102 Elias ASHMOLE [1617-92].
Theatrum chemicum Britannicum. Containing severall poeticall pieces of our famous English philosophers, who have written the hermetique mysteries in their owne ancient language... With annotations...
4° London: J. Grismond for N. Brooke 1652
Ferguson Nat Union Cat Wisconsin Wellcome Bibliotheque Nationale
[Illustrations:-
1. Engraving on title page. 56x42mm. A toad and a serpent both struggle to possess the moon conjoined with the sun. Above an eagle rises and drops of liquid rain down. "Serpens et Bufo gradiens super terram, Aquila volans, est nostrum Magisterium."
2. p12 First engraving from Norton's Ordinall. 142x106mm. Most of the engravings in Norton's Ordinall are signed "Ro: Vaughan sculp."
3. p28 Engraving inserted in text. 60x112mm. A man kneels in prayer, and a banner proclaims "Confiteor, Altissime, nullus ista rapit; licet prius didicit, absque te nil sapit: Nam tanta stat gratia te Deum semper apud: perficere sicut capere, nam finis es, et caput".
4. p44 Second engraving from Norton's Ordinall. 146x111mm.
5. p51 Third engraving from Norton's Ordinall. 149x112mm.
6. p91 Fourth engraving from Norton's Ordinall. 149x115mm. 7. p102 Fifth engraving from Norton's Ordinall. 145x109mm.
8. Inserted before p117. Engraving 245x192mm. Ripley's Wheel. "John Goddard sculpsit."
9. p210 Engraving 153x121mm. "Vaughan sculp:"
10. p212 Woodcut 67x117. Two dragon are entwined upon a globe, set between sun and moon.
11. p213 Engraving 64x119mm.
12. p226 Engraving 116x118mm. "Vaughan sculp:" Chaucer is shown in the interior of a church.
13. p348 Engraving 68x40mm. The herb lunayrie grows upon a small hill. It has twice seven leaves and twice seven flowers.
14. p350 Engraving 99x61mm. A man and woman stand in a rectangular vessel of liquid which bears the label "Spiritus, Anima, Corpus". At their feet is a toad. From clouds above a man holds a flask containg the sun and moon. This flask has seven spouts from which drops of liquid rain down on the couple. Two dragons descend from the clouds on the right and left, and bite at the man and womans feet.
15. p379 Woodcut. Repeat printing of item 10.
16. Inserted before p437 or sometimes as frontispiece to book. Engraving. "T. Cross sculp:" 130x84mm. The top panel shows on the left a king sitting upon a lion and holding the sun, and on the right a queen (Diana with arrow) sitting upon a crab and holding the moon crescent. Between two pillars, that on the left with the symbols of arts and sciences, and that on the right with the weapons of war, is a plinth labelled "Mercuriophilus Anglicus" bearing a bust, whose face is obscured by a horoscope let down from heaven by the hand of God. From the symbol of mercury in the heavens a banner descends "quod est superius est sicut inferius". A text below states "These hieroglyphicks vaile the vigorous beames of an unbounded soule. The scrowle and scheme's the full interpreter: but how's conceald. Who through aenigmaes lookes, is so reveal'd. T:W:M:D:"]