Latin — 1533, repaired
[†Dedit] Deus homini mentem atque sermonem, quae (ut ait Mercurius Trismegistus) eiusdem virtutis, potentiae atque immortalitatis praemium censentur. Sermonem vero hominum ipse omnipotens Deus sua providentia in diversas linguas divisit; quae quidem linguae iuxta suam diversitatem etiam diversos ac proprios receperunt scripturae characteres, suo quodam certo ordine, numero et figura constantes — non fortuito, nec casu, nec fragili hominum arbitrio, sed divinitus sic dispositos atque formatos, quo cum caelestibus atque ipsis divinis corporibus virtutibusque consentiant.
Prae omnibus vero linguarum notis, Hebraeorum scriptura omnium sacratissima est, in figuris characterum, punctis vocalium et apicibus accentuum: veluti in materia, forma et spiritu consistens. In sede Dei, quod caelum est, siderum positione primum exarata; ad quarum figuram, ut testantur Hebraeorum magistri, sunt formatae ipsae literae — mysteriorum caelestium plenissime, cum per eorum figuram et formam significata, tum per numeros in illis significatos, tum per earundem variam colligantem harmoniam.
Unde secretiores Hebraeorum Cabalistae, ex literarum illarum figura et charactere, formis earundemque signatura, simplicitate, compositione, separatione, tortuositate, directione, defectu, abundantia, maioritate, minoritate, coronatione, apertura, clausura, ordine, transmutatione, colligantia, revolutione literarum et punctorum et apicum, ac supputatione numerorum per literas significatorum, omnia explicare promittunt: quomodo a prima causa profecta sunt, et rursus in eandem reducibilia.
Insuper autem partiuntur Hebraei alphabeti sui literas, videlicet in duodecim simplices, septem duplices, et tres matres — quas tanquam characteres rerum significare dicunt duodecim signa, septem planetas, et tria elementa, videlicet ignem, aquam, terram (nam aer non elementum, sed velut elementorum glutinum et spiritum habet). His etiam puncta et apices coordinant.
Sicut itaque ex planetarum et signorum aspectibus, simul cum elementis, opifice spiritu et veritate, omnia producta sunt et producuntur — ita ex his literarum characteribus et punctis illa producta significantibus constituuntur rerum omnium nomina, veluti sacramenta quaedam et vehicula rerum explicatarum, illarum essentiam et vires ubique secum ferentia.
Horum profunda sensa et sacramenta in characteribus illis illorumque figuris, numeris, situ, ordine et revolutione inhaerent; ut Origenes idcirco existimet ea nomina, in aliud idioma traducta, propriam vim minime retinere — quia non retineant suam naturalem significationem: sola enim nomina primaria, quae sunt recte imposita, quia significant naturaliter, activitatem habent naturalem; non sic est de his quae significant ad placitum, quae activitatem non habent ut significativa, sed ut in se res quaedam naturales.
Si qua autem est lingua prima et causalis, cuius verba habent naturalem significationem, hanc constat esse Hebraicam; cuius ordinem qui profunde et radicaliter tenuerit, atque illius literas proportionabiliter revolvere noverit, cuiuscunque idiomatis perfecte inveniendi normam et regulam habebit.
Sunt itaque viginti duae literae fundamentum mundi et omnium creaturarum quae sunt et nominantur in eo, et omne dictum, et omne creatum, ex illis sunt, et ex earum revolutionibus nomen, et esse, et virtutem sortiuntur. Oportet autem illarum investigatorem per singulas literarum combinationes tam diu discurrere, quousque pateat vox Dei, et apertus se sese offerat sacratissimarum literarum textus: hinc enim voces et verba in magicis operibus efficacia habent, quia illud in quo primum magicam exercet natura, vox est Dei. Sed haec altioris speculationis existunt, quam ut in hoc libro tractanda veniant.
Sed ad literarum partitionem redeamus. Harum apud Hebraeos tres matres sunt, videlicet: א מ ש. Septem duplices, videlicet: ב ג ד כ פ ר ת. Reliquae duodecim, videlicet: ה ו ז ח ט י ל נ ס ע צ ק, simplices sunt.
