Medieval Aqua Regis

[Robertleegrant]

Hello!
Total newb here! For research purposes I am attempting to recreate an Aqua Regis recipie from a 1300 CE text, “De inventione veritatis.”
It requires: 1lb of vitriol of Cyprus, 2lb of salt petre, and a quarter lb of alum. Plus a quarter lb of sal ammnoiac.
So, copper sulfate, potassium nitrate, aluminum sulfate?, and ammonium chloride. I have gathered those materials and I assume I can scale these down from a pound. I am curious about the amount of water (distilled) is required for the process.
Any thoughts or tips would be appreciated.
Thanks,

Robert

 

[eaglekeeper]

Sorry I am not able to help you with that one.

But if you need an AR recipe from 2022 AD I'll be more than happy to help...

 

[orvi]

This is very fascinating way how people discovered acids - and also very fascinating way how to kill yourself
Be very careful with this - mixtures are heated to very high temperatures, and if the glass break or crack... You can imagine what will happen Also, many times, you can say goodbye to your flask used for the reaction.
Many times - vitriol alone meant sulfuric acid. But some old guys reffered vitriol to green vitriol - or iron sulfate heptahydrate (ferrous sulfate). Need to be checked for clarity.
Saltpetre reffered to sodium/potassium nitrate or generally nitrate salt
Alum generally reffer to mixed sulfate salts of monovalent and trivalent metals, most known and used is potassium alum, which is KAl(SO4)2 x 12 H2O. Other known alum is potassium chromium alum, but I assume they meant potassium aluminium sulfate.
Sal ammoniac is NH4Cl obviously.

I am curious to this day, how they were able to squeeze something by dry distilling the stuff from improvised pottery apparatus... Anyway, if you attempt to recreate it, be very very careful and wear proper safety gear.