Harley MS 79, ff 27r-46r

Albertus Magnus, De mineralibus et lapidibus, imperfect. This treatise by Albertus Magnus (1206-1280), scientist, philosopher, and theologian, relates to the nature of minerals and metals, and was probably composed in various stages between 1248 and 1262. According to Wyckoff (Albertus Magnus, Book of Minerals, ed. and transl. by D. Wyckoff (Oxford, 1967), pp. xxxv-xli) Albertus' work is not mentioned in Vincent de Beauvais' Speculum naturale, which is datable to c. 1245-1246, and therefore was composed later.

Content:

Rubric: 'Incipit liber primus mineralium qui est de lapidibus / tractatus primus est de lapidibus in communi', incipit: 'De commixtione et coagulacione similiter / autem et congelatione et liquifaccione', explicit: 'exectis enim / omnia quaecumque hic non nominata sunt de facili po/terunt cognosci. explicit liber minera/lium quintus'.

The work is divided into 5 books, each subdivided into two treatises. Lacks portions of Book I (treatise i, chapter ix - treatise ii, chapter v, first lines, corresponding to two missing leaves after f. 29r) and Book ii (treatise ii, chapter xi - treatise iii, chapter vi, corresponding to four missing leaves after f. 34).

Includes marginal notes and notabilia (14th- and 15th-century). Corrections over erasures (ff. 30, 37) and occasional marginal notes supplied in black ink by a 15th-century English reader.

First printed in Padua by Petrus Maufer de Maliferis in 1476: see Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke [http://www.gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de] 686, Fredrick R. Goff, Incunabula in American Libraries: A Third Census of Fifteenth-Century Books Recorded in North American Collections (New York: The Bibliographical Society of America, 1964), A279, ia00279000. For the text see A.G. Little, Initia operum latinorum quae saeculis XIII, XIV, XV attribuuntur (Manchester, 1904), 65; L. Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Science, 3 vols (New York, 1923), II, p. 524, n. 3; L. Thorndike and P. Kibre, Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin, rev. edn, The Mediaeval Academy of America Publication, 29( London, 1963; with supplements in 1965 and 1968), p. 368m; its electronic version on CD-ROM (Ann Arbor, MI, 2000), no. 368M; for a modern edition of the text see A. Borgnet, Alberti Magni opera Omnia (1890), V, pp. 1-103.

Other copies are Additional MS 16584, ff. 4r-27v, and Additional MS 34900, ff. 83r-170v, Harley MS 57, Royal MS 13 A. v, ff. 190r-223v (imperfect); a short extract is included in Sloane MS 976, ff. 32v-33v.

In the present manuscript the treatise is followed (f. 46r) by additional excerpts from other works by Albertus Magnus:

• title: 'Capitulum .4. de differentia spiritus et anime et animati corporis', incipit: 'Differentie autem anime et spiritus et corporis animati manifes/te sunt et multe', explicit: 'Hec igitur de differentiis eorum dicta sunt.' (see Singer, no. 562);
• Albertus Magnus, De meteoris, Book III, excerpt, title: 'Experimentum de aqua ardente quod pate frater Albertus mencio / libro methaurorum', incipit: 'Accipias spuma', explicit: 'adhus/tionem corpori super que cadit inflammata' (see Singer, no. 1001);
• Albertus Magnus, De meteoris, Book IV, excerpt, title: 'De mollificatione calibis secundum fratrem Albertum in quarto me/thaurorum', incipit. 'Cavetur calibs', explicit: 'lance aliarum suarum' (see Singer, no. 1001).

Decoration:

Initials (2-4 lines) alternately blue or red with simple penflourishing decoration in contrasting red or blue. Small guide-letters to initials throughout. Headings and paragraph marks in red. Book numbers '.1.' - '.5.' in light brown ink in upper right-hand corner of rectos added by a contemporary hand.