Serpentine symbolism on Greco - Roman coinage

Ancient Greek and Roman coinage depicting snakes reveals the flexible and syncretic nature of symbols. Evidence of Roman adoption of the Greek god of medicine Asclepius,  successive Emperors issuing Salus coins, fraudulent snake cults, and official State Christianity inverting snake symbolism to Judaic sources, can all be seen on Greco-Roman coins.

Greek World

Snakes played a central part in the ancient Greek mysteries of Dionysus in religious ritual and in their role as protectors of the vine (by eating mice and other consumers of grapes). The worship of Dionysus, the god of wine was known as Bacchus and associated with Bacchanalian revelries to the Romans. Because snakes are cold-blooded and need to absorb heat, it was believed they could absorb fevers and infections when in contact with the sick. Furthermore, their ability to cast off their skin became symbolically associated with rejuvenation,  health and rebirth.  

Snakes were closely associated in the ancient world with Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine. One of the most important gods in the Greek pantheon as the  god of medicine and healing, he was honoured by many cities in the ancient world, in particular at Pergamum (in North-West Turkey) which had  a temple dedicated to him. Founded in the 4th century BCE, the Asklepion at Pergamum  functioned as a medical centre which combined religious ceremonies with natural remedies, diet, and dream analysis.  Early in its history Pergamum issued small bronze coins with the head of Asclepius on their obverse and his snake-entwined caduceus on their reverse. [1] 

Above - Laureate bearded head of Asclepius with reverse of a serpent-entwined staff. Issued in Pergamon, Mysia, ca 200-100 BCE

Below- The snake-entwined Staff of Asclepius representing Medical authority survives to the present-day with the World Health Organization logo.

 

The ancient city of Pergamum in north-west Turkey, famed for its invention of parchment, also minted  coinage during the earlier part of the 2nd century BCE. Known as Cistophorus they depict a cista mystica, a  wicker basket which housed  a sacred temple snake. Cistophorus coins continued to be issued even after Pergamum came under Roman control in 133 BCE.

Roman World

Asclepius, originally a Greek god of medicine was first worshipped by the Romans when, during a plague he was believed to have visited Rome in the form of a snake. A cistophorus coin issued during the late Roman Republic is a great example of how the Roman world adopted and absorbed the art, culture and spirituality of ancient Greece.  

Minted at Epheus the double portrait of Mark Antony and Octavia (photo above) dates from circa 39 BCE. The reverse of this 'cistophoric tetradrahm' depicts a cista mystica, or sacred casket. This object was used in the worship of Dionysus, god of wine. The casket contained a snake, which was released at the climax of the religious ceremony. 

 

During the Roman Imperial era a wide variety of cults flourished, the primary of which included the Persian god Mithras, the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Greek gods Cybele, Dionysus and Orpheus, each of whom was associated with secret rituals and initiations. There also evolved during the Roman era various syncretic forms of early Christianity, among which were the snake-worshipping sect known as the Ophites who believed snakes were a benevolent, healing creatures and that the Biblical serpent brought gnosis (divine, secret knowledge) to humanity through its tempting of Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge.

The Romans viewed snakes as benevolent, domestic animals, protective of family health and representing divine mystery and otherworldly wisdom. A large snake was often depicted as a decoration of the domestic "lararium", a sacred shrine in Roman homes which was dedicated to household guardian spirits and domestic deities. Such shrines were central to daily household worship and were designed for the protection, prosperity, and fertility of the family. Snakes were viewed as protectors of a household and also symbolic of the bond with ancestors. They were decorative motifs on wall niches or and cupboards, usually in the dining area or atrium of a dwelling.  

Above - A  Roman lararium fresco, preserved from ruins in Pompeii.

Below - Statue of Salus with snake. Roman copy of a Greek original 2nd century CE.

Chronological examples of Salus coins

One of the most enduring symbols issued by Roman Emperors in successive dynasties was coinage depicting Salus, the daughter of Asclepius. Coins showing Salus busy feeding and caring for her father's sacred snake are frequently found on Roman coins of the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Common Era. She was worshipped as responsible for the welfare, not only of individuals, but also for families. Her Greek name of 'Hygiea' is at the root of the word 'hygiene,' and Roman name of Salus the root of 'salubrious,' as well as 'salute', 'salutation' and 'safe'.

Early examples of Salus coins include those by the Emperors Nero and Vespasian.

Above -Silver Denarius Obverse, Nero with a heavy jowl, testimony to the artistic realism of numismatic portraiture under his rule from 54-68 CE. Nero's death precipitated the Civil war power struggle of 69 CE, the year of 4 Emperors.

Above - Emperor Vespasian ruled from 69- 79 CE. His issuing of a Salus coin may well have been to emphasis the stability of Roman rule, with a near exact reproduction of  Nero's seated Salus. Vespasian was easily the wittiest of all Roman Emperors.

Above -  Emperor  Trajan (98 - 117 CE) bronze As coin reverse, seated Salus holding patera feeding temple serpent.

Above -  Obverse Emperor Hadrian (117-38 CE) Reverse- Salus holding a patera (a shallow dish used for religious rituals) feeding a snake.  

The Roman Emperor Hadrian promoted Salus on his coinage for the restoration of his personal health. It was believed that the wellbeing of the Roman Emperor and the welfare of the Roman people were closely inter-connected. Hadrian was cosmopolitan and Hellenic in outlook. He restored the temple dedicated to Asclepius at Epidaurus in 124 CE and introduced a range of reforms. Influenced by the cult of Asclepius at Pergamum which he was closely involved with he reorganised the Asclepieia Games, moving their date in order that they would not clash with other festival games in Greece.

Above - Hadrian's adopted son and successor, Antonius Pius (138-61 CE) issued silver Denarius 'Salus' coins. (Above) 

Remembering that many Roman coins are little more than 2 centimetres in diameter, the skill of the die engraver can be seen in both the obverse portraiture and reverse which depicts a shapely legged Salus. 

Antonius Pius also issued a set of 12 coins each depicting a zodiac sign and it's ruling planetary 'deity'. A 13th coin in the series has a reverse with the entire zodiac. (Below)

Above - Empress Faustina the Younger (161-76 CE) daughter of Antonius Pius, issued a gold aureus coin with a portrait of herself on its obverse and a reverse with Salus enthroned holding patera and feeding a snake. (above). 

