Collection ID: 0025 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Theorica testamentum

Authors

• Pseudo-Lull

Other related names

• Honeyman, Robert B., former owner (http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr89006834.html)
• Ritman, Joost R., former owner (http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2013058385.html)

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

Othmer MS 5
(Philadelphia, Science History Institute, Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer Library of Chemical History)

Publisher

Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer Library of Chemical History

Language

Latin; Middle English (1100-1500)

Origin

Place

England

Summary

This manuscript contains an early copy, made in England, of the Latin version of a fourteenth-century alchemical text. It includes the first book of the Testamentum and about fifty practical, alchemical recipes in Latin and English.

Notes

• Some darkened pages (e.g., fol. 1), staining throughout
   
• Structure uncertain for quire 7, Missing 2 leaves; certainly lacking fol. 107, with loss of text, presumably 17, and with the final leave cancelled
   

Watermark

Triple mountain (unidentified in watermark repertories)

Extent

I+112+i; 208 x 137 mm bound to 213 x 151 mm

Foliation

Early foliation in Arabic numerals in ink top outer corner recto, fols. 1-113, lacking fol. 107, early modern pagination in ink lower margin

Collation

1-4 (16), 5 (24), 6 (2), 7 (18, -17 -18), 8 (6)

Signatures

Leaf numbers given in Arabic numerals bottom outer corner recto - numbered 1-8 per quire; quire numbers given in modern pencil

Support

Paper

Catchwords

Horizontal catchwords in lower margin (e.g., fol. 16v)

Binding

Modern vellum binding tolled in gold with triple fillets on the front and back covers, smooth spine with simple gold fillets

Layout

Frame ruled in blind with all rules full-length; written area: 130 x 92 mm, thirty-two to twenty-eight long lines

Decoration

Rubrics in red through fol. 65, and in fol. 92 to the end, guide letters for initials, blanks for two-line initials; nota and marginalia in at least two hands, manicules (e.g., fol. 9v), some notes canceled or highlighted in blue

Script

Secretary with features of Anglicana

Provenance

• Belonged to Robert B. Honeyman (1897-1987), engineer and collector, who assembled a library of books and manuscripts associated with the history of science; his MS Gen.sci.3 (Bond and Faye, p. 20, no. 3); his sale, London, Sotheby's, 2 May 1979, lot 1101; Belonged to Joost R. Ritman (b. 1941), the Dutch businessman and collector of art and books; acquired from Sotheby's; Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica MS 16 (bookplate front flyleaf 1); briefly described in Medieval Manuscripts in Dutch Collections (Online Resources), and in Gumbert, 1987, no. 118; mentioned in Gentile, 1999, p. 222. Modern owners' and dealers' notes include, inside front cover, notes on the text in pencil, and small round sticker HH 55 (or 4H 55), and inside back cover, annotations in pencil from BPH (Soth Hun/1101/ FTTT; 84912-BPH 16; and 35P2H)
   

Keywords

• Treatise
• 15th century
• England
• Science
• Recipe book
• Annotated
• Manicules

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer Library of Chemical History, Othmer MS 5: Theorica testamentum 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

  To the extent possible under law, Othmer Library, Chemical Heritage Foundation has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer Library of Chemical History Othmer MS 5: Theorica testamentum. This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• fol. 1r — Theorica testamentum; incipit: Deus qui gloriose omnipotens existis propter te amare intelligere et recolere …
• fol. 108r — Recipes; incipit: <…> sufficit ad malgamandum ita subti<lis?> …