PREFACE

TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.

TLarge decorative drop capHE HERMETIC MUSEUM RESTORED AND ENLARGED original: "Musaeum Hermeticum Reformatum et Amplificatum." This 1678 Frankfort edition is the most famous version of this collection. was published in Latin at Frankfort, in the year 1678, and, as its title implies, it was an enlarged form of an earlier work which, appearing in 1625, is more scarce, but, essentially, of less value. Its design was apparently to supply in a compact form a representative collection of the more brief and less ancient alchemical writers ; in this respect, it may be regarded as a supplement to those large storehouses of HermeticThe secret or "sealed" tradition of alchemy, named after the mythical founder Hermes Trismegistus. learning such as the Chemical Theater original: "Theatrum Chemicum," a massive six-volume collection of alchemical tracts published throughout the 17th century., and that scarcely less colossal work of MangetusJean-Jacques Manget (1652–1742), a Swiss physician and scholar who compiled the most comprehensive library of alchemical texts ever printed., the Curious Chemical Library original: "Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa.", which are largely concerned with the finest examples of the ancient literature, with the works of GeberThe Latinized name of Jabir ibn Hayyan, an 8th-century scholar often called the father of chemistry. and the adeptsThose who have successfully achieved the "Great Work" of transmuting base metals into gold or attaining spiritual enlightenment. of the school of Arabia, with the writings attributed to HermesHermes Trismegistus, the legendary figure to whom the foundation of alchemy is credited., with those of Raymond Lully, Arnold de Villa Nova, Bernard Trevisan, and others.

THE HERMETIC MUSEUM would also seem to represent a distinctive school in Alchemy, not altogether committed to certain modes and terminology which derived most of their prestige from the past, and sufficiently enigmatical as it was, still inclined to be less obscure and misleading than was the