Jean Saulnier (d.1430); Francesco Sebastiano Fulvo Melvolodometl; Christoph Grummett. - photo 1
Jean Saulnier (d.1430); Francesco Sebastiano Fulvo Melvolodometl; Christoph Grummett. - photo 2

Jean Saulnier (d.1430); Francesco Sebastiano Fulvo Melvolodometl; Christoph Grummett.

Lot 62
12.07.2023 00:00UTC +00:00
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£ 4 410
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 993183
Lot 62 | Jean Saulnier (d.1430); Francesco Sebastiano Fulvo Melvolodometl; Christoph Grummett.
Estimate value
£ 4 000 – 6 000
Jean Saulnier (d.1430); Francesco Sebastiano Fulvo Melvolodometl; Christoph Grummett.

Libro di Giovanni Saulnier, cioe’ Salinaro [...]; Non Plus Ultra Veritatis, and Sanguis Naturae in Italian and Latin, manuscript on paper [Italy, 18th century]

A handsome Italian compendium of rare texts describing the alchemical process of creating the Philosophers' Stone and transmuting lesser substances into gold, with early masonic provenance, and from the famous collection on witchcraft and the occult of Robert Lenkiewicz.



200 x 155mm. i + 88 + i leaves, the texts complete, the second and third texts individually paginated, c.21-25 lines written in two hands (ff.1-36v and ff.37-85), rubrics in red, two pen and ink diagrams (occasional marginal foxing). Contemporary mottled pasteboards, vellum spine and edges (a little scuffed).



Provenance:

(1) Karl Ritter von Kesaer (1781-1864), of Vienna, the present manuscript described on p.3 of the catalogue of his manuscripts, W. Berendt, Thesaurus librorum germanicorum. Catalog einer Sammlung von Manuscripten, Incunabeln und Büchern, Vienna, 1859. On his manuscripts, see U-D. Oppitz, 'Handschriften Karl Ritter von Kesaers und ihr Verbleib', Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, 125, H. 4 (1996), pp.404-410.



(2) Masonic Library of the Supreme Council 33, the first Supreme Council of Scottish Rite Freemasonry: engraved bookplate by W.P. Barrett, 1900, containing the inscriptions 'Gnothi seauton' (in Greek) and 'Deus Meumque Jus', along with all the insignia of the Scottish Rite, described as 'the most elaborate Masonic Book-Plate in existence' by W. Prescott, Masonic Bookplates, 1918, p.11.



(3) Robert Lenkiewicz (1941-2002), artist. Lenkiewicz amassed an impressive collection of some 25,000 volumes devoted to art, the occult sciences, demonolatry, magic, philosophy, especially metaphysics, alchemy, death, psychology and sexuality, preoccupations which surface in some of his paintings. His collection of books on magic and witchcraft was one of the finest in private hands: the present manuscript was sold at Sotheby's, Witchcraft and the Occult: Selected Books from the Collection of the late Robert Lenkiewicz, 20 November 2003, lot 14.



(4) Coat of arms with a rampant lion holding a sword blindstamped on f.1.



Content:

Jean Saulnier (d.1430), an Italian translation of Transmutation des métaux, beginning 'Mio figlio! Io come Padre, e come la persona, che sono sopra la terra vivendo [...]', ff.1-34, Appendix, 'Magisterio del Menstruo Vegetabile per la [Lun]a', beginning 'S'averti, che in tutto questo Magistero, non si tocchi mai le Droghe e materiale con cosa di ferro', ff.34v-36v, Francesco Sebastiano Fulvo Melvolodomet, Non plus ultra Veritatis, in Latin, beginning 'Quid amplius quaeris [...]', ff.37-59; blank ff.60; Extractus ex indagatoria disceptatione de Magisterio Hermetico, in Latin and Italian, ff.61-68; Christoph Grummett, Sanguis Naturae, Book II, beginning 'In praecedenti Libro satis declaravi [...]', ff.69-85, blanks ff.86-88.



Saulnier's Transmutation des métaux, which is addressed to the author's son, and which the author dates 7 May 1432, survives in three contemporary or near-contemporary manuscripts: Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria ms.457, XX, 2; London, Wellcome Library, MS 523; and Orléans, Médiathèque, MS 291. The text describes the preparation of the Philosophers' Stone through the different phases of the Magnum Opus of alchemical transmutation. The second text, the Non plus ultra Veritatis, or an investigation into Hermetic Science, also describes the alchemical process and its various stages. It appears to be an elegant manuscript copy of the 1702 edition printed in Graz. The final text deals with the various processes (praxes: Vitriol of Venus, Salt of Saturn, Sugar, Mercury, Mars, the Green Lion, etc.). It is the Latin version of the second book of Christoph Grummet's Das Blut der Natur, first published in German in 1677, and then in English in 1696.





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Place of origin:Italy, Europe
Auction house category:Medieval & renaissance manuscripts
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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