The Arms of the Art
attributed to Salomon Trismosin, c. 1582
No print size passed the check for this piece: at 8 x 10 in, Wrong shape: a 22% crop. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.
See pieces like it you can buyThe first plate of Splendor Solis presents a coat of arms: a shield bearing a golden vessel, held up as if the Great Work were a noble house with its own heraldry. The manuscript, attributed to the legendary Salomon Trismosin, survives in jewel-bright miniatures set within elaborate Renaissance borders — flowers, grotesques, and gold laid on like a book of hours. Made around 1582, it is among the most beautiful alchemical manuscripts ever produced, its images prized as much for their painting as their doctrine. Here the sequence opens not with a furnace but with a claim of nobility: this art, the plate says, has a lineage.
- Maker
- attributed to Salomon Trismosin
- Date
- c. 1582
- Medium of the original
- Plate
- Original held by
- British Library, Harley MS 3469 · scan: Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- British Library, Harley MS 3469 · scan: Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00449
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 |
|---|---|
| 8 x 10 in | Wrong shape: a 22% crop |
| 8 x 12 in | 128 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 11 x 14 in | Wrong shape: a 20% crop |
| 12 x 16 in | Wrong shape: a 17% crop |
| 12 x 18 in | 85 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 16 x 20 in | Wrong shape: a 22% crop |
| 16 x 24 in | 64 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 18 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 17% crop |
| 20 x 30 in | 51 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 22% crop |
| 24 x 36 in | 42 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 40 in | Wrong shape: a 17% crop |
| 36 x 48 in | Wrong shape: a 17% crop |
| 40 x 60 in | 25 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,024 x 1,638 px, srgb
- Tone
- Darks 32, lights 199 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0.1% clipped dark
- Colour
- 3.2% vivid
- Sharpness
- 2.86
The Hermetica
The esoteric tradition’s emblems, astrological figures and the old charts of palmistry and phrenology.
All 58 pieces from The Hermetica
