Alchemy 16th cent.

Alchemical work in Latin Written in a clear gothic letter, 17 lines to a page. Ornamental capitals in red, green and blue. Text within a double red rule. Fol. 1v Amicis meis in Jesu fratribus Dei dilectis/vocatis Sanctis Religiosis monasterii huius/optimis gratiam vobis et pacem a Deo... 3, line 3 ... audite me in timore Do/mini Oracula, Spiracula, Miracula ejus docebo vos in nomine Jesu./Exponite †7 [plumbum] minerem Minervae, ni/gram fere Magnesiam... 3v (End) ... et laetabimur in/salutari ejus. Gloria in excelsis DEO. 4 $Iiapepton// In Nomine Jesu Salvatoris Im/molati pro sanitate mundi et gloria coeli./Recipe [Vitriolum] Armeniaci [Sulphuris] nativ[i]... 6 ... et benedicet omnes/actiones vestras in sacrosancti nomine/Jesu. In the above, signs are used for the chemical substances, and 'Jesu' is designated by a cruciform figure in red and yellow with a superimposed four-pointed star containing 5 Hebrew letters. The work has not been identified. With its pious language and scripture quotations it resembles some of the pseudo-Lullian tracts. [Cf. Thorndike's 'History of Magic and Experimental Science', Vol. IV.] The script seems to be of the 16th cent. or even later, while the symbols used for the various substances also appear to belong to a period after 1500.

c. 1550

1 volume 6 ll. 4to. 191/2 x 15 cm. On vellum, unbound.

Purchased at Sotheby's 10/6/1931, Lot 520 (part).

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).