GEORGE RIPLEY

ENGLISH CANON

THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE GATES.

original: "XII. Portarum Liber." This is the Latin translation of Ripley's famous alchemical poem "The Compound of Alchymie," which outlines twelve stages of the alchemical process.

Elegiac verse is a classical poetic form consisting of couplets; the translator, Nicholas May, has adapted Ripley's original English verses into this formal Latin meter.

NICHOLAS MAY.

original: "Nicolao Maio." May was a 16th-century physician and poet known for translating alchemical works.