Parker Library MS 395 (CCCC MS 395)

[Paul Ferguson]

Parker Library MS 395 (CCCC MS 395) is a medieval manuscript compilation of alchemical texts housed at the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
Overview of MS 395
• Contents: Features major alchemical and scientific works, including Liber de consideratione quintae essentiae by John of Rupescissa (Iohannes de Rupescissa OFM), Tertia distinctio by Ramón Lull, and other related alchemical tracts.
• Date: Copied in parts during the early 15th century, with additional sections added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

Viewable here:
https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/catalog/nq795kd7274

[Paul Ferguson]

Folio 50v of that manuscript is famous for its image of the moonwort. Read on:

'The Billingford Hutch and the moonwort fern – a medieval mystery solved'

"Each of the lock plates (the metal plates containing the locks, hasps and keyholes) is decorated with the outline of a plant punched into the metal...No-one knew the significance of this decorative detail. Purseglove, who is passionate about plants, suspected the distinctive shape was likely to be that of moonwort, a fern much mentioned by 16th- century herbalists. He said: “I rushed home and looked it up. I found that it had been associated with the opening of locks and guarding of silver.”

https://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/articles/bi...y-solved-0

[Paul Ferguson]

The moonwort wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botrychium_lunaria