Secreti di varie sorti

A foliation has been added in pencil. Headings in red, written in a current humanistic hand. The text is mainly in Italian, but some entries are in Latin. It contains chemical, technical, domestic, medical and cosmetic receipts, and others for colours, inks, dyes, varnishes, confectionery. On fol. 56 is a 'Secretum magistri Andreae Mantegna sive Squarzone [1431-1506] for an 'Aqua ex oleo lini'. The watermark is apparently Briquet 15375, assigned to Vicenza 1492.

Type of binding: Cartonnage (one-piece case)

Sewing structure: 2 laced in sewing supports (likely to be made of alum tawed skin)

Hand-written title on the spine of the paper cover

Through the pastedowns it is possible to observe that the turn-ins are stuck along the edges directly onto the cover (gluing down the fore-edges first and the head and tail above them)

The book-block is made up of 12 sections:

Section 1: 4 bifolia

Section 2: 5 bifolia

Section 3: 3 bifolia

Sections 4-8: 4 bifolia

Section 9: 2 bifolia

Sections 10-12: 4 bifolia

Assembled in this way:

Upper pastedown, upper flyleaf, 12 sections, lower pastedown

The original failing sewing thread was relatively recently reinforced during conservation treatments, and some paper repairs were done at some of the folios, and the upper and lower inner hinges of the cover have been strengthened with strips of Japanese paper adhered with wheat starch paste. Visible signs of liquid damage, especially at the edges.

c. 1500

1 volume 93 ll. 8vo. 17 x 111/2 cm. 16th cent. boards. Leaves are wanting after ff. 65, 67, 77 and 85; the last leaf is damaged and stained.

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Purchased from Lier, Florence, 9 March 1931.

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).