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The manuscript includes 6 pages of finely-executed diagrams of alchemical furnaces and stills. The recipes include both ingredients and methods. At least a quarter are concerned with the central alchemical processes of transmutation and many involve metals: mainly gold, silver, mercury and the related element of antimony. These concern purification, the extractions of essences and alloying using processes such as melting and calcination (bringing about decomposition at a temperature below melting point). Others describe chemical offshoots from these processes and include practical applications for the manufacture of dyes and pigments, and of materials such as ‘malleable glass’. The medical receipts are not formally separated from the others and are interspersed throughout, as further examples of alchemical and hermetic philosophy. Their ingredients are both chemical (or pharmaceutical) and herbal. In addition to these numerous recipes the manuscript has also been used to copy up more theoretical texts in the alchemical sciences: we find substantial excerpts from the Italian alchemist Bernard of Treviso, from Ramon Lull, from the sixteenth-century Marcello Palingeni (his well-known reflection on the Philosopher’s Stone from his Zodiacus Vitae is reproduced here, see full contents below) and large extracts from the Rosarium philosophorum by the medieval Arnaldus de Villanova. Throughout, there are also many occasional references and allusions which might further illuminate the writer’s context. For example, we find: a transcription of a recipe (for ‘sale armoniaco’) from a manuscript of Theophrastus with a folio number (363), [our p. 67]; a description of ‘Ein Gradier Wasser von Lorenzen Camper[?] wie es dem Römischer Kayser Rudolfo [Rudolf II] übergeben un probiret worden’ [p. 75]; a remedy for gout proved in the city of Augsburg in February/March 1690 [p. 167]; and a recipe for malleable glass demonstrated to the Count of Fiesco in 1679 [p. 187-9]. This is a manuscript compiled over a period of time and the entries are often in a variable ink and slightly variable hand. Whether the latter indicates compilation by several people is debateable. The hand certainly changes as the manuscript moves between German, Latin and Italian, but it is quite possible (indeed probable) that the same writer changed his hand according to the language. Nonetheless there are certainly numerous corrections, amendments and annotations in other and later hands and at least one insertion of materials from elsewhere: the inserted bifolium pp. 193-6 bearing a list of herbal and medical ingredients. The status of the fine illustrations of alchemical furnaces towards the end is also arguable: they are drawn on the same paper-stock but are clearly by another hand to the main text. Variability of condition throughout suggests an oft-consulted and oft-amended text. The likely place of production is Augsburg or at least Southern Germany to judge by the reference on p. 167 and which might explain the presence of German and Italian texts within the same manuscript and perhaps the preponderance of texts of Italian origin in a largely Germanic volume. We have found only a few dated entries, of 1604 (p. 134), 1690 (p. 167) and 1679 (p. 187) and the styles of handwriting suggest writing and compilation around the latter dates. An unfortunate loss is from the central portion [pp. 89-104] of the extract from the Rosarium philosophorum which may have included the well known sequence of hermetical illustrations found in sixteenth-century printed editions. Contents: pp. 1-42: 85 chemical, alchemical and medicinal recipes in German and Italian: to make: aqua fortis (1), shining gypsum (1), gold plating (2), green pigment (2), a good furnace (4), an oil for gout (14); vitrum antimonii (16) red and black pigments (20); pearls, in the manner used by Pope Paul III (22); wine from legno santo (23); solid mercury (35); mercury sublimate (36); red flowers of antimony (39) &c. pp. 42-46: Ex Epistola Comitis Bernardi (Bernard of Treviso) (in German, probably an excerpt from the alchemical text Responsio ad Thomam de Bononia). 