Preface 1, no date (1581), Gerhard Dorn to the Reader (BP186)
| Author: | Gerhard Dorn |
| Recipient: | Reader |
| Type: | Preface |
| Date: | no date [1581] |
| Pages: | 14 |
| Language: | Latin |
| Quote as: | https://www.theatrum-paracelsicum.com/index.php?curid=2119 |
| Editor: | Edited by Julian Paulus |
| Source: | Gerhard Dorn, Congeries paracelsicae chemiae de transmutationibus metallorum, Frankfurt am Main: Andreas Wechel 1581, p. 16-29 [BP186]
|
| CP: | Not in Kühlmann/Telle, Corpus Paracelsisticum |
| Translation: | Raw translation see below |
| Abstract: | The author emphasizes the importance of order in all operations, stating that without it, nothing of beauty or praise can be accomplished. He asserts that confusion is detrimental and should be avoided by all, particularly Christians. God, he argues, established order in the creation of the world, and humans should strive to maintain it.
Dorn discusses the transmutation of elements in nature and argues that forms, rather than matter, are the basis of natural transformations. He cites the example of barren land producing plants and minerals without any seeds, indicating that the transformation is based on forms, not matter. He emphasizes the importance of separating forms from elements in the process of transmutation and criticizes those who blame the art of transmutation for their own errors. Dorn compares the process of transmutation to natural processes in the body, such as the separation of elements in the liver. In addition, Dorn discusses the concept of "central essence" in medicine, arguing that metals and minerals possess powerful and abundant virtues due to their proximity to the center. He maintains that medicines derived from metals or minerals can achieve a universal and balanced form, capable of transforming everything it encounters to a state of unity, balance, and perfection. Dorn laments the corruption of ancient knowledge by the Greeks, who tainted the art with their own falsehoods, leaving few unaltered texts. Despite this, he believes that some individuals with philosophical minds continue to study and appreciate the art, driven by the desire for truth and understanding. (generated by Chat-GPT) |
| Back to Paratexts Back to Texts by Gerhard Dorn |
[p. 16] Præfatio ad lectorem.
Omnis operatio proprium requirit ordinem, sine quo pulchri laudatiq́ue nihil perficitur, quod vllam vtilitatem adferre queat hominibus. Quid in hac vita quæso confusione potest esse perniciosius? Nunquid scimus hanc perdidisse mundum ab initio, cuius adhuc vestigia magno plurimorum malo sunt ob oculos posita, vt nihil non corruptum cernere liceat vbique gentium. Cuiuis igitur bono viro, & Christiano inprimis reijcienda summeq́ue vitanda, maximè quòd ex inimico Dei hominumq́ue prodeat. An putamus Deum [p. 17] optimum maximum frustra primùm, in condendo huius mundi fabricam, ordinem seruare voluisse? Hunc nobis dubio procul meditandum, non modò cernendum, proposuit. Si probè cognitum esset quanta hinc nobis vtilitas, quanta doctrina obtingere potest, nullos alios libros, nullos doctores eo priores, qui testimonium veri solus perhibet in cordibus nostris, optaremus. Hic nos docet in pace, qui pacis est autor, quærere potißimùm ordinem; qui si seruetur, pacifica simul atque tranquilla futura sunt omnia. Contrà cùm violatur, mox est præ foribus nobis discordia per confusionem. Hinc est quòd Dominus noster Iesus Christus, pacem toties discipulis suis inculcans, ab eis quoque recedens pro testamento reliquerit, ac nobis in vnione. Pacem meam (inquit) do vobis, pacem meam relinquo vobis. Quid aliud sonant ista sacratißima verba, [p. 18] quàm si audiamus, estote vniti in me, sicut ego & pater meus vnum sumus? Alia san?e via non possemus vniri quàm pace, quæ consistit in ordinis obseruatione diuini. Tenendus est igitur in omnibus operibus, siue spiritualibus, siue temporalibus, ordo, tamquam pacis & omnis concordiæ radix potißima, vt omnes hominum actiones & exercitia quæuis huc spectent. Proinde Paracelsus medicinæ summum & præcipuum arcanum tractaturus, in transmutatione rerum naturalium ad vltimum perfectionis gradum, quis sit ordi tenendus inprimis indicare voluit. Ob hunc siquidem exactè non seruatum, plurimi seducuntur in transmutationis artificio, qui postmodum erroris sui culpam in artem reijciunt, hanc