The Book of Comarius is a mysterious tome dedicated to Cleopatra the Divine, or Cleopatra the Alchemist of Alexandria. In it, Comarius, a self-styled philosopher of great wisdom, teaches Cleopatra his arts, including that of gold making or goldsmithing.
Cleopatra or Cleopatra the Divine is a Greek alchemist, writer, and philosopher. She's known from mentions of other alchemists and philosophers, such as Zosimos. Either she or Mary the Jewess is the inventor of the alchemical must-have distillation device, the alembic.
Cleopatra's reputation is solid and her insights intriguing. She's one of the Greco-Roman Egyptian alchemists studied by the Muslims after the 642 AD conquest of Egypt. Many old writings go off to Islamic scribe houses or the House of Wisdom to be translated and studied.
In turn they're discovered by explorers of later years. During the 19th century archaeology is big business. Many Arabic translations of Greek texts exist though the originals have been lost.
The Book of Comarius is dedicated to Cleopatra the Divine. She's not related to the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra VII. In antiquity Cleopatra is a popular name for girls, meaning "Glory of the Father".
The Book of Comarius is a philosophical and practical tome, and contains instructions for the making of gold. In Greek chrysopoeia actually means gold-smithing but may be used to mean gold-making. They're often equated in modern speak, making it harder to interpret old texts.
When alchemists talk of making gold, it's usually a reference to golden color or gold-plating, as in the recipe below. A technique of gold plating is used by the ancient Romans, and promoted by Johann Glauber in the 17th century.
The method involves mercury and Glauber eventually sickens and dies from working with this and more toxic substances. As for the Romans, well they know the dangers of mercury, which is why they send only rebellious slaves and convicts to work in the Almaden mines of Spain.
In the mercury mines, hard labor means a slow painful death in ancient times. And, the Roman gold-plating method is to mix mercury with gold, brush it on the substrate, then heat the substrate to let the toxic mercury fumes waft into the lungs. But the finish is brilliant.
Here the author explains the method of chrysopoeia. He speaks as Cleopatra to a cohort of philosophers. This approach is similar to the later presentation of Mary the Jewess in discussion with a group of philosophers as she lays her wisdom on them.
In his writings, Comarius explains the making of the gold. It happens thus:
"The work is carried out by applying a hemispherical apparatus, whose first experiment consists of separating the liquids from the [iron] oxides. It takes a long time.
"Next comes maceration, which consists of a mixture of water and moistened rust.
"Third, the dissolution of the species, which are burned seven times in an Askelón [city of Levant] container. This is how one operates in the process of whitening and blackening of species by the action of fire.
"Fourthly is the process of yellowing by which one mixes [the substance] with other yellow liquids and produces wax to yellow, in order to achieve the desired goal.
"In fifth place comes fusion, which goes from yellow to gold. For the gilding you must, as I mentioned before, divide the composition into two halves. Once divided into two halves, one of the parts is mixed with yellow and white liquids, and tinted according to purpose in mind.
"Again, if fermentation is a foundation, that is, foundation and fermentation create the perfect transmutation of the composition of browning.
"This is the way you, too, should proceed, my friends, when you wish to use this wonderful technique. Look at the nature of plants and their origin. Some come from the mountains and emerge from the earth; others come from the valleys; others from the plains.
"Watch how they develop, since you must collect them at the right time, and on special days. Collect them on the islands in the sea and from the highest places.
"Look at the air that serves them and the food around them to ensure that they are not damaged and die. Look at the divine water that moistens them and the air that governs them, once they have been incorporated into an essence."
"Listen now and understand and judge correctly what I say: take of the four elements the sublime arsenic and the humblest arsenic and the most sublime, white and red, in equal proportion, male and female, so that they remain united one to the other.
"Just as the bird incubates and brings the eggs to perfection by its heat, so you, too, must incubate and polish your work by taking it outside and watering it with divine waters and in the sun, and in burning places, and you must cook it over a slow flame with the virginal milk and keep it from the smoke... "
Edward Kelly writes that the ‘tincture or elixir’ which ‘melts, tinges and coagulates ... imperfect metals into pure silver’ is ‘called the Virgin’s milk, the everlasting water and water of life, for it is as brilliant as white marble; it is also called the white Queen’ (Two excellent Treatises, 142).
The recipe continues:
"And lock it in Hades [iron] and stir it carefully until its structure solidifies and it does not spill out due to the fire. Then it you take out and when the soul and the spirit have joined one another and become one, you must pour it into solid silver, and you will have gold [of such quality] that not even the coffers of kings have."
The manufacture or multiplication of gold and silver in ancient times is considered an important skill for the alchemist to have. Sometimes gold and silver are just colors. Making of gold or silver almost always applies to dyeing metals.
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