English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century

The notebook of an unidentified English alchemist, containing practical instructions for making the elixir of life, 'aurum potabile', and other alchemical recipes, notes on alchemical theory, and extracts from alchemical and astrological authorities. With notes in a later hand on Ramon Lull and Paracelsus. There seem to have been two contributors to the notebook, the earlier one using various scripts from secretary to italic (ff. 1-25r., 50-68), the later a consistent mid 17th century italic. Comprises:

MS.7095/1: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. 'The begynninge of our stone is water impalpable...' (Cf. D.W. Singer, Catalogue of Latin and vernacular alchemical manuscripts in Great Britain and Ireland, vol. ii (Brussels, 1930), no. 754];

MS.7095/2: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. 'Opus Allemani Romae coram Patriarcha et coram Petro de Nozeto secretario Papae Nicholai' [? Pope Nicholas V, 1447-1455], an eye-witness account of an alchemical experiment at the Vatican;

MS.7095/3: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. Notabilia excerpta de libro Guidonis summi philosophi de Montaynor in partisus Graeciae' (continued from f. 5r.) [Guido de Montanor (fl. c.1400). Cf. Singer, Op. cit., vol. i (Brussels, 1928), no. 296];

MS.7095/4: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. Alchemical recipes in Latin;

MS.7095/5: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. 'Notabilia excerpta de libro Guidonis...' (continued on f. 2r.)

MS.7095/6: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. Notes on alchemical theory, in Latin and English;

MS.7095/7: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. Recipe 'contra sciaticum';

MS.7095/8: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. 'A trew grounde of practisinge to make the perfect elixar', practical instructions for the alchemist, addressed by a father in alchemy to his son;

MS.7095/9: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. Copy of a letter by John Sawtre on alchemy, in English and Latin;

MS.7095/10: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. 'Explicit hoc opus philosophicum in enigmata loquendo et sequitur expositio’;

MS.7095/11: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. Blank;

MS.7095/12: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. [In the later hand] 'Ramundus Lullius de materia lapidis' [Ramon Lull, (c. 1235-1315). Cf. Singer, op. cit., vol. i, no. 253 xi];

MS.7095/13: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. 'Tis sd mugwort Artemisia defends him that carryeth it about him from witchcraft...', notes in the same hand on superstitions and the devil, in English and Latin, with a quotation from Arnoldus de Villanova (1240?-1311);

MS.7095/14: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century;

MS.7095/15: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. 'This Arnoldus if wee may believe tradition & himselfe afterwardes came to converse with the mystery & to bee possessd of the Great Secret, the Elixir philosophorum';

MS.7095/16: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. 'De Paracelsi philosophia occulta', a critical discourse in the same hand on De occulta philosophia by Paracelsus (1493-1541), in English. [Cf. K. Sudhoff, Bibliographia Paracelsica, vol. i (Berlin, 1894), no. 125].

MS.7095/17: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. 'Hee pretends to conclude with attributinge the highest virtue to Faith which if hee did hee would not use such mungrell medicines'.

MS.7095/18: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. 'Aureoli Philippi Theophrasti Paracelsi medicina coelestis, sive de signis zodiaci et mysteriis eorum', a critical commentary in the same hand on Paracelsus' De signis zodiaci, in English.

MS.7095/19: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. Blank.

MS.7095/20: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. 'Ex Paracelso,' Latin notes in the same hand on Paracelsian philosophy and medicine (incomplete).

MS.7095/21: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. Alchemical recipe in English (incomplete).

MS.7095/22: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. Latin notes on an unidentified astronomical treatise, arranged by chapters numbered 2 to 7 (acephalous).

MS.7095/23: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. 'Abbreviatio libri tertii Johannis Magiri in phisiologia', Latin notes on the first ten chapters of book three of Physiologiae peripateticae libri sex by Johannes Magirus (d. 1597), 'de elementorum'.

MS.7095/24: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. Alchemical recipes in Latin and English, one attributed to (?)John Maron.

MS.7095/25: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. Latin notes on the first two chapters of book four of Magirus' Physiologiae peripateticae, 'de meteororum'.

MS.7095/26: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. Alchemical recipes in Latin, one ascribed to (?)Antonius Leidekerus of Frankfurt.

MS.7095/27: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. 'The characters of the 7 planets', table of planetary symbols.

MS.7095/28: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. Further alchemical recipes and notes in Latin.

MS.7095/29: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. Sequuntur regulae philosophicae a me editae in quibus tota nostra scientia continetur', a list of rules, with glosses, lettered A to G.

MS.7095/30: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. 'Si fixum solvas faciesque volare solutum et volurem voluas, haec tria sunt vere tuta'.

MS.7095/31: English Alchemical Notebook, early 17th century. Three alchemical 'principia'.

early 17th century

68 ff. (original foliation/pagination 1-50, 29-64) 1 vol., 110 × 90 mm., some leaves removed between ff. 49 and 50. Contemporary black calf binding, rebacked, with blind-stamped covers. Lined with fragments of an early printed Latin lexicon. Unidentified engraved armorial bookplate, inscribed 'Ham Court', and initialled (?)J.A.S.

Purchased at Sotheby's sale, 19 July 1994, lot 1.

The manuscript was catalogued by W.J. Wilson, in 'Catalogue of Latin and vernacular manuscripts in the United States and Canada', Osiris, vol. vi (1939), pp. 395-403, when it was the property of Captain R.B. Haselden in the Henry Huntingdon Library, San Marino, California.

Described in typescript supplements, by Christopher Hilton and Richard Aspin, to the Library's published finding aids.