Receipt-Book, Miscellaneous: 17th-18th century

Collection of medical receipts in German, written c. 1675, followed by medical, technical, chemical and miscellaneous receipts in Italian, German and Latin: by several 18th cent. hands. There are some rough pen-drawn illustrations: A syphon (p. 195), alchemical furnace (p. 221), vessels for making lacquer (pp. 227, 387), a rocket [?] (p. 413). Pp. 1-121 contain the original medical receipt-book in German, written by the same hand throughout, perhaps c. 1675. This is followed by a collection of miscellaneous receipts in which medical receipts in Italian are the most numerous, but there are also many in German. There is a large collection of receipts for lacquers, varnishes, dyes, etc., as well as for the making of fireworks, and alchemical-chemical processes. All these are written by various hands. The date 1714 is found on p. 135, and on p. 425, 1777. The latest date is 1781 on the verso of the first unpaginated leaf after p. 471.

c. 1675-1780

1 volume 15 ll. (last 2 bl.). + 471 pp. + 30 ll. 4to. 191/2 × 131/2 cm. Original green vellum binding: clasps wanting. Some leaves at the beginning have been torn out, and the margins of the last three leaves are damaged.

Purchased 1935.

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).