Petrus Bonus

Bonus, Petrus. Margaritapretiosa novella, in Manget, Bibliotheca, vol. 2, pp. 1-79. 

Petrus Bonus Ferrarensis, Pretiosa Margarita NomUa (Venice Janus Lacinius, 1546), there is no pagination for the illustrations. 

Lacinius, Janus and Petrus Bonus. "Nuncupatory discourse." In New pearl of great price, ed. Bonus of Ferrara, 8-20., 1894. 

Bonus of Ferrara. A form and method of perfecting base metals. rhttp //www.levitv.com/alchemy/petrus bonus, htmll. 

Crisciani, Chiari. The conception of alchemy as expressed in the Pretiosa Margarita Novella of Petrus Bonus of Ferrara. Ambix 20, no. 3 (Nov 1973) 165-181. 

Kibre, Pearl. "Petrus Bonus." In Dictionary of scientific biography, x 554-556., 1974. 

Stillman, John Maxson. Petrus Bonus and supposed chemical forgeries. Sci Monthly 17 (Oct 1923) 318-325. 

It is of interest that the title of Geber s principal work, elaborated in the printed edition to Summa Perfections Magisterii, etc., is given in the earlier manuscripts by the word Summa alone. Petrus Bonus (1330) often referring to Geber, also uses only the title Summa. The statement made by Darmstaedter that no manuscripts of the three other works are known earlier than the first printed works, is in harmony with the fact that Petrus Bonus seems to know only the Summa. It may be possible, therefore, that the other works credited to Geber may be elaborations by later writers. 

As to the personality of the pseudo-Geber we know nothing. Petrus Bonus, erudite Italian writer on alchemy of 1330, the earliest writer to quote Geber extensively, calls him Geber Hispanus and there is no reason for supposing that he is not right in it. The facts that he draws upon... 

An important writer of this period is Petrus Bonus, who is known through a book which bears the title Petrus Bonus of Ferrara, Physicus. Introduction to the Arts of Alchemy. Composed in 1330 in the City of Pola in Istria. A Precious New Pearl (Pretiosa Margarita Novella). 26 The date 1330 is repeated at the end of the work, though 1339 is stated in the preceding paragraph as the date of completion of the work. 

He cites authorities profusely, and this is of importance from the fact that Petrus Bonus seems to have been a writer whose personality and date are generally accepted as genuine. The work bears all the character of an earnest and honest treatise. Authors whom he cites, he cites very frequently. Thus the works of (pseudo-) Geber,written probably about 1300, are very often quoted, and apparently this is the latest authority he knows. There is no citation in his lengthy work, which is confined strictly to alchemy, of any treatise on this subject by Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, Arnaldus of Villanova nor Raymond Lullus. It is impossible that he should have cited Lullus in 1330, because, as we have seen, this pseudo-Lullus literature is certainly none of it earlier, and probably all of it considerably later. 

The omission of the other names is significant, as works of alchemical nature attributed to those men were at later dates very much esteemed, on account of the high reputation of the men as scholars and it seems safe to infer that if works like the Libellus de Alchemia, etc., attributed to Albertus, or the Speculum, Alchemiae, Breve Breviarium de Bono Dei, De Arte Chemiae, credited to Roger Bacon, or the various alchemical works credited to Arnaldus of Villanova, were then extant, that so conscientious a student of authorities as Petrus Bonus would not have been likely to have omitted them. 

Petrus Bonus and Supposed Chemical Forgeries. (Scientific Monthly)... 

Indeed, Bonus included Moses, David, Solomon, and John the Evangelist among the founders of alchemy. Chiara Crisciani, "The Conception of Alchemy as Expressed in the Pretiosa margarita novella of Petrus Bonus of Ferrara," Ambix 20, no. 3 (1973) 173 and 71 n. 26. 

Pretiosa margarita novella, 50b, as quoted in ibid., 172 n. 28. For more on Petrus Bonus and his role in the art-nature debate, see also William R. Newman, Promethean Ambitions Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature (Chicago University of Chicago Press, 2004), 83-89. 

Pretiosa Margarita Novella of Petrus Bonus of Ferrara, Ambix 20 165-181. 

Italy Petrus Bonus Pretiosa Margarita Novella... 

Crisciani, Conception of Alchemy, 171. 104. Petrus Bonus, Margarita, 43. 

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