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WARNING

On the Catalogue of Hermetic Philosophers.

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I am not the first to have attempted to provide a Catalogue of the Authors of the Hermetic Science alchemy; Pierre Borel, Physician of Castres, had ventured it as early as the year 1654. His literary vanity, joined to an excessive zeal for this part of philosophy, led him to push the list of chemists up to four thousand authors. However, although a very large number have been printed in the nearly 80 years since Borel brought out his book, the list scarcely exceeds 900 authors, which makes up about 2500 treatises.