Literary Notices on the History of So-called Gold-making

Adepts highly skilled alchemists who claimed to have discovered the secret of the philosopher's stone wish to provide proof—based on the roaring lion and the dragon biting its own tail seen there in raised relief work—that he accomplished the Great Work the "Magnum Opus," or the process of creating the philosopher's stone and made gold in that very place!! Pope Clement V says in his bull issued in Avignon on September 8, 1305 *), *Concerning the Election of the Chancellor of the Faculty of Medicine in Montpellier: Having discussed these matters with our beloved sons, Arnald of Villanova and John of Alesto, *) our physician and chaplain, who formerly governed [the faculty] for a long time, etc. original Latin: "de Electione Cancellarii Facultatis Medicinae in Montepessulano: Habita super his, cum dilectis filiis, Arnoldo de Villanoua, et Ioanne de Alesto, Physico et Capellano nostro, qui olim diu rexerunt etc." Arnald was 73 years old at that time.

Worth more than all the daydreams of his Testament, Operative Art, and The Philosophers' Rose Garden original Latin titles: "Testamenti, Artis operatiuae and Rosarii philosophorum" is his discovery of spirits of wine, Water of Life [Aqua Vitae] or Burning Water [Aqua Ardens]**).* Arnald is historically credited with being one of the first to describe the distillation of alcohol for medicinal purposes.

The gold-makers alchemists boast loudly of the testimony of the jurist Johannes Andreae regarding the small gold bars Arnald produced in Rome, of which Thomas Murch writes in the preface to The Works of Arnald (Lyon, 1509 folio): I omit the fact that he was so skilled in the secrets of nature that he possessed the true Alchemy and produced golden plates, which were not inferior to the finest gold, as Johannes Andreae testifies under the heading of the crime of forgery. original Latin: "Omitto, quod arcana naturae adeo calluit, ut veram Alchimiam teneret faceretque laminas aureas, non cedentes perfectissimo auro, ut Iohannes Andreas in titulo de falsi crimine attestatur." The reference to the "crime of forgery" concerns a legal debate over whether alchemical gold could legally be used as money. The passage, which is preceded by all sorts of clever remarks for and against alchemy, appears in Andreae's Additions—

*) Astruc, p. 45. Refers to Jean Astruc’s "Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la Faculté de médecine de Montpellier" (1767).
**) in the place cited, p. 174. original: "l. c." (loco citato)
***) Arnald [On Wines]; [On simple Water of Life]; [Counsel or regimen for gout]. original Latin: "Arnald. de Vinis; de Aqua vitae simplicis; Consilium siue regimen podagrae."