Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Latin Page · Branch 64 of 204
Epilogue · Passage 6
Source reference
- Latin witness
- 1606 pp. 145–146
Latin
O coelum nostrum: o aqua nostra: o Mercurius noster: o sal nitri nostrum in mari mundi versans: o vegetabile nostrum: o sulphur nostrum fixum et volatile: o caput mortuum, seu faeces maris nostri: aqua manus non madefaciens, sine qua nemo mortalium vivere potest, et sine qua nihil nascitur et generatur in toto orbe. Et haec sunt aviculae Hermetis epitheta, quae nunquam quiescit, vilissima est, nemo ea carere potest: et sic habes rem omni mundo pretiosiorem detectam, quam plane dico, nil aliud esse quam aquam nostram ponticam, quae in Sole et Luna congelatur, et extrahitur e Sole et Luna chalybe nostro artificio Philosophico miris modis, per prudentem artis filium.
English
O our heaven! O our water! O our Mercury! O our nitrous salt moving in the world’s sea! O our vegetable thing! O our fixed and volatile sulphur! O dead head, or dregs of our sea! Water that does not wet the hands, without which no mortal can live and without which nothing is born or generated anywhere in the world! These are the names of Hermes’ little bird, which never rests. It is most commonplace, and no one can do without it. Thus you have disclosed something more precious than the whole world. I say plainly that it is nothing other than our pontic water, congealed in Sol and Luna and extracted from Sol and Luna by our chalybs through philosophical skill in marvellous ways, by a prudent child of the art.
Socrates
Reading A New Light of Alchemy · Epilogue · Epilogue · Passage 6
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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.
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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.