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A fortuitous find in a rather shabby quarto of British antiquities, in the middle of the section dealing with heraldry, there was this curious ink drawing in a naive but very hermetic style: a cartouche representing Perseus delivering Andromeda, and another in which Diana at the bath, in the light of the moon's rays, changes Actaeon into a stag. Most intriguing are the epigrams and mottos that frame them: they are written backwards. Was the drawing a model for an engraver (the engraving, detached from the copper plate, would show the text right side up)? 

Anyone can read this? Someone pointed that the crabbed handwriting was either Old Dutch or possibly Flemish. I paste them below inverted, that is, with the text now legible.

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An original manuscript by the famous Eliphas Lévi, composed a year before his death, is being auctioned. It contains some coloured versions of the magical/alchemical emblems used in his books.


https://www.gazette-drouot.com/lots/1959...FscwwjRlHo




   


   

"In addition to the virtual exhibition of the same name with seven thematic rooms (I-VII), the dynamically growing website contains an extensive bibliography, specialist articles and theses (publication in preparation). Visitors to the website who are not yet familiar with the philosophy and cultural history of early modern alchemy can begin with the annotated Intro: Alchemical Worldscape or start in the virtual exhibition in Room VI Material and Spiritual Culture of Alchemy. There, the digital story on David Tenier the Younger's painting The Alchemist in the Laboratory is particularly suitable as an introduction."

https://merian-alchemie.ub.uni-frankfurt.de

Unfortunately the website seems to be only available in German at present. Free Machine Translation help available here:

https://www.deepl.com/translator

British Library Sloane MS 1876 f1v. 

Arca arcanorum abstrusae hermeticae scientiae ingressum, progressum, coronidem, verbis apertissimus explicans, ex selectissimis et celeberrimis authoribus collecta et antehac a nemine hac methodo distributa; opera et studio Arthuri Dee, Magni Imperatoris Russiae per annos bis septem Archiatri, cum epistola ad Oxoniae praesides etc., et praefatione dat Moscuae 10 Aug. 1634, praemissis. ff.1-83.

This image quotes from the Ripley Scroll.



   

It would be rather good to find someone to translate the text on this complex engraving

from  Abraham of Franckenberg, Raphael oder Artzt-engel, 1676.

   

This is the first of a series of watercolour paintings in 

National Library of Austria, Vienna. Cod. 11396.
Theoria et praxis lapidis philosophorum. Vol. II.
Johann Friedrich Von Rain.
1700.
Folio. Manuscript 168 pages.

   



This image draws on a well-known engraving used as the frontispiece in Johann Daniel Mylius Philosophia reformata, Frankfurt, 1622, and other sources.

   

I have created some short videos on Youtube describing alchemical emblem sequences in manuscripts.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...YYBXr_mdfO

Part of Carlos Gilly's Cimelia Rhodostaurotica is now available on academia.edu

https://www.academia.edu/34644848/Cimeli...und_Drucke?

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Joscelyn Godwin Universal Magic in the Age of Enlightenment - Touzay Du Chenteau's Great Philosophical Chart and its context.

Richard W. Cooper Press. Hamilton College Library, NY. First edition is limited to 150 signed copies.

ISBN 978-1-93737034-3

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