In a previous life as a historian of science and manuscript scholar, Type & Forme’s Dr Anke Timmermann realised that the holdings of alchemical manuscripts in Cambridge libraries would benefit from a thorough catalogue identifying both texts and images for future research – a new tool utilising bibliographical and scholarly research from the past century as well as Anke’s own insights into the usefulness of particular types of information on sources for historians of alchemy.
Anke spent her Munby Fellowship at Cambridge University Library, also visiting the marvellous collections of Trinity College and other colleges across Cambridge, and the resulting bibliography ‘Alchemy in Cambridge: An Annotated Catalogue of Alchemical Texts and Illustrations in Cambridge Repositories’ (167 pages detailing the contents of 56 alchemical manuscripts, with introduction) was published in Nuncius (Brill) in 2015.
This year, in celebration of its 40th anniversary, Nuncius has identified 40 key articles from its published issues to make them freely available throughout 2025. Anke’s catalogue is among them, and can now be accessed here:
We would like to congratulate Nuncius on this milestone anniversary, and hope that the catalogue will send out a message to historians of alchemy, manuscript scholars, and bibliographers alike: there is much to be discovered!