Par ratio apud Chaldaeos est. Ad harum imitationem etiam caeterarum linguarum literae signis et planetis atque elementis suo quodam ordine distribuuntur. Nam ex Graecis, [†septem litterae], septem planetis respondent; [†duodecim litterae] duodecim signis zodiaci attribuuntur; caeterae [†tres/quattuor litterae] quattuor elementa et mundi spiritum repraesentant.
Apud Latinos vero haec eadem, sed alio ordine, significantur: nam vocales quinque, A E I O V, atque I et V consonantes, septem planetis adscribuntur. Consonantes vero B C D F G L M N P R S T praesunt duodecim signis. Caeterae, scilicet H K Q X Z, quattuor faciunt elementa; H, aspiratio, mundi spiritum repraesentat. Y, quia Graecus et non Latinus character est, et Graecis verbis solum inserviens, sui idiomatis sequitur naturam.
Verum illud non est ignorandum, Hebraeas literas compertum a sapientibus omnium esse efficacissimas, quia habent similitudinem maximam cum caelestibus et mundo; caeterarum vero linguarum literas tantam efficaciam non habere, quia ab illis remotius distant. Harum vero dispositiones sequens tabella explicabit.
[†TABELLA: correspondence table of the twenty-two Hebrew letters with their Greek, Latin, and Chaldean equivalents and their zodiacal/planetary/elemental attributions. The table's character-glyph columns are almost entirely illegible in this OCR pass — see flags below, itemized by row. Re-keying from page images required before this table can be trusted for any practical or publishing use.]
Sunt insuper et alia literarum cum numeris mysteriosa coniugia; sed de his omnibus in sequentibus libris abunde disserentes, huic priori libro hic finem imponemus.
Close translation
God gave to man mind and speech, which (as Mercurius Trismegistus says) are reckoned the reward of that same power, capacity, and immortality. But the speech of men, almighty God himself, by his providence, divided into different languages; and these languages, according to their own diversity, also received different and proper characters of writing, standing in a certain fixed order, number, and shape of their own — not by chance, nor by accident, nor by the frail judgment of men, but arranged and formed thus by divine agency, so that they agree with the celestial things and with the divine bodies themselves and their powers.
Now before all the notations of languages, the writing of the Hebrews is the most sacred of all — in the shapes of its characters, the points of its vowels, and the marks of its accents — consisting, as it were, of matter, form, and spirit. It was first set out in the seat of God, that is, the sky, according to the position of the stars; and to the figure of these, as the masters of the Hebrews attest, the letters themselves were shaped — most fully full of celestial mysteries, both through what is signified by their figure and form, and through the numbers signified in them, and through the varied harmony that binds them together.
Whence the more secret Cabalists of the Hebrews, from the figure and character of those letters, the shapes and marking of the same, their simplicity, composition, separation, crookedness, direction, defect, abundance, greaterness, lesserness, crowning, opening, closing, order, transmutation, binding-together, and the revolution of letters and points and marks, and the reckoning of the numbers signified through the letters, promise to explain everything: how things proceeded from the first cause, and are again reducible into that same cause.
Moreover the Hebrews divide the letters of their alphabet, namely into twelve simple, seven double, and three mothers — which they say signify, as it were characters of things, the twelve signs, the seven planets, and the three elements, namely fire, water, earth (for air is not an element but has, as it were, the glue and spirit of the elements). To these also they assign points and marks.
Just as, then, from the aspects of the planets and signs, together with the elements, by the crafting spirit and by truth, all things have been produced and are produced — so out of these characters of letters and the points signifying those produced things are constituted the names of all things, as it were certain sacraments and vehicles of the things unfolded, carrying everywhere with them the essence and powers of those things.
The deep meanings and sacraments of these things inhere in those characters and their figures, numbers, position, order, and revolution — so that Origen, for this reason, holds that those names, translated into another tongue, retain their proper force not at all, because they do not retain their natural signification: for only the primary names, which are rightly imposed because they signify naturally, have a natural activity; it is not so with those which signify by convention, which have no activity as significant things, but only as, in themselves, certain natural things.
