Arnoldus de Villanova ( -1311)

Tractatus de aqua vitae. Translation and transcript of an undescribed 15th cent. [?] Latin MS. by Dr. Maverti. Translator's holograph MS.

1905

1 volume 1 l. + 42 ff. + 26 ll. folio. 34 x 201/2 cm. Unbound.

No particulars are given of the original MS. nor of its provenance. It appears to resemble Vatican 5377, mentioned in Thorndike's 'History of Magic and Experimental Science', Vol. III, p. 78, p. 656, as regards contents: but the Incipit and Explicit are different in our MS. Here the Incipit as transcribed is: 'Aqua Vite // Visis igitur et consideratis / Dicendum est de virtute aquae vitae et quare / sic vocatur. Aqua vita [sic] per decoctionem et distil / lationem a vino elicitur / et separetur [sic]...'@$@The Explicit is: 'Explicit liber aque vite iehsu cristo sint gracie infinite Amen. Editus per Arnaldum de villa nova. Amen'. This is followed by an 'Appendix', beginning: 'Nota quod duplex est aqua ardens...' and ending: '...quia tam diu moratus sum'.

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).