This catalogue is un updating of the one
issued in M. Pereira, The Alchemical Corpus Attributed to Raimond
Lull , The Warburg Institute Surveys and Texts, 18, London, 1989,
pp. 61-96. It consistes of a list of the alchemical works attributed
to Raimond Lull from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century,
with essential informations concerning each of them.
None of the alchemical writings traditionally attributed to Lull
can be plausibly ascribed to him. Researchers of the nineteenth
and twentieth century, following the arguments already put forth
by J. Sollier and J. Custurer at the beginning of the eighteenth
century, have definitely assessed the question. The ground for
such a clear rejection of the longlasting tradition, which had
added an impressive number of alchemical works to Lull's authentic
production, is double: the prevalently negative attitude expressed
by Lull himself towards alchemy in his authentic works, and the
fact that all of the pseudo-Lullian alchemical writings can be
dated only after his death.
Yet, the very existence of these writings - which were generally
accepted as authentic by the followers of Lull until Ivo Salzinger
- raises some problems whose investigation, besides being a task
in itself for historians of the Medieval, Renaissance and Early
Modern thought, may increase our knowledge of the historical development
of Lullism. What was the origin of the earliest pseudo-Lullian
texts, such as the Testamentum and the L iber de secretis naturae
seu de quinta essentia ? When and why were they attributed to Lull?
Moreover, the pseudo-Lullian corpus was an important component
of the alchemical tradition, and research on it may shed light
on other alchemical corpuses, especially that associated with the
other great Catalan thinker, Arnald of Villanova, as well as on
the history of Hermetic thought and on the background of Paracelsus
and Paracelsism.
This catalogue is intended as a tool for historians of the Lullian
tradition, as well as for historians of alchemy. Cards display
the following data: title/s; incipit; references to printed catalogues;
printed editions; Latin manuscrips; an explanatory note. They are
arranged in three sections:
1) PSEUDO-LULLIAN ALCHEMICAL CORPUS PROPERLY
SAID. The titles entered are the alchemical and medico-alchemical
works of every stage of the formation of the corpus, attributed
to Lull in manuscripts, printed editions and modern scholarly
catalogues, from Salzinger to Thorndike and Glorieux.
2) WORKS OCCASIONALLY ATTRIBUTED TO LULL. They
include: a) works not listed in modern catalogues and handed down
by only one or few mutually related manuscripts; and, b) works
generally known under another author's name, but attributed to
Lull in one or few manuscripts. Single recipes under Lull's name
have not been included.
3) WORKS TO BE EXCLUDED FROM THE CORPUS. Works
listed under III have been generally attributed to Lull in the
catalogues considered, but either a)they are not supported by a
manuscript tradition; or, b) they are compilations from pseudo-Lullian
alchemy by known authors; or even, c) though linked in manuscripts
to pseudo-Lullian works, they are not expressly attributed to him.
List of the abreviations
used in
this section.
Further information and bibliography on pseudo-Lullian alchemy
can be retrieved from the book quoted above, as well as from the
following studies by M. Pereira: Lullian Alchemy: Aspects and Problems
of the Corpus of Alchemical Works Attributed to Ramon Llull (XIV-XVII
centuries) in Homage to Ramon Llull , "Catalan Review" IV (1990);
A Enciclopédia de Lulio e a Alquímia , in História
da ciência: o mapa di conhecimento , a c. di A.M. Alfonso-Goldfarb
e C.A. Maia, Edusp, São Paulo 1995.
Please send comments and suggestions to Dr.Michela Pereira, Dipartimento
di Filosofia e Scienze Sociali, Università di Siena, via
Roma 47, 53100 Siena, Italia. e-mail: pereira@unisi.it
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