[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
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
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
Bacon, Roger, 1214?-1294 Freelove, Robert Jean, de Meun, d. 1305? Khālid ibn Yazīd al-Umawī, 7th cent
Published / Created:
[ca. 1550]
Call Number:
Mellon MS 33
Image Count:
277
Resource Type:
Archives or Manuscripts
Abstract:
Manuscript on paper of 1) Unidentified alchemy. 2) Jean de Meung, Liber Lapidis mineralis, Book II only, translated into English by Robert Freelove, 1522. 3) The Practys of Lyghtes. 4) Roger Bacon or Johannes Sawtre, Radix mundi, translated into English by Robert Freelove, 1550. 5) Rudianus, Liber trium verborum, translated into English. 6) Khalid ibn Yazid, Liber secretorum philosophorum, translated into English, 1542. 7) Unidentified alchemy.
Description:
Binding: Sixteenth century, English. Brown calf over pasteboards, the covers paneled in blind fillets, much deteriorated and the backstrip missing, preserved in a cloth case., No color or rubrication; occasional headlines or headings in large writing., Script: At least three scribes writing English cursive vernacular hands; the first, whose initials were probably "T.R." as written on f. 18r, 20, wrote ff. 1-18; the second wrote ff. 19-53, 67-94, and perhaps ff. 115-128; the third wrote ff. 54-65., and Watermarks: 1) a pot similar to Briquet 12801; 2) a similar one with a gothic "3" on the pot; 3) a hand with flower like Briquet 11347, all datable about 1550.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, English literature--Early modern, 1500-1700, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Church of England, creator Church of England. Book of common prayer. Litany
Published / Created:
the XXVII day of May, the yere of our Lorde M.DXLVI [i.e. 1544?]. Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum
Call Number:
Mzj141 1544
Image Count:
28
Alternative Title:
An exhortation unto praye
Description:
Probably an early printing of one of the editions of 1544 (Sayle 477), in which the error in date was corrected to 1544--cf., Signatures: A-B8C4., The Brand-Heber copy (Heber VI, 2753)., and Title within architectural border; black letter; the Litany printed in red and black.