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Compiled in 1593 by Felix Schmid from Stein am Rhein, this composite manuscript contains, among other items, the richly illustrated alchemistic treatise Splendor solis, various works by Paracelsus and Leonhard Thurneisser zum Thurn, and other alchemistic writings. Noteworthy is the binding by Hans Ludwig Brem from Lindau am Bodensee.
Online Since: 10/08/2015
Verbatim copy of Books I-III of the Alchemy Compendium Aureum Vellus oder Guldin Schatz und Kunstkammer printed in 1598/99 by Georg Straub in Rorschach. The woodcuts in the third part (Splendor Solis, pp. 219–270) are executed as colored watercolors and, except for a small number of differences, are copied exactly from the print version. A pen and wash drawing on p. 116 depicts Paracelsus.
Online Since: 12/14/2018
Composite manuscript in Latin and German. The texts, which are presented in no systematic order, can be grouped as follows. Geomancy: Latin treatise with schematic drawings (pp. 1-152, 163-169); other geomantic schemata (185, 236, 263 [incorrectly paginated as 262]). Medicine: recipes, in German (pp. 153-162 and 197-198); examination of the blood after bloodletting and instructions for bloodletting, in German (pp. 193-196, 255-261). Iatromathematics: lunarium, in Latin (pp. 169-172); planets and the attributes of their corresponding hours / of the persons born under their sign, in German, partly in rhymed verse (pp. 173-175, 178-179, 218, 240); tables for determining which planets govern which hours (p. 200, 240); signs of the zodiac, their characteristics and their influence on the people born under them, in Latin (pp. 180-185, 186 [hexameter]) and German (pp. 187-192), directions and tables for calculating the position of the moon in the zodiac (pp. 177-178, 213-214, [215b]-216 [for the years 1406-1480]); diagram of the zodiac (p. 262); drawing of the parts of the fingers correlated with signs of the zodiac, temperaments and elements (p. 264 [incorrectly paginated as 263]); monthly rules, in Latin (p. 215-[215a]). Astronomy: calendar (pp. 201-212); tables for calendar calculations (pp. 237, 241-242, 254); table of lunar eclipses for the years 1422-1462, with drawings of the respective degree of coverage (pp. 238-239 and 243). Prognostication: prognostics for thunder, in German (p.199); prognostics for the new year, in Latin (p. 217). Alchemy: recipes for alchemy, in Latin (pp. 219-220) and in German (pp. 221-228). Treatise on chiromancy, in German, commencing with a colored pen drawing of two hands with the lines of the hands (pp. 244-254). Other items: incantations, in German (p. 156) and in Latin (p.219); four hexameters about the quality of wine, in Latin (p. 264 [incorrectly paginated as 263]). The manuscript, written in various hands, is from the library of Aegidius Tschudi (no. 104).
Online Since: 09/23/2014
This manuscript was written or compiled by Johannes of Fulda in 1440. In 1953 it was donated to the museum by Dr. S. Merian. It had been the property of Jakob Burckhardt. The text is about medical alchemy.
Online Since: 06/22/2017
This paper manuscript contains a series of alchemistic writings attributed to the Catalan Franciscan Raimundus Lullus. It was copied by the scribe Johannes de Sancta Maria. The text is accompanied by twenty colored plates depicting the alchemistic process of transforming base metals into noble ones. The manuscript is part of a group of works of alchemistic content that was the property of Bartlome Schobinger (1500-1585), a wealthy merchant, book collector and councilman of the city of St. Gall, who left his notes in the manuscript. Schobinger is considered a promoter of alchemy and its studies, an interest that complemented his activities in the metal trade.
Online Since: 10/08/2020
In its first part, the parchment manuscript contains the text that has been named, on the basis of its outstanding cycle of illustrations, the Aurora consurgens. The manuscript also contains numerous other alchemical treatises, for ex. Albertus Magnus on Secreta Hermetis philosophi, Johannes de Garlandia (John of Garland), excerpts from Geber (Jabir ibn Hayyan), the Thesaurus philosophiae and the Visio Arislei. Nine other Aurora-manuscripts are currently known to exist: Berlin Die uffgehnde Morgenrödte, Bologna, Glasgow, Leiden, Vienna, Paris, Prague and Venice. The Berlin manuscript, dating from the early sixteenth century and containing the illustrations as well as the texts in German translation, is closely related to the Zürich Codex.
Online Since: 06/09/2011
This paper manuscript, produced around 1700, mentions in its title Emperor Leopold (I, reigned 1658-1705). The identity of Giovanni Baptista Coene from Passau, named as author, remains obscure; no further information is available about him. — The names of metals and other materials that Coene used in experiments are not written out in the text, but are represented by alchemic symbols (planetary signs, etc.). Because these occur in large numbers, the text is not easily readable or understandable. Further evidence that the manuscript is rooted in alchemy comes from the fact that Coene refers to Paracelsus (1493/94-1541), e.g., in the short final chapter with the title “Che cosa il Balsamo Samech di Paracelso” (pp. 101-102). Coene also mentions the “Testamentum” (pp. 99-100) and names Raimundus Lullus (1232/33-1315/16) as its author; today it is considered a pseudo-Llull text. — Within the chapters, individual paragraphs are numbered, but in the last quarter of the manuscript this numbering seems to have been added later (pp. 81-102). At the end of the manuscript, the numbering is incorrect (instead from p. 70ff. it should read correctly p. 97ff.). — The manuscripts was purchased in Italy in 1952.
Online Since: 10/08/2015