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Abstract
The Frankfurt Kunstbüchlin is a handbook for a wide range of professions and crafts, such as metalwork (etching, alloying, gilding) and the production of colors for dyeing clothes and painting. Printed in 1535 by Christian Egenolff, it contains a variety of recipes that had been handed down over hundreds of years and across linguistic borders. Among them are, for instance, instructions for fabricating gold from salamanders, therefore suggesting an esoteric use. However, rather than being a treatise on alchemy, it is a manual aimed at a broad audience and daily use. Despite its often speculative content, the recipes can be considered a proto-stage of modern science.
Notes
1 Girolamo Ruscelli, The Seconde Part of the Secretes of Maister Alexis of Piemont, and Nevvly Translated out of Frenche into Englishe by William Warde (London: Ihon Kyngston, 1580). The first print with this content dates to 1562. Cf. Sidney Edelstein, “The Allerley Matkel (1532): Facsimile Text, Translation, and Critical Study of the Earliest Printed Book on Spot Removing and Dyeing.” Technology and Culture 5, no. 3 (July 1, 1964), 299.
2 Mark Clarke, “The Earliest Technical Recipes,” in: Craft Treatises and Handbooks: The Dissemination of Technical Knowledge in the Middle Ages, ed. Ricardo Córdoba de la Llave (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013), 23. Italics in the original.
3 William Eamon, Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994), 9–10.
4 Eamon, 128.
5 Eamon, 95–96.
6 Isabelle Pantin, “The role of translations in European scientific exchanges in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,” in: Translation and the Book Trade in Early Modern Europe, ed. Jose Fernandez and Edward Wilson-Lee (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 173.
7 Julia Boffey, “From Manuscript to Print: Continuity and Change,” in: A Companion to the Early Printed Book in Britain, 1476–1558, ed. Vincent Gillespie and Susan Powell (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2014,) 21.
8 William Eamon, 95.
9 Kulturvereinigung Hadamar, ed., Christian Egenolff, 1502–1555: Ein Frankfurter Meister Des Frühen Buchdrucks Aus Hadamar (Limburg: Glaukos, 2002), 29–30.
10 Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, Deutsches Wörterbuch (Germany: Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften Berlin, Hirzel Verlag, Universität Trier, 1854), 946.
11 Kulturvereinigung Hadamar, 57.
12 The University of Saint Andrews, ed., The Universal Short Title Catalogue, http://ustc.ac.uk/ (accessed June 10, 2016).
13 John Ferguson, Some Early Treatises on Technological Chemistry (Culver City: Krown & Spellman, 2003), 32. Italics in the original.
14 Anne F. Sutton, “Merchants,” in: A Companion to the Early Printed Book in Britain, 1476-1558, ed. Vincent Gillespie and Susan Powell (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2014), 127.
15 Edelstein, 298.
16 The first being the Rechter Gebrauch d’Alchimei from 1531, yet without indication of the printer or place (Ferguson, 3).
17 William Philip, A Booke of Secrets Shewing Diuers Waies to Make and Prepare All Sorts of Inke, and Colours; Translated out of Dutch into English, by W.P. London: Printed by Adam Islip, 1596.
18 Ferguson, 19.
19 For lack of resources, Eastern Europe could not be considered in this text.
20 Recipe nos. 199 and 201 are entitled “Item de viridi faciendo secundum normannos,” and these and no. 162 contain English plant names. Cf. Mary P. Merrifield, ed., Medieval and Renaissance Treatises on the Arts of Painting: Original Texts with English Translations (Mineola, N.Y: Dover Publications, 1999), 112, 159.
21 Merrifield, 1–9.
22 Sally Dormer, “De coloribus et artibus Romanorum,” Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T021764 (accessed June 10, 2016).
23 Ernst Striebel, “Das Augsburger Kunstbuechlin von 1535” (Diploma Thesis, Technical University, Munich, 2007), 12.
24 Ferguson, Some early treatises, Supplement III, 1912, 8–14.
25 Linda Ehrsam Voigts, “Scientific and Medical Books,” in: Book Production and Publishing in Britain, 1375–1475, ed. Jeremy Griffiths and Derek Albert Pearsall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 350.
26 Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and the FNRS/University of Liège, The Colour ConText, varb.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de (accessed June 10, 2016).
