The Emerald Tablet
Engraved by Matthäus Merian, c. 1625
No print size passed the check for this piece: at 10 x 8 in, 109 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.
See pieces like it you can buyA bearded figure holds out a tablet inscribed with the terse lines of the Tabula Smaragdina, the 'Emerald Tablet' — 'as above, so below' — the most quoted text in all of alchemy, and here given a face and a frame. This engraving, in the manner of the plates Matthäus Merian made for the Musaeum Hermeticum of the 1620s, turns the legendary tablet of Hermes Trismegistus into a scene: the sage presenting the doctrine as if handing over a stone. The Emerald Tablet is a few dozen cryptic sentences, endlessly copied and glossed. To picture it at all was audacious. The plate gives the words a body, and the tradition its founding image.
- Maker
- Engraved by Matthäus Merian
- Date
- c. 1625
- Medium of the original
- Engraving
- Original held by
- Musaeum Hermeticum, Frankfurt · scan: Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- Musaeum Hermeticum, Frankfurt · scan: Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00482
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 10 x 8 in | 109 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 12 x 8 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 14 x 11 in | 79 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 16 x 12 in | 69 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 18 x 12 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 20 x 16 in | 54 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 16 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 24 x 18 in | 46 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 20 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 30 x 24 in | 36 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 36 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 40 x 30 in | 27 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 48 x 36 in | 23 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 60 x 40 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,118 x 872 px, srgb
- Tone
- Darks 40, lights 245 of 255; 1.1% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 52.33
The Hermetica
The esoteric tradition’s emblems, astrological figures and the old charts of palmistry and phrenology.
All 58 pieces from The Hermetica
