Page 7 - Book of Composition

From then on the work became widely distributed, being included in
the alchemical compendium Artis auriferae quam chemiam vocant
volumina duo, Basel, 1572.

The version that was printed in the mid 16th century had obviously
undergone some revision and restructuring from that contained in the
early manuscripts.

The work as printed in the mid 16th century consists of a number of
sections. It includes a preface by Robert of Chester, in which he states
that the word ‘alchemy’ is previously unknown to the Latin world, and
then he proceeds to try to define the term. After the preface it opens with
a short history of the possibly legendary Morienus, and how he came to
discover the secrets of alchemy through meeting an old adept called
Adfar. It then tells how Morienus travelled to the court of King Khalid, a
real Umayyad king (635-704), who is said to be the person who
introduced alchemy into Islam. A later section records a dialogue
between Morienus and Khalid in which the secrets of the Magistery or
work of alchemy are revealed.

One thing becomes very obvious when one reads the account of the
history of the encounter of Morienus and Khalid in the early part of this
work, is that this has been written to appeal to a European Christian
audience. This work cannot be seen naively to be merely a translation of
an Arabic text, though the latter part of the work may indeed be just this,
but the work has an agenda. The author wants us to see that this strange
alchemy newly discovered in an Arabic text, far from being the
emanation of Islamic or pagan infidel thought, actually was inspired by
the Christian Morienus. Furthermore, Morienus is a most worthy
Christian, appealing to the European mindset of the early medieval times,
in that he lives like an old Christian hermit or anchorite in the desert near
to Jerusalem. Khalid, a great ruler, shows complete deference to this wise
old Christian man. Morienus’ lack of attachment to the earthly pleasures
endues him with so great a spiritual authority that this great King,
possessor of enormous wealth and power, is reduced to begging for
enlightenment at feet of this Christian hermit, whose skin is wrinkled
with wearing his hair shirt. This tale indeed was designed to appeal to a
Christian audience.

The later dialogue where Morienus discourses on the alchemical
process is likely to have been based on Arabic texts. Scholars have found
pre-existing Arabic sources with similar phrases and sections. Morienus

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