Editing Emerald Tablet (section)

== Renaissance and early modernity ==
{{Multiple image
| image1            = Atalanta Fugiens Emblema I.jpg
| caption1          = First emblem alchemical from ''[[Atalanta Fugiens|Fleeing Atalanta]]'': ''the wind hath carried it in its belly''.
| total_width       = 300
| caption2          = Second alchemical emblem: ''the earth is its nurse''.
| image2            = Atalanta Fugiens Emblema II.jpg
}}

During the [[Renaissance]], Hermes Trismegistus was widely regarded as the founder of alchemy and native to [[Babylon]]. He was thought to be a contemporary of [[Noah]] or [[Moses]] and his legend became intertwined with biblical narratives.<ref>{{harvnb|Principe|2013|p=31}}; {{harvnb|Linden|2003|p=27}}; {{harvnb|Kahn|2017|p=|pp=324-325}}.</ref> One illustrative example of the belief that Hermes invented alchemy is found in the anonymous text ''Who Were the First Inventors of this Art'',{{Efn|{{Langx|la|Qui fuerint primi inventores hujus artis}}.}} extracted from a gloss of the fourteenth-century ''Textus Alkimie''.{{Efn|"Now the very first inventor of this science—or of the mechanical alchemical art, as one reads in several of his own books—was HERMES, who was surnamed Triplex. And this was so because in the threefold philosophy—namely in the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal—he was highest and most perfect in this art of archimia, whether conjointly or separately in the Operation of the Sun. Who, under another name and according to some, is called HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. And therefore he is called Trismegistus, because among these three—namely fluency ({{langx|la| facundia}}), eloquence ({{langx|la|eloquentia}}), and knowledge ({{langx|la|scientia}})—he was above all others in his day most eminent and perfect. And this same one—because he was the very first inventor of this alchemical art—is continually called {{langx|la|PATER NOSTER|lit=OUR FATHER}}."<ref>{{harvnb|Kahn|2017|p=332}}.</ref>}}<ref> {{harvnb|Kahn|2017|pp=314-315}}.</ref> This text or a later French one, incorporating much of its narrative, influenced another discovery legend claiming the tablet (and its ''emblem'') to have been discovered after the [[Genesis flood narrative|Biblical Flood]] in [[Hebron]] Valley.<ref>{{harvnb|Telle|1984|p=132}}; {{harvnb|Telle|1988|pp=185-186}}; {{harvnb|Kahn|2017|pp=314-315}}.</ref> 

The narrative further evolved via Hieronymus Torrella's 1496 ''Splendid Work of Astrological Images''.{{Efn|{{langx|la|Opus praeclarum de imaginibus astrologicis}}.}} In it, [[Alexander the Great]] discovers a {{Langx|la|tabula zaradi|4=zaradi tablet}}{{Efn|Or in the work attributed to [[Albertus Magnus]] {{Langx|la|tabula zatadi|4=zatadi tablet}}. Meaning a tablet made of emerald but merely transliterating the {{Langx|ar|زبرجدي|zabarjadī|(made of) emerald; peridot}}.<ref>{{harvnb|Ruska|1926|p=218}}.</ref>}} in Hermes' tomb while travelling to the [[Siwa Oasis|Oracle of Amun]] in Egypt. This story is repeated in 1617 by [[Michael Maier]] in ''Symbols of the Golden Table'',{{Efn|{{langx|la|Symbola Aureae Mensae}}.}} referencing a ''Book of Chymical Secrets''{{Efn|{{langx|la|Liber de secretis chymicis}}.}}  attributed to, but likely not written by, [[Albertus Magnus]].<ref>{{harvnb|Faivre|1988| p=38}}.</ref> That same year, he published [[Atalanta Fugiens|''Fleeing Atalanta'']].{{Efn|{{langx|la|Atalanta Fugiens}}.}} It was illustrated by [[Matthäus Merian the Elder|Matthaeus Merian the Elder]], possibly with cooperation from his cousin [[Theodor de Bry]],{{Efn|The current scientific consensus favours Matthaeus Merian as the sole author.<ref>{{harvnb|Hasler|2011|p=137}}.</ref> A seventeenth-century text by Stanislas Klossowski de Rola asserts de Bry however, leading {{harvnb|Godwin|2007}} to suggest that, if the busy de Bry had any role to play in the creation of the engravings, it most likely would have been the figures.<ref>{{harvnb|Godwin|2007|pp=34-35}}.</ref>}} with fifty alchemical emblems, each accompanied by a poem, the score of a [[fugue]], and alchemical and mythological explanations. Among them were ones depicting verses from the ''Tablet''.<ref>{{harvnb|Hasler|2011|pp=137-138}}; {{harvnb|Kahn|1994|pp=59–74}}.</ref>

