19-05-2025, 05:50 AM
(08-03-2025, 06:59 PM)Barbrey wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Just wanted to add that you having forced me to take a look again at this “operation of the sun” rondel again made me look at the rondel next to it with the moon in the middle. I’m pretty sure the sun illustration represents the Major Work and the moon illustration the Minor Work in alchemy. The first represents the operation of the elixir of life, the second the more every day practice of the alchemist or pharmacist (the mortar and pestle in particular give it away). I said it first! (I think). I’ll post about this separately, but I wouldn’t have seen this without this post.
It is more than obvious an alchemical process.
The scientific crowd often fixates to comparative iconography, desperately matching illustration to medieval scripts, while missing the glaringly obvious.
F85r2 is depicting a process of generation of Luna or Sol within a sealed vessel (mark how the vapours do not exit but reaching a maximum return into the vessel).
The four elements are also known from ancient times: Metallum ignobile, Some salt , oil and some "blessed herb.
"Truth is usually simple, trouble- best avoided and evil- inevitable"- citation from Shakespeare.
br: Vessy