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Theodoros Pelecanos of
Corfu Corfu ( , ) or Kerkyra (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands; including its Greek islands, small satellite islands, it forms the margin of Greece's northwestern frontier. The island is part of the Corfu (regio ...
was a 15th-century Greek scribe who is known only as the creator of a copy of a collection of medieval alchemical works. In 1478, Pelecanos produced a manuscript now known as the ''Parisinus graecus 2327'' and held in the
Bibliothèque Nationale A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a p ...
in France. As well as works of unknown origin, it contains copies of texts from the 11th century, in the time of Psellus. These sources are believed to include the ''Marcianus Graecus 299'' manuscript of the 6th or 7th centuries, now in the
Biblioteca Marciana The Marciana Library or Library of Saint Mark (, but in historical documents commonly referred to as the ) is a public library in Venice, Italy. It is one of the earliest surviving public libraries and repositories for manuscripts in Italy and ...
,
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.Allen G. Debus, ''Alchemy and Early Modern Chemistry: Papers from Ambix'', Jeremy Mills Publishing, 2004, , p.34 The manuscript includes a copy of a lost tract by Synesius, the ''Synosius'', that contains a well-known drawing of the
Ouroboros The ouroboros or uroboros (; ) is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent symbolism, snake or European dragon, dragon Autocannibalism, eating its own tail. The ouroboros entered Western tradition via Egyptian mythology, ancient Egyptian iconogra ...
, an ancient alchemical symbol which stands for eternity and the circle of life and death.


References

15th-century scholars {{Greece-writer-stub