Above - The Stoic philosopher Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121 CE -180 CE) was the last of the '5 Good Emperors'. He issued a gold aureus Salus coin (above) in which Salus is seen standing feeding a serpent from a patera dish.

Above - The Roman Emperor Commodus (ruled 177-192 CE) also issued 'Salus' coinage, as did his wife Empress Crispina (b. 164- d. 193 CE ruled 178-193 CE (below).

Depictions of Salus become increasingly prominent on Roman coins during the Severean Dynasty (193-215 CE). Emperor Septimius Severus married Julia Domna (c. 160 – 217 AD) on the strength and compatibility of her astrological birth-chart. He died at York in England in 211 CE. His wife Julia Domna was a highly influential Syrian, a High priestess. patron of the arts, a highly efficient administrator and the mother of  the Emperors Caracalla and Geta. Progressive-minded matriarchs such as Julia Domna were mindful of public health and used Salus coins to promote Civic Sanitation and Health. The cramped living conditions of what was the world's first city with a population of over 100,000  people necessitated an awareness of sanitary living.  

Septimius Severus (obverse) and Salus enthroned (reverse) 

 

Above - Silver Denarius obverse Julia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus, Reverse Salus

Above- The short-lived and notorious Emperor Caracalla (188-217 CE) issued a 'cista mystica' depicting a snake emerging from its basket. The opening of the casket in secret Ophic mystery religions was a crucial, often shocking moment for initiates. 

The Roman poet Propertius describes a fertility rite involving a sacred snake housed in a basket -

The fasting serpent's toll, when his writhing hiss,

From the earth's bowels demands his yearly repast,

Girls ordered down to such rites as this grow pale,

When their hands are trusted to that fanged maw,

He snatches the delicacies a virgin proffers -

Even the baskets shake in that virgin's hands,  [2]

Digressing, an approximate psychological equivalent  to the suspense, terror and mystery of what's inside the box is evoked from the surprise from the children's toy of the Jack-in-the-box. So-called Artificial Intelligence is also, metaphorically speaking,  an unknown entity which released from the confines of its technological box, evokes psycho-spiritual effects.

Above - Victorian era Jack-in-the-box

Dutch 1950s  Jack-in-the-box

Above - Silver Denarius issued by the notorious Elgabalus b. 203 CE who ruled  218-222 CE. He was assassinated with his mother Julia Soaemias in 222 CE

Alexander Severus (b. 208 d. 235 CE) was the last ruler of the Severan dynasty. Often portrayed on coins with his mother Julia Mamea b. 180 - 235 CE. She witnessed the disastrous reigns of Emperors Elgabalus and Caracalla and strictly controlled her son; their joint rule  was from 222-235 CE when both were assassinated by  military leaders. 

Above -Silver Denarius Obverse Macrinus (217-218 CE)  Reverse Salus enthroned feeding serpent.

Gordian III (ruled 238-244 CE) issued a coin (above) which unusually depicts both the god Asclepius and his daughter, Salus together. He also issued a superb, gold aureus Salus coin. (below)

Above - Emperor Gallenius (ruled 253-268 CE) Salus standing and feeding serpent reverse. Gallenius also issued a 'zoo' series, a variety of animals on coinage reverses.

Below -  Empress Salonina. Her fate remains unknown after Gallenius was murdered, most likely she was executed  by  order of the Roman Senate.

Above - Born around 200 CE the Emperor Tacitus ruled from September 275 CE until his death in June 276 CE. Tacitus's issuing of a 'Salus' coin was the culmination of a snake and Salus appearing on Roman coins for over two centuries.  

The longevity of Salus coins as one of the most frequently  reproduced themes on Roman coin reverses  may be viewed as an effective way of saying 'Gesundheit' or 'Bless you' to each who handled an Imperial coin throughout the Empire, linking the individual to the Emperor in shared salutation of good health. Salus coins bearing the motif of health and wellness may be seen as a deliberate attempt to impart a collective benediction, bridging the individual to Imperial authority through a shared aspiration for good health.

The snake cult of  Glycon

Few details of the rites and ceremonies associated with ancient mystery religions are known today.  The wall frescoes at the Villa of Mysteries at Herculaem are believed to show aspects of Dionysian worship. The Roman author Apuleius (124 - circa 170 CE) described in detail an initiation ceremony of the cult of Isis in his novel Metamorphoses, also known as 'The Golden Ass'. 

One of the most detailed accounts of a fraudulent cult in the ancient world was written by Lucian of Samothrace (120-200 CE). Like all good satirists the Syrian author was keen to debunk the dishonesty of those who exploit gullibility in order to make easy money. In Lucian's story about the tricks of the impostor known as Alexander of Abonutichus, he informs us -  

'There is here a breed of large snakes, so tame and gentle that women make pets of them, children take them to bed, they will let you tread on them, have no objection to being squeezed, and will draw milk from the breast like infants'. [3]

The fraudulent trickster Alexander realised -

'that human life is under the absolute dominion of two mighty principles, fear and hope, and that anyone who can make these serve his ends may be sure of a rapid fortune'. [4]

Lucian continues the action of his tale thus -

'Alexander buried some brazen tablets, on which was the statement that very shortly Asclepius, with his father Apollo, would pay a visit to Pontus, and take up his abode at Abonutichus..... He went one night to the temple foundations, still in process of digging, and with standing water in them which had collected from the rainfall or otherwise;  he deposited a goose egg, into which, after blowing it, he had inserted some new-born reptile. [5]

'Alexander took into his bosom our Asclepius of Pella (a very fine and large one, as I observed), wound its body round his neck, and let its tail hang down; there was enough of this not only to fill his lap, but to trail on the ground also; the patient creature's head he kept hidden in his armpit, showing the linen head on one side of his beard exactly as if it belonged to the visible body. Picture to yourself a little chamber into which no very brilliant light was admitted, with a crowd of people from all quarters, excited, carefully worked up, all a-flutter with expectation'.[6]

Lucian continues - 'I have mentioned that the snake was often exhibited by request; he was not completely visible, but the tail and body were exposed, while the head was concealed under the prophet's dress. By way of impressing the people still more, he announced that he would induce the God to speak, and give his responses without an intermediary. His simple device to this end was a tube of cranes' windpipes, which he passed, with due regard to its matching, through the artificial head, and, having an assistant speaking into the end outside, whose voice issued through the linen Asclepius, thus answered questions. [7]

'Alexander contrived various methods of undoing the seals, read the questions, answered them as seemed good, and then folded, sealed, and returned them, to the great astonishment of the recipients.

