El manuscrito AHPCR V.3/54: una versión inédita en castellano del tratado de alquimia De aluminibus et salibus

Abstract

The manuscript AHPCR V.3/54 (kept at Provincial Historial Archive of Ciudad Real) is a document dated to 16th century (c. 1530) which includes the last pages of the islamic treatise on alchemy De aluminibus et salibus. It’s the only version known so far that is written in a vernacular language, more specifically in Castilian, unpublished and unknown by the scientific community until now. This paper presents an approach to the study of the manuscript in its ecdotical and historical variables: it analyses the relationship between AHPCR V.3/54 and the Latin versions of De aluminibus et salibus edited by Robert Steele (1929) and Julius Ruska (1935), and Codex Speciale of Palermo Biblioteca Comunale, just as the socio-cultural context in which it was made. In this regard, it is analysed the role that played female convent circles in the practice of Castilian alchemy, which have been little studied so far. It also analyses the end of the manuscript, which includes an allegory and mentions to keep the secret of the opus alchimicum; those are contents which are not detected on other versions of De aluminibus et salibus.