Book of Mercuries

ON THE WRITERS OF ALCHEMY

The renowned artisans of this art were, as Vincent reports in the Mirror of Nature, original: "Speculo naturali." Vincent of Beauvais was a 13th-century Dominican friar who compiled one of the most significant encyclopedias of the Middle Ages.

Adam. Noah. Idris. Idris is the Islamic name for the prophet Enoch. He is often identified with Hermes Trismegistus in alchemical lore. Scilla. Chora. Moses and his sister Mary. Mary the Jewess is an early alchemical figure. She is traditionally credited with the invention of the water bath or "balneum Mariae." Cato. Virgil. Aristotle. Alexander. Geber. Geber is the Latinized name of Jabir ibn Hayyan, the foundational figure of Arabic alchemy. Yahya. Rhazes. Al-Razi was a Persian physician and chemist who classified chemical substances and equipment. Albumasar. Abu Ma'shar was a famous Persian astrologer whose works influenced Western medieval science. Maurienus or Morienes. Morienes was a legendary hermit said to have taught the secrets of alchemy to the Umayyad prince Khalid ibn Yazid. John the Evangelist. Cardinals Garfias and Gilbert. Bishop William, called Huck. Giles, master of the hospital, who extracted the book of 125 stones. Also Bishop Androicus and the Dominican Apostle. And Jacob Aranicus the Jew. Also the monks Peter and Durand. Avicenna. Avicenna, or Ibn Sina, was an influential Persian philosopher and physician. Arnald of Villanova and Raymond, who flourished in our own recent times. Raymond Lull is the author to whom this work is attributed. He and Arnald of Villanova were prominent figures in 13th and 14th-century alchemy.