First published in 1652, this compilation of English alchemical literature was collected and annotated by Elias Ashmole. The book made available many works that had previously existed only in privately held manuscripts, and features alchemical verse from Thomas Norton, George Ripley, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Dastin, Abraham Andrews, Thomas Charnock, William Bloomefield, Edward Kelley, John Dee, Thomas Robinson, William Backhouse, John Gower, John Lydgate, W. Redman, as well as several unknown authors. Individual plates from the volume are digitized here, with additional item-level description available for select plates.
Quote of the Day
“Take a Metal pure, and purged of all its dross, whose Spirit recedes in its secret part, and being pressed with a great weight, lives privily, and desires to be released from bands, and to be sent out of prison to Heaven, being spread into thin plates. The same in Chrys. lib. 1. Seek not the principles of Gold and where else: for in Gold is the seed of Gold; though being close shut up, it retires further, and is to be sought by us with tedious labour.”
Augurellus
2 Chrysop
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