This transcription was originally made by W.A. Ayton in the latter decades of the 19th century, from the original manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Ashmole 1421. Samuel Norton was the great-grandson of the famous 15th century English alchemist Thomas Norton, author of the Ordinall of alchemy. Back to Key of Alchemy page . Back to transcriptions page .
Here beginneth the 8 th treatise of the Key of Alchimie containing
the Rules of Multiplication and Projection
Having in the 7 afore passed Treatises labored, that this our key is
now able to open our secret lock of Alchimie; yt now alonelie reseth that
coveting to walcke and wander into these places at will, wee turne our
key about in the locke, by which action wee turne back the spring the dore
flieth open, and the way to entrance is plaine which in this Treatise I
briefly mean to accomplish, in shewing the waies of multiplication and
projection.
Wherefore note that as soone as our fixion aforesaid is made
by setting our Elixir to fix in a furnace of fixation where the fire may
be made above that by healp thereof the fire may strike downe the spirit
upon the water, with whom it is to be joyned, in such sort that it ascend
not, be kept downe, that by the helpe of administration of fire it may
be kept still with the bodie and soule; that they may altogether commix
into one masse, which will not fume but yeald easy fusion in fire; and
pearse quickly; at which time we count it perfect Elixir and call it the
Elixir of the first degree; for that it is then able to runn on a smaller
quantity: which if it be fedd with milk and food will chaitoren like come
to a fuller growth and so at the last to a man's stature; when hee shall
bee to use the act of nature, and multiplie in his kinde; either as a plant,
which nurished; or moistured with the heavenlie dew and raine, commeth
by nurishing and ascending to a great tree and bringeth forth fruict innumerable;
Of whom the seede, or kernel groweth, and againe becommeth to multiply
in his owne proper kinde: Even so our Elixir fedd and nourished with the
heavenly dewes and raines, that is tinctures which wee afore caled their
vertues operative Namelie Lunaire and oile; the one to the white, and the
other to the redd.
And thereof speaketh Aristotle that there behoveth to
be much store of oile and tincture after the first fixion: For so much
multitude of tintcure shall there bee, as there is of oile, water (1.)
Lunary: Note therefore that although there bee but one multiplication in
generall, that is to say, the multiplying of the white and redd: yet for
that is done by two kinds and manners of worcking, wee therefore divide
it into two parts: of which the one call multiplication, - spirituall,
and the other, corporall; that is the one in quallitie, the other in quantitie;
that that which before runned on 10, may be made to runne on a 100 to a
1000, and upward by the increasing thereof; of which I will first speake,
and that alonelie to be done that the fixed may be made volatill, and againe
the volatill fixed; and that by the often subliming of the water not fixed;
upon the earth fixed.
Of this kind of multiplication, I find in Clangor
Buccinae, et augmentum in qualitate pro bonitate est, yt and the augmentation
or multiplication in quality and goodness is to dissolve and coagulate
the [...] that is to imbibe it with our Mercury and to drie it up; with
this place accordeth Arnold, saying, [...] tincturae praeparatee partem
unam, yt Take of our prepared tincture, one parte, that is of our Elixir
of the first degree, and dissolve him in 3 parts of our Mercury - that
done, put it in a glass and seale it fast, and put it all under hot ashes
untill it bee dried up and made into dust. That done, open this glass and
imbibe it again [...] the after you shall doe soe, soe much the more shall
you winn and have it tincted the higher; and transmute the larger; according
and agreeing with those words written in Clangor Buccinae, Primus modus
est, yt the first man is that you dissolve in the water, of his white or
redd Mercury: of whom he was created, untill it become cleare water, and
after that you shall congeale it and with his oiles incere it upon the
fire untill it flows, by which his vertues shall be doubled in Tincture;
which all his operations, and perfections, as shall be perceived in projection.
