Courage and the Art They Did Not Lack

George Ripley was a well-known English alchemist of the fifteenth century. He spent his life looking for occult causes of natural things. He was canon of Bridlington but gave up his monastic life to travel through France, Germany, and Italy. He joined the Carmelite Order upon his return to England and renewed his alchemical studies. In 1475, he published his best known work 'The Compound of Alchemy Containing Twelve Gates,' which he dedicated to King Edward IV. His study describes the twelve stages, which the philosopher must go through in order to achieve his magnum opus. Characteristically, his texts are symbolic and accompanied by images of men or animals representing alchemical processes. Carrington's Courage and the Art They Did Not Lack, refers both visually and verbally to a text by Ripley that describes why alchemists write mysteriously. He writes: 'to discourage fools, for although we write primarily for the edification of the disciples of the art, we also write for the mystification of those owls and bats which can neither bear the splendor of the sun nor the light of the moon.'

We are grateful to Dr. Salomon Grimberg for his assistance in writing the essay for the above lot.