulphur* alone

all
The
things.
Thou hast spoken excellently
Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt figure in
all
Hermetic
ature as the most indispensable principles of the

Optis.
The
Turha
later writers
are not the substances
liter-
Magnum
never weary of affirming that they
commonly
so called, but this does
not appear so plainly in earlier and especially in Greek

Authors.
well,
Parmenides, but thou hast not
demonstrated
smoke
is
37
the disposition of the
to posterity, nor
whitened
how
the
same
The Twelfth Dictum.
Lucas
saith:
will
speak at this
time, following the steps of the ancients.
Know, therefore, all ye seekers after

Wisdom, that this treatise is not from
the beginning of the ruling !* Take
quicksilver, t
which
is
from the male,
and coagulate according to custom.

Observe that I am speakmg to you in
accordance
because
with custom,
it
has been already coagulated. Here,

therefore, is not the beginning of the
ruling, but
*
book
A further
is
prescribe this method,
insight into the artificial character of the
afforded at this point.
designed to be conveyed
other
is,
The meaning which is

common with many
that in
alchemical works, the instruction begins
in
the
middle of the process for the more complete confusion

of the uninitiated.
t It
should
be noted
in
this
connection that the
attribution of the seven metals to the seven
found in the Turba.
Thus, quicksilver
as Mercury, nor gold as Sol, &c.
is
planets
is
not
never spoken of
38
namely, that you shall take the quickfrom the male, and shall either
silver
impose upon
copper, and it
iron,
will
governed
or
tin,
be whitened.*
White Magnesia
is
made
in the
same
way, and the male is converted with

But forasmuch as there is a
it.
certain
and
affinity
the
iron,
between the magnet

our
therefore
nature
Take, then, the vapour

commanded you
rejoices. +
which the Ancients
and cook the same with its

own body until tin is produced. Wash
to take,
away its blackness according

and cleanse and
fire until it
is
to custom,
roast at an equable
be whitened. But every body
whitened with governed quicksilver,
for Nature converts Nature. Take,therefore.
Magnesia, Water of Alum, Water
of Nitre,
of Iron
*
Water
of the Sea,
and Water
What-
whiten with smoke. +
The second
upon copper, that
recension
is,
reads
governed
'*
:
iron,
Ye
shall
and
it
impose
be
shall
whitened."
t
The
alternative reading
is
" Therefore Nature also
rejoices in Nature."
I
Hermes, as quoted by Olympiodorus, defines smoke

warm and the dry.
as intermediary between the
The Turba Philosophorunt,
ye
soever
desire
whitened with
smoke
with
and
whitens
faeces
until
it
all
the
therefore,
its
is
smoke, because
this
Mix,
things.
be whitened
to
white,
itself
is
39
said
be
it
and become excessivelyRoast this white copper till
coagulated
white.*
it
germinates
of
Magnesia when
the
suffer
shadow
whitened
coppert
of
Nature
Take, therefore,
because
does
escape,
to
spirits
the
since
itself,
not
or
the
to
appear,
contains
Nature.
ye Sons of the
all
Doctrine, the white sulphureous nature,
whiten with
salt
Flower of White
*
The
and dew, or with the

Salt,+ until
alternative reading
is
" until
it
it
become
shall
become a
white coin or tablet."

t
M.
The shadow
of copper
is
the flower of copper,
Berthelot explains, protoxide, verdegris.
The
t..,
epistle
of Democritus to Leucippus explains that a metal without
shadow
burning
is
a brilliant metal.
defines the
produces
Zosimus says that the act
called the destruction of the shadow.
is
shadow of copper
in silver.
as the black tinge which
Democritus also gives a recipe
of
Pelagus
it
for the
removal of the shadow from copper.

\
The second
recension in the edition of Mangetus
reads Sol throughout for Sal, but
it is
a printer's error.
The Turba Phtlosophorutn,
40
And know
excessively white.
the Flower of
from
White
Salt
ye, that
Ethel
is
The same must be
Ethelia.
boiled
for
seven
till
it
shall
become
like
gleaming marble,
for
when
it
days,
has reached this condition
it
is
Arcanum, seeing that

Sulphur is mixed with
Sulphur,
whence an excellent work is accomof the affinity
plished, by reason
very
great
between them, because natures rejoice

in
meeting their own natures.
therefore,
Take,
Mardek and whiten the same
Gadenbe,* that is, wine and

and Permanent Water. Roast
with
vinegar,
and coagulate
until the
whole does not
liquefy in a fire stronger than its own,
namely, the former
mouth
be associated with
may
fire.
Cover the
of the vessel securely,

its
but
let it
neighbour, that
it
kindle the whiteness thereof, and
beware
lest
the
fire
blaze up, for in
Though Martinus Rulandus endeavoured honestly

Alchemy in his
laborious lexicon, and though he was evidently well
*
to explain all the barbarous terms of
acquainted with the Turba, he omits both Mardeck and
Gadenbe.
becomes red prematurely,

you nothing, because
beginning of the ruling you
this case
and
in
41
it
this will profit
the
Afterwards coagu-
require the white.

late the
same
Let your
fire
until
you attain the red.
be gentle
in the whitening,
Know
until coagulation take place*
that
when
is
it
the Soul, and
coagulated
it is
we
call
verted from nature into nature.

therefore,
sufficient
is
it
more quickly confor
those
This,
who
deal with the Art of Coins, because

one thing makes it but many operate
For ye need not a number of

things, but one thing only, which in
each and every grade of your work is
changed into another nature.
The
Turba saith Master, if you speak as
the Wise have
spoken, and that
briefly, they will follow you who do not
therein.
wish
to
be
wholly
shut
in
with
darkness.
The Thirteenth Dictum.
Pythagoras
saith
government which
We
is
posit another
not from another
The Turba Philosophoruin,
42
root,
but
it
differs in
ye seekers after
all
name. And know,

this Science and
Wisdom,
that whatsoever the envious
may have
enjoined in their books con-
cerning
composition
the
which agree together,*

is
in
natures
of
savour there
only one, albeit to sight they are as
Know,
diverse as possible.
also, that
the thing which they have described in
many ways follows and attains its

companion without fire, even as the
magnet follows the iron, to which the
said thing is not vainly compared, nor
so
to a seed, nor to a matrix, for

like
And
unto these.
which follows!
fire,
its
many
causes
when embracing
it
is
also
same thing,
companion without
this
colours
it,
to
appear
for this reason, that
the said one thing enters into every
regimen, and
is
found everywhere, being
a stone, and also not a stone
and precious
mony
t
The
common
hidden and concealed,
shorter recension reads
" concerning the har-
of the elements."
According to the second recension, the subject
many
question causes
according as
it
is
in
colours to appear in complexion,
governed
in
every regimen.
known by everyone
yet
and
43
name
of one
many names, which
of
Spume
of
Moon.
the
the
is
This
stone,
therefore, is not a stone, because
more
without
precious;
never operates anything;
we have
names on account
one, yet
its
Nature
it
name is
by many
its
called
it is
it
of the excellence of
nature.*
The
Turba
answereth
Master!
mention some of those
wilt thou not

*
Zosimus explains that the uncommunicated mystery
which no one among the prophets has dared to divulge by

word, but has revealed only to the
initiates,
is
a process
upon the stone Alabastron by means of vinegar.
By
Lexicon of Ghrysopeia in the Byzantine Collection

earliest dictionary of
known
is
all later
to
the
that
alchemy, which has remained un-
Hermetic lexicographers Alabastron
defined to be the calx obtained from eggshells, saltpetre,
a variety of natron, and
common salt. The inquirer after

may take his choice among
the uncommunicated secret

these substances, and
is
it
does not follow that the Lexicon
a correct exponent of Zosimus.
However
this
may be, it
appears that the stone Alabastron, either before or after

the operation with vinegar,
stone which
known by
is
all,
is
the symbolical encephalous
not a stone, the
unknown thing which
the despised thing which
is
is
most precious,
The preparation
The perplexities of
the thing given and not given by God.

indicated
is
the Mythraic Mystery.
the Turba at this point are, therefore, a device of the Greek

alchemists,
and they were fond
of recurring to
it.
44
names
the guidance of
for
seekers
And
he:
It is called White Ethelia,
White Copper, and that which flies
from the fire and alone whitens copper.
Break up, therefore, the White Stone,
and afterwards coagulate it with milk.*
Then pound the calx in the mortar,
taking care
humidity does
that the
not escape from the vessel

late
it
in the vessel until
a cinder.
Cook
it
but coagu-
shall
also with
become
Spume
of
Luna and regulate. For ye shall find the

stone broken, and already imbued with
its
own
This, therefore,
water, t
which we
is
the
by all names,
which assimilates the work and drinks
it, and is the stone out of which also
Take, therefore,
all colours appear.
is from the
which
that same gum,+
stone
The second
that milk
alchemy
is
is,
recension adds " that

:
The
coagulated."
like so
of Greek origin.
call
much
It
is,
after the
manner
symbolical use of milk in
of the terminology of the Turba^
will
be found in the discourse of
Synesius.
t
The second
"
its
Ye
own
Gum of Scotia,"
most
recension has a preferable reading
shall find the stone formed,
which imbue with
water."
J
The second
recension says
"
45
scoriae, and mix with cinder of calx,

which you have ruled, and with the
faeces which you know, moistening
with permanent water. Then look and
see whether it has become a powder,
but if not, roast in a fire stronger than
the first fire, until it be pounded.
Then imbue with permanent water,
and the more the colours vary all

the more suffer them to be heated.
Know, moreover, that if you take white
quicksilver, or the Spume of Luna, and
do as ye are bidden, breaking up with

a gentle fire, the same is coagulated,
Out of this
and becomes a stone.
stone, therefore,
many
probably a
philosophical
is
when
colours will
much used
misprint
gum
in
for
is
broken up,
Scoria.
Rulandus
with Ferment, Mercury, &c.
alchemy, and
without explanatory context.

is
it
But
appear to you.
is
identifies
The term
found in Zosimus, but
The Turba Philosophorum
not very clear on the subject of the philosophical gum,
but
it is
as clear as the Greek Alchemists, for the Lexicon of
Chrysopeia defines
gum
as the yolk of the egg, speaking
philosophically and not literally
but the treatise on the
Nomenclature of the Egg says that the white of egg
among
is
gum,
other things, speaking also philosophically, and
without regard to the Lexicon.
The Turba Philosophorunt.
46
any ambiguity occur to you

in our discourse, do as ye are bidden,
ruling the same until a white and
coruscating stone shall be produced,
and so ye find your purpose.
herein,
if
The Fourteenth Dictum.
AcsuBOFEN*
saith
Master, thou hast
spoken without envy, even as became

thee,
same may God

Pythagoras s//A.* May
deliver thee, Acsubofen,
Then he Ye must know,
and
for
reward thee
God
also
from envy
the
Assembly of the Wise, that sulphurs
are contained in sulphurs, and humidity

in humidity. +
The
envious,
The
Turba
answereih
have
Acsubofen,
uttered something like unto this
Tell
what is this humidity ?

And he : Humidity is a venom, and
when venom+ penetrates a body, it
therefore,
us,
In the second recension the
name
is
Assuberes.
Formula of the Greek Alchemists
Sulphurs are
mastered by Sulphurs, &c.

X
The
theriac
and poison of the stone are
subjects of discourse
Petrus
Bonus
seems with
all
and,
among
favourite
early Latin Alchemists, like
indeed,
the
sovereign
remedy
authors to have had a destructive as well as
The Tiirha Philosophorum,

tinges
it
no
in
47
with an invariable colour, and

permits the soul
wise
equal
Concerning
thereto.
envious have said
When
be
to
separated from the body, because
it is
the
this,
one
and
upon
they no
flies
the other pursues, then one seizes

the
and
other,
lonsêr
because Nature has laid
flee,
hold of
its
afterwards
manner of
equal, after the
an enemy, and they destroy one

For this reason, out of the
another.
sulphureous mixed sulphur is produced
a most precious colour, which varies
from the
not, nor flees
when the
of the body
fire,
soul enters into the interior
and holds the body together and tinges

I will repeat my words in Tyrian
it.
Take the Animal which is
dye.*
A
a constructive aspect.
Syriac treatise, fixed
by M.
Berthelot as belonging to the tenth or eleventh century,
says that " the
resembles a poison
elixir
violence and subtlety,"
many
references
equivalent
is ios,
to
the
and
this
because of
its
and Arabian alchemy contains

venerium
is
ignis.
The Greek
recurring continually in
the
Byzantine Alchemical collection.

*
dye,
This process, worded in the language of the Tyrian
may be compared
tincture,
which occurs
with a similar recipe for the purple

at the
beginning of the Natural and
48
called Kenckel, since all
water
its
is
Tyrian colour, and rule the same with

a gentle fire, as is customary, until it
shall
become
be a
little
earth, in
colour.
which there
But
if
will
you wish
obtain the Tyrian tincture, take
to
the
humidity which that thing has ejected,
and place
vessel,
it
therewith gradually in a
adding that tincture whereof the
Then
colour was disagreeable to you.
cook with that same marine water* until
become dry. + Afterwards moisten

with that humour, dry gradually, and
cease not to imbue it, to cook, and to
dry, until it be imbued with all its
it
shall
humour.
days in
Then leave
its own vessel,
it
several
for
until
the most
precious Tyrian colour shall
come out
from
I
it
to the surface.
Observe how
describe the regimen to you
pare
it
Pre-
with the urine of boys, with
My$tic Questions of Democritus.
an important
In this, also, urine plays
part.
The use
of sea water
is
specified in
one
of
the
Democritic treatises.
t
The second recension reads
" until
it
shall
moistened, after which evaporate the moisture."
become
The Tnrba Philosophortim.
49
water of the sea, and with permanent

clean water, so that
may
it
and decoct with a gentle
fire,
be tinged,
until the
blackness altogether shall depart from

it,
and
be easily pounded.
it
Decoct,
own humour
until
it
clothe itself with a red colour.
But
if
therefore, in its
ye wish to bring
it
to the
Tyrian colour,
imbue the same with continual* water,

and mix, as ye know to be sufficient,
according to the rule of sight mix the
same with permanent water sufficiently, and decoct until rust absorb the
Then wash with the water of
water.
;
which
sea
the
thou hast prepared,
cook
and
until it imbibe its own moisture
that
a
I
tell
you
do this day by day.
colour will thence appear to you the
which
water of desiccated calx
is
;+
like of
which the Tyrians have never
And
made.
be a
the
still
gum
which ye
*
ye wish that
if
more
in the
shall
it
should
exalted colour, place
permanent water, with

dye it alternately, and

The alternative reading is
" with water of snow."
water of
talc.
50
Then
afterwards desiccate in the sun.

restore to the aforesaid water
black Tyrian colour
know
is
and the
But
intensified.
that ye do not tinge the purple
colour except by cold.
water which
is
Take, therefore,
of the nature of cold,
and steep wool* therein
until
it
extract
the force of the tincture from the water.
Know
also that the Philosophers have
called the force which proceeds from
that water the Flower.

fore,
your intent
therein place
in
what
days and nights,
Seek, there-
the said water
is in
the vessel for
until
it
be clothed
with a most precious Tyrian colour.

The Fifteenth Dictum,
Frictes
saith
Wisdom, know
this Art,
that the foundation of
is
one only.t
* The second recension

Moon for wool.
The one
ye seekers after
many
on account of which
have perished,
i.e.,
all
substitutes
There
Luna
for
is
Lana,
nature, the one matter, the one way, are all
conceptions of Greek Alchemy.
way which must be
followed
is
" The furnace

one, and one
is
is
one, the
also the
The Tuvha Philosophorum.
one thing which
subHme
more
and
natures,
51
stronger than
is
all
the
in
opinion of philosophers, whereas with

fools
it is
But
for
more common than anything.

us
it
is
Woe
reverence.
we
a thing which
unto
all
ye fools!
How ignorant are ye of this Art, for

which ye would die if ye knew it I swear
to you that if kings were familiar with it,
I
none of us would ever attain this thing.

O how this nature changeth body into
spirit!
O how admirable is Nature,
how she presides over all, and over-
comes
all
is
Name
And he
Pythagoras saith
this Nature,
Frictes
It
a very sharp vinegar,* which makes
work," says the Assembly of the Philosophers.

furnishes blood to the
Other.
Nature rejoices nature
nature triumphs over nature

this not for
for
"
The One
Other, and the One engenders the
nature charms nature
nature masters nature
one such nature opposed
and
to another such, but
one only and same nature, proceeding by chemical
process
from
itself
with pain and great labour."
The
Serpent Ourohohos.
*
The Greek Assembly
that the philosophical vinegar
the Stone.
It
of the Philosophers explains

is
obtained by the coction of
appears to be an
oil
which
rises
surface during the process, but the explanation
is
to
the
by no
52
gold into sheer
spirit,
without which
vinegar, neither whiteness, nor black-
nor redness, nor rust can
ness,
be
made. And know ye that when it is

mixed with the body, it is contained
therein, and becomes one therewith it
turns the same into a spirit, and tinges
with a spiritual and invariable tincture,
which is indelible.
Know, also, thaf
if ye place the body over the
fire
without vinegar, it will be burnt and
corrupted.
And know, further, that
;
the
first
humour
therefore, of the
cold.
is
Be
careful,
is
inimical
which
fire,
Accordingly, the
to cold.
Wise have
said
Rule gently until the sulphur
becomes incombustible.* The Wise
:
means
M.
clear.
Berthelot supposes a reference to the
Mercurial Water.
*
The Greek Alchemists
give the following recipe for
the production of incombustible sulphur
Sulphur, diluted in the urine of a person
puberty
Take unburnt
then taking an equal quantity ot brine, boil
till
becomes
in-
the sulphur rises to the surface, and then
Prove
combustible.
fire) until
who has not reached
it
ycu see that
it
by reasoning and examining
becomes incombustible, that

it
it
no longer burns.
bustible water (of sulphur), pour
is
to
(?
with
say, until
Take the same incomon flower of
salt, dilute
as
men have
53
who
already shewn to those
possess reason the disposition of this Art,
and the best point of

they mentioned,
is,
their Art,
which
that a Httle of this
sulphur burns a strong body.
Accordand name it in
the beginning of their book, and the
ingly they venerate
son of
this
Adam
vinegar
it
thus described
burns
For
it.
body,
the
con-
and also whitens

the body, which, if ye cook well and
deprive of blackness, is changed into a
stone, so that it becomes a coin of
most intense whiteness. Cook, there-
verts
it
into a cinder,
fore, the
and
stone until
then
it
be disintegrated,
and temper with
dissolve
Know
water of the sea.
also, that the
beginning of the whole work

whitening,
to
redness, finally
work;
but
vinegar,
follows
I
which
is
succeeds
this,
and by the
will
by means of
of God, there
a complete perfection.
in the case of the
divine mystery.
the
the perfection of the
after
have shewn
the
to you,
Now,
disciples of
incombustible sulphur.
This
is
the
54
this
Turba, the disposition of the one
more perfect, more

precious, and more honourable, than
all natures, and I swear to you by God
thing,
that
which
is
have searched
books so that
for
a long time in
might arrive at the
knowledge of
this
prayed also to
God
one thing, while
that he would teach
me what it is. My prayer was heard. He

shewed me clean water, whereby I
and the more I did
read books, the more was I illuminated.
knew pure
vinegar,
The Sixteenth Dictum,
Socrates
saith:
those that
still
Know,
crowd of
remain of the Sons of
the Doctrine, that no tincture can be
produced without Lead, which possesses
Have ye not seen

Hermes infused the
the required virtue.
how
thrice-great
was changed
colour ?*
Know,
red into the body, and

into an invariable
it
therefore, that the first virtue
The second
thrice-great
recension reads
"
Have ye
Hermes, that so often as
body, the same body
is
is
vinegar,
not seen, says
infused into the

changed into an invariable colour ? "
it is
55
and the second is the Lead''' of which the

Wise have spoken, which if it be infused
into all bodies, renders all unchangeable, and tinges them with an invariable
colour.
Take, therefore. Lead which
is made out of the stone called Kuhul +
let it be of the best quality, and let it
be cooked till it becomes black. Then
pound the same with Water of Nitre
until it is thick like grease, and cook
;
again in a very bright

spissitude
of the
M. Berthelot
tells
until
fire
body
the
destroyed,
is
us that lead was regarded by the
Egyptian alchemists as the generator of the other metals
and the
first
matter of transmutation, which he explains
common
with a number
of other simple bodies and metallic alloys.
Zosimus, the
by the appearances
Panopolite,
says
may
it
possesses in
be cited
All substances
produced by lead alone,
the Substances
t
The
is
he
for
i.e.,
it
is
from lead that the three
copper, iron, and tin. Zosimus
and Non-substances of Art.
significance
accurately Kohol,
confirmation of this point
were recognised by the Egyptians as
other bodies are derived,
On
in
is
of the
term
Kuhul,
to be found in S3îac
or
more
alchemy
it
the equivalent of alcool and sulphurated antimony in the
form of an impalpable powder.
Kuhul, or Koheul,
is
explained by Rulandus to be the Lead of the Philosophers.
The Alcohol mentioned by M.

different
Berthelot seems to be
from Alcool of wine, and
Part of any
is,
in fact, the
body separated from that which
is
impure.
pure
56
water
the
being
rejected.
Kindle,
above it until the stone becomes clean, abounding in precious

Pound
metal, and exceedingly white.
therefore,
it
dew and the
afterwards with
and with sea and rain water

days with
for 10
sun,
for 21 days,
water, and
salt
10
days with fresh water,* when ye shall
same like to a metallic stone.

