The James Catalogue of Western Manuscripts

O.8.24

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Shelfmark O.8.24
Manuscript Title

Compendium of alchemica and Classical works
Alternative Title

Alchemica
James Number 1399
Century 15th16th
Physical Description

22 lines to a page. Clearly written, and illustrated with neat drawings coloured.
Provenance

Part of the Gale collection, given to T.C.C. by Roger Gale in 1738. Marked C. 51. No. 182. On the flyleaf the monogram G. R. 1532. Amor meus Ihesus est.
Donor Gale, Roger (1672-1744), Antiquary
Size (cm) 18.1 x 14.6
Folio 109 ff. (James); ff. 1 + 109 + 1 + 1 (Timmermann)
Material Paper
Language Latin
Manuscript Summary A compendium of alchemica and Classical works: alchemical and other poems, many on the phoenix, and related prose commentaries; Classical texts (eg Ovid, Aristotle and excerpts from Pliny's Historia Naturalis) and letters, and late medieval and early modern works.
IIIF Manifest URL https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.8.24/manifest.json
Online Since 07/02/2014

Contents

1. A tract of which only 6 lines remain, with a drawing of a wheel.

2. f.1b Documentum cuiusdam spiritus traditum mag. Scoto de virtute Buffonis. (A drawing of a toad in margin.)
Accipe buffonem et pone in ollam
followed by verses
Sum mirus et nouus (sic) fero cum medicamine uirus
...
Arceat atque domet metrice canet ore suomet
Telos.

3. f.3b Lactantius de phenice ad lectorem
(A slip pasted over this with Ad Lectorem only. [Slip missing before March 2000])
Si rerum secreta petis hunc lege Lector.
f.4 Drawing of the marriage of Sol and Luna
A Distich on f.4b.
f.5 Lactancius de phenice
Est locus in primo etc.
headed by a drawing of the Phoenix, and interspersed with a prose comment of alchemical character, ending f.16
Finis Aegidius de Vadis.

4. f.16b Aristoteles de Pomo
Prol. Cum homo creaturarum dignissima
-sicut in libri serie continetur. finit prol.
Drawing of Aristotle seated smelling an apple.
Text f.17b. Dum clausa esset via veritatis.
Ends f.24b: sicut tu es. Finis. De Vadis.
A large drawing of Aristotle(?) in doctor's robes half-length.

5. f.25 Liber ouidii qui de mutacione sue uite siue de Vetula inscribitur
Iste sunt cause propter quas a modo nolo.
Ends f.43b. Gracia sit nobis et mete nescia uite.
Finis libri de mutacione etc.
Aegidius de Vadis.

6. f.44 De lapide philosophico ceu de phenice
En philosophancium hac in cantilena.
With eleven marginal pictures.
Ends f.48
Eius fructus uberes et predulcis. Amen.

7. f.48b Epistola cuidam philosophastro missa super philosophici lapidis enucleatione in qua quidem dicti lapidis preparatio propalatur
A line of capital letters.
Cum eum optas amice.
The answer follows entitled
f.49b Super renouacione phenicis
f.50b Adhuc de phenice
Accipe totum opus in paucis.
ff.51, 52 blank.

8. f.53 Claudianus de phenice ceu hermetis aue
With marginal notes.
Oceani summo etc.
Signed Aeg. de Vadis.

9. f.56 Plinius de phenice. Libro xo. cap. 2 o
ff.56b, 57 blank.

10. f.58 Joannis Aurelii Augurelli Chrysopoeiae liber primus
Humana experiens naturaeque aemula uirtus.
f.70 Liber II.
f.92 Liber III.
Ends f.106
Emissus cecini falsis insomnia uerbis.
Chrysop. tercii libri finis AEg. de Vadis.

11. f.107 De insitionibus arborum. Columella
Ending f.109b.

Bibliography

von Martels, Z., 'Augurello's Chrysopoeia (1515): a turning point in the literary tradition of alchemical texts', Early science and medicine 5 (2000), 178-95.

Timmermann, A., 'Alchemy in Cambridge: An Annotated Catalogue of Alchemical Texts and Illustrations in Cambridge Repositories', Nuncius, 30 (2015), p. 421

Warlick, M.E., The alchemical feminine: women, gender, and sexuality in alchemical images (Lopen, Somerset, 2025).

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