...it evaporates and corrupts / just as every other thing corrupts outside the place of its generation. Now, that water receives into itself and is imbued with such power: is proven by other qualities original: "accidentia," referring here to the non-essential properties of water / such as the taste of sulfur and orpiment Orpiment (arsenic trisulfide) was a common mineral in alchemy, known for its deep yellow color. or bitterness. For water does not contract these flavors except from the places through which it passes. In the same way, the mineral power, along with the vaporous matter of the stone, is drawn from the water / and the whole water is infected with such spirit and vapor / and when it is able to overcome the water, it converts it into stone. It converts more terrestrial things more quickly, such as wood and plants and the bodies of animals or anything of this sort / because these things, when immersed in the water, are seized by such power and drawn toward the terrestrial nature of the stony matter / which the mineral power—diffused as a vapor in the water—dries out, coagulates, and leads toward a specific form. In the highest mountains, the cold is perpetual and excellent: the cause of which was made clear in the book of Meteorology A reference to Aristotle’s Meteorologia, the standard medieval textbook on atmospheric and geological phenomena. / this cold, by squeezing out the moisture / seizes the water frozen from the snows / and induces in it the property which belongs to the nature of excellent coldness / and from that dryness, it coagulates the ice into crystal or some other transparent stone. And by this method, it is quite easy to know the places where stones are generated, as well as their similarities and differences.

Chapter Nine: On the power of the place and how it operates in the nature of stones.

R

The triple operation of the stone-making power.

There emanates, however, a certain principle that explains the understanding of all those things which have been said. And it is this: that we determine how the power of one thing seizes the substance of another and converts it into itself. They call this—based on what we have said—the mutual transmutation of the elements. For when earth converts water into itself, first the powers of the earth enter the substance and alter it / and, as if dominating the water, they hold it / and then the water begins to stand still and take a boundary / and yet it does not yet lose its transparency; then thereafter it is corrupted / and passes into earth and receives the qualities of earth, which are opaque and dry. It is entirely similar regarding the powers of mixtures / as is evident in the sap of plants and the food of animals. For in these, the powers of living things first alter the matter / and afterward, having seized it, they hold the matter / and afterward convert it into a part of the body which is being nourished. And in exactly the same way is the stone-making power original: "virtute lapidificatiua," the specialized force believed to turn matter into stone. / when it is diffused in some place / whether it be water or earth / it first alters the matter it touches / and afterward, dominating it, holds it / and after it has held and overcome it, converts it into stone. This operation occurs in three general ways / although in number, the specific modes are infinite. One of these is that the power seizing the matter alters it only according to the active and passive qualities by which it operates in it: and this is a weak power. In the second way, it happens that it alters it

both according to the qualities and according to the immediate effects of those qualities / which are hardness and softness / so that transparency original: "diaphanitas" and opacity are not removed from the matter / and this is a stronger power / and in this way transparent stones are generated. In the third way, it happens that it seizes the whole matter both according to its immediate effects and according to the subsequent ones / and then it induces qualities and changes the hardness, softness, and the proper color of that matter. And in this way, even from water, some stones are generated that are not transparent / or not fully transparent / such as chalcedony and that which is called the stone of Basson This likely refers to a type of flint or a specific mineral named after a location, possibly Bashan. / and indeed other stones. There are, however, in all these ways many degrees of which mention will be made below / when specific stones are discussed. An example of this is that some terrestrial power which operates through compressing cold and moisture / and through dryness / operates on water such that only the power of this kind of cold and dryness remains in it. And then, everything in such water dries out vehemently and becomes cold / and the alchemists original: "alchimici" study how to make such waters—which possess the qualities of different elements in power but not in act—beyond measure: so that through them they may dry and coagulate that which they wish to transmute: for this reason, they have books written about the "seven waters." Sometimes, however, the earthy power seizes the water so that the cold now squeezes out the moisture / and thus it bounds the matter while the transparency of the water remains. For the transparency of water does not come to it insofar as it is cold or moist or possessing both qualities / but insofar as it shares in the nature of the celestial body Medieval science held that transparency was a "celestial" property rather than an "elemental" one. / and therefore it belongs to the substance of water before the active and passive qualities according to nature / because it is more common to the elements than any of the active and passive qualities. And when the coldness and dryness of the earth operate in this way, they necessarily induce their immediate effects into the water, which are hardness and coagulation / and then a transparent stone is made. Sometimes, however, it overcomes it further, leading the substance of the water to opacity and the nature of earth: And then from water, an opaque and perhaps very black stone is made / such as certain small stones found abundantly on the banks of rivers / some of which, however, are generated from terrestrial matter, as we shall show below. Just as we have spoken regarding earth / so it must be understood to happen regarding the qualities of all the elements / and it must be added that the virtue of the element is the material / and the celestial virtue is the instrumental / and the formal is the virtue of the mover / and that which results from all these is the power infused into the matter and the place of the stones / as has been sufficiently stated in the preceding sections. Concerning the causes from which the generation of stones in general may be known, let it be determined enough in this way.

The Second Tractate of the First Book

on minerals / which is about the accidents of stones.