Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileSpeculum Cabalae Mysticae (The Mirror of Mystical Kabbalah)
GOD 72 NAMES
About This Work
A complex, circular engraving featuring 72 sun-like rays, each inscribed with a name of God in various languages and corresponding to a numbered Hebrew triplet. At the center of the radiant circle, the Hebrew Tetragrammaton (YHVH) is joined with the name 'IHS' (Jesus), upon which sits a small, stylized figure. To the left and right are two stylized trees; the right tree is labeled with the twelve tribes of Israel, while the left tree lists sensory and anatomical attributes linked to archangels (e.g., Gabriel, Raphael, Michael). The surrounding text provides cosmological and theological justifications for the names, framing them as a universal linguistic key to the divine.
This plate from Kircher's 'Oedipus Aegyptiacus' synthesizes Renaissance Christian Kabbalah with universalist philology, attempting to prove that the 72 names of God are the primordial roots of all global languages and religious traditions. It exemplifies the 17th-century project of 'prisca theologia,' aiming to recover a lost, singular divine wisdom through the study of Hebrew, Egyptian, and syncretic mysticism.
Inscriptions(Latin, Hebrew)
Iconismus inferendus tom. II Fol. 287 Speculum Cabalae mysticae Inquo omnia, quae Hebraei de nomine dei tetragrammato arcane retulerunt, ys ad nomen messiae Iesu respexisse demonstratur. Omnes quog. mundi nationes nomen dei non sine mysterio 4. litteris enunciare docetur. Arbor Cabalistica [Various labels naming deities, nations, and sensory organs such as 'Oculus sinister Gabriel', 'Auris dextra Samael'] Ephraim, Gad, Manaffes, Iudas, Issachar, Nephtali, Beniamin, Dan, Aser, Simeon, Ruben, Zabulon.
Translation
Illustration to be inserted in Vol II, Folio 287. The Mirror of Mystical Kabbalah, in which everything that the Hebrews have secretly related about the Tetragrammaton name of God is demonstrated to refer to the name of the Messiah, Jesus. It is also taught that all the nations of the world pronounce the name of God, not without mystery, in 4 letters. Cabalistic Tree.
Connected Texts
Athanasius Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus
This is a primary engraved plate from the second volume of the 1653 publication.
Kabbalah (The 72 Names of God)
The image is an explicit visual arrangement of the Shem HaMephorash, the 72-fold name of God derived from Exodus 14.