• Ord-Hume, Arthur W. J. G. Perpetual Motion. St. Martin's Press, 1977.

• Stillman, John M. The Story of Alchemy and Early Chemistry. Dover, 1960.

• Thorndike, Lynn A History of Magic and Experimental Science. Macmillan, 1923.

• Wilkins, John Mathematical Magic, or the Wonders That may be perform'd by Mechanical Geometry. London, 1648. (I used the edition of 1707.)

• Yates, Frances A. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. Shambhala, 1978.

• The original Latin text of the Olybius inscription is as follows (you may want to check my translation--my Latin is a little rusty):

  On the larger urn:
   
  
  Plutoni sacrum munus ne attingite fures
  Ignotum est vobis hoc quod in orber latet
  Namque elementa gravi clausit digesta labore
  Vase sub hoc modico MAXIMUS OLYBIUS
  Adsit foecundo custos sibi copia cornu
  Ne tanti pretium depereat laticis.
   
  
  On the smaller urn:
   
    
  Abite hinc pessimi fures
  Vos quid vultis, vestris cum oculis emissitiis
  Abite hinc, vestro cum Mercurio
  Petasato Caduceatoque
  Donum hoc maximum, MAXIMUS OLYBIUS
  Plutoni sacrum facit.
  

Riddle of the Ever-Burning Lamp -- Ancient World -- Middle Ages -- Early Scientists
Robert Plot-- The Rosacrucians -- Sources