PREFACE

...the relationship between the earthly and the celestial Creator. Hence it is that King David in Psalm 53:5 Modern Bibles usually cite this as Psalm 53:4 or 14:4 proceeds to recount how barbaric and profane it is for men to eat bread without the most humble giving of thanks and invocation to God. Furthermore, when God proposed to punish the impious and rebellious, He threatened to take bread away from them in many places. Whence in Psalm 105:16: He broke the staff of bread, and brought famine into the land. We can also bring forth infinite other examples of the dignity of bread from Holy Scripture, by which we may more clearly declare that the spirit of goodness is abundantly present and inherent in it from the beginning, seeing as it has been endowed with such virtue and goodness from the world's origin.

This, therefore, is the reason why a desire for knowing hidden things eagerly led me to the anatomy In this context, "anatomy" refers to a chemical or structural decomposition to understand the internal parts. of this most noble vegetable creature: so that I might elicit or lay open its internal and latent mysteries, according to the possibility of common chemistry. I have undertaken to attempt this in the prince of the vegetable kingdom more so than in either the animal kingdom (namely, man) or the mineral (namely, gold). This is because performing an internal anatomy of man by the way of common Alchemy would be useless and impossible; for his nature is so fiery and subtle that to reveal the parts lying hidden and more spiritual within him by the art of common fire, and to subject them to the senses, would be either most difficult or plainly impossible. His fiery spirit possesses such subtlety that it sustains the violence of fire less than that of quicksilver mercury, which quickly vanishes into smoke at the touch of violent heat.

Nor, certainly, would I wish to lose my "effort and oil" A Latin idiom, operam et oleum perdere, meaning to waste time and resources. in the destruction of gold (so that I might speculate upon its internal elements). For although the mineral disposition tastes of the earth, just as the animal tastes of fire, and consequently its parts, once divided from one another, can be brought back to the senses—and although the Holy Spirit of discipline has placed his tabernacle in this "earthly Sun" gold no differently than in the celestial sun, insofar as this spirit fills the orb of the earth, and according to that saying of Augustine: as much light as a thing has in itself, so much of God it seems to claim for itself—nevertheless, since according to the opinion of the wisest philosophers, it will be easier to construct gold than to destroy it, and consequently to segregate its elements from one another would be one of the Labors of Hercules.

Therefore, I have chosen for this work of ours this intermediate subject—that is, one consisting between the mineral and animal disposition—inasmuch as it participates greatly in water. Since its species is vegetable, it can most easily be destroyed and corrupted by the force of common fire, and its internal elements distinguished from one another. Thus we have in a certain way manifested its secrets, because in its watery vehicle the elements appear better after its corruption than they do in the animal in its airy vehicle (on account of its intense heat and overly volatile moisture), or in the mineral (on account of its extreme dryness arising from its earthly fixation or congealing).

And although I may seem to treat of common bread in this place, I nevertheless wish you to candidly recognize that under its veil or shadow I have dealt abundantly with the mystical bread in its own proper region or subject; that is, I have demonstrated it clearly enough in the type of common bread. Nor indeed should Momus The Greek god of mockery and harsh criticism., filled with malevolence and envy, deride me for this, nor should the ignorant proclaim that I have brought frivolous things to light because he either understands the interior sense of this history not at all, or does not wish to understand it. Nor let anyone rashly accuse me because we describe this anatomy of bread of ours parabolically or analogically—that is, in a double sense—since in this thread of discourse we imitate the Holy Scriptures, the interior of which is the spirit, while the exterior is the letter. The spirit explains the mystery of the matter and relates to it as the soul to the body; the letter describes the historical or moral sense of the matter at first glance, and relates to it as the body to the soul.

What the Evangelists wrote, both external and internal, was entirely true and useful for instituting the life of both soul and body. For the internal essentially conduced to the life of the soul, and is the divine mystery which divinely governs the internal man; the external, however, looks to the institution of the body, both physical and moral, and conforms the body to the disposition of the mind. Therefore, both the external and internal of the Holy Letters are infallible and very necessary for the governance of human life, and there is no lie in them. But truly, their internal sense is opened only to a few, while the external is open to almost everyone; hence, as the disciples spoke commonly in parables, the Savior of the world commanded that they should have ears and not hear, eyes and yet not see.

As for what pertains to this little work of mine, although I know well it is not fair to compare small things with great, and a hillock so humble with a mountain or mass so lofty as is...