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
Manuscript on paper of Elias Cortonensis O.F.M., Lumen luminum, said according to this copy to have been composed in 1315, an erroneous date, and drawn from Saracen and Hebrew sources, translated into Latin. With a cryptic text, ascribed to a church figure, with a cipher code; and miscellaneous recipes in Italian.
Description:
Binding: Original, North Italian. Dark leather, the sides ruled with triple bordering lines to form a rectangle within a rectangle, the smaller rectangle with a roll tool of vinelike foliage impressed in blind, a smaller interior rectangle formed by the panel of roll tooling with gold-stamped ivy leaves at the corners and a circular stamp incorporating the "yhs" monogram in the center framed by a lozenge of tooling with the same roll already mentioned; back with five raised bands; modern gold-stamped title label pasted onto second compartment from top. Backstrip and corners extensively repaired; gilt edges stamped with a herringbone knotwork pattern., Denis Duveen; Mellon MS 26, acquired with the Duveen collection. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., ff. 33 of probably 40 originally, the extant leaves numbered by an old hand 1-25, 27-30, 32-33, 36-37 (f. 26, 31, 34, 35, and 38-40, now missing, the last three possibly blanks), In Latin, with Italian prologue., Script: Written in an italic hand and partly in cipher., and Watermark: a circle containing an unidentified design element, with a six-pointed star on a shaft above, not identified.
Subject (Name):
Elia,--da Cortona, frate,---1253.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800., Ciphers--Early works to 1800., Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven., and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library.
Manuscript on paper of an alchemical text with illustrations of procedures pictured symbolically as taking place in flasks.
Description:
Binding: Modern English (?) binding of stiff parchment, the upper cover with a painting in colors closely copying the watercolor drawing which occurs as fig. XXIV on f. 27r of the manuscript. Plain edges., In Latin and French., Mellon MS 124, acquired with the Duveen collection. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., Script: Written in a practiced cursive sloping to the right, sometimes carelessly but with care taken in the captions, the writing sometimes very small., and Watermarks: Paper watermarked with a crowned cartouche, a conventional design on the shield, the name "D & C Blauw" below; compare the much larger (later?) examples cited by Heawood, 3267-3268.
Manuscript on paper of Michael Maier, Atalanta fugiens, translated into English from the 1618 German edition.
Description:
Binding: Recent binding of marbled paper boards, polished calf back, top edge cut and gilt, other edges plain and original., First two and last four leaves are of different, probably eighteenth-century, paper, probably binder's sheets used in an earlier binding of the volume., In English., Mellon MS 88, acquired with the Duveen collection. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., Script: Written by a single copyist in English secretary and italic hands., and Watermarks: 1) Strasbourg lily with initials "WR" and countermarked "IHS" with a cross ascending from the horizontal of the central letter, very similar to Churchill 401 (dated 1625), but without initials on the countermark. 2) A large, crowned fleur-de-lys and with a countermark "VI," not identified.
Subject (Name):
Maier, Michael,--1568?-1622
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Chemistry--Early works to 1800, and Natural history--Pre-Linnaen works
Manuscript on paper of a collection of alchemical texts, including works by Rasis, Roger Bacon, and Hermes. Though the Bacon text and one other are early practical alchemies, the contents are mainly speculative in character.
Description:
Binding: Modern. Parchment, cut from a leaf of a very large manuscript, probably a lectionary, written in a Rotunda antiquior hand, Italian, 12th century; writing on outer surface erased, printed paper label on backstrip., Book and chapter headings in red, rubrication, capitals stroked yellow, larger initials painted in red or blue with tracery ornament in the contrasting color (all decoration probably by the scribe; red headings in the scribe's hand, all other red decoration with ink of apparently identical composition)., Denis Duveen, acquired from Joseph Martini, 1938; Mellon MS 34, acquired with the Duveen collection. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., and Script: Written by one scribe in a very neat and regular prehumanistic hand.
Subject (Name):
Bacon, Roger, 1214?-1294., Hermes, Trismegistus., and Rāzī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā, 865?-925?
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800., Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven., and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library.
Manuscript on paper containing 1) A short group of alchemical recipes. 2) Fasciculus chimicus, a title page and dedication dated 1620, possibly from a printed book, not clearly related to the following matter. 3) Sixty-five pen and watercolor emblematical drawings of alchemical processes occurring in flasks, with brief captions. 4) Artephius, Liber secretus. 5) Philipp Muller, De mercurio. 6) Christophorus Van(n), Notes on processes, one dated Rome, 1702.
