The Monkey and the Black Bird (Aurora Consurgens)

The image features a central figure with a primate’s head and a hunched, textured body standing atop a human skull. A dark blue snake coils around the creature's body, while a large black bird, possessing a human-like red arm, stands to the right on a rocky outcropping, playing a pipe or flute. The background is a solid, vibrant red, and the lower portion of the central figure merges into a fan-like, flame-red base. The composition is highly symbolic, emphasizing the juxtaposition of human, animal, and serpentine forms within a stylized, monochromatic field.

This illumination is part of the 'Aurora Consurgens', a 15th-century alchemical treatise attributed in some traditions to Thomas Aquinas. It reflects the cryptic, dream-like symbolism used in late medieval alchemy to describe the process of transformation and the union of opposites (coniunctio).