[262] Said to be written by Norbar the Arab, who compiled it from many sources in the twelfth century. It consists of four books: I. De Coelo, II. De figuris Coeli, III. De proprietatibus Planetarum, IV. De proprietatibus Spirituum; and was translated into Latin by command of Alfonso X. (1252-84). Two MSS. of this version exist in the Bib. Naz. of Florence, xx. 20 and 21. Arpenius gives some account of it in his ‘De prodigiosis Naturae,’ Hamburg, 1717, p. 106. It is to be hoped it may never be translated into any modern language.
[263] As the author of the De Coelo et Mundo, the treatise most nearly bordering on this magical doctrine.
[264] ‘In quo exposuit secretiora Naturae.’—Opus Majus, p. 37.
[265] That the Arabian magic was familiar to Scot, there can, however, be no manner of doubt. Take, for instance, the following passage from the Liber Introductorius (MS. Bodl. 266, p. 113): ‘Puteus, qui alio nomine sacrarius, navigantibus per contrarium eo quod sequitur caudam scorpionis inter astra, et dicitur poetice quod Dii prius fecerunt in eo con[junctio]nem et sacrificium, cum esset locus secretus intrinsecus, et locus plenus spiritibus multe sapientie, a quorum astuciis pauci evadunt, et ipsi sunt fortiores ceteris ad opera conjuratorum de omni dum con[junctio]ne removentur obedientes vate (?) et[iam] ante pyromancie. Illos libentius convocant contra ceteros, et sibi reperiunt in agendo valentiores, set ipsi sunt multis penis ignis afflicti, et ex hac de causa nigromantici requirunt studiose Puteum intueri, sive stellas Sacrarii, ut eorum auxilio plenius operentur optata. Et dicitur a multis quod de illo exeunt lapides et sagipte tonitruale, opere spirituum inferorum. Cum non sit ymago celi, habet stellas pervisibiles quatuor, dispositio quarum sic certificatur: in superfitie flammarum exeuntium sunt duo, et duo parum sub ore puthealis, et hec est forma in celo aspectus sui.’ Over against this we find the application, as follows: Natus in hoc signo erit gratiosus habere experimenta et scire incantationes, constringere spiritus et mirabilia facere, et mulieres convincere artis ingeniosus erit, quietus, sagax, et plus pauper quam dives, et uti metallis, et alchemesta, et nigromanticus et erit homo quietus, ingeniosus, sagax, secretus, debilis, pauidus, timidus, etc.’ The superstition of which Mirandola accuses Scot is very evident here, but it is no less plain that the author’s purpose was astrological and not magical.
[266] See especially the circular letter of Gregory IX., anno 1239.
[267] Albert Beham, Regist. Epistol. p. 128.
[268] Book iv. chap. ix. ‘De imaginibus quae virtutes faciunt mirabiles, et fuerunt inventae in libro qui fuit inventus in Ecclesia de Cordib.’
[269] Nectanebus, sometimes spelt Neptanebus, is perhaps the ‘Naptium’ of the Picatrix (iii. 8). See also on this curious subject the Pancrates of Lucian, the verses of Adalberone or Ascelin (A.D. 1006) in the Recueil des Hist. des Gaules (Bouquet x. 67), the English romance of Alisaundre (Early English Text Soc. 1867) and the Alexander of Juan Lorenzo Segura de Astorga. In this last poem, which belongs to the thirteenth century, the hero’s arms are said to have been forged by the fairies. There is an article on ‘Nectanebo’ by D. G. Hogarth in the Eng. Hist. Review, Jan. 1896. The same mystic fame attached itself to Pythagoras.
[270] In the poem of Albéric de Besançon.
[271] St. Chrysostom (A.D. 398) speaks of the custom of using brass coins of Alexander as amulets.