Note: This page contains significant bleed-through from the reverse side, titled "PHILALETHA ILLUSTRATUS Sive PANTALEON," but the primary text remains legible.

PANTALEON

In the Roman Empire referring to the Holy Roman Empire some hundred years ago, so far as is known, Lull and Arnold flourished original: "floruit Lullius & Arnoldus"; referring to Ramon Llull and Arnold of Villanova, two of the most famous legendary figures in medieval alchemy. There followed then, after a certain interval of time, Augurellus Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (c. 1441–1524), an Italian humanist poet and alchemist, of whom it is said that Leo X, the Roman Pontiff, offered him—in return for his very beautiful and precious Alchemical Poem referring to Augurello's 1515 work "Chrysopoeia," which explained how to make gold in Latin verse dedicated to him—an empty Purse with this accompanying joke: If he knew how to make gold himself, he would need nothing but a container. This response fits like a fist to the eye an idiom meaning the remark was blunt or exactly to the point. For there is a great difference between Theory and Practice, between the Beginning and the End, and between Act and Potency original: "Actum & Potentia"; philosophical terms used to distinguish between having the potential to do something and the actual realization of it. Not everyone happens to reach Corinth A classical proverb meaning that not everyone has the wealth or luck to achieve their goals, regardless of their knowledge at the very moment they have learned the way, because of a lack of necessary provisions; just as it does not follow: I know the Mastery of the Metallic Tincture term: "Magisterium Tincturæ Metallicæ"; the secret method for producing the "Tincture" or Philosopher's Stone that transmutes metals, therefore I am able to practice it; because there may be a lack of Funds, Opportunity, Place, Strength, and Health. Therefore, it is a foolish argument to object: if you know, then do.