''Picatrix'' is the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
name used today for a 400-page book of magic and astrology originally written in Arabic under the title ''Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm'' ( ar, غاية الحكيم), which most scholars assume was originally written in the middle of the 11th century, though an argument for composition in the first half of the 10th century has been made. The Arabic title translates as ''The Aim of the Sage'' or ''The Goal of The Wise''. The Arabic work was translated into Spanish and then into Latin during the 13th century, at which time it got the Latin title ''Picatrix''. The book's title ''Picatrix'' is also sometimes used to refer to the book's author.
''Picatrix'' is a composite work that synthesizes older works on
magic and
astrology
Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...
. One of the most influential interpretations suggests it is to be regarded as a "handbook of talismanic magic". Another researcher summarizes it as "the most thorough exposition of celestial magic in Arabic", indicating the sources for the work as "Arabic texts on
Hermeticism,
Sabianism,
Ismailism,
astrology
Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...
,
alchemy
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world ...
and
magic produced in the
Near East in the ninth and tenth centuries A.D."
Eugenio Garin declares, "In reality the Latin version of the ''Picatrix'' is as indispensable as the
''Corpus Hermeticum'' or the writings of
Albumasar for understanding a conspicuous part of the production of the Renaissance, including the figurative arts." It has significantly influenced West European
esotericism
Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...
from
Marsilio Ficino
Marsilio Ficino (; Latin name: ; 19 October 1433 – 1 October 1499) was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was an astrologer, a reviver ...
in the 15th century, to
Thomas Campanella in the 17th century. The manuscript in the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...
passed through several hands:
Simon Forman,
Richard Napier
Richard Napier (1559 – 1 April 1634) was a prominent English astrologer and medical practitioner.
Life
Also known as Dr Richard Sandy, he was the brother of Sir Robert Napier of Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire. He was a pupil of Simon Forman a ...
,
Elias Ashmole
Elias Ashmole (; 23 May 1617 – 18 May 1692) was an English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer and student of alchemy. Ashmole supported the royalist side during the English Civil War, and at the restoration of Charles II ...
and
William Lilly.
According to the prologue of the Latin translation, ''Picatrix'' was translated into
Spanish from the Arabic by order of
Alphonso X of Castile at some time between 1256 and 1258. The Latin version was produced sometime later, based on translation of the Spanish manuscripts. It has been attributed to Maslama ibn Ahmad
al-Majriti
Abu al-Qasim Maslama ibn Ahmad al-Majriti ( ar, أبو القاسم مسلمة بن أحمد المجريطي: c. 950–1007), known or Latin as , was an Arab Muslim astronomer, chemist, mathematician, economist and Scholar in Islamic Spa ...
(an Andalusian
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
), but many have called this attribution into question. Consequently, the author is sometimes indicated as "Pseudo-Majriti".
The Spanish and Latin versions were the only ones known to Western scholars until Wilhelm Printz discovered an Arabic version in or around 1920.
Content and sources
The work is divided into four books, which exhibit a marked absence of systematic exposition.
Jean Seznec observed, "''Picatrix'' prescribes propitious times and places and the attitude and gestures of the suppliant; he also indicates what terms must be used in petitioning the stars." As an example, Seznec then reproduces a prayer to Saturn from the work, noting that
Fritz Saxl has pointed out that this invocation exhibits "the accent and even the very terms of a Greek astrological prayer to Kronos. This is one indication that the sources of ''Picatrix'' are in large part Hellenistic.":
According to Garin:
According to the Prologue, the author researched over two hundred works in the creation of ''Picatrix''. However, there are three significant Near/Middle Eastern influences:
Jabir ibn Hayyan
Abū Mūsā Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (Arabic: , variously called al-Ṣūfī, al-Azdī, al-Kūfī, or al-Ṭūsī), died 806−816, is the purported author of an enormous number and variety of works in Arabic, often called the Jabirian corpus. The ...
, the
Brethren of Purity, and
ibn Wahshiyya's ''
Nabataean Agriculture''. The influence of Jabir ibn Hayyan comes in the form of a cosmological background that removes magical practices from the context of diabolical influences and reasserts these practices as having a divine origin. The author of ''Picatrix'' utilizes
Neoplatonic theories of
hypostasis
Hypostasis, hypostatic, or hypostatization (hypostatisation; from the Ancient Greek , "under state") may refer to:
* Hypostasis (philosophy and religion), the essence or underlying reality
** Hypostasis (linguistics), personification of entities
...
that mirror the work of Jabir ibn Hayyan.
While tracing the correlates for the
Kabbalistic
Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "receiver"). The defin ...
notion of the
astral body (
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: ''tselem''),
Gershom Scholem cited its occurrence in the ''Picatrix'', and pointed out the background of this concept in Greek
papyri
Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a d ...
and philosophical texts, in
Gnostic
Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...
texts, in
Iranian eschatology, and in
Islamic and
Renaissance Neoplatonism. Scholem also specifically noted
Henry Corbin's work in documenting the concept of the perfected nature in Iranian and Islamic religion.
