Baptista, Frater Joannes

Collection of short alchemical works and extracts in Latin. With a few entries in Italian and Spanish. Vol. III. In the foliation fol. 205 is dropped, ff. 92, 162 doubled and fol. 263 is octupled. Rough pen-drawings of alchemical apparatus, etc. on ff. 120v, 141v, 181v, 269v: on fol. 199 a full page 'alchemical tree' diagram, and on fol. 155v table of alchemical signs. Prelim. ll. 1, 2 Index. 3r Religious poem in Italian. 4 Index (cont.). 5v, 6r Religious poem in Italian. 7 Index (cont.). 8 Blank. 9-11 Second Index. 11v-15 Quotations from alchemical authors in Latin. Fol. 2 Heading 'Thesaurus thesaurorum. Rosarius philosophorum'. Below: Latin verses on alchemy. No. 7 is headed on fol. 61v 'Jo. Damascenus', but it appears to be an excerpt from the 'Dicta philosophorum'. 15, 27 The first part of this is ascribed to Thomas de Aquino in a partly obliterated heading. The second part (No. 27) has had the words 'Alberti Magni' and 'Semita recta' erased. They have been written in again by Julius Kohn in pencil. 30 The work by 'Rosinus' is preceded by a Latin poem of 15 lines, beginning 'Unde vester lauri bachis', and ending 'Cum suis [word erased] fratribus. amen'. 34, 37 The first of these is ascribed conjecturally to the Compiler, the second is assigned to him in the Index. 40 The quotation is found in the Bâle edition of the 'Opuscula' of J. B. Montanus, printed by P. Perna in 1558, Vol. II, pp. 619, 620. On fol. 56 and fol. 200 are two similar sets of three monograms. The first is preceded by the words 'P[rim]a Secretta': below the second is written 'Diuersa'. The monograms are 'VA' 'CPMAFB' [?] and 'CPNSFB' [?]. Nos. 13, 15 and 30 are written in a difficult and peculiar 16th cent. script. The date 1576 appears on the verso of the 7th preliminary leaf. This volume now numbered III, is titled on the first leaf 'J. b. f. L[iber] tersius'. Inserted loose is a partial transcript of the Index to this Volume by Julius Kohn headed 'Tabulla [sic] of the Monk's Manuscript'.

c.1565

1 volume 15 [16] ll. + ff. 2-308 [313]. 4to. 24 x 17 cm. Original vellum binding badly wormed, 3 out of 4 ties wanting. The last of the preliminary leaves, and ff 1, 202, 220, 221 are wanting: the first eight preliminary leaves are wormed, the first is only a fragment, and the second severely damaged.

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Purchased at Sotheby's 28/1/1939, Lot 32.

The Compiler of these three volumes appears to have been a Member of a Religious Order, perhaps a Franciscan, and most probably an Italian, though he seems to have had a knowledge of Spanish. His Latin is highly un-Ciceronian, and his orthography very peculiar. 's' is used for 'c' in many words, e.g. 'Disit', 'Medisina', and the Italian 't' or 'tt' for 'ct' as 'dita' for 'dicta', 'perfetta' for 'perfecta', etc.

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Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).

Many of the separate works in the three volumes are duplicated, and it is to be noted that in general, the contents bear a strong resemblance to that of the printed alchemical collection entitled 'Verae alchemiae artisque metallicae, citra aenigmata, doctrina', published by Guglielmo Gratarolo at Bâle in 1561: a second edition appeared in 1572.

From the Julius Kohn Collection.