Paul Summers Young

  For a tired complexion. Pour two jugs of River Water into a glazed basin, and add sollimato  [salt?]. Leave it for twenty days in the sun, then each morning for nine days add a fresh egg and beat it all very well, until on the twenty-ninth day your water is settled and clear. Keep it in a flask in the sun.  due boccali d'acqua di fiume - Thus far exploring these things, recipes have called for river water, spring water, well water, water from a fountain (public or otherwise), rain water, the water smiths quench iron or steel in, and distilled water. All have their merits, and to some extent this undermines the popular idea that Early Modern people steered clear of water because it was lethal. They understood the value of running water over still, and that boiling water was a good policy before consuming (though I don't think they did this very often outside of cookery). Different water sources meant different things and served different purposes.  di sollimato - Yo...

  Furthermore. Take a half pound of Lard from a sow. Clean it, pare it with a knife, and put it into an earthen jar with Rosewater, and mix it well. Change the Rosewater every twelve hours for eight days; then, add well-sifted powdered Sulphur to the mixture and blend it well, with a little Lavender Oil to perfume it, and well-ground White Salt.  Apply to the heat with some Lavender Oil, and it's done.  lardo di porca femina - Well rendered and clarified lard was an important medium for oils, and for their extraction. The stress on a sow's lard is probably because the fat from a boar is too gamey. Friends who slaughter their own livestock or hunt are very welcome to share their insight. I suspect the eight-day process of mixing and standing with rosewater is more about purifying the lard than perfuming it. Eight days is a 'liturgical week' or Octave.  poi si pigli del solfo - Sulphur has a sinister reputation, but like asafoetida it was valued as a substance to clean...

  A Touch Deeper. Red Rose Water. With reference to the previous chapter on tinting glove leather. Also clarifies one of the questions I had regarding water Isabella intended by l'acqua . To preserve your complexion from heat and cold. Take kid's fat with clear water, and blend them in a mortar. Melt the mass with two or three drops of scented water; drain it in a linen wrapped tight, and keep it.  When you'd like to ride forth, blend sweet almond oil with a little fresh white wax, as much as you think you need, with no more camphor than you'd fit on a pin's head and a touch of powder sugar candy; heat them together, stirring the mixture as you do, until it appears lighter; take it off the heat, and pour it into a glass vessel.  When you want to use it, dab a little on your hands and apply to your face to smooth and soften, and preserve your complexion from the extremes of sun or cold.  Isabella provides two recipes: the first based on goat's fat and probably yi...

  For Yellow Gloves. Amidst rose petals lies a golden pollen. Grind it fine with water, and wash the pelt you'll make gloves from in it, three times. Beat the yolk of an egg well, with common oil pressed from well-washed olives, or oil of mastic,  and grana tintorum. Rub it into the skin, Hard and well,  Leave it for a day and a night. Then, wipe it down with a sponge, And the thing's done. Blend good oil with white wax. fioretti gialli che stanno in mezzo le rose  - Resolved this one by looking at a series of pictures of Rose pollen, which is not something you see very often. An alternative to Saffron, which then as now was very expensive.  The Secrets literature often has the character of 'this one weird trick', which carries over into the Grimoires, and especially Le Petit Albert . The difference is this: here, the method is being presented as an economy, perhaps, or in lieu of the ideal; in the Grimoire literature, there is often a touch of villainy about it...

  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 ...