46-63: 25 alchemical recipes in German and Latin to make: oil of vitriol [sulphuric acid] (47); essences of antimony (47-8); purifying and preparing metals (49-52); extract from Ramon Lull (54-57); aqua solis (57); Arbor philosophorum (58); calcinatio solis (61 & 62); to make mercury from any metal (62) &c. 64-66: Ex Marcello Palingenis in suo Zodiacus Vitae [In Latin, Book 10, entitled Capricorn this excerpt being lines 180-238, the famous consideration of the Philosopher's Stone]. 66-80: 22 alchemical recipes in German and Latin, including several for processes involving gold. 80-88: Hec sequitia’ sunt ex Valde antique manuscipte excerpta… [fragmentary extract from the Rosarium philosophorum by Arnaldus de Villanova]. 89-104: blanks, on original paper stock, but apparently replacing a portion of the above text previously extracted. 105-109: [conclusion of Rosarium philosophorum]. 108-9 being a table and a list of metals and compounds with their alchemical symbols. 109-160: c. 50 alchemical texts and recipes, mainly in German and Latin, with some Italian, in several hands. Includes a recipe on p, 134 for ‘Ein schöner goldtgrundt’ for illuminating parchment, dated 1604 at head. 161-166: a register of recipes contained in the preceding text, with a continuation in a slightly later hand giving a table of recipes found in the subsequent text. 167: a medicinal recipe for the treatment of gout (‘Podaggra’) used in Augsburg in February 1690. 168-169: Requista. Seu proprietates Mercurii Sorfici, ad sequentem tractatum Elucitatio. 170-172: blank 173-191: Sapientia aperta / Incipit liber Sapientia, followed by c. 10 alchemical recipes and including a sketch diagram of what appears to be the exterior of a large alchemical laboratory. Includes an entry giving a recipe for malleable glass shown to the Conte Fiesco in 1679. 193-196: inserted bifolium, previously folded several times with a list of herbal and medical ingredients in Latin. 197-211: original blanks, followed by a number of inserted later blanks. 213-218: finely executed pen and ink drawings of alchemical furnaces and apparatus, captioned in a neat calligraphic German hand. 219-220: blank. Plus early notes to endpapers, two early inserted slips with manuscript text, 16pp. modern manuscript transcriptions loosely inserted. see full details...
![[BAUDOT, François.]](/photos/711/main/711.jpg "[BAUDOT, François.]")
Baudot, at various times maître des comptes and mayor of Dijon, here presented his evidence that the Burgundian town of Autun was the Gaulish city of ‘Bibracte’ described by Julius Caesar in the Gallic Wars, the site of Caesar’s 52BC victory over the Helvetii. The town of Beaune had previously been assumed as the site of Bibracte but Baudot here argues strongly against that view as recently expounded by Hughes de Salins, with archaeological, architectural, textual and iconographic evidence. The plates, four of which depict Roman ruins are quite crudely executed but are still delightful. Ultimately, nineteenth-century archaeologists located the actual site of the Gaulish settlement on nearby Mont Beuvray. This copy probably belonged to a contemporary local antiquary (perhaps the Claude Maillard who inscribed it) who added 8 manuscript pages containing a ‘Copie d’une lettre de Mr de la Monnoye à Mr. Baudot maître des comptes à Dijon’ and ‘Pour feu Mr. le Maître des Comptes Baudot ancien Maire de Dijon’. The former is an etymological study of the name of Bibracte, while the latter is a funeral elegy composed by Bernard de La Monnoye on Baudot’s death in 1711 (published, in print but perhaps not until a collected edition of de la Monnoyes’ works, 1743). The book passed at quite an early date to the Scottish antiquary Walter Bowman (1699-1782). Bowman was a tireless Grand Tourist and collector, who left a fine library at Logie, Fife (see William White in The Book Collector, 31, 1982). see full details...
![BLONDEL, [Lieutenant Colonel d’artillerie.]](/photos/474/main/474.jpg "BLONDEL, [Lieutenant Colonel d’artillerie.]")
