Manuscript on paper of an experimental alchemical compilation, devoted to laboratory procedures
Description:
In German and Latin., Script: Partly written by F.F. Weichenhaan in a clear, sometimes hasty cursive sloping to the right, in Fraktur for the passages in German; the remainder written by Anna Susanna Lieber in a rather loose and pointed Fraktur sloping to the right., Watermarks: Watermarks of the smaller papers at edges and cut, not identified; the paper folded in quarto with a decidely brownish tint and a large, faint watermark in the folds, not identified., Light to very dark brown inks, no color, a few sketches of apparatus in the text. No catchwords, no signatures., Compiled about 1743 by F.F. Weichenhaan, partly from materials written about 1705 by Anna Susanna Lieber., and Binding: Old paper boards with parchment back, a title lettered in brown ink by a modern hand in gothic letters on the backstrip, plain edges.
Manuscript on parchment containing emblematical drawings related to horology and astrology, and astrological tables, each section opening with an elaborate title page
Description:
In Latin, Hebrew, and Greek., Script: Written epigraphically and always with great calligraphic skill in a variety of styles by a single practiced hand, possibly the same which executed the drawings., Each page of the manuscript has a pen-drawn border on the recto side, containing an emblematical drawing, or complex calendrical or horological drawing, executed in pen and heightened with gold and silver., and Binding: Original calf binding, now rather deteriorated, the sides very elaborately gold-tooled in a multiple rectangle pattern, the large innermost rectangle with a series of circles containing floral ornaments, similar half-circles at the edges, the back in compartments with floral decoration; marbled endpapers, plain edges.
In English., Script: Written in a careful cursive hand sloping slightly to the right in a single column 170 x 110 mm without bordering lines or ruling. the text has been partly corrected by another hand and with significant marginalia throughout by this hand in inks of different hues., Watermarks: Paper watermarked with a crowned coat of arms, probably a Dutch paper not certainly identified., Binding: English binding of diced brown Russia leather, a border of gilt dots around the edges of the covers, inside and out, the backstrip in compartments similarly treated, original title label on second compartment from top gold-lettered: "Anonimo Manuscritto di un Vero Adepto." Plain edges. Hinges and corners repaired., Tome 1: 1 smaller leaf 220 x 140 mm inserted after first leaf of index., and Tome 2: 1 smaller leaf 190 x 112 mm inserted after page 157.
Manuscript on paper of an alchemical text containing an excellent copy of the poem beginning "Unter den sieben Planeten bin ich Sol genannt ..." with associated prose commentaries, as first seen in MS 94. Decorated with a fine frontispiece and elegant head- and tailpieces all drawn in a copperplate style, as well as a series of pen-and-wash drawings depicting alchemical processes emblematically within circles, often surmounted by crosses
Description:
In German and Latin., Script: Calligraphically written in brown inks in a delicate Fraktur with some words or passages in cursive and with title pages in red and brown in elaborate gothic scripts., Watermarks: Written throughout on paper with a "PRO PATRIA" watermark, similar to Heawood 3696-3718, but countermarked with letters "CMH" (? in folds and uncertain)., and Binding: Original or contemporary binding of brown calf, the sides with a blind-impressed border of small tools, partly covered by a single gold rule, the back in six compartments decorated with gold-stamped small tools in a floral pattern, the second compartment from the top stamped directly with "BUCH DER WEISH" and the next compartment below with "MS." Edges peckled red over gilding.
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 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
Manuscript on paper of a miscellany. The manuscript seems to be a compilation organized, corrected and expanded by a single person specialized in pharmacology and medicine and interested in natural history, encyclopedical knowledge and history
Description:
In Latin with some Czech (?), German, and Hebrew., Watermarks: crown (var. Briquet 4616?), circles (var. Briquet 3194?), bull's head (?)., Script: Copied by various scribes, writing Gothica Cursiva Libraria or Currens in various sizes, often very small; ff. 127r-143r, 7 are in a markedly different, larger form of Gothica Cursiva Libraria., The decoration is unevenly spread: heightening of majuscules and plain initials in red. On ff. 162-170 alternance of red and green initials, on f. 162r flourished initial in the same colours. Artt. 21 and 22 are not illustrated, although the text mentions figurae., At many places the paper is deteriorated by the acidity of the ink., and Binding: Original limp parchment. A bifolium from a German manuscript in Gothica Cursiva, worn and stained, lined with a German document on parchment in Gothica Cursiva Antiquior/Recentior. Leather spine stiffener with ornamental stitching.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Christian literature, Latin (Medieval and modern), Manuscripts, Medieval, Medicine, Medieval, Natural history, and Pharmacology