page_title: Aqua vitae
hierarchical_section_title: Aqua vitae
caption_attribution_description: English: 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.
context_page_description: Aqua vitae or aqua vita is an archaic name for a concentrated aqueous solution of ethanol. The term was in wide use during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, although its origin is likely much earlier. This Latin term appears in a wide array of dialectical forms throughout all lands and people conquered by ancient Rome. Generally, the term is a generic name for all types of distillates, and eventually came to refer specifically to distillates of alcoholic beverages.
  Aqua vitae was typically prepared by distilling wine; it was sometimes called "spirits of wine" in English texts, a name for brandy that had been repeatedly distilled.
  Aqua vitae was often an etymological source of terms applied to important locally produced distilled spirits. Examples include whisky, eau de vie in France, acquavite in Italy, and akvavit in Scandinavia, okowita in Poland, оковита in Ukraine, акавіта in Belarus, and яковита in southern Russian dialects.
context_section_description: Aqua vitae /ˌækwə ˈviːtæ/ (Latin for "water of life") or aqua vita is an archaic name for a concentrated aqueous solution of ethanol. The term was in wide use during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, although its origin is likely much earlier. This Latin term appears in a wide array of dialectical forms throughout all lands and people conquered by ancient Rome. Generally, the term is a generic name for all types of distillates, and eventually came to refer specifically to distillates of alcoholic beverages (liquors).
  Aqua vitae was typically prepared by distilling wine; it was sometimes called "spirits of wine" in English texts, a name for brandy that had been repeatedly distilled.
  Aqua vitae was often an etymological source of terms applied to important locally produced distilled spirits. Examples include whisky (from the Gaelic uisce beatha),  eau de vie in France, acquavite in Italy, and akvavit in Scandinavia, okowita in Poland, оковита (okovyta) in Ukraine, акавіта (akavita) in Belarus, and яковита (yakovita) in southern Russian dialects.
caption: Artist's representation of distillation apparatus for aqua vitae, from Liber de arte Distillandi, by Hieronymus Brunschwig, 1512.
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