Basil
Valentine (1394 - ???)
an alchemist and monk of the Middle Ages named Basil Valentine.
According to Kenneth Rayner Johnson in his book The Fulcanelli
Phenomenon (1980): "It is not known for certain whether Valentine
flourished in the 12th, 13th or 14th century but, as early as
1515, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian I ordered a thorough
search to be carried out in the Benedictine archives at Rome,
but without finding even a trace of the mysterious friar’s
existence. He is said to have been born in 1394 at Mayence (Mainz),
to have joined the Benedictine Brotherhood and become Canon of
the Priory of St. Peter at Erfurt, in Germany. Many historians
of alchemy have supposed him to have been a fictitious figure,
possibly the symbolic head of a particular school of alchemical
thought under whose name various works were published by anonymous
operators. But a History of Erfurt dated 1675 by Johannes M. Gudemus
says that Valentine was at the Priory by 1413 and describes him
as having a profound knowledge of nature….The date of Valentine’s
death is as uncertain as his identity."
[Source: Sacred
Connections]
TITLES
in R.A.M.S. :
"Of Natural & Supernatural
Things" by Basilius
Valentinus. Also of the first tincture, root, and spirit of metals
and minerals, how the same are conceived, generated, brought forth,
changed, and augmented. Translated out of high Dutch by Daniel
Cable ; whereunto is added Frier Roger Bacon, Of the medicine
or tincture of antimony; Mr. John Isaac Holland, his Work of Saturn;
and Alex. Van Suchten, Of the Secrets of Antimony. London, Printed,
and are to be Sold by Moses Pitt at the White Hart in Little Britain,
1671. 105 pages. (SUPERNATURAL: .doc, .pdf) E. More
Info.
"The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony"
by Basilius Valentinus (Basil Valentine). A key work studied by
students of the art of Alchemy. WITH THE COMMENTARY OF THEODORE
KIRCKRINGIUS, A Doctor of Medicine. First published Leipsig, 1604.
Further editions in German were issued in 1611, 1624, 1676 and
1757. A Latin edition was published in 1646. An English version
was published in 1660, and there were also 1667, 1678 and 1685
editions. 177 pages. (TRIUMPHALCHARIOT: .doc, .pdf) E. More
Info.
