ambix, Vol. 56 No.

1, March, 2009, 57–67

The Ars alchemie: the First Latin Text

on Practical Alchemy
Antony Vinciguerra

The Ars alchemie is a collection of alchemical recipes associated with the

names of the Arabic–Latin translator Michael Scot and the major general of
the Friars Minor, Elias Cortona, of the first half of the thirteenth century. This
articles investigates the various forms in which this text appears in the four
manuscripts that contain it. It shows the dependence of one of its prologues
on the work of an earlier translator, Hugo of Santalla, and the overlap of
its contents with other alchemical treatises: Liber luminis luminum, Liber
Dedali, Liber de aluminibus et salibus and Liber Hermetis de blchkmkb. Its
mention of the alum of Aleppo corresponds with references to trade in
this material in the thirteenth century. Its main characteristics are its
compilatory nature and its emphasis on practical applications.

The Ars alchemie is a collection of alchemical recipes composed in the first half
of the thirteenth century. It occurs in four manuscripts dated from the end of the
thirteenth to the beginning of the fourteenth century: Palermo, Biblioteca comunale,
Qq A 10 (AD 1320), fols. 357r–363v; Oxford, Corpus Christi College, 125 (end of
thirteenth century), fols. 97r–100v; Cambridge, Gonville and Gaius College, 181 (AD
1275), pp. 19–32; and Göttingen, Universitätsbibliothek, Hist. Nat. 75 (fourteenth
century), fols. 18r–18v. The four manuscripts show so many variants that none would
seem to be a copy of another.1
The Ars alchemie is one of the most ancient Latin alchemical texts that is not
translated directly from Arabic. It consists of a kind of theoretical part and seven long
recipes, followed by a detailed list of different products and processes.2 The first part
appears disordered, and is without much doctrinal interest. In contrast, the recipes
have excited the interest of several scholars. The editors of the texts have, in the first

1
The manuscripts of Oxford, Palermo and Cambridge have been edited separately and successively:
Charles Homer Haskins, “The ‘Alchemy’ ascribed to Michael Scot,” Isis 10 (1928): 350–59; Dorothea Singer,
“Michael Scot and Alchemy,” Isis 13 (1929): 5–15; Samuel Harrison Thomson, “The Text of Michael Scot’s
‘Ars Alchemie’,” Osiris 5 (1938): 523–59. The quotations in this paper will follow the manuscripts rather than
the editions.
2
The four manuscripts contain the seven recipes without major variants, but none gives the same list. The
theoretical part does not appear in the manuscript of Göttingen.

© Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry 2009 DOI: 10.1179/174582309X405237
58 ANTONY VINCIGUERRA

instance, noted the number and the variation of the names of alchemists mentioned
in the recipes.3 Among these, they have identified two well-known personalities of the
thirteenth century: Michael Scot and Elias of Cortona. In a different area, Dietlinde
Göltz has revealed the variety and originality of the products mentioned, such as the
salts and the alums.4 In his turn, David Abulafia has underlined the significance
of the recipes for constructing the trade routes of products such as alum.5 Robert
Halleux, for his part, has been able to see in the Ars alchemie one of the first Latin
attempts to compose an alchemical text divided into theory and practice.6 My pur-
pose here will be to develop these lines of research and to present new approaches,
touching on the composition and the origins of the Ars alchemie.
The text that introduced the recipes — the “theoretical” part — presents general
considerations concerning alchemical, astrological and cosmological knowledge.
Haskins had proposed dividing this text into four chapters: (I) a first prologue on the
study of alchemy; (II) a second prologue on the nature of alchemical knowledge; (III)
a list of the planets and signs of the zodiac; and (IV) a list of metals and their rela-
tionships to the planets. Then follows a chapter containing the first recipe (V). This
division, taken up by Singer and Thomson, does not strictly follow the structure of
the text, since the five chapters, in fact, cover seven pieces of the text, which are
distinct and have different origins.
The first prologue can be found, with some minor differences, in two manu-
scripts of the fifteenth century. In one, it introduces a text attributed to William of
Auvergne,7 and in the other, a text attributed to Pope Boniface VIII.8 It seems, there-
fore, to constitute a kind of “itinerant text,” attached to different works in different
manuscripts.
The second prologue is a text of the same genre. It is found originally in the Ars
geomancie, a text composed by Hugo of Santalla in the middle of the twelfth
century and contained in a dozen manuscripts.9 Only two passages have been changed
in the Ars alchemie. The first was originally a digression on astrological knowledge:
Ars geomancie10
Cum igitur universos, stolidos videlicet tanquam sapientes, ad philosophandum pronos
fore contigisset eruditior prudentium secta ad computandi artem et astronomie secreta

