Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS

[nablator]

One of the most important salts around 1400 was saltpetre. You can probably guess why.

Yes, for gunpowder. In Latin alchemy "sal petrae".

Perhaps this "salt" existed under another name?

There is also arsenic ("sal arsenicum"). Arsenic may be a cover name, German Deckname for something else, as usual. In pseudo-Arnaldus de Villa Nova's Speculum Alchimiae:

Nostra autem sublimatio est sine fæcibus: quia argentum vivum nostrum est aqua clarissima: & arsenicum nostrum est argentum purum: & sulphur nostrum est aurum purum: & in istis tribus consistit tota perfectio.

Translated by ChatGPT:

But our sublimation is without dregs; for our living silver is the clearest water; and our arsenic is pure silver; and our sulfur is pure gold; and in these three consists the whole perfection.