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

by Lynn Thorndike

Reputation for magic.

Along with his reputation among the learned as a medical authority Peter acquired a popular reputation as a magician and nigromancer. This reputation had become established by the middle of the fifteenth century, when Michael Savonarola tells us that Peter’s great knowledge of astronomy enabled him to make such predictions that men thought he employed magic, and that the present tradition among his fellow townsmen is that Abano was most skilled in the magic art. Of Peter’s astrological skill Savonarola tells the story that, noting the approach of an unusually favorable constellation, he advised the immediate building of a new Padua in order to make her the queen of all cities. Similarly Scardeone ascribed to Peter the idea of the numerous astrological pictures illustrating the influence of the planets and signs upon terrestrial life with which the ceiling of the Palazzo della Ragione at Padua is adorned.[2796] A different story and on the whole perhaps the most incredible one is told by Benvenuto of Imola,[2797] perhaps seventy years after Peter’s death. About to die, Peter said that his life had been especially devoted to three noble sciences, of which one, philosophy, made him subtle; the second, medicine, made him rich; and the third, astrology, made him a liar.

But to return to Peter’s reputation as a magician. Savonarola, whom we were quoting and who evidently has a favorable opinion of magic, continues, “Moreover, this helps to round out his teaching, nor is it contrary to his other sciences, but makes the man the more illustrious.” Naudé,[2798] on the contrary, endeavored to exculpate Peter from the charge of magic and regarded “the common opinion of almost all authors” that he “was the greatest magician of his age and learned the seven liberal arts from seven familiar spirits whom he held captive in a crystal,” as a legend developed from Peter’s astrological predictions and from his own statements concerning incantations in the 156th Differentia of the Conciliator. As for the story of seven familiar spirits, already before Naudé Giovan Francesco Pico[2799] had noted the incongruity between the universal reputation of Peter of Abano as a magician and the doctrine attributed to him that there are no demons. Among the authors whom Naudé had in mind was doubtless the learned Bodin who in the sixteenth century declared that Peter of Abano was proved to have been easily the chief of Italy’s magicians. Naudé admitted that Peter had left treatises in physiognomy, geomancy, and chiromancy, but held that he had then abandoned “the idle curiosity of his youth to devote himself wholly to philosophy, medicine, and astrology.”[2800] We have already stated that Champier’s criticisms of Peter’s teachings largely related to astrology and magic. Let us now turn to Peter’s own works and see what his attitude in regard to such matters really was.

Summary of occult science in the Conciliator.

In the Conciliator, as in most of his writings, Peter manifests a marked weakness for astrology and an extensive familiarity with that art. His penchant displays itself in the very prologue where he mentions “the power of genesis in the stars” (vim geneseos sydeream) in stating that most men are slaves not only in body but also in the nature of their minds. Peter also occasionally displays a credulous interest in dreams, fascination, incantations, and other varieties of magic. The sections of the Conciliator in which he has most to say of such matters are as follows. In the ninth Difference, “Whether human nature is weakened from what it was of old?” he appeals to astronomy and astrology for support of his views and digresses to speak of his own astronomical researches and publications and of the influence of the stars. The tenth Differentia, “Whether a doctor to-day can help the sick by his knowledge of astronomy?” discusses at considerable length the arguments against the art of astrology and argues in favor of astrological medicine. Question one hundred and thirteen, “Whether natural death can be retarded by any benefit?” involves further astrological discussion. In Difference one hundred and fifty-six the efficacy of incantations in medicine is considered. We shall have occasion, however, to cite many other Differentiae than these four.

Definition of astronomy and astrology.

By Peter’s time the words “astronomy” and “astrology” were beginning to be used in about their present meaning. He is at pains to explain that their derivation from the similar Greek words, nomos and logos, does not justify this distinction. But he accepts the division of the science of the heavens into two parts, one descriptive and dealing with the measurement and motion of the stars, the other judicial and studying their effects. This latter is subdivided as usual into the branches of revolutions, nativities, interrogations, and elections, which last includes the science of images. Conjunctions go with revolutions.

Nature controlled by the stars.

In the tenth Differentia of the Conciliator Peter lists and replies to a number of arguments against the art of astrology, such as that the distances involved are too great, the number of stars too numerous, their influences too diverse and conflicting, the instant of nativity too minute, to admit of accurate calculation and prediction. These objections remind us of those raised by Sextus Empiricus. Against such objections Peter adduces not only arguments of his own, but the opinions of philosophers, astrologers, and physicians. All wise men agree, he says, that aside from God, the celestial bodies are the first causes of happenings in this world. Aristotle and the Commentator,[2801] indeed, hold that God does not act directly upon our lower world, and that all operations here are through mediums and instruments; but the true Christian Faith contends that the Creator can, if He will, affect His creatures “immediately and without motion and alteration.”[2802] Of the general law, however, that the natural world is universally controlled by the heavenly bodies there can be no doubt in Peter’s opinion. In another chapter[2803] he cites in favor of this view the assertion of Hermes, Enoch, or Mercury that each sand of the sea has its star influencing it, and that of the Centiloquium ascribed to Ptolemy that the face of this world is subject to the face of the heavens.

Astrology a science.