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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 IMultiplication and the Eucharist · Manuscript 137v · Scan 312

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French Page · Branch 303 of 351

Multiplication and the Eucharist · Manuscript 137v · Scan 312

French

Ms. 137v

plus puissantes que le feu, l’eau, l’air et la terre parce qu’elle renferme leurs matières, formes et qualités. Personne sans ignorer les secrets de la nature ne niera qu’elle possède dans la quantité d’une seule once plus d’ignéité qu’il n’y en a dans le feu universel de tout le monde, puisqu’elle brûle plus que le feu de tout l’univers et agit sur le corps incorruptible de l’or de même que le feu élémentaire agit sur le bois. Personne ne niera encore qu’elle ne contienne plus de liqueur germinative, nutritive, corruptive et augmentative que toutes les autres humidités qui peuvent en un moment faire engendrer et germer l’or et l’argent, une plante mourante et un animal stérile, et leur faire produire leur semblable, ce que la nature ne ferait point en mille ans ni même jamais, et peut de plus fournir les spermes de toutes choses parce qu’elle est tout air et toute terre, esprit et corps tout ensemble. Personne n’en doute puisqu’elle a non seulement la pénétrabilité et la subtilité de l’air et de l’esprit mais encore la fixité et la permanence du corps et de la terre

Ms. 137v

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I: Multiplication and the Eucharist

Ms. 137v

more powerful than fire, water, air, and earth, because it encloses their matters, forms, and qualities. No one acquainted with nature’s secrets will deny that a single ounce possesses more fiery power than the universal fire of the whole world, since it burns more than all the universe’s fire and acts upon gold’s incorruptible body as elemental fire acts upon wood. Nor will anyone deny that it contains more germinative, nutritive, corruptive, and augmentative liquor than all other humid substances. These can in a moment cause gold and silver, a dying plant, and a sterile animal to generate and germinate and produce their likeness—something nature would not accomplish in a thousand years, or ever. Moreover, it can supply the sperms of all things, being wholly air and wholly earth, spirit and body together. No one doubts it, since it possesses not only air’s and spirit’s penetrability and subtlety but also body’s and earth’s fixity and permanence

Ms. 137v

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.