The James Catalogue of Western Manuscripts

I. A note-book containing miscellaneous receipts in French and English, with drawings of apparatus. Towards the end are some accounts of serpents at "Avegnion" and "Bayon" in English. There is also musical notation (lute tablature)

7r–55r Recipes. <1> [7r] Pour le tartre viue, veram || <2> Altrement || <3> [8r] Le spirit de vitriol || <4> [11v] Eau de talk || <5> [12v] Secretum super plumbum || <6> [13r] Moyen our extraire le tincteur || <7> [13v] Extr[ait] [illeg.] pour extraire vostre eau de [dede] || <8> [14v] La calcination de la pierre & perfect[ion] de purgation & feration d’icelle || <9> [15r] La Fermentation & multiplication de la Pierre || <10> [49r] Pour transmuer [mars] in [venus] || <11> [52v] Ad calcinandum Talk || <11> [53r] Alia praparatio Talci 55v–56r Alchemical allegory [fragment]. <1> [55v] [damaged] … at midnight about 15. yeare hence [damaged] a fiery dragon flying close by … [56r] … The serpent was great as the eele [a.m.], whom the fishermen took [illeg.] in the luke in a net and killed it 56v Recipe [fragment]. <1> [56v] … fault prendre du Talc viron vne [liure] & l’enueloper en vng linge …

II. An oblong note-book, perhaps in the same hand as no. I. An index at the beginning. It contains receipts in French and Latin. The last leaf is, I think, a key to the cypher used in no. I.

26r–74 Recipes. <1> [26r] Pro facieri rubore || <2> [26v] Mercurius potabilis || <3> [27r] Ficta tinctura corall || <4> [27v] Turbite lunae || <5> Aqua aurea potabilis || <6> Recipe ess[entiae] salis || <7> [28r] Pour tirer sel des tous mettaux || <8> [35r] Sublimat[io] dolce || <9> [48v] Aurum vitae secundum domini de Castel || <10> [49r] Modus domini de Castelment ad facere [sol] 70v–71r Instructions for devising a cipher / key. <1> [70v] Tak any wach word and as MERCURY … / … his opposit o &c. || <2> [71r] [key]

III. In two chief hands.
Contains at first miscellaneous receipts, mostly in English. At f.214 we have the heading
Hic incipit Tabula herbarum.
At f.243 the hand changes and red is used for the sections and headings.

148v Recipe IMEP O.1.65 [8]. <1> [148v] Take comyn Sales vnsletted lyme … 151r Recipe. <1> [151r] Distillatio Aceti 151v Recipe IMEP O.1.65 [10]. <1> [151v] Take commen Salte and lym and late ham boille togider … 185v Planet and metal equivalents / short prose text. <1> [185v] Saturnus gaudet ferrum … || <2> Aqua / Aqua jndurens ferrum quod potest ferri cum eo incideri … / … & in isti aquis equis porcienibus [sib] mixtes 187ar–v Recipes IMEP O.1.65 [21]. <1> [187ar] ffor to morter / Take 15 marter crewe and j [uncia] of fyne syluer … || <2> [187av] ffor to fy[ne] [illeg.] / Take and make ij boxys of latoun and the fete þerof to be of jrne … / … it shall be fyne lune at alle assayes deo gracias quod iak [Tenet] 199r Recipe. <1> [199r] Aqua m[ercuri]is / Recipe argentum vi lb sulphuris vi … 210r–v Recipe. <1> [210r] Sal alkali sic fit

Mooney, L. R., The Index of Middle English Prose Handlist 11: Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (IMEP) (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 76-81, 156-7, and 164

Timmermann, A., 'Alchemy in Cambridge: An Annotated Catalogue of Alchemical Texts and Illustrations in Cambridge Repositories', Nuncius, 30 (2015), p. 367.