DiotimosReading Desk

Materials, medicines and substances

Sulfur

soufre, sulfur; soufre de nature, sulfur of nature; soufre blanc, white sulfur; soufre volatil, volatile sulfur; soufre solaire, solar sulfur

Sulfur is a central material principle whose qualifiers include common, mineral, vitriolic, solar, fixed, volatile, white and red.

From the book

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I

Attributed to Abraham the Jew · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Browse this book’s lexicon →

Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordSulfur is a central material principle whose qualifiers include common, mineral, vitriolic, solar, fixed, volatile, white and red. The source's own changes of condition prevent these phrases from being reduced to one modern elemental substance.
  • In this bookSulfur supplies fixity, tincture, a prepared medicine and the royal subject, while particular sulfurous parts can be destructive. Its relations with mercury explain dissolution, marriage, generation and the completion of the work.
  • TranslationThe edition keeps sulfur and its qualifiers, preserving the distinction between its body, spirit and inward power. Sulfur of nature is retained where the author makes it the prepared subject rather than an unqualified ingredient.
  • A place to readRead manuscript 23r–24v, scans 65–68, alongside 31r, scan 85: white sulfur, its fixing transformation, its medicinal name and its relation to the metallic tree develop together.

Meaning

Sulfur's sense depends on what is said to carry it, prepare it or receive it. The inward sulfur drawn from a body, a volatile sulfur capable of tincture, and a fixed sulfur capable of holding other spirits are related but distinguishable terms in the work. Its body and its spirit are not consistently interchangeable.

The author can call sulfur earth because it provides a fixed basis, or fire because of its active heat and effects. Such equivalences are local explanations of operative powers. They should not be used to replace every occurrence of earth or fire with sulfur, any more than sulfur should be translated as one purely figurative idea.

White and red mark attained conditions within the work. White sulfur can still require further union and transformation; red sulfur is attached to final victory in the Hercules account. Their connection to appearance also carries claims about purity, fixity and power, whose precise conjunction must be followed in each passage.

Use in the book

The first exposition joins quicksilver-water with mineral sulfur to form metals. The caduceus then distinguishes sulfur's capacity to arrest quicksilver from mercury's ability to separate sulfur from its body. The golden wand must receive volatile spirits if an enduring subject is to form (8r and 11v; scans 31b and 38).

Volatile Venus sulfur already has gold's tincture, but not its fixity (12r; scan 41). This direct contrast shows that sulfur cannot be defined simply as the fixed principle in every use. The missing permanence must be gained through the relation of prepared partners.

The Andromeda explanation identifies white sulfur sublimed at the alembic's head. Solar spirit within it is Perseus; mercurial water below is the dragon. The mirror's congealing power subsequently fixes quicksilver into sulfur, and the resulting luminous sulfur is named universal medicine (23r–23v and 20v; scans 65–66 and 60). The myth distinguishes upper subject, lower remainder and transformative agent.

Medea is then explicitly sulfur of nature called medicine proper to all diseases. Her mixed juice is mercurial water in which solar matter has been dissolved and cooked (24v; scan 68). The prepared sulfur's medicinal identity thus depends on its operative relations rather than on a new unrelated substance being introduced under the mythic name.

The laton explanation calls sulfur or gold not yet perfectly cooked and fixed by names associated with blackness, volatility and stench. Repeated digestions and imbibitions cleanse it until bright and fixed. The first white sulfur nevertheless requires the further marriage of volatile sulfur and mercury under fire's yoke (26v–27v; scans 74–76). The successive conditions must not be compressed into a single completed state.

The metallic tree assigns earth or sulfur the first principle of gold's fixity, quicksilver the cause of growth and salt the manifestation of hidden tincture (31r; scan 85). That functional division is a strong local summary, but its setting does not erase the earlier volatile sulfur or later destructive sulfurous parts.

The massacre's mothers and children distinguish vitriolic body, seven sulfur parts, metallic blood-spirit and stages of nourishment. Solar and vitriolic sulfur unite through mercury in the Pallas explanation; long calcination removes volatile sulfurousness before the precious subject can be obtained (38r and 43r; scans 101 and 113). The favorable subject is the outcome of separation and preparation.

The late theological sequence represents incorruptible fixed golden sulfur through the king's resurrection. Meanwhile the volatile mercurial spirit can take sulfur as its wife and generate fixed solar spirit; the gendered relation changes with the account (82v and 107r; scans 194 and 249). The book's sulfur is therefore a continuously qualified subject in a series of transformations, not a fixed symbolic opposite that can be defined independently of mercury.

At Hercules' final combat white sulfur becomes red, after which the author promises repose and joy (50v; scan 128). This completion belongs to the actual local sequence. Other passages continue to discuss white, volatile or crude sulfur because they return to preparatory principles or different arguments, not because every later mention cancels the stated end.

Places to read

  1. Manuscript 11v · Scan 38Sulfur arrests quicksilver while mercury separates sulfur from its body.
  2. Manuscript 12r · Scan 41Volatile sulfur has gold's tincture but lacks fixity.
  3. Manuscript 23r · Scan 65White sulfur as Andromeda at the alembic's head.
  4. Manuscript 24v · Scan 68Medea names sulfur of nature as medicine.
  5. Manuscript 26v · Scan 74Laton/sulfur still requires repeated cleansing and fixation.
  6. Manuscript 31r · Scan 85Sulfur/earth supplies the metallic tree's fixity.
  7. Manuscript 43r · Scan 113Prepared sulfur emerges after removal of volatile sulfurousness.
  8. Manuscript 107r · Scan 249The third operation is the resurrection of king or sulfur.

Translation

Sulfur remains soufre, and sulfurous preserves the derivatives where the source shifts to a material character. ‘Sulfur of nature’ follows soufre de nature without implying that every common sulfur already has the prepared subject's virtues.

The uncertain elixir-name Oralie at scan 65 is left unresolved, while the immediately associated ‘first sulfur of nature’ remains readable.103 The source's sulfurous versus mercurial gender assignments are also retained; they are not standardized into one spouse diagram.104

soufre

Attested: H001-S038; H001-S041; H001-S065; H001-S068; H001-S074; H001-S085; H001-S194. The recurring material principle, requiring local qualification.

soufre de nature

Attested: H001-S068; H001-S074. The prepared subject associated with medicine and precious laton.

soufre blanc

Attested: H001-S065; H001-S075; H001-S076. The white prepared sulfur that still requires further work.

soufre volatil

Attested: H001-S041; H001-S076. A sulfurous condition lacking completed permanence.

soufre solaire

Attested: H001-S113; H001-S226. Solar sulfur in union or corruption.

Source note

H001-S065 provisionally reads Oralie and declines an external identification; the text itself immediately gives first sulfur of nature as a related name.

H001-S194 calls sulfur mercury's wife. H001-S237 later says each metal has both sexes. These source statements control the changing gender language.