Distillation

• Describes your annotation plans: One annotation idea entails the scrutiny of historical distillation techniques as observed both in the manuscript and contemporaneously observed ones as well. This scope of study would not only investigate the types of techniques used, but also the contexts in which the techniques were used. I’d like to see if any differences in technique yielded distillation results that would be used in different contexts based on the needed purity or product of a distillation performed.
• Lists the recipes from MS Fr. 640 (and any other source) that you have identified so far (include full recipes if practical)
  • 3v mainly, 7v, 11r, 20v, 31r, 38r, 61v, 67v, 80v, 102r, 102v, 107v, 132v, 163v, 166v
  • Brunschwig’s "Liber de arte distillandi de simplicibus” (if not the text, the images offered in this book are very helpful)
  • Annotations done by the Amsterdam group (esp. colormaking year): of especially good use is a look at the annotations done by Marjolein Hupkes and Marianne Nuij
  • “The Early History of Distillation” by T Fairley
  • Dissertation thesis of Robert Multhauf (development of mineral acid technologies in the early modern period)
• Lays out a schematic plan for the historical, object-based, and hands-on research that will shed light on these recipes.
  • Historical
    • In a very general sense, I would first like to investigate the prevalent distillation techniques contemporaneously used at the conception of the manuscript. This will be a means of obtaining a basic understanding of distillation knowledge at the time
    • From that point, I would like to compare the methods of distillation I discover independent of the manuscript’s mentioning with the use of distillation in the manuscript as products of their applications towards their various recipes. I am imagining schematically cataloguing each instance of the use of distillation, what its purpose was, and what kind of distillation technique was used as a means of more seamlessly comparing my historical research
  • Object-based
    • The first “object” I would like to analyze is the illustration of an apparatus on folio 3v. Though not a physical object, a scrutiny of what it represents could allude to the distillation techniques referenced throughout the rest of the manuscript. I plan to compare the distillation apparatus to concretely identifiable ones and attempt to identify the components illustrated in the folio and their purposes
    • In order to have a better understanding of distillation apparatuses as a whole, I plan to see them in person. To start, the Met Museum holds a plate [34.30(8)] illustrating a distillation apparatus. I would like to use this as another basis of comparison. From there, I plan to scrutinize two alembics in their collection [38.40.195 and 40.170.132]. I am not entirely certain how much these alembics would represent the ones that the artisan-practioner of the manuscript would have envisioned, but I plan to ask someone well acquainted with Islamic arts about the context of these objects.
  • Hands-on
    • The hands-on constructions in my view are two-fold. The first pursuit I would like to explore is the recreation of the apparatus illustrated in folio 3v. I expected that access to a moor’s head alembic (as Professor Smith suggested this folio illustrates) would be fairly simple, but in attempting to find them for sale, they are hard to come by. I think if possible I would like to reconstruct the apparatus as the artisan-practitioner envisioned it. From a more general standpoint, I want to see how viable a reconstruction of something from the manuscript from a simply visual standpoint is and to understand the importance of visual representation in the manuscript through this lens
    • From there, I would like to reconstruct the recipes that involve distillates. If the first endeavor is successful, I would like to try using the constructed apparatus to perform reconstructions as well as compare its effectiveness against other distillation apparatuses of the early modern period as well as, for my own scientific curiosity, modern apparatuses if time permits
  • List of materials you expect to need (are they in the lab inventory? See the Materials and Sourcing Reminders) where you will source them, and safety considerations.
  • Eventually, before you start experiments, you will determine whether you need a safety protocol, and you will formulate one based on the Safety and Workflow template. Your document should describe your workflow, and what safety measures you will need to take. Upload it into the folder labelled Safety - Workflow and Protocol. Your file in this folder should be linked to in your Wiki field notes.

Metal Alloys

• Describes your annotation plans (2 annotations): Another idea I would like to explore would be in metal alloy synthesis. I would like to use this medium as a vector towards understanding alchemical approaches during the early modern period. I would then like to see how the manuscript’s recipes or approaches towards metal alloy synthesis fit in the larger understanding and motivations behind alchemy. As a whole, this annotation will serve a more meta-analytical purpose in contextualizing the metalworking reconstructions done in the past as well as reconstructing upon gaps discovered in the process.
• Lists the recipes from MS Fr. 640 (and any other source) that you have identified so far (include full recipes if practical)
  • 48v mainly
  • Many of the folios used for the metalworking annotations
  • Materials and Expertise in Early Modern Europe: Between Market and Laboratory
  • Medieval Science and Technology by Elspeth Whitney
  • More to come pending the focus of my historical research
• Lays out a schematic plan for the historical, object-based, and hands-on research that will shed light on these recipes.