It was repared by a prominent artillery captain, largely from material gathered first-hand from visits to military academies (notably West Point), arms factories, arsenals and from observations aboard the US warships Tennessee and Kearsarge. The year 1881 saw a special diplomatic visit to the United States by representatives of the French armed forces, partly in celebration of the the centenary of the combined French-American victory at Yorktown. Descendants of the victorious Comte de Rochambeau and an array of military top-brass were lavishly entertained in New York, with a sequence of visits, dinners and balls. Among the guests were General Boulanger and Lieutenant Colonel Blondel. On November 9th The New-York Tribune reported the imminent departure of Boulanger for France and that ‘Lieutenant-Colonel Blondel will spend the next few weeks visiting West Point, the Frankfort and Springfield arsenals, and the firearms manufacturies at New-Haven and Bridgeport, in order to prepare a report on the subjects of arms and defence.’ This manuscript is an overview of the American armies and a description of the military curriculum of West Point, which is followed by the illustrated description of American weaponry, including a variety of artillery (large guns by Hotchkiss, Parrott, Dean, Sutcliffe, Lyman and Woodbridge are illustrated); small arms (the Springfield rifle is described and compared with the Martini-Henry model and the Colt, Schofield Smith and Wesson revolvers are illustrated). There is an extensive section on the specification of artillery shells and small arms cartridges and on the American preparation of gunpowder. Blondel adds several observations on artillery exercises aboard American ships, which include an early description of the use of telegraphy for range-finding. He notes at the opening that some of the information (comprising three sections) is derived from the [printed] reports of General S.V. Benet but that remainder was gathered from his own observations at the installations noted above. The report is remarkable for the detailed access the French were given to American military establishments, which is perhaps to be explained by the diplomatic context. The 1870s and 80s saw a rapprochement in French-American relations, and several celebrations of the natural connection between the two great republics: from the celebration of the Yorktown victory to the gift of the Statue of Liberty by the French nation. The manuscript is from the personal collections of General Boulanger. Boulanger continued his rise to prominence throughout the 1880s, firstly with popular army reforms and later with real political influence, to the extent that his popular right-wing Royalist stance while running for deputy of Paris threatened to topple the Third Republic in 1888-9. He was charged with treason and conspiracy and exiled by the government; a disgrace from which he never recovered. He committed suicide in a Brussels cemetery in 1891. see full details...
As a new foundation, removed from direct influence of church and state, it played an important part in fostering the Enlightenment project, and counted several eminent scholars among its early members, including the pioneering chemist Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, historian and philosopher Charles de Brosses and naturalists Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon and Bernard Germain, Comte de Lacépède. The Academy’s most enduring contribution to the Enlightenment, however, was in awarding a young Jean-Jacques Rousseau one of its annual prizes in 1750 for his essay Discours sur les sciences et les arts, in which he famously argued that the arts and sciences corrupt human morality. It was this essay which first found him fame as a philosopher and provided the germ for much of his later philosophy on the corruptive power of civilization. The present Mémoire has a good deal to say about the prizes awarded by the Academy. It is a report, presumably drawn up on behalf of the governors or directors, which sought to clarify the terms of Pouffier’s will as he left it in 1725 and 1726. The founder went to great lengths to ensure that Academy prospered but his detailed provisions in practice led to unforeseen consequences. As the Mémoire outlines, Pouffier stipulated that 1310 livres annually be spent as follows: 930 livres to endow a series of six prizes in three subjects (Physique, Morale and Médecine); 200 livres ‘pour la bougie des Directeurs’; 120 livres for the Secretary’s salary and 60 livres for books and necessary scientific instruments. The text is concerned with situations in which one or other of these amounts is not needed in its entirety and asks what is to be done with the residue and whether it can be spent elsewhere. What if the Secretary can be paid less? What if the necessary books are all bought for less than the sum set aside? Most persistently, it asks what happens if there are not sufficient candidates, or sufficiently good candidates for the prizes? The problem seems to have stemmed from the delay in formally constituting the Académie: royal letters patent were not, apparently, granted until 1740, whereas Pouffier made provision for immediate payment of each of these expenses soon after his death. It seems that there were just too few members or students in the early years to justify all of them. One wonders whether it was this situation that encouraged the Academy to advertise nationally for prize essays, as a way of attracting the best minds to Dijon. Certainly their advertisement placed in the Mercure de France in 1749 did just that in catching the attention of young Rousseau. The mémoire ends aptly, with the quotation from Juvenal, ‘quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam / Praemia se tollas (for who would embrace virtue itself if you take away its rewards?, Satire X, 140) see full details...
