AN OLD COLONIAL MANUSCRIPT VOLUME RELATING TO ALCHEMY * C. A. BROWNE, BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY AND SOILS. WASKINGTON, D. C.
Among the many colonial documents relating to the early history of alchemy in America, which are preserved in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston, there is an ancient manuscript volume of folio size written in various handwritings upon paper which is now crumbling to pieces with age. The work comprises a collection of various English and Latin tracts upon alchemy, many of them in verse, which belonged originally to John Winthrop, Jr., the first Governor of Connecticut, and, after passing through various generations of his descendants, was finally donated to the Massachusetts Historical Society by Robert C. Winthrop in 1869. This antique volume, which from indications was transcribed some time in the second half of the sixteenth century before printed books upon alchemy were a t all common, might be called almost the Magna Charta of chemistry in America. It was brought to this country when most of the land within the present borders of the United States was an unsettled wilderness and its pages, annotated by the early patrons of chemistry in New England, form a visible connecting link between present-day chemistry of America and medieval alchemy of Europe. The old Winthrop alchemy manuscript is of English origin and may perhaps have once belonged to that famous alchemist and mystic, Dr. John Dee, the fourth centenary of whose birth has recently occurred. Many of Dee's books were acquired by John Winthrop, Jr., and some of them, copiously inscribed with annotations of the old doctor, can still be seen in the Winthrop collection of books owned by the Society Library of New York City. It is known that Dr. Dee was a prodigious collector of manuscripts upon alchemy and many of these afterward passed into the possession of that famous antiquary, Elias Ashmole. The latter no doubt used some of these writings in compiling his well-known "Theatrum Chemicum Brittanicum," which is a collection of old English poetical treatises upon alchemy, published a t London in 1652. Ashmole has included in this compilation the chemical testament of Dr. Dee and in the commentary to his work has given an interesting account of Dee's career as an alchemist. Several of the alchemistic poems in the Winthrop manuscript folio, such as Thomas Norton's "Ordinall of Alchemy," the "Liber Patris Sapientiae," and Sir Geo. Ripley's "Mystery of Alchymists," are found in Ashmole's "Theatrum Chemicum," although numerous minor differences in spelling and words show that variations had crept into the text of these ancient
* Read before the Section (now Division) of History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society, Baltimore, Md., April 9, 1925.
treatises since the time of their composition. The Winthrop folio is indeed one of the surviving examples of the large mass of alchemistic manuscripts which existed in England before the year 1600. Ashmole writes that he consulted no less than fifteen manuscript copies of Norton's "Ordinall of Alchemy" in preparing his edition of the text of this poem. He made similar comparisons of texts in the case of other poems, going back in some cases to documents written in the fifteenth century, nearly two hundred years before Ashmole's time, the "Streames of Learning,'' as this old antiquarian states, containing "the least of mixture nearest the spring-head." We know from Ashmole's notes what a wealth of old alchemistic manuscripts existed in England three hundred years ago. Yet he leads us to infer that these were only a fragment of the vast number which existed previous to the dissolution of the monasteries and the destruction of libraries under Henry VIII. There are several alchemistic poems in the Winthrop folio which are not contained in Ashmole's collection. In fact we know from the preface or prolegomena of his collection that the part printed was only a first volume. "More are designed," he writes, "in a Second Part to follow and compleate this a full Theatrum; the which, God allowing me further Time and Tranquillity to run through it, as I have already this, I intend shortly to make ready for the Presse." It is regrettable that Ashmole never published this second volume of his collection for he might have preserved there many other interesting specimens of chemical lore which are now lost. The volume selected for publication. he writes, "is sheav'd up from a few gleanings in part of our English fields; where though I have bestowed my industry to pick up here and there, what I could finde in my way, yet I believe there are many other Pieces of this Nature in private hands, which if any are pleased (out of the same ingenious score that I have published these) to communicate to me, I shall set thereon a value suitable to the worth of their Favours and let the World know its Obligation to them besides." Ashmole speaks of the beautiful figures and decorations which ornamented some of the vellum manuscripts of the old English alchemists. The Winthrop manuscript has very little in the way of embellishments. There are two pages of alchemistic diagrams (Figure 1) consisting of double circles with a triangle in the center and inscribed with various terms of alchemy in Latin to each of which a letter of the alphabet is attached. Thus A is Forma; B, Materia; C, Corpus; D,Menstruum; E, Calcinatio; F, Solutio; G, Evacuatio; H, Spiritus; I, Argentum vivum exuheratum; K, Vas vitreum; L, Limus deserti; M, Sulphur natura; N, Terra foliata vel tinctura; 0, Oleum; X, Y, P, Inceratio; Q, Lapis. These sixteen terms, beginning with Form and ending with the Lapis or Stone, represent progressive steps in the various processes of alchemy and the thirteen dia-
