PROPOSITIONS OR

MAXIMS OF THE [GREAT] ART

Chemical.

PROPOSITION I.

Everything pure and clean extracted from its ore original: "minera", from stones, and then from foreign matters, without any preparation, which does not melt like wax original: "funditur vt cera", is unsuitable for this work. From this it is concluded that all metals are excluded, and all species of Marcasite Marcasite: iron pyrites or other metallic ores that resemble precious metals but were considered "immature", glass, crystal, coral, and all pearls which do not liquefy in fire.

Proposition II.

Every sublimable substance sublimable: a substance that can be turned into vapor by heat and then solidified again that adheres to the sides of the vessel, preventing the viewing of the foreign matter within the vessel, is removed from and unsuitable for this business. For this reason, all four principal spirits are especially excluded, namely: quicksilver original: "argentum viuum"; mercury, arsenic, sulfur, and every kind of tutty tutty: a substance, often zinc oxide, collected from the flues of smelting furnaces and magnesia original: "magnesiæ"; in this context, likely a reference to various dark minerals or ores used in the alchemical process rather than the modern chemical.