Alchemical Symbols vs Celestial Atlas
錬金術記号 / 星図の様式
Alchemical Symbols comes from Symbol Systems and Celestial Atlas from Diagrammatic Expression. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Alchemical Symbols
The signs that recorded substances and operations between secrecy and sharing. The system binding planets to metals vanished into chemical notation, but survives as the graphics of mystery, quoted to this day.
Celestial Atlas
The Baroque celestial atlas layering constellation mythology over observation. Cellarius's Harmonia Macrocosmica marks the summit of an age when scientific diagram could also be decorative art.
| Alchemical Symbols | Celestial Atlas | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | medieval–18th century | 17th–19th century |
| Family | Symbol Systems | Diagrammatic Expression |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Planet-metal correspondences / Geometry composed with crosses / Cipher-like secrecy / Tables handed down | Myth figures over stars / Concentric celestial structure / Gold and blue coloring / Ornamented cartouches |
| Best used for | Building signs for a binding or package on themes of secrecy · Designing props for a fantasy story from images with real lineage | Double-page plates for books and exhibitions on astronomy or navigation · Showing a whole body of knowledge on one sheet with its ornament intact |
| Type | Chosen from existing tables, unified as circle, triangle and cross | Title inside an ornamented frame, star names tiny and italic |
| Composition | Signs ranged evenly as a table, glosses gathered underneath | Concentric spheres at the center, four corners filled with cartouches |
| Material | Engraved hairlines on yellowed paper, no metallic sheen | Gold and hand color on deep blue, stars struck as engraved points |
| Caution | Signs invented for atmosphere read as false to anyone who knows which substance each one names, and the work sinks to decoration. | Drawing the myth figures so large that the star positions vanish leaves a plate working neither as diagram nor as ornament. |