Cinnabar/vermillion

Ingredients

sulfur, mercury

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

To make common Cinnabar, take a pound of sulfur and put it in a pot over a low heat to melt it. Once it is melted, add three pounds of mercury and stir the mixture with a spatula until the mercury cannot be seen anymore and is well mixed with the Sulfur; leave it to cool as a paste, then pulverize it and put it into a pot with a narrow mouth. Cover it with a saucepan that has holes poked in it, cover the joints [to create a vacuum] and with a moderate heat carry out a sublimation and you will have a very ruddy, hard paste, which is ground into powder (p. 1, Appendix).

Evidence

"To make common Cinnabar, take a pound of sulfur and put it in a pot over a low heat to melt it. Once it is melted, add three pounds of mercury and stir the mixture with a spatula until the mercury cannot be seen anymore and is well mixed with the Sulfur"

Remarks

The recipe is sourced from Felix Palacios's Palestra Pharmaceutica, published in 1706. It details a specific ratio of one part sulfur to three parts mercury. The process involves initial melting and mixing to form a paste, followed by pulverization and a final sublimation phase to produce a hard, ruddy paste that is then ground into pigment powder.