Aurum potabile

Use in the book

The earlier satire must retain its own force. People who might have lived in prosperity and good standing shipwreck their fortunes and wander as beggars after turning all their property into drinkable gold. Gold is wealth; its conversion into drink means consumption and loss. The continuation measures a few hours of pleasure against lasting trouble.

The head-melancholy treatment synopsis supplies a separate medicinal route. Its compressed order does not securely distribute each preparation among every named physician. In the discussion of medicine, drinkable gold exemplifies attempts to cure all illnesses with a single remedy, explicitly described as disputed. That universal promise is different from the satire and from an established successful treatment.

Erastus condemns potable gold because of its corrosive liquids, and Burton relates Gwinne’s corresponding attack on Anthony. The argument then sets the extravagant mineral claims of Paracelsian followers against blanket rejection and calls both extremes. Mattioli’s approval belongs to the subsequent middle-position survey, with a marginal caution that the practice is overrated but should not be discarded.

The name recurs in the compound catalogue and among chemical preparations praised at the close of the purgers section, where Anthony’s advocacy is specifically named. Tobacco’s mock-superlative opening also invokes potable gold as something surpassed; Burton admits its medicinal value when properly prepared, taken at the right time and used medicinally, before turning to the ruin caused by abuse. Across these uses, the phrase carries contested promise, polemic and satire; it is not an instruction to ingest gold.

Related entries

Aqua vitae

Paracelsian

Confection

Corrosive

Wine

Virtue

Places to read

1. Subsection 13. Love of Gambling and the Like, and Excessive Pleasures, As… · paragraph 4Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
2. Subsection 13. Love of Gambling and the Like, and Excessive Pleasures, As… · paragraph 5The phrase makes dissipated property into a mock alchemical preparation.
3. Subsection 13. Love of Gambling and the Like, and Excessive Pleasures, As… · paragraph 6Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
4. Synopsis of the Second Partition · paragraph 21Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
5. Synopsis of the Second Partition · paragraph 22It appears in the compressed head-melancholy synopsis of preparatives and purgers.
6. Synopsis of the Second Partition · paragraph 23Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
7. Subsection 3. Concerning Medicine · paragraph 3Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
8. Subsection 3. Concerning Medicine · paragraph 4Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
9. Subsection 3. Concerning Medicine · paragraph 5It exemplifies the disputed promise to treat all maladies with one medicine applied differently.
10. Subsection 3. Concerning Medicine · paragraph 6Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
11. Subsection 3. Concerning Medicine · paragraph 7Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
12. Subsection 4 Precious Stones Metals and Minerals as Alteratives · paragraph 36Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
13. Subsection 4 Precious Stones Metals and Minerals as Alteratives · paragraph 37Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
14. Subsection 4 Precious Stones Metals and Minerals as Alteratives · paragraph 38Erastus attacks it because of corrosive liquids and treats the promised substance as poison or imposture.
15. Subsection 4 Precious Stones Metals and Minerals as Alteratives · paragraph 39Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
16. Subsection 4 Precious Stones Metals and Minerals as Alteratives · paragraph 40Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
17. Subsection 4 Precious Stones Metals and Minerals as Alteratives · paragraph 41Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
18. Subsection 4 Precious Stones Metals and Minerals as Alteratives · paragraph 42Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
19. Subsection 4 Precious Stones Metals and Minerals as Alteratives · paragraph 43Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
20. Subsection 4 Precious Stones Metals and Minerals as Alteratives · paragraph 44Mattioli approves it among chemical preparations and argues for chemical skill in medicine.
21. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 24Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
22. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 25It receives renewed commendation in the compound-medicine catalogue, after Evonimus’s aqua vitae.
23. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 26Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
24. Member 2 Subsection 1 Single Substances That Purge Upwards · paragraph 7Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
25. Member 2 Subsection 1 Single Substances That Purge Upwards · paragraph 8Tobacco’s opening hyperbolic praise surpasses panaceas and potable gold; Burton then admits medicinal value when properly prepared, timely and medicinally used, before denouncing abuse.
26. Subsection 3 Preparatives and Purgatives · paragraph 49Surrounding argument or qualification for the cited medicinal use.
27. Subsection 3 Preparatives and Purgatives · paragraph 50It returns among highly praised chemical preparations, followed by Anthony’s advocacy.

