The Seventh Key
Matthaeus Merian the Elder, engraver (text attributed to Basilius Valentinus), Late 17th century; text tradition traced to ca. 1599
$82
Print check at 10 x 8 in: 156 dpi, good. Trimmed 3.6% to the shape of the print.
Shipping to a US address: $24.80 for this piece, from the print room in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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A robed woman holds a balance in one hand and a raised sword in the other, standing behind a cylinder labeled "Sigillum Hermetis," the Seal of Hermes. Below her, a circle divided into a square and triangle reads "Sal philosophorum" and "Aqua," ringed by the four seasons, Hiems, Ver, Aestas, Autumnus. Contemporaries took the scale and sword as measure and judgment, the correct proportion of ingredients and the cutting-off of the vessel from outside air, both held necessary for the Work to proceed through its stages, here mapped onto a full cycle of seasons to suggest a slow, months-long heating. The sealed cylinder behind her is the detail to notice, a reminder that practitioners believed the whole transformation had to occur undisturbed inside hermetically closed glass. Its tidy geometric diagram made this plate one of the more frequently excerpted images from the series on its own.
- Maker
- Matthaeus Merian the Elder, engraver (text attributed to Basilius Valentinus)
- Date
- Late 17th century; text tradition traced to ca. 1599
- Medium of the original
- Engraving
- Original held by
- Science History Institute, Philadelphia
- Credit
- Science History Institute, Philadelphia · via Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00527
| Picture | 10 x 8 in |
|---|---|
| Outside size | 11.6 x 9.6 in |
| Depth | 0.9 in (22 mm) |
| Weight | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]] |
| Hanging | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]] |
| Material | Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing |
| Made in | Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi |
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 | dpi | Grade | How it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 x 8 in | 156 | Good | Trimmed 3.6% |
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 12 x 8 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 14 x 11 in | 113 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 16 x 12 in | 101 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 18 x 12 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 20 x 16 in | 78 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 16 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 24 x 18 in | 67 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 20 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 30 x 24 in | 52 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 36 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 40 x 30 in | 40 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 48 x 36 in | 33 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 60 x 40 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,619 x 1,248 px, srgb, c2
- Tone
- Darks 57, lights 236 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0.5% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 11.43
- Notes
- Neutrals lean toward magenta: the paper and varnish of the original, kept as scanned
Shipping for this piece to a US address is $24.80, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.
Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.
A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.
The Alembic
Gold, the sun and the alchemist’s Great Work in eight surviving miniatures.
All 29 pieces from The Alembic