According to Scholem, the following passage from the ''Picatrix'' (itself similar to a passage in an earlier
Hermetic text called the ''
Secret of Creation'') tracks very closely with the Kabbalistic concept of ''tselem'':
When I wished to find knowledge of the secrets of Creation, I came upon a dark vault within the depths of the earth, filled with blowing winds. ... Then there appeared to me in my sleep a shape of most wondrous beauty I then said to him: "Who are you?" And he answered: "I am your perfected nature."
Authorship and significance of title
The Arab historian,
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun (; ar, أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن خلدون الحضرمي, ; 27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732-808 AH) was an Arab
The Historical Muhammad', Irving M. Zeitlin, (Polity Press, 2007), p. 21; "It is, o ...
, in his
Muqaddimah
The ''Muqaddimah'', also known as the ''Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun'' ( ar, مقدّمة ابن خلدون) or ''Ibn Khaldun's Prolegomena'' ( grc, Προλεγόμενα), is a book written by the Arab historian Ibn Khaldun in 1377 which records ...
, ascribed authorship of ''Picatrix'' (referring to the original Arabic version, under the title ''Ġāyat al-Ḥakīm'' غاية الحكيم ) to the astronomer and mathematician
Maslama Al-Majriti, who died between 1005 CE and 1008 CE (398 AH). This attribution is problematic: the author of the Arabic original states in its introduction that he completed the book on 348 AH, which is ~ 959 CE. Moreover, the author states that he started writing the ''Picatrix'' after he completed his previous book, ''Rutbat al-Ḥakīm'' رتبة الحكيم in 343 AH (~ 954 CE). This makes the authoring more than five decades before Al-Majriti's death, and if his estimated birth year is to be accepted, he would be only around 5 years old when he started writing it. As well, according to Holmyard, the earliest manuscript attribution of the work to Maslama al-Majriti was made by the alchemist
al-Jildaki, who died shortly after 1360, while Ibn Khaldun died some 20 years later. However, no biography of al-Majriti mentions him as the author of this work.
More recent attributions of authorship range from "the Arabic version is anonymous" to reiterations of the old claim that the author is "the celebrated astronomer and mathematician Abu l-Qasim Maslama b. Ahmad Al-Majriti". One recent study in ''Studia Islamica'' suggests that the authorship of this work should be attributed to Maslama b. Qasim al-Qurtubi (died 353/964), who according to Ibn al-Faradi was "a man of charms and talismans". If this suggestion is correct it would place the work in the context of
Andalusia
Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The ...
n
sufism
Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
and
batinism.
The odd Latin title is sometimes explained as a sloppy transliteration of one "Buqratis", mentioned several times in the second of the four books of the work. Others have suggested that the title (or the name of the author) is a way of attributing the work to Hippocrates (via a transcription of the name ''Burqratis'' or ''Biqratis'' in the Arabic text). Where it appears in the Arabic original, the Latin text does translate the name Burqratis as ''Picatrix'', but this still does not establish the identity of Burqratis. Ultimately, linking the name, Picatrix, with
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history o ...
, has fallen into disfavor because the text separately cites Hippocrates under the name ''Ypocras''.
Anticipation of experimental method
Martin Plessner suggests that a translator of the ''Picatrix'' established a
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
definition of
scientific experiment by changing a passage in the
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
translation of the Arabic original, establishing a theoretical basis for the experimental method: "the invention of an hypothesis in order to explain a certain natural process, then the arranging of conditions under which that process may intentionally be brought about in accordance with the hypothesis, and finally, the justification or refutation of the hypothesis, depending on the outcome of the experiment".
Plessner notes that it is generally agreed that awareness of, "the specific nature of the experimental method–as distinct from the practical use of it–is an achievement of the 16th and 17th centuries." However, as the passage by the translator of the Hebrew version makes clear, the fundamental theoretical basis for the experimental method was here established prior to the middle of the 13th century.
The original passage in Arabic describes how a man who witnessed a treatment for a scorpion's sting (drinking a potion of
frankincense that had received
seal imprints) had gone on to experiment with different types of frankincense, assuming that this was the cause for the cure, but later found that the seal images were the cause for the cure, regardless of the substance upon which they were impressed. The author of the ''Picatrix'' goes on to explain how the explanation of the effectiveness of cures passed on to him by authorities was then proved to him by his own experience.
The Hebrew translator changed the passage in question to include the following:
And that was the reason which incited me o devote myself to astrological magic
O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), ...
Moreover, these secrets were already made known by Nature, and the experience approved them. The man dealing with nature has nothing to do but producing a reason of what the experience has brought out.
