Sloane 3679, 17th century, fol. 96v—, “Sequuntur quaedam Experimenta mirabilia de spolio serpentis quae Jo. Hispalensis ex Arabico transtulit in Latinum ex libro salutis vitae Alcani philosophi Arabici.”
[2519] “Hic incipiunt 12 experimenta naturalia de corio serpentis translata a johanne paulino ab arabico in latinum ut predictus philosophus dicit cum ego Johannes essem in alexandria civitate egipsiorum reperi ... hoc qui salus vitae appellatur....” Bodleian 177.
[2520] Arundel 251, “Cum ego Johannis hyspanicus....”
[2521] At least he seems to have been a different person from John of St. Paul’s, a medical writer whose works will be found in a number of MSS in the collections of Amplonius and Sir Hans Sloane, and whom Scott in his Index to the Sloane MSS has identified both with the translator of the snakeskin experiments and with John Platearius.
And still different from any of these would seem to have been “Ioannis Paulus de Fundis,” doctor of arts and lecturer on medicine and astronomy in the university, and astrologer of the commune, of Bologna, whose Tacuinus astronomico-medicus, written in his own hand in February, 1435, is preserved in a MS of the University Library at Bologna. Nor is this Tacuinus to be confused with the earlier work of that title translated by the Jew Faradj ben Salem for Charles of Anjou.
[2522] Sloane 1754.
[2523] Sloane 1754. These virtues ascribed to snakeskin are perhaps to be connected with the belief that the serpent renews its youth by changing its skin every year: see J. G. Frazer (1918) I, 66.
[2524] Royal 12-D-XII, fols. 112r-113r. Sloane 1754 ends immediately after the twelfth experiment with the powdered snakeskin, while Arundel 251 adds but one further sentence.
[2525] Canon. Misc. 524, fol. 17r-v, “Secreta Alberti magni de serpente dedita uno doctori sacre theologie ordinis minorum de Norenbergia.”
[2526] Sloane 1754 and CLM 534. Sloane 1754 also contains the following experimental works which have not yet been mentioned: fols. 80-82, Experimenta de sanguine; fols. 197-201, 205-8, 212-8, 222-31, Chimica experimenta varia.