Turba Philosophorum

Or, "Gathering of the Philosophers." An early and influential Latin alchemical text, dating possibly to the 12th century. In a series of twenty-five dictums, the work discusses the nature of the elements and methods of combining and transforming them. "The Turba Philosophorum, also known as Assembly of the Philosophers, is one of the oldest European alchemy texts, translated from the Arabic, like the Picatrix. It is considered to have been written c. 900 A.D. . . . To quote Plessner, 'the Turba Philosophorum, written c. 900 A.D., is a well planned and, from a literary point of view, a most remarkable attempt to put Greek alchemy into the Arabic language and to adapt it to Islamic science'." [Turba Philosophorum, Wikipedia] The online text is available at www.sacred-texts.com.

Joseph Curwen had a copy in his collection [HPL Case (online text)]. Given his interest in reanimating the dead, Curwen might have been intrigued by lines such as "assuredly, if I understand this regimen, bodies become not bodies, and incorporeal things become bodies..." Although in context, the "bodies" apparently are elements such as copper and mercury, rather than corpses.

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