Nicolas flamel’s secret key to success

[Javblanc]

Nicolás Flamel found what all the alchemists were looking for but few obtained; the famous Philosopher’s Stone. At least that’s what he says in his The Book of Hierogliphic Figures, a book he redacted as a sort of guide to decipher the allegorical figures from the different phases of the Great Work, which he had painted on the arch of the Holy Innocent’s Cemetery in Paris. The numerous biographical elements in it, added to an exhaustive investigation performed by Albert Poisson towards the end of the nineteenth century, allows us now to piece together his story. A story blending fact and legend that begins in Pontoise, near Paris, where he was born in 1330 in the bosom of a lower bourgeois family. He starts working very young as a scribe. Today there is no such trade anymore, but at a time when most people were illiterate and the invention of the printing press was still one century away, you can see how it was a prosperous profession. At twenty years old, he marries Perrenella, a determining event in his life, as attested by the fact that she almost always appears alongside him in his surviving iconographic images.
Those images reproduce the original bas–reliefs carved in some tympanum of the numerous churches, hospitals and shelters funded by the alchemist throughout his life. In the portico of the Saint–Jacques–la–Boucherie Church, for example (to which his office was attached), a carver carved a relief of the happy couple praying at the feet of the Virgin. (Because the hermetic laboratory included a small chapel: the alchemists were pious people. In this sense, they stood out from the so–called blowers, the much more numerous spurious alchemists, whose search was material, who pursued only ordinary gold or the indefinite extension of life.)
With time, Flamel expanded his little business of buying and selling books. And that’s when, one day, a student walks into his office, intent on selling what he describes to us as “a gilded book, very old and large” and “the cover of it was of brass, well bound, all engraved with letters, or strange figures”. He purchases the book on the spot, for it was not the first time he saw it: a few years before, an angel had showed it to him in his dreams. The first page was headed, in great and golden capital letters, by the following high–flown words: “Abraham the Jew, Prince, Priest, Levite, Astrologer, and Philosopher, to the Nation of the Jews, by the Wrath of God dispersed among the Gauls, sendeth Health.” This was followed by twenty–one leafs divided into folds of seven, and the leafs were made not of paper nor parchment, but of rinds of tender young trees. Although it was written in French, the text was riddled with strange characters, indecipherable to Flamel, who believed them to be letters from an ancient alphabet. Additionally, the last page of each fold contained symbolic images.
A first reading of the Book of Abraham the Jew shows Flamel that it is indeed an alchemy text, with the relevant experiments thoroughly recorded; and he enthusiastically applies himself to those works. But, no matter how scrupulously he follows the instructions, he fails to conclude them with any success. Suspecting he was working with the wrong raw material, he consults several scholars, but none is able to enlighten him. When almost all hope was lost, he commended himself to St. James, patron of Christian alchemists, and sets off on the St. James’ Road towards Santiago de Compostela. He explains in his book that, apart from the pious purpose, he believed he could find in Spain a sage who could provide him with the key for the correct execution of the Great Work. And this is where the long awaited encounter took place. It happened on his way back, in a village in Leon, where Flamel befriends an old converted Jewish man. Master Cánches, possibly Sánchez, proves to be familiar with the illustrations in the book, of which he owns a copy. He accepts Flamel’s invitation to accompany him back to Paris, but he dies on the way. However, before passing, he tells the alchemist the key he was looking for. Faithful to the adept code of secrecy, Flamel does not specify what that key is. But maybe we can infer it if we take a close look to an apparently trivial detail…
Finally, I found that which I desired… knowing the preparation of the first Agents, and after following my Book according to the letter, I could not have missed it, though I would. Then, the first time that I made projection was upon Mercury, whereof I turned half–a–pound, or thereabouts, into pure Silver, better than that of the Mine, as I myself assayed, and made others assay many times. This was upon a Monday, the 17th of January, about noon, in my house, Perrenella only being present, in the year of the restoring of mankind, 1382. And afterwards, following always my Book, from word to word, I made projection of the Red Stone upon the like quantity of Mercury, in the presence likewise of Perrenella only, in the same house, the five and twentieth day of April following, the same year, about five o’clock in the evening; which I transmuted truly into almost as much pure Gold, better assuredly than common Gold, more soft and more pliable. I may speak it with truth, I have made it three times, with the help of Perrenella, who understood it as well as I, because she helped in my operations, and without doubt, if she would have enterprised to have done it alone, she had attained to the end and perfection thereof.
Three times, he names his wife. She is present and she helps him with the operations, which contrasts with the description of his work before the pilgrimage to Compostela, when Flamel apparently worked alone (at the beginning, he hides from his wife the discovery of the book that will deeply affect their existence). This leads we to suspect that the key the alchemist had ignored at first, the fundamental ingredient missing from his mixture, was not mercury nor sulphur nor arsenic nor antimony… It was an ingredient that is quite tricky to find, but which fortunately had always been within his reach. It was his twin soul, Perrenella, “whom [he] loved –he tells us– as [himself]”.
Flamel’s medieval house at 51, Rue de Montmorency in Paris:

[DNA]

Good read, I enjoyed it. Nice pay off at the end. Thank you

[Scorpio Girl]

Great read, anymore of the story as I came across that name many years ago but did not have the time to research this enigmatic couple. Would love to read more or perhaps you can point me in the right direction...