Ripley Scroll: The Fountain

The largest panel of the roll: a fountain raised on a column, ringed with symbolic figures and a dragon at its foot.

Work: Rotulum hieroglyphicum G. Riplaei Equitis Aurati (Ripley Scroll, Wellcome MS 692)
Artist / creator: Unknown illuminator, after the scroll attributed to George Ripley (c. 1415-1490)
Origin & date: Early 17th century, copied from a copy made in 1588; English verse
Held by: Wellcome Collection, London (MS 692)

Format

The full-resolution color-managed file — yours to print, study, and keep.

Size

Sized to protect print quality — this scan’s resolution supports sizes up to 12x16 cleanly.

$24.00

The story

The largest panel of the roll shows a fountain raised high on a column, its basins ringed with small symbolic figures and a dragon curled at the foot. The Wellcome describes this as the second of five panels, "a fountain supported by a column with many symbolic accessory figures," with ten lines of verse at its head beginning "Of the Sonne take ye thy light the redd gemme that is so bright" and thirty-six more at its foot. The scroll is the Wellcome's MS 692, an early seventeenth-century copy after the roll attributed to George Ripley. The catalogue records a suggestion that the copying of these scrolls was commissioned by John Dee. The fountain is where the roll gathers its waters before it turns to fire.

About this reproduction

Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from Wellcome Collection, London (MS 692)’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