The planet Jupiter.
Some further idea of Bonatti’s method and content may be derived from the following translation of his account of the properties, significations, and effects of the planet Jupiter.
“Alchabitius has said that Jupiter is fortunate, masculine, diurnal; and is by nature significant of property, since property is the second accident that happens to the child after birth ... and Jupiter is second in the order of the planets. Jupiter is likewise the second planet to exert its influence on the child before birth, giving it spirit and life. And its nature produces heat and moisture, and is temperate, aerial, and sanguine. Of man’s age Jupiter signifies the period called iuventus from youth to the prime of life, namely, from fourteen or twenty-one to forty or forty-five years. It governs those offices pertaining to law and just and honest judgments. And it attends when it sees any persons engaged in altercation or litigation, and makes peace between them and bestows harmony upon them, and ever is engaged in good pursuits. And it signifies abundant property. And such business occupations as are performed without deceit.
“It signifies spirit, life, joy, religion, truth, patience, and every precept that is good, lovely, and precious, and everything that is honorable. It indicates abundant charm. Of infirmities it signifies those due to excess of blood.... It is the planet of wisdom, of intellect, of sound practice. Moreover, if Jupiter be well disposed and in the east and at a favorable angle, the child will be of good quality, benign, just; he will honor the aged, and will be a good counselor, a helper of the needy, and of good repute. He will cherish his friends; he will be of good intellect.
“But if Jupiter shall be unfavorable, Ptolemy is witness that the child will be ignorant of well doing, versed in diabolical practices, that he will intrigue under a hypocritical exterior, will linger in places of prayer, will gladly live in crypts and caverns and caves, and there will predict the future. He will love no one, though he may have a few friends; he will abhor his children, will shun human conversation, will seek no honors from anyone, will be untrustworthy, and no one can depend on him. In fine, he will be bad, weak, stupid, weary and heavy-laden, of evil election.”
Having thus considered the properties of Jupiter per se, Bonatti next proceeds to record its tendencies when in conjunction with Saturn and the other planets.
An astrological image.
One of the stories told of Bonatti may be noted in conclusion, since it concerns an astrological image. Pitying a poor apothecary with whom he used to play chess, Guido gave him a wax image of a ship, telling him to keep it hid in a box in a secret place and he would grow rich, but that if he removed it, he would grow poor again. True enough, the man became wealthy, but then began to fear lest the image be the work of witchcraft. So, having made his fortune, he decided to save his soul and confessed concerning the image to a priest who bade him destroy it. But then, as Bonatti had predicted, he rapidly lost his entire fortune. He then begged Guido to make him another image, but Bonatti cursed him and told him that the image had been no magic one but had derived its virtue from constellations which would not recur for another fifty years.[2659]
The geomancy of Bartholomew of Parma.
If the Liber astronomicus of Guido Bonatti was the leading Latin work on astrology in the thirteenth century, probably the most elaborate treatise in the associated art of geomancy was that by another Italian, Bartholomew of Parma, who appears to have written a long Summa[2660] on the subject in 1288 in Bologna at the request of Theodosius de Flisco, bishop-elect of Reggio in northern Italy;[2661] and then in October, 1294, a briefer treatment for two German friends and disciples named John and Paul,[2662] and again in November, 1295, another abbreviated treatment for the beginner.[2663] Titles in manuscripts at Vienna indicate that Bartholomew also wrote astrological treatises,[2664] but perhaps they would prove to be merely extracts from his longer work on geomancy, although Houzeau and Lancaster give the date of a Liber de occultis by him as 1280.[2665] None of Bartholomew’s works seems to have been printed. The interest of the canon of Laon and bishop elect of Reggio in the art of geomancy is another of numerous indications that we have had that such occult and superstitious arts were at least not consistently condemned by the church and clergy.