TO THE

INTRODUCTION

TO THE ALCHEMICAL ART OF BONUS LOMBARDO OF FERRARA

Physician.

TO THE

MOST ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE

AND LORD, ALBERT, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria, his most clement Lord, the Preface of Michael Toxites, Physician of Strasbourg.

A decorative woodcut drop cap 'D' begins the text. The letter is set within a square frame containing a classical scene with a seated figure in a landscape with foliage.

As I contemplated within myself, most illustrious Prince, what could be the reason why, when there are so many and such eminent men in the medical art, so few have arrived at the knowledge of the more secret natural science that we call chemistry. For the love of truth could have excited study and removed the weariness of labor, whereby all the obscurity of the writers and the difficulty of the art would have been cleared away. What, therefore, is it that stands in our way so that we might not penetrate into the most sacred recesses of this divine science? I find four impediments in particular: the avarice, luxury, cruelty, and avoidance of labor of some men. For this science was not given to us so that we might oppress others with power, as many have in mind, nor that we might basely indulge our genius—an error that has occupied a great part of the world—and much less so that we might collect useless treasures for ourselves and, having collected them, hide them, as we see is done by most. Rather, it was given so that we might defend the oppressed, bring aid to the poor, offer hospitality to exiles, and restore the ill to health. If these were our goals, and we did not repent of the labor, we would easily, by the benefit of God, the best and greatest, attain the mysteries of this most sacred art. For if the ancient philosophers held this science perfectly, if the most powerful kings practiced it, and if it was once so familiar to the Egyptians that, relying on its help, they always fought against the Romans, who would have taken from us the treasure of this divine gift?