WARNING.

is debased as soon as it is discovered; one no longer esteems it as soon as it is divulged.

Scire tuum nihil est, si quod scis hoc sciat alter.
Your knowledge is nothing if another does not know what you know.

In effect, the adepts those who have achieved the secret goal say themselves that if one knew in what their secret consists, one would despise the Hermetic Science the study of alchemy and transmutation; one would no longer esteem either gold or silver. Riches would be insipid, so easy is it to practice what they hide.

Thus I present an ample collection of books; it is good to know them all, but I advise reading very few, and only practicing after having penetrated the writings and the meaning of some great master. Such is the result of the catalogue that I publish.

I have added to it the books that treat of metals the primary materials of alchemy, because it is
Owen in Epigrammatum Libello.