MINERAL.DOC

                   MINERAL WORK

             JOHANNES ISAACI HOLLANDI

In which are contained the drawing of his secret fur­naces and several other vessels and instruments mentioned in others of his writings; in addition to other excellent secret techniques.

Translated from Low German into High German by a skilled fancier of Hermetic Philosophy

            PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR

Dear reader, after the third part of the Mineral Work of the great philosopher Johannes Isaac Hollandus, of which nothing has heretofore been mentioned in any book, came into my hands, I immediately decided to translate it into our High German language for your benefit. Many a man might not have done it, but might have kept it for himself. I, however, do not consider this right, bit believe it to be everyone’ s duty to fur­ther the oamon good to the best of one’s ability, which furtherance is done in no small measure by making available to pecçle the writings of the wise men, so that they, when reading than, are induced similarly to strive for wisdom, art and virtue, and to appeal for those to the giver of those gifts.

If, then, Hollandus is considered one of the wisest in natural sciences who ever lived in Christendom, it is right that his writings should also be diligently brought to light and not withheld, as is unfortunately no doubt done by some; because one cannot learn anything of his great Opera vegetabilis--which is no doubt a magnificent intri­cate book, because everywhere reference is made to it and over 300 chapters of it are quoted—bit not of his Opere animali. One can only assume, therefore, that these and others of his writings, of which one knows nothing yet, are suppressed and withheld by envious persons; but how right such a procedure is every fancier can see by the fact that when he hears of a good and useful book, he wishes and would like the owner to let him read it too.

Well, then! If you like others to treat you in this way, treat them likewise with what you have, according to the express commandment of our Lord: What you wish others to do unto you, do unto them. Thus I hear that a man of high rank is withholding the Vegetable Book of the dearest man, Paracelsus, nor does he allow anyone to copy anything from it. Those must be devilish minds which, so to speak, rob the public good. Listen, you envious monster, no matter who you are, you who have the audacity to withhold something written for the general public by such highly. gifted men. Have then these same authors written for the purpose that you should conceal and hide it? And not rather that the general public and the homeland, also its dear children, the descendants, might be improved by it? If their intention had been to keep their gifts secret and hidden, they might wall have saved themselves the trouble of writing.

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But I am afraid that this reflection will be little heeded by such envious persons; for whoever does riot take note of the terrible threat of Christ (which will come true still much more assuredly than we see heaven and earth before our eyes) that the servant who buries his talent will be thrown into uttermost darkness, will take much less note of our unimpor­tant ~rds. We will therefore leave than to their poisonous minds and take care of ourselves, that we may do our duty with the help of Cad, b~ whose impulse I, as mentioned, have most diligently translated this trea­tise from Dutch into High German, have copied all figures most exactly, and sent everything to be printed.

And I hope, if it pleases God, next also to publish Hollandus’ “Opus vegetabile” of the wine. Although it has been published in Latin ii in Arnheim, I have discovered, by comparing it with the Dutch manuscript, that it has not been translated correctly. Besides, it is not complete, but the second part is still missing, not to speak of the fact that one can hardly get it any longer, which deficiencies we hope to compensate for.

Concerning our Hollandus, I cannot really know at what time he lived, but I, have heard from a noble chemico that he lived at the time of the latter’s grandfather with whom, as he was also an excellent philosopher, he was linked in great friendship, just as with yet another great possessor of the secrets. These three great masters were very famous at that time. This, and other circumstances, allow us to assume that Hollan­dus had no doubt known Paracelsus, but that he was probably rather old at the time of Paracelsus’ youth (1493?-l541). The same is probably true of Basilius Valentinus, that he also still lived when Paracelsus was young, although the high-minded Helmont states in the ‘Tractat tria prima Chymi­corum principia’ that Paracelsus was 150 years younger than Basilius Val­entinus, and that his invention of the three Chemical Principles had been a plagarism. It is, however, easy to prove by Basilius Valentinus him­self that that opinion is wrong, since Basilius teaches a remedium in his Trimphant Chariot for the French disease, which then just occurred. But that disease started only about the 15th century, and neither Basilius nor Paracelsus could therefore have written twenty years apart from each other. And assuming that Basilius and Hollandus wrote twenty years prior to Paracelsus, we can nevertheless not assume that their writings were immediately published, so that Paracelsus could have copied from them and interlarded his writings with them.

