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  • A putto pours a phial into a dragon's mouth, pumping a bellows with his other hand; representing the fixing of volatile matter in the alchemical process. Watercolour painting by E.A. Ibbs.
  • Men vainly seeking alchemical 'white' (mercurial) water in the ground and in trees. Coloured etching after etching, ca. 17th century.
  • Theatrum chemicum Britannicum. Containing severall poeticall pieces of our famous English philosophers, who have written the Hermetique mysteries in their owne ancient language / Faithfully collected into one volume, with annotations thereon, by Elias Ashmole, esq. Qui est Mercuriophilus anglicus. The first part.
  • Integrum morborum mysterium, sive medicinæ catholicæ tomi primi tractatus secundus. [Pulsus seu nova et arcana pulsuum historia ... Hoc est, portionis tertiae pars tertia, de pulsuum scientia ... medicorum ... sive tomi primi tractatus secundi, sectio secunda, de morborum signis ... hoc est, divinatio per urinam.] In sectiones distributus duas : quorum ... / authore Robert Fludd, alias De Fluctibus.
  • Theatrum chemicum Britannicum. Containing severall poeticall pieces of our famous English philosophers, who have written the Hermetique mysteries in their owne ancient language / Faithfully collected into one volume, with annotations thereon, by Elias Ashmole, esq. Qui est Mercuriophilus anglicus. The first part.
  • Tripvs avrevs, hoc est, tres tractatvs chymici selectissimi, nempe I. Basilii Valentini ... Practica vna cum 12. clauibus & appendice, ex Germanico: II. Thomæ Nortoni ... Crede mihi seu ordinale, ante annos 140. ab authore scriptum, nunc ex anglicano manuscripto in latinum translatum, phrasi cuiusque authoris vt & sententia retenta; III. Cremeri cvivsdam ... Abbatus Westmonasteriensis ... Testamentum, hactenus nondum publicatum. Nunc in diuersarum nationum gratiam / editi, & figuris cupro affabre incisis ornati operâ & studio Michaelis Maieri.
  • Integrum morborum mysterium, sive medicinæ catholicæ tomi primi tractatus secundus. [Pulsus seu nova et arcana pulsuum historia ... Hoc est, portionis tertiae pars tertia, de pulsuum scientia ... medicorum ... sive tomi primi tractatus secundi, sectio secunda, de morborum signis ... hoc est, divinatio per urinam.] In sectiones distributus duas : quorum ... / authore Robert Fludd, alias De Fluctibus.
  • An alchemist wearing a tall hat, sitting at a table containing his chemical instruments. Lithograph by H. Wood after F. Howard.
  • Atalanta fvgiens, hoc est emblemata nova de secretis naturae chymica. Accommodata partim oculis & intellectui, figuris cupro incisis, adjectisqúe sententiis, epigrammatis & notis, partim auribus & recreationi animi plus minus 50 fugis musicalibus trium vocum, quarum duÆ ad unam simplicem melodiam distichis canendis peraptam, correspondeant ... / authore Michaele Majero.
  • An alchemist and his assistant hoping to turn base metal into gold. Aquatint after T. Rowlandson.
  • Matæotechnia medicinæ praxeos. : The vanity of the craft of physick. Or, a new dispensatory: wherein is dissected the errors, ignorance, impostures and supinities of the schools, in their main pillars of purges, blood-letting, fontanels or issues, and diet, &c. and the particular medicines of the shops. With an humble motion for the reformation of the universities, and the whole landscap of physick, and discovering the terra incognita of chymistrie. To the parliament of England. / By Noah Biggs, chymiatrophilos.
  • Four scenes from W. Combe's verse Dr. Last or the devil upon two sticks, a parody of the Royal college of physicians and John Fothergill (in particular). Engraving, 1771, after W. Combe.
  • Tripvs avrevs, hoc est, tres tractatvs chymici selectissimi, nempe I. Basilii Valentini ... Practica vna cum 12. clauibus & appendice, ex Germanico: II. Thomæ Nortoni ... Crede mihi seu ordinale, ante annos 140. ab authore scriptum, nunc ex anglicano manuscripto in latinum translatum, phrasi cuiusque authoris vt & sententia retenta; III. Cremeri cvivsdam ... Abbatus Westmonasteriensis ... Testamentum, hactenus nondum publicatum. Nunc in diuersarum nationum gratiam / editi, & figuris cupro affabre incisis ornati operâ & studio Michaelis Maieri.
