Seals and Characters

in Ms.Pal.Lat.1196

Mihai Vârtejaru
mihai.vartejaru@gmail.com

Originally published on 29.01.2019 at

https://studies-vartejaru.blogspot.com/2019/01/seals-and-
characters-from-pallat1196.html

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For further information on this manuscript, see the main
article. I have omitted the simple astrological and mantical
diagrams, that can be considered simple geometrical
constructions because they bare no importance to the study of
image and seal magic.
Although interesting, I have also omitted the characters in the
Lapidarius (15v-24v) because they are small, unclear and often
hard to separate and discern from the text and its scribal notae.

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 1. De Quattor Annulis Salomonis

1.The first ring. fol. 1v

2.The second ring. fol. 1v (left image partially absconded by a

strip of hanji paper meant as mend most likely)

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3.The third ring. fol. 2r

4.The fourth ring. fol. 2r

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 2. Belenus: De imaginibus planetarum
Fol.3v.
Although the library`s list of contents place this sequence of
signs right between two tracts titled De Imaginibus Planetarum,
there seem to be a lot more sections quoting different authors:
Belenus, Hermes, Thebeyth, Bolen, signs occur, then Hermes
again and three times Theozgrecus.

1.The image of the Moon and its characters:

2.The image of Jupiter and its characters:

3.The image of the Venus and its characters:

4.The image of Saturn and its characters:

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 5.The image of the Sun and its characters:

6.The image of Mars and its characters:

7.The image of Mercury and its characters:

To be identified, most probably different version of the Mercury

glyph:
1

6
2

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 3.De annulis septem planetarum Salomonis
127v

All the characters are placed in rectangular rubriques, which

have been eliminated. The characters on the ring of Jupiter are
placed last, oriented vertically, and the top part (far right) has
less visibility due to the page`s curve, which I tried to augment.
The order seems odd but it is kept as it is in the manuscript at a
left-to-right reading.

The Ring of Saturn

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 The Ring of Mars

The Ring of Venus

The Ring of Mercury

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The Ring of Saturn Moon

The Ring of Sun

The Ring of Saturn Jupiter

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 4. De annulis septem planetarum Salomonis
127v

After the set of characters above we have another set,

presumably from another tract beginning in the marginalia,
attributed to Solomon, not so neatly drawn and enclosed, but
more hastily written and with great differences in size. The
interesting thing is that we have two sets of characters that are
related: a very close resemblance to the characters in Wellcome
Ms.110 fol 110r and a similarity with the first set of characters
associated to the tables in the Book of Thaytamen, although
mirrored.

1.The Image of the Sun and its characters

2.The Image of Venus and its characters

3.The Image of Mercury and its characters

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4.The Image of the Moon and its characters

5.The Image of Saturn and its characters

6.The Image of the Jupiter and its characters

7.The Image of the Mars and its characters

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5.De annulis septem planetarum Salomonis
128v-r

1. The seal of the Sun

2. The seal of Mercury

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3. The seal of the Moon

1. The seal of Jupiter

5. The seal of Mars

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6. The seal of Saturn

7. The seal of Venus

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 6.De annulis septem planetarum Salomonis
128v-134r

Although listed under the same name, I believe on 128v we have

the start of another tract. The characters lead me to believe that
this is the same treatise found in CLM849 of which I wrote
about here.
Since I don't have a legible text and I`m not inclined at the
moment to make a full transcript of the text, I have not assigned
the characters their signifficants. As far as I can tell, Character
set 1 is Saturn, 2 is Jupiter, etc, but currently that is as far as I
can pinpoint them. The origin is Arabic most assuredly, after the
names of the planets (Zoal, Almusterij, etc). Set 6-12 seem to
be in the same spirit and might be related. Their limitations
might not be precise due to line continuity and their general look
is of Arabic code. Sets 15-17 might be one set. Set 19 is
attributed to Saturn and set 20-21 to the Moon (these have the
characters on the far right partially absconded by the page fold).

Character set 1

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Character set2

Character set 3

Character set 4

Character set 5

Character set 6

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Character set 7

Character set 8

Character set 9

Character set 10

Character set 11

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Character set 12

Character set 13

Character set 14

Character set 15

Character set 16

Character set 17

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Character set 18

Character set 19

Character set 20

Character set 21

Character set 22

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 7.Belenus: De imaginibus planetarum
Fols.165r-v

I have not managed to identify correctly this short text nor the
nature of the characters, but it seems to be another version of a
treatise attributed to Belenus. Except for the first character,
placed outside the text with a manicula, the rest of the 9
characters are inclosed in a rectangular box. They resemble
classical medieval magical characters very little, but do bare a
striking resemblance to hebreao-arabic magical characters with
circlets.

Character No.1

Character No.2

Character No.3

Character No.4

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Character No.5

Character No.6

Character No.7

Character No.8

Character No.9

Character No.10

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 8. Belenus: De imaginibus planetarum
165v

Arabic names corrupted, the classical Arabic transliteration of

the name of the planet is placed in square brackets.

1. Saturn
Zoal .1. [Zuhal]

2. Jupiter
Almustery .2. [Al-Mushtari]

3. Mars
Almerych .3. [Al-Marikh]

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 4. Sun
Ayenis .4. [Ash-Shams]

5. Venus
Azocra .5. Azoera.5. [Az-Zuhra]

6. Mercury
Anchaharich .6. [Awtarid]

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 7. Moon
Alkamus .7. Alkamur .7. [Al-Qamar]

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