  • Historical
    • I think it’s important to not only understand the synthesis of metal alloys, but also the context in which they were used. A purpose lies behind creating an alloy, chiefly attributable to the renewed properties exhibited by the alloy. I think it would be nice to investigate the contexts in which alloys were used and why the specific formula was used towards that end
    • I would also like to see the alchemical motivations behind alloy synthesis. Was there a greater underlying purpose for the types of alloys referred to in the manuscript, such as alchemical beliefs? If so, how does the artisan-practioners’s specification of alloy types play into these purposes?
  • Object-based
    • I would like to first understand the materiality of the alloys investigated. To pursuit this venture I think it’s important, from the perspective of a chemist, to understand the properties of the metals mentioned in the manuscript. I will research the physical and chemical properties of the various metals, for instance based on melting point, malleability, luster, hardness, conductivity, and more. I will then look into how the synthesis of specific alloys investigated in the manuscript changed these properties. I will try to find instances of these metals and metal alloys in historical objects or in previous reconstructions in the lab.
  • Hands-on
    • As a final part of this investigation, I would like to align the observations I made through historical research and visual evidence to fit them into the manuscript and specifically the metal working reconstructions done thus far. This could include redoing certain reconstructions, creating certain metal alloy properties for materials that are given a description but not a recipe for their synthesis, etc.
• List of materials you expect to need (are they in the lab inventory? See the Materials and Sourcing Reminders) where you will source them, and safety considerations.
• Eventually, before you start experiments, you will determine whether you need a safety protocol, and you will formulate one based on the Safety and Workflow template. Your document should describe your workflow, and what safety measures you will need to take. Upload it into the folder labelled Safety - Workflow and Protocol. Your file in this folder should be linked to in your Wiki field notes.

• alembic, pelicans, retort, etc.
• how are different apparatuses used in diff processes?
• who’s doing the distillation? is it the artisan-practioner? or apothecary around?
• describing aqua fortis distillation within manuscript (heat up salt to create acid) [p040r/v, p075r]
• Books of secrets on EEBO: piemontesi
• Bruschwig in French? WorldCat, Gallica
• distillation of turpentine: not necessarily alchemical process
• pelican: can make alcohol
• Is this alcohol apparatus catered towards turpentine synthesis?
• Most alchemical apparatuses were glass (acid would eat away copper)
• search manuscript for “vaisseau”, where else is he using it?
  • (I have also washed it in several lots of <m>water</m> &, when it had settled a little, I removed the <m>water</m>, still <del>q</del> blue, with a <tl>sponge</tl> and squeezed it into another <tl>vessel</tl> <del>thus</del> <add>where it settled, & from the residue</add> I had the <m>ash</m>, flower and subtlest part of the <m>azure</m> without crushing it, which is the best, for in the crushing of it, it loses some of its color.
  • Je lay aussy lave avecq plusieurs <m>eaulx</m> & co{mm}e il estoit<lb/> un peu repose je retirois l<m>eau</m> encores <del>q</del> bleue avecq une <tl>esponge</tl><lb/> Et la pressois en un aultre <tl>vaisseau</tl> <del>Ainsy</del> <add>ou elle se reposoit & de la resideue</add> javoys la <m>cendre</m><lb/> la fleur et le plus subtil de l<m>azur</m> sans le broyer qui est<lb/> le meilleur car en le broyant il perd de sa taincture)
  • (p016v_a4)
  • (stucco for moulding p029r_1)
  • (>p035v_2<)
  • p042v_6
  • p047v_a1
• Consult Joel’s PhD advisor
• who would’ve made these apparatuses? (Georgius Agricola: crafts and trades, how glass made etc., look into copper: 441 distillation, 355 distillation apparatus)
  • (355: Both Dioscorides and Pliny describe a distillation apparatus used to recover quicksilver. A formidable list of mineral products and metal alloys in use, indicate in themselves considerable apparatus, of the details of which we have no indication; in the main these products were lead sulphide, sulphate, and oxide (red-lead and litharge); zinc oxide; iron sulphide, oxide and sulphate; arsenic and antimony sulphides; mercury sulphide, sulphur, bitumen, soda, alum and potash; and of the alloys, bronze, brass, pewter, electrum and steel. From this period to the period of the awakening of learning our only light is an occasional gleam from Theophilus and the Alchemists. The former gave a more detailed description of metallurgical appliances than had been done before, but there is little vital change apparent from the apparatus of Roman times. The Alchemists gave a great stimulus to industrial chemistry in the discovery of the mineral acids, and described distillation apparatus of approximately modern form.)
