CHAPTER LXVI
PICATRIX
Problem of date and authorship—Law of Alfonso the Wise concerning magic and astrology—Picatrix a confused compilation—Its mentions of magic—Magic and science—Its use of natural virtues—Magic compounds—Things required of the magician—Magic procedure—Invocation of spirits—Necromancy and astrology—Astronomical images—Aims and results of magic—Appendix I. Manuscripts of Picatrix.
“Scientia ... semper acquirit et numquam diminuit; semper elevat et numquam degenerat; semper apparet et numquam se abscondit.”
Problem of date and authorship.
Another celebrated medieval book of magic is that which usually goes by the name of Picatrix, who is, however, cited in the work itself[2593] and would seem to have been only one of its authors, translators, compilers, or sources. Nevertheless he is mentioned as author in the title, Incipit, and Explicit of the manuscripts,[2594] and is called “very wise,” “a philosopher,” “most skilled in mathematics,” and “very learned in the arts of necromancy.” The treatise is also said to have been compiled by Norbar the Arab in the twelfth century.[2595] The Latin manuscripts state that in 1256 it was translated from Arabic into Spanish by order of Alfonso the Wise; but when it was translated into Latin is not stated. There seem to be no Latin manuscripts older than the fifteenth century, and none of our thirteenth century Latin writers seems to have been acquainted with the work. Peter of Abano, it is true, is charged by Symphorien Champier, writing in 1514,[2596] with having borrowed from Picatrix, but Champier does not substantiate his charge and I have found no unmistakable evidence of it in Peter’s works. Evidently, however, Picatrix was well-known in Latin by 1514. Rabelais, who lived from 1495 to 1553, speaks of “le reuerend pere en Diable Picatris, recteur de la faculté diabolologique” at Toledo.[2597] A Cambridge doctor about 1477 cites “Picatrix in his third book of magic.”[2598] The work seems never to have been printed and J. Wood Brown expresses the hope that it may never be translated into any modern language.[2599]
Law of Alfonso the Wise concerning magic and astrology.
It was fitting that such a work should have been translated from the Arabic under the patronage of Alfonso X, the Wise or Learned, who is noted for his astronomical tables, and whose favorable attitude toward astrology and magic may be seen from the law on those subjects in his code of the Seven Parts.[2600] Divination of the future by the stars is sanctioned in the case of persons properly trained in astronomy, although other varieties of divination are forbidden. And while those who conjure evil spirits or who make waxen, metallic, or other images with the aim to harm their fellows are to be punished by death; those who employ incantations with good intentions and good results are pronounced deserving of reward rather than penalty. Thus no objection is made to magic procedure but only to evil intentions and results.
Picatrix a confused compilation.
Picatrix divides into four books and is accompanied in the manuscripts by tables of contents which, however, are not as helpful as might be expected, since the work really has no plan and the division into books and chapters is quite arbitrary.[2601] In short, the work is a confused compilation of extracts from occult writings and a hodgepodge of innumerable magical and astrological recipes. The author states that he “has compiled this book,” that he intends to set forth “in simple language” what past sages have concealed in cryptic words, and that he has spent some six years in reading two hundred and twenty-four books by “ancient sages.”[2602] Whenever modern compilers of the notions of folk-lore and the magical customs of aborigines shall have exhausted their resources, a rich mine will still await them in this book of magic. We can give but a few specimens of its contents here.
Mentions of magic.
For Picatrix is openly and professedly a book of magic. At the close of the first of its four books we are told that its contents are “the roots of the magic art” and that “without them one cannot become perfect in such arts.”[2603] Throughout all four books such phrases are used as “magic works,” “magic effects,” “magical sciences,” and “the operator of magic,” and books of magic are cited by Abrarem (Abraham?), Geber, and Plato.[2604] It is true that the term necromancy is also employed frequently and a chapter devoted to its definition,[2605] and that astrological images and invocations of demons are the subjects most discussed. So in a way the work is primarily a treatise of astrological necromancy. But it is said on the supposed authority of Aristotle that the first man to work with such images and to whom spirits appeared was Caraphrebim, the inventor of the magic art.[2606] It is also affirmed that the science of the stars is the root of magic, that the forms of the planets or astronomical images “have power and marvelous effects in magic operations;” while after announcing his intention of listing “the secrets of ancient sages in the magic art,” the first thing that our author divulges is that the influence of Saturn exceeds the influence of the moon.[2607] Evidently little distinction is made between astrology and magic. On the whole then, although magic is not defined at length in Picatrix, it seems justifiable to apply it as a general term covering the contents of the book, and to regard astronomical images and invocations of demons as two leading features of the magic art.
