Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.14196

    ‘Alkymiae secrete servabo’

    Date
    1652
    Creator
    Robert Vaughan (1590, British) , Engraver
    Object type
    Library reference
    16605
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (page): 187mm
    width (page): 133mm
    height (print): 142mm
    width (print): 101mm
    Subject
    Description
    Two angels look down on two men; one seated holding out a book to the other, as if in instruction. The four figures are positioned underneath an arch, the columns of which are decorated with female figures and headed with lions. A thick border of flowers, fruits and rabbits lines the print.

    Speech scrolls surround the angels and the men below. They are inscribed in Latin: ‘Secreta Sctae/Alkymiae secrete servabo/Accipe donum Dei sub…Sacrato’ [..]

    Border inscription: ‘Ro: Vaughan Sculp:’

    Figure 1 from Elias Ashmole’s Theatrum chemicum Britannicum: containing severall poeticall pieces of our famous English philospohers..., a compilation of alchemical literature selected and annotated by the author. This figure in between Ashmole’s prologue to the book and Chapter 1: Thomas Norton’s ‘The Ordinall of Alchimy’.

    Elias Ashmole (1617-1692) British astrologer and antiquary was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1661.
    Related fellows
    Elias Ashmole (1617 - 1692, British) , Astrologer
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > United Kingdom
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