Volume 1
Catalogue of Western manuscripts on medicine and science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library / by S.A.J. Moorat.
- Wellcome Historical Medical Library
- Date:
- 1962-1973
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: Catalogue of Western manuscripts on medicine and science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library / by S.A.J. Moorat. Source: Wellcome Collection.
23/698 page 9
![to the compiler of Sotheby’s Catalogue for 6-9 June 1910, ‘This manuscript is probably from the Monastery of St. Barbara at Cologne’. Phillipps MS. No. 614. Purchased at Sotheby’s 6/6/1910, Lot 6. (26864) 13. — Semita recta. Preceded by an incomplete and unidentified al chemical work. 69 11. 8vo. 16x12 cm. [Middle 15th cent.] On vellum: original stamped leather binding over wooden boards, spine damaged. Leather portion of a brass and leather clasp wanting. Leaves wanting after ff. 17, 51, 57, 65, 67: first leaf slightly rubbed, with loss of part of the Incipit. Written in a large gothic script, 14 lines to a page: capitals, Incipits, and para graph marks in red. Fol. i (red) line 9 I7 V 18 (red) 19 69 v Incipit alberti [?] archanorum [?] archanum. / Cum sit nobilis quedam medicina elixir a phy / losophis nuncupata . . . (Text begins) Cum vniuersa uolumina phylosophie / tanquam uagabundus aberrans / perlustrassem . . . de die in diem contricio pulueris / Incipit recta semita alkymie alberti. / Omnis sapientia, est. que. a. D.O. / M.I.N.O. DEO est et cum / illo fuit semper . . . (Text begins) Cum ergo multas regiones / et plurimas prouin- cias . . . . . . tunc scias quod uersum est in solem / uel lunam, (red) Explicit. Written by another hand inside the upper cover ‘Anno 1492’. Owing to the rubbing of the text, the precise title of the first work is not legible, and the ‘Incipit’ is not given in Thorndike’s ‘Catalogue’. It describes the pro cesses for making the ‘Elixir’ and has many quotations from the ‘Turba’, Geber, Morigenes [Morienus ?] and other Arabic alchemists. For alchemical works ascribed to Albertus Magnus, including the ‘ Semita recta’, cf. Thorndike ‘History of Magic and Experimental Science’, Vol. II, pp. 569-573; Vol. Ill, p.42. Phillipps MS. No. 486, with his Library-stamp on the verso of the last leaf. Purchased at Sotheby’s (Phillipps Sale) 6/6/1910, Lot 10. (44198) 14. — Liber mineralium. Books I and II only. 2 11.+ 39 11. folio. 30x20^ cm. [c. 1475.] 18th cent, limp vellum covers. Verso of last leaf slightly rubbed, some headings and text badly faded. Written in a small neat humanistic hand, 28 lines to a page. Fol. 1 BEATI ALBERTI MAGNI GERMANICI PHILOSOPHI/ CELEBERRIMI MINERALIVM LIBER INCIPIT ET/ PRIMO DE LAPIDIBVS LIBER PRIMVS FOELICITER [D]E COMMIXTIONE et coagulatione similiter autem et conge / latione et liquefactione . . . 39 (End of Book II) ... sed quedam portio / nes de libro excepte deuenerunt. 39 v (Beginning of Book III) [TJEMPVS autem est nunc [conse quenter] de metallorum naturis inquirere post la / pidum in- uestigationem ,. . line 28 ... in communi querentes quicumque de natura metallorum uidebuntur esse inquirenda Libro complebimus. This work was first printed at Padua in 1476. On the second fly-leaf is a note in pencil ‘Alberti Magni MS. 1474’, but no date can be found in this MS. as it exists at present.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20086222_vol_1_0023.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
