Verse and Transmutation History of Science and Medicine Library VOLUME 42 Medieval and Early Modern Science Editors J.M.M.H. Thijssen , Radboud University Nijmegen C.H. Lüthy , Radboud University Nijmegen Editorial Consultants Joël Biard , University of Tours Simo Knuuttila , University of Helsinki Jürgen Renn , Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science Theo Verbeek , University of Utrecht VOLUME 21 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hsml Verse and Transmutation A Corpus of Middle English Alchemical Poetry (Critical Editions and Studies) By Anke Timmermann LEIDEN • BOSTON 2013 On the cover : Oswald Croll, La Royalle Chymie (Lyons: Pierre Drobet, 1627). Title page (detail). Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library, Chemical Heritage Foundation. Photo by James R. Voelkel. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Timmermann, Anke. Verse and transmutation : a corpus of Middle English alchemical poetry (critical editions and studies) / by Anke Timmermann. pages cm. – (History of Science and Medicine Library ; Volume 42) (Medieval and Early Modern Science ; Volume 21) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-25484-8 (hardback : acid-free paper) – ISBN 978-90-04-25483-1 (e-book) 1. Alchemy–Sources. 2. Manuscripts, English (Middle) I. Title. QD26.T63 2013 540.1'12–dc23 2013027820 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1872-0684 ISBN 978-90-04-25484-8 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-25483-1 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. 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This book is printed on acid-free paper. keepe this booke frome euil persones (Bod MS Ashmole 1450, yleaf) CONTENTS Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi List of Tables, Diagrams and Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Naming Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 De ning a Corpus: The Scope of Historical Materials Considered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 Writing History Through the Lives of Texts: An Alternative Approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3 Reading this Book: A Brief Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 CRITICAL STUDIES 1 Introduction to a Corpus of Middle English Alchemical Poetry . . . . 15 1 Alchemical Poetry in Late Medieval England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2 The Corpus Around the “Verses upon the Elixir” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 2.1 The “Verses upon the Elixir” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 2.2 Texts Associated with the “Verses upon the Elixir” . . . . . . . . . 31 2.2.1 Physical Relations: “Boast of Mercury”, “Mystery of Alchemists” and “Liber Patris Sapientiae” . . . . . . . . . . . 31 2.2.2 Close Bonds: “Exposition” and “Wind and Water” . . . 36 2.2.3 Intertextual Connections: “Richard Carpenter’s Work” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 2.2.4 Peripheral Corporality: “Short Work” and “Trinity” . . 50 2.2.5 Additional Poems from the Ripley Scrolls: “On the ground”, “In the sea”, “I shall you tell” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 2.2.6 Added Ingredients: “Lead”, “Thomas Hend” and “Terra Terrae Philosophicae” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 2 The Corpus around the “Verses upon the Elixir”: Origins, Patterns and Peculiarities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 1 The Corpus Around the “Verses upon the Elixir” in Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 2 Textual Variation and Corpus Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 viii contents 2.1 Structural Adaptation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 2.2 Text Variation in Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 2.3 Interphraseology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 3 Interpreting Scribal Variations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 4 Coda: Copyists and Collectors in the Corpus Around the “Verses upon the Elixir” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 3 Authorship, Authority and Alchemical Verse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 1 Medieval Authorship and Alchemica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 2 Attributing the “Verses upon the Elixir” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 3 Translations: Language, Genre and Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 3.1 “Richard Carpenter’s Work”: “Alumen de Hispania” in English Verse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 3.2 “Terra Terrae Philosophicae”: The “Verses upon the Elixir” in Neo-Latin Prose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 4 The Ripley Scrolls: Alchemical Poetry, Images and Authority . . . . . . 113 1 Poems and Pretty Pictures: Introduction to the Ripley Scrolls 114 2 Illuminated Scrolls vs. Plain Codices: The Copyist’s Dilemma . . 