| Description | Untitled alchemical notes and copy extracts from Pierre Jean Fabré and other sources, in English and Latin, c. 11,000 words, 24 pp. on 16 ff. In Newton's hand throughout.
1r-v: Latin notes on or extracts from a variety of sources, primarily 'Faber Panchym.' (i.e. Pierre Jean Fabré, Panchymicum seu anatomiam totius universi; I don't know when this was first published but it's in Fabré's Operum voluminibus duobus exhitorum volumen prius (Frankfurt a.M., 1652)), but also 'Alchym. Propugnac.', 'Herc. Piochym.', 'Triomph [sic] Hermetique', 'Arnaldi Rosar.', Aristot', 'Minschict [sic, for Hadrian à Mynsicht] Testam.', with a reference in the text to 'Cosmopolita'. Much about 'Laton' and 'columbae Dianae' (which are code-words for materials used in various transmutational recipes).
1v-3r: a single lengthy Latin extract from the Panchymicum.
3r-v: another paragraph from the Panchymicum, one from 'Faber Hydrogr.' and one about what Hermes, Maier, the Turba philosophorum, Fabré and Sendivogius say [on the same subject, presumably].
4r-v: blank.
5r: more Latin excerpts from Fabré, with a note-to-self to collate them with Arca arcanorum. Notes (in Latin) from 'Philal. in marrow of Alkim.' (i.e. 'Eirenaeus Philalethes', The Marrow of Alchemy). Excerpts from 'Occultae naturae mysterium' and Arca arcanorum, all concerning the Philosophers' Stone.
5v-6v: fairly continuous Latin text with excerpts from or references to Grassaeus's Epistola, the Arca and Philalethes. Appears to break off at the end of 6v with a catchword that doesn't connect to anything.
7r: scrappier Latin notes from or on Lull, Clangor Buccinae, Arnald of Villanova, Flamel, 'Laurent [i.e. Lorenzo] Ventura', 'Speculum Alch. in Th[eatrum] Ch[emicum]', Ferrar, Ripley's 'Epistle', Morienus, the Turba and 'Aurora consurg.'
7v: blank.
8r: very short Latin notes mainly from [Lazarus Zetzner's] Theatrum Chemicum. Probably not counted as a page in the Sotheby catalogue.
8v: two Latin texts both of which appear to start in medias res one from the top of the page and one upside down from the bottom (neither matches the catchword on 6v). References to Flamel, Grassaeus, [John de Monte] Snyders, Basil Valentine and the Theatrum Chemicum.
9r: a more coherent sequence of Latin paragraphs with references in the left margin to Lull's Codicil, Faber's Panchymicum and 'Instructio de arbore solari'.
9v: two lines copied from Lull's Codicil. Probably not counted as a page in the Sotheby catalogue.
10r: a continuous English text without reference to other sources, on the origins of elements and principles.
10v: blank.
11r: Latin quotes from the Turba philosophorum with linking passages in English.
11v: blank.
12r-v: more English text with frequent page references to an unspecified book (the Turba again?).
13r-14r: continuous text in Latin with references to Faber's Panchymicum, Arnold of Villanova's Rosarium, the Rosarium abbreviatum, 'Aristot' [probably pseudo-Aristotle], Lull's Codicil and Bacon [presumably Roger Bacon].
14v: blank.
15r: series of four 'Q's, e.g. 'Q 1 In the long way how much superior waters in every eagle', followed by four 'A's and a series of numbered notes on the foregoing, all in English.
15v: continuous text in English without any source references.
16r-v: blank.
Description by John Young, Newton Project, 30 March 2005 |