PaulMagdalino Maria Mavroudi

The Occult Sciences in Byzantium

La Pomme d'or Geneva

Copyright by La Pomme d'or, 2006 All rights reserved

Abbreviations
AntCl Antiquite Classique AG Anthologia Graeca AG Les alchimistes grecs BHG Bibiotheca Hagiographica Graeca BMGS Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies BZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift CAB Corpus des astronomes byzantins CahCMCahiers de civilisation medievale, Xe-Xlle siecles CahHistM Cahiers d'histoire mondiale CollByz Collectanea Byzantina CCAG Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, 12 vols. (Brussels, 1898-1953) CCCM Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis CCSG Corpus Christianorum, Series Graeca CFHB Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae CMAG Catalogue des manuscrits alchimiques grecs, 8 vols. (Brussels, 1924-32) CSCO Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium CSHB Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers ErJb Eranos Jahrbuch GCS Die griechischen christlicher Schriftsteller HAW Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft JOB Jahrbuch der osterreichischen Byzantinistik JSJ Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, 'Hellenistic, and Roman Period JRS Journal of Roman Studies ODB Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium PG Patrologia Cursus Completus. Series Graeca PLP Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaeologenzeit REB Revue des etudes byzantines RHR Revue de l'histoire des religions

Cover: Biblioteca Univers'tari di B0 1 Graphic design: Miglena ~avo~a ogna, Bononiensis gr. 3632, fol. 361r. Production: Torovino Ltd, Sofia ISBN-10: 954-8446~2-2 ISBN-13: 978-954-8446~2~

SVF PmbZ PBE ZRVI

Stoicorum veterumfragmenta, ed. H. von Arnim

(Leipzig, 1903) TM Travaux et Memoires

Contents

Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire Zhornik Radova Vizantoloskog Instituta

Preface Introduction Maria Mavroudi

Occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research

9
11

39

Katerina Ierodiakonou
The Greek Concept of Sympatheia and Its Byzantine Appropriation in Michael Psellos 97

Paul Magdalino
Occult Science and Imperial Power in Byzantine History and Historiography (9th-12th Centuries) 119

Maria Papathanassiou
Stephanos of Alexandria: A Famous Byzantine Scholar, Alchemist and Astrologer 163

Michele Mertens
Graeco-Egyptian Alchemy in Byzantium 205

t David Pingree
The Byzantine Translations of M!ish!i'allah on Interrogational Astrology 231

William Adler
Did the Biblical Patriarchs Practice Astrology? Michael Glykas and Manuel Komnenos I on Seth and Abraham 245

AnneTihon Astrological Promenade in Byzantium in the Early Palaiologan Period Joshua Holo Hebrew Astrology in Byzantine Southern Italy

265!

291

Charles Burnett Late Antique and Medieval Latin Translations of Greek 325, Texts on Astrology and Magic George Saliba Revisiting the Astronomical Contacts Between the World of Is~am and Renaissance Europe: The Byzantme connection Bibliography Indices

Preface

361 375 437

The present volume originated as a colloquium organised by the editors and held in November 2003 at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D. C. Earlier versions of all the papers published here were delivered at the colloquium, with the exception of a single one, which the author did not wish to submit for publication. The occasion was entirely financed by Dumbarton Oaks, thanks to the support of the Director, Professor Edward Keenan. The editors gratefully acknowledge the work of Dr Alice-Mary Talbot, Director of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, and her then assistant, Caitlin McGurk, in making the practical arrangements for the colloquium. We are indebted to Dr Talbot for sending the manuscript submissions for external review, to the reviewers for their constructive comments, and to the Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Publications Committee for releasing us from the obligation to publish in-house. We are deeply grateful to Krassimira Platchkov for accepting our volume to launch her new publication series, Les Editions de la Pomme d'or. Paul Magdalino would like to thank the British Academy for the award of a Research Readership which relieved him from teaching in 2002-4. Maria Mavroudi is indebted to the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities at the University of California, Berkeley for a research fellowship that halved her teaching responsibilities during the academic year 200405. Finally, the editors and publisher gratefully acknowledge the invaluable help of Thalia Anagnostopoulos in copy editing the

10

Paul Magdalino Maria Mavroudi

volume and compiling the bibliography and copy editing, and of Mariya Spiridonova who compiled the indices. The volume is dedicated to the memory of David Pingree, who passed on 11 November 2005. The quantity, scholarly range, and quality of the work on the exact and occult sciences that he left behind is simply breathtaking. In almost forty books and well more than a hundred articles and book chapters he edited, translated, and studied texts in Akkadian, Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Arabic, and Hebrew covering chronologically from the earliest antiquity until th~ end of the Middle Ages and geographically from India to Gibraltar. He was devoted, generous, and kind to those who knew him as teacher, colleague, and friend. Those who never met him cannot but be grateful for the guidance and intellectual com~anionship that his abundant and pioneering publications will contmue to provide. He is sincerely and sorely missed.

Introduction

Paul Magdalino and Maria Mavroudi

This volume represents the first attempt to examine occult science as a distinct category of Byzantine intellectual culture. There have been studies of particular occult sciences, notably the two most intellectually pretentious, astrology and (to a lesser extent) alchemy, though until very recently far more effort has gone into the editing of texts than into evaluating their contents and contextualising their authors. 1 There have also been studies of occult practice, mainly concerned, in the nature of the evidence, with its repression by the authorities and criticism by orthodox religious opinion. But insofar as such discussions have conceived of the occult as a whole, they have defined it in terms of magic. Thus Spyros Troianos analysed the legislation on Byzantine magic; 2 Byzantine magic was the theme of a colloquium and a subsequent volume produced by Dumbarton Oaks; 3 and a table-ronde on Byzantine magic, involving both editors of this volume, took place in the 20th International Congress of Byzantine Studies, held at Paris in 2001. Each of these initiatives surveyed a variety of
1 The place of astrology in medieval Byzantine culture and religion has recently been studied by P. Magdalino, L 'orthodoxie des astrologues. La science entre le dogme et Ia divination il Byzance (VII' -XIV siecle ), Realites byzantines 12 (Paris,

2006).
S. Troianos, 'Zauberei und Giftmischerei in mittelbyzantinischer Zeit', in G. Prinzing and D. Simon, eds., Fest und Alltag in Byzanz (Munich, 1990), 37-51, 184-8. 3 H. Maguire, ed., Byzantine Magic (Washington, D. C., 1995).
1

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Paul Magdalino Maria Mavroudi

introduction

13

practices, different in each case, not all of which could be strictly classified as magical. Yet magic seemed in all cases to offer the most convenient and comprehensive definition. This is equally true in the study of the civilizations most closely related to Byzantium, from Greco-Roman Antiquity to the Renaissance: discussions of magic abound, but discussions of the occult sciences are rare. Why so? (Most obviously, because magic, not being restricted to a learned tradition, is less elitist and more conducive to anthropological research; it has also left vastly more material evidence, in the form of charms, spells and amulets which when they use writing at all evince, for the most part, a low and formulaic level of literacy. The study of occult science requires some familiarity with specialised languages, methods and techniques, whereas the study of magic is freely available to historians and arthistorians. Moreover, defining the occult as science tends to deprive it of the religious quality inherent in the concept of magic. What then, apart from the need to avoid repetition, is the reason for preferring the occult sciences to magic as the theme and title of this collection?,Is occult science not just magic by another name? The answer lies principally in the corollary of the point made above: the concept of magic does not do justice to the learned, literate end of the spectrum. It puts the educated, sophisticated masters of occult knowledge, some of whom, in Byzantium, were leading social figures, in the same category as the drunken old women who were cari~atured, n_o~ inaccurately according to a recent authority, as the leadmg practltloners of magic in Late Antiquity. 4 It also implies that they offered an alternative religion, or a superstitious substitute for orthodox c_ult, which was demonstrably not the case. In any case, occult sctence cannot be regarded simply as the learned and non-superstitious side of magic. Magic entered the vocabulary of the Greco-Ro~an worl~ as a term of opprobrium, connoting the alt~n, ~uspect ntes of onental Magi.~ Although it came to denote an' obJe~ttve cultural reality, it never lost its negative connotatio~ M~g~c w~s what the cultural Other practised as a substitute for true rehgwn; mstead of serving the true deity it sought to usurp d' . ' tvme powe b h al r y mec amc or demonic means; its rituals mimicked
M.W. Dickie Magic and M . New York, 200,1). aglclans m the Greco-Roman World (London and

religious cult, but in exclusive, private settings. 5 Few men, least of all the learned, were keen to refer to themselves as magoi,,.Oespite, or indeed because of, the natural elision between astrology and astral magic, between the charting of planetary influences and the incantation of planetary spirits, astrologers strenuously denied that their predictions were based on anything other than natural science, and compared their prognostications to the "expert guesswork" of the medical doctor, 'Alchemists, if put on the spot, would no doubt have taken a similar line. This was of course a defensive position, adopted in order to counter charges of sorcery and polytheism, and it does not mean that the practitioners of astrology and alchemy really saw no connection between their knowledge and other types of esoteric learning that were used to predict or to affect the course of nature. However, if pushed to define the connection, they would have done so not in terms of magic but in terms of philosophy. This may strike us as bizarre, and it would certainly be deeply misleading to treat philosophy and occult science as synonymous. Yet intellectual engagement with the occult was rooted in, or sought to cohere with, the philosophical systems of Greco-Roman antiquity, as will be further discussed in this introduction and in a later chapter of this volume. The learned practitioners of the occult had a basic general education including philosophy, and tended to combine their special expertise with a variety of intellectual interests, which made it appropriate to describe them as philosophoi. Philosophos was the generic label for an intellectual in Byzantium. 6 It was also a label strongly coloured by the Late Antique fusion of Pythagorean, Stoic and Neoplatonic traditions which identified philosophy with an ascetic lifestyle and the possession of extraordinary mental and spiritual powers that went far beyond the rational exposition of logic and metaphysics and had much in common with the charisma of Christian holy men7 themselves often referred to as philosophers by their apologists. It was the philosopher's capacity-or reputation-for learning and contriving paradoxa, extraordinary phenomena, which caught the public imagination in Late Antiquity and shaped the image of the
'See F. Graf, Magic in the Ancient World (Cambridge, Mass., 1997). See ODB, s.v. PHILOSOPHER. 7 E.g. Sozomenos, Kirchengeschichte, ed. J. Bidez and G.C Hansen, GCS 50 (Berlin, 1960), I 12. 8, 13.1, 14.1, lll 14, 38.

14

Paul Magdalino Maria Mavroudi;

Introduction

15

philosopher in the formative period of Byzantine medieval culture (5th-9th c.). In the widely circulated sixth-century chronicle of John 8 Malalas~philosophtzl address secret prayers to the Moon, create 10 9 talismans, - and ~~nish into thin air in addition to predicting ' eclipses 11 and making astronomical discoveries; 12 the "most learned philosopher" Theon of Alexandria (late 4'h c.) is mentioned not only as an astronomer, but as a teacher of Hermetism and Orphism, 13 while Malalas' near-contemporary Proclus features not as the leading Neoplatonist of his generation, but as a dream interpreter for the emperor Anastasius I 14 and as the inventor of an incendiary substance which bums a rebel fleet. 15 In the late eighth-century collection of legends about the monuments of Constantinople, the Parastaseis, the city's large collection of ancient statues are full of hidden meanings and sinister powers, and the men who know how to interpret them are philosophers, not magicians. 16 For present-day purposes, however, 'philosophy' is hardly more appropriate than 'magic' as an identifying label for the scientific aspect of the occult. So should this not simply be considered under the heading of science tout court, or should not science and magic be included, without forced and arguably anachronistic separation, under the same broad umbrella? The merits of this approach, which was exactly the one adopted by Lynn Thorndike Jr. in his still valuable. History of Magic and Experimental Science, are expounded by Maria Mavroudi- in her essay in the present volume. Its disadvantage is that broad umbrellas can be unwieldy, and do
8

not always cater adequately to special interests, In this case defining the occult as either magic or science, or -~s magic and '- science combined, risks not emphasizing enough the fact that the ,--Late-Antique and medieval world did articulate a concept of occult -wliidom that deserves to be considered in its own right. Yet mapping out the stages in the development of the Byzantine understanding of the occult is made difficult by the relative dearth of theoretical texts on the topic that can be dated and attributed to known authors with certainty. Modem scholars must gather much of the Byzantine understanding of the occult by examining not so much direct statements by Byzantine authors but the Byzantine Nachleben (manuscript tradition, quotation by other writers, reception among professional and literary circles) of ancient "classics" of the genre such as the Hermetic corpus, the Chaldaean Oracles, the Testament of Solomon, and the Kestoi of Julius Mricanus, whose initial composition or subsequent usage (or both) can only by approximation be dated, localized, and attributed to an identifiable individual. A notable exception to this state of affairs is the work of Michael Psellos (1018-ca. 1081 or later), who emerges from the surviving written record as the most learned, prolific and respected authority who best understood and appreciated the philosophical legacy of antiquity. 17 Psellos occasionally uses the word an6xQu<j>oc; (apocryphal), the direct Greek equivalent of Latin occultus. Thus, discussing the demon Gillo, who was blamed in folk tradition for killing infants at birth, he says that he has not come across her in his usual ancient sources for demonic names, but only in "an apocryphal Hebrew book" ascribed to Solomon. 18 More often, however, Psellos refers to "hidden" meanings and forces by two almost synonymous words that are suggestive of speech rather than
17 The literature by and on Psellos is immense. For a comprehensive survey of the scene in 2005, see P. Moore, Iter Psel/ianum: A Detailed Listing of Manuscript Sources for all Works Attributed to Michael Psel/os, Including a Comprehensive Bibliography (Toronto, 2005); see also the recent collection of essays edited by C. Barber and D. Jenkins, Reading Michael Psel/os (Leiden, 2006). For the writings discussed in this introduction, see particularly J. Duffy, 'Hellenic Philosophy in Byzantium and the Lonely Mission of Michael Psellos', inK. Ierodiakonou, ed., f(,za.ntine Philosophy and its Ancient Sources (Oxfo~, 2002), 1_39:-56. Mtchael Psellos, Philosophica minora, I, ed. D. 0 Meara (Lelpztg, 1989), 164.

Ioannes Malalas, Chronographia, ed. H. Thurn, CFHB 35 (Berlin and New york, 2000),44. 9 Ibid., 81,201. 10 Ibid . 202. II Ibid., 118 12 Ibid., 130. "Ibid., 265. 14 _Ibid., 335. He is ca~led PJ_Uclus from Asia, but is surely meant to be identical wtth the famous Atheman philosopher. " Ibid., 330-l. The rebel in question is Vitalian, whose revolt broke out in 512 note that the real Proclus died in 485. 16 Parastaseis syntonwi chroniktJi, ed T Pre er . . . . ed g Scrtptores ongmum Constantinopo/itanarum, I (Leipzig 1901 ) 19 3 Herrin, Constantinople in the Earl E' ' tr., comm. A. Cameron, J. Chronikai (Leiden, I984); see furth:r ~ghth ~entu">;: The Pw:astaseis Syntomoi Power', below. agdalino, P, Occult Science and Imperial

_7

16

Paul Magdalino Maria Mavrou~

Introduction

17

sight: WtOQQfJ'tO~ ("forbidden", "secret") and clQQ1J'tOS) ("unspoken", "unutterable", and, by extension, "inexplicable"). He 1 sometimes uses these words to describe Biblical and Christian mysteries, 19 but usually, in his work, they denote the secrets of profane learning. By lopking at the passages in question, we g~t a good idea of what a well-educated Byzantine considered to .. occult, and why. .....,.

be

In his funeral oration on his mother, Psellos says that he has read all the Hellenic and even barbarian books "on spoken and unspoken things (:n:EQL 'tE Qf)'t&v xal. UQQTJ'tWV) . . . and reading all their theology and their treatises and proofs on nature, I was delighted at their depth of thought and the enquiring nature (m::g(egyov) of their discussion".Z0 The content of the "unspoken" material is suggested by the list of authors; apart from Plato and Aristotle and the PreSocratics Empedocles and Parmenides, these include Orpheus, Zoroaster and Hermes Trismegistos. In other words this was largely mythical cosmology, concerned with revealing ~he origi~s and secrets of creation. In the same oration, Psellos writes "I have learned the secret. properties (01JVUJ.IEL ... UQQTJ'tOuc;) of stones and herbs, although I have given their experimental use (:rtEQLEQyov XQ'fiotv) a wide berth".Z 1 His treatise On the properties of precious stones ends by mentioni~g the classical authorities on the subject: "among the more ancient sages, Anaxagoras, Empedocles and Democritus, and among those not so long before our time, Alexander of Aphrodisias a man m_ost capable of discoursing on all matters and especially th~ secret thmgs of nature (:n:egl ... 't&v <l:n:OQQTJ'tWV iic; <j>vaewc;)". 22 The words <l:n:6QQTJ'toc; and iiQQTJ'tO turn up in other treatises that Psellos wrote on esoteric and enigmatic questions. He says h h' e IS wntmg . IS piece On divination from shoulder-blades and on ~ugury m response to an enquiry from someone seeking "to know m advance both natural and secret causes of future things (x.al!
19 Ibid., 17' 106; see also the essay by K lerodiako . th 40. nou m e present volume, n. 20

<j>uaLxa ~t'tta xal, <l:n:6QQTJta :n:goA.a~ei:v 1:6.>v Eoo~vwv)". 23 In another p1ece he records the belief that lions fear the cock because it heralds sunris.e and they belong to the lunar order, so lion-faced demons, on seemg a cock, are afraid; "whether this is true, is for se~ret..know.ledge (~ ~OQ(>~) to decide". 24 In the same vem, the hidden meamng has been revealed which contains secret philosophy (<l:n:6QQTJ'tOV <j>tA.ooo<j>tav)", is the theme of his 25 Allegory on the Sphinx, and his Interpretation of the twenty-four letters concerns "the secret and unspoken meanings (<l:n:6QQTJ't6. tE x.al iiQQTJ'ta)" hidden in the letters of the alphabet. 26 None of the great philosophers, to Psellos' knowledge, had devoted himself to researching this aspect of hidden knowledge ('fie; EYXEXQ1JJ.LilEYTJc; <l:n:oQQTJ'tWV yvwoewc;), not Africanus "the great exponent of the secret forces of nature (t&v EV t'fl <j>iloH ouv6.J.!Ewv <l:n:OQQTJ'tWV)", nor Proclus "who ventured as far the secret things of nature (tO>V WtOQQTJ'tWV t'fl <j>iJOEL)". 27
~e

Proclus, Psellos was fascinated by the "hieratic art" of the Chaldaean_Oracle.s, the MiddiePlaronlcverse texTO!i thehierarchy of cosmic powers attributed to the second-century Julian the 28 Chald~ean and his ~S.t. It is not surprising that his comments on th1s congruence of Gnostic, Hermetic and Chaldaean thought" that has been "aptly labelled as 'the underworld of Platonism'", 29 contain several instances of the words <l:n:6QQ1]toc;

~riscuolo (Naples, 1989), 148_ . ' 9

Michael Psellos, Michele Pse/lo Aut0 b. ifia . wgra Encomw per Ia madre, ed. U. Ibid., 148. "Psellos, Philosophica minora, I, ed. Duffy, 119.

Psellos, Philosophica minora, I, ed. J. Duffy (Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1992), 113. A treatise on divination from shoulder-blades (wf.IOJtAm:ooxoJtia) has been published from a 13th-c. manuscript by G. A. Megas, 'Blj)f-(ov WII01tAUtOOX01ttac; EX xwlhxoc; 'tf)<; 'E8vtxf)c; Blj)Ato8iJxl]c; A8l]V<ilv', Aaoyewpia 9 (1926), 3-51. 24 Psellos, Phi/osophica minora, I, ed. Duffy, 55. 25 Jbid. 158. 26 Jbid., 141. ~id., 121. On this text, see the essay by K. lerodiakonou in this volume. Ul'he Chaldaean Oracles, ed., tr., and comm. R. Majercik (Leiden, 1989). See J. Duffy, 'Reactions of Two Byzantine Intellectuals to the Theory and Practice of Magic: Michael Psellos and Michaelltalikos', in H. Maguire, ed., Byzantine Magic (Washington, D. C., 1995), 83-95; P. Athanassiadi, 'Byzantine Commentators on the Chaldaean Oracles: Psellos and Plethon', in Ierodiakonou, ed., By::.antine Philosophy, 237-52; J. Duffy, 'Hellenic Philosophy in Byzantium and the Lonely ~ission of Michael Psellos . .The Chaldean Oracles, introduction by Majercik, p. 3, citing J. Dillon, The Mtddle Platonists (London, 1977), 384.

23

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Paul Magdalino Maria Mavronl\1

Introduction

19

and nQQTJ'tO. 30 In his Chronographia, he alludes to the Oracles as:, a wisdom beyond demonstration, which according to the best. philosophers only the mind inspired by rational enthusiasm can understand. He says that he encountered this wisdom-which he ranks higher than the study of Platonic philosophy and mathematics- "in certain secret books ( MOQQtl'tOL tLOl. 31 ~(~AOL)". We shall come across it again. Psellos wrote, at the request of the patriarch Michael Keroularios, a short treatise on alchemy, explaining the principles of the manufacture of gold. He playfully chides his correspondent for dragging him from the sublime heights of philosophy to the mundane level of banausic metallurgy; however, this too is philosophical insofar as it depends on a knowledge of natural science& even though people commonly consider it to be something "ritualistic and ... secret (n:J...em:Lxov ... xal <irt6QQTJ'tOV)", having no!hing to do with any of the rational arts. 3 Gold-making happens as a result of the natural transformation of matter, "not from any incantation or wonder-working or other secret practice (UQQTJ'tO'UQy(a)". \lfe commends the philosophical curiosity of his correspondent which motivates him "to enter the inner recesses of ,nature and admire their secrets (MOQQTJ'ta)"\ the same curiosity had led Plato and other early philosophers to travel and see natural wonders like the volcanic eruptions of Etna and the flooding of the Nile, "the causes of which they interpreted in secret (E:v 33 MOQQi]'t<p )". Psellos concludes by promising that if the patriarch initiates him into higher theology, he will not fail to instruct him in every other work of natural science, "and I will not neglect any kind of practical application (J..LTJXUVfJ), or of the elder and secret (MOQQyt'tO'U) wisdom, but if you wish I will investigate the depths of the earth with you". 34

This theme of science and the occult is taken up more fully in a letter to an unnamed correspondent concerning the education of his son. 35 Everything in nature, says Psellos, has a cause, even when it seems paradoxical. Simple drugs often ineffably (UQQ~twc:;) contain antithetical qualities within themselves. This is not without reason, "but the cause is not apparent to us. For all things are driven by natural urges, and while some incline to those like them, others are forced by their opposites, through universal sympathy, and though substances are often separated, the distance between them does not prevent them from acting upon each other". Thus, "the image and shape of a thing transmit the operation of magic to the archetype". After giving several examples, Psellos observes, "Thes~e things are hidden/forbidden (<irt6QQT)ta) and thoroughly unknow to most people, but for me ... nothing unspoken (oiJbv nil UQQi]twv) is unknown because of my soul's natural curiosit (:n:oA.mtQUYJ..LOGVVTJV). And I have recorded the methods of al~ o them, but I have not used any of the secret practices (aQQTJ'tO'UQYL<ilv); indeed I curse their users, taking from these men only enough to be able to learn about .some of the occurrences whose functioning seems inexplicable to most people". He goes ~n to cite cases of extraordinary foreknowledge and strange habits among animals, "and no-one, not even of the very wise, can e_xplain the causes of the occurrences". Specialists can explam the principles of their own disciplines, and he gives several examples, including astrology, but he concludes, "Every science and art can' provide explanations for the causes of its own matters; as for the unspoken things of nature ('ta b tf]c:; <j>vaewc; UQQT)ta), howeve~, and those things that speak louder than nature, though the1r existence certainly has a cause, this is not known to us". Aporrheta and arrheta are therefore the "secret" and "unspoken" forces of cosmic sympathy: the "ineffable symp~thy" (a~Qll;,ov U'Uf.L:Jta8eLav), as Psellos calls it elsewhere, accor?mg t? whtch. all the parts of the universe are in harmony, but also m anttpathy, smce the whole world is one living organism". 36 The origins of this concept in Stoic and Ne~latonic ,J?hiloso_EhY, and Psellos' own

:~ Psdlos, Phi/osophica minora, I, 8-9; ll, 128-9, 132-3, 135, 140,147-8.

Mtchael Psellos, Chronographia, VI. 40, ed. and tr. E. Renauld (Paris 1926-8 repr. 1967) I, 136. ' ' ' 32 Michael Psellos, Letter on chrysopoeta, ed 1 B' h. . 1dez, Catalogue des manuscrits 1 a33c tmtques grecs, (=CMAG), VI (Brussels 1928) 1-47 esp 26 Ibid., 30-32. ' ' ' . . 34 Ibid., 42.

----

35

Michael Psellos, Epistula 188, ed. K. Sathas, MeaaWJVIXi/ Bt{JJ..wfh)xYJ, V,

477-80. . . . 149 36 Michael Psellos, Oratoria minora, ed. A. Littlewood {Le1pz1g, 1985),

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Paul Magdalino Maria Mavroudl -,,

Introduction

21

contribution to the idea, are discussed by Katerina Ierodiakonou later in this volume. Here it is important to note that the concept of cosmic sympathy gives coherence to Psellos' sca.ttered references to the occult and thus to the notion of occult science that emerges from his writings. Occult science is for him the study of extraordinary natural phenomena whose exact causes are unknown, although they can be generally explai_ned by the operatio.n of _sym]2i!the~ and~c~s that all_ow ~ee~mgly unconnected parts of the cosmos to interact. The mvestigatiOn of aporrheta and arrheta is of two kinds. One is the application of experimental methods to produce material results; this involves the performance of rituals, or, more rarely, a mechanical pro~ess, as. in the transmutation of base metal into gold. The other, with which Psellos himself identifies, is the purely theoretical study of the methods employed in experimentation (JtEQLEQyao(a); this derives from a disinterested love of knowledge for its own sake, and it is driven by the curiosity (JtOAUJtQUYfWOUVT]) of an enquiring philosophical mind.

compel their prototypes. Like them, he regarded these connections as the proper concern of the philosopher, and accepted that the key to learning them lay in the "barbarian" wisdom of the ancient civilisations of the Near East, notably Chaldaea and Egypt. In short, his concept of occult science was based on a model which was several centuries old, and which was fundamental not only to Byzantine tradition, but also to that of Islam, the medieval west, and the European Renaissance. In these traditions, various kinds of magic and divination were associated in ways which both reflect their special, occult status and their connection with other types of learning. For Byzantium; both "outsider" and "insider" sources can be used to build up a profile of occult learning. The outsider's view is to be found in those legal and literary texts, which, on the whole, present occult practice in a negative light. Here astrology, dish-divining, dream-interpretation, divination from natural phenomena, sorcery in general, and the performance of rituals on statues in particular, tend to be grouped together and criticised in similar terms; they are also usually associated with persons of education who had a place at the imperial couft\ 37 The insider's idea of the place and identity of the occult sciences within the intellectual spectrum is well documented by two types of sources: the manuscripts containing technical treatises and prescriptions on magic and divination; and astrological texts detailing the characteristics of persons born under each planet and sign of the zodiac. While many manuscripts are exclusively devoted to single disciplines-this is notably the case with astrology-others consist of wide-ranging miscellanies in which treatises on astrology, medicine, numerology, dream interpretation, alchemy, geomancy and lecanomancy rub shoulders with each other and quite different texts. The collections represent the interests, and often the professional tools, of their owners, although it should be noted that since most of them occur in very late manuscripts (14'h-c. and later), they do not necessarily reflect the contexts in which the earlier texts
This fact was briefly noted, not without avowed surprise, by H.-G. Beck, Das byzantinische Jahrtausend (Munich, 1978), 268: "Es ist erstaunlich, wie weit verbreitet auch in den hOchsten Kreisen die Praktiken der Mantik waren und was es sonst an zauberischen Krimskrarns gab."
37

Though the necessarily limited survey of texts above does not exhaust Psellos' brief mentions or more extensive discussions on the topic, it does suggest that he provides a coherent Byzantine definition of occult science as a discrete epistemological category, and a Byzantine justification for using the term instead of magic: the various kinds of magic and divination were the applied sciences corresponding to the philosophical theory of cosmic sympathy, and they were scientific, rather than superstitious, insofar as their methods provided material for philosophical abstraction and comparison. But how sound, and how representative of Byzantine realities and attitudes, is Psellos' epistemology of the occult? ~~hove all, how typical, and how true, is the distinction that he -praws between pure and applied occult science? Psellos took his epistemology, like his cosmology, from the Neoplatonic philosophers of Late Antiquity, particularly the 'Divine Proclus'. He followed them in believing that the sympathetic or antipathetic connections between stars, men, animals, plants and minerals could be manipulated to affect and predict future events, and that images could be worked on to

22

t'aUI Magaalmo Maria Mavroudi.,

Introduction

23

'\hey contain had circulated in earlier centuries. Occasionally, the :: available evidence allows modem researchers to ascertain some , kind of continuity over the centuries in the combination of texts that occur in the surviving manuscripts. Such an unusual example is the fifteenth-century MS Vat. Urbinas gr. 107 that contains the work of Polyainos on military strategy and the Oneirocritika of Artemidoros. 38 While the combination might at first sight appear random or surprising, it is clearly deliberate and rooted in the same mindset as the instructions in the tenth-century treatise On Imperial E-.:peditions which advised emperors to take with them while on military campaigns not only Polyainos but also a manual on dream interpretation. 39 The surviving manuscripts and collections of texts associated with the Byzantine encyclopaedic activity of the tenth century provide most of our fragments from the Kestoi; not only the tenth-century encyclopaedists but evidently also their predecessors in earlier centuries (on whose selections the tenth-century anthologies were based) deemed that the Kestoi had a legitimate place in collections on agriculture (the Geoponika), veterinary medicine (the Hippiatrika) and military science. 40 Passages from the Kestoi are also copied together with pharmacological chapters from Galen and Dioscorides, as in the fourteenth-century MS Laurent. plut. 74, 23. 41 In general, miscellanies from later centuries are not only more numerous but also more variegated thematically. It is impossible to tell whether this reflects a broadening of the occult curriculum or merely "the survival of the fittest". Earlier miscellanies perhaps appear as more homogeneous because they tend to have fewer pages (losing folia over the centuries is a natural process for a book). Later miscellanies tend to be bulkier, and at the same time
" Description in C. Stornajolo, Codices urbinates graeci bibliothecae Vaticanae (Rome, 1895), 163--{i6. 39 The text was first published as 'Appendix ad librum I' in De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae, ed. J. Reiske, I (Bonn, 1829), 467; new edition in Three Treatises on Imperial Military Expeditions, ed., tr., comm. J. Haldon (Vienna 1990) text (C), 106. ' "' See J. R. Vieillefond, Les "Cestes" de Julius Africanus {Florence and Paris, 1970), 68-70 {on the context of the fragments), 77-83 {on the manuscript tradition of the Kestoi).
41

'

personal and idiosyncratic; they rarely reproduce complete works; they may contain texts selected or truncated in a way that renders them incomprehensible and therefore useless to persons other than the professional master who put them together (often copying for his personal use) and his immediate disciples. Subsequent owners are likely to discard such books, especially if these were informally and unattractively copied to begin with, and were eventually soiled and tom apart because of all-too-frequent and unceremonious consultation. Earlier miscellanies may have largely disappeared due to these vicissitudes, while later ones were perhaps saved thanks to the arrival of the printing press, or simply because they had a shorter journey through the centuries. Surviving examples of miscellanies copied between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries include the following: MS Ambrosianus E I 6 sup. of the thirteenth century that contains the Physiologos, a selenodromion, a text on medical prognostication, a number of Christian apocrypha (including the letters exchanged between _AbjaJ" ~and Christ, texts that in the realm of "good" magic are Kriown for their prophylactic properties) and an assortment of astronomical and astrological excerpts.42 The mostly medical miscellany MS Atheniensis 1493 of the end of the twelfth or the thirteenth century also includes a text on divination by using 43 shoulder blades 1(scapulomancy or omoplatoskopia). Among manuscriptsci'the fourteenth century, MS Vat. gr. 178 combines excerpts from Ptolemy's Geography (a text that provides mathematical tools for astronomers and astrologers) with instructions on how to construct an astrolabe and passages on pharmacology and the medicinal properties of plants from Aetius of Arnida and other, unidentified sources. 44 In the year 1384, the physician John Staphidakes45 copied in his own hand a manuscript
The MS is no. 273 in the catalogue by A. Martini, D. Bassi, Catalogus Codicum Graecorum Bibliothecae Ambrosianae, I (Milan, 1906), 303-4. 43 A 121h-century date is ascribed to the manuscript in, I; and A: ~akke~ion. KaTaA.oyoq Twv x<teOYQdcpwv n'jq 'E8vtx7fq Bt{JA.w8rpeqq '11' ~A.A.a~o~ (Athens, 1892), 267. A IJih-century date is favored by Megas, B$AlOV WJ.I01l),.a"tOOX01tLa~ ... ', 3-4. 44 Description in I. Mercati, P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, Codices vaticani graeci, I (Rome, 1923), 356-8. 4 ' On Staphidakes, see PLP 26735.
42

D~scription in A. M. Bandini, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum bibliothecae medtceae laurentianae, III (Florence, 1770), cols. 125-27.

24

Paul Magdalino Maria Mavroudi

Introduction

25

that he dedicated to the hospital of the monastery of St Panteleemon in Constantinople; only a few folia from that volume survive and now form part of the largely fifteenth-century MS Paris. gr. 2510. 46 However, it is possible to identify the contents of Staphidakes' volume because they were faithfully reproduced in the course of the 47 fifteenth century in what is now MS Paris. gr. 2315. Staphidakes copied not only texts pertinent to botany and medicine, but also astrology and magic. Among further examples from the fifteenth century one should mention MS British Library, Harley 5596 that treats subjects such as geomancy, palmomancy, basic astrology, demonology, and magic, including the Testament of Solomon. 48 MS Paris. gr. 2509 combines astrology (Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos and a variety of anonymous texts) with the Christian symbolic zoology of the Physiologos, the lapidary attributed to Epiphanius, and the alchemical treatise by Nikephoros Blemmydes, as well as instructions on how to calculate the date of Easter and other religious texts, such as the liturgies of St James, St John Chrysostom, and St Basil, and the rites of ordination to various ecclesiastical positions. 49 MS Vindob. phil. gr. 162, from the first half of the fifteenth century, combines the Akathist Hymn with the Oneirocriticon of the so-called Achmet and an assortment of prophecies on the future of Constantinople. 50 MS Vindob. phil. gr. 287 (from around the same period) reproduces the Oneirocriticon and long passages from the astrological works of Hephaestio of Thebes and Theophilos of Edessa. MSS Bononiensis 3632 (ca. 51 1440), at least in part copied by John, son of Aaron, and Paris. gr.
46

2419 (ca. 1462)/ copied by Georgios Meidiates, 53 are veritable encyclopaedias of the occult bringing together texts on medicine, botany, astrology, alchemy, geomancy, dream interpretation, and magic. Since both manuscripts include some of the same texts in an identical version and arranged in the same sequence, there can be no doubt that they are related, either directly or through a common ancestor;\ we may be in the presence of two named indiVICfUals bclOnging to the same "school" of occult thought, or at least to a circle of like-minded and directly communicating professionals.!
\

Especially for the Palaiologan period, it sometimes is possible to pull together enough prosopographical information to convey the intellectual make-up not of major figures (which could be considered exceptional), but of the rank-and-file (and therefore, one would hope, closer to an intellectual "average" of the times). For example, towards the end of the fourteenth century, a professional astrologer (perhaps to be identified with John Abramios) evidently was also a practicing physician, or at least was considered enough of a medical authority to be dispatched by the emperor to Alexandria in order to purchase medical supplies. 54 In the early fifteenth century, John Kanaboutzes, owner of a manuscript

Described by H. Omont, Inventaire sommaire des manuscrits grecs de Ia Bibliothequ~ Nationale, 2 vols. (Paris, 1886-98), II, 275; more details, especially ?,n the phystcal make-up of the manuscript, in CCAG, VIII, 4, 68-70 (no. 88). See CCAG, VIII, 3, 27-32 (no. 43). MS Paris. gr. 2315 contains a note with an explicit state~ent cl~fying it is identical to its model which had been copied by Ioannes Staphtdakes m 1384 for the hospital of St Panteleemon. 48 Adequate description of the manuscript in CCAG, IX, 2, 14-16 (no. 43); see also ;. C. McCown, The Testament of Solomon (l.eizpig, 1922),13-15. S~ H. Omont, Inventaire sommaire des manuscrits grecs de Ia Bibliotheque Natronale, II, 274-75.

~ Des~~tion

in H. Hunger, Katalog der griechischen Handschriften der ~sterrer~hr~chen Nationalbibliothek, I (Vienna, 1961), 265. Descnpttons of MS Bononiensis 3632 can be found in c c Me c '~"''h Testament o' s 1o (L own, '. e .' o "'?n. etpztg, 1_922) 21-25; A. Olivieri and N. Festa, 'Iodice dei . . codtct greet delle Btbhoteche Untversitaria e Comunale di Bologna', Studi italiani

di filologia classica 3 (1895), 442-56, repr. in C. Samberger and D. Raffin, eds. Catalogi codicum graecorum qui in minoribus bibliothecis italicis asservantur in duo volumina col/ati et novissimis additamentis aucti (Leipzig, 1965); CCAG, IV, 39-46 (only fols. 266ff.); short report on its alchemical contents in CMAG, II. 144 (no. 23) and on its version of the Kyranides ibid., 298-321 (Libri Koeranidum 6); on its astrological contents, see CCAG, IV, 39-46 (no. 18). "Brief description of MS Paris. gr. 2419 in Omont, lnventaire sommaire, II, 256; detailed description of its contents in CCAG, VIII,!, 20-63 (no. 4 ); see also Me Cown, The Testament of Solomon, 25-27; for a description of its alchemical contents, see CMAG, I, 62-8 and 152-63 (nos. 3 and 21). 53 On Meidiates, see H. Hunger, Repertorium der griechischen Kopisten 800-1600. ll (Vienna, 1989), no. 104. 54 On Abramios, see PLP 59; also D. Pingree, 'The Astrological School of John Abramius', DOP 25 (1971), 189-215. As remarked by Pingree, one of the signed autographs of Abramios (MS Marc. gr. Cl. V. 13) includes not only astrological texts, but also a version of the Kyranides; however, Abramios wrote a note that he completed copying "the present book" (t'] JtaQoiiaa ~(fl;\.o) on fol. 117v, while the text of the Kyranides does not begin until fol. 125 (see CMAG, II, 263). Without first-hand examination of the manuscript it is impossible to dectde whether both parts were written by the same hand and were not placed in the same volume at a later date.

26

Paul Magdalino Maria Mavroudi

oontruning tho T'"'"'""' of Solomon,

wa.

olo tho

astronomical tables for the latitude of Phokaia (a handy md also for 'l astrological purposes) and of a commentary on Dionysios of ! Halikarnassos dedicated to the lord of Ainos and Samothrake; significantly, he counted a physician named Zoanes among his closest friends. 55 The astrological lists of characteristics induced by planets and signs are largely based on ancient sources. However, the infinite variations from list to list suggest that they reflect the genuine perceptions of Byzantine astrologers. In the case of the occult sciences, they are particularly valuable because they reflect the astrologers' own perception of the intellectual company to which they belonged through the dominant influence of Mercury at their birth. The mercurial professions, according to Vettius Valens (2"d c. A.D.), included "diviners, sacrificers, 'lma:Seers; dream interpreters", together with-among others-doctors, grammarians, lawyers, rhetors, philosophers, military engineers and, of course, astrologers, described as "those who become experts and investigators of celestial phenomena, and whose glorious delight and desire it is to observe the wonderful work for the benefit of others". 56 According to .P~QQ.-Manetho (4'h c.?), a conjunction of Venus and Mercury in the same sign at sunrise will produce 'geometers, mathematicians, astrologers, magicians, famous seers, augurs, and water-diviners who have the gift of dish-scrutiny or necromancy' .57 Hephaestio of ~s (early S'h c.) says that ~ercu~ prod~search into occult things (twv anox~u<j>wv), such as magic, celestial phenomena, practical ~xpenmen~s, a~trology, wonder-working, augury, dreamInterpretatiOn, philosophy and the like". 58 Another, probably later
On. Kanaboutzes, see PLP 10871; also A. Diller, 'Joannes Canabutzes', ByZantton 40, (1970),. 271-75 and idem, 'Joannes Canabutzes and Michael Chrysokokkes, Byzantton 42 (1972) 257ff., both reprinted in A. Diller St d' Gr k M T d' . , u tes m ee . anuscrrpt ra lllon (Amsterdam, 1983), 363-70; on Kanaboutzes' ~;nersh1p of the Solomonic text, see C. C. Me Cown, The Testament of Solomon, ;. Vettius ':al~ns, Vettii Valentis Antiocheni Anthologiarum libri novem ed D 1Dgree (LeipZig, 1986), 4. , . .
57
55

o~mpi!O< of

1 1

Introduction

27

manual, identifies the mercurial characteristics as "a talent for. learning and predicting the future, and the rational science~ knowledge, intelligence and understanding [the causes otl existence, culture, philosophy and geometry, astronomy and the hieratic art, also augury and the hidden arts (ta<; xgu<j>(ou<; 'tEX,Va<;)". 59 Elsewhere OIJe finds that a conjunction of the Moon, Mars and Mercury produces, among others, "inventive and experimental types, initiates of the occult and knowers of secret things". 60 Both outsider and insider evidence shows that the Byzantines had a 'Cfear notiOn of'111e0cCUit sciences as distinct from, but cOriSIStell"tly associated with, other types of l~g. both practical and I theoretical. The astrological lists ofmercurim occupations confirm the mrellectiial spectrum evoked by Psellos; indeed, they almost suggest that they provided the model for his desire to learn everything, that he set out to acquire the range of expertise expected , of~- However, as insider ~!~~-~ot 111ake ~ the distinction that ~ desirable theory and the ~practice of occu science. investigated by two of the contributors to this volume: Michele Mertens notes a difference in the alchemical manuscripts between working texts and. library copies, whil~ emphasises that the division be~een astro~l!l~asrrolQ~V~s, 1'fOill:""" Ptolen}y onwarOS, essentially a difference between the theoretical and the practical side of the same siJbject. The idea that occult meti;ds should be studle<i'"butnot practised turns up in three )Xzantine writers after Psellos. Most famously, Anna Comnena expresses it in her digression on astrology, and~ ~oes so with regard to both astrology and the Chaldaean Oracles. 6 I Less well known is the letter in which the thirteenth-century emperor Theodore II Laskari,.. argues that great scientists do not concern tli~v~e practical details or the
59

----------------~ This distinction is not limited to Psellos. It is present in the material '

..... "':;~1':;'._~4rt':::i.-l-;~

58 Manetho,:4JJotelesmatica, ed. A. Koechly (Leipzig,l858), IV. 206 ff 70 Hbri "" ol,

D. Pm.;..,. 2""-

60

CCAG, Xl,i83. CCAG, II, 115: EV1:(1EXEL~ J.tllXUVLKOU~, 1tEQ!EQyou~. a1tOKQU$OJV J.tUOlU xal

WtoQQ~lOJV ouv(atOQa~ 1tQUYJ.U'ttWV... . . I Michael Italikos, Michel Ita/ikos, Lettres et discours, ed. P. Gautier (Paris, 1972), nos. 28 and 30.

28

Paul Magdalino Maria Mavroudi

Introduction

29

material results of the sciences they study. He gives the example of geometry, "which they know and do not know ... they are able to practice it, but do not do so". His other examples all pertain to the occult: astrology, divination, sorcery, oracular incantations. "They belong to philosophy, and philosophy has created them; they are resolved by philosophical method, but on the other hand the artifices of these unscientific sciences (avEJt~O'tl'HWVWV bt~<nll!J.Wv) are known by true scholars to be complete idiocies and products of idle verbiage". If he were ignorant of these things, he would be open to learned criticism for not knowing the end results of philosophy. But since he does have scientific knowledge of them, he makes fun of them, so he has a very different mentality 62 from those who merely have regard to the practice. There can be no doubt that Theodore Laskaris voiced the sentiments of many late Byzantine intellectuals, and that the rationale he expressed was widely shared, because it was deeply ingrained in the basic cultural principle of ancient and medieval thought that abstract concepts were inherently superior to material _techniques. The distinction between the desirable theory and the undesirable practice of occult science can therefore be seen as a product of the same value system that rated doctors more highly than surgeons, poets above painters, and text-book learning derived from an ancient master as more authoritative than the results of p~ysical observatio~ a_nd ~xpe~imenV But _it is clear th~t for Psellos, With whom the dJstmctwn IS first articulated, epistemological snobbery is not the whole story, and that his concern to distance himself from occult practice has much to do with the further meaning of the words_.fu/.Qm.a ansi rutOQQllta. These things were "unspeakable" because th f~ CilnS'han piety and aws o t e sta~, and this is why Psellos had to explain that . nls mterest I tnem Was UrelV ac!i(!emJc. Thus it wastnat ne. felt obliged not m~rely to belittle but o curse the practitioners of the occul~, and, us~ng a fr~~uent disclaimer for the reading of suspect matenal, to claim that I have striven to learn the methods of even

the vilest or otherwise forbidden sciences, so that I may have the means to refute the people who practice them". 63 We need not disbelieve Psellos when he says that he was interested primarily in learning the methods for the sake of pure knowledge. The sheer breadth of his interests and researches, as evidenced by the variety of his writings, tends to confirm his own declaration that he was in it "not for experimental curiosity but for love of learning", 64 out of detached interest in the principles of all sciences rather than material interest in the results produced by any one. However, the line between "pure" and "applied" occult science was' probably much finer than he and the others were prepared to admit in their self-justification. It is far from clear what distinguished legitimate :n:oA.v:n:Q<lY!WOUVl'J from improper JtEQ~EQyaa(a, especially when Psellos uses JtEQLEQyov in a positive sense. There is nothing to indicate that the unnamed practitioners whom Psellos curses did not share his own high-minded philosophical concerns. Equally, he protests rather too much that he had not taken part in their rituals. Indeed, his strenuous denials could be read as revelations of the exact opposite of what they say, like the denunciation of the occult sciences by the Renaissance occultist Cornelius Agrippa, of which Frances Yates wrote that "it can probably be regarded as a safety-device of a kind frequently employed by magicians and astrologers for whom it was useful, in case of theological disapproval, to be able to point to statements made by themselves 'against' their subjects". 65~
.:rn<) 'Ui\<'1

n~ v." 1\..41"''

One indication that Psellos may not be giving the complete pictute' is to be found in his statement that the causes of occult phenomena' e basic cannot be known. This is puzzling in view of the fact function of magical rites was to bind s iritsdemo -to perform tasks or to give information about the future. In the Neoplatonic cosmology that Psellos espoused, the demons were the forces of cosmic sympathy and antipathy, which connected apparently unrelated objects, and transferred the effects worked on an image to its prototype. If not the ultimate causes, they had a causative role, and it was impossible to discuss causation without
Psellos, Philosophica minora, I, ed. Duffy, I 13. : Psellos, Philosophica minora, I, ed. Duffy, 112. F. A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (London, 1964), 131.
63

62Th

eodore Doukas, Theodori Ducae epistulae CCXVII ed N Fest (Florence, ' a, 1898), no. 131, pp. 183-4.

30

Paul Magdalino Maria Mavroudl

Introduction

31

mentioning them. It was precisely the manipulation of demons to which the Church objected in magic and divination, making no distinction between good and bad spirits, but identifying all of them with Satan and the pantheon of pagan gods. This, it seems, is why Psellos preferred to declare a position of complete ignorance with regard to occult causation. His other writings show that he thought a lot about demons. His fascination with the Chaldaean Oracles cannot have been totally unrelated to the sophisticated demonology of this text, which for all its high-minded, spiritual concern with the salvation and elevation of the soul, offered a theoretical guide to the hierarchy of cosmic causes and agents and the means for engaging them. 66 This interpretation is confirmed by another text of Psellos that has attracted comparatively little attention, perhaps because it is not preserved in the main manuscripts, or printed in the main published collections of his writings.67 His lecture (or letter?) To his students on the ventriloquist is an avowedly idiosyncratic exegesis of an occult Biblical incident, King Saul's encounter with the Witch of 68 Endor (1 Samuel [=1 Kings], 28), the "ventriloquist woman", which the English Bible renders as "woman with a familiar spirit". Psellos proposes an analysis of the term "ventriloquist" that earlier commentators, he says, have failed to explain. To do this, he must touch on material commonly considered occult, "although it is in fact not so foreign to philosophical discussion. For nothing is unspeakable to philosophy, but even those things which seem unresponsive to incantations and charms are drawn out and laid bare by philosophical discourse." The existence of demons, material spirits who were once fallen angels and now resent human beings for taking their place in heaven, is commonly acknowledged
66

and scripturally attested. For further information on them, however, one has to use the writings of the Chaldaeans and the Egyptians, in particular the Chaldaean Oracles. Citing Proclus' commentary on the Oracles (the "hieratic art"), and using his knowledge of medicine and anatomy, he identifies the ventriloquist spirit as one of the group of demons that colonise various organs of the human body. Because the stomach is centrally located and is in close sympathy with the brain, the heart and the liver, the spirit that lives there both imposes itself on the whole organism and can be compelled by the brain to speak or be silent. Insofar as the spirit foretells the future, most affected persons are willing to give it voice, either their own or another's. For some reason, they tend to be women-perhaps because female bodies are more physically sympathetic to the slack and fluid ventriloquist spirit. Psellos goes on to summarise the Biblical incident, in which Saul compels the woman to summon the shade of the late prophet Samuel from the depths of the earth. Reserving the weightier problem of Samuel's apparition for future discussion, Psellos emphasises, in conclusion, that he is not dogmatising, but showing his polymatheia, his willingness to embrace all forms of learning - and this for his students only. He is not boasting of his occult knowledge, yet not denying it either, for since most people do not even see what is at their feet, even a superficial understanding of arcane and occult matters will allow one to rise above the clouds and see into the ether. This text has rightly been cited for its concluding manifesto in favour of polymatheia,69 but its unique importance lies in the clarity with which Psellos combines the demonology of the Chaldaean Oracles with human physiological theory in order to provide a scientific analysis of an undeniably true occult phenomenon which neither the Biblical narrative nor its Christian commentaries had adequately explained. It shows what he, following the Late-Antique Neoplatonists, sought in the occult wisdom supposedly emanating from ancient Egypt and Babylon: the proper identification of the demons who operated the system of cosmic sympathy, and whose existence was only vaguely, if reliably, attested by Christian theology and Greek philosophy. Perhaps better than any other text
69

Cf. P. Athanassiadi, 'Psellos and Plethon on the Chaldaean Oracles' 246: "Wh.en it comes to magical practices Psellos is wholly engrossed by his m~terial and ts eager to tum the slightest hint into a theory with multiple adaptations ... the sheer amount of space that he devotes to the magical aspect of the Oracles betrays a considerable bias in this direction". 67 Michael Psellos, Ad discipulos de ventriloquo, ed. A. Littlewood in 'Michael Psell?s and th.e Witch of Endor', JOB 40 (1990), 225-29; cf. Duffy "The Lonely MtssJon of Mtchael Psellos', 149. ' .. The Greek terms in the Septuagint are ol eyyaO"tQLJ.LUflOL (ventriloquists in general), :t"vft. eyy~~QLJ.LU8o~ (ventriloquist woman), and 1:0 eyyaO"tQLJ.LU90V (the ventn1oqutst sptnt).

Duffy, 'The Lonely Mission', Joe. cit.

32

Paul Magdalino Maria Mavooudl!

Introduction

33

in Psellos' vast corpus, his piece on the Witch of Endor helps us to understand why, for him, the Chaldaean Oracles as mediated by Proclus were the ultimate not only in occult science, but in the whole curriculum of learning. In this, however, Psellos cannot be regarded as entirely representative of the Byzantine mainstream. He was apparently the first s take a serious intere e Oracles since Proclus, and no-one after litm at them so much attention untt George Gemistos Plethon, the self-declared Hellenist, in the fifteenth century. 70 In other ways, too, Psellos is not a comprehensive or accurate guide to the state of the occult sciences in Byzantium. For one, he does not cover their entire spectrum in equal depth. His comments on alchemy neglect the ritual aspects of the transmutation process. His equivocal passages on astrology, which imply that he knew much more about this than he was prepared to say, do not indicate whether he counted it among the occult sciences, or regarded it as the purely natural science that its partisans sometimes claimed it to be. Most seriously, Psellos gives barely a hint of the intellectual exchange, especially in the occult sciences, that had been taking place for over two centuries between Byzantium and the Islamic world. Not only had Muslims, Jews and Christians in the Abbasid Caliphate translated almost the whole corpus of Greek philosophical and scientific texts into Arabic, but scholars in Abbasid Baghdad, and later in Ummayad Spain and Fatimid Egypt, had made significant innovations in many fields including mathematics, astronomy, cosmological theory, astrology and dream interpretation. Their effects were felt in Byzantium from the end of the ~h century. By the mid eleventh century, when ~s~~ was writin~lurriill<iusWm'icsorth~bQ ~a'shaf11iilf"beetrTran&lated mto reek, and the most ~ortl!iit ~~~611 wasinadapted CTreek transta~tcesand attributed ur''1\climet son

Proclus and Alexander of Aphrodisias, and the sages of ancient Babylon and Egypt. Yet, in typical Byzantine fashion, Psellos applies ethnic and geographic terms of the ancient Near East and Egypt to his contemporary reality, including instances where he refers to the intellectual situation in the eleventh-century Muslim world. 72 Could his references to the ancients be read as also including his contemporary masters from the same parts of the world? In the current state of research, it is accurate to state that the
~s b~artan an-Q..QDeiltiflsi. For this

!Y~~o!_lhe' }5-.cuft}c~e~~~eam~CC_~rn~.

perception to cliange, it would take the arduous ta of clearly identifying the different ways in which Byzantine and Arabicspeaking intellectuals read the same ancient sources, comparing these medieval readings with each other, and deciding whether they~ developed in a state of mutual isolation or interaction. Scholars have not even begun to work towards such a goal. 73 Psellos' discussion of dream interpretation is an example of what may be accomplished by looking in this direction. In the Omnifaria doctrina Psellos dedicates a brief paragraph to the several different

~~-sctemific-aclii~~he

~ontemporary Islamic worl~but did he engage with them mtellectual~y? The masters of occult learning who are named or detectable m Psellos' work were late antique philosophers, like
70
11

Ibid., 247-51. Magdlin a o, L orthodoxie des astrologues, 105.

For example, in his Praise of Italos (btmvo~ 1:oii 'ImA.oii), published in Oratoria minora, ed. A. Littlewood (Leipzig 1985), no. 19; see also his funerary oration to Patriarch John Xiphilinos [Epitaphius in patriarchem Joannem Xiphilinum, ed. Sathas, Meaawmxij Btf3J..wlh!xq, IV (Paris, 1874), 424-25], where Egypt and Babylon are compared with Trebizond, the birthplace of the Patriarch. 13 The study of Byzantine philosophy, particularly regarding the work of Georgios Gemistos-Pletho, has ventured in this direction; see~. 'George Gemistos Pletho and Islam', in L. G. Benakis and Ch. P. Baloglou, eds., Proceedings of the International Congress on Plethon and His Time, Mystras, 26-29 June 2002 (Athens and Mistras, 2003), 339-53. The following observation by Akasoy has clearly a more universal application than just the work of Pletho (ibid., 348-49): "The analysis of the influence of 'Islamic philosophy' on Pletho's work-that is to say the reception of the Arabic transmission of Aristotle by the Byzantine philosopher-reveals some of the general difficulties involved in tracing an 'Islamic' influence. We are dealing with contexts of adoption and transmission of highest complexity as well as with a strong interdependence of 'Eastern' and 'Western' ideas. Finding the different Renaissances-the Plethonic-ByzantineGreek, the Italian or the Islamic Renaissance-going back to their very own cultural legacies or at least claiming to do so is thus a limited and limiting perspective."
72

34

Paul Magdalino Maria Mavroudf

Introduction

35

causes of dreams: 74 first among them is divine intervention. 75 The idea is far from original and had been expressed earlier by both 76 pagan and Christian thinkers, including Aristotle and the 77 anonymous compiler of the Oneirocriticon of Achmet. It is also mentioned not without skepticism, by the second-century author Artemido~s of Daldis. 78 Psellos returned to dream interpretation in a more extensive text, 79 where he attributes the appearance of false dreams to the treacherous intervention of demons. This second opusculum has been understood as Psellos' rehashing of Iamblichos' De mysteriis, III. 2-3; 80 yet its assertion that demonic intervention is what causes false dreams is an element absent from both Iamblichos and the text on the veracity and falsehood of dreams by Psellos' student, John ltalos. 81 The possible demonic (as opposed to divine) provenance of dreams is also discussed by Aristotle; however, Psellos' understanding of "demon" and the realm of a "demon's" activity is-predictably-different from the ancient philosopher's and in line with the Christian identification of demons with Satan. In fact, the bottom line of Psellos' argument (that truthful dreams come from God while false ones from Satan) though implicitly accepted in hagiographic and monastic literature earlier than the eleventh century, does not, as far as we know, receive theoretical justification in Byzantine texts on philosophy or dream interpretation. Whether by chance or not, it can also be found in at least one Arabic source written about a generation earlier than Psellos' lifetime, the late tenth--early eleventh-century manual TuiJ_fat al-mulak by Abu Al).mad Khalaf ibn Al).mad (937-1008), the

last Saffarid emir of Sijistan. 82 Psellos' etiology of false dreams clearly builds upon pre-existing Byzantine ideas on dream interpretation; the key in deciding whether it is also informed by theoretical discussions expressed in Arabic at around the same time lies in investigating both Christian and Islamic demonology and paying special attention to their common background in the pagan Neoplatonism of Late Antiquity, but also to its Christian and Muslim versions until the first half of the eleventh century. For this and other reasons, this discussion of Psellos' role as a spokesman of the occult sciences in Byzantium must end on a question mark. It is ultimately impossible to decide whether he was the supreme representative of the Byzantine tradition, the inaugurator of a new phase who moved the tradition on to a higher level, or an exceptional polymath who was typical of no-one but himself. He certainly comes across in the surviving evidence as a rara avis on a lonely mission. 83 Yet the texts he read had been in Constantinople for centuries, the school curriculum he taught and studied had been in place since Late Antiquity, and at least some occult sciences in which he dabbled had been practised continuously in Byzantium at least since the end of the eighth century. Would he appear quite so exceptional if he had not written so much that later generations chose to preserve? We must allow for the possibility that earlier, more enigmatic and shadowy figures, like Stephen of Alexandria and John the Grammarian, expressed similar ideas based on a similar range of interests. At least we must not overlook the fact that so much of the intellectual store that Psellos brought to brilliant fruition had been saved for Byzantium by Stephen's move from Alexandria to Constantinople after 610, and was regenerated two centuries later by activities in which John, as both iconoclast theologian and occult scientist, played a central part.84

74

Michael PseUos, De omnifaria doctrina, ed. L. G. Westerink (Nijmegen, 1948), no. 116. " lloAAai
't<OV OVELQOOV ei.ol,v al al'tiat. ol J.lb yaQ aiJ'l;<iJv ei.oi 6e6:rtVEU01:oL li.voo6ev 1\lili!Euou 'to\J vou 'tfl /..oytxfl'l!Juxfl t']IL!iJv E'(yLV61J.EVoL. 76

Aristotle, llEQL 'tf!~ xa6'u:rtVov !WV'tLXfi~. , ed. W. D. Ross in Parva naturalia (Oxford, 1955), 462b 12-464b 18a. : Achme~s Oneirocriticon, ed. F. Drexl (Leipzig, 1925), I, 15-2, 10. Arterrudoros, Artemidori Daldiani Onirocriticon libri V, ed. R. Pack (Leipzig, 1963), I. 6, 15, 9-20,9. : PseU~s, l!hilosophica Minora, I, ed. Duffy, 142-43. : R1cklin, ~er Traum der Ph~losophie im 12. Jahrhundert (Leiden, 1998), 276for PseUos theory ~f dream mterpretation in general, ibid., 270-78. _Ioann~s ltalos: Ques~10nes quodlibetales, ed. P.-P. Joannou (Etta!, 1956), no. 43. DIScussion of th1s text m Ricklin, Der Traum der Philo sophie, 278-84.

??,

See J. Lamoreaux, The Early Muslim Tradition of Dream Interpretation (Albany, 2002), 34-35. Duffy, 'The Lonely Mission of Michael Psellos', esp. 152. . 84 Magdalino L'orthodoxie des astrologues, 33-66; see also Magdalmo and Papathanassio~ in this volume. For the role of John the ~rammari~ in th_e tl~t Byzantine humanism', see Klaus Alpers' stimulating rev1ew of N1gel Wilsons, Scholars of Byzantium, in Classical Philology 83 (1988), 354-9.
83

82

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Paul Magdalino Maria Mavroli4JI

Introduction

37

Both the reality and the image of the occult sciences in Byzantiunf. are the concern of this volume, which seeks, above all, to present them in their social and cultural context as a historical phenomenon; The first three chapters consider the occult sciences as a whole. Maria Mavroudi surveys the state of research on the subject and shows how it has suffered from the perceived marginality of Byzantium to the "grand narrative" of the rise of "West~m thought"; she then sets out in search of the figure of the Byzantme occult scientist, and lays down some parameters for studying his social position. The theme of cosmic sympathy, which as we have seen gave philosophical substance to the idea of occult science, i& taken up by Katerina Ierodiakonou; after explaining how the original Stoic theory was modified by the Neoplatonists, she shows how Michael Psellos made his own contribution to the Neoplatonic doctrine. Paul Magdalino analyses the image of occult science and occult scientists that is portrayed in histories of the middle Byzantine period and actually constitutes a substantial proportion of the available evidence. The themes of these articles come together in the following piece, where Maria Papathanassiou examines the occult interests of Stephen of Alexandria, the last ancient teacher of philosophy, and a key figure in the transmission of ancient science to both Byzantium and the Arab world; she argues for the authenticity of the astrological and alchemical writings ascribed to him, and proposes some interesting interpretations of the examples used in these texts. Alchemy and astrology, the two most 'scientific' of the occult scien~es, are the concern of the next five papers. Michele Mertens exammes the reception in medieval Byzantium of the works of the most re~owned Late-Antique writer on alchemy, Zosimos of Panopohs. David Pingree traces the reception into Greek of works by the eighth-century Abbasid astrologer Masha'allah. William Adler shows how the sources used in the twelfth-century debate ohver the compatibility of astrology with Christian doctrine f t emselves reflect a lo t d' ng ra Ilion of disagreement about the role o . :s~~logy m the cul~ure ofthe Biblical patriarchs-had Abraham, as the p~ld~~a?, pra~tJsed astrology, or had he rejected it along with 0 th d' Y_ ei_sm his native culture? Anne Tihon looks at the way e IstmctiOn between astr0 I d d around 1300 h B . ogy an astronomy was perceive ' w en yzantmm was opening up to new influences in

both fields from Mongol-dominated Persia. Joshua Holo discusses the perception of the same distinction among Byzantine Jews. These studies of Byzantine astrology underline the extent to which occult science was a culture that Christian Byzantium shared with both its Arab neighbours and its Jewish subjects. They are complemented by the chapter in which Charles Burnett explores the neglected contribution that Byzantium made to the occult s~tences in the medieval West, through texts on astrology and magic that were directly translated from Greek into Latin. The volume ends on a note of pure science, with a paper in which George S~liba reexamines the question of the missing links between Cop~mtcus and his thirteenth-century Persian precursor, al-Ti1si. In Its broader implications, this last article poses the problem of investigating _and identifying the concrete avenues of contact ~etween .By~antme, Arabic, and Latin science (occult or not) and their receptiOn m early modem Europe. . Like the original colloquium, the present collecti_on do~s not pretend to be exhaustive or comprehe?sive~~Q_ chaEter Sll.ecifically devotei...L~ "':' Ich_J~ts_ introduction has shown to have been central to the B zantme ll_ollo~ of the occult One reason for this omission is the fact, mentiOned ~agic is already well served in the literature c~mpar~d with the other occult sciences and the theme of occult s~I~nce m general. The other reason . ha !thou m~gical and d_IVlnat~ry texts abound in a e Byzantm ost-B antme manusc . . _ are a most ent'~, and thetr traditiOn h~s It will take several studies like Aun!he Gribomont's thesis in progress on the Book of Solo'!zo~ before w~ can do for Byzantine magic anything like what MI_chel_e Merten~ has done for alchemy in this volume, or what David Pt~~ree has done for astrology, here and elsewhere. But if the trad~twn still 'de, 1 't can profitably be v1ewed on remains impenetrable on the ms1 the outside through its image and reputation, the people who h here to practised it ' and the company they kep~~~ t<Y me SCientmc demonstrate that Byzantmm was not marrdnal marg1 cu ture o t e iddle A es, and t a e o cu s were no marginal to_.!_he learned cu ture o

~Iiarat~tudied.

vere--nor

Maria Mavroudi
University of California, Berkeley

Occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research

The study of Byzantine science, occult or not, is a topic that modem Byzantinists have probed very little. In order to approach it, therefore, it is useful to become familiar with scholarly paradigms developed in fields neighbouring Byzantine studies and to understand what questions were posed, what answers were provided, and for what reasons, in these neighbouring fields. The present essay will briefly identify a few such paradigms and propose avenues that research on Byzantine science may productively explore in the future. In the introduction to his magisterial eight-volume History of Magic and Experimental Science (1923), Lynn Thorndike argued in favour of a broad definition of his topic as "including all occult arts and sciences, superstitions, and folk-lore", and emphasized that "magic and experimental science have been connected in their development; that magicians were perhaps the first to experiment; and that the history of both magic and experimental science can be

40

Maria Mavroudl.

Occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research

41

better understood by studying them together."' In this way hi~ ~vo~ded ~i~iding ?is mat~r~al ~ccording to the modem categori~s ~ r~t10nal~ty and superstition and proceeded to discuss 'pseudosciences , such as astrology and various forms of divination alon -_ . h 'h d . , , g. Wit. ar . sciences . as, _for example, . medicine and pharmacy, optics, music, the engmeermg of mechamcal devices, the use of the abacus. and the introduction _of Hindu and Arabic numerals. At the same time, he ~ailed atten~10n to the sophisticated philosophical b_ackground required for an m-depth understanding of his topic and SI~nalled that ~arrow d_efinitions of what exactly magic and o~cult science meant m the Middle Ages, especially definitions couched in modem terms, do not reflect the way magic and occult science were thought of during the Middle Ages:

examining the longue dunfe is more illuminating than investigating a shorter period of time:
"The history of thought is more unified and consistent, steadier and more regular, than the fluctuations and diversities of political history; and for this reason its general outlines can be discerned with reasonable sureness by the examination of even a limited number of examples, provided they are properly selected from a period of sufficient duration. Moreover, it seems to me that in the present stage of research into and knowledge of our subject sounder conclusions and even more novel ones can be drawn by a wide comparative survey than by a minutely intensive and exhaustive study of one man or of a few years. The danger is of writing from too narrow a viewpoint, magnifying unduly the importance of some one man or theory, and failing to evaluate the facts in their full historical setting. No medieval writer whether on science or magic can be understood by himself but must be measured in respect to his surroundings and antecedents."'

"the ex~ct meaning of the word, 'magic', was a matter of much uncertamty even in classical and medieval times.-. There can be no ~oubt, however, that it was then applied not merely to an operal!ve art, but also to a mass of ideas or doctrine and that 't represent~ a way of looking at the world. This sicte of magi~ ~~ s?~ettmes been lost sight of in hasty or assumed modern ;:::sd~hitc~.~eem to regard magic as merely a collection .ea s.

L. Thorndike A H' }923),2. , story of Magic and Experimental Science I (New York, 'i::omd~e. History of Magic I 4 ' 'Tbomdi_ke,HistoryofMagic' I' 2. omdike, History of Magic: i-3.

Further Thomdik I. d magic , d _e exp ame the necessity to examine medieval an expenmental scien h h ce as t e result of a continuum beginni 10 ng t e early Christian period "could b b centunes, because the medieval Greek, Latin, e:t~nd~~t~o~ by vi:wing it in the setting of the much" 3 H 1 Y_ nstlan wnters to whom it owed so . e a so explamed that ancient science must . any modem understanding of Ages: "The . unavmdably use the vehicle of the Middle anc1ent authors ar medieval form in s e genera1 ly extant only in their h ' orne cases there ave undergone alteratio d . . Is reason to suspect that they fathered upon the I n or a dttwn; sometimes new works were bee m. n any case they h b ause the Middle Ages t d' d ave een preserved to us extent made them th . s u ~~ and cherished them and to a great e1r own " Tho d'k ' 1 fi ~--=~-------m e urther maintained that 1

:nd

Thorndike's approach is distinguished by its thorough acquaintance with primary sources, many of which were (and some still are) to be found only in manuscripts. Compared with the reference manuals in the neighbouring fields of ancient and Islamic occult science (even those written several decades later), it is also unusual for its chronological organization, as opposed to presenting the primary source material thematically, according to the genre to which a given text is deemed to belong. 6 Discussions by genre reflect a
1bid . 3-4. A. Bouche-Leclercq, Histoire de Ia divination dans /'antiquite, 4 vols. (Paris, 1879-82) organizes the discussion primarily according to each kind of divinatory method employed in the ancient world and the geographic location where it was practiced (therefore distinguishes between 'divination hellenique' and 'divination italique'). In the field of Islamic studies, T. Fahd, La divination arabe (Leiden, 1966; repr. Paris, 1987), a thoroughly documented study steeped in primary sources, also favours a thematic organization of the material. M. Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam. Handbuch der Orientalistik, L4.2 (Leiden and Cologne, 1972), is organized by topic and includes the following: zoology ('Tierkunde',.including literature on the hunt), botany (Pflanzenkunde), lapidaries (Gesteinskunde), alchemy, astrology, magic, and agriculture (Die Lehre von der Landwirtschaft); Ullmann's Die Medizin im Islam. Handbuch der Orientalistik, 1.4.1 (Leiden and Cologne, 1970); English tr. as M. Ullmann, ls/cmJic Medicine (Edinburgh, 1978) covers some complementary ground, especially in the chapter on medicine and the occult. This categorization unavoidably owes
6

I:

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Maria Mavroudi

Occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research

43

tradition established towards the end of the nineteenth century, especially in the German-speaking world, and are clearly influenced by the re-thinking of disciplinary boundaries and the reorganization of knowledge (and the institutional structure of universities) along those lines at around the same time. This academic trend produced admirable works that still guide scholarly research, but among its dangers, when applied to the material under discussion, is the over-subordination of ancient and medieval intellectual endeavours to modem categories and definitions, and the blurring of the fact that medieval learning was, to use a modem term, very 'interdisciplinary'. 7

something to an illustrious antecedent, the division of the material adopted by Brockelmann in his (to this day irreplaceable) Geschichte der arabischen Uteratur, 5 vols. (1898-42); on the long and difficuit publishing history of tliis work, see J. J. Witkam, 'Brockelmann's Geschichte revisited' in the recent reprint of C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, I (Leiden, New York, and Cologne, 1996), v-xvn. To facilitate his discussion, Brockelmann divided Arabic literature into chronological units and, from ca. 750 (after which date the number of preserved texts and authors is significantly greater than before) proceed~ to cove~ the literary production of each period by genre and place of producbon acco~mg. to the political fragmentation of the Islamic world. 'Die N~r- ~nd Gehetmwtssenschaften' is the title of Book 2, chapter 17 (I 278-82) whtch ts preceded by chapters on philosophy, mathematics, astro~omy and asti_ol?gy, .geography, and medicine (these categories are repeated, with some vanatton, m the treabnent of subsequent periods, as well). The division according ~~genres was .also follo~ed in another major and extremely useful bibliographic f~rt, F. Sezgm, Geschzchte des arabischen Schrifttums bis ca. 430 H. 12 vols.. (Leiden 1967-), that covers AI b' t . . h a tc exts unttl ca. 1038 A.D. and discusses med tcme, p armacy zoology t . . th ' . ' ve ennary sctence, alchemy, chemistry botany, agriculture rna emabcs, astronomy a trol d ' rubrics The bibl" . . ' s ogy, an meteorology under separate Die h~chs:prach:~!reaphtc.J.utdeL~or Byzantine science, occult or not, is H. Hunger, proJane lteratur der B t. 2 I . yzan mer. vo s., Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft XII 5 as follows mathematt:c d(Mumch, 1978), where the last six chapters are titled s an astronomy (astrol ) . botany, lapidaries, alchemy) ed' . .. og~ natural sctences (zoology, due to the vernacular linguls~ tc'?e, mthtary sctence, law, music. In addition, categories, a brief discussion ~ ~!;~ter employed in texts that belong to these remedies, and Byzantine colle~~ions ~~:t~ to astrology. oracular literature, folk 0 Beck, Geschichte der byzantinisch ~ lk 1~ proverbs, m an addendum to H.-G. 7 A similar concern regardin ;n s lte~atur (Munich, 1971 ). treattnent by Byzantinists acco~ Yzantme hterature and its compartmentalized K.azhdan, People and Power in ;g to ~odem notions of 'genre' was voiced by A. yzanttum: An Introduction to Modern Byzantine

Certain aspects of Thorndike's work clearly belong to the Zeitgeist of the early 20'h century. Auguste Bouche-Leclercq's Histoire de fa divination dans l'antiquite, 4 vols. (Paris, 1879-82) and his L'astrologie grecque (1899) had already argued (while professing to despise astrology and its sisters) that the study of divination in antiquity is a worthy scholarly enterprise because it can elucidate the history of ideas. The same point had been made in Thorndike's doctoral dissertation titled 'The Place of Magic in the Intellectual History of Europe' and submitted to the "Faculty of Political Science" at Columbia University in 1905. But the vision he presented in 1923 was still pioneering, because Franz Cumont's L'Egypte des astrologues, an attempt to use astrology in order to understand social history, would be published fourteen years later, in 1937, and Otto Neugebauer's famous essay 'The Study of Wretched Subjects', in which he called for a serious investigation into the history of astrology in order to comprehend the transmission of ideas from Antiquity to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, did not appear until1951. 8 Though the connection between 'rational' and 'pseudo' science continues to be discussed in recent literature on pre-modem science (obviously because scholars still estimate that it must be explained to their readers), 9 the view that 'rational' science and 'pseudo' science are two facets of the same coin is increasingly gaining wider acceptance. 10 Though no longer pioneering in this respect,
Studies (Washington, D. C., 1982), 96-7; a new approach was implemented by idem, A History of Byzantine Literature (650-850) (Athens, 1999). 8 0. Neugebauer, 'The Study of Wretched Subjects', Isis 42 (1951 ), Ill. Compare, also, the remarks of L. Edelstein in 1937: "In the historiography of Greek medicine religious and magical healing, in general, are dealt with only occasionally and very briefly... Since these are factors abhorrent to modem science, they are not interesting to the modem historian either"; see L. Edelstein. 'Greek Medicine and Its Relation to Religion and Magic', Bulletin of the lnstitllle of the History of Medicine 5 (1937), 201-46; repr. in 0. and L. Temkin, eds., Ancient Medicine. Selected Papers of Ludwig Edelstein (Baltimore, 1967), 205-46. 9 See, for example, F. Rochberg, The Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy. and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture (Cambridge and New York, 2004). 10 Some researchers treat the connection between 'rational' and 'pseudo' science as established truth in need of no further elaboration; see the statement of T. Langerrnann, review of P. Travaglia, Magic, Causality and Intentionality: The Doctrine of Rays in al-Kindi (Florence, 1999), in Speculum 77 (2002), 256-8:

. 1

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Maria Mavroudi

Occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research

45

Thorndike's work has aged gracefully; its flfSt four volumes that focus on the Western medieval world may still be used as a reference tool by medievalists. An equivalent work was never written for Byzantium, neither in its bibliographic scope (including manuscripts) nor in its articulation of an overarching vision about the intellectual horizons and historic development of magic and experimental science. Given the proliferation and specialization of knowledge as well as the changed conditions in the academia and society at large since the first half of the twentieth century, it is unlikely that such a work will be produced in the foreseeable future. 11 This, of course, does not mean that Byzantinists are completely deprived of research tools. Investigation of the Byzantine occult sciences today is made possible by a much earlier wave of publications, mostly consisting in multi-volume sets publishing primary sources, that appeared between the end of the nineteenth century and the 1930s and 40s, such as the collective catalogues of Greek astrological and alchemical manuscripts, including excerpts from the relevant texts. 12 The analysis of these sources was generally undertaken by their editors in articles rather than book-length studies. 13 It is hoped that the recent renewal of the
''The question ~f how to approach the subject of magic is belabored unnecessarily. There now exts~s ~ ~onsensus that, functioning within an appropriate causal framework, m~g1c 1s Just another form of technology or applied science. This should be the sunple .and ac_cepta?le starting point for an investigation in De radiis; much of Travagha s dehberatmn about science versus superstition is thus superfluous."

effort to properly edit the surviving Greek alchemical texts under the directorship of H. D. Saffrey (the first volume appeared in 1981), 14 and the long-term commitment to publish the corpus of Byzantine astronomers under the supervision of Anne Tihon (the 15 inaugural volume came out in 1983) will do much to facilitate the study of the Byzantine occult sciences, even if neither undertaking includes this among its explicit goals. Relatively recent book-length studies by a single author treating any aspect of Byzantine occult lore are exceedingly few: Richard Greenfield's Traditions of Belief in Late Byzantine Demonology (Amsterdam, 1988) discusses a period for which the documentation is by several orders of magnitude more abundant than for the centuries preceding it. Interestingly, a related topic, Byzantine eschatology, has received much more attention, perhaps because its connection with respectable political history is more obvious to modem scholars than the relevance of astrology, geomancy, dream interpretation, palmomancy, scapulomancy, lecanomancy, and magic for the study of political history. 16 Yet both eschatology and divination are equally important for a proper understanding of how political power was yielded anywhere in the medieval world, both East and West. Most recently, Paul Magdalino's L'orthodoxie des astrologues: La science entre le dogme et la divination a Byzance (Vlle-X/Ve siecle) (Paris, 2006), is a book-length study by a single author addressing one of the most important and philosophically inclined Byzantine occult sciences in a chronologically arranged discussion
In the series "Les alchimistes grecs" (AG) Papyrus de Leyde, ed. Halleux, AG, I; of the proj~ted 12 volumes (ibid., XIV-XV), only I, IV.! and X have appeared to date; among them only L'anonyme de Zuretti ou L'art sacre et divin de Ia chrysopee par un anonyme, ed. A. Coline!, AG, X (Paris, 2000), deals with a ~yzantine, as opposed to an ancient, Greek alchemical text. N1cephore Gregoras: Calcul de /'eclipse du solei/ du 16 juillet 1330, ed. J. ~ogenet, A. Tihon, R. Royez, A. Berg, CAB I (Amsterdam, 1983); see the IDtroduction by Tihon, ibid., 7-8; also eadem, 'Un projet de corpus des astronomes byzantins', JOB 31 (1981) Akten des XVI. intemazionales Byzant~nisten~ongress 1.2.1 (no pagination) and R. Browning, 'Projects in Byzantme Phtlology', ibid. 1.1, 3-64. Nine volumes have appeared in the series to date.
14

II Th . e. same 1s_ true even beyond Byzantine studies; cf. Witkam, 'Brockelmann's Geschtchte reVISited', V-XV!!. 12 Catalogu~ Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum (=CCAG), vols. I-XII (Brussels 1898-1953), Catalogue des manuscrits alchimiques grecs (=CMAG) vols I-VIII (Bru~sel_s, 1924-32); CMAG vols. VI-VIII are exclusively dedi~ated. to the publicalion of texts, a proJect that was interrupted b th b ak II. Several alchemical texts were also published wi~ ~ o~t Ire of Worl~ w_ar Ruelle by M Berthelot Col/ ( . e e P of Charles-nmtle 1887-88; re~r. Londo~ 9 ;~ ~~~ d:s :nclens akhimistes grecs, 3 vols. (Paris Athe?iensia, 2 vols. Biblioth~u/ d:\: ~n magic, see_ A. Delatte, Anecdota I'Umversite de Liege, fascs. 36 and (Lie ea:Ite d7 philosophte et Iettres de 88 of publishing the Greek alchemical co g d ~arts, 1927-39). For the history Papyrus de Leyde, papyrus de Stoc:O~s, see the mtroduction by H. D. Saffrey in Les alchimistes grecs 1 (Paris 1981 ) m, fragments et recettes, ed. R. Halleux 13 O . ' , , VII-XV. ' ne exception: A. Delatte La c . and Paris, 1932). ' atoptromancle grecque et ses derivees (Liege

1 6

p or a r~ef overvtew of the literature on Byzantine eschatology up to 1993, see p. Magdalmo, 'The History of the Future and Its Uses: Prophecy, Policy and S ro:~ganda', R. Beaton and C. Roueche, eds., The Making of Byzantine History. tu les Dedicated to Donald M. Nicol (Aidershot, 1993), 3-34.

MF

b'

46

Maria Mavrou4!1
.~

that pays due attention to pre- and early Christian sources, and i& founded on a thorough acquaintance with primary texts, some of which remain little-read by modern scholars. 17

Occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research

47

The existing and projected publications that can facilitate the study of the sciences in Byzantium inspire a certain amount of optimism. However, there can be no doubt that the study of Byzantine science (occult or not) is not as advanced as that of its equivalent in the ancient, Western medieval, and even the Islamic world. The reasons for this disparity are worth an attempt at their identification. Could it be attributed to lack of primary source material on which such an investigation could be based? For example, the Middle and Late Byzantine period lack the unmediated primary source material provided by the ancient lead curse tablets or the magical papyri. Yet the identification of physical remains of practiced magic (hardly any have been identified from the Middle and Late Byzantine 18 period), or recent advances in the field of papyrology (within which the study of Arabic papyri remains the least investigated domain), especially since it is pertinent only to a limited geographic location, cannot by themselves explain the developments in the study of magic and occult science. Another explanation may be sought in the fact that Byzantine studies is a relatively young discipline cultivated by a comparatively limited number of scholars; but so is the study of medieval Islam in the Western world, while medieval Islamic science has been studied by modern Western scholars more than its Byzantine counterpart. Closer inspection reveals that modern neglect in the study of Byzantine science (whether rational or pseudo) is coupled with neglect in the study of Byzantine philosophy, the ancient and Islamic counterpart of which is, once again, considerably more advanced. In other words, Byzantinists have paid insufficient attention to both the practical application of science and its philosophical foundation in the
". ~-

Byzantine world. The result is a signi~ca_nt gap in. our derstanding the textual, intellectual, and social Import of science ~n Byzantine history and the study of Byzantine civilization. To tOr tate this in more concrete terms, a goal that ' ph"l 1 osop hy ' , ence' and 'pseudo-science' have in common is to understand SCI , . d h' the forces and laws that move nature and the umverse an or ~ IS the same reason all three may appropriate much of d . ,theoretical . apparatus; further, both 'science' and 'pseu o-sc1ence asp1re ~o control these forces, or at least use them to control one s surroundings. It is therefore reasonable to expect that all three could be practiced in the same circles, for the ~enefit of, or by, m~ny of the same individuals, and therefore stndes or obstacles ~n the modern study of each necessarily influence our understandmg. of the other two. The intellectual profile and social role of a Byza?tme theologian, ecclesiastic, historian, courtier, bureaucrat, professiOn~! man of letters, cannot be fully appreciated without refere?ce to theu knowledge of what Byzantium understood as science; yet Byzantinists presently lack important tools that wo~ld ~llow them to add this component to the larger picture of Byzantme mtellectual and social history.

fo1V!natzon

~agdalino, L'Orthodoxie des astro/ogues. La science entre le dogme et Ia aB~za~ce ~VI/e-XIVe siecle), Realites byzantines 12 (Paris, 2006).

. Some matenal1s d1scussed by J. Russell, 'The Archeological Context of Magic m the Early Byzantine Period', in H. Maguire, ed. Byzantine Magic (Washington, D. C., 1995), 35-50. Amulets, phylacteries, protective rings, a protective gold tab(Camle,:~ are presented in I. Ka!avrezou, ed., Byzantine Women and Their World ndge, Mass., New Haven and London, 2003), 27ff.

The comparison among the fields of ancient~ Byzantine, and Islamic studies allows the conclusion that the most Important reason for t~e relative neglect in the study of Byzantine science, occult or not, IS its perceived role in the history of what we term 'Western thought' The generally accepted grand narrative goes, more or less, as follows: the sciences were born in the ancient Near East, whence already in antiquity they migrated West, am?ng the _Greeks; "':ho gave birth to (Western) philosophy and made It and SCience flou:tsh until (at the latest) the sixth century A.D. At around_ that time science and philosophy died out in the Greek-speakmg world. Thankfully, they were rescued by the Arabs, who translated and adapted the Greek scientific and philosophical heritage as a result of the translation movement from Greek into Arabic in the course of the ninth and tenth centuries, and went on to produce some worth-while science and philosophy of their own. By the eleve~th . m the Mushm century both subjects were begmmng to decrme world but again were rescued by medieval Europe, where a seco~d ' . and adaptatiOn ' . proJect, translation th"Is u me from Arabic into Latm,

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was launched in the twelfth century. It is understood that from then on, and down to our own times, science and philosophy definitely and irrevocably migrated west. Their initial twelfth-century migration was intensified in the course of the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries, when Greek refugees fleeing Byzantium arrived to the West carrying manuscripts of ancient authors and allowed the West to rediscover ancient Hellenic wisdom, this time without an Arabic intermediary. The Greek manuscripts brought to Europe by Byzantine scholars during the Renaissance are understood as the last contribution of the East (whether Arabic or Greek speaking) to Western scientific and philosophical development. Elements of this grand narrative are implicitly or explicitly present in ancient and medieval sources, a fact that undoubtedly contributed to its formulation in modem literature. For example, Ptolemy in the Tetrabiblos explicitly mentions that the Egyptians are those who developed medical astrology the most (1.3), and refers to the Egyptian system of government of the houses (1.20) and the Chaldaean system of government of the triplicities (1.21), implicitly acknowledging the fundamental contribution that these two civilizations made to astrology. 19 Diodorus Siculus in a well-known passage (1.96-98) also discusses the Egyptian origin of science and the benefit that Greek savants derived from it. 20 Reference to the Egyptian and Babylonian origins of astrology and science is also made in the world chronicles of the Byzantine period. 21 As for the claim that wisdom had migrated from the Greek- to the Arabicspeaking world, it is already expressed in medieval Arabic sources and can be understood as a politically expedient rhetorical attitude employed by the Abbasids in the course of the heightened Byzantine-Arabic military antagonism of the ninth and tenth centuries in order to cast, in the terms used by Dimitri Gutas, 'antiByzantinism' in the guise of 'philhellenism' .22 Yet the modem
19

elaboration and completion of the grand narrative articulated above were developed in Western academia the course of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century and for this reason unavoidably reflects ideological assumptions prevalent at the time of European colonialism. As a result, modern study of ancient philosophy and science largely emphasized what was deemed as 'rational' enterprise (along the lines of what the nineteenth century understood and defined as 'rational'); further, questions and answers are framed from a point of view centred on late medieval and early modem Europe (the forerunner of modem Western civilization). Indeed, most scholarly energy was expended and most ink has flowed in order to elucidate the crucial junctures of science's and philosophy's westward journey, in the imagined geography of which the Greek-speaking world in antiquity is reckoned as 'West', while in the Middle Ages as 'East'. For example, the modern study of Arabic astrology was greatly stimulated by the realization that its introduction in the medieval West through translations from Arabic into Latin also created the impetus for the introduction of Aristotelian philosophy in medieval Latin thought/ 3 and therefore was inextricably linked with developments in Western medieval philosophy (itself a re24 habilitated subject in academic research around the same time). As far as science and philosophy in Greek of any period are concerned, it is well known that with the exception of finds in papyri, its bulk is retrievable, with more or less difficulty, only from Greek manuscripts of the Byzantine and post-Byzantine period. Yet modern study of these manuscripts has concentrated on extracting from them ancient science and philosophy, while little attention has been paid to what Byzantine manuscripts that include the works of ancient authors can tell us about Byzantine science and philosophy. This neglect is exacerbated by the fact that, in contrast with Islamic philosophy and science, the view about their Byzantine counterparts implicitly or explicitly stated in modern
23

Ptolemy, Tetrabib/os, ed. and tr. W. G. Waddell (Cambridge Mass 1940 repr. 1964), 30-33. ' . "'_Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica, ed. K. T. Fischer (post I. Bekker and L. P,tndorf) and F .. Vo~el, 5 vols. (Leipzig, 1888-1906; repr. Stuttgart, 1964). 22 See the contnbution by W. Adler in the present volume. M See D. G~tas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: the Graeco-Arabic Translation h IB'h-J(Jh Centuries ovement m Baghdad and Early Abbasid Society, 2""- 41 (London and New York, 1998), 83-9 5.

R. Lemay, Aba Ma' shar and Latin Aristotelianism in the Twelfth Century: The Recovery of Aristotle's Natural Philosophy through Arabic Astrology (Betrut. 1962). 24 See the introduction by K. Ierodiakonou, ed. Byzantine Philosophy and Its Ancient Sources (Oxford, 2002), 7.

,.