vnà cum suis scriptoribus falsò falsitatis insimulant, ac si iucundum esse posset, multos impendere labores in deridendis ho- [p. 19] minibus: Quicunque talia vel cogitant, vel proferunt, etsi multam sibi sapientiam adscribant, idiotarum more loquuntur. Natura satis hoc genus hominum palàm arguit in omnibus. Verùm quis eius ordinem considerat, vel vllatenus contemplatur, eorum etiam qui profitentur Physicam (vt interim de cæteris taceam) quis inquam profunda scrutatur eius mysteria, à suis operibus manifestò licet apparentibus, & rerum transmutationem inficiabitur? Quicquid enim operatur natura, iuxta sibi præscriptum ordinem diuinitus idipsum efficit absque variatione, vt si per externum accidens nonnunquam impediatur, quò minùs hunc obseruare valeat, in monstrum abit recedens à natura quod producitur. Non est hic error eius, at impedimenti. Quis impediuit, inquies? Confusionis autor per suos ministros id semper molitus est ab [p. 20] initio, nec desistet in finem vsque Quapropter non est ab hominibus vel scriptoribus addiscendum potiùs quàm ab illa, quam in dies videmus transmutare composita sua elementa in aliam atque aliam formam decompositam, & non in aliam materiam. Porrò communis hæc omnibus rebus & elementis, vt non nisi formâ species inter se differant. Huius exemplum esto terra vacua, sterilis, & inanis, quæ sub dio tantùm posita, sola rigatione per pluuiam, radijsq́ue solaribus præter omne semen aliud, suas producit herbas, animalcula, nec non mineralia. Quis quæso non videt hanc esse naturalem transmutationem formarum, & non materiæ? Hoc etiam docemur exemplo, si formæ separantur ab elementis naturalium, hæc ad quamcumque formam idonea fieri. Quandoquidem vna & eadem elementorum materia, non vnam aut aliam, sed [p. 21] omnes formas in triplici genere productorum suscipit. Nec opus est perquirere vtrum elementa vegetabilium suis spoliata formis, valeant formam recipere mineralem; res per se clara est: porrò cadauerum elementa in terram reuersa, fiunt elementa vegetabilium & aliorum, sic de reliquis. Cùm igitur elementum vnius generis, alterius generis fiat elementum, quantò magis elemenum vnius speciei, fieri potest elementum alterius speciei sub eodem genere. Formæ nanque non sunt ex elementis, at ex firmamento. Proinde nemo sanè transmutationes rerum negare poterit, qui formas ab elementis separari videt. Experientia sit lignum igne consumptum & in cineres versum, forma sua vegetabili in auras abeunte, quæ si per spagiricum vas excipiatur ne auolet, ac iterum ad suos refundatur cineres, putrificentur simul in muscilagino- [p. 22] sam substantiam, terræq́ue rursum demandentur, in pristinam redibunt formam; quod quidem cineres per se non effecissent, vt ponit autor libro de resuscitatione rerum. Qui credere nolit, experiatur, ac ordinem præscriptum seruet, alioqui non eueniet ob confusionem, quod sine hac optimè succeßisset. Vt igitur propria forma separari potest à suis elementis, ac rursum in ea redire, si hæc alterius spciei forma sint imbuta, sub eodem genere tamen; quid obstabit quin eam induant? Elementa siquidem nullam de se formam edunt, solùm eam quæ est in semine, quemadmodum terra non elementi cuiuspiam formam producit, sed bene frumenti ex frumento, & arboris è nucleo. Primum igitur ac præcipuum huius rei negocium in eo consistit, vt ritè iuxta spagiricum ordinem à natura mutuatum, fiat separatio formarum à suis ele- [p. 23] mentis. Hunc non somniarunt spagiri philosophi more Græcorum, sed à natura tantùm edocti, vitreis vtuntur organis, vt illa stomacho, quibus & igne suam coquunt materiam, vt ipsa naturali calore cibum in chylum macerat coquendo, subtiliat, soluit ac putrefacit priusquam separet. Ars pariter suam materiam calcinando sublimat, soluit, & putrefacit antè quàm destillatione separet. Postmodum segregat purum ab impuro, videlicet firmamentales partes ab elementis, & rursum vtrasque à suis impuritatibus superfluis. Id ipsum natura docet, quæ chylum suum putrefactum in duas partes diuidit, vnam vt puriorem hepati rursum decoquendam exhibet, alteram autem vt impuriorem ad intestina relegat in eiectionem. Ab hepate fit & altera separatio, quarum vna inseruit nutriendis elementis corporis, altera verò vitalibus [p. 24] & firmamentalibus partibus alendis atque fouendis, ad spiritus vitæ retentionem in suo subiecto, radicali