Germany, 1582 copy (text tradition c. 1532–1535)
The Three-Headed Dragon of the Sun
A dragon with one white head, one black, one red rages inside a glass vessel beneath a chariot turning from silver to gold.
- Work
- Splendor Solis (Splendour of the Sun)
- Artist / creator
- Unknown illuminator (text attributed to Salomon Trismosin)
- Origin & date
- German, 1582 copy (text tradition attributed to Salomon Trismosin, c. 1532–1535)
- Held by
- British Library (Harley MS 3469, f.26)
Format
The full-resolution color-managed file — yours to print, study, and keep.
Size
Available as a digital download only — this scan’s resolution doesn’t hold up cleanly as a physical print at any size.
$24.00
The story
A dragon with three heads, one white, one black, one red, rages inside a sealed glass vessel. Below it, a heavenly chariot is shown mid-transformation, its silver body turning to gold, driven by a crowned king who bears the sign of Leo. This plate belongs to the same planetary sequence as the bird and peacock vessels, and sits at the Sun stage, gold, the metal the whole Work aims at. The three dragon heads compress alchemy’s entire color theory into one beast: black for nigredo, the initial breakdown of matter; white for albedo, purification; red for rubedo, the completed Stone. Later alchemical writers singled out this image specifically as one of the clearest single-picture statements of that three-stage color sequence anywhere in the literature. The detail worth noting is the king’s Leo sign, tying the solar zodiac sign to the planetary Sun stage in the same emblem.
About this reproduction
- Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from British Library (Harley MS 3469, f.26)’s open-access release.
- Printed to order on archival cotton-rag stock, pigment inks rated 100+ years.
- Color-managed to the source scan.
- Available as a Gold-Foil Premium Edition — a metallic accent print evoking the illuminator’s gold, for a piece from one of the tradition’s luminous, gilded manuscripts.
- Ships in 5–8 business days; satisfaction guaranteed.
