Details

Subjects:

Llull, Ramon, 1232?-1316.
Alchemy -- Early works to 1800.
Alchemy.
Aquavit.
Chemical apparatus.
Chemistry -- History.
Chemistry.
History.
Distillation -- Early works to 1800.
Distillation apparatus.
Liquors.
Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions -- Early works to 1800.
Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions.
Distillation.

Form/Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)
compilation manuscripts.
diagrams.
recipes.
Manuscripts, French -- 17th century.
Manuscripts, European.

Language:

French, with a few sections in Latin.

Summary:

Chemical and alchemical miscellany describing a great variety of preparations, recipes and operations, remedies for various ailments and diseases, etc. Concerned, e.g., with "mercure d'antimoine," remedies against cancer, the plague, diseases of the eye, venereal diseases, etc., "aqua philosophorum," "clavis artis" (dated 1579, cf. p. 375), calcination, amalgamation, etc. Many sources of information are indicated, among them a Henry vom Stram (p. 30); Wasseron (p. 32 and passim); Rudellius Scurbergenesis (i.e. Rüdel?, p. 139); Raymundus Lullus (i.e., Ramón Llull, p. 193); Hollerus (i.e. Blaise H. Holler?, p. 246); Camillus a Camillis (i.e. Hannibal C. Camillus?, p. 291); Casanone (p. 416). Most of the sources cannot be identified in standard reference works.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger (Zacour-Hirsch).
Heading and incipit of first section (p. 1): Observations tres belles et diverses experiences. Pour l'eau de vie. Recipe une draginee d'or ...
Collation: i (modern paper) + 237 + i (modern paper); 1-4⁸ 5⁶ 6-12⁸ 13⁶ 14-17⁸ 18⁶ 19-29⁸ 30⁸(+1) 31²(2 singletons); 1-470, 531-532, [547]-548; contemporary pagination in ink, upper outer corners. The last 2 leaves seem to have been added from some other manuscript. Catchwords in lower right corner, last verso of each gathering.
Script: Written in a cursive script by one hand, with a second hand beginning on p. 531 and continuing to the end.
Decoration: Ink diagrams and drawings of distillation vessels, etc., throughout.
Watermark: Contains the initials GB; also countermark.
Binding: 17th-century French[?] quarter vellum (blue paper over cardboard, with vellum spine; the vellum is from a slightly earlier manuscript). Some pages stained and split at the edges. First and last leaves slightly torn at the edges.
Origin: Written in France in the first half of the 17th century[?].
Forms part of: Edgar F. Smith Memorial Collection.

Penn Provenance:

Accompanied by an unidentified French dealer's description (on file in the Library).
Acquired, 1963.

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. 243 (Ms. E. F. Smith 41).

Cited as:

Iatro-chemical and Alchemical Compendium (Ms. Codex 123). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

OCLC:

155962608