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Hugo Of Santalla
Hugo of Santalla (also Hugh of Santalla, of Sanctalla, Hugo Sanctelliensis) was a significant translator of the first part of the twelfth century. From Arabic originals, he produced Latin translations of texts on alchemy, astronomy, astrology and geomancy. He is thought to have been a Spanish priest, working in Tarazona. Michael, bishop of Tarazona was a patron. Works attributed to him are translations of Alfraganus, Haly, the ''Liber de secretis naturae'' of Apollonius of Tyana, ''De Spatula'' on divination, and the '' Tabula Smaragdina''.J.R. Ritman Library - Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica
His ''Liber Aristotilis'' was an anthology of material with Greek and Persian origins, none of it now attributed to

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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 Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first attested in a number of pseudepigraphical texts written in Greco-Roman Egypt during the first few centuries AD.Principe, Lawrence M. The secrets of alchemy'. University of Chicago Press, 2012, pp. 9–14. Alchemists attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain materials. Common aims were chrysopoeia, the transmutation of "base metals" (e.g., lead) into "noble metals" (particularly gold); the creation of an elixir of immortality; and the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease. The perfection of the human body and soul was thought to result from the alchemical ''magnum opus'' ("Great Work"). The concept of creating the philosophers' stone was variously connected with all of the ...
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Astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest include planets, natural satellite, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxy, galaxies, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates beyond atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere. Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the universe as a whole. Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history made methodical observations of the night sky. These include the Babylonian astronomy, Babylonians, Greek astronomy, Greeks, Indian astronomy, Indians, Egyptian astronomy, Egyptians, Chinese astronomy, Chinese, Maya civilization, Maya, and many anc ...
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Astrology
Astrology is a range of Divination, 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 in astrology, celestial objects. Different cultures have employed forms of astrology since at least the 2nd millennium BCE, these practices having originated in Calendrical calculation, calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications. Most, if not all, cultures have attached importance to what they observed in the sky, and some—such as the Hindu astrology, Hindus, Chinese astrology, Chinese, and the Maya civilization, Maya—developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. Western astrology, one of the oldest astrological systems still in use, can trace its roots to 19th–17th century BCE Mesopotamia, from where it spr ...
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Geomancy
Geomancy (Greek: γεωμαντεία, "earth divination") is a method of divination that interprets markings on the ground or the patterns formed by tossed handfuls of soil, rocks, or sand. The most prevalent form of divinatory geomancy involves interpreting a series of 16 figures formed by a randomized process that involves recursion, followed by analyzing them, often augmented with astrological interpretations. Geomancy was practiced by people from all social classes. It was one of the most popular forms of divination throughout Africa and Europe, particularly during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In Renaissance magic, geomancy was classified as one of the seven "forbidden arts", along with necromancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, pyromancy, chiromancy (palmistry), and spatulamancy (scapulimancy). History The word "geomancy", from Late Greek ''geōmanteía'', translates literally to "foresight by earth"; it is a calque translation of the Arabic term ''‛ilm al-raml'', ...
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Tarazona
Tarazona is a town and municipality in the Tarazona y el Moncayo comarca, province of Zaragoza, in Aragon, Spain. It is the capital of the Tarazona y el Moncayo Aragonese comarca. It is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tarazona. History During the Roman era, Tarazona was a prosperous city whose inhabitants were full Roman citizens; it was known as ''Turiaso''. The city declined after the fall of the Roman Empire, and later became a Muslim town in the 8th century. It was conquered in 1119 by Alfonso I of Aragon and became the seat of the diocese of Tarazona. Construction on Tarazona Cathedral first began in the 12th century in the French Gothic style, and it was consecrated in 1232. After the crucifixion of Alfonso I, Tarazona became a town situated on the frontiers between Castile, Navarre, and Aragon, and was thus of strategic importance. During centuries of Arabic rule, the city's population was diverse, and Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived toge ...
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Alfraganus
Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Kathīr al-Farghānī ( ar, أبو العبّاس أحمد بن محمد بن كثير الفرغاني 798/800/805–870), also known as Alfraganus in the West, was an astronomer in the Abbasid court in Baghdad, and one of the most famous astronomers in the 9th century. Al-Farghani composed several works on astronomy and astronomical equipment that were widely distributed in Arabic and Latin and were influential to many scientists. His best known work, ''Kitāb fī Jawāmiʿ ʿIlm al-Nujūmi'' (whose name translates to ''Elements of astronomy on the celestial motions''), was an extensive summary of Ptolemy's Almagest containing revised experimental data. Christopher Columbus, used Al Farghani’s calculations for his voyages to America. In addition to making substantial contributions to astronomy, al-Farghani also worked as an engineer, supervising construction projects on rivers in Cairo, Egypt. The lunar crater '' Alfraganus'' is na ...
