Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks Series
This series of 23 limited edition hand-bound books by Adam McLean were produced in 1979-1986. They were never sold through book dealers, but only by direct mail order. Consequently, these books became collectors items, often fetching high prices on the second-hand market. A few copies remain of some of the books in this series, and these are being made available again direct from Adam McLean.
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No. 6. The Rosary of the Philosophers
Edited with an Introduction and Commentary by Adam McLean
The Rosarium philosophorum is recognised as one of the most important texts from the middle period of European alchemy, being first published in 1550. It was extensively quoted in later alchemical literature, and the ideas it introduced influenced and inspired generations of later alchemists. It is perhaps best known through its famous series of 20 woodcut illustrations which act as a kind of structural format for the text. Many of these woodcuts have become well known as they have been used in recent years as illustrations in books on symbolism.
An eighteenth century manuscript translation of the Latin text into English was discovered by Adam McLean in a Scottish alchemical collection, and it is published here in its entirety, as the first ever version of the Rosarium in English. Adam McLean also provides a commentary focussed on the series of woodcuts, and outlines a particular interpretation which links this Rosarium series with ideas also current in the Tantric tradition and with Jung's ideas on alchemy and the energies in man's psyche.
This is a unique and important alchemical item and will be of great value to collectors and scholars.
Limited edition of 250 signed and numbered copies. 130 pp. 20 illustrations.
£50.00 (including air mail postage) [not available at present.]
£48.00 (including surface mail, Europe and UK postage) [not available at present.]