[Anonymous] Albertus, Magnus, Saint, 1193?-1280 Khālid ibn Yazīd al-Umawī, 7th cent Martin Roesel of Rosenthal Wolfgang the Organist
Published / Created:
1536, ca. 1520, and ca. 1586
Call Number:
Mellon MS 27
Image Count:
141
Resource Type:
Archives or Manuscripts
Abstract:
Manuscript on paper, composed in three parts, of a large number of practical procedures, chiefly alchemical but sometimes medical, with a few standard medieval alchemical texts by Khalid ibn Yazid, Theodoric, and Albertus Magnus. Occasionally there are passages in cipher, added by Martin Roesel of Rosenthal ca. 1586, long after the principal contents were written; the cipher seems to be of a simple number-substitution type.
Description:
Binding: Probably ca. 1586 for Martin Roesel. Red-stained limp parchment (most of the stain now lost), single central clasp and catch now missing from center of fore-edges, two slits on each fore-edge for thong or ribbon ties, also missing., In Latin and German, partly in cipher., Script: Part I (ff. 1-29): Written in 1536 in red and black in a gothic cursive by Wolfgang the Organist. Part II (ff. 30-65): Written in a well-controlled gothic cursive without color. Part III (ff. 66-132): Written in one or possibly two scrawling gothic cursives, with red headings on ff. 109-124., Several initials illuminated in trick have been cut from a late 15th-century MS and pasted into the present MS at ff. 2v, 4v, 5, 10r, and 16r. Marginal drawings of alchemical apparatus are cropped, as also marginalia., and Watermarks: 1) unidentified eagle watermark somewhat resembling Briquet 104; 2) a crown pattern resembling Briquet 4921 and 1922; 3) the Paschal lamb resembling Briquet 61.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medicine, Medieval, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Avicenna, 980-1037 Jābir ibn Ḥayyān Rāzī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā, 865?-925? Richard, de Fournival, fl. 1246-1260
Published / Created:
[ca. 1350]
Call Number:
Mellon MS 2
Image Count:
96
Resource Type:
Archives or Manuscripts
Abstract:
Manuscript on parchment of a collection of practical alchemies and procedures, the earliest such manuscript in the Mellon collection. Contains texts transmitted from Arabic sources and what appear to be European additions to the literature and practice of alchemy. Includes the following identifiable texts: Rasis or Aristotle, Lumen luminum perfecti magisterii; Avicenna, Epistola ad Hasen; Geber, Liber deitatis sive divinitatis and Summa perfectionis magisterii; Rasis, De aluminibus et salibus, extracts; and Richard de Fournival, Opus Arturi, or De arte alchemica. and The codex is an important, early, and comprehensive collection of largely practical alchemies and procedures. It is also of special significance both because of its early copies of texts transmitted from Arabic sources and for what appear to be very early, independent, European additions to the literature and practice of alchemy.
Description:
Alternating red and blue capitals throughout, some headings in red, many capitals stroked red, slight filiform decoration to opening initial of the volume, the rubrics and decoration probably by one of the scribes or another closely related hand., Binding: Early, probably 15th century. Undecorated red-dyed hide over beveled wooden boards, four brass edgepieces on each cover attached with brass nails, two brass catches on upper cover, lightly chased brass and leather clasps on lower cover (all of the material of cut sheet-brass), back with six raised bands, repaired and rebacked, with modern leather title label. Used as pastedowns inside upper and lower cover are two leaves from a 14th-century Germanic (perhaps Netherlandish) manuscript on parchment containing plainsong written in Germanic neumes on five-line staves, the text in Gothica textualis formata, large gothic capitals in red or blue, one at top of lower pastedown in black and red slightly decorated. In all the staves but the last on the lower pastedown the center-line is stroked red and bears the clef sign; in the last, the fourth line from the bottom has these indications., Pastedowns inside both covers are two leaves from a 14th-century Germanic (perhaps Netherlandish) manuscript on parchment containing plainsong written in Germanic neumes on five-line staves, the text in Gothica textualis formata, large gothic capitals in red or blue, one at top of lower pastedown in black and red slightly decorated., Possibly written by Frater Bartholomaeus (of?) Ol-----, 1335, according to a later note at foot of f. 88v, Script: Written by three scribes all using similar, legible, and rather cursive forms of Gothica textualis; the first scribe wrote ff. 1r-64v, the second ff. 65r-77r1, 38, and the third the remainder., Written by three scribes all using closely similar, legible, and rather cursive forms of Gothica textualis, heavily abbreviated with standard forms., and Written space 184 x 116, 2 columns, 50-49-48 lines each.