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COLONIAL MANUSCRIPT RELATING TO ALCHEMY
1585
grams in which they are inscribed form an advancing series, the regularity of which, however, is broken in several instances by carelessness in transcribing. At the end of the drawings are two blank diagrams which were not filled in, and a t the bottom the signs and names of the seven planets with the corresponding metals are written in Latin. Mercury, it should be
ALCHEMISTIC
DIAGRAMS I N THE WINTHROP ALCHEMYMANUSCRIPT OP BOSTON
I n the first diagram between the concentric circles are the words A. Forma;B,Material; C, Corpus; and within the triangle D,Menstruum; below the circle the letters of the diagram, A, B, C, D,are grouped together, followed by the 6 letters, S.T. V.X. Y.Z., which are common t o all the 13 diagrams. The second diagram has between the circles B, Materia; C, Corpus; D, Menstruum; and within the triangle E, Calcinatio, while below is the diagram group of letters, B, C, D, E, and the common line group, S.T.V.X. Y.Z. The progression of letters and terms is continued through the remaining diagrams as noted in the text. In drawing these diagrams the copyist made mistakes in placing 7 before 6, in omitting the M term in 11 and 12 and in duplicating the 0 term in 11and the P term in 12.
noted, is assigned to the metallic alloy electrum in place of quicksilver (Figure 2). The Winthrop manuscript bears slightly obliterated parallel lines arranged in groups of four against a vertical head line which might indicate that the paper was originally ruled for music and that afterwards an attempt had been made to remove these rulings by chemical treatment. The long-continued effect of the adhering traces of such chemicals may
PHOTOGRAPH 0s A
LATIN
POBK IN RHYMEPROM MANUSCRIPT I N BOSTON
TR* WINTHROP ALCHEMY
It bears the title lgnis and underneath in a later,hand the annotation Cantilena Thomas Norton. The same poem is given den tic ally on pages 2 and 4 of Elias Ashmo1e's"Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum"as the Latin introduction of Thomas Norton's "Ordinall of Alchemy." It begins with the line "Liber iste clericis monstrat scicntiam."
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1587
possibly explain the disintegration of the paper and the almost complete disappearance of the ink on many pages of the manuscript. A detailed account of the text and subject matter of the old Winthrop folio cannot be given until i t has been subjected to a careful examination. The most interesting of these manuscripts are those in old English, as they represent the alchemistic ideas which were current in England between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries and which were composed in the vernacular of that period. There are two famous old classics of English literature which deal with alchemy. Chaucer's "Tale of the Canon's Yeoman," written about 1385, and Ben Jonson's "Alchemist," published in 1610. It was in the interval between these two compositions, when our language was undergoing its transition from the middle period of Wyclif and Chaucer to the early modem period of Shakespeare and Jonson, that the English alchemical poems in Ashmole's "Theatrum" and in the Winthrop folio were composed. In this plastic formative period, before custom had set its seal npon what constituted good usage, there was no uniformity in spelling, construction, or in the use of words. The writers of this time seemed to be experimenting m ith the language so that there is no consistency on the part of any one author in the matter of spelling, inflection, or order of words. Ashmole, in reproducing the old text of the poems in his "Theatrum," felt it necessary to speak a few words of apology upon this point. "The style and language thereof,'' he writes, "may, I confesse (to some) seeme irksome andnnconth and so it is indeed to those that are strangers thereunto. . . . Posterity will pay us in our own coyne, shmld we deride the behaviour and dresse of our ancestors. , . . And therefore that the truth and worth of their workes might receive no diminution by my transcription, I purposely retain'd the old words and manner of their spelling, as I found them in the Originalls (except only some palpable mistakes and blemishes of former transcribers, which I took npon me to correct and purge as little more than litterall imperfections)." As an example (Figure 3) of this old English style of chemical composition the following 24 lines are quoted from the commencement of a poem which in the Winthrop folio is entitled "Of the Secrets of Nature" and which is published on page 380 of Ashmole's "Theatrum" as "The Mystery of Alchymists composed by Sir Geo. Ripley Chanon of Bridlington." In the Winthrop folio the poem is written in numbered verses of four lines each. Ashmole, whose text differs? in places from the Winthrop manuscript, makes no attempt to separate the subject matter into verses, but does indicate the divisions of the dialogue between father and son beginning with line 13. t Variarions in Ashmole's text, minor difierences, such a? those in epzlling, excepted.