Cook the same once more with water
of nitre until it become tin by liquethe
find
Again cook
faction.
until
it
be deprived
But
of moisture, and become dry.
know that when it becomes dry it
drinks up what remains of its humour
swiftly, because it is burnt lead. Take
care, however, lest it be burnt. Thus we
*
The second
with dew,
water
for
days."
salt,
recension reads
and rain water
**
Atterwards pound
for 29 days, again
20 days, and yet again with fresh water
The
explanation of
all
Great Mystery.
of Democritus,
process
of
10
and
an important part
the
in the
In the Natural and Mysterious Question*
dew
is
whitening,
Fhilosophical
for
Rosicrucian mysteries has
been referred to the dew of the alchemists,

ros philosophorum certainly plays
it
with salt
Egg
it is
mentioned
and
in
in
the
tabulated as a
or philosophical albumen, but here
the additions of a later hand.
connection with a
fragment
name
on
the
of the white
M. Berthelot suspects
57
incombustible sulphur. Pound

same with the sharpest vinegar,
and cook till it becomes thick, taking
call it
the
care lest the vinegar be changed into
smoke and perish continue this coction

for 150 days.
Now, therefore, I have
;
demonstrated
the
disposition
of the
which afterwards follows

being no more than women's work and
white lead,
all
Know,
play.
child's
also,
that
the
arcanum of the work of gold proceeds out

of the male and the female, but I have
shewn you the male in the lead, while,
in like manner, I have discovered for
you the female in orpiment.*
Mix,
lead,
the
because she
But
female
the
for
receiving
orpiment
the
therefore,
in
assisted
is
by the male*
the male receives a tingeing spirit
M.
Mix them,
therefore,
Berthelot indentifies orpiment with the arsenic
of the ancients.
Greek
rejoices
the
strength of the male,
from the female.
with
The word
itself
does not occur in the
writers, but there is a fifteenth century translation
from Latin to Greek of the Semita Recta, ascribed to

Albertus Magnus,
which
it is
found.
who
reappears as Peter Theoctonicos, in
58
together, place in a glass vessel,
pound with Ethelia and

vinegar
cook
for
ver}^
and
sharp
seven days, taking
care lest the arcanum smoke away, and

leave throughout the night.
wish
it
that
it
to put
on
mud
if
ye
(colour), seeing
again imbue
already dry,
is
But
Now, therefore, I have

you the power of orpiment,
which is the woman by whom is accomplished the most great arcanum.
Do not shew these unto the evil, for
with vinegar.
notified to
they
will laugh.
vinegar which
tion,
work,
is
It is
placed in the prepara-
by which things
whereby
the Ethelia of
God
also
perfects the
spirits
take
possession of bodies, and they become

spiritual.
The Seventeenth Dictum,
ZiMON* saith : O Turba of Philosophers and disciples, now hast thou

spoken about making into white, but it
yet remains to treat concerning the
reddening
Know,
all
ye seekers after
^* Otherwise Zenon, according to the second recension.
make
cannot
unless ye whiten, ye
that
Art,
this
59
because the two
red,
natures are nothing other than red and
Whiten, therefore, the
white.
redden the white

the year
the
and
also, that
divided into four seasons
is
first
Know,
!*
red,
season
of a
is
frigid
com-
and this is Winter the second

is of the complexion of air, and this is
Spring then follows the third, which
is summer, and is of the complexion of
plexion,
fire
lastly, there is
fruits are
the fourth, wherein
matured, which
is
Autumn,
In this manner, therefore, ye are to rule
your natures, namely, to dissolve
in
winter, to cook in spring, to coagulate

in
summer, and to gather and tinge the

in autumn.
Having, therefore,
fruit
given
this
example, rule the tingeing
natures, but
if
save yourselves.
Thou
*
ye
err,
The
blame no one
Turba answereth
hast treated the matter extremely
A commentary
introduced into the text of Zosimus
on Virtue and Interpretation, observes
mence by making
perfect
and
solid.
If
thou dost com-
white, the yellowing will be perfect,
6o
well
add, therefore, another teaching
of this kind for the sake of posterity.
And
he
will
Take
red."^'
the
Master
at
the
speak of making lead

copper which
the
you
ordered
beginning
of
take
to
book,
his
combine lead therewith, and cook it

until it becomes thick
congeal also
and desiccate until it becomes red.
Here certainly is the Red Lead of
which the wise spake copper and lead
become a precious stone mix them
equally, let gold be roasted with them,
for this, if ye rule well, becomes a
tingeing spirit in spirits. +
So when
the male and the female are conjoined
there is not produced a volatile wife,
;
From
but a spiritual composite.
composite turned into a red
produced the beginning

*
The
various
substances
spirit is
of the world.
which
alchemists
founded under the names of Minium, Rubric,
enumerated by M. Berthelot, including,

sur-oxyde of lead, which
not only
oxydes of
vermillion,
is
the
the
etc.,
conare
in addition to the
modern name
cinnabar, realgar,
of
etc.,
minium,
but some
iron.
t The second recension

spirit among spirits."
reads
becomes a mighty
Behold
called
this
is
we have
the lead which
Red Lead, which
is
6i
of our work,
and without which nothing
is
effected
The Eighteenth Dictum,
MuNDUS
saith
seekers after this
Turba The
Art must know that
the
to
the Philosophers in their books have
described
gum
in
many
ways, but
it is
none other than permanent water, out

of which our precious stone is generated.*
after this
who
find
O how many
are the seekers
gum, and how few there are

it
Know
gum
that this
is
not ameliorated except by gold alone.
For there be very many who investigate

these applications, and they find certain
things,
the
labours
It
yet
they cannot sustain
because they are dimi-
appears from Zosimus on The Detailed Exposition
of the Work, that with the addition of a little [philosoAnd

phical] gum any species of body may be tinged.
when Mundus
in
identifies
Gum
with Permanent Water he
agreement with the same authority,
of the passage just cited
That which tinges
water, the great mystery.

in a
we
tinctures
find the following
and things tinged
The gum
is
for in the context
of gold
fragment attributed to Agathodemon.
is
is
words:
Divine
mentioned
62
But the applications which
nished.
are
made
gum and
out of the
out of
the honourable stone, which has already
held the
tincture,
the
they sustain
and are never diminished.

Understand, therefore, my words, for I
will explain unto you the applications
of this gum, and the arcanum existing
labours,
Know
therein.
ye that our
stronger than gold, and
know
it
do hold
all
gum
those
is
who
more honourable
it
than gold, yet gold we also honour, for

without it the gum cannot be improved.
Our gum, therefore, is for Philosophers

more precious and more sublime than
pearls,
because out of
gum
with a
little
we buy much.
when committing these
things to writing that the same might
Consequently, the
gold
Philosophers,
not perish, have not set forth in their
books the
manifest
disposition,
lest
every one should become acquainted
and having become familiar

to fools, the same would not sell it at
Take, therefore, one
a small price.
part of the most intense white gum
therewith,
63
one part of the urine of a white calf;
one part of the
gall of
fish
and one
part of the body of gum, without which

it
cannot be improved
tions
and cook
mix these por-
for forty days.
When
these things have been done, congeal
by the heat
the sun
of
Then cook
dried.
the
till
they are
same, mixed
with milk of ferment, until the milk

afterwards extract it, and until it
become dry evaporate the moisture by
heat.
Then mix it with milk of the
fig,
and cook it till that moisture
be dried up in the composite, which
afterwards mix with milk of the root of
grass, and again cook until it be dry.
fail
Then
moisten
it
with rainwater, then
sprinkle with water of dew,

until
it
be dried.
and cook
Also imbue with per-
manent water, and desiccate until it

become of the most intense dryness.
Having done these things, mix the same
with the
all
gum which
is
equipped with
manner of colours, and cook
until
perish
the whole
;
and the
force
entire
of
strongly
the water
body be deprived
64
of
humidity, while ye imbue the
its
same by
cooking,
Then
thereof be kindled.
forty days.
Let
it
the dryness
until
remain
dismiss for
in that tritura-
tion or decocting until the spirit pene-
For by this regimen the

spirit is made corporeal, and the body
Observe the
is changed into a spirit.
trate the body.
vessel, therefore, lest the composition
and
fly
pass
off in
open the
things being accomplished,
and ye
vessel,
arcanum
will find
This,
purposed.
These
fumes.
that which ye
therefore,
is
the
of gum, which the Philosophers
have concealed
in their books.
The Nineteenth Dictum.
Dardaris
knowledge
saith
that the
It
common
is
Masters" before
us have described Permanent Water.
Now,
it
behoves one who
is
introduced
to this Art to attempt nothing

familiar with the
The
power of
this
he
is
Per-
reference to the Masters, which occurs twice in
this dictum, is to be understood
in the
till
not of previous speakers
Assembly, but of the older philosophers, namely,
the Greek Alchemists.
65
manent Water, and in commixture,

contrition, and the whole regimen, it
behoves
us
to
use
invariably
famous Permanent Water.

fore,
who
does
sable regimen,
may
understand
not
Permanent Water, and
its
is
effected with-
out the Permanent Water.

is
indispen-
not enter into this
Art, because nothing
thereof
this
He, there-
The
force
a spiritual blood, whence
the Philosophers have called
manent Water,
for,
Per-
it
having pounded
it
with the body, as the Masters before
me
have explained to you, by the
of
God
it
will
turns that body into spirit.*
For these, being mixed together

and reduced to one, transform each
the body incorporates the
other;
and the spirit incorporates
spirit,
the body into tinged spirit, like blood.
And know ye, that whatsoever hath
the
same hath blood also
spirit
Remember, therefore, this
as well.
arcanum
!
The second
recension adds:
"and
the
spirit into
body."
The Turha Philosophorum
66
The Twentieth Dictum,
Belus
saith
disciples,
discoursed excellently
ye have
Pythagoras
!"
Seeing that they are philosoBelus, why hast thou called

He answereth
them disciples
answers
phers,
It is
honour of their Master,
lest I
should
make them equal with him.
Then
in
Those who, in con-
Pythagoras saith
junction with us, have composed this
book which is called the Turha^ ought

not to be termed disciples. Then he
Master, they have frequently described
Permanent Water, and the making of
:
The whole of this Dictum recalls a passage in

On Virtue and Interpretation It is for these
Zosimus,
reasons that
my excellent
master, Democritus, makes him-
self the following distinction
Take that stone which
is
not a stone, that precious thing which has no value, that
polymorphous object which

thing which
is
known
and has no name,

is
same time
one.
it
has no
it is
money
Nevertheless,
this stone
its
nature
is
one,
its
do not say absolutely speaking, but according
it, I
nature, so that whether
flees the fire, or
uttered.
For
exceedingly precious, at the
value
given
is
which has many names
many denominations have been
to
its
without form, that unknown
refer to aphroselinon."
not a stone, and while
name
is
to everyone,
it is
called the being
which
white smoke, or white copper, no falsehood
The Tiirba Philosophorum.
67
White and the Red in many ways,

albeit under many names
but in the
modes after which they have conjoined
the
weights, compositions, and regimens,
they agree
with
Behold, what
is
hidden
the
truth.
said concerning this
A report has gone

abroad that the Hidden Glory of the
Philosophers is a stone and not a stone,
despised thing
and that
the
lest
it
is
to
called
foolish
Certain wise
after
by many names,
should recognise
men have
one fashion,
it.
designated
it
namely, according
the place where
it
is
generated
others have adopted another, founded
some of whom have

termed it the Green Stone ;* by other
some it is called the Stone of the most
intense Spirit of Brass, not to be mixed
upon
its
colour,
by yet others its description has been further varied, because

it is sold for coins by lapidaries who
are called saven ; some have named it
Spume of Luna \^ some have distinwith bodies
The second recension reads ' Green Lion."

Sputum Lunae does not seem to be a term which
:
found favour with Latin alchemy, and accordingly
it
is
68
guished
astronomically
it
metically;
thousand
it
arith-
has already received a
titles,
of which the best
which
**That
or
produced
is
is
out
of
metals." So also others have called it

the Heart of the Sun, and yet others
have declared it to be that which is
brought forth out of quicksilver with

the milk of volatile things.
The Twenty-first Dictum,
Pandolfus
much concerning
said so
wanting
in the
Rulandus,
O Belus, thou hast
saith
who
Lexicons.
It
the despised
very curious to note that
is
quite frequently quotes the Turba, seems
seldom to have troubled himself about the significance of

its
bizarre terms.
tion, there is
which
falls
In Zosimus,
from the
moon when
referred to as describing
it
'
On
where
will find
it
with
me and
is
it
it
has the quality of resisting the
you
Virtue and Interpreta-
a prescription from Hermes concerning " that
is
fire.
Turba
recalls
mythology of
of mercury.
But
In fact, says Hermes,
allegorise
Note
also
Bulandus,
the
Lapis Arabicus, Aphroselinum,
Moon,
Moon."
&c., supposed not only to reflect the likeness of the
but to be "
M.
upon the
the expression in the
the passage of Synesius.

Selenite,
is
and how
with Agathodaimon."
Berthelot supposes this passage to

volatilisation
waning," and he
to be found,
made from dew by
the foam of the
stone* that thou hast
left
added by thy brethren

I
teach
stone
all
is
69
nothing to be
Howsoever,
posterity that this despised
a permanent water, and know,
ye seekers after Wisdom, that per-
manent water
life,t
is
water
mundane
of
because, verily, Philosophersiaye
stated that Nature rejoices in Nature,
Nature contains Nature, and Nature

overcomes Nature. The Philosophers
have constituted this short dictum the
principle of the work for reasonable
And know ye that no body
persons.
more precious or purer than the Sun,

and that no tingeing venomt is gene-
is
The Turba Philosophorum does not betray any-
where the hand
of a Christian compiler,
and although the
reference to the despised stone suggests the stone
the builders
have
Zosimus, and not from the

as Zosimus himself
which
derived
from
New Testament, except in
so far
rejected,
idea
the
may have drawn
it
is
from that source.
Treating, in his dictum on the subject of calx, concerning
the uncommunicated mystery of the encephalous

the Greek adept calls
precious,
it
the despised thing which
and so on through a number
is
stone,
most
of contradicting
denominations.
t
X

The symbolism of the venom
also found in
clean water."
of the philosophers is
Zosimus, commenting upon Democritus.
70
Sun and its shadow.

He, therefore, who attempts to make
rated without the
venom
the
of the Philosophers without
and has
these, already errs,
fallen into
that pit wherein his sadness remains.
But he who has tinged the venom of

the wise out of the Sun and its shadow*
has arrived at the highest Arcanum.
Know also that our coin when it
becomes red, is called gold he, therefore, who knows the hidden Cambart
of the Philosophers, to him is the
;
Arcanum
already revealed. The
answereth
Thou hast
The Greek word signifies, says an

M. Berthelot, the rouille of metals, the
it is
the
spirit
body. On Virtue and

*
intel-
annotation
specific
of bodies, and the venom of serpents.
Zosimus,
Turba
even now
of
virtue
According to
separated from the substance of a
Interpretation.
quotation from
Mary
(the
Measure of Yellowing runs thus:

with sulphur, treated with
first) in
Zosimus On
Copper
the
when burned
natron, and recovered
oil ot
having undergone the same process several times,
after
becomes an excellent gold without shadow.

t
his
This oriental term
Essay on
explanation of
its
by M. Berthelot
referred to
significance,
of the Lexicons of
treatise, entitled
of an adept.
is
the Transmission of Ancient Science
Alchemy.
and
it is
in
without
not found in any
In an ancient alchemical
The Code of Truth,
it
figures as the
name
71
thou
ligibly described this stone, yet
hast not narrated
its
regimen nor
its
composition.
Return, therefore, to the
description.
He
saith
you
direct
and honourable arcanum, which is White Magnesia,* and

the same is mixed and pounded with
to take an occult
make
wine, but take care not to

of this except
finally place
it
be pure and clean
and pray God
in its vessel,
it
He may grant you the
that
very great stone. t
in
sight of this
Then cook gradually,
and, extracting, see

black stone,
use
if it
has become a
which case ye have
ruled excellently well.
But
rule
it
thus
which is a great arcanum,

becomes Kuhul, closed up with
for the white,
until
it
The Chemistry
for the
an equal quantity
Let
burnt clay.
Then,
of Moses gives the following process
whitening of Magnesia:
if it
of
it
to cook
this mystery, for
it
Cappadocian
salt,
Magnesia and
place in a vessel of
stay there from evening
be black,
is far better
"Taking
let it
it
in
be cooked
till
it
till
morning.
whitens, but
it
Hide
a glass-maker's furnace.
comprises everything which concerns
whitening by decoction."
of
the
Philosopher's Stone as a medicine of metals and of
men
t It
was
does not appear that
familiar to
Greek alchemy.
the
conception
72
blackness, which blackness see that
it
does not remain longer than forty days.
Pound the same,
therefore, with its
confections, which are the said flower
whose root
one, and a certain extract of an
of copper, gold of the Indies

is
unguent, that
is,
a crocus, that
of
fixed exalted alum, or
;*
t^
is,
cook the four,
therefore, permanently for 40 or 42 days.
God
After these days
will
show you the
principle (or beginning) of this stone,
which
the stone Atitos,
is
favoured sight of
Cook
which
many
there are
strongly,
and imbue
gum that remains.
And know
accounts.
with the
God
of
ye that so often as ye imbue the cinder,

so often
must
it
be desiccated
again humectated, until
its
colour turns
Now, there-
into that which ye desire.

fore, will I
The
complete that which
authenticity of this sign
and the marginal note which

editions does not help
it
out.
is
of the
sentence
immediately
recension confirms this view.
is
have
extremely doubtful,
appended
It is
reading of the word Hoc^ which
is
and
to
most printed
no doubt
really a mis-
required to
following.
make sense
The second
begun,
if
Know
God
also
to
rule
will look kindly
that
work of
the
third part
the
the
on us.*
perfection
precious
this
with
it
y^
stone
residue
of
of
is
the
the medicine, and to
of
preserve the two other parts for im-
buing and cooking alternately

required colour appears.!
more
be
it
Let the
than the
intense
is
desiccated
when
wax
therefore, the
Cook,
coheres.
it
until
fire
former;
the matter be cerated, and
let
the
till
imbibes
it
the gluten of gold, which being desiccated,
imbue the
seven
times
until
the
work
other
two-
of
rest
the
and true earth imFinally, place the same
thirds be finished,
bibe them
all.
on a hot fire until the earth extract its

flower and be satisfactory.
Blessed
are ye if ye understand
But, if not,
!
I will
repeat to you the perfection of
The
original
emendation given
is
untranslatable
in the text
the
conjectural
has no authority, and
is
only
introduced to provide a meaning.

t
The
substituted,
reading of the
owing
second
recension
has
been
to the corrupt state of the longer text.
74
Take the
the work.
is
clean white, which
a most great arcanum, wherein
true tincture;
which sand
is
is
the
imbue sand therewith,
made
out of the stone
seven times imbued, until
it
drink up
the whole, and close the mouth of the
you have often been

For that which ye seek of it by
the favour of God, will appear to you,
vessel effectually, as
told.
which
is
Now,
therefore,
truth, so
the stone of Tyrian colour.
do
have
fulfilled
conjure you by
the
God and
your sure Master, that you show not

this great
wicked
arcanum, and beware of the
The Twenty 'Second Dictum,
Theophilus
saith:
intelligently
and
Thou
hast spoken
elegantly,
held free from envy.
Saith the
and
art
Turba
Let your discretion, therefore, explain

to us what the instructing Pandolfus
has stated, and be not envious. Then
he
all
ye seekers after
this science,
the arcanum of gold and the art of the

coin is a dark vestment, and no one
knows what the

narrated
in
75
have
Philosophers
books
their
without
and
For that
which they have concealed is more
sublime and obscure than it is possible
to make known in words, and albeit
some have dealt with it intelligibly
and well, certain others have treated
it obscurely
thus some are more lucid
frequent
reading,
experiments,
questionings of the Wise.
The
than others.
Thou
Turba
answereth
And
hast truly spoken.
he
announce to posterity that between

boritis and copper there is an affinity,
because the boritis of the Wise liquefies
the copper, and it changes as a fluxible
water.
Divide, therefore, the
venom
two equal parts, with one of which
into
liquefy
the copper, but preserve the
other to pound and imbue the same,

until
again
it is
drawn out
with
to seven in its
*
'
cook
the
to seven in
This unintelligible passage
recension
of
two; cook
own water for 42 days ;*
venom, cook two
first
into plates
the former part
is
better rendered in the
Cook with the former
part of the
venom
76
finally,
open the
and ye
vessel,
find copper turned
shall
quicksilver;
into
wash the same by cooking until it be

deprived of its blackness, and become
as copper without a shadow.
cook
continuously until
it
For when
gealed.
be con-
congealed
is
it
it
Lastly,
becomes a very great arcanum.
it
Ac-
cordingly, the Philosophers have called

this stone Boritis;* cook, therefore, that
becomes a matter like mucra. Then imbue it with the

Permanent water which I directed you
coagulated stone until
to reserve, that
many
it
colours manifest.
its
^s
to say, with the other
is
and cook
portion,
it
times until
This, therefore,
the very great putrefaction which
extracts (or contains in
arcanum.
great
until
it
shall
itselt)
Saith
the
have absorbed both, and do
But donee duas
the very
Turba:
this seven times."
ebibat does not agree with the subsequent
directions found in each version.

Boritis,
according to Rulandus,
after the black state,
and
it
is
the White Stone
reduces earth to water.
late
French Lexicon observes that the name was applied by

Philosophers to their Mercury
extreme black stage.

whitened.
The word
is
It is
when
it
had reached the
the Laton which must be
of Oriental origin.
Return to thine exposition,
yy
Theo-
And
he: It is to be known
same affinity which exists
between the magnet and iron, also
exists assuredly between copper and
philus!
that the
permanent water.
If, therefore, ye
copper and permanent water as I
have directed, there will thence result
the very great arcanum in the following
fashion.
Take white Magnesia and
quicksilver,* mix with the male, and
pound strongly by cooking, not with
the hands, until the water become thin.
But dividing this water into two parts,
in the one part of the water cook it
rule
for eleven, otherwise, forty days, until
there be a white flower, as the flower of

salt in its
splendour and coruscation
but strongly close the mouth

vessel,
ye
and cook
will find
it
of
for forty days,
the
when
water whiter than milk
by cooking
continue the cooking until its whole
nature be disintegrated, until the dedeprive
The
it
of all blackness
second
recension reads
mixed with the male."
" Take
quicksilver
78
filement
perish,
until
it
be
found
clean, and is wholly broken up (or

becomes wholly clean). But if ye wish
that the whole arcanum, which I have
given you, be accomplished, wash
the same with water, that is to say,
the other part which I counselled
you
to
preserve,
until
a crocus, and leave in
there appear
its
own
vessel.
For the Iksir pounds (or contains)

itself; imbue also with the residue of
the water, until by decoction and by
water it be pounded and become like
a syrup of pomegranates; imbue it,
therefore, and cook, until the weight
of the humidity shall fail, and the
colour
which
the Philosophers have
magnified shall truly appear.

The Twenty-third Dictum,
Cerus*
saith
Understand,
all
ye Sons
of the Doctrine, that which Theophilus
hath told you, namely, that there exists
an
affinity
*
between the magnet and the
The name
Bellus.
substituted by the second recension
is
;
:
;
by the
iron,
magnet and the
existing between the
copper
iron, while the
composites
of
alliance
79
ruled for
is fitly
what statement
can be more useful to you than that
there is no affinity between tinf and
one hundred days
quicksilver
Turba
The
?+
Thou hast ill
:*
spoken, having disparaged
And
the true disposition.

that
answereih
he
I testify-
say nothing but what
is
true
you incensed against me ?

