ARNALD OF THE NEWE TOUN. Arnoldus de Villanova, c. 1235-1314, was a Catalan theologian and alchemist. Arnold was so renowned that Peter III of Aragon asked for his services when he became ill; as a reward for curing him, Peter gave Arnold a castle in Tarragon. Arnold probably taught at Montpellier, which was under the jurisdiction of Aragon. In 1292 he wrote his Tetragrammaton, a treatise of four books in Hebrew and Latin, and published De conservatione juventutis et retardatione senectutis (On the Conservation of Youth and the Retarding of Old Age) in 1309. In 1299 the Inquisition in Paris arrested him for his works on alchemy, but he was immediately released. In 1305 the Inquisitor in Valencia forbade the possession or the reading of his books, and five years after his death, in 1319, the Inquisitor and Provost at Tarragon declared his writings heretical. His works on alchemy include Rosarium philosophorum (The Philosopher's Rosary) and De lapide philosophorum (On the Philosopher's Stone).

The Canon's Yeoman says that he refers to Arnold's Rosarium for his knowledge of the alchemical properties of mercury, CYT 1428-1432. J.L. Lowes points out that the quotation comes from the chapters De secretis naturae (On Nature's Secrets) of the treatise De lapide philosophorum, II-V. E.H. Duncan shows how Chaucer manipulates passages on alchemy, using "sardonic humor and harsh invective" to satirize alchemists so that the treatises seem to condemn alchemy when they actually encourage investigation and experiment. [Hermes]

The form is the English translation of the name and occurs in final rhyming position, CYT 1428.