It is also true that they have their knowledge from others than Paracelsus, and none of them can be said to be the inventor of the three Chemical Principles and others with which they deal; for it can be proved by very old books that the supposed third principium of the alcaline ash-salt which is in all things in the fire, has been known and used by chymici since time immemorial, though the schools did not classify it among the columns of the principles, as they are tcxiay being taught in the books of our guild. Yet it may well be that Paracelsus consulted orally with these highly-illuminated men and that they guided him to greater scientific know­ledge, since Paracelsus traveled in many countries locking for the Art, and was not ashamed to learn from some men. He could also have agreed with them in his writings without their Instruction, and be equally talented like them. Just so other Adepti have written consonantly in various nations not known to each other, especially since Paracelsus did not lack in any way in incom­parable ingeniousness as his praeceptor, Salomon Trismosin, recognized and

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predicted in his school years that his disciple, Philipp Hohenheiner wDuld yet turn into a ~rK~er of the wrld, as did in fact happen.

t~t that be as it may, no one can have a great gift fran anywhere bit fran God, whan we should also thank for it and pray to him with all out heart that he might further endow bright—shining men, such as ~uld be highly necessary for the crunbling and horribly confused thurch mat­ters, for restoring ct*dience and faith to order and harnony, so that the miserable yelling of the ravening wolves; here, there, over there is thrist - according to our religion you will be saved - ~ild care to an end; and instead the age-old holy apostolic life would again be set in notion by wise men sent by God; for by their splendid divine gifts and calls to unity we kr~ that teachers acre fran God.

In contradistinction, dispersion, confusion, disorder, nenyhead­s3ness, and countless sects are a sign of the ravening-wolf kind. C*~e should justly learn to notice and understand that God is not a God of confusion and disorder bit of order and peace, and that he recczTiTended and left to us peace on the occasion of his last farewell. It is surely a pity that one listens to such miserable wretches of sectarians, allow— ing oneself to beccme so deplorably separated fran the bond of perfec­tion, that is, fran love and unity; since it is publicly known that such lawlers do not understand srall earthly things, ha~z then can they have recognized the heavenly things never seen, as our lord likewise argued:

If you do not believe when I speak to you of earthly things, b~ would you believe if I speak to you of heavenly things? As if he wished to say that, whoever is blind for earthly things which he sees everyday, must necessarily be blinder and rrore ignorant for heavenly things which no htunan eye has ever seen.

This incontestably applies to the sectarians, in wtxxn not one spark of divine power, wisdan and virtue is shining, but who only resorts to their sheep’s coats. If they were so eager to preach, they would prcb­ably do so before unbelieving heathens, which they do not do, however. May the ?~rciful God graciously deliver his thurch fran such vermin; with these words enough of this.

For the rest I request and adnonish anyone to wixin it applies, that if Divine Providence has put one or another edifying writing under his care, he make such likewise available for the canton good, to which it belongs. Why would he needlessly expose himself to suffer the jndgment of the man who hid his talent, while instead, by surrendering his talent to the exchange-bank, he can make himself agreeable to God and pious per­sons, I, for my part, will earnestly endeavor to recognize such Iu~esty as a favor bestowed upon me in specie and a Grace of God to be earned to the best of one’s ability. With this, may the thristian reader fare well, and may he be sincerely caTrrended to Divine Grace.

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PREFACE OF THE TRANSLATOR - NB

Let it be kix~n to the reader that the arrangenent of the chapters in this tractate has not been done by Hollandus himself but by me, for better retention. Otherwise, Ix~iever, I have kept to his style word by word. Apart fran this, let it be said to the thoughtless as a sincere warning that they should rot undertake the processes herein described and work without reflection according to the letter; otherwise, I will rot accept any guilt if they burn their hands. it is better first to labor with the head and to understand the meaninq of~ the Sages through studying rather than throt~h the hand and expenses. The Sages have another Mercurie than the canton, which is like the other but very dif­ferent in quality. This must be thtained through the old Saturnus, which carries the sign of the world.

