Ripley Scroll: The End of the Roll

The last section on its wooden roller: a black sun, the green dragon, and the philosopher in red.

Work: Rotulum hieroglyphicum (Ripley Scroll, Wellcome MS 693)
Artist / creator: Unknown illuminator, after the scroll attributed to George Ripley (c. 1415-1490)
Origin & date: Inscribed as drawn at Lübeck in 1588; catalogued as early 17th century; Latin verse
Held by: Wellcome Collection, London (MS 693)

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 8x10 cleanly.

$24.00

The story

This is the bottom of the roll, still wound on its wooden rod. A sun with a black centre and a face rides above a crescent moon; under it the green dragon hangs head-down, and at the foot the philosopher in red strides out carrying his staff. Between them run columns of Latin verse. The Wellcome's MS 693 is a Latin copy of the scroll attributed to George Ripley, inscribed as drawn in colours at Lübeck in 1588 and catalogued as early seventeenth century. The roller shows how it was read: one panel at a time, unrolled at a table, the dragon and the traveller kept for last.

About this reproduction

Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from Wellcome Collection, London (MS 693)’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