''Monas Hieroglyphica'' (or ''The Hieroglyphic Monad'') is a book by
John Dee, the Elizabethan
magus
Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin '' magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius th ...
and court
astrologer of
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
Eli ...
, published in Antwerp in 1564. It is an exposition of the meaning of an
esoteric
Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas ...
symbol that he invented.
Reception and influence
The book received little notice in English sources, though it is praised in the 1591 edition of
George Ripley George Ripley may refer to:
* George Ripley (alchemist) (died 1490), English author and alchemist
*George Ripley (transcendentalist)
George Ripley (October 3, 1802 – July 4, 1880) was an American social reformer, Unitarian minister, and journ ...
's ''The Compound of Alchymy'' as well as in
Elias Ashmole
Elias Ashmole (; 23 May 1617 – 18 May 1692) was an English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer and student of alchemy. Ashmole supported the royalist side during the English Civil War, and at the restoration of Charles II he ...
’s ''Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum'' (1652). A number of references appear in other languages, for example,
Jean-Jacques Manget’s ''Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa'' (1702) and
Lazarus Zetzner’s ''Theatrum Chemicum'' (1602; 1659–1661); the latter reproduces the ''Monas Hieroglyphica'' in its entirety.
Gerard Dorn's ''Judgement of the Spagiric Art of Johann Trithemius'' contains terms and phrases based on the ''Monas'', and his commentary on the ''Tractatus Aureus'' references the words ("Vulgaris, Hic, Oculus caligabit, diffidetque plurimum") accompanying a figure in the ''Monas'', saying "with the eyes of the mind, for the vulgar eye, as John Dee of London says, will here find fault and be most distrustful." Peter Forshaw suggests that it is likely that Dorn's use of the same line and circle figure in his ''Monarchia Physica or Monarchia Triadis, in Unitate'' (1577) is a reference to the figure in Dee. It is also reproduced in the English logician, mathematician, and medic
Thomas Oliver’s ''De Sophismatum praestigijs cauendis admonitio'' (1604). His further comments in the work suggest that he was also familiar with Dee’s "Mathematicall Praeface" to Billingsley’s translation of ''Euclid’s Elements of Geometrie'' (1570).
Giulio Cesare Capaccio refers to the ''Monas'' in his ''Delle imprese (On devices)'' (1592), paraphrasing content from the preface and mentioning the 'recondite Kabbalistic philosophy’ of 'Giovanni Dee da Londino.' Cesare della Riviera includes Dee's glyph, without attribution, in his ''Il Mondo Magico de gli Heroi'' (1605). The glyph is also reproduced in the ''Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae'' (1595; 1609) of
Heinrich Khunrath
Heinrich Khunrath (c. 1560 – 9 September 1605), or Dr. Henricus Khunrath as he was also called, was a German physician, hermetic philosopher, and alchemist. Frances Yates considered him to be a link between the philosophy of John Dee and ...
, where it is used in a more
alchemical
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...
context.
The glyph was adopted by the
Rosicrucians and appears on a page of the
Rosicrucian Manifesto, ''
The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz
The ''Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz'' (german: Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459) is a German book edited in 1616 in Strasbourg. Its anonymous authorship is attributed to Johann Valentin Andreae. The ''Chymical Weddi ...
'' (1616), beside the text of the invitation to the Royal Wedding given to Rosenkreutz who narrates the work.
Frances Yates
Dame Frances Amelia Yates (28 November 1899 – 29 September 1981) was an English historian of the Renaissance, who wrote books on esoteric history.
After attaining an MA in French at University College London, she began to publish her resear ...
notes that Dee's influence later "spread to
Puritanism
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. P ...
in the New World through
John Winthrop Jr., an
alchemist and a follower of Dee; Winthrop used the 'monas' as his personal mark."
Publications
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English translations
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See also
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Alchemical symbol
Alchemical symbols, originally devised as part of alchemy, were used to denote some elements and some compounds until the 18th century. Although notation like this was mostly standardized, style and symbol varied between alchemists, so this pag ...
*
Astrological symbols
Historically, astrological and astronomical symbols overlapped. Frequently used symbols include signs of the zodiac and classical planets. These originate from medieval Byzantine codices. Their current form is a product of the European Renaissa ...
*
List of occult symbols
The following is a list of symbols associated with the occult. This list shares a number of entries with the list of alchemical symbols as well as the list of sigils of demons.
__TOC__
List
See also
* Iconography
*Planet symbols
A planet s ...
*
Magical formula
In ceremonial magic, a magical formula or a word of power is a word that is believed to have specific supernatural effects. They are words whose meaning illustrates principles and degrees of understanding that are often difficult to relay using ...
*
Renaissance magic
Renaissance magic was a resurgence in Hermeticism and Neo-Platonic varieties of the magical arts which arose along with Renaissance humanism in the 15th and 16th centuries CE. These magical arts (called '' artes magicae'') were divided into sev ...
Notes
References
Citations
Works cited
Primary sources
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Secondary sources
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Further reading
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External links
Monas Hieroglyphicaat Esotericarchives.com
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Monas Hieroglyphicaat the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
{{Authority control
1564 books
Alchemical symbols
Christian Kabbalah
John Dee
Occult books
Magic symbols
Religious symbols
Western esotericism