In this edition

“aurum potabile” becomes “drinkable gold” in the drinking-away-wealth joke. The literal English keeps the play between property and drinking. In the medicinal opposition, “Aurum potabile” becomes “potable gold”; elsewhere “potable gold” becomes “drinkable gold” in the tobacco comparison. These local choices preserve the common sense without erasing the different rhetorical uses.

The supplied note on Anthony contrasts Burton’s printed 1600 with a catalogue entry for a 1610 work. That is an apparatus qualification, not a newly established correction or an independent collation of Anthony’s book.

aurum potabile · local use 1

Printed “aurum potabile” (Latin; phrase).

Literally drinkable gold; here wealth converted into drink and consumed.

Here: The phrase makes dissipated property into a mock alchemical preparation.

Context: Burton’s satire describes ruined fortunes and lost standing, not a recipe for medicinal gold.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: aurum potabile

Modern rendering: drinkable gold

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies literally drinkable gold; here wealth converted into drink and consumed in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

aurum potabile · local use 2

Printed “aurum potabile” (Latin; phrase).

A medicinal preparation intended to make gold drinkable.

Here: It appears in the compressed head-melancholy synopsis of preparatives and purgers.

Context: Burton’s list is a medicinal use distinct from the earlier joke; its assignment of each remedy to particular authorities and its precise regimen are not unambiguous.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: aurum potabile

Modern rendering: drinkable gold

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies a medicinal preparation intended to make gold drinkable in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

aurum potabile · Aurum potabile · local use 1

Printed “Aurum potabile” (Latin; phrase).

A medicinal or alchemical preparation represented as drinkable gold.

Here: It exemplifies the disputed promise to treat all maladies with one medicine applied differently.

Context: Burton says some undertake this universal cure and calls the gold much controverted; he does not establish their claim.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Aurum potabile

Modern rendering: drinkable gold

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies a medicinal or alchemical preparation represented as drinkable gold in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

aurum potabile · Aurum potabile · local use 2

Printed “Aurum potabile” (Latin; phrase).

A preparation claimed to make gold suitable for drinking.

Here: Erastus attacks it because of corrosive liquids and treats the promised substance as poison or imposture.

Context: Erastus’s opposition and Gwinne’s related argument are reported; Burton later rejects both the total rejection and extravagant approval of minerals.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Aurum potabile

Modern rendering: potable gold

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies a preparation claimed to make gold suitable for drinking in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

potable gold · local use 1

Printed “potable gold” (English; phrase).

Gold prepared or claimed to be prepared in drinkable medicinal form.

Here: Mattioli approves it among chemical preparations and argues for chemical skill in medicine.

Context: Mattioli’s endorsement is reported with a tempering margin and within Burton’s middle position, not as settled efficacy.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: potable gold

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies gold prepared or claimed to be prepared in drinkable medicinal form in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Aurum potabile” (Latin; phrase).

Citation key: aurum potabile.

Here: It receives renewed commendation in the compound-medicine catalogue, after Evonimus’s aqua vitae.

Context: Burton says he and most commend it; the local generalization belongs to his account.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Aurum potabile

Modern rendering: potable gold

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies gold prepared or claimed to be prepared in drinkable medicinal form in this expression.

Sense relation: A further significant local use of this same defined sense; its attribution and argumentative force remain specified separately.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Aurum potabile” (Latin; phrase).

Citation key: aurum potabile.

Here: It returns among highly praised chemical preparations, followed by Anthony’s advocacy.

Context: Burton’s printed 1600 date for Anthony remains; the supplied apparatus reports a catalogue entry dated 1610 without silently correcting him.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Aurum potabile

Modern rendering: drinkable gold

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies gold prepared or claimed to be prepared in drinkable medicinal form in this expression.

Sense relation: A further significant local use of this same defined sense; its attribution and argumentative force remain specified separately.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

potable gold · local use 2

Printed “potable gold” (English; phrase).

A supposed drinkable-gold medicine, invoked as an extravagant standard of efficacy.

Here: Tobacco’s opening hyperbolic praise surpasses panaceas and potable gold; Burton then admits medicinal value when properly prepared, timely and medicinally used, before denouncing abuse.

Context: Burton distinguishes conditional medicinal use from widespread abuse; the initial superlative cannot be taken as an unqualified endorsement.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: potable gold

Modern rendering: drinkable gold

Word and construction: The indexed form names or supplies a supposed drinkable-gold medicine, invoked as an extravagant standard of efficacy in this expression.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.