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Detailed record for Harley 3469
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| Title |
Splendor Solis (an alchemical treatise) |
| Origin |
Germany |
| Date |
1582 |
| Language |
German |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Decoration |
22 full page miniatures of alchemical subjects in colours and gold with full borders (ff. 2, 4, 7, 10, 13v, 15, 16v, 18, 19v, 20v, 21v, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30v, 31v, 32v, 33v). Very large calligraphic initials in gold. Capitals marked in gold. |
| Dimensions in mm |
320 x 220 (190 x 150) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 1* + 2*+ 3*+ 49 (+ 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning and at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Red leather with gold tooling; endpapers of pink silk; gilt edges. |
| Provenance |
Charles II, king of England (b. 1630, d. 1685): a manuscript similar to the Harley 3469 was seen by John Evelyn in the Whitehall Palace library, according to his diary entry for 2 September 1680, being described by him as follows: "There is also the Processe of the Philosoph[e]rs greate Elixir, represented in divers pieces of incomparable miniature; but the Discourse is in high-Dut[c]h & a MSS' (see Wright (1972), p. 102).
Johann Cyprianus (b. 1642, d. 1723), German theologian: inscribed with his name (f. 3* ).
Mrs Priemer, niece of Johann Cyprianus: inscribed with her name by Edward Harley (f. 3*).
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts.
Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library. |
| Notes |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
The date 1582 is inscribed in gold in a roundel on f. 15 and on blocks of stone on ff. 27, 28.
The text of the Splendor Solis is largely based on a German translation of the Aurora consurgens.
The text was previously attributed to the legendary figure Salomon Trismosin. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3469.
Salomon Trismosin, Splendor Solis, translated by Julius Kohn (London: Kegan Paul, 1920) [an English translation of Harley 3469 with black and white plates of the miniatures].
Eric John Holmyard, Alchemy (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1957), p. 158, pls. 30-32.
Deutsche Handschriften in England, ed. by Robert Priebsch, 2 vols in 1 vol (Hildesheim: Olms, 1979, first publ. Erlangen: Junge, 1896-1901), II: Das British Museum mit einem anhang über die Guildhall-Bibliothek, no. 26.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 102, 122, 278.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), no. 212.
Joseph L. Henderson and Dyane N. Sherwood, Transformation of the Psyche: The Symbolic Alchemy of the Splendor Solis (Hove: Brunner-Routledge, 2003) [includes an English translation of Harley 3469, and colour plates of the miniatures].
Jörg Völlnagel, Splendor solis oder Sonnenglanz: Studien zu einer alchemistischen Bilderhandschrift (Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2004).
Sandy Feinstein, 'Horsing Around: Framing Alchemy in the Manuscript Illustrations of the Splendor Solis', Sixteenth Century Journal, 37.3 (2006), 673-99.
Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pls 115, 116.
Splendor Solis (Barcelona: M. Moleiro, 2010) [facsimile with a commentary volume].
Jörg Völlnagel, 'Harley MS. 3469: Splendor Solis or Splendour of the Sun - A German Alchemical Manuscript', Electronic British Library Journal (2011), article 8. |
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front end leaf i verso
Blank folio |
front end leaf ii verso
Blank folio |
back end paper xviii verso
Blank folio |
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back end paper xix verso
Back end paper |
inside front cover
Inside front cover |
front end leaf i
Front end leaf |
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front end leaf ii
Front end leaf |
back end paper xviii
Blank folio |
back end paper xix
Back end paper |
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inside back cover
Inside back cover |
front cover and spine
Front cover and spine |
back cover
Back cover |
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f. 1
Calligraphic initial |
f. 1* verso
Later inscription |
f. 1*
Blank folio |
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f. 1v
Calligraphic initials |
f. 2
Two men conversing |
f. 2
Sun |
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f. 2
Monkey playing a cittern |
f. 2
A monkey playing a cittern |
f. 2* verso
Blank folio |
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f. 2*
Later inscription |
f. 2v
Calligraphic initials |
f. 3
Text page |
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f. 3* verso
Blank folio |
f. 3*
Later inscription |
f. 3v
Text page |
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f. 4
Man in a red robe |
f. 4v
Calligraphic initials |
f. 5
Text page |
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f. 5v
Text page |
f. 6
Calligraphic initials |
f. 6v
Text page |
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f. 7
A knight with a drawn sword |
f. 7
A knight with a drawn sword |
f. 7v
Calligraphic initials |
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f. 8
Text page |
f. 8v
Text page |
f. 9
Text page |
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f. 9v
Text page |
f. 10
King and queen |
f. 10v
Calligraphic initials |
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f. 11
Calligraphic initials |
f. 11v
Calligraphic initials |
f. 12
Text page |
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f. 12v
Text page |
f. 13
Text page |
f. 13v
Mining for gold |
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f. 14
Calligraphic initials |
f. 14v
Text page |
f. 15
A man on a ladder |
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f. 15v
Calligraphic initials |
f. 16
Text page |
f. 16v
A drowning king |
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f. 17
Calligraphic initials |
f. 17v
Text page |
f. 18
Winged queen. |
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f. 18v
Calligraphic initials |
f. 19
Text page with flourishes |
f. 19v
A two-headed winged figure |
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f. 19v
A two-headed winged figure |
f. 20
Calligraphic initials |
f. 20v
A man with a sword |
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f. 20v
A man with a sword |
f. 21
Calligraphic initials |
f. 21v
A man bathing |
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f. 21v
A man bathing |
f. 22
Calligraphic initials |
f. 22v
Text page |
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f. 23
Scenes of daily life |
f. 23
Scenes of daily life |
f. 23v
Calligraphic initials |
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f. 24
Three birds in a flask |
f. 24v
Calligraphic initials |
f. 25
Three-headed bird in a flask |
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f. 25v
Calligraphic initials |
f. 26
Three-headed dragon |
f. 26
Three-headed dragon |
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f. 26v
Calligraphic initials |
f. 27
A queen |
f. 27v
Calligraphic initials |
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f. 28
A peacock |
f. 28
Peacock |
f. 28
Amorous couples |
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f. 28v
Calligraphic initials |
f. 29
A young king |
f. 29v
Calligraphic initials |
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f. 30
Calligraphic initials |
f. 30v
A black sun (sol niger) |
f. 31
Calligraphic initials |
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f. 31v
Children at play |
f. 32
Calligraphic initials |
f. 32v
Women washing clothes |
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f. 33
Calligraphic initials |
f. 33v
The sun |
f. 34
Calligraphic initials |
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f. 34v
Text page |
f. 35
Text page |
f. 35v
Calligraphic initials |
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f. 36
Text page |
f. 36v
Calligraphic initials |
f. 37
Calligraphic initials |
| |
f. 37v
Text page |
f. 38
Blank folio |
f. 38v
Calligraphic initials |
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f. 39
Text page |
f. 39v
Text page |
f. 40
Text page |
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f. 40v
Text page |
f. 41
Text page |
f. 41v
Calligraphic initials |
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f. 42
Text page |
f. 42v
Calligraphic initials |
f. 43
Text page |
| |
f. 43v
Text page |
f. 44
Calligraphic initials |
f. 44v
Text page |
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f. 45
Text page |
f. 45v
Text page |
f. 46
Calligraphic initials |
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f. 46v
Text page |
f. 47
Calligraphic initials |
f. 47v
Text page |
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f. 48
Text page |
f. 48v
British Museum stamp |
f. 49
Foliation |
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f. 49v
Blank folio |
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