Fountain and pri-material water

Use in the book

The distinction from ordinary liquidity is established before that definition. At p. 83 Khunrath argues that corporeal Mercuries resolved into water are not consequently the pri-material waters of bodies. They have not passed through the catholic fountain in which the putrefactive condition proper to the work is found. Clear appearance and successful resolution therefore cannot authenticate the water. Its source and regenerative role matter more than its visual form.

At pp. 92–95234 the fountain becomes the meeting point of the maternal and agricultural figures. Metals must return to their mother's body for new birth; the fountain is that mother and the field into which the seed is sown. Nature supplies it in the Chaos of Magnesia, where fifth essence or the world-spirit dwells in the required universal manner. The resulting union can then proceed toward a specified silver- or gold-Stone. This relation does not make seed and fountain interchangeable: the same passage keeps their distinct roles in view.

The universal way uses the fountain differently. Most limpidly purified first matter is Azoth, the living catholic Mercury and pri-material fountain; taken alone without silvern or golden addition, it is regenerated toward the universal Stone. The common name therefore links the two ways without collapsing their different compositions and results.

At p. 106, recognition is followed by the ability to resolve and purify Magnesia so that it becomes the flowing pri-material fountain. This qualification prevents the natural subject's ready availability from being mistaken for the completed fore-work. Later, the salt-fountlet of p. 127 gathers Mercury, salt and source-language into a single description of the necessary ground. These linked water-names mark origin, condition and function across the argument. They are not merely interchangeable poetic labels for whichever liquor an operator happens to produce.

Places to read

1. 1599 p. 83Metal-derived waters are distinguished from the catholic fountain needed for regenerative putrefaction.
2. 1599 p. 92The mother’s body is expressly defined as first matter, fountain and pri-material water.
3. 1599 p. 95The fountain is the mother or field in which metallic seed is joined to first matter.
4. 1599 p. 97Purified Azoth is named as the pri-material fountain before the universal way is described.
5. 1599 p. 106Resolving and purifying Magnesia makes it the flowing fountain.
6. 1599 p. 127The twofold mercurial salt-fountlet is named in the argument about philosophical salts, continued on p. 128.

Translation in this edition

“Fountlet” retains the German diminutive rather than varying it into an unrelated vessel-name. The modern note to p. 127 records the compound's mixed typography: German FONTINLEIN is set in roman capitals, while SALTZ is in blackletter. The typographical detail reinforces the text's multilingual construction without changing the referent.