Salomon Trismosin

Solomon or Salomon Trismosin (fl. late 15th – early 16th century) was a legendary Renaissance alchemist, claimed possessor of the philosopher's stone and teacher of Paracelsus. He is best known as the author of the alchemical works Splendor Solis and Aureum Vellus.

Biography Little is known about Trismosin's life beyond the legendary tales of his journeys found in works attributed to him. These tales, according to historian of religion J. Peter Södergård, had little value other than providing an "aura of historicity" to the texts attributed to him. Most of the source for his life comes from a short autobiography written in Aureum Vellus.

He is said to have begun his interest in alchemy when observing an alchemist and miner named Flocker perform an alchemical operation that allegedly transmuted lead into gold. The miner died shortly after, never revealing his secret to the young Trismosin. This led to a lifelong search for such alchemical secrets.

Trismosin writes that in 1473 he set out on a journey to find a true alchemist. He found only frauds and fools claiming to have transmuted base metals into silver and gold, which put him off his search for some time. Having abandoned his search, he came to a college in Venice where he met a German alchemist named Tauler. Tauler taught Trismosin his alchemical secrets and Trismosin learned how to transmute mercury into gold.

Patronized by a local nobleman, Trismosin continued these transmutational experiments until the nobleman died in a hurricane. Later Trismosin learned the secret of duplication.

Trismosin is said to have been in possession of the panacea and, according to Hartmann, was last seen alive by a French traveller at the end of the 17th century. (see below) along with a short autobiography of Trismosin (which is the source for much of Trismosin's life) The manuscript consists of 100 pages of German text interspersed with 22 large allegorical illuminations. The illuminations are steeped in symbolism and their specific meanings are not known. Several are suspected to depict esoteric alchemical processes, possibly for the creation of the philosopher's stone.