'In Rome itself he established an intelligence bureau well manned with his accomplices. They sent him people's characters, forecasts of their questions, and hints of their ambitions, so that he had his answers ready before the messengers reached him'. [8]

'He sent an oracle just at the crisis of the German war, when M. Aurelius was on the point of engaging the Marcomanni and Quadi. The oracle required that two lions should be flung alive into the Danube, with quantities of sacred herbs and magnificent sacrifices'. [9]

'Among instances of Alexander's presumption, a high place must be given to his petition to the Emperor: the name of Abonutichus was to be changed to Ionopolis; and a new coin was to be struck, with a representation on the obverse of Glycon, and, on the reverse, Alexander bearing the garlands proper to his paternal grandfather Asclepius'. [10]

The snake worship cult of Glycon flourished during the late 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. Glycon first appeared in the 2nd century CE and the orracular snake's appearance on coins becomes regular around 200 CE. Other snake cults had existed in the Balkans and Asia Minor for centuries, notably at Pergamum. The Glycon snake had traits specific to different places -- it was depicted with the long hair and mammalian features on the Black Sea shore, with a human head in Asia and a radiate head and fishtail in continental Thracia.

  

Coins depicting the snake cult of Glycon were issued by several Roman Emperors. From top left clockwise Pius Antonius (138-161 CE),  next Geta (209 -11 CE) murdered by his brother Caracalla (211-17 CE) lower left, and lower right, Philip II (247-49 CE), all  of whom paid homage  in their coins to what was believed to be a reincarnation of the Greek god Asclepius. 

Sabazian cult

Walter Burkert describes in detail the historical development and rituals associated with the Sabazian snake cult thus - 

'The Roman world adopted the Sabazian cult via the Kingdom of Pergamum. Despite early attempts by authorities for it to be banned—such as in 139 BCE when Praetor Cornelius Hispalus expelled worshippers from Rome—the cult exploded in popularity during the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. The Roman version of the cult evolved into a secretive mystery religion which promised salvation and protection from evil influences. Worship shifted away from large civic temples and toward private home shrines and small communal groups. [11]

'One special form of initiation with sexual symbolism is reported in connection with the mysteries of Sabazius: a snake made of metal was made to pass beneath the initiand's clothes. This is the "God in the lap". Scholars agree that this is a form of sexual union with the god; in the myth Persephone is impregnated by Zeus in the form of a snake, and legend has associated the snakes of Dionysus' orgia with the impregnation of Olympias, mother of Alexander, by a god. But in the Sabazius ritual this is transformed through double symbolism - snake for phallus, and artifact for snake. The ritual must have remained impressive enough, but the real dread would come not so much from sexual associations as from the anticipation of touching a snake, especially since the initiand by the light of the flickering torches could hardly know for certain what was real and what was artifact'. [12]

'According to Clement of Alexandria, the Sabazian Mysteries involved the ritual of drawing a live serpent across the breast of the initiate in imitation  of the 'God who penetrates the bosom'. The  early Christian Father Clement of Alexandria c. 150 – c. 215 CE had been informed that the secret mysteries of Sabazius, as practiced among the Romans, involved a serpent, stating - "'God in the bosom' is a countersign of the mysteries of Sabazius to the adepts". Clement reports: "This is a snake, passed through the bosom of the initiates." [13]

Christianity

Strong evidence that symbols are flexible and evolve over time can be seen in the symbol of the snake returning to its Hebraic origins on late Roman Imperial coins. Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 CE with the Edict of Milan, and it became the official state religion in 380 AD, under Emperor Theodosius I. A Constantine coin reverse shows the symbol of the Christogram  (the first two letters of the name of Christ in Greek) which Constantine had seen in a celestial vision before victorious in battle. The letters X and P superimposed upon each other on a Standard are seen piercing and defeating a snake.  Ostensibly alluding to the defeat of Licinius, the symbol of the snake became associated not as before with healing and medicine but with deceit, evil and the Devil of the Judaic tradition. 

In Judaism a snake "more subtle than any beast of the field" guards the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Paradise and is instrumental in the Fall of Man. In a superb example of Biblical typology (a method of interpreting the Old Testament in which God intentionally designs people, events, or institutions in order to foreshadow and correspond to greater New Testament realities). The maverick Essene spiritual teacher Yeshua alluded to Moses' ability to heal bitten Israelites. 'Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” This verse taught that the instrument of death can also become the source of salvation. [14]

The paradoxical nature of symbols is exemplified in the Gospel of Matthew, where not only is it recorded that Christ used ophic imagery ('Ye brood of Vipers') to describe venomous, deceptive people whose outward religious appearance hides a destructive, malevolent inner nature; but also urged his followers - 'Be ye gentle as doves and as wise as Serpents'. [15] 

Above - Christ as a Roman soldier defeating evil represented by a snake underfoot. Ravenna 7th century CE.

Conclusion

The English physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82) was a pioneering scholar of comparative religion, that is the study of shared similarities and differences between religions. Browne  recognised that symbols can radically change over time and noted how before the snake acquired its reputation from the Judaic tradition it had been a sacred symbol of 'sanity' (i.e. environmental sanitation more than mental well-being) to the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, thus- 

'Surely the destructive delusion of Satan in this shape, hath much enlarged the opinion of their mischief. Which notwithstanding was not so high with the heathens, in whom the Devil had wrought a better opinion of this animal, it being sacred unto the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, and the common symbol of sanity. In the shape whereof Aesculapius the God of health appeared unto the Romans, accompanied their Ambassadors to Rome from Epidaurus; and the same did stand in the Tiberine Isle upon the Temple of Aesculapius'. [16]

The twentieth century psychologist and scholar of comparative religion, C.G. Jung recognised the relationship between the psyche and snakes - 

''The lower vertebrates have from earliest times been favourite symbols of the collective psychic substratum, which is located anatomically in the sub-cortical centres, the cerebellum and the spinal cord. These organs constitute the snake.'  [17]  

Jung identified the paradoxical nature of snake symbolism with its psychological and spiritual attributes  thus- 

'The Agathodaimon (good spirit) had the form of a snake, and in Philo the snake was considered the "most spiritual" animal. On the other hand, its cold blood and inferior brain-organization do not suggest any noticeable degree of conscious development, while its unrelatedness to man makes it an alien creature that arouses his fear and yet fascinates him. Here it is an excellent symbol for the two aspects of the unconscious: its cold and ruthless instinctuality, and its Sophia quality or natural wisdom, which is embodied in the archetypes'.  [18]