Plessner also notes that "neither the Arabic psychology of study nor the Hebrew definition of the experiment is rendered in the Latin ''Picatrix''. The Latin translator omits many theoretical passages throughout the work."
In exploring the cross-cultural circulation of the text
Avner Ben-Zaken
In the Hebrew Bible, Abner ( he, אַבְנֵר ) was the cousin of King Saul and the commander-in-chief of his army. His name also appears as "Abiner son of Ner", where the longer form Abiner means "my father is Ner".
Biblical narrative
A ...
enlisted to the Picatrix's scholarship the “Yates thesis,” and argued that the text played a latent, though central, role in shaping the philosophy of Renaissance natural magic and in giving the stimulus needed to transform occultist notions into experimental science. For Renaissance thinkers unfriendly to the establishment, natural magic offered an alternative program for natural philosophy, and some turned it against Aristotelian philosophy, which they viewed as hegemonic. Moreover, these rebels presented natural magic as a scientific practice, a culture deeply grounded in non-European contexts. For Ficino and Pico, natural magic originated in the ancient Near East, brought Renaissance Europe through cross-cultural exchanges that involved Kabalistic texts and Arabic works on magic. For Agrippa, natural magic carried a new program for science, as well as new practices and new personas. For him, the magus—the new experimental naturalist—was a figure that first came to life in the ancient East. For Campanella, natural magic offered a bottom-up construction of natural philosophy that also entailed a new organization of society, in which reason and firsthand experience order both nature and society. All perceived Picatrix as a text that embodied both: a strong alternative program for the study of nature, and a strong cultural program for challenging European culture from outside. In imagining this alternative, they eventually returned their science to its historical point of origin, the East. Ficino, Agrippa, and in a sense Campanella pushed the argument further, laying a foundation for a heliocentric worldview, initiating the search for the hidden forces of nature, and casting the magician virtuoso as the godfather of natural philosophy.
Thus, the Picatrix was essential for turning natural magic into philosophy, for transforming the magus into an experimentalist, and for transforming the practice of natural magic into an institutional system of education. It inspired the proposal that scholars shift their focus from Scholasticism to the distant sources of natural magic.
[ Avner Ben-Zaken, "Traveling with the Picatrix: Cultural Liminalities of Culture and Science", In ''Religious Individualization in Historical Perspective'', (Berlin, 2019), pp. 1038-106]
/ref>
Editions
غاية الحكيم ''Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm'': An edition of the text in Arabic
edited by Hellmut Ritter (from the Warburg Institute)
*''Picatrix: Das Ziel des Weisen von Pseudo-Magriti'', aus dem Arabischen ins Deutsche übersetzt von Hellmut Ritter und Martin Plessner 'Picatrix: The Goal of the Wise Man by Pseudo-Magriti'', translated from Arabic into German by Ritter and Plessner London: Warburg Institute, 1962 (=Studies of the Warburg Institute 27).
*David Pingree
''The Latin Version of the Ghayat al-hakim''
Studies of the Warburg Institute, University of London (1986),
*''Ouroboros Press'' has published the first English translation available in two volumes, Ouroborous Press (2002 Vol. 1 ASIN: B0006S6LAO) and (2008 Vol. 2
Béatrice Bakhouche
Frédéric Fauquier, Brigitte Pérez-Jean, ''Picatrix: Un Traite De Magie Medieval'', Brepols Pub (2003), 388 p., .
*''The Complete Picatrix: The Occult Classic Of Astrological Magic '', Renaissance Astrology Press , 310 p., , English translation from Pingree's Latin critical edition by John Michael Greer
John Michael Greer (born 1962) is an American author and druid who writes on ecology, politics, appropriate technology, oil depletion and the occult.
Personal life
Greer was born in Bremerton, Washington and was raised in the Seattle area. He ...
& Christopher Warnock.
''Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic''
translated with an introduction by Dan Attrell and David Porreca, 384 p., Penn State University Press, 2019.
See also
* Grimoires – i.e. books about magic
* Alchemy and chemistry in Islam
* Islamic astrology
* Ruhaniyya
* Necronomicon
Notes
{{reflist, 30em
External links
*Picatrix complete text
David Pingree's edition of the Latin text
(from the Warburg Institute)
*Picatrix complete text
German Translation by Hellmut Ritter and Martin Plessner
(from the Warburg Institute)
*Picatrix complete text
An edition of the original Arabic text
edited by Hellmut Ritter (from the Warburg Institute)
* ttp://digitaloccultmanuscripts.blogspot.com/2008/07/ghayetu-al-hakim-picatrix_7394.html Photos of some pages of an Arabic manuscript of the غاية الحكيم ''Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm''
Grimoires
Arabic grimoires
Astrological works of the medieval Islamic world
Medieval Arabic literature
Arabian mythology
Literature of Al-Andalus
11th-century Arabic books