Isolation of alcohol (aqua vitae)
Aislamiento del alcohol por destilación del vino (aqua vitae)
- Date
- c. 1150 · confidence low
- Place
- School of Salerno, Italy
- Credited to
- Salerno medical school (Magister Salernus); cryptic recipe in the Mappae clavicula (12th-century addition)
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Distilling wine with cooled alembics made it possible to obtain aqua ardens, concentrated ethanol, one of the first organic substances isolated in Europe.
The refinement of fractional distillation is also attributed to Taddeo Alderotti (13th century).
What it led to
- Distilling and spirits
- Pharmaceutical solvents and tinctures
- Antiseptics
Built on
- Alembic stillc. 800
- Arabic distillation
Made possible
- spirit (aguardiente)
- tinctures
- spirit lamps