27 University of Salzburg, Middle High German Conceptual Database, mhdbdb.sbg.ac.at (accessed June 10, 2016).
28 University of Trier, Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, dwb.uni-trier.de (accessed June 10, 2016).
29 Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick, The Renaissance Cultural Crossroads Catalogue, https://www.dhi.ac.uk/rcc/ (accessed June 10, 2016).
30 University of St Andrews, The Universal Short Title Catalogue, http://ustc.ac.uk/ (accessed June 23, 2020).
31 Ferguson, 8.
32 The German “Kunst” has changed in meaning: etymologically, it is related to “können,” meaning “to be able to, to have the necessary skill to do something.”
33 Lat. ‘recipe,’ which means ‘take.’
34 Ammonium chloride.
35 Potassium sulfate.
36 Common salt.
37 Rock salt, won in mines. A very pure type of common salt and therefore more expensive; dealt in pharmacies (Striebel, p. 128).
38 Ferric Oxide.
39 Sodium borate; then consisting of carbonate of potash and common salt, or of tartar and common salt. See recipe below.
40 Resin of the Dracaena species.
41 A genus of flowering plant in the carrot family, Apiaceae.
42 Hammers used to make files; “for the file makers, the axe hammer is the one which drives the bit” (Krünitz, p. 487).
43 “Calcioniren,” to calcine, means to burn or distill something, a process by which carbon dioxide and water or organic impurities are extracted. Burning tartar yields a white powder or a hygroscopic matter which turns into a thick liquid if exposed to air moisture (Striebel, p. 115).
44 Venetian glass contains lead and is used as a siccative (Striebel, p. 130).
45 Saltwater is a by-product in the production of glass, containing potassic sodium sulphate and calcium sulphate (Striebel, p. 118).
46 Vitriol are sulfates in crystallization water, mainly produced from iron (green vitriol), copper (blue vitriol) and zinc (white vitriol). Cf Striebel, p. 130. The chemical name is sulfuric acid, or iron (II) sulfate.
47 Mercury(II)-chloride.
48 Feather alum.
49 Hard resin of the Pistacia lentiscus plants from the Mediterranean (Striebel, p. 123).
50 Aloe hepatica. Powder of dried aloe juice.
51 “Vernix” in the original, here probably made of hemp seed or nut oil with mastic (Striebel, p. 130) instead of linseed oil used for “virniß,” which is added here, too.
52 “Maß” in the original, equaling one liter.
53 Galls make fatty acids water soluble, hence their wide applicability. Ox galls facilitate the infiltration of colorants in textiles at low temperatures. Moreover, it reduces surface tension and is used to make inks more runny (Striebel, p. 124).
54 “Untze” in the original, which translates directly to ounce. However, in this translation and its early modern predecessors, the unit “lot” is already translated to ounce. There is no satisfactory translation of quantities in this or comparable treatises, as they rarely correspond. The few occurrences of “untze” will be marked by a footnote in the following recipes.
55 Burnt alum.
56 Red tartar.
57 “Quintin” in the original, according to Grimm’s Dictionary a fourth of an ounce (due to a confusion of “quint” and “quart”). Weighing around 3.9 to 4.4 g, which roughly corresponds to one apothecary’s dram.
58 Red color resin of dracena draco (Striebel, p. 60).
59 Other names used: auripigment, orpiment, realgar, red arsenic.
60 “Untzen.”
61 Powdered galenite, lead glance.
62 Wood resin.
63 “Kepler” in the original, appears in Grimm’s dictionary as an alternative to “Kappelmönch,” meaning a hooded monk (Vol. 11, 196–198). Johann Adelung, however, relates the verb “kappen” (to cut, cap, chop) to the middle Latin “Chapuisius”, meaning carpenter, which may in terms of raw materials be more appropriate. Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der hochdeutschen Mundart, p. 1499.
64 “Bürzlin,” lat. bot. ocellus.
65 “Untzen.”
66 Mosaic gold.
67 Mosaic silver.
68 A very pure sugar made of concentrated honey.
69 Sugar.
70 Hoarhound.
71 Starch paste; a standard “alchemists’ glue” to seal pots and protect them from too much heat (Striebel, p. 93).
72 The German says “kill” the quicksilver and let it become “alive,” meaning the solid state is a dead state, whereas the liquid state means it is agile.
