Curiositez Inouyes, sur la Sculpture Talismanique des Persans. Horoscope des Patriarches, et Lecture des Estoiles [“Unheard of Curiosities of the Talismanic Sculpture of the Persians, the Horoscope of the Patriarchs, and Reading the Stars.”]

One of the chief exponents of 17th-century Christian Kabbalism, French Catholic Jacques Gaffarel (1601-81) was a scholar of Oriental languages who defended the Kabbalah against attacks by Mersenne and others. Librarian to Cardinal Richelieu, he was a also a respected astrologer. This, Gaffarel’s most celebrated work, is most wide-ranging. It includes a defense of the Jews against several classic calumnies, and a positive examination of astrology from the Persian tradition. Within his account of minerals, Gafarrel launches into an examination of the concept of the “talisman,” a figure or image engraved within a mineral which has the ability to tap the power of a celestial constellation.