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:''This is about the alchemical work. For the sound album, see Splendor Solis (album).'' ''Splendor Solis'' ("The Splendour of the Sun") is a well-known colorful alchemical text. The earliest version, written in Central German, is dated 1532–1535 and is housed at the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin at State Museums in Berlin. It is illuminated on vellum, with decorative borders like a book of hours, beautifully painted and heightened with gold. The later copies in London, Kassel, Paris and Nuremberg are equally fine. In all twenty copies exist worldwide. The original of ''Splendor Solis'' which contained seven chapters appeared in Augsburg. In miniatures the works of Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein and Lucas Cranach were used. The author of the manuscript was considered to be a legendary Salomon Trismosin, allegedly the teacher of Paracelsus. The work itself consists of a sequence of 22 elaborate images, set in ornamental borders and niches. The symbolic process shows the classical alchemical death and rebirth of the king, and incorporates a series of seven flasks, each associated with one of the planets. Within the flasks a process is shown involving the transformation of bird and animal symbols into the Queen and King, the white and the red tincture. Although the style of the ''Splendor Solis'' illuminations suggest an earlier date, they are quite clearly of the 16th century. ==The Harley 3469 ''Splendor Solis''== This illuminated manuscript of ''Splendor Solis'' text is considered to be the most magnificent treatise on alchemy ever made. The codex, dated 1582, is housed in the British Library, in London, with shelf mark Harley MS 3469. In the words of the art historian Jörg Völlnagel, “the ''Splendor Solis'' is by no means a laboratory manual, a kind of recipe book for alchemists. Rather, ''Splendor Solis'' sets forth the philosophy of alchemy, a world view according to which the human being (the alchemist) exists and acts in harmony with nature, respecting divine creation and at the same time intervening in the process underlying that creation, all the while supporting its growth with the help of alchemy.”〔''Splendor Solis'' commentary volume, M. Moleiro Editor, 2011.〕 As regards the contents, the alchemy historian Thomas Hofmeier comments that “''Splendor Solis'' is the quintessence of preceding florilegia, which for their part are distillates of earlier works still." The same author also points out that “The magnificent manuscripts of ''Splendor Solis'' are the crowning glory of any comprehensive alchemical library, or so the historian of alchemy imagines. Standing and lying in the shelves and cabinets all around are the works of the great alchemists amassed over a lifetime. But in the middle upon a lectern presides ''Splendor Solis'', the pinnacle of alchemical expertise”.〔 Whatever the reason, ''Splendor Solis'' has become the classic illustrated manuscript on alchemy. Many are those who have pored over it, including scholars such as William Butler Yeats, James Joyce and Umberto Eco. The volume features 22 large paintings, surrounded by floral or animal motifs, belonging to the North-European style of Renaissance miniature. Like the context and the contents of the book itself, all the illustrations are impenetrable and difficult to understand. Particularly noteworthy are the glass flasks depicted in a lavish painting in the centre, surrounded by town and country scenes typical of late medieval Germany beneath a celestial image of a pagan god that endows the whole page with unity and meaning. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Splendor Solis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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