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 of an alchemical text containing an excellent copy of the poem beginning "Unter den sieben Planeten bin ich Sol genannt ..." with associated prose commentaries, as first seen in MS 94. Decorated with a fine frontispiece and elegant head- and tailpieces all drawn in a copperplate style, as well as a series of pen-and-wash drawings depicting alchemical processes emblematically within circles, often surmounted by crosses
Description:
In German and Latin., Script: Calligraphically written in brown inks in a delicate Fraktur with some words or passages in cursive and with title pages in red and brown in elaborate gothic scripts., Watermarks: Written throughout on paper with a "PRO PATRIA" watermark, similar to Heawood 3696-3718, but countermarked with letters "CMH" (? in folds and uncertain)., and Binding: Original or contemporary binding of brown calf, the sides with a blind-impressed border of small tools, partly covered by a single gold rule, the back in six compartments decorated with gold-stamped small tools in a floral pattern, the second compartment from the top stamped directly with "BUCH DER WEISH" and the next compartment below with "MS." Edges peckled red over gilding.
Manuscript on paper of an alchemy in verse with an extended prose commentary
Description:
In German and Latin., Script: Calligraphically written by a single hand in an elegant German Fraktur, the Latin passages in cursive, both sloping to the right., Watermarks: Fine Dutch paper watermarked with a cartouche with the inscription "C. & [?] HONIG" below, comparable to Heawood 3347 (1724-1726), but judged to be somewhat later., and Binding: Original German binding of mottled dark brown calf, sides plain, back in compartments with gold tooling imitative of French work, citron morocco title label with gold lettering in gothic characters, "Das geheime Buch der Weisheit," and blind impression in the compartment below of a second label now missing, lettered "1. 2. 3. 4." Red edges: pastedown and facing side of flyleaves at front and back marbled in red.
Holograph manuscript on parchment and paper of Caspar Harttung vom Hoff of Gastein, Das Vade mecum, a commonplace book of alchemical and medicinal materials, consisting of mostly shorter prose and verse sections, often with excellent drawings, thirty-one in all, of alchemical equipment, written in 1557, and with additions written about fifty years later
Description:
In German and Latin., Script: Written in a small, neat gothic cursive, additions in a neat italic hand and a rather irregular and sometimes scrawling cursive gothic, both perhaps about 1625., and Binding: Nineteenth century. Straight-grained black morocco, gilt single-line perimetric border for each cover and spine, gilt dentelles, and border of the same tools at head and foot of spine, modern tan leather spine label, with legend: HARTUNG V. HOFF | VADE | MECUM | MANUSCRIPT | AUSTRIA 1557 |".
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Harttung vom Hoff.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Drawing, Handbooks, vade-mecums, etc, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Medicine
Manuscript on paper of John of Rupescissa, De consideratione quinte essentie, anonymously translated into German
Description:
In German., Script: Written by a very fine and bold German gothic cursive hand., Headings and capitals (a few decorated) in red throughout., and Binding: Original reddish brown polished leather over finely beveled wooden boards, troughs for two clasps and two spikes on front cover, each cover with five nipplelike wrought brass bosses, one at each corner and one in the center, the lower cover with two large brass roundels used to fasten the now-missing strap ties which emerged from the lower fore-edge; sides ruled to a simple geometric pattern, back with raised bands, the clasps now missing and the hinges cracked, but the binding sound.
Manuscript on paper of Andreas Oberlender, Probter Buechleln, 1532, an unsigned later copy executed about 1600, with a few additions. A metallurgical experiment book of the type circulated among those interested in alchemy, mining, and metallurgy in the 16th century, this text treats at length several minerals with a metallic luster such as marcasite, especially crystallized iron pyrites, which were often used ornamentally, in costume jewelry
Description:
In German., 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., Red inks used for tabular data and infrequent sketches of alchemical apparatus in the text., and 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.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Oberlender, Andreas.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, German literature, Manuscripts, Medieval, Marcasite, and Metallurgy
Manuscript on paper roll of George Ripley (?), Alchemy, in English verse, with additional verses attributed to Richard Carpenter. With Arnold of Villanova, Visio mystica, anonymously translated into English
Alternative Title:
Ripley Scroll
Description:
In English., Watermark: coat of arms (a bend) surmounted by a large fleur-de-lys, the type of Briquet 995 and Heawood 58-118, but not identical with any of these., Script: Written by an accomplished secretary hand using various forms and sizes of letter, some headings in roman capitals in epigraphic style., Large drawings in ink and watercolor. One large and fine drawing of an alchemist who holds a vessel, in which are eight roundels with brief Latin inscriptions and containing drawings symbolizing alchemical processes, all joined together by chain-links and surrounding a larger roundel to which they are connected by chains emanating from the bosses of a large book in the central roundel, the book being held by two individuals, the one on the left in monk's dress, the one on the right in richer (kingly?) garb. A toad, feathers, and drops of blood arise from the vessel. Another drawing of a tree growing from a well, its leafy top extending upward into the text, its leaves with the legend "Spiritus Anima"; against the tree trunk are a female anthropomorphic figure with the toes of a toad, labeled "Spiritus", and below, a male child labeled "Anima"; vines with grapes twine around the