humido videlicet. In hoc passu controuersia cernitur Græcorum cum spagiris: illi volunt separationem in hepate fieri quatuor humorum tantùm, quos tribuunt elemtis, & ita firmamenti rerum nullam vel mentionem faciunt, neque discretionem, ac si vita esset ex elementis, confusam de his tradunt absque discrimine doctrinam: contrà spagiri docent elementa sibi similibus ali tantùm, & vitalia vitalibus. In dubium siquidem nemo physicus reuocare potest, vitam rerum naturalem deberi firmamento post Deum, & non elementis: item corporea nutriri corporibus, spiritubus quoque spiritualia corpora; vel vt meliùs intelligatur, materialia materialibus, quemadmodum formalia formalibus corporibus: ne dicamur ab argutis [p. 25] formas absque materia ponere, vel è contra. Dicimus enim elementa propriam, & formam, & vitam à firmamento etiam esse sortita, sed hæc ipsa sola generare minimè posse præter alios firmamentales influxus peculiares, non magis quàm sine viro fœmina. Deus porrò vitam in creatione per lucem dedit omnibus, ad propagationem verò quibusque semen in quo forma delitescit, ordinauit. Sunt itaque influxus firmamenti semina, per quæ matrices elementorum & concipiunt, & pariunt, cùm sine his nihil efficere valeant quod ad generationem faciat, etsi semen propaginis in vtero gestent. Rursus dicimus spiritus cœlestes naturæ, quamquam spirituales sunt, quemadmodum radij solis existunt, nihilominus ex coniunctione cum elementis, corpora sortiuntur sibi congrua, & spiritualia pro vehiculis. Quapropter istorum in Physica maxi- [p. 26] ma est habenda ration potiùs quàm elementalium humorum, vel qualitatum. In hoc plurimùm elaborauit spagirica schola, vt vehiculum vitæ semper à corporibus craßioribus liberet, veluti de carcere, quo vitam foueat, instauret, ac diu retineat in humano corpore. Non minus opus fuit inuenire materiam, quæ plus in sui creatione hausisset influxuum eiusmodi vitalium & cœlestium: hanc esse comperit, quæ proximiùs ad centrum accederet. In isto nanque radij cœlestium omnium, non secus atque iacula vndique ad scopum vnicum laxata, concurrunt. Hinc fit vt compressa vis, & confluentia virtutum, intentißimam nanciscatur actionem atque vehementißimam in extensione. Quantò magis igitur à centro distant influxus, tantò rariores & laxiores inueniuntur, minorumq́ue virium atque virtutum, quemadmodum à vegetabilibus vi- [p. 27] dere licet. Quamobrem experientia meditationem subsequuta, docuit in metallis, & mineralibus, quæ centro sunt viciniora, præstantißimas omnium & copiosißimas inesse virtutes. Hæc igitur prætuelerunt cunctis alijs, ex quibus elicerent medicinæ quandam vniuersalem formam vnitißimam atque temperatißimam, qua singula tandem ad vnionem & verum temperamentum adducerentur. Vnione siquidem nihil vnquam temperatius, generalius, latiúsve, nihil etiam copiosiùs extenditur, quàm centralis essentia physica. Proinde medicina talis, per separationem ordine requisito tracta de metallis aut mineralibus, cuncta quibus applicatur, ad centralis vnionis atque temperaturæ naturam, summumq́ue perfectionis gradum transmutat. Inde factum, vt ob vniuersalem eiusmodi potentiam atque virtutem, quod olum Ægyptiaca [p. 28] vetustas (ab Hebræis nimirum edocta Mosaicas traditiones ex Genesi) ad medicinam præsertim elaborarat, Græcorum auraritia, nec non ambitio peruerterit in thesauros accumulandos, lolioq́ue suæ falsitatis conspurcarit, quemadmodum reliquasa artes infinitis sophisticationibus. Paucos, imò ferè nullos huius artis libros reliquerunt integros, qui non poterant ænigmatica Ægyptiorum scripta resoluere (vt ipse testatur Aristoteles inuidia moti corruperunt suis fabulis, vt iam sit impoßibile per libros antiquorum à limine vix eam salutare. Verùm enimuero, quamquam vix è centum millibus vnus hanc artem adeptus sit, præter hunc nonnulli tamen intelligentes, animos verè philosophicos alunt, vel sola meditatione tantæ raritatis, tantæq́ue profunditatis diuinæ sapientiæ, pro scintilla in hoc arcano maximo relucentis, quibus appri- [p. 29] mè iuncundum est in eiusmodi magnalibus Dei versari magis, quàm plerisque alijs in suis opibus atque delicijs. Alacriter igitur ad scalam transmutationis tandem veniamus, ac videamus quid nam sit ex mente Paracelsi transmutatio. Tandem ad secundum huius operis partem transibimus, quæ Genealogiam narrabit mineralium.
