Text.Drebbel.1621-01.C5v
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Source: Cornelis Drebbel, De quinta essentia Tractatus, ed. Joachim Morsius, No place, no printer, 1621, sig. C5v–C6r [BP.Drebbel.1621-01]
Summary: 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. (generated by ChatGPT)
Text
Præponit Dominus ex suis servis, quos vult, & eligit, ut hanc scientiam divinam, homini celatam quærant, & quæsitam secum retineant. Hæc enim scientia est, quæ dominum suum abstrahit ab huius mundi miseria & ad scientiam bonorum futurorum reducit.
In te signa mei, Morsi, dum poscis amoris.
En tibi non auri gazas, at terna relinquo
Inquirenda sophis paradoxa, mihi agnita vera,
Ter sex annorum multis erroribus usu:
Nil Fixum fieri poterit, natura nisi ipsa
Fixarit: nec quid tingi, nisi tinxerit: Una
Res uno coquitur, geminis sed vasibus, Igne.
Politissimo Genio, ingenio, virtute & doctrina clarissimo D[omi]n[o] Joachimo Morsio Hamburgo-Saxoni, veræ sapientiæ indaga- [sig. C6r] tori strenuo, in sui memoriam, nec non mutuæ amicitiæ tesseram reliquit, Michael Maierus Holsatus Comes Palat[inus] Medic[inae] Doctor, Rudolphi quondam Imperatoris & diversorum Principum Archiater, &c.
Magdeb[urgi] 13. Octob[ris] A[nno] C[hristi] M. DC. XX.Modern English Raw Translation
The Lord prefers from his servants, whom he wishes, and chooses, that they seek this divine knowledge, hidden from man, and retain it once found. For this knowledge is what draws its master away from the misery of this world and leads him to the knowledge of future goods.
In you are the signs of my love, Morsius, as you seek. Behold, I leave you not treasures of gold, but three paradoxes to be sought by the wise, known to me as true, through the many errors of thirty-six years' experience: Nothing can be made fixed, unless nature itself has fixed it; nor can anything be dyed, unless it has been dyed: One thing is cooked in one, but with twin vessels, by Fire.
To the most refined Genius, renowned for wit, virtue, and learning, Joachim Morsius of Hamburg-Saxony, a diligent seeker of true wisdom, Michael Maier, from Holstein, Count Palatine, Doctor of Medicine, once physician to Emperor Rudolf and various princes, &c., left this in memory of himself, and as a token of mutual friendship.
Magdeburg, October 13, in the Year of Christ 1620.