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'' !~
scholarship is that there hardly was anything worth talking about. 25 In summary, the only reason why Byzantium is important in the history of science and philosophy is not because it added anything significant to the Greek scientific knowledge and philosophical sophistication of antiquity, but because it preserved ancient Greek science and philosophy until the Westerners were able to recover it. Such is the view explicitly adopted in the chapter on Byzantine science by Kurt Vogel in Cambridge Medieval History, 26 whichin spite of its age-remains an indispensable guide on the topic due to its abundant bibliography and the general absence of reference works on Byzantine science. As for Byzantine philosophy, though recent scholarly literature has moved beyond appreciating it merely as a repository of ancient philosophy, by necessity the importance of studying it is still advocated in terms of its role in shaping Renaissance philosophy (a nod to a line of thinking that may attract and sustain a general interest in studying Byzantine philosophy, not an implied comparison or relative evaluation). 27 More recent scholarship has begun to re-evaluate individual pieces of this grand narrative: for example, emphasis and value is no longer exclusively placed on what is deemed as 'rational' enterprise, nor is the pursuit of 'irrational' subjects taken as a sign of intellectual decline. In addition, a rehabilitation of Arabic science and philosophy is taking place: it is now possible to argue that neither entered a state of decline after the eleventh century. 28 Regarding Western European intellectual history, the twelfthcentury 'renaissance' (in the course of which Graeco-Arabic learning was introduced in Western Europe through translations from Latin into Arabic) in recent re-evaluation no longer looks like the paramount event it had been made to be. 29 The result is dissonance between the older grand narrative and our more recent understanding of the individual components that comprise it. In other words, as the pieces of the puzzle have changed shape, they no longer fit together as neatly as they used to and must be reconsidered not only individually but also as a whole. Any new grand narrative that might emerge will not be complete without taking into consideration the role of Byzantium in the formation of Mediterranean science by contributing to and receiving from the science of its Arabic and Latin speaking neighbours. Since, in any period of human history, the economic and political power of a nation or political entity is a decisive factor influencing the international reception of the culture and science it produces, recent developments in Byzantine studies must be inserted into future thinking regarding Byzantine science and its international role: for
philosophy] will we manage to completely bridge the gap between ancient philosophy and early modem philosophy. In this connection we have to keep in mind the profound impact Byzantine scholars and philosophers of the fifteenth century had on the revival of Platonic studies and Platonism in the Renaissance in the West." 28 For a rehabilitation of Arabic philosophy after the II >h century, see D. Gutas, 'The Study of Arabic Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: An Essay on the Historiography of Arabic Philosophy', British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 29.1 (2002), 5-25; for a refutation regarding Islamic astronomy, see G. Saliba, 'A Redeployment of Mathematics in a Sixteenth-Century Arabic Critique of Ptolemaic Astronomy', in A. Hasnawi, A. Elamrani-Jamal, M. Aouad, eds., Perspectives arabes et medievales sur Ia tradition scientijique et philosophique ~ecque (Leuven and Paris, 1997), 105-22, and esp. 113. For challenges to the notion of a 12,.-century Renaissance, see C. S. Jaeger, 'Pessimism in the Twelfth-Century "Renaissance"', Speculum 78 (2003), 1151-83.

"Evidently, this attitude was internalized, at least until recently, even within the field of Byzantine studies. How else to explain the absence of any panel on Byzantine science at the XVI International Congress on Byzantine studies (1981), remarked upon by Anne Tihon thus: "Au moment de nous inscrire a ce Congres d'Etudes Byzantines, un rapide coup d'oeil sur le programme propose suffisait nous amener a cette constatation desolante: I' absence de toute section consacre a l'histo~re de Ia science byzantine" [A. Tihon, "Un projet de corpus des astronomes byzantl~s" (p: I of the _article in. a volume without pagination)]. A panel on Byzantme sc1ence was mcluded m the programme of the XXI International Cong~s on ~yzantine Studies (2006). For the problems regarding the study of Byzantme philosophy, see the introduction by Ierodiakonou ed. Byzantine Phzlosophy, 1-13. '

~ Cambri~ge Me~ieva/

History IV.2 (Cambridge, 1967), 264: "Byzantium is lffiportant m the h1story of science ... not because any appreciable additions were made to the knowledge already attained by the Greeks of the Hellenistic era but because the Byzantines preserved the so I'd . 1 c toundatlons la1d m antiquity until 'such ::w~g~~ Westerners had at their disposal other means of recovering this
27

See ODB, s.v. PHILOSOPHY (by 0 O'M ) ''Th . specific Byzant' h'l h . eara e question of the existence of a . . m~ P I osop Y nsks anachronism if it presupposes a modem h If . cntenon of what 1s to count as h'l 1 development, it is to be ~ / osop Y phllosophy is seen as a historical philosophy and in th ffi oun 10 Byzantium in the interest taken in ancient provided in tum v~~ ~rts ~ ~evelop and criticize this heritage. This work lerodiak B I. msp_rratlon to Renaissance philosophy." See also onou, yumtrne Phzlosophy 13 "Only [b tud . B . y s ymg yzantme

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example, we are now beginning to discern that not all intellectual, artistic, or technological tradition (and the possibility of "innovation") was lost in the period between the seventh to the ninth centuries,30 but have not yet contemplated what this means for the translation movement from Greek into Arabic that took place in the course of the ninth and tenth centuries. Over the last two decades we have reached a consensus that Byzantium's golden age did not end with the death of Basil II and that the eleventh and twelfth centuries were periods of economic expansion and intensified intellectual endeavour; 31 yet we have not begun to map what this may imply for the reception of Byzantine philosophy and science in the Islamic and the Latin world within the political circumstances of the same period, such as the Byzantine governance of the region of Antioch (969-1084) and the creation of the Crusader states soon thereafter. The findings of work done in the fields of art history, 32 and, secondarily, law/ 3 promise that future research focusing on other forms of cultural endeavour will also prove productive. 34 Modern lack of interest in Byzantine
"'For a summary of recent work, see L. Brubaker and J. Haldon, Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era (ca. 680-850 ): The Sources (Aidershot, 200 1), to be followed by a forthcoming companion volume discussing new conclusions from re-reading the sources. 31 A seminal publication on 12.. -century economic history: M. Hendy, "Byzantium, 1081-1204: an Economic Reappraisal" Transactions of the Royal Historical Society Slh series, 20 (1970), 31-52; see also the monograph by A. Harvey, Econom~ Exp~nsion in t~e Byzantine Empire, 900-1200 (Cambridge, 1989). A fuUer articulat10n: A. La10u, ed. The Economic History of Byzantium from the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century, 3 vols. (Washington, D. C., 2002). A sem~al work on 12th-century cultural history: A. Kazhdan and A. WhartonEpstem, Change in Byzantine Culture in the 11' and 12"' Centuries (Berkeley 1985). '
32

science (and the resulting currently prevailing impression of its non-existence or worthlessness) is dependent on a (by now) superseded understanding of Byzantium as a state and civilization in decline. Since scholars no longer subscribe to this understanding, it is now possible to reverse our initial set of assumptions and investigate Byzantine philosophy and science from a completely new angle, by looking for signs of its robustness and international appeal, as would be consonant with the economic robustness and international political importance of Byzantium, at least until the Fourth Crusade. To put this in relief with an example: in the thirteenth-century biographical dictionary by Ibn Abi Usaybi'ah, we are informed that the monetary estate left behind by the eleventh-century Jacobite Christian doctor al-Yabrudi consisted in Byzantine gold and silver pieces. 35 AI-Yabrtidi, we are told by Ibn Abi U~aybi'ah, was born in the large Christian village of Yabrtid (75 km North of Damascus), received his medical education in Damascus and Baghdad, practiced in Damascus and corresponded with physicians resident in Egypt. Though he lived and had most of his professional connections within the realm of the Fatirnids (to which both Cairo and Damascus belonged at the time) and as far as we know never visited Byzantine territory, he preferred to invest his fortune in Byzantine coinage, evidently because this was the hard currency of the period. Since common opinion in today's world holds that good medicine is that of the economically and politically dominant countries, one cannot but wonder whether al-Yabrtidi regarded Byzantine medicine with the same trust as the Byzantine economy, and whether his impression of the one also influenced his evaluation of the other. A renewed investigation into Byzantine science (in its enlarged definition that comprises its philosophical background, including its theological ramifications/ 6 as well as both its 'rational' and
" See J. Schacht and M. Meyerhof, The Medico-Philosophical Controversy Between Ibn But/an of Baghdad and Ibn Ridwan of Cairo (Cairo, 1937), 69; Arabic text ibid., 33. 36 See the remarks by R. Sinkewicz, 'Christian Theology and the Renewal of Philosophical and Scientific Studies in the Early Fourteenth Century: The Capita I 50 of Gregory PaJamas', Mediaeval Studies 48 (1986), 334-51; Sinkewicz points out that Byzantinists rarely read works of 'high theology' and as a result missed an oppoltiJnity to observe, in the context of Palamite studies, the interaction between

~ntly, the P.ublicat10ns by Annemarie Weyi-Carr and Lucy-Anne Hunt.

Seminal in this. re~ard was the body of work by Hugo Buchthal (1909-); more

th~~~~ sumval ofB~zantine l~gal practices in Crusader lands, see B. Kedar, 'On
': Paliis~na ~r .Kreuz;fahrerzeit (Berlin, 2001 ). Work 10 this drrection is represented by the volume of I. Draelants A. Tihon B. van den Abeele eds Occ1 'd t p h . ' ' en et roc e-Onent: Contacts scientifiques au temps . des Cro1sades (Tumhout 2000) tw . . . . . 0 essays 10 science A C0 I' th1s collection discuss Byzantine byzant.' ,. ~net, travail des quatre elements ou lorsqu'un alchimiste 10 8 astrono ~~sprre ~e Jabir', ibid., 165-90; and A. Tihon, 'Les textes nuq arabes Importes Byzance aux Xle et Xlle siecles', ibid., 313-24.

?fNab~us.' 1120', Speculum 14 (1999), 310-35; J. Pahlitzsch, Graeci und Suriani

gms of the Earhest Laws 10 Frankish Jerusalem: The Canons of the Council

.u;

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'superstitious' manifestations) could offer an avenue to contemplate a number of issues that have occupied the wider landscape of Byzantine studies over the last fifty years, or even longer. A question for the wider field of Byzantine studies that can be fruitfully approached from the perspective of the occult sciences is the one regarding the role played by the ancient Greek heritage in Byzantine culture. 37 Generations of Byzantinists have paid attention to this question for both objective and subjective reasons. Objectively, the adoption, continuous cultivation, and adaptation of the ancient heritage is indeed one of the foundations of Byzantine culture. In addition, with the exception of a few literary, philosophical, and scientific texts recovered from the Egyptian papyri, the main avenue available for the retrieval of ancient Greek literary culture was, and has largely remained, the surviving Byzantine manuscripts and their post-Byzantine apographs. This objective reality led earlier generations of scholars to a very subjective approach to Byzantine literary culture: further influenced by the Gibbonian vision alluded to earlier and espousing an understanding of Byzantium as a state and civilization in decline (a view that was not seriously challenged in Western historiography until the second half of the twentieth century), they came to value Byzantine literary culture primarily as a repository of its ancient Greek counterpart, not as something worthwhile in its own right. In addition, not just Byzantine literature but Byzantine civilization as a whole has been understood as so subservient to ancient authority tha~ it was render~ incapable of adapting to a changing reality. Ultimately, Byzantmm was understood as lacking a set of qualities that modern historiography came to associate with the medieval (at least from the t~elfth century onwards) and early modem West, such as 'dynamism' and 'innovation'. In the terms of history of
Christian theology and bil . the ren ew ed 14"'-century mterest m anctent sctence and Pto osopby..' would like to thank my student David Crane for bringing this article my attention. 37 For a brief foray into th' bl . , ts pro em usmg Byzantme texts on divination, seeM. Mavroudi 'Ta'br '. dr a1 -ruy a and altki!m al-nujam: References to Women in Dream Inte rpretatton an Astrology T ~ rred Medieval Islam to B . .rans e from Graeco-Roman Antiquity and Gruendler and M C yzanttum. Some Problems and Considerations', in B. Terms F , h ift.fi ooperson, eds., Classical Arabic Humanities in Their Own es.sc r1 or Wo/fhart R hs . and Colleagues (Leiden, 2006), e;,;c on HIS 65. Birthday from His Students 47

science, these qualities are understood as leading to the scientific and industrial revolution that, in its tum, becall).e the means through which the West secured its economic, political, and cultural preponderance in the modem world. In more recent years Byzantinists, especially those studying Byzantine economy, have moved away from the model of Byzantine immutability and collapse under the weight of received tradition, though in doing so they have stressed the 'adaptability' rather than 'dynamism' of Byzantine economy. Yet if we accept that Byzantium was more accomplished in terms of its scientific and technological achievement than has hitherto been realized, what prevented a scientific revolution from taking place there? 38 Though the question would be novel if addressed to Byzantinists, it has been asked. of course, in connection with the medieval Islamic world. 39 The answer has generally been framed as the result of a polar opposition between the social and intellectual realities of 'East' and 'West' and could conceivably be applied to the Byzantine empire, since it is generally understood as 'oriental'. Yet a sharp divide .between 'East' and 'West' (at least around the Mediterranean and its hinterland, where the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, touch and melt into each other) is not so much the result of perennial physical geography, but of changeable political geography. Neither Graeco-Roman antiquity nor the Middle Ages construed 'East' and 'West' in the same way that we do today, and any projection of the modem divide on an earlier period would be
To the best of my knowledge, this revolutionary, by the standards of Byzantine studies, question, has only been asked once, and only in passing, by P. Magdalino, 'The Byzantine Reception of Classical Astrology', in C. Holmes and J. Waring. eds., Literacy, Education and Manuscript Transmission in Byzamium and Beyond (Leiden, Boston, Cologne, 2002), 33-57. Magdalino suggests that the "tacit acceptance" of astrology by the clergy was upset forever in the 12.. century by Manuel Komnenos' concerted efforts to make astrology a canonically acceptable field of pursuit. The article ends with an intriguing final argument, that the reaction of the "orthodox establishment" unleashed by Manuel's efforts to canonize astrology was one of the factors that inhibited a scientific revolution from taking ~lace in Byzantium. It has also been asked in connection with pre-sixteenth-century China (a case that cannot be analyzed here). An eloquent discussion of (and a proposed answer to) the question in general terms is presented in P. Crone, Pre-Industrial Societies: ~atomy of the Pre-Modern World, updated edition (Oxford, 2003), 146-75 (in a c apter titled 'The Oddity of Europe').
38

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anachronistic. The boundaries established between scholarly disciplines in the course of the twentieth century, in which perceived geographic and linguistic units tend to be treated in isolation from each other, have exacerbated our impression of the 'East' and 'West' divide. Yet more recent scholarship (with economic history, once again, at the forefront) emphasizes communication across this imaginary line40 and prompts the following question: as far as the medieval Mediterranean is concerned, is it still useful to understand it in terms of 'East' and 'West' boundaries more or less co-terminous with our own while its different political, religious, and linguistic constituents had close and intensive interaction regarding politics, trade, economy, art, literary culture? The contemplation of a further large question (encompassing the entire chronological spectrum of Hellenic studies and not just its Byzantine component) can benefit from a new investigation of By~tine science: that of continuity or discontinuity between Ancient Greek, Byzantine, and Modem Greek culture. The cultures of .the medieval Mediterranean, including Byzantium, had already articulated the problem as it applied to their own world, 41 and were hardly un~q~~ in. this respect; the question is currently shared by any mode~ ClVlhzatw~ that can (for reasons of language, geography, or otherwise) lay claim on a venerably old and culturally illustrious past, and the de~ree of the problem's complication is usually co~mensurate With the antiquity of a continuously surviving wntten record pertinent to its investigation. To cite but one parallel case, a~ equivalent de?ate is being conducted on the disappearance or sumval of the ancient Egyptian heritage in Coptic and Islamic

Egypt. 42 In both the Greek and th~ Egyptian case, arguments for and against continuity have been articulated in the scholarship of the 43 last several decades. The example of the occult sciences is especially relevant because ritual and ceremonial elements in the practice of magic and divination are particularly persistent even after important religious, ideological, and socio-economic changes have taken place,44 a reality also demonstrable for civilizations beyond the Mediterranean, such as the faraway cultures of the preand post-Colombian Americas. The important parameters influencing the Byzantine reception of the occult sciences cannot be adequately discussed without

"' A recent tour de force M McC k .. Communications and C onruc ' 0 rtgms of the European Economy: " F th . ommerce AD 300-900 (Cambridge 200 1) or e SimUltaneous Arabic M r . ' . ancient Greek herita d . .us Im and. Byzantme Christian claim on the 10" centuries) see Dg~ unn~ the tune of theu greatest military antagonism (9"in the Paleolo~an . :tas, ;::ek Though.t, Arabic Culture; for a similar problem pesnoT, Bsee k. Mavroudi, 'Late Byzantium and Exchange with Arabic Writers' m ti roo A' s ed Byzantiurn, Fau 'h and Power (1261-1557). Perspectives on 'Late Byza Symposia (Yale, 2006). n ne rt and Culture. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

For a brief discussion of the problem of discontinuity or survival between ancient and Coptic Egypt and for references to recent literature, see A. Papaconstantinou, 'Historiography, Hagiography, and the Construction of the Coptic "Church of the Martyrs" in Early Islamic Egypt', DOP 59 (2005) (forthcoming); I am grateful to Dr. Papaconstantinou for allowing me to consult her unpublished work. For an approach to the problem of break or continuity between ancient and Islamic Egypt (an integral part of which is the articulation of a modem Coptic identity from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century), see D. M. Reid, Whose Pharaohs? Archeology, Museums, and Egyptian National Identity from Napoleon to World War I (Berkeley, 2002); 0. El-Daly, Egyptology: The Missing Millenium. Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings (London, Portland, Oregon and Coogee, Australia, 2005); M. Pettigrew, 'The Wonders of the Ancients: Arab-Islamic Representations of Ancient Egypt' (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2004 ). 43 Examples in favor of continuity in the Egyptian/Coptic case: the seminal article by S. Morenz, 'Altiigyptischer und hellenistisch-paulinischer Jenseitsglaube bei Schenute', Mitteilungen des Instituts for Orientforschung I (1953), 250-55; more recently, H. Behlmer, 'Ancient Egyptian Survivals in Coptic Literature: an Overview', in A. Loprieno, ed., Ancient Egyptian Literature: History and Forms (Leiden, 1996), 567-90; against: R. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton, 1993). In favour of continuity in the Greek case: the 1974 classic by M. Alexiou, The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition, zoo ed. (Lanham, Boulder, New York, and Oxford, 2002) and eadem, After Antiquity: Greek Language, Myth, and Metaphor (Ithaca and London, 2002); against continuity, presenting the arguments in its favour as the scholarly implementation of a 19"- and 20"'-century Greek political agenda: M. Herzfeld, Ours Once More (New York, 1986). 44 For an approach acknowledging the persistence of ancient ritual and ceremonial W:Pects in the modem practice of magic and divination but emphasizing discontinuity in their understanding by the ancients and the modems, see C. Stewart, Demons and the Devil: Moral Imagination in Modern Greek Culture <Princeton, N.J., 1991).

42

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reference to these larger questions and are, in rough outline, the following:

1. The pagan background of the occult sciences, both in the Mediterranean world and the ancient Near East. Its discussion calls for reference to the questions of 'East' and 'West' and cultural continuity.
2. The relation of Christianity with the occult sciences which naturally, touches upon the relationship of Christianity with paganism in general and pagan Hellenism in particular, and for this reason requires deciding the criteria according to which the existence of cultural continuity can be accepted or rejected. 3. The influence of the overall social and political outlook of each period, including, but not limited to, the military, political, and cultural antagonism and exchanges of Byzantium with its Eastern and Western neighbours. Such an investigation cannot be undertaken without considering the medieval and modem understanding of 'East' and 'West'. 4. The 'high' or 'low' register of culture to which the various manife~ta~ions of the occult sciences belong and at which their transrruss10n was possible. Nineteenth-century scholarship (under the shadow of which we still toil) delegated the study of 'vernacular' manifestations of 'superstition' to the realm of 'folklore' and has viewed them as constituent elements of a people's innate character and identity. Yet who constitutes the 'people' (and in which way), and the lines along which a divide between 'high' an d 'Iow cu1tural production can be established, wer~ n_ot understood in the same way in the medieval period. ProJectmg . . a. modem conceptua1tzat10n of these notiOns on the Byzantmes nsks, once again, anachronism. 45 Enough has been said to establish the advantage of looking at the phenomenon of the occult scientist not in Byzantium alone, but also
Compare, once a ain th . . division between "pu~" :Wd ~vbnef but ,useful ~Iscu.sswn rejecting the modem emacular' Byzantme literature in Kazhdan, People and Power in Byzantium, _ _ 97 8

glancing at the Islamic world (where such practitioners included christians and Jews) and Western Europe. This approach can be useful not only because less advanced disciplines can use the lessons learnt from those further ahead (in the way that Byzantine economic history has greatly benefited from applying approaches and methods developed for Western medieval economic history), but also (and especially) because of very specific reasons: First, there is a demonstrable textual transmission of treatises on the occult sciences from and into Greek, Latin, and Arabic in circular and absolutely interlocked directions that I will briefly try to describe, though modem scholarship has not sufficiently documented all of its components. Its best researched aspects to date-even if a lot of work remains to be done-are the translation movement from Greek into Arabic that took place in the course of the ninth and tenth centuries; 46 and the wave of translations of originally Greek and Arabic material from Arabic into Latin especially during the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries. 47 Systematic scholarly interest and research in both directions started already in the nineteenth century. 48 We know far less regarding the translations from Greek into Latin that were made from Antiquity until the Renaissance; 49 the translations from Latin into Arabic
The most recent comprehensive discussion on the topic can be found in Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture. Regarding astrology in particular, see F. J. Carmody, Arabic Astronomical and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation: a Critical Bibliography (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1956). 48 The catalogues of translations that were drawn up in the 19"' century are still reference works. For Greek into Arabic, see M. Steinschneider, Die arabischen Obersetzungen aus dem griechisch (Graz, 1960), originally published in installments in various periodicals between 1889 and 1896 and reprinted in a single volume in 1960; idem, Die europiiischen Obersetzungen aus dem arabischen bis Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts (Graz, 1957), originally published in installments in 1904--05. For the translations from Arabic into Latin, see also the earlier catalogue by F. Wiistenfeld, Obersetzungen arabischer Werke in das lateinische seit dem XI. Jahrhundert. Abhandlungen der koniglichen Gesellschaft ~er Wissenschaften zu Gtittingen 22.5 (I 877). 9 The translated texts were philosophical, scientific (including the occult SCiences), and patristic. Regarding the occult sciences, see the contribution of C~arl:s Burnett in the present volume. An old but still useful overview of SCienlific translations from Greek and Arabic into Latin is C. H. Haskins, Studies in the History of Medieval Science (Cambridge, Mass., 1924; 2"" ed. 1927; repr.
47

46

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61

since the ninth century, including "a Roman book" on astrology d Columella's agriculture; 50 the translations of Latin material _ant ,51 d h . . . mo Greek , an t e trans1 at10ns of Arabic matenal both from Arabic
1960); see also_ L. Thorndike, 'R~lation between Byzantine and Western Science an_d pseudo-S~1ence before 1350, Janus 51 (1964), 1-36. A more recent and bnefer ov~rv1ew was provided by M.-T. D'Alvemy, 'Translations and T~slators , R. L. B~nson and G. Constable, eds., Renaissance and Renewal in the 12 Century ~Cambndge, Mass., 1982), 421-62; repr. in eadem, La transmission des texte~ phzlosophiqu~s et scientijiques au Moyen Age (Aldershot, 1994), no. 11. For med1cal, philosophical, and theological translations from Greek into Lat' between the 4"' ~d the 6"' centuries, see J. lrigoin, 'Les textes grecs circulant dan~ le nord de_I'Ita~e. aux Ve C:t V_Ie siecles. ~ttestations litteraires et temoignages ~aleogra_phlques .' m ~eodo~zco zl Grandee 1 Goti d'ltalia. Atti del X/JJ congresso mternazzona/e d1 studz s~l/ alt? Medioevo, Milano, 2--6 novembre 1992 (Spoleto, 1993), 391--40?. So~e discussion can also be found in W. Berschin, Greek Letters and the 0~m Mzddle Ages from Jerome to Nicholas of Cusa, revised and ~xpanded ed1t1on, tr. Jerold C. Frakes (Washington, D. c., 1988). "C~ther texts were the Gospels and epistles of St Paul, the Psalms, the so-called and lendar of Cor~ova" (an a?ap~ation more than a translation), Orosius' history . ~ro~ably) I~1dore of Sev11le s Etymologies. See C. Burnett 'The Translating Act1v1ty m Med1eval s 10 s K Jayyus1, . ' H db h d . ~~n ' ed., The Legacy of Muslim Spain. :m. u~ _er Onental1stik, XII (Leiden, 1992), 1037; repr. in idem Magic and Dzvmatzon m the Middle A T, d . . ' Wo ld (Aid h ges. exts an Techmques m the Islamic and Christian rb' sG/ ers ot, 1996), no. IV. See also P. Sj. van Koningsveld Ara IC ossary of the Le1 'd u . . ' The Latinu b' M . en mverszty Lzbrary: a Contribution to the Study of ,.,.0 ~ra zc anuscrzpts and L't . 1 d'Al . . erature (Le1den, 1977), reviewed by M.-T. verny' La transmtsszon des t t h z . Age (Aldershot 1994) XV exes P 1 osophzques et scientifiques au Moyen in ai-Andalus' Jou '/fino. h III_; J. Sams6, 'The Early Development of Astrology " To th b ' f rna orr e Hzstory of Arabic Science 3 (1979) 228-43. e est o my knowledge th 1 ' sciences into Greek h ' e trans atwns of Latin material on the occult ave never been d' ed 11 . . literature Br1 'ef d' . . scuss co ectlvely m modem scholarly ISCUSSIOn With Jim'ted t . 1 on Dream Interpretation. The On . r_e_ erences m Mavroudi, A Byzantine Book (Leiden and Boston 2002 ) e~rocntlcon of Achmet and Its Arabic Sources 409 with Arabic Write~ A 'b. f- . and _eadem, 'Late Byzantium and Exchange agriculture in E. Fishe 'G r~eT d!scus_swn of translations on hippiatrics and Ya~ Classical Studiesr'27 ~~ /~~~ons of Latin Literature in the 4'h c. A. o.', 215 esp. 207-II. For an overv ew of the Latin material on philoso h . ' 1 natural sciences) see Lp YB(Leak. ~e necessary background for the study of the ' . ~ u ~ . . . 0bersetzungen philosophisch T ', atem1sche L1teratur in Byzanz. Die Browning (Venice 1996 ) -4er ~xte' <PU.e.U.1Jv. Studies in Honour of Robert ''H ' ' 35 2 ; tOr an expanded . Aanvtxt1 YQ<lJliJ(X~E(a vers1on of this paper, see idem, ~tllvwv', in Bv~civrw 0 0 8 u~av~w: ol JlE't<lcj>Qaow; cj>IAooocj>tx6lv E7rWr1JfWv'-"iif: Ivvav''l1J a~o__f: rov Mi 1j E~QWmJ. llea"rmd llQW'l1Jf: m.1]6wvi)(6Jy "<Xi Bv~avnc;::; 1:1Jf: .dte6voi), E:mo7:1Jf-10VtXijf; 'Emi{}Elaf; repr. (with additional biblio ~ hn:ov~wv (Athens and Mystras, 2001), 69-79, g p y) 10 L. Benakis, Bv~avnvl) <PU.oaoljJla.
M

and Latin into Greek from the tenth or eleventh century into the end 52 of the Byzantine period and beyond. But even at this state of scholarly documentation, it is possible to discern that by the end of the Byzantine era in the fifteenth century, and as a result of intellectual activity that had started at least five centuries earlier, a body of texts (or versions thereof, as medieval translations were adaptations and explications of the originals) was available in all three languages, Arabic, Latin, and Greek; through these texts, the corresponding civilizations demonstrably influenced and infonned each other in the field of the occult sciences. In addition, travel, oral communication, and competence in foreign languages, facilitated these exchanges even without the intennediary of a translated text. For example-to focus only on a few relatively well-known figures whose international careers are better documented-Byzantine sources allow us to conclude that in the eleventh century Symeon Seth moved between the Islamic Middle East and Constantinople,53 and in the late thirteenth-early fourteenth century Gregory Chioniades kept traveling between Constantinople, Trebizond and Tabriz. 54 Their careers have some analogies with those of scholars known to us from Arabic, Latin and Hebrew sources: an approximate contemporary of Symeon Seth, the Nestorian priest, doctor, and philosopher Ibn Butlan, left his native Baghdad in 1048, and, after spending two years in Syria and three in Cairo, in 1053 he arrived in Constantinople, where he observed the supernova of the year 1054 and witnessed the great chicken-pox epidemic. He later went to Byzantine Antioch, where he became a monk and died in the year 1068.55 In the twelfth
Keipeva "ai Me).h:e' =Texts and Studies on Byzantine Philosophy (Athens, 2002), 187-97.
52

82

Some discussion in Mavroudi, A Byzantine Book on Dream Interpretation, 395-

429.
" On the career of Symeon Seth, see P. Magdalino, 'The Porphyrogenita and the Astrologers', in Charalambos Dendrinos et al., eds., Porphyrogenita, Essays on the History and Literature of Byzantium and the Latin East in Honor of Julian ~hrysostomides (Aldershot, 2003), 15-31, esp. 19-21. On Gregory Chioniades, see L. G. Westerink, 'La profession de foi de Gregoire ~hioniades', Revue des etudes byantines 38 (1980), 233-45. See also Mavroudi, ,~te Byzantium and Exchange with Arabic Writers.' _Sources on Ibn ButHin: Ibn al-Qifti, Ta'rrkh al-/lukama', ed. A. Miiller and J. Lippert (Leipzig, 1903), 294-315; Ibn Abi U$aybi'ah, Kitab 'uyan al-anba' fl

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62 Maria Mavroudi Occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research 63

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century, the English-born Adelard of Bath studied and taught in France, and spent several years of study and travel to S. Italy and Sicily and the crusader Middle East (Syria, Palestine, and Cilicia);'6 Abraham Ibn Ezra (ca. 1090-ca. 1165), a Spanish Jew whose surviving production includes works in Hebrew and Latin, and who 57 is also quoted in Byzantine astrological sources, traveled from his native Andalus to N. Italy (Venice, Verona, Lucca, Pisa, Mantua), S. France (Narbonne, Beziers), England, Morocco, Egypt, the Holy Land and Mesopotamia. 58 All five figures were fluent in the advanced technical vocabulary of more than one language and familiar with philosophical and scientific concepts that transcended the boundaries of what we would call today their 'national' science their travels were clearly motivated by the search for bette; resources (patronage, more advanced knowledge and renowned teachers, the existence of observatories), but also followed the flow and eb.b of their contemporary international political developments, as theu moves were clearly facilitated by the conditions created afte~ the. Byzantine reconquest of and presence in the region of Antioch ~n the te~th and eleventh centuries, the decline of Baghdad and the nse of Ca1ro as a major political centre in the Islamic world at .around the same time, the establishment of the Crusaders in the M.Jddle East in the course of the twelfth, and the political realignments brought about by the arrival of the Mongols in the late
tabaqllt al-a(ibba' ed A Miill I . been translated in~ E ~h . er, (Cruro, 1882), 241-243; both excerpts have Controversy Between ;:n Bu:Z, Schacht and Meyerhof, .The Medico-Philosophical Hebraeus, Ta'rrkh mulch n of Baghdad and Ibn Rtdwan of Cairo, 51-66; Bar Modem accounts of !bta~~r ~l-~uwa/, ed. An\(ln S!ilil)ilni (Beirut, 1958), 190-92. arabischen Uteratur, ~at~llln ~ career: G. Graf, Geschichte der christlichen 11 Riqwlln, see J. Grand'Hen lean,. 947), 191-94; on Ibn Bu!liln's dispute with Ibn (998-1067) 1 (Lo . I ry, Le /me de Ia methode du medecin de 'Air b. Riqwlln uva10- a-Neuve 1979) 2 5 h' 10 Constantinople see G S ' . - ; on IS observation of the supernova translating into Syrlac' . .'d trohmruer, 'l:lunain ibn Isl)aq: an Arab scholar 1 Erbes m der arabischen ' 10 em,(Hi! Von Demokr't Dante: Die Bewahrung antiken Ku/t . 1 b' IS ~with further references). ur deshelm, ZOrich, New York, 1996), 166 [202) For Adelard and 0 th dL . er such figures in 1 d' an atm) Stephen of Antioch ' c u mg the trilingual (in Arabic, Greek, and ~in Culture in the Twelf~:~ B~mett, 'Antioch as a Link between Arabic ~ccrdent er Proche-Orient Contact ~lrteenth Centuries', in I. Draelants, et al., ,. CCAG, XI.J, 228; see al~ bel s SC!entifiques au temps des Croisades, 1-78. See R. Mercier 'Eas ow, note 148. Draelants et 8 1 ' . t and West Contrasted s . Occident ~t Proche 0 . m ClentJfic Astronomy', in I. - Tlent, 332-4.

thirteenth and early fourteenth century; further, they all gravitated towards local and international centres of political power; all are known to us today for their scientific activities in fields that we deem respectable, such as philosophy and astronomy, as well as their less reputable sisters, such as astrology. A second reason (already foreshadowed in our discussion above) for which the examination of the Byzantine occult sciences would be more fruitfully undertaken in conjunction with their Arabic and Latin equivalents is the fac.t that the Greek, Arabic, and Latin speaking worlds were, or at least some intellectual circles in their midst were, heirs to essentially the same philosophical traditions and educational curriculum developed in Late Antiquity.59 Of course this curriculum (the trivium and the quadrivium)60 appears in numerous versions (all of them clearly variations on the same theme) through time in the different languages in question, and was not always and in all geographic locations pursued at the same level and with the same intellectual rigor. However, it is important to recognize that it consistently furnished the philosophical background for the study of the natural and the occult sciences and could serve as an introduction to their pursuit. For example,
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"This fact was well understood by Thorndike, as is clear from his statement, cited earlier, that his initial goal was to write the history of magic and experimental science in the 12'" and 13'" centuries, but found it impossible to do so adequately without starting from antiquity (Thorndike, History of Magic, I, 2-3); and from the ample and systematic reference to Arabic occult science throughout the first two volumes of his History of Magic. The same holds true of Haskins' discussion of 12'"-century science in his Studies in the History of Medieval Science, organized under three rubrics: 'The Science of the Arabs' 'Translations from the Greek' and 'The Court of Frederick II', which is presented as the meeting-point of the Greek and Arabic traditions. Of course in their articulation of these connections Tho~dike an~ Haskins were aided by earlier reference works [Steinschneider, Die arab1schen Ubersetzungen a us dem griechisch ( 1889 and 1896); idem, Die europiiischen Obersetzungen aus dem arabischen bis Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts (1904-05); Wiistenfeld, Vbersetzungen arabischer Werke in das /ateinische seit dem XI. Jahrhundert (1877)]. Comparable reference tools are unavailable to ~Yzantinists today. For. the role of astrology in particular in the educational curriculum of the Greekspe~mg world from Late Antiquity until the end of the Byzantine era, see the ~ut~e by P. Magdalino, 'The Byzantine Reception of Classical Astrology', in C. B0 e~ and J. Waring, eds., Literacy, Education and Manuscript Transmission in yZan/lum and Beyond, 33-57.

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Maria Mavroudi

Occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research

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knowledge of astronomy, one of the subjects at the more advanced level of the curriculum, is also necessary for the practice of astrology. Thirdly, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim monotheism posed for the practitioners of the occult sciences a similar set of problems, the most salient of which, at least in the eyes of modern scholars, is their strained, or at least ambivalent, relationship with the 'orthodox' religious establishment, a 'given' that modern scholars frequently mention but do not always analyze in detail.
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observed in an effort to balance the patristic and clerical evidence with indications from other sources of the Paleologan period,
"It is clear that the relationship between the central Christian orthodoxy and the peripheral semi-Christian (or actually nonChristian) elements of belief and practice in the Palaeologan religious mentality is one that is complex and far-reaching. At the popular level, belief and practice embraced a range that simply did not recognize distinctions between religion and magic and was not only uninterested in separating areas of orthodoxy and unorthodoxy, but was almost entirely incapable of doing so. What is being described here is thus merely one end of a largely continuous spectrum that shades, as it were, quite smoothly from white to black. Any divisions in it are imposed either by subsequent historical misconceptions or by the views of the small minority of trained Christian theologians who believed in and were both capable of and interested in establishing such divisions. It is vital not to let the minority speak in place of the vast majority." 63

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In his Traditions of Belief in Late Byzantine Demonology, as well as in his article 'Contribution to the Study of Paleologan Magic' (1995), Richard Greenfield employed a distinction between what he termed "The Beliefs of the Standard Orthodox Tradition" and "Alternative Traditions." 61 In the conclusions to the book he emphasized that this division is a device he employed in order "to bring some much needed clarity and order to a subject that all too easily becomes complicated, not to say tangled and confused" (ibid., 307). One of the disadvantages to this approach (implicitly acknowledged by Greenfield) is the imposition of a contemporary, and not necessarily Byzantine, division on the source material that obscures for us the Byzantine understanding of occult lore. ~eenfield's approach, as well as Utto Riedinger's 1956 monograph titled The Holy Writ in the Struggle of the Greek Church Against 62 the dichotomy Astrology . emphasize between the ecclesiastical establishment and th It as well as the reJection . . of the . e occu scientist, :~u~t sciences by the church. There is, indeed, an undeniably large Imp?rtant body of material from the pens of Church Fathers and clencs condemnmg the occult sciences . . . from Late AntiqUity down to the end f th B o e yzantme period. But, as Greenfield

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'The Beliefs of the St d d and "Alternative Trad't:W ~ 0 rthodox Tradition' is the title of the book's Part I .. .1 Late ByZant' 1 tons D of Part II see R p . H. Greenfield, Tradttrons o, the Study of Paleolog':Mem_o~~/ogy (Amsterdam, 1988); idem, Contribution to 62 U R'ed agtc m Magic, 117-53. ' mger, Die heilige Sh . Maguire . ed Byzantme

More recently, in a 2002 article discussing the Byzantine reception of classical astrology, one of the most sophisticated and philosophically inclined occult sciences, Paul Magdalino added a component that any future discussion on them ought to take into consideration: he described what one may call "the orthodox establishment" as having not only the religious facet outlined above, but also a "national" one, identified with the Greek texts of Ptolemaic astronomy inherited by the Byzantines from antiquity and contrasted with the Islamic science imported in Byzantium in what Magdalino chronicles as four distinct phases between the ninth and the fourteenth century. 64 Of course, the dichotomy between 'Hellenic' and 'oriental' wisdom evident in some of the narrative sources may upon further inspection prove to be more of a rhetorical construction than an accurate reflection of practical reality; if so, Byzantinists will have to reflect on the motives and objectives of such a rhetoric. For now, I can only briefly mention three examples suggesting that future scholarship ought to attempt to draw the Byzantine reception of Islamic occult science not as an opposition between 'Hellenic' and 'oriental' but as a complex

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:Greenfield, 'Contribution to the Study of Paleo logan Magic', 150. Magdalino, 'The Byzantine Reception of Classical Astrology', 33-57.

66

Maria Mavroudi

Occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research

67

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interaction of ideas the provenance of which eschews clear-cut labels: MS Marc. gr. 299, most probably copied towards the end of the tenth century and the earliest surviving Greek alchemical codex, contains texts by 'Hellenic' authors such as Zosimos, but also the earliest evidence for Byzantine knowledge of Arabic alchemical terminology. 65 Theodore Metochites, a self-styled proponent of the 'national' Ptolemaic tradition, is also the intellectual grandchild of imported 'oriental' wisdom, 66 since he begun his study of the stars under the guidance of Manuel Bryennios, whose own teacher had come from Persia. 67 Both the first and the second part of MS Vat. gr. 1058, copied by two different but contemporary scribes around the middle of the fifteenth century, each include not only texts by two fourteenth-century champions of Ptolemaic astronomy, Nikephoros Gregoras and his student Isaac Argyros, but also tables and translated texts imported from Persia. 68

In his 2006 L'orthodoxie des astrologues, Magdalino added further nuance to the discussion: instead of positing an absolute dichotomy between astrologers and the 'Orthodox establishment' (whereby astrology would have been understood as marginal and therefore irrelevant to any influential discussion about philosophy, cosmology, and their theological implications), he showed that not only astrologers kept modifying their discourse in order to fit the Orthodox mould, but also official Orthodoxy could at times be shaped by its encounter with astrological doctrine. If this conclusion is taken into consideration in the future investigation of the remaining Byzantine occult sciences we will, eventually, be able to discern a hitherto missing component not only of Byzantine Christianity, but Byzantine culture as a whole. But let us return to Christian and Muslim monotheism that posed for the practitioners of the occult sciences in both worlds a similar set of problems: whether their strained, or at least ambivalent, relationship with the orthodox religious establishment is the most important in the whole web of relationships between the occult scientists and society around them or not, the existence of monotheistic defences for divination, and in particular astrology, expressed in Greek, Latin, and Arabic is proof that in East and West Christians and Muslims attempted to circumvent the problem in similar ways. One must also keep in mind that the main Christian (and Muslim and Jewish) objection to astrology is its determinism and fatalism that are incompatible with the notion of free will and salvation as a result of moral choices made freely by the individual. This, however, is an objection to astrology raised in the GraecoRoman world earlier than Christianity by a number of pagan philosophical systems that assert man's moral freedom. So defences of astrology had been written since pagan antiquity, and the attitude of individual pagan, as well as Christian, thinkers towards astrology could be 'hard' (subscribing to firm determinism), 'soft' (accepting the influence of stars on human life and at the same time allowing for free will) and even 'very soft' (treating the stars not as causes, b~t merely as portents of things to come that are avoidable). Discussions on the incompatibility of astrological determinism with free will within this spectrum of different attitudes are also documented among Jews of the Hellenistic and Late Antique

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See Mavroudi, A Byzantine Book on Dreamltlterpretation, 401-03. :See Ma~dalino, 'The Byzantine Reception of Classical Astrology', 45. Metochites, poem 1, vv. 630-45, ed. M. Treu, Dichtungen des Gross-Logotheten Theodoros Metochites. Programm des Victoria Gymnasiums zu Potsdam 84 (1895), 17-18:_BQuvw, EI]V 11.>; 1flli' iiQ' rn(x/.!]v 1-u'!'n' 6/.(yov XQ6vov aino' ilxwv <j>6.~v ~O'tQO~oJJi'l' ~lie fUI81]fUI1Ll\fl' iil.l.!], oo<j>Ca, vu 1'EXELV ~e~u(()o, E!; anoe ev8M' tli1-10vo, lxo~mo xal. 16 y' iiQ' al.aee,, c.O, liQ' ~EL l\QU1EEL oo<j>L' UU11], xal. !-L6.1.a 1' rli,.wv iinav1E'; see also L Sevcenko, Theodore Metochites, the Chora, and the Intellectual Trends of His Time', in P. Und~rwood, The Kariye Djami, IV (New York, 1975), 19-91, esp. 28; French versJOn of the same article (without footnotes) by idem, 'Theodore Metochites, Chora, et les courants intellectuels de son epoque', Art et socilfre a Byzance sous

65

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les Paieologues . par I ,Assoczatwn . . lnternatwnale . E . Actes du co 11oque orgamse des tud~s ByZantrnes, Venise 1968. Bibliotheque de l'Institut Hellenique de Venise 4 emce, 1971) 22 1 'd . World (Lo d' ' repr. m em, Ideology, Letters and Culture in the Byzantine l't!po d npo~, l982); S. Mergiali, L'enseignement et les lettrt!s pendant . qu.e es a t!ologues (1261-1453) (Athens 1996) 63 note 275 for a brief dISCUSSIOD and furth ~ ' ' ' ' Persian scie . er ~ erences to scholarly literature on the importation of

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Arabic Writ~:.m 8 yzantmm, see Mavroudi, 'Late Byzantium and Exchange with

68

For a description of th MS . , . . Chioniades T'h A .e ' see D. Pmgree s mtroduction in Gregonos ' e stronomlcal Work 'G . . . CAB II (Amsterdam ) so, regory Chwmades I, I, ed. D. Pmgree, 1985 25 second until fol. 4 9v It 'i .-8 Th~ first scribe copied up to fol. 260v and the 8 intended as compo Impossible to know whether the two parts were . . . nents of the same combmation of 'Hellen , 'th , . vo1 ume or were JOmed together later, but the IC WI onental' texts is evident in both parts.

68
occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research 69

periods ~d did not change. m.uch with the advent of Christianity.'l() Further, smce both the Chnshan and the Muslim world inhe ted the pagan philosop~ic~ app~atus tha~ served as background ~d ~ent arguments to this discussion, an~ smce Islam is (and also views Itself as. the on!~ ~thful . and fmal) heir to Judea-Christian monotheism, Mushm discussions of astrology and divination were bound to be very similar to the ones found in the Christian world. Beyond the examination of abstract ideas pertinent to philosophy and religion, in orde.r t~ properly understand the relationship between the occult scientist and the religious establishment one canno~ disenga~e it from the relationship of the reli~ious estabhs~ent with secular authority and its relationship with the occult sciences and divination. In the Byzantine context it is s~g~ifi~ant to point out that the earliest Christian prohibiti~ns on dlVlnatlon can be found in fourth-century secular, not canon, law; they are ample precedents by pagan legislation; 71 and are repeated throughout the Byzantine period. 72 As the publications of MarieTheres Fogen.and Spyros Troianos have already made clear, though every law book includes norms concerning magic and d' . Byzantme . 1 ~mat10n, "t~ese norms transmit the fourth-century constitutions With only slight modifications. " 73 Likewise the ecclesiastical con~e~ation of the occult sciences is based on canonical and patristic precedent, both in Canon Law and its commentaries (as is

69

evident from the textual references therein) 74 and in theoretical treatises: the condemnation of the occult sciences in the fourteenth/fifteenth-century work of Joseph Bryennios titled "What the Sources of our Troubles Are" repeats arguments found in Pseudo-Chrysostom' s "Oration on pseudo-prophets, pseudoteachers, and godless heretics." 75

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i1 :'
" Several examples could be cited, but I will limit myself to only two: the three 12th-c. commentators on Canon Law, Zonaras, Balsamon, and Aristenos (naturally) repeat the condemnation of divination pronounced by the 691/92 Quinisext Council in Troullo (itself justified with a passage from St Paul's second epistle to the Corinthians). See L:vvraypa nvv eelwv xai ieewv xav6vwv, ed. G. A. Ralles and M. Potles, II (Athens, 1852; repr. Athens, 1966), 442-7. Likewise, the condemnation of magic and divination in Matthaios Blastares' 14'h-c. :Evvraypa xa-ra a-rOLXeiov (Ralles-Potles, VI, 356--62) is based on the decisions of earlier church councils (two local [Laodicea, Ancyra] and one that considered itself ecumenical [the Quinisext)) and the authorities of John Chrysostom (ibid., 357), Basil of Caesarea (ibid., 358, 359) and Gregory of Nyssa (ibid., 360), and the novels of Leo VI (ibid., 362). There is nothing remarkable in the repetition and reconfirmation of antiquated legislation in more recent legal collections, even when such pieces of legislation have lost their social relevance. In his comments on the seventy first Canon of the Council of Troullo, Matthaios Blastares explicitly recognized that some of the legislation he included in his own work had become obsolete he remarked that the Council punished with excommunication ... toi~ ... ta~ t..eyof!Eva~ xul..{atQa~ rcail;,ouaw, 6rcoim rcot' _av ~?av; Taina yaQ futavta euxai~ lWV Oearcea{wv lOlJl(l)V VOflOOctwv lO lllj.lfQOV nvm oea{yTttm (" ... those , .. playing the so-called kylistrai, whatever they were. For all these things have ceased to exist today through the prayers of these divinely sweet legislators"). Legal institutions, not only Byzantine but also modern, are na.turally resistant to change. Therefore, the existence of legislation against mag1c and divination in Byzantium does not necessarily indicate general soc1al and ecclesiastic intolerance for such acts; on the contrary, legislation prohibiting them could exist in spite of secular and ecclesiastic tolerance for them. The phenome~on is amply paralleled today, and I allow myself to refer to one of the most amusmg modern parallels: U.S. legislation restricting private sexual conduct, both heterosexual and homosexual, among consenting adults. For a collection of such laws, see http:l/www .sodomy.org/laws/ [last viewed 22 July 2006]. 0~ the analogies between sex and astrology, see Magdalino, 'The Byzanune ReceptiOn of Classical Astrology', 49-50. " The observation was first made by R. Greenfield, 'Contribution to the Study of Paleologan Magic', in Maguire, ed., Byzantine Magic, 123-24, note ,9: For the texts, see Ioseph Bryennios, 'T{ve~ al altiat t6Jv xaO' i]!Jii~ At!ltllQWV, m loseph monachou tou Bryenniou ta paraleipomena, ed. E. Voulgaris, T. Mandrakases, III <Leipzig, 1794), 119-23; John Chrysostom [attributed to], '!1.6yo~ TCEQL IIJruliOTCQo<j>Ttt6Jv, xat 'ljlEUiiolltllaoxal..wv, xat aOewv alentxwv. xat rcEQI

For a brief discussion w'th . . 1 re.erence lo to pnmary sources, see T. Barton, Anczent tro gy (London and New York, 1994), 71-8 N SH.J. Teste)r, History of Western Astrology (Woodbridge, Suffolk and Wolfeboro, 1987 , 2-3 For 'hard' d f also F. H C .an so t attitudes to astrology since antiquity, see Magdalin~ ~~erj ~~ology m Roma~ Law and Politics (Philadelphia, 1954), 68; 11 See C ' ccu t Cience and lmpenal Power' in the present volume. ramer, Astrology in R La . see Barton An . oman w; Or a more recent (and shorter) ovemew, attitudes of Ch~~~~ Astrology, 49-52 .<for pagan legislation); ibid., 64--68 (for the also eadem p an emperors regardmg astrology until the end of the 5.. c.). See ower under the Roma E and . Knowledge. A stro1 ogy, Physwgnomics, and Med' zcme n Fo ~ mpzre (Ann Arbor, Michigan 1994) 54-71 r an overv1ew of B . . ' ' 'Zauberei und Gif . yz~ti.ne le~Islatwn concerning magic, see S. Troianos, Simon, eds., Fest u ~~~here~ In mlltelbyzantinischer Zeit', G. Prinzig and D. 73 M.-T. Fogen .; tag m Byzanz (Munich, 1990), 37-51. . 1 Canon Law in 'M a ~amon on Magic: From Roman Secular Law to Byzantine , agurre, ed. Byzantine Magic, 104, note 21. .~

69

As
1<l

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71

,'!\

Therefore, the relationship of the secular authorities with occult science is at least as ambivalent as the relationship of the religious establishment with occult science. The reason is obvious: the (real or imagined) ability provided by the occult sciences to predict or manipulate occurrences in the natural and social environment has an inherently subversive potential that the state tried to completely suppress, or bridle and use to its advantage, while prohibiting it for eve~b?~Y else. Leo VI, an em~e~or ~ho renewed the pre-existing prohibitiOn on astrology and divmation in his own legislation, is also known to have ordered the casting of a horoscope for his newborn son, Constantine VII, and to have summoned Pantaleon metropolitan of Synnada, to interpret an eclipse of the Moon. Th~ metropolitan interpreted it correctly as the downfall of one of Leo's

owerful ministers. The reaction of individual emperors to very P h . d. the occult sciences depended on t eir temperament an mte1lectual disposition, but also on the situation th~y .found themselves in. It is clearly no accident ~hat. the_ first. Ch~Istlan emper?r to _condem~ astrology and divination m h1s legislation (Constantms II m 357), attained the throne and reigned in the midst of civil strife, when an astrologically sanctioned rival could become even more dangerous to the reigning emperor. Justinian, another emperor inimical to astrologers (meteorologoi) 18 had to put down a serious revolt at the very beginning of his reign_ ~nd was also threatened a plot hatched by his powerful m1mster, John the Cappadoc1an, who, 79 encouraged by sorcerers and diviners, coveted the imperial office. On the flip side of the coin, the fourteenth-century interest in astronomy and astrology must be connected not only with the overall intensified intellectual activity of the period, but also with

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01JJ.lll~V "ti] OUV"tEAE(a "tOU UMVO 'tOlJ"tOU', in PG 59, cols. 553-68. Acc_o~mg to the editorial note in PG, this homily is considered spurious both on s~hsti~ grounds and because it anachronistically mentions Nestorius and DLonysL~s the ~eopagite (col. 560); moreover, it has a very complicated ~anuscnpt ~d!tion and. every single manuscript that contains it presents a diffe~ent vers10n. I take th1s as a sign of the homily's popularity and an indication th~ il _must have been freq~ently us.ed as a model for both writing and orally deliven~g.honuhes: The version published in PG is the one from the lith-century MS C01slm 349 [m the old numbering, now MS Coislin 77, described in R. ~vrees~e, f!ata/ogue des manuscrits gr~cs II, Le fonds Coislin (Paris, 1945), 66], wh1ch IS shorter than those extant m other manuscripts. It is impossible to ~ow what version of Pseudo-Chrysostom Joseph Bryennios relied on. Bryennios' P rases ar~ more expans1.ve than the PG version of Pseudo-Chrysostom. Examples of analogies between the two texts: Bryennios 120 31-7 on ltVL)\"tQ xut OT]QI.UAOJ"tU, xat ULIUl"tU ~</Jwv, U1tEQI.OXEm<o W' e9vtx~(. ol OQ06bo!;oL xu,;ro9f.oumv, and PG 59, col. 561: xut ei.OwA69umv ea9(ov'te xat al!J.Il ltVIX'tOJV xat .Ol]QLUAOJ'tOJ V, XUL > , , ' O OQVE01ta'tUX'tU XUL ltOAAU f'tEQU 'tOlrt:OJV ~~ Brye~mos 120,36-121, 1: iht O'tOAUL avbQLXUL 'I:U EUU'tWV yuvaiXU evuUOUOLV. On ,'ta~ io"a~ <OJ" . '' ' rnl ~ """' ~ , ~ EOQ'tOJV, UUII.OL XUL XOQOI., XUL OU'tUVLXO~ OLV c;tOIUlOL, XOlj!OL 'tE XUL J.lll9UL, xat alaXQOL aA.A.ou; EOEOLV EltL'tEAEiV ou ~~~uv6J.lllea, and PG 59, col. 561: IlaA.LY axouaa,;e :n:o,;a:n:ot XQIO<LUvot OL "N"ta ltOIOUV"tE, ., , ltQOO<oltOJV , ' ij . EJtuj>OJVijOEI. , . . <a , e9v6Jv I'Wl]' ~"- ,_.. u<j>UVIOj!OV ~ OQXT]OEI., ~ XQO"tOU "E'"WV ~< 0 ' ' : : . "" ""' ' 'I '?11.10j!Ov yuvmxwv tv avbQaat. Bryenmos (121 7_ 122 6 (ibid') d .'b ) prov1.des more detail for the practices that Pseudo-Chrysostom escn es as follows: Ilom:n:ot XQIO<LUvot 'Ioubai:xoi xat 'EA.A.T]VLXO~ ltQ~~V"tE ,1Lu9ou;, xat yeveaA.oy(aL [sic for yeveOA.LaA.oy(au;) xat :Qa 1: xm. OO<QoA.oy(au;, xat <J>aQIJ.Uxe(au;, xat <j>uA.ax"tT]Qiou; xat 0 <j>wva~Q~~ l1LEQ6Jv xut tv'?u<wv, XA1]boVIOIJ.OU xat ovetea, xat 6Qvtwv auvaV"tJ.uN~a ltl]ya~ A.uxvou Wt'tOV"tE xat a:n:oA.ou6J.lllVOL, xat 'I,_.. ltUQU"tl]QOuJ.lllVOI. ...

76

Theophanes Continuatus, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1838), 376, 8-19. See also Mavroudi, A Byzantine Book on Dream Interpretation, 61; C. Mango, 'The Lege~d of Leo the Wise', Zbornik Radova Vizantoloskog Instituta 6 (1960), 59-93, repr. m idem, Byzantium and Its Image (London, 1984), XVI , 68; Magdalino, 'Occult Science and Imperial Power' in the present volume. . n M.-T. Fagen, 'Balsamon on Magic: From Roman Secular Law to Byzantine Canon Law', in Maguire, ed. Byzantine Magic, 103-4. See also Tester, History of Western Astrology, 95. 18 Secret History XI.37; for the Greek text, see Procopius Caesariensis, Op~ra Omnia, ed. J. Haury and G. Wirth, III (=Historia quae dicitur Arcana) (Mumch and Leipzig, 2001), 76, 12-77, 2; Procopius, ed. W. Dindorf, III (Bonn, 1838), 76, 18-77,6. 19 Prokopios (Persian Wars 1.25) tells us that when John the Cappadocian learned of Theodora's detennination to destroy him, he turned to sorcerers and listened to oracles "that portended for him the imperial office". For Prokopios' t~xt, see Procopius, ed. Haury and Wirth, I, 135, 3-136, 2; Procopius, ed. W. Dmdorf, I (Bonn, 1833) 130, 10-134, 14; Procopius, History of the Wars, Books I and II, tr. H. B. Dewing (Cambridge, Mass., 1979), 240-43. However, Prokopio~ makes sure his readers realize that the signs were not wrong, only their interpretauon w~s. The Persian Wars (11.30) end with half a page otherwise disconnected wtth the immediately preceding narrative, infonning us how the prophecy to Jo~~ the Cappadocian that he was "bound to be clothed in the gannent of Augustus was fulfilled: he had to wear the garments of a priest named Augustus whe~ he was made a clergyman by force (ed. Haury and Wirth, I, 303, 13-304, 7; ed. Dmdo~. I, 300, 1-18; tr. Dewing, 554-57). On Prokopios and the supernatural (concentrating on the Secret History), see A. Cameron, Procopius and the Sixth Century (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1985), 56-9. For prophecy and politics in the age of Justinian, seeP. Magdalino, 'The History of the Future', 3-34.

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the astrological predictions sought by the parf . . . and the civil wars and civil strife th t ~~pants m the wan a number of Palaiologan dthe empire. mterested m astrology: in the year 1341 emonstrably while lying on his deathbed at th ' emperor Andronikos ill, e monastery of th H s~mm.oned the polymath Nikephoros Gregoras best k e odegoi, histonan, .theologian, philosopher, and astro;omer 8o nown as :W whether8,his predictions from the stars agreed with' th to enqurre doctors. At least two political horoscopes . ose by the Pal . I . survive from th aiO ogan penod: one cast for the proclamation of M e John V at noon of September 25 13 74. and anuel, son of Constantinople by Andronikos p I one for the entrance to August 1375 82 And 'k I a aw ogos on the twelfth of ' rom os V seems to h astrologer John Abra . 83 ave patromzed the successors com uted amio~. T~e same Abramios and his and 1408 84 An p . senes of eclipses between the years 1374 main pr . n~ Tihon has observed that eclipses is one of the two eoccupat1ons of By zantme astronomers towards the end of the fourteenth impossible n ctenttury and the beginning of the fifteenth,8s and it is this (on th e f ace of It) . mnocent . astronomical 0 o connect . empire, in w~~~~uit ~Ith the escalating political troubles of the politically prominenet~ Ipd~e~d were seen as signifying the fall of m IV! uals.

~ccording~y,

empe~orss :e~~

iv I .

The ability to control nature was evidently what made the occult sciences an appropriate pursuit for the emperors themselves. Byzantine sources contain abundant references to legendary and pseudo-historical examples of royalty thus occupied, and I will limit myself to only a small random sample: we know of the existence of alchemical writings attributed to the emperors Justinian and Heraclius (though only fragments of those attributed to 86 Heraclius survive, and only in Arabic); and to Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. We are explicitly told about the appropriateness of alchemy for kings and emperors in a fifteenth-century commentary to Dionysius of Halicamassus addressed to the Byzantine governor of Ainos and Samothraki. 87 In the twelfth century, John Tzetzes (Chiliades 11.36) emphatically praised Zeus as king and astrologer (three times on the same page!), 88 making it impossible not to think of Tzetzes' patron, emperor Manuel Komnenos, who was actively interested in astrology .89 A fifteenth-century Greek manuscript, now
They do not survive, but definitely existed in MS Marc. gr. 299. See its description by H. Saffrey, 'Historique et description. du manuscrit alchimique de Venise Marcianus graecus 299', in D. Kahn and S. Matton, eds. Alchimie: Art, histoire et mythes (Paris, 2001), l-10. Alchemical excerpts attributed to Heraclius survive in the Arabic alchemical corpus. See M. Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Jslam. Handbuch der Orientalistik, Erganzungsband Vl.2 (Leiden and Cologne, 1972), 189-90. For a discussion of the attribution of alchemical texts to the patronage or pen of kings and emperors, see M. Berthelot, Les origines de l'alchimie (Paris, 1885), 139-40. For a discussion on the false attribution of alchemical texts to various authors (without, however, reference to kings), see R. Halleux, Les textes alchimiques. Typologie des sources du Moyen Age occidental 32 (Tumhout, \979), 97-9. Halleux rejects the possibility that alchemical treatises were falsely attributed to authors in order to avoid persecution by the church: "[La pseudepigraphiel ne parait pas avoir pour objectif d'eviter h !'auteur les poursuites de l'Eglise, qui ont ete rares" (ibid., 98). 81 See J. Letrouit, 'Chronologie des alchimistes grecs', in Kahn. Matton, eds.

86

'

~ On his intellectual profile

;,h~?me, I'oeuvre (Paris,

. (;/ee R. GUilland, Essai sur Nicephore Gregoras: 192 ikephoros Gregoras B . . . J,J-560, 3 (XI.II). ' yzantma HIStona, ed. L. Schopen, I (Bonn, 1829), 559,

MS Paris. Suppl gr 20 ~ !ulletin de Ia societf n~tion~lo~. ll8r:-v; ~ee CCAG, Vlll.4, 76 and F. Cumonl, On Abramios see PLP e es antlqumres de France (1919) 181 Ab ' 57 D p Ti ramJ~s:. DOP 25 (197!,), ~ngree, :he Astrological' School of John hon . L asironomie byzanti a ,15 for a disagreement with Pingree, see A. 7Ve sJecle' Byzanrion 66 ;:) ~;ube de Ia Renaissance (de !352 a Ia fm du 09 :~g pendant l'epoque des Pal; -? 4 ; see also Mergiali, L'enseignemenl etles 1 " Bs.v.ECLIPSE. oogues(l261-1453), 161-2. A. Tihon R M . (Louv run. Ia-Neuve, . 199S) ercier, Georges G ~mwe < Plethon, Manuel d'astronomie connected w1 th th e calculation 13 ofThe conjunctions (syzygieS) about b th East othe r .Pro bl em s Union ~f e close encounter with the .Thts preoccupation is evidently brought present vo~hurches at the time. See alatms and.the theological debates about the ume. so the dtscussion by Anne Tihon in the

l9l-i

Alchimie: Art, histoire, et mythes, 69-70. 88 Ioannes Tzetzes, Historiarum Variarum Chiliades, ed. Th. Kiessling (Leipzig,
89

1826),47. I was unable to identify a literary precedent for Zeus as in the surviving Byzantine world chronicles (Zeus as king is usual), though thts clearly does not mean that there was none either in chronography or in other genres. The chronicle that comes the closest ;0 connecting Zeus with occult science is the Chronicon Paschale, ed. L. Dindorf, I (Bonn, 1832), 69, 20-22, stating that (identified with Pikos) taught his son Perseus nQ6.l'tELV xat lE1..EiV UJV J.lUYE~av 'tOll J.LUO<lQO\l axiHjlou. This detail is not repeated in Anonymi Chrotwlogca, published in place of Malalas' book I in Ioannes Malalas, Chronographia, ed. L.

astrolog~r

Z~us

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at Oxford, 1 that contains the Kvranides a coli ec t'IOn of d' . Kyra me tcal and magtca . lore, declares that the author of the work ts 90 . of Persta. At the level of historical . . 1 'f rea tty, Byzantme nos, king em~erors, even t t~ey personally were not practitioners of th on occaston found it advantageous to present themsel e occult sctences' . an Arabtc source we are told that emperor C onstantme . ves in v as such: ~ . an aIchemtcal exhibition for the bene fitt of an Ar b per,ormed whereby9the changed copper into silver and gold b a _embassy, powder. Emperor Manuel K y usmg a dry astrology,n and emperor Manue~~na~::lo wrote a defence of dr~am interpretation,93 gos a text or two on Though the legendary and d . abundant than the historical pseu o-h~storical examples are more the conclusion that this is si~n~s, the tmb~lance should not lead to science with royalty in f~ p y a rhetoncal connection of occult to protect themselves fr: e ~rt: on the part of the occult scientists, and especially as it is ~m r~ t~tous and .s~cular persecution; rather, oun m the wntmgs of courtiers, it must
Dindorf (Bonn, 1831 ), 19-20 the . . ' Anonymz Chronologica contains the same mformation as the Ch Paschale' but m ab nd ged form; book I in Malalas' new edition, Ioannesromcon M 11 udes dtfferent . ~c material.a a as, ChronograPh' za, e d J. Thurn (Berlin, 2000), 1 , CMAG, III, 25, fol. 25v. . Akhbiir alBuldan by Ibn ai-Fa Ih ai-H s:'e D. Gutas, Greek Thought A q b' arnadhruu; for references and a discussion, ' Published in CCAG V ' ra zc Culture, 115-16. 1 astrology, seeP. Magd:Ui~o' .~;-25 On Manuel Komnenos and his interest in The Empire of Manuel K' e Porphyrogenita and the Astrologers' 28 idem 1 the contribution ofW ll 43-II80 (Cambridge, 1993), 377-S2. Two texts on dream . er ~n the present volume. epistl mterpretatton . e to Andreas Asan, containin attributed . to M anuel Palaiologos survive: his Botssonade, Anecdota Nova (P g a phtlosophical discussion of dreams [ed. J. F. ~alysls by I. R. Alfageme 'La~ts; 1844; repr. Hildesheim, 1962), 239--46; an ,:7!ernos de filologia cldsica l;~~~~):rtEQl. 6VE1Qcn:wv de Manu~l Pa!e6l?go', Y of dream symbols [ed A D 227-55] and a manual mterpreung a 511 - 24 1- The texts are very d'~ elatte, Anecdota Atheniensia I (Liege 1927) and th tuerent r d' ' ' ' proble~at~nbuti?n of the manual to th:!: mg both content and linguistic register, D as dtscussed by G C peror has been considered spurious. The . a1 ofonos ' 'M anue 1 11 Paleologos: Interpreter of if reams?' not b By zantznische Forschun 16 title inJ. anuel himself, certainlyg;n M (1990), 447-55. The manual was written or M anuel by so meone m hts entourage, as tiS genitive!Cates 11 is called 6vElQOXQL'tl]

represent a mutual acknowledgement on the part of both 94 occult scientists and civil potentates that they need each other. It is no accident that John the Lydian, a bureaucrat at the court of Justinian, wrote not only on the structure of imperial administration, but also 95 on calendrical matters and omens. And the anonymous Dialogue on Political Science, another sixth-century text that, for now, I will call a mirror of princes, includes a discussion on how sovereigns should react to divination.96 In the seventh century, Heraclius is said to have decided the course of his campaign against the Persians by bibliomancl 7 (a method also used in the fourteenth century 9 by Andronikos II, as reported in detail by Nikephoros Gregoras); s and Constans II campaigned against the Arabs accompanied by his personal dream interpreter, who was able to provide the right 99 advice, even if the emperor did not heed it. Towards the end of the eighth century, empress Irene, while acting as regent for her son Constantine VI, allowed herself to be carried away by her own ambition and members of her entourage who persuaded her that, according to the outcome of divinatory techniques (ex JtQoyvwcrtL'X<ilV), God had granted imperial power exclusively to

"Royal patronage for astrologers and occult scientists in general is well-known to researchers of Western medieval and Renaissance history of science. Alfonso el Sabio and Frederick II of Sicily are but two examples. "llef!l 6warJwuiJv = Liber de Osten tis, ed. C. Wachsmuth (Leipzig, 1897); also edited (along with the other two surviving works by John the Lydian on the calendar and imperial administration) by I. Bekker (Bonn, 1837). On John's career and works, see ODB, s.v. JOHN LYDOS. "Menae patricii cwn Thoma referendario De scientia politica dialogtls, ed. C. M. Mazzucchi (Milan, 1982), 41 (150)--42 (154). I am grateful to Patricia Crone for bringing this text to my attention. For the latest discussion on its content, see D. O'Meara, 'The Justinianic Dialogue On Political Science and Its Neoplatonic Sources', in Ierodiakonou, ed., Byzantine Philosophy, 49-62. :: Theophanes, Chronographia, ed. J. Classen (Bonn, !839), 474, 17. Gregoras, Byzantina Historia, !, 358,9-17. 99 Theophanes, Chronographia, ed. Classen, 528, 20-529, 10. Constans II before a naval battle with the Arabs dreamt that he was in Thessaloniki. His dream interpreter offered an interpretation based on etymology: ewoal.ovbu] = et, aU.<p vbtl](V) literally, "place (=give) the victory to someone else". In spite of the warning, Constans II chose to fight and was defeated. The incident is in perfect analogy (and opposition) with the dream of a Satyr dancing on a shield dreamt by Alexander the Great during the siege of Tyre and interpreted by Aristander of Telmessos as ~6.~UQO=~a TiiQO=Tyre is yours, in Artemidoros (IV .24); see Artemidoros, Oneirocriticon Iibri V, ed. R. Pack (Leipzig, 1963), 260,3-10 .

