Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

A catalogue of Western manuscripts and papyri at Cambridge University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and selected Cambridge colleges

Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.1.8

Compilation of alchemical works, including the 'Crowning of Nature'

Contents

Introduction: This alchemical manuscript, which includes a seventeenth-century copy of the illustrated alchemical work Crowning of nature, was long believed to have come to Cambridge University Library in 1715, via King George I's great benefaction of the library of John Moore, bishop of Ely (1646-1714). Although it contains a donation bookplate commemorating George I's munificence, the book is not identifiable among published or handwritten lists of John Moore's manuscripts, and thus its precise date of acquisition by Cambridge University Library remains uncertain. Circulating anonymously and without a fixed title from the sixteenth century onwards, the 'Crowning of Nature' depicts in an allegorical manner the stages of the alchemical process of creating the philosophers' stone. Within a circle representing an alchemical vessel, figures symbolising alchemical substances (lions, toads, birds, angels, trees, moon and star, king and queen, among others) are shown to conjoin, separate, dissolve, evaporate, and transmute. These illustrations, generally 66 in number, bear titles indicating the name of the stage or process in the experiment, and are occasionally accompanied by an English or Latin text. More than forty copies of the 'Crowning of Nature' are known to be extant, but there are likely a number of further, hitherto unidentified witnesses (most of the identified copies are recorded on the Alchemy Website compiled by Adam McLean). What is rather remarkable is that the Crowning of nature uses the contemporary alchemical idiom and symbolism to translate into pictures what the alchemical practitioner saw in the workshop: the colours used in the manuscript mirror those of the actual substances; the symbols – e.g. 'moon' for silver and 'sun' for gold – agree with the customary Decknamen (code names) for substances; the solid shapes, flowing streams, fiery flames, and billowing clouds depict the changing physical states of substances during chymical reactions quite clearly; and the enclosing vessel, sometimes shown more literally as a rotund flask with a short neck, explicitly indicates at what stage of the experiment the vessel is to be hermetically sealed with a stopper or to be kept open to release vapours. In the copy preserved in MS Gg.1.8, which is not accompanied by an explanatory text, the images are drawn only on the rectos of the leaves (while the versos are left blank), so that leafing through the 'Crowning of Nature' from its beginning with the base substance of 'Mercurius' (f. 80r) to the final 'Fixation' of the philosophers' stone (f. 145r) – with the central vessel as a fixed point within which the alchemical substances are constantly changing – creates an animation of the experiment. It would be tempting to assume that this copy of the Crowning of nature was once in the possession of one 'William Waldy', who is mentioned in a Hebrew caption underneath the diagram here preceding the 66 experimental images (f. 79r; a contemporary hand translates the inscription as 'Liber Magistri William Waldy'). However, it seems that this line is not original to this manuscript, but was copied from an ancestor. Indeed, this manuscript is closely related to a seventeenth-century manuscript - Glasgow, University Library, MS Ferguson 8 - which includes the same diagram with the same Hebrew caption. Interestingly, in MS Ferguson 8 the outlines and fine details of all Crowning of nature images were pricked to facilitate copying. All of its leaves were excised at some point in its early history, and then re-inserted on the stubs that their removal had created, and show some surface smudging on the rectos, suggesting that indeed one or several copies were made from it with the technique of pricking and pouncing (on pricking for pouncing in MS Gg.1.8, see Cambridge University Library's Special Collections Blog). A comparison of the illustrations and lettering in the Glasgow and Cambridge manuscripts shows that these two copies of the Crowning of nature agree very closely with each other, save for very minor and slight variations (e.g. the exact shape of the lion's claws) that are obvious infelicities. It is reasonable to assume, then, that the entire sequence of the Crowning of nature in MS Gg.1.8 may have been copied directly from MS Ferguson 8. Bound with the Crowning of nature in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century were two texts copied from printed sources. The first is a seventeenth-century manuscript copy of Daniel Widdowes' (or Woodhouse's) English translation of Wilhelm Adolf Scribonius' Rerum naturalium doctrina methodica (1583), titled Naturall Philosophy: or A Description of the World, and of the Severall Creatures Therein Contained, and here apparently copied from the second English edition of 1631 (the first had appeared ten years previously); Scribonius was a German philosopher and natural philosopher of the second half of the sixteenth century and writes here, among other things, on the nature and qualities of metals, which explains the tract’s inclusion in an alchemical compendium. The second text is the apparently anonymous alchemical work 'Thesaurus, sive medicina aurea', which was published in the Aurifontina chymica, or, A Collection of Fourteen Small Treatises Concerning the First Matter of Philosophers..., edited by John Frederick Houpreght (London, 1680). Dr Anke Timmermann

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Paper.
Extent: Codex: 52 | 25 | 68 | 6 | 1 leaves. 200 × 145 mm.
Foliation:

Mid-20th-century foliation

1-52 | 53-77 | 78-145 | 146-151 + [i]

Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos, probably by H.L. Pink .

