The transmutation of Metals

Giovanni Battista Nazari, Il Metamorfosi metallico et humano. Brescia: Francesco Marchetti, 1564. 4to.

First edition of this treatise on the transmutation of metals. It recounts three allegorical journeys to the kingdom of alchemy, presented in the form of dreams. The author is guided by nymphs, firstly to the sophist kingdom, based on false alchemical principles. In the second kingdom, he is confronted with the practical techniques of metallurgy, and finally, he enters the philosophical kingdom, which produces the true metamorphosis of the human into the divine. In his mystical quest, he is guided by Bernard Trevisan, a distinguished (though probably mythical) 15th-century Italian alchemist. The primary model for this work is an alchemical reinterpretation of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499).