Johannes, de Rupescissa, ca. 1300-ca. 1365 Llull, Ramon, 1232?-1316
Published / Created:
1528
Call Number:
Mellon MS 30
Image Count:
327
Resource Type:
Archives or Manuscripts
Abstract:
Alchemical miscellany, compiled in 1528, perhaps by Niclaus of Sweden, who appears to have signed the last procedure in the volume on f. cclxxxxviiij verso
Description:
Binding: Original blind-stamped brown calf over beveled wooden boards, the sides paneled in vertical patterns of roll tools, two brass catches on upper cover, remains of brass attachments for clasps on the lower; the original backstrip with three raised bands laid down; plain edges; restored by Carolyn Horton, New York, and with a leather title label on the backstrip supplied by her., ff. 322v-346r blank and not scanned. Signatures 2R, 2S, 2T, 2V noted at 329r, 335r, 339r, and 341r, respectively., ff. 348, of which ff. 1-18 are unnumbered, ff. 19- 317 are correctly numbered i-cclxxxxviiij by the scribe, the remaining ff. 318-348 originally blank and unnumbered now partly with later additions, ff. 18 and 322-346 blank, the last leaf serving as the end pastedown., On paper., Script: Very neat and clear gothic cursives, captions by the same hand, written in two parts, the second beginning at f. 201r., Some red sentence-strokes and underlining; red captions and chapter headings with minimal elaboration, carefully laid out on the page, also pen line-fillers at end of each section, as needed for text spacing. A penned brown and red crown as folk symbol at left margin of f. 135r. Infrequent sketches of alchemical vessels in brown or red at side margins, some very slightly trimmed., and Watermarks: 1) a long-stemmed cross above a bull's head; 2) a six-lobed arc above and each lobe surmounted by a three-lobed cross; 3) a crown. All with vertical chain marks, trimmed, not identified.
Subject (Name):
Duveen, Denis I., bookplate, Johannes, de Rupescissa, ca. 1300-ca. 1365. Liber de consideratione quintae essentiae omnium rerum. German, and Llull, Ramon, 1232?-1316
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
Manuscript fragment on paper of extracts from Laudabile sanctum. There follows on ff. 1r-7v an extended series of longer and shorter alchemical recipes and procedures, probably including excerpts from standard sources, a passage on transmutation, a brief account of the planets, etc., often with marginal captions. With a poem in English.
Description:
Binding: Parchment wrapper made from a bifolium of a late 13th-century French (or possibly English?) canon law manuscript written by two hands, one of them using a classical Littera parisiensis, the other slightly more rounded, the writing partly scraped away on what is now the front cover of the wrapper, the outer side of the lower cover with an inscription in a very large hand which has not been read., Script: Written by a single hand, very small (sometimes minute) and mostly very neat, using a good cursive italic for the Latin passages, and a secretary hand for the English, both sloping somewhat to the right., and Watermark: an extended hand with a five-pointed star extending on a stem from the middle finger, a quatrefoil (?) at the wrist, which is sharply cut off, the fingers partly articulated, of the type of Briquet 11341 and following, but more refined.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, English poetry--Early modern, 1500-1700, Formulas, recipes, etc, Latin poetry, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper of a collection of alchemical texts, including works by Rasis, Roger Bacon, and Hermes. Though the Bacon text and one other are early practical alchemies, the contents are mainly speculative in character.
Description:
Binding: Modern. Parchment, cut from a leaf of a very large manuscript, probably a lectionary, written in a Rotunda antiquior hand, Italian, 12th century; writing on outer surface erased, printed paper label on backstrip., Book and chapter headings in red, rubrication, capitals stroked yellow, larger initials painted in red or blue with tracery ornament in the contrasting color (all decoration probably by the scribe; red headings in the scribe's hand, all other red decoration with ink of apparently identical composition)., Denis Duveen, acquired from Joseph Martini, 1938; Mellon MS 34, acquired with the Duveen collection. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., and Script: Written by one scribe in a very neat and regular prehumanistic hand.
Subject (Name):
Bacon, Roger, 1214?-1294., Hermes, Trismegistus., and Rāzī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā, 865?-925?
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800., Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven., and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library.
Manuscript on paper containing 1) A short group of alchemical recipes. 2) Fasciculus chimicus, a title page and dedication dated 1620, possibly from a printed book, not clearly related to the following matter. 3) Sixty-five pen and watercolor emblematical drawings of alchemical processes occurring in flasks, with brief captions. 4) Artephius, Liber secretus. 5) Philipp Muller, De mercurio. 6) Christophorus Van(n), Notes on processes, one dated Rome, 1702.
Description:
Binding: Original binding of parchment over pasteboards, flaps at the fore-edges, six thongs sewn through hinges, flat back with early lettering in ink "Artefius [flourish]," speckled edges; the binding resembles that of MS 61 and is of almost identical height., Contains a series of drawings with symbolic depictions of alchemical processes taking place within flasks, originally extending to sixty-five, of which a few are now wanting. The series closes with some additional drawings of apparatus, which parallel those seen first in MS 50; see also MSS 52, 54, 71, 86, and 110., and Modern foliation in pencil begins with f. 2. However, f. 2 is the front free endpaper.
Subject (Name):
Artephius. and Müller, Philipp, b. 1585.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800., Formulas, recipes, etc., and Illumination of books and manuscripts--Early works to 1800.
Manuscript on paper of a collection of extracts from various alchemical and medical writers. Includes John of Rupescissa, Liber de confectione veri lapidis; and Arnold of Villanova, De perfectione operis alkimie. Compiled by one Johannes Baptista F., along with Mellon MSS 34 and 36.
Description:
Binding: Original parchment over pasteboards with remains of thong ties; probably a home-made binding utilizing used parchment (show-through of writing visible) from a document, plain edges. Labeled in ink in the hand of the compiler on the backstrip: "Medicina astrologia." Loose in cover and wormed., Denis Duveen; Mellon MS 23, acquired with the Duveen collection. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., In Latin, Italian, and Spanish., and Script: Written by one or perhaps two hands in mid-16th-century italic, sometimes of excellent, professional quality, but often ranging from fairly good to extremely bad and careless.
Subject (Name):
Arnaldus, de Villanova, -1311. and Johannes, de Rupescissa, ca. 1300-ca. 1365.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800., Italian poetry--16th century., Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven., and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library.
Blank pages not digitized. and Imperfect: some pages mutilated with loss of text.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Formulas, recipes, etc, Herbs--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library