Alchemical, medical and technical compilation: manuscript, 15th-16th centuries
Contributor
Aristotle Pseudo-Pliny Johannes, de Rupescissa, approximately 1300-approximately 1365 Morienus, Romanus Bacon, Roger, 1214?-1294 John XXI, Pope, -1277 Hastings family, former owner
Ms. codex; title from printed catalogue. Collection of alchemical, medical and technical works, consisting of parts of several manuscripts of separate origin but by now impossible to distinguish precisely one from the other, brought together in the late fifteenth century. Paper, ii (modern paper) + 148 leaves + ii (modern paper); collation cannot be determined, as all leaves are mounted on stubs. Contemporary foliation by the second copyist. 20-38 long lines; 2 columns on ff. 40, 48v, 50. Possibly frame ruled in lead, but difficult to see; ff. 63-67 and 128-140, fully ruled in lead; apparent slash prick marks visible in the upper and lower margins of these leaves. Written in England during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by 13 people, usually in current anglicana scripts with some secretary forms (unless otherwise stated); the second copyist was also responsible for the contemporary foliation and for the numbering of some of the recipes. The divisions are: i, ff. 1-8v, s. XVmed; ii, ff. 9-19, 21r-v, 36-38v, parts of 39-56 (with copyist vii), 62v, 66v-71v, 72v-82v, 125v-127, 129v-140v, in a large and clumsy mixed hand, s. XVmed/ex; iii, ff. 19v-20v, s. XVmed; iv, ff. 22-29v, anglicana, s. XVin; v, ff. 30-31v, 34-35v, s. XVex; vi, ff. 32-33v (marginalia by copyist ii), s. XVmed; vii, parts of ff. 39-56 (with copyist ii), 62v; viii, ff. 57, 140v bottom, (an italic note on f. 148?), secretary script, s. XVIex; ix, ff. 63-66v, secretary script, s. XVmed; x, f. 72; xi, ff. 83-90, 90v bottom - 125, 141-148; xii, f. 90 top (possibly the same as xi); xiii, ff. 128-129, secretary script with textura for the rubrics, s. XVmed.
Alchemy--Early works to 1800 Medicine--Early works to 1800 Manuscripts England 15th century. (aat) Manuscripts England 16th century. (aat)
Source
History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Provenance
Among the pen trials on f. 125v what may be a copyist’s or an owner’s name, “[w]ell beloved rotgers.” On f. 1, ca. 1600, “Jo. Bisshop,” the same person who signed another alchemical and medical compilation formed of several manuscripts and formerly in the Hastings collection. Belonged to the Hastings family, earls of Huntingdon. Purchased with the Hastings papers in January 1927 from Maggs, who had acquired the material from Edith Maud Abney-Hastings, Countess of Loudoun.
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