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:
Mellon MS 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.
Blank pages not digitized. and Imperfect: some pages mutilated with loss of text.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Formulas, recipes, etc, Herbs--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on parchment of astrological texts drawn largely from Arab astrology of the early Middle Ages, and transmitted in medieval Latin translations; in addition Ptolemy's Centiloquium is present, transmitted not in Greek but through the Arabic, along with a single contemporary component, the Astrolabium planum of Johann Engel.
Description:
Binding: Nineteenth century, English. Marbled paper boards, green calf back with six heavy (false?) bands, the compartments with patterns of small tools impressed in gold and with gold-stamped titles, a small rectangular label with the printed number 1037 and a small round label with the inked number 894 glued to the bottommost compartment. All edges gilt. Preserved in a modern green cloth folding box, probably French, with leather label., Collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps. Mellon MS 155, acquired from C. A. Stonehill, Inc. (bookseller), New Haven. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., Rubrics, and occasional headlines in red, diagrams in the text in brown and red inks. Full illuminated border, outlined in red, on f. 1r of leafy sprays in colors and gold, the white spaces filled up with black dots and small burnished gold circles each with three or four small tendrils; a large initial in burnished gold and colors at the beginning of the text in the first column, with gold band extending downward and then around three sides of the page forming an inner border, completed by a red line at top; a lozenge at the center of the lower band of the border containing a pattern of platelike discs, quatrefoils, and a leafy spray on a dull gold ground, this segment almost certainly a later replacement of an original coat of arms which has been erased. Elsewhere in the manuscript smaller illuminated initials in the style of the first frequently occur, and larger ones with descenders to partial borders at the foot of the page occur. Each of the ninety-six pages from f. 191r through 238v has four drawings in colors (six on those pages which open each of the signs of the Zodiac), placed within diagrams accompanied by slight text., and Script: Written by a single scribe in a large and clear hand in Gothica textualis formata and Bastarda.
Subject (Name):
Ptolemy,--2nd cent
Subject (Topic):
Astrology, Arab, Astrology--Early works to 1800, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, 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.
Compiled by Johannes Baptista F----- probably a Genoese connected with the Franciscan Order., Front pastedown: [This page and the recto of the facing front flyleaf are covered with small ink drawings of alchemical apparatus, mostly flasks and other glasswork on the left page, similar equipment, as well as a ""Bain-Marie"" and a large furnace on the facing right page, each drawing labeled. Verso of the front flyleaf is blank.], and Paper codex in Latin, Italian, and Spanish
Description:
In case with original, badly wormed, binding and endpapers. and Written throughout by one, perhaps two, hands in mid-sixteenth-century italic.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Drawing--16th century, Italian poetry--16th century, and Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven
Manuscript on paper of an untitled Kunstbuechlein containing hundreds of recipes for a variety of alchemical processes, chiefly metallurgical.
Description:
Foliation in first section almost entirely illegible, Foliation of volume is difficult due to both mutilated and missing leaves., On first flyleaf recto: an elaborate pen-drawing of a double coat of arms, probably of a husband and wife of minor German noble families, which may be seen in the photographic reproduction. Above the left coat are the letters ""I.W.G.W."" and above the right, ""I.W.D.G.,"" while the date ""1.5.6.2."" is written below and between the letters., On the first end flyleaf recto (numbered f. 155) is a table of alchemical symbols possibly by the original copyist., Paper codex., and Standing in a slight landscape with ruined buildings below and between the two coats of arms is a female figure seen in left profile wearing a long dress; in her lowered right hand she holds a banner which bears an inscription: ""Mich beisst der Floch"" [sic], apparently for ""Floh"", i.e., ""The flea bites me""; her left hand has raised the skirt of her dress and is concealed beneath it.
Papers pertaining to the 1789 Spanish exploration of the Northwest Coast of North America. Under the command of Alessandro Malaspina, the expedition sailed from Cadiz to the west coast of Africa, across the Atlantic to South America, south to the Falkland Islands, around Cape Horn, and north along the west coast to Acapulco, where the documentation ends. In addition, there is material on the shipwreck of the San Pedro Alcantara, a voyage to the China Sea, and a map of the west coast of Central America.
Subject (Geographic):
Northwest Coast of North America--Discovery and exploration--Spanish and Northwest Passage
Subject (Name):
Atrevida (Corvette), Cordova, Luis de, Descubierta (Corvette), Eguia, Manuel de, Fernán-Núñez, Carlos José Gutiérrez de los Ríos y Rohan Chabot, conde de, 1742-1795, Gutierrez de Rubalcava, Joaquin, Malaspina, Alessandro, 1754-1809, Mazarredo, Joseph, Muñoz, Xavier, fl. 1786, Revillagigedo, Juan Vicente Güémez Pacheco de Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, conde de, 1740-1799, Sesma, Fermin, Sevena, Pedro de, and Valdés y Bazan, Antonio, 1744-1816
Papers pertaining to the 1789 Spanish exploration of the Northwest Coast of North America. Under the command of Alessandro Malaspina, the expedition sailed from Cadiz to the west coast of Africa, across the Atlantic to South America, south to the Falkland Islands, around Cape Horn, and north along the west coast to Acapulco, where the documentation ends. In addition, there is material on the shipwreck of the San Pedro Alcantara, a voyage to the China Sea, and a map of the west coast of Central America.
Subject (Geographic):
Northwest Coast of North America--Discovery and exploration--Spanish and Northwest Passage
Subject (Name):
Atrevida (Corvette), Cordova, Luis de, Descubierta (Corvette), Eguia, Manuel de, Fernán-Núñez, Carlos José Gutiérrez de los Ríos y Rohan Chabot, conde de, 1742-1795, Gutierrez de Rubalcava, Joaquin, Malaspina, Alessandro, 1754-1809, Mazarredo, Joseph, Muñoz, Xavier, fl. 1786, Revillagigedo, Juan Vicente Güémez Pacheco de Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, conde de, 1740-1799, Sesma, Fermin, Sevena, Pedro de, and Valdés y Bazan, Antonio, 1744-1816
