Publisher's Synopsis
The translation presented here of the Mushaf as-suwar (The Book of Pictures) into English is its first translation into a European language. It is the result of careful and repeated distillation work over a period of twenty years, encouraged by Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz. The text is a dialogue between the teacher Zosimos and his beloved student Theosebeia, explaining to her the symbolic meaning of the alchemical work. The unique contribution of this text is its forty-two pictures, mostly in color, that Zosimos drew for Theosebeia. These pictures are, as is demonstrated in the introduction written by Theodor Abt, the earliest alchemical pictures known, and they are the source of the picture series given in the Rosarium and of the Mutus Liber.The whole dialogue is the earliest known psychological dialogue concerning transference and countertransference.
