A horizontal row of seven stylized floral woodcut ornaments, resembling tulip blossoms on stems.

PREFACE.

original: "PRÆFATIO"

So that I might truly and well deserve the favor of those upright, God- and Art-loving sons of Doctrine Latin: filios Doctrinæ; a traditional term for initiates or dedicated students of alchemy, and so that they—being thoroughly instructed in this high secret of the Hermetic miracle original: "Hermetischen miraculi"; this refers to the "Great Work" of alchemy, the creation of the Philosopher's Stone—might not spend their time in vain, whether in study and reading original: "Studii & lectionis" or in practice and labor original: "Practic und laboris"; "labor" specifically refers to the physical work performed at the alchemical furnace; I have seen fit to present the German text, just as it was attached at the end to the following figures in a nearly faded and difficult-to-read script. I have set it forth piece by piece, yet completely and in an orderly sequence, divided into specific chapters. Upon this follows my addition and explanation, with testimonies from Sendivogius’s Chemical Light Referring to Michael Sendivogius (1566–1636), a world-renowned alchemist whose "New Chemical Light" (Novum Lumen Chymicum) was a foundational text for 17th-century science, drawn from the forces of Nature original: "è Naturæ viribus", and understood according to the true sense of the Author original: "& vero Authoris sensu", not by the syllables original: "non Syllabis" nor the twisted bark of words original: "aut torto verborum cortice"; a common alchemical idiom warning the reader not to take the metaphors too literally or superficially, understood and ex... The text breaks mid-word; based on the catchword "legt," the full word is "ausgelegt," meaning interpreted or explained.