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Authors voices and authorities

Basilius Valentinus

Basilius Valentinus; Basilio; Basilii

Basilius Valentinus is the full name printed in the mining discussion; Basilius and inflected forms occur elsewhere.

From the book

Candida Phoenix Philosophica

Anonymous · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordBasilius Valentinus is the full name printed in the mining discussion; Basilius and inflected forms occur elsewhere.
  • In the CandidaThe authority supports the unity of the three principles and supplies references for mineral and medicinal operations.
  • TranslationBasil Valentine is a conventional English reading name; received attribution is preserved without supplying an unverified life.
  • A place to readBegin with the long quotation on pp. 88-89, II.088.1, then read II.114.1 and II.176.1.

Meaning

The Candida uses Basilius Valentinus as an alchemical authority whose writings can help readers connect general matter theory with minerals and particular preparations. The entry concerns that textual presence. It does not assume that the name proves the existence of a single author responsible for every work circulated under it. Nor does the book give a biography sufficient to establish that history.145

Several abbreviated references presume readers already know the writings. Most are not accompanied by full titles or page numbers. One passage names a twelfth key, II.145.2; that is more specific than the general recommendations in the mining and precious-stone chapters, but it still remains the Candida’s attribution.

Use in the book

In Part I, the world-spirit may in a qualified sense be called a supernatural spiritual Mercury, with Basilius, I.030.1. Part II explains why supernatural can be used: the elements are not dependent on the particular subordinate causes assigned to specified creatures, II.067.1. The adjective is therefore integrated into a theological account of causes, not simply a promise that the material is immaterial or exempt from operation.

The substantial quotation at II.088.1 places the roots of philosophical Sulphur, supernatural Mercury and spiritual Salt in one matter rather than many. Separate discussion of the principles is explained through their differing abundance and their profitable particular uses. This supports the author’s insistence that the universal work should begin from a single suitable subject. It also leaves room for useful particular preparations without promoting every extract into the universal medicine.

At II.114.1 the writer praises Basilius’s account of mines and metallic generation as beautiful and plausible, especially its use of miners’ language. The praise has a practical purpose: an investigator can learn from that vocabulary. It does not withdraw the surrounding qualifications concerning the author’s own conjectures about underground generation. The recommendation returns briefly at II.120.2 for precious stones.

In Chapter VIII the name gathers a cluster of correspondences: supernatural spiritual Mercury, heavenly Sulphur and all in all, II.176.1. These are offered as descriptions of the heavenly water just discussed. The passage demonstrates how an established authority’s terminology is absorbed into the anonymous writer’s own account. The point is convergence upon one matter, not an instruction to assemble a substance for each name.

Other uses preserve narrower distinctions. The twelfth-key reference concerns a medicine fermented with ordinary gold after its preparation, whose capacity for further multiplication is then lost, II.145.2. The reference to Brother Basilius relieving his brother’s pain from the stone belongs to particular medicine, II.184.1. Such a particular remedy can be praised while remaining distinct from the third-order tincture’s claimed universal and transmuting powers.

Places to read

  1. Part I and Part II · I.030.1; II.067.12Qualified supernatural Mercury within the theory of causes.
  2. Part II · II.088.1One matter contains the roots of the three principles.
  3. Part II · II.114.1; II.120.22Recommendations concerning mines and precious stones.
  4. Part II · II.145.2; II.184.12A twelfth-key reference and a particular medicinal example.

Translation

Basilii and Basilio are Latin inflections of the reading name. Brother in the medicinal anecdote reproduces the source’s presentation; it should not be expanded into a verified monastic biography. All in all is the compact expression used in the heavenly-water list. It should retain its totalizing force rather than be converted into a modern chemical formula.

Connections

Read this authority beside Mercury philosophical, Universal and particular and Medicine and its orders. The same name supports several different levels of discussion, so its presence alone does not identify the kind of preparation intended. The surrounding distinction is more informative than a list of names detached from the argument.

Cautions

The medicinal and transmutation claims are historical claims reported or endorsed by the Candida. This lexicon does not verify their effects, resolve the Basil Valentine corpus’s authorship or identify the particular preparation employed in the stone-pain anecdote.

Basilius Valentinus

Basilius Valentinus — Attested source form; inflections are retained rather than replaced by an invented lemma. II.114.1.

Basilio

Basilio — Attested source form; inflections are retained rather than replaced by an invented lemma. I.030.1.

Basilii

Basilii — Attested source form; inflections are retained rather than replaced by an invented lemma. II.176.1.

Source note

Basilius Valentinus is the received authorial name used in the book. These passages do not establish the historical person behind the name, the dates of composition of the cited writings, or the narrator’s possession of a particular printed edition.