DONATO d'EREMITA.

623 DONATO d'EREMITA.
Dell' elixir vitć... libri quattro...
2° Napoli: S. Roncagliolio 1624
Ferguson Nat Union Cat Wisconsin

[Illustrations:-
1. Engraved title page 239x172mm. Ornate frame with title, supported by two men with books. Beneath, four children play with flasks.
Then follows a series of 19 engravings, the first of which was printed in two parts a border and the central image, while the remaining 18, which are numbered 2-19, are printed in three parts: an ornate classical border on sides and top, a number of which are used a few times - a text beneath - and a central image approximately 170x120mm.
2. 239x176mm. Border contains elaborate alchemical apparatus, and has Mary and the child Jesus at the top centre. In the central image, two monks stand before an altar with nine flat dishes behind which are a number of books. The monks point to three flasks, a pelican, and alembic with single spout and a plain flask, while a number of men look on and discuss metters among themselves. Above the flasks on the altar cloth is an oval symbol of a Sun, three stars and a double fountain.
3. 267x169mm. Plate 2. A cylindrical furnace with four towers and cutaway diagram beneath.
4. 265x169mm. Plate 3. A flask is heated on a furnace and a distillate collected through a long 'serpent' tube cooled in a barrel of water.
5. 265x169mm. Plate 4. Two flasks are each heated on a furnace on the right and left respectively. Their distilling tubes pass through a column cooled by water and the distillate is collected in two flasks standing upon shelves.
6. 267x168mm. Plate 5. A flask is heated on a furnace. Its still head is cooled by a water bath, and the distillate emerges down a 'serpent' tube cooled through a barrel of water and passes into the belly of another alembic on the left, from which a final distillate is collected.
7. 263x167mm. Plate 6. A retort is heated by the rays of the sun reflected by a mirror, and the condensate is collected in a flask cooled in a basin of water.
8. 265x170mm. Plate 7. A fractional distillation apparatus in which a flask is heated on a furnace and five tubes at different levels pass a distillate to five flasks supported on shelves.
9. 265x169mm. Plate 8. A fractional distillation apparatus in which a flask is heated on a furnace and the distillate passed along a long horizontal tube with five collection flasks. A final large flask cooled in a basin of water collects the end distillate.
10. 267x167mm. Plate 9. A retort is heated on a furnace and the distillate is passed into a globe. A flask on the left collects some of the distillate, while another attached to a vent at the bottom of the globe collects another part of the condensate.
11. 265x170mm. Plate 10. Two flasks with circulatory heads are placed in vessel containing lime. Water dripping onto this heats up the flasks. This is an apparatus for putrefaction in a lime bath.
12. 265x171mm. Plate 11. A flask with a circulatory head is placed in a barrel containing the dregs of pressed grapes. This is another form of putrefaction.
13. 265x170mm. Plate 12. Three flasks with circulatory heads are placed in a barrel of dung, the heat of which creates another form of putrefaction.
14. 266x167mm. Plate 13. Three flasks with circulatory heads are placed in a barrel of fermenting olive stones, to effect another form of putrefaction.
15. 266x170mm. Plate 14. Three flasks, one a pelican, are heated by steam in a cabinet to effect another form of putrefaction.
16. 264x172mm. Plate 15. Five flasks, different forms of circulatory vessels, are heated in a bath of dung heated on a furnace, to effect another form of putrefaction.
17. 263x168mm. Plate 16. An alembic is heated in a water bath and the distillate, the aqua vita, collected in a retort supported in a frame.
18. 268x168mm. Plate 17. An alembic is heated on a vapour bath and the distillate collected in a retort.
19. 265x167mm. Plate 18. On top of a furnace six flasks are heated in a bath. the necks of these six flasks all connect to a globe above, to create a mutual circulation. On the ground besides the furnace is a smaller similar arrangement involving 4 flasks in a mutual circulation.
20. 263x171mm. Plate 19. A pelican vessel is set on a water bath.]