Walter Burkert reasons why serpent cults slowly declined  -

There was no dogmatic faith in overcoming death in mysteries, as there was no devaluation of life. There was neither gospel nor revelation to immunize believers against the disasters of life. Mysteries, like votive religion, remained to some extent an experimental form of religion. As such, they at times disappoint the hopes of believers'.  [19]

Notes

[1] A Dictionary of ancient Roman coins John Melville Jones pub. Searby London 1990

[2]  Propertius Elegies Book 4 no.8 lines 9-15

[3] Lucian -Selected writings trans.  Penguin 1967

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ancient Mystery Cults Walter Burkert  pub. Harvard 1987

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14]  John 3 verse 14 

[15] Matt. 3:7 - 12:34 - 23:33 and Matthew 10:16

[16] Pseudodoxia Epidemica  Book 3 chapter 28

[17] Collected Works. Vol. 9 Part 1 :282 

[18] C.W.  Vol.13 : 448

[19] Ancient mystery cults Walter Burkert pub. Harvard 1987

Bibliography

A Dictionary of ancient Roman coins John Melville Jones pub. Searby London 1990

Ancient Mystery Cults Walter Burkert  pub. Harvard 1987

Collecting Greek coins John Anthony  pub. Longman 1983

Thomas Browne Selected Writings pub. Oxford University Press 2014

Lucian -Selected writings  Penguin 1967

Propertius - The Poems Penguin 1985

Silver dollar coin from the Pacific island of Niue 2020.

Obverse - Queen Elizabeth II

Reverse - Hygeia/Salus feeding serpent with gold aureus of Alexander Severeus inlaid

Doctor Browne and the elephant

Elephants are mentioned in each of Doctor Thomas Browne's major literary works. A little-known notebook description highlights his zoological interest in elephants, while his proto-archaeological speculations on bones in Urn-Burial along with his notebook entry on Fossil remains in Norfolk casts new light on the skeleton of a prehistoric elephant excavated at West Runton in 1995.

The newly qualified physician first declared an admiration of elephants in his spiritual testament Religio Medici (1643) remarking - 'ruder heads stand amazed at those prodigious pieces of nature, Whales, Elephants, Dromedaries and Camels; these I confess are the Colossus and Majestick pieces of her hand'. Elsewhere the animal-loving doctor defends the elephant's appearance, objecting, 'I cannot tell by what Logick we call a Toad, a Bear, or an Elephant ugly'. [1]

In his subsequent publication, Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646) Browne methodically refutes numerous folk-lore beliefs and superstitions, including the misapprehension that the elephant has no joints. Browne's encyclopaedic work of scientific journalism consists of seven books in total. Many of its individual chapters, in particular those on animals in book three, are among the most readable and entertaining of all the learned doctor's writings. Indeed, the Argentinean author Jorge Louis Borges (1899-1986) consulted book three of Pseudodoxia Epidemica extensively with its at turns erudite, pedantic and witty discussion on whether creatures such as the basilisk, salamander, unicorn, phoenix, gryphon and mermaid truly exist, when compiling his Book of Imaginary Creatures (1967).

Book three of Pseudodoxia titled Of divers popular and received Tenents concerning Animals, which examined, prove either false or dubious opens with a refutation of the belief that the elephant has no joints. Doctor Browne first calls upon his capacious and retentive memory, referencing the Roman historian Suetonius to inform his reader that-

‘Elephants have been instructed to walk on ropes, in public shows before the people’, as well as the historian's recording of  'that memorable show of Grammaticus wherein twelve Elephants danced unto the sound of music'. 

Following discussion of the mechanics of motion in two and four legged creatures, introducing the words 'cylindrical' and 'locomotion' into English language while doing so, and having argued of the necessity of joints from his anatomical studies, Browne credulously notes, 'some Elephants have not only written whole sentences,... but have also spoken'. He then proposes that because elephants possess the necessary organs for speech, namely lips, teeth and chops, they, ‘might not be taught to speak, or become imitators of speech like Birds’. [2]

A detail from Peter Rodulfo's As the elephant laughed 

Finally, and perhaps frustratingly to impatient readers, having consulted at great length two of his three determiners to acquire truth, namely, past authority and reason, Browne calls upon the primary source of his empirically-based science, 'occular observation', and remembers seeing an elephant in real life-

‘whereof not many years past, we have had the advantage in England, by an Elephant shewn in many parts thereof, not only in the posture of standing, but kneeling and lying down'. [3]

Browne's zoology, the study of animals, is exemplified in a little-known notebook description of an elephant in which he references his favourite zoologist of antiquity, Aristotle. Noting with a precise and extensive vocabulary the elephant's anatomy, age, emotions, welfare and diet he uses the sense of touch to describe its skin. The size and roundness of elephant dung reminds him of his favourite pastime, the game of bowls. Browne's notebook entry on the elephant is worthy of  full quotation.

'The trunck is lithe, tortil, flexible, extensible, contractile, butt when hee shrinks it up as in Anger, it becommeth short and as stiff and hard as a stake. 

The 2 nostrills are plaine, and there is a hard tip at the upper end of the extremity of his trunck which helps to hold the faster. 

Hee sleepes not with his trunck extended and hanging at length, butt bended & somewhat rolled about or neere his mouth, for the better security thereof from flies or anything that might gett into it. His tongue is short not large, & seemes as it were tongue tyed, so that hee cannot putt out the tongue. However when yong it makes a shift to suck, for it sucketh with the mouth not with the trunck. Hath very thinne & ill decernible lipps. 

The teeth are very large 4 in number. The two large teeth somewhat reflecting upward: these are for his armes of defense and offence and help him, when hee kneeles or ariseth. The females as Aristotle sayeth, have them straight or bending downward, which afford them the better help and support when they are great with yongue. 

Hayres under his chinne like a beard, some long black hayres about the ridge of his head and neck; about the bottom of his tayle which are bigge and harsh & stiffe like sticks. 2 Bunches like papps in the forepart of the breast by the arm pitts, and as Aristotle sayeth juxta pectus potius quam in pectore. Five kind of hoofes in each foot exceeding hard, but they pare them not. Hee riseth like a horse with his foreleggs first, not like a cowe. 

