Raymond Llull (c.1232-1316), Arnold of Villanova (c.1230-1311) and others

Los 15
09.07.2025 10:30UTC +01:00
Classic
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
VeranstaltungsortVereinigtes Königreich, London
Aufgeldsee on Website%
ID 1449878
Los 15 | Raymond Llull (c.1232-1316), Arnold of Villanova (c.1230-1311) and others
Schätzwert
£ 30 000 – 40 000
Raymond Llull (c.1232-1316), Arnold of Villanova (c.1230-1311) and others
Anthology of Alchemy, in Latin and Italian, illustrated manuscript on paper [north-eastern Italy, final third 15th century]
A remarkable and early collection of alchemical recipes based on the works of Raymond Llull, Arnold of Villanova, and other important alchemists.

215 x 155mm. ii + 85 leaves, textually complete, collation: ii + 1-210, 39(of 10, viii a cancelled blank), 4-810, 93(of 4, iv a cancelled blank), 102, modern foliation 1-85 followed here, horizontal catchwords survive, 29 lines written in a humanistic cursive bookhand, ruled space: 155 x 90mm, headings in red, initials in red or black, five pages with illustrations of scientific apparatus (ff.64v, 68, 69, 70v and 71v), notes and table of chapters added at beginning and ff.28v-30v and 83v-88 with added 17th-century alchemical notes and medical recipes (thumbing and some marginal staining, generally in very good condition). Contemporary binding of blind-tooled leather over pasteboards (a little scuffed and rubbed, lacking ties). In a fitted box.

Provenance:
(1) The author often cites his direct sources for recipes and processes: many of these suggest a localisation in north-eastern Italy, and specifically Ferrara. Frater Guliermus from Piacenza gave him one text; another he received in Cesena from Master Andreas who had learned it from brother Francesco of Milan in Venice (f.68); another he picked up in Ferrara from Mario (f.68v); a third he learned in Ferrara on 8 December from brother Francesco of Milan himself (f.71v); another he was told in Ferrara by a man who said he had tried it himself (f.72); and one came from a convicted murderer condemned to death in prison in Padua (f.75v). The author seems not to be named, but initials appear at the end of some chapters, such as F.L. (f.49) and Jo. L. (ff.25v, 26v and 27). The watermark is a simple letter 'A', which appears on paper stock used in Venice at the turn of the century.

(2) Sotheby's 1 December 1987, lot 32, for £37,400.

(3) J.R. Ritman: his Bibliotheca Philosophia Hermetica ex-libris on inside upper cover.

Content: Table of contents ff.i-i verso; added recipes f.ii; Alchemical anthology, beginning 'Fixatio lune et Tinctura' (f.1), including recipes for making tin look like silver as instructed by 'Magister Petrus', beginning 'Piglia lo stagno purificato' (f.1v); on freezing mercury; on the composition of the sun and the planets; on the use for salt of urine (f.6v); a series of alchemical quaestiones: 'Incipiunt alique questiones pulcherime Borisse solemnissimi philosophi' (ff.7v-15v); a dialogue on alchemy between master and pupil, opening 'Fili Carissime, Scias quod spiritus domini ferebatur', variously ascribed to John Damascenus, Uguictius, and Arisleus (ff.15v-17v, see Thorndike and Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin, col.559); a piece in Italian quoting Albertus Magnus (f.17v); on the philosopher's stone (f.19); a piece ascribed to Renaldus (presumably Arnold) of Villanova, beginning 'Che fermento de oro' (f.22v); a recipe 'ex tractatu Raymundi' (f.23); a text on mercury, again ascribed to Raymond Llull (f.23v); on drinking water made from blood (f.24v); 'Secretum mirabile' (f.25); 'Ad Fixandum et Tingendum Lunam' (f.31); 'Tinctura Solis optima et probata' (f.34); on alkali (f.34v); on sulphur (f.35); a recipe taken by Johannes de Turri from Johannes Dominicus Regianus (f.36v); on vegetable sulphur (f.40v); on oil of antimony (f.42v), including a recipe by Frater Luchinus (f.43v); to make salt, oil and sulphur from urine (f.46); on freezing mercury, according to Petrus de Ursinis (f.47); recipes by Master Antonio Cogo (f.48v) and Master Marini (f.50); 'Lapis Rubeus incombustibilis [...] convertit ipsum in aureum bonum, Opus magistri Johannis de Argentina' (f.52); texts ascribed to frater Donatus Jadrensis (f.55v) and Antonio Pelegrin (f.59), 'Opus perfectum de Menstruali, iuxta doctrinam Magistri Raymondi Lulii' (f.63v); recipes ascribed to Jacobus de Monte Pesulano (f.65), Gulielmus de Placentia (f.67v), Master Andreas (f.68), Franciscus de Codegorio (f.68v, on making Aqua Vitae), Francesco of Milan (f.71v), Guidonus Francigena (f.72, on dissolving and distilling gold), Master Andreas de Cesena (f.73), etc.; Arnold of Villanova's treatise on the philosopher's stone, beginning: 'Intellige ergo dictum philosophi [...]' (Thorndike and Kibre, col.755); ending with a treatise on lead (f.82v) and on extracting gold (f.83).
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