Centrum Naturae Concentratum

Guide to the Historical Figures

The four reproductions belong to the Father’s Last Testament: three small signs on printed page 74 and a large engraving on page 78. Their original positions are preserved beside the relevant passages. The guide begins with visible form and the testament’s own prose and verse; further associations are distinguished from those supplied by the source.

Visible elements and the testament’s own explanations

Visible feature: Central compound character Explanation in the testament: Related to both antimony and the sages’ mercury; decomposed in the three small signs

Visible feature: Sevenfold star and black ray Explanation in the testament: Antimony with seven metals concealed; the black ray linked with the sages’ lead

Visible feature: Celestial sphere and terrestrial globe Explanation in the testament: Heaven and earth within the matter

Visible feature: Lion and eagle Explanation in the testament: Redness and whiteness named in the explanation

Visible feature: Cup with Sun and Moon Explanation in the testament: Metals drawing the water of life from the matter

Visible feature: Hand from the clouds Explanation in the testament: An oath that this is the true matter, as the prose presents it

Visible feature: Black solar and Saturnine circles Explanation in the testament: A stated relation of gold, antimony and the sages’ lead within the art

The inscription reads VISITA INTERIORA TERRAE RECTIFICANDO INVENIES OCCULTUM LAPIDEM: “Visit the inward parts of the earth; by rectifying, you will find the hidden stone.” Its seven initial letters form VITRIOL. This is the inscription actually visible here; an extended formula ending in further words is not silently substituted.

The small signs matter because the prose argues from their structure. The combined character is shown first; its lower antimony sign and upper mercury sign follow separately. The exact source crops preserve the doubled outlines and forms that a generic Unicode character approximates. Their reproduction does not require a newly invented symbolic system.

The closing verse introduces Neptune, Venus, the serpent, Mars and Bacchus. The following explanation identifies them locally with salt, vitriol, mercury, a martial analogy and tartar or its residue. Read that explanation before consulting a general symbol dictionary. Compare the poem with its own prose explanation and the earlier passage, allowing material and symbolic meanings to coexist without assuming that each quantity has a demonstrated symbolic decoding.

For the historical explanations, read the testament. For the interpretive method, see Reading an Emblem through Its Own Explanation.