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 (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.
Vol. 2 has title: Donum Dei Samuelis Baruch ... welcher erlernet das grosse Geheimniss des grossen Meisters Tubalkains aus dessen Tabell, gefunden von Abrahamo Eliazare, dem Juden. I. N. U. CXI.
In French and Latin., Script: Written by one scribe in a remarkably small and neat cursive gothic hand., No headlines, no color, no decoration, spaces left for some capitals with guide letters, a few drawings in the text or in margins., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Marbled paper boards with diced calf back, the backstrip in compartments with horizontal gilt fillets, lines of gilt small tools bordering the false bands, title label in the second compartment from the top gilt-lettered "REGNAULT". Early, probably original green edges. Hinges of the binding repaired.
Binding: Original stiff parchment over paper boards, remnants of two thong ties on the upper cover, slits for similar ties, now missing, on the lower cover; front cover lettered in very faded gothic script, apparently by the scribe: "PROBIER BUCH | ANDREAS OBERLENDER | 1532 |". A title has also been supplied by a modern hand in old style on the backstrip. Plain edges., Denis Duveen, acquired from Dr. Ernst Weil (bookseller), London, 1949; Mellon MS 104, acquired with the Duveen collection. Gift of Paul and Mary Mellon, 1965., Red inks used for tabular data and infrequent sketches of alchemical apparatus in the text., and Script: Written by a single copyist writing a practiced German secretary hand, partly in a modified Fraktur, partly in a more italic cursive, and occasionally (as in the title page) in a formal gothic script; a few additions at the end in a later hand.
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:
alchemy. 2) Jean de Meung, Liber Lapidis
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.
In French., Script: Written in a practiced scribal hand in a flowing cursive sloping to the right with infrequent standard abbreviation; a second similar, but finer hand on p. 358 only., Watermarks: Paper with unidentified watermark of a griffin rampant (?), the hind paws on a staff incorporating letters and numbers "Y49" (?), countermarked with 2 lines of capitals, the first word perhaps "JUVIMAL" (sic)., and Binding: Original French binding of mottled calf, the sides plain, the edges of the covers gilt-stamped a la grotesque, back (repaired and restored at foot) with seven bands, the compartments gilt-stamped to a rectangular pattern, a lozenge of leafy sprays in the center of each, with triangular elements of the same at the corners, original title label in the second compartment from the top, marbled endpapers, edges speckled red.