A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 1 (of 2) / During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era - Lynn Thorndike

DURING THE FIRST THIRTEEN
CENTURIES OF OUR ERA

BY LYNN THORNDIKE

VOLUME I

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK AND LONDON

ISBN 0-231-08794-2
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7

			PAGE
Preface			ix
Abbreviations			xiii
Designation of Manuscripts			xv
List of Works Frequently Cited by Author and Date ofPublication or Brief Title			xvii
CHAPTER
1.	Introduction		[1]
[BOOK I]. THE ROMAN EMPIRE
	Foreword		[39]
2.	Pliny’s Natural History		[41]
	I.	Its Place in the History of Science	[42]
	II.	Its Experimental Tendency	[53]
	III.	Pliny’s Account of Magic	[58]
	IV.	The Science of the Magi	[64]
	V.	Pliny’s Magical Science	[72]
3.	Seneca and Ptolemy: Natural Divination and Astrology		[100]
4.	Galen		[117]
	I.	The Man and His Times	[119]
	II.	His Medicine and Experimental Science	[139]
	III.	His Attitude Toward Magic	[165]
5.	Ancient Applied Science and Magic: Vitruvius,Hero, and the Greek Alchemists		[182]
6.	Plutarch’s Essays		[200]
7.	Apuleius of Madaura		[221]
8.	Philostratus’s Life of Apollonius of Tyana		[242]
9.	Literary and Philosophical Attacks upon Superstition:Cicero, Favorinus, Sextus Empiricus, Lucian		[268]
10.	Spurious Mystic Writings of Hermes, Orpheus, andZoroaster		[287]

11.	Neo-Platonism and Its Relations to Astrology andTheurgy		[298]
12.	Aelian, Solinus, and Horapollo		[322]
[BOOK II]. EARLY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT
	Foreword		[337]
13.	The Book of Enoch		[340]
14.	Philo Judaeus		[348]
15.	The Gnostics		[360]
16.	The Christian Apocrypha		[385]
17.	The Recognitions of Clement and Simon Magus		[400]
18.	The Confession of Cyprian and Some Similar Stories		[428]
19.	Origen and Celsus		[436]
20.	Other Christian Discussion of Magic Before Augustine		[462]
21.	Christianity and Natural Science: Basil, Epiphanius,and the Physiologus		[480]
22.	Augustine on Magic and Astrology		[504]
23.	The Fusion of Pagan and Christian Thought inthe Fourth and Fifth Centuries		[523]
[BOOK III]. THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
24.	The Story of Nectanebus, or the Alexander Legendin the Early Middle Ages		[551]
25.	Post-Classical Medicine		[566]
26.	Pseudo-Literature in Natural Science		[594]
27.	Other Early Medieval Learning: Boethius, Isidore,Bede, Gregory		[616]
28.	Arabic Occult Science of the Ninth Century		[641]
29.	Latin Astrology and Divination, Especially in theNinth, Tenth, and Eleventh Centuries		[672]
30.	Gerbert and the Introduction of Arabic Astrology		[697]
31.	Anglo-Saxon, Salernitan and Other Latin Medicinein Manuscripts from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century		[719]
32.	Constantinus Africanus (c. 1015-1087)		[742]
33.	Treatises on the Arts Before the Introduction ofArabic Alchemy		[760]
34.	Marbod		[775]
	Indices:
	[General]		[783]
	[Bibliographical]		[811]
	[Manuscripts]		[831]

BOOK IV. THE TWELFTH CENTURY
35.	The Early Scholastics: Peter Abelard and Hughof St. Victor		3
36.	Adelard of Bath		14
37.	William of Conches		50
38.	Some Twelfth Century Translators, Chiefly ofAstrology from the Arabic		66
39.	Bernard Silvester; Astrology and Geomancy		99
40.	Saint Hildegard of Bingen		124
41.	John of Salisbury		155
42.	Daniel of Morley and Roger of Hereford		171
43.	Alexander Neckam on the Natures of Things		188
44.	Moses Maimonides		205
45.	Hermetic Books in the Middle Ages		214
46.	Kiranides		229
47.	Prester John and the Marvels of India		236
48.	The Pseudo-Aristotle		246
49.	Solomon and the Ars Notoria		279
50.	Ancient and Medieval Dream-Books		290
BOOK V. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
	Foreword		305
51.	Michael Scot		307
52.	William of Auvergne		338
53.	Thomas of Cantimpré		372
54.	Bartholomew of England		401
55.	Robert Grosseteste		436
56.	Vincent of Beauvais		457
57.	Early Thirteenth Century Medicine: Gilbert ofEngland and William of England		477
58.	Petrus Hispanus		488
59.	Albertus Magnus		517
	I.	Life	521
	II.	As a Scientist	528
	III.	His Allusions to Magic	548
	IV.	Marvelous Virtues in Nature	560
	V.	Attitude Toward Astrology	577

60.	Thomas Aquinas		593
61.	Roger Bacon		616
	I.	Life	619
	II.	Criticism of and Part in Medieval Learning	630
	III.	Experimental Science	649
	IV.	Attitude Toward Magic and Astrology	659
62.	The Speculum Astronomiae		692
63.	Three Treatises Ascribed to Albert		720
64.	Experiments and Secrets: Medical and Biological		751
65.	Experiments and Secrets: Chemical and Magical		777
66.	Picatrix		813
67.	Guido Bonatti and Bartholomew of Parma		825
68.	Arnald of Villanova		841
69.	Raymond Lull		862
70.	Peter of Abano		874
71.	Cecco d’Ascoli		948
72.	Conclusion		969
	Indices:
	General		985
	Bibliographical		1007
	Manuscripts		1027

PREFACE

This work has been long in preparation—ever since in 1902-1903 Professor James Harvey Robinson, when my mind was still in the making, suggested the study of magic in medieval universities as the subject of my thesis for the master’s degree at Columbia University—and has been foreshadowed by other publications, some of which are listed under my name in the preliminary bibliography. Since this was set up in type there have also appeared: “Galen: the Man and His Times,” in The Scientific Monthly, January, 1922; “Early Christianity and Natural Science,” in The Biblical Review, July, 1922; “The Latin Pseudo-Aristotle and Medieval Occult Science,” in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, April, 1922; and notes on Daniel of Morley and Gundissalinus in The English Historical Review. For permission to make use of these previous publications in the present work I am indebted to the editors of the periodicals just mentioned, and also to the editors of The Columbia University Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, The American Historical Review, Classical Philology, The Monist, Nature, The Philosophical Review, and Science. The form, however, of these previous publications has often been altered in embodying them in this book, and, taken together, they constitute but a fraction of it. Book I greatly amplifies the account of magic in the Roman Empire contained in my doctoral dissertation. Over ten years ago I prepared an account of magic and science in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries based on material available in print in libraries of this country and arranged topically, but I did not publish it, as it seemed advisable to supplement it by study abroad and of the manuscript material, and to adopt an arrangement by authors. The result is Books IV and V of the present work.

CONTENTS

PREFACE