Ms. document. Title from Les Enluminures, Primer [no.] 5, Alchemy p. 16. Script: written in a small, compressed secretary script. Pagination: 112 leaves. Decoration: Red rubrics. Layout: Twenty eight to thirty two lines. Origin: Copied in England after 1446, the date of the translation recorded in the final rubric on f. 108; the script is a secretary script that retains some Anglicana features (note especially the pendular abbreviations, and the use of a split "r"; the round cursive "e" is also noteworthy, although not exclusively an Anglicana feature), clearly supporting an origin in England, and suggesting... This is an early copy, made in England, of the Latin version of one of the most important fourteenth-century alchemical texts, likely dating within twenty-five years of the first translation of this text from Catalan into Latin. It includes only the first book of the Testamentum, which is largely theoretical in content, but it also includes a series of practical, alchemical recipes in Latin... Although this appears to be written by one scribe, unusual features in the format and quire structure suggest something happened in the midst of copying: quire five, with twenty-four leaves begins on f. 65; by the end of the quire the scribe is copying in a compressed manner, trying to squeeze as much text as possible onto the page; he failed, and therefore quire six, with only two leaves, ff... Approximately fifty alchemical and medical recipes added to the manuscript by successive users, and/or owners, in Latin and English; note the references to "a man of Derby named Saul," and an ointment of use against paralysis mentioning a doctor at "Wodestoke" on f. 111v, and a remedy by Radulf Holonde (Ralph of Holland?) for stones and colic on f. 112v. Former shelfmark: Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica (Amsterdam, Netherlands), MS 16. Former shelfmark: Honeyman Collection, MS Gen.sci.3. Shelfmark: Philadelphia, PA, Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer Library of Chemical History, MS 5. 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). Belonged to Robert B. Honeyman (1897-1987), engineer and noted collector; his MS Gen.sci.3; his sale, London, Sotheby's, 2 May 1979, lot 1101. Belonged to Joost R. Ritman (b. 1941), the Dutch businessman and distinguished collector of art and books; acquired from Sotheby's; Bibliotheca Philosophia Hermetica MS 16 (bookplate, inside front cover). Purchased from Les Enluminures Ltd., 9 September 2013, Primer 2 Alchemy, [item] no. 5, (TM692) to Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer Library of Chemical History, CHF (now Science History...
Do you have more information to share with the Holding Institution about this manuscript or would you like to suggest a correction? Contact information is available for member institutions via our member directory.
