Alchemy discussion forum > Alchemical Symbolism and Imagery > Alchemy Symbolism and Imagery > Mysterious characters on a Barchusen engraving
Alchemy discussion forum > Alchemical Symbolism and Imagery > Alchemy Symbolism and Imagery > Mysterious characters on a Barchusen engraving |
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adammclean Member 
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The first engraving in J.C Barchusen's Elementa Chemicae, 1719, has at its centre a stylised Divine or cosmic cloud. In the centre of this is what appears to be a four lettered word. I always have read that as "mens", but obviously this was just my brain correcting the jumble of characters. A contact has asked me to read these characters but having puzzled a bit over this I find it impossible to come to a clear solution. The nearest I can get is to read the character on the right as a stylised "yod", followed by a "heh", then an obscure character, and another stylised "heh". However, I feel this is rather stretching what can be seen on the engraving. Barchusen's engraver does not seem to be familiar with Hebrew and makes a bit of a mess of some other Hebrew in the engraving. I wonder if anyone can make sense of this. Attached Image (viewed 1593 times): |
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Paul Ferguson Member 
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See about a third of the way down this page for plate 78 of the same text (in a different edition?), which seems to shed some light: http://www.nachtkabarett.com/SmashingPumpkins/Machina/ArtworkXI-XVI?PHPSESSID=0230070a279a322541081a6b26f7c27a = Hebrew word for love: AHAVA???? Attached Image (viewed 1594 times): Last edited on Tue Feb 3rd, 2009 01:28 am by Paul Ferguson |
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