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The Key of Alchemie transcription
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Samuel Norton was an English alchemist and the descendent of the more renowned alchemist, Thomas Norton. This manuscript, found among the Ashmolean MSS as Ashmole 1421, was transcribed by William Alexander Ayton an Anglican clergyman with an interest in alchemy who was a member of several secret societies devoted to the topic, including the Order of the Golden Dawn.
The work consists of prefatory materials and a series of eight treatises, concerning the Vegetable Stone, the Minerall Stone, the Animal Stone, the Manner of Fermentation, the Mixed Stone, the Transparent Stone, the Elixir of Life and the use thereof, and the Rules of Multiplication and Projection. Transcription includes hand drawn illustrations within the body of the text.
This is a typed transcription of an unpublished manuscript on alchemy, original written in 1577. The transcription is hardbound in marble boards and consists of 108 pages of text. Transcription dates from 1901. William Alexander Ayton made a copy of his transcription for his friend, the British occultist Frederick Leigh Gardner (1857-1930) who was a fellow member of the Order of the Golden Dawn. This is Gardner's copy.
Source of acquisition--Donald F. Othmer Bequest..
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- Science History Institute Archives