The Chemical Writings of Brother Basilius Valentinus: The Treatises of Heinrich Eschenreuter

...flow well together, for the Iron The symbol for Mars (♂) represents Iron. is very hard; afterward, pour it out, and you will obtain a dark-brown Tincture with a ruby color. If you then wish to tincture To "tincture" is to transform the color and internal properties of a base metal into a noble one. Iron into Gold The symbol for the Sun (☉) represents Gold., take one part of this Tincture and two hundred times as much Iron by weight; project the Tincture upon it while it is in the fire original: "in dem A," where "A" likely serves as a shorthand for the fire or the crucible., let it stand for half an hour, then pour it out, and you will obtain the best Gold. One can also project it upon Copper The symbol for Venus (♀) represents Copper., but it suffers a loss in weight and yields far too much coarse and combustible Sulfur represented by the symbol 🜍.; also, one receives only half as much from Copper as from Iron. Use this for your sustenance and the support of your life.

The Fourth Particular and Tincture

for Copper into Gold.

Take three ounces of the best Copper, and let

Strong Spirit The OCR "S_f" likely refers to Spiritus fortis (Strong Spirit, often nitric acid) or Spiritus Fumi. in Antimony represented by the symbol ♁. and Salt represented by the symbol 🜔., equal parts of each.

You must first conjoin these spirits by distillation The process of heating a liquid to create vapor and then cooling the vapor to collect the purified liquid. through a glazed alembic A "Helm" or helm-head is the cap of a distilling apparatus.; in this way, they will acquire a pleasant smell. Afterward, you can first dissolve original: "solviren," the chemical process of turning a solid into a liquid solution. the metal Copper with it, but not while the spirits are still in their initial corrosive state. When it is dissolved, let the spirits smoke or distill away from it; afterward, you can wash the remaining paste of Copper well with distilled rain-water...