TYROCINIUM CHYMICUM BOOK THREE
Jean Beguinus
Chapter I of THE QUINTESSENCE
Of the quintessence of human blood.
Jean Béguin was doctor to Henri IV and chaplain to Louis XIII[2]. He traveled to Germany and Hungary where he visited the gold and silver mines of Schemnitz. He is the author of Tyrocinium Chymicum[3], a work in Latin, which was translated into French by Jean-Lucas de Roy under the title Les Elémens de chymie de Maistre Jean Béguin, reveus, explain et augment by Jean Lucas de Roy , 3rd edition, Lyon, P. and C. Rigaud, 1624[4]. In this book, he describes the synthesis of acetone, which he calls the fiery spirit of Saturn and which he prepares by pyrolysis of lead acetate (or salt of Saturn).
The DENOMINATION OF THE QUINTESSENCE is understood in various ways. Sometimes it indicates any chemical species which has abandoned the elemental grossness of matter and corpulent faeces: and it is thus opposed to a Magisterium in which almost the whole of the body of its substance remains but this is exalted and purified. Sometimes also, and this is how we understand the term here, it designates a most Subtle, Ethereal and Celestial substance; drawn from the three principles of any dissolved mixture, liberated by different chemical operations of their Elemental, Sensible, Corruptible and Mortal quality, then congealed either into a Spiritual Body or into a Corporeal Spirit. Others use the word Elixir because of its famous virtues that it demonstrates in the preservation of the human body from various diseases. Others name the Quintessence: Heaven, for a double reason; firstly because just as Heaven does not partake of the four elements, but is made up of a certain ethereal matter, and is in some way a first Element; and is not subject to corruption. So it is with the authentic Quintessence which is separated from all the faeces of the Elements, and although it is not simply incorruptible, it is nevertheless reduced to such subtlety, tenuity and spiritual simplicity that it does not seem to contain anything heterogeneous by which it could be corrupted. Secondly, for as Heaven works with power upon all these sublunary things, contributing to and preserving their lives, so the Quintessence preserved the health of the human body, prolonged youth,
The Quintessence of Human Blood is prepared as follows:
A - take a large amount of the blood of young men in their prime. Put this blood in a circulatory vessel of suitable amplitude which you will place at the maintained BM, boiling until the Dragon has devoured its own tail. The vessels cooled, remove the material which will be similar to Liver and cut it into pieces which are very small. And in high cucurbits, by the same heat of bath separate by distillation the aqueous element or phlegm. The liquor that will have distilled will be poured back on its land and the whole returned to the circulatory system as previously arranged in a boiling bath for ten days, as mentioned above. The process will be repeated five times; and for the last time, we will keep all the phlegm that will have distilled. The vessels having cooled, remove the material and introduce it into a large retort to which a capable container will be added; distill the air to the ash fire gradually increased. The small light clouds will dissolve in the container, announcing the coming of fire because the Element of fire can pass in the form of a Red or Purple oil. Towards the end a small amount of Salt Armonia will sublimate by itself. The vessels having cooled, separate the air or spirit from the fire or oil; either by slow distillation in a bath or using a separator. Pour over the faeces the acuated spirit of the salt-armoniac, digest them for three days, then in a new retort distill the spirit by giving on the end a fire of Sublimation so that the totality of the Spiritual Salt, or at least the most large part of it, can sublimate and mingle with the spirit in the container. Pour new spirit over the faeces, digest and distill as above, repeating often until the earth is bereft of its soul, which you will recognize if by placing it on a hot plate it does not smoke.
It should be noted that before the spirit is animated it will have to be rectified seven times, each time separating the phlegm and the faeces: and part of it will be reserved to prepare the solvent which we will discuss later.
Calcine the black blacker than black in a reverberatory furnace with a moderate fire, in a vessel closed on all sides for the space of five days, until the blackness changes to a yellowish whiteness, and so on until in the color red. Then the earth will be ready to receive his animated spirit. Digest it in the bath for as long as necessary and then, by gentle distillation, separate the tasteless humidity. This being done, return to earth the ninth part of its animated spirit, digest and distill as above. Then give him the eighth part of his animated spirit, then the seventh, the sixth, the fifth, the fourth, so that at the fourth part which will soak him the earth will have increased to double his weight. 'before imbibition.
Having received this sign, cover the vessel and place it in the ashes, administering the fire for the space of two days, until the Vegetable Sulfur adheres to the sides of the vessel like talc. Take @ I from Sulphur, pure spirit @ IV. Mix them and digest them during a natural day, then distill to the ashes, often cohobing until the whole of the body rises. After which distill twice in a boiling bath and circulate for sixty days. After having separated the Hypostasis (which will adhere around the bottom of the Pelican) keep the Quintessence of Wine which will be used to cure an infinite number of illnesses, and which will be used both internally and externally.
But this Quintessence of Wine can be achieved over a shorter period of time. In truth, when I did this, in the presence and under the sight of some of my disciples, within the space of five weeks and yes, I achieved it and with the help of this Quintessence I was able to extract a Tincture d'Or of the highest red. For as Geber testifies, there are many paths which lead to the attainment of effect and purpose, but in this place I can never sufficiently admire the fact that neither French wine nor wine from Germany that will have been circulated.
