Collection ID: 0002 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Italian alchemical miscellany

Call number

Ms. Codex 131
(3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6206., University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 9915517553503681
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122545138
• http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/1551755

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania

Language

Latin, with some Italian

Origin

Date

between 1550 and 1650

Place

Italy

Summary

Collection of alchemical recipes preceded by a few brief treatises (including a commentary attributed to Hortulanus and a work referring to Arnaldus de Villanova). Folios 1-2, 40 and 42-43 are blank. There is a short guide, index or key in a later hand at the end (f. 41r).

Notes

• Ms. codex.
   
• Title supplied by cataloger (Zacour-Hirsch).
   
• The incipits of the first (Verum est sine mendatio..., f. 3r) and fourth (Recipe limatura lupi limati libram unam...) works are listed in Thorndike and Kibre, Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin.
   

Watermark

Several different designs, including one which appears to be a cardinal's hat but is too faint to read.

Extent

43 leaves : 213 x 155 (194 x 134) mm. bound to 222 x 150 mm

Foliation

Paper, 43; 1-2¹⁶ 3-6¹ 7⁸(-1); [1-43]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto, irregular contemporary pagination/foliation in ink, upper right recto.

Support

Paper

Binding

17th-century Italian pasteboards. Paper frayed at the edges. Some evidence of worm and rodent damage. Lower outer edge of upper cover and many front folios badly damaged, possibly resulting in some slight loss of text.

Decoration

Several ink drawings of chemical apparatus (f. 9v); many chemical and alchemical symbols throughout.

Script

Written in a cursive script.

Provenance

• Acquired, 1965.
   

Subjects topical

• Alchemy--Early works to 1800
• Chemistry--History

Genres

• Codices
• Drawings
• Recipes
• Treatises
• Manuscripts, Latin--16th century
• Manuscripts, Latin--17th century
• Manuscripts, Renaissance
• Manuscripts, European

Keywords

• 16th century
• 17th century
• Drawing
• Alchemy
• History
• Paper
• Italy
• Italian
• Science
• Chemistry

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Ms. Codex 131: Italian alchemical miscellany are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  Metadata is © and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License version 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• fol. 3r — Epistola Hermetis, f. 3r
• fol. 3r — Expositio Ortulani super praedicta epistola, f. 3r
• fol. 5v — De lapide minerali, f. 5v
• fol. 8r — Vera operatio Arnaldi, f. 8r
• fol. 9r — Collection of alchemical recipes, f. 9r

Decorations

• fol. 9v — Drawing, Alchemical equipment, f. 9v
• fol. 14r — Manicule, f. 14r
• fol. 35r — Manicule, f. 35r