Miscellanea Alchemica XXXIX

Collection of short alchemical tracts: mostly in Latin, but a few in Italian.

Written by the same hand throughout.

Illustrated with pen-drawn figures of alchemical apparatus or symbols:

fol. 52v- Stills,

ff. 275v-281v-symbolic figures,

fol. 304v- an alchemical vessel.

Fol. 57 is of shorter format, and has been interpolated.

A foliation in pencil has been added.

Notes: The following items have been identified as taken from the Artis auriferae quam chemiam vocant 3 vols., Basle, 1590 [cf. Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica, Vol. I, pp. 51, 52]. The number of the volume is given in brackets: Nos. 1, 4, 5 (2); 7-18, 20 (1); 22-26 (3).

2 Cf. Thorndike, Catalogue of Incipits, col. 642.

3. Ibid., 61. 6 The heading 'Antonius (Johannes) Campesius' has been given following the entry in the B.M. Catalogue: in Ferguson op. cit. he is entered as 'Campesius (Joannes Antonius)'. This work was printed in P. Ulstad's Coelum Philosophorum, 1630, pp. 197-230 [cf. Ferguson, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 130].

15 This work is assigned to Rhazes, following M. Steinschneider Die europäischen übersetzungen aus dem arabische bis Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts. 1956. No. 1781, and Singer's Catalogue, No. 120.

19 Printed in Mangetus. Bibliotheca Chemica curiosa. 1702, Vol. II, p. 172. There is some material on this treatise in S. Matton, 'Marsile Ficin et l'alchimie: sa position, son influence', in Alchimie et philosophie à la Renaissance, ed. J.-C. Margolin and S. Matton (Paris: Vrin, 1993), pp. 123-92.

21 Not identified.

27 Cf. Ferguson, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 232, 233.

28 A pencilled note by a modern owner on the verso of fol. 251, states that this is the 'Clavis majoris Sapientiae': an examination of the text however shows that it is a paraphrase of the Liber secretus, which was printed at Frankfort in 1685. [Cf. Thorndike, op. cit., col. 47.]

29 Not identified.

30 Printed in Theatrum Chemicum, Vol. III, pp. 734 et seq., Vol. VI, pp. 487 et seq. Cf. also Ferguson, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 212, 213.

31, 32 Printed with the Liber secretus of Artephius at Frankfort in 1685. [cf. Thorndike, op. cit., col. 469, 516.]

33 Not identified.

37 For Pantaleon cf. Ferguson, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 164-166, in which this work is not mentioned: but it is referred to by Kopp, Die Alchemie, Vol. II, pp. 333 and 360.