Bernard Trevisan

Bernard Trevisan, a French count of the fifteenth century, squandered enormous sums of money in the search for the Stone, in which the whole of his life and energies were engaged. He seems to have become the dupe of one charlatan after another. 

By now he had spent ten thousand crowns, and his health was very poor. But the fervor of the aging man was unabated. Almost maddened by failure, he betook himself to prayer, hoping that God in His goodness would select him as the deliverer of man from poverty. But the favor of the Lord was not visited upon him, and his friend, the Franciscan, died in the quest. Bernard Trevisan was alone once more. 

So alone, friendless, penniless, weary in mind and physically broken, Bernard Trevisan started for his home in Padua, only to find that his family would have nothing to do with him. Still he would not give up the search. Retiring to the Isle of Rhodes, he continued his work with yet another monk who professed to have a clue to the secret. The philosopher s stone remained as elusive as ever Bernard had spent threescore years grappling with nature he had lost thousands of crowns he no longer had the strength even to stand before the furnace. Yet he continued the search. 

This heritage is indeed a rich one, for in their blind groping for a new process to make gold these adepts of alchemy paved the way for the more fruitful science of chemistry. Synthetic gold, however, never came. And as Bernard Trevisan lay dying on the Isle of Rhodes almost five hundred years ago, he uttered with his last breath his conviction To make gold, one must start with gold/ ... 

Paracelsus, the crusader, did not stop with Europe. Like Bernard Trevisan, he went to the East and visited Constantinople, the seat of a world-famous medical practice. Trevisan had come here in search of the secret of gold, but Paracelsus came to seek the secret of long life. He travelled to Egypt and Tartary, and accompanied the son of the Grand Khan in search of the tincture of life possessed by a Greek alchemist. 

Like Bernard Trevisan, egotistic yet earnest Paracelsus went to his grave beaten in his quest. Years before, he had realized the difficulty of his fight. The old theory of diseases ac-... 

La T [illegible] des Philosophes will always be useful for reference. La Parole delaisse of Bernard Trevisan, I do not know, except by name. He is one who gives some very broad hints to those who have advanced sufficiently. 

ANIMATION — This term of Hermetic science signifies the endowment of Mercury with a metallic spirit, which vivifies it, so to speak, and fits it for the production of philosophical sulphur. Philalethes and Bernard Trevisan have written much about this animation. The latter calls it Double Mercury. 

They concocted all kinds of recipes for it. One of the most famous involved two thousand eggs and an Italian alchemist named Bernard Trevisan. In the fifteenth century, Trevisan embarked upon his alchemical quest by boiling the eggs, removing their shells, and separatii the whites from the yolks. He proceeded to putrefy the whites with horse manure, then he combined the mess with the eggshells. Next, he heated the concoction and distilled from it an oil, which he allowed to harden into the philosopher s stone. ... 

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