But if there is any first and causal language, whose words have a natural signification, it is agreed that this is Hebrew — whoever holds its order deeply and at the root, and knows how to revolve its letters proportionably, will have the norm and rule for perfectly discovering any language whatsoever.
The twenty-two letters, then, are the foundation of the world and of all creatures that are and are named in it; and every utterance, and everything created, comes from them, and from their revolutions obtains its name, and being, and power. Now the one who investigates them must run through the individual combinations of the letters for so long, until the voice of God lies open, and the text of the most sacred letters offers itself openly — for from this, voices and words have efficacy in magical works, because that in which nature first exercises magic is the voice of God. But these things belong to a higher speculation than can be treated in this book.
But let us return to the division of the letters. Among the Hebrews there are three mothers, namely: Aleph, Mem, Shin. Seven double letters, namely: Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Pe, Resh, Tav. The remaining twelve, namely: He, Vav, Zayin, Heth, Teth, Yod, Lamed, Nun, Samekh, Ayin, Tsade, Qoph, are simple.
The same reckoning holds among the Chaldeans. In imitation of these, the letters of the other languages too are distributed, in a certain order of their own, among the signs and planets and elements. For among the Greeks, [†seven letters] correspond to the seven planets; [†twelve letters] are attributed to the twelve signs of the zodiac; the remaining [†letters] represent the four elements and the spirit of the world.
Among the Latins, however, these same things are signified, but in another order: for the five vowels, A E I O U, together with I and V as consonants, are assigned to the seven planets. The consonants B C D F G L M N P R S T govern the twelve signs. The remaining ones, namely H K Q X Z, make up the four elements; H, the aspirate, represents the spirit of the world. Y, since it is a Greek and not a Latin character, and serves only Greek words, follows the nature of its own language.
But this must not be overlooked: it is found by the wise, of all peoples, that the Hebrew letters are the most efficacious, because they bear the greatest likeness to the celestial things and to the world; whereas the letters of the other languages do not have so great an efficacy, because they stand more remotely from those things. The arrangements of these the following table will explain.
[†TABLE OF CORRESPONDENCES — see flags: the table listing the twenty-two Hebrew letters against their Greek, Latin, and Chaldean equivalents, and their attributions to zodiac signs, planets, and elements, is present in the source but its character-glyph columns are almost entirely unreadable in this OCR pass. What is legible is limited to a partial sequence of Latin letter-name row-headers — B, D, Z, K, T(?), M, N, S/P(?), R, S, T, A, H(?), E, G, O, C, Y/J, and rows apparently labeled Terra, Aqua, Aer, Ignis, Spiritus for the four elements and spirit of the world. The actual Hebrew, Greek, and Chaldean character glyphs, and the specific zodiac-sign/planet attribution in each cell, cannot be read from this OCR pass and must not be guessed. See itemized flags.]
There are, besides, other mysterious pairings of letters with numbers; but discoursing on all these at length in the following books, we will impose an end here on this prior book.
Modern rendering
God gave humanity mind and speech, and Hermes Trismegistus says these count as the reward of that same power, capacity, and immortality. But Almighty God himself, in his providence, divided human speech into different languages — and each language, matching its own distinct character, also received its own distinct written characters, fixed in a definite order, number, and shape. That wasn't chance or accident or some fragile human decision — these were arranged and shaped by divine design, so that they'd be in harmony with the heavens, with the divine bodies themselves, and with their powers.
Of all the world's written scripts, Hebrew is the most sacred — in the shapes of its letters, its vowel-points, and its accent marks, it holds together like something with matter, form, and spirit all at once. It was first laid out in God's own seat, the sky, following the positions of the stars, and the Hebrew masters attest that the letters themselves were shaped to match those star-patterns. They're saturated with celestial meaning — through what their shape and form signify, through the numbers encoded in them, and through the intricate harmony that binds them all together.
