Johannes de Rupescissa, De consideratione quintae essentiae

Johannes de Rupescissa, De consideratione quintae essentiae, in Latin, on paper, Northern Italy (Bologna or Padua?), late 15th century.

Contents

1. ff. 1-22v, 22v-30v: Johannes de Rupescissa (Jean de Roquetaillade), De consideratione quintae essentiae, in Latin.

The treatise, probably written by Rupescissa about 1351-1352, describes the alchemical processes for the extraction by distillation of the essence of wine, plants and minerals for medicinal purposes. The distillation of the aqua ardens (ethyl alcohol) extracted from wine is at the basis of all other distillations. The author believes the alcohol to be an element similar to the so-called quinta essentia, the incorruptible fifth element that according to Aristotle forms the essence of heavenly bodies, and is therefore capable of preserving the human body from corruption and illnesses. The text is divided into two books, the first dedicated to the distillation processes with subdivisions called canones, the second to the medical applications of the essences described, arranged in chapters called remedia.

The text is listed in eTK, A digital resource based on Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy, 1963; with supplements in 1965 and 1968; online at https://medievalacademy.site-ym.com/?page=Books#etk), no. 458A.

For other manuscript copies of the treatise in the Wellcome Library, see MSS 117, 186, 384, 513, 520, 708, 710 and 712; imperfect copies in MSS 502, 523 and 711; excerpts in MSS 452, 526 (partly fragmentary), 598, 388 (in English translation); a summary in MS. 517.

f. 1r: Book 1: Incipit: [D]Ixit salomon sapientie capitulo .septimo. deus dedit michi horum scientiam veram que sunt ut sciam dispositionem orbis terrarum et virtutes elementorum ...

f. 22v, column 1: Book 1: Explicit: ... ad consolationem euangelicorum virorum et honorem ecclesie sancte dei et cetera / Explicit liber primus qui est de consideratione quinte essentie. Jn nomine domini.

f. 22v, column 1: Book 2: Incipit: Jncipit liber 2.us de generalibus remediis feliciter / [L]Jcet primus liber qui est de consideratione quinte essentie tante virtutis in rei veritate existat vt per eum possit curari omnis morbis curabilis ....

f. 30v, column 1: Explicit: ... nichil efficacius spa-/simum sedat quam nobilissima quinta essentia vel in euis absentia Aqua ardens. / Et In hoc est finis huius libri. / [rubric in light purple] Finis libri de quinta essentia singularissimi Ac secreti valde.

2. f. 30v, column 2: Six medical recipes: 1.[rubric in light purple] Ad inflammationem ma./millarum [end of rubric] / Si mamille inflentur ex lactis multi./tudine …; Aut cum faba fracta trita …; In augmento appone ouum cum oleo roxato et istud tumorem mamillarum et omnes defectus tollit; 2.[rubric in light purple] Ad inflationem [sic] testiculorum [end of rubric] / Recipe farinam fabarum …; 3.[rubric in light purple] Ad tumorem mamillarum et testiculorum [end of rubric] / Absinthii mente ana partes equales decoquantur in vino …; Item fabe frixe mundate …; 4.[rubric in light purple] Ad faciendum faciem pulcram [sic] / Recipe radices lenistici …[end of rubric]; 5. Ad maturandum omnem tumorem / Recipe cepam et decoque cum oleo …; 6.[rubric in light purple] Ad dolorem dentium [end of rubric] / Recipe piretri dramme se. …

On paper. Watermark of triple mount, with rod and cross above consisting of one line (height 68 mm, width 30 mm, distance between chainlines 62 mm), unidentified; watermark of a vertical bow and arrow with feather (height 55 mm, width 52 mm, distance between chainlines 62 mm), similar to Briquet 816 (Bergamo, 1513) and Piccard 123483 (Verona, 1515).

On paper; 30 leaves, plus wrapper-type flyleaves, i.e. conjoint leaves forming upper and lower flyleaves, which have been reversed back-to-front in modern binding; modern foliation '1-30' in pencil in upper right corners, followed here. 269 x 187 mm; written space 213/218 x 143 mm; ruled in single vertical bounding lines in metal point only for double columns, 32-40 written lines (with no ruling) to the column; no trace of pricking holes.

Collation: 1-3¹⁰; with quire alphanumerical signature '.A. .1.-.A. .5.'-'.C. .1.-.C. .5.' in dark brown ink along lower-edge, and catchwords at the lower edge of the last verso in quires, but with f. 10 reversed back to front in modern binding.

Secundo folio: eius sed ego.

Copied in a small and sharp cursive Italian Gothic hand, late 15th century.

Illuminated initial D on f. 1r: ten-line high, in red and pink with white tracery, set against a square gold-leaf ground and filled with a foliate-design decoration in red and yellow on a ground of blue, all with white tracery, with two green knots at top and bottom and extending into the upper inner margin in foliate design of red, green, grey and purple, terminating with gold bezants and stem; two rectangular vignettes above each column on f. 1r: thirteen-line high, framed in shell-gold and purple, filled with foliate-design decorations in red, green, yellow and purple set against grounds of blue, all with white tracery; three- to nine-line initials in alternating blue and red, with light grey pen-flourished and occasional reserved decoration throughout; paragraph marks in alternating red and blue and rubrics in light purple throughout.

Modern black cloth and limp pasteboard case-binding, attached to the bookblock through sewing.

Bought from the London bookseller and collector Wilfrid Michael Voynich (1865-1930) on 27 April 1910 for £ 20: see note pencilled in lower left corner of upper flyleaf.

Title 'Liber de quinta essentia' added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century reader in the upper margin of f. 1r.

The inscription 'Qui fecit additiones pandectarum in dicte flagra [for plaga?] dicit [crossed through] innuit predictum fuisse [crossed through] librum esse edditum a Johanne de rupescissa', written in cursive humanistic script by an early 16th-century Italian reader at head of upper flyleaf, which modern binder reversed so that the note is now upside-down on verso of the lower flyleaf.

Alphonse Antoine Louis Chassant (1808-1907), French scholar, art historian and librarian, his bookplate with monogram (C / RLMER), arms (gules, a paschal lamb passant, on a chief azure three fleurs de lis argent [?]) and motto 'Vita sine litteris mors est', glued onto the inside of the upper cover.

Marked '2961' in blue crayon at upper edge on the inside of the upper cover, 'a5657' and '59 F .2.' in pencil respectively in the upper left corner and the upper edge of the upper flyleaf, late 19th and/or early 20th century.