Quicksilver

Use in the book

The first exposition names heavy white quicksilver-water as first matter of the physical work and gives it the further names spirit, vapor and double dragon. Combined with mineral sulfur, it forms metals within earth (8r–8v; scans 31b–32). The next sentences make heavy, sticky and viscous matter subtler and lighter than other things because it raises sulfur-earth. The winged young man expresses that difficult combination.

The caduceus account then distinguishes volatile quicksilver's lunar brilliance from permanence. Its spirit needs a fixed subject and must enter a lasting union (12r; scan 41). Later the author objects that destroying Mercury before conjunction with gold defeats the purpose, because gold requires its resolving power and mercury reverts to trembling quicksilver unless favorably transformed (18v; scan 56).

The garden chapter expressly calls trembling quicksilver extracted from metallic bodies. Its reduction into powder and water leads to the fountain, tree and roses that show generative power (30r–30v; scans 83–84). This preparation is one of the strongest reasons to preserve context whenever the familiar material-name recurs.

The adverse account supplies common quicksilver mixed with sulfur or salts as a concentrated example of harmful power (58r; scan 143). The discussion of blessed and damned bodies later returns to quicksilver as the vilest matter and an apparent balance of opposites. Weight and volatility, penetrability and thickness, light and opacity coexist within one subject (68v; scan 164).

From that coexistence the author explains why a body might remain incorruptible yet suffer. Opacity, heaviness, thickness and passibility are compared with the opposite gifts of perfected bodies. The agent's persistence could intensify torment rather than remove it. This is the stated framework for calling quicksilver a figure both of Christ and of the Demon (71v; scan 170).⁹¹

The following explanation appeals to Hermetic testimony that quicksilver is heavier than all bodies except gold, then immediately describes its exceptional flight and sublimation. It belongs among bodies because its body is terrestrial and among spirits because it is all spirit; it is said to penetrate hard bodies while remaining capable of corporeal suffering (72r; scan 171). These are the source's claims about the subject, not a modern measured specification.

The next side gives the limiting condition: its homogeneous parts stay together through changing forms, and it can act like Proteus without losing its first form (72v; scan 172). The author then places it at the center of figures, enigmas and the purification required before happiness. The material supports a method of reading nature because its properties are held to make otherwise hidden relations visible.

The later account again specifies pure, homogeneous mercurial spirit and warns against taking a figure for the thing itself (92r; scan 215). A lexicon must carry that qualification back into any summary of the more sweeping passages. The repeated quicksilver name gives continuity, while common and prepared conditions preserve the book's substantive distinctions.

Places to read

1. Manuscript 8r · Scan 31First matter named as heavy white quicksilver-water, spirit, vapor and double dragon.
2. Manuscript 12r · Scan 41Lunar brilliance is not permanence.
3. Manuscript 18v · Scan 56The return to trembling quicksilver and the need for favorable conjunction.
4. Manuscript 30r · Scan 83Extracted trembling quicksilver prepared into powder and water.
5. Manuscript 58r · Scan 143Common quicksilver in a harmful mixture.
6. Manuscript 68v · Scan 164Opposed qualities united within one subject.
7. Manuscript 71v · Scan 170The explicit double figure of Christ and the Demon.
8. Manuscript 72r · Scan 171Weight, volatility, bodily suffering and spiritual penetration.

Translation

Vif-argent is quicksilver, including the characteristic phrase ‘trembling quicksilver’. Mercure remains mercury where that is the source word, permitting the god/planet/material relations to be followed without using quicksilver as an automatic substitute for the divine name.

‘Metallic water’ preserves eau métallique. The uncertain adjective following mineral sulfur at scan 31b is retained as the present French reading fameux, with fumeux disclosed as an unadopted possibility. It does not establish a separate material identity.⁹²

vif-argent

Attested: H001-S031b; H001-S032; H001-S083; H001-S143; H001-S164; H001-S170. The material-name across first-matter, prepared and adverse accounts.

vif-argent tremblant

Attested: H001-S056; H001-S083; H001-S092. The recurring qualified expression.

eau métallique

Attested: H001-S032. The name supplied after the transformation of sulfur-earth.