In the streets of Rome, two distinct spirits coexist. Alongside its historical past, with its grand monuments, there exists another, more hidden dimension. This is connected to occultism and the ancient alchemical rituals of the seventeenth century, whose memory seems lost to time, yet which continues to reveal itself silently to those who know where to look. Among alleys and squares, rare traces of this enigmatic past endure, discreet vestiges, yet rich in meaning. Among them, the Alchemical Door, a true manifesto of the esoteric knowledge safeguarded by the Eternal City.
The Alchemical Door
Within the gardens of Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II stands a singular structure: set against a thick wall that neither supports nor encloses anything, where doorposts stand and a lintel of white stone, surmounted by a roundel in Carrara marble. The portal is sealed. It leads nowhere, and two dwarf figures guard its threshold, impossible to cross. Dozens of engravings cover its surface, Latin mottos of esoteric origin and arcane symbols. The Alchemical Door of Rome is a hidden monument, almost detached from the physical world in which it stands. It once gave access to a laboratory of alchemical arts.
The portal’s present composition dates back to 1888. It was then that the squared frame in Apennine limestone was added, leaning against a wall of tufa. On that occasion, two statues depicting the Egyptian god Bes were also installed. They were discovered in the gardens of the Quirinal, where in ancient times a temple dedicated to Serapis once stood. A choice far from accidental: “Al Kemet“, from which the term “alchemy” derives, referred for the ancient Egyptians to the dark, fertile silt left by the Nile during its floods, a symbol of rebirth and transformation. But where was the Alchemical Door originally located? And who was its creator?
The Marquis Massimiliano Savelli Palombara
Originally, the structure stood not far from its present location. The Alchemical Door formed part of the famous Villa Palombara on the Esquiline Hill. This was the residence and place of leisure (otium ) of the Marquis of Pietraforte, Massimiliano Savelli Palombara (1614–1685). The nobleman was deeply fascinated by occultism and frequented the hermetic circle established in Rome by Christina of Sweden. He considered himself an heir to the Rosicrucian tradition1. Palombara had inherited the villa on the Esquiline from his father, Oddo V. However, he altered it according to ritualistic and initiatory principles. For instance, he had five gates engraved with esoteric symbols upon each of them.
The Marquis Palombara also committed his ideas to writing, and his texts reveal the same hermetic doctrine that inspired the villa itself. Thus, in La Bugia, he alluded both to falsehood and to the candlestick that holds the candle: light illuminates and reveals the truth2. Villa Palombara was conceived as a grand representation of the Alchemical Work, the initiatory path towards attaining the Philosopher’s Stone. It was believed that, through alchemical processes, any metal could be transmuted into gold, immortality obtained, and omniscience achieved, that is, the ability to discern good from evil at every moment. Access to the villa, therefore, was granted only to those willing to undertake the initiatory journey with a pure heart. Instead, the profane, blinded by greed for power and material wealth, must remain at a distance.
The mysterious Villa Palombara
Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to see Villa Palombara as it once appeared. The building was demolished in 1883 to make way for new residential housing. What we know of it today is largely owed to Francesco Girolamo Cancellieri (1751–1826), who transcribed the inscriptions of the residence in Dissertazioni epistolari di G. B. Visconti e Filippo Waquier de la Barthe3. The author records that, by the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Door had already been moved to the boundary wall of the villa, opposite the church of Sant’Eusebio. Originally, however, it served as the entrance to the Marquis’s personal laboratory. It was a chthonic space where alchemical experiments took place, frequented by important figures of the age associated with occultism, such as Athanasius Kircher and Giuseppe Francesco Borri. An inscription placed upon an arch recorded the date of Palombara’s alchemical project as 16804.
