cinnabar

Ingredients

Vinegar, calcined copper, cinnabar, filings of bright copper

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The recipe (Recipe 6, p. 358) describes mixing 50 exagia of vinegar with 15 exagia of calcined copper (rhasoukhtē). This mixture is ground, placed in a glass vessel, exposed to strong sunlight for seven days (shaken seven times daily), and then buried in warm horse dung for 21 days. Subsequently, 5 unciae of ground cinnabar are added and wetted with the liquid preparation. The mixture is roasted in the sun, ground to a flour-like consistency, and stored in a lead vessel. It is used as an additive for alloying with bright copper filings (p. 358).

Evidence

"Then take it out and add cinnabar, 5 unciae; having ground the cinnabar, wet it with the content of the vessel little by little, so that it absorbs all the content of the vessel in a day."

Remarks

The term 'calcined copper' refers to rhasoukhtē, which Note 101 explains is of Persian origin, derived from the Arabic al-rūsakhtaj (burnt copper). The recipe demonstrates the intersection of Byzantine and Islamicate alchemical traditions, utilizing units such as unciae and exagia (p. 358).