Christoph Gottlieb von Murr

Literary Reports

the History

So-called Gold-making.

"In our age, those who loudly proclaim the gold-making art chrysopoeia: the alchemical process of transmuting base metals into gold, and try to convince the unlearned that they possess it, are all sellers of smoke original: fumiuenduli — a historical term for swindlers or those who sell empty promises and seekers of profit, whose minds are possessed by the desire for vain boasting and money." Translated from the original Latin: "Nostro Saeculo, qui artem auriferam crepant, imperitisque, eam se tenere, persuadere conantur, omnes sunt fumiuenduli, lucripetae, quorum animos vanae gloriationis et nummorum cupido obsedit." Werner Rolfinck's Chemistry, page 436. Werner Rolfinck (1599–1673) was a German physician and chemist who was instrumental in transitioning chemistry from alchemical mysticism to a formal academic discipline.