English Raw Translation
Generated by ChatGPT-4 on 23 April 2023. Attention: This translation is a machine translation by artificial intelligence. The translation has not been checked and should not be cited without additional human verification.
Preface to the reader.
Every operation requires its own order, without which nothing beautiful or praiseworthy can be accomplished that can bring any usefulness to people. What, I ask, can be more disastrous in this life than confusion? Do we not know that this has destroyed the world since the beginning, the traces of which are still before the eyes of many to their great misfortune, so that nothing uncorrupted can be seen among all nations? Therefore, every good man, and especially every Christian, should utterly reject and avoid it, especially since it comes from the enemy of God and men. Do we think that the best and greatest God, in creating the fabric of this world, wanted to maintain order in vain? He has undoubtedly set this before us to be pondered, not just seen. If it were well understood how much usefulness and how much teaching can come from this, we would desire no other books, no teachers before this one, which alone bears witness to the truth in our hearts. He teaches us to seek peace in order, who is the author of peace; if this is maintained, all things will be peaceful and tranquil at the same time. On the contrary, when it is violated, discord is soon at our doors through confusion. This is why our Lord Jesus Christ, repeatedly instilling peace in his disciples, left it to them as a testament when he also departed, and to us in union. "My peace (he says) I give to you, my peace I leave to you." What else do these most sacred words sound like than if we hear, "Be united in me, as I and my Father are one?" We could not be united in any other way than by peace, which consists in the observance of divine order. Therefore, order must be maintained in all works, whether spiritual or temporal, as the primary root of peace and all harmony, so that all human actions and exercises may be directed towards this end. Thus, Paracelsus, about to treat the highest and most important secret of medicine, in the transmutation of natural things to the ultimate degree of perfection, first wanted to indicate what order should be maintained. Indeed, many are led astray in the art of transmutation because this is not strictly observed, and afterwards they throw the blame of their error on the art, falsely accusing it of falsehood along with its authors, as if it were pleasant to expend much labor in deceiving people. Whoever thinks or utters such things, even if they claim much wisdom for themselves, they speak like fools. Nature clearly refutes this kind of people in everything. But who considers its order, or even contemplates it, and who, I say, investigates the profound mysteries of those who profess Physics (to say nothing of the rest) from its manifest works, and will deny the transmutation of things? For whatever nature operates, it does so according to the order prescribed to it by divine authority, without variation, so that if it is sometimes hindered by external accidents from observing this order, what is produced departs from nature and becomes a monstrosity. This is not his mistake, but an obstacle. Who hindered, you ask? The author of confusion has always been plotting this through his ministers from the beginning and will not cease until the end. Therefore, it is not to be learned from men or writers rather than from nature itself, which we see daily transmuting its composite elements into another and another decomposed form, and not into another material. Moreover, this is common to all things and elements, so that they differ from one another only in form and appearance. Let the example be an empty, barren, and void earth, which, placed only under the open sky and with only rainwater and sunlight, produces its own herbs, small animals, and minerals without any other seed. Who, I ask, does not see that this is a natural transmutation of forms, and not of matter? We are also taught by this example that if forms are separated from the elements of natural things, these elements can be made suitable for any form. Since one and the same material of elements takes on not one or another, but all forms in the triple kind of products. Nor is it necessary to inquire whether the elements of plants, deprived of their forms, can receive a mineral form; the matter is clear in itself: moreover, the elements of corpses, returned to the earth, become the elements of plants and other things, and so on for the rest. Therefore, when the element of one genus becomes the element of another genus, how much more can the element of one species become the element of another species under the same genus? For forms are not from elements, but from the firmament. Therefore, no one in their right mind can deny the transmutations of things, who sees forms separated from elements. Let the experience be of wood consumed by fire and turned to ashes, its vegetative form disappearing into the air, which if caught by a spagyric vessel so it doesn't fly away, and returned again to its ashes, will putrefy together into a mucilaginous substance, and if given back to the earth, will return to its original form; which indeed the ashes by themselves would not have accomplished, as the author states in the book on the resuscitation of things. Whoever does not want to believe, let them try it, and maintain the prescribed order, otherwise, due to confusion, what would have succeeded well without it will not occur. Therefore, as the proper form can be separated from its elements and return to them again, if these are imbued with the form of another species, yet still under the same genus; what will prevent them from adopting it? Elements, indeed, do not produce any form of themselves, only the one that is in the seed, just as the earth does not produce the form of some element, but indeed produces grain from grain, and a tree from