Hee breakes wind often backward; coughs sometimes, snorts not, vomits not, sweates much about the pappes upon travell. Sleepes about 5 howers in a night: hee lyeth upon strawe and in very cold wether they cover him up with it at night. Being butt 8 yeares old they allowed him a pecke & a quarter of oates every morning and evening besides haye and bread when they showed him, wch came to 3 or 4 penny loaves a daye. Dungs in roundish lumps about the bignesse of bowlls. 

He will take water sometimes & swimme, whereby hee refreseth and suppleyth his hard drye skinne and will suck up water in his trunck and spirt it about his body, and so moystens his skinne, wch is rugged and hard and as it were channel'd, and feels like rough tanned hides. [4] 

Elephants are mentioned in Browne's discourses Urn-Burial and The Garden of Cyrus (1658). Appropriate to its themes of Time and Death allusion is made in Urn-Burial to the elephant's graveyard and its ability for 'sepulture'. In The Garden of Cyrus the potency of the Quincunx pattern when employed in brick-wise formation (2:1:2) in ancient military strategy is such that the archetypal configuration effectively, 'defeated the mischief intended by the elephants'. The elephant may thus be considered as a 'conjoyning' symbol which unites the two discourses highly polarised themes, imagery and respective truth. 

Just as Urn-Burial features Browne's interest in archaeology and The Garden of Cyrus with its mention of bees and butterflies, fish, birds, snakes and whales his interest in zoology, so too his study of elephants was both zoological and archaeological, reflecting his enquiries in the divided worlds of the living and the dead.

The philosophical discourse Urn-Burial (1658) was initially inspired by an archaeological find, as its author informs his reader -

'In a Field of old Walsingham, not many months past, were digged up between forty and fifty Urns, deposited in a dry and sandy soil, not a yard deep, nor far from one another'. 

It is however not urns but bones which are alluded to most in Urn-Burial (over fifty times) including a remarkable passage which anticipates and influences archaeological interpretative insights to the present day. 

'It is no impossible Physiognomy to conjecture at fleshy appendencies; and after what shape the muscles and carnous parts might hang in their full consistences. A full spread Cariola shews a well-shaped horse behind, handsome formed sculls, give some analogie of fleshy resemblance. A criticall view of bones makes a good distinction of sexes....... Other parts make out their comproportions, and inferences upon whole or parts. And since the dimensions of the head measure the whole body, and the figure thereof gives conjecture of the principall faculties; Physiognomy outlives our selves, and ends not in our graves'. [5]

Browne's advocation of a forensic-like analysis of bones, of how they can be indicative of 'fleshy resemblance' in gender, ancestry and proportion, anticipates modern-day osteology (the study of bones) as well as modern-day illustrative realization of archaeological sites and artefacts. His proto-archaeological speculations acquire significance in light of the discovery and subsequent excavation of a near complete mammoth skeleton at West Runton on the Norfolk coast in 1995. 

Its worthwhile remembering that much of the Norfolk coastline was once part of a prehistoric forest bed which was formed between 780,000 to 450,000 years ago. Known as the geological era of the Cromerian Stage, during the last ice-age or Pleistocene, the Cromerian Interglacial is the benchmark that all European countries use when studying their own geological deposits. 

Browne's early account of coastal erosion and speculative analysis in Fossil Remains in Norfolk is significant in relation to archaeological discovery at West Runton. His description of 'one side of a lower jaw containing very large teeth petrified, far exceeding the teeth of the biggest ox' could be any number of prehistoric creatures including the Auroch, an extinct species of cattle, the last of which died in the early 17th century. 

'This bone was found, about 2 year past by Winterton, on the sea shore in Norfolk. The cliff had been much broken by high tides & the rage of the sea, many hundred loads falling down as it often doth upon this coast, the cliffs being not rock butt earth. Upon the same coast, butt at some miles distance, divers great bones are said to have been found, & I have seen one side of a lower jaw containing very large teeth petrified, far exceeding the teeth of the biggest ox. It was found after a great flood near to the cliff, some thousand loads of earth being broken down by the rage of the sea. That it came not out of the sea it might bee conjectured because it was found so far from it, & from the colour, for if out of the sea it would have been whiter. When the outward crust is taken of, it answers the graine of the bones of whales & other cetaceous animals, comparing it with a piece of whales scull which I have by mee'. [6]

The West Runton skeleton is part of the elephantidae family, which includes both elephants and mammoths. The expert ostologist and archaeological illustrator Ms. J. Curl helpfully explains the sometimes complicated classification which exists between elephants and mammoths thus -

"The West Runton Mammoth (c.800,000 BCE) was called an elephant originally, and was an ancestor to the Woolly Mammoth (c.50,000 BCE to 15,000 BCE here in UK). Both terms are correct and confusing, especially for those working on them. The West Runton Mammoth was mainly a warm phase beast and more likely to be like an elephant, but that individual  was close to a colder phase, so he was probably much hairier than most elephants today'.

Ms. J. Curl cleaning the molar teeth of the West Runton mammoth 1995

The West Runton mammoth skeleton is the best example of the species Mammuthus trogontherii to be unearthed so far, being 85% complete. Previous finds include two partial skeletons found in Germany and Russia, both of which were only about 10 to 15% complete. The mammoth was male, stood some 4 metres (13 ft) at the shoulder and would have weighed about 10 tonnes (11 short tons). This is twice the weight of the modern African elephant Loxodonta africana. [7]

Its recorded that at sometime or another Browne acquired an elephant's leg-bone for his anatomical studies and the largest of all land animals continued to interest him late in his life. His solitary work of fiction, Museum Clausum (circa 1673) a bizarre catalogue of imaginary, rumoured and lost books, pictures and rarities includes the landscape painting of - 

'A Snow Piece, of Land and Trees covered with Snow and Ice, and Mountains of Ice floating in the Sea, with Bears, Seals, Foxes and variety of rare Fowls upon them'. 

Also in Browne's surreal inventory Museum Clausum (the Closed Museum) perhaps inspired from an antique coin once in his collector's cabinet, there's the amusing thumb-nail sketch of-

'An Elephant dancing upon the Ropes with a Negro Dwarf upon his Back'. [9] 

Julius Caesar's coin issued in 49 BCE to commemorate his victory over Pompey.

See also

*  Browne's Zoology -  Spiders - Ostrich - Pelican - Vulture

* Thomas Browne's writings are on-line at the University of Chicago site maintained by James Eason including On the elephant and Museum Clausum.

