Transmuting tinctures: water of sulphur, quicklime, and "washes" in Graeco-Egyptian alchemy

This paper explores the technology of what Graeco-Egyptian alchemists called ‘water of sulphur’ or ‘divine water,’ one of the key colouring agents at the basis of their attempts to turn metals into gold or silver. Early conceptions of metallic transmutation arose from the lived experiences of the practitioners who tested the properties of this liquid compound in their workshops and interpreted, at the same time, its written formulas. In order to better understand the alchemy of dyeing waters, the textual analysis of Greek, Syriac, and Arabic sources is combined with experimental replications of the procedures described in these writings.