of the death, or ruine of all things.
what death is.t
he death of all naturall things is nothing else but an alteration and destruction of their powers, and vertues, a predominancy of that which is evill, and an overcoming of what is good, an abolishing of the former nature, and generation of a new, and another nature. for you must know that there are many things that, whilst they are alive, have in them severall vertues, but when they are dead retaine little or nothing of[pg 36] their vertue, but become unsavory, and unprofitable. so on the contrary many things, whilest they live, are bad, but after they are dead, and corrupted, manifest a manifold power, and vertue, and are very usefull. wee could bring many examples to confirme this, but that doth not belong to our purpose. but that i may not seem to write according to mine own opinion only, but out of my experience, it will bee necessary that i produce one example, with which i shall silence those sophisters, who say, that wee can receive nothing from dead things, neither must we seek, or expect to find any thing in them. the reason is, because they do esteem nothing of the preparations of alchymists, by which many such like great secrets are found out. for looke upon mercury, crude sulphur, and crude antimony, as they are taken out of their mines, i.e. whilest they are living, and see what little vertue there is in them, how slowly they put forth their vertues, yea they do more hurt, then good, and are rather poison, then a medicine. the preparation of mercury sulphur and antimony.but if through the industry of a skilfull alchymist, they bee corrupted in their first substance, and wisely prepared (viz. if mercury be coagulated, precipitated, sublimed, dissolved, and turned into an oyle, if sulphur bee sublimed, calcined, reverberated, and turned into an oyle; also if antimony bee sublimed, calcined, and reverberated and turned into oyle) you shall see how usefull they are, how much strength, and vertue they have, and how quickly they put forth, and shew their efficacy, which no man is able to speak enough in the commendation of, or to describe. for many are their vertues, yea more then will ever bee found out by any man. wherefore[pg 37] let every faithfull alchymist, and physitian spend their whole lives in searching into these three: for they will abundantly recompense him for all his labour, study, and costs.
what the death of man is.
but to come to particulars, and to write particularly of the death, and destruction of every naturall thing, and what the death of every thing is, and after what manner every thing is destroyed; you must know therefore in the first place, that the death of man is without doubt nothing else, but an end of his daily work, the taking away of the aire, the decaying of the naturall balsome, the extinguishing of the naturall light, and the great separation of the three substances, viz. the body, soule, and spirit, and their return from whence they came. for because a naturall man is of the earth, the earth also is his mother, into which hee must return, and there must lose his natural earthly flesh, and so be regenerated at the last day in a new celestiall, and purified flesh, as christ said to nicodemus when hee came to him by night. for thus must these words bee understood of regeneration.
what the destruction of metalls is.
the death, and destruction of metalls is the disjoining of their bodies, and sulphureous fatnesse, which may bee done severall ways, as by calcination, reverberation, dissolution, cementation, and sublimation.
calcination of metalls is manifold.
but the calcination of metalls is not of one sort: for one is made with salt, another with sulphur, another with aqua fortis, and another with common sublimate, and another with quicksilver.
what calcination with salt is.
calcination with salt is that the metall be made[pg 38] into very thin plates, and strowed with salt, and cemented.
calcination with sulphur.
calcination with sulphur is, that the metall bee made into thin plates, and strowed with sulphur, and reverberated.
calcination with aqua fortis.
calcination with aqua fortis, is that the metall bee made very small, and dissolved in aqua fortis, and precipitated in it.
calcination with sublimate.
calcination with sublimed mercury is this, that the metall bee made into thin plates, and that the mercury bee put into an earthen vessell narrow towards the top, and wide at the bottome; and then let it be set into a gentle fire made with coales, which must bee blowed a little untill the mercury begin to fume, and a white cloud goe forth of the mouth of the vessel, then let the plate of the metall bee put into the top of the vessel, and so the sublimed mercury wil penetrate the metall, and make it as brittle as a stone of coal.
calcination with quicksilver.
calcination with quicksilver, is that the metall bee made very small, and thin, and be amalgamated with quicksilver, and afterward the quicksilver bee strained through leather, and the metall remain in the leather like chalke, or sand.
divers other sorts of mortification of metalls.