Binding

18th-century: pasteboard with marbled paper sides; leather spine with title tooled in gold.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

The precise date of acquisition by Cambridge University Library is not known. It contains a donation bookplate engraved by John Pine in 1736 (front cover, inner), suggesting that it was presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I, and had previously been owned by John Moore (b. 1646, d. 1714), bishop of Ely. However, the manuscript is not identified among those listed in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697), or in the handwritten supplementary list of Moore's manuscripts, now CUL Oo.7.50(2), compiled by Thomas Tanner (1674-1735). The presence of a donation bookplate in manuscripts known to have not been part of Moore's collection means that this instance cannot be taken as definitive proof of his ownership.

Part 1 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.1.8, ff. 1-52]

Contents

Language(s): No text

1.1. 1r-52v
Blank leaves

Only the first two blank leaves have been digitised.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Paper
Extent: Codex: 52 leaves.

History

Origin: Probably 18th-century. ; England.

Inserted when the manuscript was re-bound.

Part 2 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.1.8, ff. 53-77]

Contents

2.1. 53r-77v
Naturall Philosophy: or A Description of the World, and of the Severall Creatures Therein Contained: viz. of Angels, of Mankinde, of the Heavens, the Starres, the Planets, the Foure Elements, with their Order, Nature and Government: as Also of Minerals, Mettals, Plants, and Precious Stones; with their Colours, Formes and Vertues... Wilhelm Adolf Scribonius Daniel Widdowes / Woodhouse (trl)
Language(s): English

Title page on f. 53r, and a table of contents on ff. 54r-57v.

A manuscript copy of Widdowes' translation of Scribonius's Latin work, Rerum naturalium doctrina methodica. This is a copy of the second edition of Widdowes' translation ('Corrected and Enlarged') (London: Thomas Cotes for John Bellamie, 1631) (1st edition 1621).

STC 22112

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Paper
Extent: Codex: 25 leaves.

History

Origin: 17th century (in or after 1631). ; England.

Date of production based on terminus ante quem nobn of publication date of the printed text from which the manuscript copy was taken.

Part 3 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.1.8, ff. 78-145]

Contents

3.1. 78r-145r
The Crowning of Nature
Rubric: Angelorum opus Aucthore Herete Philosopho perito
Language(s): Latin, English and French

A series of diagrams, drawn on the rectos only, with labels in Latin and English. (For full details, see the description of the decoration).

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Paper
Extent: Codex: 68 leaves.

Decoration

Pencil sketch of a dragon creature with a man's legs and head, adorned with symbols and annotated in French, the outline marked with pin pricks (f. 78r). Entitled 'Vnitrium', and accompanied by annotations and labels in pencil.

Heptagonal diagram comprising a seven-pointed star, at each point of which is a circle enclosing a further seven-pointed star: each contains a Zodiac-like symbol at its centre, with further symbols located at the points within the enclosing circle.

The diagram is labelled at the centre: 'Prima materia +'. The seven stars are labelled according to Galenic humours, as follows (clockwise from the top): 'Femynyne Malancoly', 'Femynyne Flegmaticke', 'Masculyne Collericke', 'Masculyne Sanguyne', 'Masculyne Collericke', 'Femynyne Flegmaticke', 'Femynyne Malancoly'.

A sketch in ink of alchemical oven/experimental set-up, on a small piece of paper pasted onto the page.

A series of sixty-six circular images or flask outlines, with allegorical depictions of the stages of the alchemical process; occasional use of symbols in the annotations, coloured (watercolour?) in yellow, golden (now brown), red, black (now dark grey), grey, silver (?), green (now turquoise), a beige-like hue, light blue. The diagrams are on the rectos only, some accommodated on larger leaves that have been folded into the volume.

