Geber’s Alchemy

Geber, De alchimia. De investigatione. Neurenberg, Johann Petreius, 1541

The ‘real Geber’ was Jabir ibn Hayyan, an alchemist from Persia or Arabia. He is often confused with a presumed 14th-century Spanish alchemist who was inspired by him. To gain authority, this alchemist wrote in Latin under the name ‘Geber,’ the Westernized form of Jabir. Most alchemical works printed in the West originate from this ‘Pseudo-Geber’. This edition is one of the earliest printed works on alchemy. Alchemists were reluctant to disclose their secrets and recipes, so their texts typically circulated in manuscript form. The edition is renowned not only for its exquisite woodcuts but also because it was the first to print the Emerald Tablet, attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, in its ‘Vulgate’ version, accompanied by the commentary of Ortolanus (14th century). Between 1472 and 1516, the text of the Tablet, in the translation by Filippo Tripolitano, was printed at least seven times in the complete editions of the Secretum Secretorum.

The Tablet is said to contain instructions for preparing the Philosopher’s Stone, yet among alchemists, it has raised more questions than it has answered.