Editing Emerald Tablet (section)

=== Emblem ===
{{Multiple image
| image1            = Emblem 1600 Golden Fleece reconstructed.jpg
| caption1          = Emblem of the Emerald Tablet from a 1600 edition of the ''Golden Fleece''. Colour restored per {{harvnb|Telle|1984}}'s description.
| total_width       = 300
| caption2          = Drawn 1586 emblem denoting colours in German. (man. Kassel, ''4 Ms. chem. 60[1,3]'').
| image2            = 4° Ms. chem. 60(1,3).jpg
}}

From the late sixteenth century onwards, the ''Emerald Tablet'' was often accompanied by a symbolic figure called {{Langx|la|Tabula Smaragdina Hermetis|4=Emerald Tablet of Hermes}}. This figure is encircled by an [[acrostic]] in {{Langx|la|Visita interiora terrae rectificando invenies occultum lapidem|lit=Visit the interior of the earth, and by rectifying, you will find the hidden stone}} whose seven initials form the word {{Langx|fro|vitriol|lit=sulphuric acid}}. At the top, the sun and moon pour into a cup above the [[Planetary symbols|planetary symbol]] ☿ representing Mercury. Surrounding this mercurial cup are the four other planets, representing the classic association between the seven planets and the seven metals.  Though, many of the extant copies of the emblem are not set in colour, it was originally polychrome{{Efn|As attested by marginal notes of a 1586 manuscript.}}—linking each planetary-metallic pair with a specific colour, thus rendering: gold–[[Sun|Sol]]-gold, silver–[[Moon|Luna]]–silver, grey–[[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]]–quicksilver, blue–[[Jupiter]]–tin, red–[[Mars]]–iron, green–[[Venus]]–copper, and black–[[Saturn]]–lead. At the centre are a ring and a [[globus cruciger]]; at the bottom, the celestial and terrestrial spheres. Three [[Charge (heraldry)|charges]] represent, according to the accompanying poem, the ''[[Paracelsus#Tria prima|three principles]]''{{Efn|{{langx|la|tria prima}}.}} of Paracelsian alchemical theory: the eagle signifying quicksilver and the spirit, the lion signifying sulphur and the soul, and the star signifying salt and the body. Finally, two [[Schwurhand]]s appear alongside the image, affirming the creator’s veracity.<ref>{{harvnb|Telle|1984|pp=132–136}}.</ref>

The oldest known printed reproduction of this emblem is found in the ''Golden Fleece'',{{Efn|{{Langx|la|Aureum vellus}}.}} attributed to [[Salomon Trismosin]]—likely a [[pseudonym]] employed by a German [[Paracelsianism|Paracelsian]]. Wherein the image was accompanied by a didactic alchemical poem in German titled {{Lang|de|Außlegung und Erklerung des Gemelds oder Figur}} ({{Literal translation|Interpretation and Explanation of the Painting or the Figure}}).{{Efn|This first edition of the poem and emblem were published in Switzerland in vol. III of this treatise.<ref>{{harvnb|Trismosin|1600|pp=415–426}}.</ref>}} This poem explained the emblem's symbolism in relation to the [[Great Work (Hermeticism)|Great Work]] and the classical goals of alchemy: wealth, health, and long life. The emblem is largely derivative. The colours, symbols and associations are all found in different Paracelsian works from the same period and unlikely to be influenced by the ''Tablet'' itself. The association with the cryptic text might have served primarily as a legitimation for an artwork also meant to be read metaphorically. Additionally, the image first spread in the circle of [[Karl Widemann]], a known Paracelsian mystifier.<ref>{{harvnb|Telle|1988|pp=185-187}}.</ref> Initially, the image was presented alongside the ''Emerald Tablet'' as a merely ancillary element. However, in printed editions of the seventeenth century, the poem was omitted, and the emblem came to be known as the symbolic or graphical representation of the ''Emerald Tablet''. The emblem proliferated quickly, was frequently reproduced, and gained narrative antiquity. From Ehrd de Naxagoras in his 1733 ''Supplement to the Golden Fleece''{{Efn|{{langx|la|Supplementum Aurei Velleris}}.}} came an example of such a narrative. In the aforementioned discovery legend a woman named Zora finds "a precious emerald plaque" engraved with this emblem in Hermes' grave in [[Hebron]] Valley.<ref>{{harvnb|Faivre|1988|p=38}}; {{harvnb|Telle|1984|p=132}}; {{harvnb|Telle|1988|pp=185-186}}; {{harvnb|Kahn|2017|pp=314-315}}.</ref> The emblem thus came to be conceptualised of as part of the esoteric tradition of interpreting Egyptian hieroglyphs. It also came to serve as an example of the Renaissance-Platonic and alchemical belief that "the deepest secrets of nature could only be appropriately expressed through an obscure and veiled mode of representation”.<ref>{{harvnb|Telle|1988|p=|pp=185-186, 209-222}}.</ref>