Villa Palombara’s welcome inscription
The villa’s welcome message placed on one of the boundary walls5, invited people to be disposed in the right spirit to start the initiatory path:
“In this villa, beneath the dew of heaven, among ploughed fields and flowing waters, the tilled earth yields fruit, while from saltpetre and the sun rises the smoke of scattered manure. This woodland, though modest in size, forever preserves its form unchanged, while vines, pear trees, and wholesome fruits have sprung forth naturally. And there is a lake beside the wood, where not the wolf but the hare often plays; nor does it harm the gentle sheep and the birds. The watchful dog among the innocent lambs drives the wild beasts away, and only the air of this countryside serves as a remedy for the sick, filling the streets of the city with greenery. The cultivated furrows provide cups of wine to quench thirst”.
“Hoc in Rure, Coeli Rore, fusis Aequis, Physis Aquis, Solum fractum, reddit fructum, dumcum Sale Nitri, Ac Sole, surgunt Fumi sparsi fimi. Istud Nemus, parvus Numus tenet forma sempre firma, dum sunt ortae sine arte Vites, pyra, et Poma pura. Habens Lacum, prope Lucum, ubi Lupus non, sed Lepus saepe ludit; dum non laedit mites Oves, atqua Aves; Canis Custos inter castos agnos Feras mittit foras, et est aegri huius Agri Aer solus vera salus, replens herbis vias Urbis. Sulci sati dant pro siti Scyphos Vini”.
F. G. Cancellieri, Dissertazioni.
“Come in, sincere man”
The inscription continued:
“Come in, sincere man. Venus remains outside. To you thieves, I close the gates. Drink gladly, and in abundance, pure wine according to the custom of Bacchus. Among the vines, if you wish, rejoice, and freely take whatever you desire. With an open heart I prepare for you whatever you may ask of me. Here the shining bees provide plentiful sweet honey, ever soft and flowing. Hail to you who weep here in the shadow of the woodland. If you read these signs while standing here amid a summer mingled with spring, you would never mourn with sorrowful brow if you remained among the flowers, nor would you shed tears while the breezes blow here, from where melancholy souls place their hopes among the mountains, the hills, the pathways, and in the valley of this villa, where a palisade encloses the sheep. I offer you my blessing, so may it be forever. But you, as soon as you are able, write here upon this gate, born from mud, for stones are born from putrefaction, that time smiles, yet in but a short while destroys all things”.
“Intro veni, Vir non vanus. Extra Venus. Vobis, Fures claudo Fores Labe lotus, bibas laetus Meri Mare, Bacchi more.Inter Uvas, si vis, ovas, et quod cupis, gratis capis. Tibi paro, corde puro, quicquid putas, a me petas. Dant hic Apes claras opes dulcis mellis. semper mollis. Hic in Sylvae umbra salve Tu,qui luges. Nunc si leges notas istas, stans hic Aestas, vere mista; fronte moesta nunquamfleres, inter flores si maneres, nec manares inter fletus, dum hic platus aure spirant, undesperant mestae mentes inter Montes, inter Colles, inter Calles et in Valle huius Villae, ubi Vallus Claudit Vellus Bonum Omen; sempre Amen. Etiam Petrae dum a putre surgunt Patre, ita notas hic vix natus, in hac Porta, Luto parta, tempus ridet, brevi rodet”.
F. G. Cancellieri, Dissertazioni.
Villa Palombara’s other inscriptions
For the sake of completeness, we report the text of the other inscriptions in the villa of Massimiliano Savelli Palombara. On the main entrance gate, for instance, there appeared the inscription:
“Passing through the door of this villa, discoverer Jason obtains the fleece of Medea. 1680”.
“Villae ianuam tranando recludens iason obtinet locuples vellus medeae. 1680”.
F. G. Cancellieri, Dissertazioni.
It is interesting to note the mention of Jason, the hero who conquers the Golden Fleece during the Argonauts’ enterprise. This analogy recurs often in Marquis Palombara’s literary work and also on the Alchemical Door. For example, in the Bugia, he writes “If you are constant, patient, and prudent, as a true philosopher must be, you will surely remain victorious, with a singular prerogative among such an infinity of mortals, like a new Jason”. The Golden Fleece is clearly a metaphor for the philosopher’s stone, the sole aim an alchemist should pursue in life. In fact, the initial letters of the phrase engraved on the opening door composed the hermetic acrostic VITRIOLUM, or Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem Veram Medicinam, which means “Visit the inside of the Earth and working righteously you will find the hidden stone, true medicine”.
