The bezoar.
Finally Peter comes to the discussion of “bezoartic virtues” which free from death by occult and divine virtue rather than by their natural composition. Under this head he proposes to deal with two difficult questions: first, whether theriac is a bezoar (i. e., antidote or panacea) and medicine for every poison; second, whether there is any poison which can be set to act at a given time, so that the victim will die from it then and not before. In those copies of the De venenis which I have seen the discussion of this second question is never reached. Perhaps it was intended only for the pope’s ear and not published. As for the former question, some believe in a bezoar or stone that frees from all poisons without medical assistance. Edward I of England, when wounded by the Sultan’s poisoned sword, is said to have been cured by such a stone which “the general preceptor of the Temple gave him, and I have seen one like it.” It is red, purulent, light as a sponge, and fragile as gypsum. But Peter inclines to believe that each poison has its own antidote which is the best cure for it. Like Galen, however, he extols that “divine and noble” artificial compound, theriac, a mixture of all the single medicines which break or dissolve or expel poisons. It may, he thinks, deservedly be called Bezoar, since it is good against all poisons, although for any particular poison there may be a superior particular remedy. After Peter’s treatise has apparently ended with the words, Deo gratias, there is added a note from the Pandects concerning the stone Begaar or Bezoar, asserting its reality and superiority to any simple antidote or any of the compound theriacs.[2858]
Physiognomy.
Peter’s treatise on physiognomy mentions Philemon, Aristotle, Palemon, and Loxius as the founders of the art, and Rasis, Zacharias, and Avicenna as Arabian authorities. Peter proposes to combine their separate contributions to the subject “into one lucid and perfect doctrine.” The first draft intended for the captain-general of Mantua has got into “the hands of some rascal who scorns to communicate it to me or others.” At the sollicitation of his friends and lest invidious detractors envying another’s work gain glory from it, Peter has written another draft which he flatters himself is longer and better. “So praise be,” he piously ejaculates, “to God, the better producer of everything, who from that evil has created this good and best!” Peter’s treatise differs from other Physiognomies mainly in its emphasis upon astrology, to which its third book is largely devoted. He gives the influence of each sign and planet upon the physique and character of the person born under it, and discusses in considerable detail the process of generation, the influence of heredity as well as of the stars, and the effect upon the babe of any strong imagination, especially on the part of the mother, during the period of generation.
Astrology in his other works.
Peter’s penchant for astrology is further evidenced by his Latin version of the various astrological treatises of Abraham Aben Ezra, and his translation of the brief treatise attributed to Hippocrates on the prognostication of diseases according to the moon. Peter or some previous translator or editor opens it by saying that while reading the works of Hippocrates he found this book, “small but of great utility and very essential to all physicians. Whoever is well acquainted with it can pronounce health, death, or life in every infirmity.” Peter brings in astrology even in his commentary on the Problems of Aristotle. When Aristotle mentions an astronomer or astrologer in a derogatory manner in the same breath with a juggler or mime or pipe-player or rhetorician, Peter is at pains to explain that in Aristotle’s time the science of judicial astrology had not yet attained its present perfection.
Attitude to “magic.”
In those of his works which are certainly genuine Peter seldom uses the word “magic” and never, I think, speaks of it approvingly, although Michael Savonarola could see no reason why he should not do so. Despite his reputation for magic, the longest discussion of such arts in his admittedly genuine works occurs in the Lucidator,[2859] where, after the manner of Michael Scot and Albert in the Speculum astronomiae, he is chiefly concerned to distinguish astrology favorably from these other forms of divination and magic. With occasionally some additional detail he mainly repeats the old account of the origin of magic with Zoroaster or Cham, the son of Noah, and with Hermes or Enoch or Mercurius; and the old classification of the occult arts found in Isidore and Hugo of St. Victor.
Magic books ascribed to him.
Naudé states, on the authority of Castellan, that when Peter was burned in effigy after his death, the reading was forbidden of three superstitious and abominable books which he had composed, entitled respectively, Heptameron, Elucidarium Necromanticum, and Liber experimentorum mirabilium de annulis secundum 28 mansiones lunae (Book of marvelous experiments with rings according to the twenty-eight mansions of the moon).[2860] Naudé adds, however, that Trithemius and Symphorien Champier could find no books on magic by Peter of Abano.[2861] Such treatises, however, exist both in print and in manuscripts, which last are mainly of late date, and will be found listed in Appendix II. Prophecies ascribed to “the most reverend nigromancer, Peter of Abano,” were printed in Bologna in Italian about 1495 and occur also in Latin in a Vatican manuscript. The printed Heptameron or Elements of Magic consists entirely of specific directions how to invoke demons, and if genuine, might account for Champier’s charge that Peter borrowed from Picatrix. The reader is instructed in the construction of the magic circle, in the names of the angels, and concerning benedictions, fumigations, exorcisms, prayers to God, visions, apparitions, and conjurations for each day of the week. The work seems quite certainly spurious.