Splendor Solis: The World’s Most Famous Alchemical Manuscript

138 Pages·2016·1.46 MB·English

by  Stephen Skinner

Contents
AN INTRODUCTION TO
SPLENDOR SOLIS
Stephen Skinner
HISTORY AND AUTHORSHIP
OF SPLENDOR SOLIS
Rafał T. Prinke
INVENTING AN ALCHEMICAL
ADEPT: SPLENDOR SOLIS AND
THE PARACELSIAN MOVEMENT
Georgiana Hedesan COMMENTARY ON THE TEXT
AND
PLATES OF SPLENDOR SOLIS
Stephen Skinner
TRANSLATION OF
THE HARLEY MANUSCRIPT
Joscelyn Godwin
GLOSSARY OF ALCHEMICAL
PHILOSOPHERS AND WORKS
REFERRED TO IN SPLENDOR SOLIS
Georgiana Hedesan
An Introduction to
Splendor Solis
Stephen Skinner
Of all the illustrated alchemical texts perhaps the best known is the 16th-century
Splendor solis. With its richly allegorical artworks and detailed instructions on
the Great Work of transmuting a base material (prima materia) into the
Philosophers’ Stone, this manuscript immerses the modern reader into the mind
of the Renaissance alchemist. Despite this, until now there has been no
reasonably priced edition offering both a full English translation and
reproductions of all the plates in colour.1 Most current editions of Splendor solis
are reproductions of a 1920 black-and-white version. By issuing this full-colour
volume, complete with a new translation by Joscelyn Godwin of the definitive
version of the manuscript (Harley MS 3469) held in the British Library, we hope
to correct this deficiency.
This edition also includes my overview of the colour plates and original text, to
aid navigation and uncover some of the manuscript’s meaning, as well as
illuminating essays by Rafał T. Prinke, on the latest research into the history and
authorship of Splendor solis, and Georgiana Hedesan, on the links between
Splendor solis and the renowned Swiss physician, alchemist and astrologer
Paracelsus. Georgiana Hedesan has also provided a useful glossary of the
alchemical philosophers and works referred to in Splendor solis.
Splendor solis in the 20th century
Splendor solis underwent something of a revival in the early 20th century,
largely thanks to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a magical order
founded by three adepts in 1888. One of these, S. L. MacGregor Mathers, wrote
many of the rituals and researched and published a number of works, including
several grimoires (magicians’ handbooks). Among the early members of the
Golden Dawn was the alchemist and minister Rev. W. A. Ayton. It seems that
Mathers and Ayton were both interested in Splendor solis. Mathers is even
reputed to have published an edition of the text in 1907, incorporating his notes
on the Kabbalistic and Tarot implications of the text and its alchemical
symbolism, but sadly I have not been able to find a copy.2 It must have been a
very small edition as there is no trace of it even in the British Library catalogue.
Julius Kohn, believed to have been the translator of the 1920 black-and-white
3
version of Splendor solis, was a pupil of Ayton.
Kohn’s edition did not receive much attention, and it was not until the advent of
universal colour printing in the late 20th century that colour reproductions of the
plates in Splendor solis began to appear. Kohn’s translation has interpolated
references to the Tarot. He did considerable research into alchemical
manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, one of which contains translations by the
4
17th-century antiquary Elias Ashmole of some essays credited to Trismosin.
Kohn was also interested in plant-based alchemy and magnetic and odic
medicine, which were popular in the early 20th century.
The title page [f.1r] of the manuscript of Splendor solis held in the British Library (Harley 3469).