- Options
- Login
- Desktop Style
Options
Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
- Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
-
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
Barbrey > 16-10-2025, 05:59 PM
(16-10-2025, 12:44 PM)bi3mw Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
(16-10-2025, 12:17 PM)Jorge_Stolfi Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view."Newly discovered" only in Europe.
Yes, my focus was indeed on the European Middle Ages, as I hoped to find symbolism similar to the table above there. Unfortunately, I only found what I was looking for in the 17th century. @Nablator is probably right. Many, if not most, symbols were only standardized then, if one can even speak of a standard in this regard. The caption “A Table of medieval alchemical symbols” is therefore misleading, but the table is certainly decorative.
edit: The last will and testament of Basil Valentine, 1671
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Ortolanus was the first to call it the quintessence, derived from “argento vivo”, literally living silver or quicksilver, but which turns out to be spirit of wine, a good 50 years before Rupescissa. That might be where the symbol V with the small s enclosed comes from? I expect you’ve read about Ortolanus, Matthias, but if not here’s the Wikipedia link: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
I think it’s the way he introduces himself that has always made me curious about him. -
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
bi3mw > 16-10-2025, 07:03 PM
(16-10-2025, 05:59 PM)Barbrey Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I expect you’ve read about Ortolanus, Matthias
No, I admit I didn't have Ortolanus on my radar. My first thought was Rupescissa.
Quote:JOSÉ RODRÍGUEZ-GUERRERO, Desarrollo y Madurez del Concepto de Quintaesencia Alquímica en la Europa Medieval (s. XII-XIV).
pp. 30-56.
Abstract:
The quintessence was a key element in late medieval alchemy. I will discuss the origin of the concept from its vague beginnings in the 13th Century, well summarized by Restoro d’Arezzo (ca.1282), to the critical meeting in the early 14th century. I will focus my research on a treatise entitled Liber super textum hermetis (pre.1325) signed by an alchemist called Hortulanus (Jakob Ortlein of Nördlinger, probably a dominican monk). The full version consists of two sections. The first is a less-known guide to elaborate a pure quintessence or “Stone of Life”, which seems to be an alcoholic compound obtained by distillation and rectification of wine. Hortulanus thought of alcohol as the quintessence almost a quarter of century before John of Rupescissa’s book De quinta essentia. The second section of the Liber super textum hermetis is a popular commentary on the Emerald Tablet that usually circulated as an independent work.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. -
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
bi3mw > 16-10-2025, 08:57 PM
It is interesting to note that there is a copy of De consideratione quintae essentiae from the mid-15th century that contains a glossary of medicinal herbs in Latin and German.
Wellcome Collection, MS.708, Johannes de Rupescissa, De consideratione quintae essentiae, 1443
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. -
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
Barbrey > Yesterday, 04:57 AM
I first read Ortalanus or Hortulanus in “Roger Bacon’s” The Mirror of Alchemy, which I found on Project Gutenberg, well before I got turned onto Rupescissa by Leah DeVun. He gives a fairly comprehensive, though still vague, explanation of why The Emerald Tablet is a hidden treatise on alchemy; as far as I know he was the first to do it, or at least do it in so much detail about alchemical processes. In another part he goes into detail about “argent vivo”. I didn’t understand much of it then; it’s rather amazing I understand so much of it now! The paths we tread as VMS researchers!
Problem: I want to quote him but when I copy and paste, the text comes out unreadably tiny. Do you know how I fix this? -
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
Linda > Yesterday, 06:14 AM
-
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
Jorge_Stolfi > Yesterday, 09:44 AM
(Yesterday, 04:57 AM)Barbrey Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Problem: I want to quote him but when I copy and paste, the text comes out unreadably tiny. Do you know how I fix this?
The last of the "A" buttons on the toolbar , with a red minus subscript, will remove any formatting of the selected text. -
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
nablator > Yesterday, 09:56 AM
(16-10-2025, 07:03 PM)bi3mw Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
JOSÉ RODRÍGUEZ-GUERRERO Wrote:I will focus my research on a treatise entitled Liber super textum hermetis (pre.1325) signed by an alchemist called Hortulanus
Well "signed" may not be the most accurate word, with all the pseudepigrapha, the re-assembled and re-written texts... There is an almost century-wide gap between the supposed date of writing and the earliest known manuscripts, all 15th century. No symbols in the few manuscripts viewable online. One version (TK20) is attributed to Lull and does not mention quinta essentia, the other (TK456) may be more recent or not, it's hard to tell.
I wonder how many supposed pre-15th century texts were actually created (or very much modified/expanded) in the 15th century.
EDIT:
I didn't know about this 13th-14th century Swiss (St. Gallen) ms.: Kantonsbibliothek Vadiana Ms. 300. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (not viewable online apparently)
JOSÉ RODRÍGUEZ-GUERRERO Wrote:23. Las primeras ediciones impresas identifican a este alquimista con el inglés Johannes de Garlandia (fl.1205-1255), aunque se ha demostrado que esta conclusión es falsa. Se desconoce si Ortolan fue su nombre real o un seudónimo (s.e. Jardinero). La versión más antigua de su Liber super textum hermetis, conservada en el códice 300 de la Bibliothek Vadiana, lo denomina “Ortulanus ab ortis Martini nuncupatus”, no obstante nadie ha encontrado sentido a esta expresión.
Google Translation:
(Note) 23: Early printed editions identify this alchemist with the Englishman Johannes de Garlandia (fl. 1205–1255), although this conclusion has been shown to be false. Whether Ortolan was his real name or a pseudonym (i.e., Gardener) is unknown. The oldest version of his Liber super textum hermetis, preserved in Codex 300 of the Bibliothek Vadiana, calls him “Ortulanus ab ortis Martini nuncupatus,” although no one has been able to explain the meaning of this expression.
The Johannes de Garlandia edition (1560) mentions "essentia quinta":
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. -
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
Barbrey > Yesterday, 03:50 PM
Thank you Linda and Jorge!
“The Preface.
I Hortulanus, so called from the Gardens bordering upon the sea coast, wrapped in a Iacobin skinne, unworthy to be called a Disciple of Philosophie, moved with the love of my welbeloved, doo intend to make a true declaration of the words of Hermes, the Father of Philosophers, whose words, though that they be dark and obscure, yet have I truly expounded the whole operation and practise of the worke: for the obscuritie of the Philosophers in their speeches, dooth nothing prevaile, where the doctrine of the holy spirit worketh.”