Tracts on natural philosophy and alchemy, including the 'Crowning of Nature', c 1631
Scope and Contents
(1) ‘Naturall philosophy, or a description of the world and of the severall creatures therein contained’. ‘These little leaves the world’s huge load sustain / And what besides the great world can contain’. A translation of Wilhelm Adolf Scribonius's Rerum naturalium doctrina methodica by Daniel Widdowes, alias Woodhouse. (2) The Crown of Nature; this consists of 68 allegorical illustrations of the different stages in the processes of alchemy; the first in an adaptation of an ophite emblem; the second, and perhaps all the rest, seem to be intended to illustrate the Poemander of Hermes Trismegistus, treated alchemically; they are coloured, and from the black-letter explanations may be supposed to be copies of a work on an earlier century; (3) ‘Thesaurus thesaurorum. Sive medicina aurea’, ‘A manuscript concerning the philosophers’ elixir or their medicine both for humane and metalline bodies. Incerti authoris’, beginning ‘Many and greate are the secrets of nature ...’.
Dates
- Creation: c 1631
Creator
- Widdowes, Daniel, fl 1580-1619 (clergyman) (Translator, Person)
- Scribonius, Wilhelm Adolf, fl 1576-1583 (philosopher) (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).
Extent
1 volume(s)
Language of Materials
English
Custodial History
From the Library of John Moore (1646–1714), Bishop of Ely (‘Royal Library’), no. 1049.
Repository Details
Part of the Cambridge University Library Repository
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