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Lot 46
Anonymous Italian alchemist and metallurgist - 'Novelgilio Venale'
Saggio analitico docimastico sperimentale, an encrypted alchemical manuscript, in cipher (Italian), decorated manuscript on paper [northern Italy], 1754.
Closed13 July 2022
Price Realised
GBP 15,120
More Information
Anonymous Italian alchemist and metallurgist - 'Novelgilio Venale'
Saggio analitico docimastico sperimentale, an encrypted alchemical manuscript, in cipher (Italian), decorated manuscript on paper [northern Italy], 1754.
A fascinating alchemical-metallurgical manuscript, written entirely in cipher, and illustrated with a series of watercolours depicting alchemical vases and furnaces.
165 x 113mm. v+238+iii leaves, all on paper except f.83 vellum, apparently complete, pagination 1-384 followed here, partially foliated, ff.171-2, 188-207, and 218-220 blank, c.30-32 lines written entirely in substitution cipher, the decrypted language Italian, 18 plates (including one fold-out) with monochromatic watercolour pictures of furnaces and alchemical vases, one inserted vellum leaf with a cabalistic wheel the phrase: ‘Innues. V. Lilia. Velo.’ (small tear to lower margin of p.1, some foxing and browning, a few stains, e.g. to pp.165 and 172). Contemporary blind-tooled vellum over pasteboards, brass clasps (yellowed, spine worn).
Provenance:
(1) The text of the manuscript is written entirely in substitution cipher, where a letter of the alphabet is replaced by a specific symbol. The titlepage (p.1) can be deciphered as follows: ‘Saggio analitico docimastico sperimentale et filochimici riflessi di Novelgilio Venale crisopeio: all aquisto et coltura delli amatori dell’arte idropirotica si espone / 1754’. Novelgilio (Novel Gilio – ‘New Lilly’) Venale could be an anagram for the name of the author, and indeed this seems echoed in the inserted vellum emblematic diagram on f.83: ‘Innues. V. Lilia. Velo’. He calls himself a ‘crisopeio’, or a ‘maker of gold’ (apparently a hapax legomenon in the Italian language). Perhaps a prospector, he goes into detailed descriptions of the mines around Bergamo (see p.49 ff.).
(2) Paris, Druot, 28 April 2001, lot 138.
Content: The content of the manuscript is undoubtedly alchemical in nature, with a focus on metallurgy and minerallurgy, although the author also delves into medicine and toxicology. Its deciphered opening reads: ‘Proemio del contenuto in questa opera. Dovendosi apiliare allo studo analitico delle miniere resta necessario per iscoprirne li accidenti […]’, ending on p.371: ‘[…] essicare il Magistero’. The author cites Paracelsus (p.123 ff.) and the Paduan 15th-century alchemist Bernardo Trevisano (p.182); he uses alchemical symbols (for sulphur and mercury, for example, see p.137), and draws extensively on the works of the late 17th-century metallurgist and author Christoph Andreas Schlüter (see p.35). He describes methods of mineral extraction that he has devised himself (p.36 ff.). Index ff.208-217v.
The exquisitely rendered watercolours depicting alchemical vases and furnaces (numbered 1-18, with no 5 labelled but not drawn) are on ff.221v, 222v, 223v, 224v, 226v, 227v, 228v, 229v, 230v, 231v, 232v, 233v, 234v, 235v, 236v, 237, 237v, 238 (foldout).
Saggio analitico docimastico sperimentale, an encrypted alchemical manuscript, in cipher (Italian), decorated manuscript on paper [northern Italy], 1754.
A fascinating alchemical-metallurgical manuscript, written entirely in cipher, and illustrated with a series of watercolours depicting alchemical vases and furnaces.
165 x 113mm. v+238+iii leaves, all on paper except f.83 vellum, apparently complete, pagination 1-384 followed here, partially foliated, ff.171-2, 188-207, and 218-220 blank, c.30-32 lines written entirely in substitution cipher, the decrypted language Italian, 18 plates (including one fold-out) with monochromatic watercolour pictures of furnaces and alchemical vases, one inserted vellum leaf with a cabalistic wheel the phrase: ‘Innues. V. Lilia. Velo.’ (small tear to lower margin of p.1, some foxing and browning, a few stains, e.g. to pp.165 and 172). Contemporary blind-tooled vellum over pasteboards, brass clasps (yellowed, spine worn).