Dating from the end of the thirteenth century, MS 1830 in the Library of Saint Germain (now Bibliothèque nationale MS 19152), is the largest corpus of popular medieval poetry from this early date, containing numerous familiar beast fables (some derived Aesop) and longer narrative poems such as Piramus et Tisbé. The original manuscript comprises 61 different texts of different genres including popular proverbs, translations from Latin, fabliaux, courtly tales, moral poems and burlesque recitations. The anonymous nineteenth-century editor of our manuscript pursues a rather disruptive method of copying much of the original text verbatim, but interpolating his own prose for sections he believes to be repetitive or uninteresting. While frustrating for the medievalist, such a method is interesting as an example of contemporary scholarly method. The editor adds a significant number of additional fables drawn from other manuscripts in the Library of Saint Germain. A 4-volume manuscript copy of the entire codex, apparently made in the eighteenth century, is held by the British Library (Additional MS 15210-15213). A printed edition appeared in 1930. see full details...
Among the several songs is a salute to Napoleon himself: ‘Chargeons, allignons nos canons, Tirons au F[rère] Bouneparte; C’est en lui que nous admirons Les vertus de Rome d’esparte. Libérateur de son pays, Il se rend du monde l’arbitre La France n’a plus d’ennemis Qui lui conteste un si beau titre.’ The song is known from at least one other source (a version is published in Chroniques d’Histoire Maçonnique Lorraine, 9, January, 2000), and is notable for the reference to Napoleon as ‘Frère’. His membership of the Freemasons has long been a source of debate (though now commonly dismissed) and his relationship to masonry is an important aspect of the Order’s history. The Freemasons were widely accused of Revolutionary activity and were vigorously suppressed during the Terror only to be re-established under Napoleon who sought to capitalise on their loyalty and patriotism. He installed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as Grand Master of the Grand Orient de France and ensured that administration of French Freemasonry was directly overseen by legislator Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès. The ritualised dinner described here has elaborate table settings, with utensils and food given ceremonial names. Bread becomes ‘Pierre prutte’; wine, ‘poudre forte, b[lan]che ou rouge’; salt, ‘sable blanc’ amd pepper, ‘sable gris’. The table is referred to as the ‘Tribune’; the candles, ‘étoiles’ and spoons, ‘truelles’. Each of the toasts is given in full and the seven songs are usually supplied with the name of the popular tune to which they are sung, including, ‘L’air vive Henry quatre’ and ‘Femmes, voulez-vous éprouver?’ see full details...
The notes have the character of being source material for an unpublished scholarly work on the subject of the office of Magistrate (chief priest, lawgiver, judge, and commander of the army) in ancient Rome. Compiled in the immediate aftermath of the Napoleonic experiment, Gibelin's exmination of Diocletian's termination of republicanism in favour of autocracy for is surely significant. The author, Jacques Gibelin (1744-1828), in whose hand the volumes are written, was, at the time of composition, the librarian of the town of Aix and secretary of the town's Société Académique. He was already a prominent literary figure and had lived in Paris and England, being responsible for introducing many English scientific ideas to a French audience, having translated and published large portions of the Abridgements of the Transactions of the British Royal Society and important Enlightenment treatises by Joseph Priestley and Richard Kirwan. He also published the French translation Adam Ferguson's History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic and oversaw the first publication of the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, which appeared, in Gibelin's French translation (before the original English version) in 1791 as Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin écrits par lui-méme. The extracts in this manuscript are drawn from Herodian, Dion, Suetonius, Tacitus, Eutropius, Justinian, Plutarch, Apuleius, Orosius, Zosimus and modern commentators such as Isaac Casaubon. The compilation is made with a librarian's thoroughness, with precise references given to the editions consulted (usually giving the editor, and the place and year of publication). Loosely inserted is a printed and manuscript slip, with Gibelin's printed subscription, from the Aix Société Académique, requesting the presence of a member at a meeting on the 4th July 1827 at 6 o'clock. see full details...
![GOUBIN, [Mathieu].](/photos/480/main/480.jpg "GOUBIN, [Mathieu].")
