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Rosary of the Philosophers
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<p><i>The Rosary of the Philosophers</i> (<i>Rosarium philosophorum sive pretiosissimum donum Dei</i>) is a 16th-century <a href="/facts/Alchemy/CEx0U1Em">alchemical</a> treatise. It was published in 1550 as part II of <i>De Alchimia Opuscula complura veterum philosophorum</i> (Frankfurt). The term <i>rosary</i> in the title is unrelated to the <a href="/facts/Catholic_Church/rJ4F4gqH">Catholic</a> <a href="/facts/Rosary/R8VJTslG">prayer beads</a>; it refers to a "<a href="/facts/Rose/00sLwePY">rose</a> garden", metaphoric of an <a href="/facts/Anthology/AjRSwF91">anthology</a> or collection of wise sayings. </p><p>The 1550 print includes a series of 20 woodcuts with German-language captions, plus a title page showing a group of philosophers disputing about the production of the <i><a href="/facts/Lapis_philosophorum/QA0SE7VS">lapis philosophorum</a></i>. Some of the woodcut images have precedents in earlier (15th-century) German alchemical literature, especially in the <i><a href="/facts/Buch_der_heiligen_Dreifaltigkeit/7950ymB1">Buch der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit</a></i> (ca. 1410) which has the direct precedents of woodcuts 10, 17 and 19, allegorical of the complete <i>hieros gamos</i>, nrs. 10 and 17 in the form of the "Hermetic androgyne" and nr. 19 in terms of Christian iconography, showing <a href="/facts/Blessed_Virgin_Mary/cq3fKofl">Mary</a> flanked by the <a href="/facts/God_the_Father/HKb6YJBm">Father</a>, <a href="/facts/God_the_Son/5pW0K9TK">Son</a> and <a href="/facts/Holy_Spirit/lWKSWK3w">Holy Spirit</a>. </p><p>The <i>Artis auriferae</i>, printed in 1572 in Basel, reproduced the 20 illustrations as re-cut woodcuts. <a href="/facts/Johann_Daniel_Mylius/naSr0Q1C">Johann Daniel Mylius</a>' <i> Philosophia reformata</i> of 1622 also includes the twenty <i>Rosarium</i> images, re-designed in early 17th-century style by Balthazar Swan. </p>