EsoteriaA library of sacred & hidden knowledge
1652 · Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum

Elias Ashmole (editor); Thomas Norton, George Ripley, Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Charnock, Edward Kelley, John Dee and others · 1652

Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum

Elias Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, published in 1652, collects the alchemical poetry of England from the late Middle Ages to his own day, printed in its old spelling from manuscripts he had gathered. It opens with Thomas Norton's Ordinall of Alchimy and George Ripley's Compound of Alchymie, and includes Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale, Hermes Bird, the Hunting of the Greene Lyon, Thomas Charnock's Breviary, Bloomfield's Blossoms, verses by Edward Kelley and John Dee, extracts from Gower and Lydgate and many anonymous pieces. Ashmole framed the collection with a prolegomena on Hermetic learning and closed it with annotations and discourses on the authors, including notes on Dee and Kelley. This text follows the EEBO-TCP transcription; the glossary, table and errata are omitted.

Begin reading

Contents

  1. 1.Title page73 w.
  2. 2.Elias Ashmole’s prolegomena to the students of Hermetique learning5,522 w.
  3. 3.Thomas Norton, The Ordinall of Alchimy, part 1 of 54,588 w.
  4. 4.Thomas Norton, The Ordinall of Alchimy, part 2 of 55,004 w.
  5. 5.Thomas Norton, The Ordinall of Alchimy, part 3 of 54,422 w.
  6. 6.Thomas Norton, The Ordinall of Alchimy, part 4 of 54,796 w.
  7. 7.Thomas Norton, The Ordinall of Alchimy, part 5 of 54,365 w.
  8. 8.George Ripley, The Compound of Alchymie, part 1 of 44,339 w.
  9. 9.George Ripley, The Compound of Alchymie, part 2 of 43,767 w.
  10. 10.George Ripley, The Compound of Alchymie, part 3 of 44,765 w.
  11. 11.George Ripley, The Compound of Alchymie, part 4 of 44,786 w.
  12. 12.Liber Patris Sapientiae4,520 w.
  13. 13.Hermes Bird3,625 w.
  14. 14.Chaucer, The Tale of the Chanons Yeoman, part 1 of 23,673 w.
  15. 15.Chaucer, The Tale of the Chanons Yeoman, part 2 of 23,717 w.
  16. 16.The Worke of John Dastin; Pearce the Black Monke upon the Elixir; The Worke of Richard Carpenter4,645 w.
  17. 17.The Hunting of the Greene Lyon1,953 w.
  18. 18.Thomas Charnock, The Breviary of Naturall Philosophy4,745 w.
  19. 19.Bloomefields Blossoms, or the Campe of Philosophy5,026 w.
  20. 20.Sir Edward Kelley’s Worke; The Testament of John Dee; Thomas Robinson, De Lapide Philosophorum and other pieces4,583 w.
  21. 21.Anonymi: severall workes of unknowne authors4,869 w.
  22. 22.John Gower concerning the Philosophers Stone; The Vision of Sir George Ripley; Verses belonging to an emblematicall scrowle and other pieces5,943 w.
  23. 23.John Lydgate, from the Secrees of Philosophres; An anonymous worke in verse; The Hermet’s Tale5,525 w.
  24. 24.Fragments copied from Thomas Charnock’s own hand2,121 w.
  25. 25.Ashmole’s annotations and discourses upon the preceding work, part 1 of 54,842 w.
  26. 26.Ashmole’s annotations and discourses upon the preceding work, part 2 of 54,805 w.
  27. 27.Ashmole’s annotations and discourses upon the preceding work, part 3 of 54,827 w.
  28. 28.Ashmole’s annotations and discourses upon the preceding work, part 4 of 54,883 w.
  29. 29.Ashmole’s annotations and discourses upon the preceding work, part 5 of 54,893 w.