The neatly laid out text, with few corrections, suggest that the volumes were prepared, as was frequently the case in contemporary French universities, by copyists for sale to students attending lecture courses. In this case the owner was one Ludovic Loyau du Coteau, whose manuscript ex libris appears in volume 1 of the Physiologia. Goubin taught at Caen, one of the oldest French universities, from the 1750s and was also director of its Jardin des Plantes. Though an active teacher (presenting frequent anatomical dissections) he does not appear to have published anything under his own name, hence the value of this manuscript collection. While we have identified seven theses bearing his name presented at the university in the later 1750s, these are likely to have been supervised rather than written by him. The Physiologia begins with several short chapters on the nature of medicine, before turning to physiology on p. 16. The first volume describes the various functions of the body, the circulation of the blood, systole and diastole, fluids and secretions and nourishment. The second volume opens with a discussion of wounds and diseases, followed by discussion of the body’s processes, including perception, memory, sight, hearing, taste, smell, sleep, the nervous system, circulation and reproduction. The Pathologia is a complete treatise on physical and mental ailments. see full details...
Though anonymous, this is perhaps a transcript of legal lectures given at the University of Caen. Of paramount interest here are laws relating to land and inheritance, by which, according to Norman custom, property passed strictly through the male line to the almost total exclusion of women. The text is divided into five parts: 1. De l’origine et de la definition des fiefes; 2. Des droites féodaux; 3. Des droits naturels; 4. Des droits accidentels; 5. Des moïens de reversion ou consolidation aux fiefs. Within these broad sections is also much of incidental interest to the social historian, including several articles on the laws of hunting, fishing and game; on the customary rights of salvage (‘Varech’) of goods washed up on the Channel coasts and on water law, concerning rivers and ditches. The work is generally theoretical in tone, but it contains very numerous references to external sources, usually giving page references. Le Grant Coustumier du pays & duché de Normandie by Guillaume Le Rouillé is cited many times (it was first published in 1534 but frequently reprinted and here referred to as ‘la nouvelle Rouillé’) as is La coustume réformée du pays et duché de Normandie by Josias Bérault. Alongside these treatises, many chapters include precise references to royal ‘arrêts’ governing the operation of customary law which had been issued in the preceding centuries. The author or copyist may have inscribed his name at the foot of the title page, but this has been carefully obscured at an early date see full details...
They are divided into the Proprium de Tempore (offices for seasons of the Christian year such as Advent, Lent, Easter etc); the Proprium Sanctorum (for saints’ days) and the Commune Sanctorum (for feasts of varying classes, such as those for apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. This large manuscript, clearly written for communal singing, was made for a Flemish religious community by a member (Fr. F. Hairs) of an Augustinian house at Bruges. While there was an English Augustinian Convent there (an English Recusant foundation known also as the Convent of Nazareth) we have been unable to link Father Hairs to it. He may actually have been attached to the contemporary Flemish Augustinian house. The title states that the manuscript was for the use of the children (‘liberorum’) of Dominic Bergèr, but we have been unable to determine who they were. The manuscript is dated 1794 (the term ‘impressit’ does not, in this case mean literally ‘printed’). In this year, religious communities in Bruges were widely disrupted and often closed as French Revolutionary forces took over the city. The production of such a substantial volume intended for use in services at this time is notable. see full details...
A later bibliographical note to the endpaper asserts that this must “sans aucune doute” be Giard’s manuscript for his edition. This is perhaps unlikely: early manuscript copies of hard-to-come-by imprints are an important (if under-appreciated) aspect of the contemporary circulation of new books. Chastelet’s treatise (dedicated to the King) covers all aspects of war: types of troops, garrisons, ranks, invasion, battle, morale, treatment of casualties, defence, sieges, sea warfare, civil wars, discipline, military law, espionage and treaties. see full details...
