Rosarium philosophorum. Secunda pars alchimiae de lapide philosophico vero modo praeparando, continens exactam eius scientiae progressionem. Cum figuris rei perfectionem ostendentibus
This is a 1550 alchemical treatise, the Rosarium philosophorum, printed for students of the philosophical stone and published by Jacob, with a series of woodcut figures showing stages of the work. The pictures are small black-and-white woodcuts set in plain framed boxes beneath Latin or German captions, each showing a figure lying in a stone sarcophagus-like chest beneath clouds, rain or a rising spirit. A designer could take from them the stark, symmetrical staging of emblematic diagrams and the pairing of Latin headings with pictorial captions.
