the / I will show this sufficiently / and in detail in the following report / And so that everyone has a better way to orient themselves accordingly / I shall first state / what is primarily needed for such assaying / and how each piece is to be prepared and made separately / and also from what material / together with the instruments belonging thereto.

How to make and prepare assaying furnaces

for the silver ores / likewise for the

other assays.

A large, ornate initial "Z" featuring floral and scrollwork motifs marks the beginning of this section on furnace construction.

For assaying, one must have special furnaces / made of good potter’s clay or material / and bound with strong iron wire or rails / so that they do not fall apart because of the intense heat.

The beauty and decoration of assaying furnaces is of little use.

Some diligent assayers who keep their equipment clean and tidy / form and decorate their furnaces nicely and proportionally on the outside / so that they have a fine appearance / which gives them a certain ornament / but nothing more is accomplished with them / than otherwise with a common furnace / which is likewise proper / and yet simply made. Now there are many kinds of assaying furnaces / for as an assayer is accustomed / so does he also use assaying furnaces / But one should know all the same / that the fire is easier to regulate in one assaying furnace / to make it hot and cold / than in another / as the difference can be seen from the following figure / I will first report / what kind of furnaces the old assayers used.

Iron assaying furnaces of the ancients.

The common assaying furnaces / in which the ancients / tested their common assays / were made as follows / They had a square shape made from strong iron plate / which was this length ————— at the bottom approximately fifteen wide / and sixteen high / and it tapered from the bottom to the top / so that the square remained ten wide at the top of this length / and the square had no floor / but on the front of the furnace it had a mouth hole four and a half units wide / and three and a half units high.