 * Peter Rodulfo's 'As the elephant laughed'. A panorama of evolution

Notes

[1] Religio Medici Part 1: 15 and 16.

[2] Suetonius The Twelve Caesars trans. Robert Graves Penguin (Nero para. 11 and Galba para. 6)

[3]  Book 3 chapter 1 Pseudodoxia Epidemica ed. Robin Robbins pub. OUP 1981

[4] British Museum MS Sloane 1848 reproduced in Miscellaneous writings ed. Keynes 1946

[5] Urn-Burial Chapter 3

[6] British Museum Sloane MS 1882 reproduced in Miscellaneous writings ed. Keynes 1946

[7]  Ms. J. Curl to whom the author is indebted for her professional knowledge in relation to Browne.

[8] Larkin, Nigel. "The West Runton Elephant" Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service.

[9] Miscellaneous Tract 13  reproduced in Miscellaneous writings ed. Keynes 1946

[10] Typically Browne has embellished an original image with his own imaginative addition, placing 'a Negro Dwarf' upon the back of a tight-rope walking elephant. Modern numismatic scholarship now believes that Caesar's coin which was minted in 49 BCE to celebrate his defeat of his political rival Pompey depicts an elephant trampling and crushing a snake underfoot.  Looking closely at this coin (above) it clearly does depict a snake, which is often likened symbolically to a treacherous enemy, and the true statement of Julius Caesar's coin. A tightrope walking elephant is simply too frivolous a subject for a dictator to identify with !

Books Consulted

*Jorge Luis Borges -The Book of Imaginary Creatures (1967) pub. Penguin 1974 

*Suetonius The Twelve Caesars trans. Robert Graves pub. Penguin 1976

* Pseudodoxia Epidemica ed. Robin Robbins pub. OUP 1981

* Miscellaneous writings  of Sir Thomas Browne  ed. Keynes pub. Faber and Faber 1946

Images 

From top to bottom -

*  Illustration - Weston Runton female mammoth with offspring by Ms. J. Curl.

* Painting - A detail from Peter Rodulfo's 'As the elephant laughed' (2012).

*  Artistic realization of the West Runton elephant by Ms. J. Curl.

*  Photo - Ms. J. Curl cleaning the West Runton mammoth 1995. Photo credit ITV News.

* Photo:  Roman coin reverse.

The joy and alchemical play of jigsaws

During the pandemic of 2019-2022 many people worldwide discovered the joy of jigsaws. Faced with restrictions in social activities and confined indoors during lockdowns, the opportunity to escape from uncontrollable events and immerse oneself in a puzzle enticed many. Consequently,  the past two years has seen a boom in the manufacture and sale of jigsaws globally in order to supply an unprecedented demand.

It was the Englishman John Spilsbury (1739-69) a London cartographer and engraver who is credited with inventing the jigsaw puzzle. Spilsbury created the first puzzle sometime in the 1760's as an educational tool. He affixed a map  of the world to wood and hand cut each country out using a marquetry saw. Spilsbury's 'dissected maps' were used as teaching aids for geography.  The technical name of the jigsaw enthusiast as a dissectologist originates from Spilsbury's 'dissected maps' as does dissectology, the study of jigsaws. Because the word 'dissection' has an unfortunate association to surgery, the Anglo-Saxon of  'jigsaw builder' is preferred nomenclature here.

Scenic postcard views of mountains and lakes along with lighthouses, windmills and castles have long been the staple diet of jigsaws. The fantasy castle of King Ludwig of Bavaria, Neuschwanstein Schloss, the artistic inspiration for the Disney Castle logo is often reproduced as a jigsaw puzzle, as are the romantic destinations of Paris and Venice. Michael Ryba's interpretation of King Ludwig's castle and relationship to the German composer Richard Wagner is wittily expressed in the Heye brand 2000 piece puzzle entitled 'Bavaria' (below).

Established in Poland in 1985 the Trefl brand of puzzles have a matted finish with chunky, tactile pleasing pieces. Below-  Dolomite mountain range, Italy.  Trefl 500 pieces

Its good to see that the Falcon brand includes a puzzle of the Norfolk Broads, an extensive network of shallow lakes and rivers which are famously alluded to in the David Bowie song, 'Life on Mars' (1973) - 'See the mice in their million  hordes/From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads'. Norfolk-based jigsaws include - Cromer beach and pier, Norwich market place, windmills (below) and Sandringham House, residence of Queen Elizabeth II  (1926-2022).  

The earliest jigsaw puzzles were hand-cut from wood and expensive to make, needing skilled workmanship for each individual jigsaw. The 20th century saw the rise of manufactured, mass-produced cardboard puzzles. The popularity of the jigsaw puzzle during the 1930's Depression as an inexpensive form of entertainment can be gauged from the novelist Daphne du Maurier's best-selling gothic love story Rebecca (1938). In du Maurier's fictitious first-person narration, jigsaws are flexible as metaphors, expressive of comprehension and error, along with revealing identity. 

In  Rebecca Du Maurier's anonymous narrator states-

'What he has told me and all that has happened will tumble into place like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle'.

'The jig-saw pieces came tumbling thick and fast upon me'.

'They were all fitting into place, the jig-saw pieces. The odd strained shapes that I had tried to piece together with my fumbling fingers and they had never fitted'.

'The jig-saw pieces came together piece by piece, and the real Rebecca took shape and form before me'.[1]

Georges Perec (1936-82) was a film maker, essayist and author of the acclaimed novel 'La vie, mode d'emploi' (Life: A user's manual). Jigsaws are integral to the very structure as well as the central story of Perec's novel. Its narrative moves from one room to another, the reader learning about the residents of each room, or its past residents, or about someone they have come into contact with, thus building a picture of an instant in time. La Vie, mode d'emploi  is an extraordinary novel, containing painstakingly detailed descriptions and hundreds of individual stories. 

The central story of Perec's Post-modern masterpiece concerns itself with the Englishman Bartlebooth who devotes ten years acquiring the skill of painting in water-colours, then ten more years painting every harbour and port he visits while on a world-cruise. Each of Bartlebooth's finished water-colours are methodically dated and posted to a jigsaw maker in Paris. Upon returning to Paris, he devotes the remaining years of his life attempting to complete every jigsaw made from his paintings in precisely the same chronological order of his travels. 

In the preamble to La vie mode d'emploi Georges Perec makes a pertinent point about jigsaws, namely, that its how a jigsaw is cut which makes it easy or difficult to complete. 

