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

Title

French book of secrets.

Call number

Ms. Codex 2093
(3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6206, University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 9978152320103681
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1357035219
• http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017.12/366224 http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017.12/366281

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania

Language

French, with one item in Latin (p. 9-11)

Origin

Date

1760-1769?

Place

France

Summary

Miscellany of notes, mostly abridged from printed sources, on natural history, hydraulic mechanical devices, scientific instruments, geometry, numismatics, and medical remedies. Many of the natural history notes refer to members of the Académie royale des sciences of the 17th and early 18th centuries, including Guillaume Amontons on the steam engine (p. 194), François Blondel on pocket watch movements (p. 197), Wilhelm Homberg on phosphorus (p. 9), and René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur on temperature (p. 284). Other sources from natural history and medicine include Johann Bernoulli (p. 317), Robert Boyle (p. 2), Jean Ferapie Dufieu (p. 103), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (p. 23), and Noël Antoine Pluche (p. 100). The latest printed source identified, for an item on the cultivation of the plant oreilles d'ours (bear's ears, p. 98), is the Manuel de champs, ou, Recueil choisi, instructif et amusant, by the abbé de Chanvalon, published in 1764 and 1765. The two most substantial excerpts, each starting on the first page of a gathering, are Des usages du compas de proportion (p. 209-246), book 2 from Nicolas Bion's Traité de la construction et principaux usages des instruments de mathématique, first published in 1709; and La science des médailles antiques et modernes (p. 251-275) by Louis Jobert, first published in 1692 and reprinted many times. A few notes are culinary, on topics including cheese, eggs, and chocolate. The medical remedies interspersed throughout include treatments for gout, migraine, and ailments of the ears and teeth. An alphabetical index (Table des secrets contenus dans ce livre) is at the end of the volume (p. 349-357).

Notes

• Ms. codex.
   
• Title supplied by cataloger.
   

Watermark

Unclear watermarks visible in blank leaves at the end of the volume; one has words arranged in three lines, the first line possibly Beronie,

Extent

182 leaves : 168 x 115 (168 x 100) mm bound to 170 x 120 mm

Collation

Paper, i + 182 + i leaves; 1²⁰ 2²⁴ 3²² 4¹⁶ 5-8²² 9¹²; original pagination in ink, modern pagination in pencil, upper outer corners, 1-225, [i-ii], 226-329, 340-348, [349-357, 358-378(blank)]. Pagination in ink of each quire individually is sporadically visible, upper left corners.

Support

Paper

Binding

Contemporary (18th-century) mottled vellum, upper front hinge slightly split (Weinberger).

Layout

Written in 20-22 long lines, with items separated by a horizontal line in ink; outer margin formed by folding; octavo format.

Decoration

Over 50 drawings and diagrams in ink, largely of machinery and geometric figures.

Script

Written in cursive script, probably by a single hand.

Provenance

• Sold by Adam Weinberger Rare Books (New York), 2022.
   

Subjects topical

• Natural history--Pre-Linnean works
• Geometry--Early works to 1800
• Hydraulics--Early works to 1800
• Scientific apparatus and instruments--Early works to 1800
• Numismatics--Early works to 1800
• Medicine--Formulae, receipts, prescriptions--Early works to 1800

Genres

• codices (bound manuscripts)
• miscellanies
• diagrams
• Drawings
• Manuscripts, French--18th century
• Manuscripts, European

Keywords

• Miscellany
• 18th century
• French
• France
• Paper
• Science
• Diagrams

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Ms. Codex 2093: French book of secrets. 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 ©2023 University of Pennsylvania Libraries 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

• 1 — [French book of secrets]
• 349 — Table des secrets contenus dans ce livre

Decorations

• 1 — Drawing, Végétation métallique
• 3 — Diagram, Pour connoiste quand il y a du sel [?] dans de l'eau
• 5 — Drawing, Tetraedre composé
• 6 — Drawing, Tetraedre composé
• 12 — Drawing, Vase [?] pour mettre refraichir des fleurs
• 15 — Diagram, Lumiere produite dans le vuide
• 19 — Diagram, Thelescope astronomique
• 24 — Diagram, Baromètre
• 28 — Diagram, Machine hydraulique
• 29 — Diagram, Machine hydraulique
• 31 — Diagram, Pistolets, carabine
• 34 — Diagram, Machine pour potir le marbre
• 35 — Diagram, Machine pour potir le marbre
• 37 — Diagram, Machine pour diriger un tuyau de lunette de cent pieds
• 42 — Diagram, Machine pour élever de l'eau
• 43 — Diagram, Machine pour élever de l'eau
• 46 — Diagram, Tableau qui sert de ciel de lit
• 48 — Diagram, Moyens d'empêcher les cheminées de fumer
• 49 — Diagram, Moyens d'empêcher les cheminées de fumer
• 50 — Diagram, Thermomêtre particulier
• 53 — Diagram, Machine pour élever de l'eau
• 55 — Diagram, Machine pour élever de l'eau
• 56 — Diagram, Canif qui taille les plumes
• 58 — Diagram, Canif qui taille les plumes
• 60 — Diagram, Baromêtre
• 64 — Diagram, Hygromêtre
• 65 — Diagram, Hygromêtre
• 67 — Diagram, Hygromêtre
• 69 — Diagram, Thermomêtre a recipient continu et séparé
• 73 — Diagram, Couteau de poche sans ressort
• 76 — Diagram, Machine à chapelets propre à élever l'eau
• 78 — Diagram, Machine pour augmenter le son
• 80 — Diagram, Machine à vanner les grains
• 81 — Diagram, Machine à vanner les grains
• 84 — Diagram, Baromestres fort sensibles
• 90 — Diagram, Lampe a laquelle on n'est pas obligé de tirer la mèche
• 106 — Diagram, Manière de clarifier les vins
• 124 — Diagram, Machine hydrolique par le moyen de laquelle on fait chanter divers oiseaux successivement
• 149 — Diagram, Tour de la serviette
• 150 — Drawing, Tour de la tringle de plomb sur deux verres
• 151 — Drawing, Pour faire tourner une assiette d'étain sur la pointe d'un couteau
• 152 — Drawing, Pour casser un os de mouton sur le tranchant d'un couteau
• 154 — Diagram, Moyen pour [?] le long d'une corde
• 157 — Diagram, Moyen de monter le long d'une corde
• 158 — Diagram, Moyen de monter le long d'une corde
• 165 — Diagram, Compas horizontal
• 167 — Diagram, Romaine antique a trois faces
• 186 — Diagram, Arbaleste pour prendre les rats des champs
• 187 — Diagram, Arbaleste pour prendre les rats des champs
• 190 — Drawing, Citerne
• 195 — Diagram, Moulin à feu
• 197 — Diagram, [Mouvement?] des horloges de poche
• 199 — Diagram, Régle de perspective
• 204 — Drawing, Pièce récréative qui produit la reflexion des miroirs
• 210 — Diagram, Compas de proportion
• 217 — Geometric diagram
• 218 — Geometric diagram
• 224 — Geometric diagram
• 225 — Geometric diagram
• 228 — Geometric diagram
• 230 — Geometric diagram
• 239 — Geometric diagram
• 276 — Diagram, Clepsydre à jet d'eau
• 296 — Diagram, Pour connoiste les mois de l'année
• 298 — Diagram, Lanterne magique
• 321 — Drawing, Carat pour connoiste le poids des perles