Expounding George Ripley: A Huntington Alchemical Manuscript

Abstract

he following pages contain a transcription, accompanied by introduction and annotations, of a manuscript commentary that is bound into the Huntington Library copy of The Compound ofAlchymy (STC 21057), a long alchemical poem written by George Ripley, the fifteenth-century alchemist, author, and canon of the Augustinian priory at Bridlington in Yorkshire. Ripley's poem, which is the subject of the commentary, was not published until 1591. The copy of the book in which the six manuscript leaves (twelve pages) are bound was acquired by Henry E. Huntington in the Huth purchase of 1918, and their existence is noted in the sale catalogue;' however, the manuscript in question has not previously been transcribed or received scholarly attention. The manuscript leaves are of heavy paper, measuring approximately 18 by 13 centimeters, and they have wide penciled margins on the sides, top, and bottom, with the running head Reply Expounded centered at the tops of pages 2 through 12. The leaves of both the manuscript and the printed book have the same marbled edges; the whole is bound in calf. The manuscript is written clearly in a seventeenth-century hand; and of particular interest is the fact that it is signed (M:P.), addressed (to Mrs A:R:), and dated very precisely (Westminster: Dominica ffeb:8.1671. Media Nocte:). I will discuss several puzzling matters related to the manuscript's authorship and transmission later in this introduction, but it seems apparent from both the opening epistle and the final page that the author is a native of the north of England (Ripley's Country man) now living in Westminster, that he has affectionate regard for the addressee, that she has expressed keen interest in hermetic philosophy, and that in explaining Ripley's alchemical poem to MA:R:, M:P.