Inscrutable Chemico-Philosophical Harmonies

...of metals The text begins with the suffix "-lorum," likely the end of metallorum (of metals) or mineralorum (of minerals) from the previous page.. And therefore Albertus says, just as the mixing of certain vapors precedes the matter for the generation of animal bodies, so the mixing of sulfur and mercuryIn alchemy, sulfur and mercury often represent philosophical principles—heat/dryness and cold/moisture—rather than just the common chemical elements. is required for the preceding of their forms. For this reason the Philosophers say, and all Alchemists agree, that metals are nothing other than a subtle vapor resolved from quicksilveroriginal: argento vivo with a sulfurous substance, by means of a tempered heat in the deepest mineral caverns of the earth: which vapors contain a humidity that excels all humidities; and such humidity is tempered and condensed by means of the finest earthly dryness in a hidden place.

And this tempered heat is to be composed—by mixing, dissolving, and sublimatingThe process of heating a substance until it turns into vapor and then solidifies again, used here to describe natural purification within the earth. these vapors—and is converted to the place of extraction, which contains such humidity, digests and refines and condenses it; and such humidity is the cause of fluidityoriginal: fluxibilitatis. This refers to a metal's ability to melt and flow when heated. in metals, and ultimately is transmuted into gold or another metal. Such vapors are drawn from quicksilver and sulfur, and in this way quicksilver and sulfur come together to form metals, so that from them come the vapors from which metals are then coagulated.

Therefore, it must subsequently be known, as Geber, King of Spain The Latin author of the Summa perfectionis, written under the name of the earlier Arabic alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan., says in his Summa: sulfur is nothing else than the fatness of the earthoriginal: pinguedo terrae. A traditional alchemical term for the oily, combustible principle that allows substances to burn or react., cooked in its mine by a tempered heat, hardened and condensed. But quicksilver, as the Master of Ferrara Petrus Bonus, author of the Precious New Pearl. says in chapter 25, is a heavy water mixed and digested with a very subtle white earth,