[Anonymous] Albertus, Magnus, Saint, 1193?-1280 Khālid ibn Yazīd al-Umawī, 7th cent Martin Roesel of Rosenthal Wolfgang the Organist
Published / Created:
1536, ca. 1520, and ca. 1586
Call Number:
Mellon MS 27
Image Count:
141
Resource Type:
Archives or Manuscripts
Abstract:
Manuscript on paper, composed in three parts, of a large number of practical procedures, chiefly alchemical but sometimes medical, with a few standard medieval alchemical texts by Khalid ibn Yazid, Theodoric, and Albertus Magnus. Occasionally there are passages in cipher, added by Martin Roesel of Rosenthal ca. 1586, long after the principal contents were written; the cipher seems to be of a simple number-substitution type.
Description:
Binding: Probably ca. 1586 for Martin Roesel. Red-stained limp parchment (most of the stain now lost), single central clasp and catch now missing from center of fore-edges, two slits on each fore-edge for thong or ribbon ties, also missing., In Latin and German, partly in cipher., Script: Part I (ff. 1-29): Written in 1536 in red and black in a gothic cursive by Wolfgang the Organist. Part II (ff. 30-65): Written in a well-controlled gothic cursive without color. Part III (ff. 66-132): Written in one or possibly two scrawling gothic cursives, with red headings on ff. 109-124., Several initials illuminated in trick have been cut from a late 15th-century MS and pasted into the present MS at ff. 2v, 4v, 5, 10r, and 16r. Marginal drawings of alchemical apparatus are cropped, as also marginalia., and Watermarks: 1) unidentified eagle watermark somewhat resembling Briquet 104; 2) a crown pattern resembling Briquet 4921 and 1922; 3) the Paschal lamb resembling Briquet 61.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medicine, Medieval, 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
Manuscript on paper of a collection of the works of Nicolaus, mostly related to medicine. In addition the codex has interesting lists of substances in Latin and German, as well as a tract on the distillation of brandy.
Alternative Title:
[Antidotarium]
Description:
Binding: Modern three-quarter binding of light brown buckram, plain brown niger back and corners, the back with five (false?) raised bands, gilt-lettered in the second compartment from the top, ANTIDOTARIUM NICOLAI, and at the foot of the spine, "AB. 1460". Plain edges., Blank binder's leaves not scanned., Large capitals in red at text divisions, sometimes with slight pen ornament, other capitals stroked red throughout, fancy ascenders on top lines transgressing the upper rules and stroked red, similar descenders occasionally below the bottom bordering line, usually not colored., Modern pencil foliation., On paper., Script: Neatly written in a gothic cursive hand., and Watermarks: Two batches of unidentified paper watermarked with a gothic "P," the mark plain and smaller in one batch, larger and surmounted by a trefoil in the other.
Subject (Name):
Duveen, Denis I., bookplate, Nicolaus, Salernitanus, 12th cent., and Nicolaus,--Salernitanus,--12th cent
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Brandy, Distilling--Early works to 1800, Latin language--Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medicine, Medieval, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library