Ripley Scroll: Wellcome MS 692, Whole

The whole roll from top to bottom: alchemist, fountain, the bird of Hermes, the green dragon, the philosopher.

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

Unrolled from end to end, the scroll runs through five painted panels inside a border of twisting leaves: an alchemist holding an alembic, a great fountain on a column crowded with figures, a golden eagle standing on a sphere, a large green dragon, and at the foot a full-length philosopher carrying a staff. The Wellcome catalogues it as a copy of a copy made in 1588 of the "Emblematicall scrowle: supposed to be invented by Geo. Ripley," as Elias Ashmole described it in 1652, and thinks it was made in the early seventeenth century. Four sets of English verses run between the pictures. Seen whole, the roll reads like a road from the laboratory to the finished stone, walked by one figure at each end.

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.
Ships in 5–8 business days; satisfaction guaranteed.

Image courtesy of the Wellcome Collection, London, licensed CC BY 4.0.

In situ