1. The alphabet in context = 11

2. Origins and historians = 22

3. The alphabet in classical history, philosophy and divination = 49

4. Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Neo-platonism and Neo-pythagoreanism:
the alphabet in the Hellenistic and early Christian era = 72

5. Calligrahpy, alchemy and ars combinatoria in the medieval period = 93

6. The Kabbalah = 129

7. Rationalizing the Alphabet : construction, real character and
philosophical languages in the Renaissance = 159

8. The social contract, primitivism and nationalism: the alphabet in
the 18th century = 199

9. The alphabet in the 19th century : advertising, visible speech and
narratives of history = 239

10. 20th century : eclecticism, technology and the idiosyncratic
imagination = 279

Notes = 309

Bibliography = 312

Index = 316