126 3 Named Authorities, the Ripley Scrolls and the Corpus Around the “Verses upon the Elixir” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 5 Alchemical Poetry and Academia: Manuscripts as Chronicles of Scholarly Enquiry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 1 Trinity College Cambridge MS R.14.56 and the Libraries of Sixteenth-Century Cambridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 2 The Margins of Knowledge: Books and Commonplacing in Tudor England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 3 Alchemy Annotated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 3.1 Conversations in the Margins: Marginalia in Trinity College Cambridge MS R.14.56 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 3.2 Reading Annotations as Historical Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 6 Alchemical Verse and the Organisation of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 1 The Sloane Notebooks: Medicine and the Corpus Around the “Verses upon the Elixir” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 1.1 Introduction to the Notebook Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 1.2 The Compiler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 2 Notebooks as Virtual Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 2.1 Medica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 contents ix 2.2 Alchemica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 2.3 Contemporary Libraries as a Source of Notebook Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 2.4 Libraries and Laboratory Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 3 The Organisation of Thought in the Notebook Series . . . . . . . . . . 190 3.1 The Order of Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 3.2 The Arrangement of Alchemical Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Concluding Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 EDITIONS Preface to the Editions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 1 Abbreviations Used in the Critical Apparatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 2 Notes on the Stemmata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Poems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 1 “Verses upon the Elixir” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 2 “Boast of Mercury” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 3 * “Mystery of Alchemists” (excerpts) 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 4 “Liber Patris Sapientiae” (excerpts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 5 “Exposition” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 6 “Wind and Water” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 7 “Richard Carpenter’s Work” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 7.1 “Spain” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 7.2 “Titan Magnesia” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 7.3 “God Angel” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 7.4 “Sun” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 7.5 “Father Phoebus” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 8 “Short Work” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 9 Texts from the Ripley Scrolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 * “On the ground” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 * “In the sea”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 * “I shall you tell” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 10 “Trinity” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 1 Texts marked with an asterisk (*) are reproduced in diplomatic edition. x contents Prose Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 1 * “Alumen de Hispania” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 2 “Lead” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 3 “Thomas Hend” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 4 * “Terra Terrae Philosophicae”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 1 List of Manuscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 2 Handlist of Manuscript Witnesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 3 Secondary Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge constituted the physical and intellectual environment in which the material for this book was developed as part of my doctoral thesis between 2003 and 2006. Its staf, a liates, visitors and students, my men- tors and friends, created a wonderfully interdisciplinary environment and scope for scholarly exploration. Cambridge Libraries and Robinson College provided a home for me, and the generous and kind support of the Gates Cambridge Trust the modern equivalent of royal patronage for my endeav- ours. This book is dedicated to all of the above. Many institutions have guided my progress in the history of alchemy since I rst discovered the mysteries of manuscripts under Prof. Joachim Telle, to whom I am particularly indebted. I am very grateful for the support of the German Academic Exchange Service, which sponsored both my rst of many years abroad (then at Trinity College Dublin) and my alchemical his- torical pursuits leading to an MPhil at the University of Glasgow. This book manuscript was nalised while I was funded by the European Union Sev- enth Framework Programme (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF Marie Curie Action) at the Medical University of Vienna. The following scholars shared information and insights with me for my dissertation: Prof. George Keiser, Prof. Linne Mooney, Dr Kari Anne Rand, Prof. Pamela Smith and Prof. Linda Voigts. At the same time Dr Penny Bayer and Dr Jennifer Rampling shared their then unpublished work with me, and Dr Lauren Kassell stimulated the development of my analytic skills and scholarly identity. Several individuals continued to be especially helpful sources of