Subject (Name):
Avicenna, 980-1037, Bacon, Roger, 1214?-1294, Duveen, Denis I., bookplate, Geber, 13th cent. Summa perfectionis magisterii, Razi, Abu Bakr Muh ammad ibn Zakariya, 865?-925?, Richard, de Fournival, fl. 1246-1260, and Saumaise, Claude, 1588-1653, provenance
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Fifteen pages of largely diagrammatic drawings, approximately thirty-six in all, depending on how their relationships are interpreted (the text calls for thirty-two), are found from f. 10v to f. 17v, most of them accompanied by labels and the texts of prayers consisting of long series of invented names with exotic sounds written in a minute hand in brown ink, while the designs themselves are throughout in red. The text of the manuscript also includes numerous prayers, some of them consisting of exotic names. and Manuscript on parchment of Apollonius, Ars notoria, sive Flores aurei. A text in which a direct approach to knowledge is sought by means of incantation. The text of the manuscript also includes numerous prayers, some of them consisting of exotic names.
Description:
Binding: Wrapper, probably modern, consisting of a piece of old parchment, perhaps cut from the blank portion of a large document with a fold and some slits, the modern sewing penetrating the back., Capitals in red, blue, or green at paragraph beginnings, mostly plain, but some with slight extensions; a large capital in red and blue with green tracery at beginning. Diagrams and drawings in red ink, mostly accompanied by text in brown, often with the text forming a part of the design, on parts or all of ff. 10v-17v., and Script: Neatly written in Gothica Textualis, mostly very regular and small, sometimes minute, with various additions by similar and later hands.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Incantations, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of St. Bonaventure's Commentary on Book IV of the Sentences of Peter Lombard.
Description:
Binding: Eighteenth century, Germany. Cream colored pigskin, blind-tooled. Gilt edges. Green and cream endbands. Title on spine: "De septem/ Sacrament. Tract. Mst."., One historiated initial, f. 1r, 6-line, beige with foliage serif, red, against blue ground with white filigree, containing an apothecary (unguentarius) mixing ingredients in a mortar with two pestles. Numerous flourished initials, 3- to 2-line, alternate in red with blue, and vice versa, or often plain initials in red or blue. Running headlines in red and blue. Paragraph marks, alternating red and blue, appear sporadically (ff. 1r-36v)., and Script: Written by several scribes in small gothic bookhand.
Subject (Name):
Peter Lombard, Bishop of Paris, ca. 1100-1160
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, Scholasticism, and Scholia
Manuscript on paper of John of Rupescissa, De consideratione quinte essentie, anonymously translated into German.
Description:
Binding: Original reddish brown polished leather over finely beveled wooden boards, troughs for two clasps and two spikes on front cover, each cover with five nipplelike wrought brass bosses, one at each corner and one in the center, the lower cover with two large brass roundels used to fasten the now-missing strap ties which emerged from the lower fore-edge; sides ruled to a simple geometric pattern, back with raised bands, the clasps now missing and the hinges cracked, but the binding sound., Headings and capitals (a few decorated) in red throughout., and Script: Written by a very fine and bold German gothic cursive hand.
Subject (Name):
Johannes,--de Rupescissa,--ca. 1300-ca. 1365
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
A metallurgical experiment book of the type circulated among those interested in alchemy, mining, and metallurgy in the sixteenth century ...
