Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum – Elias Ashmole (Ouroboros Press)

Description

The essential modern edition of what is widely regarded as the single most important collection of English alchemical literature ever assembled. First compiled by the antiquarian and astrologer Elias Ashmole in 1652, the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum gathers the largest body of English verse on the Philosopher’s Stone ever brought together in one volume — drawing on rare medieval manuscripts to preserve the work of Thomas Norton, George Ripley, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Dee, Thomas Charnock, William Bloomfield, and many others, alongside Ashmole’s own extensive prolegomena and annotations.

This Ouroboros Press edition goes well beyond a simple facsimile reprint. Working from Ashmole’s original errata sheets, the entire text has been corrected and freshly reset in a more readable typeface, with clear reproductions of the original Robert Vaughan engravings — including the folding plate of George Ripley’s Wheel. It also restores a more complete text of Thomas Charnock’s Breviary of Naturall Philosophy, drawn from a manuscript unavailable to Ashmole in 1652 — making this, in key respects, more complete than the original 1652 edition itself.

Bound in gilt-stamped cloth boards with a letterpress-printed dust jacket, rubricated title page in red and black, 528 pages. The product of a genuinely major, years-long publishing effort — the most ambitious project in Ouroboros Press’s history of bringing source texts of Western esotericism back into print.

A cornerstone reference for any serious library of alchemy, Hermetic philosophy, or the history of English esoteric literature.