'Contrary to a widely and firmly held belief, it does not matter whether the initial image is easy (or something taken to be easy - a genre scene in the style of Vermeer, for example, or a colour photograph of an Austrian castle) or difficult (a Jackson Pollock, a Pisarro, or the poor paradox of a blank puzzle), its not the subject of the picture, or the painter's technique, which makes a puzzle more or less difficult, but the greater or lesser subtlety of the way it has been cut; and an arbitrary cutting pattern will necessarily produce an arbitrary degree of difficulty, ranging from the extreme of easiness - for edge pieces, patches of light, well-defined objects, lines, transitions -to the tiresome awkwardness of all the other pieces (cloudless skies, sand, meadow, ploughed land, shaded areas etc.) [2] 

Its interesting to note that the logo of the world-wide collaborative project known as Wikipedia consists of an incomplete globe made of jigsaw pieces. The incomplete sphere symbolizes the room to add new knowledge as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. 

Many sub-genres of puzzles exist. Sentimental and kitsch depictions of puppies, kittens, cakes and cottages abound in jigsaw reproductions as well as art-works such as Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus', Monet's 'Poppies'  and Bosch's 'Garden of Heavenly Delights'. The  primitive artwork style of Charles Wysocki (1928 - 2002) whose work depicts an idealized version of American life of yesteryear and Thomas Kinade (1958 - 2012) a painter of pastoral and idyll scenes with warm, glowing colouration (Gibsons brand) are both well-loved by American jigsaw builders. Puzzles composed purely of brand labels are also popular in America, a  long lasting aftereffect of the 1950's when advertising companies gave away free puzzles with their products.

Featuring the comic art-work of Graham Thompson (b. 1940), the so-called Wasgij puzzle (the word 'jigsaw' spelt backwards) challenges the jigsaw builder to have eyes at the back of their head in order to construct a mirror or 'what-happened-next' picture of the action depicted, a far more difficult task than simply referencing a box top picture.  

Remembering the trauma of the world-wide health crisis in the past two years its little wonder that comic jigsaws retain their popularity. The prolific Dutch cartoonist Jan van Haasteren (b. Schiedam, Netherlands 1936) has now supplied Jumbo puzzles with over 200 titles. Haasteren's artwork is instantly recognisable, not least for the same characters re-appearing in his puzzles. These include - a crook and tax official, Police Officers,  a mother-in-law, Santa Claus, a cat and mouse, an octopus and crab, along with his trade mark, a Shark fin. 

In Haasternen's 'Winter Sports' (below) various activities associated with snow and ice are depicted.  Its a typically busy, crowded scene of masterful draughtsmanship,  reminiscent of a canvas by Breughel. 

The  British artist Mike Jupp (b.1948) is a best-seller of the Gibsons brand of jigsaws, a British family business since 1919. Mike Jupp became a freelance artist in 1974, moving into film and TV design in 1980. He spent some time in Holland before he relocated to America where he became a storyboard artist and scriptwriter. In the late 1990's Jupp applied his talent and sense of humour to creating designs for jigsaws. Jupp delights puzzlers with his I Love series, where he captures the comical and silly side of everyday life. Almost every inch of I Love Spring includes some kind of cheeky humour. There can also be seen - an International Worker's march, Druids, a Maypole dance, Morris men, a Wedding and Hell's Angels. In the foreground of I Love Spring (below) a young man falls off his ladder when spying a girl in a bubble bath. 

The French cartoonist Jean-Jacques Loup (1936-2015) studied at the National School of Fine Arts in Lyon and worked as a cartoonist in Paris from 1969 until his death. A prolific contributor to a wide variety of magazines and publications, Loup was also an architect and a jazz pianist. In his 'Apocalypse 2000' (below) Loup humorously mocks the fears and apprehensions associated with millenarian expectation including, an alien spaceship invasion, a falling meteorite, an earthquake and a plague of frogs. Many differing reactions to the World's End can be seen - Holding a playing card a man prepares to commit suicide, a woman prays on her knees, a priest thrusts a crucifix at a hairy demon who rolls around laughing at him, Hare Krishna followers chant, others are seen screaming or running away. Drinkers in a bar look on, slightly perturbed at all they're witnessing. 

The cartoonist Loup along with the Argentinian cartoonist Guillermo Mordillo (1932-2019) were both widely published throughout the 1970's. Their artwork is featured on a handful of Heye puzzles, one of the most exciting of all puzzle manufacturers in the artistic scope and range of their jigsaws.   

Recent study at the University of Michigan, USA, has found that jigsaws improve visual-spatial reasoning along with IQ. They also help reduce memory, relieve stress and lower blood pressure and heart-rate. Scientific research also suggests that the simple satisfaction of placing a puzzle piece in its correct place, releases a micro-dose of the 'feelgood' neuro-chemical' dopamine which is associated with well-being and happiness. An even bigger 'feel good' chemical reward is released upon completion of a puzzle. 

Long acknowledged as sharpening cognitive faculties through the correct identification of shape and colour, requiring hand and eye coordination through dedicated sessions of time, jigsaws teach and develop patience, concentration and logical thinking. When finally completed they reward their builder with a  real sense of achievement and improved self-esteem. Whether of kittens or puppies, a favourite place visited, a comic cartoon or Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper', a completed jigsaw remains the builder's very own accomplishment. In an age of ubiquitous electronic entertainments its an achievement  which is made through finely-tuned hand and eye coordination in conjunction with the much under-valued virtue of patience. 

       The alchemical play of jigsaws

Constructing a jigsaw may be viewed as a reduced or simplified form of the alchemical opus. To begin with,  the jigsaw builder, just like the alchemist,  dedicates themselves for an unknown duration of time, often in solitude, sometimes facing self-doubt or a sense of futility, even risking sanity, in order to complete a 'Great Work'. Hope and despair are experienced by both alchemist and jigsaw builder alike in their endeavour to make the invisible become visible. 

Ancient alchemical texts frequently warn the adept of the many difficulties and dead-ends to beware of during the 'Great Work'; so too the jigsaw builder can expect setbacks, even disaster if their work-space is tampered or interfered with. The vision shared by alchemist and jigsaw builder upon completion of their task is one of unity, created from the chaos of the massa confusa or unsorted heap of puzzle pieces.

