From the book
The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I
Attributed to Abraham the Jew · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordDealbation and rubification name whitening and reddening. Imbibition names the repeated taking in of liquid through which the subject is nourished, cleansed or transformed. The three belong together in the work's development without becoming synonyms.
- In this bookThe manuscript explains moistening through infancy, milk, marriage and the devouring dragon. It associates whitening with overcoming impurity, while the later colors and white-to-red change show that whiteness is not the only end of the work.
- TranslationThe translation uses ‘whitening’ and ‘reddening’ for the two technical nouns, while retaining ‘imbibition’ where repeated absorption is itself under discussion. It keeps the source's more concrete drinking and feeding images.
- A place to readRead manuscript 26v, scan 74, beside 38r, scan 101, and 101v, scan 236: cleansing, feeding and whitening give different purposes to repeated imbibitions.
Meaning
Imbibition concerns what a prepared subject receives, and often how it receives it over time. The source can describe irrigation, digestion and imbibition together, but it also assigns repeated imbibition a particular function within growth. The liquid is not merely a surrounding bath; it is taken into a subject whose condition changes as a result.
Whitening names an attained or developing appearance joined to purification. Its meaning is not exhausted by ordinary color, because the text connects the white subject with luminosity, fixed sulfur and the removal of blackness, venom and stench. Yet those associations do not make every white material fully fixed or complete: the author explicitly distinguishes volatile white sulfur from its later perfection.
Reddening is named alongside sublimation and whitening in the changing states of the matter (44v; scan 116). The later victory over the white bird Cygnus is explained as white sulfur turning red. These local connections justify a combined account, but not an imported schedule in which every color has a fixed duration or position.152
Use in the book
The most practical-looking explanation follows the crucified dragon. Laton or sulfur, not yet mature, must lose its blackness, venom and stench through repeated digestions, irrigations and imbibitions of mercurial water. The desired result is bright, fixed sulfur like talc. The familiar proverb about washing laton is immediately explained as work still required after the valuable subject has been obtained (26v; scan 74).
The massacre emblem gives the same vocabulary a developmental form. Sulfur is nourished within its mother by red vitriol's spirit, as an unborn child by blood. After birth, frequent imbibitions rear it until adulthood, when a metallic body supplies more solid nourishment through fermentation (38r; scan 101). The difference between stages matters: the book does not call every addition of matter an imbibition or claim that liquid feeding alone completes adulthood.
The explanation of changing forms at scan 116 sets out a compact contrast. In solution the matter is water; in corruption it is a foul, deadly subject; in sublimation, whitening and reddening it becomes air or fire that cleanses, purifies, colors and perfects. The sequence expresses transformed powers as well as changing appearance. It also gives the two color operations their direct French names.
The apocalyptic woman and dragon repeat the relation of nourishment and apparent destruction. The mercurial water remaining below must receive sulfur again through dissolution, corruption, repeated imbibitions and multiplication. The child consequently seems to be devoured by the serpent while arising from its mother's pure entrails (86v; scan 204). The startling image belongs to the work's account of incorporation, not literal feeding of a person.
Near the horsemen, the author says explicitly that successive imbibitions whiten laton (101v; scan 236). This statement falls before the mid-page heading on the intercourse of Sun, Moon and Mercury. Keeping the boundary prevents the whitening discussion from being moved into the next chapter's opening merely because both concern related preparations.153
At scan 245 whitening and mortification of earth are described through the victory over many monsters. Their common explanation is the defeat of heterogeneous impurities associated with the elements' original stain. Whitening thus names purification under conflict as well as a visible condition; it does not entail that all productive corruption has ceased.
The white-to-red completion in Hercules' final combat gives a further perspective. Cygnus is overcome after becoming a white bird, and the author interprets that victory as white sulfur converted into red. He then associates the result with repose, perfect joy and Alcestis restored to a better life (50v; scan 128). Color, cessation of combat and recovered life converge here without becoming interchangeable definitions. The passage can illuminate rubification's place in the work while leaving the more elaborate intermediate colors to their own accounts.
The late royal figure complicates any simple white/red scheme. Repeated imbibitions display all the world's colors before the king's victory. At this stated stage the colors are more purple and celestial than black. A still-volatile portion ascends and descends until previously diverse substances become one enduring subject (125v; scan 286). The entry must preserve this variety instead of reducing every moistening to the single purpose of turning black matter white.
Places to read
- Manuscript 26v · Scan 74Repeated washing, digestion, irrigation and imbibition cleanse laton.
- Manuscript 38r · Scan 101Liquid feeding precedes adult metallic nourishment through fermentation.
- Manuscript 44v · Scan 116The explicit nouns dealbation and rubification within the matter's changing states.
- Manuscript 86v · Scan 204The dragon's apparent devouring explains repeated absorption and multiplication.
- Manuscript 101v · Scan 236Successive imbibitions whiten laton before the next chapter heading.
- Manuscript 106r · Scan 245Whitening and mortification as victory over heterogeneous impurities.
- Manuscript 125v · Scan 286Many colors and ascent/descent precede the royal subject's unity.
Translation
‘Whitening’ and ‘reddening’ make dealbation and rubification readable while preserving their distinct operations. ‘Imbibitions’ keeps the technical plural, with drinking, feeding and moistening left available where the text explains its sense. This prevents the abstract term from obscuring the absorption imagery.
The unresolved word provisionally read acgor near the whitening statement at scan 236 is not supplied with a familiar alchemical synonym. Nor does the entry assume that the difficult source term determines a standardized recipe or material identity.154
dealbation
Attested: H001-S116; H001-S245. The technical noun translated whitening.
rubification
Attested: H001-S116. The technical noun translated reddening.
imbibitions
Attested: H001-S074; H001-S101; H001-S204; H001-S236; H001-S286. Repeated receiving of liquid, explained through cleansing, nourishment and transformation.
blanchir
Attested: H001-S236. The explicit purpose assigned to the successive imbibitions of laton.
Source note
The comparison of Cygnus with the change of white sulfur into red occurs at manuscript 50v, scan 128. It explains the local final combat without supplying a universal calendar of colors.
H001-S236 and H001-S236b are separate units on the same manuscript side. The laton-whitening statement precedes Du commerce du Soleil et de la Lune avec le mercure des Chimistes.
The underlined acgor at H001-S236 is provisional. Its facsimile detail is retained in the main edition, and no certain technical expansion has been adopted.