Page 15 - Book of quintessence

Here I will teach you how poor evangelic men may have without
cost, and almost for nought, the gracious influence of gold, and the
manner of the fixing of it in our heaven, that is, our quinta essentia. If
you be poor, you shall pray a riche man that is your friend to lend you a
good florin of Florence, and anneal it upon a plate of iron as iron is
annealed. And have beside you a vessel of earth glazed, filled full of the
best burning water that you may find. And cast into the water the florin
annealed. And look that you have a subtlety and a sleigthe [skill] to
quench suddenly the fire, that the water waste not, and be well wary that
no iron touch the water. But after, caste into the water the florin, and do
so one times or more, for the oftener, the better it is. And if you see that
the water waste too much, change it then, and take new, and do so many
times. And when you have done your quenching, put all the waters
together. And you should understand that the virtue of burning water is
such that naturally it draws out of gold all the virtues and properties of it,
and it holds incorruptibility and an even heat. Then mingle this burning
water thus gilded with our quintessence and use it. But beware that you
quench not the florin in our quintessence, for then it were lost. And if it
so be that you have not this burning water ready, then quench your florin
in the best white wine that may be had. For surely the philosophers say,
that wine has also the property to restrain in it the influence and virtues
of gold. And when you have done your work, you shall know that the
florin is also good, and almost of the same weight, as it was before.
Therefore use wine or burning water gilded, so that you may be whole,
and wax glad, and be young. And thus you have our heaven, and the sun
in him fixed, to the conservation of man’s nature and fixation of our
heaven, that is, our quintessence.

The science of how you should gild more mightily by burning water
or wine than I taught you before, whereby the water or the wine shall
take to it mightily the influence and the virtues of fine gold.

Take the calx of fine gold as it is declared hereafter in this book, and
put it in a silver spoon, and anneal it at the fire. And then cast the calx of
the gold in the burning water, or in wine one time, as I taught you before
with the florin. And you shall have your liquor by an hundred parts better
gilt than you had heretofore with the florin. For this reason fire works
more strongly and better in subtle particles than it does in a whole plate.
And also burning water or wine draws out more mightily by a thousand
parts the properties of gold from small particles annealed than it does

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