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Splend S Lis R Splend r SOlis Travesera de Gracia, 17-21 Tel. UK +44 (0)20 7193 4986 Tel. Spain +34 93 240 20 91 08021 Barcelona - Spain Tel. USA +1 305 831 4986 www.moleiro.com The Splendor Solis is the most beautiful treatise on alchemy ever made. Splendor Solis The British Library • London «First, unique and unrepeatable edition strictly limited to 987 copies» This codex, dated 1582, is the most • Shelf mark: Suppl. turc 242. beautiful treatise on alchemy ever • Date: 1582. made. The imagination and lyri- • Size: 230 x 330 mm. cism of its truly marvellous illus- • 100 pages, 22 full-page illuminations. trations are awe-inspiring even to lavishly embellished with gold. those not familiar with this subject. • Bound in crimson leather decorated The secrets of kabbalah, astrology with gold. and alchemic symbolism are revea- • Full-colour commentary volume (448 p.) led on 22 folios bearing full-page by Thomas Hofmeier (Historian of illustrations with a wealth of colo- Alchemy) Jörg Völlnagel (Art historian, ur and almost Baroque profusion research associate at the Staatliche of detail. Museen zu Berlin), Peter Kidd (Former curator of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts at the Bodleian and British Libraries) and Joscelyn Godwin. Bound in crimson leather decorated with gold moleiro.com/online • moleiro.com Tel. USA +1 305 831 4986 • Tel. UK +44 (0)20 7193 4986 Introduction to the Splendor Solis Splendor Solis, bearing in mind that most about the conditions surrounding the pro- contemporary readers would have consid- duction of the illuminated manuscript: we commentary volume erable diffi culty understanding much of know of numerous sources that were drawn Jörg Völlnagel the content: upon by both the text and the illustrations, which were to have a lasting effect on the Art historian, research associate at the The Alchemy Splendor Solis. In looking carefully at the ico- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. of the Splendor Solis nography of both the illustrations and their “The Alchemy of the Splendor Solis” by respective sources we gain a closer insight Thomas Hofmeier offers an overview of into the origins of the Splendor Solis which The Harley MS. 3469 – “Splendor Solis or according to which the human being (the the intellectual and spiritual environment in turn leads us to an attribution of the Splendour of the Sun” – is one of the most alchemist) exists and acts in harmony with in which the Splendor Solis emerged, thus beautiful and well known illuminated al- nature, respecting divine creation and at providing important criteria for the intel- chemical manuscripts in the world. Its the same time intervening in the process- lectual classifi cation of the codex. What "Many people, including such illustrations can be found in many dif- es underlying that creation, all the while is alchemy in the fi rst place, what is its literary greats as William Butler ferent places. Decorating publications supporting its growth with the help of al- aim, how did it come about, what is its Yeats, James Joyce and Umberto on alchemy, esoteric self-help books and chemy. Comprised of seven treatises and history? These are the questions Thomas Eco, have dealt with the fantasy novels, they have also been known 22 opulent illustrations, the manuscript Hofmeier treats in his essay. Introducing manuscript" to appear on the labels of aphrodisiac revolves around this complex of philo- alchemy as a bibliographical science (with party drinks or record covers. Though sophical concerns, while the business of pictures), he also sheds light on the pro- they may or may not have been aware of chemistry itself is accorded a more subor- duction of manuscripts and the advent original miniatures supported by reliable it, many readers will no doubt have come dinate role. of book printing during the Late Middle evidence. The other sixteenth- and early across an illustration from this manuscript Be that as it may, both the author and Ages and Early Modern Era. Naturally he seventeenth-century illuminated copies of at one point or another. In view of such illustrator of the Splendor Solis no doubt directs much of his attention to the Splen- the manuscript to have survived besides decontextualised appearances, one might found the right tone, for in the course of dor Solis. Alongside his close reading of the Harley 3469 are introduced in brief, well ask what these pictures are all about: the centuries to have elapsed meanwhile the text, he elucidates the various sources followed by a discussion – perhaps most im- what is their subject matter, and what are the Splendor Solis has become the prime ex- drawn upon by the manuscript, culminat- portantly – of the concept underlying the the concerns of the text? When was the fa- ample of an illuminated