<div class="description">
Men feed wood into furnaces and stoke flames in this spacious laboratory, populated with large masonry furnaces for the smelting and working of metals. This scene also contains a list of alchemical elements in Latin. From the top they are: gold (aurum), mercury (argentum vivum), lead (plumbum), silver (argentum), bronze (aes), iron (ferrum), tin (stannum), water (aqua), and air (aer). At bottom are two biblical quotes from Psalms, Chapter 12: "The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." At bottom left is a notation which reads "Argenti excoctio," Latin for "burning silver," and at right a similar quote in German refers to the melting of silver.</div>
Circa 1700 – 1781
This file was contributed to Wikimedia Commons by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Science_History_Institute" class="extiw" title="w:en:Science History Institute"><span title="library, museum, and archive in Philadelphia, United States">Science History Institute</span></a> as part of a cooperation project. The donation was facilitated by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Public_Library_of_America" class="extiw" title="w:Digital Public Library of America">Digital Public Library of America</a>, via its partner PA Digital.<span style="text-align:left">
<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/cv43nx37f">Record in source catalog</a></li>
<li>DPLA identifier: <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://dp.la/item/99cad0a15851e89894cc46a2f9a4c296">99cad0a15851e89894cc46a2f9a4c296</a></li>
<li>Science History Institute identifier: padig:SHI-cv43nx37f</li></ul></span>