The Peacock’s Tail

A single peacock stands with its tail fully fanned inside a crowned glass flask. Alchemists called this stage the cauda pavonis, the peacock’s tail, and treated it as one of the most reassuring signs in the entire process: a shifting, iridescent play of colors was reported to appear in the vessel just before the material settled into stable white, the albedo stage that precedes the work’s final reddening. Because the display was brief and unpredictable, its appearance functioned almost like a weather sign, confirmation that the process was on the right track rather than a failure. The detail worth noticing is the crown atop the flask, marking this stage as a small triumph in its own right rather than an incidental way station. The phrase outlived the manuscript: "peacock’s tail" is still used as shorthand for a burst of transient color before a process settles into its final form.

Maker

Unknown illuminator (text attributed to Salomon Trismosin)

Date

1582 copy

Medium of the original

Plate

Original held by

British Library

Credit

British Library · via Wikimedia Commons

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00506