Companion attributions

Meaning

The three companions are separately headed works in the 1619 volume: Nature’s Demonstration, the Philosophical Summary and the Way of Truth. The first bears a Meung/Mehung attribution and the Summary bears Flamel’s name. Those printed associations are evidence for the works’ presentation, not independent authentication of their composition by the named historical individuals. The supplied main title reads Iohan von Mesung, whereas the dialogue heading reads Johann von Mehung; the modern name forms are access labels rather than interchangeable exact spellings.

The title page’s advertisement of two appended books does not remove the intervening Summary from the actual contents. Nor does the publisher’s announced concordance make the three companions chapters by the Hydrolith’s anonymous author. Nature’s dialogue, the Summary’s generative imagery and the Way’s polemic have different speakers and can disagree about metallic seed, nourishment and colour. Their distinctions are part of the lexical evidence, not defects to be harmonized away.

e-rara structure of the 1619 volume