~!so

~~~en_os,

s~

Palaiolog:a~~ can be understood as .. f.

avouij).. 1:0ii Ilal.moMyou, where the s see also the arguments . ~eambook for" or "drearnbook by Manuel m alofonos, 'Manuel II Paleologos', 454.
.'
-~

76 Maria Mavroudi {)ceult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research

77

her, while her son was destined not to rule too I h n t e tenth century, we know th at the luggage of an emperor goin include books on celestial omens 101 M g on campaign should d th . oreover, Leo the D reporte at emperor John Tzimiskes summoned S eacon ~gothete and Magistros, to2 and Ste hen b. ymeon the Ntkomedeia, toJ to interpret for him thp , tshop (proedros) of 975 t04 B th e appearance of a com t . . o ' according to Leo had devoted th e tn obser;ation . of heavenly phe~omena ('wv em~elve~ to the distinguished among the 'wise' of t~QUtllQ~,GlV) and were very OVtES t!..!..oytfUl>tEQOt) tos D . h' at era (aVOQES t<llv ao<j>O)v Pechenegs, Alexios I .was :~~~g t IS 1.087 cam_p~ign against the 0 negotiating with h' . stnke a bnlhant success in secretary who pre-c~c~~i:nents, atde~ by an imperial underfollowing few hours to6 Whd \tot~! echp~e of the Sun within the educated bureaucrats. not at t~mk I .dtscem here is a class of other sources wh ' necessa.n.ly emment or known to us from ' o were famthar with th b' quadrivium and dabbled in . e su ~ects of the of the state or for th . the occult sctences, either for the benefit income?). Such is pose;rb~w~ amusement (or even supplementary an intellectual knowled y so t~e cas.e. of Theodoros Chryselios, geable m mthtary science, geometry,
\<~ Theophanes, Chron
101

!ffitEWQWV EOXOAUX6tas llQWta Jt

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tT)V

t(\)v

arithmetic, and music, and a practicing astrologer who seems to have served as imperial official and is known to us only from a letter of Theophylakt, archbishop of Ochrid toward the end of the 107 eleventh century and a student of Psellos. Tzetzes also seems to have served (or wished to serve) as personal diviner to members of the court, perhaps because this was one of the services that professional polymaths could provide to aristocratic clients. Among Tzetzes' surviving letters two are dedicated to dream interpretation. 108 The first one (no. 58) is addressed to emperor Manuel Kornnenos and advises him to accept a proposed alliance with the cavalry of the "Scythians" on the basis of a dream dreamt
Theophylakt's letter that acquaints us with Chryselios was published as no. 127 in P. Gautier, Theophylacte d'Achrida: Lettres. Introduction, texte, traduction et notes, CPHB 16.2 (Thessaloniki, 1986), 570-9 (herefter Gl27). The letter ought to be analyzed carefully, given that it is written in a joking (and I think jokingly affectionate) manner towards Theodoros Chryselios. It is unclear from the letter what exactly Chryselios did for a living. According to Gautier (ibid. 527, note 7), ''Theodore Chryselios est un inconnu. D'apres Ia suite du texte, ce personnage est retoume Constantinople apres avoir assume soit Ia charge de due de Skopje, auquel cas son successeur serait le sebaste Constantin Doukas, soil celle de praktor du Vardar". However, nowhere does the letter mention Chryselios' return to Constantinople; it only suggests that Chryselios and the protasekretis kyr Gregory Kamateros, the letter's addressee, are (or will soon be) in the same place (Gl27, 42-46 and 114-118) which is clearly not Constantinople, since Kamateros is said to suffer from a long and miserable exile (Gl27 116-118: &1a n)v buoxEQUIVO~Vl]V 001 emo&ljf!{av, 'tUU'tljV 0'/t n)v, w~ E<j>1], J.WXQUV). In addition, the only phrase that provides a clue regarding Chryselios' profession, is Gl.27, 51-56: AQ10ft1]tiXOV j.tv ouv autov (=tOV XQUOljAI.OV) fl&ew, a<jl. ou t01l BaQ&aQIWta<; EJTQat'tEV, o~ ye xat I!EOWV '/tQ(SI!1 vuxt6Jv-!;EJ!I-.1]ttE yaQ autov 'tOU \J:n:vou UQ18ftljt1XOV n 8HOQ1JI!U, btd ftfj&E 'tOil; Ult'VOI 8vefl~9!teto, cH.I-.' dxe xat auto~ al-fJOW> Mynv f.yw xa8t'll&w xat lt xaQII(a 1101l ayQu:n:vet xat ael 6E tL i]XQl~ol-oyetto xat OJTW n)v J.I.OVUOa Ei J1Qll tBJITI xal Ctf!U8Eil; &e(l;n 'tOU Ctf.!1:Qi'] Myov'ta. The meaning of the verb 3rQclttoo is multiple and therefore the information it can convey to us about Chryselios' profession is vague. Combined with Theophylakt's mention of Chryselios' occupation with arithmetic in the same passage, it might reveal that Chryselios was indeed, as Gautier suggested, a praktor, i.e. a tax collector (see ODB, s.v. PRAKTOR). The term Vardariotai is also problematic because it is unclear whether it refers to an ethnic group or a territorial unit (see 008, s.v. :ARDA~DIOTAI). M. Mullett, Theophylact of Ochrid: Reading the Letters of a ~~ntm~ Archbishop (Aldershot, 1997), 100 and 343, accepts that Chryselios was unpenal official in Macedonia. I wish to thank Paul Magdalino for bringing the f,:>blem ofChryselios' exact profession to my attention . Ioannes Tzetzes, Epistulae, ed. P. A.M. Leone (Leipzig, 1972), 84-8.
101

;;;;:-----10 ~
Ymeon Metaph

. U~fortunately' owing to the ~dentlfication of this figure With gsreat number of Symeons in the I Ofu c. further

. for references ando;r:phza, ~Classen, 719,1-7. f~tepretation, 426-7. tscusston, see Mavroudi, A Byzantine Book on Dream

Conscent~ry sources, see I. Sevee~k or ~ scussion of the name Symeon in late

of Leo VI and 23/4 (1969nO), 0 n e pobllcal im Science and 1 . portance of Stephen 0 f N' 1"' Leo th mpenal Power' in th comedia, seeP. Magdalino 'Occult ,o, e Deacon Hisi . ' e present volume ' Leo comm orrae, ed. K. B H . victories ove ~ts that the comet was ln:se, CSHB (Bonn, I 828), 169. disaste"' seerP Msenemies, while it ought rpt rehted as long life for the emperor and 0 '" Alexiad ' VU agdalino 'H' !story of the F ave, been interpreted as a portent of 2 . AlexiLJs, ed D R' :8 ' for the Greek text uture ' 32. e1nsch and A Anna Com 39 5 - 9; for an En r . Karnbylis 1see (B . nena, Annae Comnenae Sewter (Bungay ~sf~ ~anslation, see Th; AI ed:$ and New York, 2001), 26Q-61, 0 Occhieppo, 'Zu u of Anna Comnena, tr. E. R. A. 1.969), 221. On th:~a Petschenegenkri ldentifizierung der ate of the eclipse, see K. Ferrari d' eges Alexios I Komnenos (IOS~0 )?ne~finstemis wiihrend des JOB23 (1974),179-84.

. . Ymeon Logothete th h f '. rastes, 1s mpossible ~ d' e aut or o a chromcle, or

6-~tme VU in the Madrid Man ' Poems on the Deaths 21 w, th. . . uscnpt of Skylitzes', DOP

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I:

and interpreted by Tzetzes in the letter. 109 Tzetzes provides detail about the time, place, and condition of his body while he had th s dream. He insists that he went to bed without having eaten or dru~ much but was clear-headed and almost not asleep, especially since an attack of flees more n~merous than the army of Xerxes kept him awake throughout the mght; he managed to relax in the earl morning, at which time he had the dream he goes on to relat: ~ontrary. to .wha~ may at first sight appear to be the case, this mformat10n IS neither gratuitous nor meant for comical effect, but carefully calculated to suggest to the emperor that Tzetzes' dream t~th~ul and its message ought to be heeded since, according to th~ pnnc1ples of ancient and medieval dream interpretation, dreams are most truthfu~ ~hen dreamt on a light stomach and in an alert mental state; m additiOn, the closer to morning they are dreamt the sooner 110 they will. be realized. Since Tzetzes only states the conditions und~r .which he had the dream and does not provide explanations or exphc1t references to manuals of dream interpretation, we may concl~de. that not only he, but also the emperor was well versed in the pnnc1ples of this art. 111

The second letter where Tzetzes mentions dream interpretation (no. 59) is addressed to the wife of the Grand Hetaireiarches (a highranking military official). It was written in May 1147, when the menacing Germans of Konrad III arrived in Constantinople in the course of the second Crusade. The letter seeks to comfort the addressee by offering a positive interpretation of a dream that she dreamt and apparently already interpreted (either on her own or with somebody else's help) as signifying Constantinople's imminent destruction, a disaster apparently also advertised in oracles circulating at the time. 112 Though Tzetzes' interpretations seem improvised and unpersuasive, this is a bona fide effort to articulate an optimistic understanding of an ominous reality. Significantly, the gift requested at the end of the letter, ambergris incense, was supposed to improve the ability to divine through dreams. Yet a third piece of evidence suggests that Tzetzes might have volunteered his services as diviner to aristocratic and royal circles by interpreting not only dreams but also celestial omens. In a fourteenth-century manuscript containing his Allegories to the Iliad, a note informs the reader that a comet indicates future wars, but also a series of other events, including marriages, and that Tzetzes was able to foretell the marriage of the emperor seven months in 113 11dvance by correctly interpreting the appearance of a comet.

11o E . : g. Artemtdoros, Oneirocriticon ed p k Onerrocriticon ed F 0 ' ac 16, 10-17, 2 Achmet Achmetis . ' rex 1 (Leipzi 1925) ' ' Mavroudt, A Byzantine 8 00k g, 240-41; further analysis in truthfulness ofmoming d on Dream Interpretation, 151-3 and 451-2. The a bne f d'tscusston of thi reams m anctent llmes de was . a very wideIY held behef for T . s 1 a m Ho 0 ' ertu1tan, see D. s Cervigni D , race, vtd, Moschus, Philostratus and 59. ' antes Poetry of Dreams (Florence 1986) n
Ill

'"' The appellation "Scythians" in th 12~ the Pechenegs, while the Turks a e . c. was us~ally app~:ed to t~e Cu~ans or 1dentify with certainty the d re destgnated as Perstans . It ts tmposstble to possible that Tzetzes is . a~e. and event that prompted Tzetzes' letter, but it is requested in the incident ~f~~~~;g d~~uel to off~r the Cumans the wages they was the political fall of AI . scnbed by Kmnamos, the outcome of which ab loanne et A/exio C ext~s Axouch. See Ioannes Kinnamos, Epitome rerum 168-{i9; Deeds of Joh~m::::;''ugestarum, ed. A. Meineke, CSHB (Bonn, 1836), 1976), 201-2. anue/ Comnenus, tr. C. M. Brand (New York,

. or a detailed reading of this let . ctrcumstances in which it was d ter, agreemg that the details offered about the see G T Cal ' reamt serve to h . . . . : Oonos, 'Byzantine On . ~mp astze tts prophellc accuracy, 8 lrmtngham, 1994), 126. Calofonos elfQ~ancy (M. Phil. Thesis, University of 10 the Kmg of Hungary's Russian all~nstders that the "Scythians" of the letter are tes whom Manuel managed to win over while

'

'

JO '

on campaign in June 1165. I am grateful to Mr. Calofonos for his generosity in sharing his unpublished work. 1 . " See Magdalino, 'History of the Future', 27, notes 106 and 110. 113 This is MS Paris. gr. 2644; this particular note does not appear m any other manuscript of Tzetzes' Allegories, though other notes are shared wtth the older. but less tidy MS Baroccianus 131. See J. A. Cramer, Anecdota Graeca e codrcrbus manuscriptis bibliothecarum oxoniensium, III (Oxford, 1836), IV, where Cramer expresses the view that the notes of MS Paris. gr. 2644 go back to Tzetzes himself. The note in question comments on verses 66-67 of Tzetzes' alleg?rica\ commentary of Odyssey, 4: tew~ llf. t6tE yeyovE xa( t~ uot1]Q XOJ.l~'tl\~. ootL-~ 01]tJlov ne<\>uxE y(vEOOm xatnoMJ.lOlv; the text of the note re~ds .a~ fol!ows. x~k<il~. El.nov xat noMJ.lOlv. Oil J.L6vov yaQ nokEJ.lOlY OfJf.Wlov EotL aUa xat aux~v, xat vauayta~. xal XUJYWY unwA.Eta~. xal 1tVEUIJAltw~ lltj~wnx6v illiJlreQ 6 TtE-tl;tj~. ltQOEIJtWY ltEQL toil ~ao!Aew~ ycl.J.lOU OtL J.!tU ema J.li\VU~ YI!ViJOE'tUL, l.avouaQloU J.ll]Y6~. oiJx aMXLJ.lO~ e<\>6.VTJ ltQL t1]v 1tQ6QQTJOLV. See

~ ..... I
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The reaction of monks and clerics to the occult sciences was, like that of emperors, also not bound by canon law and patristic tradition, but rather depended on their individual temperament and intellectual disposition. One should not forget that Byzantine monks and clergymen were not a social group that is watertight, coherent in its intellectual tendencies and homogeneous in its 114 educational and social background. Several years of study touching on (or going full force into) the occult sciences cannot be completely pushed aside because of acquiring a religious affiliation, especially since joining the clergy did not necessarily depend on one's religious predisposition but was a career and a source of income, and under particular circumstances it could even be a punishment. 115 In the ninth century, emperor Theophilos had Leo the Mathematician ordained metropolitan of Thessaloniki, evidently m order to secure him a good salary. 116 Around the same period,
Cramer, ibid., 380 and Ioannes Tzetzes, Allegoriae lliadis, ed. J. F. Boissonade \f.arts, 1851; repr. Hildesheim, 1967), 103, n. 67. Already m 1965, the point that one can hardly expect a 'monastic' mentality from the great number of Byzantines who chose monastic life shortly before their death,_ has been emphasized in order to demolish the view that Byzantine chromcles were purportedly written by semi-literate monks while serious htstonog~phy by educated secular individuals; see H.-G. Beck, 'Zur byzanttmsch~n "Monchschronik'", in C. Bauer, L. Boehm, and M. Miiller, eds., Speculum hworiale. Geschichte im Spiegel vol! Geschichtsschreibung und Geschchtsdeutung (Freiburg and Munich, 1965), 188-97 comments in H. H Bv~avr<v1J' ).0 yorexvt.a. 'H 11.6yt.a ' , ' yeapparela rwv Bunger, ~ _ xoa!""1J v avnvwv, II (Athens, 1992), 25-9. This realization ought to be kept in mind in 0 rd er to properly understand th e soct'a! and mtellectual context within which the . ?,~cu It sctences. functioned in Byzantium. For the Th abtlity of th h h E . e c urc to attract the good minds of the 12" c., see Magdalin spello, e thmp1re of Manuel l Komnenos, 325-412, esp. the remarks ibid., 342 mg out e advantage 11 ectuals of a stable salary, instead of the occasional patron f . s ~or mte "' th . .age 0 anstocrats depending on their whim 0 n e sctenttfic and astr 1 1 . Katsaros 'Leo th M ~ _ogtca mterests of Leo the Mathematician, see V. p Le B athemattctan H ts L'tlerary Presence in Byzantium During the 9 Century' utzer . Civilization n Ca in Western and Eastern . . and D Lohrmann, ed s., Sc1ence 1 ro 1mgwn narrated in a varie of B Tim ~s (B ase1 1993), 383-98; on Leo's career as Baghdad in the Tho~ht-W Y ~antm~ sources, see P. Magdalino, 'The Road to Byzantium in the Ninth C or of Nmth-Century Byzantium', in L. Brubaker , ed., 199-200, where Magd:~:,ry: D~ad or Alive? (Aldershot and Brookfield, !998), pomts out and further discusses that Leo's appointment as bishop 18 t' mcluded in . Theophanes Contmuatus, who provt'd es th e longest available narr not a tve on the CtrCumstances of Leo's rise to fame; it is,

John the Grammarian, with his deserved reputation as an occult 118 scientist, 117 and Photios, who had read on alchemy and agriculture, were learned laymen before being raised to the 119 patriarchal throne.
It is possible to find clergymen of different ranks (monks, priests, bishops, patriarchs) engaging in divination throughout the Byzantine period. To the two aforementioned tenth-century bishops who interpreted celestial phenomena for emperors Leo VI and John Tzimiskes, 120 one may add Psellos' evidence that two eleventhcentury patriarchs, Michael Keroularios (with the help of the monks John and Niketas), and John Xiphilinos, practiced astrology and divination; 121 and Tzetzes' twelfth-century statement that abbots and priests rank along with diviners (J..UlVtEL~) among those most 122 expert in the interpretation of dreams. Overall, in the early

however, mentioned by Pseudo-Symeon, the continuator of George the Monk, and

Leo the Grammarian.

111

See the arguments made by Magdalino, 'The Road to Baghdad', 207. and 'Occult Science and Imperial Power', in this volume. 118 Agatharchides. See references in Letrouit, 'Chronologie des alchimistes grecs', 67,
119

It is possible that Photios was the inventor of a prophetic. acrostic f~r the Macedonian dynasty, LY BEKAAL. On the acrostich and tis attnbutton to Photios in the anti-Photian tradition of the Vita lgnatii and Pseudo-Symeon's chronicle, see P. Magdalino, 'Une prophetie inedite des environs de l'an 965 attribuee a Leon le Philosophe (MS Karakallou 14, f. 253r-254r)'. Travaux et Memoires 14 (2002) ( = Mtflanges Gilbert Dagron), 391-402, and esp. 396 and 398. In the context of equating apocryphal scientists with foreigners_ (discussed further in this paper), it is, perhaps, significant that the same antt-Phottan :seudoSymeon calls Photios xal;aQOltQ6owrro, (Chazar-faced). Referenc~s to R.-J. Lilie, et al., eds., Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinschen Zeit I:3 (Berhn and New York, 2000), no. 6253 (Photios). 120 Leo the Deacon, Historiae, ed. Hase, 169,5-8. 121 Michael Psellos, Scripta Minora, I, ed. Kurtz and Drexl (Milan, 1936), 232328. 121 Tzetzes, Epistu/ae, ed. Leone, no. 58 (addressed to emperor Manuel) . ~4, 2~85, 5: tyro YUQ 6 ava!;LO' 1\oul.o, 'tOU XQU'tOU' oou oil'tE 'tL flllV't"' E(I)V OU't olmvwv oa<jla El11ro, oUO. UltUQXWV a~~d- f\ rrarrd' 'tWV ~)..)..(!)' ll1:EQXO~(I)V 'tLVU, 6ve(eou, 11 av'tLXQU' fLClV'tE(a, xat XQ1jOJ.Up111lfLCl'tU PMmov tvf.on yLvwoxw 'tU 'tOU'tWV c'mo'tEAEOfLCl'tU [Because I, the un--:orthy ~rvant of your might, "though I am no wise a soothsayer nor one versed 10 the stgns of birds" (Odyssey 1.202), nor am I an abbot or a priest or one who pursues

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centuries the evidence has to be collected from the narrative sources, whereas in the post-twelfth-century period (to which the vast majority of our manuscripts on various forms of divination and magic date) pertinent information can also be found in the notes of readers and owners amidst manuscript pages, and is therefore much more abundant. To mention but a few examples: at least three of the several manuscripts of Aratos' Phenomena, were copied by men of the church: a deacon, a bishop, and a monk (this last being Maximos Planoudes); 123 the monk Arsenios translated an Arabic geomantic treatise into Greek; 124 Symeon, a monk and ''chrysographos", (an epithet that might have something to do with the practice of calligraphy but also alchemy) 125 commented on two rules of divination by earthquakes; 126 a South Italian priest borrowed a dream book and a lapidary from the monastic library of St ~icolas of _Casole (before 1469); 127 in the fifteenth century, Patnarch Maxtmos of Constantinople presented an astrological manuscript as a gift; 128 the famous MS Marc. gr. 299, the earliest of the surviving Greek alchemical manuscripts, belonged to the Greek

Occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research

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~arciana; among our post eleventh-century Greek alchemical uthors figures Kosmas the hieromonachus (an ordained priest and ~onk);t29 a fifteenth/sixteenth-century manuscript volume brings
together texts on Greek alchemy and theological treatises relating to nl30 the question of t h e "f"l" 1 10que.
1 would like to focus on one more problem within my vast topic: the transmission of the occult sciences and what it implies about the overlap or separateness of 'high' and 'low' registers of culture. There is no doubt that a grasp of the philosophical background of the occult sciences requires an elite education that not all their practitioners could have. However, thei~ practi_cal application do~s not require this background, and their social relevance, their importance for the larger world outside the ivory tower, an~ ultimately the reason to become interested in them, would be lost, tf they could not be exported beyond the rarefied circles of the philosophers. Further, what we recognize as 'high' and 'low' might not have been exactly labelled as such within its Byzantine context. 131 This lesson has already become clear from the study of Byzantine vernacular literature, and can be applied to the occult sciences. 132 Theophylakt of Ochrid (Gill) is aware "b of . the 133 therapeutic efficacy ascribed to viper's flesh by Galen, 0 n as10s, 135 Dioscorides, 134 and Alexander of Tralles (authors qualifying for

ardinal Bessarion before it passed in the collection of the

virtue in any olhe~ manner, when I have downright divinatory dreams and oracular responses I sometimes know their significance]. "' These are.. the I I -century MS Marc. gr. 476, evidently a working copy (as opposed to a manuscrit de luxe) also containing works by Lykophron was put together ' ed. J. Martin IbY "Nik . etas, the humblest of deacons"; see Aratos, Phenomenes, (Parts, 1998), cxxx-cxxx1x. Scheer's effort to identify "Niketas the humblest h N"k t b. h of deaco ns" wtt t etas, deacon of Saint Sophia in Constantinople and 1a er IS op of Serrae was refut d b M "b"d an auto ra h b . e Y artm, 1 1 A second copy of Aratos IS CXL~ff ~ y Y Maxtmos Planoudes, an intellectual and monk (Martin, ibid., cxuv): eta thml copy ts by Arsenios of Monembasia (ca. 1535, Martin, ibid.,
124

' 29

CMAG, II, 125: hieromonachos Kosmas. See also Letrouit, 'Chronologie des

Book on Dream llllerpretation 408-09 and 420. '" See Cf Mavroudi th ' A Byzantme e name . . ' astronomers . Palaiologan er d"Chrysok0 kk ~s" borne by phystctans and m the Jews of th p 10 'and the equtvalent name "Sharbit ha-Zahav" among Byzantine same era (University eAla )' see S Bowman, The Jews of Byzantium, 1204-1453 ,,. ' ., 1985 ' 147. I, 68 (MS Laurentia 28 34 "' ,, ta CCAG, ltQOXE(IJ.EVa M nus. II c.): ~UfiEWV "toil XQUOoyQct<j>ou ., 127 H 0 ' o xav 6VUl1tQl OLUIJiilv. mont, Le Typtcon . N"tcolas dt. Casale pres d'Otrante', Revue des etudes grecques ) du Srunt3 0890 390 128 See MS Paris. gr. 2so i .. omnia III 1 ed W H 9' n Ptolemy, C/audu Ptolemaei Opera quae exstant .' Ill '' ( Ubner(Stutt h . Maxtmus Manasse gart, 1998), XIV. This must be Patnarc 1 Church in Captivity (da~b~dted 10 1477), on whom see S. Runciman, The Great n ge, 1968), 194.

alchimistes grecs', 69, no. 20. 110 CMAG, V, 39-42; MS Escoriallll.Y.18. 131 The problem of 'high' and 'low' production by one and the same au~or has been discussed, in connection with dream interpretation, by G. Calofonos, Drea~ Interpretation: A Byzantinist Superstition?', BMGS 9 (198_4-8:), 215-20;. m connection with Symeon Seth's literary production, by Magdahno, The Byzantme Reception of Classical Astrology', 46--9. , )..0 . 1 "' For a recent general discussion, see M. Lauxtennann, '6.T!fLW6T!<; xm Y ~ )..oymey:vi.a: 6tUXOlQlOttXE yQUf.l~<; xa1. auv6ttxo1. xQ(xm' in P. Od_onco ~ P. A. Agapitos, eds., Pour une 'nouvelle' histoire de Ia litterature byzantme (Parts,
2002), 153-65. M0 r h "' For viper's flesh used in Galen and Oribasios, see Alice Leroymg e~, 'Mectecins, maladies et remedes dans les Lettres de Theophylacte de Bulgane
Byzantion 55 (1985), 492. . d" /"b 1 134 ll.16; Dioscorides, Pedanii Dioscuridis Anazarbei De materl? me ca . " ' ed. M. Wellmann, I (Berlin, 1907), !26, 12-127, !0. Used to tmprove stght, to

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our 'high' cultural register), but also by the auth 0f Kyranides, I36 a work closer to magic than medici ~ _the gener.ally qualifies for our 'low' register because of i~eian y~:mdes least m the form we have it) which is close to the vemacu 1ar g and ge (at 't8 1 lore: for example, it advises to bum a bear's hair i d ' t d 'I I37 n or er to avert ever an evt spmts, a practice that according to z followed by twelfth-century bear-trainers 13& a d tonaras was f lkl n o modem o ortsts by early twentieth century Greek women in Th 139 But one s~ould not forget that in twelfth-century Constant~~~e.l the Kyramdes was translated from Greek into Latin by Pasc~~; Romanus, em Ma lower-rank I' . . clergyman with medical e xpert'tse and . t pe~r. anue s Latm mterpreter who also translated or adapted ~:~ tm other, more 'elevated' Greek material, such as theology ~xcerpt~4() from the second-century A.D. dreambook of Artemtdoros. Pascalis' acquaintance with the Kyranides and his
relieve conditions of the nerves to c !he glands of the neck and t b ' ontrol .the growth of scrofulous swellings in '" . o estow longevtty 0 n vtper's flesh that Alexander f T 1 . see Alexander von Tralles 0 . . o ra les us.ed to reheve the spitting of blood, (Vienna 1879) 20 . ~' , n~ma/-Text und Ubersetzung, ed. T. Puschmann II . ' <j>anunxro 7 '' ouv av nc; E" ' Th E'l,u'iv<i>v IJ!OL, 1t01:E uEi XEXQfJOOat 1:00 /iu! tci>V 1 "..- "'' e manner of referring to VIper ' s flesh m . this text ' suggests thai use of this medication w I 0 .ng and well-established in Greek medicine. 136 Kyranides II , . D' K as 1976), 136. 2 ' e yramden, ed. D. Kaimakes (Meisenheim am Glan
ID '

general intellectual profile brings to mind Demetrios Chloros, a fourteenth-century doctor, astrologer, and priest who (after going from orthodoxy to Catholicism and back to Orthodoxy) was tried by the Constantinopolitan patriarchate because of possessing magical books (including the Kyranides) and sentenced to becoming monk under surveillance in the monastery of the Peribleptos. Chloros' oscillation between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, as well as the text of the synodal decree whereby Chloros was condemned-which dedicates to the accusation for magic and to the narrative of his ecclesiastic career between Constantinople and the papal court an approximately equal number cannot of lines-make it reasonable to conclude that Chloros' trial 141 have been simply about his possession of magical books.

~yranides II.l; Die Kyraniden ed K . , , llVEUIJ.am novnna xu' '_ rumakes, 113: at liE 'tQLXE<; ['tfJ<; ilQxtou)
n. ''" ' 1tUV'tOI.OV 1tU"E't" < , 'i'OQOUI'\'Ul (The hairs of b " uV ulWXOUOlV 0UJ.UWflVOl xal .. a ear, when used ~ ~ . ~ ~ 11spmts and every kind of fever) or Umtgatlons or worn, chase away Ralles-Potles, II, 443. 139 '"' P. Koukoules, Byzanrinon b' ka' .. See T. Ricklin Der T dos '~olmsmos, VI (Athens, 1955) 33. hen Constantinus raum er Ph1/osoph' 12. Jahrhundert: ' Traumtheorien ZWisc Afr' '" 1111

247-70. Pascalis Romanus'~:;;;: und ~~istote/es (Leiden, Boston, Cologne, I998), entitled Liber Thesauri occu/ti er of a Latin book on dream interpretation, A~hlVes d'histoire doctrinal; et C?lhn-Roset, 'Le Liber Thesauri occulti', ~ e~e h~ cites not only the so-call~r ra~e du. Moyen Age 30 ( 1963), 11!-98, 'h~r low register), but also the ,, One~rocmicon of Achmet (that qualifies for tgh' linguistic register) in h2 -cen~ry manual by Artemidoros (clearly of a excerpts from Artemidoros into w at the ear1' . Laconstitutes . test known translation of mtfrght hha~e known either in Greek t10.' aths -;ell as Aristotle (whose writings he 0 omtetrq rm Latin versions or even from G .uota' Ito~ by authors other th etrp . re-extstmg and reek mto Latm the Ystoria Bea ~ ~r!stotle). Further, Pascalis translated monk Eptpbanios [E F te. V~rgmrs Marie by the 8'"-9"'-century priest ranceschmi ' ,11 n EQl 'tOU ~LoU 'ti'J~ iJ1tEQUY(a~

:m:t i l

E>eo1:6xou di Epifanio nella versione latina medievale di Pasquale Romano'. in idem, Studi e note difilologia latina medieva/e (Milan, 1938), 111-24; Greek text in PG 120, cols. 185-216); and the Disputatio contra Judaeos attributed to Anastasios of Sinai; see G. Dahan, 'Paschalis Romanus Disputatio contra Judeos', Recherches augustiniennes II (1976), 161-213, edition ibid., 192-210; Greek text in PG 89, cols. 1203-82. Though the Dispuratio is written in the form of a dialogue and does not present complicated grammar or syntax, its content does not allow one to dismiss this text as low-brow because it discusses the trinitarian nature of God on the basis of scriptural exegesis. The author of the treatise seems to be well-informed about Byzantium's Muslim neighbors: he gives a Greek translation for the Arabic name Raitho (PG 89, col. 1204C), and seems to be aware of the assassination of caliph al-Mutawakkil by members of the Turkish military elite in 861, or at least of the destabilization of Abbasid power brought about by the Turkish military elite around the same period (col. 1212B-C: ouxl 1<i>v Ba~u),wv(wv, xal ouxl 'tWV Mi]liwv, ouxl 'tWV llEQOliJV ~UOL),e(a xutf1t001j uno 't<i>V ~UQ~UQWV 'tOU'tWV 1:cilv TouQxcilv;); see H. Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, 2"" ed. (Harlow, 2004), 156-73. Further (cols. 1237BC), the text suggests that it was written in the second half of the 9'" century, as it mentions that more than eight hundred years have elapsed since the capture of Jerusalem by Titus (70 A.D.). This is incompatible with the generally accepted dates for Anastasios of Sinai; on the problem of Anastasios' date, see Franceschmt, 'II llEQt 1:0\J ~(ou ti]<; il1tEQayluc; 8w1:6xou di Epifanio' 109, n. 2 and J. Haldan, 'The Works of Anastasius of Sinai: A Key Source for the Htstory of Seventh-Century East Mediterranean Society and Belief, in A. Cameron and L. Conrad, eds., The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East, I: Problems m the Literary Source Material (Princeton, N.J., 1992), 107-47. 141 Acta et dip/ornata graeca medii aevi, ed. F. Miklosich and J. MUller, I (Aalen, 1968), 544-46. See also PLP, 30869.

I ~~

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86
Maria Mavroudi occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research 87

',,'

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Anyone acquainted with the manuscri t .. treatises (from 'licit' medicine and astro p tradition of technical nomy to the ''ll' , SCiences) , . . . went I !Cit . hcan have . no doubt that textual transm1sswn h occult d. . Wit oral mstruction. The existence of th . an -mhand verswns, _the general disarray and fragmentati~nsame text m se~eral the spelling peculiarities the ll'nguIs t'1c reg1ster .. of longer treatises ' th t fre a . quently borders on the vernacular, and the content 0 f can tell us as much. some margmal notes, Among the occult sciences the oral r . . . the vernacular tendencies ~f the latet ans;ISSllon of alchemy and texts have been noticed by sch I me Ieva Greek alchemical discussion in the context of Gr:e~s I~ore than for t~e rest.142 This by recent analo . a c emy was possibly prompted th c h gous studies of its Latin equivalent 143 but al b e tact t at alchemical text ' so y oral transmission For s ~e generally more explicit about their work addressed t~ Leu:;a:; e, Demo~r!tos begins an alchemical vernacular because this li~p uis~y ex~lmm?g tha_t he wrote it in the for technicaJ treatises (ey g o1 IC r:glster_IS part~CU)ar)y appropriate beyond the trans ~ he necessity for practical demonstration rrusswn of w tt . . ' explicitly: an alchemical n e~ treatises, IS also mentioned technoparadotos i e t . techmque by Maria is called The importance ~f ~r~l ~:~:rrut~ed _through ~racti~al application.145 alchemy, a science that ~ctw~ Is also evident m Arabic texts on introduced among M . ' ccordmg to the Arabic tradition, was 1 . us1msbythet . monk Mananos. eac h'mgs of the Byzantme 146 In the Book 0 the Jabirian co if the Monk, an Arabic alchemical text of "Instruct me sorptuhs, Ipseudo-Jabir addresses his master thus: ... others of it in your at may 1' sh are your knowledge and can inform name; or, although I have occupied myself with

.,

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144

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147 this science, I cannot dispense with a teacher in many respects." As is the case for doctors, the need for oral (that is, practical instruction) in order to supplement knowledge gained from texts must have created among the practitioners of the occult sciences a certain guild-like mentality. Did successful practitioners tum over their practice to their sons? For the time being I can point to no direct Byzantine evidence, except for two parallels, one from antiquity and another from eighth-century Christians of Hellenic culture living under Muslim rule: the second-century author Artemidoros addressed the last two of his five books on dream interpretation to his son, with the express instructions not to make them public in order to enjoy an edge over his professional competitors. And Theophilos of Edessa, the Christian astrological military advisor to caliph al-Mahdi (775-85 A. D.), addressed his Labors Concerning the Beginnings of Wars (the only known Greek treatise of military catarchic astrology) to his son, Deukalion. The work comprises the most richly remunerated of Theophilos' professional knowledge (the one that opened caliphal cophers) and its compilation must have been an effort on his part to secure for his son a comfortable professional and financial future. It is possible that it was also composed in Greek. 148 If this is so, I speculate that
147

Translation by F. Rosenthal, The Classical Heritage in Islam (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1975), 250. The speaker is pseudo-Jabir, and the master is a pupil of the

See di scussiOn m L'anonyme de z . . See references in M Pe . , urettz, ed. A. Cohnet LXVII-LXXIX the Late M'd 1 die Ages' s re1ra, Alchemy and th e use of'Vernacular Languages in 144 Greek text in Col/etflecdu1 urn 74 (1999), 338-56. F h c ron esancze I h' ,.~nc trans!. ibid.,III, 5 _ ns a c zmstes grecs, ed. Berthelot, II, 53-54; 7 58 Kai.ti~cu bE UUtlJ ~ li : ~,S21, fol. 206v). L aoxoO ~ !UlQcl MUQLa ~XVO!UlQUiiO~O (CMAG, ee Mavroudi, A Byzantine Book on Dream Interpretation, 425.

142 141

Byzantine monk Marianas. 148 In stating that Theophilos' Peri katarchon was originally composed in Greek I follow David Pingree's opinion expressed in ODB s.v. THEOPHILOS OF EoESSA, as well as my own impression of the language and style evident in the excerpts attributed to Theophilos and published in CCAG, I, 129-31; CCAG, II, 195; CCAG, IV, 93-94 and 122-23; CCAG, V.I. 212-15. In particular, the close correspondence of the vocabulary in a passage from Theophilos and an anonymous Greek astrological text dated 379 A.D. (a comparison is offered in CCAG, V.I. 213) strengthens the impression that Theophilos' text must have been composed in Greek and was based directly on Greek sources. However, the picture admittedly becomes more complicated by the texts published further. The two excerpts published in CCAG, V.l, 233-38 survive in the same manuscript (the second part of Vat. gr. 212, fols. 106-52, written by a 14"'- or early 15"'-c. hand), but are found twenty folia apart from each other (whether as a result of the scribe's intention or through faulty subsequent binding). They are both addressed to Theophilos' son Deukalion, though the second one is introduced with the clarification that 11 comes "from the second edition" (ex 'tf[~ beu~EQU txli6o0l). The first excerpt might well be a translation from the Arabic because it ends with a turn of phrase that IS unusual in Greek: xat oil n~aloeL~ 6eo0 ovveQYOti~O ("you will not be

-~I
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89 occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research

88

Maria Mavroudi

,,

the reason for it was not the relative dearth of . ap~pr.tat~9technical astrological vocabulary in late eighth-centu ry abtc, but the
mistaken, with_ the help of God"). In Arabic, however 1h . . future tense wtth a phrase like bi- 'a \I'll allah (= ElEOil , ~ _'tcco~npamment of a help of God) is habitual. The second excerpt (ibid ~~;';Qyouvto, =with the " -: -- 8) defense of astrology and could be an . ongma . . 1 composition a Christian offers G 10 quotes Genesis word-for-word in the ve . f reek because it . rston the Septuagint. The excelpt published in CCAG VIJI 1 26 6 70 1 from the Arabic fo.r a n~~ber ~f r:;:~;:v~;~ me the i~npr~ssion of a translation YQU~~atEilm (268, 21) evidently a double ;~,~;~~g winch Its use of YQU<j>eilOL, rummg at clarification) of the Arabic kl1t'b ' , tonb(wtth the second component tttle in Byzantine administration (and ' . p .b uttll . Though grapheus is not a grammateus), the Arabic translat' f n~st e eluctdated by the addition of function in Abbasid administrationto~ o . t e same word, katib, is an important the term ~UotAtxot votanLoL (' ' e ,same bureaucrats seem to be designated by 1 . " tmpena notaries) ib'd 270 6 T . " . here tS a further mconststency in the choice of 1 . h . ibid., 267: :Libra; in Greek is re~~e%~alb~~~ms, alr~ady identified by the editors, Ptolemy and Zuyo, ( X1'[AUl (270, 8), an old tenn used by 268 231 Theophilos' excerpt in CCAG.' ~e3':;' that became curr~nt later and is also used in technical vocabulary a ' , 12. These mconststenctes in the rendering of . . re easy 'f we accept . ongmally written in Greek b t . to explain . t that the text was not two versions of Theo h'l' u ts .a trans_Iatton. Could it be that there were at least P t os avrulable m Byza0 t' . . . tum, one ongmally wntten in reek, and one translated f h G rom t e Arabic . translate Arabic astrological . ' as part, perhaps, of a wtder effort to 1e_x 1 CCAG, IX.! 204--6 th h s mto Greek? The extensive text published in 6 oug It reports so me opmtons ' wntten by him but by Theophilos was not y Abraham b. Ezra (d IS c1 of )ear1 h a compt-1 atton by a personal acquaintance 1165 menttOns 1 bd mtnguing questions regard' wthom .dhe . ' ., 228. The text raises some it and the t'de mg e comptled t'ty e f.t enttty of th e compt'I er, the language in which h ' nt o L'k . ttsaddressee, b ut 1 prefer, for the time being, to avmd further speculation ewtse . properties . of plants ann'buted to a cenain Th . ' h'l . ' the exc erp t on t he mag teal pen of Theophilos of Edeop 1 os m CCAG, XII, 119-21 is definitely not from the 17., essa, at least not 10 . th ,. . . . . . . -c. manuscript wht'ch . e mgutsttc regtster evtdent m thiS contemporary spoken Greek. . tven how limited a I essenttally . re f1 eels tts G sarnpall e Theophtlos pu bl'ISh ed excerpts are, the view that the katarchon was ong . Pen a1 edition of Theoph'l tn Y wntten in Gree k mtght , have to be revised once the crtl!c 1 os work an avw1 able, and especially if co . nounced by David Pingree becomes ~~guages becomes possible. mpartson of the Greek text with its versions in other

advantage of eliminating some of the competition by making the treatise inaccessible to those astrologers in the caliphate who could not read Greek. The bilingual, the foreigner, the Jew, figure prominently (though not exclusively) in the Byzantine sources as practitioners of the occult sciences. This seems to be as much a stereotype as it is a reflection of reality. A number of Greek texts on the occult sciences, such as the Testament of Solomon, have recognisable Jewish origins. In the ninth century, patriarch John the Grammarian belonged to the family of the Morocharzanioi, possibly of Armenian origin; and emperor Theophilos asked a Saracen captive woman to foretell the future of his dynasty through necromancy. In the eleventh century, Alexios Komnenos' astrologer, Symeon Seth, a bilingual in Greek and Arabic, was probably born in Antioch, which Byzantium reconquered in 969 and controlled, more or less effectively, until the Armenian Brachamios surrendered it to the Seljuks in 1084. Two other astrologers active in Constantinople during the reign of Alexios, Theodoros Alexandrinos and Eleutherios, were Egyptians. 150 In the twelfth century, two aristocrats, Alexios Axouch and Isaac Aaron, fell from imperial grace because of chargesthat included the practice of sorcery. Both had good foreign connections in Byzantium's East and West, a factor that helped advance their careers and at the same time probably precipitated their fall. The political underpinnings 151 of these two episodes were unpacked by Richard Greenfield, and the strategy of their incorporation within the larger framework of the Byzantine historiographical works in which they appear has been
seasons and weather forecasting (analogous to the Greek Phainomena by Aratos) and going back to pre-Islamic astral lore, was written by Ibn Qutayba (d. 889; see Kunitzsch, ibid., 207, note 2). There can be no doubt that the earliest contact between Greek and Arabic astrology was at the oral level; occasional descriptions of the process whereby early translations of Greek material into Arabic were produced also confirm this view (Kunitzsch, ibid., 209). '"' See Magdalino, 'The Porphyrogenita and the Astrologers', 2!-23; idem. 'Occult Science and Imperial Power', in the present volume. "' R. Greenfield, 'Sorcery and Politics at the Byzantine Court in the Twelfth Century: Interpretations of History', R. Beaton and C. Roueche, eds., The Makmg of Byzantine History. Studies dedicated to Donald M. Nicol (Aldershot and Brookfield 1993), 73-93.

i'

The rendition of technical te . . and Gn:ek texts into Arabic are ':~~n th~ earliest translations of Persian, Indian, P. Kumtzsch, 'Arabische A _led tn a fluent and problem-free manner see Lobnnann, eds., Science instronomte im 8 b W ts 10. Jahrhundert', in Butzer' and 09. Some of this vocabul estern and Eastern Civilization, 205-20 and esp. 2 though ary must ' times, llts Impossible to asse . have been avatlable since pre-Islamic d~tes from the 9" c and ss ' 18 wealth because the surviving written evidence 1 dtscussmg the visibility ater. The earrtest surviving text of the anwa' genre. of vanous stars in connection with the advent of the

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occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research

provided by Paul Magdalino. I will therefore limit m If h . . th d 'I f . yse to emp astzmg e eta1 s o their foreignness because th relevant to my argument: Alexios Axouch is a Turk on ht's are 'd dI A . . ,a er's s1.. e, .an saac aron, though born m Connth, learnt Lat1 n h'l w Iem . . ICI1tan captiVIty and went on to serve as emperor Manuel' La S 153 AI . at least according to the version of ths tm mterpreter. ex10s, provided by Kinnamos, frequently consulted a Latt'n sorcerer e story , (yol]) who summoned and consulted demons about the futur d provided Alexios with potions that would deprive Manuel f e an 1 h 154 ld . rom a rna e e1~. . aim that this co-incidence of foreigner and 0 ne ~ou c1 occult scientist exists because both categories are socially marginal gro~ps. Tru~, some of the occult scientists might have been socially margmal, such as th~ "Illyrians and Persians" said by the elev~nth-ce~tury polymath Michael Psellos to frequent the court of p~tnarch Michael Keroularios. 155 But this can hardly be the case with patriarchs, aristocrats, and court diviners who became confidants of the royal entourage. 156

152

uests or implicitly expects, remuneration when the predictions 158 q true), re ' is descnbed m both Arab'tc and Greek sources. come And, at least around the eleventh century, astrologers like Ibn RiQwan in Egypt (as reported in the thirteenth-century biographical dictionary by Ibn al-Qif!I), 159 and like the ones mentioned in Theophylakt of Ochrid's letter!>, practiced out in the streets. Women diviners were also practicing in the streets of Messina and Tunis at 160 the beginning of the thirteenth century . The Byzantine astrologers 161 seem to have preferred three-pronged crossroads, as did those who pretended to be possessed by demons for the 162 sake of profit, according to the twelfth-century canonist Balsamon. There can be no doubt that these analogies are the result of direct communication and oral exchange at the level of practical application, above and beyond the translation of texts.
"' For the 'investment' in Arabic sources, see G. Saliba, 'The Role of the Astrologer in Medieval Islamic Society', Bulletin d'etudes ori~ntales 44 (1992). 45-67, esp. 64-6. In Greek, see J. A. Munitiz, J. Chrysostomtdes, E. HarvahaCrook, C. Dendrinos, The Letter of the Three Patriarchs to Emperor Theophtlos
and Related Texts (Camberley and Athens, 1997), 99. "'G. Saliba, 'The Role of the Astrologer'. 62; Ibn ai-Qif\I (ed. J. Lippert), 443--44; tr. into English in Schacht and Meyerhof, The Medico-Philosophical Controversy Between Ibn But/an of Baghdad and Ibn Ridwan of Cairo, 33. On the chronology of Ibn al-Qiftl's life and the date of his biographical dictionary. see Ibn al-Qtf\1

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If we look at the Islamic world, we discern some of the same ~ttems:. a number of famous astrologers were Christians roastnans, and Jews. Caliphs within the first two centuries of 157 Islam see~ to h~ve a predilection for Jewish dream interpreters. The ethmc ongins of the se m . d'IVI'd ua Is Implied . . . . . lmgmstic clod~petence .that gave them access to 'foreign' wisdom (such as n Ian, I) . Moreover, in the Greek and th M Persian . ' and Greek matena e f ~slim ':"'orld occult scientists use some of the same ~~0 . essiO~al tncks: The ta'srl, the 'investment' on the part of a lVlner m an .individual's future (whereby a diviner offers f avourable predictions to a contender for power and explicitly

>i

152

Magdalino, 'Occult Science an , . '" Niketas Choniates H' . d lmpenal Power , m the present volume. 1975), 146-4? ' IS1ona, ed. J. A. van Dieten, I (Berlin and New York,
IS4

(ed. J. Lippert), 5-13. . '"'Michael Scot (ca. 1175-ca. 1234), Liber introductorius, MS lat. 10268, fol. 119, quoted by Haskins, Swdies ill the History of Medteva_l Sctence. 290, note 114. Street astrologers can still be found in modern Ind1a; see A. Beinorius, 'The Power of the Stars: Astrology and Divination in the Tradtttonal Indian Society', Intematiollallllstitute for Asian Studies Newsletter 33 (2004), _JS; and Sudhendu Chanda, Astrologers and Palmists ill Contemporary Society (Kolkata, 2002), 67-69 and photographs at the end of the book. , . 161 Theophylact of Ochrid, Letters (Gl27); Gautier, Thtfophylacte Lettres, 515, 69-71: xal. 1\t, Mywv yuvatl;l.v oux XU'tU (tf.,./..' Eli:' EQ'(UO'tijQLOV iiv OEj.LV\JVOL 'tO ... [telling women their fortune, not in three-pronged crossroads, hke the diviners, that is those charlatans, but in a workshop, so that he dignify the sctence

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Kmnamos Epit "' CMAG 76 om_e rerum, ed. Meineke, 267' 19-268, 2. ,,. The point ~bo~t ~~~:I t~ts:ellos, Scripta_Minora, I, ed. Kurtz and Drexl, 322. leading intellectuals and c 1 mnh~rs of magtc belonging to the imperial court, being even 1gh-rank' and monks, was bnefly mg c1 encs rnade bY Greenfield 'Contrib f '"References' in Mavro~~~nAtoBthe St~dy ofPaleologan Magic', 151. 1' yzantme Book on Dream Interpretation, !30. -

vi

(=astrology) ... ]. 162 Ralles-Potles, II, 407. Three-pronged crossroads were generally be liminal spaces frequented by demons. For example, cf. CCAG. I (excerpts from MS Neapo/. gr. II. C.33, written ca. 1495): ot ,;wv 'tQ!OMwv EQ)(EOI:le xat eloEQ)(EOI:lE 'tijv ej.lt,v <'tlt6KQt.OW (demons of three-

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pronged crossroads, arrive and come in to answer me).

:\"~.

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Maria Mavroudi

occult Science and Society in Byzantium: considerations for Future Research

Byzantine . civilization is generally u n d erstood b h mtense1 y mtrospective and disinterested in im . y sc olars as goods from the outside. It is ' I tlun . k , ptOvocative . p~rtmg t any cultural opposite regarding the occult sciences o Witness the cons~rvative field, which managed to re, an .overal~ remarkably and ntual for centuries, even longer th:n t~erCveh ~~s ?asic vocabulary e ust1an church.

POST SCRIPTUM: After the writin of essentially completed I ch d g the present paper was ' ance upon some d t social ambivalence (but also .d a a regarding the government and educated . WII e. acceptance) of astrology among . . Circ es m mode 1 d' stnkmg parallels to the 8 . rn n Ia that offer some to outline it here. To su~~;~~ne ;tate. of affairs, a.t least as I tried astrology in India today is both ~ e~cnbe a complicated situation, the case in the Western wold) !~missed as a pseudo-science (as is to Indians, including the w~ll ,dan at the same time appeals widely current intellectual status a ; uc~t~d and upp:r class. Further, the :md practice of astrology ca:nof~htJ~al underpmnings of belief in Important component of ' I . e ?Isen?aged from its status as an words as part of the . c assJcal Indian civilization in others toward the end of thancient and venerabl e Sanskrit . heritage ' . that . e nmeteenth c t . ' ~~t m the language of We en. u~, was remterpreted and rationalized' by w stern scientific discourse (therefore und . . colonial estern standards) b Y the Hmdu . . 163 mtelligentsia . er 8 ntJsh 1 enJoyed by astrology ~ ~ d' The degree of official acceptability government in order to n Ia t?day as well as its use by the ~e fact that the govempursue Wider political goals, is evident by mcluded m university cument as a subject to be . recog mzes It 164 controversy and elicited h rncu 1 a. Th IS resu1 great public d ted m constitute8 Part of a wider p eate on the grounds that it . . crifICism o1Itlcal agend a to encourage nght-wmg . .

Hindu nationalism and Hindu religious fundamentalism. The contemporary Indian debate regarding astrology parallels the following aspects of its Byzantine equivalent: First, it highlights the use of astrology in pursuing political goals for which the success or failure of astrology to predict the future, though mentioned in the course of the discussion, is of secondary importance. Second, the modem Indian rhetoric surrounding astrology as a product of 'national' Indian heritage (even if scholars agree that it was 'contaminated', already in antiquity, by contact with its Persian and Greek equivalents) reminds one of the insistence on Ptolemaic astrology as part of Byzantine 'national' heritage in the eleventh or in the fourteenth century. 166 Third, the social profile of the practitioners of astrology and their clients seems to be very similar with that of their Byzantine counterparts. At least one publication offers concrete statistical data regarding the social and intellectual demographics of astrologers and their clients in India today: Sudhendu Chanda's Astrologers and Palmists in Contemporary Society. Anthropological Survey of India, Memoire no. 106 (Kolkata 2002), published under the auspices of the "Ministry of Culture, Department of Culture". The venue and date of publication of this book make it likely that it represents an effort to champion astrology 167 and that its appearance is connected with the public debate regarding the introduction of astrology in Indian education that erupted in October of !998. 168 However, even those opposing government policies regarding astrology acknowledge that in India today political, business, and personal decisions such as matrimony

165

"' Among a great number of possibilities, a brief and clear, to the uninitiated. summary of the controversy and its implications is Ranjit Devraj, 'Astrology is a Science, It's in the Stars', Asia Times Online (16 August 2001) at http://www.atimes.com/ind-pak/CHI6DID3.html (last viewed on 22 July 2006). For more detail, see N alini Taneja, 'The Saffron Agenda in Education: An expose', South Asia Documents at htt,p:/lwww.indowindow.com/sadlarticle.php1 child-29&article=28 (last viewed on July 22, 2006). '" See Magdalino, 'The Porphyrogenita and the Astrologers'; idem, 'The Byzantine Reception of Classical Astrology'; Mavroudi, 'Late Byzantium and Exchange with Arabic Writers.' 167 The impression that Chanda's work is meant as an effort to champion astrology is strengthen by its dedication to "my astrologer mother Late Smt. Surama Chanda

~d fath~r late Dr. Suresh Chandra Chanda."

TaneJa, 'The Saffron Agenda in Education', l.

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occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research

95

~ (

l.'

are largely made after consultation with an astrologer. The coverage of Chanda's book is not as comprehensive as its title advertises, since it discusses astrology and palmistry only among the Hindus of contemporary West Bengal, deliberately omitting the Muslims and Christians resident in the region (ibid., 59-60). Even so, it provides interesting demographic information on the social and educational profile of 1370 West Bengali astrologers (ibid., 5970), as well as the confidence in the predictive value of astrology and palmistry among 600 individuals listed by occupation (ibid ~ ~ 80-81). According to the data tabulated by Chanda, the overwhelming majority of astrologers belongs to the two upper echelons of the Hindu caste hierarchy (Brahman or Kayastha) and holds degrees in higher education (both "graduate" and "postgraduate"). Astrologers have a greater demographic concentration in large urban centres. The majority of Brahman astrologers learnt th.e trade from thei~ parents rather than from an institute, books, or friends and relatives, while the majority of their Kayastha colleagues acquired their astrological knowledge at an institute, a
'" Devraj. 'Astrology is a Science.' 10 The unid.iomatic English and abundance of typos undermine the scholarly unpact of this book; moreover, ils treatment of the history of astrology and the ~lendar. lea~es a l?t to be desired. As for the statistical data it contains, no mformat1on IS provided regarding how the interviewed individuals were chosen and ":hether they offered their views to the author orally or in response to a written :;'e!t~onnarre. The nu~b~rs in the tables do not always add up precisely; one has tednder whether this IS so because the author tampered with or completely . mven h the data or IS simply th e resu 1t of the excessively . th careless typing evident .roug out the book. Regarding the 600 individuals who purportedly expressed a VIew regardmg their confid th . . their total number (600) s~~~e m . ~ predtctive value of astrology (ibid., 80-81), within twelve of th ~ r suspicious!~ round, and the number of interviewees 40 or SO) h'l ; o~rteen Isted professiOnal categories is a multiple of ten (30, re.:Wns, I in~ti~~y ~ew~o::r i~wo it i~ a multiple of 5 (35 and 25). For these end, however I dec'ded . formation presented here with suspicion; in the picture of ho~ so/an It must be more or less reliable in conveying the larger astrology's opponen,ts Jo ~~C:%~~~~ei astr?logy in India is today. After all, even the reason why instead f d' . . ts Wide social Impact, and this must be part of . o ISmissmg govern t . . 1.tics 'th men a1 poI regardmg astrology as rrrelevant and having to d effort in polemics again ~ .~ 1 : ri~iculed and laughable subject, they expend furnished to the effect ~ t 1 ' an still need to point out that proof has been example, R. Ramachandra: ~trology is "nothing but mumbo-jumbo." See, for 31-Apri1 13, 2001) at btto'u egrees of .Pseudo-Science', Frontline 18:7 (March viewed on July 22, 2006). . www fronthneonnet comlf11807118070990.htm oast

169

difference that reflects the traditional role of the Brahmans as guardians of inherited knowledge and religious tradition. The 600 individuals that are said to have expressed an opinion regarding the predictive value of astrology and palmistry generally belong to the better educated segment of West Bengali society-their occupations are listed (in this order) as "novelists", "artists/ musicians", "players" (=actors?), "engineers", "doctors", "business executives", "businessmen", "government officials", "college teachers", "social workers", "general workers", "school teachers", "students", "low type workers". According to the tabulated data, more than 80% report that they have faith in the predictive value of astrology and more than 70% have faith in palmistry.

.,

I,

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Katerina Ierodiakonou
Panteio University of Athens

The Greek Concept of Sympatheia and Its

Byzantine Appropriation in Michael Psellos

The anthropologists of the nineteenth century who tried to give a theoretical account of magic argued that the common basis of the different variants of magical beliefs and rites are the so-called "laws of sympathy": like produces like; objects that have been in contact, but since ceased to be so, continue to act on each other at a distance; a part is to the whole as an image is to the represented object. Although modern anthropologists are sometimes skeptical as to whether these really are the necessary and sufficient criteria for identifying all magical actions, it is generally agreed that the belief in one version or another of the laws of sympathy is as old as human society. For it seems that humans have always had the ~endency to assume mysterious relations between all beings which Inhabit the earth and the heavens. And it is exactly the belief in these sympathetic relations that has provided people from different cultures, throughout the centuries, with the principles for their more or less sophisticated theories on astrology, alchemy, necromancy,

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The Greek Concept of Sympatheia and Its Byzantine Appropriation in Michael Psellos

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dream interpretation, augury, geomancy, and generally with the foundations for the development of the occult sciences. 1
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:1,,

Byzantines, too, talked about sympathetic relations when they dtscussed the many branches of the occult sciences practised in Byzantium. They had inherited the idea from the ancient Greeks and they used, in invoking it, the very term the ancient Greeks had used: sympatheia (auf.!Jta8na). But was their understanding of the Greek concept of sympatheia the same as that of the ancients? This is the topic of my paper. I want to examine, in particular, how the Byzanti~e .philosophers understand sympatheia when they, too, refer to tt 111 order to explain the magical beliefs and practices of their contemporaries. I want to find out whether their use of this notion is the same as that of their pagan predecessors, or whether t~ey had to adapt and to modify it in the light of the different ctr~umstances of their Christian culture. For Byzantine philosophers were in a difficult position. On the one hand, both Church and State authorities rejected magic as a vile remnant of the p~gan tradition. On the other hand, magical beliefs and practices ~til had a strong hold on all parts of the Byzantine population, both e ~neducated and lower strata of society as well as persons of c~?tderable education and high social status. Byzantine P 1 ~s~phers were meant, as philosophers, to develop theories provtd111g a rational understanding of the natural order of things; th~y were, hence, supposed to somehow make sense of the occult sctences, too, without violating Christian dogma. But could the Greek .concept of sympath ew, . or the parttcular way they appropnated it, give them some theoretical backing in dealing with the dangerous issue of the occult sciences? . . The h history of the us e of the concept of sympatheia by Chnsttan abut .or~ stretches back to the second century A D almost to the eg111n111g of Ch Athe nsttantty. Early Christian Fathers like for instance, and J:~o~~ Clement of Alexandria, St Basil, Greg~ry of Nyssa find it ~ate I?'soshtom all use the notion of sympatheia; and we also r 111 t e writings fo .r 1l1stance, of John of Damascus, Photios, Michael Psell os and Ntkephoros Gregoras. In this paper I

want to focus on how one particular Byzantine philosopher of the eleventh century, Michael Psellos, used the notion of sympatheia in his attempt to account for the use and abuse of the occult sciences. So Psellos is discussed here as a representative of the Byzantine appropriation of the Greek concept of sympatheia. It should be noted, though, that it is a separate issue to what degree he was influenced in this matter by earlier Christian writers, as well as the extent to which his interpretation had a significant theoretical influence on Byzantine thought after him. Let us begin by examining the ancient background against which the Byzantines talk about sympatheia. In ancient <:Jreek .s~mpathe~a has different, though obviously interrelated, meanmgs: tt ts used 111 medical writings, as for example in the Hippocratic corpus (De alim. 23.1), to refer to the fact that when a part of the human body 2 somehow suffers another part may be affected, too; it is also used to talk about the fact that people may share the feelings of their 3 fellow-citizens, for instance in Aristotle's Politics (1340al3); finally, it is used to refer to the supposed phenomenon that all beings on earth and in the heavens are inextricably linked together. That is to say, the ancient notion of sympatheia indicates a close connection between things which are parts of some kind of a whole, either at the same level, as different parts of the body are in relation to the body as a whole, or at different levels, as the body and t~e soul are in relation to the living being as a whole. Thus sympathew could refer to the close connection between different parts of the same body as a whole, but also to the close connection between different human beings as parts of mankind as a whole, or the close connection between everything in the world as a part of the world as a whole, or between the body of the world and its soul as p~s of the world. And it is this latter use of the notion of sympathew, the cosmic sympatheia, which I want to mainly concentrate ~n in what follows, since this is the most relevant to the explanation of the occult sciences.

;-:-:::------

' J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bou h Theory of Magic, tr R Br . (Log 1 (London, 1913), 51 ff; M. Mauss, A General am ndon and Boston, 1972) 11 ff.

Hippocrates [attributed to), De atimento, ed. E. Littre, Oeuvres completes d'Hippocrate, IX (Paris, 1861; repr. Amsterdam, 1962), 98-120. 3 Aristotle, Politica, ed. W. D. Ross, Aristotelis politica (Oxford, 1957; repr. 1964).

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Katerina Ierodlakonou

v t.'
The notion of cosmic sympatheia was introduced by the Sto' philosophers in the Hellenistic period. 4 Some scholars ha Ic attributed the full development of this notion to Posidonius at t~: end of. the second and the beginning of the first century B.c.,s but there 1s no doubt that even the early Stoics, and in particular Chrysippus, believed in a close affinity among the different parts of the universe; and for this close affinity they most probably used the term sympatheia, 6 as well as the nouns synecheia (auvEXELa) or synoche (a1JVOX~)/ symphyia ( a1J fUJ>u(a), 8 symmone ( 01JIIIInvfl) 9 ( ' 10 r..- ., , sympn01a au J.UtVOLU), syntonia (auvwv(a), 11 and the corresponding verbs and adjectives. According to the Stoics there is nothing part~cularly mysterious about sympatheia, and esp~cially about the relatiOn between the things in the heavens and those on e_ru:th. In Stoic physics the whole cosmos is presented as a perfect livmg body whose parts, though, are imperfect, insofar as they are not self-sufficient and autonomous; for they cannot function by them~elves and always depend on their being parts of this whole ~d Its other parts. What holds the system together is a certain mtemal tension, a t6voc:;, created in the universe by the so-called pneuma (:1tVEUJ..tU), 12 which consists of a mixture of fire and air and permea~es the entire world as its soul, sustaining everything. Thus the Stoics thought of the world as a unified Jiving organism a zoon ) IJ (r.,cpov : JUSt as pneuma permeates a human body and makes it as
4 For an earlier use . cf. Theophrastus, De causs . . of the no t' 10n of sympathew, PIa ntarum, ed. F Wunmer' Tceoph .. opera quae supersunt omnia (Pans . " rast' 1 Eresu 1886 , ; repr. 1964}, 2.19.4. ' K. Reinhardt,). Kosmos und S)>mpa th !e. . neue Untersuclzungen uber .. . . (Munich, Pose1domos 1926 6 Stoicorum veterum Jr.agmenta, ed. H. von Am1m . (Leipzig, 1903), II, nos. 441, 473 47 5 532 534 546 .912; Posidonius, F26 Theiler=F217 E-K; F291 TbeUer=Fi F3' 23 ,S . 19 Theller=F 106 E-K F400f Theiler t01corum veterum fr ed '. 449,473,54 a~menta, von Am1m, II, nos. 389, 416, 439, 441, 447, 6 550 8 Stoicorum v' ' ' II. St . eterumfragmenta, ed. von Amim II 546 550 911 mcorum veterumfr. ' ' ' , . St . agmenta, ed. von Amim II 441 473 550 mcorum veterumfr ' ' ' ' . 11 St . agmenta, ed. von Amim II 543 912 orcorum vete fr ' , . 12 E S . rum agmenta, ed. von Amim II 543 .g. t01corum veter fr ' 546, 716, 911. On th:~iff:~ment~, ed. von Amim, II, 389, 416, 439, 441, 447, nt kmds of 11VEiiJ.Ul, cf. also Stoicorum veterum fragmenta ed von Am' 13 . lffi, 11 4 58, 459 Plutarch, Conjugalia praece . (Cambridge, Mass., . pta, ed. F. C. Babbitt, Plutarch's moralia, II 1928 repr. 1962), 34; Sextus Empiricus, Adversus

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its soul a Jiving and organic whole, with each single part grown together in close connection wit~ all t~e rest, in the sam~ way the whole world is permeated and giVen life by pneuma; th1s pneuma the Stoics identified with God who, in creating the world, becomes its soul. Hence, since everything in the world is permeated by pneu~, according to the Stoic view it makes perfect sense to say that, 1f something changes in the cosmic order in one part of the world, this may result in a change of something else in some other part of the world, though the two parts do not seem, at least at first sight, to be directly linked. And this holds, of course, also in the case o~ the relation between the heavens and the earth; for the tensional connection created by the pneuma among all parts of the universe implies, in particular, the sympathetic relation betwe.en heavenly and terrestrial things and, as a result, the connecuon between celestial and terrestrial phenomena. So, we may apply the analogy of the Jiving organism even further: just as a well-trained medi~al doctor can diagnose diseases affecting bodily organs by studymg their symptoms revealed in other parts of the body, it should be possible for someone who has acquired the relevant knowledge ~o interpret signs or symptoms found in any one part of the w~rld m order to have a better understanding of other parts of the umverse . This is, in fact, how the Stoics justified divination and, in particular, astrology. 14 Since the events of a person's life are connected, as. a result of the cosmic sympatheia, with astral movement, a certam constellation of the stars can indicate a certain event in a person's life. Or in the case of dreams, the Stoics claimed that while we are dreaming the human soul, which is in a sympathetic relation to
mathematico, ed. J. Mau and H. Mutschmann, Sexti Empirici o~era . 11-lll. 2'' ed. (Leipzig, 1914-61), 9.78-85. On the Stoic application of the btolog1c~l con~ep~~f pneuma to cosmology, cf. M. Lapidge, 'Stoic cosmology', m J. Rt~t, e '.e Stoics (Berkeley, 1978), !61-85, esp. 176; D. E. Hahm, The Origms of Stoc Cosmology(Ohio,l977), 163. . , . . 14 On astrology, cf. A.-J. Festugiere, La ReV<flatiotl d' Hermes Tnsmeglste,l.(P.arts, 10 1944), esp. 89-101; A. A. Long, 'Astrology: arguments ~ro and contra :. Barnes, J. Brunschwig, M. Bumyeat, M. Schofield, eds., Sc1ence and Speculatw Studies in Hellenistic Theory and Practice (Cambridge, 1982}, 165-92; ~: D~nye~, 'The case against divination: an examination of Cicero's De dlvmatwne Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 31 (1985}, 1-10.

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116

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God, is to some extent liberated from bodily restraints and thus able to share something of the foreknowledge of that divinity which is its source. To sum up, what is important to keep in mind in connection with the Stoic notion of sympatheia is the fact that, since the entire world is permeated by pneuma, everything in it stands in a sympathetic relation with everything else. This means that, according to the Stoics, cosmic sympatheia is in principle a symmetrical relation, in the sense that a change in any part of the universe, on earth or in the heavens, may result in a change in any other part of the universe, on earth or in the heavens. A change in the heavens may affect, or be a sign of, what happens on earth, but also the other way round, what happens on earth may affect, or be a sign of, what happens in the heavens. The Platonists were influenced by the Stoic notion of cosmic sym_patheia to such an extent that it is only possible to fully grasp therr use of the notion against its Stoic background. They also, following in this Plato's Timaeus, stressed the fact that the universe is a unified whole, and they also assumed that even parts of it which are separated by a large distance may affect each other in a con~picuous v:ay, while the intervening parts seem unaffected. Plotmus, for mstance, like Plato and the Stoics, thought of the world as a living organism. 15 Nevertheless, the Platonists' understanding of cosmic sympatheia significantly differs in certain respects from that of the Stoics. For their supreme God is ~ranscendent and not part of the world, the way the Stoic God is Immanent. In addition, on their view there is a sharp distinction between the material and the immaterial world of which the material world is a living image. Hence, the Pl~tonists strongly o~posed the Stoics' doctrine of a direct commingling of the Divine with ~atter; they claimed that the Divine rather employs in the formatiOn of the world certain incorporeal powers.

As a point of departure the Platonists used the passage from Plato's Timaeus (4la-b) concerning the harmonious order that the Demiurge imposes on matter, which as such moves irregularly. God creates the world as a highly rational material living being in the image of the Divine Intellect, w~ich is an intelligible .immateri~l living being. The material world IS held together, and Its order IS maintained, by a rational soul of its own, the world soul, which, illuminated by the Divine Intellect, guides the life of the sensible world. The world soul as a whole operates in each and every part of the body of the world, and in this sense extends throughout the world but, being immaterial, it is not dispersed throughout the body 'of the world, as the Stoic pneuma is: Such a P~at?nistic reinterpretation of the Stoic doctrine of cosm1c sympatheza 1s first found in the writings of Philo, in which the organization of the 6 world is said to be due to God through God's Logos or Reason.' Later, Plotinus and the Neoplatonists introduce a whole series of divine beings and daemons, who form the link between God and the sensible world; they hold everything together in its ordained or~er and they have the power to care and watch over the eternal cohesiOn 17 of reality, including the visible cosmos. That is to say, the Platonists modified the notion of cosmic sympatheia by placing the source of all power that permeates the universe in the immaterial intelligible sphere as opposed to the sensible world, which is constituted by both the sublunary and the celestial world, i.e. by both the earth and the heavens: Th~y thus explained cosmic sympatheia not in terms of somethmg hke the Stoic pneuma, but rather in virtue of a non-physical linkage . some kind of analogy (avaf..oy(a), or more specifically some kmd of 18 likeness or similarity (Of.LOLOtT]c;/6j.LO(OOOLc;), both between the immaterial intelligible world and the material sensible world, as
16

E.g. Philo, De opificio mundi, ed. L. Cohn, Philonis Alex~ndrini ~pera quae L. supersunt, I (Berlin, 1896; repr. 1962), 117; Philo, De spectaltbus legtbus, ed. 2 Cohn, Philonis Alexandrini opera quae supersunt, V (Berlin, 1906; repr. l96 ). 1.16; 1.329. . . 17 E.g. Proclus, In Platonis Timaeum commentaria, ed. E. Diehl, 3 vols. (L~lpZlg, 1903..{)6; repr. Amsterdam, 1965), 3.162; 208; 241; ~ro~lus, In Platon.ts publicam commentarii, ed. W. Kroll, 2 vols. (Letpztg, 1899-1901, rep

" Plotinus, Enneades (Leiden, _ ) ed . P. ~enry and H.-R. Schwyzer, Plotini opera, 3 vols. 195 notion of 1 73he.4 4 32 37 4.5.2-3. For a discussion of Plotinus' use of the Plotmus', I sympat Philosophical Quartta cf G ( M 0 urtler, 'S ympathy m lnternattona er1 Y 24 1984), 395-406.

m;

Amsterdam, 1965), 2.258. . 34-8 18 E.g. Plotinus, Enneades, ed. Henry and Schwyzer, 3.3.6.24-38, 4.5.1.

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Katerina Ierodiakonou

The Greek Concept of Sympatheia and Its Byzantine Appropriation in Michael Psellos
21

105

.,.

., ,.,

well as between different parts of the material world that equally affected by the intelligible world, for instance through world soul. And it is in this latter sense of sympatheia something spatially isolated in the sensible world cannot fail to affect even a remote counterpart. Hence, the Platonists seem to have regarded some sympathetic relations as asymmetrical and some as symmetrical. The sympathetic relations between the intelligi~le and the sen.sibl~ world are asymmetrical, since it is only the sensible world wh1ch 1s affected by the intelligible world, and not the other way round. On the other hand, the sympathetic relations between the different parts of the sensible world, which are similarly affected by the world soul, are clearly symmetrical and this is why the sympathetic relation between the earth and th~ heavens guarantees that celestial phenomena may indicate what happens on earth, while terrestrial phenomena may reliably provide us with a better grasp of what happens in the heavens. The Platonists, therefore, like the Stoics, thought of divination as possible and explainable on the basis of the concept of sympatheia. ?od ttu:ough the Divine Intellect and a descending chain of 1mmatenal powers engineers events in the sensible world that are me~nt as si.gns about what he has in mind; it is, then, up to us to not1ce and mterpret these signs in order to find out what the future may bring.

th~

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practices of the Chaldaea~s- But what . ex.actly is t~e la~er Neoplatonic use of the not10n of sympatheza m connection w1th magic? As has rightly been pointed out,22 one can distinguish in the socalled Chaldaean Oracles, a philosophical and a magical aspect. The philosophical aspect consists of a cosmology in which the various parts of the universe are in close cohesion and governed by a system of powers with a strict hierarchy. At the apex of the hierarchy we have a triad of beings: the Father from whom the whole world has emanated in manifold gradations, the Paternal Intellect who has organized the world rationally, and the Divine Power also called Hecate. Further down in the hierarchy there are various orders of angels and daemons, including good daemons who help the human soul to ascend towards the Father and bad daemons who are responsible for all evils. And it is at this point that the magical aspect of the Oracles becomes crucially relevant. For the Oracles also contain rules and instructions for rituals which, if performed in the right way, summon up good daemons and ward off bad daemons. Hence, the magical or theurgical aspect of the Oracles has a preeminently practical purpose; it clearly is supposed to enable human beings to control the daemons' powers. The later Neoplatonists, who recognized in the cosmology of the Oracles beliefs that are very close to their own, used the notion of sympatheia in order to explain how the manipulation of daemons is possible in magic and theurgy. For they believed that there is some likeness or similarity that allows not only daemons to have an effect on human beings, but most importantly human beings to have an effect on daemons. In fact, some Neoplatonists thought that human beings and daemons share in materiality, even if not to the same degree, and this is mainly the reason why certain kinds of dae~ons, for instance the terrestrial and subterrestial, can more eas1ly be

This is not, however, the only way Platonists used the notion of cos~c sympatheia; for they also extensively used it to justify mag1c. Even Philo (De migr. Abrah. 178-9) 19 and Plotinus (Enneades 4.4.40; 4.9.3), who show no particular interest in magic, refen:ed to cos!llic sympatheia when they discussed magical practlces. 20 And it is this very same notion that we find in the works of later Neoplatonists, like for instance in Proclus' De arte hieratica, as the main explanation of the magical beliefs and
" Philo Judaeus ' De mgratron.e Abraham1, . ed. P. Wendland, Phi/on is Alexandrlnl .. era u 0 . q ae supersunt, II (Berhn and Reimer, 1897; repr. De Gruyter, 1962), 2684 ,. E. R. Dodds 'Theurgy and ts 1 . Studies 37 (1 SS-6 ! re.auo~ to Neoplatonism', Journal of R~m"!' 9 'J. Dillon, Plotmus and the Chaldaean Oracles', tn hts The Great 7: 94 d' .' Christianityr (Aa ldlllonh. Further Studies in the Development of Platonism and Early ers ot, 1997), 131-40.

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21

Proclus, De arte hieratica (=De sacrificio et magia], ed. J. Bidez, CMAG. VI

7)

(Brussels, 1928), 148-51. 22 J. M. Duffy, 'Reactions of two Byzantine intellectuals to the theory and pract~ce of magic; Michael Psellos and Michael ltalikos', in H. Maguire, ed., Byzanrme

Magic (Washington, D. C.,l995), 83-97.

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enslaved by the magicians' rituals. That is to say, the notion f sympatheia between different parts of the sensible world ~ IS . presented here as. a. sy~metnca~ relation having a function that goes beyond that of divmatlon. For It allows human beings to influence the behaviour of daemons, either in order to use the help of the good daemons for the ascent of the soul or in order to neutralize the activities of the bad daemons. This again is an idea not to be found in Stoicism. To sum up, the Neoplatonists adjusted the notion of sympatheia to fit their metaphysical doctrines. Cosmic sympatheia is for them some kind of likeness or similarity between the immaterial intelligible world and the material sensible world, as well as between the different parts of the sensible world that are similarly affected by the world soul. It is on the basis of this notion that they regarded divination as possible. But they also added to it a further aspect; for they recognized that cosmic sympatheia can be used not only to predict what happens in the future, but also to explain how human beings can manipulate the daemons who are the intermediaries between them and the Divine. We should now tum to Psellos' use of the notion of cosmic sympatheia. The challenge for him, as for all Christian thinkers, is how to use this notion in order to understand the world and the relations between its parts without coming into conflict with standard Christian dogma. Psellos believes that there is cosmic sympatheia and it is God himself who establishes it; he even says that all parts of the world are closely connected in accordance with a_n .ineffable ~ UQ~~toc;;) sym~a~heia that reminds us of the unity of a hvmg orgamsm. The Chnstlan God, though, is not part of the :orld; rat~er, h~ cre~te~ the world and, in particular, he created the uman bemgs m his Image (xat'Elx6va xat Of.LOLOJOLV). The human soul constitutes the divine element in us, which aspires, when freed from the restraints of our body, to be in touch with God,

23

and finally to ascend after death to heaven. Hence, there is no doubt that the Platonists' notion of .cosmic sympatheia fits much better than the Stoic view with what the Christians are prepared to say about the sympathetic relations in the world. There is some kind of likeness or similarity, even if not directly between God and the creation, certainly between God's Son and human beings. In addition, there may also be some kind of likeness or similarity in the way things in the sensible world are affected by God's power; for since all parts of the world are closely connected, when one part is affected by God's power other parts are similarly affected, so that an event in one part of the world can be used to predict another event in another part of it. But does Psellos also endorse the function of cosmic sympatheia which the later Neoplatonists used in connection with Chaldaean magic? When Psellos in his writings discusses the cosmological theories and magical practices of the Chaldaeans, he as a matter of course also refers to the notion of sympatheia; for he is well aware of the fact that this is the way philosophers before him justified such beliefs and practices. 25 However, the fact that he refers .to the notion of sympatheia in this context does not mean t~at he htms~lf in his other treatises uses cosmic sympatheia the way It was used In connection with Chaldaean magic. If we carefully read Psellos' remarks about the Chaldaeans, what seems to be the main reason for his strong disapproval of the Chaldaean tradition is the pra.ctices which involve inducing daemons, by using hymns, sacnfic.es, perfumes or statues, in order to serve the purposes of the magicta? and to break the natural order of things?6 As Psellos himself says, tt is indeed monstrous to claim that one could change the order of things, since God himself arranged them in the best possible way (Sathas, V, 57). 27 Hence, what Psellos finds really offensive in the

~ 0 ~ the nda7:tu'hre of daemons and their different kinds, cf. H. Lewy, Chaldaean "'rae es an eurgy (Paris, 1956; rev. ed. 1978). ~~~:t:no::; :Ioria minora, ed. A. Littlewood (Leipzig, 1985) op. 37, UQQt]WV x.at ~{,~ t] 'tOU ~V'tO 6~oE!1tQO UAAt]AU 'H.U'tCt OUJ.Ulcl6ELUV I<; vtuta6EL W EvO ~cpou 'tOii x.60f10U "tUYXUVOV'tO.

36

"Michael Psellos, Phi/osophica minora, IT, ed. J. Duffy (Stuttgart and Leipzig. 1992), op. 39, 148.8; 12; op. 41, 152.15; 18; Michael Psello~, Theolog1c~, ed. P. Gautier (Leipzig, 1989), 1 23A.53; 57; cf. Michael Psellos, Phllosoph1ca mmora. 1, ed.D.O'Meara(Leipzig,l989), 3.119-20. . 187 16 Psellos, Philosophica minora, I, ed. O'Meara, 3.137-47; Psellos, Ep1stll 1 a ed. K. Sathas, MwawJVt.xi) Bt{3A.wh]xTJ. V (Paris, 1876), 474,478. " TE(la't!i>liE ilYtJfl.UL 'tO 'tftv 't!i>V o/..wv 'ta;Lv fl.E'tUltOLEIV btayyti..i..eoem "tTl 'toO 0eoii 1t(lovo((;t 'tE'tayf!.Evwv x.a/..6:> ...

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Chaldaean tradition is 1 . the attempt to influence and mampu ate the course of thmgs, to mterfere with divine providence and h

c-

li

Besides, whereas the Chaldaeans and the Neoplatonists believe that there are good and bad daemons, all daemons accordt'n t 28 ' g 0 . . f 'th Chn~tlan ru , are bad. Human beings, therefore, should not try to mantpulate . them, . ,even if they can, because dealing with them a1 ways bnngs mtstortunes. That is to say, as a Christian, Psellos cannot accept that the sympathetic relations between the parts of the world are such th~t human beings may control the powers of the daemons for their own benefit. In fact, this is why Psellos repe~tedly refuses t~ give us detailed information about magical practices; for he claims to be afraid that, if we follow them, they could harm ~s, and the~ he may be held responsible. 29 It is only in cases of trymg to avOid the daemons' malevolent influence for instaiice in exorcisms, that Christians are allowed to have something to do with them, as Psellos himself admits in his life of St Auxentios; 30 but these are clearly cases of antipatheia, of driving the daemons away, rather than of sympatheia. What .about cases, however, in which Psellos gives the impression of u~mg the Greek concept of sympatheia to justify magical practices? After all, Psellos is the writer of a treatise on the prop~rties of stones (Phil. min. I op. 34), in which he not only descnbes the external appearance of precious stones, but also gives an a~count of their powers of healing, which very much sound like magtcal powers. For instance, he claims that galaktites helps huma~s forget bad things and remember good things (39-42), while topazwn cures cases of mania (99-104) and sardonyx those suffering from melancholy (79-82). Moreover, Psellos seems to approve of certain ways of venerating the icons, which are again
"E.g. Psellos, .Philos~phica Minora, II, ed. Duffy, op. 38, 145.8-10. Psellos seems to hold mconsistent VIews on the issue of the daemons' corporeality; cf. Michael Ps~llos, Meteoro/ogie, ed. J. Bidez, CMAG, VI (Brussels, 1928), 61 and Psellos, Demono/ogie, ed. Bidez, ibid., 119. " Psellos, Philosophica minora, I, ed. O'Meara, 3.125-55; Psellos, Epistula 187, :~ Sathas, MwaUJJvtxiJ Bt{3).w(hjxr], V,475. Michael Psellos, Orationes hagiographicae, ed. E. A. Fisher (Stuttgart, 1994), op. I A.505-13.

very similar to magical practices. For instance, he talks in his Chronographia (6.65-7) about the remarkable icon of Christ, which was commonly referred to as the "Antiphonetes", and which the Empress Zoe consulted in difficult moments, as if it were alive; when the colours of the icon became vivid, she interpreted it as a good sign, but when the colours turned pale, the forecast was bad. Similarly, Psellos talks about the icon of the Virgin Mary of Blachemai, which the people of Constantinople often used as a way to predict the future (Orat. hag. 4); when they asked the icon specific questions about their everyday affairs, they believed that, if the Virgin's garment moved, the answer was positive, if it did not 3 move, the answer was negative. I But what exactly differentiates these cases from magical practices, so that Psellos can present them as perfectly orthodox and respectable? How can he claim, as he actually does (Orat. min. 7.156-80), that he is not actingas a magician when he finds himself engaged in such practices? According to Psellos, practices which only are meant to bring human beings closer to God, or to assist them in making forecasts and in determining favourable aiid unfavourable circumstances for particular actions, have nothing objectionable. For such practices do not aim at commanding daemons to produce good or bad effects, aiid thus at interfering with divine providence; they simply help us, always with God's assistance, to learn his will and adjust our lives accordingly. So, there is nothing unorthodox in believing that certain stones have sympathetic powers of healing, or there is nothing wrong in attempting to predict future events by paying attention to the changes of an icon. Furthermore, there is nothing reprehensible about performing liturgies for victory in war, using incense, fasting, or praying; all such practices are supposed to make our soul clean and pure in order to be ready to accept God's will. Therefore, it may be that Psellos does not use the notion of sympatheia the way the Neoplatonists did in order to justify magic and theurgy, but he follows both the Stoics aiid the Platonists when he uses it to explain divination. For he seems to understaiid the
31

1,,

.on the icon of Virgin Mary of Blachemai, cf. E. Papaioannou 'The "usual nurac1e" and an unusual image', JOB 51 (2001), 177-88.

110

'!f!!'
Katerina lerodi~ou
The Greek Concept of Sympatheia and Its Byzantine riation in Michael Psellos ApproP

Ill

notion of sympatheia as the main explanation b h' we are able to have, because of our affinity to t~e m~ ~he fact that understanding of the world and of G d' . a better . . . o s wt 1 I by ?IVlne, mterp . retmg the d 1vme stgns and symbols (auv81l"Uta , .. A , ?.7) F . . ,.. 'auwo~~.a: Orat ha 434 . . or mstance, m the case of the icon of th V' . . g. . ; claims that it is our close relation to y . Me ugm Mary, Psellos Irgm ary that help . t h mgs wh1ch cannot otherwise be seen so that s ~s see f t (0 1 ' we can predict the u. ure rat. wg. 4.32-82); and interestingly enough h . 10 thts context both the term sympatheia (Orat hag 4 68 )' ed uses an another tmc ,~erm, name.ly the term oikeiosis (oixe(wm~) (Orat. hag. 4.'66). But to notlc.e the c~smic sympatheia and to interpret God's stgns a~d sy~bols_ m the nght way involves, according to Psellos, no mampulatwn of the natural course of things, and thus no magic.

. fl b ause I think that it gives us a good sense of how he bne y, ec the notion of sympathew an d 1ts use 111 th e understands . . interpretation of the dtv111e symbols.

To start WI , h es here to denote a letter of the alphabet IS stotc ezon se os Us , 1 h. II P

(atOLJ(ELOV), and not gramma (yQUf.lf.lU)

'th it is interesting to note that the Greek term which

~-

.;
'

!.
i ..

.~ .

There are indeed many writings by Psellos in which he refers directly or indirectly to the notion ofsympatheia in connection with th~ . interpretation of God's signs and symbols. Among such wntmgs there is a small treatise, which Psellos devotes to the interpretation of the twenty-four letters of the alphabet, though in this case he does not explicitly use the tenn auf.1Jt6.8ELU. The title of the treatise is Interpretation of the twenty-four letters (EQiJ.l]VE(a :rtEQL t&v eixomtWOUQWV OtOLXELWV) and has been edited by John Duffy as opusculum 36 of Psellos' Philosophica minora I. The idea behind this text is that the letters of the alphabet, as well as their order and shape, are symbols (OUJ.l~OALXOO~: 63, 129, 515), in the sense that they hide ineffable messages (6.:rt6QQl]taliiQQl]ta f.lllVUJ.lUta: 292-7; cf. 63; 624) which provide us, if we manage to unravel them, with a better understanding of the world and of God'.s will. Since modem scholars have not paid any attention to this treatise/ 3 in what follows I want to discuss Psellos' text, at least

':htc~ he a ~o ~ses 111. IS writings.34 In Byzantine times the tenn st01chezon retams Its anc1ent ing according to which it refers to the four elements, earth, mean , h' h water, air and fire, as the basic constituents of .everyt mg 1? ~ e world. It also retains the sense which we find 111 early Chnsttan times when it refers to the astral bodies and the powers believed to Jie behind them. Most importantly, it seems that the term stoicheion acquires at this time another sense, for it seems to refer to a daemon, and in particular a daemon attached to some concrete object; for instance, a daemon attached to a statue which thus exhibits supernatural forces, i.e. it becomes a talisman, like the Hippodrome monuments on the basis of which future events, and especially disasters, could be predicted. This is, after all, how we 35 nowadays understand the term stoicheion in modem Greek. Hence, just talking about stoicheia most probably brought to the mind of a Byzantine in that period some connection with daemons and magical practices. Does this mean, however, that Psellos presents his interpretation of the letters of the alphabet as implying magical relations between letters and the world?
In the proemium of the treatise, Psellos twice boasts to be the first to interpret the letters of the alphabet as divine symbols (l\ULVov/exmvot6f.ll]OUf.tEV: 14-17, 49-50). He also claims at the ~nd to have written it in just one night, as if he were, we could say. m ~ state of divine inspiration (637-42). But what is exactly the achievement which he regards as innovative and God inspired? Is it

32

In the sympathetic relations between humans and the divine Psellos seems ~ 0 0 regard the Virgin Mary and the Christian Saints as intermediaries; cf. the .~ OU1Jm19~~ for the Virgin Mary (Psellos, Orationes hagiographicae, ed. Fls er, 4.73) and forSt Auxentios (ibid., IA.500). . th. his 33 The only discussion of this treatise, and in particular of Psellos' cilum a; hn 0 work is the first on the subject, can be found in an unpublished paper by by Duffy, "'The child of one night's labor": A treatise on the Greek alp?abe~ Michael Psellos' (presented at the Byzantine Studies Conference, Brookbne, ' November 8-10, 1991).
1

I
34

M ~.g. Psellos, Orationes hagiographicae, ed. Fisher, 1B.I99; Psellos Philosophic mora ' I 74.142. "F D~ I ed . O'M eara, 32.87: 36.445; Psellos, Theologica, ed. Gautier, !7 'c mse1~, Das Alp~abet m Mystic und Magie (Leipzig and Berlin, 1922), 14- Blum, The meanmg of Ol:OLXELOV and its derivatives in the Byzantine age' E ranos Jahrbuch 44 (1946) 31 5-25; R. Greenfield, ' Byzanfi D Traditions of Belief in Late ne aemonology (Amsterdam, 1988), 190-95.

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really true that nobody before him tried to interpret the letters of the alphabet as symbols of the Divine? In ancient texts as well as in the works of Christian Fathers we sometimes do find isolated interpretations of individual letters. For instance, Plutarch's treatise De E apud Delphos gives seven possible interpretations of the letter "E1jnA.ov which is found in Delphic inscriptions. 36 Since in Plutarch's time the diphthong 'EI' was used as the name of "E'ljJLA.ov, this particular letter acquired a symbolic character, not only because it refers to the number five, but also because it refers to the conditional particle 'if' as well as to the second person singular of the verb 'to be'; according to one of these interpretations, "E'ljJLA.ov is the second vowel, and since the Sun is the second planet and Apollo is identified with the Sun, ''E'IjJIAov is a symbol of Apollo. Also, in the scholia on Dionysius Thrax (321.37) there is some discussion of the letter 8f]tet, which is said to portray with its circular shape the universe, having an axis in the middle as the division between the heavens and the earth. Then in John's Apocalypse (1.8; 21.6; 22.13}, famously enough, God presents himself as the 'AA.<j>a and the 'Qj.liya of everything. And in one of John Chrysostom's homilies (in Epist. ad Hebr.: PG 63, 77) the letter 'AA.<j>a is said to be the foundation of the alphabet just like Christ is the foundation of Christianity. Furthermore, there are also passages in which ancient philosophers used the letters of the alphabet as an example for understanding the constitution and division of reality, like for instance when Plato and Aristotle compare the letters with the basic elements. 37 Finally, it should be added that both ancient philosophers, starting from the Pythagoreans, and Christian thinkers were very much intrigued by the symbolic meaning of numbers, for which letters were used, as well as by the unraveling of the real meaning of names in terms of t~e letters from which they are composed, an issue notoriously dtscussed in Plato's Cratylus.
36

g next to the magical tradition, there is no doubt that letters, Movm magtca 1 numbers and names, play an tmportant ro1 e m ~~ II as . . . " and practices. For they are satd to be the symbols whtch God beI1e1s us the destre " 10r the n in the world in order to keep aw ake m has sow h " f h F t Being.38 The magician who knows t ese voca1 tmages o t e d:~~ne"39 should use them in their original form without, for t ce translating them into another language, so that he manages msan, 40 h through them to communicate with the da~mons. And t e~e are indeed many instances of the use of magtcal letters both m the Greek magical papyri from the second to t~e fifth century A. D., and elatte's Anecdota Atheniensia whtch may be as late as the among D . 1 sixteenth century, but most probably present a ~uch ear1 _ter magtca 't' For example , vowels are often used m a certam order for tradtton. . . all kinds of incantations.41 Letters ~e writ_te~ in magtc~l rectpes ~or curing diseases, like for instance mso.rrm~: or t~e. btte of a "_Vtld dog,43 and even for identifying a thtef. . In addt~!On, there ts a treatise by the alchemist Zosimus on the mterpretatton of the letter n.,b hich he takes to be the symbol for the planet Saturn, FYCt, w . . (. , ) although he adds that it also has an mexphcable etVEQJ.LllVEUtov incorporeal meaning.

So, why does Psellos claim that he is the first to. write on the symbolic meaning of letters, when there is plenty of t~terest bef?re him in the subject? It is true that in his treatise on the mter_Pretatton of letters Psellos presents the symbolic meaning of every smgle ~ne of the twenty-four letters of the alphabet in a systematic_ way, whtch is far more sophisticated than the scattered remarks of hts

" Ch td 0 1 ed tr and comm. R. Majercik (Leiden, 1989),108.1; bl' hus De a aean rae es , ., Proclus, In Platonis Timaeum commentaria, ed. Diehl, I 211. 1 ~ 1am ~~ ) 12 1 mysteriis, ed. E. des Places, Jamblique. Les mysteres d'Egypte ( ans,

1 6

42.15-18. . 959) 24 "Damaskios, In Philebum, ed. and tr. L.G. Westermk (Amsterdam, I .. Cha/daean Oracles, ed. Majercik, 150. . ed K

" E.g. Papyri Graecae Magicae, Die griechischen Zauberpapyn,

Plutarch, DeE apud Delphos, ed. W. Sieveking, Plutarchi moralia, III (Leipzig, 1929; repr. 1972), 1-24.

Praezidanz eta!., 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1928-31, 2" ed. 1973-1974). I, 11- 19

42

;,. II. 2 '

" Plato, Timaeus, ed. J. Burnet, Platonis opera, IV (Oxford, 1902; repr. 1968), 4 8c; Plato, Phi/ebus, ed. J. Burnet, Platonis opera, II (Oxford, 1901; repr. 1967)18bff.; Plat~, Theaetetus, ed. J. Burnet, Platonis opera, I (Oxford, 1900; repr. 1967), 202eff; Anstotle,Meteorologica, ed. and tr. P. Louis (Paris, 1982),104lbff.

166e; IV, 493. . . 9-11 550.5A. Delatte, Anecdota Atheniensia, I (L1ege and Pans, 1927), 142 12,551.10-13. 43 Delatte, Anecdota Atheniensa, l, 141.13-21. 44 Delatt~. Anecdota Atheniensia, l, 609.14--15,610.16-19 .

....

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115

