Of Natural and Supernatural Things

Metals, in this treatise, are living things: conceived, generated, brought forth, changed and augmented inside the earth. Nine chapters take the spirit or tincture of each in turn, from mercury and copper through iron, gold, silver, tin and lead, with their planetary rulers and medicinal uses. The first chapter sets the frame by separating what is natural and visible from what is supernatural, and scripture keeps company with the metals afterwards. The name on the title page belongs to a Benedictine monk whose existence scholars doubt; the writings surfaced only around 1600, probably from the salt maker Johann Thölde and others. Daniel Cable translated it out of High Dutch for a London printing of 1671. The antimony tracts advertised on that title page are not included, and the text breaks off in the chapter on lead.