The Emblem Shelf
Serapis, after Macrobius
A god of time with a three-headed beast.
- Work
- from Oedipus Aegyptiacus
- Maker
- Athanasius Kircher
- Date
- 1652–1654
- Source
- Published Rome, 1652–1654 · scan: Wikimedia Commons
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source plate — yours to print, study, and explore.
Size
$29.00
The story
Serapis strides forward wearing a basket on his head, a serpent coiled round the three-headed beast beside him, every element tagged with a letter and explained at the side. Athanasius Kircher took the description from the Roman writer Macrobius, who read the three heads as past, present and future. The plate comes from Oedipus Aegyptiacus, printed in Rome in 1652–1654, Kircher's attempt to rebuild the lost wisdom of Egypt. It reads like a museum label from a museum that never existed.
See it on your wall
The plate, in your home
Serapis, after Macrobius printed large and framed, hung in rooms like yours. Every edition ships ready to become the piece the room is built around.
About this reproduction
- A faithful reproduction of a public-domain plate — from Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652), held by Published Rome, 1652–1654 · scan: Wikimedia Commons. The work was published before 1931 and is centuries out of copyright.
- Printed to order on 200gsm EMA matte art paper; framed pieces sit behind acrylic, no mat.
- Color-managed to the source scan; we correct nothing and invent nothing.
- Ships in 5–10 business days, rolled in a heavy-wall tube (framed pieces ship flat-packed).
- If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.
Why our plates cost more than a poster: we print from the highest-resolution scans available, at sizes where the engraving itself becomes visible — the emblem line, the letterpress bite, the registration of colour — on stock made to outlive its owner.
