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CATALOGUE OF THE ALCHEMICAL WORKS ATTRIBUTED TO
RAIMOND LULL
MICHELA PEREIRA
(Università di Siena)
 
 

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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