Rosarium Philosophorum ("Rosary of the Philosophers") is a alchemical text of the 13th century, attributed to Arnaldo de Villa Noua (from Villanova) (1235 - 1315), who was the most famous doctor and alchemist of his times.
The first publication to press of the Rosarium Philosophorum which was published in Frankfurt in 1550 , entitled "De alchimia opuscula complura veterum philosophorum, vol. II.
[Vol. 1 of De Alchimia Opuscula Complura Veterum Philosophorum is not yet available in English)
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The title 'Rosarium' refers to the symbology of the rose from the antiquity and for all the Middle Ages it remained associated to the idea of the perfection and the infinite.
To understand the archetypal signature of the rose, it is necessary to suspend one’s intellectual and cultural connections to it and simply be open to the presence of the rose. This popular flower has a complicated symbology with paradoxical meanings. It is at once a symbol of both purity and passion, both heavenly perfection and earthly desire; both virginity and fertility; both death and life. The rose is the flower of the goddesses Isis and Venus but also the blood of Osiris, Adonis, and Christ.
Originally a symbol of joy, the rose later indicated secrecy and silence but is now usually associated in the common mind with romantic love. But the rose is much more meaningful, much older and more deeply embedded in the human unconscious than most people believe. Rose fossils 35 million year old have been found in Europe, and petrified rose wreaths have been unearthed from the oldest Egyptian tombs.
The rose is one of the fundamental symbols of alchemy and became the philosophical basis of Rosicrucian alchemy. It was so important to alchemists that there are many texts called Rosarium (Rosary), and all these texts deal with the relationship between the archetypal King and Queen.
In alchemy, the rose is primarily a symbol of the operation of Conjunction, the Mystical Marriage of opposites.
In alchemy the red rose is regarded as a masculine, active, expansive principle of solar spirit (Sulfur), where the white rose represents the feminine, receptive, contractive principle of lunar soul (Salt). The combination of white and red roses (spirit and soul) symbolizes the birth of the Philosopher’s Child (Mercury). During the operation of Conjunction, the relationship of the masculine red rose to the feminine white rose is the same relationship depicted in alchemical images of the Red King and the White Queen or the Red Sun and White Moon. White roses were linked to the White Phase of the Work (albedo) and the White Stone of Multiplication, while the red rose was associated with the Red Phase and the Red Stone of Projection.
In spiritual alchemy, the single red rose represents the mystic center of a person, his or her heart of hearts one’s true nature. It also represents the process of purification to reveal one’s essence or the inner pearl beyond price. Sufi spiritual alchemist Rumi described this idea when he wrote: "In the driest whitest stretch of pain's infinite desert, I lost my sanity and found this rose." As a symbol of the Mystical Marriage on a personal level, the red rose represents a special kind of love in which one melts away into the beauty of another, and the old identity is surrendered for that of the beloved or a higher identity within oneself. In this sense, the rose is a symbol of complete surrender and permanent transmutation.
Following are Thumbnails of the famous series of 20 woodcuts which were first printed in the second volume of De Alchimia opuscula complura veterum philosophorum... Frankfurt 1550
