Men vainly seeking alchemical 'white' (mercurial) water in the ground and in trees. Coloured etching after etching, ca. 17th century.

This image follows that shown in Wellcome Library no. 38032i. Flamel writes: "at the foot [of a hollow oak] boyled a fountaine of white water, which ranne head-long downe into the depths, notwithstanding it first passed among the hands of infinite people, which digged in the Earth seeking for it; but because they were blinde, none of them knew it, except here and there one which considered the weight" (Dixon, ibid. p. 9)

The white water is shown flowing from a hole in the tree

[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified]

1 print : etching, with watercolour ; platemark 20.4 x 15 cm

Bears number: 6

Jacques van Lennep, Alchimie, Brussels 1984, pp. 134-144

Wellcome Collection 38186i

The Livre takes its inspiration from a text by Nicolas Flamel (ca. 1330-1417) first published in France in 1612, then in England in 1624. Flamel tells of how a book written by one Abraham the Jew fell into his hands and goes on to describe its illustrations, which he does not attempt to reproduce. Only in 1672, in W. Salmon's edition of the book, did the images come to be actualised. See: Nicolas Flamel, His exposition of the hieroglyphicall figures (1624), ed. Laurinda Dixon, London 1994, p. 8ff.