Orthelius Commentary on Sendivogius. Chapter 1

Orthelius announces his intention to go above and beyond Sendivogius: searching out the raw matter to extract the threefold salt while not wetting the garment.

“Chapter 1.

On the subject of the Earth, that’s to say, the Philosophers Stone Matter inferior part.

Text. If the Earth, concerning the generation of metals, is the mother, the Sky is required to be the father, but then the material part must again have its origin in the Earth. As there can be found many categories of Earth, it is necessary to have great competence in choosing the appropriate one for this special work; among them, natural red earth should be picked, Terra Adamica (Adamic Earth) and Terra Hispanica, with its consistent appearance improving, black, white, golden reddish-yellow, called nature of color.”

Orthelius starts his first chapter with a sort of conundrum investigating the best matter to obtain the Philosophers Stone. In the rest of the exposition, we will see if the author decides to go beyond the tradition to keep secret the preparatory works (in just a few paragraphs, he will describe more common earth). Anyway, Terra Adamica, which comes from Adam, the alleged first man, in the ancient alchemical dictionaries, would represent instead the final product of our works, not the raw matter we need to start the first work with to achieve the necessary Mercurius.   He reinforces the concept with the sentence: “… una terra prae alia, pro hoc negotio eligatur, ex quibus lutum naturaliter rubrum prae exteris or, verbatim, an earth ahead of all others, to be chosen among all foreigners, from those a naturally red lutum… “. Lutum in Latin doesn’t mean soil, ground, but mud, slime, clay in the sense of shaping, molding. A second meaning is also “weld”, a water plant that colored in red-yellow. A later medieval meaning led to the chemical lute sealing an alembic. Lutum, in Alchemy, is also a synonym for seal.

The exact meaning of Terra Adamica is not the same as all alchemists. In fact, for some, it is a synonym of Terra Foliata (1), and for others – of Red Powder. The stages are different: Terra Foliata is Mercurius Philosophorum, and the Red Powder is the product of operations on Terra Foliata. Both cannot be found as a ready substance in mine but must be prepared from our white Mercurius, a somewhat ineffable substance coming out of salt volatilizations, out of black primitive Mercurius.  Eventually, as Orthelius points out, both Terra Foliata and Red Powder should undergo a further “nature of color”.  And Terra Adamica, in both meanings, is only from Mercurius. The term Earth can refer to both the raw initial matter and the final matter; in fact, we humans work with tools, and tools always contain powders, oils, waxes, and smoke. In Alchemy, “Earth”. The element Earth, the part we can see, the inferior part.

Concerning what the author calls the “nature of color”, this is also accompanied by the sentence “with its consistent appearance improving” and then a list of those colors, i.e., black, white, golden, reddish-yellow, which are strangely in the exact order of our rota or color rotations. Some translater interpret it as though those colors were a distinctive mark of the earth to be avoided, but the adjectives seem to be in relation with the ablative “pro meliore”, or in order to get a better product, and “habitus” means appearance-condition, so in the original Latin, it seems that the colors could ameliorate the naturally red.

According to some ancient authors, the reader may have also noted the second epithet for this earth, i.e., “Terra Hispanica,” which means vitriol.

“Side note: Lutum provided with threefold salt.

Although the above-mentioned lutum is found in any place:, it can be extracted as more beautiful or universal at certain sites rather than others. Hence philosophers believed it is to be dug up either towards the east or the sun rising, which is traditionally a supreme position for a metal mine, and it carries within itself a threefold recondite salt… “

… quod triplicem salem in se reconditum gerit or carries a threefold recondite salt within itself… Pay attention to this sentence as one of the most important in the first chapter. Andreas Orthelius chooses “reconditum” (little known, abstruse) and not “occultum” (hidden, secret, arcane, esoteric) to point at the knowledge rather than the object per se. What comprehension should the reader grasp? The fact that from the same raw matter, we can get three different salts in texture and appearance. Please note that I used the verb “can” instead of “must”. In fact, we can use three different raw matters as well, we are in preliminary works, and the unique matter will be Mercurius Philosophorum in the second work.

But why should we need three salts? Because in Alchemy, all is performed by salts, so more than one. Roughly, salts have to be married, or Mercurius Duplicatus (2), even united in marriage by a third salt, bishop, or servant (3), and finally giving birth to another salt (the alchemical child).

“… one of them is volatile and similar to salt armeniac, the other is of medium texture and nitrous. The third is entirely fixed and comparable to salt alkali. The philosophers are said to call these three salts, after mixing them together, body and part of Mercurius. As well as terrestrial liquored water… “

For now, Orthelius hasn’t yet hinted at a path, so to be safe, I would suggest identifying the three salts as just named after their texture, independently from their chemical composition and source. For instance, “salt armeniac”, which, with slightly different nomenclature, can be found in ancient chemists’ works on urine or vegetal reign and could even have been extracted not from urine or saltpeter but from the atmosphere or a mineral. The author says the salt is similar to salt armeniac, so it may here simply connote a volatile salt out of the first or preliminary work; in fact, the term “Sal Armoniacum” was used to signify Mercurius in general, and a spirit specifically when separating from its body; in fact, the author further down will define salt armeniac just as Mercurius Philosophicus.