Description:
Binding: Original binding of parchment over pasteboards, flaps at the fore-edges, six thongs sewn through hinges, flat back with early lettering in ink "Artefius [flourish]," speckled edges; the binding resembles that of MS 61 and is of almost identical height., Contains a series of drawings with symbolic depictions of alchemical processes taking place within flasks, originally extending to sixty-five, of which a few are now wanting. The series closes with some additional drawings of apparatus, which parallel those seen first in MS 50; see also MSS 52, 54, 71, 86, and 110., and Modern foliation in pencil begins with f. 2. However, f. 2 is the front free endpaper.
Subject (Name):
Artephius. and Müller, Philipp, b. 1585.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800., Formulas, recipes, etc., and Illumination of books and manuscripts--Early works to 1800.
Bacon, Roger, 1214?-1294 Freelove, Robert Jean, de Meun, d. 1305? Khālid ibn Yazīd al-Umawī, 7th cent
Published / Created:
[ca. 1550]
Call Number:
MellonMS 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
Manuscript on paper of a collection of extracts from various alchemical and medical writers. Includes John of Rupescissa, Liber de confectione veri lapidis; and Arnold of Villanova, De perfectione operis alkimie. Compiled by one Johannes Baptista F., along with Mellon MSS 34 and 36.
Description:
Binding: Original parchment over pasteboards with remains of thong ties; probably a home-made binding utilizing used parchment (show-through of writing visible) from a document, plain edges. Labeled in ink in the hand of the compiler on the backstrip: "Medicina astrologia." Loose in cover and wormed., Denis Duveen; Mellon MS 23, acquired with the Duveen collection. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., In Latin, Italian, and Spanish., and Script: Written by one or perhaps two hands in mid-16th-century italic, sometimes of excellent, professional quality, but often ranging from fairly good to extremely bad and careless.
Subject (Name):
Arnaldus, de Villanova, -1311. and Johannes, de Rupescissa, ca. 1300-ca. 1365.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800., Italian poetry--16th century., Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven., and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library.
Manuscript on paper of a collection of writings by Paracelsus, speudonym of Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombast ab Hohenheim, 1493-1541, compiled by the pharmacist Georgius Schrotter in 1676.
Description:
Binding: Nineteenth-century boards with rough calf back, worn, defective, and repaired, plain edges, probably an American binding., Mellon MS 159, acquired from Laurence Witten (bookseller), New Haven. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., Script: Calligraphically written in a variety of scripts, most of the text in a skillful Fraktur, by a single hand except for a few later additions., Watermarks: Paper watermarked with a tall, thin pot with a single handle, plain and very crude, not identified., and Written in German with Latin headings and some cryptic writing. The ink, mostly very dark, has often bled into the paper and has sometimes had a corrosive effect.
Subject (Name):
Paracelsus,--1493-1541
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800 and Medicine--Early works
Johannes, de Rupescissa, ca. 1300-ca. 1365 Křišt̕an z Prachatic, ca. 1366-1439 Wenceslas, Emperor of Germany, 1361-1419
Published / Created:
[ca. 1440]
Call Number:
MellonMS 9
Image Count:
671
Resource Type:
Archives or Manuscripts
Abstract:
Manuscript on paper of the compilation of a physician interested in medicine, alchemy, and herbs. Includes three texts by Krisean z Prachatic, a physician, herbalist, and teacher of Prague University; Albicus, De regimine sanitatis, a treatise on the treatment of paralysis and the plague; Albicus, Regimen for King Wenceslaus of Bohemia (1361-1419); several alphabets of general scientific terms in Latin with Czech and/or German equivalents; Latin names of herbs with Czech and sometimes Polish equivalents; John of Rupescissa, De consideratione quinte essentie; and hundreds of medical and alchemical recipes.
Description:
Binding: Probably original. Brown calf, the covers ruled with triple parallel lines to a pattern of four rectangles within a rectangle, the larger rectangle crossed with similar ruling; indications of five center and corner pieces on each cover, possibly of iron and certainly fastened with iron nails, now lost; indications of two missing clasps and catches at the fore-edges of the covers; heavily repaired at fore-edges, hinges, and backstrip, the original back divided into four compartments by five heavy double bands, a modern morocco label in the second compartment from the top gold-stamped between double gold rules top and bottom: "ALCHEMICAL-MEDICAL | MISCELLANY | - | MANUSCRIPT | MIDDLE EUROPE | XVTH CENTURY"., Headings, foliation, rubrics, and capital strokes in red., Pagination refers to openings, i.e. facing pages., and Script: The greater part of the manuscript (except the unnumbered quires 15-19) written by a single hand in a clear, round, and steady Gothica cursiva. Quires 15-19 written in a similar but more pointed and flowing hand, sometimes more condensed, similarly decorated.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Handbooks, vade-mecums, etc, Herbs--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
