Page 8 - Book of Composition

quotes extensively from various Alexandrian Greek sources, such as
Zosimos and Mary Prophetess. Several phrases call to mind the ideas
expressed in the ‘Emerald Tablet’ of Hermes.

The early sections of the dialogues have an allegorical aspect though
they are obviously rooted in practical observations and work with
substances. Here we meet the green lion, red and white fumes, the
strange Eudica, a glassy substance which seems like a prototype of the
philosophers’ stone of European alchemy. Indeed it is so surprising to
find in this text many of the key elements of European alchemy. If we
strip out Morienus and Khalid and just look at the alchemical content of
the text, this seems almost indistinguishable from a medieval or early
modern period alchemical text. Some scholars, following J. Ruska
writing in 1928, decided that the entire text, though perhaps based on
some Arabic sources, was in fact a compilation made by an Italian
Christian cleric possibly as late as the fourteenth century. This view has,
however, been disputed and was only recently settled when an Arabic
original was discovered by Fuat Sezginin 1971 and also reported by the
German scholar Manfred Ullmann.

In the final section of the book, Morienus astounds the King by
revealing the substances hidden behind these allegorical veils.

The green lion is glass... and the stinking Earth is stinking
sulphur... But red fume is red Auripigmentum, also white fume is
Argent Vive, and citrine fume is citrine sulphur... Behold now I
have expressed to you the names of kinds, of which three will
suffice you for the whole Magistery: that is, white fume, the
green lion, and stinking water.

This astounding text written some time before 1144, expresses in
such a clear way the main ideas that would concern European alchemists
for at least five centuries. In this sense it can be seen as the foundation
stone of European alchemy.

For this book I have taken the text of a 17th century English
translation contained in a manuscript in the British Library, MS. Sloane
3697. This is a translation of the Latin version in the second edition
Morieni Romani, De re metallica, Metallorum transmutatione, et occulta
summaque antiquorum medicina Libellus... Paris, Gulielmum Guillard,
1564. In making my transcription I have extensively modernised the
spelling in order to make this work more easily readable.

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