The complrte poem with numerot,; textual rlriations is givcn on pages SNI to 388 of Eliaa . b h m o l r ' ~"l'lw+trum Cllcmicum Britannicum."
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I n the name of God Amen
O j the Secrets o j Nature 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
When So2 i n Ariete and Phebus shynes bryght The elements reviving, the new yere spryngyng The sonne by his virtues gyves nature and lyght Moysture refreshes all fruts growyng' I n the season of the yere when the some waxes warme Freshlie and fragrant the flowers doue growe The sutell workyng of nature cannot we dyserneP Nor yet by our reason we can it scant knowea I n iiij elements ys comprehendyd thyngs thre Animalis et ~egitalisminerdis muste be4 Of these ys our principal1 that we make our stones Qualitie and quantitie is unknowne to many one. Qualitie, father, wold I fayne knowe, Of what nature i t is and what he hath in hys kynde As colours dyvers as on the ground dothe grow6 Kepe well thys secret, sonne, and marke it in thy mynde. Withouten proportion, father, how should I it knowe' Thys werkyng is now fare from my mynde Nature and kynde, sonne, together doth growe Qualitie by wayght, sonne, shalt thou never fynd. How t o separate elements, father, I muste neds knowes By proporcion other more or lesse.' Out of our principall iiij elements thou shalt devyde1° Thou shalt nede nothyng that nedefull ys."
Ashmole writes of the decayed condition of many of the old mannscripts which he examined. I n this connection he states with pardonable pride, "Some of these, pieces (now brought to publique light) had wellnigh perish'd in a silent mine; and Cestruction got a compleate victory over them, but that my diligence and laborious inquisition rescued them from the jawes thereof; being almost quite shrouded in the Dust of Antiquity and involv'd in the obscurity of forgotten things, with their leaves half Worme-eaten. And a wonder i t is, that (like the Creatures in Noah's Arke) they were hitherto so safely preserved from that Universal1 Deluge, which (at the Dissolution of Abhies) o v d o w e d our greatest libraries."
' "And
m o y s t m refresheth all things growing." "Of Nature's subtill working we cannot discerne." "Nor yet by our reason we can i t not know." "Xnimalls, Vegetabills, Mineralls must be." "Of this is our Principle that we make our stone." 8 "As colours divers which on the ground do grow." "Without proportion, father, how should I i t know." "To separate elements, father, I must needes know." "Either in proportion which be more or less." ' 0 "Out of our Principle foure elements thou shalt draw." '1 "Thou shalt neede nothing else that needefull is."
1590
JOURNAL OP CHEMICAL EDUCATION
DECEMBER, 1928
The old Winthrop alchemy folio preserved in Boston is in much the same state of destruction as that described by Ashmole for some of the manuscripts of his time. The paper of some of the leaves has so far disintegrated that nothing is left; other pages are in so friable a state that the merest touch causes them to crumble; other parts of the volume, although frail, admit of careful handling. In many places the ink has faded so that the writing is barely decipherable. An experiment was tried of photostating a few of the leaves and the writing of the copies came out a strong black. Careful photostating would rescue a great part of the contents of the Winthrop folio and the text could then be gone over carefully and editeda piece of work which cannot be performed upon the original without great risk owing to the necessity of frequent handling. Unless some means can be taken to preserve this ancient collection of manuscripts, the slow ravages of time will cause their complete destruction. The Winthrop folio of alchemy manuscripts is the most priceless volume in the history of American chemistry. It came to our shores with the early English colonists, who hrought with them the language, literature, laws, and traditions of their old home, and having remained here now for a period of nearly three centuries has witnessed the rise of chemistry in America from the crude practices of alchemy to its present high state of development. This volume was unquestionably a source of great interest to John Winthrop, Jr., and his numerous alchemist friends, containing as it does all the legendary lore of chemistry from the time of its mythical founder Hermes down through the Egyptians, Greeks, and Arabians until the art was finally imparted to the scholars of medieval Europe and England. To the latter country it was carried by such men as Robert of Chester and Roger Bacon and transmitted by them to Ripley, Norton, Dee, and other writers who were the predecessors and ancestors of the English emigrants that colonized the Atlantic seaboard and hrought the traditions of ancient chemistry to the New World. It is the duty of American chemistry to rescue this old treatise, so full of historic associations, from oblivion and to ensure in some manner the permanent preservation of its contents.
