Occult Alphabets / 02Esoteric alphabets
Before they were tools of communication, many scripts were keepers of mysteries. This section tells the story of the esoteric alphabets of the West and the Mediterranean: from the ring-shaped charaktêres of the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri to the secret letters of Hildegard of Bingen, from the Theban alphabet published by Trithemius and Agrippa to the celestial and angelic scripts of the Renaissance, and on to the Enochian language received by John Dee and Edward Kelley. Beside these stand the signs of the alchemists, the magic squares of the planets, the characters of the grimoires, the cipher of the Masonic lodges, the legend of the Templar alphabet, the riddle of the Voynich manuscript and the invented letters of Utopia. Each article reconstructs the documented history of a script, pointing to works, authors, dates and manuscripts, and carefully distinguishes facts from the legendary attributions that often accompany them. What emerges is a fascinating journey through learning, faith and imagination, in which every sign tells of the human desire to draw near to the sacred through writing.
Ж-01 · 3 minThe Theban alphabet: the letters attributed to Honorius of Thebes
History of the Theban alphabet: from Trithemius's Polygraphia to Agrippa's De occulta philosophia and on to twentieth-century modern witchcraft.
Ж-02 · 3 minTrithemius, the abbot who hid secrets among the angels
Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Sponheim: the Steganographia placed on the Index, the 1518 Polygraphia and the border between angel magic and cryptography.
Ж-03 · 3 minAgrippa's celestial script: letters drawn from the stars
The celestial alphabet of De occulta philosophia: twenty-two Hebrew letters redrawn as constellations, and the idea of a sky to be read like a book.
Ж-04 · 3 minMalachim, the script of angels or of kings
Malachim in Agrippa's De occulta philosophia: origin of the name, its link with the Hebrew alphabet and its use on Renaissance seals and talismans.
Ж-05 · 3 minPassing the River: the story of an alphabet with a biblical name
Agrippa's Passing the River (Transitus fluvii): the origin of the name, its relation to Hebrew and the fortune of this alphabet in later centuries.
Ж-06 · 3 minThe Enochian alphabet of John Dee and Edward Kelley
The twenty-one angelic letters received by John Dee and Edward Kelley in the 1580s: their names, shapes, surviving manuscripts and history.
Ж-07 · 3 minThe Enochian language and the Angelic Keys of Kraków
The Angelic Keys dictated to Dee and Kelley in 1584: the structure of the Enochian language, its grammar, the debate on its nature and its later fortune.
Ж-08 · 3 minThe Alphabet of the Magi and the name of Paracelsus
The Alphabet of the Magi attributed to Paracelsus: what the Swiss physician really wrote about seals, and how Paul Christian spread the script in the 1800s.
Ж-09 · 3 minCharaktêres: the ring signs of the Greek magical papyri
The charaktêres of the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri: signs ending in small circles, used on amulets, gems and lead tablets in late antiquity.
Ж-10 · 3 minIbn Wahshiyya and the book of ancient alphabets
The Kitab shawq al-mustaham attributed to Ibn Wahshiyya: an Arabic treatise on ancient and magical alphabets, translated into English in London in 1806.
Ж-11 · 3 minThe Litterae ignotae of Hildegard of Bingen
The twenty-three secret letters invented by Hildegard of Bingen in the twelfth century: their forms, manuscripts, purpose and link with the Lingua ignota.
Ж-12 · 3 minThe Lingua ignota: an abbess's secret glossary
Hildegard of Bingen's Lingua ignota: over a thousand invented words, from the name of God to those of plants, and their use in a liturgical chant.
Ж-13 · 3 minThe writing of the alchemists: signs for metals, planets and elements
Alchemical symbols from the Greek manuscripts of Byzantium to Lavoisier and Berzelius: how alchemists wrote down metals, substances and operations.
Ж-14 · 3 minVoarchadumia: Venetian alchemy and the letters of Enoch
The Voarchadumia of Giovanni Agostino Pantheo, printed in Venice in 1530: the alchemy of metals, Kabbalah and an alphabet attributed to the patriarch Enoch.
Ж-15 · 3 minThe Masonic cipher: grids, dots and hidden letters
History of the Masonic cipher known as pigpen: from Agrippa's grids to the lodges of the eighteenth century and the gravestone at Trinity Church, New York.
Ж-16 · 3 minThe Templar alphabet: the story of a modern legend
The supposed cipher alphabet of the Knights Templar based on the eight-pointed cross: what medieval documents say and how the legend came about.
Ж-17 · 3 minThe script of the Voynich manuscript: an alphabet without a key
The script of the Voynich manuscript (Beinecke MS 408): radiocarbon dating, the history of the codex, features of the signs and attempts at reading.
Ж-18 · 3 minThe alphabet of Utopia: Thomas More's invented letters
The Utopian alphabet published in the first edition of Utopia (Louvain, 1516): its letters, the quatrain in the Utopian tongue and the role of Pieter Gillis.
Ж-19 · 3 minThe characters of the grimoires: seals, signs and spirit signatures
Magical characters in medieval and early modern grimoires: Picatrix, Liber iuratus, the Key of Solomon, Arbatel and the Lemegeton, history and symbolism.
Ж-20 · 3 minMagic squares of the planets: numbers that become seals
The magic squares of the seven planets in Agrippa's De occulta philosophia, seals derived from numbers, and the square of Jupiter in Dürer's Melencolia I.