It was the seminal Swiss psychologist C.G. Jung (1875-1961) who first identified distinct similarities between alchemy and the creative process. Jung's observations on the spiritual and psychological meaning of creativity are applicable to the artist more than jigsaw builder, nevertheless his following remark invites comparison with jigsaw building - 

'the first part was completed when the various components separated out from the chaos of the massa confusa were brought back to unity in the albedo and "all become one". [3]

The dark, initial state which the alchemist called the nigredo stage was also known as the massa confusa or chaos, the not yet differentiated, but capable of differentiation disorder which the adept gradually reduced to order and unity. Hidden and invisible within the chaos of the massa confusa lay the vision of unity which the alchemist aspired to make visible. For the jigsaw builder, contained within the thousand piece heap, which on first sight can arouse despair, there lays invisible within, the vision of a completed jigsaw.

The alchemical discourse The Garden of Cyrus by the English physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82) has a number of associations to the jigsaw.  Long viewed as one of the most difficult puzzles in the entire canon of English literature, most readers of The Garden of Cyrus have struggled and floundered attempting to piece it together, thwarted by the combination of its esoteric theme, dense symbolism and the near breathless haste of its communication. Very few have ever completed Browne's jigsaw puzzle of an essay, yet alone stepped back upon completion to admire the beauty of its hermetic vision.

Composed from numerous 'stand-alone' notebook jottings, not unlike solitary pieces of a puzzle, Browne cites evidence of the inter-related symbols of  Quincunx pattern,  number 5 and  letter  X  in topics equal in diversity as jigsaw subject-matter, including- Biblical scholarship, Egyptology, comparative religion, mythology, ancient world plantations, gardening, generation, geometry, germination, heredity, the Archimedean solids, sculpture, numismatics, architecture, paving-stones, battle-formations, optics, zoology, ornithology, the kabbalah, astrology and astronomy, in order to prove  to his reader the interconnectivity of all life. Predominate themes of the discourse include - Order, Number, Design and Pattern, all of which are related to jigsaws.

Fascinated by all manner of puzzle throughout his life, whether hieroglyph, riddle, anagram or mystery in nature,  Browne in The Garden of Cyrus connects the quincunx pattern found in mineral crystals in the earth below to star constellations in the heavens above; thus a primary objective of  his discourse  ultimately is none other than advocation of intelligent design. In Browne's hermetic vision, the cosmos itself is a fully interlocking jigsaw, designed through the 'higher mathematics' of the 'supreme Geometrician' i.e. God.

If anything however, its perhaps more the art and design of the jigsaw cutter which Browne celebrates. He's credited by the Oxford Dictionary as the first writer to use the word 'Network' in an artificial context in the English language, (in the full running title of the discourse, The Garden of Cyrus, or the Quincuncial Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the ancients, artificially, naturally, mystically considered).  The frontispiece to Browne's discourse resembles some kind of grid cutter for an unusual jigsaw or a gaming board for Go or Backgammon.

Its Latin quotation reads -'What is more beautiful than the Quincunx, which, however you view it, presents straight lines'.

Browne also mentions various leisure-time activities in his discourse. Archery, backgammon, chess, skittles and knuckle stones are all fleetingly alluded to as examples of pleasure and play. 

Upon completion of a puzzle, sooner or later its broken into separate pieces and returned to its box awaiting to be completed once more,  a cycle not unlike the cycle of birth, death and rebirth  or 'Eternal Return' which alchemists alluded to in their writings, including Thomas Browne at the conclusion of his discourse.  

'All things began in order, so shall they end, and so shall they begin again; according to the ordainer of order and mystical Mathematicks of the City of Heaven'.

One particular jigsaw shape  of interest to Browne in his quinary quest is the so-called 'dancing man'  or 'T-man' piece with its 4 + 1 structure (below left). Its a reduced form of ' Square man' by the Roman architect Vitruvius of the human form as drawn by the Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci in his Vitruvian man (below, right) which is alluded to in The Garden of Cyrus thus -  

'Nor is the same observable only in some parts, but in the whole body of man, which upon the extension of arms and legs, doth make out a square whose intersection is at the genitals. To omit the phantastical Quincunx in Plato of the first Hermaphrodite or double man, united at the Loynes, which Jupiter divided. [4]

Adding in a little referenced footnote - 'elegantly observable in the Mesopotamian silhouette figurines, not unlike conjoyning tiles found in parlour amusements amongst us'. [5] 

One is tempted to speculate that Thomas Browne's allusion to 'conjoyning tiles' may be some kind of precursor to the jigsaw puzzle, pre-dating fellow Englishman John Spilsbury's 'dissecting maps' by a full century. 

In any case, the technical inventiveness in manufacture, the wide variety of artistic subject-matter and development of skills such as shape identification along with the therapeutic qualities of jigsaw puzzling would doubtless have been approved of by Browne.  With his predilection for the microscopic in nature one imagines the seventeenth century physician-philosopher engaged in the challenge of constructing a miniature jigsaw, employing his 'occular observation' with tweezers and magnifying glass in order to construct  it ! 

Photos

Top - Wooden 60 piece puzzle of elephant. Wentworth. Completed  January 2022 

'Bavaria' Ryba, 2000 pieces Heye. Completed July 2022

Dolomite Mountains, Italy, Trefl 500 pieces, Completed  March 2022

Norfolk Windmill and river Falcon 500 pieces. Completed Feb. 2021. 

Winter Sports by Jan van Haasteren Jumbo 1000 pieces. Completed  February 2022

'I Love Spring' by Mike Jupp Gibsons 1000 pieces. Completed May 2022

'Apocalypse 2000' by Jean Jacques Loup Falcon 1000 pieces. Completed  June 2022

Colour Wheel. 1000 pieces. Made in China. Completed September 2022

The Table of the Muses.  USA Springbok 1968. Completed November 2022

N.B. The Wikipedia  entry on puzzles has numerous links to articles about jigsaws.

Notes

[1]  Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier  First published by Victor Gollancz 1938 chapter 20.

[2] George Perec  La vie mode d'emploi  First published in France in 1978 by Hachette/ Collection P.O.L. Paris and in Great Britain in 1987 by Collins Harvill 

[3] C.G. Jung Collected Works  Vol 14.  Mysterium Coniunctionis  An enquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of psychic opposites in alchemy translated by R. F. C. Hull 1963 paragraph 388

[4]  Thomas Browne : Selected Writings edited by Kevin Killeen Oxford University Press 2014 . Quote from chapter 3 of The Garden of Cyrus 

[5]  An unpublished footnote from a source equal in veracity to Fragment on Mummies.