Manuscript on paper of an alchemy in verse with an extended prose commentary
Description:
In German and Latin., Script: Calligraphically written by a single hand in an elegant German Fraktur, the Latin passages in cursive, both sloping to the right., Watermarks: Fine Dutch paper watermarked with a cartouche with the inscription "C. & [?] HONIG" below, comparable to Heawood 3347 (1724-1726), but judged to be somewhat later., and Binding: Original German binding of mottled dark brown calf, sides plain, back in compartments with gold tooling imitative of French work, citron morocco title label with gold lettering in gothic characters, "Das geheime Buch der Weisheit," and blind impression in the compartment below of a second label now missing, lettered "1. 2. 3. 4." Red edges: pastedown and facing side of flyleaves at front and back marbled in red.
Manuscript on parchment of 1) Ps.-Raymundus Lullus, Figurae instrumentales Testamenti: Diagrams and tables related to the Testamentum, a treatise of the Lullian alchemical corpus. 2) Recipes for obtaining the philosophical stone and the magisterium
Description:
In Latin., Script: Art. 1 is written by one scribe in Southern Gothica Semitextualis Libraria, with cursive x and cursive final s. Art. 2 was added by two scribes writing Humanistica Cursiva Libraria., The tables and diagrams are traced in brown or red ink. Except in the tables there is no ruling for the text. The text is written in brown and red ink., and The parchment is stained and worn due to folding and manipulation.
Manuscript on paper and parchment of a version in French of the German text, Das Buch von der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit, with close copies of the illuminations in two fifteenth-century manuscripts. Contains illustrations that mix Christian symbolism, especially the Passion of Christ, with alchemical symbolism, and also depict some apparatus
Description:
In French., Script: Calligraphically written in brown ink in a very clear, large cursive hand., Watermarks: Paper watermarked with large fleur-de-lys with a cartouche, surmounted by a crown, the letter "W" below, perhaps identical to Heawood 1845., With illustrations added about 1875., and Binding: Nineteenth-century French citron polished calf, sides bordered with triple gold rules, gold-stamped fleurons at the corners, back in compartments gold-stamped with small tools, red morocco title label, marbled pastedowns and flyleaves, the latter glued to parchment flyleaves which appear to have come from an earlier binding of this volume; mottled edges.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Religious aspects, Christianity, and Trinity
Manuscript, in unidentified hand, on paper, containing a description of several alchemical and medical ingredients and processes. Includes a table of contents, using alchemical symbols, on f. 1: Aurum potabile (ff. 1-4), Lapis animalis (ff. 4-14), Lapis Vegetabilis (ff. 14-19), Lapis mineralis (ff. 19-26), Aurum potabile (ff. 26-30), Tinctura cum mercurio (ff. 30-33), Tinctura magna (ff. 33-36), Das war Auz[] pota[]le (ff. 36-41), Testamentum Raimundi Lulii (ff. 41-58), [mercuriis?] corporibus, Sequitur solutiones, Tinctura animalis, Tinctura albedinis (ff. 77-80), Coagulatio Mercurii (ff. 80-82), De oro argento (ff. 82-83), Verus elixir (ff. 83-86), Secreta Antionii (ff. 86-92), Proiectio (ff. 92-99).
Description:
In Latin and German., Title devised by cataloger., Script: gothic cursiva., Decoration: headings in red ink. Spare rubrication., Layout: single column of around 17 lines., Binding: red vellum binding., and Foliation in later hand.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Manuscripts, Materia medica, Medicine, Medicine, Medieval, and Medicine, Magic, mystic, and spagiric
Manuscript on paper (thick) containing 1) Basilius Valentinus, Porta sophica, sive duodecim claves. 2) Marcellus Palingenius, Alchemical invocation. 3) George Ripley, Liber duodecim portarum, the prologue only. 4) Hermes, Tabula smaragdina. 5) Basilius Valentinus, Practica cum duodecim clavibus. 6) Lambsprinck, De lapide philosophico libellus. 7) Michael Maier, and others, Emblematical alchemical paintings, without text. 8) Riginio Danielli, Canzone
Description:
In Latin and Italian., Script: Painstakingly but not very skillfully written by a single hand imitating different typefaces., In brown ink with some red headings and capitals., and Binding: Probably original binding of plain brown calf, back with four raised bands, remains of early paper title label at top of backstrip on which the compiler's name is written partly defectively, "Gregori ... [sic] ... llmri ..." Badly wormed and repaired in modern times, with modern leather title label on backstrip.
Manuscript on paper containing 1) Michael Sendivogius, Novum lumen chymicum & Parabola, translated into German. 2) De lapide philosophico et eius praeparatione, in German. 3) Alchemical recipes, in German, beginning with a brief description of alchemical implements and vessels in Latin. 4) Via veritatis, in German
Description:
In German and Latin., Script: Written in a rather upright Fraktur, with Latin words and passages in italic cursive., Six pen-drawn illustrations on ff. 107v-108v., Watermark: an armorial shield at margins and cut, not identified., and Binding: Original limp parchment fashioned from a leaf taken from a French (?) manuscript, ca. 1300, containing canon law fragments written in two columns in a formal Littera parisiensis, with glossae in a less formal hand, with section marks in red and blue, rather worn; pale red edges. Preserved in a modern marbled board solander case with tan oasis back by Carolyn Horton.
Subject (Name):
Sendivogius, Michael, 1566-1636.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Natural history, Pre-Linnaen works, and German literature