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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68054	Nicholas Flammel, his exposition of the hieroglyphicall figures which he caused to bee painted vpon an arch in St. Innocents Church-yard, in Paris. Together with the secret booke of Artephius, and the epistle of Iohn Pontanus: concerning both the theoricke and the practicke of the philosophers stone. Faithfully, and (as the maiesty of the thing requireth) religiously done into English out of the French and Latine copies. By Eirenæus Orandus, qui est, vera veris enodans; Figures hierogliphiques. English	Flamel, Nicolas, d. 1418.; Artephius. Liber secretus artis occultae.; Pontanus, Joannes, d. 1572. Epistola de lapide philosophorum.; Orandus, Eirenaeus.	1624 (1624)	STC 11027; ESTC S102276	53,157	276

this secret science And thus you see that which was in the first fiue leaues I will not represent vnto you that which was written in good and intelligible Latine in all the other written leaues for God would punish me because I should commit a greater wickednesse then he who as it is said wished that all the men of the World had but one head that hee might cut it off at one blow Hauing with me therefore this faire Booke I did nothing else day nor night but study vpon it vnderstanding very well all the operations that it shewed but not knowing with what matter I should beginne which made me very heauy and sollitary and caused me to fetch many a sigh My wife Perrenelle whom I loued as my selfe and had lately married was much astonished at this comforting mee and earnestly demanding if shee could by any meanes deliuer mee from this trouble I could not possibly hold my tongue but told her all and shewed her this faire Booke whereof at the same instant that shee saw it shee became as much enamored as my selfe taking extreame pleasure to behold the faire couer grauings images and portraicts whereof notwithstanding shee vnderstood as little as I yet it was a great comfort to mee to talke with her and to entertaine my selfe what wee should doe to haue the interpretation of them In the end I caused to bee painted within my Lodging as naturally as I could all the figures and portraicts of the fourth and fifth leafe which I shewed to the greatest Clerkes in Paris who vnderstood thereof no more then my selfe I told them they were found in a Booke that taught the Phylosophers stone but the greatest part of them made a mocke both of me and of that blessed Stone excepting one called Master Anselme which was a Licentiate in Physick and studied hard in this Science He had a great desire to haue seene my Book and there was nothing in the world which he would not haue done for a sight of it but I alwayes told him that I had it not onely I made him a large description of the Method He told mee that the first portraict represented Time which deuoured all and that according to the number of the sixe written leaues there was required the space of sixe yeeres to perfect the stone and then he said wee must turne the glasse and seeth it no more And when I told him that this was not painted but onely to shew and teach the first Agent as was said in the Booke hee answered me that this decoction for sixe yeeres space was as it were a second Agent and that certainely the first Agent was there painted which was the white and heauy water which without doubt was Argent viue which they could not fixe nor cut off his feete that is to say take away his volatility saue by that long decoction in the purest bloud of young Infants for in that this Argent viue being ioined with gold and siluer was first turned with them into an herb like that which was there painted and afterwards by corruption into Serpents which Serpents being then wholly dried and decocted by fire were reduced into powder of gold which should be the stone This was the cause that during the space of one and twenty yeeres I tryed a thousand broulleryes yet neuer with bloud for that was wicked and villanous for I found in my Booke that the Phylosophers called Bloud the minerall spirit which is in the Mettals principally in the Sunne Moone and Mercury to the assembling whereof I alwayes tended yet these interpretations for the most part were more subtile then true Not seeing therefore in my workes the signes at the time written in my Booke I was alwayes to beginne againe In the end hauing lost all hope of euer vnderstanding those figures for my last refuge I made a vow to God and S t Iames of Gallicia to demand the interpretation of them at some Iewish Priest in some Synagogue of Spaine whereupon with the consent of Perrenelle carrying with me the Extract of the Pictures hauing taken the Pilgrims habit and staffe in the same fashion as you may see me without this same Arch in the Church-yard in the which I put these hyeroglyphicall figures where I haue also set against the wall on the one and the other side a Procession in which are represented by order all the colours of the stone so as they come goe with this writing in French Moult plaist a Dieu procession S' elle est faicte en deuotion that is Much pleaseth God procession If 't be done in deuotion which is as it wete the beginning of King Hercules his Book which entreateth of the colours of the stone entituled Iris or the Rainebow in these termes Operis processio multùm naturae placet that is The procession of the worke is very pleasant vnto Nature the which I haue put there expresly for the great Clerkes who shall