Treatise On The Great Art

What It's About

Drawing on his earlier alchemical writings, Pernety sets out a compact, methodical account of Hermetic philosophy and the "Magisterium" — the theory and practice of alchemy's Great Work. Rather than treating alchemy purely as a spiritual allegory, he presents it as a coherent system of natural philosophy, describing the physical processes and principles believed to govern the transmutation of matter alongside a wider Hermetic cosmology.

Key Concepts

The book centres on the Magisterium, or Great Work — the staged alchemical process said to lead to the philosopher's stone — and situates it within Hermetic ideas about the hidden correspondences between physical matter and spiritual regeneration. Pernety draws a firm distinction between the practical, physical operations of alchemy and the purely mystical readings offered by other commentators, arguing that both dimensions must be understood together.

About the Author

Dom Antoine-Joseph Pernety (1716–1796) was a French Benedictine monk of the Congregation of Saint-Maur who later served as librarian to Frederick the Great of Prussia. Moving in Enlightenment and occult circles, he went on to found a Hermetic secret society in Avignon influenced by Swedenborgian mysticism, and became known for his studies of alchemy and the "hidden sciences."

About This Edition

This is an 1898 translation by an unknown translator.