Arnaldus, de Villanova, d. 1311 Cicero, Marcus Tullius Johannes, de Rupescissa, ca. 1300-ca. 1365 Petrarca, Francesco, 1304-1374 Vergerio, Pietro Paolo, 1370-1444
Published / Created:
ca. 1475
Call Number:
Mellon MS 14
Image Count:
93
Resource Type:
Archives or Manuscripts
Abstract:
Manuscript on paper of 1) John of Rupescissa, De consideratione quinte essentie. 2) Arnold of Villanova, Epistola de sanguine humano ad magistrum Iacobum de Toleto. 3) Alchemical procedures. 4) Francesco Petrarca, Epistola ad Marcum Tullium Ciceronem. 5) Pier Paolo Vergerio, Epistola in nomine Ciceronis ad Franciscum Petrarcham. 6) Johannes Obrist, Super confectionem auri potabilis. 7) Nicolaus Claudii, Opus super aurum potabile.
Description:
Binding: Modern parchment over pasteboards, parchment pastedowns and guards, back gilt-lettered: "DE QVINTA ESSENTIA"., Headings in red, rubricated., and Script: Written by a single scribe using a clear and regular gothic bookhand without strong nationalistic traits.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Latin letters, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper of an alchemical compilation, apparently the holograph of the original compiler, not identified. Probably the laboratory notes of a practicing alchemist. Includes lists of Flemish names, apparently identifying fellow practitioners in early alchemy; and laboratory procedures, designed primarily to color metals and to carry out other operations with various substances. Leaves inserted and blank pages filled at later dates.
Description:
Binding: Probably original. Stiff parchment over paper boards, flaps over the fore-edge, probably dating from about 1525, conceivably later, as the manuscript contents do not appear to have been bound at the time of writing in any case; flat spine with modern inscription in brown ink, "Alchemical, Headings of procedures in red and blue alternating in the original section, and with some capitals stroked red; no color in the additions. No ornament., Recipes, original blue edges., Script: The original part of the codex (ff. 1-133) written in a very fine, neat, and clear humanistic hand, and using a considerable range of alchemical symbols; the later additions (ff. 134-145) consist of Latin sections written in a neat italic and German passages in flowing cursive, perhaps both by a single German hand of the 18th century., Though the whole of the manuscript has suffered some marginal water-staining since it was bound, it appears certain that other stains and damage occurred while the separated quires, or groups of them, remained unbound., and Watermark: Outstretched hand, the fingerjoints indicated, a four-leafed petal extending from the tip of the third finger, the wrist and cuff of a sleeve also depicted, comparable to Briquet 11423.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Science, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment and paper, written in two parts. Part I (parchment, written ca. 1490): 1) John of Rupescissa, De consideratione quinte essentie. 2) Descriptions of various herbs. Part II (paper, added ca. 1800): 3) Alchemy. 4) Recipes for making Prussian Blue, in Italian.
Description:
Binding: Late eighteenth century, probably French. Speckled calf, the sides undecorated, the repaired back in compartments with gilt tooling, the original title-stamping defective, speckled edges; restored by Carolyn Horton, November 1955., Part I: Headings in red throughout, that on f. 1r overwritten in an intense red ink covering earlier writing in pale red ink, the intense ink then used for the remainder of the headings in this portion of the codex, and the overwriting probably by the original scribe. Plain, small, roman capitals at beginnings of sections of the text in blue or green; a large initial "D" and a full border no f. 1r, as well as a smaller initial "L" at the beginning of the second book of text, foot of f. 25r, all finely illuminated in gold and colors in the "white-vine" style, the lower part of the border on f. 1r with a coat of arms consisting of a shield azure, a bear rampant or. Part II: Undecorated., and Script: Part I (ff. 1-40): Written by one hand in a neat, minute humanistic cursive. Part II (ff. 41-52): In an Italian hand.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Formulas, recipes, etc, Herbs--Early works to 1800, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Prussian blue
[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
Alanus, de Insulis, d. 1202 Albertus, Magnus, Saint, 1193?-1280 Arnaldus, de Villanova, d. 1311 Jābir ibn Ḥayyān Khālid ibn Yazīd al-Umawī, 7th cent
Published / Created:
[ca. 1400]
Call Number:
Mellon MS 5
Image Count:
282
Resource Type:
Archives or Manuscripts
Abstract:
2r-3v : An early example of alchemical music, the Antiphona, by Johannes de Teschen, written in Hufnagelschrift., Manuscript on parchment (palimpsest) of a large collection of medieval alchemies, both speculative and practical. Includes an important group of writings by Johannes of Teschen, notably his Antiphona with musical notation. Also contains works by Arnold of Villanova, Alanus, Geber, Khalid ibn Yazid, and Albertus Magnus., and MS 5 is notable for its large collection of medieval alchemies, both speculative and practical, and especially for the important group of writings by Johannes of Teschen.
Description:
Armorial bookplate of Andreas Beham the Elder, dated 1595, engraved by Johann Siebmacher, (d. 1611), Binding: Fifteenth century, German. Presumably original, of oaken boards covered with red-dyed hide, sides framed by triple blind fillets, additional fillets drawn diagonally to form a pattern of lozenges; the original back laid down on a new backstrip preserving the four original raised bands, plus head and foot bands, which are drawn into the boards, fastened with wooden wedges, and reinforced with strips of parchment (cut from a 13th-century manuscript with faint writing in a very small gothic hand) which are glued down to the inside boards. On both covers single nailholes near the corners and two such holes in the center of each cover indicate the removal of brass cornerpieces and centerpieces; a single brass catch with iron bar, fastened by three brass nails, is preserved in the upper cover, the clasp missing from the lower cover indicated only by a mark. Modern leather label on backstrip, stamped in silver between rules top and bottom: ""ALCHEMICAL MISCELLANY MANUSCRIPT FRANCE 15TH C.""., Important capitals painted in red and blue with occasional filiform decoration, rubricated, and capitals frequently stroked red, but without other ornament or illustration., Modern pencil foliation throughout with various early pagination/foliation schemes., Ruled in red ink in two columns of 40 lines each., Script: Written in Gothica textualis by a careful but ill-formed hand in which differing letter forms are often not discrete, with annotations by a later 15th-century cursive hand and occasional notes by other hands of the same period., and Written space 124 x 98 mm.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Music--500-1400
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
Manuscript on paper of a group of shorter works by Christopher of Paris (pseudonym), probably a Venetian alchemist. With John of Rupescissa, De consideratione quinte essentie.
Description:
Binding: Sixteenth century. Brown calf, the covers blind-ruled to a rectangular pattern, the large center rectangle diagonally ruled to a lozenge pattern, a single quatrefoil impressed in blind in each of the rectangles and lozenges so formed, edges partly renewed and rebacked in the style of the period of the binding with compartments formed by three double raised bands, a gold stamped title label in the second compartment from top reading: "CHRISTOPHE | DE PARIS | - | RUPESCISSA | MANUSCRIPTS | ITALY | 15TH C". The endpapers are modern insertions, though of old paper, and the binding, while of the period of the manuscript, probably had no original connection with this codex., Denis Duveen; Mellon MS 45, acquired with the Duveen collection. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., In Italian and Latin., No headlines, headings and some capitals in pale red., Script: Written by a single scribe in a late humanistic cursive hand sloping slightly to the right., and Watermarks: 1) anchor with ring atop the shank, all within a circle; 2) plain and ill-drawn anchor with thick flukes, the top of the shank forming a small, neat cross with the short stock. Both probably Italian papers, not directly comparable to the varieties illustrated by Briquet.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library