← Back to Browse

Turba Philosophorum

The Forty-Sixth Dictum
Alchemical trans. Arthur Edward Waite • c. c. 12th century (Waite translation 1896)
46
ATTAMUS saith: It is to be noted that the whole assembly of the Philosophers have frequently treated concerning Rubigo.* Rubigo, however, is a fictitious and not a true name. The Turba answereth: Name, therefore, Rubigo by its true name, for by this it is not calumniated. And he: Rubigo is according to the work, because it is from gold alone. The Turba answereth: Why, then, have the Philosophers referred it to the leech? He answereth: Because water is hiddenin sulphureous gold as the leech is in water; rubigo, therefore, is rubefaction in the second work, but to make rubigo is to whiten in the former work, in which the Philosophers ordained that the flower of gold should be taken and a proportion of gold equally. —