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The Mineral Work

CHAPTER I

My child, the philosophers followed nature and first put all things in water, without any feces, before they used them in the Chymical Art. Similarly, the philosophers also looked for the earth in the water, just as God Almighty first put the earth into the water; and they did find the earth in the water, which they then called their precious and dear stone, since the beginning of all things is of earth. That is why one must take one’s earth, prepare it and make it fertile, before sowing into it; for without preparation it cannot bear fruit, because by it­self it is cold and dry. If, therefore, it is not moistened by rain and warmed by the sun, it cannot produce fruit. On the other hand, if it is burnt by the sun, it is also sterile; that is why it must be of the right temperature, not too hot, not too cold, not too dry, not too moist. To this end, the masters in­vented an Aquafort, with which to make the earth hot and moist. In this they dissolved their earth, not pouring on it more strong water (Aquafort) than required. The philosophers write about it as follows:

If our stone is too dry, it brings forth no fruit; if it is too humid, it drowns the fruit; if it is too hot, it evapo­rates. That is why the earth or the stone must not get more Aquafort than is necessary to dissolve it. Otherwise it will become either too hot,or too moist, or too volatile. For al­though the stone or the earth is fixed, the spirits of salt­petre will nevertheless cause the stone or the earth to rise with them. This is the reason why the philosophers say: If the spirit is stronger than the corpus, it will cause the corpus to rise with it; but if you give too little aquafort

I

to the earth, it will become all too dry and unable to bear fruit. No real weight can be prescribed, for in everything weight is nothing but giving all things their necessaries of life, and no more, no less.

CHAPTER~ II

When then the earth has been dissolved in such a way, it is ready to receive the seed and to bring forth fruit a thou­sandfold. If this nature is followed, as has been shown be­fore: all things must first have been water, before God put their earth in water. From this the wise men understood that the earth ha6 to be pulled out of the water. But what is this earth? One understands thereby the seed, that is, such a seed as you would like to harvest. Therefore, do not look in a thing for what is not in it, for from a man again comes a man, etc.

The philosophers took for their stone a thing that was perfect and which was above the four elements, which cannot be corrupted either in water, or in air, or in earth, or in fire, which alone is gold, seven times purified, cemented by aementum regale, and silver and mercury cemented in this way. Then they put these together and cleansed tI~em of their un­purity, clear as crystal, that is,Q ~and ~ , which be­come red as gold; and they sought to make an elixir from the gold, in the following manner:

CHAPTER III

My child, take pure mercury, put it intoan oven—vessel, upon a furnace with moderate fire, for six weeks, until its moisture, if it has too much of it, be dried up; consequently, that it be between fixed and not fixed, and it be possible to

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rightly amalgamate with it. Then they took as much gold or sil­ver, prepared by cementing, and amalgamated it with the mercurius, just enough to amalgamate and no more. Thereupon they put it in­to a glass vessel and put it into the furnace of the wise, or in tripods, and gave it moderate heat, just as if one were to keep lead in flux without getting hard - for 9 days. After that, they took it out, and it was a dark powder(*in the Dutch ori­ginal it is written “a Persian powder”).

Then they again gave it as much mercury as for the first amalgamation, and amalgamated it, so that it came alive again. They put in into the vessel as before, and again heated it for 9 days as previously. They repeated this four or five times, or as often as necessary to keep the amalgamate alive and no longer turning into a powder. Then the gold or silver has drunk sufficiently of the inercurius.

Now they took a large glass vessel that was very thick, and they put the amalgamate into it. They put a helm on with a big head, as big as a man’s head, in addition to three or four noses. To every nose they luted a big recipient, and heated moderately for 3 days. After this, they gave a strong­er fire for 3 days. Then they made the vessel burning hot for 12 hours. Thus they sublimated all that could be sublimated, but they took care that the vessel was quite tight, because of the lao virginis, which goes over each time and drips in the recipients. They kept this lao virginis well stoppered till they put the stone into putrefaction. After that, they allowed it~to cool down, removed the helm and the sublimated matter. They put the feces into a stone mortar, added the

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sublimate, together with salt and vinegar, till it again be­came an amalgamate. That they washed with common water. But if it did not come alive, they added a little of the mercury and put the amalgamation to sublimate as before. This they did so long till everything rose together through the subli­mation. In the manner just related the corpus was overpowered and rid of its crudeness, and made spiritual. ..

CHAPTER IV

The above-mentioned is the first ordinance of the philos­ophers, and it is an augmentation of the corpus. If now you wish to make an augment of this white or red chalk (or lime), put it in such a glass (No. 1 of plate pg. 14) and that into a furnace. Revolve the glass, and again, so as to fix it. (f igieren). Then you have gold or silver, according to your work.

