An early work on the preparation of aqua vitae or the “water of life” (alcohol), by the process of distillation. This treatise describes the distillation process and necessary instrumentation in detail. Aqua vitae was understood to be the matter of heavenly bodies; portions of the work are thus spent philosophizing on its cosmic significance, as well as discussing the philosophy of the nature of time. The work also includes remarks on the medicinal uses of aqua vitae, as well as remedies and recipes for use by doctors. Today, distilled alcohol is used to sterilize medical instruments, and ether, an early anesthetic, was also synthesized through distillation. This work consequently marks an important milestone in the evolution of medical science and in the history of distillation.

Author Philipp Ulstad was a nobleman from Nuremberg who taught medicine at the Academy of Fribourg in the early 16th century. His volume builds on previous work by Hieronymus Brunschwig (c. 1450- c.1512), a German surgeon, botanist, alchemist, and author of Liber de arte distillandi de simplicibus or “Book on the Art of Simple Distillation” (1500). Ulstad was closely connected with Brunschwig, and the two early scientists used the same woodblocks in their works on distillation.