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

Title

Disbound alchemical compendium.

Authors

• Geber, active 13th century
• Albertus, Magnus, Saint, 1193?-1280

Other related names

• Galletti, Gustavo Camillo, 1805-1868, former owner

Call number

Ms. Coll. 1458
(3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6206, University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 9977896331603681

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania

Language

Latin

Origin

Date

circa 1489

Place

Germany or the Netherlands

Summary

Late 15th-century collection of alchemical treatises, with Geber's Summa perfectionis magisterii (f. 78r-115r) predominating by virtue of being the only illustrated treatise, as well as the longest (116 chapters) and most heavily annotated. Formerly a manuscript codex, all of the leaves are detached and burned on three edges (both sides and top), with loss of text in the upper corners. The leaves, each in a sleeve, are housed in two boxes.

Notes

• Ms. leaves.
   
• Title of manuscript from title of predominant work.
   
• 1. f.1r-37r: [De metallis in speciali / Albertus Magnus] -- 2. f.39r-49v: [Semita recta] -- 3. f.57r-65v: [Opusculum in arte alchimie / al-Rāzī] -- 4. f.68r-70r: [Liber correctorum] -- 5. f.70v-74v: [Unidentified treatise] -- 6. f.78r-115r: [Summa perfectionis magisterii] / Jeber -- 7. f.117r-120v: Liber de septuaginta -- 8. f.121r-122v: [Unidentified treatise on metals] -- 9. f.126r-140v: [De lapidis, cum glosa] -- 10. f.141r-142v [Indices].
   

Watermark

Similar to Briquet Oiseau 12172 (Kleve, 1489) and 12173 (Metz, 1490) (f. 50, 97).

Extent

147 leaves : 270 x 195 mm (approximate extant dimensions of burned leaves); 220 x 146 mm (approximate dimensions of written area)

Collation

Paper, 147; 1⁸ 2-14¹⁰ 15¹⁰⁻¹ (10 probably canceled); [1-78, 78-104, 104-145], modern foliation in pencil on lower right recto or in ink on upper right recto of sleeves. Foliation used in this record as marked, including duplicate foliation. All leaves detached, hypothetical collation based on catchwords (f.8v, 18v, 28v, 48v, 97v (actually 98v), 106v (actually 108v)), with gatherings 4, 7, 8, and 14 probable but not marked with catchwords.

Support

Paper

Layout

Written in 2 columns of 38 lines; ruled in ink with vertical bounding lines.

Script

Written in hybrid Gothic script (f. 1r-115r), with additions by contemporary hands (f. 117r-142r).

Provenance

• Formerly owned by Gustavo Camillo Galletti, Florence (ex libris stamp, f. 1r).
   
• Held in an unidentified German collection (Bloomsbury).
   
• Sold at auction at Bloomsbury Auctions (London), 7 December 2020, lot 44.
   

Subjects topical

• Alchemy--Early works to 1800

Genres

• treatises
• pen and ink drawings
• Manuscripts, Latin--15th century
• Manuscripts, Medieval
• Manuscripts, Renaissance

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Ms. Coll. 1458: Disbound alchemical compendium. 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

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