ALCHEMY - ROSARIUM PHILOSOPHORUM - HIDDEN STAR A much printed alchemical series, the Rosarium Philosophorum consists of a complex text around 20 highly distinctive woodcut prints. The imagery is alchemical, but well disguised behind the hieros gamos, or sacred marriage, sexuality and various Christian symbols. They each relate to the alchemical stages, viewed from a Christian standpoint - perhaps written in the late 15th century by one of the early Rosicrucian schools. Although the text and related images appeared in mediaeval manuscripts, it was not printed until 1550, in a German edition, as part of the De alchimia opuscula, by which time it consisted of 20 woodcuts. The authorship has always remained uncertain, though it has been suggested that it was compiled by Arnold of Villanova, in the 13th century. Jung has argued, from iconographic points relating to the four distinctly religious images, that, in its present form at least, the illustrations do not go back beyond the 15th century. The book was reprinted, with different cuts, many times: a great deal of the meaning of text and images may be gleaned from the later version of the images, and a truncated text, published as part of Johann Daniel Mylius, Philosophia Reformata, 1622 (the 22 engravings based on the cuts begins at the 29 engraving in the series, though the old numbering is adopted- that is to say, after the 28 engravings the Rosarium series are numbered in sequence from 1 to 22). Plate 3. This cut is a development of plate 2. The rich clothing of King and Queen has been dispensed with: in a state of petition, or prayer, they appear naked to each other, without pretences. The King and Queen now address each other, in German: a marriage is proposed. The Holy Spirit speaks in Latin: it proclaims that Spirit [alone] is the thing which brings life. The sanctity of the moment is expressed by the fact that each of the top five tips of the floral star are held, leaving on the vertical *** Local Caption *** stem, with its flower pointing to the earth.