predec~ssors. For he strongly believes that this exegesis of the alphabet may reveal to us th comprehensive world and our position in it since there . e stru~ture of the whole k' d f , IS COSmiC sympath . . some m o affinity between God and hi . e~a, I.e. letters of the alphabet. For instance th fi s ~reatwn, down to the in Psellos' view the Trinity A.A.a e ~~s~t letters symbolize verb auvaA.d<j>ELV "encorr:passes" , w !Cth' e c?nnects with the . , every mg m it If B which he connects with the verb ~afvELv " d ,se , ~ta, and does not tum back to some oth . '. trocee s from itself he connects with the adjective er g~mCip e,.. ~nd rcq.L~, which everything in the world !:! , A. Y LJ.IO~, IS productive of' 6La( Em . E 'ta symbolizes the division the E'l!Jt~ l: ~. of the w~rld, which has as a result the wonde; the lJ<:o~h. human bemgs feel towards the world and tht's ,s' th reason y they start un.endmg . inquiry, their ' l;,~tT]OL. Thus, e Psellos w mana . t he!r D.tA.ta ''E'Ijlies to gtve ~s an mterpretation of the next three letters in sand Zl]ta, and of. their particular order. And 'Hta to 'Q , ~e way by relatmg the rest of the letters from j.lya With the different modes of human enquiry starting from our to attempts to acq~lre k ' . nowledge of the sensible world and moving ou d'ffi

:ee

names and formulae, possibly implying by this a contrast with the significance in magic of a precise use of letters and names (Drat. hag. 4.79-82). Hence, the sole motivation behind Psellos' treatise seems rather to be his wish to construct a systematic exegesis of the alphabet, which is in accordance with his metaphysical views, overrides the scattered interpretations of the previous thinkers and cancels the paradoxical interpretations given to letters in magic. In other words, Psellos tries, on the basis of his belief in the sympathetic relation between the letters and everything else in the world, to give a reasonable interpretation of their hidden meanings; and this interpretation does not serve any purpose other than to provide human beings with a better understanding of the world and God's will. But what kind of understanding do we get through Psellos' interpretation of the letters of the alphabet? The cosmic sympatheia between God and his creation is often characterized by Psellos with an adjective, which is very common in the Neoplatonic and magical 46 tradition, namely it is called "ineffable" ( iiQQl]t0). It is not ineffable, though, in the sense that it is shameful or forbidden to be spoken of; rather, it is ineffable in the sense that it cannot be expressed, since it cannot be fully grasped. For the true extent of our relation to the Divine is not something we can fully understand, since there is so little we can know about God. Nevertheless, because . of God's sympathetic relation to the world, we can understand something about his will, if we carefully read his signs and symbols. So, learning, among other things, to interpret the letters of the alphabet may help us in Psellos' view to acquire a better understanding of God. We should not, of course, expect that this understanding could have the certainty of demonstrative knowledge. The signs and symbols God sends us, including the letters of the alphabet, are mere

contin~es t~;

h~

Moreover, Psel~os ~ IC~lties ~~ ~rasping the intelligible reality. their order but al n ~~.s treatise mt~rprets not only the letters and the lette : so t eir shape; for mstance, the circular shape of because~ 0 j.U'X.~ov symbolizes on his view the pure intellect e pure mtellect always turns to itself. ' This description hope brief that h' . 0 f t he contents of Psellos' treatise shows I IS exegesis , to be, used for . of the letters o f the alphabet is not supposed by knowing th magtcba1 ~urposes. For there is certainly no hint that, e sym fohc influence the ord h mean . mg 0 f t he 1etters, human beings may in which th er 0 t e umverse. Even in his life of St Auxentios ere are . . daemons Psello . many descnptlons of attempts to drive away letters or' names s IS t careful not . to make any reference to the use of 1 practices.4s Als; a h east not m the way these are used in magical Blachemai and how en he talks about the icon of Virgin Mary of out that in venera~:~~~e .ask f?r !ts help, he makes sure to point g 1con It 1s not important to use certain .
:.,~T~h---.----------------ere ts a passage, however in w . htch Psellos clearly says that even !he utterance of !he name of God has lh ' hagiographicae, ed. Fisher :ap~;'ger to drive away daemons (Psellos, Orationes ' -9; cf. also ibid., IA.716-7)

46

.Psellos, Orationes hagiographicae, ed. Fisher, 4.67; Michael Psellos, Oratorio m:nora, ed. A. Littlewood (Leipzig, 1985), 37.367; Philosophica minora, I, ed. 0 Meara, 3.119; Michael Psellos, Theologica, I, ed. P. Gautier (Leipzig. 1989),

81.34.

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117

indications, they are ef.l4>aaeu;, as Psellos often repeats.47 In fact there are two occasions in which he alludes to the literal sense of the Greek noun Ef.l4>aat as a "mirror image": in his interpretation of the three first letters of the alphabet, Psellos points out that, since we cannot experience God's light in all its glory, it is at least important to see its reflection in water (Phil. min. I 36.130-6); and in his account of the miracle of the icon of the Virgin Mary of Blachemai, he again says that, since we cannot see the Sun, just as we cannot have knowledge of the Divine, it is at least important to see the Sun's reflection in water (Orat. hag. 4.49-53). This means, of course, that our interpretations of God's signs and symbols not only fail to give us certain knowledge, they always run the risk of not being correct. To avoid false beliefs, Psellos often stresses that we have to be very vigilant in reading God's symbols. For instance, again in his account of the miracle of the icon of the Virgin Mary, he goes to great length to show that even the way questions are posed to the icon considerably influences our interpretations of God's will (Orat. hag. 4.617ff.). But, then, who is really in a good position to interpret God's signs and symbols? In the proemium of his exegesis of the letters of the alphabet, Psellos draws a sharp distinction between on the one hand the sophists, who have always something to say about everything without getting involved in serious thought, and on the other hand the philosophers, who work hard to avoid false beliefs and to acquire at least so~e true understanding of the world and its Creator (Phil. min. I 36.10-14). Psellos obviously thinks of himself as a philosopher when he presents his systematic interpretation of the letters of the alphabet, and in general when he arduously tries to grasp the hidden meanings of things in the sensible world on the basis of their sympathetic relation to the Divine. I do think that Psellos considers himself a philosopher in a long philosophical tradition, when he appropriates the Greek concept of cosmic sympatheia in such a way as to reconcile Christian dogma with

that his I. f I hope , therefore, to .have shown . . Popular be Je s. f this notion is worthy of senous cons1deratwn. appropnauon o

47

Michael Psellos, De omnifaria doctrina, ed. L. G. Westerink (Nijmegen, 1948), 25.6; Psellos, Orationes hagiographicae, ed. Fisher, 4.679; 687; 698; 703; Psellos, Theo/og1ca, ed. Gautier, I 62.64; 76.129; 91.51; 54.

I would like to thank John Duffy and Pavlos Kalligas for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

PaulMagdalino
University of St. Andrews and Koc; University

Occult Science and Imperial Power in Byzantine History and Historiography (9th-12th Centuries)

The connection between science and government is as old as history and is still very much with us. The connection between the occult sciences and political regimes goes back at least to Sumer and Egypt, and still makes an occasional appearance even in western democracies. The mutual benefits of the relationship are obvious. The occult scientist can promise the ruler access to extraterrestrial forces, fabulous wealth, and inside knowledge of the future. The ruler can offer the occult scientist research funding, job security, and protection from persecution in societies where, as everywhere in the Christian and Islamic Middle Ages, the occult is more or less outlawed by the dominant ideology. The down-side is no less evident: the occult scientist can make his services and expertise available to the ruler's internal and external enemies; even if he does not, he Jives under constant suspicion of doing so. The ~ler who lavishes trust and patronage on a master of the occult nsks not only being defrauded, betrayed or at least misled, but also

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ult Science and Imperial Power in Byzantine History and 0 cc . ) Historiography (9 ..-12'"C entunes

121

incurring the resentment of his other comtiers, the censure of h' clergy, and a general loss of political credibility. IS The close but tense relationship between occult scientists and rule or would-be rulers is, more than anything, what puts occult scien:: in t?~ new.s, a~d by extensio.n gives it a place in the history books. Poht1cal h1stones thus contam valuable, often unique, evidencefor the existence of occult science in high places at important times. This is true of both the Roman and the Byzantine Empires. We would know much less about astrologers in early imperial Rome but for the gossip related by Tacitus, Suetonius, Cassius Dio and the Historia Augusta.' We would not know that astrologers existed in sixth, seventh and eighth-century Constantinople but for occasional mentions by Procopius, 2 John of Nikiu, 3 Theophanes4 and Theophanes Continuatus. 5 Yet narrative histories are not, of course, completely transparent windows on any aspect of the past they record. Their distance from the events they narrate can be si~ni.ficant. They conceal, distort and omit as much as they reveal. It IS important to understand, as far as possible with the aid of other sources, what they fail to convey. But because they are important, it is ~qually important to understand why they convey what they do. Th1s too throws light on the context and occasionally even the content of occult science in the culture that produced them. In this paper I will look at the evidence for occult science in Byza~tin~ history from the ninth to the twelfth century as recorded by h1stonans writing between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. Politically, this period was the great age of the medieval Byzantine
1

Empire; culturally, it was marked by a cumulative revival and expansion of learning in which both history writing and occult science played their parts. 6 My analysis will concentrate primarily on the material recorded in the three most informative histories: the anonymous continuation of the chronicle of Theophanes, compiled 7 in the mid tenth century and covering the period 813-961; the Alexiad of Anna Comnena, written towards the middle of the twelfth century and covering the reign of the author's father Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118); 8 and Niketas Choniates' history of the period 1118-1206, mostly written before the end of the twelfth century, but significantly revised and updated after the 9 crusader conquest of Constantinople in 1204. In each case I shall be concerned to establish: (a) what the text in question has to say about the occult sciences, (b) the function of this material in the narrative and the author's purpose in recording it, and (c) what emerges from collating this material with other contemporary evidence, most importantly that from non-historiographical sources. I shall also consider the three most relevant histories written between Theophanes Continuatus and Anna Cornnena, those by 11 Leo the Deacon (c. 1000),10 Michael Psellos (c. 1060 and c.\075)

One need only look at the footnotes of Frederick H. Cramer Astrology in Roman i-"wand.Politics (Philadelphia, 1954). ' Procopt~s . Anecdota, XI. 37-40: persecution of astrologers in Constantinople under Justmtan 1.
4

tr. R.H. Charles (London, i916), XCV, -4: astrological prediction of Maurice's downfall. ~p~an;~S c':;:~ographia, ed. C. de Boor (Leipzig, 1883; repr. Hildesheim, B 'r' N 8 Theophanes, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: 11 (6'~~ dn~ ~~ ear Eastern History, A.D. 284-813, tr. C. Mango and R. Scott Pank~ti,os ( ~t 4 643 : the astrologer-monk Paul (695) and the court astrologer

:r~~9Chro~i~;e of fohn, Bishop ofNikiu,

1980

Th 'pp.

79

' Theophanes Continuatus, ed. I. Bekker, CSHB (Bonn, 1838).

I have examined the role of astrology in this process in my recent book, L'orthodoxie des astrologues. La science entre le dogme et Ia divination tl Byzance (Vll'-XJV' siec/es), Realites byzantines 12 (Paris, 2006), chapters 3-5. 7 See above, n. 5. ' Anna Comnena, Annae Comnenae Alexias, ed. D.R. Reinsch, A. Kambylis, CFHB 40, 2 vols. (Berlin-New York, 2001); Anna Comnena, The Alexiad, tr. E. Sewter (Harmondsworth, 1969). 'Niketas Choniates Nicetae Choniatae Historia, ed. J.-L. van Dieten, CFHB II, 2 vols. (Berlin and New York, 1975); Niketas Choniates, 0 City of Byzamium. Annals of Niketas Choniates, tr. H. Magoulias (Detroit, 1984). The significance of the revisions, as evidenced by the different manuscript versions, is studied by A. J. Simpson, 'Studies on the Composition of Niketas Choniates' Historia' (Ph. D. diss., King's College London, 2004). 10 Leo the Deacon, Historia, ed. c. B. Hase, CSHB (Bonn, \828); Leo the Deacon, Leo the Deacon. Byzantine Military Expansion in the Tenth Century, tr. A.-M. Talbot eta! (Washington, D. C., 2004). 11 Michael Psellos, Chronographia, ed. and tr. E. Renauld, 2 vols. (Paris, 1926-8; repr. 1967).

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Paul MagdaJino
12

It Science and Imperial Power in Byzantine History and Occu . ) Historiography (9 "'-12'" C entunes
18

123

and Michael Attaleiates (c. 1080). Before dealing with Choniates it will be useful to look briefly at the rather different perspective 0~ occult science at court in the mid twelfth century provided by John 13 Kinnamos, writing c. 1183. Passing reference will be made, too, to the tenth-century chronicles that provide parallel narratives to Theophanes Continuatus,14 and to the eleventh and twelfth-century chronicles that are not direct witnesses to the events they record but nevertheless provide interesting reflections of contemporary attitudes. 15 The history known as Theophanes Continuatus has a composite structure and shares material with other contemporary histories, both the so-called Genesios and the various versions of the Logothete chronicle. 16 However, Books I-V, covering the period 813-886, are the result of a single commission by emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (945-959), and can be assumed to represent single view of the past, even if book V, the encomiastic biography of Basil I (Vita Basilii), is by a different author. 17 Furthermore, the encomiastic account of Constantine VII in Book VI suggests that the author of this addition, made c. 963, was broadly in sympathy with the line taken in the previous sections. The compilation as a whole may therefore be taken as reflecting a consistent attitude to the political use of occult science. The first and most prominent mentions are in connection with the career of

12 Michael Attaleiates, Historia, ed. I. Bekker, CSHB (Bonn, 1853); new edition with Spanish translation, Michael Attaleiates, Miguel Ataliates, Historia, tr. and comm. I. Perez Martin (Madrid, 2002). 13 Ioannes Kinnamos, Epitome rerum ab Joanne et Alexio Comnenis gestarum, ed. A. Meineke, CSHB (Bonn, 1836); Ioannes Kinnamos, Deeds of John and Manuel Comnenus, tr. C. M. Brand, (New York, 1976). 14 I.e. Leo Grammaticus, Chronographia, ed. 1. Bekker , CSHB (Bonn, 1842}, .3331, Pseudo-Symeon, in Theophanes Continuatus, ed. Bekker, 601-760, Georgms Monachus Continuatus, ibid., 761-924. " These are, in chronological order, the chronicles of John Skylitzes, John Zonaras, Constantine Manasses, and Michael Glykas. 16 H. Hunger, Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur der Byzantiner (Munich,

h patriarch John VII the Grammarian. John features in the t e ative as a prime mover in the revival of iconoclasm under Leo ~n 815, then as the chief religious adviser to Leo's successor Michael II (820-9) and tu~or ~o his son. Theop?ilos, then finally. as the evil genius of Theoph1los persecutmg regtme (829-42), bet~g omoted patriarchal synkellos soon after the new emperor s pr cession in preparation for becoming patriarch when the throne sue 19 dJ h ~ fell vacant eight or nine years later. Theo~htlos va1 ue. o .n Or h's political and disputational skills, accordmgly choosmg htm to 1 to the Caliph alhead the important embassy that he despatched d Mamun at the beginning of his reign. 20 Thereafter, Joh n contmue to make himself indispensable by satisfying the emper~r's anxio.us craving for knowledge of the future, "making predictions to htm through dish-divining (A.EKavoJ.tavtsia) and sorcery (yorrreia)". The author goes on to relate one example of s.orce~. Once wh~n the emperor was deeply distressed by the mvas10n of an mfidel barbarian horde under three leaders, John came up with a solution to restore his morale. He said that in the hippodrome there was a statue with three heads, "which he related to the leaders of the enemy people by some enchantment (Ka-r6. nva cnotxsirocnv)". Three strong men with three gigantic hammers should there.fore strike the heads in unison at a certain appointed hour of the mght. The emperor gave his approval, and the operation duly ":ent ~h~~d. Late one night in the Hippodrome, John, di,sguised m clVIh~n clothes, quietly recited the magic words ('wu; <JLOLXELWnxou; Myou;), "transferring the force that was inherent in the ~tatue to the (barbarian) leaders, or rather destroying that whtc~ w~s previously in the statue by virtue of the spellbinding agent.s (EX 11) 1wv <JWLXELW<JCNtwv i'luvaJ.tEW)". When he gave th~ stgnal, the men with hammers dealt their mighty blows, although smce one

18

1978}, I, 339-43, 349-56.

I. Sevcenko, 'The Title of and Preface to Theophanes Continuatus', Bollettino della Badia greca di Grottaferrata, n.s. 52 (1998), 77-93.
17

The fullest and most careful discussions of the scattered evidence for his career are by D. Stiemon, 'John the Grammarian', in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Geographie Ecc/esiastiques (Paris, 1912-), fasc. 156-157, cots. 84-11~, and R.-J. Lilie, Die Patriarchen der ikonoklastischen Zeit. Germanos 1.- Methodws I. (715847)(Frankfurt, 1999}, 169-82. 19 Theophanes Cominuatus, ed. Bekker, 32, 95-6, 154-5. . 20 Ibid., 95-9; cf. P. Magdalino, 'The road to Baghdad in the thought world ot ninth-century Byzantium', in L. Brubaker, ed., Byzantium in the Ninth Cemury. Dead or Alive? (Aldershot, 1998), 196-8.

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struck less forcefully than the others one head was bent b . ' ut not comp Ietely severed. This was reflected in the fate of th hree . d' I e t mva mg eaders as they proceeded to tum against each oth er: one destroyed the other two, and retreated in disorder with the red ed remains of the barbarian host. 21 uc There f~llows an account of John's activities in his underground sorcerer s laboratory that he constructed in a suburban estat belong~n? to his bro~her. Here he kept a team of good-looking nun~ ":h? ~mstered to his every need. They assisted him in his various divmatlons b.y hepat.oscopy, dish-divining, sorcery and necromancy, through which, With the aid of demons, he made accurate predictions not only for Theophilos but also for various of the 22 emperor's associates. One such prediction is mentioned at another poi~t in the text: John foresaw by dish-divining the rise to power of Basil the Macedonian. 23 Occult science makes two further appearances in connection with Theophilos' reign. The first mention of astrology occurs in the legendary story of the rise of Theophobos, a Persian refugee of royal blood: according to one of the two alternative versions of his origins recounted by Theophanes Continuatus when the Persians ":ere trying to trace surviving members of thei; royal dynasty, they d~s~ov~red his presence in Constantinople "by astronomy and divmatiOn (for they say that these sciences still flourish among the 24 Persians)". Astrology also figures in the famous and no less legendary account of the career of John the Grammarian's cousin Leo the Mathematician, an account that has been enormously influen.tial, i~ creating mode~ perceptions of the 'first Byzantine humanism . When Leo replies to the Caliph's invitation to go to
21

Baghdad, he includes some predictions which in the context must be astrological, and when he later becomes archbishop of Thessalonica, he uses his astrological knowledge to save the city from famine by predicting the end of a drought, and hence the right moment to sow the next grain crop. It is important to note, however, that this is very "soft" astrology, far removed from the casting of nativity horoscopes that were the main focus of the church's disapproval, and in any case astrology is presented as quite marginal to Leo's main area of interest and expertise in philosophy and mathematics, for which he gained his international reputation. Furthermore, his astrology is not related to politics, and where he makes political predictions, other kinds of occult knowledge are involved. The two reported instances are associated with the reign of Theophilos' son Michael III (842-67); both concern the rise to power of Basil the Macedonian and the fall of Michael's uncle, the Caesar Bardas, who promoted Leo after Theophilos' death. When an earthquake toppled a statue in the Deuteron region of Constantinople, Leo interpreted this to signify the fall of the man who was second in rank after the emperor. 26 Leo is also said to have told Bardas that his dynasty would be destroyed by "a certain young man"; later, on seeing Basil, he pointed to him as the man in question.27 The eulogistic biography of Basil I (867-86) that forms the central portion of Theophanes Continuatus contains one reference to

Theophanes Conrinuatus, ed. Bekker, 155-6; C. Mango, 'Antique Statuary and the Byzantme Beholder', DOP 17 (1963), 61; repr. in idem Byzantium and Its Image (London, 1984). ' :: Theophanes Continuatus, ed. Bekker, 156-57 . Theophanes Continuatus, ed. Bekker, 122. 24 '!heophanes Continuatus, ed. Bekker, Ill; cf. J.-C. Cheyne!, 'Theophile, Theophobe et les Perses', in S. Lampakis, ed. Byzantine Asia Minor (6''-12'' cent) ~~!hens, 1998), 39-50. ' The_ophanes Continuatus, ed. Bekker, 185-92. The bibliography on Leo and his role m the Byzantine "renaissance" is extensive; see P. Lemerle, Byzantine

Humanism, The First Phase (Canberra, 1986), 171-204; N. Wilson, Scholars of Byzanh'um (London, 1983), 79-84; L. G. Westerink, 'Leo the Philosopher: Job and Other Poems', Illinois Classical Studies, II (1986), 193-222. V. Katsaros, 'Leo the Mathematician, his Literary Presence in Byzantium during the 9th Century', in P. L. Butzer, D. Lohrmann, eds., Science in Western and Eastern Civilization in Carolingian Times (Basel, 1993), 383-98; C. Angelidi, 'Le sejour de Leon le Mathematicien a Andros: realite ou confusion?', EY'PYXIA. Melanges offerts a Helene Ahrweiler, Byzantina Sorbonensia 16 (Paris, 1998) I, 1-7; M. Lauxtermann, 'Ninth-century classicism and the erotic muse', in L. James, ed., ?esire and Denial in Byzantium (Aldershot, 1999),161-70. Cf. also P. Speck, Byzantium: cultural suicide?', in Brubaker, ed., Byzantium in the Ninth Cenwry, ~I, and P. Magdalino, 'Road to Baghdad', ibid., 199-202. Theophanes Continuatus, ed. Bekker, 196-7; the chronicle of Pseudo-Symeon (ibid., 677) explicitly applies this to the Caesar Bardas. " Ibid., 232.

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astrology and one to sorcery. Describing Basil's building work in the Great Palace,. the text mentions that he re-excavated and restored to use cisterns that had been filled in by Heraclius following a prediction by "Stephen the Mathematician" that h~ would perish by water. 28 This is one of the very few historical mentions of Stephen of Alexandria as an astrologer, and it is the only one independent of the horoscope of lslam. 29 Sorcery makes a passing appearance towards the end of the biography, in the figure of Theodore Santabarenos, a priest and monk who won Basil's confidence in his final years, after the death of the emperor's eldest son and designated heir, Constantine. Denounced by Basil's eldest surviving son, "the most wise Leo (-wil ao<jloH:Cnou Ai\ovto\;)", as a "sorcerer and deceiver (W y61'] xal <'m:atewv)", Santabarenos contrived to frame Leo in a plot to kill his father while they were out hunting. Leo was imprisoned and Basil, at Santabarenos' insistence, would have had him blinded if the patriarch and senate had not intervened. After a considerable lapse of time he was persuaded to restore Leo to favour. 30 Book VI of the chronicle, covering the reigns of Basil I's successors from 886 to 961, records four incidents involving the political use of occult science. In 907-8 Leo VI (886-912) summoned the metropolitan of Synada, Pantaleon, to interpret an eclipse of the Moon. 31 He said that it signified the ruin of "the second person", who turned out to be the emperor's chamberlain Samonas, and not Leo's brother and co-emperor Alexander as the emperor originally thought (and perhaps hoped). When Alexander succeeded Leo as senior emperor in 912, he consulted "deceivers and sorcerers" (:n:A.6.vot ... xal y61']GLV) who persuaded him that the statue of the Kalydonian boar in the Hippodrome was his talisman (crtmxetov). Alexander, failing to spot the allusion to his own piggish lifestyle, accordingly equipped the bronze animal V.:ith new teeth and genitals, and celebrated its rejuvenation by holdmg special games, in which he sacrilegiously decorated the

Hippodrome with lamps and curtains borrowed from churches. 32 After Alexander's death in 913, when the regency government of the young Constantine VII was threatened by the formidable revolt of the general Constantine Doukas, the regents were reassured by a note in invisible ink from a former tax collector who had defected to the Arabs, where he had apostasised to Islam and practised "astronomy or rather astrology". 33 Finally, in 927, the death of the empire's worst enemy, Symeon of Bulgaria, was brought about by the decapitation of a statue at the Forum of Arcadius. This was done at night after "the astronomer John" had informed the emperor Romanos I Lekapenos that "the statue standing on the arch at the Xerolophos, facing westward, is Symeon 's <talisman>, and if you cut off its head, Symeon will die at once". 34 Despite the scattered, uneven and generally brief nature of these references, three consistent patterns emerge. Firstly, recourse to occult science is associated with rulers whom Constantine Porphyrogenitus regarded as "bad", including the black sheep of his own dynasty, his wicked uncle Alexander who had threatened to exclude him from power. His own father's and grandfather's brief encounters with the occult do not reflect badly on them. Basil is the unwitting dupe of the "sorcerer" Santabarenos rather than the conscious employer of the latter's nefarious services; he is deceived while he is distraught by the recent death of his son, and his deception only has serious consequences for his other son and heir precisely because the "most wise Leo" recognises the deceiver for the sorcerer that he is. Besides, we are spared embarrassing details about Santabarenos' connections and the nature of his sorcery. As for Leo VI's astrological enquiry concerning the lunar eclipse, this is addressed to a churchman, and it is very "soft" astrology; 35 in any case, a writer working for Constantine VII could hardly deny the importance of celestial portents, given that Constantine's own birth,
32

"'Ibid., 338 "' SeeM. Papathanassiou in this volume. ~ Theophanes Continuatus, ed. Bekker, 348-51. Theophanes Continuatus, ed. Bekker, 376.

Ibid., 379; cf. Mango, 'Antique Statuary', 63. Theophanes Continuatus, ed. Bekker, 383-4. Ibid., 411-2. " The distinction between 'hard' and 'soft', i.e. fatalistic and non-fatalistic astrology was coined by A. A. Long, 'Astrology: argum.ents pro and contra', in J. Barnes, J. Brunschwig, M. Bumyeat, M. Schofield, eds., Science and Speculation. Studies in Hellenistic theory and practice (Cambridge, 1982), 170, n. 19.
33 34

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according to the emperor's own biography in Book VI of Theophanes Continuatus, had been announ.ced by a bri~ht comet. 36 With these exceptions, all the other rulers m the narrative who use the services of occult scientists are dynastic enemies, either because they belonged to the Amorian dynasty that Basil I terminated by the murder of Michael III, or, in the case of Romanos Lekapenos (92044), because he had tried to establish his own dynasty at the expense of Constantine VII. Theophilos and his predecessors were, moreover, impious iconoclasts, and this makes it unsurprising that the most villainous portrait in the entire rogues' gallery is the iconoclast patriarch John the Grammarian whom the chronicler, echoing earlier iconophile propaganda, calls by the opprobrious name of !annes, after one of the magicians who was worsted by Moses before Pharaoh 37 It is interesting to note the contrast between the portrayal of John and that of his cousin Leo the Mathematician, despite the probability that they had very similar educations and interests, and the fact that they are both credited with predicting the accession of Basil I. John, the obdurate ar~h iconoclast, is portrayed primarily as a master of the occult, while Leo, a lukewarm iconoclast who was rehabilitated after the Triumph of Orthodoxy and given an important teaching post, is portrayed primarily as a philosopher whose learning may have had occult by-products but was on the whole a distinguished part of the national heritage. Significantly, Leo only interprets the fall of a statue, but does not interfere with it. A second pattern that may be discerned in Theophanes Continuatus' references to the occult is the rather low and marginal profile accorded to astrology compared with other forms of expertise. Apart from the "soft" astrological interpretations
36

attributed to Leo the Mathemati~ian and the metro~olitan Pantale?n f Synada, political astrology 1s clearly located m the past, wtth ~eraclius and Stephen of Alexandria, or in the east, among the Persians and Arabs, and its methods are not discussed. Much more rominent are dish-divining, mentioned three times as a speciality ~f John the Grammarian, and, above all, the science of interpreting and controlling the talismanic force ( O"WLXE'Lov) inherent in the public statuary of Constantinople. This, rather than any astrological expertise, is the main claim to f~me of John the ~stro~omos under Romanos I; he is in effect a yo11<;. a sorcerer, JUSt hke John the Grammarian, Theodore Santabarenos, and the advisers of the emperor Alexander. Not only is the applied knowledge of stoicheiosis mentioned four times in the text, but the first and most detailed account, relating to John the Grammarian, explains the principles involved in the operation. The reasons for this emphasis are not immediately apparent. However, it is clear from other tenthcentury sources, notably the Patria of Constantinople, that contemporary Byzantines regarded the city's statues, with their magical properties, as a vital part of their collective heritage and identity.38 We might therefore hazard the suggestion that the science of interpreting and manipulating this unique collection of statuary was valued precisely because it was exclusive to Byzantium-the one science that gave the Byzantines the edge over their Arab competitors. What cannot be mistaken is that the author of Theophanes Continuatus, books I-IV, takes it all seriously; the phenomenon interests him, and his interest is picked up by the author of book VI. Portents and prophecies abound throughout their text-! have examined only those cases which could be construed as scientificand they do not serve merely to amplify the narrative. In connection with the accession of Michael II the Amorian, the author denounces diabolical divination (!Ulvnxl)) as a major cause of the civil wars unleashed by ambitious contenders for the throne in whom the devil has planted the "seeds of empire" in the form of optimistic

Theophanes Continuatus, ed. Bekker, 463, where the same comet is said to have reappeared, dull and faded, at Constantine's death.
37

2 Tim 3, 8; cf. Ex 7, 11-12. The main source of information on Iannes was, however, an apocryphal work, The Book of /annes and Iambres, now extant only in papyrus fragments, but apparently available at the Byzantine court in the eighth and ninth centuries; according to Michael the Syrian, Leo IV (775-780), the la~t iconoclast emperor of the !saurian dynasty, sent a copy a~ a gift to the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi. See A. Pietersma, The Apocryphon of ]annes and Jumbres the Magicians (Leiden, 1994); Chronique de Michelle Syrien, ed. and tr. J. Chabot (Paris, 1899-1905), III, I.

" Scriptores rerum Constantinopolitanarum, ed. Th. Preger (Leipzig, 1901-7; repr. 1989); cf. G. Dagron Constantinople imaginaire. Etudes sur le recueil des "Patrkl" (Paris, 1984).

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predictions by persons of ill repute. Yet he clearly believes that political foreknowledge can be divinely inspired, for he gives numerous examples of portents seen and prophecies made by 40 respectable people, including holy men. More often than not, the question of divine or demonic origin does not arise: a striking case in point is that of the "Sibylline book" in the Palace library, containing an illustrated prophecy that was interpreted as foretelling 41 the overthrow of Leo V in 820. Whatever the means employed, their efficacy is never in doubt, and the coverage is even-handed. One may thus suggest that the authors' brief to give an ideologically correct account of politically reprobate regimes provides the excuse to indulge a personal, if not an official fascination with the more suspect forms of esoteric knowledge. This fascination demonstrably corresponded to preoccupations of the mid tenth-century milieu in which Theophanes Continuatus was written and compiled. The air in Constantinople around 960 was thick with political prophecy, as we learn from Liudprand of Cremona and contemporary Byzantine sources. 42 As we have already seen, the Patria reflect a contemporary concern with the magic of statues, which is also perhaps reflected in the evidence of a Spanish Arabic source that a copy of the Apotelesmata of Apollonius of Tyana was sent to the court of Cordoba by Constantine VII or one of his successors before 972. 43 At the same time, astrology was not highly favoured, to judge from the lack of horoscopes, astrological treatises, and astrological or even astronomical manuscripts in the literature associated with the

39

"encyclopaedism" of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. 44 Comparison with other sources suggests that Theophanes Continuatus may have distorted ninth-century realities in order to save important reputations. The Patria attributes the mutilation of a statue to the iconophile emperor Michael I (811-13),45 while both the Patria and the Logothete chronicle indicate that the talismanic virtue of statues did not leave Basil I entirely unmoved. 46 The accounts of Basil's reign deriving from the Logothete chronicle are also more explicit on the subject of Theodore Santabarenos and his sorcery in ways which reflect badly on Photius, if not on Basil: 47 according to them, Photius recommended him to Basil, and he gained Basil's confidence by conjuring up an apparition of the emperor's late son Constantine, "and by many other means which he learned from the teachings of Apollonius". Indeed, the whole image of Santabarenos as a sorcerer seems to derive from the anti-Photian propaganda generated by the patriarch's second and final deposition in 886. The major piece of invective, the Life of the Patriarch Ignatius (Photius' main rival), says that Photius recommended Theodore to Basil as a "holy, most prophetic and visionary man", though knowing him to be a practitioner of demonic magic, divination and dream interpretation.48 According to another anti-Photian text, Theodore's father had been not only a sorcerer but also a Manichaean, who to avoid persecution had defected to the Bulgars before their conversion and renounced his Christian faith; later, Theodore benefited from Photius' rehabilitation under Basil I because he had

Theophanes Continuatus, ed. Bekker, 44-5; cf. also 56. "'Ibid., 7-10,21-3,36,37,40, 102, 121, 122, 170-1, 180-4, 2l7ff, 22lff, 223-5, 225-6,226-7,233, 281-2,320. 41 Ibid., 35-6. 42 Liudprand of Cremona, Opera omnia, ed. P. Chiesa, Corpus Christianorum, Continuato Medievalis 156 (Tumhout, 1998), 204-5; see also the Philopatris, ed. and tr. M.D. Macleod, in Lucian, Works, VIII (Cambridge, Mass., !967), 415-65; P. Magdalino, 'Une prophetie inedite des environs de 1'an 965 attribuee a Leon le Philosophe (MS Karakallou 14, f. 253r-254r)', Travaux et Memoires 14 (2002) (-' Melanges Gilbert Dagron), 391-402. " S. M. Stem, 'A Letter of the Byzantine Emperor to the Court of the Spanish Ummayad Caliph al-Hakam',AI Andalus26 (1961), 37-42.

39

: Lem~rle, Byzantine Humanism, chapter 10. Patna, ed. Preger, Scriptores, II, 205. The emperor is said to have cut the arms off a statue of the Tyche of Constantinople, in order to weaken the two popular !actions, the Blues and the Greens. Leo Grammaticus, Chronographia, ed. Bekker, 257-8; Pseudo-Symeon. ed. ~ekker, Theophanes Continuatus, p. 692; Patria, ed. Preger, Scriptores, II, 221. Pseudo-Symeon, in Theophanes Continuatus, ed. Bekker, 692-4, 697; c.ont~nuator of George the Monk, ibid., 845-6. Pseudo-Symeon, in keeping with his ~trulently anti-Photian line, is especially critical: he portrays Santabarenos as the ~nstrument of Photius' ambitions and intrigues, accusing him of being a !;f~tchaean, and calling him "arch-magician" (UQ)(Lj.Ulyov, ibid., 694). b NJketas ,the Paphlagonian, Vita lgnarii, PG 105, col. 568: W avliQU U'(lOV, XUl
IOQUtLXOOta:ov, XUL :JtQO<j>l]tLXW't<ltOV ... jUlvtLXi\~ 1\, J.ul/J.ov 1\ J.l<l'(IXi]<;. cj>ao~ XUL OVLQOXQLtLXi\~, i\tOL 1\UL(.l.OVLciJI\oU~ OO<j>(a<; XUL ljlU)(LXft<; fltO)(l]X6ta ...

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had a hand in it, by preparing magic potions which a bribed eunuch of the emperor's household added to the emperor's food and drink. 49 Not surprisingly, there is no hint of the occult in the edifying correspondence that Photius conducted with an Abbot Theodore, probably Santabarenos, on theological matters. 5 As for Leo VI, the supposed victim of Santabarenos' sorcery, later sources notably the interpolated version of Skylitzes, credit him with an interest in astrology,51 for which some confirmation can be found in contemporary texts: the horoscope of Constantine VII, 52 and the letters and poems of Leo Choirosphaktes. 53 Leo the Mathematician also emerges from other sources-the Logothete chronicle,54 the Palatine Anthology,55 and astrological manuscripts56 -as more of an astrologer than Theophanes Continuatus makes him appear. We have already seen how, and why, the author draws a contrast between Leo the Mathematician and John the Grammarian, who is presented as the occult scientist par excellence. Unfortunately, there is no evidence for John's occult interests independent of the
49

onophile damnatio memoriae to which Theophanes Continuatus ':bscribes. It is possible to argue that John the occult scientist is a ~ure fabrication of iconophile psogos, as far remove~ from reality as the similar image that was created by the enem1es of a later patriarch, Photius. 57 However, the consistency of the invective against John the Grammarian perhaps gives it some credibility. He is accused of divination in a source almost contemporary with his deposition in 843, the canon written, probably by his successor 58 Methodios, to celebrate the Triumph of Orthodoxy. The same text says that John should be called Pythagoras, Kronos, or Apollo rather than by the name of the forerunner of Christ. The first works composed to rewrite history in the light of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, the world chronicle of George the Monk and the Life of St Theodora the Empress, specifically accuse John of lecanomancy, and call him a "new Apollonius and Balaam"; 59 it is interesting to note that George the Monk, who may have been writing shortly after 843, 60 manipulated his sources to give a distinctly negative account of the ancient origins of the occult sciences, denying that Abraham had been a practitioner of Chaldaean astrology. 61 The specific accusations against John the Grammarian in these ninthcentury texts, combined with the specific choice of ancient

Styllanos, bishop of Neokaisarieia on the Euphrates, Letter to Pope Stephen VI, ed. J. D. Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima co/lectio (Florence and Venice, 1759-), XVI. col. 432. "' Photii epistulae, I-ll, ed. B. Laourdas and L. G. Westerink (Leipzig, 1983-4), nos. 65, 142-23, 203, 205). 51 Ioannes Skylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, ed. H. Thurn, CFHB 5 (Berlin and New York,l973), 192. 52 D. Pingree, 'The Horoscope of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus'. DOP 27 (1973), 219-31. "G. Kolias, Uon Choerosphactes, magistre, proconsul et patrice (Athens, 1939), 76-7 (Leo VI's prediction of a solar eclipse); F. Ciccolella, Cinque poeti bizantini. Anacreontee dal Barberino greco 310, Hellenica 5 (Alessandria, 2000), 104--5, lines 85-6 (allusion to Leo's astronomical and astrological expertise). 54 Ps.-Symeon, ed. Bekker, Theophanes Continuatus, 63.8-40; Georgius Monachus Continuatus, ed. Bekker, ibid., 804-6; Leo Grammaticus, ed. Bekker, 224--5; cf. Magdalino, 'Road to Baghdad', 200. In all these versions of the story, Leo's pupil who is captured by the Arabs impresses the Caliph by his astrological expertise, and it is this that leads to the invitation to Leo to come to Baghdad. " AG, IX. 20 I [The Greek Anthology, ed. and tr. W. R. Paton, III (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1933), 10~51 from Leo's copy of the astrological handbook by Paul of Alexandria; cf. Lemerle, Byzantine Humanism, 197-98. ,. CCAG, 1,139; Ill, 4; IV,40, 92; VII, 33, 65,130.

l1

Pseudo-Symeon, ed. Bekker, Theophanes Continuatus, 670; cf. J. Gouillard, 'Le Photius du Pseudo-Symeon Magistros: les sous-entendus d'un pamphlet'. Revue des etudes sud-est europeennes, 9 (I 971), 397-404. 58 PG 99, cols. 1767-80, at 1776 B-C; cf. J. Gouillard, 'Deux figures mal connues du second iconoclasme', Byzantion, 31 (1961), 371-401, at 380-4. 59 George the Monk, Chronicon, ed. C. de Boor (Leipzig, 1904; repr. Stuttgart,l978), 798-9; A. Markopoulos, 'B(O tft AirtOXQUTELQU 0wli0>QU (BHG 1731)', IVf.lf.lEtxra 5 (1983), 249-85, at 261; tr. with notes by M. P. Vinson in Byzantine Defenders of Images. Eight Saints' Lives in English Translation, ed. A.-M. Talbot (Washington, D. C., 1998), 367-8; John's lecanomancy is also mentioned in the late ninth-century Synodicon Vews, ed. and tr. J. Duffy and J. Parker, CFHB 15 (Washington, D. C., 1979), 130-1. 011 See D. Afinogenov, 'The Date of Georgius Monachus Reconsidered', BZ 92 (1999), 437-47, arguing against the later date proposed by A. Markopoulos, 'Iullfla/..~ O't'/t 'XQOvo/..6y1)o1) 1:oii fEWQy(ou Mova:xoii', IVf.lJ.lEtXT:U, 6 [1985]. 223-31 61 See William Adler's contribution to this volume. George's efforts to discredit astrology and divination may therefore be seen, along with his lengthy polemics against Hellenes, Jews, Muslims and Iconoclasts, and his lengthy defence of monasticism, as a specific response to the ideology of the last Iconoclast regime

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prototypes - Pythagoras, the original arcane philosopher Apollonius, the famous enchanter of statues; Balaam, the Gentil~ sorcerer of the Old Testament - correspond to the particular profile drawn by Theophanes Continuatus, and tend to confirm that this is more than a generalised fantasy or stereotype image. It should also be noted that John the Grammarian was more or less contemporary with the compilation of a collection of tales about the monuments of Constantinople that was the precursor of the Patria. The Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai, put together between 785 and 843, are of interest to us here because much of their concern is with the identity and the numinous quality of statues, with the astrological significance of certain monuments, and with philosophers as interpreters of public statuary. 62 The Parastaseis is, to my knowledge, the earliest text to use the word O'tOL')(Eiov and its derivatives to apply in a technical sense to enchanted statues and the elemental forces inhabiting them. 63 Is it coincidence that this usage, replacing the word telesma and its cognates which we find in the sixth century ,64 appears at about the same date as the first recorded attempt to perform a magic ritual on a statue in Constantinople,65 which itself coincides with the career debut of the man to whom the second attested ritual is ascribed? I think it is reasonable to suppose that Theophanes Continuatus not only accurately reflects the occult interests and activities of John the Grammarian, but also documents a significant moment in the development of a form of occult science that was special to Byzantium, although it was no doubt based on texts and rituals ascribed to ancient philosophers, like the Apotelesmata of

Apollonius of Tyana. What should be emphasised is that Theophanes Continuatus, like the Parastaseis, describes the talismanic properties of statues as the serious concern of learned 67 men, "les pht'1 osoph es dans Ia rue " . It is certainly safe to conclude that the magic of statues was a concern of the early ninth century. The same can be said of political prophecy, for which independent evidence exists in the Oracles of Leo the Wise, recently redated to the reign of Leo V. 68 What cannot be confirmed, contradicted or indeed explained by any other source is the complete absence of astrology from Theophanes Continuatus' account of John the Grammarian and the emperors he served. There is circumstantial evidence to suggest that John the Grammarian should have had astrological interests. 69 This makes it all the more puzzling that astrology is not among the impieties with which he was posthumously charged. Is this a case of a deliberate preference for other forms of divination, such as Choniates later attributes to Andronikos I? Astrology is, by contrast, almost the only occult science that features in the histories of the late tenth and eleventh centuries. 70
" Apollonius of Tyana, Apotelesmata, ed. F. Nau, 'Apotelesmata Apollonii Tyanensis', Patrologia Syriaca, part I, vol. II (Paris, 1907), 1363-92; also ed. F. Boll in CCAG, VII, 175-81. 67 Dagron, Constantinople imaginaire, ch. 3. This learned aspect of the Byzantine perception of statues is less apparent in Niketas Choniates (see below); it is also the one most neglected by modem scholars, who have discussed the phenomenon in terms of superstition (Mango, 'Antique Statuary'), historical research (CameronHerrin), the construction of myth (Dagron, Constaninople imaginaire), and preoccupation with the power of images (L. James, 'Pray not to fall into temptation and be on your guard: Pagan Statues in Christian Constantinople', Gesta, 35 [1996], 12-20). " The Oracles of the Most Wise Leo and the Tale of the True Emperor (MS Amstelodamensis Graecus VIE 8), ed. and tr. W. G. Brokaar et al. (Amsterdam, 2002). "So:e Magdalino, 'Road to Baghdad', 207, 209-11. His career coincides with the rev1val of astronomy in Byzantium, he visited Baghdad at the time of dated astronomical observations that are recorded in Greek manuscripts, and his father was called Pankratios, like the court astrologer of 792 (see above, n. 4): these account for two of the three entries under that name in the prosopography of the appropriate period (Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire, Pankratios 1-3 ~rosopog~aphie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit 5680-5682). Magdalino, L'orthodoxie des astrologues, 83-107.

62

Parastaseis syntomoi chronik.ai, ed. T. Preger, Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum, I (Leipzig, 1901), 19-73; ed., tr., comm. A. Cameron, 1: Herrin, Constantinople in the Early Eighth Cemury: The Parastaseis Syntomol Chronikai (Leiden, 1984); cf. Dagron, Constantinople imaginaire, 29-48 and passim; for the date, see 0. Kresten, 'Leon Ill. und die Landmauem von Konstantinopel', Riimische Historische Mitteilungen 26 (1994), 21-52. 63 However, Cameron and Herrin note (p. 33) that the usage is more fluid in the Parastaseis than in the later Patria. 64 C. Blum, 'The Meaning of stoicheion and its Derivatives in the Byzantine Age', Eranos 44 (1946), 316-25. 65 I.e. the mutilation of the Tyche of Constantinople, ascribed to Michael I (81 113); see above, n. 44.

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According to Leo the Deacon, it is mathematikoi, astrologers, who provide the scientific explanation for earthquakes. 71 Although he rejects this, he connects the defeats, civil wars and natural disasters of the 970s and 980s with the appearance of strange celestial phenomena. 72 One of these, the comet of 975, prompted the emperor John I Tzimiskes (969-76), to seek the opinion of two experts, Symeon the logothete and Stephen, metropolitan of Nicomedia. 73 Leo criticises them for giving an optimistic interpretation that flattered the emperor, instead of explaining what the comet really presaged, "as their art required". 74 The Chronographia of Michael Psellos contains two digressions on astrology. The first is occasioned by Michael V's fatal decision to banish his adoptive mother, the empress Zoe, in 1042. 75 He dismissed the forecast of the astrologers whom certain of his advisers urged him to consult; asked whether the stars were propitious for a great and bold undertaking, they replied that all was full of blood and gloom, and advised him to abandon or at least postpone his project. Psellos observes that there was a not inconsiderable group of astrologers at the time. They had only a rudimentary understanding of the geometry of the heavenly spheres, but they had a competent knowledge of the technicalities involved in the casting of horoscopes, and some of them came up with accurate predictions. "I say this", says Psellos, "since I know this science, having studied it for a long time and having helped many astrologers in the understanding of planetary aspects, although I do not believe that human affairs are driven by the movements of the stars". Psellos returns to this theme in a later digression on his own

learning, inserted into his account of the reign of Theodora (1055!056).76 Such is his knowledge of astronomy and astrology, the long-suffering genius sighs, that he ~i~ply cannot prevent people from bothering him to make predictions, even though he has obviously put aside his books. Yes, he has studied all there is to study, "but I have not made improper use of those sciences which are forbidden by the wise men of God". Let other people invest the stars with intelligent life, and connect them with all parts of the human body. He is content to know the theory without believing in it, not for any scientific reason, but because "a more divine power has restrained me". He concludes his digression with a profession of faith which can be read on one level as fervently pious and on another level as ironically subversive. 77 Michael Attaleiates, Psellos' slightly younger contemporary, in his account of the fall of Michael VII (1071-1078), describes the emperor as refusing to recognise the writing on the wall, but paying attention instead to "intriguers, astronomers, tellers of portents, prophecies from statues by rituals (a<jllbQU!J.Utmv ltQOQQljoww tx tei..etoov), and superstitious demagogues". 78 Attaleiates' dismissive reference to court astrologers is obviously a part of the case .he is making to justify the overthrow of Michael VII by Nikephoros Botaneiates. It is not necessarily a dismissal of astrology, coming from a writer who thought it important to record that the revolt of Leo Tornikes began on 14 September under the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter. 79 It is not so easy to explain Leo ~e Deacon's impliCit endorsement of "soft" astrology, or Psellos' htghl~ ambivalent attitude. Leo clearly regards the interpretation of celestial phenomena as a legitimate tEXVT\, as long as it is done by
76

" Leo the Deacon, Historia, ed. Hase, 68; cf. G. Dagron, 'Quand Ia terre tremble',
Travaux et Memoires 8 (1981), 100. The cause of the destructive earthquake which struck Constantinople in October 989 appears to have been sought in the city's horoscope: D. Pingree, 'The Horoscope of Constantinople', in Y. Maeyama, W. G. Salzer, eds., IIPIEMATA: Naturwissenschaftsgeschichtliche Studien. Festschrift .!j;r Willy Hartner (Wiesbaden, 1977), 310-11. Leo the Deacon, Historia, ed. Hase, 168, 172--6. 73 On Symeon, seeN. Oikonomides, 'Two seals of Symeon Metaphrastes', DOP 27 (1973), 323--6; C. H!!!gel, 'Hagiography under the Macedonians: the Two RecensiOns of the Metaphrastic Menologion', in P. Magdalino, ed., Byzantium in the Year 1000 (Leiden, 2003), 220ff; for Stephen see below n. 79. 14 Ibid., 168-9. ' ' " Psellos, Chronographia, ed. Renauld, I, 97-8.

;7~ee A. Kaldeliis, The Argumelll of Psel/os' Chronographia (Leiden, 1999), 118: religt'ous h ' c occur every twenty years, were associated with political and c ange SeeD p 'H' OrientalS . mgree, tstonca1 Horoscopes', Journal of the Amerimn 82 Churches' occtety 0 96 2), 487-502; J. D. North, 'Astrology and the Fortunes of entaurus24 (1980),180--211.
e. ates, Historia, ed. Bekker, 22; ed. Perez Martfn, 18 Jupiter-Saturn COn:JU nc 1tons whi h

Ibid., II, 76-8

~':~i~tes, Historia, ed. Bekker, 257; ed. Perez Martin, 185. 1

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the book and not with a view to flattering the emperor. One wonders why he makes a point of naming and blaming the men responsible for misinterpreting the comet of 975. Does he have something against either of them, and does he have a message for the astrologers at the court of Basil II at the time he was writing, around the year 1000? The question is unanswerable, but it is well worth asking, firstly because one of the experts in question, Stephen of Nicomedia, was a very powerful figure in the church at the time, 80 and secondly because there is much independent evidence of astrological and astronomical activity under Basil II; in fact, more than for any time before the twelfth century. In addition to a cluster of horoscopes and other observations dating from 977 to 1019,81 we have the first translation of an Arabic astrological text, the De revolutionibus nativitatum of Abu Ma'shar, which David Pingree has dated to c. 1015. 82 Unfortunately, the texts do not show a direct connection with the emperor, or identify the astrologer or astrologers concerned. The name of Demophilos, associated with a horoscope of 989, must be a pseudonym, if it does not refer to an ancient astrologer whose method is being followed. 83 We can surely conclude, however, that we would have a very misleading impression of the availability of occult science to the most powerful Byzantine emperor of the Middle Ages if we had only the evidence

~ cumented in the astrological manuscripts is conspicuously ~sent although it is just conceivable that Psellos may include :strol~gy in his statement that philoso~hy flourished under Basil in
spite of the lack of imperial patronage. To return to Psellos, it is difficult to know what to take more seriously-his obvious desire to distance himself from belief in 'hard' astrology, or his no less obvious concern to take centre stage in both his astrological digressions. But the fact that he digresses twice to assert his superiority suggests that he took astrology as seriously as the people to whom he thought himself superior. He clearly believes that astrologers can get it right, and that Michael V, having chosen to consult them, was wrong ~o dism~ss their advice. It is probably fair to conclude that he g~numely ~eJected astrol~gy as a substitute for religion, but accepted It as a sctence, and studted it mainly out of philomatheia, a love of learning ~or its ~wn ~ake, to which he refers elsewhere in the Chronographta and m hts other writings. 85 His other writings show, moreover, tha~ a~trology was by no means the only occult science that attracted hts mterest: he ~as also into alchemy, the Chaldaean O~acles, an~ ge~~rally everythmg that went with Stoic and Neoplatomc syncretism. He even wrote on making talismanic statues. 87 The trouble is that in advertising, expounding, and justifying his own knowledge he tends to create

f the historical narratives of his reign, from which the activity

"' He was Basil IT's emissary to the rebel Bardas Skleros in 976 (Skylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, ed. Thurn, 317), and as patriarchal synkel/os he was the main "persecutor" of St Symeon the New Theologian; see the Life by Niketas Stethatos, Vie de Symeon le Nouveau Theologien, ed. I. Hausherr (Rome, 1928), 74-99, pp. LI-LY!. " See CCAG, II, 144-50; VIII, 253-5; Dorotheos of Sidon, Carmen astrologicum, ed. D. Pingree (Leipzig,1976), 370-1, Xlll-XIV; Hephestio of Thebes, Apotelesmaticorum epitomae quattuor, ed. David Pingree, II (Leipzig,1974), VI-IX, XXII; D. Pingree, 'The Horoscope of Constantinople', 310-11, 313. Cf. P. Magdalino, 'The Year 1000 in Byzantium' in idem, ed. Byzantium in the Year 1000, 233-70, esp. 261-2. " Abo Ma'shar, Albumasaris de revolutionibus nativitatum, ed. D. Pingree (Leipzig, 1968), V-VI; idem, From Astral Omens to Astrology: from Babylon to B 66-67,71. " Pace the statements of Pingree, 'The Horoscope of Constantinople', 307-8, and From Astral Omens to Astrology, 66, among many other publications. Demophilos seems an unlikely Byzantine name, and the rare occurrence of the equally unlikely Demochares in the 9" c. (see Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire and Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit, s.v.) is not conclusive.

., Psellos, Chronographia, ed. Renauld, I, 18; cf. M. _Lauxtermann, ~yzantine Poetry and the Paradox of Basil II's Reign', in Magdahno, ed., ByzantiUm m the Year 1000, 202ff. . 'fy " See the discussion of Psellos in the introduction to this volume; J. D~f . 'Hellenic Philosophy in Byzantium and the Lonely ~ission ?f Michael Psellos : K. Ierodiakonou, ed., Byzantine Philosophy and 1/s Anc~tnt Sources (Oxfo 2002), 148-51. 86 Ibid: see also J. Duffy 'Reactions of Two Byzantine Intellectuals to the _Theory ' ' H Magmre ed. and Practice of Magic: Michael Psellos and Michael Ita likos ' m . ' Byzantine Magic (Washington, D. C., 1995), 83-90. Letter on chrysopoe1a, ed. J. Bidez, CMAG, VI (Brussels, 1928), 26-42. Commentaries ~n the_ Chalda: Oracles, and interest in divination: Michael Psellos, Phi/osophlca. nunora, 1 j ~ Duffy (Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1992), 113-5; II, ed. 0' Meara (Letpztg, 1989),

51. M IX1) 87 Michael Psellos, Epistle 187 (avemyQa<jlO), ed. Sathas, Eaaww Bt{3J.wfh)"'1 V, 474.

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his own self-contained system, which gives little idea of what w on aroun d h'tm. He does not name the "not inconsiderable as gomg group" of astrologers who were active in the 1040s. Only in his defence of John Italos does he allude to the superior achievements of Arab science,88 but he gives no idea of the extent to which its results were being taken on board by contemporary Byzantine astrologers and astronomers, as is clear from eleventh-century treatises and scholia. 89 Psellos' remarks on astrology in the Chronographia are a useful introduction to the relevant section in the Alexiad of Anna Comnena, 90 not only because she had read and admired his work, but also because there are clear similarities that we do not fmd in other historians: the passages in question are digressions from the main narrative, they convey mixed messages, and they involve the narrator in the first person, who claims a theoretical knowledge of astrology. Yet once the similarities are noted, the differences are no less striking. The mixed feelings that Anna expresses are shared with her father Alexios I, and she provides a wealth of concrete information that makes her account incomparably valuable but also highly difficult to interpret without some knowledge of contemporary astrological literature. I attempted to elucidate and contextualise the passage in a recent article, 91 but the key to a definitive solution eluded me because it lay in a text that I discovered when the volume was in press. This is my main

justification for returning to the subject here, although the intrinsic interest of the passage is such that it hardly requires justification.92 The digression occurs in connection with the death of Robert Guiscard. This was foretold, says Anna, in an oracle (XQlJO'!Jh~) by a certain mathematikos called Seth who had a high opinion of his astrological expertise. He wrote it down on a piece of paper which he sealed and handed to the emperor's men. When Guiscard died, he instructed them to open the paper. The oracle read as follows: "A great enemy from the west who has stirred up a lot of turmoil will suddenly fall". Everyone was therefore amazed at the man's science, for in this branch of wisdom he had reached the peak of perfection. The digression that follows then falls into three sections. First, Anna explains that the "oracular method" is a recent invention, unknown to the earliest astronomers and astrologers, Plato, Eudoxos and Manetho; however, they did know about ascendant signs, cardinal points, planetary positions and all the other vain things that the inventor of this method bequeathed with it to posterity. Secondly, Anna states how she herself learned some astrology not in order to practise it, but to recognise its practitioners for what they are. She does not want to boast, but she must put it on record that the sciences flourished under her father, who honoured philosophers and philosophy, although he somewhat disapproved of astrology, because it persuaded simple people to have faith in the stars rather than in God. However, there was no lack of astrologers during his reign, and the third and final section of the digression is devoted to describing three who flourished at the time in addition to the aforementioned Seth: the Alexandrian, whose predictions were so accurate that Alexios sent him into comfortable exile lest he corrupt the young; another highly expert Egyptian called

" Michael Psellos, Oratorio minora ed. A. Littlewood (Leipzig 1985) 70-71 cf. P M : and the Astrologers: A Commentary on . agd armo, '!'h.e Porphyrog~mta Alextad Yl.7.1-7 , m Ch. Dendrmos, J. Harris, E. Harvalia-Crook, J. Herrin, eds. Porphyrogenita. Essays on the History and Literature of Byzantium and the Latin :ast m Hono,ur of Julian Chrysostomides (Aldershot, 2003), 15-31, at 27-8. "A. T:hon, l..es textes astronomiques arabes importes Byzance aux Xle et Xile stedes tn A. Draelants, A.Tihon, B. van den Abeele, eds. Occident et Proche71ent: Contacts scient.ifiques au temps des Croisades (Tumhout, 2000), 313-24. Anna Comnena, Ale.uad, YI.7, 1-7, ed. Reinsch and Kambylis 181-3. 91 See above, n. 87. '

" I refer readers to the article cited in n. 87 for my translation of the passage and for detailed documented discussion of all points summarised in the following paragraphs; see also Magdalino, L 'orthodoxie des astrologues.

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Eleutherios; and the Athenian Katanankes, who despite his name never quite got it right. 93 The author knows astrology in theory but rejects it in practice; 94 her hero disapproves of astrologers but allows them to flourish because he is a patron of learning, a point emphasised elsewhere in the A/exiad; astrology is a "vain pursuit", but not because its methods are unscientific-rather, the accurate predictions made by good astrologers threaten the basis of organised religion. This mixture of manifest denial and implicit acknowledgement, which goes back, as we have seen, to Psellos, is also to be found in the letters of Anna's contemporary and protege, Michael Italikos. 95 It was probably a fairly standard safety device employed by Byzantine intellectuals to excuse their occult interests. In Anna's case, however, it can also be related to the circumstances under which she was writing, in the early years of her nephew Manuel I, a great devotee of astrology with a flashy reputation for heroism and liberality that was eclipsing the memory of his grandfather Alexios I. Her point is clearly that her father did not need to use the services of astrologers, but still looked after them as well as the present regime, if not better, and she provides names to prove it. Apart from the hapless Katanankes, the astrologers she mentions are known from contemporary sources. Seth is the astrophysicist, dietician and translator Symeon Seth. The Alexandrian can be identified with Theodore Alexandrinos, who specialised in predicting winners at the races in the Hippodrome. As for the other Egyptian, Eleutherios, I see no reason not to identify him with Eleutherios Zebelenos, an astrologer writing in 1079 and referring

to his birth in 1040.96 Zebelenos should mean someone from Gabala in Syria, known to the Byzantines as Zebel; the town was part of the Fatimid realm for most of the eleventh century, which could account for the reference to Eleutherios' Egyptian origin.97 The reliability of Anna's information on the astrologers suggests that we should pay close attention to what she says about astrology, and notably the mysterious "oracular method" (f.l8oboc; XQlJO'f.WYv) perfected by Seth. Earlier translators and commentators assumed this was her rather quaint way of saying that astrology in general was a recent invention, but such a reading does not make full sense of her text, even when this has been emended to make a positive statement negative. She must be referring to a particular kind of astrology that was invented after the standard tools of the astrologers trade. I previously concluded that this "oracular method" was the political or historical astrology, developed by the Persians and Arabs, which dealt with the rise and fall of religions, dynasties and rulers according to major planetary conjunctions. But this was before I came across a treatise existing in at least three versions in six manuscripts. These versions are variously entitled: A. MEeoboc; XQl]O'flWV (MS Paris. gr. 2506, fols. 92v-95v == MS Paris. gr. 2424, fols. 106r!08v). B. ITEQL x.8eoewc; XQlJOflWV (MS Laurent. gr. 28, 14, fols. 30r-32v == MS Marc. gr. Z 336, fols. 163v-165r).

93

The name is presumably a conscious play on the expression xa~ avayxl)V ="of necessity". However, it does seem to have been an existing family name rather than one that was specially invented for this individual: J.-C. Cheyne!, Pouvoir et ;:ntest~tions a Byzance (963-121 0)(Paris, 1990), 64, 230, 236. . A pomt also made by George Tomikes in his funeral oration on Anna, delivered in c. 1152; see Georges et Demetrios Tornikes, Lettres et discours, ed. J. Darrouz~s (Paris, 1970), 296-7. 95 Michael Italikos, Let/reset discours, ed. P. Gautier (Paris, 1972), nos. 28, 30, 31, PP 184-92, 196-200; Duffy, 'Reactions of Two Byzantine Intellectuals', 9!-4.

,. Pace Pingree, he should not be confused with Eleuthe~os of El~ia, the fourteenth-century astrologer and copyist of one of the manusc.npts, ~ngell~~s 29, containing his works: Pingree, 'The Horoscope of Constannnople I06, dem, From Astral Omens to Astrology, from Babylon to Bfkiiner, Serle Orientale Roma 78 (Rome, 1997), 75-6. b r 97 For Zebel see Anna Comnena, Alexiad, XIII. 12, 21, ed. Reinsch and ~am Y 18 420 ; 1.-C. Cheyne!, Sceaux de Ia collection Zacos (Bibliotheque Natwna~ ~e France) se rapportant aux provinces orientales de I'Empire by~:antin ( ans, 200!), 95-7.

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c.

XQi)a!J.<l texvw8v 3taQa toiJ OiJA.evto~ (MS Neapol. gr. II C 33, fols. 400r-402v = MS Seldenianus 16, fols. ll2r-ll4r). 98

This mainly unpublished text describes a technique for feeding the letters of a given question, in their numerical values, one by one, into a series of computations involving the numerical values of the ascendant sign of the Zodiac, the planet of the day and hour, and the positions of the Sun and Moon at the time of enquiry. From these computations emerge a series of numbers which convert into the letters of the answer. The three manuscript versions differ radically, although A and B have a first main section in common with variations in wording. None of the manuscripts is older than the fourteenth century, but version A is in a collection containing much dated material from the twelfth century and earlier, and version C provides the horoscopes of questions posed by a client, John Synadinos, in 1153 and 1162. 99 The material raises major questions. When was the method invented, and was it Byzantine or Arabic in origin? How widely was it used? How was the random and nonsensical series of letters yielded by the computations translated into an intelligible answer to the question posed? Clearly we cannot begin to make sense of the texts until they have been critically edited, intensively studied, and collated with other potentially relevant material, or until the method in all its variants has been tested in the production of sample oracles. However, for the present purpose it is safe to conclude that this was the method that Symeon Seth used to produce his oracle concerning the death of Robert Guiscard, and that Anna, writing c. 1148, describes as a "recent invention". Anna's digression on astrology is exceptional in Byzantine historiography, but in the perspective of our enquiry it also appears as the culmination of a trend: firstly towards a focus on astrology as the prime occult science, and secondly towards a more personal expression of the author's intense but ambiguous interest in occult
"Edited from the Naples manuscript in CCAG, IV, 146-9. ".Ed. ~ Tihon, 'Sur l'identite de l'astronome Alim', Archives internationales d hwmre des sciences 39 (1989), 3-21, at 12-20.

occult science knoWIedge. On the real relationship . between . . . . . and imperial power the Alexiad is, ?~spite Its. Imp~essi.ve pre~ISion, no more informative a11d no less dlSlnformatlve t an Its pre ~cessh~rsh. t nstructive to look at Anna's account of an event HereiiSI . m w 1c mpared directly with Theophanes Contmuatus and Co d' h she can be Leo the Deacon: the appearance of a comet prec~ mg t ~ ~nva~~~n 0 f E rios by Robert Guiscard's son Bohemond m 1107. Un 1 e ~he t~rrified populace, Alexios was convinced the phenomenon had a natural cause, but he nevertheless consulted the experts, as wei~ as th recently. appointed eparch Basil. Basil examined the comet JUSt be~ore sunset, but was unable to make sense of it and fell ~sleep. St John the Theologian then appeared to him in a dream and mform~d him that the comet portended an invasion of the Kelts, and Its subsequent extinction would signify their eventual defeat. It is clear that Alexios, faced with a strange celestial portent, behaved exactly as Leo VI and John I had done in 908 and 975 respectively. The tenth-century historians regarded this kind of 'soft' astrological enquiry as entirely legitimate, and had no problem in attributing it to the initiative of respectable emperors; indeed, these are the only occasions when respectable emperors are shown initiating the consultation of occult scientists. Alexios himself may have had no problem, but his daughter evidently did, because she does all she can to 'detoxify' the episode, by claiming that he did not really believe the star was a portent, by giving no credit to the professional astrologers who, she has told her readers, were thick upon the ground, and by asserting that the amateur who came up with the answer did so through a divine vision and not through any techne. About the time that she was writing these lines, another comet preceded the arrival of the Second Crusade. 101 According to Manuel I, in his later treatise in defence of astrology, this was correctly seen as a portent of the crusade by "the then experts" (ol tOtE tEXVh:m), especially those who remembered the comet of Alexios' reign. 102 This is one further indication that Anna was
100

:n

Anna Comnena, A/exiad, XII. 4, 1-2, ed. Reinsch and Kambylis, 368-9. ~he comet was evidently that of 12 February 1147: V. Grumel, La chronologie. !ralte d'etudes byzantines, I (Paris, 1958), 473; Anna was still writing the Alexiad 1148: XIII.?, 6, ed. Reinsch and Kambylis, 452. 01 CCAG, V.I, 115 ; also ed. S. Eustratiades in the introduction to his edition of Michael Glykas, El<; rdq Wr:ogta<; nf<; eeta<; rganj<; xe,PcV.ata, I (Athens,
101

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reacting against the official vogue for astrology at the court of her nephew. Her take on the comet of 1107 sets her apart from the tenth-century historians, and points the way to the thoroughly negative portrayal of astrology, and other forms of occult knowledge, which we find in the historians of Manuel's reign: Niketas Choniates, and John Kinnamos. Here, there is no fascination and little ambivalence. Kinnamos gives the impression that occult science only impinged on imperial politics under Alexios' successors John II (1118-1143) and Manuel I (1143-1180) when it was used in plots to overthrow the latter. Manuel's chief minister Theodore Styppeiotes is said to have prophesied, "as if from a tripod", that the emperor's days were numbered and he was due to be replaced by an older, less autocratic ruler who would rule "by reason as in a democracy".103 For this, Styppeiotes was deprived of his tongue as well as his eyes. Later, when Manuel's nephew by marriage, the protostrator Alexios Axouch, was convicted of plotting to usurp the throne, one of the charges brought against him was that he had conspired with a sorcerer (y6l]~) of Latin origin, a great expert in demonic matters, to prevent the emperor from having children; the sorcerer provided him with drugs (<j>aQJ.taXa) for this purpose. 104 Kinnamos may have had so little to say about occult science because he found it uninteresting or distasteful, and in this he may be compared to a few other Byzantine historians who are co.mpletely silent on the subject and consequently do not figure in this paper. But his reticence cannot be dissociated from his obvious purpose in writing. This was to present a glowing biography of Ma~uel, . and therefore precluded any mention of occult science which did not do credit to the late emperor. Manuel could be
1906), P o\,; tr. D. George, 'Manuel! Komnenos and Michael Glycas: A TwelfthCentury ~efence and Refutation of Astrology, Part 2: Manuel I's Defence of ~ Strology , Cultu:e and Cosmos 5 (2001), 30. 3 Kmnamos, Epuome rerum, ed. Meineke, 184-5. The episode is studied in detail ~ 0. Kresten, 'Zu~ Sturz des Theodoros Styppeiotes', JOB 21 (1978), 49-103, s~~ suggests. that It may have involved Michael Glykas alias the Michael ,~ ~Ites convict~ of sorcery according to Choniates; see below, p.156. ,; Mmnamos, Ep1tome rerum, ed. Meineke, 267-8. Cf. P. Magdalino, The Empire 01 anue/1 Komnenos, 1143-1180 (Cambridge, 1993), 218 _9 .

portrayed as. t~e. in~e~de~ victim of faile.d conspiracies involving sorcery and illtcit divmatiOn. However, his official image, after as during his lifetime, could not be allowed to show any trace of his enthusiastic patronage of astrology that is well attested in his own words, as well as by the History of Niketas Choniates. 105 Choniates, on the other hand, had no need to spare any emperor's reputation; his brief being, rather, to denounce the abuse of imperial power by the emperors of his day, their treatment of occult science provided him with excellent grist for his mill, and he went to work on it with a literary gusto that has left a lasting impression on modern perceptions of twelfth-century Byzantium. Choniates' long account of Manuel's reign contains four passages that must surely rank among the most eloquent and devastating critiques of both astrology and political misjudgement in any literature. They show the emperor credulously hanging on the astrologers' pronouncements, and when not making wrong decisions as a result, at best making himself look ridiculous and irresponsible. In the first instance, he sends the imperial fleet out to resounding defeat under a favourable horoscope. 106 In the second, his commander wins a famous victory when he ignores the emperor's orders to put off the engagement to an astrologically more auspicious day. 107 In the third scene, we see the emperor at the birth of his son, paying more attention to the astrologer's calculations than his wife's labour pains, and then celebrating the bright future mapped out in the newborn's horoscope 108 -an irony that would not have been lost on Choniates' readers, who knew the fate of the unfortunate young Alexios II, murdered before he reached the age of fifteen by his uncle Andronikos I. Finally, we are shown the emperor in his final illness, ignoring the patriarch's advice to appoint a proper regency government because the
105

The only allusions to astrology in the large body of encomiastic literature devoted to Manuel are to be found in the verse petitions of the writer known as '":fanganeios Prodromos': cf. Magdalino, Empire of Manuel, 454; idem, 'Eros the Kmg and the King of amours: Some Observations on Hysmine and Hysminias', f..OP46(1992), 197-204. Chon~ates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 95-6; Magdalino, Empire of Manuel, 5-6. 107 Chomates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 154; Magdalino, Empire of Manuel, 1. 108 Choniates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 169.

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astrologers have told him he is going to live for another fourteen years full of love affairs and victorious foreign campaigns.109 Instead of worrying about his son's succession, Manuel worries about the violent, apocalyptic winds forecast by the astrologers,no and busies himself with preparing emergency bunkers and removing the glass from the palace windows, while his relatives and courtiers obsequiously imitate his example. But, Choniates adds, the patriarch did finally prevail on him to sign a brief statement renouncing his belief in astrology. m On the other hand, Choniates records that Manuel punished other forms of occult science. 112 In narrating the condemnation of Alexios Axouch, he mentions that sorcery was the main charge, although he dismisses it, along with the whole alleged conspiracy, as completely fabricated, and he makes it sound suitably absurd: the enchantment was said to be aimed at making its perpetrator fly invisibly, complete with sword, wherever he wanted to go. m Choniates is clearly critical of Manuel's unjust and arbitrary behaviour in this affair, which he cites as an example of the tyrannical, paranoid envy to which rulers are prone with regard to their pre-eminent subjects. 114 However, he goes on to point out that justice caught up with the main informer against Axouch, Isaac Aaron, who was himself convicted of sorcery, and sentenced to blinding for this and

another offence. A magical figurine was found in his possession, 116 and he was caught consulting a 'Book of Solomon' 117 used to summon up demons. Choniates then narrates the cases of two other men, Skleros Seth and Michael Silddites, whom Manuel had blinded "for professing astrology in word, but in practice engaging in demonic acts of sorcery". Seth used a love-charm to seduce an unmarried girl, while Sikidites cast a spell on a boatman,118 and after a disagreement in a bath-house with his fellow bathers, conjured up demons to drive them out. In all these three cases of sorcery, the author does not seem to doubt that demons were involved, and that the sentences were just; indeed, he even implies that they were not harsh enough, since the culprits survived to cause trouble again. Isaac Aaron is said to have played a sinister role in Andronikos l's reign of terror (11831185), by advising the emperor to put his opponents to death, or at least to administer punishments much more severe than blindingwhich, he pointed out, had obviously not worked in his own case, having left him free to work mischief with his hands and his tongue. Michael Sikidites became a monk and later stirred up a doctrinal controversy concerning the Eucharist. Skleros Seth reverted to his

Choniates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 220-1; Magdalino, Empire of Manuel, 11. This may indicate that Manuel shared in the Mediterranean-wide apprehension caused by the prediction that all the planets would conjoin in the sign of Libra in September IJ86; see G. de Callatay, "La grande conjonction de IJ86", in Draelants, Tihon, van den Abeele, eds. Occident et Proche Orient, 369-84. If so, Choniates surely exaggerates the urgency with which the emperor reacted six years in advance of the fateful date. 111 Choniates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 221: ltEQL -ri')~ ao-rgovoflia~ ~eaxilv nva XUQTfiV VltEffi111fJva-ro ltQO~ ti)v tvav-r(av 061;av !1E8aQJ.W08E[. 1 The episodes are discussed by R. Greenfield, 'Sorcery and politics at the " Byzantine court in the twelfth century: interpretations of history', in R. Beaton and C. Roueche, eds., The Making of Byzantine History. Studies dedicated to Donald M. Nicol (Aidershot, 1993), 73-85. 113 Choniates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 144. "' Choniates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 143; cf. Magdalino, Empire of Manuel, 67; idem, 'Aspects of Twelfth-Century Byzantine Kaiserkritik' Speculum 58 ' (1983), 32646.
'
110

09

Choniates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 146-50 It was in the form of a man inside a tortoise-shell, with his feet bound and a nail through his chest. 111 Numerous magical treatises are ascribed to Solomon, and lists of demons of angels for invocation are among their standard features; see e. g. The Testament of Solomon, ed. C. C. McCown (Leipzig, 1922); A. Delatte, Anecdota Atheniensia, I (Liege-Paris, 1927), 397ff, 470, 649. Cf. R. P. H. Greenfield, 'Contribution to the Study ofPalaeologan Magic', in Maguire, ed. Byzantine Magic, 127, 129-31; P. A. Torijano, Solomon the Esoteric King. From King to Magus, Development of a Tradition (Leiden, 2002). 118 The incident is also related in Choniates' theological compendium, the Panoplia Dogmatike (excerpt ed.' van Dieten in the apparatus to the Historia, 148-9), which adds certain details: Sikidites was an imperial secretary, and was standing with a group of people on a terrace of the Great Palace overlooking the Sea.of Marmara. He bet them that he could make the boatman stand up and smash all the tiles in his cargo; after they agreed, the boatman stood up and reduced the tiles to fragments with his oar, while the onlookers were helpless with laughter. He later said that he ?ad seen a huge snake on the tiles, staring at him and menacing him with open
116

115

JBWS.

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former ways, and turns up in the account of Andronikos' reign as 119 the diviner who foretold the emperor's overthrow. Andronikos, finding himself threatened on all sides by men, and abandoned by God whom he had offended by his excesses, resorted to demons in order to learn the future, in the way that Saul had consulted the Witch of Endor. He found that most of the ancient methods of divination - through sacrifice, the flight of birds, dreams and utterances (xA.l]bOVLGJ..lOU~)-had gone out of use long ago, and that only dish-diviners and astrologers were now available. Rejecting astrology as being the more familiar and uncertain in its predictions, he decided to seek the signs of the future in water. He refused to be present at the ritual, and delegated this "foul business of the night" to his loyal minister Stephen Hagiochristophorites, who engaged the services of Skleros Seth. "By methods which I find distasteful to know and speak of, but those who wish can learn about elsewhere", Seth asked who would succeed Andronikos. The evil spirit answered by tracing in the troubled water the first letters of a name-a sigma in the form of a crescent Moon and a iota just before it - which might be resolved as JsaakiosY 0 It thus made the divination deliberately tantalising and uncertain, "or, to tell the truth, the night-dwelling demon in its manifold wickedness clouded in obscurity what it did not know for sure". Andronikos immediately assumed that the reference was to Isaac Komnenos, 121 the usurper in Cyprus, who had gone there from Isauria (Cilicia). He then ordered the question to be put again, this time asking not only who but when. "The partial and earthbound spirit, plopping and splashing in the water, uttered through enchantments, which it is not necessary to reveal", that the time would be around the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (14 September). Since it was already
'" Choniates, Hisroria, ed. van Dieten, 338--41. Although Choniates does not say so, the response conformed to the influential prophecy, which was current in the Byzantine court from Manuel's reign, that the tmUal letters of the emperors from Alexios I would form a sequence spelling AlMA (b.lood). It is clear ~at Manuel himself believed in this prophecy, since he named hts successor Alex10s and feared conspiracies by Alexios Axouch and Andromkos; so did Andronikos, who wanted his son John (loannes) to succeed ?,',m. See Choniates, f!istoria.' ~van Dieten, 146, 169,268,315,318,426. . He ?ad been appomted mthtary governor of the province by Manuel: Choniates, H1stona, ed. van Dieten, 290.
120

the beginning of September, Andronikos dismissed the oracle as rubbish. However, someone suggested that maybe the prospective candidate was not Isaac Komnenos in Cyprus but Isaac Angelos in Constantinople. Andronikos dismissed this suggestion as well, but Stephen Hagiochristophorites decided to arrest Angelos just to be safe, thereby setting in motion a train of events that led to his own death and the extraordinary fulfilment of the oracle. 122 The insecurity which caused Andronikos to resort to the occult also made him overreact to the suspicion that it might be used to challenge his own position. Soon after he he became regent for the young Alexios II, a vagrant caught wandering outside his house was accused of sorcery and handed over to the city populace to be bumed. 123 Later, as emperor, when he condemned his erstwhile favourite, Manuel's illegitimate son Alexios, to blinding and imprisonment, he burned one of the latter's secretaries, a certain Mamalos, at the stake. "In order that the punishment should not look unjustified, but should involve some previous crime, he burned certain books along with Mamalos. These supposedly concerned the reigns of future emperors, and Mamalos was alleged to have read them to Alexios to incite him to revolt". 124 Choniates alludes to such prophecies in the next reign, when he says that the patriarch Dositheos used them to influence the emperor Isaac II Angelos: "gathering, like the demons who inspire dreams, the shapes of future events and certain apparitions from Solomonic books, he led the emperor not by the nose but by the ears". 125 The occult does not otherwise figure in the account of Isaac's first reign (1185-95). However, he is shown consulting astrologers after his brief restoration by the forces of the Fourth Crusade in 1203,126 and in the narrative of the intervening reign, that of Isaac's brother Alexios III (1195-1203), Choniates clearly suggests that this was regular practice. Noting that Alexios, on his
For a summary of events, see C. M. Brand, Byzantium Confronts the West, [~80-12.04 (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), 69ff. Chomates, Hisroria, ed. van Dieten, 255-6. 124 Choniates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 310-2. 125 Ch on~ates, Hisroria, ed. van Dieten, 408. 126 Chomates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 558.
122

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return from Asia Minor in February 1201, did not go at once to the Blachernae Palace because the moment was unfavourable, he adds the comment: "the emperors of our time scrutinise the position of the stars even before they walk". 127 As for Alexios' strong-headed wife, the empress Euphrosyne, in her rage against her opponents, "turning to prognostication of the future, she applied herself to unspeakable practices and divination and performed many illicit things". She cut the snout off the bronze sculpture of the Kalydonian boar in the Hippodrome, subjected a statue of Hercules to flogging, and mutilated other bronzes. 128 Here we may note that Choniates does not refer explicitly to the idea of stoicheiosis, either in this instance, or in other passages where he mentions the manipulation of statues for political purposes. He simply reports, without suggesting occult practice, that Manuel reversed the positions of two bronze female figures in the Forum of Constantine so that the one known as the "Roman woman" was standing while the "Hungarian woman" lay fallen. 129 Although he says it was on the advice of the astrologers that Isaac II in 1203 removed the Kalydonian boar to the Palace, in order to check the swinish fury of the populace, 130 he presents the mob's destruction of a statue of Athena, who seemed to be beckoning to the crusaders, as an act of ignorant credulity. 131 Finally, we should note one passage where Choniates refers to occult knowledge without in any way characterising it as such. In connection with the doctrinal controversy of 1156--7, he mentions an imperial official looking up a brontologion or "thunderbook" while Manuel was at his base camp at Pelagonia in western Macedonia: the consultation revealed that the violent thunderstorm signified the "fall of wise men". Choniates clearly echoes contemporary opinion in connecting this omen with the deposition of the three deacons who had provoked

the division in the church. Elsewhere, he shows a belief that strange natural phenomena were portents. 133 Apart from this tacit endorsement of very soft astrology, Choniates presents an entirely negative image of occult science in twelfthcentury Byzantine society. It is an integral part of his wider picture of a decadent political culture that he paints in order to explain the catastrophic weakness of the empire on the eve of the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It is clear from the different versions of his text that he added to the picture in the light of that event, intensifying, among other things, his critique of occult science. Yet the overall message with regard to occult science remained the same: God helps those who help themselves trusting in His providence, but Byzantine rulers had forfeited God's favour in large part because they had based their decisions on fallible human or demonic methods of telling the future. Within this very consistent framework, however, Choniates' presentation of the material is far from simple or uniform. To begin with, it should be noted that the references to the use of occult divination by Andronikos I' s successors, Isaac II, Alexios III and Euphrosyne, were added after 1204. In the pre-1204 "b" version of the History, written under Alexios III and perhaps as early as 1197, all reference to astrology and sorcery ends in 1185 with the tyrant Andronikos I. This is not surprising where Alexios, the reigning emperor, is concerned, but more remarkable as regards his brother Isaac II, whom Alexios had deposed and whom Choniates criticises seemingly without inhibition as a vain, vindictive and sybaritic incompetent. The fact that astrology and sorcery do not figure in this critique thus suggests either that Isaac genuinely did not use them, or that he used them in exactly the same way as his brother. Either way, Choniates chose to concentrate his attack on the other

Choniates. Historia, ed. van Dieten, 530. Choniates goes on to show the absurdity of the precaution by describing how, when Alexios did finally return to the Blachemae, severe ground subsidence caused a chasm to open up in his bedroom. The emperor was unhurt, but others were shaken and a eunuch fell into the chasm and was killed. :: Choniates, H~stor~a, ed. van Dieten, 519-20; cf. Mango, 'Antique Statuary', 62. Chomates, Hzstona, ed. van Dieten, 151. 130 Chon~ates, Histor~a. ed. van Dieten, 558. 131 Chomates, Hzstorza, ed. van Dieten, 558-9.

111

"' Choniates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 21 1. I have not been able to identify the T,Xact text among the numerous brontologia published in the CCAG. 3 He mentions various diosemiai that accompanied the revolt of Alex.ios Branas m 1187: stars appeared in the daytime, the atmosphere was turbulent, and the Sun's light was dimmed by sunspots (Choniates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 384). Later, he remarks on the strange Jack of such signs at the time of the Latin oonquest of Constantinople (ibid., 586).

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kind of dependence on the supernatural to which Isaac was prone, 134 namely his excessive reliance on monks. He shows us the emperor soliciting the prayers of holy men instead of taking 135 resolute action against the rebel Alexios Bran as, consulting the 136 eccentric hermit Basilakios at Raidestos, and basing his flawed policies, or lack of policy, on the prophecies of the Studite monk Dositheos who had predicted his accession to the throne and been rewarded accordingly with the patriarchates first of Jerusalem and then Constantinople. 137 Here it is striking that in the first version of the History, Dositheos' prophecies appear as spontaneous, individual oral predictions. Only in the amplified, post-1204 text does Choniates add the sentence presenting them in the far more sinister guise of demonic apparitions culled from "books of Solomon". Thus in the original version of his History, Choniates sets his critique of the relationship between occult science and imperial power in the context of the relatively remote reigns of Ma.nuel.l and Andronikos I. Moreover, his treatment makes an effective, If not explicit, distinction between different types of the occult. The consultation of a thunderbook by Manuel's official, and Manuel's rearrangement of the female statues, are presented as innocent ~d even useful actions. Manuel's patronage of astrology. IS differentiated in many ways from the practice of sorcery by various reprobates, including Andronikos I. Astrology is fallible, but sorcery is demonic. For the political abuse of astrolog_Y, t~e emperor takes more responsibility than the "pestilential
'" It was widely believed that holy men and women had the gift of prophecy, and prophecies are as integral as miracles to the Lives of saints. However, monks who deceive rulers with false predictions are portrayed in a distinctly more nega_uve light. See, eg., Theophanes Continuatus, on the iconoclast monks who pro~~ed Leo V a long reign (ed. Beker, 26-28); Psellos on the monks who aroused stmtlar expectations in the aged empress Theodora (Psellos, Chrorwgraphia, ed. Ren~ul~. II, 80-1); and John Zonaras on those who predicted that Alexios I would dte lll Jerusalem (loannes Zonaras, Epitome historiarum libri XV/ll, 3 vols., ed. Tb. Btittner-Wobst, CSHB [Bonn, 1897], III, 760). "' Choniates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 383. '"' Choniates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 448-9. Choniates does not call him a monk, but the emperor addresses him as 'Father Basilakios'. "' See P. Magdalino, 'Isaac II, Saladin and Venice', in J. Shepard, ed., The Expansion of the Orthodox World (Aldershot, forthcoming).

astrologers", who remain anonymous except where Choniates names them in other contexts, notably, in the cases of Skleros Seth and Michael Sikidites, for practicing sorcery rather than astrology. By contrast, these two sorcerers and Isaac Aaron are named as convicted malefactors who are rightly punished by Manuel but survive to poison the political life of future reigns. The only emperor who turns to sorcery is the tyrant Andronikos, but even he does so as a last resort, and then with considerable distaste and scepticism. Ironically, however, his scepticism is his undoing, for he fails to recognise the real threat. His minister has more sense, but in taking action precipitates the outcome he tries to avert. Thus the contrast between astrology under Manuel and sorcery under Andronikos is made dramatically complete in the narratives of their respective ends. Manuel, ultimately deceived by astrology, renounces it at the last, while Andronikos, having rejected astrology as too commonplace and unreliable, finally turns to sorcery, which destroys him. The narrative of Andronikos' final, fatal recourse to lecanomancy not only underscores his damnation by comparison with Manuel's deathbed repentance, but fulfils at least two other functions. It actually shows that the unexpected accession of the next emperor, ' Isaac II, was both foretold and set in motion by a demonic oracle, and was therefore not quite the pure act of divine Providence that lsaac's propaganda portrayed. It also echoes the many examples in classical historiography and mythology of the nemesis incurred by the hubris of power-blinded potentates who ignore or misinterpret the oracles concerning them. There may be some reminiscence of Roman history, too, in the story of the burning of the unfortunate Mamalos on a fabricated charge of conspiracy involving forbidden books. Certainly, this story echoes the episode of Alexios Axouch, unjustly convicted of sorcery under Manuel. Here again, the excesses of Andronikos' tyranny are shown to have precedents in Manuel's despotic tendencies-or rather in the imperial system of which he was the great paradigm in recent history. Choniates' portrait of Manuel as a credulous devotee of astrology is a complete contrast to that which we have from Kinnamos and the emperor's other admirers, such as his panegyrist Eustathios of