  • (441: This list of four recipes is even more obscure than the previous list. If they were distilled, the first and second mixtures would not produce nitric acid, although possibly some sulphuric would result. The third might yield nitric, and the fourth aqua regia. In view of the water, they were certainly not used as cements, and the first and second are deficient in the vital ingredients. Distillation, at least in crude form, is very old. Aristotle (Meteorologica, IV.) states that sweet water can be made by evaporating salt-water and condensing the steam. Dioscorides and Pliny both describe the production of mercury by distillation (note 58, p. 432). The Alchemists of the Alexandrian School, from the 1st to the 6th Centuries, mention forms of imperfect apparatus—an ample discussion of which may be found in Kopp, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Chemie, Braunschweig, 1869, p. 217.)
• Ch. 51: manner of making oils (Estienne ed. Liebault)
• EEBO translation Maison Rustique: p. around 258 (Chap. LXVI Of the manner of distilling liquors), 274-5 (Chap. LXXXIII-IIII)
• Brunschwig manuscript, recipes in manuscripts other books, what is he thinking about when he talks about distillation? modern method vs. brunschwig/manuscript
• book of the quintessence
• look into vessels, page through braunschweig, maison rustique and other people associated with their work
• Forbes: Middle Ages (p. 64: reference to John of Rupescissa who studied for five years in Toulouse, see also p. 68), Brunschwygk to Boyle (p. 146 features figures from Liebaut, including a Moor’s head!)
• "The depicted apparatus is probably something like the attached image (from Brunschwig, Distillierbuch der rechten kunst […] (Frankfurt, 1550), fol. 6r.). In both pictures, the tap on the left is for letting out the water in the cooler when it gets too warm. It can then be topped up from above. The pipe on the right, as is clearer in this picture, is connected to the ‘helmet’ or alembic where condensation occurs. The image appears in the context of distilling wine rather than turpentine, but as MS Fr 640 and also Brunschwig point out, one can use similar apparatus for both. Brunschwig does talk about distilling turpentine, but he recommends distilling in a vat of ashes heated by a fire rather than on coals. He also tells us at length how he once blew up his workshop while distilling turpentine, so take due care if you’re planning to take this to the lab! He doesn’t say anything about output quantities, but yes, a bucket an hour sounds like a lot. Do we know how much a bucket might have amounted to?” -Advice from Tillmann Taape
• Caption in Brunschwig: Der gemein Distillierzeug / den wein brennern ond andern/jes" gebreuchliche fen/Oben mir einen Rüpferiner Rülkeffel/ auch das man das Waffer abzapfen kan/fe ä“
• But what is the difference between Brunschwig's apparatus and that of our manuscript? What are the effects of these differences?
• How much of the variations in structure are attributable to actual structural differences or the possible inexperience with distillation of the author-practitioner? Why does he leave so many details out that Brunschwig includes? Could this be a convergent development to Brunschwig separate from his influence, especially since there is not concrete evidence that Brunschwig’s works were in French at the time? Or could the author-practitioner have seen one of his apparatuses and been inspired/used it himself?
• "So, it seems like the top is a condensing apparatus and there are little pipes (?) that go through the cold water." (Joel’s hypothesis about what the apparatus “anatomy” is)
• Could I create a device that I can interchange parts to simulate both apparatuses and see the efficiency of both? Why one is special vs. the other?
• Finding a proper way to name the apparatus could guide its classification (it may not be an alembic, this TBD)
• Was the author-practitioner in such a status as to be able to get ahold of something like the Maison Rustique? How well-informed would he have been about its contents?
• History of water condenser (p. 83-85 forbes)
• What kind of distilling went on? Seems like it’d be uncommon if he drew it out? What other vessels does he allude to? Does he ever depict another vessel? Find "vaisseau" and "distill" within manuscript
• Pix graeca (pix = pitch?): does Brunschwig use it too? Look into maison rustique
• Colophony too (3r: it’s nothing but resin heated again —> almost definition like, where did he get it from, why is he explaining it to us?), look into maison rustique
• Look into p. 146 forbes in the original
• You don’t need to do it more than once: where does it stem from?
• Relationship to other written texts and to manuscript
• Context of contemporaneous french writings
• Look through for alembic
• Four books of secrets p. 110
• Did Liebault/Estienne have access to Brunschwig?
• Ambroise Paré and Mattioli (p. 13 of Debus): referred to by author-practitioner
• Distillation in France in 1570-80s
• Texts he refers to at beginning of manuscript: do they refer to distillations?
• Writing: history behind distillation, what we know about distillation in manuscript, close reading of manuscript with context of recipes, what are the questions that then arise?
