Symbolica
The Oratory and the Laboratory

The Oratory and the Laboratory

The Vessel as the central motif, with Fire and the Divine in a secondary part. From Amphitheatrum.

Heinrich Khunrath, designer; the Oratory engraved by Paullus van der Doort, 1595, printed 1609. Engraving.

Licence ouverte, 1609 printing · Web copy 1339 by 1400 px · Internet Archive, Bibliotheque interuniversitaire de Sante copy, Paris, leaf 31

What is happening

Heinrich Khunrath, 1609 “EXPERIENTIA.” Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, lettered on the plate, on the pillar base at the right.

Symbolica, 2026 The engraver signs at the foot of the plate, Paullus van der Doort, and the plate is dated 1595, which is the year of the first edition; it was reprinted in the 1609 book. The many mottoes lettered on the walls, the pillars and the vessels are not yet transcribed here.

Key · 3 motifs

The motifs the picture carries, filed by role. The marks on the picture itself come with the entry.

  1. 1The Vesselcentral motif as it reads here: The Oratory and the Laboratory
  2. 2Firesecondary motif
  3. 3The Divinesecondary motif

The picture

A hall in perspective, the alchemist kneeling in a tent-like oratory at the left, the furnace and its vessels on the right, a table of instruments in the middle, and mottoes lettered on the pillars and the vessels. By eye

Not yet decoded: the motifs are tagged by eye and the readings above are quoted from their sources. The marks on the picture and the sourced notes come with the entry.

Also carrying the Vessel

18 works carry it. The 6 where it is the central motif are here. The symbol.

Where the detail is the subject

Fire · the Divine

Each of these is in the picture without being what it is about. Below, one work that is about each.

In the same series

Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, 1609

Record

Source
Internet Archive, Bibliotheque interuniversitaire de Sante copy, Paris, leaf 31
Rights
Licence ouverte, 1609 printing
Restoration
None. A 1339 by 1400 pixel web copy made from the source file; nothing retouched, nothing upscaled.
Series
Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, 1609
Artist
Heinrich Khunrath, physician and theosopher of Leipzig, about 1560 to 1605, who designed the plates of the Amphitheatrum and wrote their captions; the Oratory and Laboratory was engraved by Paullus van der Doort
Titled here
The Oratory and the Laboratory. Internet Archive catalogues it as: The Oratory and the Laboratory, from Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, Hanau 1609
Checked
the Internet Archive item metadata for both copies, 4 September 2026: Khunrath as author, Hanau, G. Antonius, 1609; the Paris copy under Licence ouverte and the Wellcome copy under the Public Domain Mark. The plate captions were read off the page images and are quoted only as far as they could be read. Not seen in the hand.
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One symbol a week, decoded.

This picture is free at full size from its source, linked above. What an address gets is the Sunday letter: one picture, one symbol marked on it, what it meant and who said so, and the master files of the decoded plates as they are verified. Leave any time.

Cite
Symbolica, “The Oratory and the Laboratory”, Heinrich Khunrath, designer; the Oratory engraved by Paullus van der Doort, 1595, printed 1609. thesymbolica.com/work/the-oratory-and-the-laboratory/