Mellon MS 42

 IOANNES FORNERIUS MONTALBANENSIS
 De lapide philosophorum libellus ex antiquorum codicibus
 compilatus 1572, including Hermes, Tabula smaragdina, in Greek and
 Latin
 France (Toulouse?), unsigned (a holograph?), 1572

Paper codex in Latin and Greek, 8vo., 147 x 100, ff. 153 of 154 originally
(f. 2, which serves as a flyleaf, now lacking), f. 1 pasted down, ff. 4-142
correctly numbered 1-139 (this numeration indicated in parentheses in the
description below where applicable), the remainder unnumbered, followed by
flyleaves not counted above, the last pasted down. Written throughout by a
single hand in a good humanistic italic sloping a little to the right, in 1
column 113 x 75 without bordering lines, 14 lines to the full page; minimal
abbreviation, no color. Signatures, no catchwords. Collation: (1)^^8-1,
A-O^^8, P^^10, Q-R^^8, (S)^^8, (flyleaves)^^8, the first seven ff. of quire P
are signed "P o - P vi" and R 4 is unsigned; quire (S) and the final quire of
flyleaves, last pasted down, are entirely blank. Occasional fairly good
drawings of apparatus by the copyist, as on ff. 63 (60)v-64(61)v, 70(67)v-72
(69)v, and 77(74)r-80(77)r. No watermark observed.

BINDING: Original binding of black morocco, the sides outlined with blind
rules, gilt stamp of a lion passant on each cover, back with six raised
bands, a flower ornament gold-stamped in each compartment of the backstrip,
modern leather label now detached, original edges gilt and stamped, no traces
of clasps and catches; backstrip repaired.

PROVENANCE: Very likely a holograph of the author, Jean Fournier de
Montauban, fl. 1555- 1572; Denis Duveen, with his bookplate and inked number
45, acquired from Dr. Ernst Weil (bookseller), London; Mellon MS 64, acquired
with the Duveen collcction. De Ricci-Bond 15 (64) .

CONTENTS
 f. 1v: [Various booksellers' scribbles, mostly in pencil, Duveen bookplate
and inked number, all on verso of leaf serving as pastedown.]

f. 2: [A flyleaf, lacking.]

f. 3r, 1: Summa totius artis | in Clangore buccin‘ [? damaged] | Quadam
materia vel substantia | propria ... [Ends f. 2v with a quotation (?) from
Avicenna.]

f. 4(1)r: [Disposed as a title:] IOANNIS | FORNERII | Montalbanensis de |
Lapide philosophorum | Libellus ex | Antiquorum Codicibus | compilatus |
1572. | [f. 4(1)v blank.]

f. 5(2)r, 1: [Disposed as a heading:] IN | COMMENTARIUM | de admirando lapide
phi- | losophorum pr‘fatio | [then as text:] Prisci seculi philosophi qui |
de hac re scripserunt ... [This passage serves as a preface in which the
writer sometimes speaks in the first person, closing f. 8(5)r-v with an
extensive list of his sources, including Geber, Aristotle, Lull, Rosarius,
Alphidius, Morienus, Semita (recta), Roger Bacon, Gerard Dorn, Zacharias,
Robertus Anglicus, Paracelsus, Trevisanus, John Dee, and Tritheim. Ff.
9(6)r-10(7)r contain chapter headings for the first book, followed by a
single, possibly later entry indicating that the second book deals with
practical alchemy. F. 10(7)v blank]

f. 11(8)r: [Disposed as a heading:] Ioannes FORnerius [The abbreviation "1.
FOR." has been thus expanded] | De admirando lapide | Philosophorum. | An sit
. Caput primum. | De omni re ex qua fit sermo so- | let prius qu‘ri an sit
... [Book I appears to end with the close of Chapter XIX on f. 135(132)r, but
contains two supplemental unnumbered chapters, ending f. 139(136)v, followed
by three pages containing a version in Greek of the Tabula smaragdina of
Hermes, followed in turn on ff. 141(138)v-142(139)v by a Latin version of the
same text, not transcribed.]

f. 143r: [Disposed as a heading:] LIBER | SECUNDUS | De praxi | Et | Vera
confectione lapidis | philosophorum. | [F. 143v is blank; it is followed by
ff. 144r-146r containing what appear to be notes in tabular form for various
alchemical preparations, perhaps sketches for the practical alchemical
operations to contained in Book II, but not in fact completed by the author.
Occasional Greek words appear in the tables.]
 [Ioannes Fornerius Montalbanensis, De lapide philosophorum libellus ex
antiquorum codicibus compilatus, anno 1572, with the beginning of a second
book of text, left incomplete. Not located in the literature and apparently
unpublished. Toward the close of Book I are found Greek and Latin versions of
Hermes, Tabula smaragdina, TK 1691, DWS 26, etc.]

SUMMARY: MS 42 appears with considerable certainty to be the unpublished work
of, and almost as certainly a holograph manuscript by, Jean Fournier de
Montauban in the old province of Quercy, France, an author of some unusual
vernacular works and translator active in the third quarter of the sixteenth
century. His eighteen sonnets on the occasion of the birth of Henri II of
France, titled L'Uranie, with L'Uranomachie du Taureau et du Capricorne, were
published at Paris in 1555; his remarkable Epigrammes erotiques were first
printed at Toulouse in 1557, and he translated the first fifteen Canti of
Orlando Furioso into French (1555), as well as Parthenius and a work on wars
against the heretics in France. Much of his working life appears to have been
centered around Toulouse, but biographical details are scanty. See Brunet,
Manuel du libraire, fifth ed., II, pp. 1344-1345; Joecher, Allgemeines
Gelehrtenlexicon, Fortsetzung by J. C. Adelung, II, p. 1189; not in
Biographie Universelle, nor in Avenir Tchemerzine, Bibliographie d'Editions
originales et rares d'auteurs francais, Paris, 1927 and following. It is
particularly interesting to note that Fournier was acquainted with such
contemporary writers as John Dee, Dorn, and Paracelsus, as well as more
usual, older sources. His unfinished work appears to follow a pattern which
may be discerned in countless alchemies in which a first portion has a high
degree of mystical content, and invokes older writers sometimes including the
Bible, then proceeds to practical alchemy, though in the present case only a
sketch of a few processes in the practical section has been made. This
pattern can already be seen in the alchemy attributed to Roger Bacon (compare
MS 7.2) and other early alchemies, and is especially prevalent in many of the
seventeenth and eighteenth-century manuscripts in the Mellon
collection.