For that the waight which was afore projected on a 1000 will now runne
and be projected upon 10,000 and in this kinde of multiplication, there
is no great labor: againe I finde in the Rosarie, that if you take these
medicines when they shall be fixed, and by giving them their white and
redd Mercuries, and so congeale them, in their white and redd Mercuries,
and so congeale them, their vertues shall everie time be doubled: so that
if at the first his one part converts an 100 partes, it shall at the second
time convert a 1000, at the 3rd time 10,000 and at the fourth
100,000, and the fifth time into 1,000,000 of true Sun and Moon.
Wherefore it is to be noted that in how much the more the medicine is dissolved,
sublimed and congealed; so much the more, better, and abundantly it will
work, because that in every imbibition and sublimation it winneth 10,
in projection it therefore is no wearisome labour, in reiteration of sublimations
or coagulation: ffor that by those meanes, the matter is better digested,
united, fixed; and worcketh more perfectlie, his spiritual multiplication
is done 2 waies, one by solution of heate, that you take the medicine;
put it into a glass, and burne it in our moist fire; for 7 daies, until
the medecine be dissolved into water; without any turbulent foeces; The
other may by solution of thinness; that you take the glass vessaile with
the medecine; and let it be hanged in a brasse pott, whose mouth is straight,
in which let water boile, the mouth thereof being shut, that by the vapor
of the boiling water, which ascendeth upward, the medecine may be dissolved,
yet take heede, that the boiling water touch not the glass by the space
of 3 fingers, and the solution will be done perhaps in one day, either
in 2, or else in 3 daies: And after that the medecine shall be dissolved,
take it off, and being cooled, let it be set to fire and congealed, to
be hardened or dried; And in how much more the medicine shall be dissolved
and fixed; the perfecter shall it bee; and such solution is his subtiliation
and spiritual sublimation; which the more oftner it be done; so much greater
and more full shall it tinct.
Whereupon writeth Rasis: The goodness of
this multiplication dependeth not, but in the often reiterating of it,
in sublimation and fixation of the perfect medecine; For inasmuch more
as the order of his [...], is reiterated, so much shall his exuberation
worck the more and be increased the more; ffor how much more you shall
dissolve the perfect medicine, so much more shall you winne every time
to project one on a thousand, for if at the first it follow 1000 at he
the second it will fall on 10,000, at the 3rd on a 100,000,
at the 4th upon a 1000,000, and so to infinit:
To conclude this
spirituall multiplication with the saying of Morien: Know for certaine
(saith hee) that the more our stone is dissolved and congealed; so much
the more the spirit and the bodie is conjoined, and the Tincture shall
be increased: On this sort therefore make spirituall multiplication; Take
the Elixir after it will run on 100, as it is a mean Elixir that tinckteth
not so deep, and of him take one halfe and that dissolve with Mercury white
or redd according to the nature of the Elixir, by powering of those Mercuries
upon him untill he become by setting in Balneo liquid and cleane dissolved:
then congeale him under fire till hee be powder: and so often you may it
be congealed and dissolved, that it will no more become powder or drie,
but remaine in oile; At which time it is oile incombustible and great Elixir,
and this spitiruall multiplication belongeth chiefly to the Great Elixir:
The other multiplication which is done by often dissolving and congealing
of the medicine; which is the augmentation in reretie, without any new
adding of tincture, seventh to the lesser Elixir: To come therefore to
multiplication, corporall or in quantitie; is when we cast it on bodies,
thereby to make one ounce weight 100 or 1000 ounces weight and this is
done by projection; Namelie, that an ounce weight of Elixir be cast on
a 100 ounces of Mercury purged, and that it be thereby converted into medecine,
whereof one ounce of that will burne a 100 more into medecine.
For better
and plaine understanding; Take of the Elixir made into oile an angelle
waight, which wee terme Elixir of the highest degree; and oile incombustible,
project him upon his tenn waight of crude or common gold purged, and it
shall bee turned into a pouder verie brittle, of which throwe his own angell
waight on a hundred angell's waight of quick silver purged; and it shall
bee medecine, converted into such a brittle substance, that if thereof
bee throuwne upon his owne bodie, that is, on any of the bodies, if the
Elixir's Mercury bee of the same, it shall bee converted into medecine,
Of that, take one part and throwe on Mercury purged, or of his proper metall
1000, and it shall be turned into pure gould; and so likewise for silver,
for the white Elixir; The medecine thus made is called the Elixir peregrinats;
for it may be carried in one's purse, in pouder whereof, if you will multiply
one part in vertue, grind it small, and therein poure of your Mercuries,
which will dissolve and congeale as wee afore taught you; and so may do
infinitely on the first manner of projection; which is on gold and silver
purged.