CHAPTER V

If, however, you wish to make the philosopher’s stone, take this fixed caicem which has been coagulated in this way, and imbibire (saturate or imbibe) it with the aforementioned lao Virginia. Take it to a furnace and put it into a vessel with ashes or sand. Then take 4~ coagulated with aicali, that is, 2 parts of aicaii and one part of sal amrnoniao. Put them together on your furnace to sublimate. Repeat this sub­limation till the ~ stays fixed on the bottom. During the night, let it dissolve on a stone in cold air; during the day, in a cold cellar that is humid. Drench the silverlime with this water. Repeat it seven times, drying it each time in a “Cupel” with ashes. Then dissolve it in bãineo or horse dung,

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for 40 days, in an open vessel. Now take it out, pour off what has been dissolved, and put what stays at the bottom on a furnace as before. Again drench it with sal ammoniac water. Do that 7 times, as before, and let it again dissolve as be­fore. Repeat until everything is dissolved.

Now coagulate it and turn it into a subtile (subtle) powder. Put it into a broad vessel, thick as a thumb; let calcinate in tripode for 21 days; then take it out and set to putrefactio, or into the balneum, for 40 days. In be­tween those 40 days you must nourish your medicine with good food of gold or silver. Once you have added it, close your vessel and set it to putrefy; and feed it till it is satiated, for the medicine has become so subtle that it would consume itself and come to naught if it were not nourished, the red with gold, the white with silver. When the pieces no longer dissolve, close the vessel and let it stand thus for another 7 days. Then open your vessel, and throw yet another little piece into it to see if it gets still dissolved. Look for this every 6 or 7 days till the 40 days are over; then take it out and set it to coagulate. Now your philosophical stone is prepared, all metals trans­muted into gold or silver.

CHAPTER VI

How TO PREPARE SILVER FOR THE SToNE.,

AND us FOOD

My child, let us now consider what thing Hermes and his descendants found of which they made their perfect stone. They took fine gold and fine silver, as it comes from the Minera, and as nature had cooked it, since the seed must be

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good, if the fruit is to be good. You cannot take any kind of seed for which a fruit is to grow for itself. For what­ever seed you sow, such kind you will reap. Do not, there­fore, look in a thing for what is not in it, as said before.

And they cemented their gold and silver, i.e., gold (was cemented) 7 times through cementum regale; they re­fined silver on the “Cupel” and refined it of lead. Then they beat it thin like pennies and cemented it with common salt which had been cleansed of its earthiness by having been dissolved, clarified and congealed. With this salt they cemented the silver so often till it came out white of the fire. But you must know that you should not make it too hot, so that the salt can melt; for then the silver would also melt, and then all this labor would be lost.

After this, keep it for 24 hours in the following cement:

Take 3 lbs. of white, purified and prepared salt, as before; Roman vitriol clarified of its earthiness, 1 lb; Living sul­phur, of which the crude has been separated by boiling it in vinegar, as will be taught later on, 1 lb. Dissolve these three together in good, distilled wine vinegar and put them for 21 days in the baineum to putrefy. After this, congeal them and powder them down finely; now calcinate them for 24 hours without melting, following which remove the fire and let them cool down. Again rub them to a fine powder and let them dissolve in cold air at night, and in a cold cellar dur­ing the day. When all is dissolved that can be dissolved, put your matter into a glass vessel; place that above the fire in a bowl with ashes; add a helm. Thus your matter will

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stay pure. Now take as much of this matter as you wish, powder it finely and, together with the laminated silver, put layer upon layer in your vessel. Stopper it well and cement it for 24 hours, as has been said before, without flowing. Do this as often till your silver has started to become dead (taub is actually “deaf”) and that it meets your wishes. Then your silver is ready for immediately making of it the stone, and also to feed with it before and during putrefactio.

CHAPTER VII

THE PuRIFIcATIoN OF SULPHUR

Take 10 or 12 lbs of living sulphur, powder and boil it in good, clear wine vinegar till the vinegar is colored. Pour this colored vinegar off, and pour others vinegar on top of the first; again boil it till the vinegar is colored. Pour that one off too and add fresh vinegar. Repeat till the vinegar is no longer colored. Now congeal this colored vinegar, and your purified sulphur; which you must use for the work described above, will stay at the bottom.

