Splendor Solis (literally “The Splendor of the Sun” but also “The Splendor of the Soul”) is a manuscript dated around 1582 containing a well-known alchemical text and a series of stunning images.
The earliest version, written in Central German, is dated approximately 1532–1535 and is currently housed at the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin at State Museums in Berlin. There are several copies of the book, in all twenty versions existing worldwide.
The original Splendor Solis contained seven chapters and appeared in the German town of Augsburg. The author of the manuscript was considered to be the legendary Salomon Trismosin, who allegedly was the teacher of the Swiss physician, alchemist, and astrologer Paracelsus. The work itself consists of a sequence of 22 elaborate images, which are set in ornamental borders and niches. The images speak allegorically of the process of alchemy.
At the center of the book’s purpose stands the production (and operation) of the philosopher’s stone.
