King and Queen with a Green Vessel

A crowned king and queen face each other against deep blue, and a patterned green vessel sits in the text below.

Work: Miscellanea Alchemica XXIV (Wellcome Collection)
Artist / creator: Unknown German scribe and illuminator
Origin & date: Germany, dated 1543 (15xliii); German, the last two tracts in Latin
Held by: Wellcome Collection, London (Miscellanea Alchemica XXIV)

Format

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Size

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$24.00

The story

A crowned king and queen face each other half-length against a deep blue ground, set in curling green leaves, with a black double-headed eagle on a small shield between them. Below, in a German hand, the text runs on, and set into it is a tall green vessel patterned with gold. The Wellcome catalogues this as folio 4 of Miscellanea Alchemica XXIV, a collection of alchemical tracts mostly in German, dated at its end 1543. The same arms, a black double-headed eagle on blue, are painted on its first leaf. The royal pair is the alchemists' favourite couple, two opposed substances to be married in the vessel that sits just beneath them.

About this reproduction

Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from Wellcome Collection, London (Miscellanea Alchemica XXIV)’s open-access release.
Printed to order on archival cotton-rag stock, pigment inks rated 100+ years.
Color-managed to the source scan.
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Image courtesy of the Wellcome Collection, London, licensed CC BY 4.0.

In situ