Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS

[nablator]

The thing about fire salamanders is that it's a *two-part* deal. It's the salamander plus the fire. Without the fire, there's a problem.

But our fire is water. No problem.

Guy de Montanor's Scala philosophorum, Cambridge, Trinity College, Ms. O.8.9, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
   

Item ignis quem tibi ostendimus est aqua. Et ignis noster est ignis et non ignis. Et per attractionem aëris, viget spiritus, ...

A few lines later:

Et similiter omnium sine ingressione alterius rei super eo, excepto calore conservativo & nutritivo, qui ingreditur super eo, convertitur de statu in statum, & dividitur de re in rem, & fit pullus a nidulo volans, sicut illud a quo habuit radicem & principium.

And similarly all things, without the ingress of another thing upon them, except the conservative and nutritive heat which enters upon them, are converted from state to state, and are divided from thing to thing, and become a chick flying from the nest, like that from which it had its root and beginning.

The layered mountain with maybe a nest, a bird in it, and a bird flying above on f86v3 might have illustrated this text.

Note: several pages are missing in the 1550 printed edition and it contains only the first book that ends f. 29r of Ms. O.8.9.

The second book starts with a description of a process so intricate, with so many steps named with letters of the alphabet, that it looks like a substitution cipher key. No wonder it was skipped in the printed edition.