Monas Hieroglyphica

Different parts of the symbol could be combined to form another symbols.

Understanding the text is difficult because of Dee's Latin wordplay, unexplained capitalization, odd spacing and diacritics. [1]

The symbol is said to be composed of other astrological symbols.

John Dee intended the Monad to incorporate a wide range of mystical and esoteric concepts. This complex symbol was meant to symbolize the unity of all creation, influenced by astrological and planetary forces. Dee believed it held the essence of alchemical transformation and spiritual growth. By meditating on the Monad, he thought to gain insights into hidden knowledge about the universe, transcending language barriers and tapping into profound truths. Overall, Dee's intention was to encapsulate his interconnected worldview, combining elements of astrology, alchemy, mysticism, and metaphysics.

The book received little notice in English sources, though it is praised in the 1591 edition of George Ripley's The Compound of Alchymy[2] as well as in Elias Ashmole’s Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum (1652).[3] A number of references appear in other languages, for example, Jean-Jacques Manget’s Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa (1702)[4] and Lazarus Zetzner’s Theatrum Chemicum (1602; 1659–1661);[5] the latter reproduces the Monas Hieroglyphica in its entirety.[6]

Gerard Dorn's Judgement of the Spagiric Art of Johann Trithemius[lower-alpha 1] 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,[7] 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."[lower-alpha 2] 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)[lower-alpha 3] 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).[8] 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).[9]

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.'[10] Cesare della Riviera includes Dee's glyph, without attribution,[11] in his Il Mondo Magico de gli Heroi (1605).[12] The glyph is also reproduced in the Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae (1595; 1609) of Heinrich Khunrath, where it is used in a more alchemical context.[13]

The glyph was adopted by the Rosicrucians and appears on a page of the Rosicrucian Manifesto, The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz (1616), beside the text of the invitation to the Royal Wedding given to Rosenkreutz who narrates the work. Frances Yates notes that Dee's influence later "spread to Puritanism in the New World through John Winthrop Jr., an alchemist and a follower of Dee; Winthrop used the 'monas' as his personal mark."[14]

• Dee, John (1564). Monas Hieroglyphica (in Latin). Antwerp: Willem Silvius.
• Dee, John (1602). "Monas Hieroglyphica". In Zentner, L. (ed.). Theatrum Chemicum (in Latin). Vol. II (first ed.). pp. 203–43.
• Dee, John (1659). "Monas Hieroglyphica". In Zentner, L. (ed.). Theatrum Chemicum (in Latin). Vol. II (2nd ed.). pp. 178–215.
• Dee, John (2003). Monas Hieroglyphica (in Latin) (facsimile ed.). Kessinger Publishing Co. ISBN 0-7661-4744-4.

• Agrippa code
• Alchemical symbol
• Astrological symbols
• List of occult symbols
• Magical formula
• Monism
• Renaissance magic

• Cavallaro, Frederico (2006). "The Alchemical Significance of John Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica". In Clucas, Stephen (ed.). John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought. Springer Netherlands. p. 159 ff. ISBN 978-1402042461.
• Clucas, S. (2010). "Pythagorean Number Symbolism, Alchemy, and the Disciplina Noua of John Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica". Aries. 10 (2): 149–167. doi:10.1163/156798910X520575.
• Clucas, S. (2017). "The Royal Typographer and the Alchemist: John Dee, Willem Silvius, and the Diagrammatic Alchemy of the Monas Hieroglyphica" (PDF). Ambix. 64 (2): 140–156. doi:10.1080/00026980.2017.1356972. PMID 28795645. S2CID 40198696.
• Clulee, N. H. (2005). "The Monas Hieroglyphica and the Alchemical Thread of John Dee's Career". Ambix. 52 (3): 197–215. doi:10.1179/000269805X77763. S2CID 170109851.
• Craven, J. B. (1975). "John Dee's Hieroglyphic Monad as Symbol of Unity". Ambix. 22 (2): 97–102.
• Gingerich, W. (2010). "The Hieroglyphic Monad: Politics and Esotericism in John Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica". Aries. 10 (2): 149–175.
• Harkness, D. (1999). "John Dee's Hieroglyphic Monad: Language, Writing, and Revelation". Aries. 1 (1): 49–61.
• Mertens, M. (2017). "Willem Silvius: "Typographical Parent" of John Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica". Ambix. 64 (2): 175–189. doi:10.1080/00026980.2017.1355594. PMID 28782458. S2CID 22614245.
• Norrgrén, H. (2005). "Interpretation and the Hieroglyphic Monad: John Dee's Reading of Pantheus's Voarchadumia". Ambix. 52 (3): 217–245. doi:10.1179/000269805X77781. S2CID 170087190.
• Szonyi, G. E. (2010). John Dee's Occultism: Magical Exaltation Through Powerful Signs. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0791484425.
• Szulakowska, U. (2000). The Alchemy of Light: Geometry and Optics in Late Renaissance Alchemical Illustration. Boston: Brill. ISBN 978-9004116900.
• Vanden Broecke, S. (2017). "The Ideal of a Knowledge Society in Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica (1564) and Other Productions by Willem Silvius". Ambix. 64 (2): 157–174. doi:10.1080/00026980.2017.1353230. hdl:1854/LU-8511611. PMID 28782424.

• Monas Hieroglyphica at Esotericarchives.com
• Monas Hieroglyphica at the Internet Archive
• Monas Hieroglyphica at the Library of Congress