.
This tale is from the Description of the memorable
Sea and Land Travels through Persia to the East Indies,
by Johann Albrecht von Mandelslo, translated from the German of Olearius, by J. B. B. Bk v. p. 189. Basil Valentine, whom it makes the hero of a story after the manner of the romances of Virgil the Enchanter, was an able chemist (in those days an alchemist) of the sixteenth century, who is believed to have been a Benedictine monk of Erfurth, and is not known to have had any children. He was the author of the
Currus Triumphalis Antimonii
, mentioned in a former note. His name was familiar through several books in French, especially
L'Azoth des Philosophes, avec les 12 Clefs de Philosophie