Galleries of alchemical imagery

December 9, 2002 1:21 PM

Beautiful galleries of alchemical imagery selected and complemented with watercolor by Adam McLean. This is a fascinating collection of bizarre medieval illustration, as well as an interesting window on the proto-scientific worldview. His website features more images and even complete alchemical texts, for those inclined to explore further.
posted by eyebeam (7 comments total)

The main site is here, if that's what you meant the third link to have been, eyebeam.
posted by hippugeek at 2:00 PM on December 9, 2002

Wow, his website looks familiar...
posted by KnitWit at 2:01 PM on December 9, 2002

Anyone who likes this kind of thing might also wanna check out Walton Ford's work. I can't find a decent link right now as for some reason I can't connect to google, but someone else might. As a child he would religiously copy audobon's drawings, and now he does these somewhat surreal animal drawings that are absolutely massive and incredibly detailed. Really cool.

Plus, he went to my school :)
posted by atom128 at 2:12 PM on December 9, 2002

Dang.
Pics are all low res.

I am incredibly interested in 'wrong science'.
posted by cinderful at 4:49 PM on December 9, 2002

Oops! Thanks, hippugeek!

My first FPP... (looks sheepish)
posted by eyebeam at 5:46 PM on December 9, 2002

A wonderful find, eyebeam; I love these old woodcut drawings, and (like Adam, apparently) always feel an irresistible urge to color them in... I think he should begin marketing "The Alchemical Coloring Book"!
posted by taz at 11:04 PM on December 9, 2002

McLean's site is a fascinating place to browse around. Another interesting, though less comprehensive, source for alchemical images is provided by the J.R. Ritman Library in Amsterdam. Also, I was interested to find recently that London's Warburg Institute now offers a gateway to online resources following their library's classification scheme...
posted by misteraitch at 3:03 AM on December 10, 2002