[2474] Both copies of this work of which I know seem to be fragmentary. Amplon. Quarto 361, English cursive hand of early 14th century, fol. 24, I have not seen, and follow the description of it by V. Rose in his “Ptolemaeus und die Schule von Toledo,” Hermes, VIII, 338-40, which is fuller than the notice in Schum. Rose knew of no other MS of the treatise, but I have examined it in the following: Digby 67, 15th century, fol. 32.
Both MSS have the same prologue by Ferrarius, in which the number of experiments is stated as eighty-eight, and both open with the same experiment. Rose gives the headings of only fourteen others, and then begins the Book of Fires of Marcus Grecus, “Nunc incipiet liber ignium a marcho greco descriptus,” which, as Rose says, follows the same form of a series of experiments as the preceding Rasis. Indeed, in Digby 67 the experiments of both treatises are numbered continuously in the margin. The Rasis seems to end with the experiment numbered 33, a circumstance which led Macray to describe it as containing 33 instead of 88 experiments. Digby 67, however, does not at present contain experiments 1-33 inclusive, but only 1-5 and 27-33; apparently a sheet is missing. The Liber ignium, beginning at experiment 34 and at the same juncture as in the Amplon. MS, since the preceding experiments in both cases were concerned with alcohol (aqua ardens), turpentine, and Greek fire, comprises twenty-five experiments, after which miscellaneous experiments carry the total number recorded in the margin up to one hundred and forty-four. In the Amplon. MS the Liber ignium is followed by another experimental treatise entitled Secreta philosophorum, of which more will be said presently.
[2475] “In Toleno” or “In Coleno.”
[2476] “Suus suo amicus amico Anselmo ferarius.”
[2477] Strictly speaking there are two other sentences before the words, “Rogasti me, amice Anselme....”
[2478] Professor D. B. Macdonald warns me, however, that these are common opening words in Arabic treatises.
[2479] This and the preceding experiment follow the liber ignium of Marcus Grecus in CLM 197, 1438 A. D.; see Berthelot (1893) I, 124.
[2480] First printed in 1804 by La Porte du Theil at the wish of Napoleon who had heard of the old recipes for Greek fire. Hoefer gave a faulty edition of it in his History of Chemistry, 2nd edition, I, 517-24. I have employed the text printed by Berthelot (1893) I, 89-135, from four continental MSS: BN 7156, 13-14th century; BN 7158, 15th century; CLM 267, about 1300 A. D.; CLM 197, about 1438 A. D. This text is accompanied by a French translation, introduction, and notes. Berthelot’s discussion of Marcus Grecus suffers from his ignorance of the existence of other collections of experiments similar to it in MSS contemporary with it. He notes only its resemblance to the De mirabilibus mundi ascribed to Albertus Magnus and to the books of secrets printed in the sixteenth century. Marcus Grecus seems not the same as Mark, the canon of Toledo (Marcus Canonicus Toletanus) in the twelfth century who translated into Latin the Koran and works of Hippocrates, Galen, and Honein ben Ishak: see Steinschneider (1905), p. 54.
[2481] Besides the MSS used in his text Berthelot alludes to some MS of the Liber ignium in England which belonged to a Mr. Richard Mead (probably, Professor D. B. Macdonald suggests, Dr. Richard Mead, the eighteenth century London physician, many of whose books are now in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow), but does not mention Digby 67 and Amplon. Quarto 361, which we have described already; nor CU St. John’s 177, 14th century (Italian), fol. 15v, “Incipit liber ignium a marco greco prescriptus”; nor Sloane 323, 14th century. fols. 162-5; nor Digby 153, 14th century, fol. 179v-, where it is reduced to ten experiments. There may be other MSS of the Liber ignium in the British Museum, as I have not searched especially for them. In Arundel 164, 15th century, fol. 192v, are Recepta varia de praeparatione ignis graeci.
[2482] Berthelot (1893) I, 131.