nostradamus recipes

nostradamus had some really complicated recipes which i don't know if anyone could replicate, my favorite:

the sublimate

6 oz of mercuric chloride

put in a clean marble mortar, pound finely with wooden pestle

keep out of wind

when it is a fine powder 

stir in the spittle of a young boy who hasn't eaten garlic or onions, vinegar, or anything disagreeable for three days

stir

add pure mercury and strain through clean woolen cloth

add six shining crowns of lead and tin

three grains of ground silver

mix always continuing to add the spittle of a young man

do this until is appears really white (after having turned black, and grey first) and it takes 7 days to reach perfection

put in a mortar of pure wood

place in the sun to dry since it has to acquire the necessary whiteness from sunshine and hard pounding

if you can't obtain spittle, use sea-anemone or rose-water and add slowly

to make it properly you need spittle

in the morning stir in water to liquify

put in a small glazed pot and boil over fire

do this for the duration of audibly saying two "ave marias"

let cool until morning

drain off bitter and poisonous water

do this 6 more times

do three more times with rose water, and let it only half-dry

when you want to use, take a pea-size bit, rub with rose water on a marble slab, and apply to face

my favorite is this claim: 
 if a member of the fairer sex takes a little of this pomade when she comes out of the water or bathroom and applies to her face, she will change from an ugly Hecuba into an exceedingly beautiful Polyrena

holy cow

marie antoinette while in jail constantly used her perfumer fargeon's vinaigrettes of eaux revigorantes to help her endure the ordeal, and she used a good deal of eau de vie de lavande to calm her anxiety, along with orange blossom pomades and hand cream

she loved one of my absolute favorite flowers, the tuberose (which to me smells more lovely as it rots) but fargeon remembering her love for the flower stated "the flower had a strange power over her.  why did she so love a flower that resembled her so little and that, when it decayed, exuded a smell of decomposing flesh?"

blind french philosopher denis diderot said, "of all the senses sight was most superficial, hearing the most arrogant, smell the most voluptuous, taste the most superstitious and the least faithful, touch the most profound and the most philosophical"