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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 IThe Garden and the Spiritualization of Waters · Manuscript 30v · Scan 84

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The Garden and the Spiritualization of Waters · Manuscript 30v · Scan 84

Book Mode

French

Ms. 30v

une petite fontaine d’eau claire et cristalline qui sourdit au milieu d’un jardin rempli de fleurs variées, au-dessus de laquelle s’élève un chêne d’une raisonnable hauteur, lequel est environné d’un Rosier garni de fleurs blanches et rouges qui s’élèvent autour. Toutes ces choses nous font assez voir la réduction du vif-argent en eau qui est la première matière de tout, et à laquelle convient toute végétation ainsi que toute nutrition, germination et pullulation, comme nous avons montré et fait voir par le chêne, le rosier et les fleurs dont le jardin est paré. Ceux qui ont examiné avec soin les mines de vif-argent assurent que les lieux où elles se trouvent sont agréables, verdoyants, montagneux, arrosés de plusieurs sources et d’arbres odoriférants, et surtout s’il y a une mine de vif-argent, on voit de plus les arbres qui sont sur ces montagnes grossir leur tronc, pousser des branches, produire des feuilles et des fleurs et quelquefois des fruits, mais pas toujours.

Ms. 30v

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I: The Garden and the Spiritualization of Waters

Ms. 30v

little spring of clear and crystalline water that wells up in the midst of a garden filled with varied flowers. Above it rises an oak of moderate height, surrounded by a rosebush bearing white and red flowers that climb around it. All these things sufficiently show us quicksilver’s reduction into water, which is the first matter of everything and to which belong all growth, nourishment, germination, and sprouting, as we have demonstrated through the oak, the rosebush, and the flowers adorning the garden. Those who have carefully examined quicksilver mines assert that the places where they are found are pleasant, green, and mountainous, watered by several springs and furnished with fragrant trees. Above all, where there is a quicksilver mine, the trees upon those mountains are also seen to thicken their trunks, send out branches, produce leaves and flowers, and sometimes bear fruit, though not always.

Ms. 30v

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.