vnderstand the Allusion In this same fashion I say I put my selfe vpon my way and so much I did that I arriued at Montioy and afterwards at Saint Iames where with great deuotion I accomplished my vow This done in Leon at my returne I met with a Merchant of Boloyn which made me knowne to a Physician a Iew by Nation and as then a Christian dwelling in Leon aforesaid who was very skilfull in sublime Sciences called Master Canches Assoone as I had showen him the figures of my Extraict hee being rauished with great astonishment and ioy demanded of me incontinently if I could tell him any newes of the Booke from whence they were drawne I answered him in Latine wherein hee asked me the question that I hoped to haue some good newes of the Book if any body could decipher vnto me the Enigmaes All at that instant transported with great Ardor and ioy hee began to decipher vnto mee the bening But to be short hee wel content to learn newes where this Book should be and I to heare him speake and certainly he had heard much discourse of the Booke but as he said as of a thing which was beleeued to be vtterly lost we resolued of our voyage and from Leon wee passed to Ouiedo and from thence to Sanson where wee put our selues to Sea to come into France Our voyage had beene fortunate enough all ready since we were entred into this Kingdome he had most truly interpreted vnto mee the greatest part of my figures where euen vnto the very points and prickes he found great misteries which seemed vnto mee wonderfull when arriuing at Orleans this learned man fell extreamely sicke being afflicted with excessiue vomitings which remained still with him of those he had suffered at Sea and he was in such a continuall feare of my forsaking him that hee could imagine nothing like vnto it And although I was alwayes by his side yet would he incessantly call for mee but in summe hee dyed at the end of the seuenth day of

into the heart of liuing man I aske it of thee for our Lord Iesus Christ they welbeloued Son his sake who in the vnity of the holy Spirit liueth with thee world without end Amen The Explication of the Hieroglyphicke Figures placed by mee Nicholas Flammel Scriuener in the Church-yard of the Innocents in the fourth Arch entring by the great gate of St. Dennis street and taking the way on the right hand The Introduction ALthough that I Nicholas Flammel NOTARY and abiding in Paris in this yeere one thousand three hundred fourescore and nineteene and dwelling in my house in the street of Notaries neere vnto the Chappell of St. Iames of the Bouchery although I say that I learned but a little Latine because of the small meanes of my Parents which neuerthelesse were by them that enuie me the most accounted honest people yet by the grace of God and the intercession of the blessed Saints in Paradise of both sexes and principally of Saint Iames of Gallicia I haue not wanted the vnderstanding of the Bookes of the Philosophers and in them learned their so hidden secrets And for this cause there shall neuer bee any moment of my life when I remember this high good wherein vpon my knees if the place will giue me leaue or otherwise in my heart with all my affection I shall not render thanks to this most benigne God which neuer suffereth the child of the Iust to beg from doore to doore and deceiueth not them which wholly trust in his blessing Whilest therefore I Nicholas Flammel Notary after the decease of my Parents got my liuing in our Art of Writing by making Inuentories dressing accounts and summing vp the Expences of Tutors and Pupils there fell into my hands for the sum of two Florens a guilded Booke very old and large It was not of Paper nor Parchment as other Bookes bee but was onely made of delicate Rindes as it seemed vnto me of tender yong trees The couer of it was of brasse well bound all engrauen with letters or strange figures and for my part I thinke they might well be Greeke Characters or some such like ancient language Sure I am I could not reade them and I know well they were not notes nor letters of the Latine nor of the Gaule for of them wee vnderstand a little As for that which was within it the leaues of barke or rinde were ingrauen and with admirable diligence written with a point of Iron in faire and neate Latine letters coloured It contained thrice seuen leaues for so were they counted in the top of the leaues and alwayes euery seuenth leafe was without any writing but in stead thereof vpon the first seuenth leafe there was painted a Virgin and Serpents swallowing her vp In the second seuenth a Crosse where a Serpent was crucified and in the last seuenth there were painted Desarts or Wildernesses in the middest whereof ran many faire fountaines from whence there issued out a number of Serpents which ran vp and downe here and there Vpon the first of the leaues was written in great Capitall Letters of gold ABRAHAM THE IEW PRINCE PRIEST LEVITE ASTROLOGER AND PHILOSOPHER TO THE NATION OF THE IEWES BY THE WRATH OF GOD DISPERSED AMONG THE GAVLES SENDETH HEALTH After this it was filled with great execrations and curses with this word MARANATHA which was often repeated there against euery person that should cast his eyes vpon it if hee were not Sacrificer or Scribe Hee that sold mee this Booke knew not what it was worth no more than I when I bought it I beleeue it had beene stolne or taken from the miserable Iewes or found hid in some part of the ancient place of their abode Within the Booke in the second leafe hee comforted