  • Atalanta fvgiens, hoc est emblemata nova de secretis naturae chymica. Accommodata partim oculis & intellectui, figuris cupro incisis, adjectisqúe sententiis, epigrammatis & notis, partim auribus & recreationi animi plus minus 50 fugis musicalibus trium vocum, quarum duÆ ad unam simplicem melodiam distichis canendis peraptam, correspondeant ... / authore Michaele Majero.
  • A seated man in a monk's habit, blowing bellows, with an alembic. Pencil drawing.
  • Integrum morborum mysterium, sive medicinæ catholicæ tomi primi tractatus secundus. [Pulsus seu nova et arcana pulsuum historia ... Hoc est, portionis tertiae pars tertia, de pulsuum scientia ... medicorum ... sive tomi primi tractatus secundi, sectio secunda, de morborum signis ... hoc est, divinatio per urinam.] In sectiones distributus duas : quorum ... / authore Robert Fludd, alias De Fluctibus.
  • A young man blowing a bellows, while an alchemist, chemist or goldsmith watches through spectacles. Engraving by C. Guttenberg after F. van Mieris.
  • M0006965: An alchemist reading in a laboratory
  • William Pitt the younger as an alchemist using a crown-shaped bellows to blow the flames of a furnace and heat a glass vessel in which the House of Commons is distilled; representing the dissolution of parliament by Pitt. Coloured etching by J. Gillray, 1796.
  • Emblem representing the path to the philosopher's stone in alchemy. Etching by Defehrt, 1768, after L.-J. Goussier, after the frontispiece to a 17th century book by Libavius.
  • An alchemist with his family in their dim dwelling, working a bellows at his furnace. Engraving by J.C. Bentley after A. van Ostade, 1661.
  • An alchemist with an assistant in his laboratory. Lithograph after D. Teniers the younger, 1650.
  • An alchemist with his assistants in his laboratory. Coloured lithograph by J. Cullum, ca. 1840, after D. Teniers the younger, 1640/1650.
  • A crowned alchemical flask containing a young king, dressed in red, representing the culmination of the alchemical process. Watercolour painting by E.A. Ibbs.
  • A moon above a queen dressed in blue, and a sun above a king dressed in red; representing two alchemical principles: the dissolving 'lac virginis' (mercury) and the coagulating masculine principle (sulphur). Watercolour painting by E.A. Ibbs.
  • An alchemist in his laboratory with his family: to the right they are shown calling at the poorhouse, destitute after the husband's failed experiments. Engraving after P. Bruegel, ca. 1558.
  • D.O.M.A. Alchymia trivmphans de inivsta in se Collegii Galenici spvrii in Academia Parisiensi censvra; et Ioannis Riolani maniographia, falsi conuicta et funditus euersa. Opvs hermeticvm vere didacticvm ... solida explicans chymiatriæ Hippocraticæ fundamenta: de qvinta essentia, magno perfectoqve lapidis magisterio, principiis, extractis, oleis, aquis, salibus, elixyribus, etc. diligenter elaboratvm / [Andreas Libavius].
  • Four scenes from W. Combe's verse Dr. Last or the devil upon two sticks, a parody of the Royal College of Physicians, and in particular John Fothergill. Engraving after W. Combe.
  • Hennig Brand, the German alchemist, discovering phosphorus. Etching, 19th century.
  • Tripvs avrevs, hoc est, tres tractatvs chymici selectissimi, nempe I. Basilii Valentini ... Practica vna cum 12. clauibus & appendice, ex Germanico: II. Thomæ Nortoni ... Crede mihi seu ordinale, ante annos 140. ab authore scriptum, nunc ex anglicano manuscripto in latinum translatum, phrasi cuiusque authoris vt & sententia retenta; III. Cremeri cvivsdam ... Abbatus Westmonasteriensis ... Testamentum, hactenus nondum publicatum. Nunc in diuersarum nationum gratiam / editi, & figuris cupro affabre incisis ornati operâ & studio Michaelis Maieri.