Magic and science.
Picatrix regards magic as a science, as a superior branch of learning, to excel in which one must first master many other studies. He believes that the greatest philosophers of antiquity, such as Plato and Aristotle, have written books of magic. Hermes is also cited frequently. Our author also has a high appreciation of science which in his first chapter he declares to be God’s greatest gift to man. “It always is making acquisitions and never diminishes; it ever elevates and never degenerates; it is always clear and never conceals itself.”[2608]
Use of natural virtues.
Much use of natural objects is made in the various recipes of Picatrix. Here is one brief example: Adam the prophet says that if you take fourteen grains of the fruit of the laurel tree, dry them well and pulverize them and put the powder in a very clean dish in vinegar, and beat it with a twig from a fig tree, you can make anyone you wish possessed of demons by giving him this powder to drink.[2609] One chapter is especially devoted to “the virtues of certain substances produced from their own peculiar natures,” and the author further explains that “in this section we shall state the marvelous properties of simple things, as well of trees as of animals and of minerals.”[2610] Hermes is quoted as saying that there are many marvels for necromancy in the human body,[2611] and various parts thereof are often employed by Picatrix. Thus in making a magic mirror a suffumigation is employed of seven products of the human body, namely, tears, blood, ear-wax, spittle, sperma, stercus, urina.[2612] Indeed, vile and obscene substances are in great demand for purposes of magic throughout the book. Picatrix, like the De mirabilibus mundi, considers heat an important force in magic and mentions both elemental and natural heat, the former referring to the use of the element fire in sacrifice, suffumigation, and the preparation of magic compounds, the latter designating the heat of digestion when simples or mixtures must be eaten to take effect.[2613]
Magic compounds.
Although we have found one chapter devoted to the virtues of simples, in actual magical procedure several things are generally combined, as in a suffumigation with fourteen dead bats and twenty-four mice, to give a comparatively simple example.[2614] On the supposed authority of Aristotle in a book written to Alexander, detailed instructions are given how to make four “stones” of great virtue and of elaborate composition by procedure more or less alchemistic.[2615] Indeed, there are listed all sorts of “confections,” compounds, and messes, either to burn or to sacrifice or to eat or to drink or to smell of or to anoint oneself with, in order to bring various wonders to pass. The ingredients employed include different oils and drugs, butter, honey, wine, sugar, incense, aloes, pepper, mandragora, twigs, branches, adamant, lead, sulphur, gold, the brains of a hare, the blood of a wolf, the urine of an ass, the filth of a leopard, and various portions of such further animals as apes, cats, bears, and pigs. Besides the actual ingredients all sorts of receptacles and material paraphernalia are called into requisition: vessels, jars, vases, braziers, crosses, candles, crowns, and so on.
Things required of the magician.
Much is said of the magician himself as well as of the materials which he employs. He should have faith in his procedure, put himself into an expectant and receptive mood, be diligent and solicitous.[2616] Often chastity is requisite, sometimes fasting or dieting, sometimes the wearing of certain garments.[2617] He must have studied a long list of other sciences before he can attempt necromancy, but then he must drop all other studies and devote himself to it exclusively. A little knowledge of necromancy is a dangerous thing, and the ignorant meddler therein is liable to be violently slain by indignant demons.[2618] Much depends also upon the magician’s personality and natural fitness. No one can succeed in the science of images unless his own nature is inclined thereto by the stars. Some men are more subtle and spiritual, less gross and corporeal than others, and hence more successful in magic.[2619] The ancients, when they wished to employ a boy in magic, used to test his fitness by fire as well as make sure that he was physically sound.[2620]
Magic procedure.
