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Harley MS 5399

Record Id:

040-002051245

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002051245

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x000398

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 5399

Title:

Collection of alchemical treatises

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 2r-11v: Pseudo-Ramon Llull [here attributed], De primo practicali principio libri vade mecum.

f. 12: An excerpt from the ‘Liber argentine’; attributed to an anonymous doctor; below the name ‘Wissenkercke’ has been added.

ff. 13v-31r: Pseudo-Ramon Llull [here attributed], Liber de lapide philosophorum.

ff. 31r-44v: Pseudo-Ramon Llull [here attributed], Anima artis transmutatoriae metallorum siue Compendium animae transmutationis metallorum.

ff. 44v-45v: Pseudo-Ramon Llull [here attributed], Practica rarbois physicalis.

ff. 46r-80r: Pseudo-Arnaldus de Villa Nova [here attributed], Aquae vitae.

ff. 73r-80v: Pseudo-Ramon Llull [here attributed], Aqua vitae.

ff. 81r-82r: Excerpts from alchemical works (‘De rosa aurea’ and ‘De libro calid’).

ff. 83r-94v: Arnaldus de Villa Nova, De vinis.

ff. 95r-105v: Anonymous, De auro potabili.

ff. 106r-160r: John of Rupescissa, Liber de consideratione quintae essentiae omnium rerum.

ff. 160v-165v: Alexius Affricus, Tractatus de septem herbis septem planetis attributis.

ff. 166r-170r: Anonymous, Liber duodecim aquarum.

ff. 170r-188v: Anonymous, De oleis.

ff. 189r-195r: Anonymous, De sole resoluto.

The manuscript contains several additions:

f. 1r: A table of contents, added in the 17th century.

f. 12r: A note on ‘Wissenkercke’: ‘Qui Amator fuit philosophiae / sed inconstantis fantaziae’, written in the 16th century.

ff. 196r-204v: A collection of remedies and recipes, written in the 16th century.

f. 205r: An English poem, beginning ‘Somme in hope declined be / Somme have that they desire / Somme through their happye desires / Have that they nott requyre’; written in the 16th century.

ff. 205v-213v: A collection of remedies and recipes [one dated to 1584], written in the 16th century.

f. 214v: Notes about herbal medicines, written in the 16th century.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002051245", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5399: Collection of alchemical treatises" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002051245

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 5399 : Collection of alchemical treatises

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[5401]/040-002051245

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1300

End Date:

1399

Date Range:

14th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 205 x 150 mm.

Foliation: ff. 214 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 5 at the end); 1 unfoliated paper stub between f. 117 and f. 118; the quires have been mounted onto paper guards.

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: British Museum in-house: re-bound on 14 September 1967. The previous binding (gold-tooled and blind-stamped brown leather) has been pasted on the insides of the covers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts.

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), p. 265.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Lull, Ramón, philosopher, logician, Franciscan tertiary and Majorcan writer, c 1232-c 1315