The Turba Philosophorum (complete) — trans. A. E. Waite (1896)
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The translator’s English as printed (A. E. Waite). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
The Fifty-Second Dictum. IxuMDRUS saiih : You will have treated most excellently, O Horfolcus, concerning the regimen of copper and the humid spirit, provided you proceed therewith. And 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 it the Flower of Gold, because it is a certain natural thing.
process occurs : " Water of sulphur obtained by means of calx is manfactured in this manner : Having mixed all the waters in the catalogue (which it is impossible to extricate from its context and place in the compass of a footnote), taking equal parts, add white earths until the compound becomes very white. Place in a mortar, kindle a fire uiiderneath, and receive what distils.'' There is also a "pure" water of sulphur which is obtained somewhat differently.
* The second recension reads : " Water of Ethelia."
The Turba Philosophorum. 157
Do you not remember what the Philosophers have said, that before it arrives at this terminus, copper does not tinge ?* But when it is tinged it tinges, because quicksilver tinges when it is combined with its tincture. But when it is mixed with those ten things which the Philosophers have denominated fermented urines, then have they called all these things Multiplication. But some have termed their mixed bodies Corsufle and Gum of Gold.t Therefore, those names which are found in the books of the Philot That is to say, the Chrysocorallos of the Greek alchemists. The following is firom a ricipe of Pseudo- Democritus : " Minera of Silver, i part ; Finest Earth of Chios, or Ochre, 2 parts ; Minium of Pontus, i part ; preparation given previously (it is too complicated for reproduction here), 2 parts : combine with the humour of the Sulphur (another abstruse recipe); cook over a fire carefully regulated. You will find a potent substance, having the colour of cinnabar, coral, or minium. This great wonder, this indescribable marvel, is called Chrysocorallos (Coral of Gold)." And Synesius, quoting Democritus, says : " Here is how he expresses himself: The body (metal) of magnesia, alone (produces) Chrysocoral."
* According to the second recension : " Before it reaches this point, it is called copper.''
158 The Turba Philosophorum.
sophers, and are thought superfluous and vain, are true and yet are fictitious, because they are one thing, one opinion, and one way. This is the quicksilver which is indeed extracted from all things,* out of which all things are produced, which also is pure water that destroys the shade of copper. And know ye that this quicksilver, when it is whitened, becomes a sulphur which contains sulphur, and is a venom that has a brilliance like marble ; this the envious call Ethelia, orpiment and sandarac, out of which a tincture and pure spirit ascends with a mild fire, and the whole pure flower is sublimated, which flower becomes wholly quicksilver. It is, therefore, a most great arcanum which the Philosophers have thus described, because sulphur alone whitens copper. Ye, O investigators of this Art, must know that the said sulphur cannot whiten
* The reading ab hominibus for ab omnibus is substituted by the second recension several times in this Dictum, but there can be no doubt that it is a printer's error.
The Turba Philosophorum. 159