now besides these mortifications of metalls, and destructions of their lives, know also that there are yet more. for rust is the death of all iron, and steel, and all vitriall, burnt brasse is mortified copper: all precipitated, sublimated, calcined cinnabar is mortified mercury, all ceruse, and minium of lead is mortified lead; all lazure is mortified silver: also all gold from which its tincture, quintessence, rozzen, crocus, vitriall, or sulphur is extracted, is[pg 39] dead, because it hath no more the form of gold, but is a white metall like fixed silver.
a two fold preparation of crocus martis.
but let us proceed to shew how metalls may bee yet further mortified. first therefore of iron, know that that is mortified, and reduced into crocus this way. make steel into very thin plates: make these plates red hot, and quench them in the best wine-vineger, doe this so often til the vineger hath contracted a considerable rednesse, then distil of the vineger, til there bee nothing but a dry powder remaining. this is a most excellent crocus martis.
there is also another way of making crocus martis, which doth partly exceed the former, and is made with farre lesse costs, and pains, and it is this.
strow upon the plates of steel, sulphur, and tartar, being both in a like quantity; then reverberate them, and this wil produce a most excellent crocus, which must bee taken off from the plates.
also you must know, that every plate of iron, or steel, if it bee melted with aqua fortis; will also make a very fair crocus; so also it is made with oyle of vitriall, spirit of salt, allum water, the water of salt armoniacke, and of salt nitre; as also with sublimated mercury, all which mortifie iron, and bring it into a crocus; but none of these latter wayes is to bee compared to the two former, for they are only used in alchymie, and not at all in physicke; wherefore in this, use only the two former, and let alone the rest.
[pg 40]
the mortification of copper.
the mortification of copper, viz. that it may be reduced into vitriall, verdegrease, the vitriall of copper is made two wayes.may bee done many wayes, and there are more processes in it, yet one far better then another, and one more profitable then another. wherefore it is most convenient here to set down the best, and most profitable, and to bee silent in the rest. the best therefore, the most easy, and exactest way of reducing copper into vitriall is this.
let plates of copper bee dipt in spirit of salt, or salt-petre, and let them bee hanged in the aire until they begin to be green, which indeed wil quickly be, wash off this greennesse with cleer fountaine-water, dry the plates with some cloath, and wet them again with the spirit of salt, and salt nitre, and do again as before, so long until the water bee apparently green, or much vitriall swim on the top: then poure away the water, or evaporate it, and thou hast a most excellent vitriall for medicine. in alchymie there is not a fairer, more excellent, and better vitriall then what is made by aqua fortis, or aqua regis, or spirit of salt armoniacke. and the processe is this.
let plates of copper be melted with one of the aforesaid waters, & as soon as the greeness is extracted, and the plates dryed, let the greeness be taken off with the foot of a hare, or some other way as you please, as ceruse is taken off from the plates of lead: let them bee again wetted as before, until the plates bee wholly consumed, thereby is made a most glorious vitriall, that thou canst not choose but wonder at it.
how water of salt-petre and salt-armoniack is made.
the water of salt petre is made thus. purifie, and powder it; afterwards dissolve it of it selfe in a blad[pg 41]der, put in boyling water. so thou shalt have the water of salt petre.
the water of salt armoniacke is made thus: calcine salt armoniack, and dissolve it in a cellar upon a marble, and this is water of salt armoniack.
verdegrease may be made two wayes.
but to make verdegrease out of copper, there are divers wayes which it is not needful here to recite. wee shall describe only two, but with a double preparation, viz. the one for physicke, the other for alchymie. the processe therefore of verdegrease to be used in physick is this.
how verdegrease to be used in physick is to be prepared.
take plates of copper, which wet over with the following matter. take honey, and vineger, of each a like quantity, of salt as much as wil serve to make them up into a thick past. mixe them well together, then put them into a reverberatory, or potters furnace so long as the potter is burning his pots, and thou shalt see the matter that stickes to the plates to bee very black, but let not that trouble thee. for if thou settest those plates in the aire, all the black matter wil in a few days become green, and become a most excellent verdegrease, the balsom of copper.which may bee called the balsome of copper, and is commended by all physitians. but neverthelesse do not thou wonder that this verdegrease becomes green in the aire, and that the aire can change the black colour into so fair a green.
aire changeth the colours of things burnt.
