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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 ISaint John and the Apocalyptic Figures · Manuscript 75v · Scan 178

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English Page · Branch 171 of 351

Saint John and the Apocalyptic Figures · Manuscript 75v · Scan 178

French

Ms. 75v

soumis à la servir [?] contiennent en eux quelques semences d’immortalité ! Peut-on accorder au ciel et aux étoiles cette étincelle d’incorruptibilité, de fixité et de permanence, et la refuser à l’âme de l’homme créée à la source du néant pour connaître Dieu, l’honorer et lui obéir ? Peut-on enfin se dispenser de reconnaître ce désir et cet instinct de l’immortalité, et de l’éternité que la nature a accordé et dont elle a rempli toutes choses ? Pour peu qu’on s’attache aux premiers éléments de cet art qui, si nous avons les yeux perçants, nous découvrirons les secrets les plus cachés pour clarifier et essentifier les esprits dans tous les ouvrages de l’art et de la nature, mais encore ceux qui sont géographiquement dépeints dans les figures que Saint Jean expose dans l’écriture sainte, travaillées avec un art qui surpasse tout ce qu’on en peut dire. Il n’a pas représenté les choses comme nous dans les premières figures de la première, seconde et troisième table.

Dans la première, il représentait sept chandeliers d’or, et au milieu la similitude du fils de l’homme

Ms. 75v

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I: Saint John and the Apocalyptic Figures

Ms. 75v

subject to serving it(?) contain within themselves some seeds of immortality! Can one grant heaven and the stars this spark of incorruptibility, fixity, and permanence, and refuse it to the human soul, created at the source of nothingness to know, honor, and obey God? Can one finally fail to recognize this desire and instinct for immortality and eternity that nature has granted and with which she has filled all things? If we attend at all to the first elements of this art—which, if our eyes are keen, will reveal to us the most hidden secrets for making spirits radiant and essentializing them in all works of art and nature—but also those depicted geographically in the figures that Saint John presents in Holy Scripture, wrought with an art surpassing all that can be said of it. He has not represented things as we have in the first figures of the first, second, and third tables.

In the first he represented seven golden lampstands, and in their midst the likeness of the Son of Man

Ms. 75v

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.