A New Light of Alchymie Taken out of the Fountaine of...

Make very thin plates of Copper, strow upon them Salt, Sulphur, and Tartar ground, and mixed together, of each a like quantity in a great calcining pot. Then reverberate them twenty foure houres with a strong Fire, but so that the plates of Copper do not melt, then take them out, and break the pot, and set the plates with the matter that sticks to them into the Aire for a few dayes, and the matter upon the plates wil bee turned into a faire Verdegrease, which in all sharp Corroding waters, waters of Exaltation, and in Cements, and in colouring of Gold, doth tinge Gold, and Silver with a most deep colour.

Let Copper be made into thin plates, and be smeered over with Salt made into a past with the best Vineger, then let it be put into a great Crucible, and set in a wind furnace, and be burnt in a strong Fire for a quarter of an houre, but so that the plates melt not: let these plates being red hot bee quenched in Vineger, in which Salt Armoniack is dissolved, alwaies half an ounce in a pint of Vineger; let the plates bee made red hot again, and quenched in Vineger as before, alwaies scraping, or knocking off the scales which stick to the plates after quenching, into the Vineger. Do this so long, until the plates of Copper bee in good part consumed by this means: then distil off the Vineger, or let it vapour away in an open vessel, and bee coagulated into a most hard stone. So thou hast the best Crocus of Copper, the use whereof is in Alchymie. Many make Crocus of Copper by extracting of it with the spirit of Wine, or Vineger, as they do Crocus Martis: But I commend this way far above it.

Now the mortification of Quicksilver that it may bee sublimed, is made with Vitriall, and Salt, with which it is mixed, and then sublimed, so it becomes as hard as Crystall, and as white as snow: but to bring it to a Precipitate, the processe is this:

Let it first be calcined with the best Aqua fortis, then distil off the Aqua fortis, and do this about five times, until the Precipitate become to bee of a faire red colour: Dulcifie this precipitate as much as thou canst: And lastly poure upon it the best rectified spirit of Wine you can get, distil it off from it eight, or nine times, or so often until it be red hot in the fire, and doe not fly: then thou hast a Diaphoretical precipitated Mercury.

Moreover, you must take notice of a great secret concerning precipitated Mercury, viz. if after it is coloured, it bee dulcified with water of salt of Tartar, pouring it upon it, and distilling of it off so often, until the water riseth no more sharp from the Precipitate, but bee manifestly sweet; And the use of it.then thou hast a precipitate as sweet as sugar, or honey, which in all wounds, Ulcers, and Venereal Disease is so excellent a secret, that no Physitian need desire a better.

Besides it is a great comfort to despairing Alchymists. For it doth augment Gold, and hath ingresse into Gold, and with it Gold remaines stable, and good. Although there is much pains, and sweat required to this Precipitate, yet it wil sufficiently recompense thee for thy pains, and costs; and wil yeeld thee more gain, then can bee got by any Art or Trade whatsoever: Thou maist wel therefore rejoice in this, and give God, and mee thanks for it.

Now that Quicksilver may bee coagulated, I said that that must bee done in sharp Aqua fortis, which must bee drawn off by Distillation, and then the Precipitate is made. How Quicksilver may be turned to Cinnabar.But that Quicksilver may bee brought into a Cinnabar; you must first mortifie, and melt it with Salt, and yellow Sulphur, and bring it into a white powder, then put it in a gourd, and put upon it Aludel, or head, and sublime it in the greatest flux you can, as the manner is, so the Cinnabar will ascend into the Aludel, and stick as hard as the stone Hæmatites.

Hang plates of Lead in a glazed pot over strong Wine-vinegar, the pot being well stopt that the spirits doe not exhale: put this pot into warm ashes, or in the Winter into a furnace, then alwaies after ten or fourteen dayes, thou shalt find very good Ceruse sticking to the plates, which strike off with the foot of a Hare: then put the plates over the Vineger again, untill thou hast enough Ceruse.

Now the other preparation of Ceruse for Alchymie is like the former, only that in the Vineger must bee dissolved a good quantity of the best, and fairest Salt Armoniack, for by this means thou shalt purchase a most faire, and beautifull Ceruse, for the purging of Tinne, and Lead, and the whitening of Copper.