The [[Editio princeps|first printed edition]] appeared in 1541, in ''Of Alchemy''.{{Efn|{{langx|la|De alchemia}}.}} It was published in [[Nuremberg]] by [[Johann Petreius]] and edited by a certain Chrysogonus Polydorus. Polydorus is likely a pseudonym used by the Lutheran theologian [[Andreas Osiander]], who edited [[Nicolaus Copernicus|Copernicus]]' ''[[On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres]]'' in 1543, also published by Petreius.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilly|2003|p=451}}; {{harvnb|Kahn|2007|p=101}}.</ref> This edition of the ''Emerald Tablet'', which is similar to the ''vulgate'' version, is accompanied by [[Ortolanus|Hortulanus]]' commentary.<ref>{{Harvnb|Polydorus|1541|pp=363-373|p=}}.</ref>

By the early sixteenth century, the writings of [[Johannes Trithemius]] marked a shift away from a laboratory interpretation of the ''Emerald Tablet'', to a metaphysical approach. Trithemius equated Hermes' ''one thing'' with the [[Monad (philosophy)#Historical background|monad]] of [[Pythagoreanism|Pythagorean]] philosophy and the [[anima mundi]]. This interpretation of the Hermetic text was adopted by alchemists such as [[John Dee]], [[Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa]], and [[Gerhard Dorn]].<ref>{{harvnb|Debus|2004|p=415}}.</ref> In 1583, [[Gerard Dorn|Dorn]] published ''On the Light of Physical Nature''{{Efn|{{langx|la|De luce naturae physica}}.}} by Christoph Corvinus. This [[Paracelsianism|Paracelsian]] treatise drew up a detailed parallel between the Emerald Tablet and the [[Genesis creation narrative]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Forshaw|2007|p=31}}.</ref>

=== Emblem ===
{{Multiple image
| image1            = Emblem 1600 Golden Fleece reconstructed.jpg
| caption1          = Emblem of the Emerald Tablet from a 1600 edition of the ''Golden Fleece''. Colour restored per {{harvnb|Telle|1984}}'s description.
| total_width       = 300
| caption2          = Drawn 1586 emblem denoting colours in German. (man. Kassel, ''4 Ms. chem. 60[1,3]'').
| image2            = 4° Ms. chem. 60(1,3).jpg
}}

From the late sixteenth century onwards, the ''Emerald Tablet'' was often accompanied by a symbolic figure called {{Langx|la|Tabula Smaragdina Hermetis|4=Emerald Tablet of Hermes}}. This figure is encircled by an [[acrostic]] in {{Langx|la|Visita interiora terrae rectificando invenies occultum lapidem|lit=Visit the interior of the earth, and by rectifying, you will find the hidden stone}} whose seven initials form the word {{Langx|fro|vitriol|lit=sulphuric acid}}. At the top, the sun and moon pour into a cup above the [[Planetary symbols|planetary symbol]] ☿ representing Mercury. Surrounding this mercurial cup are the four other planets, representing the classic association between the seven planets and the seven metals.  Though, many of the extant copies of the emblem are not set in colour, it was originally polychrome{{Efn|As attested by marginal notes of a 1586 manuscript.}}—linking each planetary-metallic pair with a specific colour, thus rendering: gold–[[Sun|Sol]]-gold, silver–[[Moon|Luna]]–silver, grey–[[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]]–quicksilver, blue–[[Jupiter]]–tin, red–[[Mars]]–iron, green–[[Venus]]–copper, and black–[[Saturn]]–lead. At the centre are a ring and a [[globus cruciger]]; at the bottom, the celestial and terrestrial spheres. Three [[Charge (heraldry)|charges]] represent, according to the accompanying poem, the ''[[Paracelsus#Tria prima|three principles]]''{{Efn|{{langx|la|tria prima}}.}} of Paracelsian alchemical theory: the eagle signifying quicksilver and the spirit, the lion signifying sulphur and the soul, and the star signifying salt and the body. Finally, two [[Schwurhand]]s appear alongside the image, affirming the creator’s veracity.<ref>{{harvnb|Telle|1984|pp=132–136}}.</ref>

