Bildersammeln in Erfurt: Der Leidener Codex De alchemia und die Transformation (christo)alchemischen Bildwissens

Abstract Between 1522 and 1533/36, Erfurt lawyer and citizen Valentin Hernworst (fl. 1508–1536) compiled a colorful illuminated manuscript. Known today as the Leiden Codex Vossianus Chymicus F 29 or De alchemia , it ranks among the most important alchemical manuscripts of the early modern age. The manuscript, which synthesized alchemist knowledge of several older series of images created in the fifteenth century, bears witness to the overlapping of different currents in religious Christo-alchemical imagery. Though Erfurt hosted one of the oldest universities of the Holy Roman Empire, not much attention has been paid to the intellectual milieu Hernworst was part of. As I will argue, Hernworst must have drawn on the image collections of local lovers of alchemy.