Provenance:
(1) The text of the manuscript is written entirely in substitution cipher, where a letter of the alphabet is replaced by a specific symbol. The titlepage (p.1) can be deciphered as follows: ‘Saggio analitico docimastico sperimentale et filochimici riflessi di Novelgilio Venale crisopeio: all aquisto et coltura delli amatori dell’arte idropirotica si espone / 1754’. Novelgilio (Novel Gilio – ‘New Lilly’) Venale could be an anagram for the name of the author, and indeed this seems echoed in the inserted vellum emblematic diagram on f.83: ‘Innues. V. Lilia. Velo’. He calls himself a ‘crisopeio’, or a ‘maker of gold’ (apparently a hapax legomenon in the Italian language). Perhaps a prospector, he goes into detailed descriptions of the mines around Bergamo (see p.49 ff.).
(2) Paris, Druot, 28 April 2001, lot 138.
Content: The content of the manuscript is undoubtedly alchemical in nature, with a focus on metallurgy and minerallurgy, although the author also delves into medicine and toxicology. Its deciphered opening reads: ‘Proemio del contenuto in questa opera. Dovendosi apiliare allo studo analitico delle miniere resta necessario per iscoprirne li accidenti […]’, ending on p.371: ‘[…] essicare il Magistero’. The author cites Paracelsus (p.123 ff.) and the Paduan 15th-century alchemist Bernardo Trevisano (p.182); he uses alchemical symbols (for sulphur and mercury, for example, see p.137), and draws extensively on the works of the late 17th-century metallurgist and author Christoph Andreas Schlüter (see p.35). He describes methods of mineral extraction that he has devised himself (p.36 ff.). Index ff.208-217v.
The exquisitely rendered watercolours depicting alchemical vases and furnaces (numbered 1-18, with no 5 labelled but not drawn) are on ff.221v, 222v, 223v, 224v, 226v, 227v, 228v, 229v, 230v, 231v, 232v, 233v, 234v, 235v, 236v, 237, 237v, 238 (foldout).
Anonymous Italian alchemist and metallurgist - 'Novelgilio Venale'
Saggio analitico docimastico sperimentale, an encrypted alchemical manuscript, in cipher (Italian), decorated manuscript on paper [northern Italy], 1754.
A fascinating alchemical-metallurgical manuscript, written entirely in cipher, and illustrated with a series of watercolours depicting alchemical vases and furnaces.
165 x 113mm. v+238+iii leaves, all on paper except f.83 vellum, apparently complete, pagination 1-384 followed here, partially foliated, ff.171-2, 188-207, and 218-220 blank, c.30-32 lines written entirely in substitution cipher, the decrypted language Italian, 18 plates (including one fold-out) with monochromatic watercolour pictures of furnaces and alchemical vases, one inserted vellum leaf with a cabalistic wheel the phrase: ‘Innues. V. Lilia. Velo.’ (small tear to lower margin of p.1, some foxing and browning, a few stains, e.g. to pp.165 and 172). Contemporary blind-tooled vellum over pasteboards, brass clasps (yellowed, spine worn).
Provenance:
(1) The text of the manuscript is written entirely in substitution cipher, where a letter of the alphabet is replaced by a specific symbol. The titlepage (p.1) can be deciphered as follows: ‘Saggio analitico docimastico sperimentale et filochimici riflessi di Novelgilio Venale crisopeio: all aquisto et coltura delli amatori dell’arte idropirotica si espone / 1754’. Novelgilio (Novel Gilio – ‘New Lilly’) Venale could be an anagram for the name of the author, and indeed this seems echoed in the inserted vellum emblematic diagram on f.83: ‘Innues. V. Lilia. Velo’. He calls himself a ‘crisopeio’, or a ‘maker of gold’ (apparently a hapax legomenon in the Italian language). Perhaps a prospector, he goes into detailed descriptions of the mines around Bergamo (see p.49 ff.).
