Nick Harris, a Ph. D. candidate in religious studies at Penn, presents the University of Pennsylvania Library’s LJS 441 from the Schoenberg Collection, Kitāb al-Miṣbāḥ wa-nuzʹhat al-arwāḥ fī ʻilm al-miftāḥ fī al-ḥikmah al-Ilāhīyah wa-al-ṣināʻah al-falsafīyah wa al-nātijah al-ʻalīyah…, written in Arabic, probably in Aleppo, Syria, ca. 1562. This 14th-century treatise on alchemy is based on the work of the 8th-century alchemist and chemist Jābir ibn Ḥayyān, copied in A.H. 970 (1562), followed by a pseudo-Platonic work on alchemy with commentary (tafsīr) attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān.
It was presented at the Delaware Valley Medieval Association Meeting at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books & Manuscripts of the University of Pennsylvania Library. September 21, 2013.
The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies 