The Pass-Keys to Alchemy. The Lost Book of Lapidus (Modern Magistery series)

Hardcover. 8vo. 110pp. Red cloth with gilt titling to spine and device to upper board. b&w illustrations, index, gold end pages. David Curwen [Lapidus] (1893-1984) was one of the most mysterious personalities of modern alchemysticism, and one of the very few practicing laboratory alchemists residing in the United Kingdom during the latter half of the 20th century. Of this volume the publisher says: "For decades students of alchemy have believed that "In Pursuit of Gold" - which was written by Curwen under the nom de plume Lapidus - constituted the sole alchemical text penned by the enigmatic alchemist Lapidus. The truth is that Curwen wrote a second text which, unknown to most, he secreted away with at least one trusted Brother in the Art. Throughout the intervening years this remarkable book, The Pass-Keys to Alchemy, has passed through just a few select and trusted hands. Each of the chapters of The Pass-Keys to Alchemy details one pass-key to the successful confection of the Philosophers' Stone, as identified by Lapidus. Drawing upon the writings of Eirenæus Philalethes and Ali Puli, The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus the Great, Bendictus Figulus' A Golden and Blessed Casket of Nature's Marvels, Sir Edward Kelly's Book of St. Dunstan, and Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens among other canonical texts, this lost alchemical masterpiece includes the kind of profound insights into alchemical theory, laboratory processes and practical methods that only derive from a lifetime of quiet alchemical work. A rare alchemical gem in print for the first time, The Pass-Keys to Alchemy also includes an introductory essay by Tony Matthews, grandson of Lapidus, and 16 of Theodor de Bry's masterful engraved emblems from Atalanta Fugiens with accompanying commentary by Lapidus. Import.