La Très Sainte Trinosophie

"A man who knows everything and who never dies" [Voltaire]

The 'Cosmic Master of the Age of Aquarius' and mysterious adept, the Count de Saint-Germain, allegedly died in 1784. He was a spy, virtuoso violinist, diplomat, friend at the Court of Louis XV, adventurer and was said to be able to transform iron into gold. A veritable procession of people have claimed to be the still living Count de Saint-Germain since 1784.

"During the centuries after his death, numerous myths, legends and speculations have surfaced. He has been attributed with occult practices like snake charming and ventriloquism. There are stories about an affair between him and Madame de Pompadour. Other legends report that he was immortal, the Wandering Jew, an alchemist with the elixir of life, a Rosicrucian or an ousted king, a bastard of Queen Maria Anna of Spain, that he prophesied the French Revolution. Casanova called him the violinist Catlini. Count Cagliostro was rumored to be his pupil."

Either the Count de Saint-Germain or Cagliostro is considered to be the author of 'La Très Sainte Trinosophie' (The Most Holy Three-fold Wisdom), from the latter half of the 18th century. It has been called "the rarest of occult manuscripts"¹ and the only surviving copy is owned by the library in Troyes, France.

'Trinsophie' is an allegorical alchemistry work and ritual egyptian magical treatise containing an intentionally coded text with arabic, chaldean hebrew, cuneiform, ionic greek, syriac, esoteric idiograms and heiroglyphs amongst the french writing. A full translation is available online if you look hard enough -- I tend to regard the esoteric arts as a fascinating well from which to draw outstanding and eclectic imagery for this site, but if you want to incorporate the mystical and theosophical practices into your life then you ought to inject your own energies into the process, as thou wilt.

Suffice it to say that 'Trinsophie' remains an important codex in masonic, rosicrucian and hermetic traditions.

• After laboriously going through the page scans and extracting (almost all) the available images, I discovered that there is a turn-the-pages flash alternative version of 'La Très Sainte Trinosophie' at La Médiathèque de l’Agglomération Troyenne [link updated Aug 2014]- click the cover page for flash or the link at the bottom of the page for the slow html version. In keeping with the subject matter perhaps, I found the image quality to be a little 'odd' in appearance when I worked out how to enlarge the pages somewhat. I don't think I oversized them - they're not exactly pixelated - but I ended up slighty reducing the size of what I understood to be the 100% page views. In any event, I removed all the library stamps and cleaned up a lot of the artifact in all the above images, which are approximately in the order in which they appear in the book.
• ¹In the course of background reading I came upon the Sub Rosa magazine site. Their latest pdf issue has an article about the mysterious Manly Hall, who went some way in the first half of the 20th century towards researching the background to 'Trinsophie'.
• Adam McLean's Levity site has various discussions about 'Trinsophie'.
• Many thanks to Christian at Zénon Annexe for unearthing this gem.
• Previously: alchemy/The Treasures of Troyes.
  

A Curious Bundle

How could a mother not love that face?
Renaissance cute overload.

[click to enlarge]


It's not really surprising that the Nuremberg botanist and apothecary, Basilius (Basil) Besler (1561–1629) managed to assemble one of the finest Wunderkammern (Cabinet of Curiosities) in Germany in the early 17th century. He was, after all, head of the famed 'Hortus Eystettensis' project in Bavaria, which gave him access to some of the most exotic plants from around the world.

Given the prevailing 'collection mentality' of the era, it was a logical progression for Besler to widen his scope of acquisition to include further esoteric specimens from the natural world. And of course, there was no use investing the time, energy and money into a collection if it wasn't documented for posterity, prestige and/or the furthering of science. Besler was in fact one of those scientific types probing towards a logical arrangement of the plant and animal kingdoms with an unsophisticated yet purposeful stab at descriptive species names and orderly divisions of associated specimens a century and a half ahead of Linnaeus.

The images above come from a small publication from 1616 called 'Fasiculus Rariorum' which includes about 30 plates by Petrus Iselburg (Peter Isselburg), who engraved 'Emblemata Politica' the following year. The only illustration that seems familiar to me is the coiled snake, so perhaps there is a tad more originality in these Iselburg engravings than in his later emblemata. But I don't know that for sure.

