Philosopher and Hermetic science

Use in the book

The title at scan 9 calls its attributed authority philosopher alongside priest, Levite, and astrologer. These offices prepare the book’s expansive subject. On 13v, scan 44, the writer wishes to become a true philosopher, true astrologer, and wise physician. Philosophy belongs to an ideal of accomplished knowledge that reaches from natural operation to angelic familiarity and divine favor.

The continuation on 14r, scan 45, defines the ambition through causes. The learner is to possess true knowledge through causes rather than effects and to complete quickly, through art and industry, what nature takes hundreds or thousands of years to accomplish. The philosopher’s distinction is therefore not simply familiarity with a collection of sayings. Causal understanding is supposed to permit an effective participation in nature’s work.²⁸⁶

The same passage requires a subtle, penetrating mind and describes the single thing whose acquisition leaves nothing more to seek. Its philosophical competence is joined to the duty of silence. Knowledge and custody are associated: the successful possessor must understand the fitting together of the thing that gives birth to everything visible and is enclosed within everything.

Material names show how the adjective functions. On 10r, scan 35, the author gathers philosophers’ steel and lead, vermilion, quintessence, and spirit under changing appearances and preparations. The group is difficult to reconcile into one modern substance. The text’s own distinctions of color, surface, distillation, and condition explain why a qualified name cannot be detached from the passage in which it occurs.

On 30r, scan 83, the first principles of the Hermetic art have been explained through trembling quicksilver extracted from metallic bodies; the next operation is a reduction into the form of water. Hermetic here names an art with an operative sequence. On 31v, scan 86, the philosophers’ water is expressly compounded, viscous, heavy, tincturing, dry, and non-wetting. The qualification differentiates the subject within the source’s account.

The explanation on 73v, scan 174, describes chemistry as the separation of pure from impure through fire and derives Hermetic science from Hermes, its inventor, whose name signifies Mercury. A partly legible Greek expression accompanies this explanation. The clear French gloss can be discussed without turning the uncertain letters into a reconstructed Greek authority.²⁸⁷

The manuscript also criticizes incomplete philosophical judgment. On 91v, scan 214, half-philosophers are accused of mistaken boasting about a material transformation as proof of the soul’s immortality. Near the close, scan 306, the author refuses to make a natural demonstration depend upon authors’ opinions. The ideal philosopher’s knowledge is consequently measured by principles, operations, and sound judgment, even while prestigious philosophical names authorize much of the exposition.

Places to read

1. Manuscript Title page · Scan 9Philosopher is among the attributed teacher’s offices.
2. Manuscript 10r · Scan 35Qualified philosophical material names depend upon appearance and preparation.
3. Manuscript 13v · Scan 44The author’s ideal joins the true philosopher, astrologer, and physician.
4. Manuscript 14r · Scan 45Knowledge through causes is supposed to hasten nature’s operations.
5. Manuscript 30r · Scan 83The Hermetic art proceeds from metallic quicksilver to reduction into water.
6. Manuscript 73v · Scan 174The source derives Hermetic science from Hermes beside a qualified Greek sequence.
7. Manuscript 91v · Scan 214Half-philosophers’ claim about immortality is challenged.
8. Manuscript 134v · Scan 306First principles and demonstrations are defended against reliance on authors’ opinions.

Translation

Philosopher translates philosophe without restricting the term to a modern academic occupation. Philosophical follows the source’s adjective, particularly in qualified material names. Those names retain their immediate descriptions rather than receiving an inferred modern equivalent.

Hermetic science and Hermetic art follow science Hermétique and art Hermétique. In the etymological passage the English gives the French explanation and marks the intervening Greek as partly legible. Natural philosophers translates physiciens where the source distinguishes investigators of nature from médecins, physicians, in the same list. That distinction prevents the book’s two kinds of expertise from being merged.

philosophe

Attested: H001-S009. One of the offices attached to Abraham the Jew in the title.

philosophes

Attested: H001-S182. The collective is credited with transmitting knowledge in models and figures.

science Hermétique

Attested: H001-S174. The name is explained through Hermes or Mercury.

art Hermétique

Attested: H001-S083. The art is introduced through its first principles and a stated operation.