Fear the Lord, all ye Turba, that your
The Turba
Master may believe you
answereth : Say what you will. And he
I direct you to take quicksilver, in
which is the male potency or strength
why
are
The second
recension adds
and water of the Philosophers.

tion
is
: " Between
This
affinity
the copper
and combina-
given to them in the space ot one hundred days."
The definition may not be important, but it
is,
perhaps,
as well to state that the Greek Lexicon of Chry sop eia explains
that tin alchemically
is
cinnabar,
and that
cinnabar
sublimed vapour obtained by coction in cauldrons.
M.
Berthelot observes that the reference
mercury or the sulphur

\
is
is
Here
to sublimed
thereof.
According to the alternative version : ' The nature
of the one does not agree with the nature of the other."
The proper end
to obtain the
semen
of the whole art," says Horus, "is
of the
male
secretly, seeing that all
8o
cook the same with
becomes a
fluxible
its
body
until it
water; cook the
masculine together with the vapour,

until
each
and
be coagulated
shall
become a stone. Then take the water

which you had divided into two parts,
and cooking the body, but the second is for
cleansing that which is already burnt,
and its companion, which [two] are
of which one
made
is for
one.
liquefying
Imbue the stone seven
and cleanse, until it be disintegrated, and its body be purged from

become earth.
defilement, and
all
times,
Know
also that in the time of forty-two
days the whole
is
changed into earth
by cooking, therefore, liquefy the same

until it become as true water, which is
Then wash with water of
quicksilver.
nitre until it become as a liquefied coin.
Then cook until it be congealed and
become Hke to tin, when it is a most
Hence Horus says
things are male and female.

certain place
will
find that
in
Join the male and the female, and you
which
process of reunion,
charms Nature," &c.
is
sought
nothing
as a fact, without this
can
succeed, for
Nature
Olympiodorus On the Sacred Art.
%l
The Turba Philosophonim,
great
arcanum
stone which
is
that
is
8i
say,
to
out of two things.
the
Rule
same by cooking and pounding,

until it becomes a most excellent
the
Know
crocus.
also
that unto water
companion we have
given the name of crocus. Cook it,
therefore, and imbue with the residual
water reserved by you until you attain
desiccated with
its
your purpose.
The Twenty -fourth Dictum,
BocAScus*
well,
Thou
saith:
hast spoken
Belus, and therefore
thy steps
He
answereth
As
follow
it
may
please you, but do not become envious,

for that
is
not the part of the Wise.
And
BocAscus: Thou speakest the truth,

and thus, therefore, I direct the Sons of
Take
the Doctrine.
lead, and, as the
liquefy,
have ordained, imbue,

and afterwards congeal, until a
stone
produced
Philosophers
is
then rule the stone
with gluten of gold and syrup of pomegranates until

*
The name
it
in the
be broken up. But you

second recension
is
Boratis.
82
have already divided the water into

two parts, with one of which you have
and
liquefied the lead,
it
has become
same
until it be dried and have become
earth
then pound with the water
as water;
cook,
therefore, the
reserved until
it
acquire a red colour,
as you have been frequently ordered.*
The Turba answereth
Thou
hast done
nothing but pile up ambiguous words.
And
Return, therefore, to the subject.

he
Ye who wish
to coagulate quick-
must mix
silver,1"
*
Otherwise:
The Greek
*'
with
it
Rule frequently, as
have said."
alchemists claim to have accomplished
means of the Body
the fixation of Mercury by
Zosimus understands
by which
equal.
its
I
of
Magnesia,
An
molybdochalchos.
unassigned fragment of the Byzantine collection has the

following poetical reference to the fixation of Mercury
" Mercury
obtained
is
like
in
cinnabar, a rare substance, that

I refer
It is that
easily volatilised,
become an
hemisphere
of the
above
wisdom.
difficult to retain,
" With
which
is
in the testing of souls.
spirit,
it
suitable
termed dried and
darts towards
Having
the upper
descends and ascends, avoiding the action
it
its
printer's choice
all
employed
etherised
fire, until,
state of
by the dry way and a
to cinnabar obtained
roasting.
manner with artificial

is, one met with rarely.
quitting
Until
and
is
it
its role of fugitive, it
reaches a
has attained this condition,
mortal."
it
is
Fabrication of the All,
body," says the second recension
between compart and carport.
it is
Afterwards cook
it
diligently until both
become permanent
cook
But
water, and, again,
water until
this
be coagulated.
it
be desiccated with
let this
83
its
own
equal vapour, because ye have found

the whole quicksilver to be coagulated
by
in
If
itself.*
ye understand, and place
your vessel what

until
it
poundt
is
necessary, cook
be coagulated,
it
until
it
and then
becomes a crocus like to
the colour of gold.
The Twenty -fifth Dictum.
Menabdus
the
for
the truth
May God
saith:
regimen, since thou speakest
For thou hast illuminated
thy words.
And they
thou praisest him
It is said
And he
do
know
can utter nothing but that which
he hath uttered
posterity to
*
because
for his sayings,
not be inferior to him.

that
reward thee
The second
make
however,
counsel
bodies not bodies,
recension reads
: " Let
the whole be
coagulated into quicksilver."

t
more
The second
in its vessel,
recension merely says
and pound."
: "
Place
it
once
84
but these incorporeal things bodies.*
For by
this
regimen the composite
prepared, and the hidden part of
nature
is
With
extracted.
is
its
these bodies
accordingly join quicksilver and the
body of Magnesia,! the woman also with

the man, and by means of this there
is
extracted our secret Ethelia, through
which bodies are coloured
assuredly,
understand this regimen, bodies
if I
become not bodies, and incorporeal

things become bodies. If ye diligently
pound the things in the fire and digest
Egg
The Byzantine fragment upon The
contains this statement
and unless bodies again
corporeal state,
corporeal state, that which
But Mary
is
correspond
literally
is
Philosophical
" Unless bodies lose their
assume
quoted by Olympiodorus
in
terms which
with the text of the Turba: " Except
you convert corporeal substances
into
incorporeal, and
incorporeal substances into corporeal, and unless you
two bodies
achieved."
into
The
in precisely the
their
desired will not be attained."
one body, no desired

" divine "
same
Zozimus
fashion,
that to convert and transmute
result
also quotes
make
will
be
Hermes
and he observes elsewhere

is
to impart
body
to the
incorporeal. r^ Body of Magnesia.
Zosimus, commenting upon Mary, concludes that

Body of Magnesia is molybdochalchos, or black
the
lead.
try
[See note on
p. 82.]
on the subject of the
last
The
confusion of old chemis-
substance
is
well
known.
85
become
And know ye
(or join to) the Ethelias, they
clean and fixed things.

that quicksilver
bodies,
is
fire
mortifying and
burning the
breaking up,
with one regimen, and the more
it
is
mixed and pounded with the body, the

more the body is disintegrated, while
the quicksilver is attenuated and becomes living. For when ye shall diligently pound fiery quicksilver and cook
it
as required, ye will possess Ethel, a
nature* and
fixed
colour, subject
to
every tincture, which also overcomes,

breaks,
and constrains the
this reason
For
fire.t
does not colour things
it
unless it be coloured, and being coloured

it
colours.!
can tinge
And know
that no
unless
spirit
itself
its
body
be ex-
tracted from the secret belly thereof,
when
it
That
becomes a body and soul withis,
which does not
according to the second recension, " one

flee
from the
fire."
t Alternatively, "all bodies,"
which seems a preferable
reading.
X
The second
colours
once
it
all spirits,
has been
recension
says that
because Ethelia tinges
itself
tinged."
"
all
it
holds and
things
when
86
out the
tincture,
which is a spiritual
out of which colours have
spirit,*
manifested, seeing that a dense thing
does not tinge a tenuous, but a tenuous

nature colours that which enters into a
When, however, ye have
body.
ruled
the body of copper, and have extracted
from
it
a most tenuous (subject), then
the latter
which
tinge
know
unless
first
And
be tinged.
it
that those four bodies which you
This distinction between the soul and the
The
copper does not
said, that
recognised by Zosimus,
soul
Hence has the
coloured. +
it is
man
wise
changed into a tincture by
is
is
who
follows
spirit is
Democritus.
The
the primitively sulphureous and caustic nature.
purifying influence of
fire
preserves the spirit
when
the operation has been conducted according to the rules of
The
Art.
spirit is
the useful part, the tingeing element.
The Four Metallic Bodies,

t In his treatise
cites
Democritus
On
dtc.
Virtue
and
to the effect that
Interpretation,
but that copper burnt by means of
having undergone
oil
of natron, and
this treatment repeatedly,
beautihil than gold.
Zosimus
copper does not tinge,
becomes more
" Copper does not tinge so long as
preserves an unique essence, but

tion with other bodies.
How
it
then,
tinges by
if this
its
it
combina-
combination be
wanting, and before the copper has been tinged, can one
succeed in tingeing objects made subject to the action oi

fire?"
are directed
87
to rule are this copper,
and that the tinctures which I have

signified unto you are the condensed
and the humid,* but the condensed is
a conjoined vapour, and the humid is
the
water
of
sulphur,
for
sulphurs
are contained by sulphurs, and rightly
by these things Nature

Nature, and overcomes,
rejoices
and
in
con-
strains.
The Twenty-Sixth Dictum,
Zenon
saith:
perceive that you,
crowd of the Wise, have conjoined two

bodies, which your Master by no
The Turba
means ordered you to do
!
answer eth
Inform
according
us
to
O Zenon, in this
of envy
Then
beware
matter, and
he
Know that the colours which shall
your own opinion,
appear to you out of it are these.

Know, O Sons of the Doctrine, that it
behoves you to allow the composition
to putrefy for forty days,
*
The second
recension reads:
and then
to
"The condensed and
the humid are these two tinctures, the condensed being

joined with the humid."
88
Next
sublimate five times in a vessel.
and cook, when
join to a fire of dung,
these colours shall appear to you

the
day
first
black
unto a dry crocus,*
on the
citrine,
second black red, on
On
the third
the purple
finally,
colour will appear to you
like
the ferment
and the coin of the vulgar shall be

imposed then is the Ixir composed
out of the humid and the dry, and
then it tinges with an invariable tincture. Know also that it is called a body
wherein there is gold. But when ye
are composing the Ixir, beware lest
;
you extract the same

lingers.!
as an
For
and
Ixir.
imposed upon
preferable
venom
this
many
coins
reading
is,
because
life,
soul extracted out of
The
it
Extract, therefore, the same
were, birth
hastily, for
:l
is
as
it
is
it
and
things,
its
tincture,
" Crocus
like
unto
sericus."
t
The second
you extract the
recension substitutes
spirit
in
haste,
for
" Beware
perchance
it
lest
will
perish."
I
The second
recension reads: "And the soul shall
remain, a tincture extracted out of
imposed upon coins."
many
things,
and

therefore,
which
it
joined, from which
is
moves evil, but

from which it
Accord-
extracted.
is
re-
it
death to the bodies
it is
Masters
the
ingly,
to those things with
life
is
89
have said
that
between them there exists the same

desire as between male and female,
and
if
any one, being introduced to
know
should
Art,
these
this
he
natures,
would sustain the tediousness of cooking until he gained his purpose according to the will of God.
The Twenty-Seventh Dictum.
Gregorius*
it
have
to
like
all
ye Turba,
be
and they have ordered
ruled
marble
The name
Antimony,
stone
venerable
the
called
Efflucidinus,i
it
be observed that the envious
to
is
saith
in
in the
in
until
its
And
splendour. +
second recension
the
coruscates
it
is
Chambar.
second recension.
The most
bizarre terms of the Turba did not find favour with Western
Alchemists
is difficult
Eflflucidinus is a special instance in point.
to speak with complete authority, but
said almost certainly that no later author
Moreover, no vocabulary mentions it.

Stone
\ The comparison of the
gleaming marble
is
found,
among
in
it
made use of
its
It
may be
it.
splendour to
other of the Greek
90
they
to
Show,
what
therefore,
Then
posterity.
he
it
is
Willingly
must know that the copper

commingled with vinegar, and
is
water.
becomes
it
until
ruled
Finally, let it be congealed, and it
you
a coruscating stone with a
remains
brilliancy
ye
like
thus,
see
becomes
is cooked till it
becomes earth,
until
red
direct
you
is
it
turned
is
assume the aforesaid

shall become hidden
colour,
it
all
it
and
it
re-
will
become
It
behoves
gold of a Tyrian colour.
until
Then
gold.
when
thus,
it
it
it
and
into
ye see
repeatedly cook and imbue
you, therefore,
when
disintegrated
When
peat the process,
rule
to
red, because
it
colour
when
marble, which,
I
ye investigators of
alchemists, in Zosimus, and especially in his Detailed
Exposition of the Work, where, however, he is quoting

Democritus. " Mark the Philosopher, seized with a divine
on the subject of
transport,
this
white sulphur
preparation become like unto marble, then
And
mystery."
proceeds
substances,
which
again,
"
having
cited
is
If
the
there a great
Stephanus,
he
Now, that which tinges tinctures and tinged

the same is divine water, the great mystery,
is like
unto marble."

this Art,
gi
when ye have observed that

is
coruscating, to pound
Stone
this
and turn
earth,
some degree
quires
take
into
it
which
of redness
remainder*
the
the
until
then
the
of
ac-
it
water
ordered you to
enviousf
divide into two parts,
and ye
shall
imbibe themi several times until the

colours which are hidden by no body
appear unto you.

Know also that
if ye rule it ignorantly, ye shall see
I knew a
who commenced this
nothing of those colours.

person
certain
work, and operated
natures
the
of
who, when the redness was

somewhat slow in appearing, imagined
that he had made a mistake, and
truth,
so relinquished the
therefore,
how ye make
Otherwise:
The
recension,
work.||
'
Observe,
the conjunc-
a small quantity."
opprobrious term
is
omitted by the second
and the reference seems to be
to the division ot
the water indicated in an earlier part of the colloquy.

X
The second
recension substitutes " sand."
Otherwise
" until the hidden colours shall appear."
A common anecdote of the alchemists, reproduced

many variations, and even in Hermetic poems, such
|l
with
as Norton's Ordinal of Alchemy.
92
punic dye,* having em-
tion, for the
braced his spouse, passes swiftly into

her body,
liquefies,
breaks
congeals,
and disintegrates the same. Finally,
up,
the redness does not delay in coming,
and
if
ye
effect it
without the weight,
death will take place, whereupon

will be thought to be bad.
Hence,
order that the
fire
it
I
should be gentle in
when it is turned to
make the same intense,! and
liquefaction, but
earth
imbue
until
it
God
shall extract the
colours for us and they appear.
The Twenty-eighth Dictum.
CusTos
saith
Turba
at
am
surprised,
ye
all
the very great force and
nature of this water, for
when
entered into the said body,
it
it
has
turns
it
and next into powder,

to test the perfection of which take in
the hand, and if ye find it impalpable
as water, it is then most excellent;
first
into earth,
The second
That
is,
recension reads
" the male."
"intenser in congelation," according
the second recension.
to
93
otherwise, repeat the cooking until
brought
the
to
And know
that
if
required
it is
condition.
ye use any substance
other than our copper, and rule with
you nothing.
on the other hand, ye rule our
copper with our water, ye shall find all
that has been promised by us.
But
our water,
it
will profit
If,
the
Turba
vious'^'
answereth
created no
little
Father, the enobscurity
when
they commanded us to take lead and

white quicksilver, and to rule the same
with dew and the sun
till
it
becomes
Then he: They

a coin-like stone.
meant our copper and our permanent
when they thus
directed you to
and affirmed that
there should be produced the said coinlike stone, concerning which the Wise
have also observed, that Nature rejoices
in Nature, by reason of the affinity
which they know to exist between the
water,
cook
is
in a gentle fire,
The
distinction
little difficult
between the Wise and the Envious
to follow, nor
is it
at all certain that the
envious had less wisdom than the wise, or the wise less
envy than the envious.

Greeks
indifferently.
In either case, they were
all
94
two bodies, that is to say, copper

and permanent water. Therefore, the
nature of these two is one, for between
them there is a mixed affinity, without
which they would not so swiftly unite,

and be held together so that they
may become
Turba:
Saith the
one.
Why
do the envious direct us to take

the copper which we have now made,
and roasted until it has become gold ?
The Twenty-Ninth Dictum.
DiAMEDES
already,
saith
Thou
hast
spoken
Moses*, in an ungrudging
manner, as became thee
will also
confirm thy words, passing over the
hardness of the elements which the

wise desire to remove, this disposition
being
most
Know,
O ye
man
man
that
precious
in
eyes.
their
seekers after this doctrine,
does not
proceed
that only which
except
unto
from a
themselves
is
begotten from brute ani-
and so
also with flying creatures.
mals
This reference
is
is like
omitted from the second recension.
Moses may be a misprint
for Gustos, or vice
vena.
95
have treated these matters in compendious fashion, exalting you towards

the truth, who yourselves omit proI
Nature
lixity, for
is
truly not
improved
by Nature, save with her own nature,

seeing that thou thyself art not im-
proved except
say,
man
in
in
thy son, that
is
to
man.* See, therefore, that
ye do not neglect the precepts concerning her^ but
make
use of venerable
Nature, for out of her Art cometh, and

*
"
When
thou hast attained,
standing of these things by
way
my
creation and generation as a whole,

is
able to bring forth
man, the
dog procreates the dog.

is
child, to the under-
of a preliminary, consider
and know that man

and the
lion begets the lion,
Should
produced contrary to nature,
it
it
happen that a creature

is
a monster which
engendered, and the same hath no consistence.
is
Nature
charms nature, and nature triumphs through nature. The

adepts having participated in the divine power, and having
succeeded by the divine assistance, illuminated by the
fruit of
the prayers of
Isis,
made
preparations with certain
metallic minera, without having recourse to other (unsuitable) substances.
Thus they succeeded by means of the
substantial nature in triumphing over the matter

in the preparations.
said that
In
fact,
even as
employed
have previously
wheat begets wheat, and man sows man, so also
gold serves for
the
increase of
gold,
and
generally for the reproduction of their like.
mystery been revealed." Is/s
to
Horvs.
like
Now
things
hath the
g6
Know
out of no other.
less
you
rule
it,
also that un-
Nature and
seize hold of this
ye
obtain nothing.
will
therefore, that
male,
the red slave,*
in
who
Join,
son to
is
marriage with his
fragrant wife, which having been done,
Art
is
produced between them

matter
foreign
neither
unto
exceeding
The
nearer
is
precious
things,
else
is
the nature of
is
found also in old Arabian
defined this Stone by saying that
earth
burning
hard stone and
&c.
In
the
fire
running water and
It
is
fire
dead
the flying slave,
makes and
is
Speculum Majus of Vincent de
appears as a synonym of Mercury, which of
it
course
an obvious symbolism.
some
is
treatises,
"They have
and frozen
the thing which
Beauvais
is
it
soft stone.
the swift and the stable
made,"
it is
How
still. +
such as the Twelve Chapters of Ostanes:
permanent water
that
the Servus Fugitivus abounds in
allegory ot
alchemy, and
add no
sufficient for us, for
is
near, yet the son
later
these
powder nor anything
conception
treatise
lexicons, the
Rulandus attributes
ascribed to Hermes.
Red Servant
it
to
According to other
the matter from which the
is
Philosophers extract their Mercury, which must therefore
be the marriageable son mentioned

fugitive role of
Mercury
is
ment on The Fabrication of the

t
The second
begotten."
in the text above.
The
Greek
frag-
referred to in the
recension
All, as already cited.
reads:
"A
true
son
is
red
that
without
slave,
regimen cannot endure
97
which
Bacsen
the
saith
Diomedes, thou hast pubUcly

vealed this disposition
1
will
Woe
He may
who
are
therefore,
do not
flee
us, therefore,
God,
fear not
you
deprive
towards your brethren
We
answereth
even shed more light upon
unto you
Why,
He
of
this
is
it.
for
art
you envious
They answer
except from fools
what
re-
thy will
tell
And
he
Place Citrine with his wife after the

conjunction into the bath
do
not
kindle the bath excessively, lest they
be deprived
sense
of
and
motion
cause them to remain in the bath until

their
and the colour
body,
shall
become a
upon
restore unto
again suffer
it
and beware
lest
burning them
thereof,
certain unity, where-
the sweat thereof;
it
to die
then give
it
rest,
ye evaporate them by
in
too
strong a
fire.
Venerate the king and his wife,* and

*
According to Rulandus, the King
is
the spiritual
water which gives moisture to the female, but there are
many meanings.
This passage
is
the fountain-head of the
whole symbolism of the alchemical marriage, which
is
98
do not burn them, since you know not

when you may have need of these
things, which improve the king and his
wife.
Cook them, therefore, until they
become black, then white, afterwards
red, and finally until a tingeing venom
produced.
is
happy are
Science,
stand, but
my
seekers
if
not,
ye,
have
if
still
after
ye
this
under-
performed
duty, and that briefly, so that
ye remain
ignorant,
it
if
God who
is
hath concealed the truth from you
Blame
not, therefore, the
yourselves, for
if
Wise, but
God knew
that ye
possessed a faithful mind, most cer-
would reveal unto you the

Behold, I have established you
and have extricated you from
tainly he
truth.
therein,
error
The Thirtieth Dictum.
Bacsen
well,
saith:
Thou
O Diomedes, but
hast
do not see that
concerned: always with royal personages.

Sponsus and
Rosy
Cross,
illustrate
Spoma
spoken
Compare the
of the Chemical Nuptials of Christian
and the innumerable
Latin Alchemy.
able to a Greek source.
It
pictorial
emblems which
does not appear to be trace-
99
thou hast demonstrated the disposition

of Corsufle* to posterity
Corsufle
the
with
Tell
Of this same
have spoken
ways, and have confused it
many
in
envious
manner
all
of names.
cording
thy
to
matters, and
that this
is
Then he
Bacsen, ac-
me, therefore,
opinion
these
in
swear by thy father
the head of the work,t for
the true beginning hereof cometh after
Bacsen
the completion.
notice,
therefore,
to
saith:
give
seekers
future
commust be roasted
after this Art, that Corsufle is a
and that
posite,
*
The
Rulandus
lexicographers
after
alchemy who
of
followed
a long interval, explain that Corsufle, or as
they sometimes wrote
it,
Philosophers fixed at the

is
it
Carsufle, is the Sulphur of the
Red
Stage.
Under
neither form
the term to be found in Rulandus himselt, though he
was well acquainted with the Turba.
His dictionary,
however, includes Cor Fuffla, which might be a mutilated

version produced in a
the
impurity
German
of bodies,
printing office.
definition
It signifies
which does not
correspond either with the text of the Turba, or with the

vocabularies.
subsequent
obscure, and
it is
The
or Syrian alchemy published

t
head,
The
origin
of the word
by M. Berthelot.
According to the second recension, Corsufle

i.e.,
is
not found in the collections of Arabian
is
the
the crown, and not the beginning of the work.
speaker also
is different,
namely, Nephitus.
100
seven times, because when

at perfection
it
it
arrives
tinges the whole body.
The Turba answereth: Thou

spoken the truth, O Bacsen
hast
The Thirty 'First Dicttim,
Pythagoras
How
does
the
discourse of Bacsen appear to
you,
saith:
has omitted to name the

substance by its artificial names?
And they
Name it, therefore, oh
Pythagoras
And he : Corsufle being
its
composition, they have applied
he
since
to
it
all
the
names of bodies
in
the
world, as, for example, those of coin,
copper,
tin,
name
of lead, until
that
colour
Turba
and
gold, iron,
it
well,
have
also
among
the others
Thou
Pythagoras
spoken
The
Ixir.
hast spoken
And
well,
may
the
be deprived of
and become
answereth:
also
he
and
Ye
some
discourse con-
cerning the residual matters.