3
Haskins, “Alchemy,” 354–59; Singer, “Michael Scot and Alchemy,” 5; Thomson, “The Text,” 558–59.
4
Dietlinde Goltz, Studien zur Geschichte der Mineralnamen in Pharmazie, Chemie und Medizin von den Anfän-
gen bis Paracelsus (Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1972), 233 and 272.
5
David Abulafia, “Industrial Products in the Middle Ages,” in Prodotti e tecniche d’Oltremare nelle economie
europee in secc. XIII–XVIII, XXIX Settimana dell’Instituto Internazionale di Storia economica F. Datini, Flor-
ence, 1998 (Milan: Le Monnier, 1999), 344; reprinted in Mediterranean Encounters 1110–1550 (Aldershot:
Ashgate, 2000), V, 344.
6
Robert Halleux, “L’alchimia,” in Federico II e le scienze, ed. Pierre Toubert and Agostino Paravicini-Bagliani
(Palermo: Sellerio, 1994), 152–61.
7
This is noted by Singer, “Michael Scot and Alchemy,” 5, n. 3.
8
MS Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria 168, fol. 5r.
9
An edition of the prologue of this treatise based on MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Lat. 7354,
fols. 1r–1v is found in Paul Tannery, Le Rabolion, Mémoires scientifiques, IV (Toulouse: Edouard Privat and
Gauthier Villars, 1920), 324–26.
10
Tannery, Le Rabolion, 324–25.
 THE ARS ALCHEMIE: THE FIRST LATIN TEXT ON PRACTICAL ALCHEMY 59

rimanda mentis oculum revocans astrorum loca cursus directos retrogradationes ortus
occasus sublimationes depressiones et que sunt in his alterationes atque admiranda
prodigia attendens, astrologorum minus prudentium multiplicem cognovit errorem. Hac
igitur ratione cogente compendium hoc certissimum ex his omnibus prudens adinvenit
antiquitas. Denique aput uniuersos philosophie professores ratum arbitror et constans
quicquid in hoc mundo conditum subsistendi vicem sortitum est haut dissimile exemplar
in superiori circulo possidere exemplar.

Ars alchemie11
universos itaque stolidos tamquam sapientes ad probandos facere contigisset quod nos
eruditorum prudentium secreta computanda alkimie artem rationandi secreta natura
mentis arcano revocans loca fixus12 directos gradus ortus occasus permutaciones et etiam
distillaciones et que sunt in eis alteraciones admiranda vestigia attendens alchemiarum
minus prudentium deprehendendi errores. Hac igitur permutacione racione cogente
compendium hoc certissimum ex hiis omnibus prudens invenit antiquitas. Deinde aput
omnes filosoficas permutaciones ratum arbitror quicquid in hac arte conditum subsis-
tendi vicem alkemiarum vel alkemistrarum est autem dissimile13 exemplar in libris
antiquis philosophorum contineri et quia artificium alkimie antiquius forte antiquitas
refert.

The second passage is a kind of dedication:

Ars geomancie14
Ego Sanccelliensis geomantie inscriptionem aggredior et tibi, mi domine Tirasonensis
antistes, ex priscorum opulentia huiusmodi munusculam adporto aeremantia et
piromantia quas audivi sed minime contigit reperiri postpositis deinceps idromantiam
tractaturus.

Ars Alchemie15
Ego vero magister Miccael scottus interpretationem aggredior et tibi magno Theophilo
gayto saracenorum tecum Tunixe, huius munusculum apporto et secreta nature et verba
philosofica que audivi tecum volo alchimiam translatare.