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Thessslonica and the Latin historian William of Tyre, all of whom vaunt his medical knowledge but give no hint of other scientific interests. 138 Yet Choniates' portrait is mirrored in the astrological literature from Manuel's reign: although it is poor in dated horoscopes and astrologers' names, it gives the emperor a very high profile. He is the dedicatee of a basic introduction to astrology in political verse by John Kamateros, 139 and he is the author of a long, public defence of astrology in reply to a monk who had denounced astrologers as heretics. 140 Manuel'ss authorship of this work is indicated not only by its title, but by its reference to Alexios I as "my majesty's grandfather", and by the trenchant refutation that it provoked in turn from Michael Glykas. 141 It is curious that Choniates' mentions neither the emperor's work nor Glykas' refutation, since he presumably knew both, and his statement that Manuel signed a written renunciation of astrology implies more than a mere agreement not to consult astrologers. But if, as most scholars accept, Michael Glykas was none other than Michael Sikidites, Choniates' silence on the subject of his reply to the emperor is understandable: he did not want to give any credit to a convicted ex-sorcerer turned exponent of incorrect theology. Choniates' information on the sorcerers punished by Manuel cannot be corroborated from any other source, but his statement that Seth and Sikidites were charged specifically with practising sorcery while professing astrology echoes a major argument in the emperor's defence of astrology. Here Manuel is at pains to distinguish between legitimate astrological science and illicit astral
Kinnamos, Epitome rerum, ed. Meineke, 190; Eustathios, Funeral oration on Manuel, ed. T. L. F. Tafel, Eustathii metropolitae Thessalonicensis opuscula (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1832), 206; William of Tyre, Willemi Tyrensis Chronicon, ed. R. B. C. Huygens, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Medievalis 63-63A (Tumhout, 1986), 848. 139 Ioannes Kamateros, Eisagoge astronomies, ed. L. Weigl, Ein Kompendium griechischer Astrologie (Leipzig-Berlin, 1908). 140 CCAG, V.l, 108-25; ed. Eustratiades, I, !;!;,-ne; intr., tr., and comm. D. George, 'Manuel I Komnenos and Michael Glykas: A Twelfth-Century Defence and Refutation of Astrology', Parts 1-2, Culture and Cosmos 5.1-2 (2001), 3-48, 23-46. 141 CCAG, V.I. 125-40; ed. Eustratiades, I, 476-500; tr. and comm. by D. George, 'Manuel I Komnenos and Michael Glykas', Part 3, Culture and Cosmos 6.1 (2002), 23-43.
138

magic. The former studies the stars as natural, inanimate signs, while the latter invokes them as living, causative agents.I42
For the powers and qualities and temperaments which God has given to the stars and all that proceeds from them are merely indications. Abuse arises, however, when people address the stars by invocation, like makers of enchantments;'" it is for this reason that astrologers are called magi, as having turned aside from the straight way and inclined towards impiety. This is completely impious and abhorrent ... ... The stars are merely i~1dicators of the three states of past, present and future, operatmg naturally and according to their physical properties. What operates naturally is also beneficial and surely not to be rejected. So the stars are not creative, fo; their bodies are inanimate, unintelligent and without sense perception. Thus whoever approaches them in a spirit of observation does not acquire knowledge from them by question and answer, like those who make incantations to demons, but knowing the nature of the stars and the temperament that comes from them, and their significant configuration, takes note of present and future things.

It seems reasonable to suppose, therefore, that Choniates' formulation of the charge brought against Seth and Sikidites reflects the wording that was used in their prosecution to distance the emperor and his scientific astrology from the astral magic of the ~efendants; indeed, it might even suggest that they were prosecuted ~n ?rder to make an example of bad astrology. Either way, the InCidents as reported by Choniates are symptomatic of Manuel's effort to get good astrology recognised by the church. Equally, the f~ct that Choniates does not himself adopt Manuel's distinction, but disapproves of astrology as a whole, is symptomatic of the emperor's failure to win that recognition. Choniates clearly admired

CCAG . "' Ol a' V.!, 112, ed. Eustrallades, o~-oy; my translation. p 26 t otOLXE~!.mxu nmoilne~. D. George, "Manuel I Komnenos", part 2, IS) translates th.1s as 'those who cast nativities', but as she comments (p. 44, n. wo 1 d e example IS not accurate, and in any case it is unlikely that the emperor CO ut condemn a practice that he had followed at the birth of his son. Given the f next and them t" stor . . en ton o mvocation, the reference must be to the ritual of cherosrs.

142

tb

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and respected the patriarch Theodosios/ at whose insistence he says Manuel signed his deathbed rejection of astrology. Although this rejection is not independently attested, there is independent evidence that the ecclesiastical establishment hardened its position. The respected contemporary canonist Theodore Balsamon/ 45 the most pro-imperial Byzantine commentator on canon law and no illiterate monk, was completely uncompromising. Not only did he uphold the conciliar canons forbidding the clergy to exercise astrology, but took the most rigorous interpretation of the imperial legislation against mathematikoi that had been incorporated into the Nomokanon. The canon-law commentator of the previous generation, John Zonaras, had at least been prepared to allow that the prohibition did not apply to astronomy, as opposed to astrology. 146 Balsamon, however, regarded them as inseparable.147 He argued that of the four mathematical sciences of the quadrivium, "the first three (i.e. geometry, arithmetic, and music) are deemed lawful to be exercised and taught, but astronomy is forbidden". 148 He concluded that it was dangerous "for an Orthodox Christian to have mathematical books, to teach or be taught what is in them, and quite simply to introduce any discussion concerning the nature or power of the heavenly bodies". 149 This seems an extreme and idiosyncratic position, yet there are indications that astronomy was dropped from the mathematical curriculum in Byzantine schools at the end of the twelfth century ,1 50 not to be properly reinstated until . d c1rc . 1 over a century later, and then only among a very restncte e. 151

44

The ca?onists, especially Balsamon, are also our major source for the existence of other forms of divination in twelfth-ce t 1s2 Th . . n ury ByzantiUm. e1r commentanes on canons 61 and 65 of th Council in Trullo both .define the general references to divinatio~ and augury, and explam the specific types of diviners that 153 s are . d. h mentwne m t e canons. mce the commentators use the pres en t . . tense through out, It IS not entirely clem:, except where they give contemporary examples, whether a practice they describe was still b~i?g ~allowed. ~heir brief. ~ent_ions of palmistry, Iecanomancy, dJVJnatwn from birds, and d1vmatwn from sacrificial victims could be based on reading rather than experience. However, their more detail~d. references to Athinganoi, "cloud-chasers" (vE<j>o&tooxtat) who dlVlned fro~ ~l~ud-shapes, women who divined from grains of barley, and kntnm, prophetesses who frequented icons and churches, suggest that these types were to be encountered in twelfth-century Byzantine society. Balsamon gives a long description of a divination ceremony called a kledon, that was re~ularly performed on 23 June until it was banned by the patriarch Michael III (1170-78). He adds significantly, "May the auguries (olrovoaxo:rda~) from ravens and crows and other wild animals also .be abol~shed". Altogether, he gives the impression that, much !o his chagnn, there was a lot of divination on offer, and that it mcluded two of the three varieties that according to Choniates had

Choniates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 241-3,261-2. '" On Balsamon, see C. Gallagher, Church Law and Church Order in Rome and Bywnrium (Aidershot, 2002), chapter 5. 146 Commentary on canon 36 of the council of Laodicaea, ed. G. A. Ralles-I. Potles, 2:vvwnta uilv IJElmv xailEQc'iJv xav6vwv, 6 vols. (Athens, 1852-5; repr. 1966), III, 204-5. 147 Ibid., 205-6; see also his response to the metropolitan of Philippopolis, RallesPotles, 2:vvwr~ta. IV, 511-9. ,.. lbid.,512. 149 1bid., 518. 150 See Nicholas Mesarites on the curriculum of the school attached to the church of the Holy Apostles, ed. and tr. G. Downey, 'Nikolaos Mesarites. Description of the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople', Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 47 (1957), XLU, 894-96, 916-17; and on the education of his brother John, Der Epitaphios des Nikolaos Mesarites auf seinen Bruder

144

,.:_ ~ Y Soj Natural Philosophy and Mathematics in Earl) Palaiologan up:.untzum tudia G L . , S . ' raeca et alma Gothoburgensm 66 (Goteborg, 2003). ee m general M Tb F.. "B to Byzanr .- ogen, a1 samon on Magtc: From Roman Secular Law Koukoules ~ ;anon Law', in Maguire, ed., Byzantine Magic, 99-115; P. "'Rail v,av:tvc'iJv Bio,; xal floA.mawJ,;, I, part 2, 155-218. es otles, 2:vvray,ua, II, 443-7,457-60.
1

89 '" s . th ~~general B. Byden, Theodore Metochites' Stoicheiosis astronornike and

ed. A. Heisenberg, Neue Que/len zur Gesclzichte des lateinsichen Kazserr.ums und der Kirchenunion, I: Sitzungsberichte der bayerischen Akademie der Wtssenschaften, philosophisch-philologische und historische Klasse, 1922 ~;mch, 1922), 28-32. There were obviously exceptions, like the teacher of cu e_Phoros ~Iemmydes; see Nikephoros Blemmydes, Autobiographia sive C r~zc~lum vitae, necnon epistula universalior, ed. J. A. Munitiz, Corpus hti~tianorum, Series Graeca 13 (Turnhout, 1984), 5-7; tr. J. A. Munitiz A artzal Accou 1 S 1 ' n ptct egmm Sacrum Lovanense, Etudes et documents 48 . (Lo zn Byzanrzum th uvam, Th. 1988) ' 45-8' cf C Co ns tan t'tnt'd es, H' zg her Educatzon 111 ~ . lrteenth and Early Fourteemh Cemuries (1204--f:a. 1310) (Nicosia, 1982),

Jo~annes,

.p

r hi

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long become redundant, namely divination from birds, .utterances and dreams. It is true that Balsamon does not mentiOn dream interpretation, but its legal status was unclear since L~o VI, in the Basilica had dropped it, with ornithoscopy, from the hst of named forbidd:n practices. 154 The circulation of dream literature is proved beyond doubt by the fact that the most po~ular manual, ~e Oneirocriticon of Achmet attracted the attentiOn of two Latm translators in twelfth-century Constantinople, Pascalis Romanus and Leo Tuscus. 155 In this context, we may note that the Latin tradition associates Manuel's reign with the translation of the 156 Kyranides and the transmission of alchemical texts: interests that have left no trace in twelfth-century Greek sources. It seems, therefore, that Choniates used some rhe~orical exaggeration in explaining Andronikos' decision to s.earc.h his fate by lecanomancy. Rhetoric is also manifestly at work m hiS account of the prophecies by which the patriarch Dositheos led Isaac II "by the ears". As we have seen, the first version of the History presents these as individual oral oracles, while the sentence added in the amplified version transforms them into monstrous fantasies t~en from "books of Solomon" Both characterisations are obviOUS distortions of the material, which can be shown to derive from one or more of the apocalyptic or oracular texts narrating the reigns of the last emperors in history before the coming of Antichrist and the Last Judgement. 157 These texts circulated under various 58 pseudonyms, most commonly that of the Prophet Daniel/ and 159 most famously that of Leo the Wise. Yet they are never, in any of
"' As noted by Balsamon in his commentary to Nomokanon IX, 25 (Ralles-Potles, l.'vvray,ua, I, 192), the mentions of specific practices were replaced by a broad condemnation of divination. '" M. Mavroudi, A Byzantine Book on Dream Interpretation. The Oneirocriticon of Achmet and its Arabic Sources (Leiden, 2002), 111-6. 156 C. H. Haskins, Smdies in the History of Medieval Science (Cambridge, Mass.,

the extant literature, attributed to Solomon, whose name was more readily associated with books of sorcery-like the one found in Isaac Aaron's possession. This raises the question of the extent to which the prophetic texts were perceived as occult literature at the time and should be discussed now under the heading of occult science. Kinnamos' description of the Styppeiotes conspiracy implies that it involved oracles concerning the imperial succession. The Mamalos episode suggests that possession of such oracular texts was a capital offence, and Choniates is clearly of the opinion that belief in oracles was, like the recourse to astrology and divination, a failure to trust in Divine Providence: thus he blames Manuel for paying attention to the Alpha who would succeed him, according to the AlMA prophecy, rather than putting his faith in Christ, the Alpha and Omega. 160 Liudprand of Cremona, in the tenth century, describes the interpretation of the prophetic texts as the business of astrologers/ 61 and the prophecies themselves were believed to be depicted in the relief sculptures of Constantinopolitan monuments; 162 as we have seen, the decoding of talismanic statues was also part of the astrologers' expertise. Liudprand and the Latin tradition enhance the occult flavour of the prophetic texts by calling them Sibylline books, and this flavour is given added piquancy in the Latin translation of the Erythraean Sibyl, said to have been made via Greek from a Chaldaean original in Manuel's imperial 163 treasury. Yet Choniates, like Theophanes Continuatus and John Zonaras, sometimes reports the fulfilment of political oracles

1924), 103-5,160-1, 164-5, 191,215-21. '" Cf. P. Magdalino, 'Une prophetie int\dite des environs de l'an 965 attribuee ~ Leon le Philosophe (MS Karakal/ou 14, f. 253'-254')', Travaux et Memoires. 14 (2002),401-2. '" See P. Alexander, The Byzantine Apocalyptic Tradition (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1985), chapters 3-4. '" C. Mango, 'The Legend of Leo the Wise', Zbornik Radova Vizantoloskog lnstituta 6 (1960), 59-93; repr. in Byzantium and its Image (London, 1984).

'"'Chomates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 146; Magdalino, Empire of Manuel, 7, 200. tud~rand of Cremona, Opera omnia, ed. Chiesa, 204-5. C Scnp!ores, ed. Preger, 176. Theodore Metochites' oration in praise of lhonstantmople, the Byzantios, alludes to the hidden wisdom that is to be found in .~ statues and other sculptures of the city: xat noAA.f) uot mivtoOEV f) uwaoxal.!a ' W~ E't'l]V, ""' IJ.(lAa 1tQOOEJ(Ovtt xal 0t]UGUQOL yYWUEW~ OUt , tov vOuV EU OJro0 ~ tOL~ IJ,tv EXXE(IJVOL 1!tU Q<;XO'tWVT]~ ovt)vauem. to!~ M xal tv ~,~QT]tots.~vtl]Qoiivte~ XELJ.tTJAta uo<j>a~. ouot ota~avetv iiQa xat J(WQEIV 1~Au0UOLV EwW )(QL < xQ 6e (MS . 1tEQat'ttQw XQi'JoOm l.o1Jt6v, !l xat 6Q<ilo~ xat 1t0ve!v bel '"H~ Vmdob.phi/. gr. 95, fol. 279v). -ms, Studies, 174.
161 L'
162

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without disapproval or disbelief. The Church never formally condemned the writing and circulation of apocryphal apocalyptic prophecies, possibly because it could never be sure, until th.e outcome proved them false and therefore harmless, that the1r authors were pseudonymous and that they were not divinely inspired. To exclude the possibility of such inspiration would have been to deny to orthodox holy men the gift of prophecy that is such a standard feature of Byzantine saints' lives; it would also have been to deprive churchmen of an important psychologic~ advantage over the laity, especially the emperor~. As for the state, It punished political prophecies on an ad hoc bas1s, when they could be construed as treasonable pamphlets announcing the death of the 165 ruling emperor and identifying his successor. But ~rophecies, whether written or oral, carrying a Christian apocalyptic message were hard to condemn under the laws against magic and sorcery. Prophetic literature is thus a grey area for the study of both the reality and the reputation of the occult sciences.

164

Maria Papathanassiou
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Stephanos of Alexandria: A Famous Byzantine Scholar, Alchemist and Astrologer

INTRODUCTION

164

Choniates, Historia, ed. van Dieten, 41, 353-4; for Theophanes Colllinuatus, see above, 154, n.l34; Zonaras, Epitome historiarum, ed. BUttner-Wobst, III. 75960. 165 For an exhaustive discussion, see now W. Brandes, 'Kaiserprophetien und Hochverrat'. Apokalyptische Schriften und kaiservaticinien als Medium antikaiserlicher Propaganda', in W. Brandes and F. Schmieder, eds., Endzeiten (forthcoming).

Understanding the intellectual profile of a famous scholar who lived in the remote past can be a complicated task; in the case of Stephanos of Alexandria the problem is compounded by the limited surviving biographical information and the fact that early tradition attributes to him activities and compositions which, according to our modem standards, belong to very different disciplines. Stephanos of Alexandria is a late-sixth/early-seventh-century Byzantine scholar known as a commentator of Plato and Aristotle; astronomical, astrological, alchemical and medical works are also attributed to 1 him. It is generally accepted that he was a well-known and eminent scholar in Alexandria before moving, by 617, to Constantinople,

~H . .Hunger, Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur der Byzantiner, 2 vols. V un;ch, 1978), I, 26-7, 30, 63, 291-2, 300-301, 305, 310; 2: 231-32, 280. K. ;:;) 'Byzantine Science', The Cambridge Medieval History, N, 2 (Cambridge, 1 264-305, esp. 267-8, 297.

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where he collaborated with the emperor Heraclius (610-641) and 2 taught the quadrivium. Byzantine sources designate him as :gractical philos?pher" and "philosopher and recumenical ~eache~ most ltkely_ 1~ orde~ to present him as the ideal accomplished mtellectual of his time. Smce philosophy, the arts, and technology in the past were not separated by clear boundaries in the way they are today, Stephanos' intellectual profile could be best understood if we paid attention to the interrelations, instead of the dividing lines, among these disciplines and the various scholarly activities attributed to
' H. Usener, 'De Stephano Alexandrino', in Index scholarum quae summis auspiciis regis augustissimi Guilelmi imperatoris Ger~zaniae in . Universita~e. Fridericia Guilelmia Rhenana per menses aestivos anm !880 a dze 21 menszs ., aprilis publice privatimque habebuntur. Praefatus est Hermannus Usene~ ~e Stephana Alexandrino (Bonn, 1881); repr. in idem, Kleine Schriften, III ~~tpZig and Berlin, 1914), 247-322; Kl. Oehler, Antike Philosophie und byzantmrsches Mittelalter (Munich, 1969), 19, 276; W. Wolska-Conus, 'Stephanos d' Athenes et Stephanos d'Alexandrie. Essai d'identification et de biographie', Revue des etu~es byzantines 47 (1989), 5-89. On the astronomical association of Stephanos wtth Heraclius, see most recently A. Tihon, 'Le calcul de Ia date de Paques de Stephanos-Heraclius', in B. Janssens, B. Roosen and P. Van Deun, eds., Philomathestatos. Studies in Greek Patristic and Byzantine Texts Presented to Jacques Noret for his Sixty-Fifth Birthday (Leuven, Paris, and Dudley, Mass., 2004 ), 625-46. 3 In most MSS, works are attributed to him as follows: ~'te<j>avou ~).e;avliQEOl <j>!Aoo6<jlou xat olxouJffiVLXOu lit.liaoxaA.ou (Stephanos the Alexandrian philosopher and recumenical master), ~'tE<j>avou AA.e;avi\QEOl <j>!Aoo6<jlou (Stephanos the Alexandrian philosopher), ~'te<jlavou <jl!Aoo6<j>ou (Stephanos !he philosopher), ~'te<jlavou AA.e;avbQEOl (Stephanos the Alexandrian), ~'te<jlavou (Stephanos), 6 ffiuni]J.WJV ~'te<jlaVO (Stephanos the scientist), ~'tE<jlCtVOU <j>!Aoo6<j>ou xal f!EYCtA.ou bt.liaoxaA.ou (Stephanos philosopher and great master), ~'te<j>avou <jl1Aoo6<jlou AA.e;avbQEOl (Stephanos the Alexandrian philosopher), ~'te<j>avou f!EYCtA.ou <jl!Aoo6<jlou 'tou AA.e;avbQEOl xat xaeoA.Lx~il Ot.liaoxaA.ou (Stephanos the great Alexandrian philosopher and general master) [tn MSS Laurent. Plut. 28, 13, fol. 240; Laurent. Plut. 28, 14, fol. 169v. Laurent. Plut. 28, 33, fol. 105; Marc. gr. 324, fol. 147v, 231; Marc. gr. 336, fol. 266v; Marc. gr. 335, fol. 25; Mediol. B 38 sup., fol. 49v; Taurin. C, VII, 10 (B, VI, 12), fol. 29; Vat. gr. 1056, fols. 193v, 203v, 206; Vat. gr. 1059, fols. 123, 524, 529v; Angelicus 29 [C. 4,8], fols. 54v, 236v; Vindob. phil. gr. 108, fol. 292v; Vindob. phil. gr. 262, fol. 15lv; Monacensis 105, fol. 223; Paris. gr. 2419, fol. 72]. On the meaning of these titles attributed to Stephanos, see F. Fuchs, Die hOheren Schulen von Konstantinopel im Mille/alter (Amsterdam, 1964), 12-16; ODB, s. v. PATRIARCHAL
SCHOOL, PHILOSOPHER.

Stephanos. Moreover, modern criteria used to differentiate between 'science' and 'occult science' (our "scientific principles") are largely based on quantitative (and therefore measurable) relations between things or substances and are sharply distinguished from philosophical ideas. On the contrary, in Antiquity the Stoic doctrine of "sympathy" implied unity of the world and interaction between its parts; further, it offered a basis for understanding the world both as a whole and as a composite entity made up of various parts with specific functions that continuously interact with each other. The role and influence of alchemy and astrology on both state and individual affairs during the Late Antique and Byzantine period can be properly understood only by taking into consideration their wider philosophical context. Even so, the attitude of Roman and Byzantine emperors towards alchemy and astrology was ambivalent: for example, the emperor Diocletian decreed the burning of "books on making gold and silver" in Egypt. 4 Despite such episodes of deliberate destruction, a great number of Greek alchemical and astrological manuscripts dating from the Byzantine period do survive.5

AsTROLOGY AND ALCHEMY IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE BYZANTINE PERIOD

Among all divinatory arts invented by man in order to foretell the future, astrology was the most sophisticated in terms of the philosophical background and astronomical techniques required for casting a horoscope. These techniques were particularly refined in Alexandria, an important and flourishing centre of Greek science'See !he Suda, s. v. ~LOxA.!Jnavo and Xr]J.te(a in Suidae Lexicon, ed. A. Adler, 5
vols. (Leipzig, 1928-38), II, 104-5; IV, 804. This information refers to the occup~tion of Alexandria by Diocletian in the year 296/297, brought about by his campwgn to put down the revolt of Lucius Domitius Domitianus. As a result of his Presence in Egypt, Diocletian instituted a number of changes in the local system of administration and taxation, including monetary and calendrical reforms; he also ~~pressed Egypt's privileges (Kieines Pauly, II, s. v. DIOCLETIANUS). ~taloguedes Ma~uscrits Alchimiques Grecs (= CMAG), 8 vols. (Brussels, 192432 )9,8Catalogus Codtcum Astrologicorum Graecorum (= CCAG), 12 vols. (Brussels, 18 -1953).

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especially mathematics and astronomy-and a crossroads of various cultures and religions. A considerable number of surviving horoscopes6 provide excellent primary source material for researching the connection between astrology and medicine; indeed, already in antiquity the combination of the two led to the creation of a special discipline, "iatromathematica" (i.e. medical astrology),7 a fact that enhanced astrology's prestige, widened its influence, and may partially explain its survival during the Late Antique and Byzantine periods in spite of the strong polemics against it. 8 We also know that throughout the Roman imperial period astrology was considered the most reliable method of divination. Any emperor, therefore, would feel obliged or at least tempted to use it in order to uncover future dangers to himself or the empire and to pacify the excited minds of his opponents by withholding from them the stimulus of astrological predictions, while reserving for himself the counsel of his court astrologers. It seems quiet likely that astronomy and astrology were taught at the Athenaeum (an institution that in modem terms could be understood as the Roman state university) from its beginnings in 134 because its founder, the emperor Hadrian (117-138), was a firm believer in astrology as well as a practicing expert. On the other hand, from the death of Ceasar (44 B.C.) until that of Marcus Aurelius (180 A.D.) at least eight expulsion decrees were issued against astrologers, all meant as temporary measures. For this reason astrologers were allowed to stay in Rome as long as they did not practice their art. In the year 294, the emperor Diocletian (284-305) was the first to replace the usual regional ban on astrology with one valid throughout the empire and including all divinatory activities considered dangerous for the government. His edict had the same temporary character as

former regional edicts. ?~ly later did Christian emperors make these edicts permanent for rehg1ous reasons. 9 Many well-known astrologers were active during Late Antiquity'o and a large number of horoscopes cast during this period are preserved in papyri and later Byzantine manuscripts. L. G. Westerink's detailed study of an ancient commentary on Paul of Alexandria's astrological work (ca. 378) 11 reveals favorable conditions for teaching astrology in sixth-century Alexandria. Westerink showed that the materials of the commentary come from a series of lectures delivered in Alexandria during May-June of the year 564 ~ither by Olympiodorus ~r one of his disciples who taught ma~ematJc~ or astrology. Accordmgly, ~esterink thought it likely that m the s1xth century astrology could still be an important part of the quadrivium and therefore of the whole teaching philosophy 12 curriculum. Based on this evidence, Stephanos of Alexandria (who lived in the late sixth/early seventh century, was invited by emperor Heraclius to Constantinople, and cast both a personal horoscope for the emperor, as well as a horoscope to predict the future of Islam) must have studied astrology in Alexandria. Christian emperors were interested in consulting astrologers for both their personal and state affairs. Modifications of the relevant legislation were always possible depending on the circumstances. For example, a comparison of laws issued from the eighth to the
9

~mencan Phtloso~hical Society 48 (Philadelphia, 1959).

~eugeb.auer

and H. B. Van Hoesen, Greek Horoscopes. Memoirs of the

Ptolemy, Tetrabtblos, 1.3, ed. and tr. W. G. Waddell (Cambridge, Mass., 1940; ~pr. !964), esp. 30, 32 (text), 31, 33 (translation). M. Papa~anass~ou, 'latromathematica (medical astrology) in Late Antiquity and the Byzantme pertod' .Medicina nei seco/i 11.2 (1999), 357-76.

F: H. Cramer, Astrology in Roman Law and Politics (Philadelphia, 1954; repr. . ~htcago, 1996), 232ff., 247ff., 281. E..g. Vettms Valens, Critodemus, Antigonus of Nicaea, Palchus, Rhetorius, Eutocms, and above all Paul of Alexandria; see Paul of Alexandria, Eisagogika; :emen;~ Ap~telest~a:ica, ed. Ae. Boer (Leipzig, 1958); also Heliodoros [attributed 1.. H~ todort ut dtcttur m Paulum Alexandrinum commentarium, ed. Ae. Boer ~lpZig, 1962). The famous astrologer Hephaestio of Thebes (born on 26 ovember 380) refers to and cites whole passages from the work of earlier ~trologers, ~specially Ptolemy and Dorotheos of Sidon: see Hephaestio of Thebes, 11 {'elesmattca . ed. ?Pingree, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1973 and 1974). 6- ~: Westermk, Em astrologtsches Kolleg aus dem Jahre 564', BZ 64 (1971), 2 Ve~' tde~, The Greek Commentaries on Plato's Phaedo, 1: 0/ympiodorus, esp. ~~;t,ngen der Koninklijke Nederlandese Akademie 92 (Amsterdam, 1976),

'

W t k es enn 'Bin astrologisches Kolleg aus dern Jahre 564', 6, 18-21.

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tenth century shows that legislators of the Macedonian dynasty were more actively against magic than the !saurian emperors had been. In its tum, !saurian legislation was more forgiving, when compared with the corresponding laws of the sixth-century Codex Justinianus. 13 Consequently, it seems possible that the religious politics of the !saurian dynasty did not destroy astrology and therefore no restoration of it was necessary in later centuries. The survival and continuity of astrology in the Byzantine Empire is evident in a long letter of emperor Manuel Komnenos (1143-1180) addressed to a monk of the Pantokrator monastery, in which Manuel defends astrology. 14 One of the emperor's arguments was that Constantine the Great (307-337) after consulting the best astrologer of his time, Valens, waited fourteen years for the most favorable date for the inauguration ('dedicatio') of ConstantinopleY He concludes: "If Constantine and other pious emperors and prelates had considered astrology as heretical knowledge, they would not have used it." He also points out that, contrary to what his correspondent had claimed, the use of astrology on appropriate occasions is not an expression of impiety because astrology "simply foretells by taking into account the powers, temperaments, and qualities of the stars as bestowed on them by God". 16 He further explains that "the stars are not a creative cause because their bodies are irrational and insensitive. Therefore, we do not ask them in
13

expectation of an answer but, knowing by observation their nature and hence their temperament, as well as the configuration [of the planets] which reveals all this, we infer present and future events 17 from there". The emperor distinguishes between astrologers and those who invoke and talk with the stars and explains that the latter are the reason why astrology is misunderstood and astrologers are named magicians. 18 Consequently, the flourishing of astrology during the reign of later Byzantine dynasties (the Komnenoi, 19 Angeloi, and Palaiologoi 21) and the considerable number of astrological manuscripts belonging to the private libraries of state and church figures suggests that many Byzantine scholars and intellectuals had reconciled their Christian faith with astrology. The case of alchemy is considerably different because its 'techniques, closely related to those of the goldsmiths, had many applications to the art of jewelry-making and the luxurious decoration of palaces and churches. We are told that Byzantine emperors and Arab caliphs competed with each other in displaying the wealth of their respective states. The report of 'Umara ibnl:lamza (d. 814/815), the ambassador of caliph al-Man~iir (754-775) to the Byzantine court, evokes the alchemical interests of emperor Constanti~e V ~opronymos (741-775). He reportedly conducted ~o expenments m the ambassador's presence and transmuted lead mto Silver and copper into gold. 21 According to G. E. von Grunebaum, these experiments would have excited the caliph's
11

i rl

II

tl

! !

:;

: '

S. Troianos, 'Zauberei und Giftmischerei in mitte1byzantinischer Zeit', Fest und Alltag in Byzanz, in G. Prinzing and D. Simon, eds. (Munich, 1991), 37-51, 18488, esp. 38: "Aber wie sich aus dem Verg1eich der Gesetzblicher des 8. und 9./!0. Jh. ergibt, hat sich der Gesetzgeber unter den Makedonen vie! intensiver mit der Bekilmpfung der Zauberei befaBt, a1s unter den Isauriern, deren (Isaurier) Gesetzbuch eine Verbesserung des Cod. Justinianus im Sinne griiBerer Milde ausgibt." lmperatoris Manuel Comneni et Michael Glycae disputatio, ed. F. Cumont and F. Boll, CCAG, V.1, 108-25 (Manuel's letter) and 125-40 (reply by Michael ~lykas)]. On this dispute see also W. Adler, below, and works cited. Manuel crtes the mformation, which appears in Byzantine chronicles from the 10~ c., that on the fourth day of the "dedicatio" of Constantinople, Constantine the Great ordered Valens, ~<jl ~oov fUlSl]fUl~Lxoov ~6~e 1tQW'teuovn, to cast th.e horoscope. of the c1ty and to predict its future (CCAG, V.l, 118, 14--119, 22). ThiS was done m the year 5838 from the beginning of the world (330 A. o.), on Monday II May, in the second hour [of the day] and 26 minutes (MS Vat. gr. 191, fol. 397). 16 CCAG, V.l, 112,2-6.
14

CCAG, V.l, 112,22-31

::CCAG, V.!, 112,6-9. . P. Magdalino 'Th p h Alexiad VI. 7. 1 e orp Y~gemta and the Astrologers: A Commentary on History and L. ' m C. Dendrm~s et al., eds., Porphyrogenita. Essays on the

_7, .

Astrologie', BZ 59 (I 966) 2a ranos und der Dialog ~e~ppos oder iiber die G Stroh . ' 75-84, esp. 282; A. Tthon, m thts volume mruer "U ar . elixir' Grneco A' b' m a rbn l:lamza, Constantme V, and the invention of the ' '" - ra 1ca 4 (1991) 21 de~ griecbischen Alchemie' : tdem, 'AI-~an~or und die fnlhe Rezeption W!isenschaften 5 (! 989 ) ' Zeuschrift fUr Gesch1chre der arabisch-islamischen 167-77,esp. 172-3,
21

cbapters 4 an;s ( dershot, 2003), 15-31; 1dem, L'Orthodoxie des astrologues, 5. .. F. JUrss, 'Johannes K t

Chrysostomid

lle~(ure

of Byzantium and

~he

Latin East in Honour of Julian

--'!;

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170

Maria Papathanassiou

lexandria: A Famous Byzantine Scholar, Stephanos o{A Alchemist and Astrologer

171

interest in alchemy. The survival of alchemy in the Byzantine 23 Empire in the eighth and later centuries argues against Usener's opinion that alchemy was "forbidden" and that emperor Heraclius would not have been interested in it for this reason. Owing to its philosophical background, alchemy was consistently related to philosophical ideas on the composition and structure of matter and was understood as "practical philosophy" whereby "practical philosophers" could achieve the transmutation of matter.

22

THE ALCHEMICAL WORK

Authorship and significance of the work

According to tradition, Stephanos of Alexandria is the author of the work On the Great and Sacred Art of Making Gold/4 originally organized as a series of lectures (:n:ga!;eLc;). 25 First H. Usener (1880)
22

d ~ Jlowing him, K. Krumbacher and K. H. Dannenfeld, authorship of the work and viewed it as t~e q m osition of a later writer because the tenth-century Arab1c ~~blfographic compilation Kitab al-Fihrist by ~bn a!- Nadrm refers to "Stephanos the older, who translated alchemical and other works 26 for the prince Khiilid ibn-Yazrd (d. 704 A. 0.)." On the other hand; a number of researchers looked favorably upon Stephanos authorship, as for example M. Berthelot, E. 0. von Lippmann, I. Hammer-Jensen, F. Sherwood Taylor, R. Vancourt, A. Lumpe, A. 1. Festugiere, 0. Neugebauer, and H. Hunger. 27 Yet a third group of modem scholars, including L. G. Westerink, P. Lemerle, E. Chauvon, H. D. Saffrey, and G. Fowden, agree that the present documentation does not allow firm conclusions, a state of affairs that could definitely be improved with the appearance of critical editions publishing all the works that the manuscript tradition occasionally or consistently attributes to Stephanos. 28 W. Wolska-

~e~tio~ed Stephanos'

G. E. von Grunebaum, Der Islam im Mittelalter (ZUrich, 1963), 453, note 76. See Michael Psellos, Letter on chrysopoeia, ed. J. Bidez, CMAG, VI, 1-47, text 26--42. Hunger, Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur der Byzantiner, IT, 281. D. Pingree, 'Michael Psellus', Dictionary of Scientific Biography, XI, 182-86. Also Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, ed. M. Berthelot and Chr. Ruelle, 3 vols. (Pari~, 1888), esp. II, 452-9: llegl. "tfJ <f>oxguoorcotia ~ fJZtii)..Sev 6 oo<j>m"tU"tO tv <j>IAoo6<j>otl; XUQLO NLXlJ<j>OQO 6 BAEj.Lj.LUiil] xat l]Uj.LO(elll "to\J oxorcou "tfl ouvegye(.(;t "to\J rcav"ta ~ oux oV"tmv el 1:6 elvm rca~ayay6vto XQLO"to\J 1:0\J UAl]8Lvou E>eou i)tuiJv, <)> rcgrneL M~a ei.<; ai.Wva ~I.Wvmv Uj.Li)v. Also ibid., 442-46:'EQj.Ll]VELa "ti'J frcLO"tfJfLlJ "tfJ xguoorco~ IQOj.LOvaxou "tO\J Koo,m. In addition, the oldest surviving Greek alchemtcal codex, MS Marc. gr. 299 (10'"-11'" century) belonged to Cardinal Bessarion (1402-72).
23

24

><at

owaax~~v nj<; {try6.J.1J<; xai.leea<; r:txv 11 _.. II eei xevao:rwtia_., ed. J. L. ~eler, Phystct et medici graeci minores, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1841-42; repr.

~tephanos of Alexandria, :Ere6.vov JUeS"avoetw_. obtovwvtxov rptJ.oa6ov

msterdam, 1963), II, 199-247, 23 (= Ideler). Stephanos' text stops on p. 213,6 because a gap in the binding of MS Marc. gr. 299 resulted in the loss of the end of the '_YOrk; see H. D. Saffrey, 'Historique et description du manuscrit alchimique de V_em~e Marctanus Graecus 299', in D. Kahn, S. Matton, eds., Alchimie: art. htstotre et mythes (Paris and Milan, 1995); for other editions of Stephanos' work, see also F. Sherwood Taylor, 'The alchemical works of Stephanus of Alexandria' :;~.three out of nine lectures], Ambix I (1937), 116-39 [lectures I and II] and IX 2 (1938), 38-49 [Letter to Theodorus and lecture III] 25 . . ed in A detatled study of th e wo rk reveals that the text was ongmally organiZ seven lessons, but some time earlier than the date of MS Marc. gr. 299 was

redistributed into nine lectures and a short letter to Theodorus; the proposed original division (and its correspondence with the division found in the manuscript tradition and ldeler's edition) is the following: I" Lesson (MSS and Ideler: Lectures I and II), Lette~to Theodorus (: Letter to Theodorus and Lecture III), 2" Lesson (: Lecture N), 3 m Lesson (: Lecture V), 4th Lesson (: Lecture VI), 5th Lesson (: Lecture VI~. 6 Lesson (: Lecture VIII), 7'" Lesson (: Lecture IX); see M. Papatbanassmu, 'Stephanus of Alexandria: On the structure and date of his ~chemtcal work', Medicina nei secoli 8.2 (1996), 247-66, esp. 251-7. Use?e.r, 'De ~tephano Alexandrino ', 256. K. Krumbacher, Geschichte der BY1.1lnlmt~c.hen_L~teratur (Munich. 1897), 621. K. H. Dannenfeldt, 'Stephanus of ~lexandna, Dtcttonary ofSciemijic Biography, XIII, 37-38 . . M. Berthelot, Les origines de /'alchimie (Paris 1885) 100 200 E 0 Lippmann E 1 - 'on ntstemng und Ausbreitung der Alchemie (Berlin 1919) 104 1 Hanuner-Jensen 'D" 1 ' Selskab H" I .' Ie a teste Alchymie ' Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes ' Tisonsk-filologiske Meddelelser 4.2 (Copenhagen 1921) 146 148 F SheiWood aylor 'Th 1 h ' ' (1937-8) 116-39 e a c emiCal works _of Stephanus of Alexandria', Ambi.t I demiers ~omment~t:~P ~116-17 ~nd A:nbu: 2 (1938), 38-49; R. Vancourt, "Les d'Alexandrie' (The rLs "II exandrms d Anstote; L'ecole d'Olympiodore. Etienne .,. . se, I e 1941) 30 A J Fest ., La , . msmegiste, 4 vols (P . ' ug1core, revelatwn d' Hermes . ans, 1944) esp I 239f A L AIexandnen und Kaise . ; : umpe, tephanos von (1973), 150-9 esp 158r-9~e0rac1Nms ' Classtcal and Mediaeval Dissertationes 9 Astronomy, 3 'vols. (Berlin eugebauer "A nctent ) ' A H" Is tory OJ Mathematical 1975 ~ochsprachliche profane d. esp. II, _1050, 1051 n. 53, 54; Hunger, Die L. G. Westerink A eratur er Byzantmer, II, 280.

Lir'

~J62), XXV; idem, Th:o;:;;~u~ Prolegom_ena to

Platonic Philosophy (Amsterdam, tudesurleCommentaire ast omm~manes on Plato's Phaedo, I, 22; E. Chauvon ronomique de Stephanos d' Alexandrie' (Memoire d~

l:

172 Maria Papathanassiou Stephanos of Alexandria: A Famous Byzantine Scholar, Alchemist and Astrologer 173

Conus carefully researched the personality and activities f Stephanos of Alexandria or Stephanos of Athens 29 and pointed o~t that Byzantine historians associate the alchemical, astrological and astronomical activity of Stephanos with the patronage of em~eror Heraclius; we should not overlook this evidence and reject the possibility that Stephanos was active as teacher in Constantinople.lO Problems of authorship aside, many scholars have misunderstood and underestimated the importance of On the Great and Sacred Art of Making Gold. For example, M. Berthelot considered its scholarly significance to be minor; consequently, he did not include it in his Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs (= CAAG, 1888) and gave only a brief summary of the subjects treated in it. Modem scholars have also criticized it negatively on account of its rhetorical style and the absence of original scientific ideas. However, as commentary on selected passages of earlier alchemical texts, the work in fact presented its author with an opportunity to demonstrate wide rhetorical prowess, extensive learning, and a significant breadth of philosophical understanding. The author dislikes the whole chemical apparatus and polemicizes against those who pursue the art of making gold in order to become rich. In spite of these features, the manuscript tradition of the work clearly indicates that it was greatly appreciated: it survives in fifty-three manuscripts, fortyseven of which are in Greek, two in Greek with Latin translation, and four in Latin; with the exception of six manuscripts produced between the eleventh and the fifteenth centuries, the rest were

copied between the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries. 31 The On the Great and Sacred Art of Making Gold greatly influenced the socalled poet-alchemists (Heliodoros, Theophrastos, Hierotheos and Archelaos) as is evident from several passages in their texts. 32 In the Arabic tradition, the name and work of Stephanos (lstafanns) is associated with emperor Heraclius (Hiraql). 33 The Arabic alchemical corpus attributed to Jabir ibn I:Iayyan cites passages from Stephanos' work or uses analogous terminology without making 34 direct reference to the Greek source. As far as alchemy in Latin is concerned, the Turba philosophorum and Rosinus quote passages (short phrases or even whole pages) lifted from the Greek alchemical texts that were translated verbatim (through Arabic) into Latin, while the author of the Rosarium philosophicum (a mid fourteenth-century ompilation) cites nd comments on Stephanos. 35 In the early modem period, the work of Stephanos is included in Dominicus Pizimentius' 1573 printed edition of Greek !chemists in Latin translation, 36 as well as in later

' \

.,

Licence, Universite Catholique de Louvain, 1979-80), 18; P. Lemerle, Le premier humanisme byzantin. Notes et remarques sur /' enseignement et culture a Byzance des origines au xe siec/e (Paris, 1971) [Greek tr. Athens, 1985; English tr. Can~n:' 1986], chapter 4, n. 29; Saffrey, H. D., 'Presentation du tome I des Alchimistes grecs par R. Halleux', Papyrus de Leyde. Papyrus de Stockholm. Fragments de recettes, ed. R. Halleux. Les alchimistes grecs, I (Paris, !981), Xll;Iv; G. Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes (Cambridge, 1986), 178. Wolska-Conus, 'Stephanos. Identification'; eadem, 'Stephanos d'Athooes (Steph:mos d: Alexandrie) et Theophile le Pr0tospathaire, commentateurs des Aphonsmes d Htppocrate sont-ils independents l'un de !'autre?', Revue des etudes ';jozantines 52 (1994 ), 5--68. Wolska-Conus, 'Stephanos. Identification', 17.

"M. Papathanassiou, 'Stephanus von Alexandreia und sein alchemistisches Werk' (Ph. D. diss., Humboldt Universitiit zu Berlin, 7. Dezember 1992), esp. Teil II (Handschriften des alchemistischen Werkes). 32 Texts in Ideler, II, 328-35 (Theophrastos), 336--42 (Hierotheos), 343-52 (Archelaos); 'Heliodori carmina quattuor ad fidem codicis casselani', ed. G. Goldschmidt, Re/igionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten, XIX.2 (Giessen, 1923), 26-34. G. Goldschmidt, 'Heliodors Gedicht von der Alchemie', in J. Ruska, ed., Studien zur Geschichte der Chemie, Festgabe Edmund 0. v. Lippmann zum 70. Geburtstage (Berlin, 1927), 21-27. 33 The name of the emperor Heraclius is included in the catalogue of alchemists provided in the 10"-century bibliographical compilation by Ibn al-Nadrm, Kitab al./ihrist, ed. G. Fltigel (Leipzig, 1871), 353, 24ff; tr. B. Dodge, The Fihrist (New York, 1970), 849-50. Ibn al-Nadim mentions the Kitab Hiraqlal-akbar (=Book of Heraclius the Great) in 14 books (Fihrist, ed. Flilgel, 354, 27; tr. Dodge, 853); this seems to be the Arabic translation of the Ks<j>aAma :rtSQt TIJ\; -rou XQUOOU m>L~OSOl\; Lll', a work included in the table of contents in MS Marc. gr. 299 but otherwise missing from the volume; see M. Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam (Leiden, 1972), 189-90; M. Berthelot, La chimie au Moyen Age, 3 vols. (Paris, 1893; repr. Osnabrock, 1967), esp. III (Esst~i sur Ia ~ansmission de Ia science antique au Moyen Age), 243,255,257. Berthelot, La chimie au Moyen Age, III, L 'alchimie arabe, 20-21. 52, 78, 80, !68. See also Le livre des soixallfe-dix, in vol. I, esp. 325, 332,341. ,. Berthelot, La chimie Ull Moyen Age, I, 234,253,261,262,264,267,274-77. Berthelot, Les origines de /'alchimie, 105 considers it a "paraphrase".

f ;.

,,.,

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editions. 37 Last but not least, about one tenth of the books owned by Isaac Newton (1643-1727) were alchemical, while nine out of eighty-four titles recorded in his ~utograph . manuscript De scriptoribus chemicis refer to the Latm translation of works by 38 Greek alchemists, Stephanos included. Since modem criteria regarding what constitutes 'science' differ greatly from those of the Middle Ages, uncovering the larger 'scientific' principles underlying the work of Stephanos is a challenging but necessary task, without which it would be impossible to adequately comprehend the work, intellectual profile, 39 and activities of Stephanos. Generally speaking, the loose structure of Stephanos' lectures On making gold should not be attributed to his penchant for a personal rhetorical style. Rather, it is the result of his effort to synthesize various ideas originating in a wide array of disciplines into a logical
37

sequence and fashion them into a whole. This, says Stephanos, is exactly the research method of the philosopher; it is clearly his own method, too. His intention to unify various philosophical theories under the umbrella of a single theory able to account for all phenomena observed in the universe seems very modem. Though Stephanos promises to clarify everything, he in fact says nothing that could be clearly and immediately understood. According to L. G. Westerink, 40 the lack of clarity and logical sequence in combining ideas also characterizes Stephanos' commentary on 41 Book III of Aristotle's De anima, an observation that furnishes an additional argument in favour of Stephanos' authorship of the alchemical work. Further corroboration for this hypothesis is supplied by H. Blumenthal's statement that "a curious mixture of Neoplatonic aims and Aristotelian content emerges from Stephanos' theoria" in his commentary on Book 3 of Aristotle's De anima. 42

Democritus Abderita, De arte magna, sive de rebus naturalibus, necnon Synesii, et Pelagii, et Stephani Alexandrini, et Michaelis P selli in eundem commentaria, Dominico Pizimentio Vibonensi Interprete (Patavii apud Simonem Galignanum, 1573) (the work of Stephanos is found on fols. 23r-61r). Philosophus. Lectio prima :n:eel xevao1Wdar;. Graece et latine cum notis crit. primus ed. Ch. Gf. Gruner, Jenae 1777, in: J. G. Th. Graesse, Tresor de livres rares et precieux, 8 vols. (Dresden, 1859-69), esp. VI (1865), 492. 38 J. Harrison, The Library of Isaac Newton (Cambridge, 1978), 59. K. Figala, J. Harrison and U. Pezold, 'De Scriptoribus Chemicis: sources for the establishment of Isaac Newton's (al)chemicallibrary', in P. M. Harman and A. E. Shapiro, eds., The investigation of difficult things. Essays on Newton and the history of the exact sciences in honour of D. T. Whiteside (Cambridge, 1992), 135-79, esp. 136-7, 140-141, 166 no. [15], 167 no. [25], 168 no. [36], 169 nos. [46]-[48] and [50]-[51], 171 no. [72]. As an example of Newton's study of Greek alchemical works, I refer to his description of a method for refining gold by heating it wit? an~imo~y: "Newton then attributed that knowledge to the 'Anciens,' in accord wtth hts behef that all wisdom was anciently held by at least some wise men", in B. J. T. Dobbs, The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy (Cambridge, 1975, repr. 1984), 154. But Newton was right in attributing this method to the 'Ancients' because, as we have shown, MS Paris. gr. 2327, copied in 1478 by Theodoros Pelekanos, includ.es two recipes for refining gold and silver by heating them with antimony (Collectw.n des anciens alchimistes grecs, ed. Berthelot and Ruelle, II, 333, 28- 334, II), 111 M. ~apathanassiou, 'N~twv xat aJ..xrnt.ekt', Otironla 16 (1995), 69-78. . and M. Papathanasstou, 'Stephanus of Alexandria: pharmaceuttcal nouons . cosmology in his alchemical work', Ambix 37.3 (1990), 121-33 esp. 125ff.;AmbiX 38.2 (1991), 112 (addenda).

Relations between operations

microcosm,

macrocosm

and

chemical

A detailed study of the alchemical work demonstrates that Stephanos' principles on "practical philosophy" are deeply rooted in Neoplatonism and especially Damascius' De principiis. These principles refer to the structure and transformations of matter, the One and Many in the world and his theoretical approach to the riddle of the philosophers, 43 i.e. the secret name of the philosophers' 44 stone. Stephanos proves his extensive knowledge of Greek philosophy and science by using ideas both well-known and new
"' Westerink, Anonymous Prolegomena to Platonic Philosophy, esp. Introduction,
XXIV-XXV.

"Publishedas the third book of Ioannes Philoponos, In Aristotelis de anima Iibras commentaria, ed. M. Hayduck, Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca XV (Berlin, 1897), 446-607. " H. ~lumenthal, 'John Philoponus and Stephan us of Alexandria: Two Neoplatonic Christtan Commentators on Aristotle?' D. J. O'Meara, ed., Neoplatonism and ~hristian Thought (Norfolk and Albany, 1982), 54-63, notes 24~7, esp. 55-56. ldeler225,9-l4. 44 M. Papathanassiou, 'L 'reuvre alchimique de Stephanos d 'Alexandrie: structure ~.transfonnations de Ia matiere, unite et pluralite, l'enigme des philosophes', in C. 1 ~0.' ed. L'alchimie et ses racines phi/osophiques. La tradition grecque et Ia lradl!wn arabe (Paris, 2005), 113-33.

?I :.I

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Maria Papathanassiou

Stephanos of Alexandria: A Famous Byzantine Scholar, Alchemist and Astrologer key and a separation of the humid from the dry, i.e. a separation of the souls of copper from the bodies, namely quicksilver.<'

177

(i.e. introduced by himself), especially in what he writes regarding the relation among various parts of the macrocosm, microcosm, and 45 the philosophers' stone. These relations may be outlined as follows: The secret name of the philosopher's stone comprises nine letters forming four syllables YQUf-Lf.urca exw, 'tE'tQaa\JA.A.a~6~ df.11) and, according to Stephanos, corresponds to 'tE'tQaaoo~a ("four bodies", namely the four primary cosmic elements as solid bodies: fire-tetrahedron, air-octahedron, water-eicosahedron and earth-cube) and to the alloy of four metals involved in chemical operations. In Greek medicine, these elements correspond to the four humours of the human body (blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm). Stephanos draws further correspondences between the four humors and chemical substances. He explains that

He goes on to explain the second and third keys:

Earth-dross is united with air-gold through fire-quicksilver, in the same way that black bile is united with yellow bile through blood; this is the second key, the making of a mound (OLaxwo~) of putrefied [substance], so that the dross is united with fire-quicksilver through sulfurous [divine] water (8Elov VOWQ ). Air-gold is united with earth-dross by water in the same way that yellow bile is united with black bile through phlegm. This is the third key, a union of air with earth, that is a resolution by putrefaction and boiling, i.e. by the seven conversions (avax6.~t1J'El), so that it becomes water and all is united in cinnabar. 48

(enta

blood composed of air is warm and humid and is like quicksilver. Yellow bile composed of fire is warm and dry and is like copper. Black bile composed of earth is dry and cold and is like the dross of both [quicksilver and copper]. Phlegm composed of water is cold and humid and is like the vapours of a watery solution of gold (i\1\an XQUOQl) which are the souls of copper. 46

Stephanos uses the word "key" (xl..ds;) to denote the passage from one element to another that has opposite qualities; he gives examples for three of them as follows:
Fire-quicksilver is united with water through earth-dross like blood is united with phlegm through black bile; this is the first " !deter 220, 13-223, 15; 244, 31-245, 12. Also Papathanassiou, 'Stephanus's Cosmology', 127. 46 The English translation follows the Greek text from the forthcoming edition by Papathanassiou, 3: 3: 'Ex f1v UEQO> 1:0 atf!.C! SeQfLOV xat liyQOV EOLX tt'1 UbQUQ'fUQ<p, UruiQXEl 'fUQ SEQ I-Ii} xat ilyQu ex M mJQO> i] ~av8i} xol.i} 8EQl xat U'(Qa EOLXE 'tQl xa1..xcp UruiQXOV'tL 8EQI-IC/l xat Sl]Qcp. Kat ex flv Jrl'l.> ~ 1!>-awa xo>.i) EoLX 'tf1 oxwQ((;t 1:0>v a~J4>w UJ'tUQXEL yO.Q SlJQU xat 1JIUXQU. Ell M Ma't:O> 1:0 <l>l.f.'{f!.C!1JIUXQOv xat U'fQOV i\mxE 'tQl 6.VEQXO~<p Ma'tl XI!" 0<P 01tEQ EO'tLV at 1Jiuxat 'tOil xa1..xoil UJtUQXEL YUQ 1JIUXQOV xat uyQ6V. The corresponding passage in ldeler 220 18-24 presents significant textual differences. ' '

The number seven in the passage quoted above refers to the seven planets and their metals, as is evident from the correspondence that Stephanos draws between the four primary elements and the four fixed points of the Sun's annual path in the Zodiac which mark the beginning of the four seasons and their zodiacal signs. These points are the two equinoxes (vernal and autumnal) and the two solstices (winter and summer). He names the zodiacal signs "towers" and thus refers to the sacred art (of making gold) as having twelve towers (bwbexanugyos;) and twelve signs (bwbexa~cpbos;) divided in four groups (seasons) of three towers (signs) each: vernal equinox
"Ed. Papathanassiou, 3:4: otov 'tO l'tilQ UOQUQYUQO~ tvoil'taL 'tQl UOa'tL Ou't 'ti\> yi'Js, ~youv 'ti\~ OXWQ(a~, WOJ'tEQ 'tO aLfl.Cl tvoii'taL 'tQl $AE'ffl.Cl'tL Olit 'ti\> )Uia(Vl]s xo>.fJ~. ~~ EO'tl J'tQW'tl] XAEL> xal XWQlOfLOS 'tWV U'(QWV ex 'tWV !;~QOlv, lOU'tEO'tt XWQlOfLO 'tWV 1JIUXWV 'tOil XaAxoil ex lWV oW!-Il'ltWV, i\'(OUV tfJs XQUOaQ'(liQOU (corresponds to Ideler 220, 28-33). "Ed. Papathanassiou, 3:6-7: Kal i] yfJ, ~youv fJ oxwQCa, tvoil'taL 'tQl UEQL XQ~Ocp ~lit toil J't0Qo~ UOQUQYUQOU, i\'(OU i] OXWQ(a tvou'tm 'tQl uoau XQU<J<!l 6La tfJs U~QaQ'(liQOU. 'hOJ'tEQ i] 1-\EI.mva XOAfJ tvoiltm 'tf1 !;av8fl XOAfl Ola 'tOil at)latos, l]tls ta1:t Oeu'tQa x1..Et, OLaxwoEw~ 'ti\s oeol]mJias. &tws tvw8fl ~ OXOOQ(a 'tQl 8e(<p uOa'tl Ola 1:0\l m>Q6s. ijyouv olit 'ti\s uOQaQyiJQOU. Kat 6 ai}Q ~~~~- tvoil1:m 'tf1 Yfi, i]'(ouv 1:f1 oxwQ(~. ota 1:oil iJOa'tO>, ~'louv 'tOil liyQoil, -v"''l ~ !;avei] XOAfJ tvoil'tm 'tfli-IAa(vn XOAfl Olit toil <j>Af.'{f!.C!tOs, ~'tlS eo-ct tQ(tlj xl..el; i\vwo~ 'tOil UEQO> 1-\E'tU 'tfJS 'lfJ>, ~'fOUV l.uo~s olit 'ti\> o'i]1jJEW> ~at Elp~oew,, 'tOU'tton 1:0>v El'tn't avax6.~t1JIEWV, xat ywoi-\EVlJ> UOWQ xat , OUIJvwv J'tUV'tWV tv 'tQl UJ.Ul, ~youv yevo~wv tv 'tfl XLvvaP6.QEL ,corresponds to ldeler 221, 2-12).

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and signs-towers Aries, Taurus, and Gemini ~orrespond to air; mer solstice and signs Cancer, Leo and V1rgo correspond to ~~~ fall equinox and signs _Libra, ~corpio ~nd Sagitt~us spond to water; winter solstice and s1gns Capncom, Aquanus corre 49 and Pisces correspond to earth. St phanos explains that the bodies and colours of the seven planets precisely the seven bodies and colours of this composition, the tetrasomia. In the same manner that the seven planets pass through the signs of the Zodiac, the seven bodies and colors pass through (i.e. appear in) the composition made up of the four elements. According to Stephanos, the "mysterion of the philosophers" (where mysterion is a multi-valent word meaning "mystery, secret", but also "mystic rite", "an object used in magic rites, talisman" and "symbol") is carried out by means of the sev_en _planets;_ the philosophers call it the "Egg of the philosophers wh1ch IS not bud by 50 a bird" (<jJov t&v <j>LA.oa6<j>wv, O:ltQ OQVL~ oux EYEVV'Il0). By

ar:

referring to the "body (alloy) of four elements (metals)" (tetQaatoxr.p aooJ.LUtL) Stephanos means the cosmogonic Egg of Greek philosophy which, according to Orphic doctrine, "is older not only than the bird, but is older than anything in the world".st Consequently, this Egg is a dynamic image of the All represented by the two cosmic revolutions and should be identified with the Stone of the philosophers. Stephanos continues by drawing correspondences between the primary elements on the one hand, and colors and parts of the human body on the other, as follows: Earth corresponds to white and to the part from feet to knees. Water is far-shining (tl]A.avye~) and translucent (bwvyE~) and corresponds to the part from knees to navel. Fire is yellow (~av8ov) and fiery (bLWtvQOV) and corresponds to the part from navel to heart. Air is saffron-coloured (xeox&be~) and corresponds to the part from heart to neck. 52 Why does Stephanos omit the head? Because, as is clearly stated in Plato's Timaeus, "the divine revolutions, which are two, (the gods] bound within a sphere-shaped body, in imitation of the spherical form of the All, which body we now call the "head," it being the most divine part and reigning over all the parts within us" (44D). Moreover, "[the gods] planted the mortal kind apart therefrom in another chamber of the body, building an isthmus and boundary for the head and chest by setting between them the neck to the end that they might remain apart" (69E). 53 Stephanos says that the head regulates the change of humours in the human body exactly as the alternation of seasons regulates the
"0. Kern, Orphicorum Fragmenta (Berlin, 1922), 143: (Plutarch, Quaest. Sympos. II 3,1 p. 636d) ae(ow l;uvct:olOL lOV 'Og<j>txov UoQOV )..6yov, o<; oux OQVLBO<; fi(Jvov lO cpov arro<jla(vEL J"tQEO~UlEQOV, aHa xa\ ou)..)..a~WV futaoav au~<)> ~V <irraV~OJV 6iJ.Oll J"tQEO~UYEvEICtV UVU't(8TJOL Ed. _Pap~thanassiou, 3: II: 'Ex flkv rrobwv EO> ~G>v yovarwv ro til<; yfl<; '_lt01XELO~ Ul"tUQXEL xat ear\ AEUXOV woet XLWV' EX liE lWV yovarwv EW<; roil 011'l>a:l.ou ~o toll Mara<; motxeiov urraexet toll xarox(fl.OU xat Em\ 'tTJAauy<; x~lli~auy<; tlji re dliet xat Tfl OewQ((;t xa\ ex toll OJ.L<jlakoll ~w<; til<; xaelila<; ~~0 rru.eo<; mmxeiov urraexet wll xaroxlfl.Ou xa\ em\ l;aveov xa\ Oto QOV. OJ<; to rrllQ' xat EX til<; xaglila<; EOJ<; lOll auxevo<; ~0 lOll UEQO<; 53 Pl~~iov_umtQXEL xat Eat\ xgoxwlie<; (corresponds to ldeler 222, 12-20). ( E)~[maeus, tr. R. G. Bury (Cambridge, Mass., 1929; repr. 1981), (440) 98-9,

49 Ed. Papathanassiou, 3:9: ~~vay6J.LEVa ouv rra;w y(vovrm. 1)~1\EKa e.: lEOOaQOL lQICtliUIW<;. "Qme ouv liwliexarrueyo<; urraexouoa TJFV f) WQU lfxVTJ' lQOrrWV tEOOUQOJV ava lQLWV rrilgywv liwliexa!;cplio<; AYElUL elvm, avaxux1..ouj.ikvt] tel<; rgorra<; oihw<; ijyouv eagtvfj<;, xgL6<;, tallQO<;, 1)(1\ufiO~ at)Q 8EQLVfj<;, XUQXLVO<;, Mwv, rrageevo<;, rrlJQ J.IE'tO~OJQLVfj<;,' !;uy6<;, crxogrrL6<;, 'tOl;6'tTJ<;. Mwg XELJ.IEQLVfj<;, aiy6xegw<;, MQoxoo<;, txeue<;, ~ liru:Q cruvay6f.IVa 6f10ll y(vov'taL 'tQorrat 'teooaee<; eagtvf), 8EQLVTJ, J.LE801UJlQLVfl, XELJ.LEQLvfl, ijyouv 'teooaga O'tOLXEia UEQO<;, rruQ6<;, Mara<;, yfl<; (corresponds to ldeler 221, 2~34). . "'The phrase is missing from MS Marc. gr. 299 (10"'/11"' century), where there.ts a gap in its place; it survives in MS Paris. gr. 2325 (13"' century) and MS_ Pam. gr. 2327 (a. 1478); ldeler 222, 10 marks a gap and quotes a somewhat dtfferent (wrong) sequence of words. The full Greek text reads as follows (ed. Papathanassiou, 3:10): 'QoautOJ<; rraALV ExEL 'tel OWftU'ta xat 'tel XQWJ.LCllU t!ilV ema clOlEQOJV 't(i)V )..eyoJ.Jtvwv rrAaVTJlWV 'tWV au'tWV Elliwv 'tE xat oxTJfi(lroov, liru:Q Elcrt 'tel emu O!OJ.LU'ta xat 'tel XQWJ.LCllU 'tOll au'toll cruv8~J.LUlO<;. ~ y(vOV'tUL J.LE'tcl 'tf)v 'tclSLV 'tWV emu amEQOJV. "Qorree yaQ OUlOL ol EJ"tta amtge<;, ijyouv ol rr)..avij'te<;, el.aegx6f.IVOL ev wi<; arr1..avtm liwliex~ t<Pii(oi xat ESEQX6J.IEVOL <jla(vovmt f1kv ytv6f.1VOL xat arroytv6f.1VOL, outOJ<; Kat tailta ta emu OWJ.LUta xat ta XQWJ.LCl'ta <jlatv6f.1Va flkv y(vovtm 11,a cirroy(vovmt Ev tlji au'tcj> ouv8EJ.LCltL rlji ex reooagwv ormxe(Olv ioxte8EV't~ ~<; lith. t!ilv errta acr'ti\Qwv 1:G>v 1..eyofikvwv rr)..avTJ'tG>v xat 1\wlie~a Urr)..av v !;cpli(wv tEAEitUL 'tO tWV <jl!Aoo6<jlwv UlQEXEOta'tOV J.L~O'tTJQLOV, o:; ~EXATJtUL rrag'au'tOi<; ljJov r&v rptJ.oa6rpwv, on_e(! liQv~ ovx eytvv,ae, x~t <; E<jlaoav, a)..)..' 0 VOll<; tOll rrQO<jlfllOU <jlwgato, omL<; UJ"tUQXEL, O (Ill; (corresponds to Ideler 221,34-222, 12).

69

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Stephanos of Alexandria: A Famous Byzantine Scholar, Alchemist and Astrologer under the rays of the Sun, is found in the subsequent [Zodiacal signs]; again the [planet] of Saturn is faintly discernible due to the steepness of its height; again the [planet] of Mars is preparing the burning cut; towards these [planets] comes the Moon dressed as a bride [and] takes up the towed ships of the nine parts; by means [of the Moon] the alloy that is in the process of mixing itself does so to perfection. 56

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change of juices in nature. But the alternation of seasons depends on the Sun's annual motion in the Zodiac (ecliptic); consequently, both the head and the Zodiac regulate all changes observed in the human body (microcosm) and the world (macrocosm). Finally, Stephanos says that the changes of the four primary elements into one another and the occurrence of natural phenomena are similar to what takes place in a chemical apparatus: the cover (<j>avo<;) of the earthen pot (xu6Qa, A<.Ol'ta<;) looks like the sky that covers the earth; many changes occur in both the sky and the chemical apparatus as 54 putrefaction and the dross of metals change by exhalation.

An astronomical phenomenon recorded

In revealing the unity of the world, Stephanos related celestial and terrestrial phenomena to man in various ways. The well-known correspondence between planets and metals (Sun-gold, Moon-silver, Mercury-quicksilver, Venus-copper, Mars-iron, Jupiter-tin, Saturnlead) and the observation of a particular planetary phenomenon at the time that he was writing his alchemical work stimulated his imagination and inspired him to include its allegorical description in his text. The following passage, if explained in astronomical terms, can be understood as describing the Constantinopolitan eastern sky near the horizon at dawn and may be used as a clue to aid the identification of its author and the date of its composition:"
Again the [planet] of Venus attained the Persian dawn and precedes the rays of the Sun; again the [planet] of Mercury,
54

This passage can be explained as follows: at dawn the Sun is under the horizon; "Mercury, under the rays of the Sun, is found in the subsequent [Zodiacal signs]" means that Mercury is also under the horizon and is therefore invisible. "Venus attained the Persian dawn and precedes the rays of the Sun" means that Venus is visible as "the morning star" near the eastern horizon at dawn. "Saturn is faintly discernible due to the steepness of its height" refers to Saturn's great distance from the Earth according to ancient cosmological models. "Mars is preparing the burning cut" means that Mars (understood by astrology as the ruler of Aries and related to violent activities, weapons, cuts, burns, and the metal iron) is preparing to pass from the last Zodiacal sign, Pisces (a watery sign), to the first one, Aries (a fiery sign). "The Moon comes dressed as a bride" towards these planets indicates that the Moon is about to come in conjunction with the Sun (new Moon), a phenomenon allegorically understood as their marriage, a theogamia. Consequently, after the full Moon, the Moon is now moving towards these planets and the Sun, without having yet been in conjunction with any one of them. As deduced from the author's poetic account of this particular planetary phenomenon, the order of the planetary positions from east to west is as follows: Mercury, Sun (invisible under the horizon), Venus, Saturn, Mars, Moon (visible above the horizon).

Ed. Papathanassiou, 7:7: "QonEQ ouv EX wii ouQavoii xaJWQ01h6lc; til yfl EnLXELIJEvou 'taii'ta rniV'ta elmv EX 'tWV avaSu!llftoewv, OU'tW<; xat ~ 'ti\<; x~BQac;, i\m A.oool\oc;, we; ex yi)c; xat EX 'tOU EnLXELfWVOU <j>avoii ~c; e; OUQavoii o<j>oi\Qat y(vov"taL ot ~uafloA.at. Kat &oneQ at iic; yi)c; OTJijJEI<; 6.vu8upui>~m ~uf\6.:\.A.oV"tUL, ou1:wc; xat o ioc; ou fL~uf16.A.~a~ 6.vu8upui>~oc;. To 1\ aim'> xa"tuvof(oeLc; xat ent i)c; '[OU 6.v8Q~" xe<t>uA.i)c;, OLx(uc; 1\(XT]V EmXELfUlyT]c; 'tljl OWJW'tL xat 'tU uyQU flll'taflaA.A.ouat]<; 'tljl EnLXQU'tOUV'tL 1tCl8L W<; at 'tQ01tU( (corresponds to ldeler 245, 3-12). "Papathanassiou, 'Stephanus of Alexandria: On the structure and date of his alchemical work', 258ff.

56

a~yac; 1tUALV o 'tOii 'EQfLOii uno 1:6.c; 'tOii l]Atou auyuc; ent 1:6. En6fLVa EUQWXE'tUL 1tUALv o 'tOii KQ6vou liLa 'tijv wii u1jlouc; fla8U'tT]'ta UfLUI\Qwc; I!QOO<!>a(vE"taL 1tUALV 0 'tOU AQEOJ<; 'tijv ltUQWIIT] 'tOjlijV UneQYU~'tUL' ev ole; ~ ~1:Lx<ilc; lll.!loxeuaoflkvTJ 1tQOQXEm oekl]vTJ, tac; t\vvta 1:oov 'tfLTJJ.Ulwv va aiJilaV1 o:\.x61\uc;,I\L'~c; 1:0 ouyXLQVWfLEVOV 'tEAELOU'tUI XQdJW.

A~l(<hv [A.ax<hv correxi: A.axoiioa MBA] t\ljlav 1tQOT]yt'tm 1:6.c; "toi) i)A\ou

ldeler 225, 25-32: llaALV o [o correxi: i] MBA] 'ti)c; J\<j>Qol\('tT]c; 'tijv 1tEQOLXTJV

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In the last sentence of the passage the author refers to "the alloy that is in the process of mixing itself'; this is the alloy composed of the metals that correspond to the planets mentioned earlier according to the Stoic principle of sympathy between all parts of the world, a principle which underlies the traditional correspondence between celestial bodies (planets), terrestrial things (metals, precious and semi-precious stones, plants, animals etc) and parts of the human body. This may be related to the subsequent passage:
The whole operation includes three [bodies/ elements/ metals] and displays the tetrasomia [= the four bodies] as a fourth, proceeding in an orderly manner. And they [= the bodies/ planets] run about to serve the most pure one [= Moon], so that by means of the vigorous [conjunctions?] they spur [themselves?] on towards the rays of the Sun, so that what [comes] from something perfect and is perfect be combined with [other] perfect [things]. 57

emperor Heraclius (5 October 610-11 January 641) at Constantinople. The lack of any reference to Jupiter in the text evidently means that it was not visible. According to calculations made on the computer with the program Voyager, during the reign of Heraclius there were 93 cases of great assemblies of the Sun, the Moon and four planets, independently of their order in the sky and their visibility; but only three of those (7 June 617, II March 636, and 19 February 638) fulfill most astronomical conditions described in the passage. Closer examination helps eliminate the conjunctions of 636 and 638, since the order of the visible planets (as seen successively in increasing height above the horizon) was Mars, Venus, and Saturn. This sequence is different from the one described in the text (Venus, Satum, Mars). In addition, in both 636 and 638 Mars was in the Zodiacal sign of Aquarius; especially in February 638, it was very near the Sun and moving towards Capricorn (retrograde motion), i.e. in a direction away from Aries. Consequently, in neither case could Mars have been preparing the "burning cut" by entering Aries. After eliminating the years 636 and 638 from consideration, the astronomical conditions on 7 June 617 deserve closer examination:

"The tetrasomia proceeding in an orderly manner" here signifies the four planets (apart from the Sun and the Moon) proceeding in order on the Zodiacal zone. The passage means the following: the Moonsilver comes in successive conjunctions with the four planets-metals of the tetrasomia, changes their colours by transmuting their substances and leads them towards the Sun as it (the Moon) is moving towards its conjunction with the Sun; in this way the Moon leads the four planets to their perfection through union with the Sungold.

<'

... ,.

Constantinople, 7 June 617,04.15 am local time (02.15 UT)

Planet

Rising

Setting

Zodiacal sign

The date of the work

Sun Mercury Venus Mars

{Jupiter

04:29am 05:32am 03:54am 01:04am

11:32 am

07:32pm 08:56pm 06:42pm 01:00pm

12:29am

17 52' Gemini 04 33' Cancer 07 51' Gemini 01 39' Aries

15 18' Virgo]

If this passage really refers to a planetary phenomenon observed. by Stephanos during the time that he was composing his alchellllCal work, one should be able to identify a great assembly of the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Saturn in a relatively narrow part of the sky, seen in the eastern sky at dawn during the reign of the
" ldeler 228, 28-32: ... tva lQLWV OVlWV Til~ xa96),.ou EQyao(u~. 'tE'tclQ't11V avabell;eL ti}v le"tQaowjUuv ~ab~ouoav ein6.K't(J)~. Kat 1\LUlQt)(OUOL ltQ~ U:rct]Qeo(uv 't'f\~ xa9aQW't6.ll]~. tva b..U 't<ilv e\Jlovouv'twv xev'tf]owmv !tQO~ la~ 'tofl it/J.ou auya~. il=~ lo tx u),.ef.ou 'teAetov leAef.oL~ ouva<j>Bft

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Saturn Moon

03:21am 03:09am

05:32pm 05:53pm

25 33' Taurus 22 29' Taurus

If we were at Constantinople on that date and Stephanos invited us to admire with him the splendid view of the starry sky, he would first show us Mercury, visible in the twilight as an evening star low in the west; and next morning early at dawn (4:05 am local time, 24 minutes before sunrise) in increasing height from the eastern horizon he would show us Venus as a morning star very low in the east but visible because of its great brightness; a little higher than Venus Saturn would be in conjunction with the crescent of the wanin~ Moon, and finally red Mars high in the sky. The position of Mars in 139' Aries, a fiery Zodiacal sign and the first subsequent to the vernal equinox, explains why "Mars is preparing the burning cut": Stephanos must have been observing the planets for many days while this particular planetary phenomenon gradually evo~ved. ~ars was moving straight forward (towards the subsequent zodiacal Sign) through the last degrees of Pisces before entering Aries on 4 June. Meanwhile, the Moon, after the full Moon of 26 May, would come successively into conjunction with Mars (3 June), Saturn (7 June) and Venus (8 June), reaching its next conjunction with the Sun (new Moon) on 9 June 617. Stephanos does not mention the 3 June conjunction of Moon and Mars in Pisces, possibly because he wrote this lecture some time after 26 May 26 but before 3 June 617 The astronomical method explained A legitimate question may arise as far as this method of dating the alchemical work of Stephanos is concerned: if the single date fulfilling all astronomical conditions deduced from the text is fo~nd by searching only the astronomical phenomena that occurred dunng the forty years of Heraclius' reign, is this not a circular argum~nt based on the assumption that the alchemical work is a genume composition by Stephanos? If the attribution of the alchemical work to Stephanos is false, it could have been written any time between

S banos' lifetime in the early seventh century and the late tenthtef eleventh century, i. e. the date ascribed on the basis of ;~?ography to MS Marc. gr. 299, the earliest among the manuscripts that contain the work. We s~ould. therefore ch~ck whether the astronomical phenomeno~ descn?ed m. the alchemical work repeated itself at any other time dunng th1s four-century period. Let us begin with the celestial phenomenon itself. It i~ true tha~ such an astronomical phenomenon may occur several times dunng a given century because of the participation of the planets Sun, Mercury and Venus. As Plato says in his Timaeus (380), "and the Morning Star [i.e. Venus] and the Star called Sacred to Hermes He [i. e. God] placed in those circles which move in an orbit equal to the Sun in Velocity, but endowed with a power contrary thereto; whence it is that the Sun and the Star of Hermes and the Morning Star regularly overtake and are overtaken by one another". 58 The Moon joins them every month but the order of its successive conjunctions with them differs from one month to the next. In our case a major differentiation in this "regular" phenomenon appears because of the participation of the planets Mars and Saturn whose sidereal periods of revolution around the zodiac are ca. two (1.88) years and ca. thirty (29.46) years respectively. 59 This means that we do not see every month an astronomical phenomenon in which all these planets are involved. Moreover, such phenomena are not always visible, as their visibility depends on the angular distances of the planets involved in relation to that of the Sun in the Zodiac. But even if such a phenomenon is visible, there are two opposite regions of the sky in which it may be observed: either in the eastern part of the sky at dawn (if Mercury or Venus or both are morning stars) or in the western part of the sky at twilight (if Mercury or Venus or both are evening stars). This condition further restricts the
"Plato, Timaeus, tr. Bury (380), 79. "The sidereal period is the time that a planet takes to complete one orbit relative to. the fixed stars. The position of a given planet is measured on the ecliptic by usm~ the coordinates of the ecliptic (ecliptic longitude, ecliptic latitude); we constder the point of the vernal equinox as point zero on the ecliptic. A planet m~es a whole revolution around the zodiac (i.e. the ecliptic) when it returns to the :I_Dt .w~re it was when we begun observing it, i.e. to the same degree on the lipttc (t.e. the same ecliptic longitude).

.i
l

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possibilities of when the astronomical phenomenon described in the alchemical text may have occurred. Let us now further narrow our search by imposing an even more restrictive requirement: the order of the planets seen in the sky as compared to that described in the text. By moving continuously, the six celestial objects mentioned in the astronomical passage (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn) keep changing their angular distances from one another and, in due time, also their order. Though there are many different ways in which we can combine and order six different objects, once a particular sequence and location on the sky relative to one another are required, possibilities become considerably more limited. The astronomical passage describes a concentration of the planets except Jupiter in a relatively small part of the sky, forming what in astrological terms is called a great assembly or great conjunction. For this reason, we may allow an angular distance of 48 degrees (equal to the greatest elongation of Venus from the Sun) for their positions on the ecliptic. The passage does not explicitly mention in which sign of the Zodiac the whole phenomenon occurred. However, it does provide us with a valuable piece of information, "Mars is preparing the burning cut" which, as we have seen, indicates the passage of Mars from Pisces (water) to Aries (fire). In the passage, Mars rises first and is followed by Saturn. Therefore, the key in searching for the occurrence of such a celestial phenomenon in the four centuries after the reign of Heraclius is to identify instances when Mars was in the last degree of Pisces and Saturn a few degrees further in the successive order of signs. A search in Owen Gingerich, Solar and Planetary Longitudes for the Years -2500 to +2000 by Ten-Day Intervals (Madison, 1963) yields thirty-two possible dates (beginning with 672, 674 and ending with 1086, 1088), as Saturn moves ca. two years in each sign and Mars can overtake him twice in the same or the next sign. These thirty-two possibilities were further explored by running a computer search with the help of the program Voyager, through which oth~r P~~~~ters such as the order of the planets on the sky and theJ VISibility on its eastern part at dawn can be taken into consideration. The computer search indicates that none of the conjunctions that occurred until 1088 A.D. fulfils the astronomical requirements deduced from our reading of the astronomical passage in the

alchemical work of Stephanos. If our allegorical interpretation of this passage is correct, the only viable celestial phenomenon it could be describing between the seventh and the eleventh centuries would be the one visible from Constantinople and evolving around 7 June 617. This piece of evidence becomes particularly intriguing when we also take into consideration the fact that Stephanos of Alexandria is the author of a very important commentary on Ptolemy's Handy Tables, in which he gives his own examples explaining the use of Ptolemy's tables60 for the calculation of solar, lunar and planetary positions, as well as solar and lunar eclipses calculated for the coordinates of Constantinople. 61 The dates of calculated examples in this commentary fall in the years 617-619. 62 his suggests that during this period Stephanos was in Constantinople and consistently observed and calculated the motion and position of the Sun, the Moon, and the other planets. Had he been not in Constantinople but Alexandria, he would have used the data of Ptolemy's tables as they are given for the geographic latitude of Alexandria without modifying them for Constantinople's coordinates. It seems that Stephanos, while systematically engaged with the observation of astronomical phenomena for the purposes of his commentary on Ptolemy, was also composing his alchemical work. The particular planetary phenomenon he observed around the beginning of June 617 i~p.ress~d him so much that he decided to include its allegorical descnptiOn m the alchemical work. By the beginning of the seventh
:, On Ptolemy's Handy Tables, see Neugebauer, A Historv of Ancient mathematical Astronomy II 969-78 61~ in MS Vat ' mas gr. ~0. Usener edited a few chapters of the work based on f~ur MSS: =~~~tabngen~is_. cuius p_raesto mihi erat apographon Gottingense (cod. ms, 0 codJcis Barocc~am (an Cromwelliani?). U cod. Urbinas gr. 80 chart. 5 Mexru: ~ c?d. Vaticanus gr. 304 chart. s. XV." See Usener, 'De Stephano 62 N drino 289-319 [289-295 commentary, 295-319 text]. eugebauer A H' 1 , A . Chauvon 'Etu' IS ory OJ nc1~111 Mathematical Astronomy, II, 1045-50. E. M.-cb Hu de. sur le Com~enta1re astronomique de Stephanos d' Alexandrie'; novemb Stephane d _Alexandrie: Calcul de !'eclipse de Solei! du 4 re . (Mem. de licence, Universite Catholique de Louvain 1987) Papathan 8SSIOU 'St h ' . Handtafeln d 'p ep ~os von Alexandreia', Teil I, 2.C. Kommentare zu den es tolema10s.

~l!Ob' ELY!Wtwv tfi tWV :rtQOXeLQOJV xav6vrov ecj>61\ou toi) 8EOJVO

1ecpavou, !JZYa/-ou <jn/..oa6cj>ou xal i\Ael;av1\QW 1\Laaacj>T(OL<; 1; oixelrov

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XV ),

l0.

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century, the correspondence of ea~~ plan.et to ~ metal was a long and firmly established occult tradition With which Stephanos was thoroughly familiar and to which he also refers elsewhere in his alchemical work, including an instance in the same lecture where the astronomical passage is contained. 63 The evidence of the astronomical passage in the alchemical work that is datable to ca. 7 June 617, combined with the known astronomical observations and calculations by Stephanos in Constantinople on the one hand, and the attribution of the alchemical work to Stephanos of Alexandria in several instances recorded in Byzantine historiography and the Greek manuscript tradition on the other, indicate that this attribution must be accepted as genuine. H. Usener was the first who voiced doubts about it because he thought that alchemy was a forbidden subject in Byzantium. Usener launched a debate that still continues and may lead to a dead-end, especially if anyone's re-examination of the available evidence begins with the negative assumption that the various works attributed to Stephanos cannot have been written by the same author. Usener's view is predicated on the existence of an established split between "officially acceptable" or "canonical" and "forbidden" or "heretical" fields of knowledge during the Late Antique and medieval period. As a result, modem scholars have viewed the surviving written record of Stephanos' various interests and activities as the products of many different scholars (as many as the subjects treated in his surviving works), instead of a single one. However, if we allow the Byzantine evidence to speak, we may be able to appreciate how multi-faceted Stephanos' intellectual profile really is.

THE ASTROLOGICAL WORK

The problems with dating the Apotelesmatike Pragmateia and its attribution to Stephanos
A few pieces of surviving evidence suggest that Stephanos had indeed occupied himself with astrology during the reign of Heraclius, perhaps at the request of the emperor himself. The first piece of evidence is a tenth-century report by the biographer of the emperor Basil I that Heraclius had drained, filled in, and converted into a garden a cistern of considerable size situated in the imperial estates because Stephanos of Alexandria had cast the horoscope of the emperor and predicted that he would die by drowning; as a result, the emperor took special measures to protect himself from 64 this danger. Although Stephanos' predictions regarding Heraclius' death were wrong, the emperor's elaborate precautions can be taken as an indication that Stephanos may have had a certain amount of influence on him. That Heraclius had feared death from water is confirmed independently by the Short History of the patriarch 65 Nikephoros. No further information on the emperor's horoscope is available to us since neither a text nor a design for it survive.

Asecond piece of evidence that Stephanos of Alexandria had indeed written on astrology survives in Greek but goes back to a ninthcentury Arabic source. At least two Greek manuscripts, MS Angelicus 29 of the year 1388 and MS Vat. gr. 1056 of the fourteenth century, contain the Greek translation of Arabic ~trological texts, including a catalogue of astrological books found m the caliphal library the reading of which was forbidden. The catalogue is attributed to the famous ninth-century astrologer Abll

E.g. Ideler 230, 24: Oihw llij A.ourov v6e~ 11at 'tO xa'/..K6"f..QOJOV til~ A<jlQoli(nJS 8eQIJ(Jv ilmlQ.r..eL 'tfl <jluaeL (So you should consider that the copper colored body of Venus is warm by nature).

The Ostro ?hanes Contin~atus, ed. I. Bekker, CSHB (Bonn, 1838), 338,10-12. G. g rsky, AItenum Gesch1chte des byzantinischen Staates' Handbuch der 61 Nike ~WJssensch.aften XII, 1-2, 3rd ed. (Munich, 1963), 77-93. comm ~ :s, Patriarch of Constantinople, Short History, 24-25, ed., tr., and ango, CFHB l3 (Washington, D. C., 1990), 72-5.

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Ma'shar. 66 Whether the astrological book (apotelesmatikon) by Stephanos of Alexandria listed in this catalogue is the surviving Apotelesmatike Pragmateia or a different one can only remain an open question. However, by the tenth century, "Stephanos the Astrologer" (~1:e<j>avo; 6 f1U8ru..ta'ttx.o;) was recognized as the authority who had cast a horoscope pertinent to the early Islamic conquest, as is explicitly mentioned in the De administrando imperio (Chapter 16).67 The Apotelesmatike Pragmateia by Stephanos of Alexandria is also mentioned by the eleventh-twelfthcentury Byzantine historian Georgios Kedrenos; 68 both passages have already been identified and discussed by H. Usener. In addition to these cursory references in Byzantine historiography, we also have the well-known and much-debated text of the Apotelesmatike Pragmateia, an astrological treatise that includes a horoscope of Islam. It has been edited by H. Usener as part of his article entitled 'De Stephana Alexandrino'. 69 Usener's edition is
66

based on six Byzantine manuscripts dating from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries and containing two types of design for the horoscope. 70 As is the case with the alchemical work, Stephanos' authorship of this piece is also considered spurious. Before discussing the problem any further, let us focus on certain aspects of the text based on Usener's edition. 71 The treatise can be 72 divided into three parts. In the first, the author refers to "the books of ancient wise men books on scientific initiation through astronomy" and explains the "introductory method" to them. Among other things, he also tries to offer his readers a clear knowledge "through the eventual and possible configuration of the stars" which God gave us to use "like a prophetess." The author piously points out that all natural phenomena and changes observed in the world as well as all political and social events, even a man's talents and status in society depend on God. In other words, everything depends on the "will and energy of the Creator, God of all, to whom alone belongs the creative causality." God uses the stars and their motions as simple instruments even though he could achieve his aims without the stars. The author asserts firmly that "perfect and true knowledge belongs to God, while men, making conjectures on the basis of the elements and the stars, in part know and in part predict." Consequently, both the extent of our knowledge

11

CCAG, I, 83ff.: IleQl t<ilv <'m:oxeL~vwv 1totE tv t<i> n:a~at(cp ~$Mwv J.!USI']J.!UtLx<ilv xal 111'1 1\LIIo~wv: Ehtev a\Jt<) (sc. 6 i\n:oJ.lftcraQ) OtL tit <'m:otE~EcrJ.IU'tLXU ~Lj3~(a ta <'m:oxe(J.!Va ev t<iJ n:a~at(<p xal J.L~ I\LI\6J.LEVa tLVl El avayvwmv ana X(l)~U6J.LEVU elot tailta To <'m:01:E~EcrJ.!UtLXOV tO~ ~te<j>6.vou toil i\~e!;avliQEW . . . . 67 Identified by Usener, 'De Stephano Alexandrino', 257 note*: "Constantin. Porphyrog. c. 16, p. 37 Menes. 'Em]~Sov ol ~aQaxl']vot J.Ll'JVL ~=e~Q(cp tQ('I!l lvliLXtuilvo liex6.'tl'J El to Mxawv EtO 'HQax~ewu, to. W!o xro~oo\; x6crJ.LOu Q~. vilv bE crt\ WO lvliLxtuilVO liex6.tl'] ltEJ.11ttl'J, W dvm ltml tOtE EW vilv XQ6VOU 1JlJ.L. To bE 8ef16.nov 'tWV aut<ilv ~aQUXI']VWV EyEvEtO el J.Li')Va ~E~QLOV tQ('tl']V, i]~Q<;t ltEJ.11ttTI El 'tOU autoU xe6voU\; l'tQWtO UQXI'JYO t<ilv i\Q6.~wv Mou6.J.LE8 6 xat 1tQO<In)tl'J aut<ilV XQI']J.LUtUl<l\; EXQU'tl']<JE tii UQXii t<ilv i\Q6.~wv E'tl'J evvea. [=Constantine Poprhyrogennetos, De administrando imperio, ed. and tr. Gv. Moravcsik, R. J. H. Jenkins, CFHB I (Washington, D. C., 1967, repr. 1993), 80.:.81]." 68 Usener, 'De Stephana Alexandrino', 257: "(Cedrenus, Hist., t. I, p. 717,7) tQl ~ EtEL (imp. Heraclii) ijyouv t<i> QAa' <'m:o xtWEW x6crJ.LOu, J.Ll'JVL crrnte~Q(Ql Y i]~Q<;l e' eytveto 8Ef1{ttLOV t<ilv ~UQUXI']VWV 1t<lQU ~te<j>avou i\~el;avOQEOl\; tautm xavovumvto xeatf)crm, ev toxua ~ E'tl'J ev lie tfi crucrteo<t>n xal 6.xatacrtacr(q. xat cruJ.L<PoeQ: EtEQ<;t Etl'J V', W elvm ti]v liL<XxQatl']OLV autwv futacrav euwxoilcrav liucrtuxoucrav E'tl'j tl;e' . . . Mv iiQa xal-.6>\; 8ef1{ttwev 6 6.crtQov6J.LO, ~te<!Javo, a.~~ w OLJ.IUL ~rntov n:axu ~1-.aOEV

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~ ~oucrav ~~ veo<j>avf) xat ii8eov VOJ..1.08ecr(av toil MW6.J.LEO, n:o~M lie xat al.ka t<il~ J.LEAAovtwv n:goayOQEUoucra. Horoscopes of Islam are also known in the Ara~1c astrological tradition (friendly communications by Prof. Dr. sc. G. ~trohmruer, Berlin, and Maria Mavroudi). a Usener, _'De Ste~hano Alexandrino', 289: "In adnotatione critica opusculi potelesmattci h1s hbrorum signis usus sum A Laurent 28 14 quo V Rose ~~mplo usus est s. XIV chart.; B Laurent. 28, 13 etC La~ren; 28, 16 exe~pla s. con: Roseo conlata; R apographon Valentini Rosei h. e. codices AB(C) xv/~entes cf. p. 258; _M Monacensis n. 105 s. XVI; V Vindob. phil. gr. 108 s. (La ?e .type of design for the horoscope is preserved in the Florentine Ale:=~ 3and. Munich (M_onacensi~) MSS_ (Usener, 'De Stephano 'Des h 21), another type IS drawn m the VIenna (Vindob.) MS (Usener, tep ano Alexandrino', 322). 11

"'Usener, 'De Stephana Alexandrino', 247-89, 321-22 with two designs of the horoscope; ibid., 266, 17-20: ~te<j>6.vou cp1Aocr6<j>ou i\~e!;avoeeoo\; WtotE~(JJ.!UtLXij l'tQUYJ.UltECa l'tQO\; TLf168eov tov autoil J.LUSI']~V. n:g6<!laOLV

tou IcrMJ.L Ot E1t!aT1'/J!EI; OTOV EAA1'/VIXO xweo (Athens, 1997),

' De Stephano Alexandrino', 266, 5-271, 22.

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and the accuracy of our predictions through the position of the stars 73 are always restricted and subject to failure. But Stephanos' lectures On making gold prove his great piety as they begin and end with prayers greatly influenced by the works of the early Christian fathers. In the second part74 the author explains for what reason and when he cast the horoscope of Islam and proceeds in a general analysis of it according to known astrological principles. He says that he was iti the school's small garden with his students when he was visited by Epiphanios, a merchant who had just arrived from Arabia Felix (euoa(j.WJV AQa~(a). Upon entering, Epiphanios requested that Stephanos order one of his students to suspend the astrolabe and find the ascending degree of the ecliptic (<hQoaxomxf]v J.LOtQav), the planetary positions and the cardinal points of the horoscope, because of the importance of the news that Epiphanios was about to report; Stephanos ordered "his Sophronios" to do so. "While Sophronios was busy suspending the astrolabe and calculating the hour, Epiphanios began his narrative" regarding the appearance and activity of Mul.tammad in ArabiaY Clearly, the numerical data taken by Sophronios and later studied by Stephanos are meant for a catarchic horoscope (xm:aQxf]v), the kind cast at the beginning of an undertaking in order to predict its outcome. This is the reason why the astrolabe is raised at the very moment when Epiphanios begins his narrative about the inception of Mul.tammad's movement. The third part includes the predictions about the events that will ~e place "during the dominion of this nation", i.e. the Muslims, both ~n general terms, following the characteristics of the planets found m each one of the horoscope's houses, and specifically during the reign of each one of Islam's future caliphs. 76 The main argument against the authorship of the Apotelesmatike Pragmateia by Stephanos is that, in his predictions on how ~e polity of Islam will fare in the future, the author of the treause
"Usener, 'De Stephano A1exandrino', 266,5-7; 267, 10-15; 267,24-268, 2; 268 J,S-20; 270, 25-29; 271, 10-16, 19-21. Usener, Stephano Alexandrino', 271,23-279, 13. 75 Usener, ,De Stephano A1exandrino', 271, 23-25; 272, 3-13. 76 Usener, De Stephano Alexandrino', 279, 14-289.

demonstrates accurate knowledge of the events that transpired during the reign of the successive Arab caliphs from the beginning oflslam until the end of the eighth century; from that point on, the "predictions" are all wrong, which indicates that the work cannot have been written at the beginning of the seventh century and must have been put together, at least in the form that we have it, towards the end of the eighth century. David Pingree has argued that the author of the Apotelesmatike Pragmateia is well-informed both about the work of Stephanos on Ptolemy's Handy Tables and the methods of Sassanian political astrology described in treatises on catarchic horoscopes written by Theophilos, son of Thomas, a Maronite Syrian Christian who knew Greek and served as personal astrologer to caliph al-Mahdi (r. 775-785). 77 The remainder of the present article will argue that at least the introduction to the Apotelesmatike Pragmateia does go back to a genuine astrological work by Stephanos written in the early seventh century; and that the time, place, and prosopographical data that frame the narrative around tl.te horoscope of Islam reflect realities about the life, activities, and intellectual circle of Stephanos. The~fore, the portrait of Stephanos as an astrologer was not newly fabnc~ted toward~ the end of the eighth century; rather, astrological expertise was attnbuted to him more than a century after his death because he was already known as an astrologer during his lifetime. ~t but not ~east, .the astronomical data of the horoscope of Islam will be exammed m order to suggest that it might not have been calculated backwards (i.e. by a later forger) but may represent the result of a genuine observation of the heavens that took place exactly when the text says it did, on 1 September 621.

! :

"

" D. Pingree 'CI

:ne

Mine/alter (Zu'. ~36 238 -39. See also G. E. von Grunebaum, Der Islam im Mathematical Asrtc ' 963 > 465 n. 58. Neugebauer, A History of Ancient tronomy, II, 1050.

(1989), 227 esasstca und Byzantme Asirology m Sassanian Persia', DOP 43 9

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the Ptolemaic Syntaxeis (in th_e plural) must indic~te not on!~

Relations between the Horoscope of Islam and the alchemical work

Two short passages in the first section of the Apotelesmatike Pragmateia indicate that its author in addressing his students refers them to knowledge he had expounded earlier, evidently in other lectures he must have given. The meaning of these references becomes clearer if we read them in conjunction with the alchemical work by Stephanos. In the introductory section to the Apotelesmatike Pragmateia, the author reminds his student Timotheos and other auditors the content of his lectures and his teaching method:
I have elucidated everything I taught you and your fellowlisteners, my students, by circumscribing it within the limits of philosophy and clarifying it through theories [so that it be] accurate and truthful not through persuasion [wrought] by the elegance of words but through natural and unexceptionable sequence; [I mean] the Platonic method of reasonin~, Aristotelian physiology, geometric deliberations, arithmetiC proportions, musical repetitions, (the alchemical allegories and impenetrable processes of thought, the astronomical critical points in human life and the notorious astrological predictions,) the Ptolemaic ... Syntaxeis and his practical enchantments."

(c~mmonly known as the Almagest) but also his astrological one, the Syntaxis Tetrabiblos. The approach to alchemy seems to be mostly theoretical, si?ce it _is referred _to as "allegorical" (XTJJ.LEVtLXU~ aAATJYOQL<X~). This calls to mmd both the general approach of Stephanos' alchemical work and a specific passage in his text, where he analyzes the concept of "allegorical alchemy" by distinguishing between "mythical" (flV8txi];) and "mystical and hidden" alchemy (f.LVOLLXTJ xal. xgvn:i] X1'J).ILa). 79 According to him, "mythical alchemy is confused due to the multiplicity of words; but mystical alchemy deals with the universe through deliberation on the creation, so that man who is God-minded and born-of-God learn through straight work and theological and mystical rationale. "80
The second passage of the Apotelesmatike Pragmateia where its author most likely refers to his earlier teachings is as follows:
Not only these and [other] such animals have had such a birth, but also many other forms are produced and made by means of putrefaction according to the differences of species and the position of the stars, like the metals, for example gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, the different stones, and whatever is like them. Those of us who remember, understand [the process of their birth] well."

Pt Iemy or's major astronomical work, the Meg!Sie Syntaxis

The teaching program described above includes subjects that, in modem terms, would be labeled as both 'rational' (philosophy, geometry and arithmetic music and astronomy) and 'irrational' ' , . I (astrology and alchemy). Astrology is covered both at the pract~ca level ("notorious astrological predictions" and "practical enchantments") and in its theoretical foundation, since reference to
"Usener, 'De Stephana Alexandrino', 267, 3-10: oo( ... 1:0i~ ouvaxou01:~~ oou xat Ef!Oi~ <jlOL'tlj1:ai~ ... xat ooa !!Ev urct\lleil;a UJUV, tv<?<; TUlV (a<; <jlU..ooo<jl(a~ OQffiV WtoX;\.(oa~ (X"tQeXi'J TE xat a\jJEUI>EOTUTa TaL~ BEffiQ' ~ l)u;}.euxava, OU TCEL6oi }.1\!;EffiV XOf.L\jl61:T]1:0~, <jlUOLXji bE Xal U1)LU~}.!]:ql axo;\.ouBc;x, 1:U~ ll;\.a'[(l)VLXa~ t<jlMou~. 1:U~ AQL01:01:E;\.LXU~ <jluOLo;\.oy(ac;, t~<; YEffif.I.EtQLXU<; TCCQLVOa<;, 1:U~ UQLOf.I.T]TLXU~ ava;l.oya~. TU~ f.LOUO'LX~<; ~va;l.f]\jle'"'._ (tu~ XTJf.LEUtLxac; a;I.}.TJYOQa~ xat lluoeuQiltou~ vof]oe~. '~a' aOtQOVOfll.XOU<; X;\.Lf.LUXtf]Qa<; XUL rco}.u()Qu;\.}.fJwuc; U0"1:QOf.LUvtEa<;,) <; llto;l.ef.I.ULxac; ** xat ouvta!;e'"' xat 6Qyavtxuc; auwu f.LUyyaveac;.

