Manuscript on paper of a miscellany of alchemical texts including corrupt copies (which are typical of the compiler) of traditional Latin alchemies with practical procedures and vernacular poems on alchemy. Compiled by one Johannes Baptista F., along with Mellon MSS 34 and 35.
Description:
In Latin, Italian, and Spanish., Script: Written by one, perhaps two, hands in mid-16th-century italic, sometimes of excellent, professional quality, but often ranging from fairly good to extremely bad and careless., Extensive series of small ink drawings of alchemical vessels and equipment on the front flyleaves, mostly flasks and other glasswork on the left page, with similar equipment, as well as a "Bain-Marie" and a large furnace on the facing right page, each drawing labeled., and Binding: Original parchment over pasteboards with remains of thong ties; probably a home-made binding utilizing used parchment (show-through of writing and earlier folding visible) from a document; plain edges. Labeled in ink in the hand of the compiler on the backstrip: "Lapis philosophalis". Loose in cover and badly wormed.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Drawing, Italian poetry, and Manuscripts, Medieval
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:
In Latin, Italian, and Spanish., 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., and 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.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Italian poetry, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of 1) John of Rupescissa, De consideratione quinte essentie. 2) Rhemigius Burgensis, Quaestio de medio demonstrationis termino. 3) Simone Porzio, De animae immortalitate quaestio. 4) Francesco Petrarca, Dialogus de coniugii claritate. 5) Alchemy and recipes, in Latin. 6) Properties of various fruits and nuts, in Italian verse, and Seasons for planting, in Italian prose. 7) Notes on logic, provenance of elements of this manuscript, and a game of divination
Description:
In Latin, Greek, and Italian., Watermarks: 1) crossed arrows surmounted by a six-pointed star; 2) crossed keys in a cartouche, neither identified with certainty., Script: Written in several different italic cursive hands., and Binding: Original, north Italian. Black leather, the sides outlined in blind rules, a rectangular panel on each cover ruled in gold with a square Arab knot tool gold-stamped outside each corner of the panel, traces of holes for four thong ties on each cover, the backstrip divided into five compartments by raised bands, a gold-stamped cinquefoil in each compartment, the back and sides repaired, edges stained black. Front and back pastedowns: parchment fragments of a 12th-century Italian codex, probably a Gospel Lectionary, containing an extract from the Gospel of St. John written in Latin in a Rotunda antiquior hand.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Divination, Italian poetry, Logic, and Manuscripts, Medieval
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:
In Latin and English., 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., 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 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.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, English poetry, Formulas, recipes, etc, Latin poetry, Medieval and modern, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment of Joannes de Sacrobosco's Algorismus vulgaris, a treatise on mathermatics, numbers, and Hindu-Arabic numerals. Here incorrectly attributed to Boethius in the opening rubric and The manuscript is a palimpsest containing portions of Ovid's Heroides: on f. 2, Epistle XVI, lines 109-172; on f. 3, Epistle XVI, lines 173-233; on f. 5, Epistle XIV, lines 79-132; on f. 7, Epistle XIII, lines 119-166; on f. 8, Epistle XVI, lines 234-297. Remaining leaves unidentified
Alternative Title:
Algorismus vulgaris and Algorismus Boetii incipit
Description:
In Latin., Title assigned by cataloger. Variant title from opening rubric., Layout: Single columns of 32 lines., Script: gothic hybrida., Decoration: rubrication., Binding: modern paper., Secundo folio: De additione., and Evidence of pricking.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Boethius, -524., Sacro Bosco, Joannes de, active 1230., and Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 A.D. or 18 A.D.
Manuscript on parchment and paper of 1) Johannes de Sacro Bosco, Algorismus. 2) Jordanus Rufus, Medecina equorum. 3) Pseudo-Aristotle, Secretum secretorum. 4) William Falconer, Falconibus
Description:
In Latin, German and French., Script: multiple hands writing in multiple scripts., and Binding: S. XV limp parchment binding with leather spine stiffener and visible sewing and flap. The parchment is from an erased music manuscript. Remnants of a paper title label on the spine (text lost).
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Pseudo-Augustinus. and Sacro Bosco, Joannes de, fl. 1230.
Subject (Topic):
Falconry, Horses, Manuscripts, Medieval, Mathematics, Medieval, Medicine, Medieval, and Occultism
Manuscript on paper of Iohannes de Virgilio (Giovanni del Virgilio, 1300-1350), Allegoriae librorum Ovidii Metamorphoseos, in prose and verse
Description:
In Latin., Watermark: tower, var. Piccard, Turmwasserzeichen 611-613; var. Briquet, 15911?., Copied by one hand in extremely small Humanistica Semitextualis Libraria. In the poetical sections the majuscules at the opening of each verse are set apart., Headings ("liber secundus" etc.) in clumsy Capitalis (several times erroneous: "LIBE"). Space for a 2-line initial left free on the first line of f. 1r, although this is not the beginning of the text., and Binding: Fifteenth century. Brown leather (sheepskin?) over cardboard (replacing worm-eaten wooden boards), blind-tooled with a frame of fillets and rolls; in the central panel a motif made of small rhomboid stamps. Parchment front pastedown. Remnants or marks of four clasps attached to the front cover.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Giovanni del Virgilio, active 1319.
Subject (Topic):
Allegories, Latin literature, Medieval and modern, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper of Ptolemy, Almagest in a Latin translation by Gerard of Cremona. With Calendar with computistical information, January through December
Description:
In Latin.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Gherardo, da Cremona, 1113 or 1114-1187. and Ptolemy, active 2nd century.
Subject (Topic):
Astronomy, Ancient, Calendars, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Mathematics, Ancient
Poem in three cantos dedicated to Isabella d'Este (1474-1539), Marchioness of Mantua, and intended to be performed at her court
Description:
In Italian., Script: copied by a single hand writing Humanistica Cursiva Libraria; thought to be autograph. Headings on ff. 1v and 3r in Capitalis., Giovan Francesco Suardi (d. after 1540), Amor fugitivus. Poem in Italian in three cantos dedicated to Isabella d'Este (1474-1539), Marchioness of Mantua, and intended to be performed at her court. In the first canto the poet sings of his love, in the second he encounters Venus in search of Cupido who ran away, in the third he sadly returns home. There are a few corrections on erasure. This is the dedication copy and the only manuscript containing this text., and Binding: original binding: brown leather over cardboard; both covers blind-tooled with a double frame inscribed with a lozenge containing the monogram “YHS”. The spine is gold-tooled.
Manuscript on paper of an untitled Kunstbuechlein containing hundreds of recipes for a variety of alchemical processes, chiefly metallurgical
Description:
In German and Latin., Script: Calligraphically written by a highly skilled hand using a variety of Fraktur, secretary cursive, and italic scripts., Three-column table of alchemical symbols on last leaf. No color, but progressively frequent use of alchemical symbols; full-page drawing of a double coat of arms with inscriptions on first front flyleaf recto, and a small drawing at foot of f. 53v, of a woman apparently scratching herself with the legend "The flea bites me," both probably by the same skilled hand, possibly the copyist of the codex., Somewhat damaged, especially at beginning, by water-staining and fraying, with some leaves wanting, but the remainder entirely legible and without substantial losses., and Binding: Original limp parchment stained olive green, now worn and with most of the spine, originally with three bands, missing; plain edges. Preserved in a modern box of boards with linen back, modern leather title label added.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Formulas, recipes, etc, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Metallurgy