That's why the more esoteric Hebrew Kabbalists claim they can explain everything about how things proceeded from the First Cause and can be traced back to it again, just from the shape and character of those letters — their form, their notation, whether they're simple or compound, separated, curved, oriented one way or another, deficient or overfull, larger or smaller, crowned, open or closed, in what order, transmuted, bound together, and from the cycling of letters, points, and marks, and the numerical values the letters carry.
The Hebrews also divide the letters of their alphabet into twelve simple letters, seven double letters, and three "mothers" — and they say these function like symbolic markers for the twelve zodiac signs, the seven planets, and the three elements: fire, water, and earth (air isn't counted as an element on its own — it functions more like the glue and animating spirit that holds the elements together). They coordinate vowel-points and accent-marks with these same categories.
Just as everything that exists was and is produced out of the aspects of the planets and signs, together with the elements, through the working spirit and through truth — in the same way, the names of all things are built out of these letter-shapes and the points that mark what they signify. Names function like sacraments, like vehicles carrying the essence and power of the things they name wherever they go.
The deep meanings and sacred content of names live in those letter-shapes, their numbers, their placement, order, and cycling — which is why Origen concluded that a name translated into another language loses its real power, because it no longer carries its natural meaning. Only names that were assigned correctly in the first place — ones that signify naturally — carry real natural force. Names that signify only by convention don't act as meaningful things in themselves; they're just natural objects that happen to also be used as labels.
If there is a first, causal language — one whose words carry natural meaning rather than conventional meaning — everyone agrees it's Hebrew. Anyone who grasps its structure deeply, down to the root, and knows how to work through its letters systematically, will have the key to fully decoding any language at all.
The twenty-two Hebrew letters are the foundation of the world and of everything that exists and is named in it. Everything spoken and everything created comes from them, and gets its name, its existence, and its power from how those letters combine and recombine. Anyone investigating this has to work through every possible combination of the letters, for as long as it takes, until God's own voice becomes visible and the text of the most sacred letters opens itself up plainly — because that's the source of why words and voices have real power in magical work: the thing through which nature first practices magic is the voice of God. But that's a deeper subject than this book can get into.
Let's get back to how the letters are divided. Among the Hebrews there are three "mother" letters: Aleph, Mem, Shin. Seven "double" letters: Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Pe, Resh, Tav. The remaining twelve are "simple": He, Vav, Zayin, Heth, Teth, Yod, Lamed, Nun, Samekh, Ayin, Tsade, Qoph.
The Chaldeans follow the same scheme. Modeling themselves on this, the alphabets of other languages are also assigned, each in its own particular order, to the zodiac signs, the planets, and the elements. Among the Greeks, [†seven letters] correspond to the seven planets, [†twelve letters] are assigned to the twelve zodiac signs, and the rest stand for the four elements and the spirit of the world.
Among the Latins the same scheme applies but in a different order: the five vowels A E I O U, along with I and V used as consonants, are assigned to the seven planets. The consonants B C D F G L M N P R S T govern the twelve signs. The rest — H K Q X Z — make up the four elements, with H, the aspirate, standing for the spirit of the world. Y isn't really a Latin letter at all — it's Greek, used only in Greek loanwords, so it follows Greek's own rules rather than Latin's.
One thing worth stressing: wise observers everywhere have found Hebrew letters to be the most powerful of all, because they resemble the heavens and the structure of the world most closely. Letters from other languages don't carry the same force, because they're further removed from those celestial patterns. The table that follows sets out exactly how this correspondence works.
[†CORRESPONDENCE TABLE — flagged as a block, not translated cell-by-cell: the source table maps the twenty-two Hebrew letters to their Greek, Latin, and Chaldean counterparts and to specific zodiac-sign, planet, or element assignments. In this OCR pass, the actual character glyphs in nearly every column are unreadable — rendered as scattered symbols, not real Hebrew, Greek, or Chaldean letterforms. The only things legible with any confidence are a partial run of Latin row-labels (letters B, D, Z, K, apparent T, M, N, an S/P-like mark, R, S, T, A, an uncertain H, E, G, O, C, and a Y/J-like mark) and five element/spirit row-labels that read clearly: Terra (earth), Aqua (water), Aer (air), Ignis (fire), and Spiritus (spirit). No specific letter-to-sign or letter-to-planet pairing in this table should be trusted from this pass — every cell needs re-keying against page images.]
