Details
EVELYN, John (1620 - 1706). Autograph manuscript, a copy of a work entitled 'Coelum Sanitatis. Or A Particular of the Vegetable and Animal Dissolvant', circa 1660, an extended account of the chemical production and curative properties of a quintessential remedy or 'coelum', apparently taken from an English version of a work originally circulated in French, 50 pages, 135 x 80 mm, written in brown ink on recto only, inscribed with Evelyn's pseudo-chemical symbol above the title, a note added in his later hand on page facing start of text, inner margins ruled in pencil, blank leaves. Original sheep, Evelyn's symbol inscribed in ink on upper cover, 19th century label. Provenance. Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Lord Houghton (wheatsheaf gilt stamp); Robert Marquess of Crewe (bookplate).
The manuscript probably dates from the 1650s or early 1660s, the period of Evelyn's greatest interest in chemistry. He had studied the subject systematically in Paris under Annibal Barlet and Nicolas Le Fèvre, and was also a collector of medical recipes. The handwriting also supports this date, and he probably copied the account in England, while recalling seeing a similar text in France. It is characteristic of manuscripts on chemistry which were in circulation at this time, and which because of their number were not printed.
The manuscript takes the form of the narrator's account of a visit to 'an ancient and faithfull Friend ... [who] began to unfold unto me some few things in the Art of Chymistrie'. By way of an introduction he gives a romantic description of his arrival at the sage's dwelling, 'a little villa of his not far from the City', whence he by 'a Dore which lead into a Garden' and by a walk 'so beset on both sides with Cases of Oranges, Limons, Lentiscus, Myrtiles and other green shrubbs, frequently adorn'd with statues & vases of antique forme, Urnes and Inscriptions as what with the melancholy sollemnesse of the shady Trees and cavernous Grotts on the one side, the murmuring of the Water, redolency and beauty of the Flowers and the other, I was at length so charm'd with the pleasure and admirable mixture of Art and Nature ... that I had almost forgotten the designe of my visite'. Eventually discovering the sage 'pouring of a certaine Liquor red as a Rubie into a long neck'd glasse', he is led to the laboratory where the sage unfolds the mysteries of his elixir, for which the most extravagant claims are made of its properties, 'there being 'hardly a maladie in Nature for which it is not a most speedy and safe Remedy'.
Evelyn however (who would have understood all the chemistry in the text) was clearly unimpressed by this particular 'secret' and its elaborate exposition, even though he took the trouble to copy it out. The note which he added to the beginning in a later hand reads 'A copy of this in French which I have seene, has not a Word of this romantic Preface, who ever he was who wrot it, & translated the rest ill enough', and at the end he comments even more dismissively, 'This is all our Philosopher's Boast, but a well rectified spirit of wine'.
The small pseudo-chemical symbol which Evelyn added to the head of the title and on the upper cover, is characteristic of those he used to identify other manuscript items in his collections, but does not appear to match with any in his surviving lists or library catalogues (now in the British Library). Its precise meaning is therefore unknown. As the manuscript is not listed in his catalogues, he may have regarded it as part of his commonplace collection, although too long to be copied into a commonplace book. It was described by Geoffrey Keynes as one of the few manuscripts in Evelyn's hand which had 'somehow leaked out' from Evelyn's Collection into the hands of collectors, and was in Lord Crewe's library (G.Keynes. John Evelyn. A study in Bibliography, 1968, page 20).
We would like to thank Dr Frances Harris of the Manuscripts Department of the British Library for her help in the preparation of the description of this lot.
The manuscript probably dates from the 1650s or early 1660s, the period of Evelyn's greatest interest in chemistry. He had studied the subject systematically in Paris under Annibal Barlet and Nicolas Le Fèvre, and was also a collector of medical recipes. The handwriting also supports this date, and he probably copied the account in England, while recalling seeing a similar text in France. It is characteristic of manuscripts on chemistry which were in circulation at this time, and which because of their number were not printed.
The manuscript takes the form of the narrator's account of a visit to 'an ancient and faithfull Friend ... [who] began to unfold unto me some few things in the Art of Chymistrie'. By way of an introduction he gives a romantic description of his arrival at the sage's dwelling, 'a little villa of his not far from the City', whence he by 'a Dore which lead into a Garden' and by a walk 'so beset on both sides with Cases of Oranges, Limons, Lentiscus, Myrtiles and other green shrubbs, frequently adorn'd with statues & vases of antique forme, Urnes and Inscriptions as what with the melancholy sollemnesse of the shady Trees and cavernous Grotts on the one side, the murmuring of the Water, redolency and beauty of the Flowers and the other, I was at length so charm'd with the pleasure and admirable mixture of Art and Nature ... that I had almost forgotten the designe of my visite'. Eventually discovering the sage 'pouring of a certaine Liquor red as a Rubie into a long neck'd glasse', he is led to the laboratory where the sage unfolds the mysteries of his elixir, for which the most extravagant claims are made of its properties, 'there being 'hardly a maladie in Nature for which it is not a most speedy and safe Remedy'.
Evelyn however (who would have understood all the chemistry in the text) was clearly unimpressed by this particular 'secret' and its elaborate exposition, even though he took the trouble to copy it out. The note which he added to the beginning in a later hand reads 'A copy of this in French which I have seene, has not a Word of this romantic Preface, who ever he was who wrot it, & translated the rest ill enough', and at the end he comments even more dismissively, 'This is all our Philosopher's Boast, but a well rectified spirit of wine'.
The small pseudo-chemical symbol which Evelyn added to the head of the title and on the upper cover, is characteristic of those he used to identify other manuscript items in his collections, but does not appear to match with any in his surviving lists or library catalogues (now in the British Library). Its precise meaning is therefore unknown. As the manuscript is not listed in his catalogues, he may have regarded it as part of his commonplace collection, although too long to be copied into a commonplace book. It was described by Geoffrey Keynes as one of the few manuscripts in Evelyn's hand which had 'somehow leaked out' from Evelyn's Collection into the hands of collectors, and was in Lord Crewe's library (G.Keynes. John Evelyn. A study in Bibliography, 1968, page 20).
We would like to thank Dr Frances Harris of the Manuscripts Department of the British Library for her help in the preparation of the description of this lot.