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+--- Thread: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS (/thread-1745.html)
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS - davidjackson - 06-02-2020
I went after the Consilia because that appeared to be the book referenced by the Wikipedia article's source. I was more interested in the supposed cipher - which doesn't seem to exist - than the distillation method.
On a side note, Taddeo's method actually seems to be more about the non inclusion of salts into the liquid, which allowed for a better extraction of alcohol, than any other production method. He is mainly famous for his medical application of this new liquid and the popularisation of the term aqua vitae then any actual distillation process (he even ended up in Dante)
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS - -JKP- - 06-02-2020
Tubes, liquids, pathways.
Even though it would be an unusual way to do it, it would be completely consistent with medieval practices to have nymphs demonstrating alchemical processes because the whole alchemy sector, besides being very secretive, was into symbolism and obfuscation.
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS - -JKP- - 06-02-2020
It would also make complete sense for this diagram to have a male and female at each end because all the alchemy texts use the male/female dichotomy and also male/female union (sexual) as metaphors for alchemical processes:
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS - Helmut Winkler - 06-02-2020
(05-02-2020, 09:00 PM)nablator Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.(05-02-2020, 08:18 PM)davidjackson Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The book in question is I Consilia by Taddeo Alderotti.
I would rather expect to find the recipe in De virtutibus aquae vitae, and it is there indeed.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. There are some symbols I am not familiar with on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
Another manuscript : You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. Compare with You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. The text is a bit different.
The uncommon symbols are units of measurement, there is a chapter about them in Capelli
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS - bi3mw - 06-02-2020
(04-02-2020, 10:43 AM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Fractional distillation was developed by Taddeo Alderotti in the 13th century. The production method was written in code, suggesting that it was being kept secret.
(06-02-2020, 07:09 AM)davidjackson Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I was more interested in the supposed cipher - which doesn't seem to exist - than the distillation method.As far as I understand it, the encryption should disguise the distillation process. The copies of the "virtutibus aquae vitae" we have found so far are all younger than a possible original in which there might have been an encryption ( of whatever kind ). In any case, it would be understandable that Alderotti initially wanted to keep the process secret.
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS - davidjackson - 06-02-2020
I still haven't found any mention to any cipher being found in works by Alderotti.
What I have tracked down is an earlier work that is believed to have inspired him, which was in wide circulation amongst the monasteries and alchemists of the time. It is a collection of recipes and instructions on making alcohol known as the Mappae Calvicula. There exists a 12th century version of this work which is partially enciphered by a simple letter shift cipher masking key ingredients, a standard rubric obfuscation method of the time. (Smith & Hawthorne, TAPS n.s. 64.4; Mappae Calvicula: A little key to the world of medieval techniques).
Alderotti is believed to have used the Mapae instructions, which by then were standard and well known, and improved upon the process.
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS - Koen G - 06-02-2020
I added a note to the Wiki's discussion page asking for a reference. I have no experience with wiki editing but something tells me this won't lead to much either..
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS - bi3mw - 06-02-2020
Mappae clavicula
Flanders? : s.n., 12th century
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Quote:Recipes/instructions for various processes, including distilling alcohol, making candy, creating military devices, making colored glass, gilding and painting or staining on glass.
The difficulty is to find the passage for distillation in the text.
On page 133 and 136 there is something like a coded alphabet. Not quite what we are looking for, but still interesting.
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS - bi3mw - 07-02-2020
Here is a note on "Encryption":
Quote:The Mappae Clavicula (more or less “The Little Key of the Map”, but the title and its meaning are uncertain) is a medieval Latin text which contains recipes describing crafts techniques about metals, glass, mosaics, and dyes and tints for materials. The core was probably originally compiled around AD 600, perhaps in Alexandria in Egypt. The number of recipes was expanded over the course of the centuries, and some medieval copies have deletions as well as additions, so it is better thought of as a family of texts with a largely common core, not a single text. It was one of the few scientific treatises available in the Early Middle Ages in Latin Europe. Only the twelfth century and later versions contain the recipe for the preparation of alcohol in the form of a cryptogram. There exist slightly different versions of the cryptogram in different manuscripts, here is one of them:
“De commistione puri et fortissimi XKNK cum III QBSUF TBMKT cocta in ejus necocii vasis fit aqua, quae accensam flammam incombustam servat”
That, more or less, means:
“A mixture of pure and very strong XKNK with III QBSUF TBMKT cooked in the usual vessel make a water, which will flame up when set on fire but leave the material unburnt”
The three nonsense words are simple word puzzles with a mistake. They are formed by substituting for the proper letter - in Latin - the one which follows it in the alphabet: XKNK = VINI (wines); QBSUF = PARTE (part); and TBMKT = SALIS (salt). The ‘n’ in the word XKNK is probably a mistake of the amanuenses, it should have been an ‘o’.
It is interesting to notice how, in this first description of wine distillation, the name given to the new substance thus produced, which we call alcohol, is aqua, that is, water.
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One could assume that the "encryption" in Alderottis De virtutibus aquae vitae, if there was one, was similar to that in Mappae clavicula.
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS - bi3mw - 09-02-2020
Hermaphroditos is a young man whom Aphrodite had given birth. The father was Hermes. Through the action of the gods his body is fused with that of the nymph Salmacis, making him a hermaphrodite. The only completely preserved mythological work of this is found in Ovid`s Metamorphoses (Book IV) .
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![[Image: Hermaphroditos.png]](https://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/mwille2/VMS/Hermaphroditos.png)
Hermaphroditus and the nymph Salmacis bathing
Left: BL, Harley MS 4431, Christine de Pizan, Collected works ('The Book of the Queen'), c 1410-c 1414, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Right: BNF, Français 137, Petrus Berchorius, Ovidius Moralizatus, 1470-1480, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Rebis (from Latin res bina "two things") in alchemy generally refers to the union of two principles to a higher existence, e.g. Sulphur and Mercurius, but especially the union of the male and female principle to form the hermaphrodite in the preparation of the Philosopher's Stone.
![[Image: rebis.png]](https://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/mwille2/VMS/rebis.png)
Left: Zürich, Zentralbibliothek, Ms. Rh. 172, Aurora consurgens, 15th century, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Right: Codex Vossianus 29, Leiden, Rijksuniversiteit Bibliotheek, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
It can be assumed that there is a connection between Hermaphroditos and Rebis or, more generally, Ovid and alchemy. I have found an interesting work on this:
Willard, Thomas, The Metamorphoses of Metals: Ovid and the Alchemist
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Quote:
![[Image: rebis2.png]](https://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/mwille2/VMS/rebis2.png)