baroque symbolism and theological speculation, and the book may well originate with the latest remnants of the Egyptian priesthood of the 5th century. Though a very large proportion of the statements seem absurd and cannot be accounted for by anything known in the latest and most fanciful usage, there is ample evidence in both books, in individual cases, that the tradition of the values of the hieroglyphic signs was not yet extinct in the days of their author. This approach of symbolic speculation about hieroglyphs (many of which were originally simple syllabic signs) was popular during Hellenism, whence the early Humanists, down to Athanasius Kircher, inherited the preconception of the hieroglyphs as a magical, symbolic, ideographic script. In 1556, the Italian humanist Pierio Valeriano Bolzani published a vast Hieroglyphica at Michael Isengrin's printing press in Basle, which was originally planned as an exegesis of Horapollo's. It was dedicated to Cosimo I de' Medici. The second part of book II treats animal symbolism and allegory, essentially derived from Aristotle, Aelian, Pliny and Artemidorus, and is probably an addition by the Greek translator. Editions by C. Leemans (1835) and A. T. Cory (1840) with English translation and notes; see also G. Rathgeber in Ersch and Gruber's Allgemeine Encyclopädie; H. Schafer, Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache (1905), p. 72. Select editions Aldus Manutius, Venice 1505 (editio princeps) George Boas, New York 1950 (English translation), reprinted 1993 . Orapollo, I geroglifici, Rizzoli, Milan 1996 . See also Athanasius Kircher Hermes Trismegistos References Jan Assmann. Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism. . External links A translation of Horapollo's entry in Suda The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo, tr. Cory 1840 Horapollo (studiolum.com) Horapollo, Delli segni hierogliphici, Venecia 1547 etext of Ferrari's edition (studiolum.com) ΙΕΡΟΓΛΥΦΙΚΑ 5th-century books Egyptian hieroglyphs Egyptology Hermeticism