Ferment and Azoth

Use in the book

At p. 163 the discussion challenges B.’s Gold of the Breeze and an insufficient account of the world-spirit. Wind and air can be called that spirit only in a relative sense; the regions of air must also be distinguished. Both tinctures, of fire and water, are needed, and the author immediately names ferment and Azoth (II.163.2). One alone is insufficient, and both must be drawn from one root. The sequence associates these paired expressions, but it does not fully specify each component’s preparation or authorize combining unrelated purchased materials.⁵⁶

At p. 198 the same necessity becomes an analogy within the rejection of homunculus-making. The magistery cannot be completed by taking either principle alone, ferment or Azoth; both must be employed (II.198.1). Similarly, the author argues, human propagation requires the union of both parents. The point of comparison is the insufficiency of one contributing principle by itself. It does not identify human seed as an alchemical ingredient or turn the philosophical matter into a human being.

The paragraph then distinguishes completion from multiplication. Even a perfected magistery cannot multiply unless further mercurial water is added. Changes in flowing and coagulating under fire and air accompany this statement. Thus “both are required” is not the whole account of later growth: a completed product still has conditions for renewed increase. This distinguishes the entry from a simple binary recipe.

Gold fermentation at p. 145 supplies a further limit (II.145.2). Here the medicine is prepared first and then fermented with gold; the claimed tincturing power is large, but the resulting work can no longer be multiplied. The author treats this as legitimate and refers to Basilius’s twelfth key. He does not thereby withdraw his argument that ordinary gold cannot supply the originating tincture. Starting subject, perfected medicine and final gold-fermented product occupy different places in the sequence.

Places to read

1. Part II · II.163.2The two tinctures, ferment and Azoth, must come from one root.
2. Part II · II.198.1Both principles are necessary, followed by a separate condition of multiplication.
3. Part II · II.144.1; II.145.22Azoth as the privileged locus of strength and the limited gold fermentation.

Translation

Azoth is retained rather than expanded into an alleged universal chemical name or an etymological cipher. The translation also preserves the changing forms fermentum and fermento through the English “ferment.” “Principle” here describes the author’s functional argument; it does not assert that each named member is a separately obtainable modern element.

Connections

Body soul and spirit gives the wider account of coordinated principles. Multiplication explains why the further addition in the homunculus chapter does not contradict the removal of superfluities during purification. Gold ordinary marks the restricted role that finished gold may have after the medicine is already prepared.

Cautions

The pairing does not justify a fixed formula equating ferment with ordinary gold and Azoth with common mercury. It also does not establish every meaning those words may bear in other alchemical books. The safest reading begins with the explicit local requirements—both principles, one root, and a further condition for multiplication—and leaves unprovided manipulations unprovided.

fermentum

fermentum — ferment; Latin nominative form. II.163.2.

Azoth

Azoth — the complementary named principle. II.163.2; II.198.1.

fermento

fermento — ferment; an inflected Latin form. II.198.1.