(Ms. 992, fol. 2° verso, Musée Condé of Chantilly)
Preparation of Gold according to King Matthias of Hungary:
A portion of moon is dropped into gold.
Recipe:
Take one pound of mercury, properly prepared, and mix six ounces of massena well together. Then place it into a crucible with its container, ensuring that the joints are not disturbed. The mercury will pass into the container and will thus be properly purified and prepared. Wash it with hot water and allow it to pass through leather and be retained for later use.
Take one ounce of gold, either laminated or finely filed. Heat it in a crucible. In another crucible, heat four ounces of mercury. Then, create an amalgam by mixing them thoroughly with a stick. Afterward, pour the mixture into hot water and wash it. Remove the water, and dry it with a linen cloth. Then, mix it with double-prepared common salt. Place everything in a sealed glass container, and put another sealed container over it. Set it to sublime, and the live mercury will sublimate, which will be used to multiply the following medicine.
Next, take the gold and the salt that remain at the bottom, and wash them with hot water. The salt will dissolve, and the gold will stay at the bottom. Heat it as before, in a crucible. In another crucible, heat four ounces of live mercury and make an amalgam, as described earlier. Sublimate and save the mercury. Repeat this process three times, and you will have your gold well calcined.
Always remember to amalgamate it with the prepared mercury, and whatever sublimes, save it to multiply the following medicine.
Take one ounce of the aforementioned calcined gold, and heat it in a crucible. In another crucible, heat four ounces of the stored mercury and ensure the gold is thoroughly red. Then pour the gold onto the mercury and create the amalgam, stirring well. Once the amalgam is formed, wipe it with a cloth until only as much mercury remains as was gold, no more. Sublimate this mixture in a similar vessel with a flat bottom and a long neck, about three fingers below the neck. (Illustration of the vessel).
Then, place it over a charcoal burner with logs, or a lamp – as you prefer, but a lamp is better – and apply heat at the first level. Every two hours, sublimate the mercury, which will descend onto its body with a small rod with a rounded top. Close the vessel with a small stopper, and continue this process until no more mercury sublimates and only the precipitate remains in the bottom. Note the method of applying this first degree of heat, because for the following multiplications, you will need to double the wick after the first degree is finished, and proceed with sublimation and precipitation as described. The mercury should sublimate within two hours, no more or less.
After the second degree is finished, double the wick and continue as above, sublimating and precipitating until no more sublimation occurs. In forty days, the process will be complete, and you will have your fixed amalgam. Once the third degree of heat is completed, break the vessel and remove the amalgam. Heat it again in a crucible, and in another, heat eight ounces of mercury. Create the amalgam again as described, and pass it through cloth or hide so that it remains accompanied by an equal weight of mercury. For example, if the amalgam weighs two ounces, retain exactly two ounces of mercury, and no more. This procedure should be followed for all of your amalgamations.
Place the second amalgam in the sublimation vessel as described above, but slightly larger. Proceed with the heat exactly as above, sublimating and precipitating until you have applied the third "fixing" degree of heat. Once this is finished, break the vessel and collect the fixed matter. Then amalgamate it with four times as much mercury as you did previously. Afterward, pass it through cloth so that only as much mercury remains as the fixed amalgam, and place it into another vessel to sublimate and precipitate as before. The difference in this third and final degree is that you must apply a bit more heat to check if the matter is fixed. If it is not, continue with the heat until it is fixed.
This will produce a very fine medicine, which, if you perform a projection with a part of it onto finely purified lunar matter, will turn it into 24-carat gold by any judgment. If the lunar matter is calcined, one part will convert forty parts. Know that this detail is very true, and with it, King Matthias made perfect gold, from which he minted those ducats bearing the Madonna's image. This gold is slightly harder than the other, but still perfectly pure, and from it, the coinage known as "saço" was made in the Mint of Venice, and it was found to be excellent gold.
Note that the aforementioned medicine can be multiplied infinitely, proceeding as described above. Each time, it will become more potent, more effective, and will fix faster, allowing for a greater projection. Note that it is important to frequently clean the bottom of the vessel from the calcination residue, as this prevents the decoction from progressing properly.