information when I transformed my dissertation into this book, especially Adam McLean and Dr Peter Grund. Ladi Dell’aira lent essential assistance in the production of non-stemmatic diagrams. The anonymous reviewers of the book manuscript are to be commended for their careful comments, as are my proof readers and the series editors for their excellent supervision of the publication process. My special thanks for continued support during my doctoral studies and far beyond go to Dr Peter Jones. I am grateful to the following libraries and archives for opening their doors to me, and thus my research: the British Library; the Bodleian Li- brary; King’s, St John’s and Trinity colleges, the University Library and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge; the Royal College of Physicians in xii acknowledgements Edinburgh; Glasgow University Library; Huntington Library; Lambeth Pal- ace; Lincoln’s Inn; the Wellcome Institute; Corpus Christi College, Oxford and the National Library of Vienna. The following libraries generously pro- vided me with reproductions of manuscripts for research, often even with- out asking for compensation in the form of alchemical or other gold: Biblio- theca Philosophica Hermetica (Amsterdam), the Royal Library of Copen- hagen, Trinity College Dublin, the Rylands Library at Manchester, Mas- sachusetts Historical Society, the Bibliotheque Nationale, the University of Pennsylvania’s library, Princeton University Library, and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale. Several librarians were helpful beyond their professional duties: Ms Estela Dukan at the Royal College of Physi- cians, Edinburgh; Mr Sandy Paul at Trinity College Library, Cambridge; and Dr Mary Robertson at the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. For the use of images in this book, which make my studies more colourful and illus- trative, I extend my sincerest thanks to the Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, PA (cover image), to the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA (see Chapter 4), and to the Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge (Chap- ter 5). The permission to base Chapters 5 and 6 on material published earlier was kindly granted by Prof. Sonia Horn and Prof. Christoph Lüthy. Finally, several individuals I am proud to count among my friends (not only because of their essential role as constant companions during my geo- graphical and scholarly peregrinations) deserve special mention: Dr Mary Flannery, Dr Brigitte van Tiggelen, Dr Minou Friele, Dr Kathryn Lowe, Dr Antonia Ruppel and Mr David Bass. Gratia ago. LIST OF TABLES, DIAGRAMS AND FIGURES Tables I Alchemical procedures in two versions of the “Verses upon the Elixir” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 II The corpus around the “Verses upon the Elixir” in fteenth- century manuscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 III Ascriptions for the “Verses upon the Elixir” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 IV Some printed books referenced in the Sloane Notebook Series . . . 199 Diagrams I The fteenth-century corpus around the “Verses upon the Elixir” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 II The developed, early modern corpus around the “Verses upon the Elixir” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 III Stemma, Ripley Scrolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 IV Stemma for Trinity College Cambridge MS R.14.56 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 V Stemma, Sloane Notebook Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 VI Stemma, “Verses upon the Elixir”, version A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 VII Stemma, “Verses upon the Elixir”, version B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 VIII Stemma, “Boast of Mercury”, version A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 IX Stemma, “Boast of Mercury”, version B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 X Stemma, “Exposition” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 XI Stemma, “Wind and Water”, versions A and B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 XII Stemma, “Richard Carpenter’s Work”, variants “Spain” and “Titan Magnesia” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 XIII Stemma, “Richard Carpenter’s Work”, variant “Sun” (A short and long; B) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 XIV Stemma, “Richard Carpenter’s Work”, variant “Father Phoebus” . . 283 XV Stemma, “Short Work”, versions A, B and C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 XVI Stemma, “Trinity” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 xiv list of tables, diagrams and figures Figures I Ripley Scroll (Huntington Library MS HM 30313, section 1) . . . . . . . 116 II Ripley Scroll (Huntington Library MS HM 30313, section 2) . . . . . . . 118 III Ripley Scroll (Huntington Library MS HM 30313, section 3) . . . . . . . 120 IV Ripley Scroll (Huntington Library MS HM 30313, section 4) . . . . . . . 122 V The Trinity Compendium (TCC MS R.14.56), f. 86 v . