The Golden Virgin - Virga Aurea - Goldenrod - Perpetual Magical Natural Calendar - Philosophical and Mathematical Card

1. James Bonaventure Hepburn ( Golden Virgin ) - 1616

2. Johann Baptist Grosschedel von Aicha ( Calendar ) - 1582
2. engraved by Théodore de Bry ( Calendar ) - 1620

3. Touzay Duchanteau ( Philosophical Map ) - 1775

Because of a reprint of François Mely's 1922, the set is called the Golden Virgin (or Golden Rod ) but it is nevertheless a composite work : the first two plates, composed by James Hepburn , are the Virga Aurea itself. The last three, called the Perpetual Magical Natural Calendar, are the work of Johann Baptist Grosschedel von Aicha for the theory and the engraver Théodore de Bry for the execution, so it is earlier: from 1582 if we are to believe the indication it is provided with in the lower right corner.

The date is accompanied by the name of Tycho Brahe, to whom the work was then attributed, but this is more likely - if not an honorary attribution - an improvement of one of his calendars than one of them strictly speaking. We also feel the influence of authors such as Agrippa or Paracelsus.

This is followed by a work by Touzay Duchanteau which appeared in Brussels in 1775: Carte Philosophique et Mathématique . According to the author, it is a correction and amplification of the Golden Virgin in the light of illuminist masonry . It includes reproductions of engravings by Fludd in his influential Des Deux Mondes.

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