Details

Subjects:

Alchemy -- Early works to 1800.
Alchemy.
Chemistry -- History.
Chemistry.
History.
Medicine, Magic, mystic, and spagiric -- Early works to 1800.
Medicine, Magic, mystic, and spagiric.
Medicine, Medieval.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Anthologies.
Drawings (visual works)
Recipes.
Treatises.
Manuscripts, Latin.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

Latin.

Summary:

Collection of scientific, alchemical, and medical works. Some are by famous individuals such as Geber, Albertus Magnus, and Johannes de Rupescissa, but most are unattributed. Partial table of contents in a later hand pasted inside upper cover. Many marginal notes, symbols, corrections and comments in various later cursive hands, including a reference to the date 1431 (f. 16r).

Contents:

1. f.1r-1v: Aqua philosophica atque occulta (Thorndike-Kibre 1539)
2. f.2r-10r: Liber investigationum Gebri philosophii / [Geber] (Thorndike-Kibre 776)
3. f.10r-14r: [Rosa novella] / Arnoldus de Nova Villa [Arnaldus de Villanova] (Thorndike-Kibre 442)
4. f.14v-22v: Vasa chemica (Thorndike-Kibre 1103)
5. f.23r-34r: Liber investigationum Gebri de medicine proprietatibus sive investigationum perfecti magisterii / [Geber] (Thorndike-Kibre 252)
6. f.34r-44r: Practica magni philosophi (Thorndike-Kibre 557)
7. f.44r-47r: Opus universale (Thorndike-Kibre 710)
8. f.47r-64r: Philosophus perpulcer et nobilis quo ad veram viam universalem (Thorndike-Kibre 965)
9. f.64r-75v: Tractatus concordiarum philosophorum de lapide philosophico / M. Anthonii (Thorndike-Kibre 1040)
10. f.75v-80r: Liber lucis / Raimundi de Insula [Johannes de Rupescissa] (Thorndike-Kibre 902)
11. f.80r-93v: Universale quomodo corpora in primam materiam reducantur (Thorndike-Kibre 1158)
12. f.93v-102v: Synonima corporum spirituum et salium cum signis (Thorndike-Kibre 1515)
13. f.102v-107v: Tractatus utilis de materia et generatione metallorum [De mineralibus 3.2, 3.5] / Alberti [Albertus Magnus]
14. f.107v-108r: [Passage concerning the four elements]
15. f.108r-108v: Ad rubeum (Thorndike-Kibre 1334?)
16. f.109r-116v: Tractatus perpulcer de generatione et corruptione metallorum collectus (Thorndike-Kibre 1661)
17. f.116v-119r: De putrefactione (Thorndike-Kibre 1665)
18. f.119v-120v: Dialogus in miseros et stolidos alchymistas (Thorndike-Kibre 1522)
19. f.120v-122v: [Additional notes and recipes in another hand]

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger; title written in Latin on upper cover is too abraded to be read easily.
Collation: Paper, i + 123 + i; 1¹², 2-7¹⁰, 8¹⁰(+1), 9-12¹⁰; 1-75, [i], 76-122; contemporary foliation in ink, upper right recto. Gatherings signed a-i, k-m, lower right recto of leaves in first half of each gathering.
Layout: Written in 26-29 long lines; ruled in lead.
Script: Written in a Gothic cursive script in a single hand, with a second, slightly later hand beginning on f. 120v.
Decoration: Diagram of alchemical devices (f. 22v); sketches in ink of crowns (f. 9v, 23r); 4-line and 5-line puzzle initials in red and green (f. 2r, 47r), alternating green or red initials and paragraph marks throughout; red underlining throughout; various chemical and alchemical symbols used in the text and marginalia.
Watermark: Piccard XIII. iii. 1638 (ca. 1483); also, cf. Piccard IV. xii. 252 and 253 (ca. 1487 and 1488).
Binding: Contemporary boards with remains of bronze clasp; rebacked with 19th-century morocco; spine is worn, particularly at the hinges. Title (abraded) written on upper cover. The second and last quires and the front endleaf are pulling loose. A few leaves are torn.
Origin: Written in Germany, in the third quarter of the 15th century (Zacour-Hirsch).

Penn Provenance:

Possibly formerly owned by Richard Heber (inscription referring to Heber's sale, f. [i] recto).
Formerly owned by Georg Franz Burkhard Kloss (Frankfurt am Main); sold at auction at Sotheby's to Rodd, 7 May 1835, lot 4567.
Formerly owned by George T. Strong (signature, dated 1839, f. [i] recto); sold at auction at Bangs & Co., 4 Nov. 1878, lot 1061.
Formerly owned by Henry Charles Lea (signature, dated 1878, f. [i] recto; bookplate inside lower cover).
Passed to the University of Pennsylvania with the Lea Library.

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 150-152 (Ms. Lea 19).
Listed in De Ricci, Seymour. Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, v. 2, p. 2106, no. 1.
Most items in this manuscript have incipits listed in Thorndike, Lynn and Kibre, Pearl. A Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin. Rev. and augm. ed. (London: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1963).
Wilson, W. J. "Catalogue of Latin and Vernacular Alchemical Manuscripts in the United States and Canada." Osiris VI (1939), pp. 617-630 (Ms 73).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 69

Contributor:

Llull, Ramon, 1232?-1316, attributed name.
Heber, Richard, 1773-1833, former owner.
Kloss, Georg Franz Burkhard, 1787-1854, former owner.
Strong, George Templeton, 1820-1875, former owner.
Lea, Henry Charles, 1825-1909, former owner.

Contains:

Johannes, de Rupescissa, approximately 1300-approximately 1365. Liber lucis.
Albertus, Magnus, Saint, 1193?-1280. De mineralibus. Selections.
Arnaldus, de Villanova, -1311.
Geber, active 13th century.

OCLC:

155962956