The Secret Work of the Hermetic Philosophy

Name: The Secret Work of the Hermetic Philosophy
Author: Attributed to Jean d’Espagnet

A Fresh English Translation from the Complete 1623 Latin Arcanum

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The Secret Work of the Hermetic PhilosophyThe Historical Title Page

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The Historical Title Page

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Latin

ARCANUM HERMETICÆ PHILOSOPHIÆ OPUS. In quo occulta Naturæ & Artis circa Lapidis Philosophorum materiam & operandi modum canonicè & ordinatè fiunt manifesta. Opus eiusdem authoris ANONYMI. PENES NOS UNDA TAGI. PARISIIS, Apud NICOLAUM BUON, sub signo D. Claudij, & Hominis Syluestris. MDC. XXIII. Cum priuilegio Regis.

English

THE SECRET WORK OF THE HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY. In which the secrets of Nature and Art concerning the matter of the Philosophers’ Stone and the manner of working are made manifest in canons and in an orderly sequence. A work by the same ANONYMOUS author. The water of the Tagus is in our possession. PARIS, At Nicolas Buon’s, at the sign of Saint Claude and the Wild Man. 1623. With the King’s privilege.

1.The title page names no author. The work is conventionally attributed to Jean d’Espagnet, and the motto Penes nos unda Tagi is associated with that attribution. The title’s ‘same anonymous author’ refers to the companion Enchiridion in the 1623 volume. This edition translates the complete Arcanum as a distinct work; it does not include the separate Enchiridion. The printer’s ornamental device and modern library accession number are recorded as title-page furniture rather than translated prose.

2.The Tagus, the Iberian river famous in classical poetry for its gold-bearing sands, makes the motto appropriate to an alchemical book as well as to its attribution. ‘The water of the Tagus is in our possession’ is a literal rendering of the printed Latin, not an identification of the work’s material.

About This Reading Edition

The complete anonymous 1623 Arcanum, conventionally attributed to Jean d’Espagnet, with Latin and a fresh English translation, 138 canons, original marginalia and errata, 88 modern annotations, separately identified historical reception documents, and the complete supplied Diotimos study apparatus.

Historical Text and Translation

Anonymous, Arcanum hermeticæ philosophiæ opus. Paris: Nicolas Buon, 1623. Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon copy, digitised by Google Books, uJNr_M9LDGgC. Conventionally attributed to Jean d’Espagnet; the original title page is anonymous.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

Historical texts are public-domain works. The supplied 2026 fresh English translation, Latin reading transcription and Diotimos editorial material are published with the site owner’s authorization. The historical Signifer is credited to the Getty Research Institute copy and Internet Archive.