The treatise consists of a prologue (pp. 1-3, a list of temperatures (3-4, after which the treatise begins with the words: ‘Qualyteys contrary be remyttyd after greys and be namyd aftyr þe more qualyte in gre of þe qualyteys brekyng from aftyr degre of grete invardnes hoolde here strenkthys and sende ayen þe ferther greys aftermenntes’

The second recipee is said to have been devised ‘By Magister R.W. off Cambryge’ [Mooney (1995) transcribes ‘M. Rids off Cambryge’; but see Timmermann (2013), p. 441. The final recipe is ‘ffor to make aurvm mvsicum’.

The copy has been left unfinished in Chapter 7

A (?) 17th-century hand has added the following title to the upper margin of f. 117: ‘Hic liber est Speculum Alchemiæ Rog. Baconis’.

The recipes are for ‘fyx fugetyfe’, ‘ffyxacio lune’, ‘ffor to make boras’, and ‘ffixacio lune’.

The collection contains recipes for ‘water corosyue’, ‘liquifacio spiritum’, called ‘the grettest priuite that John Tebalde hath’, ‘sal preparate’, and ‘mundificacio cupri’.

The recipes are for making antimony; shiny jewelery by combining gold, silver, and copper; copper that is bright as gold; iron that is like silver; a ‘lyxor upon coper’; white metal from coopper and silver with instructions on how to sublime mercury [called ‘Opus osbern de westmestyr’]; ‘lambyr’; gold from mercury and gold.

The recipes are for making boras (2x) [the first one is attributed to ‘Gundi salvus de Portugalia’ who Mooney (1995) identifies as the 12th-century Toledan translator of Arabic scientific works Domingo Gondisalvi or Dominicus Gundissalinus]; vermillion [attributed to ‘L. Draper’]; and water of lead.

The recipes are for ‘Si vis affinare metallum ut efficatur optimum argentum’; ‘Cuprum sic dealbatur ad modum argenti’; ‘Si vis ut saturnus fiat semile lune’; ‘Ut acias die vna vncia Argente .iij^a ’.

Timmermann (2015) suggests that this text may be a version of the Liber aquarum.

The recipes are ‘for to translat stang fromh is sulphurite by kyndly ratefyyng’; ‘To make a good quencher to blanche and to thonge [? thoughe] jvbiter’; ‘To make metall towe’; ‘To hardyn eny metall’; ‘for to make a cetrinaciun’; ‘To wyrk a malgam upon styng’; ‘To make good lune’; ‘To make full artefissiall solebliall’. The final recipe requires human blood and hair as ingredients.

The final recipe appears to be incomplete. The recipe are entitled or begin: ‘De lapide albo’; ‘Item alia tinctura bona et preciosa’; ‘Item alia tinctura preciosa’; ‘lapis rubeus’.

The accounts refer to persons situated in (in order of appearance) Lewis (‘levys’), London (‘london’), Nottinghamshire (‘notynghamschyre’), Cardiff (‘kerdyffe in Walys’), Henley-on-Thames (‘henele uppon temse’), and Wycombe (‘Wycombe’). They are typically named with their titles and occupations: ‘pryor’, ‘knyȝt’, ‘squyer’, ‘draper’, ‘mercer’, ‘grocer’, ‘habyrdasscher’, ‘brever’, ‘talov chavndeler’, ‘pevterer’, ‘dyer’, ‘ffyschemonger’, ‘wolpacker’, ‘taylour’, ‘tavyer’. While the aforementioned titles and roles all concern men, the accounts include two women: 1. a silkwoman (‘sylkwoman’) who is only identified by her surname: ‘langeton’. There were (at least) three silkwomen with that surname: Jane Langton, a silkwoman and merchant in London, who drew up her will in 1475; and her two daughters-in-law Agnes Langton and Elizabeth Langton. The latter supplied the royal wardrobe with silk in 1503 [on them, see Marian K. Dale, 'The London Silkwomen of the Fifteenth Century', The Economic History Review, 4:3 (1933), 324-335 (pp. 327-328)]. 2. A woman who is (again) only identified by her surname ‘Helmys of Henele uppon temse’ and who is described as the executrix of ‘John Helmys merchant’. She has not been identified.

