Maier Tripus Aureus

It seems this image was first published in 1599 and again in 1602, where it initially appears in Basil Valentine s often reprinted Twelve Keys (Die zwolf Schlussel) (fig. 9). An illustrated Latin translation, Duodecim Claves, was published in 1618 by Michael Maier, with improved engravings attributed to Mathieu Merian, and was included in his anthology Tripus Aureus, Hoc est, Tres Tractatus Chymici Selectissimi. A French translation of this popular work... 

Michael Maier (ca. 1568-1622), whom John Read calls a musical alchemist, was a physician, philosopher, alchemist, and classical scholar. His extensive classical scholarship influenced his unification of alchemy and classical mythology. Figure 81 is the title page of the 1618 book Tripus Aureus (The Golden Tripod). It is a pun on the tria prima (mercury, sulfur, and salt), which support the synthesis of gold. The main objective is to present works by the Three Possessors of the Philosopher s Stone. In Maier s own wordsb... 

FIGURE 81. Engraved tide page from Michael Maier s Tripus Aureus ( Golden Tripod ), published in Frankfurt in 1618. The Big Three of Alchemy are Basil Valentine, Thomas Norton, and John Cremer (courtesy of The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University). 

It appears from a remark in the Symbola that in England Maier was principally occupied with alchemical studies.This seems quite plausible, since his first generally known book, Arcana arcanissima, was apparently sent to the press in London between May 1613 and the Frankfort Lenten fair of 1614. Again, he must have had manuscripts of several further works more or less ready for publication on his return to Germany in mid-1616 for instance the three treatises by Basil Valentine, Thomas Norton and Abbot Cremer -translated by Maier from German or English into Latin - which appeared as Tripus aureus in 1618. ... 

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