(2) Paris, Druot, 28 April 2001, lot 138.
Content: The content of the manuscript is undoubtedly alchemical in nature, with a focus on metallurgy and minerallurgy, although the author also delves into medicine and toxicology. Its deciphered opening reads: ‘Proemio del contenuto in questa opera. Dovendosi apiliare allo studo analitico delle miniere resta necessario per iscoprirne li accidenti […]’, ending on p.371: ‘[…] essicare il Magistero’. The author cites Paracelsus (p.123 ff.) and the Paduan 15th-century alchemist Bernardo Trevisano (p.182); he uses alchemical symbols (for sulphur and mercury, for example, see p.137), and draws extensively on the works of the late 17th-century metallurgist and author Christoph Andreas Schlüter (see p.35). He describes methods of mineral extraction that he has devised himself (p.36 ff.). Index ff.208-217v.
The exquisitely rendered watercolours depicting alchemical vases and furnaces (numbered 1-18, with no 5 labelled but not drawn) are on ff.221v, 222v, 223v, 224v, 226v, 227v, 228v, 229v, 230v, 231v, 232v, 233v, 234v, 235v, 236v, 237, 237v, 238 (foldout).
Saggio analitico docimastico sperimentale, an encrypted alchemical manuscript, in cipher (Italian), decorated manuscript on paper [northern Italy], 1754.
A fascinating alchemical-metallurgical manuscript, written entirely in cipher, and illustrated with a series of watercolours depicting alchemical vases and furnaces.
165 x 113mm. v+238+iii leaves, all on paper except f.83 vellum, apparently complete, pagination 1-384 followed here, partially foliated, ff.171-2, 188-207, and 218-220 blank, c.30-32 lines written entirely in substitution cipher, the decrypted language Italian, 18 plates (including one fold-out) with monochromatic watercolour pictures of furnaces and alchemical vases, one inserted vellum leaf with a cabalistic wheel the phrase: ‘Innues. V. Lilia. Velo.’ (small tear to lower margin of p.1, some foxing and browning, a few stains, e.g. to pp.165 and 172). Contemporary blind-tooled vellum over pasteboards, brass clasps (yellowed, spine worn).
Provenance:
(1) The text of the manuscript is written entirely in substitution cipher, where a letter of the alphabet is replaced by a specific symbol. The titlepage (p.1) can be deciphered as follows: ‘Saggio analitico docimastico sperimentale et filochimici riflessi di Novelgilio Venale crisopeio: all aquisto et coltura delli amatori dell’arte idropirotica si espone / 1754’. Novelgilio (Novel Gilio – ‘New Lilly’) Venale could be an anagram for the name of the author, and indeed this seems echoed in the inserted vellum emblematic diagram on f.83: ‘Innues. V. Lilia. Velo’. He calls himself a ‘crisopeio’, or a ‘maker of gold’ (apparently a hapax legomenon in the Italian language). Perhaps a prospector, he goes into detailed descriptions of the mines around Bergamo (see p.49 ff.).
(2) Paris, Druot, 28 April 2001, lot 138.
Content: The content of the manuscript is undoubtedly alchemical in nature, with a focus on metallurgy and minerallurgy, although the author also delves into medicine and toxicology. Its deciphered opening reads: ‘Proemio del contenuto in questa opera. Dovendosi apiliare allo studo analitico delle miniere resta necessario per iscoprirne li accidenti […]’, ending on p.371: ‘[…] essicare il Magistero’. The author cites Paracelsus (p.123 ff.) and the Paduan 15th-century alchemist Bernardo Trevisano (p.182); he uses alchemical symbols (for sulphur and mercury, for example, see p.137), and draws extensively on the works of the late 17th-century metallurgist and author Christoph Andreas Schlüter (see p.35). He describes methods of mineral extraction that he has devised himself (p.36 ff.). Index ff.208-217v.
The exquisitely rendered watercolours depicting alchemical vases and furnaces (numbered 1-18, with no 5 labelled but not drawn) are on ff.221v, 222v, 223v, 224v, 226v, 227v, 228v, 229v, 230v, 231v, 232v, 233v, 234v, 235v, 236v, 237, 237v, 238 (foldout).
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