ON ALCHEMICAL EQUIPMENT IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY, A.D. 



49 



belief in the recent origin of the alchemical knowledge current in Europe during the 13th 

 century. 



To explain our meaning, we will quote two references to the Aludel that are to be 

 found on pp. 565 and 569 respectively of the edition of the Summa that appeared at Basle 

 in 1572 under the title Art is Chemicae Pn napes. Of the three figures, Nos. 1 and 3 are 

 illustrations of a copy of the Summa that exists in Latin MS. No. 6514 of the Bibliotheque 

 Nationale (written c. 1300 A.D.) ; l while No. 2— that of the furnace alone — is reprinted 

 for purposes of comparison from the Basle edition of the Summa. 



" Si igitur volueris multam sublimationis quantitatem elevare, tunc vas aludel tantse 

 capacitatis invenias, quod illam suscipiat super fundum, ad elevationem unius palmse. 

 Ad illud coaptes furnum ut suscipiat aludel in medio sui cum distantia parietum suorum 

 per duos digitos. Et furno facto, facies illi X. 2 auriculas, seque distantes proportione 

 una, ut una sequalitas sit ignis ad omnes partes ilhus. Tunc vero stipite ferreo in 

 medio fornacis ex transverso in spondilibus ejus firmato, qui a fundo fornacis distet ad 

 extensionem unius palmae cum pollice suo, et ad spissitudinem unius digiti, super eo 

 firmetur vas aludel, et circumlinatur ad furnum, quern sequens demonstrat description' 

 (pp. 565 and 566 ; cf. Figs. 1 and 2). 



Fig. 2. 



F 



»g- 



" Ex qua materia et qua forma vas Aludel sit faciendum. Cap. XLIIII. 

 . . . Fingatur ergo concha vitrea rotunda, cujus fundus sit parvse curvitatis, et in 

 medio spondilium ejus formetur zona vitrea circumdans earn, et super illam zonam 

 fundetur paries rotundus seque distans a conchse pariete ad grossitudinem cooperculi 

 ipsius conchse, ita ut in distantia hac cadat paries coopertorii large sine pressura. 



1 Fac-similes of these figures are to be found in Berthelot's La Chimie an. Moyen Age, I, pp. 149 and 150. 



* Probably a mistake for IV, as Fig. 2 shows. Manget, in the reprint of the Summa in his BiblvHheca Ghemica Curiosa, 

 I, p. 532, also reads ' quatuor.' 