his Nation councelling them to flie vices and aboue all Idolatry attending with sweete patience the comming of the Messias which should vanquish all the Kings of the Earth and should raigne with his people in glory eternally Without doubt this had beene some very wise and vnderstanding man In the third leafe and in all the other writings that followed to helpe his Captiue nation to pay their tributes vnto the Romane Emperours and to doe other things which I will not speake of he taught them in common words the transmutation of Mettalls hee painted the Vessels by the sides and hee aduertised them of the colours and of all the rest sauing of the first Agent of the which hee spake not a word but onely as hee said in the fourth and fifth leaues entire hee painted it and figured it with very great cunning and workemanship for although it was well and intelligibly figured and painted yet no man could euer haue beene able to vnderstand it without being well skilled in their Cabala which goeth by tradition and without hauing well studied their bookes The fourth and fifth leafe therefore was without any writing all full of faire figures enlightened or as it were enlightened for the worke was very exquisite First he painted a yong man with wings at his anckles hauing in his hand a Caducaean rodde writhen about with two Serpents wherewith hee strooke vpon a helmet which couered his head he seemed to my small iudgement to be the God Mercury of the Pagans against him there came running and flying with open wings a great old man who vpon his head had an houre-glasse fastened and in his hands a hooke or sithe like Death with the which in terrible and furious manner hee would haue cut off the feet of Mercury On the other side of the fourth leafe hee painted a faire flowre on the top of a very high mountaine which was sore shaken with the North wind it had the foot blew the flowres white and red the leaues shining like fine gold And round about it the Dragons and Griffons of the North made their nests and abode On the fifth leafe there was a faire Rose-tree flowred in the middest of a sweet Garden climbing vp against a hollow Oake at the foot wherof boyled a fountaine of most white water which ranne head-long downe into the depths notwithstanding it first passed among the hands of infinite people which digged in the Earth seeking for it but because they were blinde none of them knew it except here and there one which considered the weight On the last side of the fift leafe there was a King with a great Fauchion who made to be killed in his presenc● by some Souldiers a great multitude of little Infants whose Mothers wept at the feet of the vnpittifull Souldiers the bloud of which Infants was afterwards by other Souldiers gathered vp and put in a great vessell wherein the Sunne and the Moone came to bathe themselues And because that this History did represent the more part of that of the Innocents slaine by Herod and that in this Booke I learned the greatest part of the Art this was one of the causes why I placed in their Churchyard these Hieroglyphick Symbols of

mettall in the first coagulation for this reason therefore haue I made to bee painted a Key in the hand of the man which is in the forme of Saint Peter to signifie that the stone desireth to be opened and shut for multiplication and likewise to shew thee with what Mercury thou oughtest to doe this when I haue giuen the man a garment Citrine red and the woman one of orange colour Let this suffice lest I transgresse the silence of Pythagoras to teach thee that the woman that is our stone asketh to haue the rich Accoustrements and colour of Saint Peter Shee hath written in her Rowle CHRISTE PRECOR ESTOPIVS that is Iesu Christ be pittifull vnto mee as if shee said Lord be good vnto mee and suffer not that hee that shal become thus farre should spoile all with too much fire It is true that from henceforward I shal no more feare mine enemies and that all fire shall be alike vnto me yet the vessell that containes me is alwaies brittle and easie to be broken for if they exalt the fire ouermuch it will cracke and flying a pieces will carry mee and sow mee vnfortunately amongst the ashes Take heed therefore to thy fire in this place and gouerne sweetly with patience this admirable quintessence for the fire must be augmented vnto it but not too much And pray the soueraigne Goodnesse that it will not suffer the euill spirits which keepe the Mines and Treasures to destroy thy worke or to bewitch thy sight when thou cōsiderest these incomprehensible motions of this Quintessence within thy vessell CHAP. IX Vpon a darke violet field a man red purple holding the foote of a Lyon red as vermillion which hath wings it seemes would rauish and carry away the man THis field violet and darke tels vs that the stone hath obtained by her full decoction the faire Garments that are wholly Citrine and red which shee demanded of Saint Peter who was cloathed therewith and that her compleat and perfect digestion signified by the entire Citrinity hath made her leaue her old robe of orange colour The vermilion red colour of this flying Lyon like the pure cleere skarlet in graine which is of the true Granadored demonstrates that it is now accomplished in all right and equality And that shee is now like a Lyon deuouring euery pure mettallicke nature and changing it into her true substance into true pure gold more fine then that of the best mines Also shee now carrieth this man out of this vale