Mutus Liber
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Mutus Liber (from Silent Book) was an alchemical text published in France in the later half of the 17th century. It professed to outline, through a series of mystical illustrations, a method of manufacturing the Philosopher's Stone. It was first printed in 1677 at La Rochelle under the editorship of Pierre Savouret.
Its authorship, long obscured by abstruse claims and speculation, has ultimately been attributed to Isaac Baulot, an apothecary and savant of matters medicinal at La Rochelle, born there in 1612. Scrolls on the last plate of the Mutus Liber bear in awkward Latin the dismissal oculatus abis, "having seen thou departest," which almost anagrams the author's name. A fine hand-colored pressing of 1702, probably unique, is in the Library of Congress, ms. 0215-2110. The beleaguered Huguenots of La Rochelle had good cause during the capricious enforcement and then revocation of the Edict of Nantes to disguise their more occult speculations in code.
Interpretations
The form of Mutus Liber means that is open to various interpretations. Four ways of reading the book may be distinguished.
The most widespread reading is that of 'initiated alchemists', started off by Pierre Dujols, under the pseudonym of Magophon. It is carried on by Eugène Canseliet and Serge Hutin. These authors say that Mutus Liber shows how to proceed to achieve the magnum opus, whose ultimate purpose is to obtain the philosopher's stone.
Carl Gustav Jung studied Mutus Liber, and owned a copy of the 1677 edition. He used it namely to illustrate his work entitled Psychology and Alchemy. In this book Jung explains how alchemy is speculative thinking looking for the spiritual equilibrium whose metaphorical form would be the philosopher's stone. This process is accompanied by the creation of a repertoire of mental pictures, or archetypes, which would gradually lead to a collective unconscious. More recently Lee Stavenhagen worked on the narrative structure used to illustrate Mutus Liber. In their research Jean Flouret and Patrick Sembel have been trying to define the contents of Mutus Liber by putting it into its religious, intellectual and scientific context.
