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Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition

Anonymous (traditionally attributed to Anton Joseph Kirchweger)

The Golden Chain of Homer

A New Translation from the German Edition of 1723

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The Golden Chain of Homer23 What the Generation of Minerals Is and Which Principles Constitute Them

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Facing Pages · Branch 223 of 504

23 What the Generation of Minerals Is and Which Principles Constitute Them

German & Latin

1723 pp 166–167

Und diese Salia, Nitrum und Sal, sind maxime generativa & conservativa, so sie aber in Contrarium gehen, destructiva omnium rerum. Man sehe diesen entgegen den Vitriol und Alaun, welche beyde unter die proprie mineralische Salien gezehlet werden, solche kan der Mensch ohne Unwillen und ohne grosse Alteration nicht geniessen, wie jene, als auch die mercurialische, arsenicalische Subjecta nicht, also auch die Vegetabilia nicht, denn sie verderben davon. Denn giebt man einem Menschen oder Vieh, Hund oder Katzen nur 1. oder 2. Scrupel Vitriol ein, ob er sich nicht mit grossem Widerwillen brechen oder alteriren wird. Also giesse man eine solche Lauge von Vitriol und Alaun zu einem Baum oder Kraut, ob es nicht verderben wird. Derowegen aus diesem abermal erhellet, daß vorgemeldete Salpeter und Saltz allen unterirdischen Creaturen homogen sind, und was homogen ist, das ist ja ihrer Natur, und was ihrer Natur ist, davon bestehen sie, wachsen und werden erhalten von selbem, und von wem sie wachsen und erhalten werden, davon sind sie ja entsprossen. Aus dem sie nun primario entsprossen sind, das ist ja ihre prima Materia, und die prima Materia ist ein Anfang und Ursprung jedes Dinges, in welches sich jede Creatur per Resolutiones wieder darein solviren muß, daß also aus dem ersten das letzte, und aus dem letzten wieder das erste werde, wiewohl aber beyde Salia Salpeter und Saltz anders und anders disponiret werden zu der Animalität, wie auch zu der Vegetabilität, also auch anders zu der Mineralität. Denn so sie einerley Disposition hätten, so würden sie einerley seyn.

1723 pp 166–167

The Golden Chain of Homer: 23 What the Generation of Minerals Is and Which Principles Constitute Them

1723 pp 166–167

These salts, nitre and salt, are supremely generative and preservative; but when they act contrariwise, they destroy all things. Contrast vitriol and alum, both counted among properly mineral salts. A person cannot receive them without aversion and great alteration as he can the former, nor can he receive mercurial or arsenical subjects; plants cannot either, for they perish from them. Give a person or animal, a dog or cat, only one or two scruples of vitriol and see whether it does not vomit with great distress or suffer alteration. Similarly, pour such a lye of vitriol and alum upon a tree or herb and see whether it does not perish. From this it again appears that the aforesaid nitre and salt are homogeneous with all subterranean creatures. What is homogeneous belongs to their nature; that of their nature is what constitutes them, from which they grow and by which they are maintained. That from which they grow and are maintained is also what they sprang from. What they originally sprang from is their first matter. First matter is the beginning and origin of each thing, into which every creature must again be dissolved through resolutions, so that the last comes from the first and the first again from the last. Yet nitre and salt are differently disposed toward animality, vegetability, and minerality: if they had the same disposition, they would be the same thing.

1723 pp 166–167

About This Reading Edition

The two-book alchemical work of 1723 in German with a new English translation, 399 notes, eight historical diagrams, chapter outlines, keyword essays, a glossary, bibliography, subject index, and 400 discussion questions.

Discussion Questions

Historical Text and Translation

Anonymous, Aurea Catena Homeri. Frankfurt and Leipzig: Johann Georg Böhme, 1723. Traditionally attributed to Anton Joseph Kirchweger; the attribution remains uncertain. Historical diagrams from the Stiftung der Werke von C. G. Jung copy digitized by e-rara.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

The supplied edition identifies the 1723 German source and historical diagrams as public-domain material. Its new English translation and editorial apparatus are published with the site owner’s authorization. The complete original files are retained unchanged.