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

Title

Alchemical miscellany

Authors

• Ripley, George, d. 1490?
• Llull, Ramon, 1232?-1316
• Montanor, Guido de, fl. 1400
• Geber, 13th cent
• Hollandus, Johan Isaäc, 15th cent
• Arnaldus, de Villanova, d. 1311
• Constantine, the African, ca. 1020-1087

Other related names

• Bayle, H, former owner
• Northumberland, Henry Percy, Earl of, 1564-1632, former owner
• Northumberland, Algernon Percy, Earl of, 1602-1668, former owner
• Somerset, Charles Seymour, Duke of, 1662-1748, former owner
• Leconfield, Henry Wyndham, Baron, 1830-1901, former owner

Call number

Oversize Ms. Codex 111
(3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6206., University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 9915804573503681
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122591894
• http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/1580457

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania

Language

English, with many works translated from Latin and retaining Latin titles

Origin

Date

between 1582 and 1630

Place

England

Summary

Collection of 34 alchemical treatises, verses and recipes. More than a quarter of them are by George Ripley; other authors represented are Ramón Llull, Guido de Montanor, Geber, Pearce the Black Monk, Johan Isaäc Hollandus, Arnaldus de Villanova, and Constantine the African.

Notes

• Ms. codex.
   
• Title supplied by cataloger (Zacour-Hirsch).
   
• Forms part of: Edgar F. Smith Memorial Collection.
   

Watermark

See The New Briquet, v. 1, p. 72, no. 8081 (Nicholas le Bé of Tryes, ca. 1582).

Extent

96 leaves : 346 x 223 mm. bound to 351 x 226 mm

Collation

Paper, 96; 1¹⁰, 2¹⁴, 3¹⁰, 4¹⁶, 5¹⁰, 6¹⁴, 7¹⁰, 8¹⁰(+2); [i], 1-10, [11-95]; contemporary foliation in ink, upper right recto; modern foliation in pencil, upper and lower right recto. Catchwords in lower right, each recto, of texts 4 and 6.

Support

Paper

Binding

Contemporary limp vellum with monogram HB on upper cover and title Alchemy on spine; binding loose; vellum cover split and cracked at spine; cover completely detached from front hinge and spine, coming loose from back hinge. Several quires loose; f. 48-49 completely detached..

Script

Written in a cursive script, erroneously identified as the hand of Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (see note on f. [i]), more likely the hand of the first owner, H. Bayle (see R. Newhauser's article, p. 123).

Provenance

• First owned by H. Bayle (monogram on upper cover, effaced name on f. 58 r; see Newhauser, p. 123).
   
• Formerly held in the library at Petworth House, Sussex (shelf number 97 on spine, as described by Alfred John Horwood in Sixth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Part I (London, 1877); Appendix to the Sixth Report, p. 309), then owned by Henry Wyndham, Lord Leconfield; while in this library earlier possible owners include Henry Percy, ninth Earl of Northumberland; Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of Northumberland; and Charles Seymour, sixth Duke of Somerset (Newhauser, p. 122-123).
   
• Sold by Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (London), 1946.
   

Subjects topical

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

Genres

• Codices
• Poems
• Recipes
• Treatises
• Manuscripts, English--16th century
• Manuscripts, English--17th century
• Manuscripts, Renaissance
• Manuscripts, European

Keywords

• 16th century
• 17th century
• English
• England
• Alchemy
• Science
• Paper
• History

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Oversize Ms. Codex 111: 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. 1r — The Marrow of Alchemy, f. 1r
• fol. 10v — George Ripley unto King Edward the 4th, f. 10v
• fol. 13r — Twelve Gates, f. 13r
• fol. 31r — Note of our fyres withoute the knowledge wherof our mastery is nott performed, f. 31r
• fol. 33r — Recipes, f. 33r
• fol. 35r — A Partiall Abridgemente of all the writinge of George Ripley, f. 35r
• fol. 36v — An Accurtation, f. 36v
• fol. 40v — Another speciall worke of the basiliske, f. 40v
• fol. 41v — Accurtation, f. 41v
• fol. 42v — Sayings, f. 42v
• fol. 42v — The dreame of Sir George Ripley, f. 42v
• fol. 43r — A Secrete; The visyon, Recapitulatio, f. 43r
• fol. 44v — The Testamente of Geber the philosopher, f. 44v
• fol. 47r — The Mirrour of Alkemy, f. 47r
• fol. 51v — The Black Monk, f. 51v
• fol. 52r — The Calander of Principells, f. 52r
• fol. 54r — Liber multipherie, f. 54r
• fol. 57r — Concordance betwene Raymonde [Lullus] and Guydo [de Montanor], f. 57r
• fol. 58v — The lawes of philosophers, f. 58v
• fol. 59v — Dialogue, f. 59v
• fol. 61v — A generall rule for all men that intendeth to be philosophers, f. 61v
• fol. 62r — The moste shorteste & the most lighteste way & the least [?] that can be done in this arte or science, f. 62r
• fol. 63r — The Psalter of Philosophers, f. 63r
• fol. 70r — Accurtation, f. 70r
• fol. 74r — The Practice of the Philosophers, f. 74r
• fol. 76r — The Black Monk, Upon the Elixir, f. 76r
• fol. 77v — The philosophers stone, f. 77v
• fol. 78r — A treatis of the vertus of rosemary, f. 78r
• fol. 78r — Notabell lessons chosen or picked owte of the work of Guydo [de Montanor, f. 78r
• fol. 80v — Poem, f. 80v
• fol. 81r — Epistula ad papa[m], f. 81r
• fol. 84r — Stella complexionis is the father of truth / Constantinus Africanus, f. 84r
• fol. 84v — Answers to questions posed by the Archbishop of Rheims, f. 84v
• fol. 94r — Alegory contaynynge perfectly the moste profounde secrettes of the philosophers stone, f. 94r