182. ALCHEMICA. G. 14
Vellum and paper, 8 x 5.5, ff. 221 + 7, 18 lines to a page. 15th cent. (1479), clear hand: drawings. Red skin over boards.
Given by W. Beale. 2 fo. debet dissolui.
Collation : a4 (vellum), 110 210 - 2110 2212 (wants 10) : 3 flyleaves: outer and middle sheets of most quires vellum.
List of contents on f. 1b.
Contents :
1. Notabilia
Artis Alchemicae.
Verses. (9)
Hec sunt secreta. Quis gaudebit sine meta . f. 1
ending:
Sunt preciosa magis dum rarius inueniuntur.
Hic sequuntur optima notabilia ad hanc artem
spectantia.
Lapis noster philosophicus non habet proprium nomen.
Ends : Bonum est in alieno malo fugienda intueri.
2. Inc.
liber marie sororis moysi . . . . 6
Conuenit aros philosophus cum
maria prophetissa et fuit
accedens ad ipsam et honorificauit eam et dixit ei. O pro-
phetissa audiui multos de te quia cibificas conuiuas de die
tuo. Et dixit
maria. Utique o aros et de parte dei
mei.
Marginal drawing of Miriam in
turban-like headdress and wimple.
Ends 10a : Et ipsi
ignorant regimen ueritatis propter eorum
ignoranciam unde uersus.
Mira maria sonat breuiter que talia donat, etc. ending :
Gaudet in assata. sata per tria sociata.
Expl. hoc secretum.
3. At
top of page (xiii) :
Credibile
est Circen mutasse potentibus herbis
Inque
sues monachos in monachosque sues.
Uisio Johannis Dastin de dono
gracie . . . 10b
Cum omnium natura constancium cercius sit effectus.
Drawing of man in doctor's robes.
Ends : poma collegimus. maria timemus, etc. Expl. uisio Joh.
Dastyn de
dono gracie.
4. Et
inc. uisio Edwardi secretarii philosophie . . . 16b
Ego Edwardus discipulusque
philosophie secretarius.
Drawing rather like the last : a
16th cent. derisive note above.
-qui dat omnibus affluenter et non improperat. Jacobi primo.
Expl. hoc secretum.
5. Inc.
liber qui dicitur lilium alkemie de ordine procedendo . 26
Naturam circa solem et lunam
ceterosque planetas.
Drawing of lily in pot ; above
(xvi) :
Is this flowre called monkes
weed. A faire Lilly for so fowle a
lowt.
Drawing of a man in furred gown
on f. 61.
-coagulat et fugere non permittat. Expl. lilium alkemie.
6. Inc.
liber turbe philosophorum de secretis secretorum qui
dicitur
Codex ueritatis inferioris astronomie . . 96b
Drawing of a doctor seated teaching eight
pupils. On the
back of
one is written ‘bulchin' : and a derisive remark is
written
above.
Drawing of Pictagoras on f. 197 and of Aristeus on
198 : of
Leucippus
on 202 : of Democrites as a man in plate-armour
with
halbert, on 206 : of Albemazar on 210 : of Marcos rex
grecorum
as throned king on 213 : of Arthurus as king in
mantle
with sword on 215.
Ends 216b : Qui petis in merdis secreta
philosophorum
Expensas perdis operam tempusque
laborum.
Expl. lib. turbe philos. 10 die decembris a. d.
1479.
A late index of the Philosophers on f. 218.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
This MS. is referred to in Julius Ruska, ‘Turba philosophorum : ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Alchemie', Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Medizin 1 (1931), 81-2. The MS. used by Ruska has only 72 Turbae, whilst the St John's College Library copy has 80. Ruska obtained his information from Dorothea Singer, Les Manuscrits des Iles Britanniques (Bruxelles, 1924). See M. Plessner, ‘The Turba Philosophorum. A Preliminary Report on Three Cambridge Manuscripts', AMBIX, Journal of the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry 7:3 (October 1959), 159-63.
The drawing on fol. 96v is referred to in W. N.
Hargreaves-Mawdsley, A History of Academical Dress in Europe until the End
of the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 1963), p. 96.
P. Barthelemy and Didier Kahn,
‘Les Voyages d'une allegorie alchemique: de la visio Edwardi a l'oeuvre royalle
de Charles VI', Comprendre et maîtriser la nature au moyen âge :
mélanges d'histoire des sciences offerts à Guy Beaujouan (Geneva, 1994), pp. 481-530.
P.R. Robinson, Catalogue of dated and datable manuscripts c.737-1600 in Cambridge libraries (Cambridge, 1988) vol. I, pp. 87-8, no. 305; vol. II pl. 319 (fol. 5).
OTHER IMAGES