Authors/Michael Maier

Poems

• ‘Morienus Romanus’, Poem, 13 October 1620, Michael Maier to Joachim Morsius; Latin

Source: Cornelis Drebbel, De quinta essentia Tractatus, ed. Joachim Morsius, No place, no printer, 1621, sig. C5v–C6r [BP.Drebbel.1621-01]

Maier emphasizes the divine preference for servants who seek and retain hidden knowledge, which elevates them from worldly misery to the understanding of future blessings. He acknowledges Morsius’ pursuit of wisdom not with gold but with three paradoxes derived from thirty-six years of experience. These paradoxes highlight the principles of alchemy: only nature can fix what is to be fixed, only pre-dyed substances can be dyed, and the alchemical process involves a singular substance being refined in dual vessels by fire.