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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 116r · Scan 267

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English Page · Branch 259 of 351

Lucretius Ovid and the Parts of the Human Being · Manuscript 116r · Scan 267

French

Ms. 116r

d’où vient le principe de toute génération, nutrition végétation et sensation, est distinguée de la matière et de l’âme, et de l’ombre, qu’il ne participe d’aucune, car avant que l’âme soit infuse dans le corps, le corps reçoit cet esprit et par son moyen est spiritualisé, autrement, il serait privé du principe de végétation et de sensation et c’est le sentiment de quelques philosophes que le corps ou l’embryon composé de ses parties intégrantes est doué de la faculté de sentir et de végéter avant d’être formé et animé. Il diffère encore de l’âme eu égard à son origine car l’origine est céleste de tout ce qui remplit les fonctions de nourrir, engendrer, nourrir ou augmenter, et ces facultés naturelles ne descendent que des astres sur les choses sublunaires. Que si elles coulaient de l’âme qui vient immédiatement de Dieu, elles participeraient en beaucoup de choses des animaux raisonnables. Leur différence se distingue encore mieux par leurs opérations qui diffèrent autant entre elles, que les facultés

Ms. 116r

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

Ms. 116r

from which comes the principle of all generation, nutrition, vegetation, and sensation—is distinguished from matter, soul, and shadow, partaking of none of them. For before the soul is infused into the body, the body receives this spirit and is spiritualized through it; otherwise it would lack the principle of vegetation and sensation. Some philosophers hold that the body or embryo, composed of its integral parts, is endowed with the capacity to feel and vegetate before being formed and animated. Spirit also differs from soul in respect of origin: everything fulfilling the functions of nourishing, generating, nourishing, or increasing has a heavenly origin, and these natural faculties descend only from the heavenly bodies upon sublunary things. If they flowed from the soul, which comes immediately from God, they would share in many things with rational animals. Their difference is still better discerned through their operations, which differ as much from one another as the faculties

Ms. 116r

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.