With the same gaze, one can also read all the other inscriptions that once decorated Villa Palombara:
1) “The water from which the gardens are irrigated is not the water from which they are fed.”
“Aqua a qua horti irrigantur non est aqua a qua hort aluntur”.
2) “Stay quiet with just salt and sunshine.”
“Cum solo sale et sole sile.”
3) “The philosopher’s stone is not given to wolves.”
“Sophorum lapis non datur lupis”.
4) “He who reveals the arcana of nature to the powerful desires death.”
“Qui potenti naturae arcana revelat mortem quaerit”.
5) “Today with money you can buy illegitimate nobility, but not legitimate wisdom.”
“Hodie pecunia emitur spuria nobiltas sed non legitima sapientia”.
F. G. Cancellieri, Dissertazioni.
The Marquis Palombara and the legend of successful transmutation
A legend, recorded by Francesco Girolamo Cancellieri in the Dissertazioni, tells of a mysterious “pilgrim” hosted for a night at the villa of Massimiliano Savelli Palombara. During his stay, he gained access to the gardens of the residence. Here he was searching for a herb necessary for the production of gold. The following morning, before leaving the villa, he allegedly left behind a trail of golden flakes. This was the evidence of an accomplished alchemical transmutation. He also entrusted the Marquis with several sheets with enigmas and magical symbols, containing the secrets of the Philosopher’s Stone. According to the legend, Palombara engraved those signs on the doors of the villa in memory of the event. Later, Pietro Bornia identified the pilgrim with the alchemist Giuseppe Francesco Borri6. However, this hypothesis appears unlikely: at that time, Borri was imprisoned following a conviction by the Roman Inquisition.
The Alchemical Door and the Voynich manuscript
According to some conjectures, the sheets of paper that the pilgrim allegedly handed to the Marquis may have been part of the Voynich manuscript, an illustrated codex from the fifteenth century renowned for its bizarre content and still undeciphered script. The volume has four sections spanning 204 pages, containing depictions of botany, astronomy, biology, and pharmacology. Above all, however, it is written in an incomprehensible language, possibly an encrypted code. Within its pages we can find illustrations of unknown plants, planetary cycles, and unsettling female figures bathing in interconnected pools linked by pipes. It is therefore unsurprising that the Voynich manuscript has gained such fame, often considered the “world’s most mysterious manuscript“, as described by the medieval philosophy scholar Robert Brumbaugh7.
The origins of the Voynich manuscript and Athanasius Kircher
The manuscript takes its name from Wilfrid Voynich, who purchased it from the Jesuit college of Villa Mondragone in Frascati. Inside the volume, there was a letter from Johannes Marcus Marci, rector of the University of Prague, addressed to his friend Athanasius Kircher. The scholar had sent the manuscript to Kircher in the hope that he might be able to decipher it, as he was renowned for his expertise in esotericism and the alchemical sciences. It is no coincidence that Kircher was also the teacher of the alchemist Giuseppe Francesco Borri, the very figure whom legend links to the Alchemical Door in Rome.
Is it therefore possible that Athanasius Kircher left the precious Voynich manuscript as an inheritance to his most trusted disciple, Giuseppe Francesco Borri? And what secrets lie hidden within the pages of this indecipherable enigma, knowledge perhaps capable of guiding Borri in the transmutation of base metals into gold?
The symbolism of the Alchemical Door
The symbols engraved on the surviving gate of Villa Palombara belong to the rich esoteric tradition of the seventeenth century. Among them stands out a Seal of Solomon, enclosed within a stone disc, placed at the top of the portal’s lintel, with the following motto:
“Tria sunt mirabilia deus et homo mater et virgo trinus et unus”.
“The three are admirable: God and man, the mother and the Virgin, trinity and unity”.
Translation by Francesco Roesler Franz, The Roesler Franz Family and the Initiatic Path, Youcanprint, 2022.
This is a reference to the principles of the Alchemical Work, namely spirit, soul and body, to which the three main stages of the transmutation process refer: nigredo, albedo, rubedo.
