The Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine

Sinopse

Ainda não disponível em português — exibindo a versão em inglês.

The Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine (German: Ein kurtz summarischer Tractat, von dem grossen Stein der Uralten lit. 'A Short Summary Tract: Of the Great Stone of the Ancients') is a widely reproduced alchemical book attributed to Basil Valentine. It was first published in 1599 by Johann Thölde who is likely the book's true author. It is presented as a sequence of alchemical operations encoded allegorically in words, to which images have been added. The first part of the book is a discussion of general alchemical principles and advice about the philosopher's stone. The second half of Ein kurtz summarischer Tractat, under the subtitle "The Twelve Keys", contains twelve short chapters. Each chapter, or "key", is an allegorical description of one step in the process by which the philosopher's stone may be created. With each step, the symbolic names (Deckname, or code name) used to indicate the critical ingredients are changed, just as the ingredients themselves are transformed. The keys are written in such a fashion as to conceal as well as to illuminate: only a knowledgeable reader or alchemical adept was expected to correctly interpret the veiled language of the allegorical text and its related images.

Licença do texto: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Fonte

Detalhes

Tipo

Livro

Lançamento

1 de janeiro de 1599

Criado por

Basil Valentine

Países

Germany

Capa: Wikimedia Commons · Merian, Matthaeus, 1593-1650 · Public domain · Fonte