Book of Mercuries

TO THE WRITERS

Giovanni Bracesco of Orzinuovi. An Italian physician from the early 16th century. He wrote influential dialogues attempting to reconcile the complex metaphors of alchemy with the medical theories of his time.

Giovanni Agostino Patherus (or Pantheus) wrote the Art and Theory of Metallic Transmutations along with Voarchadumia. Pantheus was a Venetian priest. His work Voarchadumia (1530) is famous for its attempt to distinguish 'true' alchemy from common 'sophistic' alchemy, using a name derived from Chaldean and Hebrew roots.

Isaac the Monk wrote the Method of Silver, or how one must find the sides of irrational numbers original Greek: ἀργύρȣ μέθοδον, ὅπως δεῖ εὑρίσκειν τὰς πλευρὰς τῶν μὴ ῥητῶν. This is a Greek manuscript located in the Royal Library of France. This refers to Isaac Argyrus, a 14th century Byzantine monk and mathematician. The title contains a pun on his surname, as Argyros means 'silver' in Greek.

An alchemical book by a certain Morienus is in circulation, but it has not been printed. Morienus Romanus was a legendary hermit of the 7th century. He is famously credited with teaching the secrets of the Philosopher's Stone (the substance capable of turning base metals into gold) to the Umayyad prince Khalid ibn Yazid.

Philipp Ulstadt published The Heaven of the Philosophers, which nonetheless pertains to medical matters. Ulstadt was a 16th century physician from Nuremberg. His work focused on using distillation to create a Fifth Essence or 'quintessence' to be used as a universal medicine.

Raymond Lull wrote (among many other things) On the Secrets of Nature, or the Fifth Essence. Through my own research, I have discovered that he actually performed what he promised in his books for the English: and in the Tower of London Ramon Llull (c. 1232–1315) was a Majorcan polymath. Though many alchemical texts were later attributed to him, he is the subject of a famous legend claiming he transmuted gold for King Edward to fund a crusade.