The James Catalogue of Western Manuscripts

Shelfmark O.2.18
Manuscript Title

Canonical Alchemical Texts

Alternative Title

Alchemica

James Number 1122
Century 14th15th
Physical Description

44 lines to a page. Very closely written: at f.60b a second hand appears, much inferior to the first.There is an old foliation beginning with f.15: but no text is gone at the beginning of the book. There must have been more vellum flyleaves.

Provenance

Part of the Gale collection, given to T.C.C. by Roger Gale in 1738. B. 6. No. 72.

Donor Gale, Roger (1672-1744), Antiquary
Size (cm) 21.7 x 14.5 (written space 17.5 x 11)
Folio 186 ff. (James); ff. 3 + 4 + 195 + 3 (Timmermann)
Material Parchment
Language LatinMiddle English
Collation

a6 (wants 1) | 18-58 610 78-188 198-208 2112 228 (wants 8).

Notes

Foliation begins on 10r.

Manuscript Summary A 14th-century collection of canonical alchemical texts (eg the Turba philosophorum and commentaries) with annotations and additions mainly from the 15th century; and recipes.
IIIF Manifest URL https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.2.18/manifest.json
Online Since 07/10/2016

Contents

On the flyleaves:
A table of contents (xvi) and the line
hic monumenta latent multo preciosius auro
On f.4(13)b is the end of the prophecy of Methodius (xv):
Audi mutacionem eorum qui de heremo exituri sunt. Mulieres habentes in uteris partus simul interficient
gladio.
On f.5(14)b in large letters Donum dei. The gyfte of God.

1. Codex sinodi turbe philosophorum (title in red).
Headed in gold Turba philosophorum f.15
Inc. liber turbe philosophorum de secretis secretorum qui dicitur codex.
Ends f.33: quoniam in ipsam ars mutatur naturam.

2. f.33b Inc. liber hali philosophi. (Supplementum philosophorum)
Liber secretorum philosophorum in opere alkimie per hali
-deo tibi concedente. Completus est liber secret. haly phil. deo gratias.

3. f.36b Inc. tract. de arte alkimie breuis
Testatur ad credendum
-mundi thesaurum.
Expl. istud compendium alkimie breuissimum deo altissimo laudes.

4. Inc. tract. de ouo philosophorum breuissimus et pro creatione auri in ipso existentis
O stulte peregrine
-auxilio indigebis.
Expl. tract. de ouo philos.

5. De spiritu occultato in sulphure et arsenico tract. inc.
Cum queris quid sit spiritus
-philosophice referenda.
Expl. tract. de spiritu etc.

6. f.39 Dixit senior (i. plato) saky filius hamil
-istarum aquilarum.
f.39b blank: but for a later diagram.

7. Gold initial and title in white on green.
f.40 Epistola solis ad Lunam crescentem
Quando incipis in tenuitate nimia.
A later note: liber hic dicitur senior
-non pono de sulphure. Explicit.
f.54 Later notes: Auctoritates quedam de celo et mundo

8. f.55 Inc. Geber perfectionis magisterii
Curious ornament at the top.
Totam nostram(?) scienciam quam ex libris antiquorum
-excelsam. hec sufficiant.
Expl. lib. perfeccionis philosophi Geb. ut dicitur a plerisque.
ff.79b, 80 have later notes.

9. Title in margin in gold on brown.
f.81 Aureum opus
(later) Rosarius mag. Arnaldi de Villa noua quem misit Regi Roberto primo genito Regis hierusalem et sicilie duci Calabrie. Et non est Rosarius ille de quo scribit magnus Bernardus et reprehendit Arnaldum in epistola quam misit M- de Bononia.
Desiderabile desiderium
-qui est benedictus in sec. sec. Amen.
A later note on f.94.

10. f.94b Inc. Ep. Johannis Dastine ad papam Jonannem xxii transmissa de alkimia
Hoc est secretum secretorum
-quam breuius potui.
Expl. ep. etc.

11. f.95b Inc. tract. de seperacione elementorum mineralibus compendiose editus
Est lapis unus
-extractum est de minera.
Expl. etc.

12. f.97 Inc. tract. de separacione elementorum a vegetabilibus et animalibus et rectificacione eorum
In libro aristotelis qui dicitur secretum secretorum
-est istius forme.
Expl. tract. etc.

13. f.105 Inc. lumen luminum liber Rasis philosophi in arte alkimie in quo thesauri secretorum nature occultantur inc. prologus
Cum de sublimi atque precipuo rerum effectu
-pellunt quoque milia dena.
Expl. liber qui lumen luminum nuncupatur.

14. f.118b De natura plantarum et lapidum et herbarum
(From the Secretum Secretorum.)
De qualitatibus et proprietatibus
-cuius bonitatem omnis percipit creatura.
f.120 Later receipts
f.120b Diagrams of apparatus, very neat (xv)

15. Inc. liber alphidii philosophi.
f.121 Ut enucleacius intelligas
-inuenies deo concedente.
Expl. Alphidius.

16. f.124 Liber hermetis trimegisti magni philosophi de alkimia
Cum in tanta etatis prolixitate
-in operacione solis et lune.

