Catalogue Entry: ALCH00029
Incomplete draft treatise on the sequence of operations to be effected in transmutation.
Custodial History
Bought at the Sotheby sale by William H. Robinson for £27. Keynes asked after it on 12 August 1936 and Robinson informed him the next day that it had been sold to Gabriel Wells. Keynes contacted Wells on 8 September and was offered the lot on 11 September for £34.
Sotheby Lot
SL64Contents
Drawn from the writings of a range of alchemical authorities.
f. 1r Title page reading only 'Opus primum'.
f. 3r 'Gradus primus/ Extractio et Rectificatio Spiritus'
f. 5r 'Extractio auri vivi, et conjunctio ejus'
f. 9r 'Opus Quintum/ Vivificatio et Putrefactio Terræ foliatæ.'
f. 15r 'Opus Quintum/ Vivificatio et Putrefactio Terræ foliatæ': though the title is identical to the foregoing, the text is quite different.
f. 19r 'Opus sextum./ ffixis in album et rubrum. Conjunctio viri rubri cum fœmina alba, & decoctio ad complementum' (partly in English).
f. 27r 'Opus sextum/ Præparatio Mercurij Vulgaris per Veneris Columbas.'
f. 29r 'Opus septimum/ Solutio Metallorum primo in Mercurium per Mercurium, deinde in aquam [mercur]ialem et compositio mercurij nostri duplati' (partly in English).
f. 31r 'Opus Octavum/ Conjunctio Putrefactio et Regimen Decoctionis'
f. 33r 'Opus Octavum/ Conjunctio Putrefactio et Regimen Decoctionis' (variant draft).
Related Material
Cf. Keynes Ms. 41, Babson Ms. 417 and Dibner Institute NMAHRB Mss. 1070 A.
