A New Light of Alchemy: Arcanum Edition – Michael Sendivogius (Aula Lucis)

Description

Of all the alchemical books of the early modern period, none was more widely read or more influential than Novum Lumen Chymicum, A New Light of Alchemy, by the Polish alchemist Michael Sendivogius. Its four tracts were published anonymously between 1604 and 1616. Together they make up one of the most coherent systems of alchemical philosophy ever written, admired for their explanatory power and their vivid picture of the hidden workings of Nature.

This edition gathers all four: Twelve Treatises on the Philosopher’s Stone, The Parable or Philosophical Riddle, The Dialogue with Mercury and A Treatise on Sulphur. Two further tracts are added, including the first English translation of Operatie Elixiris Philosophici. Originally written in Polish and Latin, probably by the young Sendivogius, it gives detailed instructions for the laboratory preparation of the Universal Menstruum and the Philosophers’ Stone. It may be based on notes taken by witnesses to the operation Sendivogius performed in Prague.

The new introduction is by Rafał T. Prinke, the leading authority on Sendivogius. The book is the fifth volume in Aula Lucis’s Mysterium Hermeticum series, which presents the alchemical tradition as a living art for the modern practitioner as well as the scholar.

This is the Arcanum Edition, the series’ most limited state. It is hand-crafted using traditional bookbinding techniques and bound in full goatskin. It comes with a letterpress bookmark and a limited-edition letterpress print, which is issued only with Arcanum copies and early pre-orders.

Aula Lucis. Arcanum Edition, limited to [number] hand-numbered copies. 180 × 120 mm, 272 pp. Hand-bound in full [colour] goatskin. Illustrated in duotone.