'Fasiculus Rariorum'** is online at L'Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg but I think I've posted the cream of the crop above. This site offers very large page images however, in a zippy interface. {Actually, they have 2 editions of this book. The only difference in the later issue -1622- was a substitution of the word 'Continuatio' for 'Fasiculus' on the titlepage. I think the first edition images were better quality anyway.}

Besler's collection was inherited by his nephew, the doctor and pharmacist, Michael Rupert Besler. He expanded the collection and another book documenting the contents - more famous than his uncle's - was produced in 1642. A first edition copy of the wonderfully named 'Gazophylacium Rerum Naturalium' (A Treasure Trove of Nature) is a steal at $57,000. Or an early 18th century version is only $11,000.

**UPDATE 2012: The original link to Strasbourg Digital Library appears to be dead but they have shifted to a new host/system which, in this case, includes a new version of the book seen above. It's the same book - link in large text above has been changed - but the book title is different and is now: 'Continuatio rariorum et aspectu dignorum varii generis'.

**UPDATE Pt. 2: I now see that Strasbourg have 2 versions of the same book (ie. 2 different titles but the books are the same). The original book is still available, but the link has moved to HERE.

The Comic History of Rome

'The Slow Coach'

'Tarquinius Superbus has the Sibylline Books valued'

'Tarquinius Superbus makes himself King'

'Romulus and Remus discovered by a gentle shepherd'

'The gallant Curtius leaping into the gulf'

'Scarecrow'

Initials I and R

Initial R

'Pyrrhus arrives in Italy with his Troupe'

Initial T

'Marius discovered in the Marshes at Minturnae'

Fulvia

'Appius Claudius punished by the People'

'Flaminius restoring Liberty to Greece at the Isthmian Games'

'In all probability something of this sort'

'Cicero denouncing Cataline'

John Leech (1817-1864) was an inheritor of the english caricaturist mantle from the likes of James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson; although a slightly lesser light than his contemporary, George Cruikshank, with whom Leech collaborated on a series of illustrations.

Leech's drawing style evokes the obviously strong influence of his mentors, but he developed his own niche, eschewing the extreme satirical elements of the earlier artists in favour of an approach to his subject matter that was perhaps "less grotesque, less boisterous, less exaggerated, nearer to the truth and to ordinary experience." It may have been his brief working sojourn with illustrators in France that induced a toning down of the comic style in the shift from Regency excess to Victorian moderation.

Leech had abandoned medical studies to pursue a career in drawing and his longstanding friendship with author WM Thackeray helped him arrange work with periodical publications. In 1841 he obtained a position with the newly founded Punch Magazine where his humorous political and social commentary illustration work greatly contributed to the magazine's success. He produced over 3,000 drawings and 600 cartoons for them during the following 23 years.

Leech was a prolific and fast illustrator and he supplied illustrations for a number of magazines and books, most notably the plates in 'A Christmas Carol' by Dickens. He collaborated with the journalist, lawyer and Punch Magazine contributor, Gilbert Abbott À'Beckett on a couple of humorous books including the 10 steel engravings and 100-odd wood engravings that feature in 'The Comic History of Rome - From the Founding of the City to the End of the Commonwealth', 1852.

À'Beckett's stated aim of popularising history was borne out in the successful reception which followed the publishing of 'The Comic History of Rome'. The humorous caricatures, often tinged with pathos, are well known to many history students to this day. From the preface -

"Some explanation is perhaps due from a writer who adopts the title of Comic in relation to a subject which is ordinarily considered to be so essentially grave as that of History. Though the epithet may be thought by many inappropriate to the theme, this work has been prompted by a very serious desire to instruct those who, though willing to acquire information, seek in doing so as much amusement as possible."

• All the illustration images from 'A Comic History of Rome' are available from Wikimedia -- these have been taken from the full digital facsimile hosted by Carnegie Mellon University's Posner Library.
• John Leech at Wikipedia.
• The Victorian Web on John Leech, including many illustration examples.
• The John Leech Sketch Archives from Punch contain over 600 illustrations.
• Brief commentary on the 1996 reprint of 'The Comic History of Rome' at Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers.
• 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica on Gilbert Abbott À'Beckett.
• Update: 'A Comic History of England' post.