THE PRINTER

TO THE READERS

A large decorative historiated woodcut initial 'A' featuring two satyr-like or demonic figures climbing and clinging to the body of the letter amidst scrolling foliage.

Several years ago, friendly Reader, we published a sufficiently sizeable volume by various authors treating chemistry original Greek: "περὶ χημείας" (peri chēmeias). In the 16th century, "chemistry" and "alchemy" were not yet distinct disciplines; the term encompassed both laboratory work and philosophical speculation on the nature of matter., collected through the labor of Guglielmo Grattarolo Guglielmo Grattarolo (1516–1568) was a prominent Italian physician and scholar who published numerous works on medicine and alchemy after moving to Basel., a Physician. Since that venture turned out not badly for us, and we noticed it was pleasing to the students of this philosophy, we have applied our minds to further cultivating and illustrating this art to the best of our ability. Therefore, with the help of learned friends, we have gathered more works, and from those collected, we have selected—in my opinion—the better ones. We have distributed them into these two volumes, in a more convenient and less expensive format The printer is likely referring to the "octavo" size of this book, which was smaller, more portable, and cheaper than the large "folio" volumes of the past.. We even contemplate publishing even more excellent things, if God grants us leisure and our friends provide assistance, in