Della Porta Magia Naturalis (German 1713)

The First Book.

What heat and cold perform, what earth and air bring forth,
What comes from water's depths; what moves from heaven’s worth:
How the sea is stirred; what makes the rainbow's light:
How the air often gleams; why thunder cracks with might:
Also how the heaven burns; how a comet takes its rise:
What blind power compels the earth when it quakes before our eyes:
From whence red gold and iron receive their hidden seeds The author refers to the alchemical belief that metals "grow" in the earth from seeds or vapors, much like plants.:
And whatever lies concealed in Nature's secret deeds.

2. Furthermore, he should not be unlearned in the Art of Medicine Artzney-Kunst; at this time, medicine included the study of how physical substances and celestial influences affected the human "humors" or health, for our science is entirely uniform with it; indeed, it is held that this science has crept in under the guise of medicine and so occupied human minds that great benefit can now be drawn from it. It teaches how to mix one thing into another, and to join certain things together according to their correspondence, and to prepare them for specific effects.

3. In the knowledge of herbs, it is not merely a common Botanist Botanicus; a student of plant life who is required here, but one who knows how to distinguish all plants, herbs, and shrubs with the utmost precision. For because plants are often not clearly named and are generally very similar to one another, this has caused us great effort in several of our works. Furthermore, nothing more absurd can be found

than when an artist does not know the tools with which he must work: therefore, we consider this as necessary as if everything depended on it alone. In the same way, he should also correctly recognize metals, minerals Berg-Gewächse; literally "mountain-growths," a term for ores and minerals based on the idea that they matured underground, and both precious and common stones.

4. Furthermore, no one will deny that such a master must be well-practiced in the Art of Distillation or Separation Distillir- oder Scheide-Kunst; the precursor to modern chemistry, focusing on refining substances to find their purest state, which seems to imitate the rain from heaven and to have originated from it. Many magnificent inventions and various benefits for the human race daily emerge from this art; namely, when we know how to decompose things into certain subtle vapors, fatty moistures, and strong waters, as well as thick and resinous oils, to extract their deeply hidden essences Essentien; the most essential, concentrated part of a substance, often called the "quinta essentia" or fifth element and inner natures, and how to exalt them and properly increase their virtue. A natural artist must have learned all of this not just superficially or in a common way, but from the foundation, and must have learned each thing with its causes most precisely.

5. No less must he be experienced in the mathematical sciences and the arts of measurement, and especially in Astrology Astrologia or Sterndeutung; the study of how the positions of stars and planets influence the properties of plants, minerals, and people: from which he should have learned,

How the host of stars moves in their whirling race,
And how the moon stands full, then hides her darkened face: