The Rosary of the Philosophers goes well beyond a recipe book for the practice of alchemy. Originally created in the Renaissance, it combines philosophy with chemical study within the alchemical sciences of the age and contains lengthy passages dedicated to each of the major physical processes literally used in the time period for alchemical work. Containing metaphors and riddles (sometimes explicitly stated to be such) the hidden meaning of the work and its content is clear; a study of science, proto-secular philosophy, and a literal treatment of the processing of mercury, sulfur, and other materials through processes such as fermentation, putrefaction, sublimation, and all other dynamic physical systems quantified at the time by man. For those practicing the occult, the philosophy on its own herein makes it a gem of Renaissance literature. Fully illustrated, 174 pages.