alchemical manu- ing in a genealogical tree. Splendor Solis, which aspired from the very mous manuscript produced and who was script. Many people, including such liter- beginning to become the most beautiful of behind it? Thus the main question we face ary greats as William Butler Yeats, James The Origins all illuminated alchemical manuscripts. In- with the Splendor Solis is: what kind of book Joyce and Umberto Eco, have dealt with of the Splendor Solis deed, to return for a moment to the praise do we have in our hands? the manuscript in one way or another. Yet My own contribution to the volume, “The lauded upon the Splendor Solis at the outset, The Splendor Solis is by no means a up until now there has never been a mono- Origins of the Splendor Solis”, addresses the it was a concept realised, it is fair to state, laboratory manual, a kind of recipe book graph specifi cally dedicated to the Harley fact that the origins of the manuscript Har- with enduring success! for alchemists. Indeed, it is hardly a list MS. 3469. The publication of the present ley MS. 3469, which is dated 1582, can actu- of instructions for whipping up a little facsimile edition by Moleiro addresses ally be traced back a further fi fty years to The Provenance alchemical soup in the hope of fi nding a this longstanding desideratum. the southern German town of Augsburg. of the Harley Splendor Solis nugget of artifi cial gold in the pot at the The fi ve contributions assembled in Neither the author nor the commissioner Peter Kidd examines “The Provenance of end. Rather, the Splendor Solis sets forth the present commentary volume provide of the Splendor Solis is known to us. Nev- the Harley Splendor Solis”. While up until the philosophy of alchemy, a world view an indispensable basis for dealing with the ertheless, there is much that can be said now the only thing that could be said with moleiro.com/online • moleiro.com/press Tel. UK +44 (0)20 7193 4986 • Tel. Spain +34 93 240 20 91 any certainty about the provenance of the for an interpretation of the work, while manuscript was that, being part of the Har- also offering clues as to a possible inter- ley Collection, it was among the original in- pretation of the enigmatic imagery of the ventory of the British Library, further clues Splendor Solis. can be found in notes made in pencil by Edward Harley on the manuscript’s fl yleaf. Translation Kidd investigates the historical plausibility of of the manuscript these markings, the source of which is not And fi nally, Joscelyn Godwin presents us revealed by Harley, thus paving the way for with the fi rst reliable English translation of the fi rst critical analysis of the provenance of the Early New High German original text this famous manuscript. of the Harley MS. 3469 manuscript. God- The same can also be said of an en- win’s translation is of particular historical try in the diary of John Evelyn. The note importance, for right back in the early sev- documents Evelyn’s encounter with an al- enteenth century, there were a number of chemical manuscript in the Royal Library early translations in circulation that were at Whitehall whose description matches based not on the original text of the Ger- the Splendor Solis and which has been man manuscripts, but rather on a highly linked in the literature with the Harley distorted and corrupt French version of MS. 3469 – a highly improbable conjec- the text. While it does include black-and- ture, as Kidd shows. white reproductions of the illustrations Admittedly, it is not easy to let go of in the Harley MS. 3469 manuscript, even the notion that alchemy’s most beautiful Julius Kohn’s famous text edition, pub- illuminated manuscript was not part of lished in 1920 by Kegan Paul in London the Royal British Library. Indeed, it would with numerous reprints in the meantime, only have been fi tting for the “Royal Art” suffers from an English translation bear- of alchemy to have acquired an altogether ing marked deviations from the original. new signifi cance in this way. Yet even this Godwin’s new translation redresses this necessary historiographical disillusion- unfortunate circumstance – all of which ment can be regarded among the merits is thanks to the publishing initiative of M. of the present publication. Moleiro Editor, allowing what may well be the most beautiful illuminated alchemical Commentaries on the manuscript to extend its splendour be- twenty-two paintings yond the British Library to a further 987 My “Commentaries on the the twenty-two public and private libraries. paintings” introduce the twenty-two full- page illustrations of the manuscript, de- Jörg Völlnagel scribing the key pictorial elements crucial moleiro.com/online • moleiro.com f. 13v, Mine. philosophical tree, f. 15r This miniature features a large tree as wide der.
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