This book, more than any other, deserves our full attention and contemplation. Published around 1600, it established with admirable clarity the foundations for understanding the intimate processes of nature and the secret operations by which it works in silence.
Its author conceals himself under the name of The Cosmopolitan, a significant title that suggests a man without a fixed homeland, a citizen of the world, and, above all, an observer of the great natural republic. The most widely accepted tradition identifies this mysterious philosopher with Michael Sendivogius, one of the most notable adepts of the 17th century. Under his guidance, the reader is led with a firm step toward the fundamental principles of the Art and receives—for those who know how to read with discernment—the key that allows one to condense the Spiritus Mundi into that paradoxical substance that philosophers called dry water, because it flows without wetting the hands.
However, history is not without its shadows. Some authors maintain that the true Cosmopolitan was Alexander Sethon, a singular figure about whom both prodigies and misfortunes are recounted. It is said that he performed public transmutations that astonished princes and sages, and that for this reason he was imprisoned by imperial order. His ambition to know the secret of the Philosopher's Stone then led him to a terrible fate: he was mercilessly tortured to extract its secret.
Certain chronicles—half history, half legend—relate that Sendivogius, taking advantage of his proximity to the court, managed to rescue him from prison and take him to his home in the hope of saving his life. But the wounds inflicted by the torture were too severe. Sethon is said to have died shortly afterward, but not before entrusting his savior with the secret of the Stone, which from then on remained in the hands of the one posterity would know as the Cosmopolitan.
Whatever the truth of this story—which now belongs as much to Hermetic tradition as to history—what is certain is that the text we present comes from the original Latin, a complete translation of which we offer at the end of this work. The reader will find here the complete compendium of the writings attributed to the Cosmopolitan, one of the most luminous monuments of alchemical thought.
I confess, without reservation, that this is my favorite book among all those I have had the opportunity to study. Within its pages, beneath a sober and almost didactic appearance, lies a teaching of extraordinary depth, capable of illuminating—for those who possess the necessary patience—some of the secrets most jealously guarded by the philosophers of nature.
Translation from Latin to English: Rhoend
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