~smology',

" Papathanassiou, 'Stephanus of Alexandria: pharmaceutical notions and 125.

Letter to Theodoros, ed. Papathnanassiou, 5: Kat ii;l.;l.o EOltv i) ).LUOtxi) XTJ!lia, xat Iil-l-o i) !IUO'TLxi) xat xgumf]. Kat i) !!Ev f.I.UOtxi) :rco;\.urc;I.T]O(<;x }.6ywv ~frerat, i) llt f.I.UO'Ttxi) My<p llT]fll.OuQy(a~ x6oJ.!Ov f.I.EOolleilnm, rva 6 l <jlgoov xat 6 Oeoyevi'J> iivOQffi:rcoc; llt<l ti')~ eu0e(a~ EQyao(a~ xat Oeo;l.oyl.lllv ~a IIUottx&v Myffiv J.UlOn. Ideler 208, 28-34. Usener, 'De Stephana Alexandrino', 270, 5-10: ou j.L6vov 1) tauta xat ta ~~Ulilta ~cpa lOLUU'tl]V EOXOV ti')v YEvEOLV' a}.}.(( xat iiiJ.a Me'iota 1:WV Eillci>v a afJijleoos y(vetaL xat mmoT]tat rcQ6c; 1:a~ tci>v yevci>v llta<jloQa~ xat tTJV te~Qrri)v B8otv, tb~ let f.I.E'ta;I.Atxa, olov 6 XQUOO~ xat iiQyuQO~ xaJ.x6~ Kata ~ I]Qoc; xat J.161-uflllo~ xat i) <ci>v 1-Lewv 1lw<jloQ6'tl]~ xat ooa towu1:a. to toov JJAv ti]v yt\vemv ol EvVOTJOUf.LEVOL tmytyvtboxof.LEv.

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True, the last sentence of the above passage (xul. 'tOU'tlOV ~v t~v yevEotV ol tvvol'}adflevot tmytyvwaxowv) could also be translated as "Those of us who understand, know [the process of their birth] well". Choosing between the two possibilities depends on how we interpret the verb EVVoeoo; among its various meanings is that of EV8UJlOUJ.LUL (to remember). Therefore, it is likely that the past tense EVVOTJOUI.IVOL refers to the author and his students, as also follows from the verb EmyLyvwoXOI.IV. If this is so, the whole phrase would mean "we saw, learned, understood and now remember the birth of metals and stones by putrefaction." If indeed the author of this passage is Stephanos inviting his students to remember his earlier teachings, the reference to putrefaction should be made in his alchemical work. The Apotelesmatike Pragmateia includes the quoted passage at the end of a long paragraph which explains putrefaction (oi')'ljnv) as a natural procedure leading to the birth of various small animals and flowers. The phrase "[they] are produced and made by means of putrefaction" must refer to a technical procedure, as contrasted with the natural procedure described in the following words: "by means of putrefaction done into the marshes and the very wet locations . . . such animals and plants are bom."82 Even if these words evoke Platonic and Aristotelian ideas regarding the birth (yEvEOLV) of metals and stones, putrefaction is a basic method of alchemy and pharmacy and is, indeed, mentioned by Stephanos in his alchemical work. 83

Wolska-Conus has already analyzed the appearance of Stephanos of Alexandria in the Leimonarion by John Moschos. Let us briefly review her conclusions here: Moschos reports that he and his friend, the sophist Sophronios, during their first residence in Alexandria between 581 and 584 attended lectures (:rtQU~EL<;) at the home of Stephanos, a sophist and philosopher who resided in the building complex around the church of the Holy Theotokos of Dorothea, built by the orthodox patriarch Eulogios. 84 The medical knowledge that. Sophronios displays in his collection of seventy miraculous healings written ca. 610 is compatible with the teachings of Stephanos the sophist mentioned by Moschos. It seems that Stephanos, the teacher of Sophronios, is identical with Stephanos of Athens or Stephanos of Alexandria, physician and philosopher, the only teacher of medicine in Alexandria at that time. 85 After leaving Alexandria to settle in Constantinople, Stephanos became a member of the intimate circle around patriarch Sergios and emperor Heraclius. 86 One may build a little further on Wolska-Conus' reconstruction of the personal relation between Stephanos and Sophronios: though Wolska-Conus deliberately leaves this question aside because it is impossible to provide a definite answer, 87 it is conceivable that Sophronios, the student of Stephanos in Alexandria is the same Sophronio~ who later became patriarch of Jerusal~m (634-38); Ste~hanos close contacts with high-ranking officials of the three patn~hates, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Jerusalem, may explam the existence of prayers at the beginning and end of his :lures on alchemy. In addition, his medical and philosophical owledge as a known commentator of Hippocrates and Aristotle may also explain his references to medical and biological subjects

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',i ,.,

;'j

Identification of Sophronios
As we have seen, the Apotelesmatike Pragmateia mentions by name at least three of the author's friends, students, or collaborators: Timotheos, to whom the text is addressed, the merchant Epiphanios, and Sophronios, the astrolabe reader. While neither Timotheos nor Epi~hanios can be identified with any known personality on the basis of surviving evidence, we do have a few leads regarding the identity of Sophronios.
82

Usener, 'De Stephano Alexandrino', 269, 10-12; also 270,4: ou\ o'ipjJEOO~Xat lt3tO(t]~UL o~1jleoo~ YI!J'EVt]flk'v11> i!v ~e 'to4; ~>..eoL xat ,;o4; xa6\JyQOJ.> ~6ltot> ~; ~cpa 'te xat <j>u,;a 'tOWOe avaoi.OovtaL For example ldeler, 213,3: OTpro\JOL ltQUO'tCt'tq> mJQL ...

" WolskaConus 'St h . . i\m]>.ao tv . op ano~. ldenhficatiOn', 7, note 6: "PG 87, 29290: ... "E~ lie E~ EL> ;ov mxov L.'te<j>av.?" ~oil oo<j>tmoil ... [va 1!Q6.1;oollV EuX6yiO, 'tf)v ~ 'tf)v ay!av 8eotoxov, t]V q>xoM!J.t]Oev 6 !J.UXUQLO<; n<'ma<; Stephano, 'est cite ~VIOJ.Ul~~f!kvt]v D.OJQo6ta<;. Ce passage omis par Usener, De ~ote." a repnse de son etude dans ses Kleine Schriften, p. 248, en Wolska-Conu s h 16 Wotsk ,., s, lop anos. Identification' 59 s1ePhanos. Identification . 68 ' 11 Wotsk 8-.onu C s, 8 onus, 'Stephanos. Identification': 47:

~l ('

fi

.fl

ii

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in the alchemical work. 88 The author of the horoscope of Islam supposed that Sophronios, the friend of Moschos and patriarch Eulogios, had followed Stephanos from Alexandria to Constantinople and therefore could plausibly be placed in his teacher's garden in September 621. I plan to revisit the much-debated question of the identities of Stephanos and Sophronios in a later article. For now, I would like to briefly discuss some technical aspects of the evidence contained in the Apotelesmatike Pragmateia.

cancer in conjunction with the upper culminating point of the ecliptic in the tenth house. Mars is in 2 Cancer in the tenth house. Jupiter is in 2039' and the lot of fortune in 229' Capricorn, in conjunction with the lower culmination. The descending node of the orbit of the Moon is in 1950' Aquarius in the fifth house. . We can immediately comment that while we are given the date of the month, the day of the week, and the hour at which Epiphanios visited Stephanos, no year is mentioned. H. Usener cites a passage from Kedrenos' History, according to which Stephanos of Alexandria cast the horoscope of Islam in the year 6131 from the beginning of the world, on Thursday 3 September in the twelfth year of the reign of the emperor Heraclius. 91 According to Usener, this is the year 6130 and not 6131, based on a passage from the De administrando imperio, a composition from the reign of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (912-959). 92 As for the astronomical data of the horoscope, it is obvious that Usener could not check their accuracy. According to 0. Neugebauer and H. B. van Hoesen, the horoscope was ca~t for 1 September 621, in other words the beginning of the Byzantme year towards the end of which the Hijra occurred (16 July 622). This deduction is based on the fact that the position of th~ Moo~ on 1 September, which corresponds to 4 Thoth, agrees Wtth that m the horoscope (while September 3 and 5 of the year 621 do not); regarding the errors in the positions of Venus, Mercury, and the lot of fortune that are found in the manuscripts Neugebauer ~dbvan Hoesen accept that the first two represent a ~isplacement 0 f t: data of the planetary positions in another sign in the diagram ~ t e horoscope, while the third one, regarding Mercury is a ' tttography of the Sun's position. 93

The data of the horoscope

Let us now comment on the data of the horoscope of Islam as it is found in the text. We will attempt to determine the exact date for which it was cast, as well as compare its data with modern astronomical calculations. As reported in the text, Epiphanios visited Stephanos on Tuesday, 5 Thoth according to the Egyptians, in the third hour; at that time the Sun was in 95' in Virgo. Applying this to the astrolabe, he found the Ascendant in 20 Libra, the Descendant in 20 Aries, culminated above the horizon 22 Cancer and under the horizon 22 Capricorn. 89 Although no other data of the horoscope is mentioned in the text, more details can be found in the design of the horoscope that survives in the manuscripts.90 This data concerns the position of the planets, the nodes of the Moon's orbit and the lot of fortune in the "houses" calculated according to the ascending and culminating degrees of the ecliptic, as follows: The Sun and Mercury are in 95' Virgo in the twelfth house. The Moon is in 1216' Capricorn in the fourth house. Venus is in 266' Leo, in conjunction with the ascending node of the orbit of the Moon in 19.50' Leo, both in the eleventh house. Saturn is in 2330'
7ldeler, 203, 15-24 (on production of voice); 211, 16--25; 220, 13-221, 12; 222, 1-~0; 229,17-230,23 (on WlEQf!Ct~LKO!; y6VO!;)' 245 9-12 and 17-20 (the three quabtles of the soul). ' ' : Usener, Stepbano Alexandrino', 272, 21-24; 273, 10-15. Usener, De Stephano Alexandrino', 289, 321-22.

If the horoscope of 1 1 calculat d b s am and tts astronomical data were indeed e ackwards (i.e. by a later forger for a date at about a

"u 92 sener, 'De Stephano AI

:De

d ., Usener, 'De Stepbano Al:~an dr~no, 257 note* (passage quoted above, note 67). Neugebauer and y an an nno 257 (passage quoted above, note 68). Stephana Alexandrino' ~o7e3seln, Greek Horoscopes, 158-60. Also Usener, 'De ' 0-15. .

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century or two earlier than the time in which he lived), it would have required not only long-winded and laborious calculations stretching over several manuscript pages (a procedure that even modem researchers of ancient and medieval astronomy had to follow before the age of computers) but also profound mathematical expertise. It is unlikely that such a master would have perpetrated the mistakes evident in the text. Let us use modern methods to reconstruct the heavens as it looked from Constantinople on 1 September 621 and see if an alternative explanation for the mistakes is possible. The planetary positions as calculated on the computer are as follows: 94 Constantinople, 1 September 621 at 8:55am (06:55 UT) Planet Sun Mercury Venus Mars Jupiter Saturn Moon Zodiacal sign 1051' Virgo 2652' Virgo 2624' Cancer 0305' Cancer 2238' Capricorn 2538' Cancer l1 08' Capricorn Rising 5:31am 07:01pm 11:51 pm 01:57am 04:11pm 01:42am 03:26pm Passage !2:02pm !2:54pm 07:26am 09:04am 08:49pm 09:04am 08:24pm Setting 06:32pm 06:48pm 03:00pm 04:10pm 01:32pm

Ascendant 2007' (2046' refracted horizon) Libra, Midheaven 338' Cancer. Longitude of the ascending node of the Moon's 2 orbit 2438' Leo and that of its descending node 2438' Aquarius (according to Neugebauer and Van Hoesen, 2340' Leo and 2340' Aquarius). As far as the visibility of the planets is concerned, Mars, Venus and Saturn were visible in the morning sky, while the Moon and Jupiter were visible in the evening sky. Especially Mercury (app. magnitude +1.7) was very low in the west and set down 16 minutes after sunset when the Sun's altitude under the horizon was only 343'. Stars of first apparent magnitude are visible only when the Sun's altitude under the horizon is equal or greater than 6; consequently, Mercury was invisible because the twilight was still very bright. This suggests that whoever calculated the astronomical data for the horoscope of Islam was indeed observing the heavens on 1 September 621 and, because of Mercury's invisibility, may have t~~ught that Mercury was in exact conjunction \Vith the Sun. As a result, he did not calculate its position by means of the relevant astronomical tables. This would account for the great difference of t6 between Mercury's true position on the sky and that which we have in the horoscope's chart. Since the implications of this observation cannot be discussed within the confines of the present paper, I plan to return to them in a future publication.

'-t

'.:

..

CONCLUSIONS

04:26pm 12:34 am

94

The positions of the Sun, the Moon and the five planets were detennined. 00 the computer with the astronomical programs VSOP 87 (Variation Seculmre des Orbites Planetaires) and ELP 2000/85 (Ephemeride Lunaire Parisienne) by Dr. Denis Savoie (Planetarium du Palais de Ia decouverte, Paris). The program Voyager ll was used for the calculation of other elements of the horoscope

~ ~ols~a-Conus has already shown, Stephanos of Athens should "All enttfied with Stephanos of Alexandria. The designation exandri "d . . ind' an oes not indicate that this was his native city it only !Cates that in m h' ' 1 Constantino .ovmg IS p ace of residence and activity to in Ath bp e, he ~hd so from Alexandria. He was most likely born ens, ut the period he t . AI . the course of . . spen m exandna was decisive for his litet' hhls studies and his professional future. Already during lme e was philosoph . . a repu tabl e an d ., tamous scholar interested in y, med!cme, and science. His written output was both

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203

variegated and prolific: Wolska-Conus has discussed his authorshi of several works that we know either by title or because they sti~ survive, including his introduction and adaptation of Theon's work . on Ptolemy's Handy Tables and commentaries on Porphyry's Eisagoge and treatises of the Aristotelian, Hippocratic, and Galenic corpora. In the conclusions to her admirable essay, Wolska-Conus deduced that Stephanos' involvement in the doctrinal politics of his time (unavoidable for a leading philosopher and intellectual) and the serial transfer of his loyalties between the Chalcedonian, Monothelite, and Monophysite parties, cost him his reputation in posterity; regarded as a traitor by all, he was embraced by none. Wolska-Conus expresses scepticism regarding the reputation of Stephanos as alchemist and astrologer; mindful that it is recorded in relatively late Byzantine sources, she is inclined to interpret it as the posthumous medieval afterglow of his Late Antique stardom, the brilliance of which became tarnished already during his lifetime. However, the evidence we have surveyed in the present essay indicates that Stephanos, the commentator on ancient philosophy, medicine, and astronomy, was also the author of the alchemical work and a practicing astrologer (as any astronomer could be at least as early as Ptolemy). Stephanos' reputation as astrologer in the Middle Byzantine period and beyond is primarily based on the Apotelesmatike Pragmateia, a work that includes at least an introduction based on a genuine work by Stephanos; its author did not invent Stephanos' astrological pedigree but exploited his existing reputation in this field of knowledge. This reputation may have been generated by emperor Heraclius' patronage of Stephanos' astrological activities. The tenth-century evidence from the life of Basil I suggests that Heraclius, appreciative of Stephanos' overall scholarly reputation, at some point asked him to cast his personal horoscope in order to find out about his own future; he may later have asked him to also cast a horoscope rega.rding .the Byzantine military encounter with the early Musli~ anrues, smce they presented such an imminent danger to hiS empire .. The hesitation of modem scholars to accept Stephana~' alcheffilcal and astrological activities as an integral part of hiS sch~larly profile is not rooted in a proper grasp of seventh-century reahty; rather, it is the result of anachronistically applying modern

't ria in order to understand the organization and transmission of during a much earlier and very different historical period than our own .

:o~ledge

Michele Mertens
University of Liege

Graeco-Egyptian Alchemy in Byzantium

The main concern of this paper will be with the problems raised by the reception of ancient alchemy in Byzantium. After a brief introduction, I will start from the study of a pre-Byzantine author, Zosimos of Panopolis, and deal with the following questions : How, from a purely material viewpoint, were Zosimos' writings handed down during the Byzantine period? Did Byzantine alchemists have access to his works and did they resort to them? Was Zosimos known outside the alchemical Corpus; in other words, did GraecoEgyptian alchemists exert any kind of influence outside strictly alchemical circles? When and how was the alchemical Corpus put together? In a more general way, what evidence do we have, whether in the Corpus itself or in non-alchemical literature, that alchemy was practised in Byzantium? Answers (or at least partial answers) to these questions should help us to understand and define to some extent the place held by the 'sacred art' in Byzantium.

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INTRODUCTION

them because they were not known to the Byzantines. Next a body of texts generally referred to as the 'alchemical Corp~s', handed down by a large number of medieval manuscripts, 3 among which three principal witnesses can be distinguished:

It is now usually accepted that alchemy came into being in GraecoRoman Egypt around the beginning of our era and that it originated from the combination of several factors, the most remarkable of which are (1) the practices of Egyptian goldsmiths and workers in metals who experimented with alloys and knew how to dye metals in order to simulate gold; (2) the theory about the fundamental unity of matter, according to which all substances are composed of a primitive matter and owe their specific differences to the presence of different qualities imposed upon this matter; (3) the idea that the aim of any technique must be the mimesis of nature ; (4) the doctrine of universal sympathy, which held that all elements of the cosmos are connected by occult links of sympathy and antipathy which explain all the combinations and separations of the bodies. The encounter of these different trends of thought brought about the idea that transmutation ought to be possible, all the more so with the addition of mystical daydreams influenced by gnostic and hermetic currents and favoured by the decline of Greek rationalism. 1 The texts about Graeco-Egyptian alchemy that have come down to us are, in the first place, two collections on papyrus, which date back to about 300 A.D. and contain a series of recipes for imitating gold, silver, precious stones and purple dye; 2 I will not dwell on

1. MS Marcianus graecus 299 (M), which, according to its handwriting, probably dates from the end of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh century;
2. MS Parisinus graecus 2325 (B), of the thirteenth century; 3. MS Parisinus graecus 2327 (A), copied in 1478.
4

These three manuscripts differ from one another by the number of texts they contain, by the organization of these texts and by their state of preservation. Manuscript M is the most beautiful of our alchemical manuscripts; the title of the first piece in it is inscribed in a pyle, a magnificently decorated frame painted in four colours, and the manuscript contains lavish illustrations; 5 unfortunately, it was the victim of several accidents: it lost several quires and some of those that remain were inverted by the binder. On the other hand, it ~egins with a table of contents which corresponds only partially to Its present content, but which is in fact that of the manuscript before its various misfortunes. 6 Compared with M, B presents some

'Pem r o~e. takes mto co i a~s ~our,_ 1

'On the origins and development of Graeco-Egyptian alchemy, see A. J. Festugtere, La rew!lation d'Hermes Trismegiste, I, L'astrologie et les sciences occultes,_ 2"' ed. (Paris, 1950), 217-40; R. Halleux, Les textes alchimiques, Typologie des Sources du Moyen Age occidental 32 (Tumhout, 1979), 6()-64; tdem, 'Alche,Ty'. in The Oxford Classical Dictionary, ed. S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth: 3 rev. ed. (Oxford and New York, 2003), 52-3; ODB s.v. A~Y (b~ .0 P~gree and A. Cutler); C. Viano, 'Alchimistes greco-egyptiens', m D<ctwn~aJre ~~ Philosophes, ed. D. Huisman, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1993), 52-5, and eadem,_ Alchlmle greco-alexandrine', in Dictionnaire critique de /'esorerisme, ed. ~- Semer (Paris, 1998), 52-5. Both papyri were edited and translated in Papyrus de Leyde. Papyrus de ~~~~olm. Fragments de recettes, ed. R. Halleux, Les alchimistes grecs, I (Paris,

; ~anopo/is, Memoires authentiques, ed. M. Mertens. Les alchimistes grecs, IV .I Uan~ 1995), XLII, and C. Viano, 'Olympiodore l'alchimiste et les presocratiques neAolxo.g~hie de !'unite (De arte sacra, 18-27)', in D. Kahn and S. Matton. 8 ch<m~e Art h ' Societe d'E d .'stmr~ et mythes. Acres du 1" col/oque international de Ia mars} )t(Pu . e I HISiotre de I'Aichimie (Paris, College de France, 14-15-16 th991 ans-M1lan, L995),95-ISO,esp.L37. three manusc np ts, f rom wh' n ese I' de Pano 1ch all the others seem to derive, see Zosime sS po IS, ed. Mertens, XXI-XXXVIII ee, e.g., 'Cleopatra's gold ak' M. origines de l'alch. . p . m mg ( fol. L88v), reprod. in M. Berthelot, Les f'l. pl. II). tmte ( ans, 1885), pl. I (= Zosime de Panopolis, ed. Mertens,

ed m. 1492, but 11 IS not clear ~hether thts manuscnpt 1s a copy of Paris. gr. 23~?, or if both of them are gemelh: see the remarks in the introduction to Zosime d

account M_S Lauren~an~s graecus 86.16 (L),

ed

See the convincing demonst . . ll\IIIJuscrit alchimi u d ra_tion by H: D. Saffrey, 'H1stonque et description du q e e Vemse Marctanus Graecus 299', in Alchimie (cited

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important omissions; indeed, it looks as if the copyist of B was more interested in the technical content than in the philosophical and doctrinal texts, and that he organized the materials to make them into a workshop handbook. As for A, it encloses a larger collection than the first two manuscripts; it contains a number of texts that are peculiar to it and whose origin is unknown. Lastly, it is worth noting that the relations between those three manuscripts have not yet been conclusively clarified even though they were often and widely discussed. 7 As far as the content of the Corpus is concerned, it includes writings of extremely varied periods ranging from the beginning of our era to the fifteenth century, the chronology of which is very difficult to establish. Three levels are usually distinguished. To the oldest one belong the works of a Pseudo-Demokritos, as well as a long series of quotations or of short treatises placed u~der ~e names of prestigious authors whether historical or mythtcal like Hermes, Agathodaimon, Isis, Cleopatra, Mary the Jewess, Ostanes, Pammenes which seem to have been written between the first and the third c~ntury. The second coincides with Zosimos of Panopol.is, who may be said to have raised alchemy to its highest degree; ":'tth him, alchemy appears as a subtle mixture of techmc~ preoccupations and mystical religion. The third and last level ts made up of the so-called exegetes, the most famous of whom a~ Synesios (4th c.), Olympiodoros (6'h c.), Stephanos of Alexandna
above, note 3), 1-10, esp. 4. J. Letrouit is of the opposed opinion in 'Henn~?s~e et alchimie: contribution a !'etude du Marcianus Graecus 299 (=M); ; . C. Gilly and C. van Heertum, eds. Magia, alchimia, scienza dal '400 a/ 7 ~ l'injlusso di Ermete Trismegisto (Florence, 2002, 2"" ed. 2005), I, 85-104, esp.. g 7: he curtly rejects Saffrey's analysis, but he does not propose anything. sausfytn instead. I wish to thank my anonymous reviewer for bringing the article to my attention. 7 1 See bibliography in Zosime de Panopolis, ed. Mertens, XLIII, n. 96. ~ ~0 not personally believe in a direct dependence. Cf. Viano, 'Olympiodore i'alchuruste.~ les presocratiques', 137, on the relations between MandA: "ces deux manuscn 't sont u-es probablement independants". On the other hand, J. Letro~~ ("Chronologie des alchimistes grecs", in Alchimie [cited above, note 3]. ll- ' esp. II) seems to have become certain that B and A derive from M and anno:ces (in 1995) that his demonstration will soon be published, which, to my know! d g~~ has not yet happened in 2005; no allusion to this question can be foun 1 Letrouit's recent contribution on the Marcianus (cited above, note 6).

the further a commentator known as t~e Christian (7'h or 8'h.c.), (? .), h one called the Anonymous Phtlosopher, perhaps a httle and anot er b T the same period as Stephanos of Alexandna also e 1ong later. aloh mica! poems ascribed to Heliodoros, Theophrastos, four c e d' . . . . heos and Archelaos The alchemical tra ttton contmues m Hierot th with Michael Psellos (11 c.) and Kosmas the Monk . Byzanttum th (lithe. or Jater) 8 as well as Nikephoros Blemmydes (13 c.).
]. THE TRANSMISSION OF ZOSIMOS OF PANOPOLIS' WRITINGS DURING THE BYZANTINE PERIOD

1 will deal in the first place with the transmission of the texts and discuss as an example the case of Zosimos of Panopolis, whose manuscript tradition is a beautiful illustration of the difficulties raised by the editing of alchemical texts. Zosimos must have been active about the year 300 A.D.; as for the oldest manuscript that has come down to us, it might date from about 1000, which means that we must cope with a gap of seven centuries of subterranean transmission, during which it is difficult to know what was happening. Going through the three main manuscripts, I have spotted four groups of works that can be attributed to Zosimos with a fair degree of certainty. They are the Authentic Memoirs, the Chapters to Eusebia, the Chapters to Theodore, and the Book of Sophe, which, with the Final Count, makes up the last group. The four groups are not in all the manuscripts, and I will return to this. In fact, locating these groups is no easy task, for alchemical manuscripts constitute large collections in which the authors' texts are interwoven with one an?ther, contrary to what is generally the case in classical Greek hterature, il) which the works of each writer are preserved in perfectly distinct manuscripts. The different parts of Zosimos' work are. ~hus dispersed among the different manuscripts. Locating his IVritmgs h' t ts entanglement is further complicated by the fact that the texts m are cop'ted one af ter the other wtthout . any gap and that the
'A. J. Festugi~re AI h . ' . . 1967), 205-29 ' c ymica m Idem, Hermetisme et mystique palimne (Paris, 22 1 thellcentu .~ . ~d Halleu~, ~s textes alc~imiques, 62, date Kosmas in ry lroUII, Chronologie, 69, places h1m in the 14'h -15"' centuries.

85

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oraeco-Egypuan

Alchemy in Byzantium

211

manuscripts do not always distinguish between titles and subheadings. As a result, it is extremely difficult to see where each work begins and where it ends. Let us now consider how Zosimos' writings appear in the manuscripts and what the specific problems raised by each group of works may be. a. The Authentic Memoirs (rvi]ma il:rtOJ..LViJJ..Lata) The title is suspect. The word iJ:rtOJ..LViJJ..Lata probably goes back to Zosimos himself because we know that he sometimes referred to his own writings by that name. 9 Let us note that iJ:rtOJ..LVl]J..LU may as well mean "preparatory notes", "first draft of a book" as "memoir" or even "commentary" . 10 Since it is not possible to determine the exact sense of the term in Zosimos, I opted for "memoir", which seemed to have a fairly wide import. As for the adjective that characterizes iJ:rtOJ..LViJJ..Lata, I think it was devised by a copyist or a compiler anxious to make it clear that he was reproducing Zosimos' "authentic" text without making any alterations to it. If this hypothesis is correct, we will see that this good intention was not always carried out, far from it. The Authentic Memoirs consist of a series of thirteen opuscules. They contain an introductory text entitled On the Letter Omega, in which Zosimos deals principally with the opposition between the body and the intellect, as well as with the means of freeing onese~f from the baleful influence of Fate. Several sections of the Authentic Memoirs treat the technical apparatus, while others discuss a puzzling substance called "divine water", which seems to play an essential role in transmutation. Three of the thirteen opuscules are known as Zosimos' 'Visions': the alchemical operations are ritualized into symbolic expressions of torture, of death and of
9

. . th alchemical utensils become temples and altars resurrectwn, et Is are represented as human b emgs wh o mus t be whereas base, metah yare brought back to life in the shape of noble sacrificed betore e metals.

u:emoirs are to be found, partly at least, in each of The Authent1c "'' k all the three mam manuscripts . But not all the texts are ta en up m . 'pts For instance, On the Letter Omega appears only m d v the manuscn whereas the second and third so-cal 1 e ISJOns are the Marcwnus, . n Parisinus A. Some texts have come down to us m present onIYl . . h With remarkably good condition, as IS the case, for mstance, . . t e treatise On the Letter Omega. Others, on the contrary, survive man ailing state of preservation, considerably damaged by app 1 b y comp1'I ers. S everaI transmission and victims of the mampu atmn
pieces have manifestly been abridged, so~et~mes in a dr~stic w~y. Moreover, the Marcianus has the charactenst1c feature of mcludmg some of the texts of the Authentic Memoirs in two distinct versions, which sometimes diverge from each other considerably. Occasionally, the two versions are abridged in different ways and complement each other; at other times one of the two contains a passage that cannot be found in the other, or vice versa. In some instances the wording is almost identical in both texts. The most striking feature is that the order of the pieces is not the same in the two versions. We also have the example of a piece which suddenly breaks off at the same place in both versions, probably following the inversion of some leaves in their common model, but which the copyists, feeling that something was missing, completed each in their own way, independently in the two versions. 11 It seems that ~e copyist of the Marcianus or one of his predecessors had at his dtspos~ two recensions of writings by Zosimos which he transcnbed one after the other, most of the time without noticing the common passages. 12

See Zosime de Panopo/is, ed. Mertens, XLVIII. ?6SeeR. Devreesse,lntroduction a /'etude des manuscrits grecs (Paris, 1954~, , 8; cf. J.-M. Mandosio, 'Commentaire a1chimique et commentaire philosophtqu~' in M.-0. Goulet-Caze, ed. Le commentaire: Entre tradition et innovatio.n. ~c!es ~ col/oque international de 1'/nstitut des traditions textuel/es (Paris et Vlle;uif, 25 septembre 1999) (Paris, 2000), 481-90, esp. 481, n. I.
10

22

"SeeZos;me de Panopolis, ed. Mertens, 141-22, n. 9. me de Panopo/is, ed. Mertens, xux.

II

SeeZo.t

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213

b. The Chapters to Eusebia 13 Let us now examine the second group of texts attributable 1 Zosimos in the manuscripts, which, for the sake of brevity, I wi~ call the Chapters to Eusebia. This title is itself problematic: the table of contents in the Marcianus gives the title as By the Philosopher Zosimos, 35 Chapters to Eusebia on the Sacred and Divine Art. In the body of the Marcianus, no title is given for the simple reason that the quire containing the title and the beginning of this work has disappeared. In manuscripts B and A, the title beginning this series of texts runs By Zosimos of Panopolis, Authentic Writing on the Sacred and Divine Art of Making Gold and Silver, 14 according to a summary by chapters. Eusebia's name presents a problem, for it does not appear anywhere in Zosimos' writings. It may be either a corruption of "Theosebia", Zosimos' sister, whose name is well attested in his writings; or the name of a lady to whom a Byzantine compiler may have dedicated his work. This second hypothesis seems to me more plausible, since the expression "according to a summary by chapters" (x.at' bl:LtOj.L~V X.E<j>aA.mci>&l]) instantly reveals that the work has been tampered with. In fact, when closely scrutinized, these texts appear as a collection of extracts on various subjects. It seems that a compiler, starting from some of Zosimos' writings, took pains to collect some passages he thought interesting and gave them a title mostly made up of words found in the text itself. The compiler's interference is further betrayed by the occasional presence of quotations from writers later than ZOsimos. c. The Chapters to Theodore 15 The third group of texts covers only a few folios and does not appear in Parisinus B. In A, it has no general title. According to the Marcianus however, there is no doubt that it must be attributed to
13

Zo os: the table of contents in M announces: By Zosimos,fifteen

ct~ers to Theodore, a title we find again in the body of the ma~script. 16 The name Theodore also poses. a problem, for it is no

re attested in Zosimos' works than Eusebta. However, the name mo t he a Ic hemtca I "Theodore" appears on two more occastons m Corpus: he is the author of the poem which, somehow, serves as a 11 preface to the Marcianus; in addition, the manuscripts have transmitted a letter, inserted between the second and third lectures by Stephanos of Alexandria, which Stephanos addresses to someone called Theodore. Given that the name was extremely common in Byzantine times, it is impossible to decide whether one and the same person is meant in both instances, or two different 18 personalities must be distinguished. Be that as it may, "Theodore" is probably the name of the person who applied to a compiler in order to obtain an abridged version of Zosimos, as is the case with the Chapters to Eusebia explained above.

As far as their content is concerned, these 'chapters' appear as a series of short paragraphs beginning, in most cases, with llQL toiJ otL "About the fact that ... ". In the best cases, a dozen lines of text are transmitted after the heading, though frequently the heading is all that has been preserved from the chapter. In its present state, this work appears as the summary of a summary. It is probable that the first ~mpiler, using the method he had used for the Chapters to Eu~ebza, ex!racted from Zosimos' writings a number of passages to which he hu~self gave a title. A copyist or a later compiler may then .have sktpped the text of several chapters, keeping only the headmgs.

On the problems raised by this work, see Zosime de Panopo/is, ed. Mertens, LIV

LX,

: In fact, in this place, the manuscripts have the sign of mercury, not of silver, but tt must be a matter of confusion of signs: cf. Zosime de Panopolis, ed. Mertens, LV, n. 141-43. ~x~~ the problems raised by this work, see Zosime de Panopo/is, ed. Mertens, LX

See Saffrey 'Hist 8 of the younge; b thonque who thmks that the author in question might be one 11 A . ro ers of emperor Heraclius. ctordmg to Saffrey ('H' same as the ded' tstonque 8), the author of the preface must be the tcatee of Stephan 1 t h . ('Chronologie' 6S) th . os e ter, w ereas accordmg to Letrouit Col)lus must~ im ' .e dtff~~nt ~ersons named Theodore appearing in the perattvely distingmshed from one another.

"W'th 1 the exception of no. 15. 17

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d. The Final Count and the Book of Sophe

19

These two opuscules are neither in M, nor in B, but only in A; they belong to the texts that appear in the second part of Parisinus A and whose origin remains mysterious. They form a group inasmuch as the Final Count is sandwiched between the two preserved extracts of the Book of Sophe. Paris in us A was copied in Heraklion in 1478 by a Theodore Pelekanos originating from Corfu. On the other hand, it is well known that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Crete was an important centre for copying and trading Greek manuscripts in general. 20 Here we have here an indication that, as far as alchemy is concerned, Crete also acted as an intermediary in handing down texts after the fall of Constantinople. Such are Zosimos' writings handed down in the manuscripts. In order to form an idea of the proportion represented by the pieces preserved in relation to the total production of the Panopolitan, let us go through the indirect pieces of evidence available concerning this work: 21
1. Zosimos himself occasionally alluded to some of his writings, including, among others, treatises entitled Letter Omega, Manipulations, According to Action and Letter Kappa. Only the Letter Omega has been partly preserved.

. Lastly, the Byzantine monk George th~ Synkellos tells us that 3 Zosimos might be the author of a work entitl~d lmo~t~, where~s the Suda knows Zosimos as the_ a~tho~ of chemiCal wntmgs dedicated t his sister Theosebia and divided mto 28 books, each denoted by a l~tterofthe alphabet and arranged in alphabetical order. The problem is_ that if we st.art from the re~aining opuscule~ an_d the various pieces of evidence I have JUSt reviewed, It IS extremely difficult to imagine Zosimos' work as a whole. The only source that seems _to take into ~c~ou~t Zosimos' compl~te production is the note m the Suda; It Is hkely that the treatise On the Letter Omega, which has been preserved, constituted the introduction to the Book Omega, one of the 28 books designated by letters the Suda refers to; the same for the books entitled Letter Kappa and Letter Sigma. As for the other titles preserved, it is impossible for us to estimate their relative importance: some of them are probably no more than headings of sections or of paragraphs, whereas others may correspond to complete books. We have the frustrating impression that we have in front of us only a few isolated pieces from an immense puzzle and are unable to picture the preserved pieces within the totality of the original work. 22 What seems to be certain is that the hundred pages or so that have come down from Zosimos cut a sorry figure compared with his entire production, which must have been very wide. At least part of that production survived into the first centuries of the Byzantine period. After that begun its dismemberment, with the result .that what remains now is on_Iy a few shreds. Zosimos really is a sad example of literary shipwreck.

2. Later alchemists often cite Zosimos, whom they seem to hold in high esteem and of whom they speak most favourably. Among other appellations, they call him "the crown of philosophers", "the man whose language has the depth of the ocean", "the new soothsayer", "the god-inspired one" or again "the friend of truth". Among the works cited, we find On divine Water (partially preserved), On Excellence (partially preserved: it is the title that heads Zosimos' first 'Vision'), Final Count (partially preserved), According to Action (not preserved), Letter Sigma (not preserved), The Book of Keys (not otherwise attested).
19

2. ZOSIMOS'

INFLUENCE ON LATER ALCHEMISTS

1 now propose to examine whether Zosimos exerted any influence on Byzantine alchemy. Did Byzantine alchemists have access to his
" The study of Zosimos trad'IliOn m Synac and Arabic may perhaps one day .., 1 ,., """6'tlen us by 'd' . ' Preserved in M provt mg mformauon on the states of the text earlier than what is 8 early stages. Marc. Gr. 299; however, to my knowledge, this study is still in its

On the problems raised by these works, see Zosime de Panopolis, ed. Mertens,

LXV-IX.

"'See, e.g., J.Irigoin, 'Les manuscrits grecs 1931-1960', Lustrum 7 (1962), 70. 21 On these indirect testimonies, see Zosime de Panopolis, ed. Mertens, LXXXVI-CI.

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works and, if so, from what perspective did they read them? I have just emphasized that Zosimos enjoyed immense prestige among alchemists of the third level who, manifestly, had for him the greatest respect. Four of these late alchemists deserve special attention: Olympiodoros, Stephanos, the Christian and the Anonymous Philosopher. Olympiodoros must have lived in Alexandria in the sixth century 23 A.D. His identification with the homonymous Neoplatonic philosopher is extremely likely, even if it is not perfectly established. Olympiodoros is the author of a treatise preserved as part of the Corpus of Greek alchemists 24 which presents itself as a commentary on Zosimos' Kat'energeian (According to Action?);25 it is, in fact, a collection of quotations from ancient alchemists accompanied by sentences devised by Olympiodoros, among which one finds extracts from Zosimos. 26 This commentary has a very complicated and discontinuous structure; its analysis is rendered even more difficult by the fact that it was probably meant to be read in connection with Zosimos' work, which is lost. The sentences commented on are arranged in an order which is difficult to follow, and it is often impossible to distinguish the sentence that is being
';.

commented on from the commentary. Moreover, numerous interpolations and additions due to copyists can be detected. Nevertheless, it is possible to see that Olympiodoros aims, in this treatise, to show the relation existing, in his view, between presocratic philosophers and our. alchemists. Among other things, Olympiodoros sketches a companson between the doctrines on the unique principle espoused by presocratic philosophers and those held by the most important alchemists, including Zosimos, on the same subject; his intention is to bring out the view that the foundations of alchemy derive from Greek philosophy. 27 The next century, more particularly the reign of Heraclius, is marked by Stephanos of Alexandria, under whose name a series of lectures On the Great and Sacred Art of Making Gold has come down to us. 28 In addition, Stephanos of Alexandria is known as a commentator on Plato and Aristotle and as the author of astronomical works and medical treatises. As is the case with Olympiodoros, the identification of this Stephanos with our alchemist, though not absolutely certain, is quite probable. 29

23 Only Letrouit ('Chronologie', 56) sets him in the 4'h century. On Olympiodoros, see the recent works of C. Viano: (a) 'Olympiodore ]' Alchimiste', in Dictionnaire desphilosophes, ed. D. Huisman, 2"" ed. (Paris, 1993), 2157-59; (b) 'Oiympiodore l'alchimiste et les presocratiques' (cited above, note 3), esp. 99-102; (c) 'Quelques aspects theoriques et methodologiques des commentaires alchimiques grecoalexandrins', in Le commentaire (cited above, note 10), 455-64, esp. 457-58; (d) 'Le commentaire d'Olympiodore au livre IV des Meteorologiques d'Aristote', in C. Viano, ed. Aristoteles clzemicus. II N libro dei Meteoro/ogica nella tradizione antica e medieva/e, International Aristotle Studies 1 (Sank! Augustin, 2002), 5979, esp. 76-79. 24 See Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, ed. M. Berthelot and C. E. Ruelle, 3 vols. (Paris, 1888; repr. Osnabrock, 1967), II, 69,12-104,7 (Greek text)= III, 75-113 (translation). 25 On the meaning of energeia, see Viano, 'Olympiodore I'Alchimiste', 2158, and 'Olympiodore l'alchimiste et Ies presocratiques', 133. On this title see also Letrouit, 'Chronologie'. 33, who does not believe that Zosimos would have written a work entitled Kat'energeian. 26 Among those extracts, one fmds two passages of a work by Zosimos which is at least partly preserved under the title Final Count: see Zosime de Panopolis, ed. Mertens, LXVI-VII.

"See Viano, 'Olympiodore I' Alchimiste', 2158. "OnStephanos of Alexandria, see particularly the paper ofM. K. Papathanassiou, 'Stephanos of Alexandria as Alchemist and Astrologer' in the present volume. See also eadem, 'Stephanus of Alexandria: Pharmaceutical Notions and Cosmology in his Alchemical Work', Ambix 37.3 (1990), 121-33; 38.2 (1991), 112 (Addenda and corrigenda); eadem, 'Stephanus of Alexandria: On the Structure and Date of his Alchemical Work', Medicina nei secoli 8.2 (1996), 247-66, and Viano 'Quelques aspects theoriques', esp. 458-60. To be seen, too; M. K. Papathanassiou, 'Stephanos von Alexandreia und sein alchemistisches We~' . Dissertation Humboldt Univ. (Berlin, 1992), as well as eadem, 'L'reuvre alc.hunzque de Stephanos d'Alexandrie: structure et transformations de Ia matiere um~e et pluralite, l'enigme des philosophes', in C. Viano, ed. L 'alchimie et se; racmes philosophiques. La tradition grecque et Ia tradition arabe (Paris 2005) 113~33. The alchemical works of Stephanos were not included in Collec;ion de; an~~ns akhimistes grecs, ed. Berthelot and Ruelle, because they had already been pu shed zn Physici et Medici Graeci minores, ed. J. L. ldeler, II (Berlin, 1842; ~pr. Amsterdam, 1963), 199-253 es emteres ~tud Letro . , es s. onentent de plus en plus vers ]'hypothese de J'identite". categ ut~, ai!Chrono.Iogte.', 6?, expresses the opposite opinion and rejects I cdr. Vi.ano, 'Quelques aspects theoriques', 463: "En ce qui conceme Stephanus

l'alc~n~ Y any tdentificatton: "II n'y a aucune raison d'attribuer Stephane .. ~ des textes contemporains ou posterieurs transmis sous Je nom d'un queiconunqsteS ue tcphane ... " .

...

-..:..,.

I.

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Graeco-Egyptian Alchemy in Byzantium

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Stephanos' alchemical work consists of a series of nine 'lectures'_ but it is likely that there were originally only seven of themlOamong which a letter to a certain Theodore was inserted, a text to which I will return. In these lectures one finds echoes from Zosimos who, however, is not cited by name in Stephanos. Another point worth noting: the last of the lectures is clearly dedicated to emperor Herakleios. Two more commentators must be mentioned: those who are known as the 'Christian' and the 'Anonymous Philosopher', the latter name covering perhaps several characters. 31 They are difficult to date; they must probably be situated between the seventh and the ninth centuries. 32 In the absence of a suitable edition, it is difficult to form a clear idea about the writings of these writers; 33 they look like collections of quotations from ancient authors, particularly from Demokritos, Hermes, Mary, Agathodemon and Zosimos, grouped by subject and linked up by longer or shorter sentences of ' commentary; 34 as always, it is difficult to know where the quotations stop and where the. commentaries begin. What is important for us is the manner in which the Christian and the Anonymous Philosopher quote the ancient alchemists, because it suggests that they still had their works, or at least long extracts from them, before their eyes.

F' ally it is worth pointing out that at least some of Zosimos'

m ks 'seem to have been accessible in the eleventh century, ;or use in the indictment brought by Michael Psellos against e~~arch Michael Keroularios when the latter fell into disgrace, the a er alludes to our aut hor, s treatise . nat v , energewn. . 3s But th' IS acCus h . 36 reference may simply mean that Psellos knew t e Marcranus.

J. ZOSIMOS' CULTURAL INFLUENCE OUTSIDE STRICTLY

ALCHEMICAL CIRCLES

We may now wonder whether Zosimos' works were known in Byzantium outside the circles of alchemists. The answer seems to be that they were.
In his Bibliotheca, Photios summarizes a mysterious work on

30

31

See indeed the new division proposed by M. K. Papathanassiou, 'Stephanus of Alexandria: On the Structure', 253-7. Letrouit, 'Chronologie', 63-64, distinguishes two of them. 32 Letrouit ('Chronologie', 62-64) dates the Christian to the 7 ..-8'' centuries and the two Anonymous to the 8,.- 9,. centuries. Festugiere (La revelation, I, 240) situates them all in the 7th century; Halleux, Les textes alchimiques, 62, places the Christian in the 6.. century and the Anonymous in the 7 .. or 8''. . 33 M. Berthelot, in his effort to restore the original books of the ancient alchelDlsts, was led to dismantle the compilations of the Christian and of the Anonymous Philosopher and to scatter their pieces in the different parts of his edition: see Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, ed. Berthelot and Ruelle, III, 377-82. Letrouit, 'Chronologie', 62-64A proposed to reconstitute original sequences of the Christian and the Anonymous based on the Marcianus; however, Letrouit does 0 ?t take into account certain texts by these authors that are transmitted only 10 manuscript A. " For a brief analysis of these commentators, see Viano, 'Quelques aspects theoriques', 460-62.

apologetics written in Constantinople after the reign of Herakleios by an author whose name he does not know. That work gathered quotations from books of all provenances in favor of the Christian religion and-Photios writes-he even drew testimonies "from Zosimos' chemical writings". 37 As I have already pointed out, George the Synkellos quotes Zosimos; the text he uses seems to have been more complete than the text we now have at our disposal and it is likely that he had access to the alchemical Corpus, because he also mentions Demokritos, Ostanes, Mary and Pammenes, who were authors of the first level. 38 Lastly, the Suda knows Zosimos, to whom it devotes an entry. 39 From these three testimonies, we may
Michael Psellos, Orationes forenses et acta, I, ed. G. T. Dennis (Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1994), 97, l. 2673-75 J. Bidez, Catalogue des manuscrits alchimiques grecs [hereafter CMAG], VI, Michel Psellus (Bruxelles, 1928), 76-77. Cf. 1. Schamp, 'Michel Psellos a Ia fin du XX' siecle: Etat des editions'' L 'Antiquite ~lassique66 (1997), 353-69, esp. 367. See Bidez, CMAG, VI, 22. 31 Photios, Bibliotheca, codex 170, p. 117a28 Bekker (ed. R. Henry, Collectanea Byzantina, II [Paris, 1960], 163). Cf. Zosime de Panopo/is, ed. Mertens, XCVI35

xcvu.

: George the Synkellos, Chronographia, ed. W. Dindorf, CSHB (Bonn, 1829), I, 7 A ~ 11-20 =George t~e ~ynkellos, Georgii Syncelli ecloga chronographica, ed. . Mossharnmer (Leipzig, 1984), 297, 23-298, 2; cf. Zosime de Panopo/is, ed. M
"ert?ns, XCU!-XCV!.
cf S~d~e Lexicon, ed. A. Adler, 5 vols. (Leipzig, 1928-38), s. v. Zwatji.O>; (Z 168); Sllne de Panopo/is, ed. Mertens, xcvu.

f ..

''~'!-:

.- ,.

I.

221 220
Mich~le Mertens

draeeo-Bgyptian Alchemy in Byzantium

infer that the alchemical Corpus must have had some diffusion Byzantium between the seventh and eleventh centuries. In
4. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ALCHEMICAL CORPUS

The alchemical Corpus was put together during the Byzantine period. The building up of this set raises a number of questions that are worth reviewing briefly. As far as the date is concerned, all historians of alchemy agree in situating it between the seventh and the early eleventh century; 40 the first corpus cannot be earlier than Stephanos, because some quotations from him were introduced into the works of the oldest alchemists. 41 Therefore, Stephanos' lifetime must be considered the terminus post quem for the constitution of the Corpus; the eleventh century must be regarded as the terminus ante quem, because MS Marc. Gr. 299 includes most of the texts. It is quiet possible that some partial collections were already in existence in antiquity, as

'th the Hippocratic Collection or with Plutarch's was the case WI . Zo . I I . 43 especially since an alchemist hke stmos c ear y ParaIll e LIVes, . h h' . d'sposal the writings of hts predecessors; owever, t 1s had at hIS I h oes not seem strong enough to gtve us the ng t to argument d . . d 44 A stulate the existence of a collectiOn from that time on war s. s ror knowing exactly what went on bet.ween the seventh and the eleventh century, we are reduced to makmg hypotheses. But several facts should be pointed out: (a) A wide movement in favour o~ th~ study of alchemy seems ~o have marked the reign of Heraklews m the seventh century: he 1s indeed the emperor to whom Stephanos of Alexandria dedicated the last of his 'Lectures'; between the second and the third 'Lecture' by this author a letter addressed to a certain Theodore was inserted; the poem that serves as a preface to manuscript M is also the work of one Theodore. It was then assumed that the first corpus could be attributed to that Theodore, who may have been Stephanos' disciple. 45 Moreover, the table of contents in manuscript M mentions three alchemical writings of the emperor Herakleios himself, writings that must have been in a quire now lost. 46 To this may again be added that the Arabic alchemical tradition has kept the memory of Stephanos: the text known under the name of Morienus relates that prince Khalid ibn Yazid ibn Mu'awiya was initiated into alchemy in Egypt between 675 and 700 by the monk

42

"' See, e.g., M. Berthelot, Introduction a /'etude de Ia chimie des anciens et du moyen age (Paris, 1889; repr. 1938), 203: "Vers le VII' ou le vm' siecle de notre ~re s'est constituee une premiere collection, qui semble avoir ete formee autour du commentaire de Stephan us, avec adjonction des auteurs de !'Ecole Democritaine et des premiers commentateurs. Cette collection . . . aurait servi il constituer le prototype, duquel derivent Ia vieille liste de Saint-Marc et le manuscrit de SaintMarc. Cependant un certain nombre de memo ires d 'auteurs renommes, de recettes partielles et plusieurs traites techniques n' etaient pas compris dans cette collection. lis sont entres plus tard dans d'autres collections, fondues avec Ia principale dans le man~scrit 2325, et depuis, avec des additions plus etendues, dans le manuscrit 2327"; tdem, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, ed. Berthelot and Ruelle, I, VI : "Ce Corpus des Alchimistes grecs a ete forme vers Ie vm' ou IX' siecle de notre ere, il Constantinople, par des savants byzantins, de l'ordre de Photius et des comptlateurs des 53 series de Constantin Porphyrogenete, savants qui nous ont trans~ms s~us des formes analogues les restes de Ia science grecque"; Festugi~re. La revelatwn, l, 240 : "le Corpus lui-meme des alchimistes grecs a probablement ete acheve ilia fin du Vtl' siecle (vers 675-700), peut-etre par Theodoros, disciple de ,Stephanos": cf. !dem, 'Alchymica , 211; Saffrey, 'Historique', 8: "no us cro~ons qu II (sc. celm qui a rassemble Ia collection de ces textes alchimiques) etrut un contemporain. de Stephane et du 'Chretien"'; Letrouit, 'Chronologie', 68: "les textes alchtmtques constituant M ont ete rassembles entre Ia seconde partie du Ix' ~~~cle et Ia date de redaction du manuscrit, savoir le x'-xi' siecle". ~~: e.g., Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, ed. Berthelot and Ruelle, II,

" ~ee on this subject J. Irigoin, 'Tradition manuscrite et histoire du texte :

17

iueques probl~mes relatifs Ia Collection hippocratique', Revue d'Histoire des ;tes. 3 (1973), 1-13, esp. 8-9, and idem, 'L'Hippocrate du cardinal Bessarion Stua;~arms ~raec.us 269 [533])', inS. Bernardinello, ed. Miscellanea Marciana di 1 " essarwne1 (Padua, 1976) 161-74 esp 174 ~seeJ 1 Ia trad't. ngom, ~a formation d'un corpus: un probleme d'histoire des textes dans 1 Ion des V1es parallel . . des Textes 12-13 _ (1982-3) es d e PIutarque , . R e~ue d'H1stozre " 1 12,esp. 7. Berthelot is an advo 1 0 f th' h . semble av . . ca e ts ypothests: cf. his Introduction 20 1 "Zosirne otrconstttue v 1 r10 d , . ' ..."; ibid., 287 : "Les' e~s a u m. s~ecle, une sorted 'encyclopectie chimique collection d'ab rd trrutes des alchtmtstes greco-egyptiens ont ete reunis en temps d'Herncli~ , par Zosime au lll' siecle de notre ere, puis vers le vn' siecle, au

r
f

i
tr

"CfF

"~ ;stugt~re, cited above, note 40.

e loss, perhaps voluntary, of this quire, see Saffrey, 'Historique', 4.

I l
fj
.J!,

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Morienus (Marianos), a pupil of Stephanos of Alexandri 47 " lh 'al a. The .our . a c ernie poems that were transmitted under the names of Hehodoros, Theophrastos, Hierotheos and Archelaos are als d . peno . d . It t here.ore " o ated to th IS seems undeniable that the sacred . d ~ enjoye some. sort of vogue in seventh-century Byzant'mm,. . c.onsequentI y, tt ts not unreasonable to suggest that this was the time when one or several collections were put together and that th . d' ey were the m trect source of our main manuscripts. (b) Another remarkable feature is that the state of preservation of ~e texts is extremely variable from one manuscript to the other: for Instance, some complete treatises are found next to abridged works, extracts, even extracts from extracts, and long commentaries enclosing, in the form of quotations, some chapters from an author's work. This seems to indicate that some texts must have become the victims of several successive reworkings at the hands of 48 compilers. The fact that manuscript M contains two differently illtr~ated versions of Zosimos' Authentic Memoirs reveals, in my Vtew, both the multiplicity of manipulations and the plurality of sources of the manuscript. (c) Lastly, let us note that contemporary texts, particularly technical recipes,49 were incorporated into these more or less reworked and more or less ancient works, a fact that bears witness to the liveliness of the Corpus. In my opinion, these alchemical collections and compilations must be connected with the wide current of encyclopaedic interest which ~arked t~e ~inth an~ tenth centuries in Byzantium and resulted in he constitutiOn of Innumerable other corpora of the same type: excerpts compiled on the order of Constantine Porphyrogennetos, the Geoponika, the Hippocratic Corpus, the Hippiatrica, of

collection of the Greek tacticians, the Hermetic Corpus,50 and many 51 others, including the Palatine Anthology. The collection offered by manuscript M might represent the first outcome of such an activity. Afterwards, later texts as well as collections that had, at the beginning, remained independent also entered this alchemists' corpus. 52 This is how we could explain, in my view, why manuscript A contains a long series of texts that do not appear in 53 the two oldest manuscripts. Another piece of information that could help us understand how the texts were selected and arranged would be to know the identity and motives of the compilers. The compilation of some works seems to have been commissioned. This could be the case with Zosimos' Chapters to Eusebia and to Theodore, Eusebia and Theodore bei!lg in this instance the silent partners of the compilation. Sometimes, we are even under the impression that the compiler did not
"'See A. J. Festugiere, 'L'Hennetisme', in idem, Hermetisme et mystique pai'enne (cited abo~, note 8), 28-87, esp. 33, about the Hermetic Corpus: "Le premier temoignage que nous ayons sur le Corpus actuel est de Psellos au xf siecle. On peut done conjecturer ou bien que le Corpus a ete compile entre le vf et le XI' siecle comme d'autres collections analogues (en particulier le Corpus des alchimistes grecs) ou bien qu'il est dO a Psellos lui-meme qui aura voulu sauver ainsi les restes disperses de Ia litterature hermetique savante". Cf. J.-P. Mahe, Hermes en Haute-Egypte, II (Quebec, 1982), i 9. . " On this trend, see Lemerle, Le premier humanisme, 267-300; Idem, 'L'encyclopedisme a Byzance a I'apogee de !'Empire, et particulierement sous Constantin VII Porphyrogenete', Cahiers d'histoire medievale 9.3 (1966), 596616; A. Dain, 'L'encyclopedisme de Constantin Porphyrogenete', Lettres d'Humanire XII(= Bul/Bude 1953.4), 64-81. "Let us quote, e.g., the letter of Psellos, which opens manuscript A (fol. lr-7r),_ or the anonymous and untitled text also handed down by A (fol. 227r-229~), wh.ch can be dated to around the 12"' century; on this last text, see A. Cohnet.' ~e Travail des quatre elbnents ou lorsqu'un alchimiste byzantin s'inspire de Jab~, m I. Draelants, A. Tihon, B. van den Abeele, eds. Occident et Proche-O~ent: Contacts scientifiques au temps des Croisades (Actes du colloque de Louvam-la Neuve, 24 et 25 mars 1997) (Tumhout, 2000), 165-90. ~ 256 "Some of those texts are very old for instance, Isis' letter to Horus (A, 0 1 r258r), which can be dated to th; 2"' or 3"' century A.D. (see M. M~~ens: 'Une scene d'initiation alchimique: La Lettre d'lsis cl Horus', Revue de I h1st~1Te des religions 205 [1988] 3-23) Letrouit 'Chronologie', 82 and 88, dates ths. work ' ' r tauonof Wrongly, in my opinion to the 7"'-8"' centuries on the basis 0 a quo tak 10 Stephanos. This error i~ generated from the fact that Letrouit refuses e manuscript A into consideration.

"s de C:C hn_ th_is subject Ha!ieux, Les textes a/chimiques 65. Cf. idem, 'La reception 1 ac 1 uruearabee o 'd ' ' vol 3 ~ h . n CCI ent m R. Rashed, ed. Histoire des Sciences arabes,
" c'r' pecLenologe, alchimie et sciences de Ia vie (Paris 1997) 143-54, esp. 146.

merleLe humanisme byzantin : ' Notes' et remarques sur enseig ' premier nement et culture B 1971) 299 "Cett . Yzance des origines au X' siecle (Pans, ' el . e pratique ge e a! > s'emmeJent est b' n r e 4 Byzance, des compilations qui s'enchainent "See below, no=~ ~te pour decourager Ia recherche des sources".

f. 2

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225

'ti

'l:

understand much of the text he was working on, particularly when he dealt with descriptions of technical appliances.54 In other instances, the copyist seems to have been himself an alchemist. This is what we can deduce from the examination of manuscript B which, as I have already mentioned, looks very much like a workshop handbook: the copyist dropped the pieces that were too theoretical and did not interest him in favour of technical recipes which could be carried out at once. Similarly, manuscript A, riddled with spelling mistakes, seems to be the work of a practising alchemist. 55 As for the lavishly decorated manuscript M, H. D. Saffrey has voiced the hypothesis that it was made for a highranking person, perhaps even for the imperial library of Byzantium,56 which would explain why M devotes more space to theoretical treatises. Such is the complex tradition of the alchemical texts, which is due, in my opinion, to the methods of compilation employed by the Byzantines.
5. EVIDENCE FROM THE ALCHEMICAL CORPUS FOR THE PRACTICE. OF ALCHEMY IN BYZANTIUM

alchemy. This opuscule nevertheless bears witness to Psellos' familiarity with the subject and shows that he believed in the theoretical possibility of transmutation, a logical consequence he thought, of the laws governing the four elements. 59 The collectlons of recipes that passed down under the names of Kosmas the Monk60 61 and Nikephoros Blemmydes also sound very academic, not tried out.

58

On the other hand, several practical recipes and technical treatises of Byzantine date can indeed be found among the texts of the 62 Corpus; they deal, among other things, with the practices of silversmiths and goldsmiths, the tempering and dyeing of metals, glass-making, the colouring of precious stones, the manufacture of pearls and the making of moulds, and must obviously be connected with the luxury crafts of the time. 63
All this bears witness to the fact that alchemy was still cultivated in Byzantium.

j.;

6,

SOME GLEANINGS FROM THE NON-ALCHEMICAL LITERATURE

Examining the alchemical Corpus reveals that the Byzantines di.d not content themselves with commenting on ancient texts. Their interest in the sacred art also finds expression in the production of alchemical writings, whether academic or practical. For instance, Michael Psellos (ll'h c.) wrote in his youth a letter. On how to make gold, which heads manuscript A; 57 but the rec1p~s included in this letter seem to be extremely academic, therefor.e 1t IS impossible to claim that Psellos devoted himself to the pract1ce of
54

If we tum to non-alchemical literature, we also find some indications along the same lines. I do not claim to be exhaustive but simply to present a few pieces of evidence drawn from non: Psellos, Letter on chrysopoeia, ed. Bidez, CMAG, VI, 93. See on this subject J. Grosdidier de Matons, 'Psellos et le monde de ~irrationnel', Travaux et Memoires 6 (1976), 325-49, esp. 329-30. See CMAG, II, 442,1-446,14. Actually, the text edited by Berthelot and Ruelle un~er Kosmas' name appears to be composite. It is likely that only 1-3 must be attnbuted to Kosmas; the recipes of 4-8 are hardly altered extracts from P~llos'.letter, as Bidez showed (CMAG, VI, 16), whereas 9-11 present recipes wntten m a much more modem language. I want to express here my deep gratitude to A. Colinet for drawing my attention to the heterogeneous character of this

I {..

\:

A brief survey of the specific problems raised by the transmission of the pictur~s of appliances can be found in M. Mertens, 'L'illustration scien~ifique d.~s : Corpus alchimique grec', in M. Cacours et al., eds. Formes etfonctwnsde It/lUI~ dans les traites de contenu scientifique de 1'Antiquire et du Moyen Age. Actps u co/loque international de Strasbourg (3-4 novembre 2000) (forthcoming). "See on this subject Festugiere, 'Alchymica', 221-5. "'See Saffrey, 'Historique', 2. Is " Michael Psellos, Letter on chrysopoeia, ed. J. Bidez, CMAG, VI (Brusse ' 1928), 1-47.

treause.

ee Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, ed. Berthelot and Ruelle, U, !52,1-459,9. BSee the technical treatises edited in Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, ed. ., erthelot and Ruelle, II, 321-93. Cf. C. Delvoye, L'art byzantin (Paris, 1967), 187 (on enamel ~ork): "Les P10gres observes alors dans Ia fabrication des couleurs peuvent etn:llliS en rapport les experiences de chimie et d'alchimie auxquelles aimaient Aproc6der les onunes de cette ~poque".

61

:vee

226

MicMie Mertens

Graeco-Egyptian Alchemy in Byzantium

227

alch.emical literature; these refer to alchem reahty and seem to me to reflect th I y a~ a contemporary art' in Byzantinecivilization. e p ace occupied by the 'sacred There seems to be no extant G k alchemy before the end of the fift~e or Latin. text mentioning before that date it must have b I c~ntury, which suggests that ' een re atJvely marginal.64 ' The first non-alchemical text in whic . h one fmds a reference to alchemy is Proclus' co about 500. Dealing wit:~ent~y o~ Plato's Republic, composed shows that very often th : atom~ theory of mimesis, Proclus imitate nature he I'll' t e uma~ mmd does not do anything but us rates this by us th alchemists calling them "th mg e example of the mixture of certain s ec ,o:Se who pretend to make gold from the alchemy is familiar p Jehs . It must be observed that although enoug to be quoted a 1 upon as somewhat suspect. s an examp e, It IS looked At the same time, Aeneas of G . . aza 1.n ~Is Theophrastus displays his knowledge of alchem b resurrection of the gloJou{ b es~abhshmg a parallel between the art and the ennoblement f b odJes on the last day by the Creator's alchemist's art "th h 0 . ase metals transmuted into gold by the e c angmg of matt nothing incredible abo t . . er mto something better has u It smce with matter take silver and t' ' us too, those who know m, remove app earance, melt together and co 1 or, ennoble matter and d pro uce gold, even the most beautiful". 66 In his Chronicle John Mala! John Isthmeos ~ho turned as tells the story of an alchemist called ' up at Antioch in 504, during the reign of
"' See ., p Halleux 1 Les 1extes a/chimiques 61 com:c us, .In Remp., ed. W. Kroll, Pr;cli . . entaru, II (Leipzig, 1901) Dadoch1 in Platonis rem publicum C 234 17 ommentaire sur fa re.pu bl" ' (Paris ' ; tr A J pestug1cre, ~ Proclus, alch . 1que, III 1970 !89. See Halleux Les rextes Pe mques, n. 11. Cf. A. Segonds p pm and H. D. Saffrey, eds. Proc/~s /:c us: as.tronomie et philoso~hie', in J. Coll~que mternationa/ du CNRS, Paris ~~r et mrerprete des Anciens. Actes du ~sp. 33 and n. 51. ' octobre 1985 (Paris, 1987) 319-34 Aeneas of Gaza, Theophrasrus (Naples, 1958) ' ed. E. Colonna Enea d1. Gaza. Teojrasto e . '.62 27--63 ,2; PG 85, col.M. 992A~ Z::::';;'~: Muylen?eus (Paris, 1836), 71, ;} ~f B:issonade, Aeneas Gazaeus a eux, op.c1t. erthelot, Les origines, 74-

Anastasios I. He tricked a lot of people and fled to Constantinople, where he swindled many silversmiths. The emperor had him 67 arrested and exiled to Petra, where he died.
In the late eleventh century, in his poem entitled Dioptra, which is

in the form of a dialogue between body and soul, Philip Monotropos resorts to a comparison with alchemy: just as an alchemist changes lead into gold, so Christ will change human nature.
68

It

1!':

The presence of alchemy is also reflected in the vocabulary: the 69 terms of the word family of xuJ.JECalxu!lia are frequently used in 70 Byzantine texts.

1:: I:

il

67

See John Malalas, Chronographia, XVI, ed. L. Dindorf, CSHB (Bonn, 1831), 395,6--19; ed. H. Thurn, CFHB 35 (Berlin and New York, 2000). 323; tr. E. Jeffreys et al., The Chronicle of John Mala/as: A Translation (Melbourne, 1986), 222; this story is also taken up by other chroniclers: cf. Berthelot, Les origines, 76; Halleux, Les textes alchimiques, 62, n. 17; Letrouit, 'Chronologie', 56--7. 68 See Philip Monotropos, Dioptra, ed. S. Lauriotes, in '0 '1\llro, I, pts.l-2 (Athens, 1919-20), 134. 69 Or Xlll!&ia/xru.Lia; late Greek references to alchemy vary between different spellings in which the phenomenon of iotacism prevents the original form from being discerned. On forms and etymology of the word alchemy, see Halleux, Les textes alchimiques, 45-7. Compounds in X&ll!- are also found: cf. following note. As suggested by H. G. Liddell and R. Scott, Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford, 1996), s.v. xul!&ia, it is very probable that the form with u is the right one, for the Syriac tradition seems to have kept the form 'koumia', if we go by what M. Berthelot writes in La chimie au Moyen Age, II (Paris, 1893; repr. Osnabrock, 1967), 238. Now, the Greek texts must have been translated into 1 Syriac before the shift ofu to 1, which must have started around the 8th/9 h c. and ended around the 10th/11th c.: see G. Horrocks, Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers (London and New York, 1997), 205; cf R. Browning, Medieval and Modern Greek (London, 1969), 62; A. Mirambel, Grammaire du grec moderne (Paris, 1949), XV; H. Pernot, D 'Homere a nos jours: histoire, ecriture, prononciation du grec (Paris, 1921), 141; and S. B. Psaltes, Grammatik der byzantinischen Chroniken (Gottingen, 1913),
10

:l,
.l

:;r

),

226. In addition to X&Lfi.W-rit meaning 'alchemist' in Malalas and derived chroniclers (above note 67) and xetfi.W~IXO qualifying Zosimos' writings in Photios and in the Suda (above, notes 37 and 39), xufi.WOL; occurs among others in Tzetzes (In Hes. scutum, 122, ed. T. Gaisford, Poetae minores Graeci, II [Leipzig, 18231. 623, 25; cf. Etymologicum Magnum s.v. 6Qeixa>.xo), X&(fi.WOL in Eustathios, Ad A

~,

229

228

Michele Mertens

Qraeco-Bgyptian Alchemy in Byzantium

Lastly, in half of the fifteenth century one co mes across a . the first . passage m prruse of alchemy in John Kanaboutzes' co on Dionysios of Halicarnassos. 71 One can read in it that change of metals and their substances into emy may . , n th e properties what it Wills . The t~xt probably reveals the influence of western alch on the Byzaiitme world, 73 but this is quite another story, which e:~ beyond the bounds of the present subject. g

a~:en~

summarized some of them; it is certain that the ~~tivity of. t~e ompilers contributed to salvaging part of these wntmgs, but 1t 1s ~ually certain that their methods of working fav~ured the lo~s. of the originals. 74 Zosimos' wreckage is a particularly stnkmg illustration of this process. This fact is all the more regrettable as most of the ancient alchemical texts seem to have still been available around the ninth and tenth centuries. 2. The Byzantines wrote commentaries, sometimes with a f~irly definite intention, as is the case with Olympiodoros, at other ttmes simply with the aim of gathering extracts while confronting opinions of the ancients.

CONCLUSION

Before 500 A.D., alchemy appears to be a rather marginal activity as suggested by the absence of evidence outside the alche . ~ In the sixth . century, references to alchemy ~:re~~ngly n~merou~ m Byzaiitine literature, but some suspicion . perceived With regard to the sacred art, a suspicion remforced by the schemes of swindlers. From the seventh century ohnwards . alchem~ seems to have been perfectly well integrated into bY the vogue It . apparently enjoyed t e official learnmg J'ud gmg . ~nder Herachus. ~e evidence of the Marcianus (lO'h or ll'h c.), the ~:t~ous h~~oratlo~ of which suggests that it must have been e or a Ig -ranking person, points in the same direction.

~orpus:

be:~e

3. They also wrote original texts, whether theoretical or for

practical use (recipes), which were gradually integrated into the existing corpus as the different collections were forming.

4. Last but not least, let us note that the alchemical texts seem to
have spread widely beyond the strictly alchemical circles, since they can be traced in the writings of Photios aiid George the Synkellos, as well as in the Suda.
74

m terest m . alchemy in different ways: The Byzantines showed theu

1. They read the ancient texts, collected them, abridged or
25, ed. M. Vander Valk, Eustathii archie i . . . .. Homeri J/iadem pertinentes III (L .d P scopl Thessa/omcens1s commentam ad 1979 ), 142, 6, and )(ELf!EU'tO' apparently meaning 'enamelled' in Constan~: enp Byzantinae, ll, 15, ed. J. J. Reiske C~HBorhyrogennetos, De cerimoniis aulae cf. Reiske's commentary,II [Bon~ ~onn, 1829], 581,9-11, and passim; 18301 the online edition of the Thesau;us L' ' 4-8). Research on )(Uf!EU-/)(eLf!EU- in many more occurrences. mguae Graecae (www.tlg.uci.edu) yields

71

~m Ende des ostriimischen Reiches, 527_ 145;ms~hen L1ter~tur von Justinian bis 2

Cf. K. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzant' .

See John Kanaboutzes, Ad Principe A' . ed. (Mumch, 1897), 231. Halicarnasensem Commentarius, 13-! 4 , : . et Samoth~ac~s in Dionysium 12,14, esp. 11,7-9; cf. Letrouit, 'Chronolo :';-e~nerdt(Letpztg,l890),10,269 passage and provides a French translation gte ' -7 who quotes the whole 13 See Halleux, ibid., 62, n. 21. On the lnfluen f . alch~my, see also L'anonyme de Zuretti, ed. A.c~o~ Latm alche~y on Byzantine (Parts, 2000), XIV. met. Les alchtmistes grecs, X

r.:."'

Cf. Berthelot, Introduction, 300 (=Collection des anciens a/cilimistes grecs, ed. Berthelot and Ruelle, III, 381), "Ia compilation du Chretien a ete faite a l'origine en vertu du systeme general sui vi par les Byzantins, du vm' au X' siecle, periode pendant laquelle ils ont tire des anciens auteurs qu'ils avaient en main des extraits et resumes .... Ce procede nous a conserve une multitude de debris de vieux textes ; mais il a concouru a nous faire perdre les ouvrages originaux"; cf. Dain, 'L'encyclopt\disme' (cited above, note 51), 65: "!'immense travail foumi par Constantin Porphyrogenete et son equipe de chercheurs, au lieu d'assurer Ia conservation des textes anciens, contribua efficacement a leur destruction: le zele qu'on avail mis a resumer eta adapter les textes avail rendu inutile Ia conservation des originaux"; cf. J. Irigoin, 'Survie et renouveau de Ia litterature antique a Constantinople (IX' siecle)', Cahiers de civilisation medieva/e 5.1 (1962), 287302, esp. 297: "Ia production de nouvelles reuvres fondees sur les anciennes, comme le Lexique de Photius, a contribue a Ia disparition d'ouvrages estimes vieillis ou dt\passes; au siecle suivant, Ia constitution de vastes encyclopedies, comme les extraits d'historiens de Constantin Porphyrogenete, a rendu inutile, aux yeux des contemporains, Ia copie des ouvrages ainsi dt!pouilles". Cf. also G. Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge, 1986), 2: "Had it not been for the vogue which alchemy and astrology continued to enjoy in Byzantium (and, indeed, meta-Byzantium), the texts would have been lost completely, having no claim to preservation on literary grounds".

230
Michele Menens

The pieces o.f evidenc~ surveyed above indicate that the place held by alchemy m Byzantme culture was in no way insignificant.

t David Pingree
Brown University

The Byzantine Translations of Masha'aiUih on Interrogational Astrology

Mashli'allah ibn Atharr, a Persian Jew from Basra (his Persian name was Yazdan Khwast, his Jewish name Manasse), was one of the first astrologers to enter the service of the 'Abbasid caliphs in the middle of the eighth century A.D. 1 He first appears in the historical record as one of those involved in casting the horoscope for the founding of Baghdad on 30 July 762. 2 Since he must at that time have been well established as an astrologer, he probably was born ca. 720-730. The end of his life can be approximately dated from his Kitab ft al-qiraniit wa al-adyan wa al-milal (Book on

The articles on Masha'allah by David Pingree in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, IX (New York, 1974), 15~2. and by F. Sezgin, Geschichte des ~rabischen Schri.ftums, VII (Leiden, 1979), 102-08, need to be updated. D. Pingree, 'The Fragments of the Works of ai-Fazl!rl', Journal of Near Eastern Studies 29 (1970), 103-23, esp. 104.

~!~:

232

t David Pingree

The Byzantine Transiations of Masha'allllh on Interrogational Astrology.

233

Conjunctions and Faiths and Religions),3 an astrological history that he wrote in order to prove that, according to astrology, the rulership of the Islamic countries was destined to be transferred to the Persians in 815, the sixth year from the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 809. 4 Since the narrative of Masha'allah's history begins to stray from reality in the period immediately after this conjunction and does not mention that al-Ma'mun succeeded his brother, al-Amin, as caliph in 813, but rather prophesized that the rulership would be transferred from one house to another in that year, it is likely that Mashii'allah died shortly after 809, though he continued his history imaginatively down to the horoscope of 928.5 So we can locate the date of Masha'allah's death in about 810.
The Arabic original and the Byzantine translation of one of M!isha'allah's texts that I will discuss in this paper between them preserve twenty-three horoscopes that can be dated between 12 June 765 and 17 June 768; these dates perfectly fit our chronology of Masha'allah's life. In many cases these horoscopes provide answers to queries posed by members of the caliphal court or by wealthy and aspiring individuals; these fit nicely within the social stratum that M!ishii'allah is elsewhere associated with. The close connections between the several different texts that will be discussed and their common reliance on Dorotheos, Valens, and Theophilos6 guarantee that they are all basically the work of Mlisha' allah. But before we turn to a consideration of the Arabic texts and their Greek translations, I should say something about interrogational astrology, since it was not a part of classical Greek science. It and historical astrology, which was also practiced by Mlishli'alllih as we
3

have just seen, came from the East. Greek astrology of several types had been translated into Sanskrit in the second century A.D.; by 269 the Indians had transformed Greek catarchic astrology into an interrogational form. 8 Catarchic astrology teaches one how to choose the right moment for beginning an undertaking; it would have been used by Mash a' allah and his associates, for instance, in selecting the best moment for founding the city of Baghdad. Interrogational astrology allows one to predict how an action already undertaken or being planned will end up. The prediction is made from the horoscope cast for the moment at which the client poses his question to the astrologer. In catarchic astrology you look in the future for a time when the horoscope cast for that moment will guarantee success; in interrogational astrology, the moment for which the horoscope is cast is determined by when the client gets a chance to ask the astrologer for an answer. The astrological data employed in order to arrive at a prediction in these two forms of astrology may be the same, but the rationales for its use must in each case be entirely different. The Indians transmitted interrogational astrology, together with their version of military astrology. and certain other elements that they had added to the Greek science, to the Sasanians of Iran in the fifth ~nd sixth centuries. To their resulting mix of Greek and Indian astrology (the astrological works of Dorotheos of Sidon, Ptolemy, Vettius Valens, and Varaharnihira, among others, were being read in Pahlavi),9 the Sasanians added Zoroastrian rnillenarianism to produce historical astrology in which conjunctions of Saturn ~d Jupiter over the millennia provide a structure for accommodating 0 the histories of religions, dynasties, and individual rulers.'

Published by E. S. Kennedy and David Pingree with an English translation and a commentary as The Astrological History of Mtisha'alltih (Cambridge, Mass., 1971). :Ibid., 112-13, fols. 218-218v. Ibid., 122-24, fols. 224v-225. P D p~gree, 'Masha'allllh: Greek, Pahlavr, Arabic, and Latin Astrology ' erspectlves. ara~es et medieva/es sur Ia tradition scientijique et philosophique grecque, Onentalia Lovaniensia Analecta 79 (Leuven and Paris, 1997), 123-36, esp. 128-31.

;D. Pingree, 'The Varieties ofHoroscopy in Historical Perspectives', to appe~. The Yavanajtltaka of Sphujidhvaja, ed. D. Pingree, 2 vols., Harvard Onental ~eries 48 (Cambridge, Mass., 1978), chapters 52-72. S . D. Pingree, From Astral Omens to Astrology. from Babylon to Brkilner, eTie ~rientale Roma 78 (Rome, 1997), 39-50. , D. Pingree, 'Msha'allllh's Zoroastrian Historical Astrology to appear.

,..

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David Pingree

The Byzantine Translations of Masba'allllh on Interrogational Astrology.

235

The three early 'Abbasid astrologers- Theophilos of Edessa, a Hellenized Syrian Christian; 11 Mashii' allah; an Arabi zed Persian Jew; and 'Umar ibn al-Farrukhan al-Tabari, the son of a Persian Zoroastrian who converted to Islam-relied for their interrogational astrology on already existing Indian and Sasanian material in Pahlavi books such as the translations of Dorotheos of Sidon and of Vettius Valens, and on the Greek catarchic works of Hephaestio of Thebes and of Rhetorius of Egypt 12 that Theophilos used himself and apparently made available to Masha'alliih. 13 Thus the Byzantine versions of Masha'alliih's books on interrogational astrology contain many transformations of catarchic problems previously discussed in Greek, some of which had already been presented in interrogational form by Sasanian astrologers or by Theophilos, while the rest were converted by Masha'allah himself. There are two Arabic manuscripts of texts on interrogational astrology that profess to be by Mashii' allah, though neither exists in its original form; 14 parts of each can be identified with passages in Byzantine manuscripts. The first, a manuscript of 37 leaves, is in the Suleimaniye library in Istanbul, where its shelf-mark is MS Laleli 2122b. Its colophon states that it was copied by Ayyub ibn ~mad in July 1266 from a manuscript copied by Shaykh AbU alFatl) Man~Or ibn Hayyat ibn Mukthar in June or July 1172. On the cover page it is called the Kitab Masha'alliih (i.e. The Book of Mashli'allah, the title also in the colophon) and Masa'il Mashli'allah (Questions to Masha'allah); I presume that the original title of the work was Kitab masa'il Masha'allah (The Book of Questions to Masha'allah). It must have been composed of 75 chapters, most of which begin with the words: "Mashi!'alliih says ... "However, the text in MS Laleli 2122b is not complete: chapters 21-24 are missing, and none of Masha'alliih's usual exemplary horoscopes are found in it. In the preface to the surviving text,
It 0 p p . f mgree, rom Alexandria to Baghdad to Byzantium. The Transmisston o Astrology', International Journal of the Classical Tradition 8 (2001), 3-37, esp. 13-18. 12 lbid., 6-13. 13 Ibid., 18-20. 14 See note 6 above.

Mash!!' allah refers to ~is own J(_itab,al-usturlab, and in chapter 20 t "my four books on mterrogat10ns ; moreover, about a quarter of o existing chapters are based in whole or in part on material found th . 1. p~emA, ts wh'l h inethe fifth book of Dorotheos ' astro1og1ca 1 e o~kae~ reflect the teachings in book 3 of Hephaestlo ~ pote1 esma~1 . Valens is cited in chapters 37 and 45. The puzzlmg reference m the preface to Abu Ma'shar's Kitab al-mudkhal (a work composed ca. 850, in other words a few decades later than the death of Masha'allah) 17 must be due to a redactor who here expanded the text, though his normal practice was to abbreviate it, as its Byzantine translations demonstrate.
The second Arabic text is preserved in a truncated form on fols. 6v27 of MS Leiden Or. 891, copied by 'Umar ibn Mul)ammad ibn 'Umar ibn Khidr ibn Sulayman on 29 September 1481 from a manuscript copied in 1265/6. The first part of MS Leiden Or. 891 contains what is apparently a fragment of Mashii'allah's Arabic translation from the Pahlavi version of Dorotheos' Greek

15 E.g. one can compare chapter 14 with Dorotheos of Si~on, Carmen astrologicum, ed. D. Pingree (Leipzig, 1976), V.19; chapter 15 wtth Dorotheos V.20; chapter 17 with Dortheos V.6; chapter 18 with Dorotheos V.7; chapter 25 with Dorotheos V.29; chapter 26 with Dorotheos V.ll; chapter 27 wtth Dorotheos V.12; chapter 28 with Dorotheos V.13; chapter 29 with Dorotheos V.23; chap~~ 37 with Dorotheos V.JO chapter 43 with Dorotheos V.l6; chapter 44 wt Dorotheos V.l7; chapter '45 with Dorotheos V.18; chapter 48 with Dorotheos V.20; chapter 49 with Dorotheos V.38; chapter 50 with Dorotheos V.8; and 'th H h ti chapter?! with Dorotheos V.9,5-7. 16 Compare chapter 12 with Hephaestio III.30, 24-34; chapter 15 w~ ep a;~ Ill.28, 6ff; and chapter 36 with Hephaestio Ill.35, m Hephaesuo of Th 74 Apotelesmaticorum /ibri tres, ed. D. Pingree, 2 vols. (Letpztg, 197~- ). 1 " 0 n thts . work a most tmportant . troductory treause to astro ogy. and popu 1 ar m . d' a1 . ' . . Ab M h himself and tiS me tev and a bnef reference to tts abndgement by 0 a s ar . d . . . M Ullmann Dre Natur un translattons mto Latm and Greek, see ' AbO Geheimwissenschaften im Islam (Leiden, 1972), 320-22;. for th~ te~t~ :::.ctorii 1 Ma:shar, Kitab al-madkhal al-kabrr i/a 'ilm a/tkilm .al-nu}Qm, ~ er.:;:e:al Latin mawris ad scientiam iudiciorum astrorum, Arabtc text an 'd ~ 'on see translations, ed. R. Lemay, 9 vols. (Naples, 1995); for the abn g ~e~~ith the Abo Ma'shar, The Abbreviation of the Introduction to Astrology, T~~e ; ett K. Medieval Latin Translation of Adelard of Bath, ed. and tr. um ' Yamamoto, and M. Yano (Leiden, 1994).

236

David Pingree

The Byzantine Translations of Masha'alUih on Interrogational Astrology.

237

astrological poem; 18 this fragment consists in a section of book 2 (from the beginning of chapter 14 until chapter 16, sentence 18) and breaks off abruptly on line 2 of fol. 6v in the Leide~ manuscript. At this point there begins, equally abruptly, a text on interrogational astrology. No author or title is named in the colophon. However, it is clearly the work of Mashii'allah: several of its sections parallel chapters in the Kitab masa'il Masha'allah (The Book of Questions to Masha'allah), though they are expressed in different words; 19 there are eleven exemplary horoscopes which can be dated to the years 765 to 768 (five of these horoscopes are found in the Byzantine translation, accompanied by twelve additional horoscopes dated between 766 and 768); and Sahl ibn Bishr/0 who frequently takes material from Masha'allah without acknowledging his source, copies in his Kitab al-ikhtiyarat 'ala albuyat al-ithnay 'ashar (Book of the Elections according to the Twelve Astrological Houses, medieval Latin tr. under the tite Liber de electionibus) at least three chapters from Masha'allah's text found in MS Leiden Or. 891 21 and one from the Kitab masa'i/ Masha'allah (The Book of Questions to Masha'allah), 22 though in this case Sahl ibn Bishr deviates from his source toward the end of the excerpt. The Greek manuscripts containing translated chapters from Miisha'allah fall into two groups. The first preserves the fragments of the Greek version of the Kitab masa'il Masha'allah that was made, I believe, in about A.D. 1000. Its main representative is MS
18

Vat. gr. 1056, a fourteenth-century co.dex of 244 leaves the contents of which seem to be largely denved from a twelfth-century source.2 3 The Vaticanus preserves just eight of the seventy-five chapters in the Kitab masa'il Masha'allah six of those have phrases like ebtev 6 Maaat..Aa, rendering the Arabic qa/a Masha'allah that must have been a recurring standard expression in the Arabic original; the other two, though they do not mention the name of their author, are so close to the Arabic that they must be translations from it. MS Vat. gr. 1056 also contains six chapters on interrogational astrology attributed to Masha'allah that do not correspond to anything found in MS Leiden Or. 891 or MS La/eli 2122b; though I previously thought that they represent chapters now missing from the text preserved in MS Laleli 2122b, I now believe that they are fragments from a third work out of the four that Masha:'allah claims to have written in the twentieth chapter of the Kitab masa'il Masha'allah. These Byzantine translations are so far the only known surviving fragments of this work, the Arabic original of which is lost. The fourth treatise by Masha:'allah on interrogations is probably the text translated into Latin under the title De receptione. 24 It contains six horoscopes that can be dated between 12 February 791 and 30 November 794. If this identification of the fourth work with the De receptione is correct and if the reference was indeed made by Masha:'allah himself when he wrote the Kitab masa'il (instead of being the insertion by a later scribe who copied the text), it follows that this last book was composed in about 800.
The translator whose work is preserved in MS Vat. gr. 1056 was a scholar very familiar with classical Greek astrological vocabulary, which he normally uses. However, one word for which he could find no traditional Greek equivalent was the Arabic dalrl, "indicator"; this he consistently translates with OT]J.WU.OtLx6~. Another word that was apparently not obvious to the translator was

D. Pingree, 'Masha' allah's ( ?) Arabic Translation of Dorotheos', Res Orientales 12 (1999), 191-W9. 19 Compare, e.g., MS Leiden Or. 891, fol. 25 with MS Laleli 2122b, fol. 11 (chapter 14). "' Sah1 ibn Bishr ibn l:lablb al-Isra'Tlr (d. ca. 845) was the most important astrologer active. in ~uslim lands in the course of the 9~ c. Fragments from his works also survive m Byzantine translation. See M. Ullmann, Die Natur- und ~eheim.wisse~schaften, 309-ll. Sahl Ibn B1shr copies the chapter on digging canals in MS Leiden Or. 891, fol. 23b; that o.n planting also in MS Leiden Or. 891, fol. 23b; that on handing over r,ouths for Instruction, on the same folio. MS ~le!i 2l22b, fol. 24 (Chapter 45) on extracting the child from its mother's womb if II IS dead.

lJDesc

ribed by I. Heeg in CCAG, V.3 (Brussels, 1910), 7-64. This manuscn~t also Preserves the By zan tine Iranslation of Masha' allah's introduction to one of his works on genethlialogy; see c. Burnett and D. Pingree, The Liber Aristotilis of ~ug~ ofSanta /Ia (London, 1997), 203-{)4. Edited by J. Heller (Noribergae, 1549), fols. Liiii- Riii v.

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thaqrl ("heavy"), modifying kawkab ("planet"). Though this terminology was standard for Masha'allah, who uses it, e.g. in chapter 6 of his Epistola de rebus eclipsium, 25 the translator writes without explanation, UO'tftQ ~aQils;. '

The third work by Masha'allah on intenogational astrology that was translated into Greek is a longer version of the text found in MS Leiden Or. 891. The translated portions are preserved in manuscripts written by members of the school of John Abramius, which flourished at the end of the fourteenth century,26 and their later apographs. I would conjecture that the translation was made earlier in the fourteenth century. I have used two manuscripts from the school of John Abramius, though neither has a complete set of the fragments of Masha'allah's work. The first isMS Angelicus gr. 29, a codex of 346 leaves most of which were copied by Eleutherios of Elis on the island of Mitylene in 1388. Eleutherios had forged two astrological compendia that he attributed to Arabic authors and incorporated into this volume. One he claimed to be by II6.A.xos;, a "name" which is simply a transliteration of the Arabic al-Balkhi, designating a person from Balkh; the most famous astrologer from Balkh was Abu Ma'shar (787-886), the author of many influential books, some of which had also been translated into Greek; excerpts from these translations are presented in MS Angelicus gr. 29 under the name Ano!J,6.oaQ, though he contributed only his ethnikon to Eleutherios' forgery. The forger ascribed his second compendium to a totally fictitious Achmet the Persian. The second of this work's four books contains a collection of about 100 chapters on interrogational astrology arranged in imitation of a similar work by Theophilos of Edessa, his IlEQL xa'tUQXOOV OLa<j>6QWV, which provided the model for the third book of Masha'allah's genethlialogical treatise translated into Latin by Hugo of Santalla as the Liber Aristotilis. The arrangement of the book is in accordance with the aspects of human life controlled by each of the twelve
25

astrological places. Many chapters from this interrogational compendium in book 2 of "Achmet" are scattered between fols. 152v and 261 in MS Angelicus gr. 29; some contain exemplary horoscopes datable between 765 and 768. These chapters can be securely assigned to the astrologer who wrote the interrogational collection found in an abbreviated form on fols. 6v-27 of MS Leiden Or. 891. However, two of these horoscopes (which are more numerous in the Greek than in the Arabic version) fall outside the narrow range of the period 765-68, though they still fall within Masha'allah's active lifetime; the first can be hesitatingly dated 21 January 750, and the second securely dated 8 January 777. But both of these vagrants are combined with horoscopes in the same chapters that do fall within the aforementioned chronological bounds, chapters which have their Arabic counterparts in the Leiden codex. Indeed, only five of the eleven horoscopes preserved in the Arabic text are found in MS Angelicus gr. 29, while the remaining six have no corresponding horoscope in Greek; on the other hand, MS Angelicus gr. 29 has fourteen horoscopes (including the two aberrant ones) that have no counterparts in the Leiden manuscript but still appear to be genuinely Masha'allah's. The second Greek manuscript preserving part of Eleutherios' interrogational compendium is MS Marc. gr. 324, 27 a codex of 329 leaves, also copied in the school of John Abramius in the late fifteenth-century. On fols. 258-261 v it contains part of Eleutherios' compendium devoted to the ninth through the twelfth astrological places. This includes six horoscopes, all of which are also found in the Angelicus; five are dated in 766 or 767, and the last is the aberrant horoscope of, perhaps, 21 January 750. The Byzantine translator of the Arabic text partially preserved in the Leiden manuscript was certainly different from the person who translated the Kitab masa'il Mashti'alltih (Book of Questions to Mc'lsha'allah); his language is Jess Classical and more Arabized. For instance, he renders the Arabic word dalrl with a simple
27

~~nt Satumus, Jupiter et Mars, quibus debes quoque adiungere Solem."

Ibid., fols. Fiii-Giii v, especially Gi where one reads: "planetae autem ponderosi

Concerning this school and its influence, see D. Pingree, 'The Astrological School.of John Abramius', DOP 25 (1971), 191-215. For their use of Greek translations from Arabic, see Pingree, From Astral Omens to Astrology, 74-76.

Described by W. Kroll and A. Oliveri, CCAG, II (Brussels, 1900), 4- 16

