Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS

[bi3mw]

It might be an attempt to draw this kind of distillation jar, but the person didn't know how to draw transparent arms going back into the bottom bulb:

That seems like a reasonable explanation. Otherwise, the "thing" drawn simply cannot be assigned.

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.

Thanks @Koen, this is new to me. I would very much like to see Alderotti`s work "De virtutibus aquae vitae", but there is nothing to be found on the net.

It is only a small step to alchemy:

After seven such distillations the water is called perfecta and after ten distillations perfectissima. Since this laborious procedure was very expensive, one was usually satisfied with four distillations. In the following period, several practitioners of alchemy used the same method to produce the aqua ignea rectificata (purified firewater) and finally the aqua vitae rectificata (purified water of life), which was used for medicinal purposes only.

Edit: I found it after all (97v-100r, Taddaeus Alderotti, De virtutibus aquae vitae), medical compilation, Vienna, 1463/1464
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and here (77v-79v), Alchemical compilation, around 1400
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