Concerning the “nitrous” salt, that too could be mentioned along the same lines, with just a sulfurous appearance (more fixed than the volatile Mercurius), which was what ancient chemists meant when calling a substance “nitrous”. We will see as we go what kind of path Orthelius is thinking of. Anyway, mind that the method displayed by Orthelius will not be the most unique possible: apparently, he presents the fixation of the volatile with another salt, but it is not always like that; in fact, it often is rather tricky to open the vessel to handle the first volatile salt. Lastly, the nomenclature “salt alkali” can also signify “foundation of all the bodies”, so a substance is not strictly of alkaline origin but the future foundation of our Stone (as we will need at least a small amount of  “alkaline” texture for a specific hardening final phase), in fact, Orthelius defines them “body and part of Mercurius. As well as terrestrial liquored water“.

Let’s resume my translation now: “Although the greatly remarkable Sendivogius was certainly very skilled in this extraordinary science, in his Epilogue, he himself makes an admission. He said everything clearly, but the extraction of our salt armeniac, that’s to say, he didn’t reveal how to extract our Mercurius Philosophicus from our Aqua Pontica since no master of the science of nature was allowed to reveal more; only God can do it. In fact, in his Novum Lumen Chymicum, the preparation of the real points, as well as principal parts of the Mercurius Philosophicus, are omitted; in this way, according to a German saying, he is not to be judged.”

I fail to understand whether Orthelius here, with the term Mercurius Philosophicus, means to indicate the volatile Mercurius or the Mercurius Philosophorum (that’s to say, the next phase: the volatile fixed) since Aqua pontica was generally used to indicate Mercurius Philosophorum. Our author seems to have a very personal lexicon. But that’s not crucial so far.

“Clean the film on the surface or garment (lava pellicium seu vestem), but mind not to wet it (sed cave ne humectes). I will tell according to what I saw with my own eyes since this sprinkling thing is tiny in his (Sendivogius) book, so I want to add something here. What our author (Sendivogius) keeps evidently shrouded in the enigma will be allowed, and as far as I know, we should go into it; from him (Sendivogius), we have heard of marvelous and fruitful islands and learned of an earth globe surrounded by the element water,  in and from it all things grow up, and from it, mankind gets sustenance (on that in chapter 2). He suggests digging a gallery and then crawling on our knees, picking up our earth in which there is a living source and wave.

Major and clearer Elucidation.

Side note: an ancient manuscript.

From the previous text and the attached image the Earth’s subject is disclosed with clear words, from that a part involved in Mercurius Philosophicus Duplicatus, or composition of the matter of the Stone, with sufficient instructions on what must be observed, is given.”

For Earth’s subject, very likely Orthelius finally means the necessary raw matter to start the preparatory works to get the Mercurius (which he called Philosophicus). …..ex quo….that’s to say from that, from the same, we can also extract a part involved in Mercurius Duplicatus. The latter comprises two merged, joined, or married Mercurii. In other words, once we have achieved the Universal Dissolvent/Mercurius, we need another salt to be joined, and from Orthelius’ words, we can figure out that the starting raw matter for both mates can be the same.

“To make things clearer, we must say something more. And it will also be useful to look up an ancient manuscript for confirmation. Surely a man created from the earth cannot generate a man from earth but from seed. Nevertheless, humankind can be fed on Earth to grow and generate. Similarly, gold and silver can generate gold and silver. So there is a need for nourishment with a primordial substance, analogously pure. In fact, according to Hermes, its nourisher is appropriate earth; its real name seems to be Sulob Sunembra Suebur, with letters inversion Bolus Armenus Rubeus, whose similar name embraces all Ochres and Lemniae Earths from which the sealed (?) earth are usually  prepared, and those that aren’t familiar with fire yet.”

… ex quibus terrae sigillatae confici solent… I translated the sentence as “from which the sealed earth are usually prepared”. As difficult to understand as it may seem, “ex quibus” didn’t let me with a different alternative; we know that “ex” might present other possibilities (from, since, as low as, immediately after, of….matter, due to, for, after, between, according, based on, correspond to) but the presence of the pronoun quibus narrowed my choice. The real problem here is represented by the past participle “sigillatae” which Orthelius perhaps used as a neologism from the Italian “sigillate”, or sealed closed. In classic Latin, sigillatus meant “adorned with figurines, chiseled” since “sigillum” was a statuette to be given during Saturnalia celebrations. Hence a sigillum was a kind of emblem. The right verb to express to seal was “signare”, hence the past participle “signatae”, even if a much later interpretation suggested “sigillum” to mean sealed. Eventually, the following sentence, “those that aren’t familiar with fire yet”, made me lean toward the term sealed.

“Thus even if it is known, the subject of the Earth was twice considered by philosophers, evidently as raw and prepared earth.”

The result of the first work is volatile fixed earth from salts volatilizations. It is always the element earth, or “vessel” as the element earth does contain all the other elements.

“Side-note: Raw Earth.

The text does mention here the crude and simple red earth, and Sendivogius is understood through the essence of any red earth and how it gets extracted. In some metal galleries, without any work on our part, such red earth comes out running as wet mud from the mountain ducts because of the mine’s internal water source. This can be seen in the German forest in Anhalt princedom in the surrounding of the town of Hertzgerod close to the St David duct, or the gallery not so far from the first one, from where sulfur comes out, in the nearby of St Catherine duct.

Nevertheless, there is something better than the bolus or mud, which so far has lived hidden in the mines without seeing the daylight. Hence, letting aside the bolus, another one that is much in esteem draws our attention to the proximity of the mineral veins, in which it is differently spotted and taken, so analogously, the veins acquire a different and more special mineral character. Otherwise similar to bolus, these matters soon show their peculiar nature ( i.e., you can perceive it from their vitriolic taste), and through the following preparation, even their sludges can soon be restored to the initial composition.

Side-note: Reduction of  Vitriol to Earth.