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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 32v · Scan 88

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The Garden and the Spiritualization of Waters · Manuscript 32v · Scan 88

Book Mode

French

Ms. 32v

le doux zéphire, et que pendant la nuit il se cachait et demeurait au fond des enfers. Ils le représentent comme un jeune homme armé d’un casque ailé et qui ébranle un caducée, qui porte à ses pieds des brodequins ailés et un sabre à son côté. Ils prétendent que Jupiter est son père, et cet avant-coureur de la pluie passe pour être frère des sept pléiades. Il est inventeur des arts mécaniques, maître des arts libéraux, Père des Sciences, et ils donnent à entendre que Argus mort et un coq à ses pieds sont ses attributs.

Peut-on au travers de menteries si artificieuses ne pas découvrir quelque étincelle de vérité ? Peut-on en retournant les yeux sur les choses ne pas connaître sur-le-champ tous les secrets de la nature ? Puisque ces choses, séparées des contes de la fable, paraissent purement physiques et conformes à la vérité de l’art hermétique.

Les poètes, qui portent leur vue jusque dans les cieux, le font naître sur le sommet des plus hautes

Ms. 32v

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

Ms. 32v

gentle zephyr blows, and that by night he hid himself and remained in the depths of the underworld. They represent him as a young man equipped with a winged helmet and brandishing a caduceus, wearing winged buskins upon his feet and a sword at his side. They maintain that Jupiter is his father, and this herald of rain is held to be the brother of the seven Pleiades. He is the inventor of mechanical arts, master of liberal arts, and father of the sciences; and they indicate that the dead Argus and a cock at his feet are his attributes.

Can one fail to discover some spark of truth through lies so artfully devised? Can one turn one’s eyes back upon the things themselves without immediately recognizing all the secrets of nature? For these things, separated from the tales of fable, appear purely natural and in agreement with the truth of the Hermetic art.

The poets, whose sight reaches even into the heavens, have him born upon the summit of the highest

Ms. 32v

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.