Page 5 - Treatise on Salt

The source of this text

In 1604 a key work of 17th century alchemy De lapide
philosophorum tractatus duodecim better known later as the Novum
lumen Chymicum 'The new light of chemistry'. Although not initially
under his name it turned out to have been written by Michael
Sendivogiu s. It went through a number of editions throughout the 17th
and 18th centuries. It was sometimes also called 'A Treatise on Mercury'.
In 1616 his 'Treatise on Sulphur' Tractatus de sulphur was printed,
however it was not till 1656 that 'A treatise on Salt', which seems to
complete a trilogy, was issued at Amsterdam as Der Verlangete Dritte
Anfang Der Mineralischen Dinge, oder vom Philosophischen Saltz....
This was printed two years later in a Latin edition also in Amsterdam,
Lucerna Salis Philosophorum. A French edition appeared in 1669 and
there were other editions in French, German and English issued over the
next hundred years. Only the final German edition was issued under the
authorship of Sendivogius, the others under the name 'The Cosmopolite',
or 'The son of Sendivogius' Harprech and Hautnorthon.

This present book is a transcription by Franzeska G. Ewart of the
English translation printed in 1722, modernising the English spelling.

A Philosophical Account of Nature in General, And of the Generation of the
Three Principles of Nature, viz. Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt, out of The Four
Elements. Translated from the French. By John Digby, Esq;
London, Printed for for John Hooke, at the Flower-de-luce, against St.
Dunstan’s Church in Fleetstreet; and Thomas Edlin, at the Prince’s Arms,
against Exeter-Exchange in the Strand. MDCCXXII. [1722]

8° [10] + 348 pages.

p[1] [Title page.]
p[3]-[6] The Author’s Preface To all the Searchers into the Art of Chymistry, The
true Sons of Hermes Greeting.
p[7]-[10] [Table of contents.]
p1-130 Of Nature in General. [In 12 chapters.]

What Nature is, and what they who search into her, ought to be — Of the Operation of Nature

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