A rouge for a lady's lips.

 

A lip rouge in scodellini, for women.

Scoop some soda and bring it to the boil on the coals as aforesaid til it be half-consumed; what remains is best for this work, and kept. Take some Wild Crocus, which is to say fresh, dry it in the sun for an hour and then pound it well. Stitch it into a well-fixed cloth bag, and wash it until the water runs clear, then squeeze it til no water remains. 

Empty the bag into a glazed basin. Make the soda a finely-sieved powder, and mix the two well, til they be one. Pass the powder through a well-fixed white cloth fastened across the mouth of a jug or similar glazed vessel with a spatula, so you have four-fingers of the mixture, and add clear water filtered through the same cloth. Then, add a quarter carafe of fine strong white vinegar, and mix well with a stick. Leave it be til the following day, at the hour you assign.

At that time, separate the liquid, and out what remains in the bottom of the jug into a clean glazed basin, and cover it with two sheets of white rag paper, with another old basin on top, to draw the moisture, leaving the pigment dry. Remove the paper, and use a wooden knife to scrape the red pigment from the paper into a basin. 

Add strained limoncello made from ripe lemons drop-by-drop until the pigment runs, then leave it for a day. Put the pigment into small glazed scodellini with a brush made of the silk from a sow's ear; turn the scodellini until they are coated, and set them on a table to dry. And the thing is done.

Another way.

Take fresh wild Saffron and dry it over a fire in a cloth, as best you can. Pound it in the cloth, then put it into a bag, with tongs, for two days. Soak the bag in water for four or five hours until the bag turn red; open the bag and spread its contents over a polished table to dry in the shade. Rub it between your hands, and sprinkle it with Levantine soda, dried in an oven and powdered, half an ounce to the pound, little by little so it blends well. 

Spread it over a cloth, and dampen it, little by little, until it drips into the vessel beneath. Collect three or four cups, and pour it through the cloth again until the water holds the pigment. Add a jug of good white vinegar, and stir it an hour with a stick. Leave it three days, then layer two or three sheets of waste paper over it in a shallow pan, with a piece of old linen on top to draw the water. 

Stir a little of the pigment into a little pot, and temper it with lemon juice the way you would a sauce. Warm the pot all around with a flame, so the pigment covers it evenly; this done, take another small scodellino and set it on the pot of pigment so they kiss and keep it fresh. You may keep your pigment in an ampoule for a long time if you haven't the scodellini to hand. 

Notes.

From the outset, I'd like to say this is me exploring the text as I go along. I'll note things I find perplexing or uncertain about, and discuss my reasons for going the direction I go, but please bear in mind everything could be otherwise. 

As we go along, I warmly welcome any light you can shed on perplexities. Lets explore together. 

sugo di limoncelli maturi colato - Most liqueurs and fortified wines started life as something culinary or alchemical. I suspect here it is culinary, but whether it had much of an alcohol content in the sixteenth century, I know not. If you make this today, I think it could be very pleasant indeed.

scodellini - Now, this is what I'm talking about. We're definitely talking a small vessel of some sort, akin to a bowl, but I've a suspicion it might be more a little pot of the kind we associate with cosmetics and medicinal ointments. The detail about the pigment evenly coating the interior maybe points to that, so the contents easily conform to the finger tip. 

allhora a piglia una piadena - It's a vessel, but what manner of vessel? A clue might be the flatbread, piadina, which is pan-fried. Hence I've tentatively envisaged a shallow earthenware bowl.

One of the many reasons I enjoy what I do is this need to envisage process to solve a problem. I think I'm in the right direction, but if you know what is meant here, please comment. Bear in mind, however, that in the hundreds of years which have elapsed, meanings may have drifted.