Here comes the sun: sunny snapshots from CHF’s rare books collections

Sunburn, vitamin D, the solar system, a certain British tabloid paper, and a Beatles song: those are only a few of the things that come to mind when we think about the sun. Chemists may associate the sun with hydrogen and helium, solar panels, and the composition of sunscreen.

Once upon a time, however, men were not concerned about melanoma or nutrition; neither hydrogen nor helium was yet a proper word; and the Beatles were just a twinkle in their multiple-great-grandfathers’ eyes. At this time, a few hundred years ago, the sun was an evocative symbol with ancient roots and enduring mystique—a symbol that casts light on many items in CHF’s rare books collections.

Golden opportunities: alchemical suns
Even though alchemists spent much of their time indoors, they had plenty of sun exposure: in alchemy the sun stands for the precious metal gold, the very thing alchemists strove to produce. Alchemists believed that all metals ripen in the earth through the influence of the planets associated with them: for instance, quicksilver was ruled (as its synonym still shows) by Mercury, silver by the moon, and gold by the sun. Many alchemical books discuss ways to make gold in the laboratory, and in these books the symbol for the sun (a circle with a dot in the middle), its Latin name sol, and many allegorical images are ubiquitous.

Title pages in early printed books made good use of the rich metaphorical tradition of alchemy. The Swiss doctor Jean-Jaques Manget’s Bibliotheca chemica curiosa [Collection of chemical curiosities] (1702), for example, shows the sun as a cherub-faced prime mover of the world towering over all creation. Below him, two angels hold a glass vessel with the natural sun’s little brother, a feisty little fella symbolizing the metal gold.

When Manget’s French contemporary and fellow physician Jean-Pierre Fabre published Die hell-scheinende Sonne am alchymistischen Firmament des hochteutschen Horizonts (1705) [The bright-shining sun at the alchemical firmament of the high German horizon], he transformed the sun into a beautiful, regal woman worshipped by alchemists, who gave her vessels with various metals and substances as gifts. It is clear that Fabre, who was known to be an aspiring alchemical adept himself, knew very well how alchemists struggled to find the right base metals for their golden transformations.

Johann Joachim Becher, Actorum laboratorii chymici monacensis (1669)

A slightly different picture of the sun is presented in J. J. Becher’s Actorum laboratorii chymici monacensis (1669; a book on Becher’s laboratory experiments that he conducted in Munich), that of the sun as the mother of all things. In the belly of a seated, sun-faced figure three of the elements—air, water, and earth—act like amniotic fluid to the vegetable, animal, and mineral states of matter. The fourth element, fire, is present in the sun itself, radiating the power of transformation from above.

Perfect posture: statuesque suns
The German alchemist Johann de Monte-Snyder was one of the most illustrious and infamous figures of his craft in the 17th century. He was known not only for his successful transmutations but also for his allegorical imagery. In a series of illustrations in his Reconditorium [Storehouse] (1666) the sun is shown as a Greco-Roman male whose robe conceals none of his mysterious parts; the Latin inscriptions in this solar chart, however, do not really uncover the mysteries of the sun.

A much more modest scene presents itself in The laboratory, or, School of arts (1750), an anonymous early modern hodgepodge of knowledge. The frontispiece shows a young man unveiling the face of Nature personified. His caduceus (snake-entwined wand) shows that he is an alchemist or physician who has indeed unveiled nature’s secrets. But Nature holds a small sun in her hand, her natural force and power compressed into a modest dial.

Crowned by sun, moon, and stars, the man boasting about his alchemical prowess in Chrysostomus Ferdinandus von Sabor’s Practica naturae vera [The true practice of nature] (1735) is rather bold by comparison. This baroque figure standing in a state-of-the-art laboratory may be Sabor himself. We now know that his treatise on the secrets of nature was funded by the Rosicrucians: no wonder Sabor was basking in an otherworldly glow!

School of Arts (1750)

Winging it: chemistry, the Hermetic tradition, and the light of nature
The mythical courier of the gods, Hermes, has always been a symbol of wisdom for adepts in the Hermetic art, alchemy. In the Paracelsian Alexander von Suchten’s Chymische Schrifften [Chymical writings] (1680) Hermes soars above a sunrise in the skies. Powered by his winged helmet and staff, he hovers above more planets and symbols than he can shake his caduceus at.

A perhaps less likely appearance of wings in a chemical context is in George Wilson’s Religio Chemici [A chemist’s religion] (1862). Modeled on Sir Thomas Browne’s famous discussion of his religious views (Religio Medici [1642]), Wilson collected essays on religion and chemistry while he was the first professor of technology in the 19th-century University of Edinburgh . An image from the book shows an angel holding up a radiant volume to a Hermes figure surrounded by chemical apparatus—divine messengers communicating knowledge.

There are many other hot topics and symbols in the Othmer Library—a perfect substitute for the sun when no holiday is in sight!

Bibliography and further reading

• Jean-Jaques Manget, Bibliotheca chemica curiosa (1702)

• Alexander von Suchten, Chymische Schrifften (1680)

• Johann Joachim Becher, Actorum laboratorii chymici monacensis (1669)

• George Wilson, Religio Chemici (1862)

• The laboratory, or, School of arts: in which are faithfully exhibited, and fully explain'd, I. A variety of curious and valuable experiments in refining, calcining, melting, assaying, casting, allaying, and toughening of gold; with several other curiosities relating to gold and silver [etc.] (1738-56)

• Reconditorium ac reclusorium opulentiae sapientiaeque numinis mundi magni, cui deditur in titulum Chymica vannus (1666)

• Johannes de Monte-Snyder, Jo. de Monte-Snyders Metamorphosis planetarum, das ist, Eine wunderbarliche Verenderung der Planeten und metallischen Gestalten in ihr erstes Wesen (1684)

• Chrysostomus Ferdinandus von Sabor, Practica naturae vera, oder, Sonnenklare Beschreibung derer Natur-Geheimnisse (1735)

• Jean-Pierre Fabre, Die hell-scheinende Sonne am alchymistischen Firmament des hochteutschen Horizonts (1705)

• John Heydon, The wise-mans crown, or, The glory of the rosie-cross (1664-65)

• Christoph Gottlieb Volkamer, Thaumantiados thaumasia (1699)