On Alchemy

(let the experts judge.) And they add this: No one is so foolish that he would want to treat silver in this way, since it involves the greatest labor and the highest industry, unless it were more precious once treated. Nor would the prophet compare the word of God to such silver, but rather to pure gold, unless such silver were equal in value to gold. And this indeed agrees very much with the words of Geber speaking about silver: He who knows how to refine it further original: "subtiliare." In alchemy, this means to make a substance more "subtle" or spiritually pure by removing gross impurities., and after refinement, how to thicken and fix it original: "figere." Fixing is the process of making a volatile substance stable so that it can withstand fire without evaporating., will join it with gold, and so on. We have said these things in such a way that we do not particularly desire to persuade anyone. For if there is any solid truth here, philosophical minds will recognize and grasp it no less quickly than a healthy eye sees light, or a magnet attracts iron.

There are roughly four types of writers on this art.

Some follow a Method, without figures and riddles, in the philosophical manner. But they cover the matter of the stone in such a way that no one, except by the gift of God, may understand what they intend. In this type, GEBER holds the first place. Certain more recent writers follow him at a long distance, such as Roger Bacon, whom our Pico della Mirandola also mentions, along with many others.

Some take the art as systematically formed and wrap the whole thing in riddles, as the poets do in the myths of Cadmus, the Hesperides, and the Argonauts, and as a certain more recent author does in the dialogue concerning the little golden book.

Some, omitting method, sketch only the principal things with figures and riddles. They wish to be understood only by those who have progressed so far in philosophy that they can almost guess this art by themselves. To this type belong Hermes, Mary the Prophetess, Morienus, and the Assembly of the Philosophers original: "Turba philosophorum," one of the most influential early Latin translations of Arabic alchemical debates..

The fourth type writes only about practice original: "πρᾶξιν" (praxin), referring to the manual laboratory operations., but so simply and rustically that nothing hidden at all appears to be within it. But in that type, there is absolutely nothing sound original: "οὐδὲν ὑγιès" (ouden hygies), a Greek phrase used to describe something completely unreliable or deceptive. (as the proverb says), but everything found there is erroneous, false, and full of lies.

Students should begin especially with GEBER. He wrote four small works that provide testimony for one another: namely, The Investigation, The Invention, Of Furnaces, and The Summary of the Perfect Mastery. Some have corrupted this last work in various ways, dividing it into three, five, or seven books, even though there are only two. Having compared copies, we have produced a version as corrected as possible, and most diligently distinguished...