These two extracts show clearly that the author, or more exactly the compiler, of the
Ars alchemie has performed a veritable “cut and paste” procedure, starting with the
text of the Ars geomancie, and has limited himself to modifying explicit astrological
expressions to alchemical ones. No effort seems to have been made to present a
definition specific to alchemical knowledge that is independent from astrological and

11
This text is based on MSS Oxford, Corpus Christi College, fol. 97r, and Palermo, Biblioteca comunale, Qq A
10, fol. 357r: Haskins, “Alchemy,” 352. The readings in MS Cambridge, Gonville and Gaius College, 181 are
sometimes different, but are no closer to, or more distant from, the Ars geomantie: see Thomson, “The Text,”
533.
12
fixus is found in both the Oxford MS and the Palermo MS, corrected into fixa by Haskins, “Alchemy,” 352,
n. 20.
13
The Palermo MS gives dissimile, but the Oxford MS gives difficile: see Haskins, “Alchemy,” 352, n. 23. In the
Cambridge MS, dissimile is also found: see Thomson, “The Text,” 533.
14
Tannery, Le Rabolion, 326.
15
Haskins, “Alchemy,” 352.
60 ANTONY VINCIGUERRA

magical knowledge. Even the title of the geomantic text has probably inspired the
title of the Ars alchemie.
The second prologue is followed directly by a very different text, not noted by
Haskins as a distinct chapter, which contains a genuine attempt to define alchemical
knowledge:16
Hec est solutio caliditatis et roritatis et balneum aquosum et locus roridus et humidus
et vaporosus. Hic est puteus solutionis et fimi acervus et hic est fons in quo latet anguis
cuius venenum omnia corpora interficit ... hoc enim est tesaurus rei et in hac arte et in
re est omne secretum et hec est res que erigit de stercore pauperem et ipsum regibus
equiparat.

This definition remains short and confusing: that alchemy is a kind of hot and moist
substance possessing the same virtues as the poison of a snake. It seems that this
passage is taken directly from the De aluminibus et salibus:17
et ipse est draco qui maritat se ipsum et impregnat se ipsum et parit ex die suo et inter-
fecit ex veneno suo animalia omnia . . . scias quod resolutio est thesaurus rei et in ea est
omne secretum, solve ergo quomodo vis autem cum igne stercoris vel in loco rorido seu
in balneo aquoso . . . hec est ergo solutio caliditatis et solutio roritatis ut facias foveam.

The following passage is a reference to Hermes:18

Hermes dixit se super omnes mundi circulos esse exaltatum

It can be found in the Liber Hermetis blchkmkb:19

Hermes ait: ego qui exaltatus sum super omnes circulos hujus mundi tres facies naturas
vidi uno patre quarum pars una est in montibus pars in mari pars in fossis

Altogether, then, we have in these passages a work of compilation and not an

intellectual synthesis based on the knowledge of the contents. The result is a text that
is obscure and difficult to understand, which does not match the noble sentiments of
the first prologue, which were to make alchemical knowledge more understandable
to Latin readers.
Chapter III is a list of the seven planets and twelve signs of the zodiac. The
three manuscripts give exactly the same version.20 They do not show any special
characteristics, limiting themselves to following the names and the traditional order
of the planets and the signs.
The following chapter (chapter IV) is a list of the seven precious metals called by
the names of the planets with which they are associated. None of the manuscripts
gives the metals in the same order, which makes it difficult to establish the common

16
Haskins, “Alchemy,” 352.
17
Text edited by Robert Steele in “Practical Chemistry in the Twelfth Century ‘Rasis de aluminibus et salibus’,”
Isis 12 (1929): 10–46 (see 23 and 27–28).
18
Haskins, “Alchemy,” 353.
19
Text edited by Robert Steele and Dorothea Waley Singer in ‘’The Emerald Table’’, Proceedings of the Royal
Society of Medicine, Section of the History of Medicine 21 (1928): 485–501 (see 493).
20
Haskins, “Alchemy,” 353; Thomson, “The Text,” 534.
 THE ARS ALCHEMIE: THE FIRST LATIN TEXT ON PRACTICAL ALCHEMY 61