One of Alvarez’s functions seems to have the been the procurement of books for Pombal and his government, both in Paris and London, and these accounts reveal, in considerable detail, the means by which books and pamphlets were sourced. Numerous authors and titles are listed, especially for the English books. Alvarez kept brief accounts of transactions on behalf of six individuals: Pombal himself, Vicente de Souza Coutinho (Portuguese ambassador in Paris), Henriques de Menezes (envoy at Turin and Rome), Jozé Jacques da Cunha (envoy at La Haye), Da Costa (secretary to Pombal) and Father Francis Blyth (Carmelite friar and chaplain to the Portuguese embassy in London). Of these, the most extensive accounts concern Pombal, de Souza and Blyth. Books bought by Alvarez in Paris came mainly from the libraire Barrois, whose shop was on the quai de Augustins. They include copies of Pascal’s Lettres Provinciales, ‘Annales Jésuitiques’ (probably Les Jésuites démasqués, ou Annales historiques de la Société, 1759 and later), a ‘Receuil de l’affaire des Jesuites’ (8 volumes in quarto), La science du gouvernement (by Réal de Curban, 1761 and later), Fleury’s Du devoir des Maîtres, missals, New Testaments, an Italian dictionary and several volumes of French official acts or arrêts. Figures are recorded for binding, packing and shipping the books. Father Blyth, in London, is revealed as an important source for English books. He had been appointed chaplain at the Portuguese embassy in 1756 by Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo himself (then Portuguese ambassador to England; some fourteen years before he became Marquês de Pombal). Blyth remained in the post until his death in 1772 (ODNB). The accounts show that Alvarez arranged shipment of several books from Paris to Blyth in London and received in return a fascinating list of English titles, mainly on medicine and public health, for onward shipment to Pombal in Lisbon. Among those listed are Richard Brookes, The general dispensatory (1753, and later editions); Sir William Fordyce, A review of the venereal disease (1767); Alexander Sutherland, An attempt to revive antient medical doctrines (1763); James Lind, A treatise of the Scurvy (1753 and later) and William Hillary, A practical essay on the small-pox (1740). He also procured a map of the English colonies in America and several tracts and pamphlets. At least two London booksellers are mentioned: the bills of Thomas Meighan and Thomas Lewis were forwarded to Alvarez for payment, and there are also figures for binding and shipping. Besides the bibliographical detail, the accounts reveal occasional other duties by these agents. Blyth shops at Hernon’s in the Strand for finest green tea, while Alvarez looks after Pombal’s watch, taking it to the famous Voisin for repair. In a couple of places, Alvarez has to remind himself with a short memorandum how English currency works, and how many pence and shillings there are to a pound. see full details...
Beginning with ‘Feinem Marocco Toback’, (Fine Moroccan Tobacco) the recipes are unusually detailed (usually covering a page or more) and offer specific ingredients and methods of tobacco preparation. Other tobaccos include ‘Feinen Pariser Toback’ (two different blends!), ‘Rappe d’Hollande Grand Cardinal’, ‘Bolongaro,’ two varieties of ‘Violet’. The ‘Morhendro’ blend seems especially potent, with the inclusion of 4 grains of opium. The contents of several tobacco canisters are also described, such as a Moorish blend (Canister 1), a Swiss blend (Canister 2), ‘Peter’s Best Blend’ (Petrum Optimum, Canister 3), and more. The upper cover bears the contemporary MS inscription of ‘J.A. Neeb’ (i.e. Johannes Adam Neeb) who was tobacconist active at Lich, Hesse (approximately 25 miles from Marburg) in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. A later owner has written inside the front cover in pen ‘Organist Joh. Adam Neeb’ in error: the organist in question was in fact Johannes Adam’s son Heinrich (1806-1878) who achieved fame as a composer, conductor and teacher in Frankfurt. (Franz Kössler, Personenlexikon von Lehrern des 19. Jahrhunderts: Berufsbiographien aus Schul-Jahresberichten und Schulprogrammen, 1825-1918, mit Veröffentlichungsverzeichnissen, 2007.) see full details...
![(MILITARY MANUSCRIPT). C[HASTELET, Paul Hay, Marquis de.]](/photos/205/main/205.jpg "(MILITARY MANUSCRIPT). C[HASTELET, Paul Hay, Marquis de.]")
