The Pentacles

Athens 115 · Seal 14

Numbers punctuate an uneven grid, with several cells left open near the circular edge. [1]

Delatte 1927, printed historical edition; Athens MS 115 · Delatte I (1927), printed p. 20, row 1, column 2; 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: 14th 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 circular grid contains numerals in its central cells and along the right side. [1]

A circular grid contains numerals in its central cells and along the right side. — **Source reproduction** A grid with numerals. Delatte, 1927, p. 20.

A grid with numerals

Three vertical and three horizontal lines divide the circle into a grid. Numerals occupy the two central columns: the upper rows show 1 and 7, then 7 and 1, then 7 and 6; the lowest row shows a 4-like form and 6. The two upper cells at the right contain 2 and 5. [1]

Several cells near the curved edge remain empty. The drawing differs from seal 4, where small rings fill a finer grid. [1]

The chest-worn phylactery

The numbered cells are part of this individual graphic; the plate itself leaves the twenty-four drawings unnumbered. Delatte places this figure at the centre of the first row on page 20, within the phylactery series described on page 18. [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. 20, row 1, column 2. Facsimile PDF pp. 14–15 and 31–33.
The drawing appears in Delatte’s 1927 edition of Athens MS 115.