Manuscript on paper of a collection of pseudo-Lullian alchemical writings, translated from the French and Catalan originals, with a little additional matter. The codex underwent a transformation in the early 16th century when considerable new matter was added by another English hand on different, thinner paper; leaves have been inserted throughout the original codex.
Description:
Binding: Eighteenth century, English. Dark calf, sides paneled in blind with a roll tool of vine pattern, leafy sprays at the corners, back with six plain compartments and five raised bands, probably original parchment label on second compartment from top bordered with ink rule and lettered in ink: "RAYM. LULLII | OPERA | MANUSCRIPTA". The binding considerably repaired and some leather renewed. Original plain edges, the top blackened., Original text: Headings in red, rubricated. Some pages with diagrams or drawings. The illustrations include Lullian alphabets and tables in the form of wheels, an Arbor philosophorum, a group of flasks, and a good, large drawing of a furnace. Inserted leaves: Red headings, and capitals with slight decoration., Script: The original portion written by a single English gothic cursive hand with heavy standard abbreviation. The inserted leaves (first 4 ff. now extant, ff. 88-96, 163-169, 268-274, and 307-319 [of which f. 167 is a blank and f. 315 is a parchment leaf]) written in another gothic cursive habitually employing writing of different sizes., and Watermarks: Original paper: 1) an extremely primitive-looking unicorn with very short horn and long tail somewhat like Briquet 9962 and 10176; 2) a less primitive unicorn rather similar to Briquet 9985; 3) bullshead with defined eyes and nostrils and with cross above, rather like Briquet 15054. Inserted leaves: a very elegant unicorn mark, more developed than Briquet 10104; and some leaves with a gothic "P" with cinquefoil above, rather like Briquet 8809.
Subject (Name):
Llull, Ramon,--1232?-1316
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, 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
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
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
Manuscript on parchment (goatskin) of 1) Raymundus Martini OP (c. 1215-after 1285), Capistrum Iudaeorum, composed c. 1267. 2) Nicolaus de Lyra (c. 1270-1349), Probatio adventus Christi, 2nd redaction, written 1331-1334. 3) Odo Biagi of Ancona (Odo Blasii de Ancona), Quaestiones de vera fide. A treatise addressed to the Jew A., a physician from Piceno, whom the author had met in Ancona the same year.
Description:
Binding: Nineteenth century. De luxe binding (loose) in Neo-Renaissance style: red morocco over cardboard, both covers richly gold-tooled; the turn-ins gold-tooled; the flat spine gold-tooled in five compartments, the second one bearing the inscription “NICOLAI / de / LYRA.” Grey marbled paper endleaves; gilt edges. A repair at the middle of the top of the front parchment flyleaf may indicate that the original binding was chained, the staple being fixed at the top of the front cover., Script: Copied by one hand writing Southern Gothica Textualis Libraria. In art. 1 the handwriting is larger and more careful, with fewer abbreviations, than in artt. 2-3., and Uniform decoration. Headings in red. Red stroking of majuscules. Numerous paragraph marks alternately red and blue. Alternately red and blue 2-line (rarely 3-line) flourished initials with penwork and more or less developed marginal extensions in the contrasting colour; up to f. 41v they have mostly a more developed pattern of penwork; towards the end of art. 3 they are only 1 line high; blue penwork of the initial on f. 31r is extremely pale. 2-3-line painted decorated initials with acanth extensions in the margins in art. 3 only. A 4-line historiated initial with acanths and gold balls in the margin at the opening of each art. At the top of the Genealogy of Christ on f. 94r two roundels containing the portraits of Abraham (“Abraam”) and David (“Davit”). There is a large drawing of a running bird in blue ink in the lower margin of f. 19r.
Subject (Name):
Martí, Ramón,--d. ca. 1286 and Nicholas,--of Lyra,--ca. 1270-1349
Subject (Topic):
Antisemitism, Christian literature, Latin (Medieval and modern), Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment (goatskin) of Andrea Vendramin, Doge of Venice (1476-1478), Commission (dogale) to Girolamo Michiel as governor of Asolo, near Treviso.
Description:
On f. 1r white vinestem initial (6 lines) with long extensions in the upper and left margins; in the lower margin partial border in white vinestem, containing three medallions: the two outer ones feature the initials “I” and “M” in gold on a blue background; the larger, central one contains the coat of arms of Girolamo Michiel on a purplish red background in a green wreath., Script: Art. 1 is copied by one hand in a narrow Humanistica Cursiva Libraria, art. 2 by a hand writing Humanistica Cursiva Currens., and Unbound.
Subject (Geographic):
Asolo (Italy) and Venice (Italy)--Politics and government
Subject (Name):
Vendramin, Andrea,--1392-1478
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Bible.--Latin--Versions, Bible--Paraphrases, Christian poetry, Latin (Medieval and modern), Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library