17. f.126b (Visio Edwardi)
Ego Edwardus fessus studendo et practizando
-constitutus sum philusophus philosophorum.
Expl. Edwardi tract.

18. f.128 Inc. lumen luminum abbreuiatum
Huius negocii due sunt species
-millia dena.
Expl. etc.

19. Inc. lib. qui clauis sapiencie Alfonsi nuncupatur de arte alkimica: prol. inc.
f.129 Quia semper honoratissimus
On ff.134b, 135 are a diagram and mystic characters in the text.
Ends unfinished (in spite of an addition of cent. xv) on f.135b: f.136b has late receipts.

20. f.137 Inc. liber perfecti magisterii (qui dicitur Aristotelis)
Cum studii solertis indagine
-ut bene rubescat et factum est.
Expl. etc.

21. f.145 Inc. liber morieni de arabico in latinum translatus
In nomine pii et misericordissimi
-per cuncta sec. sec. Amen.
Expl. lib. morieni Romani magni philosophi de arabico etc.

22. In a later hand.
f.151b The beginning of the Methodius prophecy of which the end is on the flyleaves
De creacione celi et terre et de primo miliario breuiter ostendit.
Sciendum namque est uobis.

23. f.153 Opus Rasis philosophi
Principium huius operis est cum fuerit sol
-igni et examinacioni.
Expl. lib. de tribus verbis.

24. f.153b Written as prose.
Est lapis occultus secreta valle sepultus
-obique secundus.
Finit libellus Rasis philosophi versifice scriptus qui dicitur magnum opus. Et sunt versus 753 in numero per minus centum.

25. Cent. xv.
f.158b Visio Joh. Dastin
Cum omnium in natura sit effectus
-inhabitare recusauimus.

26. f.159b De natura signorum et vij planetarum
Medicus... velit nolit
-operandi.
This is the last of the old hand. There follow various hands, mostly bad, of cent. xv.

27. f.160b Capitulum de opere minerali ad faciendum medicinam
f.162 Herbarum conditor omnipotens rex
f.163b Receipts

28. Opus.
f.165 Elixir in hac sciencia

29. f.173b In nomine domini hic est preciosus liber magnusque sigillorum Orthoel quem fecerunt filii israel post exitum ab egipto secundum motus et cursus siderum
Si inueneris in lapide virum sedentem.
See King's Ancient Gems.
Ends: quando inuenitur in lapide equus spumans etc.
A couple of paragraphs in another hand: then a late note.
Multa que hic denciunt invenies in libro de lapidibus.

30. f.176b Conclusio solitarii de noua foresta
Recipe in nomine domini solis purissimi.

31. f.177b Alkimiste moderni temporis
The same seems to continue to f.192
-in octoginta diebus.
Expl. hoc nobilissimum opus atque verissimum.

32. f.192b Mineralia avicenne
Terra pura lapis non fit.
Ending among scribbles on f.194b.
On the last leaf are some accounts and receipts (xv).

Bibliography

Barthélemy, P., and D. Kahn, 'Les voyages d'une allégorie alchimique: de la Visio Edwardi à l'oeuvre royalle de Charles VI', in Comprendre et maitrîser la nature au moyen age: mélanges d'histoire des sciences offerts à Guy Beaujouan (1994), 481-529

Benz, M., et al., ed., Unter uns : Archäologie in Basel (Basel, 2008)

Dapsens, M. (ed.), Les Masā'il Khālid li-Maryānus al-rāhib dans leurs versions arabe et latine : éditions critiques et traductions (Firenze, 2024)

Hennessy, M. (ed),Tributes to Kathleen L. Scott: Essays on English Medieval Manuscripts (Turnhout: Harvey Miller/Brepols, 2009)

Kamber, P., 'Ein "Alchemistenlabor" aus dem 13. Jahrhundert', Mittelalter, 3 (1998), 70-78

Kamber, P., and P. Kurzmann, 'Der Gelbschmied und Alchemist(?) vom Ringelhof', Archologische Bodenforschung des Kantons Basel-Stadt (1998), 151-99

Kurzmann, P., Ein Manuskript mit Zeichnungen und Benennungen Alchemistischer Geräte aus dem 14. Jahrhundert : das Manuskript 1122, Sudhoffs Archiv, Band 89, Heft 2 (Stuttgart, 2005)p. 151-169

Mooney, L. R., The Index of Middle English Prose Handlist 11: Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 95-6

Lacaze, G., Turba Philosophorum Congrès pythagoricien sur l’art d’Hermès (Leiden, 2018)

Plessner, M., 'The Turba philosophorum: a preliminary report on three Cambridge MSS', Ambix: the Journal for the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry, 7 (1959), 159-63

Timmermann, A., 'Alchemy in Cambridge: An Annotated Catalogue of Alchemical Texts and Illustrations in Cambridge Repositories', Nuncius, 30 (2015), p. 383.

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