But if wee would make Minium of Lead, we must first calcine it with Salt into Calx, and then burn it in a glazed vessel, alwaies stirring it with an Iron rod, till it be red. This is the best, and chiefest Minium, and it is to be used as wel in Physick as Alchymie: but the other which Mercers sell in their shops is nothing worth. It is made only of the ashes, which remaine of the Lead in the melting of it, which also Potters use to glaze their vessels, and such Minium is used for Painting, but not for Physicke, or Alchymie.

Now that Lead may bee brought into yellownesse, the preparation of it is not unlike to the preparation of Minium. For Lead must here be calcined with Salt, and brought to a Calx, and afterwards be stirred with an Iron rod in a Broad bason, such as tryers of Mineralls use, in a gentle Fire of Coales, diligently taking heed, that there be not too much heat, nor a neglect in stirring, for else it will flow, and become a yellow glasse. And so thou hast a fair, yellow Crocus of Lead.

Take plates of Silver, and mix them with Quicksilver, and hang them in a glazed pot over the best Vineger, in which Gilt-heads have been first boiled, and afterward Salt Armoniack, and calcined Tartar have been dissolved; in all the rest doe as hath been said of Ceruse, then alwaies after fourteen days thou shalt have a most excellent, and faire Azure colour sticking to the plates of Silver, which must be wiped off with a Hares foot.

The Mortification of Gold that it may be brought into its Arcana, as into a Tincture, Quintessence, Resine, Crocus, Vitriall, and Sulphur, and many other excellent Arcana, which preparations indeed are many. But because for the most part wee have sufficiently treated of such Arcana in other bookes, as the extraction of the Tincture of Gold, the Quintessence of Gold, the Mercury of Gold, the Oile of Gold, Potable Gold, the Resine of Gold, the Crocus of Gold, and in the Archidoxis, and elsewhere, wee conceive it needlesse here to repeat them. But what Arcana were there omitted, wee shall here set down, As the Vitriall of Gold, Sulphur of Gold, which indeed are not the least, and ought very much to cheer up every Physitian.

Take of pure Gold two, or three pound, which beat into thin plates, and hanging them over Boyes urine, mixt with the stones of grapes, in a large gourd glasse, well closed, which bury in a hot heap of stones of Grapes, as they come from the presse; when it hath stood fourteen dayes, or three weeks, then open it, and thou shalt find a most subtil colour, which is the Vitriall of Gold sticking to the plates of Gold, which take off with the foot of a Hare, as thou hast heard concerning other Metalls; as of the plates of Iron, Crocus Martis, of the plates of Copper, the Vitriall of Copper and Verdegrease, of the plates of Lead, Ceruse, of the plates of Silver the Azure colour, &c. comprehended under one processe, but not with one manner of preparation. When thou hast enough of the Vitriall of Gold; boyle it well in Rain-water distilled, alwaies stirring it with a spatle, then the sulphur of the gold is driven up to the superficies of the water, as fat, which take off with a spoon: Thus also doe with more Vitriall. Now after all the Sulphur is taken off, evaporate that raine water til it bee all dry, and there will remain the Vitriall of Gold in the bottome, which thou maist easily dissolve of it selfe upon a marble in a moist place. In these two Arcana’s, viz. the Vitriall of Gold, and the Sulphur of Gold lies the Diaphoreticall vertue. I shal not here set down their vertues; for in the book of Metallick Diseases, and also in other bookes wee have set them down at large.

Take common yellow Sulphur finely powdered, and draw from it by distillation Aqua fortis, that is very sharp, and this doe three times, then the Sulphur which is in the bottome of a black colour dulcifie with distilled water, until the water come from it sweet, and it retains no more the stink of Sulphur. Then reverberate this Sulphur in a close reverberatory as you doe Antimony, then it will first be white, then yellow, and lastly as red as Cinnabar. And when it is so, then thou maist rejoice: For it is the beginning of thy riches: This reverberated Sulphur tingeth Silver most deeply into most excellent Gold, and the body of Man into most perfect health. This reverberated, and fixed Sulphur is of more vertue then it is lawfull to speak.

The mortification of all Salts, and whatsoever is saltish, is the taking away, and distilling off the aquosity, and oylinesse, and of the spirit of them. For if these be taken away, they are afterwards called the dead Earth, or Caput Mortuum.