ANoTHER PURIFICATION OF SULPHUR

There were some who took living sulphur, 12 ibs, powdered it and put it into a big, earthenware can. They poured dis­tilled vinegar upon it and put the can in the balneum, well stoppered. They let it boil for 3 days and 3 nights, then cooled it down and let it settle. They decanted the clear, colored vinegar, and poured fresh vinegar on top, and after the mixture had been boiling for 3 days and 3 nights, they cooled and skimmed it. They repeated this till the vinegar would not become colored. Then they threw away the feces, put the colored vinegar all together into an alembic with a

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helm, and distilled the vinegar to about one quarter in the balneum. Then they took it out and poured it into a glass dish. They placed it for 3 or 4 days into a cold cellar, and within that time it turned into a saltpetre, clear and transparent like clear “Augstein” or a noble golden yellow. Again they evaporated that vinegar in the dish till some­thing stayed in it, and they put it again into the cellar to crysta].ize. They evaporated to a dry, yellow powder what was not crystallized, and which was so beautiful as the powder of noble gold. They also let the little stones evaporate into a yellow powder, and again dissolved it in distilled wine vinegar, as before. They then precipitated the feces, and poured the pure matter from above, and again fresh vinegar on top. They repeated this work till no more feces remained.

Again they distilled the colored(tincted) vinegar, ap­proximately three-quarters, and let it crystalize as befOre. Since all the sulphur was by now clean and pure, without leaving any feces, it was ready and cleansed, pure as crys­tal which is saved. It is a great alchemical secret how to purify sulphur in this way.

CHAPTER VIII

THE PURIFICATION’ OF tIERCURIUS

Take Roman vitriol, 6 or 8 lbs; common salt, 2 lbs. Mix them with 3 lbs of mercury (quicksilver), which has previously been well washed with salt and vinegar. Subli­mate your mercury three times through them, each time taking fresh matter. Keep it for later use.

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CHAPTER IX

              THE PURIFICATION OF              SAL AMMONIAC

Take sal ammoniac, 3 lbs; sublimate it through Roman vitriol and Lap haematit, or bloodstone, 3 times, each time with fresh matter; and keep it for when you need it.

CHAPTER X

DISSOLVING WATER OF THE PHILOSOPHERS

They took Roman vitriol, 6 parts; Lap haematit or blood-stone, crocus fern or iron rust, vermillion or cinnabar, AES tISTUM or burnt copper, ammonium mineraie ana, one part. They dried these items till they powdered, then put them into a distilling vessel, poured rectified aqua vitae on them, 4 lbs, and distilled them again to the finely powdered feces, three times one after another. They divided this water into two parts, each part into a separate separation glass.

Now they added one-third of the prepared .9~ to the red, sublimated and preserved as mentioned before, and dissolved in the balneum. When they had done that, they dissolved in the same glass one-third of the prepared 4, also in the balneum, and later also the . There those three were dissolved in the water of the philosophers, which had been prepared from the aqua vitae, and which is rightly called the philosophers’ water on account of its wonderful secret powers. It’s wonders cannot be described, nor is it fitting to describe them, because of certain reasons. They preserved this water in which the spirits had thus been dissolved. Then they dissolved one-third of fine gold in the other part of the water, in balneum, until all gold—varnish was dissolved into clear water.

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After this, they poured it to the water in which the spirits had been dissolved, stirred and mixed it well in order to unite the spirit with the body. Then they sealed the glass hermet ice (hermetically), put it into a dish with strained ashes onthe stove, as much ashes as the matter was deep. At first, they gave but a little fire, and then they saw the spirits go up and down together with the water, with many little veins which were blood red and golden yellow, until the spirits turned into one color,i.e., brownish-yellow. Now they increased the fire somewhat and kept it thus steadily till they saw the little veins become bigger and coarser and fewer. That was a sign that the matter began to thicken and started coagulating. Now they increased their fire once again, and the coarser and thick­er the little veins or rays became, the stronger and stronger they made their fire, until the matter was fixed and no more rays could be seen in the glass. The matter stayed fixed at the bottom, like oil, brownish-red, clear and transparent. This oil was the elixir, oornpositum.

Then they took this elixir, put it into an ampuila, sealed it, put it in tnipode, and gave a moderate heat for 40 days and nights. Within this time the elixir coagulated into the philos­ophical stone, so that one could turn it into powder. it was a delightful treasure, which changed lead into gold, just as copper, and , which gold was better th...