DiotimosReading Desk

Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition

Attributed to Abraham the Jew

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I

Book of Hieroglyphic Figures

Explore the Lexicon
The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume IThe Sun Moon and Mercury · Manuscript 106v · Scan 246

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

Facing Pages · Branch 239 of 351

The Sun Moon and Mercury · Manuscript 106v · Scan 246

French

Ms. 106v

les vapeurs sulfureuses de mercure, que les anciens ont dépeint par des cavaliers armés de cuirasses de feu de soufre et d'hyacinthe, et montés sur des chevaux vomissant feu et flammes, et ayant des têtes de lions et des queues de serpent, et ce seul combat contre ce monstre comprend tous les autres, puisqu'il représente l'image de tous les autres. Enfin ces troupes de cavaliers et ce carnage sanglant d'hommes massacrés marquent l'extermination des couleurs étrangères qui s'élèvent de l'humidité étrangère de Mercure qui reste, car la couleur qui agit en elle, produit toutes les couleurs qui sont dans le monde, semblables à la queue du paon, et élèvent des vapeurs plus vénéneuses, plus funestes que les monstres que nous avons dits; jusqu'à ce qu'enfin, après que l'humidité est consumée, elles s'éteignent et se terminent en blancheur, dont nous parlerons assez dans le chapitre suivant.

Ms. 106v

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

Ms. 106v

mercury's sulfurous vapors. The ancients depicted these through riders armed with breastplates of fire, sulfur and hyacinth, mounted upon horses vomiting fire and flames, with lions' heads and serpents' tails. This single combat against this monster encompasses all the others because it represents the image of them all. Finally these troops of riders and this bloody slaughter of massacred people signify the extermination of foreign colors arising from mercury's remaining foreign moisture. For the color acting within it produces every color in the world, like a peacock's tail, and raises vapors more venomous and deadly than the monsters we have mentioned. At last, once the moisture is consumed, they are extinguished and end in whiteness, which we shall discuss sufficiently in the following chapter.

Ms. 106v

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.