[Abraham Eleazar. Abraham Juif Prince, pretre, leui…]

Abraham Eleazar. Abraham Juif Prince, pretre, leuite astrologue et Philosophe, a la nation des Juifs repandüe dans toute la Gaule par la colere de Dieu. Salut en Notre seigneur Jesus Christ. Liure des figures hierogliphiques auec l'explication des fables des Poetes, des misteres du christianisme; de la chimie, et de la Pharmacie suiuant les nombres. 18th century.
13 extremely fine watercolour illustrations of the hieroglyphic figures of Nicholas Flamel are inserted upon vellum after folios 3, 8, 11, 16, 27, 33, 40, 45, 88, 98, 110, 114, 143. One of these illustrations shows the Massacre of the Innocents; it closely resembles a drawing from a manuscript in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal which is reproduced in vol. 1 of Le moyen âge et la Renaissance, ed. Paul Lacroix, Paris, 1848, whereas the illustration of the same scene in Uraltes Chymisches Werk, 1735, bears only a slight resemblance to the drawing in the Bibliothéque de l'Arsenal manuscript. The illustration of Jezoth le Juste fairly closely resembles that reproduced in Jung's Collected Works, vol. 14, pl. 3, from Bibliothèque Nationale MS. Fr. 14765. 'In the eighteenth century an allegedly Jewish treatise appeared, making copious use of Hebraic terminology and claiming to be the mysterious "Rindenbuch" of Abraham the Jew, which, it was said, had revealed the art of gold-making to Nicholas Flamel (1330-1417). The MS is said to have been in the possession of Cardinal Richelieu. The story goes that Flamel bought the treatise, which was written on sheets of bark, for two florins from an unknown person. It is a late forgery from the beginning of the eighteenth century.' - C.G. Jung, Collected Works, vol. 14, p. 410. The manuscript is written in an eighteenth-century hand on paper made in France in the early eighteenth century and consists mainly of 'explication des emblêmes.' The textual content differs from that of Uraltes Chymisches Werk.

Access is open, however an appointment may be required. Please email Archives and Special Collections for advice: library-asc@glasgow.ac.uk

See also University of Glasgow Collections