Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourcewoks, 1997. Limited edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 78pp. Hand-bound in red-brown faux-leather with gilt title, etc. to spine. Faux woodgrain endpapers. Book is in very good good plus condition

Limited edition of only 300 hand numbered copies this being #28, signed by Adam McLean. Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks series No. 25.

A rare unknown book by Michael Maier which explores the alchemical transformation. It lists nine sections, the ‘Cantilenae’ or songs, each divided into three harmonised verses. These three verses are the alto (personified as Venus), the tenor, and the bass (personified as a lion). This parallels the structure of Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens with its three-part canons, Atalanta, Hippomenes, and the golden apples. The Intellectual Cantilenae was first published in Latin in 1622, and later in 1758 issued with a parallel French and Latin text. This was the last of Michael Maier’s works to be published in his amazingly prolific sequence of twelve titles issued between 1614-22, the last nine years of his life. Mike Dickman has translated the text from the French edition, and he provides a detailed introduction exploring the symbolism of the Cantilenae.”