A COMMENTARY ON THE MUTUS LIBER

Grand Rapids: Phanes Press, 1991. Cloth bound in fine condition.. Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks No. 11; 60 pages with 15 full-page illustrations; Promotional, descriptive, card laid-in. The fifteen plates of the Mutus Liber, the 'Mute Book', are well known, and this book without words is recognised as a classic of the 17th century alchemical tradition. Although it seems to pictorially outline in detail an alchemical process, its message is not immediately obvious and it really requires a commentary to make it intelligible to the present day reader. Adam McLean has here provided an extensive commentary on this series of engravings, revealing it as a synthesis of spiritual, soul and physical alchemy. Although, tantalisingly, the entire secret of the physical process is not fully revealed in these plates, enough information is given to piece together details of a modus operandi; indeed modern French alchemists like Canseliet and Barbault have found great inspiration and hints as to the physical work in the Mutus Liber. Although these illustrations have been printed many times before, they have not yet been issued in an edition with an extensive commentary, and therefore this present volume should help to meet a need for an explanation of some of the mysteries of the Mutus Liber.