The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I

Name: The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I
Author: Attributed to Abraham the Jew

Book of Hieroglyphic Figures

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The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume IThe Dragon on the Cross and Corruption · Manuscript 27r · Scan 75

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French Page · Branch 67 of 351

The Dragon on the Cross and Corruption · Manuscript 27r · Scan 75

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French

Ms. 27r

Par le pied, nous entendons la fin de l’opération, et la création de notre laton ou soufre, et par sa forme lorsqu’il se change en fleuve qui est sa résolution. Hercule n’eut pas peu de peine, et un artiste n’en ressent pas beaucoup moins à dompter ce monstre, parce qu’il prend la forme de fleuve et de taureau, c’est-à-dire de soufre et qu’un moment après il en prend d’autres.

Pour lors, le corps de l’or devient si subtil qu’il l’est plus que tous les esprits, et qu’il pénètre les corps les plus solides des métaux, et acquiert une si grande vertu végétative, qu’il est sublimé par la moindre chaleur du soleil, qu’il pousse des branches, des feuilles et des fleurs agréables à la vue plus promptement qu’une autre plante, et a une telle vénénosité qu’il tue plus promptement que l’arsenic, et devient dans la suite un remède si efficace, et d’une telle vertu qu’il guérit toutes sortes de corps malades. Nous en parlerons au long en son lieu.

Il ne suffit donc pas à l’artiste d’avoir réduit l’or en sa première forme, c’est-à-dire en eau, et de l’avoir préparé en soufre blanc de nature par sublimation, mais il faut encore

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I: The Dragon on the Cross and Corruption

Ms. 27r

By the foot we understand the end of the operation and the creation of our laton or sulfur; and by its form when it changes into a river, its dissolution. Hercules had no little difficulty, and an artist experiences scarcely less in taming this monster, because it assumes the form of a river and of a bull—that is, of sulfur—and a moment later assumes others.

Then the body of gold becomes so subtle that it surpasses all spirits in subtlety, penetrates the most solid metallic bodies, and acquires so great a power of growth that the slightest warmth of the sun sublimes it. It puts forth branches, leaves, and flowers pleasing to the eye more quickly than another plant, and possesses such venomousness that it kills more quickly than arsenic. Later it becomes a remedy so effective and so powerful that it heals every kind of diseased body. We shall speak of this at length in its place.

It is therefore insufficient for the artist to have reduced gold to its first form, that is, to water, and to have prepared it by sublimation as the white sulfur of nature; one must also

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.