The Thirty-Second Dictum,
BoNELLUS
saith:
Pythagoras,
all
According to thee,
things die and live
loi
by the will of God, because that nature

from which the humidity is removed,
that nature which is left by nights,
does indeed seem like unto something
that is dead it is then turned and
;
(again)
is left
left for
tomb, when
in his
will restore
and the
it
man
becomes a
These things being done,
powder.*
God
certain nights, as a
unto
it
spirit thereof,
both the soul
and the weak-
ness being taken away, that matter will
be made strong, and after corruption

will be improved, even as a man
becomes stronger after resurrection and

younger than he was in this world.
Therefore it behoves you, O ye Sons
of the Doctrine, to consume that
matter with
become a
boldly until
fire
when know
cinder,
have mixed
it
The
text
is
spirit,
is
like to
and is imbued
The second
corrupt and unintelligible.
one dead
like
it
has been
and then that nature
in fire until the spirit of that
becomes dust
that ye
" Therefore that nature from which the
humidity has been removed, when

nights,
shall
excellently well, for that
cinder receives the
recension reads
it
body returns
unto one dead
in his
tomb."
is
left
for
wanting
and then
it
The Turba Philosoplwrum,
102
with the
humour
until
colour than
fairer
it
it
assumes a
previously pos-
sessed. Consider, therefore,
ye Sons
of the Doctrine, that artists are unable
own tinctures until

they convert them into a powder;
similarly, the philosophers cannot comto paint with their
bine medicines for the sick slaves until
they also turn them into powder, cooking
some
of
them
to a cinder, while
others they grind with
The
case
is
the
their
hands.
same with those who
compose the images of the ancients.

But if ye understand what has already
been
ye will know that I speak

and hence I have ordered
burn up the body and turn it
said,
the truth,
you
to
into a cinder,
for
if
ye rule
it
subtly
many things will proceed from it, even

much proceeds from the smallest
as
things in the world.
It is
thus because
man, has a body and a

soul, for the inspiration of men cometh
from the air, which after God is their
life, and similarly the copper is inspired
by the humour from which that same
copper
like
copper receiving strength
103
multiplied
is
and augmented like other things.

Hence, the philosophers add, that
when copper is consumed with fire and
iterated several times, it
becomes
better than it
was.
The
Turba
answereth: Show, therefore, O Bonellus,
to future generations after what manner it becometh better than it was
!
And
he:
because
plied,
will
I
it
is
do so willingly;
it is
augmented and multi-
and because God extracts many-
things out of one thing, since
He
hath
created nothing which wants
its
own
regimen, and those qualities by which

its
healing must be effected.
our
larly,
when
copper,
Simiis
it
first
cooked, becomes water; then the more

it is
until
cooked, the more

it
becomes a
have termed
it,
is
it
thickened
stone, as the envious
but
it is
really
an egg
tending to become a metal.
It
is
when
more intense
afterwards broken and imbued,
ye must
roast
than the
it
in
former,
fire
until
it
shall
be
coloured and shall become like blood
104
^^^^
Turba PhilosopJiorum.
combustion, when
in
placed on
and changes them into gold,
coins
is
it
according to the Divine pleasure.
you not see that sperm

from the blood unless
cooked
in the liver
not produced
is
be diligently
it
till it
Do
has acquired
an intense red colour, after which no

change takes place in that sperm ?*
the
It is
it
same with our work,
for unless
be cooked diligently until
it
shall
become a powder, and afterwards be

putrefied until it shall become a spiritual
sperm, there
from
But
it
will in
no wise proceed
that colour which ye desire.
ye arrive at the conclusion of

this regimen, and so obtain your purif
be princes among the
pose, ye shall
people of your time.
The Thirty-Third Dictum,
NiCARUS saith:
this arcanum
The comparison
Now
ye have
The
public.
of the progress of the work to the
development ol the embryo, which

above reference, and
adepts,
is
found also
made
Turba
is,
in
in fact,
is
suggested by the
common
to
all
the Greek writers, and
Latin
among
Thus did the Master order.

Not the whole, nevertheless.
He ordered us to clear away
:
answereth
And
he:
But
they
105
the darkness therefrom
And
fore, tell us.
he
terity to take the gold
to multiply
do thou, thereI
counsel pos-
which they wish
and renovate, then to divide
And
the water into two parts.
they
when they divide

It behoves them
Distinguish, therefore,
But he
the water.
to burn up our copper with one part.
For the
water,
said copper, dissolved in that

called the ferment of Gold,* if
is
these, in Comarius,
who
says that the test of
the material as the embryo
is
fire
nourishes
nourished in the mother's
womb.
M. Berthelot traces the original notion of the fermentation of metals to the sophistication called diplosis.
designed for the accomplishment of a

imitation are also
met with,
for
" Recipes
more profound
example, the alliance of
gold or silver with a more or less considerable quantity ot
some
less
diplosis"
precious metal
It is
this
was the operation
of
found in the Leyden papyrus, but there
are traces that the Egyptian goldsmith believed, or at any

rate sought to
was
really
fermentation."
in
many
make
others believe, " that the true metal
multiplied
The
by an operation
comparable
fermentation of metals
places by the Greek writers:
that this water, after the
manner of
mine the fermentations destined
*'
is
It is
to
mentioned
necessary
leaven, should deter-
to produce the like,
by
io6
For the same in

manner are cooked and liquefy
ye rule
water
well.
and
crumble,
But then
appears.
as
by cooking they are
finally,
congealed,
like
it
the
red
behoves you to
imbue seven times with the residual

water, until they absorb
and,
all
the water,
the moisture being dried up,
all
they are turned into dry earth

kindle a
fire
and place
then
therein for forty
days until the whole shall putrefy, and

its
colours appear.
The Thirty -Fourth Dictum,
Bacsen
saith
On
account
of thy
dicta
the Philosophers said beware,*
Take
the regal Corsufle, which
to the redness of copper,
is
like
and pound
in the urine of a calf until the nature

means
of the like, in the metallic
tact, after the
same manner
body to be tinged.
in a small quantity, ferments a great
also will this
matter."
literal
mass of
morsel of gold ferment
little
This notion
is
As a
that the leaven of dough, used
all
paste, so
the dry
repeated in terms essential and
by innumerable Latin alchemists.

For
this
somewhat
cension substitutes
"
It
bizarre reading the
seems needful to lay
second
stress
some matters which have been already mentioned."
re-
upon
of the Corsufle
107
converted, for the
is
true nature has been hidden in the
saith
Explain to posterity what the
nature
which
And
And
is.
he
tingeing spirit
hath from permanent water,
it
which
is
The Turea
of the Corsufle.
belly
they
and
coinlike,
is
Shew,
and water
he
It is
poured upon
is
how
therefore,
And
extracted.
coruscates.
it
pounded,
seven
it
whole
which
humour, and receives a force
times
is
until
absorbs
it
the
equal to the hostility of the
then
it
same
is
called
diligently
spiritual
powder,
blood, which the
Putrefy the
rust.
until
of
fire;
it
becomes a
a colour like burnt
fire
overcoming hath
introduced into the receptive belly of
Nature, and hath coloured with an

This, therefore, have
indelible colour.
kings sought, but not found, save only

to
whom God
*
It
was
has granted
different in the
But
it.*
days of Zosimus,
who
tells
us that in Egypt the divine art of operating on minera
belonged to the Kings, and the alchemists of the Nile no
more worked
in their
The increase
of the
own
interest than the minters of coin.
King's riches was the only end
in view,
!:
io8
the
Turba
Bacsen.
saith
Finish your speech,
And
he
them
direct
to
whiten copper with white water, by

which also they make red. Be careful
not to introduce any foreign matter.
And
Turba:
the
Well
Bacsen, and
spoken,
also has spoken well
have
spoken
hast
thou
Nictimerus
Then he: If I
do one of you
well,
continue.
The Thirty-Fifth Dictum.
But ZiMON
Hast thou left anything to be said by another ? And the

Turba Since the words of Nicarus and
Bacsen are of little good to those who
saith
seek after this Art,
tell
us, therefore,
what thou knowest, according as we

have said.
And he: Ye speak the
truth,
all
Nothing
else
ye seekers after
this
Art
has led you into error but
the sayings of the envious, t because what

and
for this
reason the priests
who were
acquainted with
the mineral secrets did not dare to disclose them publicly.

*
In the second recension
the
name
is
rendered
Zeunon.
t The second recension has an important variation

The words of the Egyptians have led us into error."
ye seek
sold at the smallest possible
is
price.*
109
If
men knew
and how
this,
great was the thing they held in their
hands, they would in no wise
sell it.
Therefore, the Philosophers have glori-
venom, + have treated of it

and in many ways, have
taken and applied to it all manner of
names, wherefore, certain envious persons have said It is a stone and not a
fied that
variously,
stone, but
gum
of
Ascotia,
con-
sequently, the Philosophers have con-
For
cealed the power thereof.

spirit
which ye seek, that ye may tinge
therewith,
concealed in the body,
is
and hidden away from

the soul in the
*
is
human
This passage recalls
effect in the
end
this
body.t
many
Greek alchemists,
sight,
even as
But ye
statements to the same
example, that the
as, tor
not to be obtained by money, " for the Lord
God
has delivered the same gratuitously, by reason ot the

beggars and the despairing."
But
this
Byzantine Assembly of the Philosophers
passage from the

is
in part at least
an interpolation.
t
The second
recension
reads
" that useful
and
abject thing."
\
which
Otherwise: " Therein
is
the spirit which you seek,
tinges, vivifies, gives health
and
life
to bodies."
no
seekers after the Art, unless ye disintegrate
body, imbue and pound
this
cautiously and
both
ye extract
grease),
from
it
and turn
impalpable
diligently,
until
grossness (or
its
into a tenuous and

have your labour in
it
spirit,
Wherefore the Philosophers have

said
Except ye turn bodies into notbodies, and incorporeal things into
bodies, ye have not yet discovered the
vain.
rule
saith:
he
and
turned
are
They
Ethelia
are
till
take
place
the
into
not-bodies.
pounded with
they become
And know
powder.*
not
therefore,
Tell,
bodies
And
Turba
posterity how
But
operation.
of
fire
that this does
by
except
an
ex-
ceedingly strong decoction, and continuous
a moderate
*
The second
pounded
t
until
The
performed
contrition,
it
fire,t
not with
recension reads
becomes dust," but
counsel of Olympiodorus
it is
is
should escape in smoke and be lost,"
is
Some
is
not practised by
hands,!
When
Ethelia
is
evidently corrupt.
similar
must burn with moderation and gentleness,

that this Art
with
"
And, again
means of a
Latin alchemists say that the
The
lest the
fierce
fire
vapour
"Know
fire.''
Magnum Opus
a work of the bands, which others deny, and a very pretty
iii
with imbibition and putrefaction, with
exposure to the sun and to Ethelia.

The envious caused the vulgar to err in
this Art
is
when they stated
common
a small
in its
They
price.
that the thing
nature and
is
sold at
further said that
the nature was more precious than
all
natures, wherefore they deceived those
who had
same time they spoke the
the
At
recourse to their books.
truth,
and therefore doubt not these things.

But the Turba answereth : Seeing that
thou
believest
sayings
the
of
the
envious, explain, therefore, to posterity
the
disposition
And
he
the two
of
natures.
you that Art
to
testify
requires two natures, for the precious

is
not produced without the
diversity of opinion has risen
consequence.
The
common,
up among interpreters in
partisans of the
view, denying the
first
metallic object of the Art, affirm that the mystery of the
manual operation was the mystery of animal magnetThe Turba in the passage above, and in other
ism.
places, is against the use of the hands, whatever that
have
signified, here following
thou, as do some, that manual action

sufficient
superior to
there
is
of itself and alone
is
also required that of Nature,
man's." On
may
Olympiodorus: " Think not
the Sacred Art.
an action
112
nor the
common
without the precious.
behoves you, therefore,
It
all
ye
investigators of this Art, to follow the
sayings of Victimerus,*
to
his
you
disciples:
save
to
And
when he
Nothing
sublimate
Turba
said
else helps
water
and
The whole
vapour and the sublimation of water.
Demonstrate, there-
vapour.
work
is
the
in the
them the disposition of the

And he : When ye shall perceive that the natures have become
water by reason of the heat of the
fire, and that they have been purified,
and that the whole body of Magnesia
fore,
to
vapour.
is
liquefied as water; then all things
have been made vapour, and

for then the vapour contains
rightly,
its
own
equal, wherefore the envioust call either
vapour,
in
because
both
are
joined
and one contains the

Thus our stag finds no path to
decoctions,
other.
escape, although flight be essential to
Of the elders," says the second recension,

The Philoso>
The second recension substitutes
phers," a variation which, in
'
its
way,
is significant.
The one keeps back
it.
113
the other, so
has no opportunity to fly, and it

no place to escape
hence all
are made permanent, for when the one
falls, being hidden in the body, it is
congealed with it, and its colour varies,
and it extracts its nature from the properties which God has infused into His
elect, and it alienates it, lest it flee. But
the blackness and redness appear, and it
falls into sickness, and dies by rust and
that
it
finds
putrefaction
it
has
properly speaking, then,
not
flight,
although
desirous to escape servitude

it is
free
it
spouse
but when
it
is
when
follows its spouse, that a
may
favourable colour
its
then
its
it
makes them
beauty
is
befall itself
is
not as
it
and
was,
placed with coins,
gold.
For
it
this reason,
have called
and
the
soul
vapour.
They
the
have also called it the black humid
wanting perlution and forasmuch as in
man there are both humidity and
dryness, thus our work, which the
envious have concealed, is nothing else
therefore, the Philosophers
spirit
^^^ Turba Philosophorum.
114
but vapour and water.

answereth
water
Demonstrate
And
he
two
Turba
The
vapour
and
say that the work
have
called it composed out of two, because
these two become four, wherein are
dryness and humidity,
spirit
and
vapour. The Turba answereth Thou
out
is
of
the
envious
hast spoken
envy.
excellently,
Let Zimon next
and without
follow.
The Thirty-Sixth Dictum,
Afflontus,* the Philosopher, saith:

I notify to you all, O ye investigators
of this Art, that unless
substances at the
ye sublime the
commencement by
cooking, without contrition of hands,
whole become water, ye have

not yet found the work. And know
until the
that
ye,
copper
the
was
formerly
by others stone, and,

names vary in every
called sand, but
indeed,
the
regimen.
nature and
Know
The name
that
the
humidity become water,
then a stone,
*
further,
if
in the
ye cause them to be
second recension
is
Assotes.
The Ttirba Philosophorum,
complexionated, and
115
ye are
acquainted with the natures, because
the part which is light and spiritual
well
the top, but that which
to
rises
if
is
thick and heavy remains below in the
Now
vessel.
of
the
which
but
this
the contrition
is
namely,
Philosophers,
is
that
not sublimated sinks down,
that which becomes a spiritual
powder rises to the top of the vessel,

and this is the contrition of decoction,
Know
not of hands.
ye have turned
also, that unless
into
all
powder, ye
have not yet pounded them completely.

Cook them, therefore, successively
become
and
Wherefore Agadaimon*
they
until
powder.
Agathodaimon
is
converted,
included
among
the makers of
gold in one of the earlier sections of the Byzantine collection.
He
is
quoted by Olympiodorus {On the Sacred Art),
and a short account
of
him
given by the same writer.
is
by some that he was a man ancient among

the most ancient who philosophised in Egypt, by others
that he is a mysterious angel, or that he is the good genius
*
It is stated
of Egypt," &c.
M.
Egyptian divinity
Berthelot points out that there
who
bore a
Zosimus beheld Agathodaimon

ascended to the third degree.
name
in a vision
An
was an
equivalent to this.
when
his soul
Explanation and Com-
Ii6
saith
Cook the copper
come a
be-
it
and impalpable body,
gentle
and impose
until
in its
own
vessel
then
sublimate the same six or seven times

until
the water shall descend.
know
that
powder
when the water has become
then
diligently.
made
water
And
has
ground
been
it
But if ye ask, how is the

a powder ? note that the
intention of the Philosophers
is
that the
body before which before it falls into the

water is not water may become water
the said water is mixed with the other
water, and they become one water.
;
It
to
is
unless
into'
be
therefore,
stated,
that
ye turn the thing mentioned

ye shall
water,*
the work.
for the
It
body
is,
to
the flame of the

integrated
and
the water,
when
not attain
therefore,
to
necessary
be so possessed by
that
fire
it
is
dis-
becomes weak with

the water has been
mentary of Agathodaimon upon the Oracle of Orphetu
is
extant in the Greek collection.

*
The second
into water."
recension reads
" unless ye turn both
added to the water,

comes water. But
Had
clouds*
whole be-
until the
hearing of
fools,
water, think that this
is
117
water of the
they read our books they
would know that it is permanent water,

which cannot become permanent without
companion, wherewith
its
made
But
one.
this is the
it
is
water which
Water
Good Venom,
Philosophers have called
the
of Gold, the
Igneous,
and that Sand of Many Names

which Hermes ordered to be washed
that the blackness of
so
frequently,
Sun might be removed, which
the
he introduced in the solution of the

body. And know, all ye seekers after
the
ye
spirit,
what ye
our copper without
will
by no means ses
because no foreign
therein,
thing enter unless

fore,
all
the
dismiss
names,
if
ye
for
anyone
it
nor does any-
be pure.
seekers after
multitude
the nature
err,
take this
is,
desire,
enters
thing
ye
unless
that
Art,
this
pure body, that
is
of
Therethis
Art,
obscure
one water
he draws nigh to de-
Ii8
and loses his life. Therefore,

one nature, but dismiss what
struction,
keep this
is
foreign.
The Thirty-Seventh Dictum,
BoNELLUS
saith
And
Speak.
it
mouth
close
of which
cook with a gentle
and
in
fire
ye
all
vessel, the
its
and
carefully,
until
become water
all
when mixing
Sons of the Doctrine,

Magnesia, place
he
little
Turba
The
Magnesia.
concerning
answereth
speak a
will
it
therein
liquefy,
For
the heat of the water acting thereupon,

it
becomes water by the
When
will of
God.
ye see that the said water
is
about to become black, ye know that

the
body
already liquefied.
is
Place
and cook for forty

up the moisture
of the vinegar and honey.* But certain
again in
There
vessel,
its
days, until
is
drink
it
an exceedingly curious reference to honey
in the Discourse of Synesius.

is
The
from cinnabar, and that which
is
there are
The
still
is
what
obtained
obtained from arsenic,
the Philosopher explains that while
"
question being
the difference between the mercury which
all
mercury
is
one,
a variety of sorts, and he quotes Hermes:
white," and " the ray of honey
is
ray of honey
is
persons uncover
119
say, once in each
it,
week, or once in every ten
nights;
in either case, the ultimate perfection
of pure water appears at the end of

days,
forty
for
then
completely
it
absorbs the humour of the decoction.

Therefore, wash the same, and deprive
of
blackness, until, the blackness
its
being removed, the stone becomes dry

to the touch.
Wash
Hence
the envious have
Magnesia with soft

and cook diligently, until it
become earth, and the humour perish.
said
the
water,
Then it is called copper.
Subsequently,
pour very sharp vinegar upon it, and

leave it to be soaked therein.
But
this is our copper, which the Philobe
sophers have ordained should
washed with permanent water, wherefore they
yellow."
M.
have said
Berthelot
Let the venom
explains
honey
that
mercury, which in the special connection

obvious, but
it
does not follow that this
which was invariably attached
As
fact,
in later
to
it
is
is
signifies
of course
the significance
by the philosophers.
days the term was used to signify the
philosophical dissolvent.
* The
The Greek
following explanation
los,
is
given by
M.
Berthelot,
and Virus, the Latin equivalent, are words
120
be divided into two parts, with one

of which burn up the body, and with
the other putrefy. And know, all ye
seekers after
whole
and
work
that
the
does
not
Science,
this
regimen
take place except by water, wherefore,
they say that the thing which ye seek

is one, and, unless that which improves
it
be present
in the said thing,
what ye
look for shall in no wise take place.

