I'm not sure if this is the kind of question that pertains to this subreddit but I didn't find any others that where more relevant. I'm looking for the full digitized copy or at least a second hand copy of the first documented recipe of gunpowder in Europe.
So far this partial copy of the original manuscript is the most I've found. It is incomplete as far as I can tell and is from John Read's From Alchemy to Chemistry. The entire passage should read "But of saltpetre take 7 parts, 5 of young hazel-twigs, and 5 of sulphur; and so thou will call up thunder and destruction, if thou know the art." but as far as I can figure from John Read's incomplete copy it ends at "thunder" and leaves off the end of the quote.
I've figured out from Scientific American: Supplement, Volume 28 and Index to the Sloane manuscripts at the British Museum that the book is listed at the British Museum as the Sloane Manuscript 2156.
I appreciate any and all help in this investigation.
Here's a copy (edition of 1618, Hamburg).
Unfortunately Google's OCR didn't cope with the translucency of the pages, so ctrl-F isn't going to find the passage for you. There's a bit describing gunpowder in chapter 6 (pp. 42ff.), but the passage in the image you link to is in chapter 11, at p. 69 ("...tunc operare ut pius. Item pondus totum sit 30. Sed tamen salis petrae LURU. VOPO Vir Can Vtriet Sulphuris; & sic facies tonitru(m)...")
The nonsensical bit, "LURU. VOPO Vir Can Vtriet Sulphuris", is apparently an anagram standing for "r. VII part. nov. corul. V et sulphuris", i.e. "recepe VII partes, V novellae coruli, V et sulphuris". This explanation comes from Hime, W. L. 1904 Gunpowder and Ammunition: Their Origin and Progress (London); cited by Bevilacqua, M. G. 2007 "The Conception of Ramparts in the Sixteenth Century: Architecture, 'Mathematics', and Urban Design", Nexus Network Journal 9: 249-62.