of miseries that is to say out of the discommodities of pouerty infirmity and with her wings gloriously lifts him vp out of the dead and standing waters of Aegypt which are the ordinary thoughts of mortall men making him despise this life and the riches thereof and causing him night and day to meditate on God and his Saints to dwell in the Emperiall Heauen and to drinke the sweet springs of the Fountains of euerlasting hope Praised be God eternally which hath giuen vs grace to see this most fair all-perfect purple colour this pleasant colour of the wilde poppy of the Rocke this Tyrian sparkling and flaming colour which is incapable of Alteration or change ouer which the heauen it selfe nor his Zodiacke can haue no more domination nor power whose bright shining rayes that dazle the eyes seeme as though they did communicate vnto a man some supercoelestiall thing making him when he beholds and knowes it to be astonisht to tremble and to be afraid at the same time O Lord giue vs grace to vse it well to the augmentation of the Faith to the profit of our Soules and to the encrease of the glory of this noble REALME Amen FINIS ARTEPHIVS HIS SECRET BOOKE Concerning the PHILOSOPHERS STONE LONDON Printed by T. S. for Tho. Walkley and are to be sold at his Shop at the Eagle and Childe in Britans Bursse 1624. THE PREFACE to the READER in the French and Latine Copies AMongst all the other Philosophers louing Reader only our Artephius is not enuious as himself affirmeth of himselfe in many places and therefore he layeth downe the whole Art in most open words in this Treatise interpreting as farre as he may the doubtfull speeches and Sophismes of others Neuerthelesse least he should giue vnto the wicked ignorant and euill men occasion and meanes to doe hurt hee hath a little vailed the truth in the Principalls of the Science vnder an Arteficiall Methode sometimes affirming sometimes denying and making as though hee often repeated one and the same thing whereas in those repetitions hee alwayes changeth some words seeming often to say the contrary of what hee had said before willing to leaue vnto the iudgement of the Reader the way of Trueth Vertue and true Working which if any man finde let him giue immortall thankes to God alone but if hee see that hee walketh not in the right way let him reade ouer this Author againe and againe vntill hee vnderstand his meaning So did the learned Iohn Pontanus which saith in his Epistle Printed in Theatrum Chimicum They erre saith hee speaking of them that labour in this Arte they haue erred and they will alwayes erre because the Philosophers in their books haue neuer set downe the proper Agent except onely one which is called Artephius but hee speakes for himselfe and if I had not read Artephius and vnderstood whereof hee spake I had neuer come to the Complement of the worke Therefore reade this Booke and reade it againe vntill thou vnderstand his speech and so obtaine thy desired end It shall bee needlesse to speake any more concerning our Authour It sufficeth that by the grace of God and the vse of this wonderfull Quintessence hee liued a thousand yeeres as witnesseth Roger Bacon in his Booke of the wonderfull workes of nature and also the most learned Theophrastus Baracelsus in his Booke of long life Which terme of a thousand yeeres none of the other Philosophers no nor the Father of them Hermes himselfe was able to attaine vnto Looke therefore whether peraduenture this man haue not vnderstood the vertues of our Stone and the manner how to vse it better than the rest Howsoeuer it bee vse thou it and our labours to the glory of God and the profit of this Kingdome Farewell ARTEPHIVS HIS SECRET BOOKE ANtimony is of the parts of Saturne and hath in euery respect the nature thereof so this Saturnine Antimonie agrees with the Sunne hauing in it selfe Argent viue wherein no mettall is drowned but gold that is to say Gold onely is drowned in Antimoniall Saturnine Argent viue and without that Argent viue no mettall can bee whitened It whiteneth therefore Leton that is Gold and it reduceth a perfect Body into its first matter that is into Sulphur and Argent viue of a white colour and shining more than glasse It dissolues I say the perfect Body which is of his nature for this water is friendly and pleasant to

and are made life with life in such sort that they can neuer bee separated as water mixt with water And therefore it is wisely said that the Stone is borne in the Ayre because it is altogether spirituall for the vulture flying without wings crieth vpon the top of the mountaine saying I am the white of the blacke and the red of the white and the Citrine sonne of the red I tell truth and lie not It sufficeth thee therefore to put the Bodies in the vessell and in the water once for all and to shut the vessell diligently vntill a true separation be made which by the enuious is called coniunction sublimation assation extraction putrefaction ligation despousation subtiliation generation c. and that the whole Maistery bee done Doe therefore as in the generation of a man and euery vegetable put the seed once into the wombe and shut it well By this meanes thou seest that thou needest not many things and that our worke requires no great charges because there is but one Stone one Medicine one Vessell one Regiment and one successiue disposition to the white and to the red And although we say in many places take this and take that yet wee vnderstand that it behooueth to take but one thing and put