Details

Subjects:

Alchemy -- Early works to 1800.
Alchemy.

Form/Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)
compilation manuscripts.
anthologies.
commentaries.
Stamps (Provenance)
Manuscripts, Arabic -- 15th century.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

Arabic.

Biography/History:

Alchemist whose workshop was near the Bab al-ʻIrāq (Iraq Gate) in Herat.

Summary:

Working notes of an alchemist, who signs himself as the compiler and composer of the manuscript (f. 127v). Lacking at least one leaf at the beginning, if not more (early pagination begins at 2, f. 1r), with repairs on extant first and last leaves. Includes a commentary on an unknown text and references to the concept of balance found in the work of 8th-century alchemist Jābir ibn Ḥayyān and to Pythagoras. Many marginal notes.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Foliation: Paper, i + 173; [1-173], modern foliation in pencil, upper left recto; earlier pagination in ink, 2-347 (f. 1v-173v). References in this record are to modern foliation.
Layout: Written in 15-24 long lines.
Script: Written in nastaʻlīq script in black ink; pointed.
Decoration: Rubrications and overlining in red ink.
Binding: Rebound in reddish-brown leather without boards and a flap that covers the fore-edge, but does not extend over the textblock.
Origin: Written in Herat, now in Afghanistan in A.H. 901-904 (1496-1499) by Ibrāhīm al-Ḥusaynī (colophons, f. 7r, 23r, 37r, 38r, 47r, 127v, 173r).

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by ʻAbd al-Razzāq al-Mūsawī (stamp, f. 6v).
Sold by Sam Fogg Ltd. (London) to Lawrence J. Schoenberg, Feb. 2001.
Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2011.
Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2019.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 110-111 (LJS 403).

Cited as:

Alchemical Compilation (LJS 403). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

Contributor:

Mūsawī, ʻAbd al-Razzāq, former owner.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)
موسوي، عبد الرزاق , former owner.

OCLC:

122490957

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page