Mercury, "The Hypocritical Planet"
Mercury, 'The Hypocritical Planet' (detail), 1553 Mercury, 'The Hypocritical Planet', 1553 Mercury, "The Hypocritical Planet" (detail), 1553 Mercury, "The Hypocritical Planet"
Istanbul
Watercolor in Zakariya ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini, "Kitāb al-'ajā'ib wa'l-gharā'ib" (Book of Wonders and Oddities), 1553, pp. 29–30
Gift of Lawrence J. Schoenberg
2010.M.65

The Persian cosmographer Zakariya al-Qazwini composed his book on the wonders of creation, in 13th-century Baghdad after the city's fall to the Mongols. The book describes everything from plants, minerals, and planets to the ranks of angels, mechanics of the cosmos, and monsters of exotic lands.

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The Art of Alchemy