origin. This list is followed by a sequence of material which differs from manuscript
to manuscript. Haskins, following the Palermo manuscript, does not make a distinct
chapter out of this. In this manuscript, the title of a recipe has, in fact, been inserted
into the middle of the discussion, making Haskins believe that the first recipe and,
consequently, the next chapter (chapter V) begin immediately after the title:21
Omnia ista firmata et aligata quatuor elementis et inde retinet suam naturam et proprie-
tatem in calido et sicco, in calido et humido, in frigido et humido, in frigido et sicco — (V)
De maiori magisterio qualiter venus mutatur in solem — diximus superius de planetis et
signis eorum cuius naturam et proprietatem habent.

The Cambridge manuscript includes almost the same passage, but without the title
of the recipe and with a different internal organisation:22
Ista etiam sunt firmata et aligata quatuor elementis et iuxta proprietates elementorum
sumuntur proprietates in planetis et signis eorum et quam naturam habent planete . . .
et scias quod quodlibet metallum habet suum planetam et naturam eius retinet callido,
frigido, humido, sicco, ut dictum est.

This last version is very close to a passage contained in another alchemical text
containing the name of Michael Scot, the Lumen luminum.23
et modum est quod sicut 7 sunt metalla ita 7 sunt planete et quodlibet metallum habet
suum planetam.

As for the Oxford manuscript of the Ars alchemie, it does not contain the preced-
ing passage, but gives in its place the following phrase:24
dicto de planetis de maiori magisterio et figuris.

One could be dealing with a résumé of the texts of the manuscripts of Palermo and
of Cambridge, but the differences between these indicate more probably that, on the
contrary, this phrase constitutes the kernel around which the other texts have devel-
oped. This would explain the addition of a title of a recipe in the Palermo manuscript,
a scribe having wrongly interpreted the expression “de maiori magisterio.”
Finally, chapter IV ends with a reference to a book on the salts in the Palermo and
Oxford manuscripts,25 while in the Cambridge manuscript there follows a veritable

21
Palermo MS, Haskins, “Alchemy,” 353.
22
Thomson, “The Text,” 534.
23
This text is contained, with significant differences, in at least three manuscripts of the fourteenth century:
Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, 119, fols. 35v–37r; Rome, Casanatense 1477, fols. 84r–96r; Bologna, Biblio-
teca Universitaria 164, fols. 144r–147v. An edition of the text of the Florence manuscript had been presented
by J. Wood Brown in Life and Legend of Michael Scot (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1897), 240–268. This
manuscript gives the most complete version of the Lumen luminum. The treatise was evidently written towards
the middle of the thirteenth century. The quoted passages come from Brown, Life and Legend, 240.
24
Oxford MS, Haskins, “Alchemy,” 353, n. 47.
25
“et in alio libro a nobis translato dissimus de naturis salium quomodo et qualiter in arte alkimie operantur”
(Palermo MS); “et notitia de salibus vel salium prout in aliquo libro a me translato dixi quomodo de salibus
oportet in arte alkemie operari” (Oxford MS): Haskins, “Alchemy,” 353 and 353, n. 47.
62 ANTONY VINCIGUERRA

treatise on the salts and the alums.26 It is difficult to know whether this is really the
same book to which the other two manuscripts refer. The fact that these only refer
to a book on salts would tend to suggest not, especially since one finds in all three
manuscripts a passage devoted entirely to the salts (called chapter VI by Haskins),
which appears as a kind of double to the text in the Cambridge manuscript. One must
note, however, that the contents of the text are not foreign to those of the recipes in
the Ars alchemie: the majority of the salts and alums explained in this occur again
with the same details. The relationship is even more striking and direct with the
Lumen luminum, in which the same lists of products, with the same geographical
information, appear:
Ars alchemie27
Sal nitrum de puncta et est album et lucidum, salsum et acutissimum, et bonum, invenitur
in India quadam puncta maris versus Marioth, et similiter invenitur in partibus Alexan-
drie ... sal masse ideo dicitur quia in massam est redactum et est nimis salsum, extra
rubeum, invenitur inter Ungariam et Ostercaye. Eius natura est fortissima et acutissima
et ultra modum penetrativa, et invenitur in Corsica et est optimum in arte.

