Aureus hic est Liber à me Petro Pieruvio in gratiam amicorum et consanguineorum compositus, dum curandi animi gratia varios medicorum libellos lectibabam [and] Indice generale di tutti gli articoli contenuti nel Dizionaro dell’ arti, e mestieri compilato dal Sig[nor]e Francesco Grisellini

Italy: Manuscript in Italian and Latin on paper, 1638. Hardcover. Fine. Written in brown ink. Alchemical symbols and ciphers used in the text. Bound in original, contemporary limp vellum (light soiled and with small nick at foot), with the title on the spine in ink. The text is in fine condition with occasional light foxing. Two of the leaves in the opening table split along the dividing line (scored by the writer.) The second leaf presents a cipher key. Translation of title page: “This is a golden book composed by me, Peter Pieruvius, for the benefit of my friends and relatives, while, for the sake of healing my soul, I was reading various medical books.”
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A unique manuscript with alchemical and chemical formulae for manipulating metals and ores, such as purifying lead, turning silver into gold, and producing various metal sulfates (“vitriols”) in efforts to produce the Philosopher’s Stone via alchemical operations: congelation, solution, amalgamation, etc.; as well as medicinal recipes and preparations for household use.

Instructions are given for: transforming silver into gold (these instructions occupying four pages), extracting vitriol from marble, making copper sulfate, extracting copper sulfate, purifying lead, achieving “fusion of Mercury” (a key step in the transmutation of metals and the pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone), producing ferrous sulfate (green vitriol), “congelation” of mercury, and producing the Philosopher’s Stone (“Donum Dei”). There is also a cryptic alchemical process involving the use of children’s urine (see further below.)

There are numerous recipes for medicines (for toothache, the bloody flux, kidney stones, sore nipples, urinary tract infection, syphilis, burns, epileptic fits, etc.), as well as methods for restoring color to faded cloth, for driving flies, spiders, and scorpions from the home; for dying grey hair black or blonde (“like threads of gold”), and making various colors of ink (including faux gold and silver), liquid gold, and etching acid.

The first of the alchemical formulas involves the urine of children, which was widely used in alchemical operations performed in the quest for the Philosopher’s Stone: it begins with the extraction of vitriol from iron gall by placing it in a sealed vessel over coals for four hours. It is then put it into a bottle of a child’s urine for four days until it evaporates. Instructions are then given (in cipher) for performing further operations that will yield a bright red powder. The rest of the instructions are also given in cipher. For more, see Dannaway, “Urina Puerorum and The Fountain of Youth: From Soma to the Philosopher’s Stone”.

Addendum:

The book contains a second text of 10 leaves, added in a later, 18th c. hand, titled (in Italian) “A General Index of the subjects contained in the dictionary of arts and professions compiled in 18 volumes by Signor Francesco Grisselini (sic).” Entries include goldsmiths, cheesemakers, engravers, how to make ink, etc. (This index corresponds to the printed index of Griselini’s dictionary, published in 1768.). (Inventory #: 5201)