The oldest known printed reproduction of this emblem is found in the ''Golden Fleece'',{{Efn|{{Langx|la|Aureum vellus}}.}} attributed to [[Salomon Trismosin]]—likely a [[pseudonym]] employed by a German [[Paracelsianism|Paracelsian]]. Wherein the image was accompanied by a didactic alchemical poem in German titled {{Lang|de|Außlegung und Erklerung des Gemelds oder Figur}} ({{Literal translation|Interpretation and Explanation of the Painting or the Figure}}).{{Efn|This first edition of the poem and emblem were published in Switzerland in vol. III of this treatise.<ref>{{harvnb|Trismosin|1600|pp=415–426}}.</ref>}} This poem explained the emblem's symbolism in relation to the [[Great Work (Hermeticism)|Great Work]] and the classical goals of alchemy: wealth, health, and long life. The emblem is largely derivative. The colours, symbols and associations are all found in different Paracelsian works from the same period and unlikely to be influenced by the ''Tablet'' itself. The association with the cryptic text might have served primarily as a legitimation for an artwork also meant to be read metaphorically. Additionally, the image first spread in the circle of [[Karl Widemann]], a known Paracelsian mystifier.<ref>{{harvnb|Telle|1988|pp=185-187}}.</ref> Initially, the image was presented alongside the ''Emerald Tablet'' as a merely ancillary element. However, in printed editions of the seventeenth century, the poem was omitted, and the emblem came to be known as the symbolic or graphical representation of the ''Emerald Tablet''. The emblem proliferated quickly, was frequently reproduced, and gained narrative antiquity. From Ehrd de Naxagoras in his 1733 ''Supplement to the Golden Fleece''{{Efn|{{langx|la|Supplementum Aurei Velleris}}.}} came an example of such a narrative. In the aforementioned discovery legend a woman named Zora finds "a precious emerald plaque" engraved with this emblem in Hermes' grave in [[Hebron]] Valley.<ref>{{harvnb|Faivre|1988|p=38}}; {{harvnb|Telle|1984|p=132}}; {{harvnb|Telle|1988|pp=185-186}}; {{harvnb|Kahn|2017|pp=314-315}}.</ref> The emblem thus came to be conceptualised of as part of the esoteric tradition of interpreting Egyptian hieroglyphs. It also came to serve as an example of the Renaissance-Platonic and alchemical belief that "the deepest secrets of nature could only be appropriately expressed through an obscure and veiled mode of representation”.<ref>{{harvnb|Telle|1988|p=|pp=185-186, 209-222}}.</ref>

=== Nuremberg edition ===
[[File:Emerald Tablet Johannes Petreius.jpg|thumb|303x303px|Text of the ''Emerald Tablet'', from [[Johannes Petreius]]' [[De Alchemia|''Of Alchemy'']].|left]]
The 1541 [[Nuremberg]] edition from [[Johannes Petreius]]' ''[[De Alchemia|Of Alchemy]]''—largely similar to the ''vulgate''—reads:{{Verse translation|Verum sine mendacio, certum, et verissimum.
Quod est inferius, est sicut quod est superius.
Et quod est superius, est sicut quod est inferius, ad perpetranda miracula rei unius.
Et sicut res omnes fuerunt ab uno, meditatione unius, sic omnes res natae ab hac una re, adaptatione.
Pater eius est Sol, mater eius est Luna. 
Portavit illud ventus in ventre suo. 
Nutrix eius terra est. 
Pater omnis telesmi totius mundi est hic.
Vis eius integra est, si versa fuerit in terram.
Separabis terram ab igne, subtile ab spisso, suaviter cum magno ingenio.
Ascendit a terra in coelum, iterumque descendit in terram, et recipit vim superiorum et inferiorum.
Sic habebis gloriam totius mundi.
Ideo fugiet a te omnis obscuritas.
Haec est totius fortitudinis fortitudo fortis, quia vincet omnem rem subtilem, omnemque solidam penetrabit.
Sic mundus creatus est.
Hinc erunt adaptationes mirabiles, quarum modus hic est. 
Itaque vocatus sum Hermes Trismegistus, habens tres partes philosophiae totius mundi.
Completum est, quod dixi de operatione Solis.|Tis true without lying, certain and most true.
That which is below is like that which is above and that which is above is like that which is below 
to do the miracle of one only thing
And as all things have been and arose from one by the mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.
The Sun is its father, the moon its mother, 
the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth is its nurse. 
The father of all perfection in the whole world is here. 
Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth.
Separate thou the earth from the fire, 
the subtle from the gross 
sweetly with great industry. 
It ascends from the earth to the heaven and again it descends to the earth
and receives the force of things superior and inferior.
By this means you shall have the glory of the whole world and thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.
Its force is above all force, 
for it vanquishes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing.
So was the world created.
From this are and do come admirable adaptations where of the means is here in this.
Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.
That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished and ended.|attr1=[[Johannes Petreius|Petreius, Johannes]] 1541. {{lang|la|[[De Alchemia|De alchemia]]}}. Nuremberg, p. 363. [https://viewer.zb.uzh.ch/uv/index.html#?manifest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.e-rara.ch%2Fi3f%2Fv20%2F1719033%2Fmanifest&c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=388&xywh=-827%2C-31%2C3714%2C2119 (available online)]|attr2=[[Isaac Newton]]. [http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/newton/ALCH00017 "Keynes MS. 28"]. The Chymistry of Isaac Newton. Ed. [[William R. Newman]]. June 2010. Retrieved 4 March 2013.}}

