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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 IThe Sun Moon and Mercury · Manuscript 102v · Scan 238

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English Page · Branch 231 of 351

The Sun Moon and Mercury · Manuscript 102v · Scan 238

French

Ms. 102v

rois bien purifié de toutes les superfluités avant leur conjonction.

Outre cela, comme dans la mécanique, il est à propos de séparer le grain de la paille, et de la dure écorce qui l'enveloppe, de même dans l'art qui imite la nature, l'on doit tirer d'abord de leurs écorces par le moyen de notre eau, les semences d'or et d'argent quoique cachées et enfouies bien avant afin que séparées de leurs aqueuses sérosités et de leurs impuretés, ils couchent ensemble avec un appareil de noces légitimes.

Or les spermes ne servent de rien pour la génération tant qu'ils demeurent dans les reins, ou que, dissous avec l'urine ou une humeur étrangère, ils s'unissent d'une manière non due et qui ne convient pas. Nous avons remarqué que ceux du corps avec l'esprit, de la matière avec la forme, du ciel avec les éléments, et de mercure avec le soufre, étaient joints par une alliance qui les réunit d'un lien indissoluble, d'autant plus parfait et éternel que les parties de la nature ou de la

Ms. 102v

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I: The Sun Moon and Mercury

Ms. 102v

kings, thoroughly purified of every superfluity before their conjunction.

Moreover, as in mechanics it is fitting to separate grain from straw and the hard husk enveloping it, so in art imitating nature the seeds of gold and silver, although hidden and deeply buried, must first be drawn from their husks through our water. Separated from their watery serosities and impurities, they can then lie together with the ceremonial preparation of legitimate weddings.

Sperms serve no purpose for generation while they remain in the loins, or when, dissolved with urine or some foreign humor, they unite in an improper and unsuitable manner. We have observed that those of body with spirit, matter with form, heaven with elements, and mercury with sulfur were joined through an alliance uniting them by an indissoluble bond, all the more perfect and eternal because the parts of nature or of the

Ms. 102v

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.