Symbolica
Theorem XX: the monad divided into its members

Theorem XX: the monad divided into its members

The Sun and the Moon as the central motif, with the Heavens in a secondary part. From Monas Hieroglyphica.

John Dee, 1564, this printing 1591. Woodcut.

Public domain, 1591 printing · Web copy 681 by 625 px · Internet Archive, Getty Research Institute copy, leaf 78

What is happening

John Dee, 1564 “Distribuamus igitur Monadem, (hoc novo modo locatam) in anatomica membra B. D. C.” Monas Hieroglyphica, Theorem XX, on the figure.

Symbolica, 2026 Dee's Latin, put into English here: Let us therefore distribute the Monad, placed in this new way, into its anatomical members B, D, C. The three lettered figures are the glyph taken to pieces, which is what the word anatomy means throughout the book.

Key · 2 motifs

The motifs the picture carries, filed by role. The marks on the picture itself come with the entry.

  1. 1The Sun and the Mooncentral motif as it reads here: Theorem XX: the monad divided into its members
  2. 2The Heavenssecondary motif

The picture

The monad taken apart into three figures lettered B, D and C, the sun and moon, the cross, and the sign of Aries. By eye

Not yet decoded: the motifs are tagged by eye and the readings above are quoted from their sources. The marks on the picture and the sourced notes come with the entry.

Also carrying the Sun and the Moon

31 works carry it. The 6 where it is the central motif are here. The symbol.

Where the detail is the subject

the Heavens

This is in the picture without being what it is about. Below, one work that is about it.

In the same series

Monas Hieroglyphica, 1564

Record

Source
Internet Archive, Getty Research Institute copy, leaf 78
Rights
Public domain, 1591 printing
Restoration
None. A 681 by 625 pixel web copy made from the source file; nothing retouched, nothing upscaled.
Series
Monas Hieroglyphica, 1564
Artist
John Dee, mathematician, astrologer and adviser to Elizabeth I, 1527 to 1608 or 1609, who designed the hieroglyphic monad and wrote the theorems that explain it
Titled here
Theorem XX: the monad divided into its members. Internet Archive catalogues it as: Theorem XX: the monad divided into its members, from Monas Hieroglyphica, Frankfurt 1591
Checked
the Internet Archive item metadata, 4 September 2026: Dee as author, Frankfurt, Wechel and Fischer, 1591, in the Getty Research Institute's alchemy collection. The figures are small woodcuts set in the text and are kept at the size of the scan; nothing is enlarged. The quotations were read off the page images. Not seen in the hand.
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This picture is free at full size from its source, linked above. What an address gets is the Sunday letter: one picture, one symbol marked on it, what it meant and who said so, and the master files of the decoded plates as they are verified. Leave any time.

Cite
Symbolica, “Theorem XX: the monad divided into its members”, John Dee, 1564, this printing 1591. thesymbolica.com/work/theorem-xx-the-monad-divided-into-its-members/