Therefore,
behoves you to add those
it
things which are needful, that ye
may
thereby obtain that which you purpose.
The Turba answereth :

excellently,
Thou
Bonellus
has spoken
If
please
it
thee, therefore, finish that which thou

art saying
time.
But
otherwise repeat
he
Shall
these and like things
it
a second
indeed repeat
all
ye
in-
which hadexceedingly diverse meaning among the ancients.
The
Virus, according to Pliny,
meant
specific virtues of bodies, such
ivory,
and sandarac
certain properties or
as the odour of copper,
the medical action of calx of gold
the magnetic virtue communicated to iron by the magnet."
Hence
or
if
the term signified the power and not the operation,
the operation, then this in
healing or hurting.
oxyde
of metals.
all
its
phases, whether of
los also signified in a special
way
the

vestigators
copper
water
of
place with the
in the vessel;
purify from
all
first
cook
our
take
Art,
this
131
part of the
for forty days;
uncleanliness ; cook fur-
days be accomplished, and

become a stone having no moisture.
ther until
it
its
Then cook until nothing remains
except
This done, cleanse seven times,

wash with water, and when the water
is used up leave it to putrefy in its
faeces.*
vessel, so long as
may seem
desirable
But the envious

called this composition when it is turned
your purpose.
to
blackness
into
that
lohich is
sufficiently
and have said Rule the same

But that
with vinegar and nitre.
which remained when it had been
whitened they called sufficiently white,
and ordained that it should be ruled
Again, when
with permanent water.
black,
in
The whole mystery
is in
the scoriae," says Zosimus,
The Diversity of Burnt Copper, and though the remark
has a particular application,
it
was
the nature of a general axiom.

fact, the
also with alchemists of
So Olympiodorus
negative body par excellence, that which
is
" In
called
black lead, that which the Egyptian prophets desired to
know, that which the oracles of the demons have revealed,

all
these are the scoriae and cinders of Mary."
122
same
they called the
they ordained that

with water and
until
fire
Turba
The
red.
sufficiently
red,
should be ruled
it
became
it
answereth
Show
forth unto posterity what they intended

by these things. And he : They called
it Ixir satisy by reason of the variation
of
its
In the work, however,
colours.
there
is
neither variety,
nor opposition of
necessary
only
multiplicity,
substances
make
to
it
the
is
black
copper white and then red.
However,
the truth-speaking Philosophers had no
other intention than that of liquefying,
pounding, and cooking Ixir until the

stone should become like unto marble
in
its
splendour.
envious again
said
Accordingly,
:
the
Cook the same
with vapour until the stone becomes

coruscating by reason of
But when ye
see
it
its brilliancy.
thus,
it is,
indeed,
most great Arcanum. Notwithpound and wash

it seven times with permanent water
finally, again pound and congeal in its
the
standing, ye must then
own
water, until ye extract
its
own con-
123
cealed nature. Wherefore, saith Maria,

sulphurs are contained in sulphurs, but
humour
in
sulphur
mixed
comes
like
forth
humour, and out

with
sulphur,
of
there
But
a great work.
ordain that you rule the same with
dew
and the sun,
appear to you.
you that there
your purpose
until
For
are
two
signify unto
kinds
of
whitening and of making red, of which
one consists
and the other in

contrition and decoction.
But ye do
in rustt
*The Greek alchemists assumed a special virtue

but
it
itself,
was not apparently so much inherent
in
dew,
in the moisture
as in the rays of the morning sun with which
the night
dew
it is
Neither alchemically or otherwise was
chiefly connected.
ever considered beneficial.
the Rational and Mystical Questions, says
Democritus, in
" Whiten this
earth with sea water or sweetened saumur, or with the
water of heaven
sun," &c.
mean by exposing
There seems no
not be understood
literally.
this
the
should
as possessing an inherent
virtue apart from the vital presence
dew
dew and
why
In the Turba Philosophorum,
dew appears under another aspect,

solar rays.
to
it
special reason
and
activity of the
In Latin alchemy, however, the references to
are not very frequent,
and
it
does not seem to have
played so important a part in the symbolism of the adepts

as
Mosheim and
t Or,
red."
others have supposed.
according to the second recension, "
in
making
124
^^^^
Turba Philosophorum.
not need any contrition of hands.
Be-
ware, however, of making a separation
from the waters

you,
the poisons get at
lest
and the body perish with the
other things which are in the vessel.
The Thirty-Eighth Dictum,
Effistus saith : Thou hast spoken

most excellently, O Bonellus, and I
bear witness to all thy words
The
Turba saith : Tell us if there be any
!
service in the speech of Bonellus, so
that those initiated in this disposition
may be more bold and certain. Effistus

saith:
Consider,
all
ye investigators
how Hermes, chief of the

Philosophers, spoke and demonstrated
when he wished to mix the natures.
Take, he tells us, the stone of gold^
combine with humour which is permanent water, set in its vessel,
of this Art,
over a gentle
fire
until
liquefaction
Otherwise, " the body and soul which are in the
vessel shall quickly perish."
;f
takes
Then
place.
leave
125
until
it
and the sand
the water dries,
and
water are combined, one with another

then let the fire be more intense than
before, until
is
made
again becomes dry, and
it
When
earth.
understand that here

of the
times,
arcanum
is
this is done,
the beginning
but do this
two-thirds
until
many
of the water
and colours manifest unto you.

The Turba answereth
Thou hast
spoken excellently, O Effistus
Yet,
perish,
briefly
to
testify
And
inform us further.
posterity
dealbation doth
he:
the
that
not take place save
by decoction.*
Consequently, Agadaimon has very properly treated of
cooking, of pounding, and of imbuing,
*
The Greek
equivalent of Decoction identifies the
process with that cooking which
alchemical experiments.
In the
is
so often ordained in all
New
Light of Arnoldus
de Villa Nova three grades of the operation are described,

together with the special furnaces and appliances required.
In the
first
second, white
accompanied
t
grade, the matter becomes

;
in
and
in
the third, red.
black
The
in
the
description
is
each case by a citation from the Turba.
The second
recension
substitutes:
"for which
cause there must be frequent pounding and imbu'ng."
126
Yet I direct you not to pour

on the whole of the water at one time,
lest the Ixir be submerged, but pour it
in gradually, pound and dessicate, and
ethelia.
do this several times until the water

be exhausted. Now concerning this
the envious have said
Leave the
water when it has all been poured in^
and it will sink to the bottom. But
:
their intention is this, that while the
humour
drying,
is
and when
been turned into powder, leave

glass vessel
forty
for
days,
it
has
in its
it
until
it
passes through various colours, which

the Philosophers have described.
this
By
method of cooking the bodies put
on their spirits and spiritual tinctures,

and become warm.* The Turba answereth
Thou
Effistus,
Truly art
hast given light to us,
and hast done
excellently
thou cleared from
envy;
wherefore, let one of you others speak

as he pleases.
The second
spirits,
and the
recension
spirits are
made
reads
hot,
" bodies become
and they tinge."
127
The Thirty-Ninth Dictum,
Bacsen saith ;* O all ye seekers after

this Art, ye can reach no useful result
without a patient, laborious,f and
solicitous
persevering
soul,
and continuous regimen.
who
fore,
this
is
may
who
persevere in
willing to
and would enjoy the

upon it, but he
disposition,
result,
courage,
He, there-
enter
desires
learn over
to
must not have recourse
speedily,
to our books,
they impose great labour before
for
they are read in their higher sense,

once,
twice,
or
Therefore,
thrice.
Master saith: Whosoever bends

back
over the study of our
the
his
books, devoting
The
speaker
in
his
leisure
second
the
thereto,
recension
is
called
Admion.
t
The
like exhortation is
pensable in our magistery.

part in this magistery."
again, " It
is
Haste, indeed,
Know
it
is
in
the
ot the devil's
Rosary of the Philosophers.
impossible for this to be
unless he learns
master.
met with everywhere
" Patience and delay are indis-
literature of the adepts.
known by
And
the seeker
from God, or from the instruction ot a
also that the
way
is
very long
therefore
are patience and delay needful in this our magistery."

Ibid,
128
not occupied with vain thoughts,
is
but fears God, and shall reign in the
Kingdom without
he
until
fail
die.*
For what ye seek is not of small price.

unto you who seek the very great
and compensating treasure of God!
Woe
Know
ye
not
that
for
the
smallest
men
purpose in the world, earthly
will
themselves to death, and what,
give
therefore, ought
they
to
do
this
for
most excellent and almost impossible

offering
than
Now,
the regimen
is
perceived by reason, except
is
through divine
inspiration.
The
God has always been
fear of
once
met with a person who was

*
greater
as
The
essential to the success of the true alchemist.
planation
is
The Greek
" Abide at thine
awe and wonder
to early experi-
alchemists regarded no operation as
possible without the
says
ex-
to be sought in the fact that the operations of
nature were a region of
ment.
well
regarded as
Zosimus
divine concurrence, and
own
fireside
acknowledging but one
God and one Art do not deviate in search of another God

for God will come to thee, He who is present everywhere.
;
Rest thy body, and hush thy passions
governing thyself, thou shalt
call
Being, and the Divine Being will
When
thou shalt
the only
God
attain truth
know
come
to thee.
thyself, then shalt thou
existing in thee
so,
unto thee the Divine

.
know
also
and acting thus thou shalt
and nature, rejecting matter with contempt."
acquainted
I
with
the
129
elements
as
when he proceeded
myself, but
to
rule this disposition, he attained not to
the joy thereof by reason of his sadness
and ignorance
in ruling,
and excessive
eagerness, desire, and haste concern-
Woe
ing the purpose.
of the Doctrine
unto you, sons
For one who
plants
trees does not look for fruit, save in
due season
he also who sows seeds
does not expect to reap, except at
How,
harvest time.
then, should ye
when ye
desire to attain this offering
have read but a single book, or have

adventured only the
But the
first
have
Philosophers
stated that the truth
discerned
except
regimen
is
after
plainly
not
to
be
and
error,
nothing creates greater pain at heart
than
error
in
this
Art,
while
each
imagines that he has almost the whole

world, and yet finds nothing in his
Woe
Understand
the dictum of the Philosopher, and
how he divided the work when he
hands.
said
pound,
unto you
cook,
reiterate,
and be
K
130
But when thus he divided the work, he signified commingthou not weary.
ling,
cooking,
assimilating,
roasting,
heating, whitening, pounding, cooking
EtheHa, making rust or redness, and

tingeing.
Here, therefore, are there
many names, and yet there is one

regimen. And if men knew that one
decoction and one
contrition would
them, they would not so often
repeat their words, as they have done,
suffice
mixed body may

pounded and cooked diligently,
have admonished you not to be weary
thereof.
Having darkened the matter
to you with their words, it suffices me
to speak in this manner.
It is needful
and
in order that the
be
to complexionate the
then cook
many
venom
times,
rightly,
and do not
grow tired of the decoction. Imbue

and cook it until it shall become as I
have ordained that it should be ruled
by you namely, impalpable spirits,
and until ye perceive that the Ixir is
clad in the garment of the Kingdom.
For when ye behold the Ixir turned into
131
Tyrian colour,* then have ye found

that which the Philosophers discovered
before you.i
If
ye understand
words (and although

yet
there
is
life
my words be
dead,
therein for those
understand themselves), they
my
who
will forth-
with explain any ambiguity occurring
Read, therefore, repeatedly,

dead speech, but that
herein.
for reading is a
which
is
is
uttered with the lips the

speech.
living
same
Hence we have
ordered you to read frequently, and,
moreover, ponder diligently over the
we have
things which
narrated.
The Fortieth Dictum.
Jargus
saith
Thou
hast
left
a part of thy discourse,
And
in
Do
he:
obscure
Bacsen
thou, therefore, Jargus,
thy clemency shew forth the same
Latin
alchemists
made use
ot the
symbolism of
Tyrian dye when describing the Red state of the Magistery.
The Kenckel,
previously referred to,
is
apparently an
Eastern term designating the Crustacea from the shells

of which the dye was anciently obtained.
" then shall ye comt The second recension reads
:
prehend the sayings of the Philosophers.'*
132
And
he answereth
The copper
thou hast before spoken

nor
is it
is
not copper,
the tin of the vulgar
true work
(or
of which
it is
our
body) which must be
combined with the body of Magnesia,

it may be cooked and pounded
that
without wearying until the stone
is
made.
Afterwards, that stone must
be pounded in its vessel with the water
of nitre, and, subsequently, placed in
liquefaction until
it is
destroyed.
ye investigators of this
all
art,
But,
it
is
necessary to have a water by which

the more you cook, so
you
sprinkle,*
until
much
the more
the said copper
which is the foundation of our work.

Cook, therefore, and
pound with Egyptian vinegar.
shall put
on
rust,
The Forty-First Dictum.
Z1MON+
uttered,
Whatsoever thou hast

Jargos, is true, yet I do
saith
The second
recension reads
"
a water which becomes inspissated
It is
in
necessary to use
proportion as
cooked."
fin
the second recension the
name
is
Cadmon.
it is
not see that the whole
spoken
Then
concerning
he
opinion
ZiMON
that
rotundum.*
thine
therefore,
concerning
saith-'
Turba hath
the
Speak,
133
it,
notify
Zimon
posterity
to
rotundum turns into four

and is derived out of
the
elements,
one thing. +
The Turba answereth
Inasmuch as
thou art speaking, explain

generations
And
he
the
method
Willingly
it
Permanent Water three

let them be mixed and
they be thickened and
stone, concerning which
have said
but
Magnesia
*
Take one
three
then
be understood of the Stone.

**
parts
cooked
then
until
become one
the envious
part of the pure
parts
The term rotundum used
speaks of
necessary
one part of our copper, but of
to take
body,
ruhng.
of
is
future
for
of copper of
commingle
in this curious
with
manner
is
to
The Scala Philosophorum
our perfect tyriac and rotund stone," the four
elements being concordantly exalted in the quality of the

temperate stone.
t
There
is
a variation in the second recension
"
signify to future generations that the rotundum which con-
verts copper into four
is
from one thing."
^^^ Turba Philosophorum,
134
earth
what
is
until
it
mixed
vinegar,
rectified
of
male
with
the vessel,
close
observe
and cook continuously

becomes earth.
in
it,
The Forty-Second Dictum,
AscANius saith : Too much talking, O

all ye Sons of the Doctrine, leads this
subject further into error
ye read
in the
that Nature
overcomes
But when
books of the Philosophers
one only, and that she
is
all
things
Know
that they
are one thing and one composite.
Do
ye not see that the complexion of a

man is formed out of a soul and body
thus,
must ye
also,
conjoin
these,
because the Philosophers, when they

prepared the matters and conjoined
spouses mutually in love with
each
ascended
from
behold
other,
there
The
them a golden water!

answereth
of
the
turn
unto
biguous
and
When
first
hast
thou wast treating
work,
the
Turba
lo
second
thou
how obscure
thou
didst
How am-
made thy book,

are
thy
words
Then
he
Turba
will
perform
the
first
position
of
answereth
up war
Stir
Do
the
dis-
The
work.
And
this.
between
quicksilver, until they
135
copper
he
and
go to destruction
and are corrupted, because when the

copper
conceives
coagulates
it,
the
quicksilver
but when the quicksilver
conceives the copper, the copper
congealed into earth

fore,
it
is
up, there-
stir
a fight between them
destroy
it becomes
But conjoin the male to
the female, which are vapour* and
quicksilver, until the male and the
female become Ethel, for he who
changes them into spirit by means
the body of the copper until
a powder.
The
matter of
Latin alchemists regarded vapour as the

all
things,
and
in
a special
way
it
was the
first
First
Matter of the Philosophers. The Rosary of the Philoso" The first matter of bodies is not the
phers observes
mercury
of
vapour.
The
the vulgar, but
mineral stone
is
is
an unctuous and humid
made from
the metallic body from the unctuous.
the humid, and
It is
needful that
bodies should be converted into such an unctuous vapour,
and they are destroyed, brought to nothing, and mortified

in the conversion,
and
white and red water."
this is
But
accomplished by means of our

this
unctuous vapour was the
mercury of the philosophers and wise men.
136
makes them red,

tinges every body, because, when by
diligent cooking ye pound the body,
ye extract a pure, spiritual, and subof Ethel, and next
lime
therefore,
And
that body.
tinges
The Turba answereth
every body.
Inform,
which
therefrom,
soul
what
posterity
he
It
which
sulphureous
thing*
by the names
of all bodies.
is
a natural
is
called
is
The Forty-Third Dictum,
Dardaris
saith:
Ye have
frequently
treated of the regimen, and have intro-
duced the conj unction, + yet
proclaim
to posterity that they cannot extract
now hidden
by Ethelia,
by which bodies become not bodies
through continual cooking, and by subthe
soul except
Know
limation of Ethelia.
quicksilver
is fiery,
more than does
The second
concerning
is
that
burning every body
fire,
recension reads
which much
also
also mortifying
:
found
" sulphur of nature,"

in
later
alchemical
writers.
t
According to the second recension
"much has been
said of the regimen but of the conjunction little."
137
and that every body which is

mingled with it is ground and dehvered
>odies,
When,
over to be destroyed.
there-
ye have dihgently pounded the
fore,
and
bodies,
have
them as
exalted
required, therefrom
produced that
is
Ethel nature, and a colour which
is
tingeing* and not volatile,
the copper which the
not tinge until
it is
and it tinges
Turba said did
tinged, because that
which is tinged tinges. Know also that

the body of the copper is ruled by
Magnesia, and that quicksilver is four
bodies, also that the matter has no
being except by humidity, because it
is
the water of sulphur,
for sulphurs
The
are contained in sulphurs.

saith:
Dardaris,
what sulphurs are

are
souls
which
inform
And
are
he
Turba
posterity
:
Sulphurs
hidden
in
four
bodies, and, extracted by themselves,
do
contain
one
another,
naturally conjoined.
which
is
For
if
and
are
ye rule that
hidden in the belly of sulphur
with water, and cleanse well that which

Otherwise
" not fleeing from the
fire."
138
is
hidden, then nature rejoices, meeting
with nature, and water similarly with

equal.
Know
ye also that the four
And
bodies are not tinged but tinge.*
Turba
the
Why
its
dost thou not say
like the ancients that
when they
And
tinged, they tinge ?
he
are
state
that the four coins of the vulgar popuare not tinged,
lace
copper,
tinged,
when
and
it
but they tinge
copper
that
the
tinges
coins
of
is
the
populace.
The Forty-Fourth Dictum,
MoYSES
saith
This one thing of which
thou hast told us,
have
Philosophers
Dardaris, the
by
called
many
names, sometimes by two and sometimes
by three names
Name
it,
Dardaris answereth
therefore,
setting aside envy.

is
that which
*
is
fiery,
posterity,
for
And
he
The one
the two
is
the
According to the second recension, "they tinge a
fifth."
t According to the
tinged, " except copper,
vulgar."
second recension, they are not
which then tinges the coins of the
body composed
in
it,
139
the three
the
is
water of sulphur, with which also
it
is
washed and ruled until it be perfected.

Do ye not see what the Philosopher
affirms, that the quicksilver which
gold
tinges
out
quicksilver
is
of
Dardaris answereth : What

dost thou mean by this ?
For the
Philosopher says
sometimes from
Cambar and sometimes from Orpi-
Cambar ?
And
ment.
he: Quicksilver of
orpiment
is
Cambar
is
sulphur ascending from the mixed*
of Magnesia, but quicksilver
Ye must,
composite.
with
thick thing
that
putrefy,
and
diligently
fiery
pound
spirit
be produced, which
that
other spirit
tincture which
is
mix
venom,
therefore,
then
is
is
until
hidden
in
made
desired of you
the
all.
The Forty-Fifth Dictum,
But Plato
Masters,
Some
the passage.
times
it is
behoves you
all,
when those bodies
are
saith
It
abbreviations in the printed editions obscure
Cambar and sometimes
it is
*'
Some-
Orpiment, but here
140
being
dissolved,
take
to
care
lest
they be burnt up, as also to wash them

with sea water, until
all their
turned into sweetness,
salt
be
clarifies, tinges,
becomes tincture of copper, and then

goes off in flight
Because it was
necessary that one should become
tingeing, and that the other should
!
be tinged,
for the spirit being separ-
ated from the body and hidden in the

other
both
spirit,
Therefore
the
become
Wise have
volatile.
said
that
the gate of flight must not be open-
ed for that which would flee, (or that

which does not flee),* by whose flight
death is occasioned, for by the conversion of the sulphureous thing into
spirit like
itself,
either
becomes
they are
made
aeriform
unto
volatile, since
But
the Philosophers seeing that which was
spirits
it
is
prone to ascend in the
needful to understand that
air.
Quicksilver
Cambar
is
Magnesia," &c.
The reading of the second recension
namely, " Close the door on the volatile,
flight."
is
lest
clearer,
it
take
not
made
volatile
volatile
141
with the
a body like
and put them
volatiles, iterated these to
the
to
non-volatiles,
which they could not
into that from
escape.*
They
body
unto the bodies from which
like
the
sopher
statement
one
is
concealed
spirit.
Know
humid
spirits is
is
the
Philo-
tingeing
agent
to
tincture,
spirit
is
of
the
that
and that which
made
to
extracted,
same were
for
them
and
the
then digested.
But as
were
they
iterated
be tinged are
it
humid
another
in
to
refers
that one of the
also
but the other
cold,
and although the cold humid

not adapted to the warm humid,
hot,
nevertheless
they
are
made
one.
we prefer these two bodies,

because by them we rule the whole
Therefore,
work, namely, bodies by not-bodies,

until
incorporeals
steadfast in the
*
*'
fire,
become
bodies,
because they are
In the second recension the passage reads thus
Concerning these the Philosophers also said
not with flying things, and yet were they
made
They
fled
flying."
142
conjoined with volatiles, which
is
not
possible in any body, these excepted.
For
spirits in
but
fugitives
every wise avoid bodies,

are
restrained
Incorporeals,
corporeals.
similarly flee from bodies
by
in-
therefore,
those, con-
sequently, which do not flee are better
and more precious than all bodies.

These things, therefore, being done,
take those which are not volatile and
wash the body with the
join them
;
incorporeal
ceives
the
until
non-volatile
incorporeal
body
convert
the earth into water, water into

fire
into air,
and conceal the
re-
fire in
fire,
the
depths of the water, but the earth in

the belly of the
air,
mingling the hot
with the humid, and the cold with the

dry.
comes
Know,
also,
that
Nature over-
Nature
Nature,
rejoices
in
Nature, Nature contains Nature.

