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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 IRegister of Readings · Part 6

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English Introduction · Branch 348 of 351

Register of Readings · Part 6

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I: Register of Readings

p. 348

H001-S246 106v

The noun in 'car la couleur qui agit en elle' appears couleur rather than chaleur; its repeated relation to the following couleurs is retained.

H001-S249 107r

The source reads des semences … qui pullulent et qui germait, changing from plural present to singular imperfect. English gives the two verbs matching present forms; French retains the irregular sequence.

H001-S250 107v

The word after d’être is tués, confirmed on the enlarged original with the accent over é; no uncertainty remains on this word. The source’s long sentence changes construction at comme certains corps; English divides the argument into sentences without omitting its causal sequence.

H001-S251 108r

The French retains que au contraire and the singular se fît after the plural avantages. English regularizes these agreements without changing the contrast or the stated purpose.

H001-S253 109r

The source begins Leurs cornues et leur estomac … ne trouvera, with plural and singular subjects governing a singular verb. English allows the compound subject without supplying a further interpretation of cornues.

H001-S254 109v

The source’s ou les choses … recevraient has an uncertain relation to the preceding relative clause. English keeps the alternative ‘or’ and conditional verb rather than silently changing ou to où.

H001-S255 110r

The source’s family-word is written élémaire, an irregular or contracted form, rendered ‘elementary’ in English. No missing syllable is supplied in the French.

H001-S256 110v

The source changes singular and plural agreement in la pureté … l’homogénéité et l’incorruptibilité est plus grande. English regularizes agreement. Spermes and semences are distinguished here as ‘sperms’ and ‘seeds’ to preserve the paired terms.

H001-S257 111r

The French changes from feminine semence and qui to masculine il, then back to elles. English retains pronouns rather than deciding whether each refers to seed, spirit, or bodily parts. The phrase sans force is legible in the original and is retained literally.

H001-S258 111v

The source’s indefinite ils, whose antecedent is not supplied on this page, is retained as ‘they’. The wording où la fleur et le germe du métal est has irregular agreement, retained in French.

H001-S259 112r

The original clearly reads chancres, not chaux, in the two names paired with vipères; chaux occurs separately after sur la. English uses ‘calx’ for this residue. The source’s singular l’effacer is not silently changed to les effacer.

H001-S260 112v

The heading Lucrèce occurs after two prose paragraphs, immediately before the quotation. The source’s se change is singular after a threefold subject and is retained in French.

H001-S261 113r

Ovide is a mid-page heading after the continuation of the Lucretius quotation and before the fourfold account.

H001-S262 113v

The French preserves the source sequence le corps et l’ombre, ces manes et l’âme and the question beginning qui est-ce qui pour l’ombre même. English does not supply a conjunction to resolve the author’s enumeration.

H001-S263 114r

The unfinished selon que leur caractère est imprimé à cette continues with faculté de l’âme on the next page; English preserves the same page-boundary continuation.

H001-S264 114v

The phrase forme essentielle ou animale distinguishes terms the author offers as alternatives. Sa forme accidentelle ou individuelle likewise remains a paired description, not two separately enumerated forms.

H001-S265 115r

Uncertain adjective: calioneuses [?], possibly an irregular writing of caligineuses. A source detail is reproduced in the facsimile appendix. No standard French spelling is silently substituted. The source reads il attend quelque temps de sa digestion, retained as an awkward waiting construction.

H001-S266 115v

The appositional sequence ces ombres de formes ces épouvantails is retained in French and punctuated in English. Némésis is the manuscript’s proper name and is not replaced by a generalized term for vengeance.

H001-S267 116r

The source has the feminine est distinguée followed by masculine il, continuing the alternatives at the end of the previous page. English uses the singular spirit without reproducing French gender. The source repeats nourrir without deletion.

H001-S268 116v

Uncertain phrase: cher vésicule [?] éthéré. A source detail is reproduced in the facsimile appendix. The French shifts to elles after esprits and then returns to cet esprit; English keeps the distinction of soul and instrumental spirits without reproducing gender changes.

H001-S269 117r

The source’s unfinished car le baume … qui has no regular finite completion. English treats baume as an apposition to the surviving spirit, while the French retains the incomplete construction.

H001-S270 117v

The source’s soit la glorification … ou les moyens is retained as an alternative construction. The long conditional changes into an explanatory car clause without completing a regular main sentence; English leaves that continuation open.

H001-S271 118r

The original reads désirent de rejoindre, confirmed from the upright image. The source’s afin que celles de formes accidentelles … de ces esprits incorruptibles is grammatically and conceptually difficult, retained rather than reconstructed.

H001-S272 118v

Pénétrabilité is written with correction or overwriting but its final word is legible. The shifts between neuter reste, feminine elle, masculine il, and une chose are retained in French; English does not assign all the pronouns to fire alone.

348

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.