Simonides Redivivus, or the Art of Memory and Oblivion

is not only laborious, but also exists as damaging to books and papers, because of the drops dripping onto the table during the pouring (you will scarcely avoid them).

I know indeed that the things I have said can be performed by lamps prepared from Spirit of wine, oil, or wax. But as far as Spirit of wine is concerned, it is not only expensive, especially in these regions of ours; but it also requires a peculiar preparation before you can use it. Oil, however, makes the hands greasy, and infects the furnace with much soot. Nor can wax be handled conveniently, and without expense. And unless the wicks are handled with a diligent and most subtle hand, sooner than said there will be no lamp. All of which are easily avoided by our following method: although lamps also deserve their own praise, especially among the wealthy, who know how to sustain and cherish them with Spirit of wine or grains. Whoever uses our little furnace, once he has fitted the alembic with the receiver, it is not necessary for him to be occupied around the fire, or to depart from his books and table, while a servant or whoever else suffices to complete the rest of the work.

Let one square brick be taken for the base, of the kind by which pavements and hearths are paved: and four tiles with their tails cut off, of which the first should be hollowed out circularly in the lower part, the second should be passable by a small hole, and the third and fourth should remain flat. Let there also be in readiness an iron pipe with a tail, most exquisitely excavated at its mouth, corresponding to the first tile; let the tail, however, enter the hole of the second tile in such a way that between the said pipe and the tile, which receives its tail, a space of a transverse inch is left. Which having been duly arranged in a row, and built upon that square brick, let the remaining two tiles be added, and from all these, joined and glued together with the clay of wisdom, let a little furnace be made according to art (as the physicians say), not difficult to transport into any places and rooms. Then have ready