The Figures of the Hours of the Night (BSG.MS.3163)

 First of all, a big Thank You to my Patreons, who kept supporting my studies even though visible marks of my work were not apparent. Yes, I kept researching for good content. Yes, I have translated and extracted stuff. Yes, I kept cleaning up old images.   Thank you for sticking around. 

Now then... Earlier this year, a good amount of interesting manuscripts was made available in tremendous quality by the Bibliotheque Sainte Genevieve. 

One of them is a late (17th? 18th? century) translation of the De Viginti Quattuor Horis (Of the 24 Hours), ascribed to Hermes or Balenus.   The work was treated by Ioannis Marathakis in his astounding volume dedicated to the Apotelesmata.

The thing is, the Latin version of this work differs from the Greek. The names of the hours are different and the names of the angels and there are two rectangular seals for each of the 24 hours. This work, along with the seals, is present in the Ghent Manuscript as well as in the Leipzig Collection.

One BSG manuscript, namely MS3163, contains (pp.1-45) a French rendition of this work with partial seals, for the 12 hours of the night, translated from Latin by one Jean Hulet.  

While I will make efforts to transcribe and translate this fragment, I wish to bring to you the seals so far, with their readings, and one mention: these are the original seals and instructions of the Pauline Art.  

Yes, the original version of the Pauline Art was not written by Paul, no, not by Trithemius either, no, the circular astrological seals of the Lemegeton were not the original characters meant to be employed, merely a replacement in lack of any characters since Trithemius did not bother with the seals themselves. 

And yes, Trithemius cites Hermes as a source:

-vt dicit Hermes Hebræus, qui dictus est Salomon, in libro quarto de officiis spirituum (so says Hermes the Hebrew, which is called Salomon, in the fourth book of the offices of spirits.)

-quemadmodum Salomon cognomento Hermes in suo secreto Magicæ testatur. (in this way does Salomon also known by the name of Hermes testify in his Secret of Magic)

 -vt Hermes Hebræus & Raziel Arabs testantur (as Hermes the Hebrew and Raziel the Arab testify)

-Et dicit Salomon Iudæus cognomento Hermes, in libro de natura spirituum (And Salomon the Jew also called Hermes says, in his Book on the Nature of Spirits) 

A volume containing specifficaly the names of the spirits if the hours of the day and night is cited secretum Salomonis, cognominati Hermetis in suo de Magia volumine (the secret of Salomon, also called Hermes, in his volume On Magic).

Trithemius cites such a work in his Antipalus Maleficiorum:

[52] Est porro ex operibus Hermetis liber alius de compositione imaginum, secundum XXIV horas diei et noctis, qui a plerisque Balenitz adscribitur²⁰ sapienti, sed mihi non videtur ejus habere processum. Incipit autem: Dixit Hermes ‘Quicunque voluerit in magnis operationibus’ ( and further of these works there is another book of Hermes on the composition of images, according to the 24 hours of the day and night, also ascribed to the sage Balenitz, but I cannot see it having any finality. It begins thus: So says Hermes: Whomesoever wants in great operations... )

 Since the Lemegeton relies on Trithemius 2 I have chosen to go with the names of the hours and of the angels from T2. Perhaps a later study will include name variants in all Ars Paulina manuscripts. 

This is a side by side comparison of the names contained in our fragment and in the Second book of the Steganographia (with many thanks, as usual, to Joseph Peterson), with the mention that the hour of the night is named first, followed by the governing angel:

Hour	BSG.MS.3163	Trithemius 2
1		Omalharien
	Sahatan	Sabrathan
2		Panezur
	Tartis	Tartys
3		Quabrion
	Serquamith	Serquanich
4		Ramerzy
	Iesischa	Iefischa
5		Sanayfar
	Abasdaron	Abasdarhon
6		Thaazaron
	Zaazenach	Zaazenach
7		Venaydor
	Pelayam	Mendrion
8		Xymalim
	Marcoriel	Narcoriel
9		Zeschar
	Pamiel	Pamyel
10		Malcho
	Lasquaryn	Iasguarim
11		Aalacho
	Dardanariel	Dardariel
12		Xephan
	Sarandiel	Sarandiel

I have done my best to extract the seals, clean them and translate the French description. I also added in parantheses the Legenda, that is, the words contained in the seals, for the sake of legibility). 

Figures of the Hours of the Night 

(pp.36-45)

(1)Figure of the first hour of the night, for enforcing all manners of silencing.

The face of the figure

The back of the figure.

(petras sit mutas, Orifiel, Anael)

(2)Here is the figure of Tartis

The front of the figure

The back of the figure.

(Tartis, Rana, Armayl, Nasiel)

(3) This is the figure of the angel Serquamith

the face of the figure.

the back of the figure.

(Atiel, Serquamith)

(4) Here follows the figure of Iesischa

The face of the figure

The back of the figure

(Belmeniel, Pierre.corde.Anne, Iesischa, Vriel)

(5) Here is the figure of the angel Abasdarhon

The face of the figure

The back of the figure

(Abasdarhon, soit a p~sent ce la fait, Sahatan, baalyn)

(6) Figure of the angel Zaazenach

The front of the figure

The back of the figure

(Zaazenach, DE Ie Lie N. dormant, Sahatan, Bartial, Barucheta)

The rest of the images are in my book. 

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Also, do not steal these images to make keychains and crappy art on Etsy, nor publish them without citing this page as a source. Thank you. If you do otherwise, I will make sure that an angel of wrath will rape your nostrils during the 7th hour of the night, when you ll surely be sleeping. Cheers!