The Hermetic Research Series

In general this series includes essays and new research on hermetic subjects with transcriptions and translations of hermetic texts. This series was originally issued in paperback format in order to produce lower priced books to complement the hardcover Magnum Opus series.
This was not a successful strategy as sales were very low so I have now issued eleven of the recent books on a CD-Rom. Future titles will be issued in hardbound copies only and eventually placed onto a supplementary CD-Rom.

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No. 15. Stahl - The Philosophers' Stone
Transcribed by Rafal Prinke

Georg Ernst Stahl [1660-1734] was born into a wealthy and privileged family. He was able to study medicine at Jena and graduated in 1684. He rapidly became an influential doctor through being appointed as personal physician to Duke Johann Ernst II of Sachsen-Weimar. A few years later he was made professor of the medical faculty at Halle, and when his reputation was firmly established, he became the court physican to King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia.

His Fundamenta chymiae is a masterful investigation into the nature of substance, applying the clarity of philosophical thought, of analysis and classification to the entire field of chemistry. He took an especial interest in alchemy, and turned his sharp mind to a "historical and experimental enquiry into the subject of the Great Work, or Philosopher's Stone".

Here Stahl provides a clear, insightful survey of the different approaches taken towards the making of the Philosophers' Stone, and he analyses the writings of the various authors and summarises their processes. Thus he draws especially on the work of the 17th century alchemists Sendivogius, Grummet, Kunkel, d'Espagnet, Philalethes, and Becher, providing us with an excellent and clear survey of what was understood about the Philosophers' Stone at that time.

26 pages. A5 format.
Signed edition limited to 300 (the first 25 copies are not for sale).


The Hermetic Research Series of books is now available in a hardbound copy uniform with the books in the Magnum Opus and Hermetic Studies series. I can make up a copy in this format to order. There will be a delay of up to two weeks while I find time to bind up a copy for you.

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