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 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
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 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
Manuscript on parchment of Biondo Flavio, Italia Illustrata with the dedicatory preface to Pope Nicolas V (d. 1455).
Description:
Binding: Eighteenth century, England. Red goatskin gold-tooled, with the crest of Charles Chauncy on the sides. Gilt edges. Rebacked. The fine quality of the endleaves and leather, and the tool used on the edges of the boards and the turn-ins are similar to those in Marston MS 102 and Beinecke MS 497, both probably bound by Richard Wier, active in London and France in the 1770s; d. 1792)., Elaborately illuminated title page with historiated initial, 10-line, mauve with silver filigree against gold ground, edged in black, with a portrait of the author, seated and holding a book, against a hilly landscape and blue sky. Partial border of white vine-stem ornament against a predominantly gold ground with blue, green, and red patches with white and pale yellow dots in inner and upper margins, terminating in dense penwork scrolls with gold dots. In outer and lower margin, border of stylized flowers and foliage in red, purple, green, and blue, surrounded by dense penwork scrolls punctuated by gold dots. In center of lower margin, wreathed medallion with unidentified arms, supported by two purple winged putti outlined in blue and wearing red necklaces. 14 illuminated initials, 9- to 6-line, gold, on blue, green, and red ground with white vine-stem ornament, sometimes extending into the margins. Headings, running titles, and marginalia in red., and Script: Written in fine humanistic bookhand, below top line, by a single scribe who also wrote the running titles (epigraphic majuscules) and marginalia, in red.
Subject (Geographic):
Italy--Description and travel
Subject (Topic):
Geography, Medieval, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper (polished) of Cecco d'Ascoli (Francesco Stabili), L'Acerba, Bks. 1-4 with the final 214 lines of Bk. 4 and all of the fragmentary Bk. 5 missing.
Description:
Binding: Nineteenth century, Italy. Vellum stays adhered inside and outside of quires. Backs of quires cut in for original sewing. Bookblock tacketed to a semi-limp paper case, reinforced at the spine. Handwritten paper label with title and a printed medallion with Flora (?) standing on an anchor and globe (?), both on spine., Blue initial, 6-line, with nice penwork designs, f. 1r. Smaller initials, 2-line, red with purple designs or blue with red designs, alternate throughout. Headings in pale red. Paragraph marks alternate red and blue. Later addition of arms in lower margin, f. 1r, effaced and covered with mending strips., Purchased from B. M. Rosenthal in 1959 by Thomas E. Marston., Script: Written by a single scribe in mercantesca script, above top line., and Watermarks: unidentified cherries (?) in upper margin, trimmed.
Subject (Topic):
Encyclopedias and dictionaries--Early works to 1600, Italian poetry--To 1400, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper of Christine de Pizan, La Cite des dames. With Jacques le Grand, Le Livre de bonnes moeurs., On f. iii verso, pasted in by a later owner, a miniature (80 x 61 mm.), the Queen of Sheba before Solomon, and a separate compartmentalized border (161 x 105 mm.) of blue and gold acanthus on pink, and red, purple and white flowers and grapevines., and Pasted in on f. 137v a small miniature (41 x 32 mm.) of St. Barbara, originally for a Suffrage, probably from the same Book of Hours as the border of f. iii verso.
Alternative Title:
The Queen of Sheba before King Solomon
Description:
Note, in ink, inside front cover: "Secundarius posessor et vetus peraccens erit quiuis alius I.g.
Subject (Topic):
Books of hours, Didactic literature, French, French literature--To 1500, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Women authors, French
Haimo, of Auxerre, d. ca. 855 John, of Wales, 13th cent
Published / Created:
[between 1300 and 1350; 1290 and 1325]
Call Number:
Marston MS 223
Image Count:
2
Resource Type:
Archives or Manuscripts
Abstract:
A composite manuscript written in different locations and periods: Part I was written in Italy in the first half of the 14th century; Part II was probably written in England (or Northern France?) at the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century. The index was added on blank leaves in Italy in the 14th century, perhaps at the same time that Parts I and II were joined together to form the present codex. and Manuscript on parchment composed of two distinct parts. Part I: 1) Brief prologues to the Pauline Epistles, paraphrasing or extracted from the argumenta of Haimo of Auxerre, Expositio in epistolas Sancti Pauli. 2-4) Notes for sermons arranged according to the liturgical year. Part II: 5) Unidentified sermons. 6) John of Wales, Breviloquium.
Alternative Title:
Haimo of Auxerre; John of Wales, etc.
Description:
Binding: Nineteenth century, England. Backs of quires cut in for original sewing. Brown calf case, blind-tooled., Part I: Red initials, 3- to 2-line, with crude harping designs in black; headings and paragraph marks (art. 3) in red. Instructions for rubricator. Part II: Flourished initials, 3- to 2-line, alternate red and blue with penwork designs in the opposite color. Paragraph marks alternate red and blue; headings, often added in margin, in red. Remains of guide letters for decorator., Purchased from C. A. Stonehill in 1958 by Thomas E. Marston., and Script: Part I (ff. 1-24): Scribe I copied ff. 1r-6v in small gothic bookhand with southern features; Scribe II copied ff. 7r-24r in a somewhat more angular gothic bookhand; additions by different scribes on f. 24r-v. Part II (ff. 25-78): Arts. 5-6 copied in small neat gothic bookhand, by a single scribe; some marginalia added in anglicana script (e.g., f. 46v); art. 7 added in a less careful gothic bookhand.
Subject (Name):
Haimo,--of Auxerre,--d. ca. 855
Subject (Topic):
Bible.--N.T.--Epistles of Paul, Bible--Commentaries, Church year sermons--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, Scholasticism, and Sermons--Early works to 1800
Manuscript (holograph?) on parchment of nineteen poems, dedicated to Niccolo Franco, Bishop of Treviso (d. 1499), and other members of the literary circle in Treviso with whom Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (ca. 1440-1524) was actively connected as a famous private teacher and distinguished poet from 1491 until his death. Only the seventeenth poem of MS 22 is directly related to alchemy, but it is above all a literary exercise.
Description:
Binding: Apparently original. Blind-stamped red goatskin (now darkened), repaired, sides paneled with blind fillets, two rows of differing knotwork tools, four clasps and catches now lacking, two asterisk-headed brass nails for each clasp remaining on upper cover, plain edges, modern leather label on backstrip with three faintly raised original bands., Large capital letters, mostly plain, at the beginning (written in the left margins) and dedication of each poem in pale red. On f. 1v (blank on the recto) is a drawing in delicate wash of a tree, lower left, against the base of which leans a small book in a red cover; extending upward from the treetop to the sun, at extreme top right, is the inscription in red capitals: "VTCVNQ[VE] TIBI." On f. 2r, opposite the dedicatory drawing just described, there is further decoration in the same delicate wash colors: a leaf in the margin beside the dedication to Niccolo Franco, Bishop of Treviso; light tracery ornament surrounding the capital "F" in the left margin at the beginning of the first poem; and Franco's arms, surmounted by the Bishop's mitre and surrounded by green twigs tied with red ribbons, in the lower margin. At the end of the manuscript, beneath the colophon, there is a further drawing and inscription in green wash, referable to the final poem: a small Roman sarcophagus with a little book in red binding lying atop it, and the inscription "POSTERITATI SACRUM" below., and Script: Written by a single scribe in a good humanistic cursive.
Subject (Geographic):
Treviso (Italy)
Subject (Name):
Augurelli, Giovanni Aurelio,--ca. 1456-1524?
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Latin poetry, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library