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transliteration, taAilA, or with 6l]A.omx6~. but never with OTJf..LELWtLX6~. The Arabic phrase akthar shahtida, "having more witnesses", is a translation of the Classical Greek ex.wv n:A.etovas; A.6you~, where A.6yo<; refers to the relative powers that the planets receive from their lordships and positions; the second translator transfers the Arabic words directly into n:A.dove~ f.IUQtUQ(m, even though in the Classical terminology f.IUQtvga refers only to aspect. One Arabic name for the fourth place in an interrogational horoscope is burj a/- 'ttqiba, "the zodiacal sign of the outcome"; indeed, in Classical Greek catarchic astrology the fourth place is sometimes said to indicate tijv ex~a.mv. 28 However, 'aqiba can also be translated "end", a meaning that our translator chose when he wrote to ~<i>6wv toil teA.ovs;. The lunar nodes in Classical Greek astrology are called simply 6 Ava~L~a~wv, "the Ascending", and 6 Kata~L~a~wv, "the Descending". But Sasanian astrologers in the late fifth century received from India the notion of Ra:hu, a celestial serpent whose head (siras) and tail (ketu) cause eclipses. In Pahlavi Rlihu himself was called Gozihr, his head sar, and his tail dumb; in Arabic the head and tail are ra's and dhanab respectively; our Byzantine translator uses xe<j>a.A. iJ and ouga. In Classical Greek a planet close to the Sun is said to be burned, xexauflvos;. In Arabic, the participle is replaced by a prepositional phrase, ft al-il;uirttq, "in combustion". The Arabic phraseology is imitated in the Byzantine translation by the words eL~ to XUUJ.Ul tou 'HA.ou. In one passage of the Byzantine translation Venus is said to be gouovd<; et~ to <j>6:J~ auti)s;. The best I can suggest as an explanation of rhousnas is that it is the transliteration of a form of the Arabic verb rasuna, "to be steady", in which case the Greek would mean "Venus is steady in its light". I have already written about some of the contents in MSS Leiden Or. 891 and Laleli 2122b, including their relationships to the Byzantine material; 29 in any case, I hope to publish all of the unpublished texts by Mlishli' alla:h that I can identify in Arabic,

Greek, and Latin in the not too distant future. Therefore, I will at this point only describe a bit more fully the fragments of an Arabic treatise (the original of which has not yet been identified) preserved in MS Vat. gr. 1056. The beginning of this treatise may have been the chapter on determining the question that the querist is about to pose to the astrologer; it is found on fols. 48-48v of the Vaticanus. The answer to this problem is provided by looking at the ninth parts of the zodiacal signs, which are subdivisions, each 3; long, invented by the Indians and called by them navam.fas. This word, meaning "ninth parts" was translated into Pahlavi as no bahr, a term transliterated into Arabic as nuhbahr. The Byzantines used a transliteration of the Arabic, usually voun:ax.ga.t. The rules based on the voun:ax.gat that the Vaticanus provides are followed by a horoscopic example too corrupt to be dated; even though this horoscope is interpreted to determine the question of the querist and is directly attributed to Mlishli' alllih, it makes no mention of noupachrat. What is important is that, at the end of this example by Ml!sha:'alllih, we have an explanation of it ascribed to the "wisest 'Paaf]x", whom I mistakenly assumed previously to be connected with the treatise found in MS Laleli 2122b;30 rather, Rashiq ibn 'Abdalllih al-I:Ia:sib probably commented on Ma:shli'alla:h's treatise on interrogational astrology, fragments of which survive only in MS Vat. gr. 1056. In a chapter by Rashiq on determining the 3 significant planet (dalrl) in an interrogational horoscope '-a chapter in which he quotes from al-KindT as well as from Ml!sha:'alla:h-he presents as examples horoscopes that can be dated I June 767 and 10 June 785. This suggests that Ma:shli'alla:h composed this treatise in the late 780s,32 a suggestion strengthened by the fact that another chapter of the Byzantine translation of

zoo

30Ib'd
31
32

28

See, for example, Dorotheos of Sidon's Carmen astrologicum, ed. Pingree, V.20, D. Pingree, 'Masha'allah: Greek, Pahlavr, Arabic and Latin Astrology', 128-34.

29

I.

t P: 132. Found m MS Escoria/ Arab. 938, fols. 59-61 v (also numbered 60-62v) . . The chronology of Masha'allah's four works on interrogational astrology, then, IS as follows: I. The original of the treatise in MS Leiden Or. 891: circa 770. 2. The original of the fragments in MS Vat. gr. 1056: cin:a 787. 3. The original of the De receptione: cin:a 795. 4, The original of the Kitab masa 'il Mash4'a/lah: cin:a 800.

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Masha'allah's treatise, preserved on fols. 49v-50 of the Vaticanus discusses the same topic and is related to Rashiq's chapter. ' I pass over several other chapters of this work's Byzantine translation in order to consider the last piece of evidence concerning its textual history. MS Vat. gr. 1056, fols. 68v-69, contain a chapter on buried treasure that is not attributed to Masha'allah. After its rather abrupt ending, the scribe writes: "If you wish to understand and know accurately the place (that is, where the treasure lies), read the chapter about this which Masha'allah set out toward the end of his book. I passed over this (chapter) as it (the subject) is made sufficiently clear here, but because of it (Masha'allah's chapter) we left the present sheet unwritten on so that, when we find the book of Masha'allah, we may copy that chapter on it." Evidently the scribe never found a (complete) copy of Masha'allah's treatise, since the remainder of the page is filled with material that has nothing to do with buried treasure. I hypothesize: therefore, that the scribe of this part of MS Vat. gr. 1056 never obtained a complete copy of the second treatise either because its text was never translated into Greek in its entirety, or because only excerpts from it were included in the twelfth-century manuscript from which the Vaticanus was copied. In conclusion, I might contrast the rather meager use of Mashii'allah's works in Byzantium and the relative neglect that his works suffered in Islam with his profound influence in Latin, the language in which most of his writings are preserved. 33 The reason for the discrepancy in the Greek, Arabic, and Latin reception of his works is not hard to identify. The early Islamic astrology of the eighth century had become antiquated by the ninth, when Sahl ibn Bishr and Abil Ma'shar revised and systematized Masha'allah's inept and unintegrated borrowings from both the Greek and the Indo-Persian traditions. In the Latin West, which received no serious text on astrology from antiquity except for Firmicus
33

Maternus' Mathesis, the earliest translators found Masha'allah to be an interesting, novel, and fairly simple author to study. The Byzantines, on the other hand, were interested in learning from the Arabs about the modifications and expansions of the Classical Greek science that had been introduced by the Indians and Persians and had been combined with the Classical tradition by Theophilos, Mlisba'alliih, and 'Umar ibn al-Farrukhan. However, the methods and vocabulary of these authors had been superseded by the authoritative works on genethlialogy and historical horoscopy written by Sahl ibn Bishr and Abil Ma'shar, which the Byzantines translated into Greek; for interrogations they turned to lesser luminaries, including Masha'allah.

I have mentioned almost all the fragments of his works that are found in Greek manuscripts: In Arab~c we have just a few incomplete texts (such as the first ~d fourth treatises mentioned above) and numerous brief citations, while in Latm nearly two dozen complete works are preserved.

William Adler
North Carolina State University

Did the Biblical Patriarchs Practice Astrology? Michael Glykas and Manuel Komnenos I on Seth and Abraham
During the reign of Manuel Komnenos I (1143-1180), a monk at the Pantokrator monastery composed a letter denouncing astrologers as heretics. Rather than taking the criticism personally, the emperor, whose devotion to astrology is well-documented, decided that a pittakion in defense of astrology would better serve his purposes. In the treatise, the emperor's only surviving work, Manuel complained that the unschooled author of this polemic had unfairly sullied the reputations of respectable practitioners of the art. As long as astrologers understand that the stars, "lifeless, unintelligent objects lacking perception", are signs of the divine will, arrayed in the heavens for humanity's benefit, they need not descend into idolatry, fatalism, the casting of nativities and other abuses. 1

For the text of Manuel's letter and Glykas' response, see Glykas, E~ rd' WroQ{a' <tf<; 8e{a<; TQaf/Jtf<; "erpd.Aata, ed. s. Eustratiades, 2 vols. (Athens, and
1

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What followed was a lengthy refutation from Michael Glykas, a monk probably best known as the author of a universal chronicle. Among the many contested points is the emperor's assertion that an angel had revealed astrology to Seth, the son of Adam, and that Abraham practiced a divinely sanctioned form of the art that "apprehended the creator from the creations". 2 Even though Manuel's reference to Abraham's connection with astrology was only in passing, Glykas had little trouble recognizing its source, which he accuses the emperor of misrepresenting. Had the emperor disclosed the whole story about Abraham, he writes, it would have become clear that his experience of the one true God, far from validating astrology, led him to repudiate it altogether. As evidence of his renunciation of astrology, Glykas reminds Manuel of Abraham's later triumph in Egypt, when "at the time of Abimelech, he went down to Egypt and completely put to shame those who hold such beliefs". 3 The contributions of Seth, Abraham, Enoch and other early biblical patriarchs to the discovery and transmission of the celestial sciences are subjects treated at length in the Byzantine chronicle tradition and the literature of Second Temple Judaism. The emperor's shorthand appeal to these same traditions and Glykas' ready familiarity with them suggest that by the twelfth century they had become relatively well-known. My interest in the following discussion is to examine their sources and stages of development and their use in discussions about the origin and legitimacy of astrology.

THE BffiLICAL PATRIARCHS AND "AsTROLOGY" IN JEWISH SOURCES OF THE SECOND TEMPLE PERiOD
If scholars are correct in identifying him with the notorious sorcerer Michael Sikidites, Glykas himself may have dabbled in the occult 4 arts earlier in his career. At the very least, the subject of astrology interested him deeply. A large part of his chronicle consists of a commentary on the hexaemeron, in the course of which Glykas writes at length about the legitimate and illegitimate uses of the celestial sciences. 5 In the same work, he takes up the disputed question of the contributions of biblical patriarchs to the discovery and propagation of these sciences. Both Seth and Enoch, he writes, learned about astronomy through a revelation from the archangel Ouriel. In order to ensure that it would survive the universal flood, the Sethite line carved this revealed knowledge on a stone monument, which was subsequently discovered and transcribed by Kainan, one of the descendants of Noah. 6 Abraham was himself a critical link in the dissemination of astronomy and arithmetic, transmitting this learning to the Egyptians, who passed it on in tum to the Greeks. But when at the age of 14 he began to learn about the true God of the universe, he repudiated Chaldaean beliefs about the divinity of the stars. During his subsequent stay in Egypt, Abraham "put to shame the sages there and those who believe in nativity. For after he received knowledge of God, he no longer wanted to attend to stars". 7 As his authorities, Michael names Josephus and George the Monk, the latter the author of a widely known universal chronicle from the mid-ninth century. From their testimony, Michael concluded that astronomy, while a perfectly legitimate pursuit originating in a revelation from God, had nothing to do with the casting of nativities or any other doctrines that ascribed sentience or autonomous agency to the stars. This is the point of his reply to Kyr Alypios
'Glykas, El, Td' dJWQia,, ed. Eustratiades, I, a-~; 0. Kresten, 'Zur Sturz des Theodoros Styppeiotes' JOB 21 (1978) 90-92 Magdalino, Manuel/ Komnenos. 380. :Michael Glykas, Chronicle, ed.l. Bekker, CSHB (Bonn, 1836), 47.15-55.21. Glykas, Chronicle, ed. Bekker, 228.6-13; 242.23-243.12. 7 Glykas, Chronicle, ed. Bekker, 246.7-247.2 .

Alexandria, 1906-!2), I, l;\,'-n:6', 476-500. For an earlier edition of the two documents, see lmperatoris Manuel Comneni et Michael Glycae disputatio, ed. F. Cumont and F. Boll, CCAG, V.I. 108-40. Analysis and English translation of the two works by D. George, 'Manuel I Komnenos and Michael Glykas: A TwelfthCentury Defence and Refutation of Astrology', Culture and Cosmos 5.1 (2001), 348; 5.2 (200 I), 23-51; 6.1 (2002), 23-43. For discussion of the correspondence, see alsoP. Magdalino, The Empire of Manuel 1 Komnenos (Cambridge, 1993), 3?7.-82_; and idem, L'orthodoxie des astrologues. La science elllre le dogme et Ia divlnatwn a Byzance (VIr-XIV" siecles) Realites byzantines 12 (Paris, 2006), 114-26. : Glykas, E~ Td> WroQla>, ed. Eustratiades, I, n:. 23-n:a. 2. Glykas, E~ Td<; UZWQla>, ed. Eustratiades, I, 480.23-24.

.::.

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about the differenc~ bet~een astrono~y and .a~trology. The only branch of the celestial sciences deservmg prohibition, Michael tells him, is astrology, a misbegotten discovery of the Chaldaeans. Since it "misleads the more simple-minded and compels them to attend to nativity and fate", it was wholly despised by the fathers and unsanctioned by God. 8 Those interested in discerning the mind of God through his creation should thus confine themselves to astronomy, the contemplation of "the placement and movement of all the heavenly bodies, and their orderly conjunction and separation". This was a science revealed by God himself. "For the angel stationed among the stars, that is the most divine Ouriel, descended to Seth and Enoch, and thereupon marked out for them the seasons, and signs of the stars--this we have heard from ancient history."9 Michael's claims notwithstanding, the assorted Jewish writings that collectively represent his "ancient history" do not always draw such neat distinctions. Like other ancient authors, Jewish writers of the Hellenistic age use the words astrology and astronomy almost interchangeably. Nor are they fastidious in discriminating between the pure astronomical pursuits of the biblical patriarchs and the tainted practices of the Chaldaeans. In the cosmopolitan and culturally competitive Hellenistic age, there was too much to be gained by establishing the indebtedness of Chaldaean and Egyptian science to a culture hero of the Bible. Writers of the early Hellenistic period describe this borrowing categorically. A Jewish or Samaritan writer identified by Eusebios of Caesarea as Eupolemos and probably dating to the third century BCE states without qualification that Abraham discovered both astrology and the rest of Chaldaean wisdom. When Abraham subsequently introduced this knowledge to the Egyptians, he informed them that the original discovery of astrology was actually made long before by the biblical patriarch Enoch. 10 There is no fine print here about the difference between astrology and astronomy, or disclaimers

about the dangers of Chaldaean wisdom. The important thing is that Enoch discovered it first. A comparison of Josephus' Antiquities and the Book of Jubilees, two works extensively used by the Byzantine chroniclers, will help illustrate the range of available opinions. Jubilees' views on Chaldaean wisdom correlate well with those of Glykas. While crediting Enoch with discovering the signs of heaven, it dissociates his discoveries from Chaldaean wisdom, which it considers demonic. In its narrative of post-flood history, Jubilees records how Kainan, a forefather of the Babylonian nation, found on a rock teachings dealing with the observation of the "omens of the Sun and Moon and the stars". This was alien wisdom, part of the body of occult learning revealed by the fallen angels responsible for the universal flood. Kainan' s subsequent transcription of this lore was a grave transgression, which he was ashamed to disclose to Noah. 11 In the ensuing narrative about Abraham's own dealings with Babylonian wisdom, Jubilees leaves little doubt that after leaving Ur of the Chaldees, the patriarch disowned the investigation of celestial omens. When he arrived in Harran, he passed one night scouring the heavens for clues about the amount of rainfall in the coming year. On further reflection, however, he dismissed the whole exercise as futile. Since the signs of the stars, the Moon and the Sun are all in the hands of the Creator, Abraham would now direct his mind only to God, the only one who can bring or withhold the rains as he so chooses. 12
Jubilees, a work originally composed in Hebrew in the first century BCE partly in reaction to Hellenizing reforms in Judea of the second century, shows an almost xenophobic distrust of foreign wisdom. 13 Josephus' own account of the contributions of biblical patriarchs to the celestial sciences is, by comparison, far more accommodating to the broader cultural influences of his age. One example is his account of the stone and brick monuments erected by
Jubilees, 8.3-5, ed. and tr. J. C. VanderKam, 2 .vols., CSCO, Scriptores ~ethiopici, 510-11 (Louvain, 1989). ,: Jubilees, ed. V anderKam, 12.16-20. . , . J. C. VanderKam, 'The Origins and Purposes of the Book of Jub1lees m M. Albani et al., eds., Studies in the Book of Jubilees (Tilbingen, 1997), 16-22
11

: Glykas, E~ Td<; d;ro(!a<;, ed. Eustratiades, I, 470.7-11. G1ykas: E~ Td<; d;ro(!a<;, ed. Eustratiades, I, 468.7-13. 10 )~useblos, Praeparatio evangelica 9.17.3-9, ed. K. Mras, GCS 43 (Berlin, 1954-

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8

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the offspring of Seth before the flood. 14 Underlying Josephus' account is an ancient theory about the ages of the world, according to which the universe is periodically destroyed by astronomically determined cataclysms of floods and fires. Greek writers from as early as Plato and Aristotle wondered which civilizations, if any, managed to preserve their learning through these catastrophes. Josephus' own explanation ascribed the survival of antediluvian civilization to the care and prescience of the Sethite line. Because of a prediction by Adam about the imminent destruction of the world by either a flood or a fire, they preserved their learning about the stars for future generations by carving it on two monuments. In the event of a fire, the brick monument would survive; if a flood, it would be the stone monument. The stone monument, Josephus adds, is still to be seen in the land of Seiris, an exotic land to the East described in other ancient sources as the site of the secret learning of sages of old. 15 Josephos expresses here none of Jubilees' misgivings about esoteric antediluvian learning carved on hidden monuments. It is rather the legacy of a pious generation of men who lived in peace and prosperity before the universal flood and devoted themselves to the observation of the heavens. 16 In Jubilees, Abraham is a religious zealot whose repudiation of Chaldaean science is the culmination of other more violent acts against the customs and beliefs of his fellow countryman. While still in Ur, he wilfully sets fire to a temple, thereby causing the death of his own brother and the banishment of his family from Ur. 17 Abraham' estrangement from the astral religion of the Chaldaeans in Josephus' own narrative is less conclusive. His Abraham stands somewhere between the model Chaldaean sage on the one hand, and a religious reformer on the other. When the Babylonian historian Berossus wrote of "a just man and great and versed in celestial lore", he was in Josephus' mind obviously
14

referring to Abraham.' After his discovery of the one true God, his estrangement from the beliefs of his fellow countryman _ and the cause of his migration from Ur - was not over the objective value of star-gazing for human existence. It had to do rather with his discovery that the stars render these benefits not "in virtue of their but through the might of their commanding 0 \vn authority, sovereign, to whom alone it is right to render our homage and 19 thanksgiving". Defenders of astrology could reasonably argue, as Manuel evidently had, that Abraham had not abandoned astrology tout court, just the kind that treated the stars as objects deserving of veneration for their influence over human existence.

THE REWORKING OF THE TRADITION

When Glykas refers to "ancient history", he is actually describing a heterogeneous body of Jewish traditions sewn together, refined and reshaped through previous generations of Byzantine chroniclers. We can identify several stages in this development, beginning with the chronicle of the sixth-century Antiochene John Malalas. Malalas' account of the discovery and transmission of the celestial sciences constitutes one part of a broader discussion of illustrious figures of the remote past who contributed to the evolution and dissemination of universal civilization. In the tradition of universal historiography to which Malalas belongs, it was common to link cultural breakthroughs to specific figures from the past, later recognized as deities for their achievements. The euhemeristic theory that the gods of Greco-Roman paganism were once kings, heroes and cultural benefactors found a receptive audience among Christian universal chroniclers, chiefly because it enabled them to historicize legends that would otherwise be consigned to the realm of. myth and pre-history. Malalas falls in line with the same rattonalizing approach. On the authority of Diodorus Siculus, he reports that later generations revered warriors, leaders and those Who "discovered something of benefit" and "sacrificed to them as if they were heavenly gods and not mortal men who were born and
19

Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, ed. B. Niese, F/avii Josephi opera, 4 vols. (Berlin, 1877-82; repr. 1955), 1.68-71. "See G. J. Reinink, 'Das Land "Seiris" (Sir) und das Yolk der Serer in jildischen und

~:ristlichen Traditionen', Journal for the Study of Judaism 6 (1975), 72-85.

17

See .M. Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism (Philadelphia, 1974), I. 242-43. Jubrlees, ed. VanderKam, 12.1-15.

"Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, ed. Niese, 1.158.

Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, ed. Niese,l.l56-7.

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suffered like themselves". This was, he says, the common form of religious observance up to the time of Abraham's monotheistic reforms. In enlarging upon this theme, Malalas organizes much of his narrative of primordial history around the deeds and discoveries of illustrious figures of the Greek, Assyrian, Egyptian and Jewish past. His retelling of Josephus' story of the origins of astronomy reflects the same perspective. Whereas Josephus attributes the discovery of this science to the progeny of Seth, Malalas needed to attach this discovery to a specific name. He thus credits Seth himself with assigning names to the stars and the five planets, along with the discovery of Hebrew letters. 21 Since Seth was the one who assigned to the planets the names Kronos, Zeus, Ares, Aphrodite and Hermeg, Malalas also established that those figures who were later known by these names were only mortals. 22 Without further qualification, Malalas then represents Seth as the first in a linear succession of culture-heroes, each making his own contributions to the science. Kainan's subsequent discovery of the monument erected by the offspring of Seth assured the preservation of his discoveries for post-flood generations. By fusing Jubilees' story of Kainan's discovery of an antediluvian stone monument with the parallel account in Josephus, Malalas casts it in a more favourable light, that is as a critical link in the propagation of world civilization. Other great astronomers ensued, among them Zoroaster and the Indian astronomer Gandoubarios. 23 Notably absent from Malalas' mostly neutral treatment of this subject are any fine discriminations between the pure astronomical pursuits of biblical patriarchs on the one hand and the occult wisdom of the Chaldaeans on the other. While M~lalas' account of
"'Ioannes Malalas, Chronographia, 38.13-39.24, ed. J. Thurn, CFHB 25 (Berlin and N~w York, 2000). For English translation, see E. Jeffreys, et al., The f.hromc/e of John Mala/as. Byzantina Australiensia 4 (Melbourne, 1986). Malalas, Chronographia, ed. Thurn, 4.13-22 (on the authority of an otherwise ~nknowo chronographer named Fortunus). See E. Jeffreys, 'Malalas' World View', io Studies in John Mala/as, ed. E. ~;~reys et at., Studies in John Mala/as, Byzantina Australiensis 6 (Sydney, 1990),
23

20

the origins of universal culture and polytheism provided the basic template, it was thus left to his successors to refine the distinctions between the legitimate and illegitimate celestial sciences. One of these works was the Chronikon of George the Monk. Because his work is at the heart of the exchange between Manuel and Glykas, it is worth examining his treatment of the subject at some length.24 A comparison between George and Malalas shows that George has woven into the narrative an entirely new thread about the discovery and defeat of astral determinism. To this end, George identifies four stages in the evolution of the celestial sciences: l) Seth's discovery of astronomy before the flood; 2) Nimrod's post-diluvian discovery of astrology and related occult sciences; 3) Abraham's rejection of Chaldaean polytheism and astrology; 4) Abraham's teaching of astronomy to the Egyptians and his humiliation of the Egyptian astrologers and magicians in debate. In his discussion of Seth and his offspring, George reproduces Malalas' description of his discovery of letters and astronomy and Kainan 's discovery of the stone monument after the flood. A euhemeristic elaboration of this legend links Seth's discoveries to his deification. In acknowledgment of his piety and his contributions to writing and the measurement of time by celestial observation, he was called "god" and his children "sons of God". 25 One significant detail lacking in Malalas, however, is George's delimiting of the scope and purpose of Seth's discoveries. Seth conferred names on the stars and the five planets so that "they would be recognized by men, and for this reason alone". 26 He calls attention to this point in order to differentiate Seth's discovery from the subsequent post-diluvian discovery of astrology and other Cha!daean sciences. The latter he attributes to Nimrod, the legendary hunter, giant and founder of Babylon after the Aood (Gen. 10:8-10).

Malalas, Chronographia, ed. Thurn, 7 .3-8.17; 9.39-40; 12.12-18.

;tuGeorge the Monk, Chronicon, ed. c. de Boor, 2 vols. (Leipzig. 1904; rep~. Ugan, 1978). For general orientation to George's chronicle, see H. Hunger, Dre ~chsprachliche profane Literat11 r der Byzantiner (Munich, 1978), vol.l, 347-51. 26 george the Monk, Chronicon, ed. de Boor, I, I 0.5-24, 44.3-8. eorge the Monk, Chronicon, ed. de Boor, I, 10.5-10.

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Malalas' own description of Nimrod conforms to the conventional pattern of a deified ancient hero. As tribute to his accomplishments as founder of Babylon ruler of Persia, and the first to practice hunting, the Persians accorded him the post-mortem honours of a god, after which he became identified with t~e star Orion. George extends the list of Nimrod's achievements mto the realm of the occult sciences. He is now the first man after the Flood to introduce hunting, magic, astronomy and astrology, and along with it the deification of the stars and the denial of free will and moral agency to human beings. From Nimrod and the "Magousians", George says, the Greeks subsequently learned "about the casting of nativities and began to interpret the lives of those who are born in 27 terms of the influence of celestial movement". All of this is prefatory to George's report of the religious practices in Chaldaea on the eve of Abraham's religious reforms. In the version of Abraham's conversion known to him from Malalas, the object of Abraham's censure is the "Hellenic" pr~ctice of worshipping images of human beings that had beco~e w1despr:ad from the time of his great-grandfather Seruch. Tins connectJ~n between Seruch and idolatry is an old one, found already m Jubilees. 28 The seemingly anachronistic identification of this practice as "Hellenic" was first introduced in Epiphanios' Panarion. According to Epiphanios, the distinguishing feature of the stage in history that he calls "Hellenism" was the practice, first established in the time of Seruch, of making carved images ~; despots and sorcerers and paying homage to them as gods. Malalas applies the same nomenclature to his own account of Chaldaean religion in Seruch's time. Seruch was the first to introduce the "Hellenic" belief of creating statues and monuments to honour as gods those "fighting men, leaders of those who. h~~ done something brave or virtuous in life worth remembenng Repelled by the practice of worshipping statues of deified men of
27

the past, Abraham denounced his father, himself an idolater and ~ ' smashed the statues. George's own version of polytheism on the eve of Abraham's conversion expands upon the same theme. By the time of Seruch, he writes, the veneration of mortal over-achievers had evolved into the making of monuments to honour them. The practices introduced by Seruch, he says, represented the first institution of the "Hellenic doctrine" of making images of the gods in human form. Mankind, "unaware of the intention of their forefathers to venerate them as their ancestors and as inventors of good things for the sake of memory and for this reason only, were worshipping them as gods and were making offerings to them, and not as mortal men". 31 Abraham's campaign against the idolatry rampant in his native land and his proclamation of the true God were also a crusade against the "Hellenic doctrine" of making images of the gods in human form instituted in the time of his grandfather Seruch. But George adds another dimension to Abraham's reforms, lacking in Malalas. Abraham's revolt against the customs of his nation targeted both the worship of images of mortal men and the mistaken view that objects in the sky were gods capable of exercising control over human affairs. "Watching all of humanity serving the created order and giving the names of various gods to visible objects and worshipping them", George writes, "he would go around each day in distress, in search of the God who truly exists". In the throes of despair and at the still tender age of 14, Abraham received from God the reward of religious enlightenment. 32
ABRAHAM'S DEFEAT OF THE ASTROLOGERS IN EGYPT

The older sources from which George pieced together his narrative of Abraham's conversion and its aftermath do not speak with one voice about the contribution of Chaldaean science to Abraham's
:Malalas, Chronographia, ed. Thurn, 38.7-11; 41.3-10. , George the Monk, Chronicon, ed. de Boor, I, 57.15-58.4. George the Monk, Chronicon, ed. de Boor, I, 93.16-94.12. For the tradition that Abraham was 14 at the time of his conversion, see Jubilees, ed. VanderKam,
11.16.

.George the Monk, Chronicon, ed. de Boor, I, 11.1-15. For Nimrod's associati~~ w1th astrology and magic, see also Epiphanios, Panarion, 177.6-8, ed. K. Ho GCS 25 (Leipzig:, 1915); Ps.-Clement, Homilies, 9.4.1-2, ed. B. Rehm and J. Irmscher, GCS 42 (Berlin, 1953). 28 Jubilees, ed. VanderKam, 11.1-7. 29 Epiphanios, Panarion, ed. HoU, 1.177.12-20.

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discovery of the one true God. In Jubilees' decidedly negative view on the subject, prayer, not observation of the stars, is the instrument of Abraham's discovery of God. After migrating from Ur and arriving in Haran, he completely renounces the practice of scanning the heavens for signs. For Josephus, on the other hand, Abraham's observation of the "course of the Sun and the Moon and all the celestial phenomena" is the instrument of divine knowledge. A similar characterization of Abraham's conversion is found in the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions, a work of historical fiction from the second century and pseudonymously attributed to Clement of Rome. Here, too, Abraham is an "astrologer" who learned from the orderly motion of the stars about the creator of universe who 33 regulates everything by his providence. Was Chaldean science a decisive factor in Abraham's discovery of God? And if so, did he continue to practice the science afterwards? For the chroniclers, these were questions still in need of clarification. George's own treatment of the subject disavows any suggestion that Abraham's observation of the sky contributed anything of positive value to his discovery of the God of the universe. Before his conversion Abraham, an accomplished astronomer, vainly scoured the heavens searching for evidence of God. But when the ch~ges and mutability of the sky and all the objects in it finally co~v.mced him that none of them could be gods, he realized the futility of seeking for God through the stars or "any other visible things." Only when he abandoned the whole search and in despair earnestly sought for God, did God reveal himself. In the ensuing narrative of Abraham's dealings with the astrologers in Egypt, George further dissociates the patriarch from any residual connection with the astral religion of his homeland. In this case, the point of departure for his narrative was an ambiguity raised ~y Josephus' report about Abraham's triumphs during his sojourn iD Egypt. According to Josephus, Abraham demonstrated the errors of Egyptian customs and introduced them to arithmetic and astronomy, both subjects about which the Egyptians had previously been ignorant. From Egypt, they were then transmitted to the
33

Greeks. In casting Abraham as a conduit of Chaldaean learnin t0 the Egyptians, Josephus thus left the impression that any misg)' . h h . tngs that Abraham mtg t ave pnvately harboured about Chaldaean learning after his discovery of the one true God did not deter h' 34 tm from passing that learning on to others. To forestall any inference that his instruction might have included the occult wisdom of the Chaldaeans, George appends to Josephus' report about Abraham's instruction of the Egyptians an amusing episode about Abraham's humiliation of the professional astrologers in the Egyptian court. When Glykas would later charge Manuel with suppressing evidence damaging to his case, this is the story he had in mind. 35 Recognizing Abraham as a Chaldaean adept in the observation of the heavens, Abimelech, the king of Egypt, had asked to receive instruction in astrology and magic. 36 For Abraham, this was an ideal setting for a public refutation of the whole practice. In response to a court astrologer's claim that it "is impossible for a man to be killed or die contrary to his horoscope", Abraham points out that such a belief is grounded in a politically subversive principle: it implicitly undermines the power of a sovereign judge and king to exercise unfettered authority in matters of life and death. Enraged at this implicit challenge to his own rule, the Pharaoh confronts the astrologer with a hypothetical case:
Suppose I summon one of my subjects and after performing an investigation of his horoscope for us, you say that he has or does not have time left to live. If I make it tum out the opposite way, have you then not clearly exposed yourself as a liar? For if you say that he still has time to live, I will immediately order him to be killed. If, on the other hand, you say that he had no time remaining except for the present moment, I will release

Ps.-Ciement, Recognitions, 1.32, ed. B. Rehm and F. Paschke, GCS 51 (Berlin, 1965).

"Josephus Flavius, Jewish Allliquities, ed. Niese, 1.166-68. Cf. the version of the Antiquities known to Eusebios, Praeparatio evange/ica, ed. Mras, 9.16.8, which ~ates that Abraham instructed the Egyptians in "astrology". For a condensed version of the same story, mainly based on George's accoun~ ~e also George Kedrenos, Compendium historiarum, 1.53.19-56.8, ed. I. Bekker, ,. SHB (Bonn, 1838-39). . G~rge the Monk, Chronicon, ed. de Boor, I, 95.6-96.3. The erroneous Identification of Abimelech, king of Gerar, with the king of Egypt may have arisen from close similarities in Genesis' account of the Pharaoh's and Abimelech's atiraction to Sarah (cf. Gen. 12:10-20; 20:1-7).

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him from the judgment against him. But as for you, I will at once expunge you from life for being a liar - this, so that henceforth your death might straight-away convince everyone that this make-believe of yours about astrology and your other 37 nonsense has not even a suggestion of truth.

While Abraham's intervention spares the astrologer's life, he does urge the Pharaoh to follow through on his proposed experiment. Under orders to prepare a horoscope for a man already sentenced to death by fire, the court astrologers determine that the condemned man would indeed die by burning, only not immediately. The Pharaoh readily confounds his horoscope by releasing him from the sentence of death by fire and ordering that he be drowned instead. The conclusion was self-evident. If the Pharaoh, the most powerful man in Egypt, was able to rescind a decree of th~ ~tars, then did it not follow a fortiori that the stars and all other VISible and created objects were subject to the will of an even more p.owe~ful ruler, the invisible Lord of the universe responsible for their existence? God has endowed human beings with free will and the power of thought, Abraham argues, both of which make it possible to check the influence of the stars in human affairs. These same divine gifts also confer upon human beings a dominion over brute animals exte~ding even to matters of life and death. It is the same sort of sovereignty that the Pharaoh wields over his subjects. By analogy, then, God, the creator of the universe, exercises sole and unencumbered dominion over all his creation, including the stars. Through this and various other arguments against astrology, George says, Abrah~ wins the approval of the king and attracts many Egyptians to behef in the one true God. After receiving effusive praise from the Egyptian king for his wisdom, Abraham returns home, rewarded by the king with numerous gifts and servants. 38 George ascribes the whole interlude about Abraham's sojourn in Egypt and his triumph over the Egyptian astrologers to Clement, bishop of Rome and "a disciple of Peter". 39 By this, he must have meant the Pseudo-Clementine literature. But in the surviving text of the Recognitions and the Homilies, there is no mention of
:George the Monk, Chronicon, ed. de Boor, I, 96.5-97.3. George the Monk, Chronicon, ed. de Boor, I, 97.6-100.9. "George the Monk, Chronicon, ed. de Boor, I, 95.4-7.

Abraham's dealings with Egyptian astrologers. Barely concealed seams in the narrative, the content of Abraham's speeches, and evidence of George's own editorial hand suggest that the story is a composite, not the product of a single author.40 One of the speeches placed in the mouth of Abraham is in fact plundered from another section of the Homilies. Most of Abraham's final oration, a tirade against Hellenic culture, is virtually identical to an oration found in the fourth homily of the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies. In the Homilies, however, it is "Clement" himself who delivers the oration, in this case to justify his abandonment of Hellenic customs. Hellenic culture, Clement asserts, is a mass of unexamined doctrines about god and fate, the effect of which is to promote irresponsible moral conduct. As an illustration, he cites the example of astral determinism. Since this doctrine teaches that no one "has the power to do or experience anything contrary to nativity or fate", it becomes a perfect alibi for unrepentant sinners. 41 These criticisms of fate and nativity were presumably what inspired a later editor to reattach the oration to Abraham. But the editor might have done a better job accommodating the oration to its new context. Copied wholesale from the Homilies, most of the speech has little bearing on its stated purpose of refuting the Egyptians' "flawed knowledge and learning in astronomy, astrology and magic". Sounding more like a Skeptic of the Pyrrhonian school than the father of the Jewish nation, Abraham begins with an assault on Hellenic education as an aggregate of untested customs, deemed true not by the exercise of judgment but by preconception and opinion. 42 From there, he veers off into a tirade against their teachers for granting license to guilt-free sin. By subjecting their gods to all kinds of debased passions, some of them, Abraham says, offer a perfect example for the man who wants to act as badly as they do. Only the last part of the oration addresses the moral
40

Ps.-CJement, Homilies, ed. Rehm and Irmscher, 4.11.1-13.2. "Ps.-Clement, Homilies, ed. Rehm and Jrmscher, 4.12.4. 42 George the Monk, Chronicon, ed. de Boor, I, 98.22-99.11. There are some indications that an editor tried to remove wording inappropriate for its new context. See, for example, 1.98.22, where Clement's address (Ps;-C!ement, Homilies, ed. Rehm and Irmscher, 4.11.1) to "the men of Greece (w av<IQS "EX>.T)ves)" has been changed to liv<IQES.

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implications of the notion that the stars determine the course of human existence. Those who profess such teachings, Abraham says, allow the scoundrel to excuse his actions on the grounds that he was forced to do these things by nativity. A belief in an unforeseeing and godless destiny, "as if everything happens of its own accord, with no superintending Lord and master", immunizes the 43 . . unrepentant sinner from moraI improvement or chastlsement. For George, who later quotes extensively from the Homilies' 44 narrative of Peter's defeat of Simon Magus , Abraham's vanquishing of the astrologers and magic.ians ~f Egypt ~as bot? a useful amplification of Josephus and a fittmg c!Jmax to his narrative of the patriarch's renunciation of the ancestral customs and beliefs of his native land. In integrating the story into his own chronicle, 45 George seems to have made his own editorial improvements. Even so, an inquisitive reader is still left to wonder about the existence of professional astrologers in Pharaoh's court, if before Abraham's arrival the Egyptians were ignorant of astronomy and arithmetic. 46

GLYKAS ON SETH, ABRAHAM AND "ANCffiNT HisTORY"

In formulating a plan to refute Manuel's claims about the legitimacy of astrology, Glykas evidently decided that the best approach was to challenge the emperor's representation of sources. For the most part, this strategy served him well in the debate. But even for a textual critic with the knowledge and demonstrated skills of Glykas, it was no longer possible to sort out the tangled web of older traditions about the origins of astrology and astronomy and the contributions of the biblical patriarchs to them. Glykas was deeply suspicious of the Book of Jubilees. In his chronicle, he questions the book's authorship, dismisses its contents as a "joke" and urges his readers not to read it. 47 But when in the same work he attributes the discovery of astronomy to Seth and Enoch and its post-diluvian discovery to a stone monument erected by Seth's offspring in the land of Seiris and transcribed by Kainan, he could no longer recognize that this report was itself a fusion of traditions from Josephus, Jubilees and the Book of Enoch. 48 Nor does Glykas express any doubts about the story that he learned from George the Monk about Abraham's conversion and his subsequent rejection of astrology. Here again Glykas had no way of knowing that it was a pastiche cobbled together from Jubilees, Josephus and a later addition to a work pseudonymously attributed to Clement. As far as Glykas was concerned, this was part of an accepted body of extrabiblical traditions about the life of the patriarch that he had received from a widely read chronicle of the ninth century. Glykas relished the opportunity to expose Manuel's faulty recollection of the facts of Abraham's life as they were known to him from George's chronicle. "I do not know", he writes, "whether the narrative about Abraham will advance your stated purpose. I'm afraid that the adage has been borne out: 'We had a dog, and he used to help out the wild beasts"'. 49 It is striking, however, that

43

George the Monk, Chronicon, ed. de Boor, I, 99.11-100.2. .. " For George's use of the Homilies of Ps.-Ciement (Ps.-Ciement, Homrlzes, ed. Rehm and Irmscher) elsewhere in his chronicle, see, for example, 1.366.\3-367.19 (=Hom. 3.38-39); 1.367.20-26 (=Hom. 3.42.4-5); 1.369.2-11 (=Hom. 3.42.743.1); 1.369.11-370.5 (=Hom. 3.43.4-44.2); 1.370.13-371.9 (=Hom. 55.3-57); see also 371.10-12; 371.18-372.7; 372.12-373.3. " See, for example, 1.96.1-5, where George reports that the Pharaoh asked for instruction from Abraham about "astrology and magic", since he recognized th?t Abraham was a highly trained Chaldaean. He then adds that "astrology and magtc originated with the Magousaioi and Persians; for the Persians were called Magog by the local inhabitants". This statement, virtually identical to a notice that ~ppears earlier in George's chronicle (1.11.9-11), is probably a gloss from George htmself. 46 Cf. George !he Monk, Chronicon, ed. de Boor, I, 98.20-21, where George. on lhe aulhority of Clement, states that Abraham corrected !he Egyptians' false bel!efs about "astronomy, astrology and magic". That would suggest !hat !he Egypuans already knew about astronomy prior to Abraham's arrival.

41

Michael Glykas, Annales, ed. I. Bekker, CSHB (Bonn, 1836), 206.20-22; 392.18-23. See above, p. 3. 000 . 49 Glykas, E~ <a, a;roela,, ed. Eustratiades, I, 480.14-481.2. On thts adage,_see K. Krumbacher, Mittelgriechische Sprichworter, Sitzungsber. Bayer. Akad. Wtss.,
48

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Glykas chose not to press his advantage further. In response to Manuel's claim that astrology enabled Abraham to "apprehend the Creator from the creations", Glykas, had he wanted to, could have easily pointed out to the emperor that George's narrative of events actually said nothing of the kind. According to George, the patriarch's observation of the heavens was wasted effort, because it was not possible to find God "through the stars or any other created objects." 50 But instead of calling attention to the discrepancy, Glykas cedes the point, allowing that Abraham, "a trustworthy astrologer, originating from the Chaldaeans, ... witnessed the Lord from his creations". 51 All that Glykas insists upon is that Abraham's post-conversion behaviour proved that he had subsequently renounced astrology. We should not assume that Glykas gave ground on such a vital issue simply for the sake of argument. The reason why he could not charge Manuel with distorting the facts was that Glykas himself endorsed much the same position, namely that the motion of visible objects in the sky revealed the providential mind that guided them. It is worthwhile for believers, he writes in his chronicle, to observe the orderly movement of the heavens, because in this way God revealed his "ineffable power and wisdom". 52 He makes the same argument, and in very similar language, in his exposition of the purpose of astronomy to Kyr Alypios. What occasioned this treatise was a question as to whether the study of the stars was a subject that should be avoided altogether. Glykas reassures Alypios that astronomy, a legitimate and divinely revealed branch of the celestial sciences, offered real benefits to it practitioners. 53 But in order to carve out room for what was in his view the legitimate practice of astronomy, Glykas found it necessary to finetune the "ancient history" about Seth and Abraham. In the tradition about the discovery of astronomy that Glykas had received from
Phii.-Hist. Kl. 1893,2.1 (Munich, 1893; repr. Hildesheim, New York, 1984), 105 (74), 125 (88). :George the M~nk: Chronicon, ed. de Boor, I, 94.10-12. Glykas, Ei> ra, an:c(!ta,, ed. Eustratiades, I, 480.20.2-1. 52 , Glykas,Annales, ed. Bekker,48.13-14. Glykas, Ei>Td' Ww(!ta,, ed. Eustratiades, I, 468. 13-14.

earlier sources, there is nothing said about God's revelation of the science to Seth through the angel Ouriel. Glykas needed to introduce the idea of revelation in order to supply a divine sanction for a science whose legitimacy was under question. 54 He does the same kind of creative rewriting in his retelling of the story of Abraham's conversion. After providing in his chronicle a reasonably accurate summary of George's account of Abraham's conversion, Glykas adds a concluding remark lacking in his predecessor's chronicle, and in fact quite opposed to the sense of the whole story. Abraham's discovery of the one true God and his subsequent trouncing of the Egyptians confirmed, he writes, the words of the apostle Paul in Romans 1:12: "God's invisible nature has since the creation of the world been perceived in created objects". 55 To justify the practice of astronomy, Glykas often quoted this verse from the epistle to the Romans. He cites the same verse in the letter to Alypios and earlier in his chronicle to explain why those of faith should not be ignorant of astronomy. 56 But in making this point so forcefully, Glykas forfeited a weapon in his debate with the emperor. When Manuel had written about Seth receiving astrology from a divine revelation and Abraham apprehending God through the stars, Glykas could not accuse him of misrepresenting the tradition, without finding the same accusation hurled back in his face.

" Glykas, Ei, nl, dJro(!{a,, ed. Eustratiades, I, 468. 9-13; Chron. 228.6-9. The chronicle of George Synkellos [34.17-19, ed. A. A. Mossbammer(Leipzig, 1984)) reports an older Jewish tradition about Ouriel's revelation to Enoch found in the ~ook of Enoch (72-82). Presumably, Glykas decided to extend this tradition to ~elude Seth as well. ,. Olykas,Annales, ed. Bekker, 247.1-2. Glykas, Annales, ed. Bekker, 48.12-16; Glykas, Ei' Td' cbwQia,, ed. Eustratiades, I, 468.15-16.

...

AnneTihon
Universite Catholique de Louvain

Astrological Promenade in Byzantium in the Early Palaiologan Period

At the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth numerous witnesses attest to a growing taste for astrology. From the most inane predictions to reasonable discussions or polemics, astrology seems to have raised a great interest in many different milieux. From the perspective of Byzantine intellectuals, the distinction between astronomy and astrology was quite clear: astronomy was the theoretical part and astrology was the practical part. Accordingly, George Lapithes asked Nikephoros Gregoras what works he used for astronomy and astrology:

aiJ.CPw tel IJkQl], tO 0EWQLX6V <jll]I-U X<ll tO 3tQ<1Xttx6v, fAnXWt<l tcj'l lltOAEftU(<p XQWfU'VOL, tcj'l JtAE(W tOiS VEWtEQOIS matEUOUOLV ...
'hukot yaQ, of fAUXOflV OUVOLXEiV xu! xat'
For the Italians, with whom fate has decreed that we should live together, make little use of Ptolemy in either of the two

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parts, I mean the theoretical and the practical, but rather put faith in the modems. 1

1. AT THE COURT OF NICAEA :

GEORGE AKROPOLITES

Or again, as Theodore Metochites said, astronomy is concerned with matters treated in the Almagest of Ptolemy, while astrology is concerned with the matter treated in the Tetrabiblos. In the latter work, Ptolemy distinguishes the astrology called 'universal' (xa8oA.Lx6v), which concerns entire peoples, regions, cities, from genethlialogy (yEvE8A.wA.oyLx6v), which concerns individuals. The former includes natural phenomena (such as hurricanes, earthquakes, or other natural disasters) as well as political events such as invasions, wars, death, the overthrow of the sovereign. In the traditional Greek astronomical treatises (following Ptolemy and Theon) there is generally no interference from astrology, no chapters devoted explicitly to the establishment of a themation, or to any other astrological element. 2 During the early Palaeologan period many Byzantine scientists showed a great interest and a real competence in the field of mathematical astronomy. But the relations maintained by those Byzantine scientists with astrology were far from simple and obvious. It seems to us of interest to enquire into this: what was the attitude of scientists vis-a-vis astrology at the beginning of the Palaeologan period? Other questions will also be asked: did astrological beliefs go hand in hand with ignorance of scientific matters? Did they coexist with a more advanced level of scientific instruction? Were they part of the Ptolemaic tradition, or the teachings of the followers of Persian astronomy, or did they have some other origin? Our enquiry, naturally, cannot be exhaustive. One should analyse not only all the writings of the numerous intellectuals of the period, but also make an inventory of all the astronomical and astrological manuscripts of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This paper will be limited to a small selection of authors and texts: hence our conclusions may not be definitive.

If we look back at the court of Nicaea, George Akropolites reports a discussion that occurred in the presence of the empress Eirene shortly after the solar eclipse of 3 June 1239. This eclipse was nearly total (magnitude 0.97 at Constantinople, according to Tavardon). 3 The young man - (aged 21, and so a pupil of Nikephoros Blemmydes - ) was questioned by the empress Eirene on the cause of eclipses. He launched enthusiastically into an account explaining that the eclipse of the Sun was due to the interposition of the Moon in front of the Sun. A physician of the court contradicted him and the empress mocked the young man: 4
xett yae ex1>.e('\j)EW ytvoflivll, ftAou Tov Kaex!vov liwliEi>ono mel f'wllflfleiav, btEIJtee auTo oiJTw auflflav EV w( ~am).e(ou; altfJ1>.8ov (... ), ytQOOTllXE fl TI]v Tlj ex1>.El'\j)Ew alT!av xat auTO flv axelflwc; oux elxov EQELV-UQ'tl xal yae -rGJv "tf] <j>!Aoao<J>ia yt'\j)clf.lllV 6Qytwv rraea wu ao<j>ou BAEf.lf.li>liou litliaax6f.!EVO, Of.IW f.lv-rm rrae' au-roil 0 "tO"tE oaov ~v ELXO E1tlyYOU-TytV TE TIJ ae1>.ftv11<; errJJtQ6a811mv ab:(av Tf} trrUJxlfxaEW J.eyov elvm, xal ooxetv f.lllv ex1>.eCrrew -rov ~A.tov, 01ix aA.118t) lit elvm 1ijv ltJ <j>auaEw a-rte11atv, f.ld1>.1.ov f.lv"tot Toilw TI]v ae1>.i1v11v rraaxetv, trrav 10 ax!Lxaf.!Un ef.11tean TIJ yt), lilii To ts i)1>.(ou -ro q,tyyo auxetv trrel M 6 Myo em f.litx=ov rraee-re(veTo, av-rt1>.eye lie -rot 1>.eyof!bou; 6 iaTQO Ntx61>.aoc;, avi)e i]xtam f.lv <j>!Aoao<j>(a f.IE"taaxoov, UXQO<; liE Tijv olxe(av TEXVllV xat f.ldl.ta-ra TI]v lilii rre(Qa ytvwaxof.lllvllv m'lvu lie oum ftyarra-ro ~ ~amA.IIit, axwuae(ou o ELXE 'tlf.lytV trrel youv UVTEAYEV OUTO, au-ro 0 rrMov ea-rwf.1uAA6f.111V, v T0 f.IE"tasu Twv J.eyof.lllvoov UrrEXUAWE f! i) ~aa!Al<; f.IWQOV.
For an eclipse occurred when the Sun passed through Cancer, towards noon, and since in fact it so happened that I had come to the Palace( ... ), she asked me about the cause of the eclipse. I was not myself able to say precisely- for I had barely touched on the mysteries of philosophy, having been taught by For technical data concerning the eclipses, we have used unedited tables made by P. Tavardon, 'Les eclipses de Solei! visibles sur Constantinople 287-1453'. One should also consult the following: Th. von Oppolzer, Canon der Finsternisse (Vienna, 1887); J. F. Schroeter, Sonnenfinsternisse von 600 bis 1800 n. Chr. (Kristiania, 1923); D. J. Schave, Chronology of Eclipses and Comets AD 1-1000 ~ury St Edmunds, 1984). . .. Georgios Akropolites, Opera, ed. A. Heisenberg, revised edition by P. Wirth (Stuttgart, 1978), 62-3.
3

rewgy(ou wu Aarr8ou tx Kurrgou ei<; Ntxll<J>6eov -r6v fQllyoeav, in

Nikephoros Gregoras, Byzanrina Historia, ed. L. Schopen, 3 vols. CSHB 38 (Bonn, 1829-55), I, LIX-LX; also in Nikephoros Gregoras, Epistulae, ed. P. A.M. ~ne, 2 vols. (Matino, 1982), II, 407. As~n_omical treatises may include chapters on the horoscope and culmmatlon, but for astronomical purposes.

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the savant Blemmydes, but however having learned from him what was likely-I said that the interposition of the Moon was the cause of the darkening, and that the Sun appeared to be eclipsed, but this was not a real loss of its light: it was rather the Moon which suffers it when it falls into the shadow of the earth, because it reflects the light of the Sun. As my explanation progressed the physician Nicholas countered my remarks; he was a man who had very little to do with philosophy, although eminent in his own technique which he owed especially to experience (he was much loved by the empress, and had the dignity of aktouarios); so as this individual contradicted me, and I chattered on, the empress called me a fool ...

Here we have a young scholar who knew the scientific explanation of et;lipses and was opposed by a court physician. The author is careful to point out that his challenger was only a practitioner lacking a proper theoretical education. This anecdote seems to indicate that non-scientific explanations were at that time widely accepted. We will discuss later what might have been the nonscientific ideas about eclipses in the Byzantine world. What is interesting for us in this context is the conclusion that George Acropolites draws from the exchange: this eclipse -just like a comet- announced the death of the empress:
8v~oXEL flkv, <be; Ecj>TJv, ~ ~am/..U; aihTJ, olfUIL lie xat Ti]v mil ~Mou EXAEL'i'~ 'tov aini)<; lt:QO<JTJJ.!.Uvm 86.va'tov xat XOJ.L~'tl]<; lie lt:QO J.LT]Y<ilv !; 1tEQL 'tO j.U\QO<; avE<j>UYT] 'tOU ~OQQU ~V lie moywvLa<; xat lit~QXE<JE J.Li)Ya<; 'tQEi<;, OUX Ev

predicted event ~good or bad). However, other manuals, such as that of Hephaestio of Thebes, are much more explicit and concrete: 7 an eclipse of the Sun occurring in the Royal triplicity (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) announces the death of an Oriental sovereign or government, an eclipse of the Moon in the same triplicity that of a sovereign in the Western lands. Consequently, the death of a King or illustrious person is often announced-after the event-by a preceding eclipse. A well-known example is the death of Proclus, announced, according to Marinus, by an eclipse of the Sun (14 January 484). 8 To predict the death of the sovereign ahead of time was more risky, as demonstrated by Anna Comnena's narrative about the Athenian astrologer Katanankes. The latter had twice predicted the death of the emperor Alexios: the first time the lion in the palace died, the second time the emperor's mother. 9 In associating the death of the empress with the much-debated eclipse, George Akropolites only followed a well-established tradition, and indulged in a little posthumous vengeance for the mockery of the empress. After the reconquest of Constantinople, the same George Akropolites was charged with the restoration of higher-level teaching in the capital. For a long time he taught philosophy, geometry, and rhetoric. 10 But his scientific training and teaching did not prevent him from believing in the astrological meaning of an eclipse as announcing the death of an imperial figure.

f:vl't6n:cp 6./../..' EV litacj>6QOL<; cj>mv6J.LEYO<; ....

This empress, as I said, died, and I think that the eclipse of the Sun announced her death; and a comet had appeared in the north six months previously. This was a bearded comet that l~sted three months, and not in one place, but appearing in d1fferent places. 5

Ptol~m~ in his Tetrabiblos (II. 4) explains systematically the

predtcttons that may be inferred from eclipses: the place that will be affected, the time (delay, duration), the class of beings affected (people, animals, harvests, buildings, etc), and the quality of the

Akropolites, Opera, 64.

Tetrabiblos. II. 5-10: Ptolemy, it:mneJ.wlmrlxd, ed. W. Hiibner, Opera quae exstantomnia,lll.l (Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1998),124-47. 7 Hephaestio, I. 22 in Hephaestio of Thebes, Apolelestmatica, ed. D. Pingree (Leipzig, 1973), 63-5. See A. Bouche-Leclercq, L'astrologie grecque (Paris, 1899; ~pr. ~russels, 1963), 356. Mannus, Vita Proc/i, 37, ed. J. F. Boissonade, Marini vita Procli graece etlatine (Leipzig, 1814; repr. Amsterdam, 1966), 29. On this eclipse, see Schove, fhronology, 81-2. Anna Comnena, Alexiad, VI. 7, 5: ed. D. R. Reinsch and A. Karnbylis, Annae Comnenae Alexias, CFHB 40 (Berlin and New York, 2001), I, 182; for further discussion of this passage and bibliography, seeP. Magdalino, 'Occult Science and ~perial Power', above p. 000. Georgios Pachymeres, Relations historiques, ed. A. Failler, u. V. Laurent, CFHB 24.2 (Paris, 1984), II, 369. See C. Constantinides, Higher Education in ByZantium in the Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Centuries (1204-ca 1310) <Nicosia, 1982), 33ff.

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Before leaving the court of Nicaea, it might be useful to ask what the non-scientific explanations of eclipses in the Byzantine ~orld were. The young man appeared to be very proud of his scientific knowledge, 11 and this should be compared with the level of education of an ordinary citizen. Unfortunately, the author does not provide any details of the discussion. The cosmology defended by Cosmas Indicopleustes, according to which the world has the fonn of Moses' Tabernacle, is in poor agreement with the scientific 12 explanation of eclipses, in spite of the efforts of Cosmas. A partly unpublished text attributed to a certain Peter the Philosopher shows that this notion was still defended in the twelfth century: this person wrote a letter to the Patriarch Loukas Chrysoberges (11561169) regarding astrology and is the author of an astronomical treatise. 13 Referring to the Bible, the treatise declares that the heaven had the form of a cube, a cover or a vaulted room (the three meaning the same shape) and that the earth had the form of a 15 cone. 14 In this setting he succeeded in explaining eclipses. However, one does not know whether this cosmology was still defended in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. Another explanation is found in astronomical-astrological compilations such as the theory attributed to the astrologer Ammon, according to which the eclipse is caused by the interposition of a

'black star' between Sun and Moon. Yet was this explanation anything but a curiosity? At all events, this theory reappears, in a slightly different form, in another compilation that was clearly written by a Christian author: here the eclipse is caused by the intervention of "a great star called head and tail". 17 It is hard to say to what extent such explanations were current in Byzantine circles.

II. GEORGE PACHYMERES

Now let us tum to another savant, George Pachymeres (12421307). We owe to him the composition of a manual covering every subject of the quadrivium, clearly intended for the teaching of the sciences: geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, music. 18 This work exercised a great influence on later savants, mainly in arithmetic and music. Manuel Bryennios, Theodore Metochites and Theodore Meliteniotes all used it, even if they were little inclined to acknowledge their debt. The astronomical part of the quadrivium of George Pachymeres contains some definitions according to the astrologers (ol a01:goMaxm): 19 houses, exaltation, decans, etc. But the author condemns the astrologers who predict men's destinies from their births:
Tailta tofvuv ta inpro,.una xal toile; llXavouc; t6'lv olxwv toic; :rtAUV1]0L OUj.IJtAEXOvtE<; a<JtQoA6yot OUVI.O'tWOt tfrv el!illQJ.1kv1JV xal tijv leyoflV1Jv yeveatv, xax6'lc; el.ll6tec; xal l(av f:rttxtvllUvwc; ta t6'lv aotEQWV injl<iljillta tE xal tOOtetV<iljillta 'tOi<; av8QW:7tot<; JtQOOVEJ!OvtE<;, xal avayxt]<; e!vm milta QU8J!OU<; toic; av8Q<ilnatc; 1; auti)c; yeveoewc; 'tEQatEUOjlEVOI., Ent't'ljQOUvtE<; ael 'tOV <ilQOOXMOV, 6Jtotoc; E:rtava'tEAAEt [6 ijlwc;], 20 Et't' aya86c; EO'ttV, ELtE <!Jauloc;.

11

Metochites later mocks people whose science is limited to knowing Ihe phenomenon of eclipses: "Ces constatations sont des niaiseries et il est facile. de se rendre compte des faits auxquels elles se rapportent. Peut-etre meme les p01ssoos le diraient-ils, s'ils etaient doues de voix", quoted by I. Sevcenko, Etudes sur Ia po/emique entre Theodore Metochite et Nicephore Choumnos (Brussels, 1962), 260. 12 Cosmas lndicopleustes, Topographie Chretienne, !, ed. and tr. Wanda Wolska Conus (Paris, 1968), IV, II and 13. On this matter, see W. Wolska-Conus, [A

Topographie chretienne de Cosmas Indicopleustes: theologie et sciences au VIe siecle (Paris, 1962), 236. 13 Published in CCAG, IV, 156-8. 14 Partial edition without the author's name in Anecdota Graeca e codd. manuscriptis bibliothecae Regiae Parisiensis, ed. J. A. Cramer (Oxford, 1839; repr. Hildesheim, 1967), 370--82. The text is found in MS Paris. gr. 3085, fols. Iff; MS Oxoniensis Seldenianus 16 (= Seldenianus supra 17), fols. 170v-177 (cf.
~CAG, IX.I,p. 72).

T.esti 94 (Citta del Vaticano, 1940).

20

The text is found in particular in MS Monacensis gr. 287, fol. 126r-v (cf. CCAG, VIT, 20; ed. p. 123); MS Oxonimsis Holkhamicus llO, fols. 156v-157. See also MS Oxoniensis Se/denianus 16 (= Seldenianus supra 17), fol. 108. 17 MS British Library, Harley 5624, fol. 282v. On this, see Bouche-Leclercq, fs'astrol~gie grecque, 122-23. . Georg10s Pachymeres, Quadrivium, ed. P. Tannery, rev. E. Stephanou. Studi e

16

Anecdota, ed. Cramer, 373.

Ibid., 390ff. The text appears to be defective because the horoscope is lhe point of lhe ecliptic Ihat rises (on the horizon) at a given moment. The words 6:rtoloc; mavadi.AeL seem to be a gloss explaining d>Qoox6:rtov and 6 ijlwc; has no sense m Ihe sentence.

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i\:U' oirtoL ~ EQQ(cj>Swv, <j>wvofloL yaQ tx xoiA(a~ ta

KEVU tE xal fU!tma 'tO a\l'tOltQO(llQE'tOV a<j>av(~OV'tE~. ftll~ lle ll'tU til~ ltQOOl)K01JOl)~ np My<p rrEQl 'ta it~tEQa ao<j>aAECa~. toV 3tEQl (l\J't(i>V lltEl;tA.8w11V Myov.
Weaving together these exaltations and the decans of the houses, the astrologers establish the destiny and the so-called nativity; knowing badly and assigning to men quite dangerously the exaltations and depressions, they falsely assert that such are the rhythms of necessity for men from their very birth, always observing the horoscope, the way it rises, whether for good or evil. These people are to be rejected, for they agree fundamentally on empty and vain things, and exclude free will. As for ourselves, having asserted what is suitable for this matter, let us continue our account of these things.

Historical Narratives I.l3 :

llit xalltQOOf)J.Ll)VE tL Ol)IILoV i\A.LO~ yaQ txMA.oUtev t<j>' <'ilQav, tQ(tl)v &Qav tf)~ extll it~Qa~. Knl ~aeu ox6to~ to miv xateiAf)<j>EL, WO'tE xal aotQO. <j>o.vf)vm xat' oUQav6v.
A sign announced in advance his death: in fact during the course of an hour, at the thtrd hour on the Friday, there was an echpse . of the Sun, and a profound darkness enveloped everythmg, so much that the stars appeared in the sky.

The author therefore rejects individual astrological predictions made by astrologers according to a nativity therna because it denies free will. This is the argument of a number of Church Fathers (Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and others). 21 A little further on, when describing the movements of the planets, Pachymeres notes their effect on the seasons, and says that astrologers talk nonsense when claiming that the stars are the cause of human joys and miseries and pretending that Saturn brings about miseries and sudden deaths, Jupiter joys and happiness, etc. As Pachymeres mentions the effect of each planet, one cannot help realizing that, in spite of his hostility to astrologers, the author gives his reader plenty of information about astrological theories! In addition, Pachymeres criticizes the astrologers who attribute to Jupiter and the Sun numerous reversals for leaders and kings, 22 but in his Historical Narratives this does not prevent him from seeing a solar eclipse as announcing the death of Theodoros Laskaris (d. 16 Aug 1258)?3

Pachymeres shares with Akropolites the same theme (an ecli announcing the death of an empress or an emperor) and the s!:.: topos (the stars appearing in the darkened sky). 24 Pachymeres probably refers to the solar eclipse of 30 Dec 1255. 25 In his historical work Pachymeres does not make heavy use of celestial signs, but does resort to numerology. 26

III. PERSIAN ASTRONOMY

At the end of the thirteenth century, the history of Byzantine ast~nomy is marked by the introduction of Persian astronomy. The amval of the Mongols changed not only the political map of the East, but also the its cultural and scientific context. In 1259 the grandson of Gengis Khan, Hiilagii, whose realm was established in Persia, founded the famous observatory at Maragha, directed by 27 Na~Ir ad-Din at-TOsi. Under the influence of the great Persian astronomer, the observatory was intensely active, and its fame attracted scientists from many different parts of the world. Somewhat later Ghazan Khan (1295-1304) founded an observatory 28 at Tabriz. The reputation of Persian astronomy soon reached the Byzantine world.
24

21

On Christian criticism of astrology, see Bouche-Leclercq, L'astrologie grecque, 609-27; M.-H. Congourdeau, Les Peres de l'Eglise et l'Astrologie. Les P~res dans ~~ Foi (Paris, 2003). Pachymeres, Quadrivium, ed. Tannery, 397, 34-5. 21 Pachymeres, Relations historiques, ed. Failler, I, 58-9. One may quote Boucht!Leclen:q, L 'astrologie grecque, 623: "Les chretiens qui ne croyaient pas aux horoscopes redo~taient comme tout le monde, les eclipses et les cometes ~ cause des malheurs qu elles annon~aient".

The . appearance of stars during a solar eclipse is noted for example in Thucydtdes, II, 27 (3 August 431 BC); Marinos, Vita Proc/i, ed. Boissonade, ch. 37 (14 January 484); Theophanes, Chronographia, ed. C. de Boor (Leipzig, 1883; repr. Hildesheim, 1980), 367 (A.M. 6186 = 5 October 693). On this last eclipse, ~e Schave, Chronology, 137-42. 26 Annular eclipse of magnitude 0.96 according to the tables of P. Tavardon. See, for example Pachymeres, Relations historiques, ed. Failler, Ill, 23 ~ap~arance of a comet announcing misfortunes); IV, 21 and VI, 36 (numerology 2fPhed t~ ~e name of the Emperor Michael Palaiologos). 28 A.. Sayth, The Observatory in Islam (Ankara, 1960), 187-223. Ibtd., 226-32.

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George Chioniades
According to the Preface of the Persian Syntaxis by George Chrysokokkes (ca. 1347), the introduction of Persian astronomy into the Byzantine World was due to a certain George Chioniades (ca. 1300), who translated many Persian astronomical treatises into a rather barbaric Greek. Indeed, an important corpus of Greek adaptations of Persian astronomical material has been preserved in thirteenth and fourteenth-century manuscripts, 29 and one may suppose that Chioniades was certainly not the only Byzantine scientist interested in Persian astronomy. The course of Perso-Byzantine astronomy was, from the beginning, closely tied to astrology. According to George Chrysokokkes (ca. 1347), George Chioniades sought to gain the knowledge of astronomy and astrology useful for the practice of medicine. 30 At least this is how one can understand the following passage from the Preface of the Persian Syntaxis 31 :
e4ye 'tO(VUV EXELVO O'tL XLOVulClrJ 'tL Ev Kwvm:uvnvoun6J..et tQU<j>El xut n6.v1:wv tv xmuJ..ij\j>et J.LU9rlluhwv yev6f.!EVo e~ EQOJ'tU neawv xul EtEQU J.LU9i}oew 1\IUJ..Ex'tOu, IlL' ~ oo<j>(uv JtOQLaUL'tO xut lu'tQLX~v axQL/lcil lisuoxijoeLev, liJteLiil] nuQa twwv ijxouoev, W el J.LTJ el IleQo(l\u <i<j>(xoL'to, 'tOil noeouJ.tf.vou

oil 'teUSE'tUL, JtUV'tOJV XU"tU<j>Qovijoa 61\oO er-xeto ...

TI tUXOU e!xe til

The latter (i.e. Manuel) then said that a certain Chioniades educated at Constantinople and brought to an understanding of all the sciences, also fell in love with another remarkable science, through which he could acquire wisdom and practice medicine rigorously. As he had heard from some that unless he would not obtain what he desired unless he went to Persia he dropped everything and set off with all haste." '

A vir doctissimus in MS Vat. gr. 191

Another devotee of Persian astronomy and apparently also of astrology is a Constantinopolitan scholar who wrote the following note in MS Vat. gr. 191 (end of the 13'h c. ), fol. 319v: 32
Ml'Jvl touv(ou JtQW't!J i)J.tf.Qc;t naQaoxeuft liOJteQU iilQc;t 'tQL't!J tl],; VUX'to,; lvlitxtuilvo,; a E'tou,; ,wli' OtE xal ~(oesco l]v xut naaxa XUQtou <J.LUQttou xe'> 33 auvol\eUOUOl'J "tl'JVLXUU"tU TJAUp oeAi}Vl'J, OEL(JjW J.tliya xat <j>o~EQO yey6vL el Kwvm:avnvounoALv . . . JtQO 1\exanf:v<e lit i}J.LEQWV EXAEL\j>L til oeAi}Vl'J EyEvE'to ...
The first of June, a Friday, in the evening, at the third hour of the night, Indiction 9, in the year 6804, when the year was bissextile and the Pascha of the Lord <25 March>, while the Sun was in conjunction with the Moon, an enormous and frightening earthquake occurred in Constantinople . . . fifteen days earlier there was an eclipse of the Moon ...

29

Indeed an eclipse of the Moon occurred on 18 May 1296. This note, of which we cite here only a part, implicitly associates the lunar eclipse with the earthquakes. Here we find ourselves on the margin between astrology and natural science, because it was not only astrologers 34 who associated lunar eclipse with earthquakes. For Aristotle, too, lunar eclipses were a possible cause

D. Pingree, 'Gregory Chioniades and Palaeologan Astronomy', DOP 18 (1964), 135-60; Gregory Chioniades, The Astronomical Works of Gregory Chioniade$, ed. Pingree, 1: The Zrj a/- 'A/a'r, part 1: Text, translation, commentary; part 2: Tables, CAB II, 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1985-86); A. Tihon, 'Les tables astronomiques persanes a Constantinople dans Ia premiere moitie du XIV' siecle', Byzantion 51 (1987), 471-87; R. Mercier, 'The Greek Persian Syntaxis and the Zrj-i llkhanr', Archives lnternationales d'Histoire des Sciences, 34, n 112.3 (1984), 35-4l. w L. G. Westerink, 'La profession de foi de Gregoire Chioniades', Revue des etudes byzantines 38(1980), 233-45; B. Byden, Theodore Metochites' Stoicheiosis Astronomike and the Study of Natural Philosophy and Mathematics in Early Palaiologan Byzantium, Studia graeca et latina Gothoburgensia 66 (Gtiteborg, 2<J?3l: 246. Byden, Theodore Metochites, 244, understands from this passage that Cluomades sought to learn Persian medicine. My own understanding is that "the o_ther remarkable science" refers to astronomy, which would allow him to practise ngorously astrological medicine. 31 H. Usener, 'Ad historiarn astronomiae symbol a' Kleine Schriften ID (Leipzig and Berlin, 1914), 356-57. '

The complete text is reproduced and edited in A. Turyn, Codices Graeci Vaticani saecu/is XIII e XW scripti annorumque notis instructi (Vatican City, }?64), 91-92 (tab. 54). The text must be incomplete because the date of Easter cannot fall on I June. In 1296, Easter fell on 25 March. The conjunction did not occur on I June, but on 2 June. 34 Hephaestio of Thebes, Apote/esmaticorum libri tres, ed. Piogree,l.22.

32

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of earthquakes, which he explains as physical effects. 35 However, the copyist of this note is of interest to us here because, as A. Turyn describes him, he was a vir doctissimus who assembled this particularly important volume, MS Vat. gr. 191. We owe to this scholar (called R by Turyn) not only the note on earthquakes quoted above, but also the astronomical calculations using the Persian Tables and dated to 1302 (fols. 108-111 v, 170v-172v). MS Vat. gr. 191 contains a remarkable collection of scientific texts copied during the reign of Andronicus II (1282-1328): Euclid, Theodosius, Aristarchus, Autolycus, Hypsicles, Eutocius, Vettius Val ens, texts and tables of Persian astronomy, the Geography of Ptolemy, the Hypotyposis of Proclus, the Treatise on the Astrolabe of John Philoponus, works by Aratus, Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, Paul of Alexandria and other astrological texts, a series of musicological texts (Gaudentius, Cleonides, Euclid, Aristoxenus, Alypius, Ptolemy) and the Arithmetic of Diophantus. Three of the subjects of the quadrivium are covered here : astronomy, music, arithmetic-only geometry is missing. This impressive table of contents led Turyn to attach the reviser to the circle of Maximos Planoudes, 36 while D. Pingree suggested that the hand of Chioniades himself is at work here/ 7 though this hypothesis does not stand up to palaeographical scrutiny. 38 The cohabitation of purely scientific with astrological treatises in manuscripts of this period is not unusual, and it would be of interest to make a more precise inventory.
Astrological books and almanacs (ephemerides)

to Theodora ~aoulain~ speaks of a book-clearly an astrological work-on whtch foretgners depended to predict unusual events while disdaining Byzantine savants. The author of the letter reckon~ that rather than consigning the work to the flames, it would be better to refute it so that those who read it make an informed judgment concerning the dispute; he returns the book to his correspondent along with a refutation:
:rrugt li' Oj.Wl ava/.wom Mov mix ~YTJOaiJ.fJV, ouf!EVoiiv, 0 ,:, -roii rr6vou <jlELoaJ.teVO wii ouv8eJ.tkvou 'x ~'tma ~'tawv yag -ro 'ljJEiilio xal c1JtwA(a rraga('ttOV, EUtEQ xal wii 'ti'J arrw/.e(a ltQol;evou, 00 EliLMX8f]f!EV, eyyovovai.A' LVU IJ.~ 'tWV 'tLVE ES af.Aoli<Xlti'j bttlif]IJ.OUV'tWV ~IJ!V, 'tfl ~(~/.<p Eva~Q1JVOIJ.EVOL, 'tOlV ~IJ.E'tEQWV Xa'tO<jlQ1JWV'taL oo<jlwv, J.teya/.a rregl too~J.Evwv llievm rnayyeA6)!Vm xal xa1:' EltLOTIJf.LfJV liij8ev 'tEQa'tEUOf!EVOL ... 'tOU'tOU 11v ouv oux EXQLVa liEiv 't~V ~(~/.ov lita<jJOagi)vm, aV'tL!thtof.t<Pa 1i 001! 'tfl clV'ttA~'ljJ1, 00 OltEQ 1\v OOL xal ftf] ~01JAO~ trr'au-rfl yevot'to ... However, I have decided that it <i.e. the boob should not be consumed by fire, not because I have consideration for the labour of the one who composed these vain things -for lies are vain and worthy of perdition, and even the offspring of the agent of Perdition.' 0 as we have learned-but so that people from foreign lands who have come to live among us and take pride in this book, may not be arrogant towards our scholars, declaring that they know great things about future events, and indulging in absurd predictions, presumably according to scientific principles ... For this reason I decided one should not destroy this book, but I return it to you with a refutation, so that whatever you like be done with it. ...

With the vogue for Persian astronomy, astrology seems to have enjoyed enormous success. A letter from Constantine Akropolites

s Meteora, II, 8 (367b): Aristotle, Meteorologica, I-11, ed. and tr. Pierre Louis (Paris, 1982), 95. 36 One fmds here two treatises which were the special object of attention by Maximos Planoudes: the Geography of Ptolemy and the Arithmetic of Diophantus. See also N. Wilson, Scholars of Byzantium (London, 1983), 232. 37 D. Pingree, 'The Byzantine Tradition of Vettius Valens' Anthologies', Harvard Ukrainian Studies 7 (1983), 532-41, esp. 533; idem, 'Gregory Chioniades and f.alaeologan A~tronomy'; L. G. Westerink, 'La profession de foi', 234. A. Tihon, Les tables astronomiques persanes', 474; B. Byden, Theodore Metochites' Stoicheiosis Astronomike, 246.

The letter of Constantine Akropolites gives only a few details: the authors of such predictions came from foreign countries, and their predictions concern great events. An echo of this is found in a letter of Nikephoros Gregoras, sent to George Pepagomenos and dateable to July or August 1329. 41 In this letter, Nikephoros
Constantinides, Higher Education, 108, 164. 6-18; also in Conslantine ~polites, Epistole, ed. R. Romano (Naples, 1991), no. 60. , Expressions like Oava'tou JtQO~EVO, 6/.8gou ltQ6!;Vo,, WtWAea, ltQ6!;evo are commonly used in Patristic literature. In this context it clearly refers to the Devil. 41 Nikephoros Gregoras, Correspondance, ed. and tr. R. Guilland, CoUByz (Paris, 1967), 72-5; Gregoras, Epistulae, ed. Leone, II, 134-9.
39

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Gregoras mocks the absurd prophecies spread everywhere by "people who claim to possess the sciences of the Persians and Chaldeans". We will return to this later. It appears that just at the beginning of the fourteenth century, important astrology was produced at Trebizond. Ephemerides calculated for Trebizond for the year 1336 have been preserved in a Munich manuscript, the Monacensis gr. 525. 42 Ephemerides are tables in which one finds all the calculated positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and the lunar nodes, generally at ten-day intervals. The aspects of the planets and other elements used by the astrologers are also indicated. Such documents are rare in the Byzantine world, but their principle goes back to antiquity. 43 The astronomical calculations of the ephemerides of Trebizond are based on Persian tables, especially the Zrj al- 'Ala'r and the Zfj-i llkhtinr. 44 In the margins of the Ephemerides are found quite picturesque astrological predictions. These predictions concern every social class: kings, nobles, archons, soldiers, grammarians, merchants, musicians, actors, women, prelates etc. The events predicted are of every sort: meteorology, agriculture, commerce, local politics, wars, conspiracies, sicknesses, incursions by dangerous animals etc. The ephemerides of 1336 are dedicated to Constantine Loukites, an official at the court of Trebizond. The author may be Manuel of Trebizond, the teacher of Chrysokokkes. It was probably such prophecies that excited the mockery of Nikephoros Gregoras in the letter to Pepagomenos mentioned above, and perhaps also the criticism of Constantine Akropolites in his letter to Theodora Raoulaina. Andrew Libadinos in his Periegesis 45 also attests that Trebizond was the place where one would find the best predictions based on astronomical treatises.

George Chrysokokkes George Chrysokokkes is the author of a Persian Syntaxis, written around 1347 and based on the Zrj-i llkhanr of N~ir ad-Drn atTUsi.46 This work was enormously successful and became the main reference for all those who wanted to use modern astronomical tables rather than the superseded tables of Ptolemy. At the end of his work, Chrysokokkes added some material useful to the astrologers, such as chapters on how to calculate the ephemerides, the aspects, the exposition of a themation, etc. He then explained his own motivation at length. Based on Hippocrates and Galen, he emphatically insisted on the ties between astronomy 47 and medicine:
Outo<; toCvuv 6 oo<jlwtato<; latQ6<;, 6 9elo<; 'I=xQa'tlJ<;, oil f!(>vov ex WU'tl]<; tfj<; (/f)oew<; 1\etxviloov XQlJOLfll]V elvat 'ri}v 'ri}<; clO'tQOVO!lia<; 'tEXVl]V el la'tQIXTJV, a'J..)..iJ. xal e; a;\.'J..wv TCOAA<iJV, iht 1\E xal 6 'tOU't(jl xata rcavta frc0f1VO<; fUAt]VO<; 6 9UUJWOIO<;, bteti\Tj XU'tCt 'ttV' aya9Tjv tUXt]V xal UU'tO<; 'tel tfj<; lU'tQIXfj<; rtat1\EU6f1EVO<;, 'tOi<; 'tOU'tWV ouyyQCtl!flUOIV Ev'tUXWV, xat lOoov OOOV el la'tQLXTjv 'tO XQTJOII!OV EX tfj<; XU'tUAfJ'IjiEW<; 'tOJV TCAUVWflEvWV XlvlJOEW<;, rcaQa fiEv 0 TQarce~ouvt(<p exe(v<p iEQEi tlj> f)J!6>v 1\tbaoxa'J..<p orceuoa<; &orcEQ otoea f1Ei!Ct9tJxa.

Thus the wisest physician, the divine Hippocrates, not only in this passage, but also in many others, demonstrates that the science of astronomy is useful to medicine; likewise does the admirable Galen, who follows him in everything. Since by some good fortune I, too, have studied medicine and have chanced upon their treatises, I realized what great benefit it is for medicine to understand the movement of the planets and have studied enthusiastically, as you know, with this priest of Trebizond (i.e. Manuel), my teacher.

There follows a justification of astrology 48 that refers to the Letter in defence of astrology by the twelfth-century emperor Manuel I
46

42

An Almanac for Trebizond for the year 1336, ed. R. Mercier, CAB Vll (Louvain-la-Neuve 1994). 43 Almanac, ed. Mercier, 159; see J.-B. Delambre, Histoire de /'astronomie ancienne, IT (Paris 1817), 635-37. Such ephemerides, which require demanding ~tronomical calculation, will reappear late in the 15th century. Almanac, ed. Mercier, 17. 45 Almanac, ed. Mercier, 14.

See Mercier, 'The Greek Persian Syntaxis'. in MS Vat. gr. 210, fol. 35r,l. llff. , . . . Only the very end of the text is edited in H. Usener, Ad hstonam astrono011ae symbola', Kleine Schriften III (Leipzig- Berlin, 1914), 323-71: 371. I _read the text in MS Vat. gr. 210, fols. 34v-35v. I also used an unpublished memmr by Ph. Dachy, 'La Syntaxe Perse de Georges Chrysococces' (Louvain-la-Neuve, !986), chapters 14-16,31-35,43,48.
47

48 Read

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Komnenos. 49 Chrysokokkes' arguments can be summarized as follows: Each creature has its own energy; that of the stars was willed by God. The role of the two luminaries was explained in Genesis (1,14-16) and the signs handed down there are necessary for life (there follow some meteorological examples). All the stars are creatures of God and, just as the luminaries (Sun and Moon) have the power to give signs (but not the power to act), the stars have the same power. God could not have created certain things empowered with energy and others without. Since the stars are without souls and insensible, they received their power and physical energy by order of the creator. This energy is suited to indicate events both present and future in the universe contained within the celestial sphere. There follows a eulogy to Chrysokokkes' master (the emperor Manuel of Trebizond) who became patron to the operation of calculating the ephemerides for the whole year, as well as a justification for Chrysokokkes' own undertaking: it is necessary to know how to precisely calculate the positions of the stars and all the elements required for accurate predictions, and he who has acquired this knowledge will not only be admired by all, but will, moreover, admire the Creator. If his predictions are incorrect, it is not the method that ought to be reproached, but the deficiencies of the author. Alternatively, the error may be due to a divine miracle, for God can change Nature and perform miracles, as He did for Joshua, or at the time of Christ's passion. Chrysokokkes concludes by reaffirming that the stars, bodies without soul and insensible, take their power from God. Therefore, by repeating several traditional arguments and using as cover the patronage of emperor Manuel Komnenos, Chrysokokkes clearly asserts that his adaptation of the Persian Tables is meant to serve the purposes of astrology. IV. THEODORE METOCHITES In spite of the growing success of Persian astronomy, many eminent Byzantine scholars remained devoted to Ptolemy's astronomy and further reflected on astrology. Such is the case of Theodore
49

Metochites. In the introduction to his Stoicheiosis (ca. 1316), he demonstrates that astronomy is the first among the sciences. He insists that the scientific pursuit of astronomy (i.e. studying the Almagest) causes no harm to one's Christian faith, at least no more than the harm caused . by talking m about it as an uninstructed amateur , like his contemporanes do. However, he says, concerns may be raised by the astrological part, the one that regards predictions and claims to demonstrate that powers acting in the stars and their aspects are the causes of everything happening in the world and human affairs. This is surely unacceptable to Christian faith. However, Metochites defends a natural and reasonable astrology by drawing inspiration from the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy. We see, he says, that the Sun and Moon have an influence on nature; so it is reasonable to suppose that the Sun, the Moon, and the planets, in their movement through space and their aspects have a great causal power on generated nature: 5t
a'A'A' OlWQ ~v wi! Myou OX01t0, ~6 fWv ~a mpuj>opa xal oe'A~VfJ xal nilv ii.'A'Awv ameQWV, xat ~a xa~a ~O:JtOU J.=U~CtOEL xat ~OU 1tQO a'AA~AOU A6you xat OXfJJ.WTLOfWU, :rto'A'Aijv ~v ouvafUV fxELV xat ~YfJfWVLxijv al~(av ev Wi ouOL xat Tfl YfVfJ't'fl cpuoe~ O.'At]Omm6v ~ EO~L xat oij'Aov :Jta~t !;uvO(/clV ~ou'Aoftv<p xat ouoev em~~fUOV ev~ei!Oev ~!j) xaO' ~l!fl ~ii Oeooe~ELa MyJ.Wn ...
~Mou ~e

But that which was the aim of the discussion, the fact that the revolutions of the Sun, the Moon, and other stars, their displacements and their mutual relations and configurations possessed a great power and governing cause in what concerns beings and generated nature, that is very truthful and evident to all who want to understand it, and in no way blameworthy according to our Christian religion ...

Thus it is not contrary to Christian doctrine to predict the conditions of events knowing that the stars are in the service of Go~, and th~t their power derives from Divine authority; this argument IS found m the writings of all Christian astrologers. On the other hand, to imagine that something that happens by chance, whether by a decision, or from free will, is controlled by
:: Stoicheiosis, I. 5, !Iff. (published in Byden, Theodore Metochites, 465ff.). Stoicheiosis, I. 5, 25 (ibid., 471).

Manuel I, lmperatoris Manuel Comneni et Michael Glycae disputatio, ed. F. Cumontand F. Boll, CCAG, V.l, 108-25.

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the stars, is vain and contrary to Christian faith. Therefore, it is reasonable and true to think that everything found under the stars both the simple and compound bodies, is subject to their natur~ influence. But to predict that one man will be a master and another a slave, or that one woman will be quarrelsome, or the opposite, or that one will be at war against his neighbour, or will conclude peace, and so on, and that all this results from astral necessity, is contrary to the Christian faith. Metochites, naturally, combats the idea of "necessity" that underlies the whole of astrology as applied to human affairs, an idea that has always been denied by Christian religion. Further, the stars play a role only by Divine Will. His attitude is "reasonable" (a word which he frequently employs): since the stars have a physical action on nature, it is not absurd to think that they produce conditions under which such and such a natural event will be realized. Note that he does not follow Ptolemy in making the distinction between "universal" and "individual" astrology. According to Metochites, whatever proceeds from nature is subject, by divine will, to the natural influence of the stars (and he speaks expressly of "cause"); everything that depends on free will (marriage, profession, war, peace treaties, etc), cannot be the result of astral necessity, which would be absurd and impious to suppose. Unfortunately, Metochites does not give a sufficient number of precise examples. Thus, he does not explain whether the birth, life, and death of a human being, king or individual, are to be counted among the natural phenomena subject to the causal influence of the stars. Instead of clear terms, he uses very abstract formulae, such as "the being" (or "the things"?), "simple bodies", or "composed of elements". As a result, we cannot be certain what his thinking was regarding. this point.

astronomy and astrology: a letter to George Pepagomenos, written in August 1329;53 a letter to John Chrysoloras, written in August 1330 54 and a letter to Michael Kaloeidas, written in 1332 or the ' 55 start of1333. In the letter to Pepagomenos, Nikephoros Gregoras mocks the stupid predictions from the East; he then refutes the predictions coming this time from the South-by which we understand "from Calabria". This is about the violent winds that cause the destruction of people. Gregoras does not reject the theory that a solar eclipse associated with the conjunction of Mars and Saturn could produce "whirlwinds, the destruction of cities and the uplifting of mountains". Here, one finds again Metochites' idea that celestial movements have a causal power on generated nature. What Gregoras criticizes in light of his own calculations is the astronomical basis of the aforementioned predictions: there will not be a conjunction of Saturn and Mars in the same sign, there will not be an eclipse of the Sun, and therefore there will not be a storm. Gregoras was very proud of his capacity to calculate eclipses. It seems that he was responsible for making this sort of exercise fashionable. The calculation of eclipses must have been particularly interesting at thanime, given that at the beginning of the fourteenth century there had been an exceptional series of solar eclipses visible at Constantinople. But Gregoras was far from being the only. one capable of calculating them. The following table shows the eclipses mentioned by Nikephoros Gregoras in his correspondence:

Ku/tur der Pa/aiologenzeit (Vienna, 1996), 51-63. According ~o Hoh1weg, Nikephoros Gregoras could be the author of the dialogue Henmppus or De astro/ogia; see A. Hohlweg, 'Drei anonyme Texte suchen einen Autor',
'

V. NIKEPHOROS GREGORAS

In the writings of Nikephoros Gregoras we find more explicit material concerning astrology. Three of his letters deal with
' On. astrology in the work of Gregoras, see A. Hohlweg, 'Astronomic und Gcschtchtebetrachtung bei Nikephoros Gregoras', in W. Seibt, ed., Geschichte und 2

52

. ed Leone Gregoras, Correspondance, ed. Guilland, 73--83; Gregoras, E~rstu1 ae, hav~ IT, 134-9. All the passages of Gregoras containing astrononucal elements
3

Bv~avnaxa 15 (1995), 13-45.

'

E tulae ed been checked against the manuscripts. 4 Gregoras, Correspondance, ed. Guilland, 135-45; Gregoras. prs '

Leo,,ne,II, 164-9. E 1 e ed .1land, 147-55; Gregoras, prstu a ' Gregoras, Correspondance, ed . Gu 1 Leone, 265-70.

n.

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Letter

Noted by Gregoras

Type of eclipse

Date

Magnitude Calculation at Cple 56 preserved

Letter to Kaloeidas Ibid.

14 May, I" indiction "another"

Sun

14May 1333

0.93 0.72

Barlaam Barlaam59

'

Letter to 131hindiction Moon 5 4.3 digits Pepagomenos January 5 January 1330

Sun 3 March 1337

13'hindiction Moon 30 June 7.8 digits 30 June 1330 Ibid. 13'hindiction Sun 16 July Sun 16 July 1330 19 July 418 0.98 Gregoras

+ anon57
0.97

Letter to Under Chrysoloras Theodosius II, Sun: Cancer 24 Ibid.

Basil the Sun 8 August Macedonian 891? Sun: Leo 15

0.93

Ibid.

15'h indictior next 30 November "63 years

ago"

Sun

30 Novem. 1331 25May 1267 14May 1333

0.56

In the letter to John Chrysoloras, composed towards the end of the summer of 1330, Gregoras made an allusion to the eclipse of 14 May 1333 without, however, giving the date. Gregoras invoked the order of the emperor not to reveal his predictions. The same letter indicates that he was jealously protective of his astronomical predictions and afraid that people would steal them to spread them around town. Based on his calculations, he said, these ~pie make predictions for the government, and for individuals. One finds here a number of well known themes: criticism of stupid predictions spread everywhere, spies and rivals who steal Gregoras' calculations. Did emperor Andronikos III really forbid the spread of astronomical predictions? Though one must never believe Gregoras' unconfirmed remarks, it is certain that any government would be disturbed by the successful forecast of eclipses that, when they finally occurred, were accompanied by serious natural disasters. We have already seen that people like George Akropolites or George Pachymeres did not hesitate to associate solar eclipses with the death of an emperor or empress. At Trebizond, the eclipse of 1337 was followed by a popular insurrection, as related in the Chronicle of Michael Panaretos. 61 Gregoras concludes with his profession of faith in astrology:
Ka(wL mil\' ij,.U:v nav'ttl:rtaoLV Um]y6QEUtm 1\ijkoomv EXEt6Ev ELVaL 'tOOV EltLyECwv 1t00~ yaQ; or ~$kov l:uf!EV

Ibid. Ibid.

Sun Sun

1 0.93 Barlaam58

A second ...

56

See Nicephore Gregoras, Calcul de /'eclipse de Solei/ du 16 juillet 1330, ~ J. Mogenet, A. Tihon, R. Royez, A. Berg, CAB 1 (Amsterdam, 1983). . The only po~sible eclipse with the Sun at Leo 15 according to Ptolemy's tables ts the solar echpse of 8 August 8 891, but it does not fall in the reign of Basil I (867-88~). There was also a solar eclipse on 17 August 882, but hardly visible at Constat_ttmople (magnitude: 0.37). The eclipse of 891 is widely attested in Byzantme sources; see Schove, Chronology, 205-207.

58 Barlaam de Seminara, Traites sur les eclipses de Solei/ de 1333 et /337, ed. J. Mogenet and A. Tihon, with D. Donne! (Louvain, 1977). S91bid. 10 Gregoras, Correspondance, ed. Guilland, 142-3; Gregoras, Epistu/ae, ed. Leone, 168-9. 61 Mercier, Almanac, 79.

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, 1

\ I .

'

6eo0, n)v ouQaVLOV lhax60f.LllOLV, o6f.LEVOV futav bnytyQWt'taL!'

fl

yev6f.LEVov xat

Hist.Rom. Eclipse IX, 14, I Sun

Date 30 November I33I

f '

'

However, even for us, it is by no means forbidden to derive from this science a clear indication of facts here below. Why? Because we know the book of God, that heavenly ornament, where everything there is and will be is written ...

Magnitude atCple 0.56

Event Death of Andronikos II 12February 1332

