The Practice of Master Odomar to the Disciple
The Practica Magistri Odomari ad Discipulum
You will think, brother Lodovico, that I am going against the traditions and the precepts of all the philosophers; but since my heart is filled with the holiest love for you, I want to faithfully entrust to you, dear brother, the secret that until now the father always kept hidden from the son.
Take one ounce of the purest Moon, purified by calcination from its combustible sulfur, and place it in a glass vessel with twice the amount of distilled vinegar obtained by distilling water-of-life. Seal the vessel tightly so that no vapors escape. Then bury the entire setup in a stove filled with water and straw, so that the water boils for nearly an hour.
Once the content is dissolved, distill it through a filter and dry the distillate; then calcine the dried substance in a reverberatory furnace. When it is calcined, dissolve it again in vinegar, repeating the operation described above for six times in succession. Finally, calcine again. Incorporate what you obtain with two ounces of sublimated mercury, doing everything with great care. After this, place it in a flat-bottomed vessel (aludelli) at a temperature higher than the melting point of copper, and you will see it all sublime. Once this is repeated, grind it finely, sublimate it until it becomes fixed, and dissolve the fixed substance six times as before. Finally, calcine and sublimate again with new crystallized mercury and fix it equally. Repeat this series of fixation and volatilization five times, because beyond five times it will no longer calcine properly nor elevate; rather, it will remain at the bottom in fermentation and maturation. Then, one ounce of this stone will fall upon a hundred. But if you dissolve one ounce in horse dung or by a water bath, and make it coagulate in warm ash, one ounce will fall upon six thousand. And if you repeat the dissolution and coagulation, a portion will fall upon a million. If you continue dissolving and coagulating until the stone can no longer be coagulated by any small fire, as soon as it has felt the sun or the fire – because the fire has been transformed into solar nature – a portion will fall upon infinity.
If you want to turn this stone red, proceed as follows: take rubified mercury, fixed and partly transformed into spirit, and add it to the white elixir. This will become citrine, and you will have your red stone. As for the mercury, it is rubified in aqua regia (Latin: Acqua acuta), which is made from a pound of nitre, a quarter pound of cinnabar, and two ounces of alum (Latin: alumen iamenus); it is then fixed in the first sublimation of a great ignition. It is then dissolved in water redder than blood and placed for forty days in the mud, to dry in gravel. If this water is slightly heated, and if one pound of the white elixir is thrown over one hundred pounds of it, the whole mixture will turn into a most perfect red elixir. The same happens for the white one if the un-fixed crystalline white mercury is dissolved, etc. If this stone is white, it produces the Moon; if it is red, it generates the Sun; if it is green, it makes green gold. And even if you throw it on glass or crystal, you will alter their natures according to its color. Taken in the proper manner, it expels any illness in a short time; it changes the old into a youthful, joyful person; it drives away gray hair and turns it into beautiful locks.
There was a certain man in France who made a red oil, in which he placed thin sheets of the Moon, which he left on a slow fire for a few hours. Then he sealed the vessel and placed fire on top of it: all that Moon, with all the matter, would be transformed into gold. But I do not know where he obtained that oil. However, it is to be believed that this medicine was made with fixed bodies, spirits, and souls, red, and then transformed into oil through dissolution.
Be sure to cover your nose with silk or gauze treated with violet oil, so that you are not harmed by the poisonous alchemical vapors.
It is useful to use zedoary, bay berries, pepper, garlic, and wine against the diseases caused by the vapor of mercury or other alchemical spirits.
Albert, in his book on minerals, says that workers who mine metals, when they burn them, cover their mouths and noses with double and triple filters, to avoid being too harmed by the vapors and to ensure that these vapors cannot harm the stomach.
[1] Various terms from ancient Latin could not be translated for fear of misinterpretation.
[2] The Aludelli was a device used for various sublimations: it was constructed by stacking three or four conical clay pieces on top of each other or by using three or four ordinary vessels.
[3] Zedoary is similar to turmeric: it consists of the rhizomes of certain saffrons. These rhizomes have a camphor-like taste and are used in catarrhs and skin diseases; they are excellent stimulants."
These notes clarify certain terms and concepts from the original text. The first note acknowledges the difficulty of translating some ancient Latin terms. The second note explains the function and construction of the Aludelli, an alchemical apparatus. The third note provides information about zedoary, its medicinal uses, and its properties.