3-057-257 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Putrefactio philosophorum (The putrefaction of the philosophers), late 13th century. Drawing of a black coloured glass vessel relating to alchemical experimentation, with text. The black stage of the crow's head. The stages of the alchemical process were attributed various colours, black being one of them. The three main colours were black, white and red. Sometimes the stages were compared to birds, hence the black crow. This is from a collection of alchemical extracts, mainly from Arnold of Villanova, who was a physician who treated popes and kings during the thirteenth century. From Alchemy: General collections and anonymous treatises and processes in prose and verse.