On Making Cheese Glue

Περὶ τοῦ ποιῆσαι τυρόκολλαν

On Making Cheese Glue is a brief technical treatise on adhesive manufacture preserved within the corpus of Greek alchemical writings. Attributed to the pseudonymous Alchemist I, the work provides a concise, operational recipe for creating a strong glue. The core procedure involves taking old cheese, grating it, and soaking it in water for several days. The mixture is then boiled in an unglazed pot until the cheese dissolves into a thick paste in the hot water. This paste is subsequently transferred to another vessel of lukewarm water to soften further and boiled again until it achieves the consistency of glue. A key ingredient is then introduced: living lime, which is to be combined thoroughly with the cheese glue in a proportion of four parts lime to one part glue. The final compound must be bound and left to stand for six days before use. The text notes that the same method can be applied to make leather glue by boiling hides until they dissolve, straining the solution, and allowing it to cool and dry before reconstituting it. An alternative recipe is also given for a glue made from deer antlers, which are to be crushed, the marrow removed, and the white parts soaked in musk-scented water for ten days before boiling, straining, drying, and mixing with lime. The treatise exemplifies the practical, workshop-oriented knowledge embedded within alchemical literature, focusing on the transformation of common organic materials into a useful product through specific, repeatable processes. It survives as a complete, self-contained unit within major Byzantine manuscripts that transmit the Greco-Egyptian alchemical corpus, such as Marcianus graecus 299 and Parisinus graecus 2327. Its significance lies not in any discernible influence on later scientific traditions, but as a valuable record of the material concerns and technical practices of the ancient alchemical artisan, blending mundane craft knowledge with the precise use of specific ingredients.