Reg.lat.1200

... ... ...?
the spirits of nature are re-
duced and made more fixed, thus
the dissolution of the body is the coagula-
tion of the spirit. In alchemy, this is the central paradox: to turn a solid (body) into a liquid or gas, one must simultaneously turn the internal energy (spirit) into something stable or "fixed."

Whence Anaxagoras An ancient Greek philosopher often cited by medieval alchemists as an authority on the composition of matter. says:

The Stone is nothing but the Sun original: "sol." In alchemical texts, "Sun" almost always refers to Gold, the most perfect metal. sublimated and con-
verted into the greatest mineral
power.

Alphidius An Arabic or Latin alchemical author frequently quoted in the Middle Ages. says:

he says that quicksilver original: "argentum vivum," literally "living silver," the liquid metal mercury. is congealed
by the body of magnesia. Alchemical "magnesia" was not the modern element magnesium, but a mysterious mineral substance—often described as a black or white stone—capable of "fixing" or solidifying mercury.

The aforementioned [authors] did not mean the quicksilver
that is seen [by the eyes], nor the magne-
sia that is commonly seen: but
by quicksilver they under-
stood the humidity of that
matter, which is the radical
moisture original: "humiditas radicalis," the fundamental life-giving fluid thought to exist in all matter. of our Stone, and
by magnesia they understood