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a corpus of Middle English alchemical poetry (critical editions and studies)
1 online resource (xiv, 374 pages) : illustrations, 1 facsimile
Verse and transmutation: a corpus of Middle English alchemical poetry' identifies and investigates a corpus of twenty-one anonymous recipes for the philosophers' stone dating from the fifteenth century. These were circulated and received in association with each other until the mid-seventeenth century, when a number of them appeared in Elias Ashmole's 'Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum'. These editions are the first to make this previously unidentified corpus available to researchers. The accompanying studies discover the complex histories of these "alchemica", in plain and illuminated manuscripts, "asanonyma" and in attribution to famous authors, and in private and institutional, medical and academic book collections. Together, they offer novel insights into the role of alchemy and poetry in late medieval and early modern England. Also part of series Medieval and Early Modern Science
Introduction -- 1. Introduction to a corpus of Middle English alchemical poetry -- 2. The corpus around the 'verses upon the Elixir' : origins, patterns and peculiarities -- 3. Authorship, authority and alchemical verse -- 4. The Ripley Scrolls : alchemical poetry, images and authority -- 5. Alchemical poetry and academia : manuscripts as chronicles of scholarly enquiry -- 6. Alchemical verse and the organization of knowledge -- Concluding thoughts -- Editions: preface to the editions -- Poems -- Prose texts.
Introduction -- 1. Defining a Corpus: The Scope of Historical Materials Considered -- 2. Writing History Through the Lives of Texts: An Alternative Approach -- 3. Reading this Book: A Brief Guide -- Critical Studies -- 1. Introduction to a Corpus of Middle English Alchemical Poetry -- 1. Alchemical Poetry in Late Medieval England -- 2. The Corpus Around the "Verses upon the Elixir" -- 2.1. The "Verses upon the Elixir" -- 2.2. Texts Associated with the "Verses upon the Elixir" -- 2.2.1. Physical Relations: "Boast of Mercury", "Mystery of Alchemists" and "Liber Patris Sapientiae" -- 2.2.2. Close Bonds: "Exposition" and "Wind and Water" -- 2.2.3. Intertextual Connections: "Richard Carpenter's Work" -- 2.2.4. Peripheral Corporality: "Short Work" and "Trinity" -- 2.2.5. Additional Poems from the Ripley Scrolls: "On the ground", "In the sea", "I shall you tell" -- 2.2.6. Added Ingredients: "Lead", "Thomas Hend" and "Terra Terrae Philosophicae."
Contents note continued: 2. The Corpus around the "Verses upon the Elixir": Origins, Patterns and Peculiarities -- 1. The Corpus Around the "Verses upon the Elixir" in Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts -- 2. Textual Variation and Corpus Connections -- 2.1. Structural Adaptation -- 2.2. Text Variation in Poetry -- 2.3. Interphraseology -- 3. Interpreting Scribal Variations -- 4. Coda: Copyists and Collectors in the Corpus Around the "Verses upon the Elixir" -- 3. Authorship, Authority and Alchemical Verse -- 1. Medieval Authorship and Alchemica -- 2. Attributing the "Verses upom the Elixir" -- 3. Translations: Language, Genre and Authority -- 3.1."Richard Carpenter's Work": "Alumen de Hispania" in English Verse -- 3.2."Terra Terrae Philosophicae": The "Verses upon the Elixir" in Neo-Latin Prose -- 4. The Ripley Scrolls: Alchemical Poetry, Images and Authority -- 1. Poems and Pretty Pictures: Introduction to the Ripley Scrolls -- 2. Illuminated Scrolls vs. Plain Codices: The Copyist's Dilemma.
Contents note continued: 3. Named Authorities, the Ripley Scrolls and the Corpus Around the "Verses upon the Elixir" -- 5. Alchemical Poetry and Academia: Manuscripts as Chronicles of Scholarly Enquiry -- 1. Trinity College Cambridge MS R.14.56 and the Libraries of Sixteenth-Century Cambridge -- 2. The Margins of Knowledge: Books and Commonplacing in Tudor England -- 3. Alchemy Annotated -- 3.1. Conversations in the Margins: Marginalia in Trinity College Cambridge MS R.14.56 -- 3.2. Reading Annotations as Historical Records -- 6. Alchemical Verse and the Organisation of Knowledge -- 1. The Sloane Notebooks: Medicine and the Corpus Around the "Verses upon the Elixir" -- 1.1. Introduction to the Notebook Series -- 1.2. The Compiler -- 2. Notebooks as Virtual Libraries -- 2.1. Medica -- 2.2. Alchemica -- 2.3. Contemporary Libraries as a Source of Notebook Knowledge -- 2.4. Libraries and Laboratory Knowledge -- 3. The Organisation of Thought in the Notebook Series -- 3.1. The Order of Medicine.
Contents note continued: 3.2. The Arrangement of Alchemical Information -- Concluding Thoughts -- Editions -- Preface to the Editions -- 1. Abbreviations Used in the Critical Apparatus -- 2. Notes on the Stemmata -- Poems -- 1."Verses upon the Elixir" -- 2."Boast of Mercury" -- 3.* "Mystery of Alchemists" (excerpts)1 -- 4."Liber Patris Sapientiae" (excerpts) -- 5."Exposition" -- 6."Wind and Water" -- 7."Richard Carpenter's Work" -- 7.1."Spain" -- 7.2."Titan Magnesia" -- 7.3."God Angel" -- 7.4."Sun" -- 7.5."Father Phoebus" -- 8."Short Work" -- 9. Texts from the Ripley Scrolls -- * "On the ground" -- * "In the sea" -- * "I shall you tell" -- 10."Trinity" -- 1 Texts marked with an asterisk (*) are reproduced in diplomatic edition -- Prose Texts -- 1.* "Alumen de Hispania" -- 2."Lead" -- 3."Thomas Hend" -- 4.* "Terra Terrae Philosophicae" -- Bibliography -- 1. List of Manuscripts -- 2. Handlist of Manuscript Witnesses -- 3. Secondary Literature.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
History of science and medicine library ; v. 42
History of science and medicine library. v. 21