Mars, Vulcan and the Cyclopes · Lexicon

From the book

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I

Attributed to Abraham the Jew · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordMars expresses iron-related and sulfurous power; Vulcan represents operative heat and its instruments. The Cyclopes can name nitrous spirits associated with violent atmospheric and subterranean effects.
In the manuscriptMars’s arms and sulfur help dissolve and overcome matter, while Vulcan’s tongs and axe figure hot operation and striking. The same names also appear in an account of destructive rivalry and uncontrolled consuming fire.
TranslationThe edition preserves these changing functions. It does not replace every Mars with ordinary iron or every Vulcan with a literal furnace, although the source makes definite material connections.
A place to readManuscript 10r–11r, scans 35–37, and 62r–62v, scans 151–152: compare useful dissolving instruments with the later account of tyrannical sulfurous spirits.

Meaning

Mars and Vulcan distinguish features of action rather than two complete recipes. Mars's iron armor, sword and sulfur point to penetration, tincture and dissolution. Vulcan supplies fire and hot instruments by which nature works. The text can put their attributes into other figures' hands because the operative power, not exclusive possession of a divine emblem, governs the interpretation.

Their relations also change with the quality of the material. Useful sulfur of Mars and fire overcome the Hydra's colors; elsewhere Mars's proud sulfurous spirits strip lead, tin and quicksilver of their qualities. Vulcan's consuming offspring takes what it lives upon and finally destroys itself. The difference between productive work and destructive expenditure is stated through effects, not guaranteed by a name alone.

The Cyclopes make the workshop image collective. At 65v, scan 158, they are the nitrous spirits filling air and earth with violent phenomena and furnishing an arsenal of war. They belong to the account of natural agents whose destructive capacities are pictured as guards, soldiers and executioners. The passage's pronouns are irregular, but its association of nitrous spirits with Vulcan's Cyclopes is explicit.

Use in the book

At 10r, scan 35, the young man's iron breastplate may resemble crocus of Mars, vermilion when rusted, or quicksilver when polished. The same prepared subject receives names through appearance and distillation. At 10v Vulcan's axe splitting Jupiter's head joins a catalogue of weapons whose striking signifies corruption and dissolution. Mars's material power therefore appears both in the armor's condition and in the general action of arms.

At 11r Mercury is imprisoned by Vulcan in iron or bronze chains. Fire or sulfur drinks moisture, while mercurial moisture penetrates and dissolves the body. The account holds together confinement and dissolution as reciprocal relations. Vulcan's instrument can operate usefully without making every fiery action beneficial.

Mars's earth and the philosophical plow appear in Jason's preparation at 20v and 24r. At 23r Perseus's solar spirit is impregnated with the tincture of Mars, expressed by steel helmet and breastplate. At 43r Pallas carries Mars's spear and sword and takes her origin from solar and vitriolic sulfur united through Mercury. The transferred arms signify the operative qualities of prepared sulfur, not a claim that the mythical figures have become interchangeable persons.

Vulcan's tongs, stolen by Mercury, are interpreted at 34r as a hot instrument with which nature performs everything created in the universe. A later unnamed poet's speech at 28r ends by nourishing the many-colored and whitened bird until it can undergo Vulcan's rage. The completion must endure the test of fire; the sequence gives heat a role beyond initial dissolution.

The darker account at 59r, scan 145, makes Mars lay down his arms before antimonial spirits that deprive bodies of their properties. At 62r his own sulfurous spirits wage war against Saturn, Jupiter and Mercury, explicitly paired with lead, tin and quicksilver. He enslaves Vulcan and the Cyclopes. The continuation identifies Cacus, Vulcan's son, with sulfur living upon theft like consuming fire, ultimately destroyed by rust. This self-consumption supplies an exact reason for the destructive metaphor.¹⁹⁵

At 65v the nitrous Cyclopes inhabit air and earth and fill them with thunder, lightning, hail, disease and whirlwinds. At 112v, scan 260, the regulus of Mars appears in a different, favorable context: pure and closely mixed metallic elements are said to contain abundant germinative spirits and to renew more readily. The source supplies no recipe there. The use illustrates how an iron-related preparation can serve an account of perfection while other Mars passages describe destructive competition.¹⁹⁶

Places to read

Manuscript 10r, 10v, 11r · Scans 35, 36, 372 3Iron appearance, striking instruments and Vulcan’s confinement of Mercury.
Manuscript 20v, 23r, 24r · Scans 60, 65, 672 3Mars’s earth, tincture and the action of the philosophical plow.
Manuscript 28r, 34r · Scans 77, 912Vulcan’s fiery test and tongs as nature’s hot instrument.
Manuscript 43r · Scan 113Pallas’s arms and the solar-vitriolic union.
Manuscript 59r, 62r, 62v, 65v · Scans 145, 151, 152, 1582 3 4Defeat, tyrannical sulfur, self-consuming fire and nitrous Cyclopes.
Manuscript 112v · Scan 260The regulus of Mars belongs to an account of abundant metallic germinative power.

Translation

Mars, Vulcan and Cyclopes render the familiar divine names; the edition preserves crocus de Mars as crocus of Mars and régule de Mars as regulus of Mars. These are historical preparation names whose exact composition is not supplied merely by translating them.

Feu physique is natural or physical fire according to the sentence, and végétable can express productive or generative power. 'Vulcan's rage' keeps the source's personal image for the strong fiery trial. The entry describes the stated operations without upgrading their historical claims into modern chemical analysis.

Mars

Attested: H001-S035; H001-S065; H001-S113; H001-S145; H001-S151. Iron-related appearance, tincture, sulfur and competing metallic power.

Vulcain

Attested: H001-S036; H001-S037; H001-S091; H001-S151; H001-S152. The striking axe, imprisoning fire, hot instrument and consuming lineage.

cyclopes de Vulcain

Attested: H001-S158. The explicitly named nitrous spirits in the account of destructive natural effects.

régule de Mars

Attested: H001-S260. The metallic preparation named in the renewal argument.

Source note

Read scans 151–152 continuously: the description of Cacus begins on scan 151 and identifies him as Vulcan’s son and consuming sulfur on scan 152. The account ends in destruction by rust, not an assertion of an endlessly self-sustaining fire.

Scan 260 names the regulus of Mars but gives no preparation recipe. The visible star-form discussed immediately before it and the subsequent argument about germinative spirits belong to the author’s account of metallic renewal.