If you now want by force of art to obtain a fatty and combustible oil from wine, distil the phlegm which will have been separated from the crystals in a bath until the thickness of liquid honey is obtained: then in a retorte placed in sand force it by a sharp fire. First passes a water mixed with yellow oil, then a red oil, finally a resin.
On the very finely crushed crystals, pour the spirit reserved as it is said above, digest them in the Bath, for three days, after which distill the spirit in the sand, repeating the same procedure until the spirit is perfectly impregnated with its soul and that the body is made so dry that if it is placed on a hot plate it does not emit smoke. Then, on the body previously calcined according to the Art, pour back an eighth part of its own weight of the animated spirit, digest and distill as before, then give it a sixth part of spirit, then the fifth and finally a quarter; until most of the body placed on a hot plate vanished into thin air. Then will be accomplished what Morenius says:
And that's what Avicenna says: know that the earth must be nourished first with a little of its own water and then with more, which is done when infants are brought up. This is why it will often be necessary to pound the earth and gently soak the flame for eight days in eight days. Decook it then moderately calcine it on the fire. And that this work does not seem to you tiresome in its many repetitions, because the ground does not bear fruit without many humidifications. Be circumspect, however, lest you soak the earth too hastily, but on the contrary proceed gently, little by little, and with long contrition after the earth is dry. Therefore in all this the weight must be diligently observed, that is to say by having the fear that too much dryness or superfluous humidity will corrupt the Work. And cook it well by assation as well as by soaking according to what the dissolution requires. Here is what Avicenna says about it. Whence also what Geber says: this is why by the multiple reiteration of the imbibition and the assation, the greater part of its wateriness is removed, and the residue is removed by Sublimation.
Put the said earth in a tall curcurbite which will have a still to which a receptacle will be joined, the junctions being firmly closed so that nothing can breathe, give it a fire of ashes for the space of three days, until rises a white and clean smoke which adheres to the wall of the curcurbite like talc. This is what CLANGOR BUCCINA speaks of, this is why you will have to steal this body as much as you can and cook it with a clean and clean Mercury, and when the body will have attracted and fixed in itself some portion of this Mercury, you will have to steal it with as sharp and strong a fire as you can, until it rises in the form of a powder whiter than snow, adhering to the sides of the ship.
Take Meteorized Mercury @ I (one ounce = 31 grams ndt) and mix it with @] VII of the unanimated rectified spirit. Digest for two days in the bath, then distill in the ashes, then in the bath with repeated cohobations until there is no more faeces. Then put into circulation for forty days. It is used to extract dyes from metals and stones. With the help of the same Mercury and its oil, an elixir is made which eradicates desperate illnesses, and one proceeds in this manner:
CHAPTER II
OF THE QUINTESSENCE OF WINE
In circulatory vessels of the right amplitude, digest a good quantity of wine which is rich in horse manure for a month. Then in high curcurbites draw the spirit to the BM then you then rectify it seven times, each time separating the phlegmatic humor. By distilling in such a way that over the seven times from 40 tb (40 lbs) you can separate 1 tb more spiritual than the rest (because what distills between spirit and phlegm is the Aqua ardens) . Keep the mind in a glass vessel (of such a capacity that it is only half full) and tightly closed so that nothing can breathe and placed in a cold place. At the same time distill the remaining phlegm until the consistency of liquid honey. What will have distilled will be poured over the faeces, and again by the gentle heat of the Bath, take three parts out of it. Then take the curcurbite and install it in a cool place, so that the material can crystallize, the crystals will be washed of all impurities and dissolved and then coagulated until they look like the ice of the purest water.
Take this Mercury @ I on which we will add the eighth part of its weight of its own rectified oil (that is to say a drachm or dragme, about 3gr 8), decook them in the heat of the athanor for eight days, then you will proceed with the eighth part, often repeating the first work until the matter becomes thick as syrup and by decoction it cannot be further hardened. After that, digest forty days and it will be a stone of the highest red, the dose of which is:
- a grain or two in a suitable liquor (one grain, about 0.065 grams NDT)
do not possess that admirable odor which Baptista Portae attributes to Neapolitan wine in these words: then open the neck of the vessel, and if such an admirable odor escapes from it, with which nothing else can be compared, know that you are coming near of the desired goal. But if the smell or the color do not meet the expectation, you will have to close the vessel and put it back into circulation until you have the aforesaid sign. But the spirit of Italian wine is not nor possessor of such a smell, as Rubeus testifies. Because in the second chapter of the second section of his book on distillation he writes this: I would have liked that this good man and very excellent physicist who was Eustachius Sancto Severinas was still alive, because he could have proved (not to speak here of my own knowledge) thanks to his practice acquired with such zeal that the Aqua ardens even if it is circulated not only one month, but two or three, or even a whole year, as Raymond commands, can never be led to that sweetness of perfume, but will rather be found warmer and made more sour, all who do so can easily prove it, and reason itself by the observation of fire and movement proves the same thing. But Raymond did not want to speak or designate this pure and simple Aqua Ardens, contrary to what some moderns have thought, but he was thinking of the very one in which the metallic body is dissolved. For in the Second Canon of the First Book he writes this: but this Quintessence thus circulated and rectified does not possess such an odor unless the body is distilled in it. It appears from all this that Porta did not draw such a Quintessence from his work with fire, but rather from the writings of Lully and Jean de Rupescissa misunderstood.