tree trunk, and two nude human figures, male and female, standing in the water grasp the vines and eat the grapes. Around the well are seven towers, in each of which is a robed alchemist holding a flask; the towers have the legend "Prima (-Septima) Imbibissio". In a third large drawing, the sun breaks through clouds and droplets of water fall on an anthropomorphic, crowned human-headed bird (the Phoenix?) which reposes on a brownish ball with a pattern of waves (the sea, as the verses below state); feathers surround the ball. Below is a sort of sunburst with a sphere at center inside of which are three smaller spheres, red, blue, and gray, linked together by chains. Below this is a triple crescent moon of the same colors, with the inscription "Luna cressens" (sic). Below, the snout of a very large dragon intrudes on (bites?) the crescent moon; the dragon is flanked by the legend at the foot of f. 11: The Serpent of Arrabia. The dragon occupies all of f. 12 and reposes on an orb divided into three parts onto which its blood drips. At left of the final folio, there is an excellent drawing of a man, his mouth agape, his left hand raised in a gesture of astonishment. He appears to be dressed in humble attire; he carries a bag over his shoulder, and a sack over his right arm; under the same arm is a curious pole with a shod horse's hoof at one end, a scroll at the pointed upper end, a portion of the scroll streaming out behind him., Paper roll consisted originally of thirteen folio sheets and half-sheets of differing lengths glued together, averaging 540 mm. in width (lateral margins and broad bordering line in black ink partly trimmed away); now cut into thirteen sections measuring about 435 x 540 each, except for the last which measures 625 x 540, each of the sections glued down to a linen backing and the whole folded in-leporello., and Binding: Modern brown suede leather, back and corners of brown niger, gold rules setting off the two leathers on each cover, the upper cover with title lettered in gold, "ASTROLOGICAL SCROLL", probably English, early 20th century.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Ripley, George, d. 1490?
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, English poetry, Illumination of books and manuscripts, English, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment of Aristoteles, Ethica ad Nicomachum, in the Latin translation attributed to Robert Grosseteste
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written by two scribes employing differing forms of Gothica textualis, the first having written the first quire, the second the remainder of the codex., Headlines throughout in alternating red and blue capitals, chapter numbers in margins also in alternating colors, and large capitals at beginnings of books and chapters of the text in red or blue, with extensive filiform decoration bordering the left margin in the contrasting color on leaves with such capitals, all the work of a rubricator, performed separately from the writing of the text. Book and chapter headings in red by the scribes throughout., and Binding: Modern European parchment-covered boards, backstrip calligraphically lettered in gothic script with the author's name and title.
Manuscript on parchment of the Iudicium astrologicum, or horoscope, for the year 1475. Prepared for the humanist condottiere Federigo da Montefeltro (1422-1482, lord of Urbino from 1444; named duke by Pope Sixtus IV in 1474), perhaps by his court astrologer Iacobus of Speyer
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written by a very elegant and uniform humanistic hand., The dedication on f. 1r written in very pale red. Capitals with guide-letters in plain burnished gold or blue at paragraph divisions set into the left margin, the letters of the final word or words in a paragraph often in capitals and spread to fill out the line. On f. 1r is an illuminated border in the upper, inner, and lower margins consisting of a triple band of narrow gold stripes, quadruple and broader at the bottom margin, containing a very complex "white-vine" pattern, the spaces of which are filled up with red, blue, and green pigment peppered with patterns of three small dots in white lead; set within the lower band of the border is a round wreath incorporating a shield with the arms of Federigo da Montefeltro lord of Urbino; the first capital of the text, f. 1r, 8, is in burnished gold within a square painted frame of blue, red, and green ornamented with white tracery. No illustration., and Binding: Rebound ca. 1800 in England (?) in blind-paneled brown diced Russia with doublures of the same, flat back without title label, the original gilt edges now somewhat irregular due to the rebinding, two parchment guards and one of paper at beginning, one parchment guard at end. Preserved in a recent black cloth folding box with gilt-stamped black niger label.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Federico, da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, 1422-1482. and Iacobus, of Speyer.
Subject (Topic):
Astrology, Horoscopes, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on paper and parchment of a version in French of the German text, Das Buch von der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit, with close copies of the illuminations in two fifteenth-century manuscripts. Contains illustrations that mix Christian symbolism, especially the Passion of Christ, with alchemical symbolism, and also depict some apparatus
Description:
In French., Script: Calligraphically written in brown ink in a very clear, large cursive hand., Watermarks: Paper watermarked with large fleur-de-lys with a cartouche, surmounted by a crown, the letter "W" below, perhaps identical to Heawood 1845., With illustrations added about 1875., and Binding: Nineteenth-century French citron polished calf, sides bordered with triple gold rules, gold-stamped fleurons at the corners, back in compartments gold-stamped with small tools, red morocco title label, marbled pastedowns and flyleaves, the latter glued to parchment flyleaves which appear to have come from an earlier binding of this volume; mottled edges.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy, Religious aspects, Christianity, and Trinity