There are also other mysterious pairings of letters with numbers, but we'll discuss all of that at length in the books that follow — here we'll bring this first book to a close.
Editorial flags — draft status
- uncertain: Opening verb 'Edit' → reconstructed '[†Dedit]' (dropcap loss); could alternatively be a decapitated 'Tradidit' or similar — sense (God gave/imparted mind and speech) is secure from context but exact verb is not certain
- uncertain: 'Mecubales' (OCR) — rendered as 'Cabalistae' in translation for clarity; the underlying term is a period Latinization of Hebrew mequbbalim and its exact intended spelling/form in Agrippa's original is not independently verified here
- table: CELL-LEVEL: the seven Hebrew 'double' letters listed as ב ג ד כ פ ר ת (beth, gimel, daleth, kaph, pe, resh, tav) — this is standard Kabbalistic doctrine (matches Sefer Yetzirah) and is very likely what Agrippa intended, but the actual glyphs in the source OCR are illegible garbage characters, NOT read from the page. Flag for re-keying against page image before publishing this list as a transcription rather than a doctrinal inference.
- table: CELL-LEVEL: the twelve Hebrew 'simple' letters listed as ה ו ז ח ט י ל נ ס ע צ ק — same caveat as above: doctrinally standard, but not actually legible in this OCR pass. Flag for re-keying.
- table: CELL-LEVEL: the three Hebrew 'mother' letters listed as א מ ש (aleph, mem, shin) — same caveat: doctrinally standard (fire/water/air mothers in Sefer Yetzirah), not legible in OCR. Flag for re-keying.
- table: The specific Greek letters assigned to the seven planets, twelve signs, and elements/world-spirit are ILLEGIBLE in the OCR ('e h io v', 'Br4ZKAM riprT', 'xrquatuor...' are garbage strings, not readable Greek). Left as [†] placeholders in both Latin and translations rather than guessed. This is a high-consequence gap — do not infer standard Greek isopsephy/planetary-letter schemes here without checking the actual page image, since Agrippa's specific assignment could differ from generic Greek numerology conventions.
- table: The main correspondence TABLE (source lines listing single Latin letters B, D, Z, K, G/T, M, N, P/S, R, S, T, A, H, E, G, O, C, Y/J followed by strings of glyph-like symbols, plus rows Terra/Aqua/Aer/Ignis/Spiritus) is almost entirely illegible below the row-header level. The row headers (Latin letter names and the five element/spirit labels) are legible with reasonable confidence. The glyph columns that should contain the corresponding Hebrew, Greek, and Chaldean characters, and any zodiac-sign or planet symbol in each cell, are NOT legible and have NOT been transcribed or guessed. This entire table requires full re-keying from page images per spec rule 3 — treat every cell as unverified. A wrong letter/planet/sign pairing here would be the worst-case error for this chapter.
- list: Row-header sequence as best read: B, D, Z, K, [T?], M, N, [P or S?], R, S, T, A, [H?], E, G, O, C, [Y or J?] — order and exact letter identity for the bracketed entries is uncertain and should be checked against the page image, since the OCR extraction shows single stray capital letters interspersed with garbage that may or may not be the actual intended row label
- lacuna: Small residual gaps in the philosophical/Kabbalistic prose passage (the long list of letter-properties: 'simplicitate, compositione, separatione, tortuositate...') are reconstructed with reasonably high confidence from parallel OCR-legible words, but this passage as a whole should be checked against a critical Latin edition given its density of technical terms
- uncertain: Chapter-closing sentence ('Sunt insuper et alia literarum cum numeris mysteriosa coniugia...huic priori libro hic finem imponemus') is the explicit close of Book I in Agrippa's text — confirmed structurally by the fact that this is the last chapter in the source dataset and is immediately followed (in the raw OCR) by the dedicatory epistle opening Book II. High confidence this is authentic, not a flag on content, noted here only to record why the epistle was excluded.