=== French sonnet translation ===
[[File:Title Page of Traittez de l'harmonie, et constitution generalle du vray sel, secret des Philosophes, & de l'esprit universel du monde.jpg|thumb|286x286px|Title page of the quoted work by Hesteau.]]
In the fifteenth century an anonymous French version, set in verse, appeared. A revised 1621 [[sonnet]] version by {{ill|Clovis Hesteau de Nuysement|fr}} reads:<ref>{{harvnb|Kahn|1994|pp=31, 37}}; {{harvnb|Ruska|1926|pp=214-215}}.</ref>
{{Verse translation|C'est un point aſſuré plein d'admiration,
Que le haut & le bas n'est qu'une meſme choſe:
Pour faire d'une ſeule en tout le monde encloſe, 
Des effects merveilleux par adaptation.

D'un ſeul en a tout fait la meditation,
Et pour parents, matrice, & nourrice, on luy poſe,
Phœbus, Diane, l'air, & la terre, ou repoſe
Cette choſe en qui gist toute perfection.

Si on la mue en terre elle a ſa force entiere:
Separant par grand art, mais facile maniere,
Le ſubtil de l'eſpais, & la terre du feu.

De la terre elle monte au Ciel; & puis en terre, 
Du Ciel elle deſcend, Recevant peu à peu,
Les vertus de tous deux qu'en ſon ventre elle enſerre.|It’s a sure point, full of admiration,
That the high and the low are but one same thing:
To make from one alone, enclosed in the whole world,
Marvelous effects by adaptation.

Meditation has made all things of this single one,
And for its parents, matrix, and nurse, they place it:
Phoebus, Diana, the air, and the earth on which
That thing reposes in which all perfection lies.

If you change it into earth, it has its full force:
Separating by great art, yet in an easy manner,
The subtle from the dense, and the earth from the fire.

From the earth it ascends to Heaven; and then, into earth
From Heaven it descends, receiving little by little
The virtues of both, which in its womb it encloses.|attr1={{harvnb|Hesteau|1639|p=10}}.|lang2=fr|attr2=literal translation.}}

