Adoration of the Magi (Botticelli, 1475) described by Vasari as "the finest of all that are now extant for its life and vigour"), his sons Piero (the second Magus kneeling in the centre with the red mantle) and Giovanni (the third Magus), and his grandsons Giuliano and Lorenzo. The three Medici portrayed as Magi were all dead at the time the picture was painted, and Florence was effectively ruled by Lorenzo. Whether Botticelli's intimate relations with the Medici brothers allowed the wealthy Gaspare to introduce the portraits of their kinsmen in his altar-piece, or Gaspare was glad for this opportunity to pay a graceful compliment to
Alphabet of the Magi the prophets used this letter and that they were forbidden to divulge it to mortal man." Thet alphabet is described in the pseudo-Paracelsian "Archidoxis magica", translated into English by R. Turner (1656). S.L. MacGregor Mathers included it in his 1888 edition of the "Key of Solomon" (plate XV) under the name "Alphabet of the Magi." Alphabet of the Magi Alphabet of the Magi is the modern name of a variant of the Hebrew alphabet used for inscriptions in talismans in 17th-century occultism. It is based on a variant of the Semitic alphabet given by Theseus Ambrosius (1469–1540) in his "Introductio