treatise on gold / H C Agrippa

some of my notes in this book:

[...]
I must relate that I recently saw some clear water at a friend's. It transformed filed gold - not dissolved in Aqua Regis - into a bloodred liquid through a good digestion. After it stood in digestion for one month, the water disappeared and the gold rose in the glass as if some fermented paste were rising, which was a pleasure to see. When it was given stronger fire afterwards, it settled down again, and the glass looked as if some gold leaf had laid in it. Nothing rose anymore. It was fixed and stable. My friend opened the glass and weighed it, it had increased in weight due to the menstruum. He poured some more of the water over it and set it back, closed, in digestion. The gold united again with it and was as red as blood and quite fireproof. When it was taken out, I took two grains and put them into a glass of warm wine. It dissolved very quickly and tinged the wine bloodred, which was amazing to see. The wine became somewhat sweet from it. I am of the opinion that if ever a right tincture was prepared from gold, this was it.
I can truthfully say that during my lifetime I have seen much regarding the preparation of potable gold, and have also experienced as much myself as any man of my age, but nothing more beautiful has come to my attention. One could not notice any suspicion of any corrosive in the menstruum, but it was quite pleasant in taste, almost like wine about to become somewhat "hard". Gold melts in it like butter near a fire or in the hot sun. Nor did it leave any White Earth in the solution, as the solutions for the magistery generally do. It was a thick, red liquid and finally a powder, at first brownred, the bloodred. But whether it could do anything in the transmutation of metals, I cannot say, for I have not tried it, nor have I seen it tried. y friend only gave me a little of it, which I afterwards used for the sick - to my great astonishment, because it was especially effective in extremely serious and dangerous sicknesses. But what kind of water this was and of what it consisted, the practitioner did not tell me at the time. I can quite easily believe, however, that it must be made of a substance closely akin to gold. I have concluded so, because when I put just one drop of this water in a silver spoon, it soon resulted in a golden tincture, many hundred times more beautiful than the rubedo (redness) or sulphur of antimony. Although the latter also tinges silver, it is not quite pure but blackishyellow. This one, however, was as pure as if a goldsmith had gilded it, and yet the water was as clear and white as crystal. If, then, someone knew its prima materia, I believed, he would not be far from the Universal Menstruum, since it dissolves gold without any violence. This is a characteristic of a true philosophical menstruum, as Sendivogius and others attest to, for like associates with like. Although he was otherwise my great friend, I could not persuade him to entrust me with the composition of this water. When I asked him about it, he always replied that I had seen enough, and if I opened the eyes of intelligence just a little, I would certainly find it and know what qualities it has. They would show me if I was right or wrong. If I had been smart, I would secretly have made a projection to try if this tincture was also effective in the tingeing of metals. I would then have been sure that this was the true Menstruum and Philosophical Mercury.
[...]

Has anyone achieved this Mercury ? wonderfull, eh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMFb3dOGDNk