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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 62r · Scan 151

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Good and Evil Angels · Manuscript 62r · Scan 151

French

Ms. 62r

surprenant que la faute d’Adam est passée jusque dans les choses insensibles, et que la malice qui entretient le péché de l’homme passe dans toute la nature, et que cette boue et ce pus d’une corruption contagieuse ou de la mort a pullulé infiniment.

Cela paraît encore mieux dans Mars, ou dans ses esprits sulphureux, qui, quoique beaucoup au-dessous des autres, cependant par un orgueil né avec lui et qui ne mourra jamais, ose impudemment et tyranniquement s’arroger les premières places ; comme il est couvert de fer, il cherche la guerre contre tous, et a l’impudence de se jouer à Saturne, Jupiter, et Mercure, même dans le ciel, et d’attaquer le plomb, l’étain et le vif-argent dans la famille des métaux, qu’il dépouille de leurs qualités. Il rend Vulcain et les Cyclopes ses esclaves et se qualifie des noms du Très Haut.

Pour peu qu’on soit instruit des éléments de la chimie on voit aisément que son soufre et ses éclairs en flammes s’élèvent en l’air avec impétuosité. On doit entendre la même chose de Saturne et de l’or qui a l’éclat de la foudre. On le compare à Cacus le voleur

Ms. 62r

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

Ms. 62r

astonishing a prodigy that Adam’s fault has passed even into insensible things, that the malice sustaining human sin spreads throughout nature, and that this mire and pus of contagious corruption or death has multiplied without limit.

This appears still more clearly in Mars or in its sulfurous spirits. Although far beneath the others, through a pride born with it and never to die, it nevertheless dares shamelessly and tyrannically to claim the foremost places. Covered in iron, it seeks war against all, and has the impudence to challenge Saturn, Jupiter, and Mercury even in heaven, and to attack lead, tin, and quicksilver in the family of metals, stripping them of their qualities. It makes Vulcan and the Cyclopes its slaves and styles itself with the names of the Most High.

Anyone with even a little instruction in the elements of chemistry readily sees that its sulfur and its flashes of flame rise violently into the air. The same must be understood of Saturn and of gold, which has the brilliance of lightning. It is compared to Cacus the thief

Ms. 62r

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.