Lumen luminum28
Sal masse ponit qualiter sal in massam naturaliter redactus ut gemma alexandrinus
ungarricus sardonicus . . . est enim nitrum qui est pulvis niger, est etiam sal nitrum
allexandrinum et indicum sive rubeum salsum isti similiter in massa lata reducti funditur
et findere facit.

The situation with the remainder of the text of the Ars alchemie is as follows. After
the first recipe and the list of salts are found six other recipes and a list of gums.29
These parts are common to the four manuscripts. The Oxford manuscript ends with
one supplementary chapter on tutties. The Palermo and Göttingen manuscripts both
contain both this same chapter, but also fifteen others on glasses, oils, vinegars, and
diverse processes, with some variants.30 Then, the Göttingen manuscript ends, while
the Palermo manuscript presents another six chapters on alchemical processes.31 The
Cambridge manuscript contains some passages recalling the Palermo and Göttingen
manuscripts, but ends with a very different text.32
The origin of the recipes themselves is difficult to discern. The majority are attri-
buted to the “saraceni,”33 which could indicate that they have been translated
from Arabic. The mention, however, of several typically Western products, such as

26
Thomson, “The Text,” 534–37.
27
Thomson, “The Text,” 534–35.
28
Brown, Life and Legend, 242 and 246.
29
Noted respectively as chapters VII to XIII by Thomson, who takes up the chapter numbers of Haskins, “The
Text,” 537–47.
30
Noted as chapters XIV to XXX in Thomson, “The Text,” 547–53. MS Göttingen, fols. 18v–19r.
31
Thomson, “The Text,” 554–57.
32
Thomson, “The Text,” 554–57.
33
Thomson, “The Text,” 558.
 THE ARS ALCHEMIE: THE FIRST LATIN TEXT ON PRACTICAL ALCHEMY 63

the gum of Montpellier,34 and the salts of Hungary35 and Sardinia,36 shows that the
translated recipes had probably been brought up to date, to accommodate products
available in the Christian West. The best proof of this modernisation is the presence
in the recipes of new products such as the “alum of Aleppo.”37 This product is
very difficult to find in medieval texts, in the Islamic or Christian worlds.38 In the
latter, it appears only in some Provençal and Catalan commercial documents of the
thirteenth century, which tells us that the alum was, indeed, bought at Aleppo, and
then sold in the markets of the south of France and Champagne, where it was sought
after for its quality.39 These documents confirm the reality of an “alum of Aleppo”
and indicate that the author or the authors of the recipes had a very good knowledge
of the products available in the Mediterranean market of their time.40 The fact that
scholars of Aleppo [Barbaranus Sarasenus de Halaph, Boala de Alap philosoph(us)]
and “apothecaries of Montpellier” (apothecarii de Monte Persolano) are also
mentioned in the Ars alchemie41 hints at the existence of a Mediterranean “network
of alchemists” established on the same trade network as the alum of Aleppo. In the
second half of the thirteenth century, after the Genoese took control of the alum
mines of Phocea and the invasion of Syria by the Mongol troops, the alum of Aleppo
started to disappear from the trade routes and the texts.42
The practical procedures described in the recipes, on the other hand, do not
show any originality. No specifically alchemical instrument is presented; hardly
any measurements are given; very little detail is provided; and the major part of
the information is devoted to the products to use, their shape, their colour, and the
places where one could find them. The seven recipes show the same procedure: the
making of a powder allowing one to make copper, lead or tin (red or white), and by
these means to make gold or silver artificially. This kind of procedure is found in
the Lumen luminum and the Liber Dedali:

