Keep Away, the Uninitiated

Three figures dance across the page, one swinging a whip, under a heading that warns outsiders off.

Work: Thesaurus thesaurorum et secretum secretissimum (Wellcome MS 4775)
Artist / creator: Unknown author and illustrator
Origin & date: Probably c. 1725 (catalogue date "[1725?]"); Latin, with additions in German verse
Held by: Wellcome Collection, London (MS 4775)

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 18x24 cleanly.

$24.00

The story

Three figures dance across the page hand in hand: a naked woman holding up a burning heart, a man in a red coat swinging a whip over his head, and a robed woman with the sign of the sun on her brow. Each carries a symbol above the head like a name tag. The heading is a warning, Procul esto Profani, keep away, the uninitiated. Underneath stand a brick furnace with smoke rising from its vessel, a tub holding a large flask and a pair of joined flasks labelled Desiccatio, drying. A cipher on the first page of the Thesaurus thesaurorum records an owner, Sebastiano Bologna of Schio, who wrote that this process belonged to him. The warning was meant for readers like us.

About this reproduction

Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from Wellcome Collection, London (MS 4775)’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