Collection of short alchemical tracts and receipts in Italian: followed by an incomplete collection of medical, technical and alchemical receipts (Miscellanea Alchemica XXXIV)

Collection of short alchemical tracts and receipts in Italian, followed by an incomplete collection of medical, technical and alchemical receipts by a different hand.

Written by two different semi-current hands. Illustrated by some small pen-drawings of alchemical apparatus on ff. 4v, 16, 54: fol. 51, bust of a negro (?): 52, an urn: 52v, a candlestick (?): 55, human penis, and bust of a man with a bandaged head: 55v, a finger nail (in red): 58, a female head (in red): 62, another female head. The second part, which is incomplete at the beginning and at the end, begins on fol. 39.

Contents

Epistola ad Papam Bonifacium VIII

f. 1r Opera bona vera del magno Rinaldo dada a papa bonifacio. Una parte de hauro foglito sutile ... f. 1v detta medicina fara loperatione commo fa lasietta lopera sua. Amen.

2. ff. 2r-14r Anonymous, Arte d'archimia

f. 2r Onipotente dio che face tutte le cose per la salute de l'omo ... f. 14r E segondo el ditto de ermes de arestotile e de alberto magno e segondo el ditto de maestri del arte avimo ditto di metalli.

3. ff. 14r-19v Pseudo-Aristotle, Lumen de lumine

f. 14r Questo libro e chiamato lumi del altri libri nel quale segondo che posso vedere ello e cosa maravigliosa ... f. 19v ... adessere richo e contento tu e la tua fameglia tutti i di de la vita vestra e de la lore vita e in secula seculorum amen.

4. ff. 20v-26r Alchemical receipts in Latin and Italian

f. 20v Opera bona de S. tomaxo daquino sopra de la luna ... f. 23r Recetta fatta per maestro gualtero da verona ... f. 26r Al nome de dio 1470 a di 17 de setembre.

5. ff. 26v-32r Anonymous, De mercurio

f. 26v Sublimatio mercurii hoc modo fit vis. R mercurii li. 3. salis communis preparati li. 2 ... f. 32r ... et cosi havera questa pietra due fermitione una de luna et una de sole et ellora fara oro fino. laus deo.

6. ff. 32v-38v Miscellaneous receipts

7. ff. 39r-63r Fragment of work containing technical, medical and alchemical receipts

f. 39r [Heading in 17th century hand] Raccolta di diversi secreti, senza principio e fine, e senza nome dell' Autore.

1470

1 volume 63 ll. folio. 29 x 21 1/2 cm. Modern vellum binding. Many margins frayed and repaired, dampstained throughout. The second part begins on fol. 39, and is probably of slightly later date than the first part. The paper bears a crescent water-mark, recorded by Briquet No. 5222 as Venice 1476.

Purchased 1934.

No. 1 This seems a variant version of the 'Epistola', differing from those described in Thorndike's History of Magic and Experimental Science, Vol. III, pp. 657-658. The centents of the first part of this MS. seem to be related to the alchemical works by or attributed to Arnoldus de Villanova. On fol. 38v there is a receipt 'Ad congelationem mercurii' which begins 'Secretum magistri renaldi de villa noua de congelatione mercurii [in] perfectam lunam. mercurii sublimati lb.1...'. Fol. 36 A receipt for making silver ends on line 12 'et probatum per me', to which has been added, apparently by the same hand, 'Joannes Jouines'. The following receipt 'Fixatio mercurii congellati sine corpore' also ends 'et probatum per me Jouinem'. No record of an alchemist of this name has been traced, but it seems possible he may have been the compiler of this MS.

Catalogue description modified in 2014. For original description, see 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).

This material has been digitised and can be freely accessed online through Wellcome Collection catalogue.