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 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 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
Two diverse cryptic alchemies written by one copyist and linked by two series of alchemical emblems. The first text, Philosophia hermetica, in Italian verse, is linked to Federicl Gualdi. The second text, Compendiolum de praeparatione auri potabilis veri, is attributed to M[arcus] E[ugenius] Bonacina.
Alternative Title:
Compendiolum de praeparatione auri potabilis veri and Philosophia hermetica