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Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition

Attributed to Abraham the Jew

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I

Book of Hieroglyphic Figures

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The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume IGood and Evil Angels · Manuscript 54v · Scan 136

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English Page · Branch 129 of 351

Good and Evil Angels · Manuscript 54v · Scan 136

French

Ms. 54v

Quelques-uns prétendent les partager en sept ordres, suivant les sept péchés mortels, à chacun desquels ils rattachent chacun de leurs ordres, ce qui, bien loin de me paraître erroné, me semble conforme à la foi catholique. Les Arabes, les Égyptiens et les Grecs après eux, leur ont encore assigné des places pour expier leurs crimes. Voyez Agrippa, il en traite fort au long dans sa Philosophie secrète.

Dans le royaume céleste ou dans la famille des planètes dont les vertus suivent de près celles des intelligences, nous attribuons au premier mobile duquel dépend le premier mouvement pour la vie, et la première existence des choses, tout ce qu'on accorde aux premières intelligences de la première hiérarchie dans le monde céleste. Nous plaçons ensuite dans le ciel étoilé les idées confuses qui contiennent les semences des choses, qu'on peut comparer aux secondes espèces intellectuelles. Nous mettons en troisième lieu tout ce qui concerne le troisième ordre des anges dans le ciel ou dans la sphère de Saturne, c'est-à-dire qu'on y voit la séparation et la concrétion des formes

Ms. 54v

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I: Good and Evil Angels

Ms. 54v

Some claim to divide them into seven orders according to the seven mortal sins, attaching each of their orders to one of these. Far from seeming erroneous to me, this seems consonant with the Catholic faith. The Arabs, Egyptians and, after them, the Greeks also assigned them places in which to expiate their crimes. See Agrippa, who treats this at great length in his Secret Philosophy.

In the celestial kingdom, or family of planets whose powers closely follow those of the intelligences, we attribute to the primum mobile—from which the first movement for life and the first existence of things depend—everything accorded to the first intelligences of the first hierarchy in the celestial world. We next place in the starry heaven the confused ideas containing the seeds of things, which can be compared to the second intellectual kinds. Third, we place everything concerning the third order of angels in the heaven or sphere of Saturn: that is, there we see the separation and concretion of forms

Ms. 54v

About This Reading Edition

The first manuscript in the Manly Palmer Hall collection at the Getty Research Institute: the Book of Hieroglyphic Figures, presented in French and English with 463 explanatory notes, 13 manuscript plates, 25 source details, an introduction, chapter outline, glossary, bibliography, and register of readings.

Historical Text and Translation

Book of Hieroglyphic Figures (Livre des figures hiéroglyphiques), attributed in the witness to Abraham the Jew. Getty Research Institute, Manly Palmer Hall collection of alchemical manuscripts, accession 950053, Box 1, Hogart manuscript 3; French witness catalogued circa 1800. Manly Palmer Hall is the collector, not the author.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

The circa 1800 source manuscript is public domain. The supplied 2026 French reading transcription, English translation, introduction, notes, outline, glossary, register, and editorial arrangement are published with the site owner’s authorization. Source photographs are credited to the Getty Research Institute and Internet Archive in the supplied edition.