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

Title

Flambeau des vrais rosecroix ou des sages.

Authors

• Charles Rainsford Collection of Alchemical and Occult Manuscripts (University of Pennsylvania)

Other related names

• Rainsford, Charles, 1728-1809, former owner
• Northumberland, Hugh Percy, Duke of, 1742-1817, former owner (http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr93028960)

Call number

Ms. Codex 1670
(3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6206, University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 9962935283503681
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/907241397
• https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p33b5w99d https://repository.upenn.edu/uniqueatpenn/23/

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania

Language

French

Origin

Date

1798

Place

London

Summary

Collection of alchemical recipes and instructions for the purification, distillation, and transmutation of metals and ores such as gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, antimony, and mercury. Also includes a few recipes for elixirs and oils as well as instructions on how to construct different types of furnaces for alchemical uses, with accompanying illustrations throughout.

Notes

• Title from caption title (f. 1r).
   
• Ms. codex.
   

Extent

178 leaves : 195 x 159 (150 x 120) mm x bound to 202 x 165 mm

Foliation

Paper, 178; [ii], 1-62, 62-120, 120, 122, 122-149, [xxv]; contemporary foliation in ink, upper center recto.

Support

Paper

Binding

Contemporary parchment. Paper is stained, weak, and deteriorating along the gutter due to moisture damage, particularly the inside of the upper hinge and the first two leaves. Second quire is almost completely detached due to broken sewing.

Layout

Written in 24-26 long lines; ruled in lead.

Decoration

Seventeen watercolor illustrations of alchemical apparatus (for example, f. 59v); headings and underlining in red ink throughout.

Script

Written in a cursive script by what appears to be a single hand.

Provenance

• Sold at auction at Sotheby's (London), 15 July 2014, as part of Lot 411.
   
• Formerly owned by Charles Rainsford (British army officer, fellow of the Royal Society, and alchemist); bequeathed by Rainsford to Hugh Percy, Second Duke of Northumberland.
   
• Owned by the 2nd through 12th Dukes of Northumberland, ms. 581, Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, 1809-2014 (bookplate, inside upper cover; stamps throughout).
   

Subjects topical

• Alchemy--Early works to 1800
• Alchemy
• Occultism--Early works to 1800
• Occultism

Genres

• Codices
• Drawings (visual works)
• Manuals (instructional materials)
• Manuscripts, French
• Manuscripts, European

Keywords

• 18th century
• French
• France
• England
• Paper
• Alchemy
• Drawing

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Ms. Codex 1670: Flambeau des vrais rosecroix ou des sages. 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 ©2017 University of Pennsylvania Books & Manuscripts 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

Decorations

• fol. 23v — Illustration, f. 23v
• fol. 24v — Illustration, f. 24v
• fol. 28v — Illustration, f. 28v
• fol. 29v — Illustration, f. 29v
• fol. 30v — Illustration, f. 30v
• fol. 32v — Illustration, f. 32v
• fol. 36v — Illustration, f. 36v
• fol. 37v — Illustration, f. 37v
• fol. 38v — Illustration, f. 38v
• fol. 39v — Illustration, f. 39v
• fol. 55v — Illustration, f. 55v
• fol. 57v — Illustration, f. 57v
• fol. 59v — Illustration, f. 59v
• fol. 62v — Illustration, f. 62v