Alchemical writings

Lehigh University, Special Collections, Lehigh Codex 10. Naples, Italy, Second half 15th century. This late fifteenth-century manuscript, written on paper, contains a compilation of alchemical texts assembled and copied by Arnold of Brussels. For the most part, it was made in Naples between 1472 and 1490, as often noted at the end of works (for example, fols. 149r, 182v, 196v). A group of works in the middle of the volume appear to be in a different, possibly German, hand (fols. 79-101). As well as lists of philosophers, recipes, and key alchemical terms, it contains a number of texts and treatises of historical importance. These include the pseudo-Albertus Magnus's Semita Recta (The Straight Path, fols. 17v-18r) and Hermes Trismegistus's Obra de la Alkimia (The Work of Alchemy, ff. 30v-32v), as well as multiple works or excerpts of works by Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (known as Geber), Ramon Llull, Arnold of Villanova, and Pliny the Elder among others. For more information, see Hirsh (1970). The text is simply adorned with colored initials and paraph markers, but has been further embellished by later readers with simple line-fillers, a large number of manicules, and – perhaps most interestingly – sketches of alchemical apparatus (fols. 19v-20r). Later hands have made annotations and additions to the text throughout. There are multiple conflicting systems of foliation, and the quires appear to have been reordered at least once before being bound in their current order. Some of the leaves are damaged and many have had their margins repaired. Others are almost completely detached from the text block (for example, fol. 94).