Secrets of the Secrets of Ramon Llull and Hermes the Philosophers

TO THE BENEVOLENT READER

A square woodcut decorative initial 'C' features ornate scrolling foliage and floral patterns.When I happened upon this short work by Lullius Ramon Llull a year ago, candid reader, I noticed that the manuscript copy possessed a certain air of wonder and rarity. Because those learned men to whom I showed it did not merely refrain from disapproving of it, but rather sought it out with great fervor, I deemed it worth the effort to have it printed, lest I defraud those studying medicine, or those in need, by suppressing its utility. Furthermore, since a certain chemical fragment by Thomas Aquinas and a booklet by Cornelius Alvetanus Ansrodius on the preparation of the divine Elixir a medicinal substance believed to prolong life or transmute metals were at hand, and since they seemed to vie with the former in rarity, I have attached them to it on account of the affinity of the subject matter. I did this not because I wish to approve of everything in them as certain, but rather to submit them to the judgment of the learned and the studious. Moreover, if certain things should occur in them which will appear to many as less