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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 119v · Scan 274

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Lucretius Ovid and the Parts of the Human Being · Manuscript 119v · Scan 274

French

Ms. 119v

de la terre et dans le sein de la matière se vantent d’avoir toutes leur Ciel en elles, et brillent de l’éclat de leurs astres, de leurs planètes et de leurs influences.

C’est pourquoi ceux qui ont recherché la nature et la matière des Cieux et des planètes, instruits par cette astrologie, n’ont pas reconnu la matière comme inférieure passagère et corruptible, mais ils ont cru ce que nous avons dit qu’elle est lumineuse, subtile, spirituelle et fixe, en tant qu’elle est cachée dans le centre de la terre, et lui ont encore donné les qualités que nous attribuons au secret de notre pierre physique, de laquelle toute chose tâche naturellement d’approcher et que Dieu donnera à tout le monde dans l’embrasement universel, afin qu’elle puisse durer éternellement sans altération, corruption ou mort. Il était donc convenable et à propos que ce qui sert à acquérir une béatitude dans cette vie mortelle ne fût pas refusé à ceux qui doivent jouir d’une vie éternelle immortelle et remplie de toutes sortes de délices. Cela fait qu’on nous demandera par forme d’objection, si les éléments les végétaux les animaux, les minéraux, et tout ce que

Ms. 119v

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

Ms. 119v

earth and in the bosom of matter, they boast of having their whole Heaven within them and shine with the brilliance of their heavenly bodies, planets, and influences.

Those who have investigated the nature and matter of the heavens and planets, instructed by this astrology, have therefore not recognized matter as inferior, passing, and corruptible. Rather, they have believed what we said: that it is luminous, subtle, spiritual, and fixed insofar as it is hidden in earth’s center. They have also given it the qualities we attribute to the secret of our physical stone, which everything naturally strives to approach and which God will give to the whole world in the universal conflagration, so that it may endure eternally without alteration, corruption, or death. It was therefore fitting and proper that what serves to acquire a blessedness in this mortal life should not be denied to those who are to enjoy an eternal, immortal life filled with every kind of delight. This will lead someone to ask us, by way of objection, whether the elements, plants, animals, minerals, and everything that

Ms. 119v

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.