a kernel. The first and foremost task of this matter lies in the proper separation of forms from their elements, according to the spagyric order borrowed from nature. The spagyric philosophers did not dream of this in the manner of the Greeks, but, taught only by nature, they use glass instruments, just like the stomach, with which they also cook their material with fire, as the stomach digests food into chyle by cooking, refining, dissolving and putrefying it before separating. The art also sublimates its material by calcining, dissolving, and putrefying it before separating it by distillation. Afterwards, it segregates the pure from the impure, that is, the firmamental parts from the elements, and both again from their superfluous impurities. Nature itself teaches this, which divides its putrefied chyle into two parts, one to be presented as purer to the liver for further cooking, and the other as more impure to be relegated to the intestines for expulsion. From the liver, a second separation occurs, one part nourishing the elements of the body, and the other feeding and nurturing the vital and firmamental parts for the retention of the vital spirit in its subject, namely, the radical moisture. At this point, the controversy between the Greeks and the spagyrics becomes evident: the former believe that the separation in the liver occurs only for the four humors, which they attribute to the elements, and thus make no mention or distinction of the firmament of things, as if life were from the elements, they pass on a confused doctrine about them without distinction: on the contrary, the spagyrics teach that elements nourish only similar elements and vitals nourish vitals. No physician can doubt that the natural life of things is due to the firmament after God, and not to the elements: likewise, that corporeal bodies are nourished by corporeal substances, and spiritual bodies by spirits; or, to be better understood, material things by material, just as formal bodies by formal: so we do not say we place forms without matter, or vice versa. For we say that the elements have received their own form and life from the firmament, but these very forms alone can hardly generate anything besides other specific firmamental influxes, no more than a woman can without a man. Furthermore, God gave life to all things in creation through light, and for propagation, He ordained seeds for each, in which the form lies hidden. Therefore, the influxes of the firmament are seeds, through which the matrices of the elements both conceive and give birth, since without these they cannot accomplish anything pertaining to generation, even if they carry the seed of propagation in their womb. Again, we say that celestial spirits of nature, although spiritual, just as the rays of the sun exist, nevertheless receive from their conjunction with the elements suitable and spiritual bodies as vehicles. Therefore, in physics, much greater consideration should be given to these rather than to elemental humors or qualities. The spagyric school has labored greatly in this, always to free the vehicle of life from coarser bodies, as if from a prison, so that it may nourish, restore, and retain life for a long time in the human body. It was no less necessary to find matter that had drawn more of such vital and celestial influxes in its creation: it was discovered that this would be the one that approached the center more closely. For in this center, the celestial rays of all, just as javelins thrown from all sides toward a single target, converge. Hence, it happens that the compressed force and the confluence of powers obtain the most intense and vehement action and extension. Therefore, the more the influxes are distant from the center, the rarer and looser they are found, and of lesser force and power, as can be seen from vegetables. For this reason, experience, following meditation, has taught that in metals and minerals, which are closer to the center, the most excellent and abundant powers of all are present. Therefore, they preferred these metals and minerals above all others, from which they could extract a certain universal form of medicine, the most unified and balanced, so that each individual could ultimately be brought to union and true balance. For indeed, nothing is more temperate, general, or extensive, and nothing is even more abundant, than the central physical essence. Therefore, such a medicine, obtained from metals or minerals through separation in the required order, transforms all that it is applied to, into the nature of central union and balance, and the highest degree of perfection. Thus, it happened that the ancient Egyptian knowledge (undoubtedly taught by the Hebrews from the Mosaic traditions in Genesis), which they primarily developed for medicine, was corrupted by the greed and ambition of the Greeks to accumulate treasures, and polluted with the tares of their falsehood, just as they did with the other arts through countless sophistications. They left few, if any, intact books on this art, and they could not unravel the enigmatic Egyptian writings (as Aristotle himself testifies) because of their envy, and so they corrupted them with their fables, making it nearly impossible to even salute this art through the books of the ancients from the very threshold.
However, although scarcely one in a hundred thousand has attained this art, apart from this, some intelligent individuals, with truly philosophical minds, are nourished by the mere meditation of such rarity and such depth of divine wisdom, as a spark shining brightly in this great mystery. For these individuals, it is especially delightful to be immersed in such great works of God rather than in their own riches and pleasures, as is the case for many others. So, let us eagerly come to the ladder of transmutation at last and see what exactly is transmutation according to the mind of Paracelsus. We will finally move on to the second part of this work, which will narrate the genealogy of minerals.
