2020 Essays

Distillation in Ms. Fr. 640

Eom, Christopher

Innovations in distillation practices and technology in early modern Europe made possible the production of distillates in larger quantities. Such technologies became a prerequisite for a variety of modern-day applications in laboratory sciences and medicinal chemistry that followed. Ms. Fr. 640 provides testimony to this development: an illustration on fol. 3v of a distillation vessel raises questions about where this apparatus can be located within this context, as well as about the author-practitioner’s knowledge and practice of distillation. This essay considers the text and image of the entry in the context of the manuscript, and it speculates about the consequences of the entry’s overriding concern with the practical yield of the apparatus, in quantity, quality, and variety of products.