34
Thomson, “The Text,” 541 (IX, PO); Göttingen MS, fol. 18r.
35
Thomson “The Text,” 539 (VIII, CPO); Göttingen MS, fol. 18r.
36
Cambridge MS, Oxford MS and Palermo MS, Thomson “The Text,” 539 (VIII, CPO), 545 (XII, OP), and 546
(XII, C); Göttingen MS, fols. 18r and 18v.
37
Thomson, “The Text,” 539 (VIII, CPO), 540 (IX, C), 541 (IX, PO and X, CP), 542 (X, O), and 543 (XI, CPO).
Göttingen MS, fol. 18r.
38
The diffusion of this product in the Islamic world is difficult to establish, because of lack of texts: Claude
Cahen, “L’Alun avant Phocée, un chapitre d’histoire économique islamo-chrétienne au temps des Croisades,”
Revue d’histoire économique et sociale 41 (1963), 433–447.
39
Louis Blancard, Documents inédits sur le commerce de Marseille au Moyen Age (Marseille: Barlatier-Feissat,
1884–1885) (repr. Genève: Mégariotis, and Paris: Champion, 1978), 64; Alexandre Germain, Histoire du
commerce de Montpellier, 2 vols. (Montpellier, J. Martel, 1861), I, 248–49.
40
It seems that the Ars alchemie remains the only noncommercial text to bear witness to the diffusion of this
product. One finds in the Liber Dedali, a Latin translation of an unknown Arabic text, the mention of a “salt
of Aleppo” (edited in Brown, Life and Legend, 261). The Lumen luminum is inspired directly from this text
without, however, copying it entirely. The text on the salts and the alums of the Cambridge MS also mentions
an alum and a salt of Aleppo, on one occasion (Thomson, “The Text,” 535).
41
Thomson, “The Text,” 535, 541, 549, and 558–59.
42
On the textual source for the trade in the alum of Aleppo in the thirteenth century, see my “Le commerce de
l’alun au 13e siècle selon les recettes alchimiques de Michel Scot,” in Enquête et Documents, revue du CRHIA
(Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, in press).
64 ANTONY VINCIGUERRA

Ars alchemie43
(1) Accipe sanguinem hominis rufi comburentem, ovum metallorum, sanguinem
bubonis, colofoniam, tartarum album, alumen zucarinum, alumen de Castillo,
alumen vitreoli . . ., tuchiam, markasidam argenteam, talcum.
(2) Omnia ista simul tere et postea inpasta cum urina taxi vel cum succo cucumeris
agrestis . . . postea accipe mercurium et ipsum in sanguine fortissimo penetrativo
mitte et ipsum ibi intus bene frica et diligenter, donec putredo eius recedat . . . ipsum
in crucibolo mitte et mittendo pulverem predictum subtus et desuper et sales suos et
ipsum ad ignem pone, leviter sufflando cum manticello in principio per horam unam
donec mercurius sit bene calidus.
(4) Postea fac fortem ignem donec sit fixum et cum fixum fuerit accipe boracem
porosum et ibi superius proice et iste borax faciet ipsum album et valde amabilem
et luna ista erit optima et perfecta ad omne indicium apta.

Lumen luminum. (Florence MS)44

(1) Recipe ex eo (sal alebrot) l.i. vel gutte albe vel azuree que inveniuntur in allumine
de pluma 3.1., sanguis hominis rubei 3.3., talchi mortificati 3.1. et 5 et parum
sulphuris albi.
(2) Omnia simul trita et inpastina cum sanguine et sale desicca ad solem et cum
volueris operare utere eo spargendo super mercurium, igne super accenso retinebit
enim eum nec sinet volare et quantitas mercurium l.5. et non plus et non moveatur
ab igne usque ad magnum tempus. Postea in aquam proiciatur poterit enim optime
malleari.
(3) Item accipe .v. buffones [the preparation of a powder based on ashes of toads and
allebrot salt follows].
(4) Et recipe de dicto pulvere 3.1. salis alebrot 3.1. et 5 salis armoniaci et salis alkali
ana 3.5.

Omnia simul trita et in pastina et deinde exsicca usque nonies cum urina tassi vel gangel-
lis cum pulvere isto poteris facere mirabilia, pulvis iste constringit mercurium et mutat
ipsum in lunam purissimam et perfectam.

