<p style='text-align: justify;'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.47 (hereafter Trinity MS O.2.47) is a small alchemical manuscript, the majority of which was copied by a single scribe. Part-way through the third quire, after the end of the <i>Gloria mundi</i> of Winandus de Rufo Clipeo (f. 45r), the scribe added a colophon: 'Completum et scriptum anno 1436 . 11 die aprilis' (Completed and written [on the] 11th day of April 1436). Like the <i>Gloria mundi</i>, the other two main texts in the volume - <i>De secretis naturae</i> of pseudo-Arnaldus de Villanova, and <i>Rosarius minor</i> of ?John of Garland (Hortulanus) - also commence at the beginning of their respective quires. As Pam Robinson (1988) noted, this suggests that they were each made as 'booklets' or codicological units: separately, but seemingly with the intention that they be bound together from the outset. The colophon may refer only to the completion of the <i>Gloria mundi</i>, therefore, but in all likelihood the other two were copied with it as part of a single campaign and close in date. Further texts were added subsequently, many by the same scribe, and in the space after the main texts, including the <i>Gloria mundi</i>, demonstrating that production extended beyond this date, too. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The short alchemical treatises and recipes are mostly in Latin and Middle English, but, unusually for an early 15th-century English manuscript, there are alchemical recipes in a dialect of Old Spanish, perhaps Catalan. These texts, which sometimes include Latin words, appear on ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(74);return false;'>32v</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(79);return false;'>35r</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(109);return false;'>50r</a> and <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(110);return false;'>50v</a>. They appear to have been copied by the main scribe. One of the texts is attributed, perhaps spuriously, to the Spanish philosopher and polymath Ramon Llull, although Trinity MS O.2.47 is not recorded in the corpus of manuscripts currently known to preserve his works. Further research on these contents is required.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>MS O.2.47 was extensively annotated by one of its former owners, John Dee (1527-1608), English mathematician and court astronomer of Queen Elizabeth I. Dee's signed the manuscript on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(9);return false;'>1r</a>, and added titles, glosses, alchemical diagrams, and longer annotations to almost every leaf, and in more than one colour of ink, which suggests that he returned to the volume on several, separate occasions. The manuscript is recorded in Dee's 1583 library catalogue (now <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.4.20/'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.4.20</a>, p. 154) where it is described as follows: 'Arnaldi de villa nova liber de Alchimia cujus initium est scito fili quod in hoc libro etc and cum alijs ejusdem opusculis . papyro 4<sup>o</sup>'. The Arnaldus de Villanova text to which Dee refers is the text at the opening of the manuscript on ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(9);return false;'>1r-6r</a>.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dee owned a large collection of manuscripts, many of which are now at Trinity College, including (with references in square brackets to J. Roberts and A.G. Watson's studies of Dee's library; see References for full citation): <ul><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/B.15.20'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B.15.20</a>, 'Jupiter marks' in upper margin of f. 1r [M63]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.2.14'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.14</a>, Two Jupiter marks on f. 13r [DM3]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.2.21'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.21</a> [DM3a]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.2.33/'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.33</a>, Dee marginal annotations throughout, ('trefoil' mark on f. i recto and 37r, are these also Dee marks?) [DM4]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.2.47'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.47</a>, Dee's signature in the upper margin of f. 1r [M79]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.2.50'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.50</a> [M3]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.3.27'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.3.27</a> [M16]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.4.20'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.4.20 (Dee's library catalogue)</a>, Dee holograph [DM4a]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.7.20'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.7.20</a>, according to Roberts and Watson, folios II:50r-62v are in Dee's hand, and other passages of text may also be in Dee's hand [DM5]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.7.23'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.7.23</a> [M34]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.7.35/'>Cambridge, Trinity College MS O.7.35</a>, selective table of contents in Dee's hand on f. xiv verso [M188]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.8.5/'>Cambridge, Trinity College MS O.8.5</a>, according to Roberts and Watson, some of the marginalia are in Dee's hand, although they are cautious about M.R. James' identification of Dee as the scribe of the note in the upper margin of f. 186r, [DM6]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.8.9/'>Cambridge, Trinity College MS O.8.9</a>, according to Roberts and Watson, title on f. 1r possibly in Dee's hand, some marginal annotations also possibly in Dee's hand [DM7]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.8.28/'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.8.28, ff. 1:1-25</a>, Dee added a title and his signature to f. [title page] recto; Dee's signature also on f. 25v, [DM8]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.8.30/'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.8.30</a> [M148]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.9.39/'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.9.39</a> [M54]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.9.40/'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.9.40</a>, according to Roberts and Watson, 'Liber primi finis' on f. 14r, and some of the marginalia are possibly in Dee's hand [DM9]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/R.14.30/'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.14.30</a> [M199]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/R.14.38/'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.14.38, ff. i-iv, 1-75</a>, according to Roberts and Watson the list on f. i recto is in Dee's hand, as is the text on f. iv verso and some of the marginal annotations on the later leaves [DM10]</li></ul></p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Sarah Gilbert<br /> Project Cataloguer for Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries<br /> Cambridge University Library</p><p style='text-align: justify;'><b>References</b><div style='list-style-type: disc;'><div style='display: list-item; margin-left: 20px;'>P.R. Robinson, <i>Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 737-1600 in Cambridge Libraries</i> (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1988), no. 369, pl. 227. </div><div style='display: list-item; margin-left: 20px;'>J. Roberts and A.G. Watson, <i>John Dee's Library Catalogue</i> (1990), M79 and esp. p. 119</div><div style='display: list-item; margin-left: 20px;'>J. Roberts, and A.G. Watson, 'John Dee’s Library Catalogue: Additions and Corrections', <i>The Bibliographical Society (Special Publication)</i> (2009)</div></div><br /></p>
