[Italian alchemical miscellany]

University of Pennsylvania digitized manuscript

43 leaves : paper, illustrations ; 213 x 155 (194 x 134) mm bound to 222 x 150 mm; Binding: 17th-century Italian pasteboards. Paper frayed at the edges. Some evidence of worm and rodent damage. Lower outer edge of upper cover and many front folios badly damaged, possibly resulting in some slight loss of text.; Decoration: Several ink drawings of chemical apparatus (f. 9v); many chemical and alchemical symbols throughout.; Foliation: Paper, 43; 1-2¹⁶ 3-6¹ 7⁸(-1); [1-43]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto, irregular contemporary pagination/foliation in ink, upper right recto.; Latin, with some Italian.; Ms. codex.; Origin: Written in Italy between the late 16th and the early 17th century.; Script: Written in a cursive script.; Table of contents: 1. f.3r: Epistola Hermetis. -- 2. f.3r-5r: Expositio Ortulani super praedicta epistola / [Hortulanus]. -- 3. f.5v-7v: De lapide minerali. -- 4. f.8r-9r: Vera operatio Arnaldi. -- 5. f.9r-39v: [Collection of alchemical recipes]; The incipits of the first (Verum est sine mendatio..., f. 3r) and fourth (Recipe limatura lupi limati libram unam...) works are listed in Thorndike and Kibre, Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin.; Title supplied by cataloger (Zacour-Hirsch).; Watermarks: Several different designs, including one which appears to be a cardinal's hat but is too faint to read.