In the De venenis[2923] Peter cites the Latin translation of a treatise by Avenzoar (ʿAbd al Malik ibn Zuhr ibn ʿAbd al Malik, Abu Marwan) concerning the power of a powdered emerald as an antidote against poison. In the printed editions Avenzoar’s work is referred to as that translated for Pope Boniface.[2924] If we could only rely upon this as Peter’s original wording, it would mean that he was himself addressing some pope later than Boniface VIII (1294-1303), and so would support the other evidence that the De venenis was addressed to John XXII. But in at least one manuscript of the De venenis the work of Avenzoar is said to have been translated “for the Roman people.”[2925] Moreover, the Latin translation of Avenzoar in question is extant and in the printed version[2926] we read at the close that it was translated at Venice, August 21, 1281, from Hebrew into Latin by a master of medicine from Padua[2927] with the aid of a Jew named Jacob. The work would thus seem to have been translated long before Boniface became pope. In a Paris manuscript,[2928] however, the translator gives his name as John of Capua, a baptized Jew, of whom we know as a translator of other works from Hebrew into Latin,[2929] and addresses his present translation to the archbishop of Braga in Portugal,[2930] whom Hartwig believed to be Martin de Oliviera who held that office from 1292 to 1313. Now this John of Capua also translated the work on Diets of Maimonides, at the suggestion of William of Brescia who was Pope Boniface VIII’s physician, and Hartwig believes that he met the archbishop of Braga at Rome. But more than this, in a Vienna manuscript the translation of Avenzoar is addressed to Pope Boniface VIII himself.[2931] Apparently therefore there is justification for Peter of Abano’s speaking of the work as translated for Boniface VIII. And whether it was or not, in any case it was translated at too late a date for Peter to have cited it in his De venenis, had that treatise been addressed to Pope John XXI who died in 1277. So if we admit that the De venenis was addressed to a Pope John, it must have been addressed to John XXII who became pope on August 7, 1316.
Popes and poisons.
Returning for a moment to Boniface VIII, it may be remarked that he was presumably the pope who, as Peter himself states in the Conciliator, had protected him from certain persecutors. That there was nothing strange in addressing a work on poisons to a pope of that time is shown by the fact that Ermengard Blasius (or Blasii)[2932] of Montpellier, physician of Philip the Fair of France, translated the work of Moses Maimonides on poisons for Clement V, the predecessor of John XXII, in 1307.[2933] But there is no evidence so far as I know to indicate that Peter of Abano addressed his work on poisons to Clement V, although chronologically it is possible.
[2918] P. Giacosa, Magistri Salernitani nondum editi, 1901, p. 495.
[2919] Addit. 37079, 15th century, fols. 83r-131v, “Pollex incipit de venenis editus a petro de abano peritissimo pad. Sanctissimo ac Reverendissimo in Christo domino Domino Johanni divi providentia pape et summo pontifici.” Some later hand, presumably Protestant, has drawn a line through the words pape and summo.
Amplon. Q. 222, mid 14th century, fols. 227-37, “Reverendissimo in Christo patri Iohanni divina providentia summo pontifici.”
Riccard. 1177, 15th century, fols. 7-13, is said to be written at the request of Pope John.
[2920] Bibl. Naz. Turin H-II-16, 15th century, fols. 111-115v, “Incipit tractatus de venenis et eorum medicinis appropriatis transmissis summo pontifici Joh. XXII.” “Explicit tractatus de venenis et eorum medicinis appropriatis qui pollox (sic) venenorum appellatur. Compillatus ab egregio artium et medicine doctore petro de ebano et temporis decano studii montisspessulani directus sanctissimo in Xo patri et domino domino Johanni divina providentia pape XXII. Deo gratias amen.” I take this description of the MS from Giacosa (1901), p. 495. The MS was somewhat damaged in the fire of 1904 and in the description of it in the catalogue of MSS which survived the fire, published in the same year, Abano’s treatise is not mentioned: “Marsilia Sancta Sophia Receptae super prima quarti Avicennae De febribus; et alia.”
Canon. Misc. 46, 15th century, fols. 31-47r, described by Coxe as, “Eiusdem Petri libellus de venenis ad Johannem Papam XXII,” but the pope’s name does not appear in the MS itself.
[2921] Scardeone (1560), p. 201.