Catalogue Entry: ALCH00041
Transcript of 'Sr George Ripley His Epistle to K Edward unfolded'
Custodial History
Bought at the Sotheby sale by Maggs Brothers for £11.10s. and sold to Keynes on 13 August 1936 for the sale price plus 20%: see Spargo, '1936 sale', 127.
Sotheby Lot
SL92Contents
A complete transcript of this important alchemical tract [by 'Eirenæus Philalethes', i.e. George Starkey], plus excerpts from a variant version, beginning on f. 7v under the heading 'Ex chartis Mr Sloane'.
Related Material
This does not correspond to any of the three published versions of the work in question and predates two of them (it appeared in Chymical, Medicinal, and Chirurgical Addresses made to Mr Samuel Hartlib Esq. (1655: H378), on its own in 1677 and in Ripley Reviv'd (1678: H1407)). It can be collated with BL Sloane 633, while the variant excerpts correspond to BL Sloane 3633. See Dobbs, Foundations, 113 and Wilkinson, 'Bibliographical puzzles', 235-44. See also Keynes Mss. 17, 51, 53, 54.