73 Venus is the alchemical name for copper. See the recipe for Crocum Veneris.
74 Gummi laudanum, resin of the rockrose.
75 Sandlewood.
76 Agarwood.
77 Henbanes.
78 Various sorts of milkvetch gum.
79 Vitriol or lamp black, elsewhere called “atrament.”
80 A pan-like melting pot or assay porringer.
81 Ashes of wine lees.
82 Impure zinc oxide, imported from Alexandria (Striebel, p. 89).
83 Sublimation furnace.
84 Orig. “probiersteyn” or “goldsteyn.” A black chert or basalt, to test metals for their composition by rubbing the metal on the stone and comparing the color or further analyzing the grit (Striebel, p. 126).
85 “Kolriß” in the original. The term is unclear, as its south-west German meaning of “pancake” is not helpful in this case. “Kol” translates to coal, and was also used as a metaphor for blackness, which might refer to the color of the touchstone. “Riß” translates to crack, or sketch, either referring to the perished matter or the procedure as a whole. Cf. Adelung, p. 1130 and p. 1684.
86 Half-concentrated acid sulfur, oil of vitriol.
87 Wormwood, mugwort.
88 Akvavit, liquor.
89 Calamine.
90 The German text says “bried,” which may well be a variant of “braten” and therefore translated to “roast,” “boil,” or even “melt.”
91 “Infallible matter,” or real silver.
92 “Untzen.”
93 “Iron saffron,” or iron oxide; Martis, martem being the alchemical term for iron.
94 “Reverber ofen” in the original, a cylindric oven similar to a baking oven, with direct contact of the matters to fire, used to calcine salts and stones (Striebel, 127).
95 Burned copper, which, depending on the process, yields red or black copper oxide (Brachert, 12).
96 Copper burnt with salt and washed out with vinegar yields a red pigment (Brachert, 12).
97 Silver.
98 The whole recipe uses “untzen” where ounces are given. The selective use of the German “untze” as against the common “lot” might indicate that the recipes were taken from different sources.
99 Potassium nitrate.
100 Mineral brimstone.
101 Fugitive matter, in contrast to corpora, solid matters.
102 Solem, solis etc. means gold.
103 Lead.
104 A salt of different compounds.
105 As2O3 or As4O6.
106 Sulphur citrinum. Purged and subsided brimstone with a yellow color (Striebel, p. 130).
107 Jupiter, which means tin.
108 “Operatio” in the original, and in the following recipes given in German as “würckung,” to produce something, to have an effect.
109 Calcined gold.
110 Sublimated quicksilver, white and fixed/solid.
111 Also “Jungfrauenmilch,” quicksilver or preparations based on lead (Striebel, p. 122). See recipe below.
112 Atramentum here and in the following recipe probably does not mean lamp black but soot from burnt wood, which, mixed with salt, was used as a substitute for gold in the gilding of metals (Merrifield, xiii).
113 Rubeo meaning red; atramentum again soot from burnt wood rather than lamp black.
114 Calcined red vitriol.
115 Sublimation furnace.
116 Literally “the proven,” probably real silver, or matters that were tested like real silver, to yield the right effect; compare the following recipe: “Two parts of good Luna.”
117 “Animate,” i.e. agile, fluid quicksilver.
118 Ordinary, purged tin.
119 Rock salt. See Sal gemme.
120 Also called oleum philosophorum, or formerly oleum laterinum, from the latin word for “brick.” See recipe below.
121 The meaning of “Ich” or “Jch” and of the whole recipe is not entirely clear.
122 “Untze.”
123 A round barrel made of glass.
124 “For an operation with silver.”
125 Litharge, lead oxide.
126 “For silver and gold (operations).”
127 Or aqua caustica, acrid water for etching and cauterizing (Striebel, p. 112f).
128 Quicklime.
129 “To die” in the original.
130 “Burning water,” meaning liquor.
131 The original says “Hasenfuß,” which can either mean “the foot of a hare” or the plant “sedge.”
132 Egg oil, the fat oil of yolks.
133 “This is good for fixing metals.”
134 To Grade is to improve the color of gold if it is too pale or white by using grading waters or powders, or “gold colors” made of the materials in the recipe (Krünitz, p. 354).
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Kunstbüchlin: gerechten gründtlichen Gebrauchs aller kunstbaren Werckleut
First published in German as Kunstbüchlin: gerechten gründtlichen Gebrauchs aller kunstbaren Werckleut (Frankfurt am Main: Egenolff, 1535)