The Pentacles

Athens 115 · Seal 01

Loops gather in pairs at the ends of this cross, turning with its four arms towards a single circular boundary. [1]

Delatte 1927, printed historical edition; Athens MS 115 · Delatte I (1927), printed p. 19, row 1, column 1; phylactery passage p. 18, Athens MS 115, Book II, ff. 17–18.

Pentacle profile

Tradition and Group: Greek Solomonic tradition · Athens MS 115 [1]
Position within the Set: 1st design in the catalogue; unnumbered in Delatte’s edition. [1]
Attributed Purpose: Part of the twenty-four-seal phylactery carried at the chest in preparation for the art of the circle. [1]
Design: A cross reaches the circumference, with pairs of loop-ended bars arranged along its four arms. [1]

A cross reaches the circumference, with pairs of loop-ended bars arranged along its four arms. — **Source reproduction** A cross with paired loops. Delatte, 1927, p. 19.

A cross with paired loops

One circle encloses an upright cross whose arms reach its edge. Near each end, two short bars cross the arm and curl into small loops. The bars turn with the cross: they lie horizontally on the upper and lower arms and vertically on the left and right. [1]

The paired terminals give the four arms a similar construction, although their lengths and curves differ slightly in the drawing. The centre is a meeting of lines rather than a separate ring. Seal 20 uses a comparable cross, but replaces these doubled looped bars with single broad brackets. [1]

The chest-worn phylactery

Delatte places the twenty-four seals beneath a sequence of names on the chest-worn phylactery. The object belongs to Book II’s preparations for seeing and questioning spirits through the art of the circle. Its parchment is specified as coming from an unborn male calf. [1]

Sources and editions

A. Delatte, Anecdota Atheniensia I
Delatte 1927, printed historical edition; Athens MS 115. Manuscript B (Athens MS 115): introductory description, printed pp. 1–2; Book II, phylactery passage p. 18, lines 19–27 (ff. 17–18); twenty-four seals pp. 19–20; this drawing p. 19, row 1, column 1. Facsimile PDF pp. 14–15 and 31–33.
The drawing appears in Delatte’s 1927 edition of Athens MS 115.