M. (M.A.C.)

Manuel et exercitations spagyriques. Recuillies [sic] de plusieurs graves autheurs de l'une et l'aultre profession, et principalement du D. The. Paracelse. Compiler's holograph MS. Written troughout in a small neat script. The title is within a historiated panel, and many of the receipts are divided by pen-drawn arabesque ornaments. Fol. 16v, 153v-160 contain small pen-drawings of chemical and alchemical apparatus. There are also a few symbolic, and other small sketches. The text is mainly in Latin and French, with some marginal entries in Italian. Contents: Ff. 2-267 headed 'Exercitations spagyriques' with sections on Distilling (ff. 153-164), alchemy (ff. 180-208), Index (ff. 209-224), chemical signs (ff. 231, 232), medical and chemical receipts, alchemical processes, etc., extracts on medical practice, etc., mostly from the works of Joannes Fernelius [1497-1558] as noted on fol. 240v. Ff. 268-end. The heading changes to 'Exercitations dogmatiques', but the contents consist of similar material. The date 1622 appears in a marginal note on fol. 147: there are other dates, 1616 (fol. 17, fol. 68), and 1618 on the last leaf. The last is appended to a note 'J'arrivay en ceste ville de Condrieux ce 4 Septembre.' Besides the medical contents, there are also verses in Latin and French (fol. 1v, fol. 2, ff. 180, 181, 184, 185, 186, 202v, 233, 265v, 266).

1612 -1622

1 volume 243 [288] ff. + 6 ll. 16mo. 13 x 9 cm. Original limp vellum binding defective: both leather ties wanting. Ff. 62, 85, 87, 89-96, 101-117, 150, 165-179, 224-228 wanting: many margins and corners frayed. The last leaf is pasted down on the cover and damaged, and the last six leaves are stained and faded.

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Purchased 1909.

The Author seems to have been connected with Syracuse (ff. 181, 184, 202v). On fol. 195 is a pen drawing of a funeral monument to Joanna Contarelle who died 16th August 1622, daughter of Franciscus Contarellus and wife of N. Gabrielius. The inscription is signed M.A.C.M. It is possible that these initials stand for M[agister] A. C[ontarellus] M[edicus], but no physician of that name has been traced.

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).