“The best sublimed to do this operation, is the Regulino sublimed, which is the fourth place above ( perhaps Lancillotti means the fourth chapter) and the reader must be warned to perform the sublimation on his own to do the mentioned operation in order to avoid any falsification, the virtue of this sweet mercury is to purge so finely and magnificently to deserve the name of metallic manna, and it can be safely supplied to pregnant women and toddlers without any fear, and surely any bad humidity will be expelled when supplied with the suitable vehicle, that’s to say with pills. The dosage is from ten to thirty grains and from two to six for newborn babies.
Chapter 7: Seventh Sweet Sublimed, Red, or Paracelsus Coral Arcane.
Take well purged mercury, one pound of well refined saltpeter, and two pounds free of salt, two pounds of rubificato mercury (see end note 1), get all in powder, and mix everything together into a marble mortar and watering with strong distilled vinegar, till no evidence of living mercury will appear, and then put to sublime at scalable sand fire till all the phlegm is out, then increase the fire for twenty-four hours to sublime the whole, and then separate the feces from mercury, which will be risen to the top of the bowl from the red sublimated, and yellow which will powder, and merge with a pound of mercury ( as said above and the reader must be warned that the saltpeter should be free from any other impurity) and lightly calcined alum kneading with the phlegm the above mentioned vinegar, and get back to sublime for twelve hours, separating the feces, and the mercury, and gather aside the red sublimed from the yellow one and wash with lightly alcoholized waters and burn some spirit of wine on the surface, and get the yellow slightly calcined at moderate fire as to turn red, and in the meanwhile wash with alcoholized waters and repeat with the burning of spirit of wine.
This is specific for hydropsy and syphilis and leprosy, cancers and simile. The dosage is from three to eight grains as said above.
Chapter 8: Eighth Sweet Sublimed, or Quintessence of Sublimed Mercury.
Take some purged mercury and get to boil into a soap makers lye, for five or six hours, then do the same with very strong vinegar, of the said take one pound, rubificato vitriol (end-note 1) and saltpeter in equal parts two pounds, mix perfectly everything in a marble mortar, pour some vinegar till the mercury is no more apparent, then have all sublimed as above mentioned, and finished the first sublimation divide the sublimed from the feces, and the second time sublime alone, then the third with its weight of calcined rock alum, and the fourth with saltpeter as above and it will sublime a red sublimed which, smashed, you will put into a suitable flask, and pour on some good alkalized spirit of wine closing very well the flask, put to digest fire during fourteen days, then remove the menstruum, and replace with another if necessary, and all the tinted spirit put to distill at balneum light fire, so all the spirit will pass, and the remaining coagulate at moderate fire, and place in a cellar on a glass, or porphyry to get dissolved by itself, and once solved start again to coagulate in glass and for the second time it will get back to dissolve again, and to coagulate repeating for the third time, and so you will have a very noble coagulated essence of mercury, which given a grain will do wonders.
Chapter 9: Ninth Lunar Sublimed.
Take six ounces of sublimed, cupeled silver in filings, or silver foils two ounces, get all ground, and merge all, and put to sublime at sand heat, and once cooled down the vessel, separate the volatile part from the fixed and crystalline which merge with the feces, and get back to sublime again for two times as above, and then wash over and over, and keep in safe.
The dosage is from six to ten grains.
Chapter 10: Tenth Lunar Sublimed.
Of sublimed take four ounces, purged mercury of life, silver in foils and talc in equal parts, reduce all in powder, and get all sublimed as above for four times and the sublimed has to be powdered, and placed into a flask on sand hat for two days, and will turn into a very white powder.
The dosage is from five to ten grains.
Chapter 11: Eleventh Sublimed, Metallic, or Mercurial, Laudanum.
Take six ounces of the salt extracted from the caput mortuum of strong water aqua fortis ( made of nitre and vitriol in equal parts), purged mercury two ounces, purified nitre two drams, get the whole in powder and mix with vinegar, and sublime according to the art, and so will rise a white part, another will be yellowish, another one crocus color, and the red one, get all powdered together, and sublime once again giving strong fire, and all will turn red, then get all in powder, then wash, and in the end will correct by burning over some spirit of wine .
The dosage is from six to eight grains.
Chapter 12: Twelfth Sweet Sublimed, or Panacea of Purged Mercury.
Make the butter of antimony (4) with very good mercury sublimed two parts, and regulus of antimony one part, get all distilled, and then get all precipitated in mercury of life, you can find the method in Guida alla Chimica first part third book (5). take of the said mercury of life two ounces, mercury of the kind come out of of the said butter one ounce, get sublimed like the sweet mercury, and keep the sublimated like a treasure for every kind of disease.
The dosage is from four to eight grains.
- From Martino Poli Trionfo degli Acidi 1706 ( triumph of acids) page 433: “Unguent for Gangrene. Take vitriol rubificato, that’s to say the caput mortuum remaining after the extraction of the spirit, finely grind, and wash over and over according to the art, then let it dry, and finely grind on porphyry, and with three parts of oil, and one of wax an unguent is made according to the common use of “Speziarie” (pharmacopoeia), and when cooled down add some drops of lavender oil, with this unguent gangrene and other plagues are treated, previously washed with tepid wine.”
- The process of Decrepitation of Common Salt, or calcination, can be found at Lemery & the Spirits of Common Salt with Wine, paragraph “Common Salt calcination;
- Metallic gold is known to fix the volatile Mercurius, see also Atalanta Fugiens and the Golden Apples;
- Carlo Lancillotti Guida alla Chimica, first book page 162: Butter of Antimony, or Powder of Algaroth, called mercury of life.Take of good raw antimony, the type with bright beams, six ounces, of sublimed mercury six ounces, get all in powder, get all mixed together in a marble mortar, and beware of the smell, as it is a venom, then put all in a retort with gathering container, place to distill at sand fire, giving moderate fire, an if the liquor will paste to the retort neck, you will take a red hot coal to liquefy the butter, and once finished the distillation, and the sign is the coming out of a red liquor, get the retort to cool down, then have the liquor to be dissolved at light fire, and when dissolved poured into the same retort to be dissolved again, and once distilled get to distill again, as before, reiterating the said distillation for three-four times, even if some content themselves to distill just one time, but I distill it at least two times, which is better, as the powder is white which is done in the following way: that’s to say putting some common water into the container on the distilled liquor, and you will see all to get back as milk, the white powder precipitating in the bottom, and all will be washed as many times as the water will have no acidity and then you will have it washed two or three times with some cordial distilled water and then will be dried. When all the butter of antimony will be distilled we will have the cinnabar of antimony, and the fire will be increased, place red hot coals around and on the retort, keep on the same fire for three-four hours and the cinnabar will be sublimed at the retort neck, and it will be rectified by sublimation at least once more time. The water impregnated with vitriolic spirit will be all distilled till the spirit will remain in the bottom of the vessel, and that will be called spirit of philosophical vitriol”.