A scene from the two-sided folio from Hartmann Schedel's The Book of Chronicles, or in German Das Buch der Chroniken (1493), depicting God creating Adam from clay. This clay is interpreted alchemically as the "prima…

A two-sided folio from Hartmann Schedel's The Book of Chronicles, or in German Das Buch der Chroniken (1493). On the recto is a text block on top and an image below depicting God creating Adam from clay. This clay is…

The scene, from an episode in Samuel Butler's mock-heroic epic, "Hudibras," shows the title character as he confronts the astrologer Sidrophel in a clandestine laboratory. Angry at the truths of his past which the…

This dark and eerie scene centers on the seated figure of an alchemist, pausing as he works a pair of bellows to stoke a fire. Dwarfed by his enormous chair and the looming masonry furnace at left, the alchemist peers…

This etching, after a print by Balthasar Moncornet, in turn after a drawing by Rembrandt, claims to display a portrait of the French manuscript seller Nicolas Flamel (1330-1418). Flamel, along with his wife Perenelle,…

A bearded alchemist squints closely at his experiment as he tends a small fire with a pair of hand-bellows. Beside him, his young assistant looks on. This busy and productive workroom also houses a pair of assistants…

This etching by Anton Joseph von Prenner reproduces a painting by the German painter Christopher Paudiss, known as Baudiz. Working by the glow of candlelight, a seated man studies an anatomical text at a desk…

This depiction of 8th-century Arabic polymath Abu Mūsā Jābir ibn Hayyān, westernized by Europeans as "Geber," comes from chapter 33 of the publication Les vrais pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres grecz, latins et…

This "Rosicrucian" woodcut portrait of the Swiss-German physician and alchemist Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus—better known as Paracelsus—appeared as the frontispiece to a posthumous 1567 edition of his works titled Ph…

This print, after a painting by Martin Schmidt, captures the moment when an alchemist lowers a live scorpion into a steaming crucible. Billowing smoke from the fire rises around him as he performs this portion of the…

This print, after a painting by Adriaen van Ostade, shows a humble peasant-alchemist at work before a furnace. Working with a pair of hand bellows—the source of the alchemists' mocking nickname, "puffer,"— the alchemist…

This etching reproduces in reverse a painting in the Hermitage Museum which has been attributed to Gerrit Dou. Through an illusionistic stone archway draped with an embroidered curtain, we see a finely-dressed physician…

Seated at a table, a well-dressed medical alchemist examines a flask he holds aloft. Opposite, a young man and woman anxiously await his diagnosis. Urinoscopy, or the visual examination of urine for diagnosis, was a…

In this fanciful scene of an alchemist's workroom, a bespectacled alchemist leans over to examine the contents of a bubble-like glass receiver. At left, an enormous alembic sits distilling over a furnace, extending a…

An alchemist in a heavy, fur-trimmed robe and a sober scholar's cap peers closely at a glass flask in the light of an open window. Through his spectacles he examines the liquid contents. On the table at his elbow, a…

This profile portrait claims to provide a likeness of Paracelsus, the famed Swiss-German physician, botanist, and alchemist. A champion of chemical medicines, Paracelsus criticized established medical institutions for…

A painting in brunaille, a monochromatic image in tones of brown. This painting shows a seated alchemist in peasant garb. In his hands he holds a crucible and a pair of tongs, working before the light of a glowing fire…

In this variation of a painting by Gerard Dou, a scholarly alchemist, wearing a fur-lined robe, gazes with directness at the viewer as he composes his note. Holding a small quill pen with an open text before him, the…

The alchemist sits in a small side chamber, absorbed by his readings, as his family works to prepare a meal in the open kitchen. Household and alchemical materials merge: a distillation apparatus sits on the hearth at…

Holding a letter in his right hand, the alchemist glances to one side as if caught in contemplative thought. A large glass distillation apparatus—alembic, receiver, and cucurbit—is before him, shining with reflected…

The manuscript—"On the Preparation of the [Sophick] Mercury for the [Philosophers'] stone by means of the stellate regulus of Mars [i.e. iron] and Luna [i.e. silver] from the Manuscripts of the American Philosopher"—was…

Table of alchemical symbols from The last will and testament of Basil Valentine, monke of the Order of St. Bennet. These and other symbols are common throughout alchemical literature and were used to denote some…

This is one of only six known complete manuscripts of a 14th-century alchemical treatise; all the extant manuscripts date from the 15th century or later. This copy includes lengthy contemporary glosses, possibly…

First published in 1617, Michael Maier's alchemical emblem book contains a preface on ancient music and the Greek myth of Atalanta and Hippomenes and consists of 50 engraved emblems, each accompanied by a discourse and…

First published in 1617, Michael Maier's alchemical emblem book contains a preface on ancient music and the Greek myth of Atalanta and Hippomenes and consists of 50 engraved emblems, each accompanied by a discourse and…