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 ABBREVIATIONS BL British Library Bod Bodleian Library CUL Cambridge University Library DNB Dictionary of National Biography ed./eds. editor(s) expl explicit f./f. folio(s) GUL Glasgow University Library inc incipit KCC King’s College Cambridge DIMEV Digital Index of Middle English Verse NIMEV New Index of Middle English Verse MED Middle English Dictionary OED Oxford English Dictionary TCB Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum (Elias Ashmole, comp.; London, 1652) TCC Trinity College Cambridge TCD Trinity College Dublin Bibliographical details for reference works abbreviated here may be found in the Bibliography. NAMING CONVENTIONS Names of well-known alchemists and other historical individuals appear in the form most familiar to English-speaking readers (e.g. Arnold of Vil- lanova, Raymond Lull). Names recorded in manuscript witnesses retain their spelling. INTRODUCTION The fteenth century marked a signi cant development in Englishmen’s approaches to alchemy. Recipes for the philosophers’ stone, formerly mostly con ned to the expression of Latin prose, were now circulated in English rhyme. Between the fteenth and late seventeenth centuries in particular Middle English alchemical poetry permeated manuscripts, and with them, their readers’ understanding of the art. Indeed, alchemy was the most pop- ular topic for scienti c poetry in fteenth-century England, and the genre of alchemical verse de ned scienti c literature to a signi cant extent. 1 The sheer bulk, variety and consistency of Middle English rhymed alchemica even eclipsed the vernacular alchemical poetry of continental Europe. 2 While it is clear that many alchemical practitioners and writers consid- ered verse a good medium for the communication of the transformation of base metals into gold, the contexts and reasons for this are manifold. Some alchemical versi cations were written in the hope of procuring royal patron- age. Others, like the poems at the heart of this book, derive from a more laboratory-based background. Various poems were circulated as works of famous authors and alchemical authorities, often contributing to a pseu- doepigraphic tradition. But many alchemical poems, among them the cor- pus of texts considered here, travelled from one manuscript to the next anonymously. Alchemical poetry in all its guises would continue to preserve alchemical lore for more than two centuries, until it vanished together with the craft of alchemy on the threshold to the modern period. This book discovers the secrets of alchemical writing, thought and prac- tice through an investigation of Middle English alchemical poetry. It iden- ti es and explores a previously unidenti ed corpus of alchemical verse, a 1 The word ‘science’ is used throughout this book to denote branches of natural philos- ophy roughly relating to modern natural sciences: a combination of scientia , natural phi- losophy and theoretical craft knowledge. Further, I employ the term ‘alchemy’ in accordance with its use in the fteenth century (mostly relating to experiments and the transformation of matter); a critical discussion of the term may be found in Principe and Newman, “Some Prob- lems”. Finally, the term ‘alchemical practitioners’ as used in this book is intended to capture the rather inclusive group of individuals engaged in alchemical pursuits in the late medieval and early modern period. 2 Kahn, “Alchemical Poetry” I, II. Chapter 1 below delivers an introduction to alchemical poetry. 2 introduction noteworthy part of the extant written record of alchemy hitherto neglected in scholarship. The studies in this book present an alternative, corpus-based approach to the history of alchemy, to complement and intersect with nar- ratives focusing on, for example, individuals and institutions. They put an untitled, authorless and often textually unstable body of vernacular recipes centre stage and show that the poems’ original reception as a corpus, once unearthed from the manuscript record, ofers a unique perspective on his- torical conceptions of language and literature, authorship and authority, natural philosophy and craft knowledge. 1. Defining a Corpus: The Scope of Historical Materials Considered The poems considered here, recipes for the philosophers’ stone, were writ- ten, circulated and received in connection with each other, and in vari- ous permutations, throughout the early modern period. By merit of these connections they form a corpus of texts. The corpus’ poems include the “Verses upon the Elixir” ( NIMEV 3249), “Exposition” (2666), “Wind and Water” (3257), “Boast of Mercury” (1276 and 3271), “Mystery of Alchemists” (4017), “Liber Patris Sapientiae” (1150), “Richard Carpenter’s Work” (1555, 2656 and 3255), “Short Work” (3721), “In the sea” (1561.7), “On the ground” (2688), “I shall you tell” (1364) and “Trinity” (1558.5). Anonymous English prose texts like “Terra Terrae Philosophicae” and “Alumen de Hispania”, and a number of secondary writings, complete the corpus. The poetic core of this corpus is signi cant even just by statistical considerations alone. It was recently estimated that ca. 70 alchemical poems were written in England between 1500 and 1700. 