The evidence for the dating of the accounts to 1463-64 comes from three entries: 1. An entry for ‘Thomas Cooke’ who is identified as ‘knyȝt and aldyrman of london’. He must be Sir Thomas Cooke (c. 1410-1478), who was alderman of the City of London from 1456 onwards, knighted in 1465, and Lord Mayor in 1462-63 (for him, see also Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.3.11 and Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.14.52). 2. An entry that names ‘John’ as the prior of Lewis Priory. Given the identification of Sir Thomas Cooke, this prior John cannot be John Burghersh, who was prior from 1409 until 1414, or John Ashdowne who occurs as prior in 1506. He can only be John Danyel, who was prior from 1445 until 1464. 3. The final entry that refers to John Frost, mercer, who drew up his will, which identifies William Dunthorn as his executor, dated to 2 July 1463 (see Kew, The National Archives, PROB 11/5/211 ).

The collection includes a recipe that is said to have been proved by a medical practitioners named Perrin Ferby [unidentified]: ‘ffor þe govte provyd per peryn fferby’.

Full transcription. Includes a method to authenticate its veracity.

Refers to a method to authenticate its veracity described in the previous item.

Full transcription.

Full transcription.

Full transcription.

The text features mirrored handwriting on f. 12v.

This is one of two copies of a poem which imagines a dialogue between Albertus Magnus and Elchyȝell, the Queen of Elves, in which she teaches him a recipe with which mercury can be turned into silver and gold and silver turned into gold. The other copy can be found in London, British Library, Sloane MS 3580 B (ff. 183v-184v) [see Grund (2004), passim]. This poem is different from the Latin prose text with the title Semita Recta (also associated with Pseudo-Albertus Magnus). Another hand has addex ‘extractum’ (or ‘exemplum’) ‘Doweld’ at the end of the poem.

The fourth recipe contains cypher for some of its ingredients (e.g. ‘Sblpfater’ for ‘Salpater’); the fifth recipe is accompanied by a chart of numbers.

Full transcription. A previously unnoticed and untranscribed (?) 15th-century addition. Their names can all be found in early modern necromantic rituals. For example, the so-called Folger Book of Magic ( Washington, Folger Shakespeare Library, V.b.26, Part 1 and Part 2 ), a late 16th-century grimoire, features descriptions and conjurations of the spirits ‘Oberyon’ (I, pp. 76, 113, 115-116, 185, 190-200); ‘Ascariell’ [‘Askariell’] (I, pp. 169-170); ‘Byleth’ (I, pp. 78, 87); and ‘Sibilla’ (II, p. 228). What is especially interesting is that the Folger Book of Magic, identifies ‘Oberyon’ [Oberon] as 'kinge of the fayries' who can reveal hidden treasure and how it can be obtained. His name in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.14.44 then resonates with the alchemical poem on 15r-17r in which Elchizel, Queen of Fairies, provides instructions on how to make silver and gold. Ultimately, all the spirits listed on f. 17v may have been invoked for obtaining wealth.

Full transcription attempted.

The list refers to persons from ‘Saham’ [M.R. James (1901): Soham, Cambridgeshire; LALME: Saham Toney, Norfolk]; ‘ffordam’ [Fordham, Cambridgeshire], ‘Ely’ [Ely, Cambrdidgeshire], ‘Hadenham’ [Haddenham, Cambridgeshire], ‘Nectwn’ [Necton, Norfolk]; and ‘þe parkez of Cartelynge’. The latter is not identified in Mooney (1995) but probably refers to Kirtling, Cambridgeshire.

Mooney (199), p. 46 gives a full transcription: ‘A pownd of sanfyre ij pound of vitreol and a vnce of alum and a vnce of sal petre’. The recipe is probably a second attempt, with the first one (above it) erased [but still legible with UV light].