while
still warm, and let it cool there. Make as many stones as you wish of,
however, not more than 2 drachmas {each in weight). The dye bath
should, however, be like paste.
30. Preparation of Emerald.
To
prepare emerald from crystal. Take a clay vessel, mix in it round alum
with water, and put it aside. Take transparent wax of equal weight with
the crystal—of this latter not more than 2 drachmas can be transformed—melt,
and put it aside in a vessel. Take the crystal and put it in the alum a
day and a night. In this way it becomes, of course, bluish. Then take
it out and coat it with the wax. Then take the crystal out of the wax
and put it in verdigris, but have the 1 .ounce of verdigris pulverized;
and boil the crystal for 6 hours in a small vessel containing 6 cups.
Then place it in the verdigris a day and a night. Take it out on the
next day.
31. Boiling of Stones.
If
you wish to make ruby from crystal, which is worked to any desired end,
take and put it in the pan and stir up turpentine balsam and a little
pulverized alkanet there until the dye liquid rises; and then take care
of the stone.
32. Preparation of Emerald.
Unadulterated verdigris; copper green; bile of tortoise (and) of steers 2 parts; smoky crystal.
33. Preservation of Crystal.
So
that it neither splits nor breaks. Take and mix the white of a goose's
egg with talc. Make it of pasty thickness and smear the crystal with
it. Then put it in linen, bind this around it and leave 3 days in the
dew and the sunshine. Untie after the three days and work the stone.
34. Preparation of Emerald.
Boil for 1 hour, 1 part of roasted copper, 2 parts of verdigris, (and) as much Pontic honey as is needed.
35. Another (Preparation).
Take
rainbow-colored Indian crystal, shape from it the small stones that you
desire, and soften them. Afterwards, take equal weights of flaky alum
and "garlic" and rub them fine with very sharp vinegar until the whole
becomes pastelike in thickness. Put the small stones in it and leave
them there 3 days. After this, pour vinegar upon the mixture so that it
becomes fluid, pour it over into a foreign pot, hang the stones there
in a basket so that they do not touch the bottom of the vessel, and
gently boil upon the coals. However, the pot should be provided with a
cover and be coated with tallow. Blow with the bellows so that the fire
does not become extinguished. Heat for two hours. Then take equal parts
of both Macedonian copper green and verdigris and 1/i a
part of the bile of a calf and grind all extremely fine. Then pour
thereupon the oil from unripe olives, measuring with the eye. Then take
wax, rub the stones over with it, and leave them with the oil alone, or
with castor oil besides, which you place in the small pot. Again hang
the stones in a basket and heat for 6 hours. Rehang the stones once
more on a horse hair and let them remain in the mixture over night.
Then take them out and you will find that they have changed to emeralds.
The
true meaning of the term "garlic" is explained in recipe No. 51. This
is an excellent example of the use of veiled terms and hidden meanings,
a practice which was common among the early workers.
36. Softening of Crystal.
To
soften crystal take goat's blood and dip crystal, which you have
previously healed over a gentle fire, into it until it suits you.
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