The Sistine Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page A

opus alexandrinum (Alexandrian work) because it is filled with Kabbalistic symbolism originally taught by Philo of Alexandria.
    This Latin name is the reason that many art historians and architects mistakenly believe that Cosmati-style flooring originally came from Alexandria, Egypt, or was popularized by Pope Alexander VI Borgia in the late fifteenth century. However, there is no evidence anywhere in ancient Alexandria for this particular kind of design; as for the suggested connection to Pope Alexander VI, Alexander came on the scene more than two hundred years after the heyday of Cosmati paving. We believe that the most logical conclusion is that it was the connection with Alexandrian Kabbalah that gave the Cosmatesque design its name.
    Yet another link to the Jewish Temple is the remarkable fact that the Seal of Solomon is a recurring symbol in Cosmati floors and found throughout the Sistine paving designs. This symbol was considered the key to the ancient esoteric wisdom of the Jews. The seal, composed of a combination of both triangles of Philo, superimposed one upon the other and therefore pointing up and down, is today called the Magen David, or Star of David. It serves as a nearly universal emblem of Judaism, chosen to highlight the flag of the modern state of Israel. In the late fifteenth century, though, it was not yet the symbol of the Jewish people, but rather of their arcane mystical knowledge. Even Raphael hid a Seal of Solomon in his giant mystical fresco, The School of Athens.
    Understanding the seal’s deeper meaning as part of the Sistine Chapel requires some background. The earliest archaeological evidence for the Jewish use of the symbol comes from an inscription dating to the late seventh century BCE and attributed to Joshua ben Asayahu. The legend behind its association with King Solomon—and hence its other name, Solomon’s Seal—is quite fanciful, and almost certainly false. In medieval Jewish, Islamic, and Christian legends, as well as in one of the Arabian Nights stories, the Seal of Solomon with its hexagonal shape was a magical signet ring said to have been possessed by the king, which variously gave him the power to command demons (or jinni ) and to speak with animals. The reason that this symbol is more commonly attributed to King David, some researchers have theorized, is that the hexagram represents the astrological chart at the time of David’s birth or anointment as king. But its most profound and almost certainly its correct meaning is the mystical interpretation that links it with the holy number seven by way of its six points surrounding the center.
    The number seven has special religious significance in Judaism. Going back to creation, we have the six days followed by the seventh, the Sabbath, the day of rest proclaimed holy by God and endowed with singular blessing. Every seventh year is a sabbatical year in which the land is not to be worked, and after seven cycles of seven the Jubilee year brings freedom to indentured slaves and the return of property to its original owners. But most relevant of all for our understanding of the significance of seven as used in the Sistine’s mosaic floor is its link with the Menorah in the ancient Temple, whose seven oil lamps rest on three stems branching from each side of a central pole. It has been strongly suggested that the Star of David came to be used as a standard symbol in synagogues precisely because its organization into 3 + 3 + 1—triangle up, triangle down, and center—corresponds exactly to the menorah. And this menorah is the very item featured so prominently on the Arch of Titus commemorating the victory of the Roman Empire over what it considered a defeated people never to be heard from again.
    However, thanks to artists like the Cosmatis and Michelangelo, Jewish symbolism was to be seen again and again, through all their most famous works. It is one more bizarre secret of the world’s most Catholic chapel that its giant