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Haly Abenragel
Abū l-Ḥasan 'Alī ibn Abī l-Rijāl Banu Shayban , al-Shaybani ( ar, أبو الحسن علي ابن أبي الرجال) (commonly known as ''Haly'', ''Hali'', ''Albohazen Haly filii Abenragel'' or ''Haly Abenragel'', from ''ibn Rijal'') was an Arab astrologer of the late 10th and early 11th century, best known for his ''Kitāb al-bāri' fī aḥkām an-nujūm''. Life He was a court astrologer to the Tunisian prince al-Mu'izz ibn Bâdis in the first half of the 11th century. Haly died after 1037 in Kairouan in what is now Tunisia. Works His ''Kitāb al-bāri' fī aḥkām an-nujūm'' was translated by Yehuda ben Moshe, Yehudā ben Moshe into History of the Spanish language, Old Castilian for Alfonso X of Castile in 1254 under the title ''El libro conplido en los iudizios de las estrellas'' ("The complete book on the judgment of the stars"). The only surviving manuscript of the Old Castilian translation is MS 3605 at the National Library in Madrid, which however only contains ...
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Apollonius Of Tyana
Apollonius of Tyana ( grc, Ἀπολλώνιος ὁ Τυανεύς; c. 3 BC – c. 97 AD) was a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from the town of Tyana in the Roman province of Cappadocia in Anatolia. He is the subject of ''Life of Apollonius of Tyana'', written by Philostratus over a century after his death. Life dates Apollonius was born into a respected and wealthy Greek household. His primary biographer, Philostratus the Elder (circa 170c. 247), places him circa 3 BCc. 97 AD, however, the Roman historian Cassius Dio (c. 155 – c. 235 AD) writes that Apollonius was in his 40s or 50s in the 90s AD, from which the scholar, Maria Dzielska gives a birth year of about 40 AD. Sources The earliest and by far the most detailed source is the ''Life of Apollonius of Tyana'', a lengthy, novelistic biography written by the sophist Philostratus at the request of empress Julia Domna. She died in 217 AD and he completed it after her death, probabl ...
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Tabula Smaragdina
The ''Emerald Tablet'', also known as the ''Smaragdine Tablet'' or the ''Tabula Smaragdina'' (Latin, from the Arabic: , ''Lawḥ al-zumurrudh''), is a compact and cryptic Hermetic text. It was highly regarded by Islamic and European alchemists as the foundation of their art. Though attributed to the legendary Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus, the text of the ''Emerald Tablet'' first appears in a number of early medieval Arabic sources, the oldest of which dates to the late eighth or early ninth century. It was translated into Latin several times in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Numerous interpretations and commentaries followed. Medieval and early modern alchemists associated the ''Emerald Tablet'' with the creation of the philosophers' stone and the artificial production of gold. It has also been popular with nineteenth and twentieth century occultists and esotericists, among whom the expression "as above, so below" (a modern paraphrase of the second verse of t ...
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Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy within the Lyceum and the wider Aristotelian tradition. His writings cover many subjects including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theatre, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics, meteorology, geology, and government. Aristotle provided a complex synthesis of the various philosophies existing prior to him. It was above all from his teachings that the West inherited its intellectual lexicon, as well as problems and methods of inquiry. As a result, his philosophy has exerted a unique influence on almost every form of knowledge in the West and it continues to be a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion. Little is known about his life. Aristotle was born in th ...
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Latin Translations Of The 12th Century
Latin translations of the 12th century were spurred by a major search by European scholars for new learning unavailable in western Europe at the time; their search led them to areas of southern Europe, particularly in central Spain and Sicily, which recently had come under Christian rule following their reconquest in the late 11th century. These areas had been under Muslim rule for a considerable time, and still had substantial Arabic-speaking populations to support their search. The combination of this accumulated knowledge and the substantial numbers of Arabic-speaking scholars there made these areas intellectually attractive, as well as culturally and politically accessible to Latin scholars. A typical story is that of Gerard of Cremona (c. 1114–87), who is said to have made his way to Toledo, well after its reconquest by Christians in 1085, because he Many Christian theologians were highly suspicious of ancient philosophies and especially of the attempts to synthesize th ...
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David Pingree
David Edwin Pingree (January 2, 1933, New Haven, Connecticut – November 11, 2005, Providence, Rhode Island) was an American historian of mathematics in the ancient world. He was a University Professor and Professor of History of Mathematics and Classics at Brown University. Life Pingree graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts in 1950. He studied at Harvard University, where he earned his doctorate in 1960 with a dissertation on the supposed transmission of Hellenistic astrology to India. His dissertation was supervised by Daniel Henry Holmes Ingalls, Sr. and Otto Eduard Neugebauer. After completing his PhD, Pingree remained at Harvard three more years as a member of its Society of Fellows before moving to the University of Chicago to accept the position of Research Associate at the Oriental Institute. He joined the History of Mathematics Department at Brown University in 1971, eventually holding the chair until his death. As successor to Otto Neugebau ...
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