In Latin, the passage that sparked my interest when I came across it in French (on pages 264-266 of Françoise Bonardel’s Philosopher par le Feu. Anthologie de textes alchimiques) reads as follows (by the way, the excerpt below corresponds to roughly 35% of the text of the ‘Fourth Key’, so it is very short):
IV CLAVIS
Omnis caro ex terra exorta corrumpenda & in terram iterum redigenda erit, ceu prius terra fuit, cum sal terrenum dat novam generationem per cœlestem resuscitationem : Ubi enim prius terra non fuit, ibi resurrectio sequi nequit in nostro opere : Nam in terra est naturæ balsamum & sal illorum, qui inquisiverunt cognitionem omnium rerum.
In extremo judicio mundi, per ignem mundus judicabitur, ut quod prius a magistro ex nihilo factum, rursus per ignem redigatur in cinerem, ex quo cinere Phœnix tandem pullos suos produceret : Nam in ejusmodi cinere latet verus & genuinus tartarus, qui solvi debet, & post solutionem ejus, sera fortissima conclavis regii aperiri potest.
[…]
Nota aute hoc, artis studiose, quod sal ex cinere plurimum valeat, inque eo multæ virtutes lateant : veruntamen ipsum sal inutile est, nisi interius ejus conversum & exterius reductum sit. Nam solus est spiritus, qui dat vires & vitam : nudum corpus adhuc nihil praestat : si sciveris illum reperire, habebis sal Philosophorum, & oleum incombustibile verissime : de quo ante me multa scripta sunt.
Quamvis sophorum plurimi
This excerpt from the ‘Quaterna Clavis’ (if I dare translate this chapter’s name into Latin) attributed to Basil Valentine was rendered as follows in the first English language translation (1671) of the German monk’s famous alchemical treatise:
ALL Flesh that came from the Earth, must be corrupted and return to Earth again, as it was Earth at the first, then that Earthly Salt begetteth a new generation, by a Cœlestial revivification, for if it were not first Earth, there could be no revivification in our work ; for in the Earth is the Balsom of Nature, and is their Salt who sought after the knowledg of all things.
At the Day of Judgment the World shall be judged by Fire, that which was made by the Creator of nothing, must by Fire be burnt to Ashes, out of which Ashes the Phœnix produceth her young : For in those Ashes lye the true and genuine Tartar which must be dissolved, and when that is dissolved, the strongest Lock of the Kings Palace may be opened.
[…]
You that are Students in this Art, know further that Salt out
of Ashes is of very great use, much virtue is contained in them, yet is that Salt unprofitable, unless its
inside be turned outwards, and its outside inwards, for it is
the Spirit only that giveth power and life, (for the naked body avoideth
nothing.) If you know how to obtain that, then have you the Salt of the
Philosophers, and the true incombustible Oyl, whereof they have written
many things before me:
My final thought is that I wonder whether there might not have been some kind of ‘linguistic transmutation’ given that this treatise was published first in German, then in Latin – even if I know that there are some historical precedents for this; for instance, most of Luther’s works.
A
17th century (1660) French translation: Les dovze
clefs de philosophie de frère Basile Valentin : traictant de la
vraye médecine métalique : plus l'Azoth, ou, Le moyen de faire
l'or caché des philosophes : traduction francoise