Lumen luminum (Rome MS)45

(1) Accipe ex eo (sal alebroth) quantitatem quam vis s. 3.5. et tere diligenter et postea
habeas sanguinem hominis alicuis rubei ad quantitatem 3.iii. et misce cum eodem
guetta, accipies 3.4. de talchis et .5. parum sulphuris albi.
(2) Et tere diligenter et incorpora furno vel ad solem et cum exiccatum fuerit utere
cum eo spargendo super mercurium igne super accenso et sufflando cum manticello
retinebit eum nec sinet cum volare et sit quantitas mercurii libram mediam et
non plus et non removeatur ab igne usque ad magnum tempus et postea in aqua
prohitiatur poterit enim optime malleari.
(3) Aliud accipe maiorem ranam que portat secum venenum [the preparation of a
powder based on ashes of frogs and allebrot salt follows].

43
Oxford MS, Thomson, “The Text,” 538–39.
44
Brown, Life and Legend, 250–52.
45
I have transcribed this text from MS Rome, Casanatense 1477, fols. 88r–88v.
 THE ARS ALCHEMIE: THE FIRST LATIN TEXT ON PRACTICAL ALCHEMY 65

(4) Et cum opus fuerit accipies de isto pulvere 3.1. de sale alebroth 3.1. de sale alcali 3.5.
de sale armoniaco tam tandem et tere diligenter parum sparendo. Omnia simul cum
urina taxi et tunc sicca et tere et hoc ix vicibus ex isto enim pulvere poteris facere
mirabilia pulvis iste constringit mercurium et mutat ipsum in lunam.

Liber Dedali46
(1) Accipe ex eo (sal allebrot) secundum quantitatem quam vis, scilicet 3.5. et tere
diligenter postea habeas sanguinem alicuius hominis rubei ad quantitatem 3.3. et
comisce cum eo et degutta, aut accipe 3.5. de talco parum sulfuris albi.
(2) Et tere omnia diligenter et incorpora cum sanguine et sale et dimitte siccari in furno
vel ad solem et cum exsiccatum fuerit teratur id totum in mortario lapideo subtiliter
et cum opus fuerit utere eo spargendo super mercurium igne super accenso et
sufflando cum manticello retinebit enim eum et non sinet eum volare, sit quantitas
mercurii librae 5 et non plus et non removeatur ab igne usque ad magnum tempus
postea in aqua proiiciatur poterit hec enim optime malleari.
(3) Accipe decem bufones tenentes venenum [the preparation of a powder based on
ashes of toads and allebrot salt follows, almost the same as in the two previous
versions].
(4) Et cum opus fuerit de illo pulvere accipe 3.1. de sale alebrot 3.1. de sale alcali 3.5. de
sale armoniaco tantundem. Et teras diligenter permiscendo cum ea urinam tassi et
iterum exsicca et tere et hoc nonies fiat et de illo pulvere poteris facere mirabilia,
pulvis iste constringit mecurium.

In regard to these four texts, it seems that the recipe of the Ars alchemie has as its
source two separate procedures (passages 1–2 and 3–4 respectively), each meant to
produce a powder based on a product called sal allebrot or alebroth and to solidify
and whiten the mercury. In the first procedure, the blood of a red man is used, and
in the second, the ash of a toad or a poisonous frog. In the Ars alchemie, the explana-
tions for the preparations of these procedures have disappeared, but the products of
the original procedures are retained: blood, urine of a badger and talc are explicitly
mentioned, while the expressions comburens and suos sales signify, respectively, sul-
fur and the salts alebrot, alcali, and armoniacum. The “blood of the owl” (sanguis
bubonis) is also mentioned, but this is probably a copying error for the “blood of the
toad” (sanguis bufonis), which corresponds to the poison of the toad of the second
procedure.
The recipe of the Ars alchemie appears, then, as a revised version of the most
ancient text — a textual construct rather than the result of a particular practical
experiment. The Liber Dedali, which contains the most ancient version of this text,
is a translation of an Arabic text, without doubt made in al-Andalus (as witnessed by
the mention of Iberian products).47 This text has some relationship with De alumini-
bus et salibus, in regard both to the context of its creation and to the organisation
of the chapters thematically, according to the different products. The incipit of
the Liber Dedali in the Florence manuscript is actually De natura salium. It differs,