It has already been implied that great stress is laid upon procedure in Picatrix. Extensive use is made of images of the person or thing concerned. Thus an image of a fish is employed to catch fish, and to bewitch a girl a waxen image of her is made and dressed in clothes like hers. In both cases, however, there is additional ceremony to be observed. In the image of the fish the head should first be fashioned; furthermore the image of the fish is to be poised on a slender rod of silver and this is to be stood erect in a vessel filled with water. This vessel is then to be hermetically sealed with wax and dropped to the bottom of the stream in which it is proposed to fish.[2621] In the bewitching of the girl, which is recounted as an actual occurrence, the object was to make her come to a certain man. Hence another image was made of him out of a pulverized stone mixed with gum, and the two images of man and girl were placed facing each other in a vase where seven twigs of specified trees had been arranged crosswise. The vase was then buried under the hearth where there was a moderate fire and a piece of ice. When the ice had melted, the vase was unearthed and the girl was immediately seen approaching the house. In the reverse process to free her from the spell a candle was lit on the hearth, the two images were taken out and rudely torn apart and an incantation uttered.[2622] To make a spring that is going dry flow more freely a small and comely virgin should walk up and down beating a drum for three hours, and then another small and good-looking girl should join in with a tambourine for six hours more. To ward off hail storms a company of people should go out in the fields, half of them tossing handfuls of silk or cotton (bombix) toward the sky and the other half clapping their hands and shouting as rustics do to frighten away birds.[2623] Tying seven knots and saying an incantation over each is another specimen of the ceremonial in Picatrix.
Invocation of spirits.
Ritual also plays an important part in the invocation of spirits. If one wishes to invoke the spirit called “Complete Nature” he must enter a spick and span room while the moon is in the first degree of Aries. Various receptacles filled with different foods and combustibles must be arranged in a certain way on a table. Then he must stand facing the east and invoke the spirit by its four names seven times and repeat a prescribed form of prayer for increase of knowledge and of moral strength.[2624] To draw down the virtue and power of the moon one crowns oneself in the favorable astrological hour and goes to a green spot beside a stream. There he beheads with a bone—under no circumstances employing iron—a cock with a divided crest. He stands between two braziers filled with live coals on which he casts grains of incense gradually until smoke arises; then, looking toward the moon, he should say, “O moon, luminous and honored and beautiful, thou who shatterest darkness by thy light, rising in the east and filling the whole horizon with thy light and beauty, I come to thee humbly asking a boon.” Having stated his wish, he withdraws ten paces, facing the moon the while and repeating the above formula. Then more incense is burned and a sacrifice performed and characters inscribed on a leaf with the ashes of the sacrifice and a bit of saffron. This leaf is then burned, and as its smoke rises the form of a well-dressed man will appear, who will answer the petition.[2625]
Necromancy and astrology.
Throughout Picatrix planets and spirits are closely associated. Many instructions are given how to pray to each of the planets and to work magic by their aid, just as if they were demons. It is hard to say whether the spirits are more thought of as forces in nature or the stars as gods. A necromancer who does not know astronomy is helpless, and each planet has a list of personal names associated not only with itself but with its every part and position.[2626] Lists are also given of the boons which one may ask from each planet, and of the stones, metals, animals, trees, colors, tinctures, odors, places, suffumigations, and sacrifices appropriate to each planet and sign of the zodiac, in order that one may use the proper materials, eat the right food, and wear the right clothes when petitioning any one of them.[2627] Let us remember, too, that the natural qualifications of the magician depend upon his horoscope.
Astronomical images.
Finally Picatrix devotes much space to astronomical images,[2628] which, engraved preferably upon gems in accordance with the aspect of the sky at some instant when the constellations are especially favorable, are supposed to receive the celestial influences at their maximum and store them up for future use. That they receive “the force of the planets” and produce marvelous works, such as the invocation of demons, is in our author’s opinion “proved by nature and by experiment.” He lists images for forty-eight figures made from the fixed stars, for the twenty-eight mansions of the moon, for the signs of the zodiac and for the planets. One of the images for Saturn will suffice as an example: “A man erect on a dragon, holding a sickle in his right hand and a spear in his left hand, and clad in black clothing and a panther skin.” This image “has power and marvelous effects in magic works.”[2629] Characters composed of lines and geometrical figures are also derived from the constellations and are supposed to possess marvelous efficacy.
Aims and results of magic.
