BOOK ONE

OF THE ART OF RAMON LLULL FOR OPERATING UPON THE QUINTESSENCE.

CHAPTER ONE.

A decorative ornamental drop cap letter 'I' features floral and vine motifs within a square frame.
I intend to compose a wonderful thing of Hippocrates, Galen, Haly, Avicenna, and other philosophers, that which was hidden in certain books of the ancients: namely, how to delay the aging of the young, how to retain their youth for a long time, and how to return an old man in any way to youth. This is done through the preservation of the virtues, the spirits, and the natural heat in their being and temperance, and their comforting and duplication in the event of their deficiency. For as long as the virtues, spirits, and natural heat are not weakened, the hair does not turn gray, the skin does not wrinkle, and neither grayness nor the wrinkling of the skin occurs from weakened natural heat, which declines toward coldness and dryness, from which nutrition is corrupted in the members: for food arrives at each of the members and is digested by the natural heat of that member. Therefore, when that heat is weakened by some occasion, then