Leaf from a work on operative alchemy, describing operations for silver and gold, the dissolution and dealbation (whitening) of arsenic in vinegar and other operations (including one on pearls). A passage on verso describes the removal of humidities from bodies. The author appears to be talking about his own experiences in the first person.Condition: Torn, holes, slightly stainedLayout: 31 lines (recto); 30 lines (verso)
Collection of recipes without clearly stated aims. The ingredients listed (mostly stones, metals and salts) seem to point to an alchemical background for the fragment. A small number of names of ingredients (e.g. sal ammonia) are given in a Romance language.Condition: Torn, holes, slightly faded, slightly stainedLayout: 42 lines + marginalia
P1: f. 1r: description of a dream dated 525 AH (= 1130 CE); f. 1v: alchemical recipe called ‘the operation of mixture’; f. 2r: invocation to God. P2: f. 1r: alchemical recipe (continues from P1 f. 1v); f. 1v: calendar in which the Hebrew months of Sivan and Tammuz are mentioned; f. 2v: invocation to God and separate letters. P3: leaf 1: magical words and description of their use, with a mention of the city of Damascus; calendar mentioning Jewish festivals (Passover, Ḥanukka). P4: f. 1r: sequence of letters arranged according to the abrade; f. 1v: on the substitution of letters in words according to the Kabbalah; P4 leaf 2: calendar with mention of Hebrew festivals (continues from P3, leaf 1). P5: f. 1r: very damaged, only a few letters legible; f. 1v: list of some of the months of the Jewish calendar; f. 2r: description of movements of the sun (first 8 lines) and list of some months of the Jewish calendar; f. 2v: badly rubbed. P6: f. 1r: description of celestial phenomena; ff. 1v, leaf 2: on the reckoning of the days of the festival with mention of the leap year. P7: ff. 1r-2v: mention of a musical instrument in Arabic and Hebrew; f. 2r: mention of Rabban Gamaliel and reckoning for the rising of the New Moon. P8: unidentified Hebrew text. P9 recto: alchemical recipe involving the use of vitriol; verso: Arabic (separate letters and words and unidentified partial text).Condition: torn, holes, rubbed, stainedLayout: 0-16 lines
Hebrew instructions for producing silver and gold, followed by Hebrew writing exercises and an unidentified Arabic text.Condition: holesLayout: 20 lines per page (recto) 22 lines (verso)
Recto: two alchemical recipes. The first recipe (ll. 1-8) is aimed at producing ‘the work’ (אלצנעה), a word commonly used for indicating the production of gold, silver or the elixir that would turn base metals into precious ones. Ingredients mentioned are: sublimated arsenic, vinegar, sulphur, dissolved salt, sublimated mercury. The second recipe is composed of two parts. The first part (ll. 8-14) describes a preparation requiring silver, salt, water, mercury, and sal ammoniac that is aimed at obtaining a clear plate of metal. The second part (ll. 14-end) requires the use of quicksilver, horse manure, sal ammoniac, the Khurasani (?) and young boys’ urine. The end of the recipe is lost. Verso: part of a widely-spaced letter sent to a nagid in Fusṭāṭ.Condition: Torn, fadedLayout: 36 lines (recto); 16 lines (verso)
Amulet with angelic names (Uriel, Rafael, Gabriel); boxed tables with magical words on recto; magic square and Star of David with magical letters on verso.Condition: holesLayout: 17 lines (recto); 10 lines (verso)