NOTRE DAME DE PARIS AND THE ALCHEMY by Fulcanelli

Fulcanelli (1839 - fl.1953) was undoubtedly a Frenchman, widely and profoundly educated, and learned in the ways of alchemical lore, architecture, art, science, and languages. Fulcanelli wrote two books that were published after his disappearance:
1/ Dwellings of the Philosophers, published in Paris in 1929.

2/ The Mystery of the Cathedrals, written in 1922 and published in Paris in 1926.

The Mystery of the Cathedrals decodes the symbology found upon and within the Gothic Cathedrals of Europe which have openly displayed the secrets of alchemy for 700 years.
Chapter two of The Mystery of the Cathedrals ends with the declaration that not only are the cathedrals books in stone, and Notre-Dame in particular is the Philosopher's Book, but that the book has secrets hidden, as Fulcanelli so eloquently says, "under the petrified exterior of this wonderous book of magic."

Alchemist sculpture on Notre Dame.

MORE ABOUT FULCANELLI:

1/ http://vincentbridges.com/1999/12/01/fulcanelli-the-mystery-the-secret-and-the-man/

2/ http://hermetism.free.fr/indexUS.htm

3/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulcanelli