The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, xvii. 



manuscripts of the great alchemist seems 

 wholly without foundation ; its attri- 

 bution to Valentine may perhaps be 

 accounted for by a blunder ; but there is 

 no reason for supposing that it was other 

 than an original storehouse of Hermetic 

 theories and experiments, compiled by 

 Thoelde himself. That so far as he is 

 known at all he is known chiefly as the 

 editor of Valentine does not preclude 

 Thoelde from having appeared indepen- 

 dently as an author, and so early as the 

 year i 599 we find that he actually did 

 so.* At the same time, it is possible 

 for a mistake to have arisen through a 

 misconception of some prefatory verses 

 prefixed to the first Haligraphia. 



Sic tu Mater es autorum, quos, Tholde, 

 sophorum, 



Eruis e tenebris, dasque videre diem. 

 Per te Basilius lucem squallore remote, 



Cernit, Basilii mater es alma tui.* 



* Information concerning the Revolting Malady called 

 Red Dysentery, Diarrhea, and the extremely swift and dan- 

 gerous sickness of the Pestilence. By Johann Tholden 

 Hesse. Erfurt, 1599, 4to (a pamphlet of 22 pages). 



* From the prefatory verses of Hermannus Kircnerus. 



2 A 