Speaketh Ripley; your medecine being made perfect into Elixir,
it is to be projected upon cleansed and purged bodies, but most chiefly
upon the pure bodies; that is, our gold and silver: And therefore writeth
hee further: The two earths being made perfect, the one into whit medecine
the other into redd, that is into redd medecine; make oile (saith hee)
of them both (1) subtill them, till they become the oile aforesaid; Then
the white on silver; and the redd on gold; and then on other bodies; and
the matters are at an end:
Where, right wiselie and plainelie I find in
Scalacirc; Philosophorum: Melius tamen est projicere and c; writing therefore
what hee should project, he willeth, Nune demittis, to be cast on fundamenta
mea, Nune demittis, for that it is come now to the last worcke, and that
is the last point, namelie, the Elixir made; he biddeth to cast that on
fundamenta, which is gold and silver, for that they are grounds of the
stone; and going to the next pointe, cast fundamenta super verba mea, hee
meaneth quick silver purged; and that converted into medecine, to be super
diligam Te Domine, that is on Saturn and Jupiter, if the Elixir be made
on any of their parts, if of any other metalls on them;
For their kinde
embraceth kinde, and maketh better fixion, For that between Mercuries
and mettalls, there is a certeine love, which hee noteth in diligam Te,
and diligam super attendite, ffor that the end whereto Alchimie attendeth
is to create gold and silver; Hee saith, attendite, to shew that after
thrice medecine, we must cease from projection to make medecine, and attende
to making mettals; which will then be on 1000;
To end therefore the manner
of projection; take this Rule, that as long as the mettall whereon you
project carrieth an over deep goldenish or reddish colour, increase your
quantity of mettall, and when your mettall declineth and decaiyeth in colour,
increase, or put on more medecine, The practick of projection, and first
on Mercury; Take Mercury, and thereon to put common salt and vinegere,
and stir the quicksilver well therein, that done, straine it through fine
linen cloth, and then you shall have it faire and right; which put into
a crucible of goldsmith's pot and setting if over the coles till it begin
to fume or smoke; then put in your medecine to the vertue of his conversion,
and stirre it well together, and so it will be converted into perfect Sol
and Lune; this projection upon Mercury, is of all, most best, for that
it is of easiest liquefaction the next bodies unto that, are Saturn and
Jupiter: ffor that in easie fusion, this cometh next, whose purgation is
this: melt them in a crucible and in melting them, poure on Sal Armoniak;
but better to throw over your metalls with Sal Armoniak afore you blow
your fire, and when your mettalls are molten and cold, you shall have them
as white as silver, then melt them againe; and into your crucible put your
medecine, which stirr with an iron rodd; and when you see your matter well
coloured, pour it out into an ingot, and suffering it there to coole, you
shall find it transmuted into perfect mettall;
Of projection on other bodies
I minde not to write, because the heat of melting iron and copper is fit
smiths and copper smiths, but not for Princes; There resteth now nothing,
whereon I should longer intreate, since all the treatise is treated, whereon
I promised to intreat; save that I trust I may, without offense retract
this one thing, where I promised in the end; to set downe how farr I had
gone and proved in every one of the treatises; The which because I have
alreadie unwarelie given out in every treatise, and hope your Highness
will not now expect re-iteration, but cleane absolve mee from breach of
promise: The last parte of all which I have now to doe, standeth not in
intreating any longer; although altogether consisteth in craving; Wherefore,
in most humble, dutiful and lowly manner I first of all crave pardon of
your Majestie to bear with all; and to accept this my simple philosophy
in goode parte; which I in this volume offer and present unto Your Highness;
and with the writing the writer's hand to performe it, yf Your Highness
shall command.
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