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
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
Giovanni del Virgilio, fl. 1319 Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 or 18 A.D
Published / Created:
[between 1450 and 1500]
Call Number:
Beinecke MS 758
Image Count:
110
Resource Type:
Archives or Manuscripts
Abstract:
Manuscript on paper of Iohannes de Virgilio (Giovanni del Virgilio, 1300-1350), Allegoriae librorum Ovidii Metamorphoseos, in prose and verse.
Description:
Binding: Fifteenth century. Brown leather (sheepskin?) over cardboard (replacing worm-eaten wooden boards), blind-tooled with a frame of fillets and rolls; in the central panel a motif made of small rhomboid stamps. Parchment front pastedown. Remnants or marks of four clasps attached to the front cover., Copied by one hand in extremely small Humanistica Semitextualis Libraria. In the poetical sections the majuscules at the opening of each verse are set apart., Headings (“liber secundus” etc.) in clumsy Capitalis (several times erroneous: “LIBE”). Space for a 2-line initial left free on the first line of f. 1r, although this is not the beginning of the text., and Watermark: tower, var. Piccard, Turmwasserzeichen 611-613; var. Briquet, 15911?.
Subject (Name):
Giovanni del Virgilio,--fl. 1319
Subject (Topic):
Allegories, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper of Ptolemy, Almagest in a Latin translation by Gerard of Cremona. With Calendar with computistical information, January through December.
Subject (Name):
Gherardo,--da Cremona,--1113 or 14-1187 and Ptolemy,--2nd cent
Subject (Topic):
Astronomy, Ancient, Calendars, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Mathematics, Ancient, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper of Annales Sanctae Iustinae. The Annals deal with the regional history of Lombardy and the March of Treviso, but also with world history and cover the years 1207-1270. With Mantissa. Notes on the history and buildings of Padua from its legendary foundation to the death of Petrarch (1374), together with some facts of general history, written as a supplement to the preceding text.
Description:
Binding: Nineteenth century. Quarter binding, pasteboard covered with brown paper, and white parchment; flat spine with black leather title label with gold-tooled inscription: “MONACHI / PADUANI / CHRONICON / MS.”; below this label an oval label in the same material., Collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps. Purchased on the Edwin J. Beinecke Fund., In the original parts of the Annals, pale red headings; pale red stroking of the majuscules and plain alternately pale red and black 2-line initials, either Gothic with some decoration, or slovenly-made Humanistic ones. The parts copied by the second scribe are undecorated., Script: The Annals are copied by a single scribe writing Italian Hybrida Libraria under Humanistic influence, using only vertical d. Mantissa, as well as replacement leaves in the preceding text, are copied by a ca. 1600 hand writing Gothico-Humanistica Cursiva., and The original part of the manuscript is soiled and waterstained. It had lost two leaves that were later replaced.
Subject (Geographic):
Lombardy (Italy)--History, Padua (Italy), and Treviso (Italy)--History
Subject (Topic):
Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and World history
Manuscript on paper of Renaissance poetry including: 1) Antonius Panormitanus (Antonio Beccadelli,1394-1471), Hermaphroditus. 2) Elegies on various subjects by the scarcely known Pompeius (Pazzalia) Bononiensis. 3) Basinius Parmensis (Basinio di Parma, 1425-1457), Liber Isottaeus. 4) Iohannes Marrasius (Giovanni Marrasio, 1405-c. 1457), Angelinetum. 5) Three poems by Carolus Marsuppinus (Carlo Marsuppini, 1398 [?]-1453). 6) Poems by Gregorius Tiphernus (Gregorio Tifernate, 1414-after 1462). 7) Poems by Iohannes Iovianus Pontanus (Giovanni Gioviano Pontano, 1426-1503), the final one here attributed to Iohannes Sagundinus (see also artt. 48-51). 8) Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (pope Pius II, 1405-1464) , Versus in MahumetumTurcorum regem. 9) Iohannes Iovianus Pontanus, Carmina. 10) Petrus Porcellius (Pietro Porcellio, 1450), Carmina. 11) Antonius Panormitanus (Antonio Beccadelli), Elegia ad Iohannem Lamolam. 12) Petrus Porcellius, Poem in praise of Alberto d'Este (d. 1502). 13) Poem by Antonius Panormitanus. 14) Poems by or attributed to Iohannes Sagundinus. 15) Pompeius Bononiensis, Carmina. 16) Prayer to Mercury, also found in San Daniele del Friuli, Biblioteca Guarneriana, MS 121, f. 81r. 17) Poem attributed to the emperor Hadrian. 18) Complaint on the decay of Rome. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, v. 6.5, no. 3*h, among the Inscriptiones falsae urbis Romae. 19) Funeral inscription. With short poems by various others.
Description:
4° folding. The s. XVII foliation is erroneous:it has ff. 55 and 55bis, 89 and 89bis, 96 and 96bis, and 118 and 118bis. Damaged by waterstains and tears., 7 postliminary leaves, 17th century binder's blanks, not digitized., Binding: Eighteenth century. Limp parchment with remains of two ties. Handwritten title on the spine: "Elegiae / nonnu/llorum / doctorum"., Headings and initials in brown, pale red, and blue., and Script: Copied by one hand writing Humanistica Cursiva Libraria.
Subject (Topic):
Latin poetry, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Renaissance--Italy