Collection of Alchemical Treatises

we have but one, which is Sol; and although all the philosophers say, and we see by experience, that [the use] of two metals is the necessary entry for performing transmutation, namely Sol and Luna, although Luna is not a perfect metal, except in regard to its nature, for turning Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn into Luna; but it is not at the degree that nature intends to achieve and reduce into solific matter.

Now it is thus that Mercury is generated from a subtle sulfurous water and earth, and this earth and water, through several solutions and congelations at the center of the earth, becomes Mercury, which is the sperm of all metals; and it is perfected and sealed in such a way, by means of nature and slight heat, that it is almost incorruptible. And if the said Mercury, flowing through

the veins of the Earth, encounters a white, clean, and marble-like earth, it congeals successively into Luna, and then into Sol by the continuation of the slight heat being within the mines, provided that it cannot be Gold unless it first be Silver, for one cannot go from the first to the third without passing through the second.

And if the said Mercury finds itself in a white, opaque, sulfurous earth, Tin is made. And for this reason one sees with the eye that when one bends tin, it cries because of the great sulfurity that is within its body.

And if it finds a black, soft, and cold earth, it converts into lead, because of its frigidity and the muddiness of the earth; and for this reason the said lead has but little congelation, and therefore, by the length of time, it all vanishes into smoke.