Page 7 - Book of quintessence

confused, it will one day be liberated by Christ from all these
tribulations. For this reason, with the purpose of freeing God’s
chosen people, who are granted the right to know the sacred
ministry of God and the precepts of truth, in a few words I wish to
disclose the work of the remarkable Philosopher’s Stone, and do so
in contrast to the customary practice of the Philosophers who, in
the past, have jealously and craftily guarded the secret of their art
from their inheritors. It is my intention to enhance the well-being
of the Holy Roman Church by openly narrating, in brief, the truth.

The first part of the book of the quintessence is a practical work on
the distilling of strong alcohol from wine, the making of a quintessence
of gold, and the preparing of alcoholic tinctures of various herbs. The
second part shows how these quintessences should be used in healing
various diseases. He certainly recommended distilled alcohol in various
forms as a cure for most diseases.

It may be difficult for us today to put this work in context, but we
should bear in mind that Rupescissa appears to be the first person to
openly communicate these ideas on distillation. During the fourteenth
century, the process of distillation was known only to a few alchemists
and it was not until a century or more later that the craft of distilling was
openly practised by many artisans. So Rupescissa was conscious that he
was revealing great secrets and, as his closing remarks indicate, he was
also aware that there were considerable dangers in making public these
ideas and processes.

There are some interesting points that can be found in this work.
Rupescissa appears to be the first person to associate alcohol with the
fifth essence. Further, he appears to be describing the making of a
drinkable gold, made from immersing a gold coin in the ‘burning water’
or pure alcohol. Some later alchemists were obsessed with this idea of
preparing a potable gold as a remedy. Rupescissa also seems to describe
a process similar to the idea, often used in sixteenth and seventeenth
century alchemy, of placing the philosopher’s stone in wax in order to
make the projection on base metal. Perhaps the appearance of the idea of
wrapping the red stone in wax, in many stories of alchemical
transmutations, may be derived in part from this passage in Rupescissa :

Then take the calx of these two bodies [gold or silver], and bear
them openly with you and there shall no man know what they be.

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