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"Ah, where's my man? give me some aqua vitae..." — Nurse, Romeo and Juliet, III.2 Artist's representation of distillation apparatus for aqua vitae, from Liber de arte Distillandi, by Hieronymus Brunschwig, 1512 | Two figures work with one of alchemy’s more grounded practices: distillation. This fanciful depiction of distillation apparatus is from Hieronymus Brunschwig’s Liber de arte Distillandi de Compositis (Strassburg, 1512).Distillation was the technology by which the essence of a sample could be separated from the dross. In its simplest form, the objective of distillation is to separate a mixture of liquid and nonvolatile solids. Since alchemists worked through a sequence of separation and recombination, distillation provided experimental evidence for their view that matter was compounded of earthy and more spirituous constituents. In practice, with the development of the art in the medieval period, alchemists learned to wield distillation apparatus to produce powerful, pure chemicals: alcohol and strong acids (hydrochloric, sulfuric, and nitric). The distinctive apparatus became emblematic of their profession.Brunschwig’s comprehensive book on distillation was one of the earliest devoted exclusively to chemical technology. This work expanded on his smaller, earlier work on distillation of herbal remedies to include a wide range of alchemical distillation techniques.The caption above the apparatus reads: Distillatorium ad Aqua vite, distillation apparatus for aqua vitae, i.e. spirits of wine. Individual pieces of the apparatus are labelled. At the bottom, the cucurbits sit in furnaces with fire issuing from them. The wine contained within them boils, and the vapours rise through a series of pipes to be recondensed and collected in the receivers or Receptacula at the top of the Alembitum. The illustration shown is artistic, rather than functional. As portrayed, the apparatus would be expensive to make and difficult to use. Rising alcohol vapours would be condensed by the "tube full of cold water" Eine rore vol kalt wasser and run back down rather than reaching the receivers. | Image downloaded with permission from the Science History Institute, as part of the Wikipedian in Residence initiative. | This file was provided to Wikimedia Commons by the Science History Institute as part of a cooperation project. | Public Domain | Source Cocktail: Aqua Vitae The earliest record of whiskey on paper happens in 1494 with a reference to aqua vitae in the Exchequer Rolls, but there was a great interest–and a good deal of illicit smuggling of Scotch whiskey– happening not just in Shakespeare's lifetime, but under the title “aqua vitae” (which is used no less than 6 times in Shakespeare's plays), the beverage was also hugely popular for centuries prior to Shakespeare’s life in the Catholic Church as a kind of holy water. As Jared and Anistatia explain, this drink was often made with herbs and spices, and was the Whiskey of Shakespeare's lifetime: "Literally translated means water of life...[it was made with] Grain or wine spirits with anise...Carraway or coriander,Clove nutmeg ginger, cardamom, and ginger..." "Yet be cheerful, knight: thou shalt eat a posset to-night at my house..." — Page, Merry Wives of Windsor (V.5) This recipe for posset comes from Mary Baumfylde’s Medicinal and Cookery Recipes (c.1626, call number: V.a.456). Like in most posset recipes,...
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