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adammclean
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Posted: Mon Sep 22nd, 2008 05:48 pm |
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Does anyone know the origin of the term "sal centrale" and its earliest appearance in alchemical literature ?
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Paul Ferguson
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Posted: Mon Sep 22nd, 2008 10:59 pm |
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Hi Adam,
First use seems to have been by Sendivogius in 1598:
"O historiador polonês Roman Bugaj afirma que Sendivogius escreveu, além do livro já mencionado, um tratado intitulado Processus super sal centrale, de 1598 (Szydlo, 1993, p. 145)."
http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:9GopvLI837QJ:qnesc.sbq.org.br/online/qnesc08/historia.pdf+"sal+centrale"&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=14&gl=uk
See also:
Z. Szydlo, 'The influence of the central nitre theory of Michael Sendivogius on the chemical philosophy of the seventeenth century', Ambix, 1996, 43, 80-96
Z. Szydlo, 'The alchemy of Michael Sendivogius: his central nitre theory', Ambix, v. 40, p. 129-146, 1993
And this review:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14519664.500-a-gas-by-any-other-name-.html
'Sendivogius had observed that when potassium nitrate, or nitre as it was then called, was heated gases were evolved. Gentle heating produces oxygen alone, while stronger heating drives off red-brown fumes of nitrogen dioxide and oxygen. In those days nitre was collected from the walls of cesspits and latrines, or from the leachings of manure and soil, and was used to make gunpowder.
'This simple salt fascinated Sendivogius. He referred to it as the "central salt" and built his alchemical theories around it. Yet he was determined to remain anonymous. To keep his findings from the eyes of the curious he wrote under various pseudonyms and anagrams, and shrouded his writings in the arcane language of alchemy.'
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Tom Willard
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Posted: Tue Sep 23rd, 2008 05:31 am |
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| Sendivogius also writes about the central sun. Is that synonymous with the central salt, and are either or both terms related to the Archæus of Paracelsus?
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Paul Ferguson
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Posted: Tue Sep 23rd, 2008 01:22 pm |
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Paul Ferguson wrote:
"O historiador polonês Roman Bugaj
I assume this is a reference to:
Roman Bugaj, 'Michał Sędziwój, Traktat o kamieniu filozoficznym [Michael Sendivogius, Treatise on the Philosopher's Stone], PWN: Warszawa 1971 (Biblioteka Problemów 164)'
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Tom Willard
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Posted: Tue Sep 23rd, 2008 03:00 pm |
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| Is that the procedure that makes up the eleventh tract of Novum Lumen Chemicum (De Praxi & confectione lapidis seu tincturæ per artem)? The first edition of that book is from 1604. Last edited on Tue Sep 23rd, 2008 03:05 pm by Tom Willard
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Paul Ferguson
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Posted: Tue Sep 23rd, 2008 03:11 pm |
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I also found this intriguing comment:
'Susanna Åkerman (Swedenborg Library, Stockholm) discussed an interpretation given in the Bureau d'adresse meetings arranged by the Paracelsian Theophraste Renaudot in Paris 1639. The meeting in Paris was championed by a commentator who argued that the Rosicrucian mark FRC should not be interpreted as Fratres Roseae Crucis, but rather as Fratres Roris Cocti or brothers of boiled dew. The Parisian also alluded to the blessing of Isaac over Jacob: De rore caeli et pinguedine terrae det tibi Deus "God give thee of the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth," found on the frontispiece of Dee's Monas. Dew can be reduced to saltpetre as used in the process and that in the next step with vitriol crystallises as a green rose. Seventeenth century claims are that the hieroglyph of the Rosicrucians is sal nitre thus alluding to Michael Sendivogius' process in Novum Lumen Chemicum (1604).'
http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeIV/Art-Alchemy.htm
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Paul Ferguson
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Posted: Tue Sep 23rd, 2008 03:42 pm |
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Tom Willard wrote:
Is that the procedure that makes up the eleventh tract of Novum Lumen Chemicum (De Praxi & confectione lapidis seu tincturæ per artem)? The first edition of that book is from 1604.
Yes, and I believe the fourth tract is also relevant.
I cannot find any other references to a 1598 publication by Sendivogius. He was still in Prague at that time.
The early part of Thomas Vaughan's 'Euphrates' also discusses nitre and the central sun with reference to Sendivogius (page 404 ff in Waite's edition of his works).
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Paul Ferguson
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Posted: Tue Sep 23rd, 2008 04:19 pm |
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| I am attaching an article by RW Soukup which contains some interesting remarks. Attachment: R-7_Soukup.pdf (Downloaded 1498 times)
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Rafal T. Prinke
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Posted: Sat Sep 27th, 2008 09:36 pm |
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Paul Ferguson wrote: I cannot find any other references to a 1598 publication by Sendivogius. He was still in Prague at that time.
The "Processus..." was first published by J. J. Becher in his Chymischer Glücks-Hafen collection of various chemical processes. The date of writing was estimated by Roman Bugaj, accepting the text as actually written by Sendivogius. I have some doubts about it and think that it may have been written by someone else (or even two authors) but still describing a process taught/invented by Sendivogius.
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