Harley MS 6453

Contents:

ff. 1v-21r: Bernard Trevisan, Liber de Alchemiae, here entitled ‘The worke [Alchymie]of the Lord Barnard Erle of the Marchis of Trevisan’.

ff. 21r-25r: George Ripley, The Mystery of Alchymysts, here entitled ‘The worke of an unknowen Author, havinge no name to yt but Jesus’.

ff. 25r-29v: 'The worke of another namles author by way of a Dialogue'; beginning ‘Sir I pray you of pacience that I might Appose you of questions for to have full knowledge’.

ff. 29v-30r: 'A fragment out of som other'; beginning ‘Tyll the time that al be fixt’.

ff. 30v-39v: William Bloomfield, Bloomfield's Blossoms or The Campe of Philosophy, beginning ‘when Phebus was entred the signe of Ramme’.

f. 39v: The best ferment of Raymond, beginning ‘Take fine gould as much as you will and reche yt with quicksilver in a crucyble’.

ff. 40r-41r: Ripley his acortacion, beginning ‘Take of pure gould the waight of an owld Edward noble and rech yt with 4 ownces of good mercurie clensed’; signed ‘Your poore chaplayne Sir George Ripley Canon of Bridlington’; most likely based on the Accurtations of Raymond.

ff. 41r-42r: A short untitled alchemical tract for making the philosopher’s stone, beginning ‘Take mercury oute sublimed and grynd yt to powder uppon a marbell stone’.

f. 42v: A drawing of a tree, growing from an alchemical flask, with branches marked with alchemical symbols for the planetary metals; with notes around the drawing, including the reference ‘this tree should have byn painted in folio 4’ [possibly a reference to the empty page on f. 44v; however, the drawing may also suit f. 36v which includes the following note: ‘Heere the philosophical tree was paynted in the fyrst coppie’].

ff. 43r-56v: Rosarium philosophorum sive pretiosissimum donum Dei, beginning ‘I have had the scyence of this arte only of the Inspiration of God’; featuring 12 chapters and 11 drawings of alchemical flasks.

ff. 57r-62r: A dialogue in verse, entitled ‘Merinus et Merlynus: pater et filius’, beginning ‘As the chyld satt uppon his fathers knee / blesse me father he sayd for charitie’.

f. 62v: A list of 21 alchemical terms entitled ‘The 21 notes afore expressed’.

ff. 63r-69r: Roger Bacon, Speculum Alchemiae, here entitled ‘Here beginnythe a compendiouse abstract of Alkymy drawne out of laten by a true ground on what wise ye shall worke without Error to ye true conclusion of a perfect Elyxyr bothe for ye whyte & for the redd’; ending with a short poem, beginning ‘Lawde and love being to that Lord Eternall’.

ff. 69r-70v: A dialoge betwixt the scoler and the master; beginning ‘The Scoler: whearof are the Mettalls gendred / The Master : In mediatly of quicksylver and Sulphure’.

ff. 71r-81r: A collection of recipes, beginning with a recipe for perfume on f. 71r (‘To make a good perfume’); followed by recipes related to food and drink on ff. 72r-79v (beginning ‘How to preserve damsonnes or anie other stone ffrute’); medicinal recipes on ff 80r-80v (entitled ‘for the eys’); and ending with a recipe ‘[t]o melt any mynerall’.

ff. 81v-84r: A Fragment of Tolletanus hys Rosary; beginning ‘There is a hydden Stone in a sacret well buryed rysinge from cleere Rockes with brasyn waters’.

The manuscript contains a later addition:

ff. 1*recto-1*verso, 85r-85v: Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, written in the 13th century.

f. 1r: ‘Reece Thomas ap John taked his two oxe with me the xijth of may by the weeke accordinge to xij^d a beaste / The ffelowe of Lan[g]eney John Richard Prosser taked theyr 5 beastes the xxij^th of may at the same rate by the weeke / Morgan Griffith tacked his 4 oxen the 22^th of June at iiij^s per weeke’, added in the 16th century.

f. 71v: A short list of payments (‘bought’), added in the 16th century.

f. 79v: A recipe for ‘sorre eies’, added in the 17th century.

f. 79v: A note, ‘Howell Thomas hath my whyte box 1^o Augusti 1631’.