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Use of motto in Heydon

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Alan Pritchard
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Posted: Tue Aug 30th, 2011 07:25 pm

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I have just been looking at the title page of Heydon's "A new method of Rosie Crucian physick" (1658) via the Internet Archive (http://ia600300.us.archive.org/18/items/newmethodofrosie00heyd/newmethodofrosie00heyd.pdf)

I noticed that after the Author statement "John Heydon..." appears the motto "Penes nos unda, Tagi"

Now this, AFAIAA, is the motto only used by Jean d’Espagnet as a pseudonym in his Hermetic Arcanum.

I wonder if its use by Heydon has any significance (does it imply that Heydon was not the author) or was it more widely used than just by d'Espagnet?

Paul Ferguson
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Posted: Tue Aug 30th, 2011 08:54 pm

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Seems to have been used by Heydon in other works, e.g. here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=SmxWEouRCYYC&pg=PA85&lpg=PA85&dq=%22unda+tagi%22+%22heydon%22&source=bl&ots=W1VTdgzE5s&sig=BCAv2B3AKbZUZozmrT9MwEU2-e4&hl=en&ei=qTldTrD7NIqt8gOz3-HHAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

I think he probably just liked the motto. The River Tagus was famous in Roman times for its alluvial gold (viz. Martial, Epigrams, 10.XVII.4 "Aurea quidquid habet divitis unda Tagi") so 'Close to us, the waters of the Tagus' or 'In our power, the waters of the Tagus', whichever you prefer, would seem to be a good motto for an alchemical writer.

Heydon travelled in Spain as a young man, which may be relevant.

I will continue to investigate.

Clickable link:
http://ia600300.us.archive.org/18/items/newmethodofrosie00heyd/newmethodofrosie00heyd.pdf

Alan Pritchard
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Posted: Thu Sep 1st, 2011 02:23 pm

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Thanks, Paul.
I think you are right. I was reading too much into the use of the motto.

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