{"id":3212,"date":"2018-07-23T10:43:34","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T09:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/?p=3212"},"modified":"2018-07-16T16:04:34","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T15:04:34","slug":"adventures-of-our-2018-interns-part-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/2018\/07\/23\/adventures-of-our-2018-interns-part-four\/","title":{"rendered":"Adventures of our 2018 interns part four"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome again to our series of posts exploring the Maddison Collection, brought to you by our summer interns Philip and Janee!<\/p>\n

Today, we’re going to take a look at a particularly curious story about the philosopher’s stone… (No, not the Harry Potter one.) (But inspiration has to come from somewhere, right?!…)<\/p>\n

Our edition of this book is in Latin, so our rough translations of this come from the Archive.org version<\/a> of the text in English, which is held in California. The text describes how to make base metals, but there’s a particularly curious story about how to extract elements…:<\/p>\n

\"Step<\/a>

Step one: The King sits on his throne ignoring requests from his sons and servants to share power.
From ‘Pretiosa margarita : novella de thesauro, ac pretiosissimo philosophorum lapide’ by Giano Lacinio, 1546, Venice. (Maddison Collection 2B7, F10528400)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Step<\/a>

Step two: the son, incited by the servants, kills the King.
Step three: the son catches the King’s blood on his robes.
From ‘Pretiosa margarita : novella de thesauro, ac pretiosissimo philosophorum lapide’ by Giano Lacinio, 1546, Venice. (Maddison Collection 2B7, F10528400)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Step<\/a>

Step four: dig a grave in the furnace room.
Step five: the son throws his father, the King, into the grave – but oh no! He falls in too!
From ‘Pretiosa margarita : novella de thesauro, ac pretiosissimo philosophorum lapide’ by Giano Lacinio, 1546, Venice. (Maddison Collection 2B7, F10528400)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Step<\/a>

Step six: the son tries to escape but is prevented from doing so.
Step seven: the son and King’s ashes putrefy.
From ‘Pretiosa margarita : novella de thesauro, ac pretiosissimo philosophorum lapide’ by Giano Lacinio, 1546, Venice. (Maddison Collection 2B7, F10528400)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Step<\/a>

Step eight: The putrified ashes are inspected.
Step nine: the bones are taken from the tomb.
From ‘Pretiosa margarita : novella de thesauro, ac pretiosissimo philosophorum lapide’ by Giano Lacinio, 1546, Venice. (Maddison Collection 2B7, F10528400)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Step<\/a>

Step ten: [Complex instructions for turning bones into purified water, involving subjecting some to heat until they turn black and repeating this until water is acquired]
From ‘Pretiosa margarita : novella de thesauro, ac pretiosissimo philosophorum lapide’ by Giano Lacinio, 1546, Venice. (Maddison Collection 2B7, F10528400)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Step<\/a>

Step eleven: an angel is sent, and the servants pray for the return of their King.
Step twelve: a second angel places the bones on the earth until they are all thickened.
From ‘Pretiosa margarita : novella de thesauro, ac pretiosissimo philosophorum lapide’ by Giano Lacinio, 1546, Venice. (Maddison Collection 2B7, F10528400)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Step<\/a>

Step thirteen: the King rises from his tomb!
From ‘Pretiosa margarita : novella de thesauro, ac pretiosissimo philosophorum lapide’ by Giano Lacinio, 1546, Venice. (Maddison Collection 2B7, F10528400)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Step<\/a>

Step fourteen: the newly humbled King decides to share his power with his sons and servants. The end.
From ‘Pretiosa margarita : novella de thesauro, ac pretiosissimo philosophorum lapide’ by Giano Lacinio, 1546, Venice. (Maddison Collection 2B7, F10528400)<\/p><\/div>\n

Like what you see here? Books from the Maddison Collection can be requested through LibrarySearch<\/a> (for internal University of Kent members only) or by contacting us<\/a> (for everyone).<\/p>\n

This blog post is part three of an ongoing summer series exploring our Maddison Collection; more in depth posts will be coming soon. See\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0for part one,\u00a0here<\/a> for part two and here<\/a> for part three!<\/em><\/p>\n