Avicenna, 980-1037 Jābir ibn Ḥayyān Rāzī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā, 865?-925? Richard, de Fournival, fl. 1246-1260
Published / Created:
[ca. 1350]
Call Number:
Mellon MS 2
Image Count:
96
Resource Type:
Archives or Manuscripts
Abstract:
Manuscript on parchment of a collection of practical alchemies and procedures, the earliest such manuscript in the Mellon collection. Contains texts transmitted from Arabic sources and what appear to be European additions to the literature and practice of alchemy. Includes the following identifiable texts: Rasis or Aristotle, Lumen luminum perfecti magisterii; Avicenna, Epistola ad Hasen; Geber, Liber deitatis sive divinitatis and Summa perfectionis magisterii; Rasis, De aluminibus et salibus, extracts; and Richard de Fournival, Opus Arturi, or De arte alchemica. and The codex is an important, early, and comprehensive collection of largely practical alchemies and procedures. It is also of special significance both because of its early copies of texts transmitted from Arabic sources and for what appear to be very early, independent, European additions to the literature and practice of alchemy.
Description:
Alternating red and blue capitals throughout, some headings in red, many capitals stroked red, slight filiform decoration to opening initial of the volume, the rubrics and decoration probably by one of the scribes or another closely related hand., Binding: Early, probably 15th century. Undecorated red-dyed hide over beveled wooden boards, four brass edgepieces on each cover attached with brass nails, two brass catches on upper cover, lightly chased brass and leather clasps on lower cover (all of the material of cut sheet-brass), back with six raised bands, repaired and rebacked, with modern leather title label. Used as pastedowns inside upper and lower cover are two leaves from a 14th-century Germanic (perhaps Netherlandish) manuscript on parchment containing plainsong written in Germanic neumes on five-line staves, the text in Gothica textualis formata, large gothic capitals in red or blue, one at top of lower pastedown in black and red slightly decorated. In all the staves but the last on the lower pastedown the center-line is stroked red and bears the clef sign; in the last, the fourth line from the bottom has these indications., Pastedowns inside both covers are two leaves from a 14th-century Germanic (perhaps Netherlandish) manuscript on parchment containing plainsong written in Germanic neumes on five-line staves, the text in Gothica textualis formata, large gothic capitals in red or blue, one at top of lower pastedown in black and red slightly decorated., Possibly written by Frater Bartholomaeus (of?) Ol-----, 1335, according to a later note at foot of f. 88v, Script: Written by three scribes all using similar, legible, and rather cursive forms of Gothica textualis; the first scribe wrote ff. 1r-64v, the second ff. 65r-77r1, 38, and the third the remainder., Written by three scribes all using closely similar, legible, and rather cursive forms of Gothica textualis, heavily abbreviated with standard forms., and Written space 184 x 116, 2 columns, 50-49-48 lines each.
Subject (Name):
Avicenna, 980-1037, Bacon, Roger, 1214?-1294, Duveen, Denis I., bookplate, Geber, 13th cent. Summa perfectionis magisterii, Razi, Abu Bakr Muh ammad ibn Zakariya, 865?-925?, Richard, de Fournival, fl. 1246-1260, and Saumaise, Claude, 1588-1653, provenance
Subject (Topic):
Alchemy--Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, and Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library
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
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