The Ripley Scrolls
Prima Materia, detail of Ripley Scroll, Mellon MS 41, Beinecke Library
The Ripley scroll is a truly beautiful alchemical manuscript, attributed to George Ripley (c. 1415 – 1490), Canon Regular of the priory at Bridlington in Yorkshire, England. It is certainly one of the largest of all alchemical drawings, with some copies measuring over 5.5 meters in length and 50 cm across.
At present there are 23 known copies, ranging form the early sixteenth to the seventeenth century.
The latest discovered copy is kept at the London Science Museum Library, and was discovered in 2012 by library staff while preparing an exhibition about alchemy (the actual scroll is on display, part of this temporary exhibition at the museum till 27 April 2013).
The scroll at the Beinecke Library is an exquisite specimen, photographs can be accessed here (exceptional quality). Reproductions of the Huntington Library scroll are available here. Also the Bodleian Library has put online photographs of their four scrolls, viewable here. The two scrolls at the Welcome Library can be viewed at the Welcome Images website (search for “Ripley”).
Mellon MS 41, Beinecke Library
MS. Ash. Rolls 53, Bodleian Library
HM 30313, Huntington Library
A modernised and unified text from various version of the scroll can be found at The Alchemy Website, and additional texts attributed to the alchemist George Ripley are available here.
An interesting article (of 2008) about the Ripley scroll by Jennifer M. Rampling can be found here (PDF). Also of interest is an article (of 1996) by R.I. McCallum to be found here (PDF). At the end of the article a useful summary of nineteen scrolls can be found.
Ripley Scroll, detail of Mellon MS 41
An other article by the same author is online at the Sibbald Library webpage; link to the article here. Both articles refer to the scroll at the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh. The mentioned commentary published in 1876 can be found here (PDF). Titled “Account of an Alchemical Roll on parchment (18 feet in length), presented to the Royal College of Physicians, from the Library of Sir George Areskine of Innertiel, by George Earl of Cromarty, in 1707.” by W. Moncrieff and J. Small, part of the eleventh volume of “Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Edinburg” (link to the PDF repository). An Italian translation of the 1876 published commentary can be found here, on Massimo Marra’s website.
Adam McLean has made a study course about the scroll, guiding the reader through the intricate drawings. Book is available here.
The Ripley scroll has not lost its appeal to be hand reproduced still to the present day! Wonderful.
Further resources:
– Information on Ripley and a bibliography of printed books, link.
– An extensive online article in French and Italian.
– Nineteen scrolls listed and grouped by visual details (published in “Art & Alchemy” edited by Jacob Wamberg, Museum Tusculanum Press, 2006, ISBN 87-635-0267-4), link.
– A catalougue of alchemical writings attributed to George Ripley, compiled by Jennifer M. Rampling (2010), link to PDF.
– Spliced image from the images of scroll segments at the Beinecke Digital Library, link.
– Pictures of the Science Museum Library scroll, link.
Links to online catalogue entries I could find so far:
Beinecke Library, Yale University, Connecticut, USA – Mellon MS 41
British Library, London, UK – (not complete) – MS 2524 A, Sloane MS 2523 B, Add MS 32621
Getty Institute, Malibu CA, USA – Manly P. Hall Collection, 950053
Huntington Library, San Marino CA, USA – HM 30313
Welcome Institute, London, UK – MS.692 and MS.693
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Source of the images:
Mellon MS 41, Beinecke Library, Yale University
http://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3592268
HM 30313, Huntington Library, San Marino CA
http://dpg.lib.berkeley.edu/webdb/dsheh/heh_brf?Description=&CallNumber=HM+30313
MS. Ash. Rolls 53, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
http://bodley30.bodley.ox.ac.uk:8180/luna/servlet/view/all/who/George+Ripley