Appearing in the Middle Ages, the “Hieroglyphics” of Horapollo shocked European minds and formed the basis of alchemical and Rosicrucian symbolism. Inspired by her, Albrecht Durer created a series of engravings. Artists and scholars of the late Renaissance enjoyed interpreting hieroglyphs. Over the next century and a half, the Horapollo manuscript remained the most understandable and accessible - and at the same time the most controversial - source of knowledge on symbols and their meanings. Even the discovery that the text contained words and symbols from Greek and Latin sources did not diminish its authority. Thirty editions since the first edition of the Greek text (1505) have confirmed its value. In other words, this ascetic and small book became the foundation on which pretentious works of poetry and philosophy, art and architecture were erected. A person who wants to understand why seemingly banal symbols and allegories fascinated the best thinkers, artists and writers of the West can learn a lot from the text of Horapollo and the material that has been collected in this book.