The October 2021 provenance mystery features Martin Ruland’s Progymnasmata alchemiae, sive problemata chymica, nonaginta & una quaestionibus dilucidata cum Lapidis philosophici vera conficiendi ratione, printed in Frankfurt in 1607.
This book was authored either by Martin Ruland the Elder (1532-1602) or Martin Ruland the Younger (1569-1611); the ‘dedicatio’ dated 1606 was signed by the latter, but most bibliographic records attribute the work to Ruland the Elder. Ruland the Younger was physician to Rudolf II. The work is divided into three parts, with a separate title page for the third part, ‘Lapidis philosophici’ dated 1606.
Ruland’s is an important work on alchemy and the philosopher’s stone. Lynn Thorndike wrote that the first part contains sixty-four “problems, followed by chemical remedies. Part two is an Appendix of Chemical Questions, containing the remainder of the problems, numbered from 65 to 91. The third part contains two treatises on the pilosophers’ stone”. The first of these treatises was later attributed to Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), and the second to Michał Sędziwój, also known as Michael Sendivogius.
The copy at Middle Temple contains a copious amount of contemporary marginalia in this second part of the book. Shown here are just three examples. As can be seen, much of the marginalia consist of symbols, such as that for the sun and moon at the text for Chapter 15.
3. P. 156
This type of marginalia is always difficult to identify. One immediately thinks of another copious annotator who was an alchemist, John Dee (1527-1608). But despite the fact that the library has four other books that belonged to Dee, there is no evidence in this book to link it to him. The Archaeology of Reading has some of the best examples of Dee’s annotations in an online format, and even when squinting, it would be difficult to identify this as Dee’s marginalia
The library owns four works by Ruland the Elder, two on alchemy, one on teeth, and one on phlebotomy. There is only one book by Ruland the Younger, and it is on pharmaceutical chemistry.
The Progymnasmata is in a very poor state and requires conservation work and repair. If you would like to sponsor its repair, please contact the library. And, as ever, if you have any comments on this provenance mystery, contact the library at: library@middletemple.org.uk.
Renae Satterley
October 2021
Middle Temple Library Blog 