The Forty-Sixth Dictum,
Attamus
saith
It is to
be noted that
the whole assembly of the Philosophers
have
frequently
treated
concerning
Rubigo, however,
Rubigo,*
143
is
ficti-
and not a true name. The Turba

answereth: Name, therefore, Rubigo by
its true name, for by this it is not
calumniated. And he Rubigo is accordtious
ing to the work, because
Turba
The
alone.
from gold
it is
answereth
Why,
then, have the Philosophers referred

to the leech
water
is
hidden
the leech
in
is
answereth
it
Because
sulphureous gold as
in
water; rubigo, there-
rubefaction in the second work,
fore, is
but to
He
make
rubigo
former work,
in
is
to whiten in the
which the Philoso-
phers ordained that the flower of gold
should be taken and a proportion of

gold equally.
The Forty-Seventh Dictum.
MuNDUS
treated
*
While
of metals,
for the
saith:
Thou
sufficiently
it
this
of
hast already
Rubigo,
term properly signifies the rust or oxide
was used
in
many
redness of rust associated
senses by the alchemists,

it
in their idea
with other
forms of red matter, and rust philosophical became a part

of the Great Mystery.
The oxydes
of iron, the
oxydes of
lead, sulphate of mercury, sulphate of arsenic, sulphate of
1^4
^^^^
Turba Philosophorum.
Attamus
I will speak, therefore, of
venom, and will instruct future genera!
tions
that
venom
because subtle
spirits
into a tenuous spirit,
body and burned
have made it
have tinged the
with venom, which
it
venom the Philosopher

tinge every body.
But
Philosophers
body,
not
is
thought
asserts
will
the Ancient
who
he
that
turned gold into venom had arrived at

the purpose, but he
profiteth
this
unto you,
all
who can do
not
Now
say
nothing.
ye Sons of the Doctrine,
that unless ye reduce the thing by fire

until those things
ye
effect
ascend
nought.
like
spirit,
This, therefore,
is
and a ponderous
smoke,* which when it enters the body
spirit
avoiding the
fire
antimony, were all more or

names of rubigo, minium, &c.
* It
all
is
confounded under the
not, perhaps, surprising that
things the mystery of the
concern
less
itself
fire
what was above
and the furnace, should
considerably with the smoke in which
often ended, and thus in various stages of
its
it
so
history we have
alchemy discoursing of that specially philosophical smoke
which
is
identical with scorias,
and hence on the authority
of the Greeks involves the whole art
smoke, identical with mercury
we have
citrine
also white
smoke, identical
The Turha Philosophonim.
145
and makes the

body rejoice.* The Philosophers have
Take a black and conjoining
all said
therewith break up the bodies
spirit
and torture them till they be altered.
penetrates
entirely,
it
The Forty-Eighth Dictum.
Pythagoras saith
unto all you seekers
:
We
must
affirm
after this Art that
the Philosophers have treated of con-
junction
ways.
continuation) in various
(or
But
constrain
quicksilver
Magnesia,
or
Spume
the
enjoin upon you to
body
the
body
the
make
of
Kuhul, or
of Luna, or incombustible
roasted
alum
sulphur,
or
which
is
out of apples, as ye know.
But
there was any singular regimen
if
calx,
or
any of these, a Philosopher would

Understand,
not say so, as ye know.
for
with yellow sulphur
red smoke, which
is
orpiment; smoke
of extreme subtlety, of which the Latin Geber discourses;
and
lastly the
ponderous smoke of the
Many
Turha.
others might be named, but these varieties are sufficient to
show
that
smoke was
the votaries ot
*
'
Otherwise
as important to the alchemists as to
my Lady
:
Nicotine."
"the nature
rejoices therein."
146
and alum
therefore, that sulphur, calx,
which
is
from apples, and Kuhul, are
nothing else but water of sulphur.
all
Know
ye also that Magnesia, being
mixed with quicksilver and sulphur,

they pursue one another. Hence you
must not dismiss that Magnesia
without the quicksilver, for when
composed
it
is
an exceeding
strong composition, which is one of the
called
is
it
ten regimens established by the Philo-
Know,
sophers.
when
that
also,
Magnesia is whitened with quicksilver,

you must congeal white water therein,
but when it is reddened you must
congeal red water,
for,
as the Philoso-
phers have observed in their books,

the regimen
the
and
first
is
congelation
lead.
Accordingly,
not one.*
is
of
tin,
But the second
copper,
is
com-
" There are other denominations," says Synesius in
his letter to Dioscorus.
" Thus whitening
and yellowing an igneous regeneration

(substances)
calcine
generate themselves.
them under
sometimes
whether
themselves, and
is
for
a calcination,
some of these
(other
some)
several names,
and sometimes
in the singular,
in the plural person, in order to test us
we
re-
But the Philosopher has designated
are intelligent."
and see
147
Some,
posed with water of sulphur.*
however, reading this book, think that
composition can be bought.
the
It
must be known for certain that nothing

the work can be bought, and that
of
the science of this Art
is
nothing else
and the sublimation of
than vapour
of
water, with the conjunction, also,

quicksilver in the
body of Magnesia f
;
but, heretofore, the Philosophers have
demonstrated
impure
in their
water
books that the
sulphur
of
is
sulphur only, and no sulphur
is
from
pro-
duced without the water of its calx,

and of quicksilver, and of sulphur.
The Forty-Ninth Dictum,
Belus
saith
all
ye Philosophers,
ye have not dealt sparingly concerning

composition and contact, but compoand congelation are
sition, contact,
one thing
with sulphur and the water thereof."
Or,
The second
*'
Take, therefore, a part

recension reads
vapour and water, while the regimen

limation of quicksilver and
magnesia."
its
" It
is
is
nothing but
nothing but the sub-
union with the body of
148
from the one composition and a part

out of ferment of gold/' and on these
impose pure water of sulphur. This,

then, is the potent (or revealed) arcanum
Pythagoras
which tinges every body.

answereth
called
why
Belus,
not shown
its
work
from the ancients

Therefore
And he: In our

we have found
Master,
the same which
have
thou hast received
And Pythagoras
obscurities which
:
are in
Willingly,
you
remove any
any books.
Master
It
is
noted that pure water which
be
to
is
he
assembled
together, that you might
And
hast thou
a potent arcanum, yet hast
it
books,
from sulphur
not composed of
is
sulphur alone, but
composed
is
of
several things, for the one sulphur is
made
*
out of several sulphurs. t
The
ancient Latin treatise which passes as the work
of Morien, says sententiously
"
The ferment
gold, even as the ferment of bread
ment
is
How,
reproduced
literally
is
bread."
of gold
The
is
state-
by the Rosary of the Philo-
sophers.
t According to
water which
is
the
second recension:
from sulphur
is
"the clean
not derived from sulphur
The Turha Philosopliorum.
149
compose
these things that they may become
therefore,
Master, shall
And
one ?
which
he
Mix,
strives with
the
Belus, that
fire
with that
which does not strive, for things

which are conjoined in a fire suitable
to the same contend, because the
warm venoms of the physician are
cooked in a gentle, incomburent fire !*
Surely ye perceive what the Philosophers have stated concerning decoction,
that a
little
many
sulphur burns
strong
and the humour which remains

is called humid pitch, balsam of gum,
and other like things. Therefore our
things,
Philosophers
the
to
like
physicians
the
of
made
notwithstanding that
physicians,
tests
are
are
the
more
intense than those of the Philosophers.
TuRBA
The
answer eth
wish,
Belus, that you would also shew the

disposition
alone, but
is
of
this
potent arcanum
composed of several things which make up
one sulphur."
*
For this last sentence the second recension sub" and friendship is made constant."
stitutes
The Ttirba Philosophorum,
150
And
he
proclaim to future genera-
arcanum proceeds from
tions that this
two
compositions,
that
But
sulphur and magnesia.
and
reduced
is
of Boletus
and
fungus),
into
it
water,
it
a species of
(z.^.,
it
gold.
has been reduced
they
quicksilver,
of water;
after
the thickness of
When, however,
say,
conjoined into one,
the Philosophers have called
spume
to
is
call
it
when
sulphur also,
tains sulphur, they term a fiery
sulphur
con-
it
venom,
a potent (or open) arcanum
because
it is
which
ascends
from
those
things
ye know.
The Fiftieth Dictum.
Pandolphus
saith
describe
the
dost
The
Greek term
O Belus, thou
If,
sublimation*
which the
alchemists
of
of the
Byzantine collection made use of as the equivalent of sublimation, signified originally
filings, as
us, thus expressing the idea of the
matter.
The same
idea
M. Berthelot informs
extreme attenuation of
was attached
later
on by the Latin
adepts to their term alcoolisation, "which signifies reduction to the condition of
an impalpable powder.
des Anciens Alchimistes Grecs, Int., 210).

of sublimation
tion
was
called stalagma,
by vapourisation or
filtration.
(Collection
Another species
which meant
{lb., 211.)
distilla'
sulphur
wilt
generations,
future
for
151
accomplish an
excellent
thou
thing
Do thou show it forth,

therefore, O Pandolphus! And he: The
And
the
Turba
philosophers have ordered that quicksilver
and
should be taken out of Cambar,
albeit
they spoke
these words there
is
truly,
ambiguity,
little
the obscurity of which
yet in
remove.
will
See then that the quicksilver is sublimed

in tabernacles,
and extract the same
from Cambar, but there
Cambar
in sulphur'
demonstrated
another
is
which Belus hath
to you, for out of
sulphur
mixed with sulphur, many works proWhen the same has been subceed.
limed, there proceeds from the
that quicksilver which
Orpiment,
*
According
is
Zendrio,
to
the
or
second
Cambar
called Ethelia,
Sanderich,+
recension:
"there
is
another sulphur."
t
The reading
Sandarac
is
realgar
in the
;
second recension
in the
Greek MSS.
under the same sign as arsenic.

that
it
M.
is
it
unintelligible.
is
confounded
Berthelot also
tells
us
was confused anciently with minium and cinnabar,
as indeed
is
quite plain from the Lexicon of Rulandus.
same authority reminds us that the name
is
The
applied at the
present day to an entirely different composition, derived
152
Ebsemich,
Chuhul,
Magnesia,
said
that,
men
(for
many
and
Concerning
this,
being
ten
is
Kuhul,
names.
other
philosophers
ruled
by
or
its
have
regi-
the perfection of
all
things), its white nature appears, nor
any shadow therein. Then

the envious* have called it lead from
Ebmich, Magnesia, Marteck, White
there
is
Copper.
has
left its
when truly whitened,

shadow and blackness, it
For,
devoid of
it is
thickened ponderous bodies,
and therewith a clean humid spirit has

ascended, which spirit is tincture.
Accordingly, the wise have said that
copper has a soul and a body. Now,
its soul is spirit, and its body is thick.
Therefore, it behoves you to destroy
the thick body until ye extract a
tingeing spirit from the same.
also,
the
spirit
extracted
Mix,
therefrom
with light sulphur until you, investigators, find your design accomplished.
from colophon, and not known to the ancients under this
designation.
*
or
*'
Throughout the second recension, "Philosophers"
the Wise," are substituted for this term.
The Ttivba Philosophorum,
153
The Fifty-First Dictum,
HoRFOLCos*
nothing,
saith
Thou
hast narrated
Pandolphus, save the last
body
Thou hast,
therefore, composed an ambiguous description for readers. But if its regimen
regimen of
this
were commenced from the beginning,

you would destroy this obscurity. Saith
TuRBA
the
cerning
it
may
Speak,
this
to
so
posterity,
And
please you.
con-
therefore,
he
as
far
be-
It
hoves you, investigators of this Art,

first
to burn coppert
like
that required in the hatching of
eggs.
For
and
let
a gentle
behoves you to burn
it
humidity
its
in
lest
it
with
be burnt,
spirit
its
fire,
the vessel be closed on
sides, so that its
colour
heat]
[?
all
may
be increased, the body of copper be

destroyed,
and
tingeing
name
is
be
spirit
which
concerning
extracted,!
its
the
Morfoleus.
t Otherwise, " the humidity."

I
is
'
when
the
increased and the vessel sealed effectually, lest the
of the copper and
its
flying spirit be extracted."
fire
body
Turha Philosophorum.
^^^^
154
envious have
said
Take
quicksilver
out of the Flower of Copper, which

also they have called the water of our
copper, a fiery venom, and a substance

extracted from
all things, which further

have
termed
they
Ethelia, extracted
many
out of
have
when
that
said
Again, some
things.*
become
one,
bodies,
but not-bodies bodies.
know,
all
bodies
things
all
are
made
not-
And
ye investigators of this Art,
body
spirit with which
that every
without doubt
spiritual thing,
is
dissolved with the
it is
mixed, with which
becomes a similar
and that every spirit
it
which has a tingeing colour of
spirits,
and is constant against

and coloured by bodies.
altered
be the
name
of
fire, is
Him who
Blessed then
hath inspired
the Wise with the idea of turning a
body
into a spirit having strength
colour,
and
unalterable and incorruptible,
so that what formerly was volatile sul-
phur
*
is
now made sulphur
Otherwise
not-volatile,
" which flower of copper they have called
our water, and fiery
venom
extracted from iron."
Know, also, all ye

that he who is able to
and incombustible
sons of learning,
make your
155
red by the
fugitive spirit
body mixed with it, and then from that

body and that spirit can extract the
tenuous nature hidden in
by a most
thereof,
tinges every body,

in
Know
regimen,
subtle
only he
belly
patient
is
tedium of extracting.
spite of the
Wherefore
if
the
the
that out
envious
copper,
of
by
humectated
is
pounded
thereof,
is
have
after
it
moisture
the
in
said
its
water,
and is
a body having Ethelia, ye will find that
which is suitable as a tincture for anyWherefore the envious have
thing.
said
Things that
are
diligently
pounded in the fire, with sublimation
of the Ethelia, become fixed tinctures.
For whatsoever words ye find in any
man's book signify quicksilver, which
we call water of sulphur,* which also
cooked in sulphur,
if
ye extract
Water
of sulphur occurs
recipe cited from
and
Mary
in the Detailed
in
among
one of the
the ingredients of a
treatises of
Zosimus,
Exposition of the Work, the following
156
we sometimes say
and copulated
lead and copper
is
coin.
The Fifty-Second Dictum.
IxuMDRUS
most
saiih
You
excellently,
will
have treated
con-
Horfolcus,
cerning the regimen of copper and the
humid
And
therewith.
you
provided
spirit,
proceed
he: Perfect, therefore,
what I have omitted, O Ixumdrus

IxuMDRUS saith You must know that
this Ethelia* which you have previously
mentioned and notified, which also the
envious have called by many names,
doth whiten, and tinge when it is
:
whitened
then truly the Philosophers
have called
because
it
process occurs
calx
is
it
is
the
a certain natural thing,
" Water of sulphur obtained by means of
manfactured
in this
manner
waters in the catalogue (which
from
its
Flower of Gold,
it is
Having mixed
all
the
impossible to extricate
context and place in the compass of a footnote),
taking equal parts, add white earths until the
becomes very white.
underneath, and receive what distils."
"pure" water
compound
Place in a mortar, kindle a
of sulphur
which
is
There
is
fire
also a
obtained somewhat
differently.
The second
recension reads
" Water of Ethelia.''
Do you
what
remember
not
157
the
Philosophers have said, that before
it
arrives at this terminus, copper does
But when
not tinge ?*
tinges,
tinged
is
it
it
because quicksilver tinges when
combined with its tincture. But

when it is mixed with those ten things
which the Philosophers have denominated fermented urines, then have
it is
they called
all
these things Multiplica-
But some have termed their

mixed bodies Corsufle and Gum of
Gold.i Therefore, those names which
tion.
are found in the books of the Philo*
reaches this point,

t
That
is
Democritus
is
parts
reproduction here), 2 parts
part
Minium
(it
is
You
of
(Coral
of
The body
coral."
Gold)."
"Here
part
cook over a
will find a potent
having the colour of cinnabar,
Democritus, says:
combine with the humour of
coral,
is
And
how he
is
fire
substance,
or minium.
great wonder, this indescribable marvel,

corallos
Finest Earth of
Pontus,
too complicated for
the Sulphur (another abstruse recipe)

regulated.
it
from a ricipe of Pseudo-
" Minera of Silver,
preparation given previously
carefully
" Before
Chrysocorallos of the Greek
following
Chios, or Ochre, 2
called copper."
say, the
to
The
alchemists.
it is
This
called Chryso-
Synesius,
quoting
expresses himself:
(metal) of magnesia, alone (produces) Chryso-
158
and are thought superfluous

and vain, are true and yet are fictitious,
sophers,
because
they
one
are
one
thing,
and one way. This is the

quicksilver which is indeed extracted
opinion,
from
all
things,* out of which all things
which
produced,
are
water
that
the
And know ye
copper.
silver,
destroys
also
when
it
is
pure
is
shade
of
that this quick-
whitened, becomes a
sulphur which contains sulphur, and
a venom that has a
marble
brilliance
is
like
this the envious call Ethelia,
orpiment and sandarac, out of which a
and pure spirit ascends with a

mild fire, and the whole pure flower is
becomes
sublimated, which
flower
tincture
wholly quicksilver.
It is,
therefore, a
most great arcanum which the Philosophers have thus described, because
sulphur alone whitens copper.
investigators of this
that
*
Art,
Ye,
must know
the said sulphur cannot whiten

The reading ab hominibas
for
ab omnibus
is
substi-
tuted by the second recension several times in this Dictum,
but there can be no doubt that
it is
a printer's error.
copper until
it is
And know ye
of
whitened
also that
sulphur
this
therefore,
to
flees
it
it
in the
When,
own thick
escape.
from
its
and
then
behoves you to retain
it
sublimated as a vapour,
wise with quicksilver of

lest
it
its
vanish altogether.
Philosophers
the
work
the habit
is
bodies,
is
159
have
it
own
other-
kind,
Wherefore
said,
that
by sulphurs.
that sulphurs tinge, and
sulphurs are contained
Know,
further,
then are they certain to escape unless

they are united to quicksilver of
own
kind.
Do
not,
therefore,
its
think
and afterwards
that because
it
escapes,
the coin of the Vulgar, for
it is
tinges*
what the Philosophers are seeking
is
the coin of the Philosophers, which,

unless
which
it
is
be mixed with white or red,

quicksilver of its
own
kind,
would doubtless escape. I direct you,

therefore, to mix quicksilver with quicksilver (of its kind)
until together they
become one clean water composed out

*
The second
recension substitutes
' fixes
bodies,"
but both readings are obscure and seemingly corrupt.
The Tiirha Philosophorum,
i6o
This is, therefore, the great

arcanum, the confection of which is
of two.
with
its
own gum
it
is
cooked with
and with earth ;

it is made red with mucra and with
vinegar, salt, and nitre,* and with
mutal is turned into rubigo, or by any
flowers in a gentle
fire
of the select tingeing agents existing in
our coin.
The Fifty-Third Dictum.
ExuMENUst
laid
The
saith:
waste the whole
envious have
Art
with
the
multiplicity of names, but the entire
work must be the Art of the Coin.

For the Philosophers have ordered the
make coin-like
same Philosophers
manner of names.
doctors of this art to

gold, which also the
have called by all

The TuRBA answereth:
fore, posterity,
*
M.
Inform, there-
Exumenus, concern-
Berthelot explains that the substance referred to
under the terms Nitrum and Natron was really Carbonate

of Soda, and that Nitre or Saltpetre was scarcely known
in antiquity, nor, indeed,
till
the 6th century.
t For this name the second recension

Obsemeganus.
substitutes
r;
i6i
ing a few of these names, that they
may
take warning
have named
whitening
of
pounding
the
into
Ethel,
frequently
coagulating,
the
rubigo,
the art
They
Ethelias,
fire,
and
vapour
cooking
turning
in
he
sublimating,
salting,
it
and
washing,
And
of
confection
the
water
By
sulphur and coagula.
of
these
all
names is that operation called which

has pounded and whitened copper.
And know ye, that quicksilver is
white to the sight, but when it is
possessed by the smoke of sulphur, it
reddens
and
becomes
Cambar.
Therefore, when quicksilver is cooked
with
its
confections
and
red,
hence
it
is
turned into
Philosopher
the
saith that the nature of lead
Do you
converted.
Philosophers
envy
with
ye
have
pounding and
may
extract
in the vessel,
swiftly
not see that the
spoken
Hence we deal
is
in
without
many ways
reiteration,
that
the spirits existing
which the
fire
cease to burn continuously.
did not
But the
M
:
:
1 62
water placed with those things prevents the fire from burning, and it
those
befalls
things
they are possessed
more they are hidden
the
fire,
the
that the more

by the flame of
depths of the water,
in
they
lest
should be injured by the heat of the

fire
in
but
them
water receives
and repels the flame of

from them. The Turba answereth
its
fire
the
belly
Unless ye make bodies not-bodies

ye achieve nothing.
But concerning
the sublimation of water the
have
sophers
And know
treated
not
Philo-
little.
that unless ye diligently
pound the thing
in
the
fire,
the
does not ascend, but when

does not ascend ye achieve
Ethelia
that
When, however,
nothing.
it
is
an instrument
for the intended
tincture with which ye tinge,
cerning
Sift
Ethelia
and con-
Hermes
saith
the things which ye know;
another
fore,
this
ascends
it
Liquefy the things.
Arras saith
but
There-
Unless ye pound
the thing diligently in the
fire,
Ethelia
The Titrba Philosophorum.
The Master
does not ascend.
put forth a view which

explain
the reasoners.
to
163
shall
hath
now
Know
ye
that a very great wind of the south,
when
it is
stirred up, sublimates clouds
and elevates the vapours of the
TuRBA
The
answereth
And
dealt obscurely.
Thou
he
sea.
hast
will ex-
and the vessel wherein

But I order
is incombustible sulphur.
you to congeal fluxible quicksilver out
of many things, that two may be
made three, and four one, and two
plain the testa,*
one*
The Fifty-Fourth Dictum,
Anaxagoras
Take
saith:
the volatile
burnt thing which lacks a body, and

incorporate
Then
it.
take the ponder-
ous thing, having smoke, and thirsting

*
Two
meanings are given
of Rulandus.
The
is
first
stood metallurgically
the second
clay.
Paracelsus uses
own
to signify the skin of
Adamic
same
earth or clay
idea.
to this term in the Lexicon
Bloom, Flower, &c., under-
it
it
in
is
man's body.
is
a vessel of baked
an arbitrary fashion of his
Compare the red
probably a variation of the
164
imbibe.
to
Explain,
obscurity
The
Turba
answereth
Anaxagoras, what is this

which you expound, and
beware of being envious

And he : I
testify to you that this volatile burnt
!
and this other which thirsts, are

which has been conjoined
thing,
Ethelia,
with sulphur.
Therefore, place these
and
cook until the whole becomes Cambar.
Then God will accomplish the arcanum
ye seek.
But I direct you to cook
continuously, and not to grow tired of
a glass vessel over the
in
fire,
repeating the process.
And know ye
that the
this
perfection
the
confection
with
tabula;*
until
it
of
of
water
finally,
able
turn
Rubigo
is
of
sulphur
is
cooked
it
becomes Rubigo,
Philosophers have said
work
for
all
He who
the
is
into
golden
venom has already achieved
the de-
to
sired
is
work, but otherwise his labour
vain.
perfection
tabula."
of
sulphur
consists
in
the
"
The whole
decoction
of
165
The Fifty -Fifth Dictum.
Zenon* saith
Pythagoras hath treated
concerning the water, which the envious
have called by
names.
Finally,
at the end of his book he has treated
all
ferment of gold, ordaining that
of the
thereon
imposed
be
should
clean
water of sulphur, and a small quantity
gum. I am astonished, O all ye

Turba, how the envious have in this
work discoursed of the perfection rather
than the commencement of the same
The Turba answereth Why, therefore,
have you left it to putrefy ? And he
of
its
Thou
hast spoken truly
putrefaction
does not take place without the dry
and
humid.
the
putrefy with
humid
the
the
vulgar
Thus
the humid.
the
merely coagulated with the
But out
dry.
of
is
But
of both
work.
is
the beginning
Notwithstanding, the
envious have divided this work into

three parts, asserting that one quickly
flees,
but
the
other
is
fixed
immovable.
*
The name
in the
second recension
is
Pitheon.
and
1 66
The Fifty-Sixth Dictum.
CoNSTANS saith: What have you to

do with the treatises of the envious,
for it is necessary that this work should
deal with four things ? They answer
Demonstrate, therefore, what are those
four ? And he : Earth, water, air, and
fire.
Ye have then those four elements
without which nothing is ever generated, nor
anything absolved in the
is
Mix, therefore, the dry with the
Art.
humid, which are
and water,
earth
and cook in the fire and in the air,

whence the spirit and the soul are
And know
dessicated.*
ye that the
tenuous tingeing agent takes
its
power
out of the tenuous part of the earth,

out of the tenuous part
and of the
part of
has
the water,
a tenuous
been dessicated. t
fore,
air,
is
the
of the
fire
while out of the tenuous
process
spirit
This, there-
our
of
" The
work,
spirit is
dessiccated in the soul."

