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:
In Latin., 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., 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., 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., and 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.
Manuscript on paper containing 1) Propugnaculum alchymiae, the Defence of alchymy. 2) The first (second, third, fourth) booke of universall wisedome. 3) Hercules piochymicus. 4) Myrothecium spagyricum, or A chymicall dispensatory
Description:
In English., Script: Written in a clear cursive hand with some secretary elements., Watermarks: Paper with rather faint large watermark of a fleur-de-lys within a cartouche, surmounted by staff with cross and letter "M," not certainly identified., Very moderate abbreviation, headlines and marginalia throughout by the scribe., Anonymously translated into English., Accompanied by: By the King's letters patent. A machine on a new principle. Shelved as Mellon MSS 76a., and Binding: Early eighteenth-century English binding of parchment over pasteboards, somewhat unglued and with defects, the backstrip divided into eight compartments by raised bands, the compartments gold-tooled with floral motifs; binder's endpapers watermarked with a fleur-de-lys mark, countermarked "VI," closely related to Heawood 1544, 1552, and 1554.
Manuscript, on parchment, in a single hand, of Chaucer's Treatise on the astrolabe
Description:
In Middle English., Layout: single columns, mostly of 28 lines., Script: English bookhand., Decoration: initials in blue with red penwork., Presentation inscription on verso of front flyleaf: Augustus W. Franks, the gift of Sir David Dundas., Ownership inscription on verso of front flyleaf: C. H. Read., Tipped in: autograph letter signed from D. D. to A. W. Franks, 1877 February 11., and Binding: nineteenth-century full calf; in case.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400.
Subject (Topic):
Astrolabes, English literature, English prose literature, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper tablet of Account book, being a record of Stiffkey mill belonging to Nathaniel Bacon (1546?-1622) for the time period 8 December 1576-1579/80. Contains weekly statements of George Brigges, John Wilson, Thomas Shorten, William Fether, Robert Merkyn, and Henry Corye
Description:
In English., Watermarks: unidentified pot., Script: Written by several individuals in informal cursive scripts., Most folios are wrinkled, torn; some have been mended., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Half green goatskin with green cloth sides, gold- and blind-tooled. Leaves of a didactic theological text (Germany, ca. 1250) bound at beginning and end; probably a bifolium. Parchment; 291 x 196 (220 x 155) mm. Written above top line in a small gothic bookhand. Initials in red or green with penwork designs of the other color. Stained, but with little loss of text.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut, New Haven., and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
Bacon, Nathaniel, 1547-1622.
Subject (Topic):
Didactic literature, Latin (Medieval and modern), Manuscripts, Medieval, and Economic conditions
Legal document, in a professional hand, signed by the first Baron Lumley, containing an acquittance for 2500 pounds received from Edward Greville for the manor of Mickleton in Gloucestershire
Description:
In English., Docketed in later hands., and Attached seal (worn).
Subject (Geographic):
England, Connecticut, New Haven., and Gloucestershire (England)
Subject (Name):
Greville, Edward, Sir, 1542-1616. and Lumley, John Lumley, Baron, 1534?-1609.
Manuscript on parchment of Virgil's Aeneid, book 1, lines 513-543 and 547-576
Description:
In Latin., Layout: single column of 31 lines on recto, 30 lines on verso., Script: copied by one hand in Praegothica, with ascenders sometimes notched, and uncial d and tall d., and The leaf is from a small format pocket-sized manuscript. Trimming affects text at the top of the page, and text on verso is faded and obscured in places by staining.
Manuscript indenture, on parchment, detailing an agreement between the Prior and canons of the Augustinian priory of Bromehill on the one part and the Mayor, burgesses, merchants and residents of the town of Thetford on the other part. The indenture concerns the rights to income from the annual Prior's fair at Bromehill, including rights to the toll, stallage and pickage fees
Description:
In Latin., Docketed in a sixteenth-century? hand: the indentur of Bromehyll ffeyes., Annotated in a later hand, possibly that of the Norfolk antiquary Thomas Martin., Layout: single column of 26 lines. Head of document indented., Script: secretary script., and With: Seal of the Prior and Canons of Bromehill Priory, in green wax, containing a pyramid between a star, below, and a crescent moon, above.
Subject (Geographic):
England., England, Connecticut, New Haven., Norfolk (England), and Thetford (England)
Subject (Name):
Augustinians and Bromehill Priory (Norfolk, England)
Subject (Topic):
Fairs, Manuscripts, Medieval, Markets, and Monasteries and state
Manuscript on paper containing 1) J. G. Toeltius, Coelum reseratum chymicum, translated into English by F.H. (?), together with fifty-four Secret Keys to the understanding of the work. 2) Concerning divine magic, or Cabbalistic mysteries, an anonymous translation from a German original
Description:
In English., Script: Written probably by a single hand in a clear copper-plate cursive larger and less formal from the beginning through p. 226, the remainder in a smaller, neater version of the same hand., Watermarks: On machine-made preruled paper with watermark "HAGAR & Co 1824." not recorded in the literature consulted., Illustrations in the text; some illustrations on inserted pieces of tracing paper, copied from an unidentified source and intended for insertion into the manuscript but left unfinished., and Binding: Rebound about 1900 in dark blue buckram with leather title label gold-stamped "COELUM RESERATUM CHYMICUM.," edges mottled red, with binder's ticket of George Redway, 15 York St., Covent Garden, London, on first pastedown.
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:
In Latin and English., 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., 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 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.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, English poetry, Formulas, recipes, etc, Latin poetry, Medieval and modern, and Manuscripts, Medieval
