An unknown Hebrew medical alchemist: a medieval treatise on the quinta essentia.

INTRODUCTION AMONG the many Latin writings published under the name of Ramon Lull (c. 1235-c. 1316), the famous Majorcan Christian mystic, philosopher, and missionary, styled doctor illuminatus and sacer doctor, there are several that deal with the fabulous quinta essentia, the purest of essences, which was supposed to have the power to rejuvenate the old and to cure all kinds of diseases, including mental aberrations. The popularity of Lull is attested, among other things, by the fact that one of these books, entitled De secretis naturae sive quinta essentia (On the secrets of nature or the fifth essence, hereinafter De secr.), was reprinted at least eight times between 1514 and 1557.1 Another Lullian work on the quinta essentia, Libellus Raimundi Lulli maioricani de medicinis secretissimis (The Majorcan Raimund Lull's book on the most secret medicines, hereinafter De med.), is contained in a collection of Lullian writings entitled Raimundi Lullii Maioricani philosophi sui temporis doctissimi libelli aliquot chemici (Some chemical writings of the Majorcan Raimund Lull, the most learned philosopher of his time).2 Lullian treatises on the quinta essentia continued to appear even in the seventeenth century.3 All who studied the Lullian corpus agreed that such alchemical treatises attributed to him could not have been written by Lull, who was not an alchemist and who, in his authentic works, expressed himself about alchemy in unmistakably negative terms.4 The conclusion that the De secr. was falsely attributed to Lull was reached as early as the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century by the authors of the A cta sanclorum, who observed that Lull himself often rejected alchemy (chimia) and denied that the alchemists could make gold.5 This conclusion leaves wide open the question of the actual authorship of the De secr. It has been suggested that it was written by another Ramon, a certain Ramon de Tarraga, who was born to Jewish parents about the time Lull died, and who, after reaching manhood and becoming a rabbi, converted to