Geber [pseudo-]: Summa perfectionis magisterii.

Add:  Liber trium verborum.   [Pseudo-] Alexander Magnus:  Epistola, 'Quidam breviter dicunt'.   Parabola super lapide philosophorum.   [Pseudo-] Geber:  De investigatione magisterii.   Six alchemical poems in Latin and Italian (some attributed to Cecco d'Ascoli and Elia da Cortona).

[Rome:  Eucharius Silber, 1486-90]
4to.  [1-14⁸ 15¹⁰].  [122] leaves (1/1 blank).
ISTC ig00112000;  GW 10566;  Goff G112;  BMC IV 124 (IA. 19199);  Bod-inc G-052;  CIBN G-59;  BSB-Ink G-49.

As dated by BSB-Ink.  GW dates [ca. 1486-88], Goff [ca. 1483-90], and IGI [ca. 1500].
According to Bod-inc (following William R. Newman, The Summa perfectionis of Pseudo-Geber:  a critical edition, translation and study, Leiden:  1991), the probable author of the tracts attributed to Geber was Paulus de Tarento.

Two copies held by University of Glasgow.

Copy 1

GIP number:	G15/1
Shelf-mark:	Sp Coll Ferguson An-y.10 (see main library entry for this item)
Provenance:	Jean Antoine Colladon-Martin (1755-1830), Swiss pharmacist and chemist:  book label on front pastedown. Jacques Rosenthal (1854-1937), bookseller, Munich:  sold book to John Ferguson. John Ferguson (1837-1916), Professor of Chemistry, University of Glasgow:  purchased from Rosenthal;  Ferguson’s acquisition note on front pastedown “J. Ferguson Glasgow Nov. 28 1893” and note of his supplier “Rosenthal” on rear pastedown. University of Glasgow:  Ferguson collection purchase, 1921.
Binding:	Italy, 15th/16th-century blind-tooled brown goatskin over wooden boards;  covers decorated with a border formed from two sets of quadruple fillets enclosing a chain-pattern roll;  quadruple fillets form a central panel decorated with a reticulated design formed from diagonal lines of repeated crosses;  spine decorated with blind fillets to form lozenge shapes;  top spine compartment missing but fragments of a later paper label once attached to it are visible on both covers;  two brass and red leather clasps, with catch plates on rear board;  evidence at the upper and lower edges of each board of two ties (now lost);  parchment guards from a medieval manuscript visible on free endpapers.  Size:  219 x 150 mm.
Leaf size:	210 x 146 mm.
Annotations:	Copious marginal annotations and underlining in 16th-century hands;  frequent manicules and nota marks;  occasional interlinear corrections of text;  foliated in a 16th-century hand from 1/2 onwards “1”-“120” (“61” repeated), with a manuscript index referring to that foliation beginning on verso of front free endpaper and continuing on the first blank leaf;  motto “In vitiu[m] ducit culpae fuga” (from Horace, De arte poetica) on verso of front free endpaper.
Decoration:	Marginal drawings of furnaces and distillation vessels in quires 5 and 6.
Imperfections:	None.

Copy 2

GIP number:	G15/2
Shelf-mark:	Sp Coll Ferguson Ah-a.73 (see main library entry for this item)
Bound with:	Perhaps once bound with a copy of Antonius Zeno, De natura humana. Venice:  1491 - see Annotations and Binding.
Provenance:	Anthonius/Antoine Mauclercg (17th century):  'Sum Antonij Mauclercg' (lightly scored through) on 1/2r (repeated on 1/1r but final part of name damaged). Metz, Lorraine, Benedictines, S. Arnulfus (S. Arnould): 'S. arnulphi metensis 1754' on 1/2r.  John Ferguson (1837-1916), Professor of Chemistry, University of Glasgow:  source unknown;  'John Ferguson January 19. 1887' in pencil on first front flyleaf. Ferguson collection purchase, 1921.
Binding:	19th-century quarter brown calf, decorated paper-covered sides;  gold-tooled spine;  marbled endpapers;  leaf 15/10 (f. 122) and a front flyleaf both mounted - the latter, from evidence of an identical wormhole and 16th-century inscriptions, has an early association with the opening leaves of quire 1.   Size:  210 x 137 mm.
Leaf size:	202 x 133 mm.
Annotations:	Two titles in a 16th-century hand on the early front flyleaf “Geber de metallis” followed by “Antonij Zeni de embrione et natura humana”, beneath which is a note on Geber’s text (in a different hand) with the date 1570;  early manuscript signatures “a”-“p” (first and third leaves of each quire signed);  foliated in ink in an 18th-century hand (with errors);  19th-century price codes in pencil on rear free endpaper “ee/o” and “no/” and also the letter “B”.
Decoration:	None.
Imperfections:	Upper half of the blank leaf 1/1 torn off.