MS. Ash. Rolls 52

Decoration

Good miniatures (coloured drawings), copies of a MS. of 15th century. (Pächt and Alexander iii. 1209)

The process for preparing the philosopher's stone in four scenes:

(1) alchemist with hermetic vessel with eight roundels depicting stages in the alchemical process;

(2) 'philosophical tree' and grape vine planted in the centre of a heptagonal basin; the basin is surmounted by parapets upon which seven human figures examine contents of beakers which they hold; this is supported by a column rising from a lower square pool, the front of which is decorated with a toad-spewing griffin; nude male and female figures ascend and descend the 'tree' or simply stand in water;

(3) two lions flanking the mouth of a furnace; sun; bird with the head of an old man crowned and bearded, standing on a globe;

(4) sunburst design with three linked coloured circles; crescent moon, held in the jaws of a dragon, perched on a winged globe; the dragon's blood descending to three circles at the bottom of the globe; text flanked by two human figures, a king and a commoner, with staffs.