Book of Abraham the Jew

In 1735, a book emerged, claiming to be the ancient alchemical work of Rabbi Abraham Eleazar. It comprised seven chapters, each featuring an illustration derived from the manuscript with golden leaves, which Nicolas Flamel had supposedly discovered in the late 14th century. However, this version included extensive commentary on the images, explaining the alchemical process in depth.

The structure of the book is quite intriguing. Each chapter's alchemical material is framed by opening and closing sections that present a fervent Jewish religio-nationalistic message, couched in messianic, end-of-days terms.

The alchemical content itself is a familiar set of ideas, including the wet and dry ways, the progression of the alchemical process through color changes, culminating in the production of two transmuting tinctures—one for gold and another for silver. Much of the process involves cycling through sublimations and distillations, making substances rise in the flask through heating, collecting the sublimate or distillate, and then repeating this many times.