Let the Waters Bring Forth

A long pale serpent with two raised heads crosses the water toward a small winged dragon in yellow.

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

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Size

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$24.00

The story

A long pale serpent stretches across a strip of water, two heads raised on curving necks, facing a small yellow dragon with spread wings at the far bank. The heading quotes the fifth day of Genesis, Producant aquae reptile animae viventis, let the waters bring forth the creeping creature that has life. Below, the apparatus: a flask joined to a receiver, a row of four little vials holding liquids in rising colour, a bowl, and a small furnace on three legs. The Thesaurus thesaurorum keeps returning to the first chapter of Genesis, reading the six days of creation as the order in which a substance comes alive in the glass. Here the colour in the four vials does the arguing.

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