Giovanni di Rupescissa (Marcoles c.ca 1310 - Avignon, 1365) Franciscan spiritual friar, alchemist, author of prophetic texts, spent most of his life in the prisons of Franciscan convents with the accusation of a heretic and finally, for his prophecies, he was imprisoned by the Pope in the prison of Avignon. The constant transfers from one prison to another were perhaps aimed at preventing him from spreading his positions regarding poverty and obedience rather than those of a visionary and prophet through stable relationships. As a Franciscan alchemist R. set out to provide the Church with the tools necessary to carry out her mission on Earth: to go to the aid of all the needy, from widows to the sick in anticipation of the coming times of upheaval and famine. He therefore sought the substance capable of preserving the body from putrefaction, namely the fifth Aristotelian element, the matter of the sky. The alcohol obtained by repeated distillations from the wine, after subsequent evaporation and condensation, would have been able to produce the fifth essence since it would have got rid of the four elements (earth, water, air, fire). His works of alchemy enjoyed a surprising diffusion and in the sixteenth century they were published in print greatly influencing pharmacology.