Some of the results attributed to images and characters are to drive away mice, free captives, throw an army into a town, either render buildings safe and stable or impede the erection of them, the acquisition of wealth, making two persons fall in love, making men loyal to their lord, making the king angry with someone, curing a scorpion’s sting, walking on water, assuming any animal form, causing rain in dry weather and preventing it in rainy weather, making the stars fall or sun and moon appear divided into many parts. The possessor of such images can further ascend into the air and take on the form of a falling star, or speak with the dead, or destroy an enemy or city, or traverse great distances in the twinkling of an eye. The aims of incantations, invocations, and recipes are similar, as has already been indicated in several cases. Ten “confections” are listed that stop evil tongues; eight, that generate discord and enmity; six, that cure impotency, if taken in food; seven, that induce a sleep like unto death; ten, that induce a sleep from which one never wakes.[2630] Others prevent dogs from barking at you, produce green tarantulas or red snakes, remove bothersome frogs from pools, cause water to burn and appear red, enable you to see small objects a long way off, make the winds and tempests obey you, deprive others of memory or sense or speech or sight or hearing, and so on through a long list. The aims are infinitely varied, and are sometimes good, sometimes evil.
[2593] II, 10, “Haec autem figurae planetarum quemadmodum translatas invenimus in lapidario mercurii et in libro beelum (probably meant for Beleni) et in libro spirituum et in ymaginibus quas transtulit sapiens picatrix.” Magliabech. XX, 20, fol. 32v; Magliabech. XX, 21, fol. 14v.
[2594] For a list of MSS see Appendix I at the close of this chapter.
[2595] J. Wood Brown (1897), p. 183; Arpenius, De prodigiosis naturae, Hamburg, 1717, p. 106.
[2596] In a criticism of Abano’s “errors” printed at the close of the 1526 edition of the Conciliator, fol. 248.
[2597] Pantagruel, III, 23.
[2598] Steinschneider (1905), p. 61, and Ashmole 1437; see Appendix I.
[2599] Brown (1897), p. 183, note 1.
[2600] Los Códigos Españoles concordados y anotados: Código de las siete partidas, second edition, Madrid, 1872, vol. IV. La setena partida: Titulo XXIII, Ley 1-3. There is an article on the astronomical works of Alfonso X by A. Wegener in Bibl. Math. (1905), 129-85.
[2601] J. Wood Brown (1897), p. 183, gives a wrong impression that the work is systematically arranged.
[2602] Magliabech. XX, 20, fols. 1v and 53r. Future citations in this chapter, unless otherwise noted, will be from this MS.
[2603] Fol. 15v.
[2604] Fols. 7v, 44r, 44v, 22v, 23r, 28r, 40r, 50r, 51r, 99r. Magliabech. XX, 21, fols. 78r and 79v.
[2605] Liber I, cap. 2, which is much briefer in Magliabech. XX, 21 than in XX, 20.
[2606] Fol. 55v.
[2607] Fols. 32v and 28r.
[2608] “Semper acquirit et numquam diminuit; semper elevat et numquam degenerat; semper apparet et numquam se abscondit.”
[2609] Magliabech. XX, 21, fol. 79v.
[2610] IV, 8, fol. 108v; Magliabech. XX, 21, fol. 86r.
[2611] Magliabech. XX, 21, fol. 60v.
[2612] Magliabech. XX, 21, fol. 22v.
[2613] I, 2.
[2614] Fol. 70r.
[2615] III, 10, fol. 73v; Magliabech. XX, 21, fol. 53r.
[2616] I, 4.
[2617] II, 12; III, 5 and 7 and 12.
[2618] IV, 5.
[2619] III, 6 and IV, 1.
[2620] Magliabech. XX, 21, fol. 47v.
[2621] Fol. 10.
[2622] Fol. 52.
[2623] Fol. 103v; Magliabech. XX, 21, fols. 81v, 82r.
[2624] III, 6. Fols. 54-55; Magliabech. XX, 21, fols. 32-34.
[2625] IV, 2. MS. XX, 21, fol. 68v.
[2626] III, 9. MS. XX, 20, fol. 71r. MS. XX, 21, fol. 50r.
[2627] II, 5 and 10; III, 1 and 2.
[2628] Liber II, passim: also I, 4-5 and IV, 9.
[2629] II, 10; fol. 32v; Magliabech. XX, 21, fol. 14v.
[2630] III, 11; fol. 78v; Magliabech. XX, 21, fol. 58v.