GIOVANNI BRACCESCO.
This alchemist of Brescia flourished in the sixteenth century. He was the author of a commentary on Geber, which is not supposed to cast much light on the obscurities of the Arabian philosopher. The most curious of his original treatises is Legno della Vita, vel quale si dichiara la medecina per la quale i nostri primi padri vivevano nove cento anni, Rome, 1542, 8vo.—“The Wood of Life, wherein is revealed the medicine by means of which our Primeval Ancestors lived for Nine Hundred Years.” This work, together with La Esposizione di Geber Filosophe, Venice, 1544, 8vo, was translated into Latin, and may be found in the collections of Gratarole and Mangetus. They were also published separately under the title De Alchimia dialogi duo, Lugd., 1548, 4to. The Wood of Life is one of the innumerable names given by the alchemists to the matured and perfected stone, the composition whereof is the accomplishment of the magnum opus. It is more generally denominated the Universal Balsam or Panacea, which cures all diseases and insures to its most blessed possessor an unalterable youth. The name Wood of Life is bestowed by the Jews on the two sticks which confine the scroll of the Law. They are convinced that a simple contact with these sacred rods strengthens the eyesight and restores health. They also hold that there is no better means of facilitating the accouchement of females than to cause them to behold these vitalising sticks, which, however, they are in no wise permitted to touch.[W]
The work of Braccesco is written in the form of a dialogue, and is explanatory of the Hermetic principles of Raymond Lully, one of the interlocutors, who instructs an enthusiastic disciple in the arcane principles of the divine art, the disciple in question being in search of a safeguard against the numerous infirmities and weaknesses of the “humid radical.” Such a medicine is declared by the master to be extracted from a single substance, which is the sophic aqua metallorum. The dialogue is of interest, as it shows the connection in the mind of the writer between the development of metallic perfection and the physical regeneration of humanity.
FOOTNOTES:
[W] Dictionnaire des Sciences Occultes, i. p. 232.