it once in the vessell and to shut the vessell vntill the worke be perfected for these things are so set down by the enuious Philosophers to deceiue the vnwary as is aforesaid For is not this Art Cabalisticall and full of secrets And doest thou foole beleeue that wee doe openly teach the secrets of secrets and doest thou take our words according to the literall sound Know assuredly I am no whit enuious as others are he that takes the words of the other Philosophers according to the ordinary signification and sound of them hee doeth already hauing lost Ariadnes thread wander in the middest of the Laberinth and hath as good as appointed his money to perdition But I Artephius after I had learned all the Art and perfect Science in the Bookes of the true-speaking Hermes was sometimes enuious as all the rest but when I had by the space of a thousand yeeres or thereabouts which are now passed ouer mee since my natiuity by the onely grace of God Almighty and the vse of this wonderfull fifth essence when I say for so long time I had seene no man that could worke the Maistery of Hermes by reason of the obscurity of the Philosophers words mooued with pitie and with the goodnesse becomming an honest man I haue determined in these last times of my life to write all things truely and sincerely that thou maist want or desire nothing to the perfecting of the Philosophers Stone excepting a certaine thing which it is not lawfull for any person to say or to write because it is alwayes reuealed by God or by a Maister and yet in this Booke he that is not stiffe-necked shall with a little experience easily learne it I haue therefore in this Booke written the naked trueth although cloathed with a few colours that euery good and wise man may from this Philosophicall Tree happily gather the admirable Apples of the Hesperides Wherefore praised bee the most high God which hath put this benignitie into our soule and with a wonderfull long olde age hath giuen vs a true dilection of heart wherewithall it seemeth vnto mee that I doe truely loue cherish and imbrace all men But let vs returne vnto the Arte. Surely our worke is quickly dispatched for that which the heate of the Sunne doeth in a hundred yeeres in the Mines of the Earth for the generation of a Mettall as I haue often seene our secret fire that is our fierie sulphureous water which is called Balneum Mariae worketh in short time And this work is no great labour to him that knoweth and vnderstandeth it neither is the matter so deare considering a small quantity sufficeth that it ought to cause any man to plucke backe his hand because it is so short and easie that it may well bee called the worke of Women and the play of Children Work then cheerefully my sonne pray to God read Bookes continually for one Booke openeth another thinke of it profoundly fly all things that vanish in the fire for thou hast not thine intent in these combustible and consuming things but onely in the decoction of thy water drawne from thy lights For by this water is colour and weight giuen infinitely and this water is a white fume which as a soule floweth in the perfect bodies taking wholly from them their blacknesse and vncleannesse and consoledating the two Bodies into one and multiplying their water And there is no other thing that can take away their true colour from the perfect Bodies that is from the Sunne and Moone but Azoth that is this our water which coloureth and maketh white the red Body according to the regiments thereof But let vs speake of fires Our fire therefore is minerall equall continuall it vapours not vnlesse it be too much stirred vp it partakes of sulphur it is taken otherwhere then from the matter it pulleth downe all things it dissolueth congealeth and calcineth it is artificiall to finde it is a short way or an expence without cost at the least without any great cost it is moist vaporous digestiue altering piercing subtle ayery not violent not burning compassing or enuironing containing but one and it is the Fountaine of liuing water which goeth about and containeth the place where the King and Queene bathe themselues In all the worke this moist fire is sufficient for thee at the beginning middest and end for in it consisteth the whole Art This is the fire naturall against nature vnnaturall and without burning and finally this fire is hot dry moist and cold thinke vpon this and work aright taking nothing that is of a strange nature And if thou doest not well vnderstand these fires hearken further to what I shall giue thee neuer as yet written in any Booke from out of the abstruse and hidden cauilation of the Ancients concerning fires We haue properly three fires without the which the Art cannot bee done and hee that workes without them takes a great deale of care in vaine The first is the fire of the Lampe which is continuall moist vaporous ayery and artificiall to finde for the Lampe ought to bee proportioned to the closure or enclosure and herein wee must vse great iudgement which commeth not to the knowledge of a workeman of a stiffe necke for if the fire of the Lampe be not geometrically and duly proportioned and fitted to the Furnace either for lacke of heate thou wilt not see the expected signes in their times and so thou wilt loose thy hope by too long expectation or else with too much heate thou wilt burne the flowers of the Gold and so sadly bewaile thy lost labour The second fire is the fire of ashes in which the vessell hermetically sealed is shut vp or rather