ON THE WRITERS

OF ALCHEMY.

FROM THE PREFACE OF GUGLIELMO GRATAROLO.

Regarding Chemistry, or Alchemy, Robert Constantin A 16th-century French physician and scholar renowned for his lexicography. writes as follows in his List of Notable Authors published in Paris in 1555.

Concerning this art, just as we have said regarding the Kabbalah The Jewish mystical tradition, which Renaissance scholars often grouped with alchemy as "hidden" or "divine" knowledge., no ancient author can be found who committed anything to the record of memory, whether this was done out of envy Commonly referred to as "hermetic secrecy," where masters hid knowledge from the unworthy. or out of ignorance. However, there is no shortage of those who interpret that famous Golden Fleece original: "vellus aureum"; Greek: χρυσόμαλλον δέρας (chrysomallon deras) of Jason mentioned by the poets to have been a book written upon a hide or a large scroll original: "macrocolo", referring to a large-format sheet of parchment., which contained the art itself—that is, the method for making gold and silver. Interpreters of myths pull these stories in both directions:

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