Hi Adam,

The link from ‘alchemy books’ to Amazon on your website seems to be broken.

Herbert Silberer was one of the first psychologists to adopt a psychoanalytical approach to alchemy. His book 'Probleme der Mystik und ihrer Symbolik' (Vienna, 1914) is available here in a translation by Dr. S. E. Jelliffe as 'Hidden Symbolism Of Alchemy And The Occult Arts' (previous title: 'Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism').

Silberer provides a really excellent summary of alchemy in Part II Section II. This is followed by his psychoanalytical commentary:

https://archive.org/details/hidden-symbo...1/mode/2up

The original German text can be found here:

https://archive.org/details/Silberer_191...Symbolik_k

Early study by Gershom Scholem (in German):

Part 1:
https://www.academia.edu/44376240/Gersho...1925_13_30

Part 2:
https://www.academia.edu/44376256/Gersho...925_95_110


There is an English translation by Klaus Ottmann of Scholem's much later book on the subject, Alchemy and Kabbalah, available as an ebook:

https://www.scribd.com/document/41626770...rshom-epub

This engraving  appears tipped into a copy of Oswald Croll's Chymisch Kleynod of 1647, though not into all copies. It may have been taken from another work, but it is clearly of that period and of alchemical import. I have not been able to identify its original source.
The central figure is a kind of Queen of Heaven, standing on the Moon, with the twelve keys to the zodiacal signs, and a halo of the seven planets.

The text on the right seems to say

"Fire connects white and red
in the new life the power is found"

while that on the right

"What dies through the spirit
cannot remain in the state of death
it will bring forth new fruits to life"


   

What book(s) would you recommend to an intelligent person with little or no knowledge of alchemy to give them a general idea of the subject?

Aloys Wienner von Sonnenfels.
Splendor lucis, oder Glantz des Lichts. Eine kurze physico-cabalistische Auslegung des grösten Natur-Geheimnusses, insgemein Lapis Philosophorum gennant.
Vienna, 1745

Or Glory of Light, containing a brief physico-cabalistic interpretation of the greatest mystery of Nature, called the lapis philosophorum. From the basic Hebrew text of the Holy Scriptures, printed in the Hebrew and German languages and published by Aloysio Wienner.


   

From Pepper's Playbook of Metals 1861

https://archive.org/search?query=%22play...+metals%22

   

Sienna Latham.

A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History

This thesis explores the advent of gentlewomen's chymical activities in Elizabethan England. In the sixteenth century, chymistry gained widespread currency under Queen Elizabeth I. This thesis argues that the queen's significant chymical interests contributed to her iconography, thereby bridging England's previously discrete chymical and female realms.

https://www.academia.edu/1113746/_Lady_A..._Chymistry

Giovanni Aurelio Augurello.
Vellus aureum et chrysopoeia, seu chrysopoeia major et minor, das ist, Gülden-Vliess und Gold-erzielungs-Kungst.
Hamburg, 1716.

A phoenix sits on a bed of flaming coals, smoke and flames coming from its mouth.
On its tail is depicted a figure surrounded by books. 
A naked soul-form (Sophia?) with winged heels rises up towards a Zeus-like figure with thunderbolts, who stands above the clouds beside the sun in a radiant nimbus of light.


Das endt ist gleich den Ursprungs Grunden
Das kan der Frey-Geist hie nicht finden.

Diss Reist bladt zeiget an
Wast die Sophia kan

Ich Phoenix bin, und bleibe aschen;
Dar feur wird mich nicht anders waschen.


   

Willard.

Thomas Vaughan lived in three physical words: in rural Wales, in Oxford, and in the greater London area. He also inhabited three philosophical worlds: the natural world, the celestial or spiritual world, and the super-celestial or angelical world. This paper was read in Brecon Cathedral at the 400th anniversary of the births of the twin brothers Henry and Thomas Vaughan.

https://www.academia.edu/97760249/Three_...as_Vaughan