Mutus Liber

The Mutus Liber, or Mute Book (from Latin: Silent Book), is a Hermetic philosophical work published in La Rochelle in 1677. It ranks amongst the major books on alchemy in Early Modern literature, just as much as does Atalanta Fugiens by Michael Maier. It has been reprinted numerous times.

Consisting mainly of illustrated plates, Mutus Liber arouses contradictory interpretations. Its meaning was pored over for a long time by authors such as Eugène Canseliet and Serge Hutin, who claimed to be initiated alchemists. More recent studies are striving to use its historical reality in order to reveal its meaning.

The first edition of Mutus Liber dates from 1677, published by Pierre Savouret in La Rochelle. No more than a few dozen copies can have been printed. Twelve original copies are conserved in main Western libraries. There may be more copies, however. As early as 1702 it was reprinted in Geneva, with new plates, and edited by Jean-Antoine Chouet and Jean-Jacques Manget. Eugène Canseliet purports seeing some pages of a Parisian edition dating from 1725. But the existence of this edition has not been established. A third version of Mutus Liber was entirely reprinted around 1760 in Paris, and this third edition is extremely rare. Mutus Liber was temporarily forgotten, but then regained editorial interest in the second half of the 19th century. Since the beginning of the 20th century, editions have multiplied, sometimes accompanied by prefaces detailing more or less precisely its contents. The main editions of Mutus Liber are the following:

Mutus Liber clearly indicates the names of its author and of its inventor. The former is Altus, a “scholar in high chemistry of Hermès”. The latter is Jacob Saulat, Sire of Marez. But as these assertions were soon proven to be fictitious, the authorship of Mutus Liber has long been in doubt.

Rev. Arcère, a noted historian of La Rochelle, claims that Jabob Tollé is the author though his very existence was even put in doubt. Tollé was in fact a Rochelais doctor reputed for using chemistry and mastering perspective. These two qualities account for the fact that he was acknowledged as the author for a long time. However, ever since the article by Jean Flouret, it has been established that the author of Mutus Liber is in fact Isaac Baulot. Using clues in Mutus Liber and contemporary documents, Patrick Sembel suggests three people were involved with Isaac Baulot. Abrahaim Thévenin probably worked on the plates, as the presence of his monetary symbol on the first illustrated page of Mutus Liber indicates. Elie Bouhéreau and Elie Richard must have contributed to the conception of the book. As doctors and scholars who used chemistry, they would have had many contacts who would facilitate publishing the book. Elie Richard studied at Groningen with Des Maretz, a philosopher whose name is used to designate the person who discovered Mutus Liber. Elie Bouhéreau knew Valentin Conrard, a secretary of the Académie Francaise, as well as many major authors and philosophers of the time. It is he who attributed authorship of Mutus Liber to Isaac Baulot.

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