The Intellectual Interests Reflected in Libraries of the Fourteenth and ...

294 PEARL KIBRE
ence. Tracts on the art of transmuting baser metals into gold and
silver both on the theoretical and practical side were found in a
large number of the libraries, both ecclesiastical and lay. One of
the largest collections of works of this nature was housed among
the books at the abbey church of St. Augustine at Canterbury. Included
were such alchemical tracts as Hermes, "On the fifteen
stars, herbs, etc"; "the book of the thirty words"; "the book of
riddles"; also several works ascribed to a certain Nicholas; to
Michael Scot; to Richard of Furnival; and to a certain Tankard.
It also contained other anonymous tracts on the tincture of alchemy
and on the twelve waters.'59 The last named work is often ascribed
to Rasis, Albertus Magnus, and other well-known authors. Possibly
other alchemical works were present since it is difficult to
identify such works by their titles. The library of the Visconti-
Sforza at Pavia, had some nine alchemical tracts, among them the
famous Turba philosophorum which contains the assertions of
numerous authorities regarding the art; the work of the pseudo-
Geber, and others appearing anonymously.'60 In the inventory of
the books left at the death of Sforza secondo Sforza, the natural
brother of Lodovico il Moro (d. 1491), which later passed to Pavia,
there were several on alchemy including the tract on the fifth
essence, a reagent capable of realizing, according to its authorities,16'
not only the immediate aims of the alchemist but also of providing
a cure-all for bodily ills. This library also had several other
works in the field of the occult, namely books on chiromancy,
geomancy, necromancy, and astrology, as well as treatises on
the practical arts of surgery, veterinary medicine, herbs, and
animals.162
159 M. R. James, The ancient libraries of Canterbury and Dover, 316, 343, 348-
49, 375-76, 385-86, 388. There were two copies of Rasis, Lumen luminum, in the
library of the Prior of St. Martin at Dover in 1389: Ibid., p. 488, nos. 402, 403. The
library of Christ Church, Canterbury, had a "Liber Arthuri de alkimia": Ibid., p.
73, no. 651; and several other works in alchemy: Ibid., pp. 73, 75, 92-94; 124.
160 G. Mazzatinti, "Inventario della biblioteca Visconteo-Sforzesca," Giornale
storico della letteratura italiano, I (1883), 42. For the most part these works do
not appear in the inventory of 1426 published by Girolamo d'Adda. But see no. 929,
de naturis auri argenti, et herbarum historiatus et compilatus per Manfredum de
Monte Imperiale; Libreria Visconteo-Sforzesca del Castello di Pavia, 85; also no.
144, Hermes on alchemy.
161 The work on the fifth essence is usually attributed to John of Rupescissa,
for whom see L. Thorndike, op. cit. (1934), III, chapter XXII.
162 Emilio Motta, "Documenti per la libreria Sforzesca di Pavia, 1456-1494
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