[2358] Strictly speaking, he seems to have been a Christian who served the caliph and died at Cairo in 1015. His existence has been questioned, as Arabic works do not mention him, so that some regard him as a Latin creation of the eleventh or twelfth century. His works were printed at Venice in Latin in 1471, 1484, 1495, 1497, 1513, 1523, 1568, and 1623. Some distinguish an earlier writer (c 777-857) of the same name, known also as John of Damascus, whose Aphorisms and some fragments are extant.
[2359] The following passages, for instance, are identical in Digby 71, where the Liber vaccae occurs at fols. 36-56, and in the printed text of the De mirabilibus mundi (page references are to the Amsterdam edition of 1740). Printed text, p. 176, “Filius Mesue in lib. de animalibus. Si induit vestimentum viri mulier foeta, deinde induat ipsum vir priusquam abluat ipsum, recedit ab ipso febris quartana.... Et in libro de Tyriaca Galieni ...”; also the tale of Aristotle and Alexander killing vipers by letting them stare themselves to death in mirrors: all found in the same order in Digby 71, fol. 37v.
Printed text, p. 177, “In lib. decorationis, accipe quantitatem fabae de alcihi et infunde ipsam in urinam mulae et da mulieri ad potandum, non concipiet”: Digby 71, fol. 37v, gives the same recipe but cites “liber de conceptione” for it; however, for another recipe, “accipe mirram et line pollicem ... nisi solum modo te” it too, fol. 38r-v, cites the Liber decorationis.
P. 177, “In libro Cleopatrae, quando mulier accipit omni mense de urina mulae pondera duo et biberit, ipsa non concipiet”; p. 184 from same, “si mulier non delectatur cum viro suo, accipe medullam lupi de pede sinistro et porta eam et nullum diligit nisi te”; both at fol. 39v.
P. 178, “In libro Archigenis, quando cor leporis suspenditur super eum qui patitur cholicam, confert”: fol. 38r.
Pp. 181 and 184, citations from Tabariensis opening, “si suspenditur lapis spongiae in collo pueri ...” and “si lingua upupae suspendatur super patientem”: fols. 38v and 39v, “Tagiarensis.”
Pp. 182 and 183, citations from “Belbinus” opening, “quando accipis albumen ovi ...” and “qui posuerit portulacam super lectum”: fol. 39r, “Belleg,” but the margin says “Belenus.”
[2360] Arundel 342 (14th century), fols. 46-54, whose Incipit does not occur in Digby 71 until fol. 40v, after all the citations in the preceding note; see Chapter 65, Appendix I, for a more detailed description of the MSS of the Liber vaccae.
[2361] Berthelot (1893), I, 91.
[2362] Albertus Magnus, De secretis mulierum, Heinr. Knoblochtzer, Strasburg, 1480. Also at Rome, 1499; and an edition dated 1428 by mistake for 1478; and an undated edition where it is entitled De secretis mulierum et virorum. I have used the 1480 edition and the one of Amsterdam, 1740, where it is bound with the other two works ascribed to Albert and with Michael Scot’s De secretis naturae.