  • 80r: Mercurius
  • 81r: Preparation
  • 82r: Deuision
  • 83r: Disstillation
  • 84r: Amation (with label 'Gabriell')
  • 85r: Leo Viridis
  • 86r: Coitus (with label 'Vertues')
  • 87r: Vegetall Anymall Mynerall
  • 88r: Calcynation
  • 89r: Sublymatyon
  • 90r: Solutyon
  • 91r: Generation
  • 92r: Putrefactyon
  • 93r: Conception
  • 94r: Impregnation (with labels 'Ierarchie' and 'Ephionia')
  • 95r: Coniunction (with labels 'Fier', 'Eyer', 'Water', 'Earthe')
  • 96r: Fermentacyon
  • 97r: Seperatyon (with labels 'Fyer', 'Eyer', 'Water', 'Earth')
  • 98r: Sepeation [sic] (with labels 'Water', 'Eyer', 'Fyer', 'Earth')
  • 99r: Coniunction (with labels 'Water', 'Eyer', 'Fyer', 'Earth')
  • 100r: Seperatyon (with labels 'Fyer', 'Eyer', 'Water', 'Eyey', 'Earth')
  • 101r: Coniunction (with label 'Eyer into Fyer into Water into Earthe')
  • 102r: Seperatyon (with labels 'Eyer', 'Water', 'Fyer', 'Earth')
  • 103r: Ignis Innaturalis
  • 104r: Ortus (with label 'Potestate')
  • 105r: Fermentacyon
  • 106r: Purgatyon
  • 107r: Separation (with label 'Water into X Fyer into X Earth into X Eyer into X - and various symbols at X)
  • 108r: Coniunction (with labels 'Eyer', 'Water', 'Fyer', 'Earth')
  • 109r: Coniunctyon (on a fold-out page) (with label ' Fyer into X Water into X Eyer into X Earth' - and various symbols at X)
  • 110r: Separacyon
  • 111r: Separation (with label 'Fyer into X Earth in X Eyer in X Water into X - with various symbols at X)
  • 112r: Coniuntion [sic] (with labels 'Eyer', 'Water', 'Fyer', 'Earth')
  • 113r: Separation (with label 'Earth into X Eyer into X Water into X Fyer into X - with various symbols at X)
  • 114r: Coniunction (with labels 'Earth', 'Eyer', 'Water', 'Fyer')
  • 115r: Exaltacyon
  • 116r: Quinta Essentie
  • 117r: Fixacyon (with label 'Principatus')
  • 118r: Proiection
  • 119r: Multiplication
  • 120r: Imbibicion
  • 121r: Solucyon
  • 122r: Conielation
  • 123r: Coninctyon [sic]
  • 124r: Sublimation
  • 125r: Calcination
  • 126r: Fixation (with label 'Dominacione')
  • 127r: Multiplication
  • 128r: Fermenttatyon
  • 129r: Imbibicyon
  • 130r: Solution
  • 131r: Congealacyon
  • 132r: Sublymation
  • 133r: Calcynation
  • 134r: Quinta Essentie
  • 135r: Fixatyon (with label 'Ararchie Epiphonemya')
  • 136r: Multiplication : Fermentatyon (on a fold-out sheet)
  • 137r: Imbibicyon
  • 138r: Calcynatyon
  • 139r: Sublymatyon
  • 140r: Solutyon
  • 141r: Conielation
  • 142r: Coniunctyon
  • 143r: Exaltacion
  • 144r: Quinto Essentie
  • 145r: Fixation (with label 'Cherubine')

History

Origin: 17th century. ; England.

Part 4 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.1.8, ff. 146-151]

Contents

4.1. 146r-151r
Thesaurus, siue medicina aurea
Language(s): English
Incipit: 146r: Many and great are the secrets of nature and concerning them and the way to obtaine them
Explicit: 151r: if they intentions be good, obtaine thy desire, to thy owne good, and Gods Glory. etc. Finis.

Published in and presumably copied from: Aurifontina chymica, or, A Collection of Fourteen Small Treatises Concerning the First Matter of Philosophers: for the Discovery of Their (Hitherto so Much Concealed) Mercury: which Many have Studiously Endeavoured to Hide, but These to Make Manifest, for the Benefit of Mankind in General, ed. by John Frederick Houpreght (London: Printed for William Cooper..., 1680), pp. 99-106. Digitised microfilm scan available via Early English Books Online.

Wing H2941
ESTC R31127

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Paper
Extent: Codex: 6 leaves.

Additions

Notes on f. 151v.

History

Origin: 17th century (in or after 1680). ; England.

Date of production based on terminus ante quem non of publication date of the printed text from which the manuscript copy was taken.

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on the description provided by Anke Timmermann, 'Alchemy in Cambridge: an annotated catalogue of alchemical texts and illustrations in Cambridge repositories', Nuncius: Journal of the Material and Visual History of Science, 30, pp. 345-511 (2015) (used here by kind permission of the author) and further details supplied by the same.

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card. For information on eligibility and admissions procedures, see Joining the Library). For further enquiries, and to confirm the availability of the manuscript, please contact the Special Collections Reading Room.

Bibliography

    Un manuscrit de comput et d'astronomie des XIIe-XIVe siècles: le MS 467 de l'Université de Glasgow Scriptorium, Cordoliani, Alfred (3, 1, 69-79, 1949) Alchemy in Cambridge: an annotated catalogue of alchemical texts and illustrations in Cambridge repositories Nuncius: Journal of the Material and Visual History of Science, Timmermann, Anke (30, 2, 345-511, 2015)

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