The Reign of Saturn Transformed into an Age of Gold

Abstract

Aaron Cheak’s Rubedo Press has published a new Latin-English edition of the well-known alchemical treatise Saturnia Regna. After Hermetic Recreations (2017), The Basilian Aphorisms (2018), and The Key to the Hermetic Sanctum (2020), this is the fourth dual-language edition of alchemical texts by this publisher. The Reign of Saturn consists of four parts: the lengthy introduction (pp. 9–81), the LatinEnglish facing-page edition of the 1657 Saturnia Regna (pp. 82–222), the editors’ annotations and commentary (pp. 223–280), and a bibliography (pp. 281–300). The Saturnia Regna itself comprises the preface (Praefatio) of the original book (pp. 85–94), the “Hermetic Propositions” (Positiones Hermeticae, pp. 95–176) and the “Lydian Stone” (Lapislydius, pp. 177–200) which form the main parts of the book, and the final part of the original book, titled “practice” (Praxis). Saturnia Regna was first published in Latin in Paris 1657 as Saturnia Regna in aurea saecula conversa, which gives the English title The Reign of Saturn Transformed into an Age of Gold. Beside the initials S. M. T. F. P., no author is named; the title page only mentions a certain “philochymist” from Paris, Huginus à Barma, at whose expense the book was printed. The text was translated into German as early as 1674, and later also into French (1780) and Italian (1986). It is here available in English for the first time. The book is remarkable because in the two main parts, the “Hermetic Propositions” and the “Lydian Stone,” the text remains extremely philosophical and mystical, with no guidance for practical (al)chemical work. In contrast, the short Praxis at the end of the book provides detailed practical instructions that a chemist trained in chymistry and chymical language could implement. It is reasonable to assume that these are texts by different authors. During their meticulous research, the editors found a manuscript of Saturnia Regna in the Austrian National Library dated 1649, eight years before the text appeared in print in Paris in 1657. On the title page of this manuscript, the author is abbreviated with the initials P. F. T. M. S., and the title is given as Saturnia Regna sive Magisterium Sapientum, i.e. The Reign of Saturn, or the Magisterium of the Wise. The initials on the title page are in reverse order compared to the printed book and Huginus à Barma is not mentioned. This is no surprise if he paid for printing of the text in Paris only. But another name appears on the title page, that of “Patre Gabriele Gotifredo ordinis St. Francisi de Paula in Moravia.” The editors could not identify this person, but at that time there was a Pauline monastery in the Margraviate of Moravia in Vranov near Brno in modern-day Czech Republic. So it is reasonably assumed that the manuscript originated fromMoravia. But the main difference to the printed text is that the manuscript does not contain the Praefatio or the Praxis, but instead three other pieces of alchemical text. The editors correctly place the Praxis in a large group of alchemical recipes developed in the tradition of Michael Sendivogius (1566–1636) that describe the preparation of the Philosophers’ Stone from salts extracted from the earth, and they provide a diagram showing the individual steps for a subgroup of these processes (p. 279), which have been characterised as “operazione filosofica.” The introduction includes an informative overview of Sendivogius’ ideas and a lineage of this type of recipe, listing about ten versions. The best known of these are the two versions published by Johann Joachim Becher (1635–1682) in his alchemical recipe collection Chymischer Glücks-Hafen of 1682 (pp. 231–240). The editors assume that Huginus’s Praxis is the earliest printed version of such a recipe, but this honour goes