University of Edinburgh Archive and Manuscript Collections

Contents The Errores alchemiae ('The Errors of Alchemy') is an adaptation of the alchemic treatise sometimes known as Flos Florum ('Flower among Flowers') and sometimes as Perfectum Magisterium ('Perfect Mastery'). This treatise has been attributed to Arnaldus de Villanova (c. 1240 - 1311), a prominent physician and theologian, who was believed to be an alchemist and to whom many alchemic texts have...

Contents The scribe presents this alchemic text as written by Arnaldus de Villanova to the chancellor of the University of Paris. Arnaldus de Villanova (c. 1240 - 1311) was a prominent physician and theologian; he was believed to be an alchemist and as a consequence many alchemic texts have been erroneously attributed to him.The text begins on f. 100v and it is introduced by the rubric Incipit practica augmenti nobilissimi et multiplicationis verissime quam...

Contents The first text bound in MS 175 is the health regiment by fourteenth-century physician and theologist, Arnaldus of Villanova, composed for the king of Aragon, Jaume II. A very popular genre of practical medical texts in the Middle Ages, health regiments compiled advice based on humoral medicine for how to conserve and maintain health. This was achieved through management and balance of things like food, drink, exercise, sounds and emotions. Regimen sanitatis...

Contents An alchemic work dedicated to King Philip IV of France (1268-1314) and ostensibly written by an anonymous philosopher on his death bed. Dorothea Singer (see Bibliography) suggests that it could have been part of the alchemic corpus attributed to Ramon Llull (c. 1232-c. 1315), a polymath of great fame who paved to way to subsequent knowledge in many fields such as mathematics, logic, and theology. Several texts have been falsely attributed to Llull and started to circulate under his name from...