The six-pointed star of the seal intersects a solar depiction at the bottom, an alchemical oculus symbolizing gold. From it departs a cross pointing skyward. Along the circumference of the oculus is the inscription:
“Centrum in trigoni centri”.
“The centre is in the triangle of the centre”.
Translation by Francesco Roesler Franz, The Roesler Franz Family and the Initiatic Path, Youcanprint, 2022.
The Marquis Palombara certainly had to find this symbology from the texts of the German alchemist Adrian von Mynsicht (1603-1638). This had published the Rosicrucian treatise Aureum Seculum Redivivum under the pseudonym Henricus Madatanus8. In the title page, in a posthumous printing of 1677, was the hexagram, later reproduced in the Alchemical Door.
The portal frame contains a vast allegory of alchemical symbols, certainly taken from Johannes de Monte-Snyder’s Chymica vannus – Commentatio de pharmaco catholico (1655)9. Specifically, there are seven signs of planets, each one paired with corresponding metals: Saturn-lead; Jupiter-tin; Mars-iron; Venus-copper; Mercury-mercury; Sun-gold; Moon-silver. Every symbol is associated with a short hermetic motto indicating the operations to be carried out during the alchemical process. The signs therefore follow a boustrophedon pattern.
The mottos on the jambs of the Alchemical Door
Thus for Saturn the Alchemical Door reveals:
“When in your house the black crows will generate white doves, you will be called wise”.
“Quando in tua domo nigri corvi parturient albas columbas tunic vocaberis sapiens”.
Translation by Francesco Roesler Franz, The Roesler Franz Family and the Initiatic Path, Youcanprint, 2022.
This is a reference to nigredo, the first phase of the Alchemical Work. Of Jupiter, on the other hand, it said:
“The diameter of the sphere, the tau of the circle, the cross of the globe are of no use to the blind”.
“Diameter spherae thau circuli crux orbis non orbis prosunt”.
Translation by Francesco Roesler Franz, The Roesler Franz Family and the Initiatic Path, Youcanprint, 2022.
Epigraph referring to saltpeter, the “diameter of the sphere”, to Vitriolum, here “tau of the circle”, and finally to antimony, that is, the “cross of the globe”. To undertake the alchemical path one cannot be blind. One needs to possess the knowledge symbolized by Jupiter. The Alchemical Door associates the following inscription with Mars:
“He who knows how to burn with water and to wash with fire will transform the earth into heaven and heaven into precious earth”.
“Qui scit comburere aqua et lavare igne facit de terra caelum et de caelo terram pretiosam”.
Translation by Francesco Roesler Franz, The Roesler Franz Family and the Initiatic Path, Youcanprint, 2022.
How can we burn with water and wash with fire? This paradox should be read in allegorical terms: the soul of man had to be as clear as water and as light as the sky. This is possible only by passing through the purifying flame of spiritual fire. In practical terms this translated into the material union of sulfur and mercury. This process of elevation of the soul is also referred to in the inscription associated with Venus:
“He who makes the earth fly with the breath of his own head, will have converted the water of the torrents into stone”.
“Si feceris volare terram super caput tuum eius pennis aquas torrentium convertes in petram”.
Translation by Francesco Roesler Franz, The Roesler Franz Family and the Initiatic Path, Youcanprint, 2022.
Regarding Mercury, the inscription states:
“Nitrogen and Fire: bleaching Leto, will come Diana without a robe”.
“Azot et Ignis dealbando latonam veniet sine veste diana”.
Translation by Francesco Roesler Franz, The Roesler Franz Family and the Initiatic Path, Youcanprint, 2022.
Leto was the goddess of motherhood and transformation. We should regard Diana as the image of light, as the etymology from the Proto-Indo-European dyeu, meaning “bright.” The figure of resurrection represents the sun, which sets each evening and then returns in the morning:
“Our dead son lives and will return as king of the world, of fire and beneficiary of the occult marriage”.
“Filius noster mortuus vivit rex ab igne redit et coniugio gaudet occulto”.