Description:
Binding: Original stiff parchment over paper boards, remnants of two thong ties on the upper cover, slits for similar ties, now missing, on the lower cover; front cover lettered in very faded gothic script, apparently by the scribe: "PROBIER BUCH | ANDREAS OBERLENDER | 1532 |". A title has also been supplied by a modern hand in old style on the backstrip. Plain edges., Denis Duveen, acquired from Dr. Ernst Weil (bookseller), London, 1949; Mellon MS 104, acquired with the Duveen collection. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., Red inks used for tabular data and infrequent sketches of alchemical apparatus in the text., and Script: Written by a single copyist writing a practiced German secretary hand, partly in a modified Fraktur, partly in a more italic cursive, and occasionally (as in the title page) in a formal gothic script; a few additions at the end in a later hand.
Subject (Name):
Oberlender, Andreas
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, German literature--Early modern, 1500-1700, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Marcasite, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Metallurgy--Early works to 1800
Manuscript on parchment roll, composed of 15 membranes, of a Chronicle of biblical world history and the genealogy of the kings of England.
Description:
Binding: Unbound., One large illuminated initial for the prologue, 8-line, mauve and blue with white filigree against gold ground thinly edged in black. The initial is filled with a large flower, red, yellow and green, and curling acanthus, orange and green extending into the margin and continued as black inkspray with large leaves, heart-shaped or acanthus, blue, pink, orange, white and green with white filigree, a large orange and gold flower, smaller leaves in gold with blue and pink, gold dots and small green leaves, extending into the upper and left margin to form a partial border. Smaller illuminated initial for the beginning of the main chronicle, 5-line, gold on blue and mauve ground with white filigree. Numerous small initials, 2-line, alternate in gold with blue penwork and blue with red. Paragraph marks alternate in red and blue., Purchased from C. A. Stonehill in 1959 by Thomas E. Marston., Script: Written by a single scribe in a somewhat rough textura., and The genealogical diagrams, which are fitted into the empty spaces between the columns of text, begin with a roundel formed of concentric bands of blue, gold and red with a miniature of Adam with Eve, who is being handed an apple by the serpent. From the roundel of Adam and Eve to the Ascension of Christ the successive Biblical names, framed in orange or green squares, are linked by a continuous band in blue, red and gold. The names of the ancestors of the Kings of England, starting with Brutus, appear in red or blue circles, surmounted by gold crowns. Other names are in plain red circles. Linking lines in the genealogies are in red or green. At the appropriate places in the text are inserted schematized diagrams in red and green ink of Noah's Ark, a plan of the Israelite camp in the desert and a plan of the city of Jerusalem.
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain--History--1066-1687
Subject (Topic):
Bible--History of Biblical events, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Kings and rulers--Genealogy, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and World history--Early works to 1800
The offset on f. 53v of an elaborately decorated border for the opening leaf of the office of St. Felicitas suggests that the codex was originally produced for an institution associated with this saint.
Subject (Name):
Catholic Church--Liturgy
Subject (Topic):
Graduals (Liturgical books), Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of Thomas Aquinas, In tertium librum Sententiarum Petri Lombardi. Copied from an exemplar vended by Guglielmus Senonensis, stationer on the rue St. Jacques.
Alternative Title:
Comment on the 3rd book of sentences of Peter Lombard
Description:
Binding: 1899. Quarter leather over wooden boards, blind-tooled, with a gold-tooled label and brass clasps. Bound by Douglas Cockerell (stamp with date inside back cover)., Script: Written in neat gothic textura by a single scribe secundum pecias (notations along bottom of leaves, mostly trimmed)., Small decorative initials in red and/or blue with penwork designs of either or both colors; notes for illuminator in margins. Paragraph marks alternating red and blue throughout; running headings in red and blue., and Some folios mended with chartreuse thread.
Subject (Name):
Peter Lombard, Bishop of Paris, ca. 1100-1160
Subject (Topic):
Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, Pecia, Scholasticism, and Scholia