Altus Mutus Liber

Altus. Mutus Liber, first published at La Rochelle in 1677. French edition with commentary by Magophon, translated by Kjell Hellesoe. Stavenger, 1985. 

Sheppard, Harry J. Review of Mutus liber (introduction commentary by Jean Laplace), by Altus. In Ambix 27 66-67.. ... 

Altus (Jacob Saulat). Mutus Liber. La Rochelle, France Pierre Savouret, 1677. Amore, Franco, and Gennaro Accursio. Evoluzione del concetto di ambivalenza nella teoria freudiana. Giornale storico di psicologia dinamica 10, no. 20, ns. 0391-2515 (June 1986) 121-42. 

By the seventeenth century interest in alchemy had peaked, and an unprecedented quantity of enigmatically illustrated alchemical books were published, including the many works of Michael Maier (1568-1622), Jacob Bohme (1575-1624), and even a book with pictures and no written text, the Mutus Liber (Silent Book) by Isaac Baulot (1612- ), writing under the name Altus. 

Another development in the seventeenth century was the proliferation of alchemical books. Certain publishers, notably De Bry of Frankfurt, printed almost nothing else. Apart from Michael Maier s Atalanta Fugiens, other celebrated works included the Book of Lambspring (1599), Heinrich Khunrath s Ampitheatre of Eternal Wisdom (1609), and Altus s Mutus Liber (1677), an illustrated book that almost entirely dispensed with a written text. Encyclopaedic compendia appeared, such as the Theatrum Chemicum (1602), and the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum (1652), edited by Elias Ashmole. 

Pseudonym used by the author of Mutus Liber, the influential wordless book pubhshed at La Rochelle in 1677. His identity remains unknown, although Altus is thought to be an anagram of his real name. Likely candidates of the authorship of the Mutus are Jacob Saulat, who had the work pubhshed, or Isaac Baulot, a physician born in 1619. Baulot had connections with La Rochelle, and met the philosopher John Locke. It is possible,... 

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