The Hermetica
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The Alchemical Cabinet

Lambspring, Figure II: The Knight and the Dragon

A knight raises his sword over the dragon.

Work
from The Book of Lambspring, in the Musaeum Hermeticum
Plate
Secunda Figura
Maker
Lambspring; engraved by Matthäus Merian
Date
1678
Source
Published Frankfurt, 1678 · scan: DPLA via Wikimedia Commons
Secunda Figura

Format

The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source plate — yours to print, study, and explore.

Size

$29.00

The story

A knight in armour raises his sword over a coiling dragon among trees, and the word beneath is Putrefactio: putrefaction, the first breaking-down of matter in the alchemist's work. The second figure of the Book of Lambspring was engraved by Matthäus Merian and printed in the Musaeum Hermeticum at Frankfurt in 1678. A reader of the day knew the dragon was not to be killed but changed. The picture still works as a fight.

See it on your wall

The plate, in your home

Lambspring, Figure II: The Knight and the Dragon printed large and framed, hung in rooms like yours. Every edition ships ready to become the piece the room is built around.

Lambspring, Figure II: The Knight and the Dragon framed on the wall
Lambspring, Figure II: The Knight and the Dragon framed on the wall
Lambspring, Figure II: The Knight and the Dragon framed on the wall
Lambspring, Figure II: The Knight and the Dragon framed on the wall

About this reproduction

  • A faithful reproduction of a public-domain plate — from The Book of Lambspring, in the Musaeum Hermeticum (1678), held by Published Frankfurt, 1678 · scan: DPLA via 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.