Ancient alchemy Labs, 16th C

'Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae' 

by Heinrich Khunrath, 1595

'L'Alchimiste'

Original painting by David Teniers (before 1690).

This version engraved by Jacques-Louis Pérée, 1769

'Laboratory for metallurgy and the industrial arts'

Original painting by Samuel Wale. This version engraved by Pierre-Charles Canot, 1765. The illustration appeared IN: 'Commercium Philosophico-Technicum' (The Philosophical Commerce of Arts) by William Lewis.

'A Design for a General Laboratory'

Artist: Cornelius Varley; Engraver: AW Warren, 1822.

This illustration formed the frontispiece of the 10th Ed. of 

'The Chemical Catechism' by Samuel Parkes (about: 1860s/1870s).

'The Dissolution, or The Alchymist producing an Aetherial Representation'

Hand-coloured etching made by James Gillray, 1796, in reference 

to the dissolution of Parliament announced on 19 May.

'Le Plaisir des Fous'
(The pleasure of fools)

Original painting by David Teniers (before 1690). This version engraved by Pierre-François Basan sometime in the 1700s. 

 

'Le Chimiste
De la Galerie de S.A.S. Monseigneur le Duc d'Orléans'

Original painting by David Teniers (before 1690). "Alembic and crucible sit on furnace in center of image; miscellaneous apparatus in foreground."

All images found at:

Edgar Fahs Smith Collection at the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image (SCETI) at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries.

Norse mythology (Iceland, 18th C)

  

 

 

 

'Sæmundar og Snorra Edda' is a 1760 Icelandic manuscript by Ólafur Brynjúlfsson.  

There are two major sources that chronicle the legends of Norse mythology:

The 'Poetic Edda' is a collection of alliterative poems (Edda) from the 13th century Icelandic Codex Regius. The poems are thought to date from the 10th century.

The 'Younger Edda' which includes a narrative of Norse mythology and a manual for understanding the nuances of the alliterative poetics, was written by the Icelandic historian and parliamentarian, Snorri Sturluson an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as a lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He was the author of the Prose Edda or Younger Edda, which consists of Gylfaginning ("the fooling of Gylfi"), a narrative of Norse mythology, the Skáldskaparmál, a book of poetic language, and the Háttatal, a list of verse forms. He was also the author of the Heimskringla, a history of the Norwegian kings that begins with legendary material in Ynglinga saga and moves through to early medieval Scandinavian history.

The Ólafur Brynjúlfsson manuscript contains material from both the Younger and Elder Edda and is online at the Royal Danish Library, (link provided)