Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 132 of 204
Sulphur · Fire · Passage 8
Source reference
- Latin witness
- 1616 · sequence pages 30–31
Latin
Agit hoc Elementum in Centrum cuiuslibet rei, hoc modo: natura dat motum, motus excitat aerem, aer ignem, ignis vero separat, purgat, digerit, colorat, et maturescere facit omne semen, maturumque expellit per sperma in loca et matrices, loca pura vel impura, calida magis aut minus, sicca vel humida et secundum dispositionem matricis, seu loci variae res producuntur in terra, cuius etiam in libello 12 Tractatuum de matricibus mentio facta est, quot loca tot matrices esse. Ita conditor omnium rerum Altissimus Deus omnes res constituit et ordinavit, quod una contrariatur alteri, et tamen ut mors unius sit vita alterius: quod unum producit alterum consumit, et aliud ex hoc et quiddam nobilius naturaliter producitur, ac hisce conservatur aequalitas Elementorum et sic compositi.
English
This element acts at the centre of each thing as follows: nature gives motion; motion stirs air; air stirs fire. Fire separates, purges, digests, colours and ripens every seed. Once ripe, it drives the seed through sperm into places and wombs: places pure or impure, hotter or less hot, dry or moist. Various things are produced in earth according to the disposition of the womb or place. I also mentioned wombs in the book of Twelve Treatises: there are as many wombs as places. The Most High God, maker of all things, established and ordered everything so that one thing opposes another, yet the death of one is the life of another. What one produces, another consumes, and from this something else, naturally nobler, is produced. Thus the balance of the elements, and therefore of the compound, is preserved.
Socrates
Reading A New Light of Alchemy · Sulphur · Fire · Sulphur · Fire · Passage 8
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
The complete supplied Latin–English edition of the Twelve Treatises, Epilogue, Enigma, Parable, Dialogue of Mercury and Treatise of Sulphur, with original preliminaries, John French’s historical English address and its separately labelled modernisation, 101 annotations and the complete study apparatus.
Historical Text and Translation
The Twelve Treatises and their concluding texts follow the selected 1606 Herzog August Bibliothek witness. The Dialogue uses the 1607 Cologne printing; the author’s preface and Alsted epigram use Frankfurt 1611. Sulphur uses the 1616 Munich and Rome witnesses. John French’s 1650 address is separately identified as historical English reception.
About Diotimos Editions
This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.
Rights
The historical Latin texts and John French’s 1650 English address are in the public domain. The new translation, modernisation and editorial apparatus were prepared with AI assistance for Diotimos Editions in 2026 and are published with the site owner’s authorization.