t
The second
question
is
and water.
recension merely says that the power in
derived from the tenuous part of the earth,
air,
namely, that everything

into earth
these
may be
parts of
extracted,
because
a body
is
are
of
then composed
which
is
thing, and
imposed body of
atmospheric
thereafter tinges the
Beware, however,
coins.*
turned
when the tenuous
things
kind
167
ye
all
investigators of this art, lest ye multiply

things, for the envious
and destroyed
have multiplied
you
for
They have
also described various regimens that
they might deceive

called
it
(or
they have further
have likened
humid with
all
dry with
the dry, by the
all
the
to)
it
the humid, and the
name
of
every stone and metal, gall of animals

of the sea, the winged things of heaven
and
reptiles of the earth.
who would
But do ye
tinge observe that bodies
bodies.
For I say
what the Philosopher said
and truly at the beginning of
are tinged with
you
to
briefly
his book.
In the art of gold
quicksilver from
*
The
Cambar, and
is
the
in coins
reading of the second recension has been partly
substituted in this unintelligible passage.
1 68
is
the quicksilver from the Male.
however,
nothing,
the two
since
look
In
beyond
this,
are
also
quicksilvers
one.
The Fifty-Seventh Dictum.
AcRATUS*
saith
signify to posterity
make philosophy near to the

Sun and Moon. He, therefore, that
will attain to the truth let him take
the moisture of the Sun and the
Spumet of the Moon.l The Turba
answereth
Why are you made an
adversary to your brethren ? And he
that
have spoken nothing but the truth.
But
they
taken.
Take what the Turba hath

And he: I was so intending,
:
yet, if
you are
terity
to
willing,
take a
part
direct pos-
of
the coins
which the Philosophers have ordered,

which also Hermes has adapted to
name
Otherwise the
This one of the two passages which seem to indicate
spirit
it is
is
Astratus.
probably a misreading.
any planetary attribution of the metals, but even here it may

be an analogy borrowed from the astronomy of the period
without any real attribution.
mercury and quicksilver

noted.
in
The
distinction
between
the 67th Dictum should be
The Turha Philosophormn.
169
the true tingeing,* and a part of the
copper of
the
Philosophers,
the
same with the
mix
to
and place
coins,
the four bodies in the vessel, the
all
mouth of which must be
carefully
closed, lest the water escape.
Cooking
must proceed
seven days, when
for
the copper, already pounded with the

coins,
found
is
turned
water.
into
Let both be again slowly cooked, and
Then
fear nothing.
the vessel be
let
opened, and a blackness
Repeat
above.
continually
the
the
until
Kuhul, which
is
will
appear
process,
cook
blackness
of
from the blackness
For when
consumed a precious whiteness
appear on them
finally, being
of coins, be consumed.
that
will
is
returned
cooked
is
to
until
their
the whole
turned into stone.
they
place,
are
dried and
is
Also repeatedly
and continuously cook that stone born

of copper and coins with a fire
*
*'takea part of
the coins of the Philosophers, which are the coins of
Hermes."
170
sharper
than
stone
destroyed,
is
former,
the
turned into cinder, which

Doctrine,
is
Alas,
cinder.
how
the
fore,
ye
precious
produced from
it
is
the
and
a precious
sons
of
the
that which
is
Mixing,
with
cinder
until
broken up,
there-
water,
cook
again, until that cinder liquefy there-
and then cook and imbue with

permanent water, until the composition
becomes sweet and mild and red.
Imbue until it becomes humid. Cook
in a still hotter fire, and carefully
close the mouth of the vessel, for by
with,
this
regimen fugitive bodies become
not-fugitive,
spirits
bodies, bodies into
are
connected
spirits
made
are
and both
spirits,
Then
together.
are
bodies having a tingeing
and germinating
soul.
Now
hast
answereth:
turned into
The Turba
thou
notified
Rubigo attaches itself

is washed
off with permanent water.
Then it
is congealed and becomes a body of
magnesia. Finally, it is cooked until
to posterity that
to copper after the blackness
'
171
broken up.
After-
the whole body
is
turned into a
wards
the
cinder
and becomes copper without
volatile
shadow.
its
is
Attrition also truly takes
Concerning,
place.
therefore,
the
work of the Philosophers, what hast

thou
delivered
to
posterity,
seeing
means called
things by their proper names ? And
he
Following your own footsteps, I
hast by no
that thou
have discoursed
even
You speak truly,

otherwise we should not
BoNELLUS answereth
for if
you did
as have you.
order your sayings to be
written in
our books.
The Fifty-Eighth Dictum,
Balgus*
saith
The whole Turba,
Acratus, has already spoken, as you
have seen, but a benefactor sometimes

deceives, though his intention
good.
And they Thou

:
is
to
do
speakest truly.
Proceed, therefore, according to thy

opinion, and beware of envy!
In the second recension this speech
mouth of Anastratus.
Then he:
is
put into the
172
You must know
that the envious have
described this arcanum in the shade
and astronomy,
and the art of images they have also
likened it to trees
they have ambiguously concealed it by the names of
metals, vapours, and reptiles
as is
in physical reasoning
generally perceived
I,
in all their work.
nevertheless, direct you, investigators
of this science, to take iron and draw

it
into plates
finally,
mix
(or sprinkle)
venom, and place it in its

vessel, the mouth of which must be
closed most carefully, and beware lest
ye too much increase the humour, or,
on the other hand, lest it be too dry,
it
with
but
stir it
cause,
not
be
while,
vigorously as a mass, be-
the water be in excess,
if
contained
if it
in
be too dry,
it
the
it
will
chimney,
will neither
be
conjoined nor cooked in the chimney;
hence
gently
the
direct
finally,
mouth
internally
and,
you to confect
it
place
vessel,
of which
and
it
in
its
dili-
must be closed
externally
with
clay,
having kindled coals above
it,
some days ye
after
already liquefied
open
shall
there shall ye find
173
the
and
it,
plates
iron
while on the lid of
For
the vessel ye shall find globules.
when the
fire
kindled the vinegar*
is
ascends, because
passes into the
wherefore,
air,
nature
spiritual
its
direct
you to keep that part separately. Ye

must also know that by multipliedt
decoctions and attritions it is congealed
and coloured by the fire, and its
nature
By
changed.
is
decoction and liquefaction

not disjoined. +
Among
entitled
similar
Cambar
you that
notify to
the Greek technical treatises there
The Work
of the
is
Four Elements, and
is
one
this contains
a brief section on the Nomenclature of the Divine Vinegar
and the Divine Water, which
worth
is
citing
in
con-
nection with the question of the unity of subjects amidst
the multiplicity of names.
Here
what the Philosophers
is
" Divine water, divine vinegar, white
say on this subject
magnesia, water
of calx, virgin's urine, mercury,
sea
water, virginal milk, milk of the she ass, the bitch, the
black cow, alum
water, ash of cabbage, of natron, oc-
cidental matter, vapour.
There
is
whitens the body of magnesia, that

t
The number
three
is
the substance which
is,
burnt copper, &c."
indicated
by
the
second
recension.
X
The second
recension says that
it is
disjoined.
^^^^
174
by the
Turba Philosophorum,
frequent
said
decoction
the
weight of a third part of the water
is
consumed, but the residue becomes a

wind in the Cambar of the second
spirit.*
And know ye that nothing is
more precious or more

sand
red
the
Sputum
sea,
the
for
united with the
is
Luna
Sun's rays.t
the
of
light
Luna
of
excellent than
the
of
is
perfected by the coming on of night,
by
and
dew
heat
the
wounded,
dew
the
the
Then, that being
congealed.
is
Sun
of the
the
of
death-
and the more the days

pass on the more intensely is it conFor he
gealed, and is not burned.
dealer
is
joined,!
who cooks
with the
Sun
is
himself
and that signal whiteness

to overcome the terrene fire.
congealed,
causes
"
Which Cambar and
thereof,"
the
substitutes
is
is
Omitted
For
bears in the belly
the second recension, the sand
spume of the Moon, which
the Sun, and
Sun
its spirit
the alternative reading.
is
According to
t
*
it
is
joined to the light ot
congealed."
in the
second recension.
this nonsensical
:
is
"That which
congealed."
passage the second recension

is
cooked by the heat of the
Then
Bonites
saith
Do you
of
And Balgus: Thou speakest

And he: Why, therefore, hast
omitted to describe that
Luna
copper
our
except
nothing
tinges
not know,
Spume
Balgus, that the
175
truly^
thou
tree, of the fruit
whereof whosoever eateth shall hunger
nevermore
person,*
And Balgus
who has
me
after
same
operating,
priately
certain
followed science, has
discovered this
notified to
what manner he
tree, and approdid
the
extract
But when I
and eat of it.
inquired of him concerning the growth
and the increment, he described that
fruit
pure whiteness, thinking that the same

is
found without any laborious disposi-
Then
tion.
how
it
is
fructifies,
build
its
perfection
But when
thereof.
is
the fruit
further asked
nourished with food until
he said
Take
a house about
it,
it
that tree, and
which
shall
wholly surround the same, which shall

also
be circular, dark, encircled

In the second recension this person
as Tulleas.
is
by
referred to
176
dew, and shall have placed on
man
of a hundred years;
it
shut and
secure the door lest dust or wind should
Then in the time of 180

days send them away to their homes.
reach them.
man
say that
shall not cease to eat
of the fruit of that tree to the perfection of the
number
man
the old
[of the days] until
become young.
shall
what marvellous natures, which have

transformed the soul of that old
and the father
into a juvenile body,
made
into the son
man
is
Blessed be thou,
most excellent God
The Fifty-Ninth Dictum.
Theophilus
saith
propose to speak
further concerning those things which
hath
Bonites
Turba:
Speak,
hath
brother
And
he
It
Brother,
discoursed
Following
Bonites
ings.
narrated.
in
And
the
for
thy
elegantly.
the steps of
make perfect his sayshould be known that all the
will
Philosophers, while
they
have
con-
cealed this disposition, yet spoke the

truth
named water of life,

whatsoever*
water
is
then
the
disciples, that iron
said
and be-
lives
And know,
comes young.
they
for this reason, that
mixed with
dies,
first
when
treatises
their
in
177
ye
all
does not become
rusty except by reason of this water,
because
it
is
it is
then
liquefies
and
tinges the plates
placed in the sun
till
it
imbued, after which
In these days
it
it is
congealed.
becomes
rusty, but
silence is better than this illumination.
Tke TuRBA answereth : O Theophilus,

beware of becoming envious, and complete
that
And
he
they
What
fruits,
from that perfect
is
Would
he:
might repeat the
Certain
And
thy speech!
thing
like
thy will
Then
which proceed
tree,
do
first
flourish in
the beginning of the summer, and the
more they are multiplied the more

they
are
man
The
adorned, +
they
until
reference in the second receHsion
is
are
to the old
of the previous dictum.

t
"
The more
tree is adorned."
the
178
being mature become
perfected, and
same way
woman,*
sweet.
In the
fleeing
from her own children, with
whom
she
lives,
that
although partly angry,
yet does not brook being overcome,
nor that her husband should possess

her
who
beauty,
furiously loves
her,
and keeps awake contending with
her,
till
he shall have carnal intercourse with
her,
and God make perfect the
when he
foetus,
multiplies children to himself
His beauty,
according to his pleasure.

therefore,
consumed
is
by
fire
who
does not approach his wife except by

reason of
is
finished
he turns to her.
make known
never dies,
For when the term
lust.
you that the dragon

but the Philosophers have
her spouses.
The
woman who
For the
belly
from another source, or
interpolated at a later period
the epoch of Trevisan
is,
it
it
its style,
in
any
has possibly been

indeed,
described.
something which
has
not
is
that of
case, quite out of
character with the text as a whole, and refers,

to
slays
of that
compiler of the Turba seems to have introduced
this allegory
seen,
also
to
put to death the
been
it
will
be
previously
Woman
is full
179
weapons and venom.
of
Let, therefore, a sepulchre be dug for
woman be
the dragon, and let that
buried with him,

joined with that
clasps her and
who being strongly

woman, the more he
is
entwined with her,
the more his body, by the creation
of female weapons in the body of the
woman,
is
cut
up into
For
parts.
perceiving him mixed with the limbs

of a
woman he becomes
death, and the whole
is
secure from
turned into
But the Philosophers, beholding him turned into blood, leave him
blood.
in the
sun for certain days, until the
is consumed, the blood dries

and they find that venom which
now is manifest. Then the wind is
lenitude
up,
hidden.
The Sixtieth Dictum,
BoNELLUs*
ciples,
saith:
that out
Know,
of
all
the elect
ye
dis-
things
nothing becomes useful without con*
name
is
Bodillus.
The Titrha Philosophorum.
l8o
junction and regimen,* because sperma
generated out of blood and desire.
is
For the man mingling with

is nourished by
of the womb, and by the
blood, and by heat, and
the sperm
the
the
woman,
humour
moistening
when
forty
sperm is
formed. But if the humidity of the
blood and of the womb were not heat,
the sperm would not be dissolved, nor
the foetus be procreated.
But God
has constituted that heat and blood
for the nourishment of the sperm until
the foetus is brought forth, after which
it is not nourished, save by milk and
have
nights
dust,
more,
and the more

towards
led
is
at
which it
behoves
*
it
it
burns the
the bones being strengthened,
it
it
the
sparingly and gradually, while
fire,
is
elapsed
Otherwise
arriving
independent. +
is
you
"
youth,
also
Know
that
nothing
Thus
act
to
is
in
generated
without complexion."
t
This absurd confusion
recension, which reads
'*
is
not found in the second
So long as
it
is
nourished with milk, and in proportion as the

is
maintained, the bones are strengthened."
little,
vital
it
is
heat
Know
this Art.
nothing
is
i8i
ye that without heat
ever generated, and that the
bath causes the matter to perish by
means
of intense heat.
If,
indeed,
and
frigid, it
puts to
but
have been tempered,
if it
flight
it
be
disperses,
con-
it is
venient and sweet to the body, where-
the
fore
has
become
veins
the flesh
been
smooth and
Behold it
augmented.
is
demonstrated
to you,
all
ye disciples
and
things which ye attempt
in
all
to rule, fear
Understand, therefore,
God.
The Sixty-First Dictum,
MosES
saiih
It is to
the envious have
be observed that
named
lead of copper
instruments of formation, simulating,

deceiving prosterity,* to
whom
give
notice that there are no instruments
our own white, strong,
except from
and splendid powder, and from our

*
This passage
translatable.
envious
making
number
is
so corrupt as to be almost un-
many ways
in
lead,
and have represented
of instruments," etc.
The
described the process of
have
that there are a
i82
stone* and marble,
concave
to
the
whole work whereof there is no more

suitable powder, nor one more conjoined to our composition,
powder of
Alociae,+
produced
instruments
than the
out of which are

formation.
of
Further, the Philosophers have already

said
Take instruments out
of the egg.
Yet they have not said what the egg

nor of what bird. I
And know ye
is,
The concave
stone does not seem to be a term
which entered into the nomenclature of
We hear much concerning

is
later philosophers.
the form of the stone, but that
not to be understood as
its
configuration, being used in
the same sense as Latin theology was accustomed to speak of

the form of the soul.
So Bernard Trevisan,
Thomas of Boiwnia
form
formal
(forma formabilis) such
sensitive, yet, nevertheless,
formata),
is
which form
because
it
is
is
in his Epistle to
" Our stone does not possess a
it
as vegetative or
has a formed form (forma
the elements themselves, and this
homogeneous, whereas the human body,
or that of other sensitive things,
is
heterogeneous."
For
the term concave stone the second recension substitutes
gleaming,
t
i.e.,
might suggest
i.e,t
"
J
candidus.
severe
critic,
having failed to trace
slight
many words and no

This entire passage
this term,
emendation, and read Alogia,

sense."
is
considerably shortened in the
second recension, which simply observes that out of the
powder mentioned
to the
at the beginning, instruments
egg are composed, but that
envious have omitted to
name
at the
the egg, etc.
adapted
same time the
that the regimen
more
of these things
is
than the entire work,
difficult
because,
183
the composition be ruled
if
more than it should be, its light is

taken and extinguished by the sea.
Wherefore
the
Philosophers have
ordered that
should be ruled with
it
The moon,
profound judgment.
being at the
fore,
place in sand
know ye
till it
full,
there-
take this and
And
be dissolved.
that while ye are placing the
samC' in sand and repeating the pro-
ye have patience, ye err
cess, unless
in ruling,
and corrupt the work.
Cook,
therefore,
the
same
in
a gentle
until
ye
see
that
it
is
Then
extinguish with vinegar, and ye
shall
find
dissolved.
one thing separated from
three companions.
the
fire
first, Ixir,
And know ye
that
commingles, the second
burns, while the third liquefies.*
Alchemy does not seem
nised the existence

indeed,
it
of
holds there
degrees of perfection.
three
is
In
to have generally recogelixirs.
but one
elixir,
Fundamentally,
having various
Zosimus, however, recognises
in
the true powder of perfection the existence of three powers
and three
activities
proceeding from those powers, namely,
The Turba Philosopher urn.
184
the
place, therefore,
first
ounces of vinegar twice

the vessel
second when
while
first
made
being
is
impose nine
and
hot,
heated.
it is
The Sixty-Second Dictum,
MuNDUS
all
saith
ye seekers after
know
this Art, to
whatsoever
that
behoves you,
It
Philosophers
the
have narrated or ordained, Kenckel,

herbs, geldum,
thing
Do
!*
about
there
a
is
of
plurality
things,
which
to
names
at
it
black, because
been extracted from

penetration,
and
fixation,
just
The
at the
gecond
is
metals
is
the
same time held
Philosophers
etc."
to
have
the
body
distinction is
much of
and so also the
the
Elixir of
to be the medicine of
second
named
And
Elixir at the Red, yet the
in exaltation,
first
at the
According
Geldum,
Later alchemists speak
White and the
as
has
it
our sea.
has mathematically three dimensions.

a mere subtlety.
have
they
and having
name, they
will,
proper
the
have called
Elixir
for
one Tyrian tincture of the
abolished
tincture,
trouble
therefore,
not,
Philosophers
given
and carmen, are one
Gold
recension:
men.
"Certain
Chelidony, Karnech,
know
that
ancient
the
condescend
not
to
185
did
priests
wear
artificial
garments, whence, for purifying altars,
and lest they should introduce into

them anything sordid or impure, they
tinged Kenckel with a Tyrian colour;
but our Tyrian colour, which they
placed in their altars and treasuries,
was more clean and fragrant than
can be described by me, which also
has been
extracted
and most pure
sea,
from
which
nor
impure
is
and
pleasant odour,
of a
sordid
our
red
sweet and
is
neither
putrefaction.
in
And know ye that we have given

many names to it, which are all
true
an
example of which,
that possess understanding,

in
corn that
after
grinding
traced
For
is
for those
is
to
be
being ground.
it
another name, and after
called
is
it
by
has been
and the
various substances have been separapassed through
ted one from
has
its
the
sieve,
another, each of these
own name, and
mentally there
is
yet funda-
but one name, to
1 86
corn,
wit,
many names
Thus we call the
from which
are distinguished.
purple
in
each
grade of
by the name of
its
own
its
regimen
colour.
The Sixty -Third Dictum,
Philosophus*
sailh
notify to pos-
male and
female, wherefore the envious have
body of Magnesia,
called it the
because therein is the most great
terity
that
arcanum
nature
the
is
Accordingly,
all
ye
seekers after this Art, place Magnesia

in
its
vessel,
Then, opening
and
it
cook
after
diligently
some days, ye
changed into
water.
Cook further until it be coagucontain itself.
and
But, when
lated,
ye hear of the sea in the books of the
envious, know that they signif}^ humour,
while by the basket they signify the
vessel, and by the medicines they
shall
find
the
whole
mean Nature, because

*
the
it
germinates
In the second recension, this speech
mouth of Rarson.
is
put into
The Turha Philosophorwn.
and
say
But when the envious
flowers.*
Wash
187
until the blackness of the
copper passes away, certain people name
But Agadimon
demonstrated when he
this blackness coins.
has
clearly
boldly put forth these words
be noted,
all
It is to
ye demonstrators of
this art, that the things [or the copper]
being
first
mixed and cooked once, ye
shall
find
the prescribed blackness!
That
This,
Wise,
become
to say, they all
is
therefore,
is
the
lead
which
concerning
black.
of
they
the
have
treated very frequently in their books.
Some
also
call
lead]
[the
it
of our
black coins.
The Sixty-Fourth Dictum A
Pythagoras
saith
How
marvellous
Philosophers
is
the diversity of the
in
those things which they formerly
asserted,
gether
and
their
agreement]
[or
coming
in
buds and flowers

t
in
is
This dictum
recension.
to-
respect
" That which
one nevertheless."
is
omitted altogether by the second

1 88
and most common thing,
of this small
wherein the precious thing is concealed!
And
the vulgar knew,
if
all
ye
in-
same small
and vile thing, they would deem it a
lie
Yet, if they knew its efficacy,
they would not vilify it, but God hath
vestigators of this art, the
concealed this from the crowd* lest

the world should be devastated.
The Sixty 'Fifth Dictum.
HoRFOLCUS
You must know,
saith ;t
all ye
who love wisdom, that
whereas Mundus hath been teaching
and
this
Art,
most
lucid
placing
syllogisms,
you
before
he that does
not understand what he has said
a brute animal
the regimen
But
of this
is
will explain
small
thing,
in
order that any one, being introduced

into
this
Art,
may become
* Literally
" from the sea."
t In
second
the
recension
the
bolder,!
speaker
is
called
Orfulus.
X
On
the principle of Zosimus: "
thine inexperience,
thing has
well."
On
become
Be not dissuaded by
and when you perceive that everyash,
understand then that
the Diversity of
Burnt Copper,
all
goes
may more
189
and
although it be small, may compose
the common with that which is
dear, and the dear with that which
is
assuredly consider
Know
common.
it,
ye that
in
the
beginning of the mixing, it behoves

to commingle elements which
you
crude,
are
cooked
gentle,
the
until
and
sincere,
governed,
Beware
fire.
for
or
over
not
gentle
of intensifying the fire
elements
are
conjoined,
these should follow one
another,
and be embraced in a complexion,

whereby they are gradually burnt, until
they be dessicated in the said gentle
And know that one spirit burns

fire.
one thing and destroys one thing,
and one body strengthens one spirit,
and teaches the same
the
tion,
it
to contend with
But, after the
fire.
is
necessary that
first
it
combus-
should be
washed, cleansed, and dealbated on the

fire until all things become one colour
with which, afterwards,
behoves you
mix the residuum of the whole
humour, and then its colour will be
to
it
The Turba Philosophonim,
I go
exalted.
For
diligently
cooked
the
and are changed

because the
in the fire, rejoice,
into different natures,
liquefied,
becomes
lead,
humid becomes
which
pher saith
fire.
:
the
the
the thick body
dry,
fleeing spirit
do battle
to
Whence
the Philoso-
Convert the elements and
thou shalt find
But
is
not-liquefied,*
becomes a spirit, and the

becomes strong and fit
against the
being
elements,
what
thou
to convert the elements
seekest.
is
to
make
the moist dry and the fugitive fixed.

