Soaps

[bunnyjadwiga]

From
Alessio: The Secretes. London, 1558 (Theatrum Orbis, 1975)
The English Experience, no. 707, ISBN: 90-221-0707-8

A very exquisyte sope, made of divers thinges

Take Aluminis catini thre onces, quicke lyme one part stronge lye that will beare an egge of swimming betwene two waters, thre pottels, a pot of commun oyle; mengle all well together, puttinge to it the white of an Egge well beaten, and a dysshefull of the meale or floure of Amylum, and an once of Romayne Vitrioll, ore redde leade well beaten into poulder, and mixe it continuallye for the space of three houres, and it will bee righte and perfite. Finallye, take it oute, and cutte it in pieces: after sette it to drie twoo daies, in the wynde, but not in the sunne. Occupie alwaies of this sope, when you will washe your head, for it is verie holsome, and maketh faier heare.

Sope with Cyvet

Take of the saied Sope as muche as you wyll, and set it a while in the Sunne in Rose water, putting to it the poulder of Cyuette, and mixinge it well. And if you adde to it also Muske, it will be the better, so that the Muske have been before steeped and tempered in rose water.

Sope with divers sweete and excellent oyles

Take of the foresaied Sope, whiche hath stande a while in the Sunne in Rose water, and put to it a lytle of the oyle of Bengewine, or of some other odoriferous oyle, and mixe it well: but you muste putte in of the oyles reasonablie, neither to muche nor to lyttle, but with discretion, accordinge to the quantitie of the Sope.

fol. 54-55.

Bengewine would be benjamin (benzoin). Amylum is starch, probably wheat starch.
Cyvet is Civit.
Aluminis catini may be rock alum of Casino
Roman vitriol is probably Copper sulfate, aka blue vitriol
Both Copper sulfate and Red lead are toxic.

Comments

[landverhuizer.livejournal.com]

I love the soap recipe because it is so close to 19th century instructions... well, minus some extra ingredients. I love seeing these links, wonderful!

[kellan_the_tabby]

Sweet. :)

[stefsoap.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to me that no directions are given for determining the relative temperature of the ingredients. Saponification happens between approximately 85 and 93 degrees, so it's not a large temperature range and it leaves to me to wonder if they were not aware of the importance of the temperature in the saponification process.

I also wonder what properties the egg white was supposed to have brought to the soap. The other ingredients are also a mystery. I would imagine that the red lead would have colored the soap very interestingly.

The other recipe makes a bit more sense in that benzoin is a fixative that I'm assuming they felt would fix the rose water scent into the soap.

Fascinating stuff.

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think they were going for the scent of the benzoin, along with the rosewater-- rosewater is being used as a distilled solvent for the benzoin and the soap.

Good question about the heat... I'm wondering if the lack of mention of heat is because mixing of some or all of the ingredients makes a heat causing reaction, and thus brings the temperature up high enough to bring it back down through saponification temperature.