46
Brown, Life and Legend, 251–53.
47
Brown, Life and Legend, 243 and 249.
66 ANTONY VINCIGUERRA

however, in describing a much greater number of products and going into much more
detail concerning them (giving their geographical origin, form, colour, etc.). Above
all, it presents procedures that are very close to those used in magic, like the prepara-
tion based on the ashes of toads. In the Picatrix, another text composed in al-Andalus
and translated into Latin in the thirteenth century, there are recipes for talismans
using the same procedures: these involve creating a stone that has particular virtues,
by forming at first a kind of alloy through the fusion of sulfur with certain minerals;
and then preparing a substance based on blood and sulfur, which will serve to make
an alloy of the expected properties:

(1) Recipe rubinorum 3 ii, terantur et involvantur cum media dragma adamantis plumbo
contriti et almagnicie ana 3 i, sulfuris 3 β, auri 3 ii.
(2) Omnia vero predicat incorporentur in crusibulo et ponantur ad ignem mansuetum.
(3) Recipe cerebrum leonis, sepum leopardi, sanguinem lupi . . . et ipsum cum cerebro
misceas deinde proice sanguinem super eum . . . hoc est venenum mortiferum in
omnibus suis qualitatibus a forma specifica.
(4) Et iterum recipe azernec, croci, sulfuris crocei et rubei ana 3 x, pulverizentur et
mundentur et desuper venenum predictum proiciantur et statim frangetur ipsius
nocumentum et totum deliquebitur . . . deinde corpus liquefacias primum cum quo
spiritus paulatim componatur quousque totum incorporetur cum eo et secum unia-
tur, quo facto extrahas ab igne et infrigidari permittas . . . scias quod hoc est corpus
mirabilia omnia vincens.48

In the Ars alchemie, this magical context is diluted by the revisions that have been
made, but it remains present in the mention of certain products such as the blood
of a red man or the blood of a toad. On the other hand, the lists of products
are greatly enlarged (more than fifteen mineral or vegetable products are listed, on
average, for each of the seven recipes).
It seems, then, that the objective of the compiler was, indeed, to promote new
knowledge. Nevertheless, he does not attempt to understand the secrets in order
to explain them better. He concentrates rather on explaining the simple practical
procedures, with the maximum amount of information on the different products to
use. He thus favours the development of a strictly practical kind of alchemy, with its
own textual identity, different from that of recipes of magic, and distinct from
alchemical texts divided into theory and practice; approaching, however, more and
more closely the recipes of craftsmen.49

48
David Pingree, Picatrix, the Latin Version of the Ghâyat Al-©akîm (London: The Warburg Institute, 1986),
146–47. See also 147–55 for other similar recipes.
49
In the Cambridge MS, the seven first recipes are followed by several recipes from the Mappe Clavicula:
Thomson, “The Text,” 548–56. A text on dyeing, contained in MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France,
6749b (fourteenth century), fols. 61r–62r, takes up some explanations in the Ars alchemie (see the edition of
this text by D. V. Thompson in Isis 24 (1936): 382–86). One may observe that this text on dyeing is directly
followed in the manuscript by a text called Lumen luminum de coloribus (fols. 62v–66v), which shows the real
connection between recipes on alchemy and recipes on dyeing.
 THE ARS ALCHEMIE: THE FIRST LATIN TEXT ON PRACTICAL ALCHEMY 67

Notes on Contributor
Antony Vinciguerra is a lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Nantes.
He directs the research programme ‘L’alchimiste à l’oeuvre: recettes, produits simples
et composés et appareils’ for the Centre d’Histoire des sciences et des techniques
François Viète (University of Nantes) and the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme
Ange Guépin (Nantes). He is completing a doctoral thesis on ‘Alchimistes et activités
alchimiques dans le Monde méditerranéen médiéval’ under the direction of John
Tolan at the University of Nantes. His article ‘Sept recettes de transmutation.
Michel Scot’, in Cahiers du Centre Viète, Revue du Centre d’Histoire des sciences
et des techniques François Viète, Nantes is in press. Address: UFR d’Histoire,
chemin la Censive du Tertre, BP 81227, 44312 Nantes, Cedex 3, France; E-mail:
antony.vinci@wanadoo.fr.