canon a member of a certain religious order.
Philosopher's Stone an imaginary substance sought by alchemists, who believed it to be capable of transmuting base metals into precious ones.
Arnold reference to Arnoldus de Villa, a fourteenth-century French physician, theologian, astrologer, and alchemist.
Luna … Sol moon and sun.
chimica senioris zadith tabula here, attributed by Chaucer to Plato but in the original publication (Theatrum Chemicum, 1695), it was attributed to Solomon.
ignotum per ignotius Latin, meaning "an unknown thing (explained by) a more unknown thing." In other words, to explain something difficult by using something even more difficult.