=== Enlightenment ===
[[File:Oedipus Aegyptiacus Tabula Smaragdina.jpg|thumb|300x300px|Beginning of the tractate ''On the Authorship of the Emerald Tablet'' from the [[Oedipus Aegyptiacus|''Egyptian Oedipus'']] vol. 2 no. 1.|left]]
From the dawning seventeenth-century [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] onward, a number of authors began to issue challenges to the attribution of the ''Emerald Tablet'' to Hermes Trismegistus. Chronologically first among them was the former alchemist Nicolas Guibert. He believed the ancients had never mentioned alchemy by name and the practice of identifying gold and silver by the names of planets was an idea first advanced by [[Proclus]]. He argued, therefore, that the ''Emerald Tablet'' must be inauthentic.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ruska|1926|p=|pp=212-213}}, {{Harvnb|Ebeling|2007|p=96}}; {{Harvnb|Matton|1993|p=124}}.</ref> These attacks were supported by a rising spectre of doubt surrounding all things Hermetic, following a linguistic analysis by [[Isaac Casaubon]], calling into question the authenticity of the [[Corpus Hermeticum]] and Hermes himself.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ebeling|2007|p=96}}.</ref> The most prominent attack came from [[Athanasius Kircher]] in his [[Oedipus Aegyptiacus|''Egyptian Oedipus'']]. Kircher rejected the ''Emerald Tablet''’s attribution to Hermes Trismegistus, as it did not support his interpretation of hieroglyphs; he argued that the Tablet’s “barbaric” Latin{{Efn|Referring to terms like {{langx|la|fatitudo fortis}} which is a corrupted variant of {{langx|la|fortitudo fortis|lit=power of all powers}} and also focussing in on the aforementioned {{langx|la| tabula zatadi |lit=zatadi tablet}}.<ref>{{harvnb|Ruska|1926|pp=218-219}}.</ref>}} betrayed a much later, post‐classical origin. Additionally, he pointed out that no ancient Greek philosophers ever mention it—a silence he took as evidence of forgery. Further, he associated it with a group of alchemists he considered delusional{{Efn|He addressed them mockingly as {{langx|la|Cimiastorum|lit=(of) mixers}} instead of the more neutral {{langx|la|Alchemistarum|lit=(of) Alchemists}} in the tractate. In the preceding one he lampooned modern alchemists as describing the [[philosopher's stone]] with "useless prolixity and a ludicrous structure" and generally being wrong and misguided about most things.<ref>{{harvnb|Ruska|1926|p=216}}; {{harvnb|Kircher|1653|p=425-426}}</ref>}} and rejected the story of its discovery in Hermes’ tomb as a pure figment of their imagination. He applied critical arguments he otherwise rejected—for example when defending the legitimacy of the Corpus Hermeticum—when the text in question conflicted with his aims.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ruska|1926|p=|pp=216-219}}; {{Harvnb|Stolzenberg|2013|p=|pp=222-223}}.</ref> Kircher’s critique was forceful enough to draw out a response from the Danish alchemist [[Ole Borch]] in his 1668 ''On the Origin and Progress of Chemistry.''{{Efn|{{langx|la|De ortu et progressu chemiae}}.}} In which Borch sought to distinguish genuinely ancient Hermetic writings from later forgeries and to re‐value the ''Emerald Tablet'' as truly Egyptian in origin.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ruska|1926|p=220|pp=}}.</ref> Amid this climate of inquiry and doubt a 1684 tractate by {{ill|Wilhelm Christoph Kriegsmann|de}} deployed linguistic analysis—incorporating Hebrew—to assert that Hermes Trismegistus was not the Egyptian [[Thoth]] but the Phoenician [[Thoth|Taaut]]—whom Tacitus identifies as [[Tuisto]], the legendary divine progenitor of the Germanic peoples.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ruska|1926|p=|pp=220-223}}; {{harvnb|Kriegsmann|1684}} cited by {{harvnb|Faivre|1988|p=|pp=42, 48}}.</ref> The debate continued and both Borch’s and Kriegsmann’s treatises were reprinted (alongside many others) in [[Jean-Jacques Manget]]'s ''[[Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa|Curious Chemical Library]]''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ruska|1926|p=|pp=1, 220-223}}.</ref> 

The ''Emerald Tablet'' was still translated and commented upon by [[Isaac Newton]], who rendered the recondite {{Langx|la|telesmus}} as "perfection".<ref>{{harvnb|Dobbs|1988}}; {{harvnb|Newton|2010}}.</ref> But the result of this age of upheaval and inquiry was the gradual decline of alchemy during the eighteenth century. The hardest blow to alchemy's legitimacy was the advent of modern chemistry and the work of [[Antoine Lavoisier|Lavoisier]]—with the 1720s marking the turning point when alchemy lost the trust of the emergent chemical community.<ref>{{Harvnb|Friesen|Patton|2023|p=|pp=100, 104-107}}.</ref> The emerging category of modern [[science]] fundamentally conflicted with the practical and theoretical traditions of alchemy. It left no room for alchemists within the new definition of the scientist, leading to a sharp decline in alchemical works after the 1780s.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kahn|2016||p=175|pp=}}.</ref>