The Vegetable Work

...pecially noble gift from GOD to describe the great mysteriesoriginal: Mysteria; referring to the hidden spiritual and physical secrets of the natural world. with very simple words and through frequent repetition of necessary points in the most detailed manner. He also possesses such a friendly and affable style that it grants the reader a wondrous grace and pleasure to read these works often and to remember them well, all of which yields even greater benefit. Therefore, keeping this in mind, I could not help but be helpful in the publication of the aforementioned writings; and after several writings—which to my knowledge were only recently published—came into my hands: namely, the secret book called the Hand of the Philosophers; likewise, the Work of Urine original: Opus Urinae, which two books have not yet been printed; likewise, the Work of Saturn original: Opus Saturni, which was attached to Basil’s Triumphal Chariot original: Basilii Triumph-Wagen; a reference to the famous alchemical text "The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony" attributed to Basilius Valentinus; similarly the Mineral Work original: Opus Minerale, which was also printed in Latin; likewise the Vegetable Work original: Opus Vegetabile, regarding which I cannot know whether it is a part of the aforementioned great Vegetable Work or a separate one. These now-specified Low German manuscriptsoriginal: Niederdeutsche Manuscripta were obtained a short time ago from the son-in-law of Justi à Balbian Joost van Balbian (1543–1616), a Flemish alchemist and physician and reached me. I have therefore first translated the little Vegetable Work into High Germanoriginal: Hochdeutsche