George Ripley’s Compound of Alchymy (1591)

This title was first published in 2001. Biographical details for George Ripley (c.1415-c.1490), one of England’s best-known alchemical authorities, are sketchy, but he is known to have travelled widely on the Continent in search of alchemical wisdom. Whilst a canon regular at the Augustinian priory at Bridlington in Yorkshire, he conducted alchemical experiments and wrote widely on the subject. Ripley's popular alchemical poem, The Compound of Alchemy, has survived in many manuscript versions, was first printed in 1591 with a dedication to Queen Elizabeth, and prompted many explications and commentaries during the two centuries following Ripley's death. Originally dedicated by Ripley to King Edward IV, the poem figures the King as a kind of alchemical aspirant who, having received instructions from Ripley, his alchemical master, is enabled to glimpse the arcane secrets of the art.