The Turba Philosophorum (complete) — trans. A. E. Waite (1896)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
The translator’s English as printed (A. E. Waite). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
* At this point there appears to be a sudden transition iiom cosmology to alchemy, but it must be remembered that it is one of the Hermetic Methods to describe the processes oi the great work in the language of cosmology, and this not only in the Latin mediaeval writers, but also in the Greek. For example, the Byzantine fragment entitled The Nomenclature of the Egg affirms that the egg is the image of the world, and hence is composed of the four elements, t The philosophical copper is a subject of continual reference throughout all alchemy. Among the earliest authorities, the Book of Crates says that copper, like man, has a spirit, soul, and body. It appears from the same treatise that the term is symbolical, and applies to a stage of the alchemical process. Another passage describes it as the essential substance. Gold is said to transform only with lead and copper. The Lexicon of Chrysopeia explains that white copper is crude sulphur.
The Turha Philosophorum. 29
white, and make visible coins* and then afterwards again turn it into redness, t until a Tincturei results, verily, ye accomplish nothing. Burn therefore the copper, break it up, deprive it of its blackness by cooking, imbuing, and washing, until the same becomes white. Then rule it.
• M. Berthelot has pointed out that the use of the term nummus by the Latin alchemists is a misconception of the meaning of anterior writers. The reference is to Asem, an alloy of gold and silver.
t Numerous preparations for whitening and reddening will be found in the Collection of Ancient Greek Alchemists,, as, for example, the Combination of the White Preparation in the Address of Isis to Horus, the recipe in the twentyfirst paragraph of the Natural Questions of Democritus, again in the Book of Synesius, the Philosopher, addressed to Dioscorus, and elsewhere in many places. It is invariably an operation with copper. The book addressed by Democritus to Leucippus says that the alchemical work comprises the process of making white and making yellow (red), as also the softening and coction of the mineral of copper. According to Synesius, the process of whitening is a calcination, and making yellow is an igneous regeneration.
J The Greek Lexicon of Chrysopeia distinguishes two species of tincture, that which so permeates and scaks into a substance as to change its nature, and that which produces a superficial colouring.
30 The Turba Philosophorum.
The Tenth Dictum. Arisleus saith : — Know that the key of this work is the art of Coins.* Take, therefore, the body which I have shewn to you and reduce it to thin tablets. Next immerse the said tablets in the Water of our Sea,+ which is permanent Water,! and, after it is covered, § set it over a gentle fire until the tablets are melted and become waters or Etheliae, t Pelagus, cited by Olympiodorus in the Treatise on the Sacred Art, quotes Zosimus in definition of the sea as the hermaphrodytic element,
* In this instance the term appears to be used as the equivalent oi tablets or lamina — the thin strips into which later alchemy frequently directs a metal to be cut before it is subjected to a given treatment.
I The Book of El-Habib says that the virtue of eternal water is that of a spiritual blood. It is identified with Eeriform water, azure water, and water of sulphur. It is also primal sulphur. When boiled, it transforms the male (arsenic) into silver, and afterwards into gold. It is also said that copper is water of silver, which, after preparation, becomes eternal water. Interpreting later writers, Rulandus says that it is the philosophical solution of two perfect bodies, and he enumerates the contradictory names which have been assigned to it in alchemy.
§ The reference is apparently to the closing of the mouth of the vessel.
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which are one and the same thing. Mix, cook, and simmer in a gentle fire until Brodium is produced, like to Saginatum. Then stir in its water of Etheliae until it be coagulated, and the coins become variegated, which we call the Flower of Salt. Cook it, therefore, until it be deprived of blackness, and the whiteness appear. Then rub it, mix with the Gum of Gold, and cook until it becomes red Etheliae. Use patience in pounding lest you become weary. Imbue the Ethelia with its own water, which has preceded from it, which also is Permanent Water, until the same becomes red. This, then, is Burnt Copper,* which is the Leaven of Gold and the Flower thereof. Cook the same with Permanent Water, which is