ABSTRACT
The Monas hieroglyphica, published at Antwerp in 1564, is a curious text. The device of the monad (figure 4.1) that appeared on the title-page of the Propaedeumata here becomes the central matter, with the text, as Dee puts it, explicating that hieroglyph ‘mathematically, magically, cabalistically, and anagogically’ (MH, 113/14). 1 In twenty-four quasi-Euclidean ‘theorems’ this device of the Monas is geometrically constructed, and then its disassembled parts, both singly and as variously recombined, are shown to have cosmological, astronomical, numerological, alchemical, magical, and mystically spiritual meanings. As a single symbol, the Monas represented to Dee a powerful hieroglyph revealing the unity of created nature and embodying the unity of knowledge about the unity of creation. Monas hieroglyphica, Dee, Monas hieroglyphica, fol.12 (Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC) https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203083123/841bf10c-0eb9-4179-98dd-a77cd651d55b/content/fig4_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Title page, Monas hieroglyphica, 1564 (By permission of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University) https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203083123/841bf10c-0eb9-4179-98dd-a77cd651d55b/content/fig4_2_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
