Miscellanea Alchemica XXVI

Collection of extracts, receipts and short works on alchemical, chemical and technical subjects, in German and Latin: by various hands. Some headings in green on red. Small pen-drawings of alchemical apparatus, etc. on ff. 23, 51v, 77v, 78, 167, 197, 261, 311, 353v, 366, 373, 387v, 405, 406v, 409, 419, 423, 440v, 452.

1515-1527

1 volume 388 [452] ff. 4to. 22 x 15 1/2 cm. Original half stamped pig-skin binding over wooden boards: half of the upper cover wanting; also the two clasps. Ff. 1-8, 10, 20, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 37-40, 55, 59, 160-163, 202, 203, 207, 240, 315, 317-327, 340, 370, 371, 377-387, 432, 433, 436-439, 448, and all afer 452 are wanting. The lower half of fol. 372 has been cut away.

Purchased at Lucerne (Dietrichstein Sale), 22/11/1933, Lot 619.

No. 2 This has been tentatively assigend to 'Uguictius' (No. 161 in Mrs. Singer's Catalogue) [Cf. Thorndike History of Magic and Experimental Science, Vol. III, pp. 63-65.]. 15 In the printed text and in other MSS., quoted by Thorndike (op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 573), the name of the 'nigromanticus' is given as 'Hilardus', 'Ilardus', 'Elardus'. In this MS. the more correct place-name 'Hylerde' [Lerida] appears. 19 The author's name as given in this MS. appears to be a variant of 'Dombelay' which according to Thorndike (op. cit., Vol. III, pp. 633-636) should be 'Bumbeles'. It is to be noted that a tract with this Incipit is found in a MS. at Venice (St. Marco VI, 215) under the title of 'Rotatio elementorum' by Alanus. (Thorndike, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 140). 22 The 'Donum dei' is ascribed to various 14th century authors, including Dastin, Lullius and others. It is entered in Mrs. Singer's Catalogue No. 322 under the name of Johannes Andreae as 'Dicta, chiefly from Arnoldus de Villanova'. Most of the tracts from No. 30 onwards are directly or indirectly connected with what Thorndike (op. cit., Vol. IV, Chap. 38) calls the 'Lullian alchemical collection', and some are certainly of middle 14th or even 15th century date. The receipts, etc. on ff. 305, 306 of which two are dated 1497 (306v), may possibly have been written then, as both script and paper differ from those of the rest of the volume. About three quaters of the volume appear to be written by the 'Vulcanus decretorum doctor' (fol. 186), a Benedictine monk of Wissbern. He seems to have been a practising alchemist, and to have travelled extensively in Germany and to have visited Cracow.

From the Dietrichstein Library

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).