Planetary Characters of Bartolomeus Cocles

Thanks to the dilligent work of Joseph Peterson, we were made aware of the planetary characters used by Bartolomeus Cocles in his Chyromantie ac phisionomie anastasis the most likely source of Agrippa s characters.

Any rocket scientist will figure out that Agrippa mirrored them. Most likely this is a typographical error. We ll see in a future article which copy was used for reproducing the seals, or ar least what book was used by the die cutter.  These symbols then became some of the most circulated and widely used characters, to this day, in basically every  grimoire penned after the Occult Philosophy. 

There are two sets of images from this work: One set, named here B(artholomeus)C(ocles)1 is extracted from the 1504 Edition  which is the same used by Joseph Peterson. The other set, BC2, is extracted from the 1517 Edition which has the exact signs as the 1523 Edition (also here). The two differ slightly, and the differences have been noted at each one. 

Saturn BC1

Saturn BC2

Notes: Character 1 begins with a weak loop that slims down to a dot in BC1, which is lost in BC2. Character 4 ends with a separated 5-looking figure in the new set, while in the old set  the line is joined into an A-shape. 

Jupiter BC1

Jupiter BC2

Notes: Character 1 has the dash united with the lower part in the BC1. Character 7 switches the elongated part of the 3-shape.  Characters 9-10 could be one sign printed badly, but this is oddly apparent more in the newer rather than the older version. 

Mars BC1

Mars BC2

Notes: Character 1 is asymetrical in BC1. Character 5 is entirelly mirrored horizontally. 

SunBC1

Sun BC2

Notes: Characters 2 and three seem separate in BC1 and almost linked in BC2. Character 10 appears disjointed in BC2 due to a flaw.

Venus BC1

Venus BC2

Notes: Character 1 seems disjointed in BC1. 

Mercury BC1

Mercury BC2

Notes: Character 1 slants to the right in BC1. Character 2 is seemingly ended in a circle but close examination yielded a tight but free end, like BC2. The same goes for character 5. 

Moon BC1

Moon BC2

Notes: Character one is more curved in BC2. Character 4 has an S-shaped curl, unlike its C-shaped predecessor. 

I know, it s fabulous and fascinating.

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