3 The twenty-one corpus texts identi ed here clearly left a signi cant mark on this textual tradition. More than 130 manuscripts containing four hundred witnesses of texts from the corpus around the “Verses upon the Elixir” survive. Some are plain notebooks, others products of scholarly arts, and yet others beautifully illuminated scrolls, the famous “Ripley Scrolls”. Notably the nature and scope of this corpus, while necessarily a prag- matic construct to a certain extent, are primarily suggested by the historical materials themselves: the anonymous poem “Verses upon the Elixir” not 3 Kahn, “Alchemical Poetry” I, 268. For a list of German alchemical poems (for compari- son) known in 1976 see Telle, “Altdeutsches Spruchgedicht,” 417–418. introduction 3 only circulated on a larger scale than even George Ripley’s most popular English verse work, the “Compound of Alchemy” from the fteenth through seventeenth centuries, 4 but also accumulated a number of exegetic, supple- mentary or parallel texts in its reader reception. Late medieval and early modern users of the poem appear to have employed an identi able core set of texts to illuminate their interpretation of the “Verses upon the Elixir”, and vice versa. Some used parts of the “Verses upon the Elixir” as raw material for the composition of new recipes, others wrote compendia which showcase texts from the corpus in strategic positions. All core texts emerge in extant manuscripts from the mid- fteenth century onwards. An older textual tra- dition connected with the origin and development of the poem provides the chronologically earliest parts of the associated corpus (going back to the turn of the fteenth century), while later translations and adaptations transport the corpus poems and associated texts into the later early mod- ern period, until their manuscript production and reception wanes, in part replaced by print, around the mid-seventeenth century. The corpus identi ed here is necessarily not truly exhaustive. With some imagination it could be conceivable to write the entire history of medieval and early modern alchemical literature based on a thoroughly extended cor- pus alone. The corpus as de ned here, however, is su ciently self-contained to present a meaningful body of works for study, and a representative cross- section of alchemical writing. The poem “Verses upon the Elixir” shows a larger number of textual and material associations with other alchemical poems than other alchemical poems of the time, in all manuscripts investi- gated (a body of codices larger than the list of sources at the end of this book indicates). It therefore also occupies a central position in the constructed corpus as well as in Middle English alchemical literature. Criteria for inclu- sion of ancillary texts in the corpus around the “Verses upon the Elixir” are straightforward, conclusive textual or material indications: poems from the core corpus appear in a signi cant number of extant manuscripts, which date from the fteenth through seventeenth centuries, mostly together with other items from the corpus; texts supplementing the core corpus, in turn, demonstrate close material and textual a nities to the same, as well as a solid number of surviving witnesses. Contemporary annotations and com- ments on corpus texts constitute additional evidence for the connections 4 The “Compound” survives in 40 English copies and eight Latin manuscript copies (Rampling, “Catalogue,” s.v. item 9), the “Verses upon the Elixir” in fty and eight copies respectively (see Chapter 1). 4 introduction that form the corpus. The only group of texts included despite a restricted circulation history are exegetic prose texts written after, and directly refer- ring to, the “Verses upon the Elixir” (one of which only survives in four manuscripts). These texts provide such essential context for the poem that their omission would also have neglected vital information about the con- temporary reception of the corpus texts. The emphasis on material and textual-linguistic connections in my def- inition of the corpus around the “Verses upon the Elixir” should be consid- ered more signi cant than a nod to scholarship on textual corpora. 5 It is the presentation of the poems in manuscripts that represents the most tangible, and thus also most reliable de nition of the corpus, its creation and recep- tion. Underneath this physical manifestation the corpus texts also share a school of alchemical thought and recognisable content. They are all recipes for and commentaries on the philosophers’ stone and related processes, which join in the alchemical tradition of practice most popular in early mod- ern England and Europe at the time of their composition, and thus based around pseudo-Lullian concepts and their derivates. Their understanding, naturally, changed over time, and thus as the corpus around the “Verses” was adapted to diferent contexts. It is this juxtaposition of a stable yet adapt- able tradition in manuscripts, and a constantly changing context in which the manuscript copies were produced and received, that creates the oppor- tunity for historical analysis highlighted in this book. Perhaps the corpus around the “Verses upon the Elixir” may be compared metaphorically with an extended modern family: blood relations and best friends combine to form a recognisable unit whose identity can be de ned and acknowledged, and whose progression over time can be investigated. This particular family of alchemical poems encapsulates the creation, trans- mission and evolution of alchemical knowledge in the laboratory and the scriptorium, witnessed the development of diferent genres and notetaking techniques, and forms part of the history of Middle English verse, technical vocabulary and Gebrauchsliteratur 5 Most pertinently the Corpus of Early English Medical Writing (see e.g. Taavitsainen and Pahta, Medical , esp. Pahta, “Code-Switching”; Pahta, “Flowers”).