- Options
- Login
- Desktop Style
Options
Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
- Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
-
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
Barbrey > 04-11-2024, 10:24 PM
(04-11-2024, 10:14 PM)bi3mw Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
(04-11-2024, 09:23 PM)Barbrey Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.@bi3mw did you mention it’s used as tria prima in the Book of the Holy Trinity? And by the way, are you able to read the Buch? I’ve only been able to read about it as I don’t read either language and there’s no English translation.
I once had the local university print out a page-by-page transcription of the following work:
Das "Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit" Uwe Junker, Kölner medizinhistorische Beiträge, Cologne 1986
I was able to read that transkription, but I find the original very difficult.
Oh wow, I am so jealous! It’s such a curious work, but I do believe operating with similar themes, from what I’ve read, to the VMS. -
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
bi3mw > 04-11-2024, 11:46 PM
Abstract
Manuscript on paper and parchment of a version in French of the German text, Das Buch von der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit, with close copies of the illuminations in two fifteenth-century manuscripts. Contains illustrations that mix Christian symbolism, especially the Passion of Christ, with alchemical symbolism, and also depict some apparatus
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. -
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
Barbrey > 05-11-2024, 02:02 AM
Thank you! I’ll get back to you in two years once I’ve read it lol! I’m not kidding, I haven’t used French for forty years. Still, I can easily read 50% of the page, but it’s slow going for the rest. This might be a chance for me to improve my French. Beautiful calligraphy. I don’t see the diagrams or alphabet scheme in this - did you have those in your version? -
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
Barbrey > 05-11-2024, 06:33 AM
I’m glad we had the discussion about salt - a possible hole, but not insurmountable for the page as a whole. I’m trying to figure out how to copy and insert images - can anyone help? There doesn’t seem to be an icon? -
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
Aga Tentakulus > 05-11-2024, 08:48 AM
1. write text.
2. check the text. Window opens.
3. select image to upload. Check the position in the text ( number).
Again no.2 - Check everything.
4. send. -
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
nablator > 05-11-2024, 09:27 AM
(05-11-2024, 08:48 AM)Aga Tentakulus Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.3. select image to upload. Check the position in the text ( number).
Check the position of the tag only if you use the "Insert into post" button. Otherwise the image(s) will be appended to the post. -
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
nablator > 05-11-2024, 11:13 AM
(05-11-2024, 02:02 AM)Barbrey Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Thank you! I’ll get back to you in two years once I’ve read it lol!
I've read a few pages (to f. 5r) of the introduction. It's mostly a rambling, barely coherent assurance of devotion to the Catholic faith, obviously to try and prevent any accusation of heresy for daring to present divinely inspired revelations. Horrible text so far, but easy to understand. French has not evolved much since the 1700s, only the spelling needs to be updated. At the time they were using the same conventions for Latin and French, with u/v and i/j equivalence: no v after the first letter of words, no j at all. It these conventions are good enough for Latin they are good enough for French, right?
-
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
bi3mw > 05-11-2024, 01:51 PM
(05-11-2024, 02:02 AM)Barbrey Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I don’t see the diagrams or alphabet scheme in this - did you have those in your version?
Unfortunately, I cannot find the copies of the 1433 version. Therefore, I cannot say with certainty which diagrams are included in this edition. From memory, I would say that the illustrations are rather sparse overall. -
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
nablator > 05-11-2024, 02:44 PM
(05-11-2024, 02:02 AM)Barbrey Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I don’t see the diagrams or alphabet scheme in this - did you have those in your version?
According to You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.article :
Quote:[...] having had the opportunity of comparing the text and illustrations of our copy with those of the one in the State Library of Munich (Codex Germanicus 598), through the courtesy of the Director, we find that the text and the miniatures correspond in both codices.
-
RE: Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS
Barbrey > 06-11-2024, 06:56 AM
Thanks again everyone - I am very grateful. I’m going to test with one image, from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , because it’s a perfect example of the “peacock” or, in older texts, the “rainbow” sub- stage of the Nigredo. If it works, I’ll write a synopsis of the symbolism.
I think it’s working! I’m writing this on my phone so this is just quick, but I welcome comments and criticism all the same.
I think you are all aware of the Red King/White Queen symbolism in alchemical texts? These aren’t people, of course, they represent sulphur and mercury. Red is male, sulphur, white is female, mercury. And there might be something representing salt, which I believe, as my prior post says, to be the mermaid’s tail, playing on the idea of sea salt (for symbolic purpose to represent salt in general only - I’m not sure the specific type of salt is needed).
The “rainbow stage” is almost the last stage of Nigredo at the end of the putrefaction process. The substance that was left to rot for 40 days develops a greasy black texture. It stinks! And there it is, a stinking black mass at the very bottom. It is dark blue but as the colours have faded I bet it was very dark when first painted.
The stage is called the rainbow stage because if you’ve done everything right, rainbows of colours show up on the greasy black surface. And there’s the rainbow above, giving a name to the whole process.
My understanding is that the mass is boiled, and mercury vaporizes and condenses, to separate from the rest of the mass. This is our white queen, mercury, at the top of a long pipe. She is very white!
The remainder is treated as well. It is sulphur. Our red king. Symbolized by the colour red of its container, and connected to a stinking mermaid tail (we all know what sulphur smells like), to symbolize either body or salt.
All in all, I can’t think of a better representation of this alchemical sub-stage, harkening the end of Nigredo, putrefaction, and the beginning of albido, when the substances are “resurrrected” and separated, only to be brought together again later in the Rubedo stage.
But here is where I need help. I am perfectly confident in this interpretation for the most part, but when the sulphur is left behind,, I’m not sure what form it takes. It would help if I knew because it would help make sense of the mermaid tail. Is it symbolizing crystallization, just that sulphur is the remainder of the body, or that the salt(which goes through its own process) is re-attached.
I’ve gathered this info about the rainbow or peacock stage from a number of sources, but it’s frustrating that I haven’t found a text that explains what form sulphur takes after mercury is separated out. They just say “sulphur”.