Who was its author?—Points in favor of Albert as its author—Testimony of medieval manuscripts and authors—Occasion for writing the Speculum—Defense of astronomy—And of judicial astrology—The stars do not possess senses or reason—Subdivisions of astrology—Evil images—A second variety—Good astronomical images—The question of free will—And elections—Free will and nativities—Revolutions—Interrogations—Better not to destroy the books of necromancy—Experimental books in the arts of divination—Resemblance of the Speculum to Albert’s attitude to astrology—Is it more like Bacon on the question of Christ’s relation to the stars?—Attitude to magic of the Speculum and Albert—Of Bacon and the Speculum—Significance of the failure to mention magic in the Speculum—Similarity of its citations to those in other works of Albert—Is the Speculum astronomiae to be connected with the Paris condemnation of 1277?—The Speculum was written before 1277—Condemnation of Siger de Brabant—Condemned opinions connected with astrology; with science and religion—Other later moves against magic at Paris—Appendix I. Manuscripts of the Speculum astronomiae—Appendix II. Germath of Babylon, Gergis, and Girgith.
Who was its author?
The Speculum astronomiae[2284] has been reserved for separate treatment, partly because it seems to be one of the most important single treatises in the history of medieval astrology, and partly because the traditional ascription of it to Albertus Magnus has been recently questioned and the attempt made to attribute it to Roger Bacon.[2285] This attempt has been supported by so little in the way of real evidence for a Baconian authorship that it might be passed by, were it not for the fact that, as sensational assertions concerning either Roger or Francis Bacon are apt to do, it has attracted widespread attention and been unquestioningly accepted by other students of Roger Bacon.[2286] Father Mandonnet adduced no manuscript evidence in favor of Bacon’s authorship and Gabriel Naudé in the seventeenth century was the first person to suggest it.[2287] Mandonnet’s argument for the Baconian authorship reduces simply to this, that the views expressed in the work are Bacon’s rather than Albert’s and that the writing of the Speculum astronomiae could be fitted better into Roger’s career.[2288]
Points in favor of Albert as its author.
We shall show, on the contrary, that the Speculum is regularly ascribed to Albertus Magnus in the medieval manuscripts and in bibliographies by learned writers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as well as by most students of Albertus Magnus or of thirteenth century learning since then.[2289] The Latin style and the method of presentation adopted in the Speculum also more closely resemble Albert’s style and method than they do Bacon’s.[2290] It has already been demonstrated that Mandonnet was grossly in error in representing Albert as an unqualified opponent of judicial astrology, and our coming examination of the Speculum astronomiae will show that on most points its attitude to astrology is the same as that of Albert, on some points even more conservative than his, and on only one point less so and more like Bacon’s attitude. In the attitude of the Speculum toward other forms of magic or occult sciences than astrology we shall find a closer approximation to the Albertine than to the Baconian view-point, and also some internal textual evidence which strongly supports the Albertine authorship. Finally we shall argue that, if it is true that the Speculum had some connection with the condemnation at Paris in 1277 of 219 opinions attributed to Siger of Brabant, it may have been written for that occasion by Albert as appropriately as by Bacon. And we shall note some of the opinions condemned on that occasion as constituting, with the Speculum itself, valuable evidence concerning the relations existing between theology and astrology in the second half of the thirteenth century.
Testimony of medieval manuscripts and authors.
In so far as I have examined notices of manuscripts of the Speculum astronomiae in the catalogues or the manuscripts themselves, I have found it in no case attributed to Roger Bacon and regularly ascribed to Albertus Magnus, as the list of manuscripts given in the appendix at the close of this chapter will show. In one or two cases another hand than that in which the text of the Speculum is written has suggested “master Philip, chancellor of Paris,” as author instead of Albert, but otherwise the manuscripts support the Albertine authorship. The Speculum is cited as Albert’s in a fourteenth century manuscript.[2291] Also the list of writings by Dominicans drawn up before the middle of the fourteenth century ascribed to Albert both a Contra librum nigromanticorum and a Speculum astrobium (or astralabicum).[2292] Later in the same century a contemporary of Thomas of Pisa or Bologna, physician and astrologer to Charles V the Wise of France, 1364-1380, cites “Albert the commentator in his Mirror.”[2293] In 1412 Amplonius in the catalogue of his manuscripts which he wrote with his own hand lists both a Speculum mathematicum Alberti Magni and a Speculum domini Alberti de libris mathematicis;[2294] and Schum’s modern catalogue of the Amplonian collection at Erfurt lists three manuscripts of the Speculum astronomiae of the fourteenth century and in every case ascribes it to Albert.[2295] Early in the fifteenth century also Cardinal Pierre d’Ailly more than once cited the Speculum as by Albert,[2296], as did Gerson and Nicholas of Denmark in the same century.[2297] Pignon and Valleoletanus also ascribed it to Albert in their catalogues of the writings of Dominicans.[2298] At the close of the fifteenth century Pico della Mirandola in his work against astrology was almost the first to question Albert’s authorship, which he did in an effort to weaken the reliance of the adherents of astrology upon the authority of Albert as a defender of that art.[2299] Pico apparently did not possess a sufficiently extensive knowledge of Albert’s other writings to pass upon the question of the authenticity of the Speculum, or he would not have imagined that by questioning the Albertine authorship of it, he could prevent the adherents of astrology from citing numerous passages in Albert’s works in favor of their art. But now as to the astrological doctrine of the Speculum itself.
Occasion for writing the Speculum.
The Proemium or opening chapter of the Speculum astronomiae, or Mirror of Astrology, states the occasion for writing it, namely, the existence of certain works hostile to Christianity, many of which are actually concerned with necromancy but make false profession of astronomy or astrology. On this account “some great men” have censured other books which may be quite harmless, and noble volumes of astronomy have been brought under suspicion and into disrepute. Therefore the writer, who describes himself vaguely as a devotee both of the Faith and of Philosophy, has made a critical bibliography of both kinds of works, giving their authors’ names, their titles, opening words, and a general notion of their contents.
Defense of astronomy.