Metamorphosis Planetarum, ‘The Metamorphosis of the Planets’ was written by the German alchemist John De Monte Synders (1625? – 1670).  Monte Synders’ life is unknown apart from his association with the Court of Leopold in Vienna in 1660, and his work on universal medicine  ‘De medicina universal’ pubished in 1662. Using classical allegory and the linking of the spiritual and early scientific methods of alchemy, Metamorphosis Planetarum is an exploration of alchemical philosophy, detailing laboratory processes of the metamorphosis of metals. Both Metamorphosis Planetarum and De Medicina Universal greatly influenced the English  physicist, mathematician and natural philosopher Sir Issac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726) Newton owned an autographed copy of Metamorphosis Planetarum, and also self transcribed De Medicina Universal into English.  The image has been hand colored from historical recreations of color pigments available at the time of its original publication.