for here thou must know that daily experience in alchymie doth shew, that any dead earth, or caput mortuum, as soon as it comes out of the fire into the aire, doth quickly get another colour, and leaves its own colour which it got in the fire. for the changes[pg 42] of those colours are various. for as the matter is, so are the colours that are made, although for the most part they flow from the blacknesse of the dead earth. for you that are skilful in alchymie see that the dead earth of aqua fortis comes black from the fire, and by how many more ingredients there bee in it, by so much the more variously doe the colours shew themselves in the aire: sometimes they seem red, as vitriall makes them: sometimes yellow, white, green, blew: sometimes mixt, as in the rainbow, or peacocks taile. all those colours shew themselves after the death, and by the death of the matter. for in the death of all naturall things here are seen other colours, which are changed from the first colour into other colours, every one according to its nature, and property.
the preparation of verdegrease to be used in alchymie.
now we wil speak of that verdegrease which is to bee used in alchymie. the preparation, and processe of that is this.
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.
how ?s vstum, or crocus of copper is to be made.
now to turne copper into ?s ustum, which is called the crocus of copper, the processe is this:
[pg 43]
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.
the sublimation of quicksilver.
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:
how to make a fixt precipitat diaphoreticall.
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.
[pg 44]
how to make a sweet precipitate.
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.
how quicksilver may be coagulated.
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 h?matites.
there are two kinds of ceruse.
the mortification of lead to bring it to a ceruse, is twofold; the one for medicine, the other for alchymie. the preparation of them.the preparation of ceruse for medicine is this:
[pg 45]
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.
the preparation of minium out of lead.
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.
the crocus of lead.
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,[pg 46] 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.
how the azure colour is made of silver.
the mortification of silver, that of it may be made the azure colour, or something like to it, is thus:
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.
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.
how the sulphur, and the vitriall of gold are made.
but to extract vitriall out of gold, the processe is this:[pg 47]
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.
the mortification of sulphur, that the combustible and stinking fatnesse may bee taken away, and it brought into a fixed substance, is thus:
[pg 48]
the mortification and fixation of sulphur.
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 salts.
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.
the mortification of gemmes.
the mortification of gemmes, and coralls, is to calcine, sublime, and dissolve them into a liquor, as crystall. the mortification of pearls is to calcine them, and dissolve them in sharp vineger into the form of milke.
the mortification of the loadstone.
the mortification of the loadstone, is to anoint it with the oyle of mercury, or to put it into quicksilver, for afterward it will not draw iron at all to it.
the mortification of flints and stones.
the mortification of flints, and stones, is to calcine them.
the mortification of marcasites.
the mortification of marcasites, cachyma’s, talke, cobaltus, zinri, granuti, zunitter, unismut,[pg 49] and of antimony is their sublimation, i.e. that they bee sublimed with salt, and vitriall, then their life which is a metallick spirit, together with the spirit of salt, ascends. and let whatsoever remains in the bottome of the sublimatory, bee washed, that the salt may bee dissolved from it, and then thou hast a dead earth, in which there is no vertue.
the mortification of realgar.
the mortification of arsenickes, auripigment, operment, realgar, &c. is, that they flow with salt nitre, and bee turned into an oyl, or liquor upon a marble, and be fixed.
the mortification of excrements.
the mortification of excrements, is the coagulation of aire.
the mortification of aromatical things.
the mortification of aromaticall things is the taking away of their good smell.
of sweet things.
the mortification of sweet things, is to sublime and distill them with corrosive things.
of resines.
the mortification of ambers, resines, turpentine, gumme, and such like, is to turn them into oyle, and vernish.
of hearbs and roots.
the mortification of hearbs, roots, and such like, is to distil off from them their oyle, and water, and presse out their liquor with a presse, and also to make their alcali.
of wood.
the mortification of wood, is to turne it into coales, and ashes.
of bones.
the mortification of bones, is their calcination.
of flesh.
the mortification of flesh, and blood, is the taking away of the spirit of salt.
of water.
the mortification of water is by fire, for all heat dries up, and consumes water.
of fire.
the mortification of fire is by water, for all water, quencheth fire, and takes from it its power, and force.
[pg 50]
so now you are sufficiently instructed in few words how death lyes hid in all naturall things, and how they may be mortified, and bee brought into another form, and nature, and what vertues flow from them. whatsoever should have been said further, we put in the following book, of the resurrection of naturall things.
