unprofitable". He also gives us something of a biography, professing that he began his study of alchemy at a young age and learned "the seacrets of Alkimy" from the adept alchemist George Ripley. He describes that on two occasions he made an "elixir of life" only for it to be stolen away from him by the greed of others - first by his valet, and the second time by a merchant's wife. Notably, the book contains several verses satirising certain alchemical or hermetic connections to the Middle English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who had written The Canon's Yeoman's Tale, a work satirizing alchemists. Inadvertently, this played a large part in the Renaissance conception of Chaucer as an alchemist, which was later abandoned as it was found to be untrue. The book also contains the first supposed description of a dampers, describing Norton's construction of a furnace with no fewer than sixty temperatures it could attain at a single time. Discovery of Norton's authorship In 1617 Michael Maier in his Symbola Aureae Mensae, identifies Norton as such: Similarly, in 1652 Elias Ashmole in his Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum identifies Norton: Both of these men were drawing from the rather esoterically hidden message found in the Ordinal - where, by connecting the syllables from the first lines of the first 7 chapters of the book, a message is found. This message being: "To Mais Nor Ton Of Brise To", or as Maier and Ashmole interpreted it "Thomas Norton of Bristol". Authorship controversy Norton was first identified as the author of the 'Ordinal' in 1617 and has since become the widespread identification of the work's author. However, in 1932, two scholars, M. Nierenstein and P. F. Chapman, criticised this identification (which they named "the Maier-Ashmole hypothesis") under the grounds that, beyond the esoteric link drawn by Maier and Ashmole, very little contemporary evidence seemed to link Norton to the Ordinal. This criticism received little attention in its time and a 1957 article by historian J. Reidy roundly criticised the article, arguing conclusively in favour of the 'Maier-Ashmole hypothesis' by citing various contemporary pieces of evidence that imply that Norton was a significant alchemist and very likely wrote the Ordinal. Editions and legacy Norton's Ordinal is reported to exist in 32 manuscripts. A very early and beautifully illuminated manuscript of the Ordinal exists in the British Library (BL Add MS 10302) made during Norton's lifetime and