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.
Binding: Nineteenth century. Quarter binding, dark brown flat leather spine, the cardboard covers covered with dark brown paper paper., Collection of Bernard M. Rosenthal, Booksellers, Berkeley, CA (MS 111). Purchased from him in 1994 on the Edwin J. Beinecke Fund., Red underlining, stroking of majuscules and plain initials of various sizes. A littera duplex (black and red) on ff. 1r and 38r. The decoration is missing at the end of art. 1 (starting f. 32r)., and Script: Copied by several similar hands in Gothica Cursiva or Semihybrida Currens; Libraria in art. 5. The headings and the commented texts are in a large, bold and more careful form of the same script; we see Gothica Textualis Formata at the opening of art. 1, the first section of art. 2 and the opening of art. 3.
Subject (Name):
Gerson, Jean,--1363-1429
Subject (Topic):
Bible.--N.T.--Epistles, Bible--Commentaries, Confession--Catholic Church, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, Repentance--Christianity, Science, Medieval, and Theology--History--Middle Ages, 600-1500
Title below each image., Top print is ca. 1720. Bottom print is 18th century. Dates supplied by curator., Place of publication supplied by curator., and This electronic record is derived from historic data and may not reflect our current information. Review and updating of records is ongoing.
Būnī, Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī, -1225 بوني، أحمد بن علي، -1225
Published / Created:
1874.
Call Number:
Arabic MSS suppl. 759
Image Count:
528
Resource Type:
text
Abstract:
, alchemy, astrology, divination, Islamic
Alternative Title:
Shams al-maʻārif wa-laṭāʼif al-ʻawārif and شمس المعارف ولطائف العوارف
Description:
In Arabic., Title from cover., Romanization supplied by cataloger., Incipit: "Bismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm. Shahādat azal, fa-min nūr hādhihi al-shahādah ightarafa al-muṣannifūn ʻilman. Fa-ifham dhālik. Wa-al-tartīb al-abadī fī al-shahādatayn al-muttaṣilatayn bi-al-malāʼikah al-kirām. Wa-awwal al-ʻilm fa-hādhihi shahādat al-abad. Fa-man fahima sirr hātayn al-shahādatayn shāhad al-malakūtayn wa-mā awdaʻāhu bi-sirr al-ittiṣāl bi-al-kashfīyāt ...", Secundo folio: Ammā baʻd, fa-lil-ḥaqq aʻlām., 16.5 x 23.5 cm; written surface: 12 x 20 cm; 31 lines per page., Binding: In green cardboard cover and dark brown paper on the spine., In naskh script, in black ink, on white paper; many illustrations and magic squares; text within double frames; catchwords. At the head of the opening page of each of the four parts is a decorative design., On cover: "Shams al-maʻārif al-kubrá", printed in silver., On page 1 of al-Juzʼ al-awwal: "Shams al-maʻārif al-kubrá wa-laṭāʼif al-ʻawārif, fī arbaʻat ajzāʼ, lil-Quṭb al-Imām Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī al-Būnī, wa-bi-nihāyat al-arbaʻat kutub, [al-kutub] al-ātiyah: 1. Kitāb Mīzān al-ʻadl fī maqāṣid aḥkām al-raml. 2. Kitāb Fawātiḥ al-raghāʼib fī khuṣūṣīyāt awqāt al-kawākib. 3. Kitāb Zahr al-murūj fī dalāʼil al-burūj. 4. Kitāb Laṭāʼif al-ishārah fī khaṣāʼiṣ al-kawākib al-sayyārah." "Maṭbūʻ ʻalá al-nuskhah al-Hindīyah al-aṣlīyah." These four books are not included in this codex and seem to serve as an advertisement for works to follow., al-Juzʼ al-thānī (Part two), starts with: "al-Faṣl al-khāmis ʻashar. Fī al-shurūṭ al-lāzimah li-baʻḍ dūna baʻḍ fī al-bidāyāt wa-al-nihāyāt.", al-Juzʼ al-thālith (Part three), starts, after al-Basmalah, with: "al-Faṣl al-ḥādī wa-al-ʻishrūn. Fī Asmāʼ Allāh al-Ḥusná, wa-anmāṭihā, wa-mā li-kull namaṭ min al-daʻawāt.", al-Juzʼ al-rābiʻ (Part four), starts, after al-Basmalah, with: "al-Faṣl al-thāmin wa-al-thalāthūn. Fī istikhdāmāt al-ḥurūf wa-khalawātihā.", Colophon: "Tamma Kitāb Shams al-maʻārif al-kubrá lil-Imām al-Būnī fī ʻishrīn min Shawwāl, sanat 1291 Hijrīyah. Wa-lammā kādat shams ṭabʻihā tabzughu lil-ṭulūʻ arrakhahā baʻḍ al-madmīyīn [al-mādiḥīn] bi-qawlihi, shiʻr [in Ḥisāb al-jummal (Alphabetical reckoninig)]: ... Wa-fīhā ará al-tārīkh jāda bi-qawlihi // yufīdu al-amānī ṭabʻu Shams al-maʻārif. Sanat 1291.", and Translation of the colophon: "The book 'Shams al-maʻārif al-kubrá' of al-Imām al-Būnī was completed on 20 Shawwal, 1291 of the Hijrah [30 November, 1874]. When the sun of its printing started to rise, someone praised it and mentioned the date of printing, in verse [using Ḥisāb al-jummal "Alphabetical reckoning"], saying: ... In it I see the date, saying generously: The printing of Shams al-maʻarif satisfies the wishes. The year 1291."
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.
Manuscript on paper of the writings of Christopher of Paris (pseudonym for a Venetian exile), including his major work, Lucidario, with its supplementary alphabet, plus three letters.
Description:
Binding: Original plain parchment wrapper without ties, back with three raised bands, soiled and worn. Plain edges., ff. 1r-167r correctly paginated 1-333 and the pagination used in the detailed description, the remainder unnumbered, of ff. 170 originally, single leaves apparently canceled originally and cut away by the copyist after ff. 162 and 164, as
noted in the detailed collation, but not noted in the description as the original pagination is consecutive., Mary Mellon, acquired from William Gannon (bookseller), New York, 1941; Mellon MS 145. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., Rubricated, headings often in red., and Script: Written by a single good italic hand, sometimes hasty toward the end of the codex.
Arnaldus, de Villanova, d. 1311 Cicero, Marcus Tullius Johannes, de Rupescissa, ca. 1300-ca. 1365 Petrarca, Francesco, 1304-1374 Vergerio, Pietro Paolo, 1370-1444
Published / Created:
ca. 1475
Call Number:
Mellon MS 14
Image Count:
93
Resource Type:
Archives or Manuscripts
Abstract:
Manuscript on paper of 1) John of Rupescissa, De consideratione quinte essentie. 2) Arnold of Villanova, Epistola de sanguine humano ad magistrum Iacobum de Toleto. 3) Alchemical procedures. 4) Francesco Petrarca, Epistola ad Marcum Tullium Ciceronem. 5) Pier Paolo Vergerio, Epistola in nomine Ciceronis ad Franciscum Petrarcham. 6) Johannes Obrist, Super confectionem auri potabilis. 7) Nicolaus Claudii, Opus super aurum potabile.
Description:
Binding: Modern parchment over pasteboards, parchment pastedowns and guards, back gilt-lettered: "DE QVINTA ESSENTIA"., Headings in red, rubricated., and Script: Written by a single scribe using a clear and regular gothic bookhand without strong nationalistic traits.
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.
[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.