These things being accomplished
by the disposition, let the operator
in the fire until the gross
leave
it
made
subtle,
and the subtle remain as
Know
a tingeing spirit.
death and
the
be
life
ye, also, that
elements
of the
and that the composite germinates itself, and produces

that which ye desire, God favouring.
But when the colours begin ye shall
behold the miracles of the wisdom
proceed from
liquid
fire,
becomes liquid which
is
The non-
the head of this art."

of
God,
the Tyrian colour be
until
accomplished.
Nature,
wonder-working
tingeing other natures
heavenly
Nature,
converting
men!
191
separating
and
by
regi-
is
more
elements
the
Nothing,
therefore,
than
these
Natures in
Nature which multiplies the
composite,
and makes fixed and
precious
that
scarlet.
The Sixty -Sixth Dictum,*
ExEMiGANUs
treated,
saith
and concealed
as
nesia,
hast
Thou
silver,
hast already
which
is
Mag-
behoves thee, and thou
it
commanded
posterity
experiment] and
to
[or
Lucas, concerning living
to
prove
read the
to
books, knowing what the Philosophers
have said
Search the latent
disesteem
remains
effects
it
spirit
and
when it
arcanum and
not, seeing that
it
is
a great
many good
This dictum
is
and that which follows
things.
omitted in the second recension,

is
put into the mouth of Emiganus.
192
The Sixty-Seventh Dictum.
Lucas saitk
and what I
testify
forth
set
to
is
posterity,
more
lucid
than are your words, that the Philosopher saith :* Burn the copper, burn
the
Hermiganus
Behold something more dark
silver,
replies:
than
ever
Illumine,
said
Turba
The
he
Burn,
answereth
which is
As to that which he
that
therefore,
And
dark.
is
burn the gold.
burn, burn, the diversity
only in the names, for they are one
and the same thing. And they: Woe

unto you
how shortly hast thou
!
dealt with
it
with jealousy
that
And
why art thou poisoned

And he Is it desirable
speak
should
they
Do
so.
more
And
he
clearly?
I
signify
make
that to whiten
is
red
For the envious have
to burn, but to
is
life.t
The
following variation occurs in the opening of
the second recension
"
The books
of the
Philosophers
should be read, for they have not in vain advised that the
sucking child should be heeded,
for therein is
an arcanum,
out of which the Wise have operated good things."

t
is
According to the second recension: "
to vivify.'*
To make
red
The Tnrha Philosophonan.
many names
multiplied
193
that
they
might lead posterity astray, to
whom
testify that the definition of this
Art
is
the liquefaction of the body
and
the separation of the soul from the
body, seeing that copper,
like
has a soul and a body.

it
behoves you,
Doctrine,
extract
destroy
to
the
!
of the
body and
Where-
not penetrate the body,
but that there

is
ye Sons
Philosophers said that the
body does
which
all
the soul therefrom
the
fore
a man,
Therefore,
is
the soul, and
nature,
subtle
it
which
is this
and penetrates the body. In

nature,
therefore, there is a body
and there is a souL
The Turba
answereth :
Despite your desire to
explain, you
have put forth dark
tinges
words.
And
he
signify
that the
envious have narrated and said that

the
splendour
appear unless
when it
Mercury
of
it
ascends
is
Saturn
does
not
perchance be dark
in
the
air,
hidden by the rays
that
of the
Sun, that quicksilver vivifies the
body
^^^ Turba Philosophorum,
194
and thus the work

is accomplished. But Venus, when she
becomes oriental, precedes the Sun.*
by
its fiery
strength,
The Sixty -Eighth Dictum.
Attamus
saith-'
Know,
all
ye
in-
vestigators of this Art, that our work,
of which ye have
been inquiring,
is
produced by the generation of the sea,

by which and with which, after God,
Take, therethe work is completed
fore, Halsut and old sea stones, and
!
boil with coals until
Then
they become white.
extinguish in white vinegar.
If
24 ounces thereof have been boiled,

let the heat be extinguished with a
third part
of the vinegar, that
is,
pound with white vinegar, and

cook in the sun and black earth for 42
days. But the second work is performed from the tenth day of the
month of September to the tenth day
ounces
This
in the note
is
the second of the two passages mentioned
on page i68 of this volume as containing traces
of a planetary attribution of
57th Dictum, the reference

chemical.
metals,
but,
as
in
may be astronomical and
the
not
The Turba Philosophormn.
Do
[or grade] of Libra.
195
not impose
the vinegar a second time in this work,
but leave the same to be cooked until
up and it
Egyptian
earth.
And the fact that one work is
congealed more quickly and another
more slowly, arises from the diversity
of cooking.
But if the place where it
is cooked be humid and dewy it is congealed more quickly, while if it be dry
it is congealed more slowly.
all
vinegar be
its
becomes a
fixed
dried
earth, like
The Sixty-Ninth Dictum*
am
Florus
saith
fecting
thy treatise,
thinking of per-
Mundus,
for
thou has not accomplished the dis-
Proceed,
Florus
the cooking
of
position
A nd
And
Philosopher!
teach you,
he
Sons of the
Doctrine, that the sign of the good-
ness
the
of
extraction of
Describe
Florus
ter
is
decoction
first
its
what
When
entirely
redness!
is
is
And
redness.
the
he:
And
ye see that the matblack,
know
that
196
whiteness
has
been
hidden
in
Then
belly of that blackness.
it
the
be-
hoves you to extract that whiteness
most subtly from that blackness,
for
ye know how to discern between them.

But in the second decoction let that
whiteness be placed in a vessel with
instruments, and
its
gently
white.
let
be cooked
it
it
become completely
But when, O all ye seekers
until
after this Art,
ye shall perceive that
whiteness appear and flowing over
be certain that redness

whiteness
However,
is
all,
hid in that
does not
behove you to extract it,* but rather
to cook it until the whole become a
most deep red, with which nothing
can
Know
compare.
it
that the
also
produced out of the

nature of Marteck, and that redness
first
blackness
extracted
is
is
from
that
blackness,
which red has improved the black,

and has made peace between the
fugitive and the non-fugitive, reducing
*
you
The second
to extract
it.
recension affirms that
it
does behove
two
the
unswereth
And why was
Turba
The
one.
into
197
this
A nd
Because the cruciated matter

it
is submerged in
the body,
changes it into an unalterable and
he
when
indelible
nature.
therefore, to
know
this
blackens the body.

that
the
same
handled, but
And
it
behoves
It
you,
sulphur which
And know ye
cruciates
the sulphur which
be
cannot
sulphur
and
tinges.
blackens
is
that which does not open the door
the fugitive
to
and
turns
into
Do you
with the fugitive.*
fugitive
the
not see that the cruciating does not
harm or corruption, but

by coadunation and utility of things ?t
For if its victim were noxious and
cruciate with
would not be embraced

until its colours were exunalterable
from
it
and
inconvenient,
thereby
tracted
*
that
it
which
is
"It converts
non-fugitive into a fugitive nature."
Both
readings are corrupt and ungrammatical.

t
The second
reading
recension
somewhat
reverses
this,
" That which cruciates with harm or corruption
does not cruciate with
utility
and coadunation."
ig8
The Ttirba Philosophonim,
This we have called water

of sulphur, which
water we have
prepared for the red tinctures; for
indelible.
the rest
which
not
I
it
come
have
does not blacken
does
this
to pass without
testified to
but that
does blacken, and
blackness,
be the key of the
work.
The Seventieth Dictum,
MuNDUS*
saith
Know,
ye investi-
all
gators of this Art, that the head

things,
which
imposes
if it
hath not,
profits nothing.
all
is all
that
Accordingly,
the Masters have said that what

perfected
is
one,
it
and a
is
diversity of
natures does not improve that thing,
but one and a suitable nature, which
it
behoves you to rule carefully, for by

ignorance of ruling some have erred.
Do
not heed, therefore, the plurality of
these compositions, nor those things
which the
merated in
their
nature of truth
*
have enu-
philosophers
is
For the
and the followers
books.
one,
name
is
Mandinus.
y^9
of
Nature have termed
thing in the belly whereof
it
th^ one
is
concealed
the natural arcanum.
This arcanum
is neither seen nor known except by
the Wise. He, therefore, who knows
how
to extract its complexion
and
rules
equably, for him shall a nature rise
which shall conquer all

and then shall that word be
which was written by the
forth therefrom
natures,
fulfilled
Masters, namely, that Nature rejoices
Nature, Nature overcomes Nature,

and Nature contains Nature; at the
same time there are not many or
in
diverse
Natures, but one
having in
own natures and
properties,
itself its
by which it prevails over other things.

Do you not see that the Master has
begun with one and finished one ?
Hence has he
Sulphureous
called
Water,
those
unities
conquering
all
Nature.
The Seventy-First Dictum,
Bracus*
*
saith
How elegantly Mundus
In the second recension this dictum
Archelaus.
is
ascribed to
200
hath described this sulphureous water
For unless solid bodies are destroyed

by a nature wanting a body, until the
bodies become not-bodies, and even as
a most tenuous spirit, ye cannot
[attain] that most tenuous and tingeing soul, which is hidden in the natural
belly.
And know that unless the body
be withered up and so destroyed that it
dies, and unless ye extract from it its
soul, which is a tingeing spirit, ye are
unable to tinge a body therewith.
The Seventy-Second Dictum.
The
compo-
Philosophus*
saith
sition, that
the body of Magnesia,
is
made out
is,
first
of several things, although
they become one, and are called by
one name, which the ancients have

termed Albar of copper. But when it
is ruled it is called by ten names, taken
from the colours which appear in the
regimen of the body of this Magnesia.
It is necessary, therefore, that
be turned into blackness

*
The second
the lead
then the ten
recension refers this dictum to Philotis.
201
aforesaid shall appear in the ferment
of gold, with sericon,* which
is
a com-
by ten names. When

have been said, we
mean nothing more by these names
than Albar of copper, because it tinges
every body which has entered into the
position called
these things
all
composition.
fold
one
When
is
But composition
humid, the other
is
two-
is
dry.
they are cooked prudently they
become
and are called the good

But when it
becomes red it is called Flower of Gold,
Ferment of Gold, Gold of Coral,
Gold of the Beak. I It is also called
redundant red sulphur and red orpiment.
But while it remains crude
lead of copper, it is called bars and
plates of metal.
Behold I have reone,
thing of several names.
Sericon
is
one of the names of Minium, according to
Rulandus, but M. Berthelot explains that

bination of
Sandyx and
it
was a com-
Sinopis.
t Later alchemical writers define
matter of the Philosophers
when
it
Gold
of Coral as the
has become fixed a
ihe red stage.

I
fectly
The
significance of this phrase
inscrutable,
but
is
is,
of course, per-
there any reference
rostrum or rostellum of the alembic
to
the
202
vealed
names when
its
raw, which
is
it
also we should distinguish from the

names when it has been cooked. Let
it
therefore
behoves
me now
quantity of the
its
pondered
be
over.
It
you the
and the numbers of
to exhibit to
fire,
days,* and the diversity of intensity
thereof in every grade, so that he

shall
possess this
unto
himself,t
book
and
may
be
who
belong
from
freed
poverty, so that he shall remain secure

in that
those
middle way which
who
is
closed to
are deficient in this most
have seen, therefore,
precious art.
many
fire.
kinds of
One
is
made
out
of straw and cinder, coals and flame,
Experiment
but one without flame.
shows
that
there
intermediate
are
But lead
grades between these kinds.

is
lead of copper, in
whole
Now,
arcanum.
Greek, in
common
with
recognised the necessity for
a favourable moment."
which
"a
all
is
the
concerning
other alchemists, have
certain lapse of time
and
See Olympiodorus On the Sacred
Art.
t
Compare the motto
qui 8UU8 esse potest.
of Paracelsus
Alterius non
sit
The Turba Phtlosophorum,
203
the days of the night in which will be
the
perfection of the
most great
arcanum, I will treat in its proper
place in what follows. And know most
assuredly that
if
little
gold be placed
in the composition, there will result
patent and white tincture.

also a sublime gold
is
Wherefore
and a patent gold
found in the treasuries of the former
Wherefore those things

are unequal which they introduce into
their composition.
Inasmuch as the
elements are commingled and are
turned into lead of copper, coming
philosophers.
out of their own former natures, they are
new
turned into a
Then they
nature.
are called one nature
and one genus.
These things being accomplished,
it is
placed in a glass vessel, unless in a

certain
way the composition
water and
is
altered in
every grade
it
is
when
venerable
by
Although
concerning
drinks the
In
colours.
beheld,
coloured
its
this
it
is
redness.
we
elixir
read in the sayings of the philosophers
Take
gold, occurring frequently,
it
is
The Ttirha PJiilosophorum.
204
only needful to do so once.

therefore, to
know the
Wishing,
certitude of the
adversary, consider what Democritus"^

saith,
how he
begins speaking from
bottom to top, then reversing matters

he proceeds from top to bottom. For,
he said Take iron, lead, and albart
for copper, which reversing, he again
says And our copper for coins, lead
:
in
and
gold, gold for gold of coral,
for
gold of coral for gold of crocus.

the second place,
Again,
when he begins
from the top to the bottom, he saith
Take
gold,
iron
he
coin,
shews,
copper,
lead,
and
by
his
therefore,
sayings that only semi-gold
And
into
*
without doubt gold

rust
without lead
Democritus at
effectually
is
silenced,
taken.
is
not changed
and copper,
the beginning of the assembly
in
which he
be well in this place to enumerate the terms,
mostly of oriental origin, occurring in the Turba
no explanation can
Absumech,
at
present be found.
for
which
They
are:
Ebmich, Corsufle, Mucra, Murtal, Geldum,
Halsut, Albar, and the curious use of the Latin
Carmen.
is
and now seems to be quoted as an
enemy at the conclusion of a symposium

was forbidden to participate.
t It will
word
The Turha Philosoplwrum,
205
and unless it be imbued with vinegar

known by the wise, until, being cooked,
it
turned
is
This,
redness.
into
therefore, is the redness
which
the
all
Philosophers signified, because, however
they said
Take
gold and
it
Take gold of
becomes gold of coral
coral and it becomes purple gold all
;
names of those
behoves them that
these things are only

colours,
for
it
vinegar be placed in
colours
come from
it,
because these
But by these
it.
things which the Philosophers
have
mentioned under various names, they

have signified stronger bodies and forces.
It
taken, therefore, once,
is
may become
is
imposed
on
each
water
being
it.
appear,
it
is
may be
it
necessary
forty
in
desiccated,
consumed;
and placed
being
imbued
For when the
decocted
be
days, so that
the
it
rubigo and then vinegar
said colours
that
that
finally
in
the
cooked until its utility

appear.
Its first grade becomes as a
citrine mucra, the second as red, the
vessel,
it
is
2o6
pounded crocus of the

it imposed upon coin.
third as the dry
So
vulgar.
is
Conclusion*
Agmon saith :
by way of a
add the following
I will
Whosoever
corollary.
does not liquefy and coagulate errs

Therefore,
greatly.
black
make
the earth
separate the soul and the water
thereof,
afterwards whiten
so
shall
what ye seek. I say unto you

that whoso makes earth black and then
dissolves with fire, till it becomes even
like unto a naked sword, who also fixes
the whole with consuming fire, deserves
to be called happy, and shall be exalted
This
above the circle of the world.
ye find
much concerning the revelation of our

stone, is, we doubt not, enough for the
Sons of the Doctrine. The strength
thereof, shall never
become corrupted,
but the same, when
it
fire,
shall
dissolve,
be increased.
it
shall
This constitutes
recension, and
is
is
placed in the
If
you seek to
be dissolved
the last
Dictum
in
but
if
the second
omitted from the longer version.
The Turba Philosophormn.
207
you would coagulate, it shall be coagulated.

Behold, no one is without it,
and yet all do need it
There are
many names given to it, and yet it is
called by one only, while, if need be, it is
concealed. It is also a stone and not
a stone, spirit, soul, and body; it is
!
white, volatile, concave, hairless, cold,
and yet no one can apply the tongue

If you
its surface.
wish that it should fly, it flies if you
say that it is water, you speak the truth
if you say that it is not water, you speak
falsely.
Do not then be deceived by
the multiplicity of names, but rest
assured that it is one thing, unto which
with impunity to
nothing alien
is
added.
Investigate
the place thereof, and add nothing that

is
foreign.
Unless the names were
multiplied, so that the vulgar might be
deceived,
wisdom.
many
would
deride
our
INDEX.
Death,
22.
Democrinis,
Dew,
Dragon,
Earth.
17B.
B-13, so, zi, 27.
.BHU^TUli 41^25-27.
XX7 X2X 167, X9K.
xaob
OOx, 44. 45. 49, 145CMnbar, 70, 139, 351,
13, 14,
122.
maXjOb X15-I37*
i55-
161.
Citrine, 97.
rf CHiiH-. TiîSi.
Coagola, z6x.
-arGaU,3K.x3.
Coin,
^.
30,41,7a, 74, Sa, loo, 113,
I3fi.
Copper,
2B, 32, 44, 6s, 75, B6, B7,
90, 33, 94, 302,
3C53,
105, io5,
114, 117, 12a, 122, 132, :s5. 125,

13S, 14a, 155, 169, 155.
Corsirfie, 99, loo, 106, 1^7, 15;.
CrocnBjSi.
(iadenbe, 39.
joid, 57, 60, 61, 62, 90,
J44;
goa
11:5,
e<i S3. 34.
113,
^^
210
Golden Water,
Greenstone,
Gum,
61-63
Permanent Water,
134.
67.
of ascotia, log
of
Quicksilver, 36, 76, 77, 79, 80, 82,
Halsut, 194.
Heart of the Sun,
68.
84,
117, 162.
i, 2, 54,
Hidden Glory,
139. 145.
67.
Redness,
34, 35, 52, 53, 58, 59. 82,
90, 91, 104, 106, 123, 130, 143.
Red
Slave, 96.
Rotundum,
of the Art, 25.
Kuhul,
93, 135-137.
85,
191. 193.
Ixir, 78, 100, 121, 122, 126, 130.
Key
107, 117.
119,122,133.
Putrefaction, 76, 165.
scoria, 44.
Hermes,
31, 34, 39 45
49, 64-66, 76, 82, 94,
34, 48, 55, 71, 145, 169, 185.
Rubigo,
133.
143, 160, 164, 170.
Rust, 52, 107, 130, 132.
Lead,
54, 55, 57, 60, 72, 81, 82, 93,
100, 161
red lead,
Leaven of Gold,
Saginatum,
60, 61.
Shadow
Smoke,
Magnesia,
38, 39. 71. T7,
133. 137. 146
body
"8,
119,
of, 34, 84,
112, 132, 145, 186.
Magnet,
42, '77,^^, 79-
Male and Female,

89. 96, 135. 180.
Marteck,
152, 196.
Mercury,
193.
Milk of Fig,
Mucra,
31.
Saturn, 193.
31.
57, 60, 77, 79,
of Metals, 70, 76.

58, 144.
Spirit of Brass, 67.
Spume
of the
Moon,
43, 44, 67,
145, 168, 174.
Stone, 44, 45, 69, 91, 93, 109, 114
of gold, 125.
Sulphur,
34, 36, 39. 46. 52. 57, 87,
122, 137.
Sun,
69.
63.
76, 160, 205.
Testa, 163.
Tin, 79,
Nitre, 121.
80, 132, 146.
Tincture,
28, 35, 86, 141.
Tyrian Dye,
Orpiment,
57, 139.
184.
47-50, 74, 90, 92, 131,
211
Urine,
48, 63, 106.
Venom,
46,
"9, 130,
Venus, 194.
69,
Water,
75, 98, 109, 117,
139. i44> 150.
Vinegar, 51-54,
132, 134. 173-
8-12,
4,
20,
21,
alum, 38:
of
gold,
of iron,
117;
nitre, 38, 55, 132

30, 49. 53
27;
of
dew, 63; of
38;
of
of our sea,
of sulphur, 87, 137,
139. 147'
58,
90,
119, 121,
Whiteness,
143.
29, 52, 53, 58, 59i 123,
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THE TURBA PHILOSOPHORUM.

ASSEMBLY OF THE SAGES

AN ANCIENT ALCHEMICAL TREATISE TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN, THE CHIEF

ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE

most ancient extant treatise on Alchemy in

scarcely be regarded as an original composition,

wrote either in Hebrew or Arabic

work, not only at the present day, but seemingly

adepts, has been familiar only in

of course, certain that the original

manuscripts treating of early chemistry are

the present editor has neither the opportunity

nor the qualifications for undertaking such a

There are two codices or recensions of The

appreciably shorter, clearer, and, on the whole,

longer recension has been

chosen for the text of the following translation,

seemed desirable to give the work

variations of the second

recension are appended usually in foot-notes,

but where the reading of the text

as to be quite untranslatable, the

occasionally substituted that of the alternative

most cases indicated the

translation of the Byzantine

been largely made use

between the Greek Hermetic

It is to this great scholar

the discovery of these analogies,

which are very

clearly indicated in a chapter

which has always been

from M. Berthelofs researches, that

are also enabled to identify, for the

and that with perfect

derived from Greece.

certainty, those ancient

the Latin literature makes

requent and reverent allusion

the adepts of the school of Democritus, and the

Berthelot, however, infers that the

Greek influence found

was derived mediately through channels

the most ancient, treatise

exists in the Latin language.

chief printed versions of The Turba Philo-

those of the " Theatrum Chemi-

cum," the *'Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa," and

There are some translawork existing in German and some

specially remarkable for the very slender

which they represent the

versions contained in Salmon's " Bibliotheque

des Philosophes Alchimiques," and in the

Anciens Traictes de la Philosophic Naturelle,"

and it will be found