• History of the vessel
• Nuij’s other words for alcohol: brandy, eau de vie, alcohol spirits, aqua vita, aqua gardens, esprit de vin; also quintessence (Forbes p. 90 has details)
• Forbes p. 81 “The methods of heating…” to p. 83 “…harbor the vessels to be heated”: heating methods
• Forbes p. 86-7: mineral acids
• Forbes p. 88: distillation recipes
• Forbes p. 91-92: essential oils
• In his “Short History of the Art of Distillation,” R. J. Forbes notes the rise of books on practical technology in the 16th century. He writes, “The authors are mainly Germans and Italians, but we find French names too...there were many anonymous pioneers, who wrote the earliest pamphlets of this kind between 1500 and 1550. They too play a part in the history of distillation...” (Forbes, 100).
• French terms for alcohol? e.g. Forbes p. 107
• Forbes p. 109-116: bio of Brunschwig, including publication dates of important works
• Forbes p. 66-7
• First Draft Comments/Notes
  • Original text: digest, what does it show?
  • Look into Buckrum sausage annotation Fall 2016 for illustration means
  • Interest in apparatus for particular use —> what it tells about him?
    • Turpentine (different quantities, sale!) + alcohol
  • Bucket: unit?
    • Couldn’t find anything concrete —> arbitrary unit?
    • Unit relative to size of vessel?
    • Maybe “bucket” refers to a part of vessel
  • Values of xii sous
  • Copper: just top? Whole thing?
    • Brunschwig only specified top
    • “Since it makes things green”: suggests it could be more than just top, since heating comes from vessel and copper only as “cool” head from which condensate forms, no formal reactions can occur here
  • 3v knowledge:
    • Illustration: someone could show, AP saw possibly in Brunschwig
    • Use/text: question here, why specifically turpentine, not alcohol like in Brunschwig?
      • “Common” as described in Brunschwig, question is how AP knows uses? Did he understand mechanism? He could’ve just seen it as a “black box”
        • Also to what extent did he practice?
  • Question of framing
  • Other app: no scale, purposes of drawings? as smaller argument —> bigger one
  • p102r_1.png Colchis
  • Why “common” vessel in Brunschwig?
  • Internal work within Ms. Fr. 640
  • Question of whether pictured vessel is Moor’s head by visual analysis: see Forbes’s “moor’s head"
  • How these // AP description?
    • AP doesn’t describe vessel itself, rather its uses
    • He doesn’t name it
    • He might not even known its exact name or classification —> knowledge of distillation might’ve been more on practical intents and purposes than on mechanism of apparatus
  • // fol. 3v with other apparatuses in manuscript
  • Multiple vs. single distillation in fol. 3v apparatus: reconstruction? historical questions can answer this?
  • Reconstruction ideas
    • Distillation of turpentine —> pix graeca? (colophony?)
    • Build app —> characterization?
  • Pix graeca: etymology, other mentions in manuscript?
    • 162r_1: “Greek” (coast)
  • Discussion of illustration, drawing —> AP?
  • Physical apparatus: what does AP want to do with it? Seems practical
  • Colophony
    • This vs. pix graeca in manuscript, where does the term “pix graeca” come from?
    • Cover all ground within manuscript
    • Why define in 3r?
      • Maybe speaks to practical knowledge, esp. “definition” doesn’t seem very concrete, rather how to get there
      • Only one sentence definition, rest of entry is synthesis
    • Introduce interest in colophony in manuscript: only on fol. 3r and 3v
  • Glasswork annotation
  • Title plate of Nova Report has apparatus (Met catalogue)
  • Apparatus + text
  • Who made these vessels? Copper makers in Toulouse?
  • Spinet annotation
  • Context of distillation at the time? Interest in high-throughput production
  • Why include illustration in the first place if it might not be that informative or unique?
  • Why copper (AP justifies it)? Why this vessel? What are its properties, how do they parallel AP’s interest?
  • Why make drawing esp. with few details? In comparison to some other drawings
  • No indication on how to build the vessel
• Preparations of second draft
  • Reading of original text
    • “You can use it to make either regular or high-quality turpentine”: implies quality control, how to correlate with quality description in alcohol (“one does not even need to distill it again")
    • “As you know”: audience? Maybe some distillation knowledge implied
    • “Maintain cold water in the cooler on top”: // Brunschwig description
    • “Rosin”: translate from colophoine
  • Reading of Brunschwig text on similar apparatus
    • “Common”: not special? widespread?
    • “Other things”: what other things?
    • “Most commonly used”: may explain why AP would know about it?
    • “At the top with a Copper Condenser”: only the top? Could be for this vessel to work this is the critical part that must be in copper
    • “One can also draw the water off”: // development of the technology
    • “Very useful”: AP seems to know this too

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