Liber Ignium

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The Liber Ignium is probably the end of the 12th century to around 1225 in the oldest parts in Spain authored, returning to Arab sources "Fireworks book" (full title: to burn Liber Ignium ad conburendos hostes, fireworks book to the enemy) of a fictional Byzantine Author Marcus Graecus (Markus the Greek). It is in the form of a collection of recipes, with the oldest recipes going back to antiquity.

It was first published in 1804 by the conservator of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris FJG La Porte Du Theil (1742-1815) on the instructions of Bonaparte . Further text editions in the 19th century are by Ferdinand Höfer and Marcellin Berthelot . The text is not very extensive and comprises about six pages and is for the most part reproduced with his commentary by James Riddick Partington in his book on the history of pyrotechnics in Latin and English translation.

Liber Ignium manuscripts are to be found in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris and in the Bavarian State Library in Munich, among others , the oldest being from the end of the 13th century. The work is written in Latin, but probably translated not from Greek, but from Arabic, as indicated by a few words and also the fact that typically only Hermes, Ptolemy (probably the Hellenistic ruler in Egypt Ptolemy I), Aristotle and Alexander the Great should be mentioned. Words with Spanish roots are also used, so that it is usually assumed that it was compiled in Arabic Spain in the 12th century, with later additions. Because of the choice of words, Jewish or Spanish authors are still accepted, not Greeks (Byzantines) or Arabs.

It is in the form of a disordered recipe collection with 35 recipes, some of which are incomprehensible or unusable, as one would expect - according to Partington - if they have been compiled or copied from various sources, but not all have been tested by the author of the collection. The recipes come from different eras (some go back to antiquity). The scope of the recipes is also different in the various manuscripts, some were added later: Partington distinguishes an oldest group from the period between 1182 and 1225, which were translated from Arabic by a Spaniard, and another group by another author before 1225 and a third group from around or shortly after 1300, including those in which saltpetre is mentioned. There are recipes for Greek fire (from pitch, sulfur, petroleum, oil, salt), for black powder (saltpeter with coal and sulfur) and the preparation of the saltpeter found on stones according to the book (No. 14), phosphorescent materials, rockets, Lamps, incendiary devices and for protection from fire (e.g. for magic tricks with flames in hand). Burning alcohol is also mentioned.

The recipes for black powder are similar to those found in the work On Wonders of the World (De Mirabilibus Mundi) published under the name of Albertus Magnus (but its attribution to Albertus Magnus is generally questioned); these are probably taken from the Liber Ignium. The common recipe for black powder is 6 parts saltpeter, 2 parts charcoal and 1 part sulfur, all very finely crushed and mixed. The earliest mentions of black powder also include passages from the work of Roger Bacon , who mentions black powder in use in children's fireworks in the 1260s. Other mentions in Bacon's work are uncertain and controversial, such as: B. A reconstruction of anagrams by the British artillery colonel Henry Hime in 1904, in which almost equal proportions of saltpeter, coal and sulfur (7: 5: 5) are proposed for black powder, unlike in Liber Ignium and in conventional black powder recipes. Romocki assumed that Bacon and Albertus Magnus knew the Liber Ignium, Partington rather assumes that all three have common sources.

Two manuscripts from the 15th century (in Vienna and Berlin) have a German comment that ascribes them to an Achilles Tabor, but which is from a later period.

literature

  • JR Partington: A history of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, Johns Hopkins University Press 1960, 1999 (with a new introduction by Bert S. Hall)

Older translations are in:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ after Partington, A history of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, Johns Hopkins University Press 1960, 1999, p. 9
  2. ↑ Liber Ignium ad comburendos hostes, auctore Marco Graeco. Paris: Delance et Lesureur 1804, VI ​​+ 18 pages, with excerpts from writings by Gerolamo Cardano and Scaliger
  3. ↑ Partington A history of Greek Fire and Gunpowder , Johns Hopkins University Press 1999, pp. 45-56
  4. ↑ BN 7156 (called A by Partington) and BN 7158 (B after Partington), the latter probably a copy of the first. Dated by Partington at the end of the 13th / beginning of the 14th century (Partington p. 42). The first translator Du Theil and Höfer use A, taking B. Partington into account, uses the older translations by Berthelot, Höfer and Romocki for his translation, but has also looked at the manuscripts, especially A. He gives variants according to the different manuscripts AD. Berthelot's translation, based on A to D, he describes p. 45 as incorrect.
  5. ↑ Cited by Partington as Königliche Bibliothek 267 (C to Partington), from roughly the same time as A, and Munich 197 (D to Partington), from around 1438. D differs considerably from B and thus also from A.
  6. ↑ A, B, C, D were also used by Marcellin Berthelot (La Chimie au Moyen Age 1893), who abbreviated C as M. Romocki also used two essentially identical manuscripts Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg 1481a and Königliches Zeughaus Berlin 2 . Other manuscripts are e.g. B. in the Vatican (some from the 13th century) and the British Museum (among others from the Sloane collection, 14th century)
  7. ↑ Partington, loc. cit. P. 58
  8. ↑ They would never have called “Greek Fire” as “Greek” as in the text, and the attribution to a Marcus Graecus made in the text speaks against it.
  9. ↑ Part Unitingon, loc. cit. P. 58
  10. ↑ Some of the recipes are useless according to Partington
  11. ↑ The Kestoi by Julius Africanus , Partington p. 60, with additions from later Byzantine times to his manuscripts. Other recipes go back to Partington in the 8th century.
  12. ↑ Partington, p. 60
  13. ↑ Probably wall nitrate
  14. ↑ Partington, p. 49
  15. ↑ Bert Hall in Partington's preface, p. Literature, p. XXV
  16. ↑ Partington, p. 49 for Liber Ignium, p. 86 for Albertus Magnus
  17. ↑ The argument was taken from Partington, p. 74, which the author of the foreword to the new edition, Bert Hall criticized, p. XXIV
  18. ^ In Partington, p. 58, as MSS. Vienna 3062 and Berlin Archive of the Great General Staff 117. Both are essentially identical.