The Hermetic Museum
Weiser Books | 1999-09 | ISBN: 087728928X | 704 pages | PDF | 1,1 MB
The Hermetic Museum, or "Musaeum Hermeticum (renovatum et amplificatum)", originally published and printed in 1625 by Lukas Jennis, and later reissued in amplified form in 1678 (and as a reprint in 1749), should be counted among the most influential late compilations of alchemical material in addition to "Theatrum chemicum" and "Bibliotheca chemica curiosa". Compiled during the splendid, late blooming of alchemy - the philosophical, scientific and hermetic construct of the most learned minds of Europe and Middle East - the work came to contain such celebrated and important 16th and 17th -century texts as "Hydrolithus Sophicus seu Aquarium Sapientum" by (pseudo-)Siebmacher, Eirenaus Philalethes' "Introitus Apertus ad occlusum Regis palatium", and the "Tripus Aureus", in itself a compilation of tractates by Thomas Norton, Cremer and Basil Valentine. In its time 'Musaeum' was diligently studied and treasured by several generations of both practical and philosophical alchemists. However, the Enlightenment and its new theories of chemistry and its newlyfound distaste of all things spiritual, soon became to tax the ancient prestige of 'opus alchymicum'.