Inscription along upper edge of f. iii verso indicates that Louis Malet de Graville, admiral de France (1441/50-1516) bequeathed the volume to his daughter Anne Malet de Graville. and Manuscript on paper of Leonardo Bruni, De bello punico, translated into French by Jean Lebegue; made, and presented in 1445, for Charles VII of France (1422-1461).
Alternative Title:
De bello punico
Description:
Belonged to Lucius Wilmerding; purchased at the sale of his estate by H. P. Kraus, who sold it in 1960 to Thomas E. Marston., Binding: Sixteenth century, France. Olive green goatskin, roughly gold-tooled with the arms of Claude d'Urfe in the center and a monogram of his initial (C) with that of his wife, Jeanne de Balzac (I) in the corners, together with cornucopiae, caducei, laurel and flaming altars. Gilt edges. Corners repaired., Red and blue divided initials, 5-line, on ff. 1r, 2v, 4v, and for major text divisions thereafter. 3- to 2-line plain red or blue initials throughout. Initials alternate red and blue for tables on ff. 1r-2v. Multi-line headings in red sharply indented toward right. Guideletters for illuminator., Script: Written by a single scribe in an elegant batarde script that sits above the line, rather than on it., and Watermarks: closest to Briquet Armoiries-Trois fleurs de lis 1686.
Subject (Topic):
Literature, Medieval--Translations, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Punic wars
Manuscript on paper of a collection of pseudo-Lullian alchemical writings, translated from the French and Catalan originals, with a little additional matter. The codex underwent a transformation in the early 16th century when considerable new matter was added by another English hand on different, thinner paper; leaves have been inserted throughout the original codex.
Description:
Binding: Eighteenth century, English. Dark calf, sides paneled in blind with a roll tool of vine pattern, leafy sprays at the corners, back with six plain compartments and five raised bands, probably original parchment label on second compartment from top bordered with ink rule and lettered in ink: "RAYM. LULLII | OPERA | MANUSCRIPTA". The binding considerably repaired and some leather renewed. Original plain edges, the top blackened., Original text: Headings in red, rubricated. Some pages with diagrams or drawings. The illustrations include Lullian alphabets and tables in the form of wheels, an Arbor philosophorum, a group of flasks, and a good, large drawing of a furnace. Inserted leaves: Red headings, and capitals with slight decoration., Script: The original portion written by a single English gothic cursive hand with heavy standard abbreviation. The inserted leaves (first 4 ff. now extant, ff. 88-96, 163-169, 268-274, and 307-319 [of which f. 167 is a blank and f. 315 is a parchment leaf]) written in another gothic cursive habitually employing writing of different sizes., and Watermarks: Original paper: 1) an extremely primitive-looking unicorn with very short horn and long tail somewhat like Briquet 9962 and 10176; 2) a less primitive unicorn rather similar to Briquet 9985; 3) bullshead with defined eyes and nostrils and with cross above, rather like Briquet 15054. Inserted leaves: a very elegant unicorn mark, more developed than Briquet 10104; and some leaves with a gothic "P" with cinquefoil above, rather like Briquet 8809.
Subject (Name):
Llull, Ramon,--1232?-1316
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
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.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Alphabet books, Italian letters, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
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.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Latin letters, Medieval and modern, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
Manuscript on paper of an alchemical compilation, apparently the holograph of the original compiler, not identified. Probably the laboratory notes of a practicing alchemist. Includes lists of Flemish names, apparently identifying fellow practitioners in early alchemy; and laboratory procedures, designed primarily to color metals and to carry out other operations with various substances. Leaves inserted and blank pages filled at later dates.
Description:
Binding: Probably original. Stiff parchment over paper boards, flaps over the fore-edge, probably dating from about 1525, conceivably later, as the manuscript contents do not appear to have been bound at the time of writing in any case; flat spine with modern inscription in brown ink, "Alchemical, Headings of procedures in red and blue alternating in the original section, and with some capitals stroked red; no color in the additions. No ornament., Recipes, original blue edges., Script: The original part of the codex (ff. 1-133) written in a very fine, neat, and clear humanistic hand, and using a considerable range of alchemical symbols; the later additions (ff. 134-145) consist of Latin sections written in a neat italic and German passages in flowing cursive, perhaps both by a single German hand of the 18th century., Though the whole of the manuscript has suffered some marginal water-staining since it was bound, it appears certain that other stains and damage occurred while the separated quires, or groups of them, remained unbound., and Watermark: Outstretched hand, the fingerjoints indicated, a four-leafed petal extending from the tip of the third finger, the wrist and cuff of a sleeve also depicted, comparable to Briquet 11423.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Science, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment and paper, written in two parts. Part I (parchment, written ca. 1490): 1) John of Rupescissa, De consideratione quinte essentie. 2) Descriptions of various herbs. Part II (paper, added ca. 1800): 3) Alchemy. 4) Recipes for making Prussian Blue, in Italian.
Description:
Binding: Late eighteenth century, probably French. Speckled calf, the sides undecorated, the repaired back in compartments with gilt tooling, the original title-stamping defective, speckled edges; restored by Carolyn Horton, November 1955., Part I: Headings in red throughout, that on f. 1r overwritten in an intense red ink covering earlier writing in pale red ink, the intense ink then used for the remainder of the headings in this portion of the codex, and the overwriting probably by the original scribe. Plain, small, roman capitals at beginnings of sections of the text in blue or green; a large initial "D" and a full border no f. 1r, as well as a smaller initial "L" at the beginning of the second book of text, foot of f. 25r, all finely illuminated in gold and colors in the "white-vine" style, the lower part of the border on f. 1r with a coat of arms consisting of a shield azure, a bear rampant or. Part II: Undecorated., and Script: Part I (ff. 1-40): Written by one hand in a neat, minute humanistic cursive. Part II (ff. 41-52): In an Italian hand.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Formulas, recipes, etc, Herbs--Early works to 1800, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Prussian blue
[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.
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medicine, Medieval, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
