Splendor Solis - Harley 3469 (1582, Germany) -

The Splendor Solis codex dated 1582 and housed in the British Library, London, is the most beautiful treatise on alchemy ever made. The imagination and lyricism of its truly marvellous illustrations are awe-inspiring even to those not familiar with this subject. This sumptuously illustrated treatise has been traditionally, although wrongly, attributed to Salomon Trismosin, possibly a pen name of Ulrich Poysel, the master of the legendary Paracelsus. The secrets of kabbalah, astrology and alchemic symbolism are revealed on 22 folios bearing full-page illustrations with a wealth of colour and almost Baroque profusion of detail...