Details
ALCHEMICAL MISCELLANY, MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER IN LATIN AND GERMAN, dated and signed at end by Johannes Kempach, 1531.
Small 4to (200 x 165 mm.). 254 leaves, written by two scribes in a German gothic cursive hand, on at least three different paperstocks including one watermarked with crown, type of Piccard vol. I Abt. 2 nos. 41 and 42 [Southern Germany, oberrheinisch]. (Minor worming in first two leaves, occasional stain in lower margin, generally in fine condition.) Modern vellum binding
AN UNUSUAL COLLECTION OF MAINLY ANONYMOUS ALCHEMICAL RECIPES AND TREATISES. The first portion, mostly in German, contains mostly simple recipes: Schaidwasser damit man Goldt abwascht (f.4v), Regulae Alchemistica (f.6v), Perlen zu machen (f.31v), etc.; while the second portion contains more theoretical works, partly in German, but mostly in Latin: Secretum artis alchimye (f.48v), Prepositiones per se note et principia in arte alchimia verissima, etc., mostly attributed to Raymund Lull explicit lapidaria Raymundi magici (f.75); others are Questiones Arnoldi [Villanova] (f.86), Recepta Hermetis de transmutatione Saturni in solem perfectissimum (f.91), Augmentum Perpetuum by Petrus Joannes Kochberger (unidentified, f.103), others by Hans Ertzknapp (f.112) and Magister Petrus Pragensis (f.130) both unidentified; followed by Testamentum Geber Philosophi de Lapide philosophorum (f.144). Also an unusual alchemical vocabulary Vocabularius compostelle fratris Beneventure de Yseo ordinis minorum super Alchimia, dated at end 1531 (ff.197-215), which was extracted from the rare 14th-century text Compostella by Bonaventura de Iseo of Brescia [see Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Science vol. III pp. 45-46]; followed by Liber de Aquis (ff. 216-end)
Particularly interesting as having treatises by otherwise unknown medieval alchemists
Small 4to (200 x 165 mm.). 254 leaves, written by two scribes in a German gothic cursive hand, on at least three different paperstocks including one watermarked with crown, type of Piccard vol. I Abt. 2 nos. 41 and 42 [Southern Germany, oberrheinisch]. (Minor worming in first two leaves, occasional stain in lower margin, generally in fine condition.) Modern vellum binding
AN UNUSUAL COLLECTION OF MAINLY ANONYMOUS ALCHEMICAL RECIPES AND TREATISES. The first portion, mostly in German, contains mostly simple recipes: Schaidwasser damit man Goldt abwascht (f.4v), Regulae Alchemistica (f.6v), Perlen zu machen (f.31v), etc.; while the second portion contains more theoretical works, partly in German, but mostly in Latin: Secretum artis alchimye (f.48v), Prepositiones per se note et principia in arte alchimia verissima, etc., mostly attributed to Raymund Lull explicit lapidaria Raymundi magici (f.75); others are Questiones Arnoldi [Villanova] (f.86), Recepta Hermetis de transmutatione Saturni in solem perfectissimum (f.91), Augmentum Perpetuum by Petrus Joannes Kochberger (unidentified, f.103), others by Hans Ertzknapp (f.112) and Magister Petrus Pragensis (f.130) both unidentified; followed by Testamentum Geber Philosophi de Lapide philosophorum (f.144). Also an unusual alchemical vocabulary Vocabularius compostelle fratris Beneventure de Yseo ordinis minorum super Alchimia, dated at end 1531 (ff.197-215), which was extracted from the rare 14th-century text Compostella by Bonaventura de Iseo of Brescia [see Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Science vol. III pp. 45-46]; followed by Liber de Aquis (ff. 216-end)
Particularly interesting as having treatises by otherwise unknown medieval alchemists