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Libra Esoterica

Arts and sciences

chemistry

Author not recorded

  • First published:
  • 18th century
  • Languages: English, French, Latin
  • Content type: ManuscriptPrimary source
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Description

Description from Colenda Digital Repository — University of Pennsylvania Libraries (opens in a new tab)

Collection of recipes (numbered 1-253 with many errors) for alchemical and practical applications such as making candles, butter, varnish, many types of ink (including a recipe for "magic ink", p. 201), sealant for waterproofing shoes (p. 15), cement for mending broken china or glass (p. 205), and occasional medicinal uses such as preventing yellow fever (p. 158). Alchemical recipes include instructions for turning white sapphires into diamonds (p. 208), creating artificial diamonds (p. 193) and artificial pearls (p. 206), creating a powder that burns green (p. 160), and how to give new colors (p. 85) or new fragrances (p. 87) to flowers. Other instructions include a method for preserving animals such as dogs and horses at the size they were at birth (p. 183), purifying water (p. 15), sending secret letters written on the inside of an egg (p. 185-186), how to wash fleecy hosiery (p. 191), and predicting whether a sick person will live or die (p. 135). A printed clipping for how to grow radishes has been pasted in (p. 118) and a print of a plan for a smelting furnace has been laid into the manuscript. Also includes an alphabetical index (p. v-xxviii) and 7 leaves laid into the manuscript with additional recipes such as a remedy for scurvy and a recipe for iron gall ink. One leaf written in French for a recipe for magic ink (Gibraltar, 15 May 1795).

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Alchemy and Hermeticism, Occultism and esotericism, and Ritual magic and grimoires.

  • Occultism and esotericism

    Controlled discovery queries from colenda matched “Occultism”. Retained metadata contains “Occultism” in the subject metadata and “occult” in the cataloging notes.

    • “Occultism”· via Colenda Digital Repository — University of Pennsylvania Libraries
    • “Occultism”· in subject
    • “occult”· in cataloging note
  • Ritual magic and grimoires

    Retained metadata contains “Magic” in the description.

    • “Magic”· in description
  • Alchemy and Hermeticism

    Controlled discovery queries from colenda matched “Alchemy”. Retained metadata contains “Alchemy” in the subject metadata and “alchemist” in the cataloging notes.

    • “Alchemy”· via Colenda Digital Repository — University of Pennsylvania Libraries
    • “Alchemy”· in subject
    • “alchemist”· in cataloging note

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Editions

One edition cataloged here.

chemistry

University of Pennsylvania digitized manuscript

118 leaves : paper ; 238 x 181 (205 x 130) mm bound to 245 x 195 mm + 7 leaves; Binding: Contemporary suede, spine badly deteriorated, upper hinge splitting.; Decoration: Engraved diagram of a plan for a smelting furnace (originally laid into the manuscript between p. 191-192); red ink throughout.; English, with an unbound leaf in French, and a few lines of Latin (p. iii).; Layout: Written in 20 long lines.; Ms. codex.; Origin: Written in England in 1777 (p. i).; Pagination: Paper, 118 leaves; [i-xxviii], 1-154, 156-209; contemporary pagination in ink, modern pagination in pencil, upper outer corners.; Purchased with support from the B. H. Breslauer Foundation.; Script: Written in a cursive script in the hand of Charles Rainsford (autographed note, p. i) with notes in additional hands.; Title from title page (p. i).

1777—English, French, Latin—Public download

Subjects

5 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Identifiers

Colenda
  • ark:/81431/p3vh5ch9f

Cataloged from

Cataloging notes

  • Colenda collection: Charles Rainsford Collection of Alchemical and Occult Manuscripts (University of Pennsylvania)
  • Penn Libraries catalog identifier: 9962920163503681
  • Physical location: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Manuscripts, Oversize Ms. Codex 1661
  • Provenance: Formerly owned by Charles Rainsford (British army officer, fellow of the Royal Society, and alchemist); bequeathed by Rainsford to Hugh Percy, Second Duke of Northumberland (note, p. i).; Northumberland, Hugh Percy, Duke of, 1742-1817, former owner.; Owned by the 2nd through 12th Dukes of Northumberland, ms. 573A, Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, 1809-2014.; Rainsford, Charles, 1728-1809, former owner.; Sold at auction at Sotheby's (London), 15 July 2014, as part of Lot 411.
  • Rights: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0
Catalog id
colenda:81431-p3vh5ch9f
Edition coverage
Multi source partial
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