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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 ILucretius Ovid and the Parts of the Human Being · Manuscript 113r · Scan 261

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English Page · Branch 253 of 351

Lucretius Ovid and the Parts of the Human Being · Manuscript 113r · Scan 261

French

Ms. 113r

envoyé du Ciel, est reçu derechef dans les palais brillants du Ciel.

Ovide

L’homme est composé de quatre choses, de manes, de chair, d’esprit, et d’ombre. La terre couvre sa chair, son ombre voltige autour de son tombeau ; ses manes sont dans les enfers et son esprit remonte dans les cieux.

Les sentiments de ces deux poètes découvrent assez tout ce que nous avons à dire là-dessus et quelle différence il y a entre le corps et son ombre, entre l’esprit et l’âme, et expliquent plus clair que le jour leur représentation ; de même, il faut éclaircir ce que c’est que la rénovation des corps, ce que c’est que les formes qu’on en tire, ce que c’est que la régénération et la rectification, ce que c’est que la glorification et la résurrection en fait de physique ou métaphysique : le premier homme du même peuple sait qu’un corps mort qu’on nomme cadavre diffère entièrement de son ombre

Ms. 113r

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I: Lucretius Ovid and the Parts of the Human Being

Ms. 113r

sent from Heaven is received once more into Heaven’s shining palaces.’

Ovid

‘The human being is composed of four things: manes, flesh, spirit, and shadow. Earth covers the flesh; the shadow flits around the tomb; the manes are in the underworld, and the spirit ascends again into the heavens.’

The judgments of these two poets sufficiently disclose everything we have to say on this subject: the difference between body and its shadow, between spirit and soul, and their representation explained more clearly than daylight. Likewise, we must clarify what renewal of bodies is, what the forms extracted from them are, what regeneration and rectification are, and what glorification and resurrection are in natural philosophy or metaphysics. The first man of the same people knows that a dead body, called a corpse, differs entirely from its shadow

Ms. 113r

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.