Previously Unpublished Works, Fascicle 5

Lune, while the Emerald Table The Tabula Smaragdina, a short, cryptic text highly valued by alchemists as the foundation of their art. (pp. 115-17) is quoted by Albertus Albertus Magnus, a prolific 13th century scholar and teacher of Thomas Aquinas. in his work On Minerals.

In his dedication Philip states that the book was found at Antioch. Some doubt has been thrown on this remark, but without reason: Antioch was a very likely place for the free exchange of thought between Christians and Mohammedans at the time.

Though we know nothing certain of Guido or Philip we have some materials for conjecture. The translation is dedicated in the Vulgate The common or standard versions of the text. manuscripts "To Guido de Vere of Valencia, glorious bishop of the metropolitan city," a form which is obviously incomplete, and accordingly soon passed into "to the glorious bishop of the city of Tripoli." Bacon supplies in his title the name of the archiepiscopal see as Naples. If this is true, Guido could only have been archbishop between 1247 and 1253.

Philip, who had been in his service and was now separated from him, is called in the body of the work in several early manuscripts "Philip of Tripoli," for example: "Here begins the fourth book. Master Philip of Tripoli translated it concerning the form of justice" (National Library of France, Latin collection 6584, 11119 etc.). We know of a Philip of Tripoli who was canon of Byblos 1243–8, chaplain of Hugo, Cardinal of St. Sabine, canon of Tyre, canon of Tripoli (provision of 1243, not filled 1248), elected to the see of Tyre October 26, 1250, but declined it in favor of N. cantor of Tripoli "our chamberlain": licence 1251, January 15 to keep all offices together in Tyre, Sidon, and Tripoli after election of N. to Tyre. He was also a chaplain of Pope Innocent IV on March 8, 1251.

We get hints in a brief of 1243 as to the business that may have taken Philip to Antioch: the Bishop of Tripoli, who had never fathomed "the mysteries of Donatus and Cato" This refers to basic Latin education; Donatus wrote a standard grammar and "Cato" refers to the Distichs of Cato, a common textbook for beginners., having been excommunicated and interdicted by the patriarch of Antioch. We have no hint as to any connection of a Guido de Vere with Valence or Valencia. He may possibly have belonged to the Lincolnshire Anglo-Norman family of de Vere, in which Guido was a family name. I can find no other Vere family in Western Europe in which Guido was a family name. In this one we meet a Guy de Vere in the 1131 Pipe Roll Financial records maintained by the English Exchequer., another in 1173 supporting Henry II against his sons, in 1180 paying a fine for not destroying a castle in Lincolnshire, in 1199 a benefactor of the Hospitallers A medieval Catholic military order known as the Knights Hospitaller., in 1204 a benefactor of Selby Abbey, and another in 1233 as a tenant of Ranulf de Blundeville, Earl of Chester. The persistence of the name in the family for a century almost creates a probability that our Guido de Vere was