(Secret des Arts, 1550)

Take benjoin and grind it then put into bottle and pour over it enough eau-de-vie, so much as it passes the benjoin by two or three fingers, and leave it so for two or three days, then add, for half bottle brandy, five or six lightly minted or entire safran strands. This done, you will flow it and with a brush will varnish any golden thing you want, which will become gleaming by drying during several years.

(Secret des Arts, 1550)

Another that will dry promptly. Take male incense and writing varnish namely sandarac which is juniper gum. Use as much as you want. Reduce it to powder as fine as you can and incorporate together. Take then Venetian turpentine, and put it in a non greasy bottle and undo it. Then putt inside the said powders, little by little, incorporating them without making it too tender but just right; and so warm, flow it through muslin. And when you want to use, warm it and spread very fine, and it will make your work very gleaming and will dry rapidly and well.

(Secret des Arts, 1550)

Linseed oil (3 pounds) that you will have boil and, to know whether it is enough, throw inside a hen’s feather, and if it burns forthwith it will be cooked. Then take:

Sandarc…………….………..8 ounces.
Aloès hépatique…………………4 ounces.

Powder them beforehand, then put into boiling oil and mix until liquefied. pass through muslin and you will loose the useless half being too thick and not good for use.

To use it, let it warm in the sun.

(Miroir universel des Arts et des Sciences, 1564)

Benjoin, sandarac and mastic: powder them well, add eau-de-vie. Let the mixture dissolve on a low flame or in the sun. Gums will dissolve easily and form a very brilliant varnish that with dry promptly.

(Traité des vernis, 1713)

A maronite priest, Donato Aldoense, sent the following recipe to Father Bonanni:

Linseed oil…………………………..1 ounce.
Mastic of Persia……………………1 ounce 1/2 to be melted.

After which one adds oil until some white foam appears. When one wants to use it to color some objects, one mixes it with powdered colors.

This varnish becomes very hard.

(Traité des vernis, 1713)

M. Garnier, the Queen of Poland’s physician transmitted to Reverend Bonanni the following recipe for  a varnish which is pliant and supple under hammer’s stroke.

Have the Venetian turpentine boiling, and then add as much heavy of powdered copal. Have it boil a quarter of an hour, stirring it well with a stick then put in cooked oil. Have it mix together over a flame, then let the varnish become as liquid as desired with aspic or turpentine essence. It has to be used a little warm.

(Traité des vernis, 1713)

Finally, Father Bonanni says that before applying varnish on wood, one must cover it with the following varnish to impregnate it. :

Aspic oil……………………..…..8 onces.
Powdered sandarac……………5 onces.

The whole being well incorporated over a flame, one coats the piece to be varnished with it all warm, and when it is dry, one puts varnish on.