The Golden Fleece

...equally over her back, at the mercy of a benign wind and favorable Zephyr; the wings were of gold interlaced with beautiful small seeds. On her well-arranged head, she had a very beautiful crown of gold, and upon it a silver star. Around her neck, she wore a gold Carcan a heavy collar or necklace, in which was richly encased a precious Ruby of excellent artifice. The just price and value of it could not have been paid by the greatest revenue of any powerful King. She also had gilded shoes on her feet, and from her spread a sweet and very odoriferous scent. As soon as she perceived this poor desolate man, with a gay countenance and a joyful aspect, she reaches out her hand to him and raises him from his extreme weakness, already so destitute of his first strengths that he could no longer support himself, nor protect his pusillanimous body, already feeling the earth. In the eminent peril of his life's salvation, he neither hears nor expects anything certain but the true refuse of miserable misfortunes,

original Latin: "nullam Sperare Salutem," a quote from Virgil's Aeneid

When this was recognized in the weak actions of our languid man, this Lady advances, moved by compassion, and benignly withdrawing him from such an infection, she cleans him pure and clean, makes him a present of a beautiful purple garment, and leads him up to Heaven with her. Senior speaks of this in the same way when treating this subject, even in much clearer terms: "There is," he says, "a living thing that is no longer mortal, having...

The Golden Fleece

...once been confirmed and assured of its life by an eternal and continued multiplication."

A hand-colored alchemical illustration is framed by a red border. Two central figures stand atop a green mound. On the left, a female figure representing the Moon (Luna) wears a long grey gown and has a silver crescent moon above her head; she holds a caduceus staff in her right hand. On the right, a male figure representing the Sun (Sol) wears red robes and is surrounded by a golden sunburst at his head; he holds a long scepter in his left hand. Below their feet, emerging from the center of the green earth, is a small, bearded green face looking upward.

Fifth Similitude

The Philosophers, in order to leave nothing behind of what they must honestly reveal of this art, attribute to it two bodies, namely the Sun and the Moon, which they say are Earth and Water. These two bodies are also called man and woman, who beget four children: two little men whom they name Heat and Cold, and two little women signified by the Dry and the Moist. From these four...