Translation by Francesco Roesler Franz, The Roesler Franz Family and the Initiatic Path, Youcanprint 2022
Hence, the alchemist has to be reborn as a new man and to experience the fullness of knowledge.
The threshold of the Alchemical Door
On the threshold, the Alchemical Door exhorts the one who has found the philosopher’s stone to put that knowledge at the service of all, not to keep it only for himself:
“The secret task of the wise man is to open the earth to bring salvation to the people”.
“Est opus occultum veri sophi aperire terram ut germinet salutem pro populo”.
Translation by Francesco Roesler Franz, The Roesler Franz Family and the Initiatic Path, Youcanprint 2022
Above all, there is here the palindromic motto that most urges one to persevere in the alchemical quest:
“If you sit you don’t go” or “If you don’t sit you go” by inverting the direction of reading”.
“Si sedes non is”.
The Divine Spirit
All nature and the universe obey the Spirit of God, here evoked in the lintel through the Hebrew wording רוח אלהים, Ruach Elohim. The Alchemical Door thus represents the threshold that man must cross to reach divine illumination. This is the spiritual gnosis that can elevate him to a higher stage of knowledge, not without effort.
This concept recurs again by means of the figure of Jason. In the myth he has to put a dragon to sleep in order to reach the Golden Fleece:
“The dragon guards the entrance to the magical garden, and without Hercules Jason would not have been able to taste the delights of Colchis”.
“Horti magici ingressum Hesperius custodit draco et sine Alcide colchicas delicias non gustasset Iason” .
Translation by Francesco Roesler Franz, The Roesler Franz Family and the Initiatic Path, Youcanprint 2022
The philosopher’s stone as man’s inner path
The Alchemical Door of Rome, as is evident from the symbolism and epigraphs engraved on it, is an allegory of the “solve et coagula” principle, so dear to 17th-century Hermetists. Such was the foundational logos of man’s spiritual transformation, made explicit through the transitions between the different phases of matter (lead, silver, mercury etc.). “Dissolve and reunite”: transmuting lead into the noblest gold meant dissolving the old man in order to access the true essence of self. It is a difficult path only for the initiated (“The secret task of the wise man”) and not suitable for the profane (“[…] the cross of the globe are of no use to the blind”).
The Alchemical Door thus depicted the threshold that the initiate had to cross to access the path. It was a metaphor for the inner will that drove to perfection (“If you sit you don’t go”). This inner transmutation took place through the solving of the most elemental matter (also called salt). As impurities were removed, it ended with the attainment of the highest stage of purity, the Philosopher’s Stone. This was the stage of the deepest knowledge, of the one who “lives and will return as king of the world, of fire and beneficiary of the occult marriage”.
Samuele Corrente Naso
Notes
- M. F. Iovine, Massimiliano Palombara filosofo incognito. Appunti per una biografia di un alchimista rosacrociano del XVII secolo, La Lepre Edizioni, 2016. ↩︎
- M. Savelli Palombara, La Bugia. Rime del Marchese Massimiliano Palombara, MDCLX; nel Codice Reginense Lat. 1521 conservato nella Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. ↩︎
- F. Cancellieri, E. Q. Visconti, Dissertazioni epistolari di G. B. Visconti e Filippo Waquier de la Barthe sopra la statua del discobolo scoperta nella Villa Palombara, Fulgoni, 1806. ↩︎
- Cesare Lucarini, La porta magica di Roma: Le epigrafi svelate, Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2017. ↩︎
- P. Bornia, La Porta Magica di Roma, Studio storico, Luce e Ombra, 1915. ↩︎
- Ibidem. ↩︎
- R. Brumbaugh, The World’s Most Mysterious Manuscript, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Londra, 1977. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 4. ↩︎
- Iohnannes de Monte-Snyder, Chymica vannus-Commentatio de pharmaco catholico, Apud Joannem Janssonium à Waesberge & Elizeum Weyerstraet, Amsterdam, 1666. ↩︎
- Photo by Sailko – Own work, CC BY 2.5, image. ↩︎