But Gregoras rebels against the predictions of trivial, inane, and stupid things. In his correspondence one finds no prediction associated with eclipses. However, in his Roman History eclipses, often associated with natural disasters, announce every kind of calamity. For example, the death of Andronicus II (12 February 1332) was announced by the eclipse of November 1331: 63
Kal{?o(; bE ij<'\11 xat 1tEQL wil YllQ<XLOil ~aat.AEw(; <'iLESEA9Etv tEAEUti')(;, l)v 9EOO!lf.LELUL :n:oA.A.al 1tQOEf.Li]vuoav ai: ~oav tOLUUIE rnLOX6tllOL(; 1tQWtOV i)AL<Xxi) tooauta(; i)f.lfQa(; 1tQOtA11<j>Uta ti')v autoil tAeun)v ooa xal auto(; ~v ih'lj ta :n:Uvta PePLWXOO(; tailtllv n)v i)A.L<Xxi)v t:n:LOx6tllOLV exAeLijll.(; liLEc">t!;ato OA11VL<Xxi)v xat taUtllV aMI.(; OELOfLO\; Yi\(; tv ta:n:EQQ.
The moment has come to speak of the death of the old emperor, which numerous divine signs announced in advance. These were the following: first, an eclipse of the Sun that occurred as many days in advance of his death as the full number of years that he had lived. An eclipse of the Moon followed that of the Sun; and this was immediately followed by an earthquake during the same evening.

I
:]

XI, 3, I

Moon

15 February 1337 (Sun: ca. Pisces! 0 )

4.5 digits

Invasion of Scythians into Thrace

;\ il

'I

Ibid.

Sun

3 March 1337 (Sun: ca. Pisces 15)

0.72

ld

Jj
1

;I

IV, 8, 2

Sun

25 May 1267

Great misfortunes and murders caused by the Turks Misfortunes (due to civil war)

XII, 15, 3

Sun

9 December 1341 (Sun: Sagittarius 1)

0.53

Other dramatic events were also tied to the eclipses. The eclipse of 1267 announced pillages and massacres by the Turks; the lunar and solar eclipses of I337 foreshadowed the invasion of the Scythians into Thrace; the eclipse of the Sun in 1341 and the eclipses of the Moon in 1342 foretold further misfortunes, as shown in the following table:

Ibid.

Moon

20/21 May 1342 (Sun: ca. Taurus)

15.5 digits

Other more terrible ills 64

Gregoras, who seems at times reticent or perplexed in his correspondence, grows more credulous with age:
OtL lie lii)AOJOLV rnLyewv :n;aewv ta tWV ougav(oov <j>Woti')QOJV tOIUUta au~OOf.LUta 1tQOava<j>wvo00LV,

62

Gregoras, Correspondance, ed. Guilland, 142-3 Gregoras Epistulae, ed. Leone, 169. Gregoras, Byzantina Historia, IX.14.1, ed. Schopen, II, 460.

64

6!

Gregoras specifies that, according to the colour of the eclipse.. terrible misfortunes could be foretold. In the Tetrabiblos (II. 10), Ptolemy s~s ~ fact of the colour of eclipses, which must be taken into account in making predtcllons.

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I\ I .,

I. \

a!J4llj3a).).nv ot!JUt 'tOlV :rtUV'tOlV oubEva, :rtA1lV et 1.1.~ 001:1. 65 :rteQtTIO~ E:n:e<j>il1tEt IJ.UnJV EQ(l;eLv .

VI. THEODORE MELITENIOTES

In 1352, in his Astronomical Tribiblos Theodore Meliteniotes mounted a vigorous attack on astrology. 70 While quoting almost literally passages of Metochites, Theodore Meliteniotes is far from accepting "~eas~nable astrology" as Metochites did. Astrology in every form IS reJected, and the author congratulates himself that its practitioners, along with the magicians, had been expelled from 71 "our court". Some of the terms in this profession of faith that unequivocally condemns astrology bring to mind the formulation of Pachymeres or Metochites. Theodore Meliteniotes continued with an enthusiastic praise of astronomy, which was even in the service of religion, since it proved God's omnipotence-God who marked the death of the crucified Jesus by producing a miraculous eclipse,72 a phenomenon that according to the laws of astronomy would have been impossible at the time of a full Moon. In contrast to George Chrysokokkes, Meliteniotes found himself aligned with the teachings of the Church Fathers, notably Gregory of Nazianzus: 73 astronomy should serve to glorify the Creator, not to predict the future from the course of the stars. This rigorous condemnation allowed Meliteniotes, the director of the Patriarchal School, to introduce Persian astronomy into the advanced educational curriculum offered by the church. Until that time, as we have seen, Persian astronomy was spread mainly by means of the Persian Syntaxis by George Chrysokokkes, and had been strongly oriented towards astrology. Now, freed of any astrological interference, Persian astronomy as explained in the
R. Leurquin, Theodore Meliteniote, Tribiblos Astronomique, livre I, CAB IV (Amsterdam, 1990), 88-89. This formulation is found in Christian teaching. It seems that Meliteniotes is alluding not to a recent measure but to a more general prohibition like the one referred to by Michael Glykas in his response to Manuel Komnenos, lmperatoris Manuel Comneni et Michael Glycae disputatio, ed. Cumont and BoU, CCAG, V.I. 134, 9ff. 72 The miraculous eclipse at the death of Christ goes back to Eusebius: see. W. Wolska-Conus, La topographie chretienne de Cosmas Indicopleustes: t~io!oglt et sciences au VIe siec/e (Paris, 1962), 236 n.2; on the eclipse at the Cruclliluon, see Schave, Chronology 6-1. 73 See the reference's given in Imperatoris Manuel Comneni et Michael Glycae drsputatio, ed. Cumont and Boll, CCAG, V.l, 134.
71 70

I I

And that such events concerning the celestial luminaries reveal an announcement of earthly ills, I think no one doubts, except if one squabbles in vain.

Such an attitude somewhat justifies the ironic views that Nicolas Kabasilas expressed in his In Gregorae deliramenta: 66
o~ elbEvm ~v E:n:ayyf.).).e'tm 1:a ,. oV'ta, 'ta 1:' ea6~J.Eva, :rtQO 1:' oi6vm67 xat yaQ xat XQ1JOIJ.OAOYO 'tl. eLVUL ~OUAE'tUL lioxeiv <... > Kat aO'tQOVOIJ.WV, oiv y/,waan ~v oMoiv <j>EQEL 'tfj~ rnlO'tlJIJ.1j~. a<j>ai{)OlV 1> EIJ.:rt(IJ.:rtA.ljOl 't~V otxlav, xat :n:avm ~Lj3A.(oov YEIJ.EL xal liLayQal-l.IJ.U'toov, xat ax(~.~.:rtolia xal 6Q6<j>ou IJ.EO'tOU~ rnLiie(xvum 'tfl~ ao<j:>Ca~. xat :n:avm IJ.UI.A.ov i\ n)v 'lj!uxi]v.

...

... this man professes that he knows what is, what will be, and what has been; he wishes indeed to appear as an oracle ... And when he pursues astronomy, he makes no use of tl1e language of science, but fills his house with spheres, stuffs it with books and diagrams, shows sofas and floors full of wisdom, everything rather than his soul!

In spite the mockery by Nicholas Kabasilas, it is only fair to emphasize that Nikephoros Gregoras was consistently opposed to stupid and trivial predictions and in particular genethlialogy. 68 As far as astronomy is concerned, it is useful to point out that after 1337 solar eclipses were again visible from Constantinople: those of7 July 1339 (0.97), and 7 October 1344 (0.94). However, all the experts in Persian astronomy would give the same calculation for the solar eclipse of 7 August 1347, an occurrence hardly visible in Constantinople (magnitude 0.1). This seems to indicate that interest in an observable phenomenon and its prediction had disappeared. It will reappear at the end of the 14th century. 69
65

66

Gregoras, Byzantina Historia, IV .8. 2, ed. Schopen, I, 108. Published in the introduction to Gregoras, Byzantina Historia, ed. Schopen, I,

LXI-LXII.
67

The man who "knows that which is, that which has been" is the diviner Calchas (Iliad I.70). 68 See the passage cited by Hohlweg, 'Astronomie und Geschichtebetrachtung' 57, note44. 69 A. Tihon, 'Calculs d'eclipses byzantins de Ia fin du X!Ve sii\cle', Le Museon 100 (1987), 353-61.

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third book of Meliteniotes' Tribiblos would be studied at the highest level of courses taught at the Patriarchal School. As a consequence, several churchmen at the end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth would develop real competence in mathematical astronomy.
CONCLUSION

This rapid overview cannot pretend to give a definitive idea of how Byzantine intellectuals considered astrology. Yet at least one conclusion can be drawn: the debate was still active at Constantinople at the beginning of the fourteenth century. By taking up hackneyed arguments, often combining or interpreting them in a different way, Byzantine intellectuals attested their conviction or perplexity in the face of astrology; they accepted or rejected it in whole or in part, each according to his own shade of opinion. Astrology was a sensitive matter, not only for the Church but also for the secular authorities: the exceptionally high frequency of solar eclipses visible in Constantinople in the 1330s and the growing aptitude of scholars in predicting them could have been-if we believe Nikephoros Gregoras-the cause of trouble and agitation, a circumstance that generated an imperial prohibition to spread astronomical predictions. But no prohibition could prevent astrology from thriving nor astrological treatises from being diffused. The number of preserved astrological manuscripts from the fourteenth century shows that astrological books did not fall victim to the purifying flames, even if, as the letter of Constantine Akropolites shows, the temptation must have existed at times. Astrology would be seen to flourish more than ever in the 1370s and until the end of the Byzantine Empire.

Joshua Holo
Hebrew Union College -Jewish Institute for Religion, Los Angeles

Hebrew Astrology in Byzantine Southern Italy

I. INTRODUCTION

It is a commonplace that our modem, tidy distinction between astronomy and astrology does not apply to the Middle Ages. The celestial sciences shared a great deal, not merely in the basic fact of stargazing but also in terms of methods and applications, and this broad overlap blurred the line between them. Even following the definition of Maimonides (1135-1204), who strongly opposed astrology and distinguished it sharply from astronomy, a certain structural similarity emerges. According to this definition, astronomy measures the movements of celestial bodies, observes their influence on the natural world (such as the tides), and calculates their cycles in relation to the passage of time. ~eanwhi~e, judicial astrology (henceforth, simply "astrology") rehes on Jts cognate science, but additionally claims to interpret, and frequently to predict, the influence of those bodies on future events and moral

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determinations. 1 On the one hand, given this complex overlap, an author's body of work-or even a single work in itself-frequently defies characterization as either astrological or astronomical. 2 On the other hand, as Maimonides' position instantiates, certain medieval Jewish perspectives distinguished between the two forms of heavenly investigation, and treated them, accordingly, as two separate pursuits with differently defined religious and cosmic applications. To be sure, not all Jewish points of view disconnected the two sciences, but the mere fact that some did is sufficient to prove that a retrospective merging of astrology and astronomy poses the same historical and intellectual problems as does an anachronistic separation between them. In tracing the contours and problems of that distinction between the celestial sciences as it played out in certain Byzantine Jewish texts, a religious outlook takes shape as a possible explanation for the apparently paradoxical fact that the Jews were aware of the potentially occult characteristics of astrology, even as they overwhelmingly embraced its validity. Two well known, Hebrew-language, Byzantine-Jewish literary sources of tenth- and eleventh-century Southern Italy engage intensely with the celestial sciences, and they provide one possible framework for addressing this apparent paradox, in the context of a well defined period and location. Hebrew culture in Byzantine Southern Italy flourished in this period, the culmination of a shift in linguistic orientation first manifest in the increased use of Hebrew

on headstones in eighth-century Apulia. 3 Some of the notable compositions of tenth- and eleventh-century Byzantine Southern Italy include the Sefer Yosippon, a Hebrew abridgement of 4 Josephus' histories; Shabbetai Donnolo's (c. 913 to c. 982) Sejer hakhmoni, a commentary on the Sefer ye$irah, which is a lateantique, mystical cosmogony based on the Hebrew alphabet; 5 and the Chronicle of Ahimaaz, penned by Ahimaaz b. Paltiel in Capua in the year 1054, recounting his mythical and magical family story, which stretches back to ninth-century Oria-the hometown of Shabbetai Donnolo-and which is frequently cited in the context of 6 Byzantine-Jewish history. The last two works, the Sefer hakhmoni and the Chronicle, deal very explicitly with the stars, and crucially, they attribute their study to contemporary Jewish personages. 7 Additionally, both texts unambiguously embrace astrology, even as

Moses Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, tr. M. Friedlander, 2"" ed. (New York, 1904), 164-66 and idem, 'Epistle to Yemen' and 'Letter on Astrology', in A Maimonides Reader, ed. I. Twersky (New York, 1972), 453-54,467. Compare to the definition of Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911), 3:24, 27. Helpful commentary on Maimonides' distinction by G. Freudenthal, 'Maimonides' Stance on Astrology in Context', in Moses Maimonides, ed. F. Rosner and S. S. Kottek (Northvale, NJ and London, 1993), 77-90; H. Kreisel, 'Maimonides' Approach to Astrology' (Heb.), Proceedings of the Eleventh World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, June 22-29, 1993 C/2 (Jerusalem, 1994), 25-32. 2 Y. T. Langermann, 'Some Astrological Themes in the Thought of Abraharo ibn Ezra', in I. Twersky and J. Harris, eds. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra: Studies in the Writings of a Twelfth-Century Polymath (Carob ridge, Mass., and London, 1993), 65-74; G. Freudenthal, 'Maimonides' Stance', 77-84.

S. Simonsohn, 'The Hebrew Revival aroong Early Medieval Jews', in the Salo Wittmayer Baron Jubilee Volume, 3 vols. (Jerusalem, 1974), 857-58; G. I. Ascoli, lscrizioni inedite o mal note greche, Iarine, ebraiche di antichi sepo/cri giudaci del Napolitano (Turin, 1880) (originally published in Atti del IV Congresso lnternazionale degli Orientalisti tenuto a Firenze, 1878 [Florence, 18801); and H. J. Leon, 'The Jews of Venusia', Jewish Quarterly Review 44 (1954), 284; R. Bonfil, 'Cultura ebraica e cultura cristiana in !tali a meridionale,', in Tra due mondi (Naples, 1996), 17-18. ' The Josippon (Heb.), ed. D. Flusser, 2 vols. (Jerusalem, 1980), 2:79--89 in particular for the time and place of the publication of the Yosippon. ' Sh. Donnolo, Sefer hakhmoni [11 commento di Sabbetai Donnolo su/libro della creazione], ed. D. Castelli (Florence, 1880), in Sefer ye~irah (Jerusalem, 1965), 121-48. Other notable compositions by Donnolo. Sefer ha-mirqahot, ed. S. Muntner, in Rabbi Shabbetai Domwlo (Heb.), 2 vols. (Jersusalem, 1949), 1:7-23; idem, Sefer mazzalot, embedded in z. Frankel, in 'Der Kommentar des R. Joseph Kara zu Job', Monatsschrift for Geschichte zmd Wissenschaft des Judentums 6-7 (1857-58), 273; 260-62, 348-50. Notable also, on the periphery of the current subject, is the eleventh-century lexicon by Nathan b. Yehiel, Arukh shalem [Aruch Comp/etum], ed. A. Kohut (Jerusalem, 1970). 6 All references to The Chronicle of Ahimaaz, ed. and Eng. tr.. M. Salzman (New ork, 1924). Other important editions: Sefer Yuhasin: libro delle discende?ze, tntrod. and It. tr., C. Colafemmina (Cassano delle Murge, 2001); Megzllat Ahimaaz, ed. B. Klar, 2"" ed. (Jerusalem, 1973). J. Starr, The Jews in the Byzantine Empire (Athens, 1939), 149, citing Donnolo, Sefer hakhm01ti, 123; Sharf, Donnolo, vii. 1 In ~ntrast, for exarople, to the wisdom of the stars attributed to ~lexwtde~ ~e Great m the version of the Alexander Romance appended to the Joszppo?, 1.46 ,,' describing Alexander as accomplished in "every science and the constellauons .. "

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they betray a keen awareness of the problem of occult practice within Judaism. At the same time, despite their shared orientation, these texts differ markedly in their expression of two key relationships: that between astrology and the occult and that between astrology and astronomy. This stark variance between the two texts, together with the fact that they nevertheless share a fundamentally positive outlook on astrology, begs at least two questions about their ability to maintain orthodox Jewish positions and still to attribute a relatively high degree of moral and factual determinism to the stars. First, how do they reconcile astrology with Judaism's uncompromising claims to God's omnipotence and human free will? And second, given that both texts do indeed resolve that apparent paradox in very different fashion, is there a single religious framework that we might attribute to both of them? From the starting point of some recent scholarship, a model emerges for understanding Jewish astrology in the context .of ambivalence. Here, the scientific overlap between astrology, wtth its potential challenge to Jewish doctrine, and astronomy, which enjoyed elevated religious status as the vehicle for calendatio?, causes tension. The two sciences' common ground defies, m technical terms, a distinction that mirrors the Jewish ideological one, and as a result, the indeterminacy of that scientific boundary tests Jewish sensibilities. The problem with this model is that, though it applies to the Sefer hakhmoni, it does not apply to the Chronicle of Ahimaaz; the former expresses tension, the latter, insouciance. A single model that comports well with the view of both texts cannot, therefore, rely on ambivalence as a defining element. If instead we redefine astrology and astronomy in terms of homily (aggadah) and law (halakhah), respectively, astrology recedes to a non-binding conceptual realm that cannot impinge on the more demanding and authoritative category of law. In fact, it turns out that both of these Southern Italian Hebrew texts invokeperhaps unconsciously-these traditional categories of Jewish thought, and through them, they can share their embrace of astrology on terms that also allow for varied approaches to the science's occult associations.

II. THE TECHNICAL PROBLEM OF "FUZZY BORDERS"

Not surprisingly, astronomy and astrology exhibit what Shlomo Sela has termed, in other Jewish medieval contexts, "fuzzy borders". Sela traces the contours of this relationship in the theory and practice of the celestial sciences, by illustrating with technical precision how astronomy and astrology were variously paired and distinguished in Jewish medieval texts, depending on scientific context and convention. 8 The Hebrew language captures this complexity, as a partial sampling of medieval usage demonstrates. Some words apply primarily to one science or the other, while other words belong to both but with varying application among authors. Hebrew expresses astronomical methods mostly in terms of calculation (/.leshbon). 9 Meanwhile, words linked with interpretation tend to refer to astrological methods; for example, one understands (mevin) the hidden message of the stars. 10 The act of observation (l;laz.ot), logically common to both undertakings, appears in Abraham bar Hiyya's work in association with "the order, measure, and reckoning" of celestial motions, that is, astronomy, while for Maimonides, the term has the distinctly negative overtones of pseudo-science. 11 A related verb, habit, to see, similarly refers, _in the Chronicle, to earthly predictions based on celesl!al observation. 12 Hebrew terms for the scientists themselves and the celestial bodies they studied also pose similar difficulties. Mos_t pit~~y, Maimonides' use of the Talmudic word i${agnin (pl. l${agmmn) embodies the simultaneity of the overlap of, and distinction
8

and Work of Three Twelfth-Century Jewish Intellectuals', Aleph I (2000), 80,94ed. T. Preisler (Jerusalem, 1985), Laws of the ~ew Moon, ~ 7 : 24 A trology in Late 10 Ahimaaz, 16 (Heb.); K. von Stuckrad, 'Jewtsh and Christian s n-olo is its Antiquity', Numen 41 (2000), 6, argues ~at the sens; of ~~ thisg~orld. determination of the quality of time, as well as tts corresposn,,ences ha are 4-5 11 s 1 . . Ab ah m bar Hiyya e - 1 er sura 1 e a, 'Fuzzy Borders', 90, cttmg r a do-Science' Aleph I S. Stroumsa, '"Ravings": Maimonides' Concept of seu (2000), 146, 163. 12 Ahimaaz, 16 (Heb.).

S Sela 'The Fuzzy Borders between Astronomy and Astrology in the Thought

J~himaaz, 11 (Heb.); Starr, Jews, 208-09. Moses Maimonides, Mishneh Torah,

p

2%

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between, astronomers and astrologers. In his exposition of the laws of calendation, Maimonides uses this term to refer to those whose calculations confirm the calendrical cycle as observed in the phases of the Moon; here, the judgment of the istagninin's study is clearly positive. But he also connects the istagninin to those who attribute propitiousness to certain times, and in this case, Maimonides unambiguously disparages them as celestial diviners (bovrei shamayyim). 13 Also multivalent, words that denote the celestial bodies and their groupings may additionally connote the power they exert over this world. 14 Such is the case with the word mazzal (pl. mazzalot), which may mean either star or constellation, and kokhav, which includes the concepts of both star and planet. 15 At the lexical level, therefore, Hebrew offers ample opportunity for confusion between the sciences, but also real opportunity for distinction between them. The latter is panicularly true when the terms are contextualized, at which point even the only-partial specificity of the vocabulary may legitimately justify a functional distinction between the two sciences, despite the obligatory commonality of the sciences themselves and of the words that represent them. 16 Sela's apt concept of "fuzzy borders" therefore helps to concretize the problem of understanding astrology in a Jewish context, and it also leaves room for another, complementary view of the problem. Unlike natural astrology, which, as per Isidore of Seville, is simply occupied with sublunar bodies in the same fashion that supralunar bodies fall to astronomy, judicial astrology relates to astronomy on entirely other terms. 17 Judicial astrology is, by its very definition, a composite science, one that necessarily relies on raw astronomical data, and then proceeds from that data to offer an earthly
Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of the New Moon, 2:4, as against Laws on Idolatry, II :9-10; Sela, 'Fuzzy Borders', 67-80. 14 Donnolo, Sefer hakhmoni, 123a-b; Maimonides, Guide, 164; W. M. Feldman, Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy, 3'' ed. (New York, 1978), 79. "Maimonides, Guide, 168. 16 Feldman, Rabbinical Mathematics, 63-79, provides a list of the zodiacal signs, as does Donnolo, Sefer hakhmoni, 141 a-b. The opposite contexts of these texts render the distinction clear. 17 Cf. Isidore, Etymologiae, 3:27, where he defines two categories, astronomy and ?S~logy, the latter itself being made up of two components, the natural and the JUdlclal, the latter necessarily building on what we would today call "astronomy."
13

interpretation. From t?e point of view of judicial astrology, any distinction between Itself and astronomy belies their logical identity. Conversely, astronomy limits itself to the science of observation and calculation, and eschews the type and degree of interpretation that characterizes astrology. On its own terms astronomy occupies a distinct place, without any reference t~ astrology and not serving as its handmaiden, at which point we can fairly speak of it as a distinct undertaking. There is, therefore, in addition to fuzzy borders, a prevailing asymmetry between the celestial sciences that only further complicates their relationship in technical terms. So it is fitting that Byzantine-Jewish texts from Southern Italy should offer a comparably complicated ideological relationship to the sciences.

III. THE IDEOLOGICAL

PROBLEM ASTROLOGY AND THE OCCULT

OF

FUZZY

BORDERS:

Andrew Sharf, in his major work on Byzantine-Jewish astrology, imputes to the Jews the following ideological distinction between the two sciences: astronomy was mandated by God, and astrology was simply another foreign import with which the Jews had to find a modus vivendi. 18 In other words, the ubiquity of astrology overwhelmed Jewish qualms about it, which were based on its implications of an intermediary power in the universe, especially in terms of moral predetermination and free will. 19 Though decades prior to Sela's technical argument, Sharf's exposition nevertheless echoes it from an ideological perspective. As per Sela, the boundary between the sciences, though discernible, suffers from a notable lack of definition, which ultimately bespeaks underlying technical similarity. In corresponding fashion, ideological rejection, which necessarily distilled the judicial astrology out from astronomy merely responded to overwhelming Jewish acceptance of both
18 A. Sharf, The Universe of Shabbetai Donnolo (New York, 1976), 16-17; ide~, 'Shabbetai Donnolo as Byzantine Jewish Figure', in Jews and Other Minorities m d Byzantium (Rarnat-Gan, 1995), 171-72. " A. Marx, "The Correspondence between the Rabbis of Southern France an 58 Maimonides about Astrology' Hebrew Union College An11ual 3 (1926), 354- ' ad' d' arages m H BenTo a lesser degree, about the prediction of events, as Sa ta !Sp

Shammai, 'Saadia's Introduction to Daniel', Aleph 4 (2004), 70-74.

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sciences, which conflated or married them as natural truths of a larger system. 20 In short, Sharf's description of ambivalence largely depends on the tense simultaneity of two of astrology's qualities: 1) its association with meritorious astronomy and implied dissociation from the occult, and 2) its distinction from astronomy and concomitant association with the occult. In general terms, it is not at all clear that astrology necessarily falls under the heading "occult" from the Jewish perspective, though it undoubtedly may. Consequently, the underlying uncertainty of astrology's occult status opens up the possibility for conflation between it and, as Sharf points out, unimpeachable astronomy. The astrologer's claim that the stars and planets affect us at a spiritual and moral level by its very nature flirts with the occult, if we understand occult as embracing two defining elements: esotericism and a challenge to traditional Jewish doctrine of God's omnipotence (by virtue of the apparently competing power of astral determinism). 21 Nevertheless, this flirtation represents a threat-a potentiality-that may or may not be realized, so that the occult status of astrology defies easy determination. 22 Supporting the argument of ambivalence, a brief survey of sources on the subject concludes that the Jewish legal position regarding astrology, from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages, was inconclusive. 23 Even Maimonides' halakhic expression against astrology may be read as
w On the distinction between astronomy and astrology, for r,he purposes of condemning the latter, the newly published commentary on Daniel by Saadia Gaon, edited by Ben-Shammai, 'Saadia's Introduction to Daniel', 21-22, 68-70; also of note, ibid., n. 47, is Qirqisani's distinction between astronomy and astrology, for the same purposes. 21 E. Urbach, The Sages (Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1979), 277-78; Sela, 'Queries', 89-190. 21 Kreisel, 'Maimonides' Approach', 29. 23 See the concise survey by Y. Schwartz, 'Jewish Implications of Astrology', Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society 16 (1988), 6-23. Also, examples from Abraham ibn Ezra in R. Jospe, 'The Torah and Astrology According to Abraham Ibn Ezra', Proceedings of the Eleventh World. Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, June 22-29, 1993 C/2 (Jerusalem, 1994), 17-24; not to mention the concerns of the Proven~al rabbis, and their citation of the Geonim Sherira and Hai, in S. Sela, 'Queries on Astrology Sent from Southern France to Maimonides, Critical Edition of the Hebrew Text, Translation, and Commentary', Aleph 4 (2004), 99-10 I.

the exception that proves the rule of acceptance. 24 In this vein, it is particularly telling that the letter from the Proven~al sages to Maimonides, which inspired his famous reply known as the "Letter on Astrology," inquired about the legitimacy of astrology in terms of the reliability of its information. The French sages apparently took for granted that no legally binding prohibition pre-empted their 25 question. In parallel fashion, other speculative realms exhibit similar indeterminacy in Judaism. Even magic, broadly conceived of as the invocation of supernatural forces, falls under the occult only sometimes. Many forms of mystical theurgy and wonderworking walk a fine line between the occult and the orthodox, insofar as they appear to call on competing deities and forces, but claim to rely only on God. Depending on his orientation, a given Jewish authority may view such magic with horror or approval. The Chronicle, for example, condemns transfiguration and resurrection, but it embraces magical travel and astrology. 26 Admittedly, at least in Jewish circles, astrology was occasionally guilty-or perceived to be guilty-of association with those less ambiguous activities of the occult such as the invocation of the divine Name for personal
24 Maimonides, Sefer ha-mi$VOt, ed. T. Preisler (Jerusalem, 1985), no. 32, where astrology is defined as the ascription of propitiousness to a given day or hour. 25 Sela, "Queries," 122-23, "If there is foolishness in our questions and the conclusion of our utterances is silliness ... ", though the sages consider, PP 224-25, Maimonides' awaited-for response to be authoritative, as "halakhah give~ to Moses on Sinai", and they recognize serious halakhic considerations in the orbit of astrology, such as the fear of saying a prayer in vain, 103--D5. But, though these problems derive from astrology, they do not necessarily inhere in it. 26 Ahimaaz, 65-66 (Eng.), 4-5 (Heb.), on the sin of magical resurrection, as well as the generally positive quality of Aaron, who "made use of his wonderworkmg wisdom, to do very difficult and astonishing things"; 75, 77, on the acceptable use of the Divine name for magical travel; G. Scholem, Major Trends ~~~ Jewtsh Mysticism (New York, 1961 ), chap. 4; M. !del, Kabbalah: New Persp~cllv~s (Ne: Haven and London 1988) chaps 7-8 M. D. Swartz, Scholastic Magtc (Prmceto ' ' ' 'M deval 1996), 18-22. R. Brody The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shapmg o, e 1 b r Culture (New Haven ' Jtwtsh and London, 1998) 144 Cl'tes a famous reference tY Hay Gaon, the leader of Baghdadi Jewry in the first half of the ele~enth ce~twyal, mo . . al Maimonides 1s unequ1voc the credulity of Byzantine Jewry m matters magic p d 333 . . h. Guide for the erp1exe , hIS condemnation of judicial astrology m IS A trOlogy Mishneh Torah, Laws on Idolatry, 11:9-10; and his famous 'Letter on s '

463-73.

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gain, certain types of healing, divining, ne~romancy '1:1 . . all I . , etc. Add . 1.twn y, astro ogy. rehed heavily on pagan sciences and 1mphed some powerful mtermediary between God and man wh h . d caref uI ratiOn . al'1zation. 28 Astrologers thus inspired ' reqUire s IC 'h ty th i ' ! challenges, most notably those of Maimon'd ome we1g eo og1ca . I~ an dsaad1a Gaon (8~~-942). But. it is worth noting that they only 29 :arely faced a d~fimt1ve accu.satwn of illegality . The key legal 1ssue, Star-worship, an unamb1guous contravention of basic Jewish law, lu~ks behind astrology; scholarly arguments, including protestatiOns both against and in favour of astrology, frequently betray ~n appreciation o~ th~s peril. But the mere fact of astrology's ge~er~hzed accept.ance md1cates that it passed muster among the maJonty of Jews; It appears to fill some, but not all, of the criteria for occult status in terms oftheology. 30

Equally weak is the sense of esotericism that surrounds astrology. The persistent popularity of astrology among both the educated and uneducated classes implies a certain degree of public access that somewhat vitiates the notion of esotericism-even if the specific skill-set of celestial interpretation was not available to all (as a 1 probable etymology of the word i$(agnin implies)? Similarly, the thriving of astrology under the noses, as it were, of religious officialdom indicates that its audience was indeed a public one. In all, judicial astrology seems to hover somewhere on the line ~f.the occult, perhaps straddling orthodoxy and heterodoxy, esotenctsm and public access; and this ambiguity seems to have undermine~ a clear-cut distinction between it and astronomy, thereby smoothmg the way, at least in some measure, for its broad acceptance. This background evidence of ambiguity supports Sharfs inference of ambivalence in the aggregate, but individual opinions may evince no ambivalence whatsoever. In the present examples, the Sefer hakhmoni and the Chronicle of Ahimaaz, ambivalence in the former contrasts with unburdened credence in the latter. Donnolo, for his part, propounds astrological study, even as he bot~ betrays an awareness of Jewish rejectionism and, further, obliges h1mse.lf to offer an apology. In contrast, the Chronicle pointedly differentiates between astrology and unacceptably occult practices. Donnolo reveals his quandary in at least two interesting ways, both of them within the larger context of the foreign origins of the astral sciences, including both astronomy and astrology. First, in his introduction Donnolo acknowledges the dubiousness of astrology from the Je~ish perspective, using the concept of foreignness as code for idolatry:
. . . A few Jewish sages were wont to dism~ss the books by Jewish authors on the constellations as wtthout substance, because [these sages) did not understand them. They argued that the books dealing with the wisdom of the stars and . f th ntiles and that these constellations are the provmce o e ge . .h books were not written in accord with the worldvteW of JeWIS literature."

27

Mishnelz. Torah, Laws on Idolatry, II :9-10. Magic and astrology frequently went hand-m-hand; seeR. Barkai, 'Significado de las aportaciones de los judfos en el terreno de Ia medic ina, Ia astrologfa y Ia magia', in A. Saenz-Badillos, ed. Judfos entre arabes y cristianos (Cordova, 2000), 84--85. Byzantine Jewish magic, mor:over-su~h as we can discern it-fits at least two of the three components of magtc, ~ defm~d for Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages by Swartz, Scholastzc Magzc, 20. Medieval interpreters of the Talmud, Pesabim 113b, translated "Chaldeans" as either necromancers or astrologers. 28 The very pointed effort to distinguish oneself from the idolatrous astrologers of the pagan past reflects the consciousness of the connection see Barkai 'Significado', 82. ' ' "' Maimonides' famous polemical letter presents a rationalistic argument against ~e folly. of, astrology and the halakhic problem it raises. See Freudenthal, Matmontdes Stance', 87 and R. Lerner, 'Maimonides' Letter on Astrology', Hzswry of Religions 812 (1968), 147. Halevi's Kuzari, 1.79, does invoke heresy in relatton to.astr<;>log.y's association with divination, as does Babya ibn Paquda, The ::o; of Dzr.ectwn m the Duties of the Heart, tr. M. Mansoor (London, 1973), 282: . nterestm?ly. Mansoor notes that the section on astrology occurs only in the ongmal Arabtc, and is absent in all the mss of the Hebrew version by Ibn Tibbon. ~n contra.st, Saadia, in, his Introduction to Daniel, see Ben-Shammai, 'Saadia's ntroductt?n to Dante! , 27-28, restricts himself to the rationalistic charge and ~mams stlent on the halaklzah, as does Maimonides in other contexts. Je~u~capture.s the fine line between astrology's orthodoxy and heresy better than ) ~ ~;~' The Kuzari: tr. N. D. Korobkin (Northvale, NJ and Jerusalem, 1998 1 roo whe.re celestzal speculation contributes to a matrix of ideas that are both ,;th~ celestial al \ 0 ~ fatth and the root of heresy". If its source is divine revelation, History ~ /u ~~o;z .7e acce~table; otherwise, they are erroneous. Cf. c. Sirat, A ewiS I osophy m the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1985), 127.

31

. . J Le Worterbuch uber die S Sela 'Queries ' 133 6 <TtEYav6!;. cztmg vy, . . , Ta/;,.udim,und Midr~s~hin; (Darmstadt, 1963), 1:118, 'l~!agmnm 32 Donnolo, Sefer hakhmoni, i23b.

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As if buying in to this view, Donnolo gives up on those incredulous Jewish sages, but remains determined "to learn, to travel and to seek out the wisdom of the Greeks and that of the Muslims, and the wisdom of the Babylonians and Indians." In other words, Donnolo acknowledges that Jewish intellectuals viewed astrology with suspicion; and more than that, he hints that he, too, originally accepted the fact of astrology's associations with idolatrous peoples, Muslims notwithstanding. 33 In his second expression of ambivalence, Donnolo goes to great lengths to correct this perception of astrology as a foreign science. His method is simply to preempt this ideological challenge, by reversing the common wisdom regarding astrology's origins. In the course of his studies abroad, Donnolo recounts that he

Donnolo argues that the real roots of astrology lay close to the bosom of Israel, and he thereby attempts to reassure his readership that there is nothing about which to feel ambivalent. If astrologylost to the Jews as part of the punishment of their exile-appears pagan, it is only because nobody in his generation had apprehended the Jewish Baraita of Samuel as the root of all astral science. 35 So Oonnolo defends his research, but in presenting this apology he both confirms the prior problem of suspicion among his coreligionists and seems to fear the same attitude among his readership. As such, Donnolo's introduction to his patently astrological commentary on the Sefer yesirah confirms Sharf's overall impression of Jewish ambivalence towards to the topic. The Chronicle of Ahimaaz also muses on destiny and the stars, and also embraces astrology, but, unlike the Sefer hakhmoni, the Chronicle evinces no tension whatsoever with the occult. Quite the contrary, it differentiates astrology from other, more explicitly occult pursuits, which the Chronicle openly criticizes. For instance, whereas Paltiel, a "master of astrology," earns accolades for his astrological acuity, other figures are chastised for their magical indiscretions. 36 An "accursed sorceress" who turned a boy into a mule is called a "wicked woman." In another example, a young man who cheated death by manipulation of the divine Name is 37 required to confess his sin upon succumbing to death. Hananel, one of the story's other heroes, also missteps in this regard; he preserves a body-accidentally revivifying it-by placing the divine Name under the corpse's tongue. An angel comes in a dream to condemn Hananel's action, asking "why do you vex the Lord God?" 38 In its attitude toward these occult sciences, the Chronicle does not present a fine, porous line between them and astrology. Rather, it seems to confer legitimacy on astrology in direct measure

discovered that those [foreign books] were congruent, in every matter concerning the astral sciences, with the books of the Jews.... Furthermore, I realized from these books that all science of the stars and constellations is based on the Baraita of Samuel the Interpreter, and even the books of the gentiles agree with it. Samuel, however, purposely obfuscated in his book; so after I finished copying the books, I travelled the world in search of gentile sages, knowledgeable in the science of the stars and constellations, in order to leam from them .... Eventually I found among them one Babylonian sage by the name of Bagdash ... , all of whose wisdom jibed with the Baraita of Samuel, with all of the books of Israel and with the books of the Greeks and the Macedonians. But [in contrast to the Baraita of Samuel,] the wisdom of this sage [i.e., Bagdash] was clear and accessible in the extreme. 34

33

Ibid, " Ibid. This baraita, or rabbinic tradition extraneous to the canonical Mishnah, is attributed to Mar Samuel (c. 177-257), student of Judah the Prince (who compiled the Mishnah, c. 220), leading light of the Babylonian academy of Nehardea and eminent legist and astronomer. The Baraita of Samuel is briefly quoted by Sharf, Universe, 185, from edition in J. D. Eisenstein, O$ar midrashim (New York, 1915), 542-47. I infer "purposely" from the gist of the sentence, which implies that Samuel was being coy in the sensitive matter of mysteries.

" Donnolo, Sefer mazzalot, m Frankel, 6 :273, Parti'allY repr and tr. in Sharf. Donnolo, 45, 184 .. 36 Ailimaaz, 16 (Heb.), 88 (Eng.): 1~~':> V11' C1'J?OJ. ~ee below f~r fuller~x::~~~: 2 ' . th of Pal tiel's astrology p 310 n 56 Salzman, m h1s mtrO. to Ahtmaaz,ti 10 Paltiel as "so exceptlon.ally fa~ored, that his is the most conspicuous gure e chronicle." 37 Ibid., 3-5 (Heb.), 64-66 (Eng.). 38 Ibid., 10 (Heb.), 77 (Eng.).

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to its condemnation of unauthorized magic, implying a firm and unambiguous boundary between astrology and the occult. In brief, even though both Donnolo and the Chronicle remove astrology from the realm of the occult, they do so in very different ways. The former is subject to considerable ideological tension, while the latter accepts astrology without reservation. In order to dissociate astrology from the occult and neutralize its ideological threat, the Chronicle does not acknowledge the connection, whereas the Sefer hakhmoni faces it and defangs it. In these different approaches to the difficulty raised by astrology, the two texts do not adequately corroborate the general impression of religious ambivalence; they place, rather, ambivalence side-by-side with more naive acceptance.

appointed king over all of these [bodies], to guide them, in goodness and evil. ... " 39

Donnolo's work interweaves observation with interpretation of the celestial bodies' effects on matters of moral concern. Building on these premises, Donnolo produces an entire cosmology in which the stars correlate to the human character and body. 40 This correspondence, in tum, justifies Donnolo's claims to zodiacal melothesia, according to which the movements of these celestial bodies ultimately govem human physical and spiritual affairs. 41 Donnolo's system depends on a daring interpretation of Scripture, by means of which he establishes that there are divine, disembodied forces that complement physical ones. Both sets of forces administer the human condition, in that the divine force ultimately moves us while the physical forces constitute the stuff of our existence. Accordingly, our physicality distinguishes us from God, while our higher spiritual and moral plane (in diminutive measure as compared to God's) distinguishes us from the beastsY Thus framed, Donnolo's cosmology affirms orthodox Jewish monotheism, but cannot avoid walking the tightrope between heresy and orthodoxy in regard to the potential problem of dualismY His scriptural basis for this cosmology (Genesis I :26, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness") does not shy away from that dualism, but seemingly pushes the envelope even further. Donnolo clarifies:
"Donnolo, Sefer hakhmoni, 146a; cf. above, p. 303, n. 35. . .. For a partial parallel in Midrash, in which homologies relate natural phenomena: 10 including celestial ones, to the human body, see The Fathers ~ccording Rabb~ Nathan, tr. J. Neusner (Atlanta, 1986), 189-90; Hebrew verston: Avot deRabbl Nathan, ed. S. z. Schechter (Vienna, 1887), chap. 31,91-92. t' " For a full exposition of Donnolo ' s homo Iogy, see A Sharf 'Notes a sec'( ton h on M' s from Shabbetai Donnolo's Sefer hakhmoni' (Heb.), in Jews and Ot er mon" in Byzantium (Ramat-Gan, 1995), 19-34. 42 Donnolo, Sefer hakhmoni, 125a-126b, 127b. acity of "Sharf, Donnolo, 73-93; Genesis Rabbah, 8:3, ex~licitly addre~ses th~.c:: inspire the biblical passage, "Let us make man in our tmage and ~ ~~:~ tradition) ?eretical dualism: "R. Samuel bar N ahman [handed d?wn. t!'e ~e To~. he was m the name of R. Yonatan: in the course of M~ses wntmg 'And God said Writing each day's act [of Creation]. When he arnved .at the ve~e are giving the "Let us make man ... ,"' he said, 'Master of the Umverse, w Y heretics an opportunity to argue?"'

IV.

THE IDEOLOGICAL PROBLEM ASTROLOGY AND ASTRONOMY

01<'

FUZZY

BORDERS:

Just as Sefer hakhmoni and the Chronicle of Ahimaaz relate astrology to the occult on the basis of very different assumptions, so too, do they relate astrology to astronomy. Donnolo implicitly links astronomy with astrology, but the Chronicle clearly differentiates between prognostication and calculation, even though they both relate to the stars and both predict, in effect, future events. In their incongruity on this topic, Sefer hakhmoni and the Chronicle of Ahimaaz again provide very dissimilar models for absorbing and neutralizing astrology's inherent ideological difficulties. Much of Donnolo's work functions in the overlapping sphere that occupies both astrology and astronomy; most notably, perhaps, he relates the so-called "dragon", i.e., the path between the lunar nodes, to moral values. Donnolo explains that
when God created the firmament above us, which is divided into seven flrmaments, he also created the "dragon" from water and frre, in the form of a great monster like a great curved serpent. .. , and he extended it through the fourth celestial level, which is the middle firmament.. .and all the stars, luminescent bodies and constellations are fixed in it.... Indeed, it is

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Here is the explanation for the verse, "Let us make man in our image". After God created the entire universe, the supernal heavens, the angels, all the ministers of His glory, the land, the firmament, the waters, the trees, the grasses, the lights, the stars, the fish, the sea monsters, the fowl, and the animals that creep in the waters ... [etc.], He took counsel with His holy spirit to create man, who would be the appointed guardian and lord over all the creatures ... to rule over the world, to reign and oversee all of created heaven and earth, and to praise Him. So, He said to His [newly-created] universe, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. In My image and in your image, after My likeness and after yours". 44

Israelites for the sin of the Golden Calf. In the end, God deferred to Moses, not only in asking him beforehand but also in subsequently honouring His prophet's preference to preserve the Israelites. God respects, in effect, the extension of His own authority that He delegated to us. The health of that relationship relies, however, on our success in living up to God's aspirations for us. The correlation between the human body and the universe that created it accounts for our physical and mental makeup and, by extension, whether or not we live up to those expectations. Accordingly,
God made for [man] a spherical head, like the firmament of heaven that is above the firmament of this world. He gave him the upper palate above the mouth, in which the teeth and jaw are planted, in the likeness of the firmament of this world, above us. And just as He separates this firmament that is above us between waters- between the upper waters and the lower waters- so too, does the upper palate of the mouth separate between the humour of the head and that of the upper digestive tract, called the stomach. Similarly, just as God rested His holy presence in the upper heavens, which covered the waters, as it says in Scripture, "He who roofed the waters with His rafters" (Ps. 104:3), so too, He placed the animated soul, knowledge, and discernment in the membrane of the brain, which is wrapped around the brain and its humour. This is evident, because if the brain is ruptured, a person will die immediately, for there resides the life-force .... [Further,] just as God placed the two lights ... in the heavenly firmament, so too, he put two eyes in man's head. The right eye is like the Sun and the l~ft resembles the Moon .... And just as God made the celestial dragon in the universe and stretched it out over the firmament, from east to west, from end to end, as well as the stars and the constellations and everything in the universe that is branchmg from it, so too, He made the spinal cord inside the vertebrae, extending from the brain to the pelvis."

In this extraordinary argument, Donnolo claims that the created universe joined God as partner in the creation of human beings, with each partner defining one component of our nature and abilities. God, the initiator and senior collaborator in the project of man's creation, defines our position in the universe:
Just as God is superior to and rules over man and the entire universe above and below, so too shall man do, as long as he follows his Creator's will. Thus, for example, to our master Moses, peace be upon him, the Blessed Creator said regarding the [Golden] Calf, "Allow me, and I will destroy [the Children of Israel] .... ""

By invoking the divine aspect of our constitution, Donnolo illustrates two critical aspects of the divine-human relationship. First, he explains that human propagation into perpetuity is dependent on conformity to God's will. Our success in living up to the standard of the divine within us can be measured in terms of our ability to "use the evil inclination to transform those things normally generated by it into [acts characterized by] the fear of God, without sin or offense .... " 46 When we do so we act as the deputies of God, which is the second charac~eristic of the relationship as Donnolo sees it. Quoting Deut. 9:14, Donnolo argues that God needed to confer with Moses before destroying the
.. Donnolo, Sefer hakhmoni, 126b. "Ibid. .. Ibid., 127b, 129a.

Here it is the microcosmic analogy of the physical universe to man that ~ccounts for the relationship of celestial bodies to our ow?, . b d. r us 48 This power, m whtch shapes the power of those o tes ove
"Ibid., 127b; Sharf, Donno/o, 55, 170-72. "J the universe is full "Donnolo, Sefer hakhmoni, 127a-b, 129b. From 129b: ust a~1de among secrets of God's glory, as it is written (Jer. 23:24), '"Man cannot

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the form of the celestial dragon, reigns "in the universe like a king on his throne", and below it, a descending hierarchy rules "over the two bodies of light, the five planets, and over every deed in the universe, both good and bad". 49 Thence, each part of the body, as well as our appetites and inclinations, reflects the motions and qualities of celestial bodies. 50 So it is that, by dint of its participation in our creation, the physical or celestial universe exerts significant power over us-on the face of it a rather audacious reading of the creation of man and one that seamlessly interlaces the observational and the interpretational, like "the warp and weft on 'the weaver's beam"'. 51 In very different fashion, the Chronicle of Ahimaaz treats judicial astrology and astronomy as separate undertakings, with different methods, purposes and results. Equally as bold as Donnolo in many respects, the eleventh-century Chronicle presents side-by-side portraits of the astronomer and astrologer for ready contrast. Although the Chronicle, from the social-historical point of view, poses many challenges inherent to its legendary content, from the perspective of cultural history it provides an unselfconscious account of this distinction between the celestial sciences. 52 Two relatives, protagonists of the Chronicle, play the all-butunrelated roles of seer and scientist. The elder of the two, Hananel, was the second son of the family patriarch, Amittai, and lived in the latter half of the ninth century. He, like his brothers, looms large in the Chronicle as a pious wonderworker and learned mystic. One
without My seeing him," says the Lord; "Do I not fill both heaven and earth?" says the Lord.' Thus is the living spirit of man, which is like a microcosm, from his feet to his head, from end to end, to the tips of his fingers and toes." Though this appears to be a spiritual comparison, it is in fact a physical comparison of the universe to man, insofar as both are analogously filled with God's glory. Cf. Sharf, Donnolo, 31, 52. Donnolo, Sefer hakhmoni, 147b. "'!hid., 147a. "!hid., 146a, 147b, referring to I Sam. 17:7; Sharf, Donnolo, !83. " Historical analysis of the mythological aspect of the Chronicle by R. Bonfil, 'Mito, retorica, storia: saggio sui "rotolo di Ahima' az"', in Tra due mondi (Naples, 19?6), 121-33; and idem, 'Can Medieval Storytelling Help Understanding Mtdrash? The Story of Paltiel: a Preliminary Study on History and Midrash', in The Midrashic Imagination, ed. M. Fishbane (Albany, 1993), 228-54.

story, however, ignores the mystical and presents, rather, a very this-worldly picture of astronomical calculation. In an encounter with the local archbishop, Hananel finds himself in a
discussion of the calculations that were prescribed for detennining the appearance of the new Moon. On the morrow of that very day there was to be a new Moon, which according to Israel's custom, was to be held sacred. [The archbishop] asked [Hananel] in how many hours the new Moon would appear. R. Hananel answered by naming a certain hour, but he was mistaken. The archbishop disputed his opinion and said, "If that is your calculation on the appearance of the Moon, you are not skilled in calculation". R. Hananel had not given thought to the time of the appearance of the new Moon, but the archbishop had calculated it and knew; he had cast his net for R. Hananel, and would have caught him in his snare had not the God of his salvation come to his aid.

Still unaware of his error, Hananel takes the archbishop up on a bet, according to which he agrees to apostatize if proven wrong. Then, Hananel goes home, where
he went over his calculation and found his error, by which he had failed in his reckoning.... As the time of waxing approached ... he called, in distress and tears, upon Him that hears the supplications of His beloved, "0 God, Ruler of the universe nothing is hidden from You. I have not been presump;uous, but have innocently erred and committed folly .... Forgive my error and pardon my wrongdoing.""

God obligingly intervenes to save Hananel, by shifting the Moon's phase to vindicate his erroneous calculation and to con~ute t~e archbishop's correct one. God's intervention notwithstandmg, thts anecdote deals in objective, astronomical reality that respects . . . nor man, nor does 1t presume to t mpinge on matters ne1ther rehgwn of moral or spiritual orientation.
. fu d entally from that Hananel's astronomical problem d1ffers n am . "b d . 'k H 1 who IS desert e wh1ch his descendant later faces. Unh e anane ' d Paltt"el hIS great-gran son as a legal expert as well as a mystic,

" Ahimaaz, 78-80, 94 (Eng.); 11-12, 19-20 (Heb.), where be feels that the

scholars should not defer to him.

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engages in lexically-and narratively-marked astrology, and bears the soubriquet "understander of mysteries", without corresponding, explicitly rabbinic credentials. 54 In fact he seems to enjoy a position of privilege expressly distinct from that of the scholars. As his story develops, Paltiel's astrological prowess, like the astronomical skill of his great-grandfather Hananel, comes out in relation to a nonJewish leader. 55 In the mid-tenth century of the Chronicle's reckoning, al-Mu'izz, the future caliph of Fatimid Egypt, invades Southern Italy, including Oria. There he encounters the Chronicle's protagonists, and Paltiel, prominent among them, rises to a position of trust in al-Mu'izz's entourage. Now the conqueror's advisor, Paltiel takes an evening stroll with his master, and gazing at the stars they see
the commander's star consume three stars, not all at one time, but in succession. And al-Mu'izz said to [Paltiel], "What meaning do you find in that?" R. Paltiel answered, "Give your interpretation first." The commander replied, "The stars represent the three cities Tarentum, Otranto and Bari, that I am to conquer." R. Paltiel then said, "Not that, my lord; I see something greater; the first star means ... Sicily, the second ... Africa, and the third, Babylonia". Al-Mu'izz at once embraced him and kissed him, took off his ring and gave it to him, and took an oath saying, "If your words come true, you shall be master of my house and have authority over my kingdom" .56

be taken off. The first king is John the Greek, the second, the king of Baghdad, in the north", then the king hastening to interrupt him said, "You are the third, the king of the south", but [Paltiel] replied to the king, "No, my lord, for I am a Jew; the third is the king of Spain". But the king said, "You are in truth the third as I say". Sure enough, in that year Paltiel died."

The patently astrological nature of these accounts requires only brief comment. 58 From the point of view of narrative, the indeterminacy of interpretation comes through in clear distinction from the natural fixedness of Hananel's astronomical calculation. Al-Mu'izz's deputizing of Paltiel is conditional, pending the realization of the latter's prediction. Similarly, the narrator does not telegraph Paltiel' s death as predetermined truth in the same way that he categorically defines Hananel's calculation as error. The protagonists discover the truth and error of Paltiel's respective prophesies at the same time as the reader does, whereas Hananel's mistake constitutes a narrative fact of the story, established before it even dawns on Hananel himself. The Chronicle grants that the stars have real power, no doubt, but humans interact with that power on terms unrelated to those that govern astronomical calculation. Taking the Sefer hakhmoni and the Chronicle of Ahimaaz with their very different understandings of astrology's connections to astronomy and the occult, the thesis of fuzzy borders proves too limited. The Sefer hakhmoni works within an astrological set of assumptions that directly and seamlessly relies on astronomy; the Chronicle of Ahimaaz only implicitly recognizes the overlap, a?d at every tum treats the two sciences as utterly separate undertakm?s. In parallel fashion, the Sefer hakhmoni engages in astrology with religious ambivalence towards its occult associations-perhaps even revealing the author's own misgivings. Meanwhile, the Chronicle casts no occult shadow on the science of astrology

When al-Mu'izz dies after realizing the prophecy, Paltiel stays on as vizier to the new caliph, and together they repeat the evening stroll:
R. Paltiel and the king were walking in the open and they saw
three bright stars disappear; in an instant their light had vanished. R. Paltiel said, "The stars that have been eclipsed represent three kings who will die this year; and they will soon

Ahimaaz, 62 (Eng.); 3, 20 (Heb.): nmo )'JI:lS. Benin, 'Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Byzantine Italy', in Judaism and Islam, Boundaries, Communications, and Interactions: Essays in Honor of William M. Brinner, ed. B. ~ary, et al. (Lei~en ~d Boston, 2000), 30-31. . Fo~ the. considerations of the family tree, see the most recent translation and h1stoncal mterpretation of Paltiel and al-Mu'izz in C. Colafemmina's introduction to Sefer yuhasin: libro delle discendenze 31-38 56 Ahimaaz, 88-89 (Eng.); 16-17 (Heb.).' .

54

58

"Ibid., 96-97 (Eng.); 21 (Heb.). . h1 'b 1 't and the On the lexical indicators, in the first case the Chromcle uses ' . d both subject to contextual . to other second .hozim, both referring to visual perception, an . 1 y For companson mterpretation as regards either astronomy or a~tro og of Maimonides; for 1 usage, see S. Stroumsa, '"Ravings"', 146, 16~, 10 the con~~cal sense. see above, Abraham bar Hiyya's use of the second word 10 the astron

n.II.

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whatsoeve_r. In sum: _if the . ~ommon geographical, linguistic, chronologiCal and rehg10us ongms of both texts justifies a search for some shared sensibility regarding ASTROLOGY AND
ASTRONOMY, WE MUST LOOK ELSEWHERE FOR IT.

V. HALAKHAH AND AGGADAH

We can only surmise a religious worldview that accounts at once for the divergent attitudes of the two texts and their shared conclusion in favour of astrology. Still, within that limitation, we might imagine a radical conceptual break between the celestial sciences, instead of attributing religious ambivalence to astrology as a function of scientifically fuzzy borders between it and astronomy. Such a break may be drawn along lines that correspond to the border between two deeply engrained modes of Jewish thought known as halakhah (pl. halakhot; binding legal norms of behaviour and ritual) and aggadah (pl. aggadot; non-binding, non-legal, speculative or homiletical interpretations and literature). Such a heuristic redraws and solidifies the border between the sciences, beca_use i~ is unconcerned with the technical and ideological mamfestat10ns of ambiguity and ambivalence. Halakhah, as correlated to astronomy, is concerned only with calculation as the tool ~or th: measurement of time; aggadah embraces everything ~lse, mcludmg not only astrology but also astronomy that feeds into It (as opposed astronomy that serves the calculation of time). The merit_ of this halakhah-aggadah heuristic is that it provides a plausible model, in which both the Chronicle's unburdened embrace of, and the Sefer hakhmoni's ambivalent accession to, astrology make sense. This, because in either case, astrology-asaggadah allows significant theological latitude without encroaching on the halakhic demands of astronomy. 59

Halakhah and aggadah, though frequently associated with particular genres of literature, also function as primordial epistemological orders of relevance. In this hierarchy, halakhah reigns unchallenged; it is the this-worldly enactment of divine Law in all its possible permutations, applicable to every eventuality in life, including, for example: diet, worship, sexual relations, ethical behaviour, and the religious calendar. As Jacob Neusner puts it, "I assign priority to the Halakhah for the same reason everyone else who has ever studied Rabbinic Judaism does. The Halakhah defines the practice of the faith, the norms of conduct, and these bear the message, the professions, of the faith as well, embodying belief in concrete behaviour." 60 It spells out, in other words, the Jews' specific contractual obligations in their unique covenant with God. Halakhah, therefore, by its very nature enjoys immediate and compelling relevance, not only as a system of religious values but also as a guide for daily life; and among the various realms of halakhah, none touched upon the lives of individuals and communities in the Middle Ages more directly and universally than the measurement of time. In serving this halakhic function as the metronome of Jewish time, with its myriad implications for social organization, the calendar embodied the social and spiritual function of halakhah as a compulsory code of life. Many of the divine Commandments are time-bound, in particular the celebration of the Sabbath and holidays; their proper observance entails not only detailed ritual, but also dietary restrictions, such as the Yom Kippur fast and abstinence from leaven on Passover. Additionally, work and travel are strictly forbidden on holidays, a fact that directly governed commercial and communal interaction. In addition to these underlying the social and legal concerns, the Pentateuch, beginning with Creation, clearly describes the c~endar as the existential rhythm of the cosmos, which lends time a numinous quality. For all these reasons, the calendar eventu~ly inspired a desire for uniformity among the Jewish people, to whtch they responded in the ninth century and definitively in th~ tenth, with the development of a standardized calendar-one which pre"' . . F urth Series. Category]. Neusner, Major Trends in Formative JuuaiSm, o Formation, Literature and Philosophy (Lanham, MD, 2002), 66.

A. Rosenak, 'Aggadah and Halakhah' (Heb.), in A Quest for Ha/akha, ed. A. Barho~z (Jerusalem, 2003), 286--94; L. Silberman, 'Aggadah and Halakhah', in ~';:Life of the Covenant, ed. J. Ede1heit (Chicago, 1986), 223-34; Y. Nafua, 'On 'Hal~~~ Aggadah'.(Heb.), Derekh ephratah 3 (1993), 183-203; z. Kagan, d Aggadah. The Paradoxtca1 Connection' (Heb ) Mehkere mishpat 18 (2002), 213-18. .

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empted regional halakhic diversity that applied to other matters of similarly quotidian bearing. 61 Jewish leadership, during a long and complicated process, gradually replaced direct lunar observation with astronomical calculation, for the purpose of determining the lunar cycles and intercalating them with the solar cycles. 62 In this way, since the fourth century c.E., astronomy played an increasing, if controversial, role in predetermining the Jewish lunisolar year. 63 And though the precise mathematical formulae and the applications remained in flux for some centuries, the principal of calculation based on astronomy prevailed. 64 The final stage of standardization took the form of a fierce dispute between Saadia Gaon, the pre-eminent Iraqi authority, and Aaron ben Meir, his Palestinian counterpart, ultimately settling in favour of the former. 65 The bone of contention, i.e., the determination of the length of the year A.M. 4682 (C.E. 921922), utterly presumed both the common principles of astronomical calculation and the fact of their applicability as Law to the entire

Jewish world; the disputants merely challenged one another's determination of the mathematically-defined threshold of the Jewish New Year. That the prestige and power of the disputants hinged directly on this debate merely reflects its centrality for the 66 entire Jewish world, crossing all boundaries of geography or class. Thus, by the tenth century, and the lifetime of Shabbetai Donnolo, astronomical calendation under girded the very functionality of Jewish life, so that, despite the patent overlap between the celestial sciences, medieval Judaism necessarily distinguished between them in terms of the indeterminacy of astrology's occult status, on the 67 one hand, and astronomy's halakhic necessity on the other. The legal and practical implications of astronomically based calendation find eloquent and pithy expression in the KaraiteRabbanite debate. 68 The Rabbanites, the large majority of Jewry and heretofore referred to simply as "Jews", constituted the mainstream of Judaism and defined themselves by their adherence to both Scripture, also called the Written Law, and Talmud, or the Oral Law. Their opponents, the Karaites, had coalesced in ten_th-century Palestine into an important dissenting group that reJected the 69 bb . authority of the Talmud, its adherents and Its ma~ters. Ra_ . amtts and Karaites recognized one another as Jews ethmcally, reh~wu~ y, nationally, and linguistically; but the stumbling block of dtffenng religious authority prevented mutual acceptance in many matters of

61

S. Stem, Calendar and Community (Oxford, 2001), 232-41. E.g., one of the most glaring aspects of lzalakhic diversity, the question of polygyny came to the fore as a legal matter around the tum of the first millennium in the Rhineland but not in Muslim lands. In custom, European Jewry had abandoned polygyny some time prior. but de jure, only in that period did R. Gersh om, 'Light of the Exile', outlaw it; L. Finkelstein, Jewish Self-Government in the Middle Ages (New York, 1924; repr. 1964), 20-36. 62 Stem, Calendar, 241-75. 63 S. Gandz, Studies in Hebrew Astronomy and Mathematics (New York, 1970), 74, dates the shift to calculation to 359, according to a reference by medieval Hebrew astronomer Abraham b. Hiyya, Sefer lza-ibbur, 3:7. Stem, Calendar, 13954; idem, 'Fictitious Calendars: Early Rabbinic Notions of Time, Astronomy and Reality', Jewish Quarterly Review 87 (1996), 103-29, examines the dissonance between empirically erroneous calculations and the assumptions and claims that they reflected reality, demonstrating the difficulties of the undertaking and the gradual process of codification into the Middle Ages. 64 For the Talmudic evolution of the calendar, see Feldman, Rabbinical ':!~thematics, 178-210; the Babylonian Talmud itself reflects the problems of Jtbmg the computed with the observed lunar phases in one of its most famous passages, Rosh Hashanah 24a-25b. Most importantly S Stem Calendar 98 17075,254. ' . ' ' '
65

66

H. Malter, Saadia Gaon (Philadelphia, 1921), 69-88; Stem, Calendar, 264-68; M.D. C~suto, 'About What Did Saadia Gaon and b. Meir Dispute?"'(Heb.), in Rav Saadta Gaon, ed. J. L. Fishman (Jerusalem, 1943), 333-64.

f h th century The eminent . d. t d Later stages only ratified the conclusions o t e ten 'd Rabad of Posqu1eres. 1spu e .. M . f c . (read twelfth-century /zalaklzist and cnt1c of a1mom es, . h uestwn o ,ore1gn questions of astronomy, unafraid of engagmg m t e q d th dar See . h. the law an e ca1 en idolatrous) astronomy, in for the sake of establ IS mg . M ) 2641962 the analysis of I. Twersky, Rabad of Pos~uier~s (Cambndgetlve ~~for ha;,i~vot, 68. Though later, the example of Maimon~des IS also mstru~ 'alculate the years positive commandment no. 153: "To sanct1fy the months an. to c (Ex !22) . a1 rt as Scripture says and months only by the power of the rabbtniC cou. . g the months 'This month is for you the first of the months; first IS It for you arnon of the year"'. 6's tern, Calendar, 264-68. . . . wntium (New York and 68 For an apt discussion, see Z. Ankon, Karmtes 111 8 yz Jerusalem, 1959), ch. 7. 1970 esp. the repr. of the 69 See P. Birnbaum, ed., Karaite Studies (~ew ~orkW 't' ~of Sa'adiah Gaon'. classic articles by S. Poznanski, 'The Antt-Karatt~ di~ ~:on' 129-234. ' 89-128, and 'The Karaite Literary Opponents of Sa a

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. . an d law. 70 One emblematic point of dispute was doctnne, practtce

the calendar. The Karaites reckoned their calendar based on direct observation of the new Moon associated with Passover and the arrival of agricultural spring in the Land of Israel, in accordance with ancient practice and the biblical text. 71 Meanwhile the Rabbanites increasingly, and by the tenth century completely, relied on uniform astronomical calculation of the phases of the Moon and intercalation with the solar calendar. Various primary sources, including a Byzantine letter from the Cairo Genizah, capture the deep rift between the two factions especially as relates to the ongoing struggle of each side to justif; its own calendar. 72 A Hebrew, Rabbanite missive dated to the eleventh century on paleographic grounds and attributed to Byzantium on the basis of its mention of the Byzantine coin, the hyperpyron, illustrates the practical and legal implications of this longstanding debate. In it, the unnamed author complains of Karaite politicking, pointing out that
... the Karaites again fought against us last year. They desecrated the divine festivals, and celebrated the New Year in the eighth month [i.e., one month late by Rabbanite reckoning], for they had received letters from Palestine stating that the barley-ripening had not yet been seen in Nissan [the appointed month of Passover], so the Passover had to celebrated in lyyar [the following month]. A violent enmity developed between us, and many disputes took place. The Karaites slandered [us,] the Rabbanites, and [our] congregation was fined almost one thousand dinars hyperpyra. 73

This fortuitous document not only captures the halakhic immediacy of the calendar, but more trenchantly, places astronomical calculation in the forefront of competing claims to orthodoxy. Echoing the irreducible demands of calendrical adherence, the Chronicle of Ahimaaz approaches physical astronomy in a way that highlights its halakhic function. Lexical and narrative elements of the story of Hananel reflect both a purely astronomical orientation and a specific set of legal associations. First of all, the language of calculation, as opposed to interpretive stargazing, is quite precise, 74 and matches terms that appear in other texts on astronomy. Second, the story treats a situation in which objective knowledge is either right or wrong; that is, a natural set of truths applies to the cosmos independently of religious claims. More to the point, adherence to the natural order of time imposes particular strictures on the Jew, and indeed, the stakes are higher than at first they appear. Hananel brings the quandary of apostasy on himself, insofar as he accepts the bet, but this self-imposed peril actually sets the stage for the real crisis, namely, the commission of a sin. Hananel errs in a matter of law, and he must submit himself to God's mercy, by means of a formal prayer, "forgive my error and pardon my wrongdoing". 75 Ignoring such legal concerns, astrology as described by both the Sejer hakhmoni and the Chronicle of Ahimaaz falls to the very different mode of aggadah. Aggadah constitutes 7:n altog~ther looser and less authoritative category than halakhah. Late-antique and medieval Talmudic authorities, the primary tradents of ?oth " h 1 khah can be denved halakhah and aggadah, agree that no a a . from aggadot", thereby freeing individuals to a;cept or ~eJect non. .. h . demands And thts freedom . halakh tc tradttlons as t etr consctence correlates to aggadah's great breadth; all lore that falls o~tstde ;~~ essential and binding category of halakhah may be satd to
. Seta 'Fuzzy Borders'. 72. In reference to both Maimonides and Bar Hiyya. see Moon 17:24. 82. Specifically. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of the ew "Ahimaaz, 78-80 (Eng.); 11-12 (Heb.). . 21 Z2 9 76 J. Frenkel, Midrash and Aggadah (Heb.) (Tet-AviVi~-~ ~)Sc Hai Gaon in B. M. n Pe'ah 2:6, 17a; Ma'aser Sheni 3:9, 51 a; Shabbat ' Lewin, O$ar ha-Geonim (Jerusalem, 1928-43), 4:59-60.

70

71

J. Olszowy-Schlanger, Karaite Marriage Documents from the Cairo Genizah (Leiden and New York, 1998), 4-7. Exodus 9:31, 34: 18. :See L. Nemoy, ~ara~te An_thology (New Haven, 1952), 5, 38. Cambndge Umversity Library, Taylor-Schechter 20.4. First published by J. Mann, Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature, 2 vols. (Cincinnati, 1931-35), 1:51. Present translation adapted from Starr, Jews, 182-84; Starr reads
1"l1~'K ('YPRNYYR),

74

which does not correspond to unQmJQa. However, close examination of the m~uscript clearly reveals the letters ,,~,~K('YPARPYR), which correspond nicely With UltllQJtiJQ.

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under the category of aggadah. 78 Aggadah is also identified imprecisely, with the genre of late-antique, rabbinic literatur~ known as Midrash, though Midrash in fact includes both aggadic and halakhic texts, just as aggadah also peppers the predominantly halakhic co~us of Talmud. 79 More than merely a literary genre, therefore, thts catch-all refers to the affective mode of Jewish thinking that is characteristic of legends, homilies, ethical lessons, parables, mysticism, etc. 8 Cast thus, astrology is cordoned off and comparatively unmoored as aggadah. It cannot possibly speak to the basic and obligatory considerations of law, and cannot, therefore, inspire any response-either positive or negative-of comparable moment. 81 Aggadah certainly has the capacity to challenge and test orthodoxy by means of risky ideas, but if anything, it functions as a safe context for daring theological speculation, because once distinguished from halakhah, it cannot materially menace it. As an aggadic approach to interpreting the

heavens, astrology opens a space for ambiguity, ambivalence and . 82 even heterodoxy. In stark contrast to astronomy and the halakhic concerns that surround it, aggadah defines the astrology of Donnolo and the Chronicle alike. Donnolo is aware of the fact that his case for the collaborative generation of man at the hands of God and His created universe risks offending Judaism's core monotheistic sensibilities. So he tempers his reading with an unobjectionably orthodox 83 exposition of God's ultimate power and free will. But in any case, all of his astrological and cosmological daring never leaves the fold of the established interpretive tools of aggadah. Genesis Rabbah, a classical, verse-by-verse, aggadic reading of Genesis compiled as early as the fifth century, already addresses the same scriptural problem in similarly bold terms and by means of the same exegetical methods. 84 The rabbis, the interlocutors of th~ text, test out various interpretations to account for the troubling plural subject of the Genesis verse, "Let us make man in our image": Th~y ask "With whom did God take counsel? R. Joshua b. Levt srud, with the created heaven and earth did He take counsel"'. The continuing exposition then goes in a very different direction f~om that of Donnolo, but the exegetical infrastructure of cla~st.cal rabbinic aggadah obviously underlies his own. Equally exphcttly and directly aggadic is Donnolo's fragmentary, largely astronomical work, Sejer mazzalot. There he explicat~s the m?uons of the Pleiades and Ursa Minor by means of a mythtcal read~ng ~f Genesis and the book of Job.85 Additionally, Joseph Kara, 10 hts
y T L rmann Acceptance and On similar lines to those proposed by ange ' h Thought 0 1 Devaluation: Nahmanides' Attitude towards Science' Journ~l ~ ew~ accepted and Philosophy 1/2 (200 I), 223-45. Rabbis variOuslythrejett . a~rejection of judicial astrology Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat I56a, IS e c assic . R bbah astral powers ov~r the Jews, "Israel has no constellation", but Genesis a . 11 . th t empowers It to grow. 10:6 attributes to every blade of grass a conste ation . a f th Biblical Flood. see 83 On God's repositioning of the stars to call off the rams 0 e Donnolo, Sejer mazza/ot, 2:261-62, and below, n. 85. . 19 84 Genesis Rabbah 8:3; Strack and Sternberger, lntroductiOI~~ ' d be He. brought 0 85 Donnolo, Sejer mazza/ot, 7:349: "When the Holy ;::'~ Pl::~es, and the tlood forth the flood on the earth, He took two stars from b H sought to remove the broke forth on the earth. When the Holy One, Bless1 ~ U~~a Minor and he tiUed waters from the face of the earth, he took two stars roF th treason Ursa Mm<" in the vacant spaces of the two stars in the Pleiades. or a '
82

78 H. L. Strack and G. Sternberger, Introduction to Talmud and Midrash (Minneapolis, 1996), 237-40. 79 A typical example is Pesiqta Rabbati, ed. R. Ulmer (Atlanta, 1997), 408-19, in which Creation unfolds in terms of the zodiacal year and each constellation's characteristics. J. H. Charlesworth, 'Jewish Astrology in the Talmud, Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Early Palestinian Synagogues', f!arvard Theological Review 70 (1977), 183-88, describes the variety of opinions m the Talmud. This variety does not, in and of itself, correlate to either halakhah ~r aggadah, insofar as both leave ample room for disagreement. The difference hes m what one does with the disagreement. In matters of halakhah, one cannot ~imply abstain from opining; a choice must be made regarding the course of action m fulfilment of the Law. In matters of aggadah, by contrast, one may expatiate, challenge, or simply ignore. Charlesworth also briefly discusses a Shabbat 156a156b where the topic arises in typically aggadic mode. Other well known passages include Nedarim 32a and Bava Batra 16b. "'There are points at which halakhah and aggadah seem to overlap, see D. Gordis, Scnpture and Halakhah in Parallel Aggadot', Prooftexts 5 (1985): 183-91, even though the categories are generally invoked as fundamentally different. " Cf. Maimonid~s, who attacked astrology in public and halakhic contexts, in an effort frame his argument more forcefully and perhaps to hide his secret agenda, ru;,<:<>rdmg to Freudenthal, Maimonides' Stance', 85, 87. But, even taking his o JCCUons to astrology at face value as simple rejections of judicial astrology, they can do no more than establish astrology as a danger to halakhah or a slippery slope. Idolatry proper is not identified, wholesale and halakhical/y, with astrology, but It does th~~ten t~ le~ to it; see Y. T. Langermann, 'Maimonides' Repudiation of Astrology ,m Mazmomdean Studies (New York, 1991), 2:128-9.

I?

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commentary on the book of Job (the only extant source for the Sefer mazzalot) takes Donnolo's astronomy in precisely this aggadic sense, and specifically quotes Genesis Rabbah-in the same section of that midrash where R. Simon avers that "no blade of grass exists except as under its constellation"- in order to interpret, together with Donnolo, the movements of the Pleiades. 86 In brief, Donnolo explicitly frames his entire cosmology and judicial astrology in these standard and familiar aggadic terms, where ambivalence and theological daring can flourish, without encroaching on the fundaments of Jewish doctrine and law. The Chronicle, in similar fashion, casts Paltiel as the interpretive astrologer, whose skill profits him, but whose interpretations do not impinge on the realm of divine law. 87 His endeavours as an interpreter of the heavens belong to that broad category of aggadah-not in the sense of Donnolo's classical exegesis, but rather in the default sense of aggadah as all that which is not halakhah. Paltiel's readings are indeterminate, and the concept of transgression, which befits the breaking of the law, does ,not apply to his failure. Unlike Hananel's calculations, Paltiel's interpretive leeway removes astrology from astronomy's halakhic PURVIEW:

knoW that one should not consult Chaldeans [i.e., necromancers or astrologers]? Because of the Biblical passage (Deut. 23: 13) that states 'You shall be perfect with the Lord,. your God'". Echoing this attitude, a document from the Cairo Genizah denounces astrology in terms reminiscent of Maimonides, explicitly prohibiting the practice. 89 Other considerations in the Talmud, however, enter the debate as though into an aggadic matter, with correspondingly varied opinions and without the determinative judgments of halakhah. Such is the claim of Rava, who argues that "three things are dependent, not on merit but on Mazza/ [zodiacal sign]: lifespan, 90 offspring, sustenance". The matter is further complicated, moreover, by the fact that in the Palestinian Talmud, which historically enjoyed primacy over its Babylonian counterpart in the context of Roman Jewry, also equivocates in the matter of astrology. R. Eliezer b. J~~ob grants that one should '"neither divine nor augur' (Lev. 19, 26) And yet, "even divination may convey an accurate omen, especially after three occurrences of the sign". 91 This indeterminacy only grows, as the argument proceeds along a more aggadic path. The ~~udents _of R. Hanina go out to cut wood, when an astrologer ( t~trologt~) declares that they will not survive the excursion. It turns out that his prediction would have been realized, had the students not a~erted 92 a1 the decree by an act of char1ty ong the way. In sum ' 1f the Palestinian Talmud passes judgment on astrology, it also gr_ants. the stars' power-albeit a power subordinated to divinely msp!red deeds, such as those of loving kindness. omy distinguished Further clouding the matter, astrology and astron . ther contexts. Such 1s or elided may serve yet other purposes m o d' M onides' stance on ' the case as argued by Josef Stern, regar mg a1m . . . ndments that reSISt a astrology. According to th1s v1ew, comma . . r ht of the 1 logical rationale "are explained in the Gmde ml ~ ted the 1 historical context in which the Mosaic Law was egis a '
. . The Jew in the Medieral ) 431. ., Joseph b. Judah ibn Aknin, Cure of S1ck Sou~. ~n t' 1 1999 World, selected and tr. J. R. Marcus, revised ed. (Cmcmna ' "' Mo' ed katan, 28a. " Shabbat 6:9, 8d. 92 Ibid.

VI. CONCLUSION
If the heuristic lens of aggadah offers one model for understanding the complexity of astrology's place in both the Sejer hakhmoni and the Chronicle of Ahimaaz, it is not because aggadah and astrology are necessarily or exclusively linked. That is to say, in other contexts, legal issues do arise around the topics of prognostication and the reading of the stars, even if they do so with considerable collective ambiguity. 88 Tractate Pesahim, ll3b, asks: "How do we
follows after the Pleiades and demands the two stars back, saying 'Give me my children, give me my children.' The prooftext comes from Job [38:32]: 'Can you lea~ Ursa Minor with her sons?'" Donnolo is probably making a pun on nmo, ~h1ch can mean "Will you lead?" but pointed differently, can be read as "Will she [1.e., Ursa Minor] be consoled?" :Ibid., 350, citing Genesis Rabbah, 10:5. See above, p. 310. "J. Halbronn, Le monde juif et l'astrologie (Milan, 1979), 239.

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Sabian culture centred on star-worship". 93 Being the first step on the slippery slope to star-worship, judicial astrology therefore becomes a hermeneutical tool in halakhic investigation. In similarly complex fashion Maimonides, in his monumental halakhic work, the Mishneh Torah, details celestial and earthly phenomena of only peripherally halakhic interest. 94 The argument, therefore, is not that aggadah necessarily defines astrology, rather that Donnolo and Ahimaaz b. Paltiel wrote as though it did. Donnolo and the Chronicle steer clear of the Talmudic ambiguities, and in marking the sciences as expressions of prevailing modes of Jewish thought, they obviate, rather than resolve, any potential tension. Their application of the line between halakhah and aggadah to the sciences does not merely cleave observation from interpretation but more pointedly between observation for the purpose of calendation and everything else. Donnolo, who engages with astronomy as a component of astrology, subsumes both of them under the Baraita of Samuel and describes the astral forces in unmistakably-even classic-aggadic terms. Meanwhile the Chronicle counterpoises fortune-telling to the astronomical calculation of the new Moon, which in turn invokes expressly legal concerns. The firm and familiar distinction between aggadic, affective and optional astrology on the one hand, and halakhic, essential and compulsory astronomical calculation on the other, not only precedes any scientific similarity, but it also preempts astrology's potentially-occult aspect from threatening orthodoxy, and thereby at least partially accounts for its general

95 In the larger ongoing question of monotheism and its acceptance ' . . hip to astrology, the Chromcle and the Sejer yewah add a 1 re at10ns d h" 1 h rich and organically Jewish dimension when v1ewe m t IS 1g t.

" J. Stem, The Fall and Rise of Myth in Ritual: Maimonides versus Nahmanides on the Huqqim, Astrology, and the War against Idolatry', The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 6 (1997), 201-03.

"' Even the descriptive, non-computational aspect invoked Jaw, according to Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws on the Foundations of Torah, 3. In this halakhic work par excellence, Maimonides gives a brief outline of the physical universe. Though he attributes a quasi-angelic consciousness to the higher celestial bodies, he clearly treats the universe in a descriptive manner, without attributing any judicial power to the bodies; see Langennann, 'Repudiation', 93, argues that Maimonides did not intend his condensed cosmology in this section to be definitive.

Charlesworth, Jewish presented by J s on " Thus obviating the probl:m,. as d . concilability of the pos,uon Astrology', 199, of the polarization an i1TC astrology in the Talmud.

Charles Burnett
The Warburg Institute

Late Antique and Medieval Latin Translations of Greek Texts on Astrology and Magic 1
It is generally considered that Latin astrology and magic in the Middle Ages are based on translations from Arabic. One can trace a continuous tradition of translation from Arabic or adaptation of Arabic doctrine, from Catalonia in the late tenth century, through Northeast Spain and Southern France in the early twelfth century, to 2 Toledo from the mid twelfth to the early thirteenth century. Through these translations, the corpus of texts that were the basic fare for students of astrology throughout the Middle Ages, and that Were printed in the Renaissance, as well as a more shadowy corpus

1 I am grateful for the help of Aurelie Gribomont, Wolfgang HUbner. Klaus Dietrich Fischer, David Juste, Paul Kunitzsch, Emmanuelle Toulet and Hanna Vorholt. 2 For these translations see F. J. Carmody, Arabic Astronomical and Astrologh~ll Science in Latin Translation (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1956) -~d L Thomd',~ 111 and P. Kibre, A Catalogue of fncipits of Mediaeval Scientific Wmwgs uum. ed. (London, 1963 ).

326 Charles Burnett. Late Antique and Medieval Latin T~~slations of Greek Texts on Astrology and Magic 327

of ~agical texts,. were _established. 3 The impression of the dommance of Arabtc texts IS enhanced by the bibliography of text on astrology and magic provided by the Speculum astronomiaes written in the mid-thirteenth century: 4 the texts listed ru:~ overwhelmingly Arabic in origin. This picture, however, fails to account for the significant Greek contribution to Medieval Latin astrology and magic-a contribution that has largely been underestimated and neglected. These Greek sources include both original texts, and texts that were themselves derived from Arabic sources. Since the Latin translations are often extant in manuscripts considerably older than the extant manuscripts of the Greek source texts, and sometimes preserve texts that are lost in Greek, their study is relevant also to Byzantinists. In this article I would like to present a brief classification of the texts on astrology and magic known to have been translated from Greek into Latin from Late Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages, and to follow this with three examples of Latin texts of Greek provenance, which merit closer study. In discussing Latin translations from Greek, it is dangerous to pretend to be exhaustive. The following list includes, I hope, the most significant texts, and their general characteristics. 5 First, there are the translations of the Late Antique and Hellenistic period.
3

us o Iate t:ourth century; 6 the De lapidibus .et eorum vmutz h Damigeron (Evax), concerning the magical powers m erent m different stones, translated from a lost Greek so~rce,_ pr?bably m the fifth century;' Thessalus, De plantis duodeczm szgms et septem plane tis subiectis (De virtutibus herbarum), . a book on ~he medicinal uses of plants assigned to the twelve signs of the zo~tac and the seven planets, translated in the late fifth ~r early s~xth century; 8 and the Preceptum Canonis Ptolomei, a Latm translatiOn,

~:egistus, translated from a lost Greek original probably in the Tns 'b f

ng these are the Asclepius, being the revelations of Hermes

' See B. Copenhaver, Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the w~~ Asclepius in a New English Translation (Cambndge, 1992), and P. Lucenllm y Perrone Compagni Jtesti e i codici di Ermete nel Medwevo (Florence, 200 I), 1i-18. For the relati~nship between the 'magic' of the A~clepius and n~edi~v~l magic see C . Burnett 'The Establishment of Medieval HermetiCism Hermetic N y ,m k P. Linehan and J. L. Nelson, eds., The Medieval World (London and ew or L l 'd grecs 2001), 111-30. The text has been edited by R. Halleux and J. Schamp m es ~P 1 m.re~ (Paris 1985) 230-97. For studies see V. Rose, 'Damigeron De la~ldlbus , e(rme s ' and Pingree, ,The Dif f us10n of Arab'c 1 Magical 9 ( 1875) 471-91 . . Texts n. 3 f two books on the magic a1 powers. of fro mscnbed stones o above) 59-64. For th d half L uscnpts m e secon apparently Greek origin, but extant on 1 y m ann man . u d Azareus's of the twelfth century onwards-Techel (Zethel)'s Liber slgl orum an
7 8

For the collections of magical texts see D. Pingree, 'The Diffusion of Arabic Magical Texts in Western Europe', in B. Scarcia Amoretti, ed. La diffusione delle scienze islamiche nel medio evo europeo (Rome, 1987), 57-102. 'P. Zambelli, The Speculum Astronomiae and its Enigma (Dordrecht, etc., 1992); A. Paravicini Bagliano, Le Speculum Astronomiae, une enigme? Enquere sur les manuscrits (Turnhout, 2001 ). ' For a more complete account of Greek texts on astrology and magic known in Latin one would have to consider also certain quotations included in Censorious's De die nata/i, Firmicus Maternus's Mathesis, the Alexander Romance, PseudoClement's Recognitiones and Pseudo-Galen's De spermate: see C. Burnett, 'Astrolog(, in F. A. C. Mantello and A. G. Rigg, eds., Medieval Latin: An Introduction and Bibliographical Guide (Washington, D. C., 1996), 369-82. Not considered here are (a) those divinatory sciences that have no astrological content (such as physiognomy), (b) the medical tradition of "critical days", in which the a role. A useful table of the major translations from Greek into Latm IS given m the English version of W. Bersch in's Greek Letters and the Latin Ages, translated by J. C. Frakes (Washington, D. C., 1988), 384-96; er~ m, however, does not mention a single text that concerns astrology or magic.

De lapidibus-see ibid., PP 64-67. . . s in Thessalos von Edited with other Greek and Latin versiOns, m parallel co1u"'? ' h . am Glan . . h ed H.-y Friedrich Tralles griechisch und lateuusc . (Meisen b elfll g "Herbarum

M~n.pla~s ~rucial ~idd~

1968). For the fifth/sixth-century dating of the vefSIOIIn egemrrnai:tium que quid . . d' d tratio necnon et ste arum . . duzione del testo greco del De smgulorum s1gnorum zo Iac~ e~ons possit. .. ", see S. Sconocchia, Problemi di tra . 'b ito a Tessalo di Tralle: i planris duodecim signis et septem plane/IS sub.ectls an; ~one latina medioevale', rapporti tra Ia traduzione latina tardo-antlca e Ia .tra ,ut~ 1 e ) 125-51, and . . d G Sabbah (Samt-c 1e n 1984 . . b. ( anribuito a Tessalo d1 Textes medicaux /a/Ins anllques, e idem 'II De plantis duodecim el septem plane/IS S~l .ec IS d' vale' in A. Garzya Trail~: il testo greco e Ia traduzioni latine tardo-anh~a. e me. IeAIIi d~l /! convegno . e ecd otic~ . del. lesti medici grecl. ), 389-406. For the N and J. Jouanna, eds., Srona 1 1996 internaziona/e (Parigi, 24-26 maggw, 1994! ( ~pesCatalogus rranslationum er manuscripts, see D. Pingree, 'Thessalus astrol?gus ' m wtin Translations and commenrariorum: Mediaeval and Renmssahn.ce D C ) vol. 3 1976, 83. s (Was mgton, dans les ' herb1ers . an d G111'de. 'La Pivoine Commentaries Annotated Lists 86, and vol. 7, 1992, 330-32, and A. Gnbom?ntB lgica Bulletin de /'Jnstilllt astrologiques grecs', Bo/letino de I'Acad~~~ (t~is in~ludes a useful tabular historique de Beige en Rome 14 (2004), . al h rbals) For a discussion of the comparison of this text and other astrologic T:all ~d Cultural Exchange'. in context of the work, see I. Moyer, 'Thessalos of es

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probably made in the year beginning 29 August 534, of some canons to the Handy Tables of Ptolemy, one of whose main purposes was to enable an astrologer to cast horoscopes. 9 These works appear to have been made in a context in which Greek was familiar. All four works employ a Latin that is liberally interspersed with Greek words, and these words are usually not followed by an explanation in Latin. The saturation with Greek is greatest in the Preceptum Canonis Ptolomei, which is almost unintelligible to us as a result. 10 In Thessalus, Greek words are kept in headings to the chapters, and many of the terms in the text are left untranslated. 11 In Damigeron, the dedication letter includes Greek transliterations,12 and all the stones retain their Greek names, without Latin explanations. The Asclepius is headed with a Greek title and keeps key terms in Greek, such as "huH:" ("matter"), "ousiarkhai" (the title of celestial rulers), "ousia" ("essence"), and "heimarmene" ("fate"). This kind of translation method is summed up in the preface of the anonymous, probably late fourth century work, the Liber de physiognomonia "Ex tribus auctoribus": "certainly, where the translation or interpretation was difficult for me, I put the Greek names and terms themselves." 13

A different situation, a couple of centuries later, is indicated by a rsion of Aratus's Phaenomena. Three poetic adaptations of this ;~pular poem on the constellations (whic~ includ~ the. descripti~n of stars as weather signs) had been made m Classical times, but. m the first half of the eight century a verbum e verbo prose translatiOn 14 was produced by an anonymous author in Fra~ce. This tr~nslation gives the impression of being merely a transcnpt of the Lat.m w~~d~ written above each word of the Greek text, in a context m w tc Greek was no longer understood and no Greek speaker was available for consultation. In the mid-twelfth century a group of texts on the magical properties of animals, plants and stones w~s translated, ~robabl~ by Pascalis Romanus working in Constantmople. Pascalts certamly translated the Kyr~nides of Hermes and Harpo.kration. in 1169, and may well have been responsible for the Latm verstons of other works in the same genre that appear on the scene at the ~arne time-Alexander Magnus's Liber de septem herbis, the medteval ... translation of Thessalus's De plantis duodecim sig.nis et septe~ ,. . Fl Af 's CompendiUm aureum. planetis subiectls, and accus ncus . . One may add to this group of texts Pasc~lis's Lib~r ~hesaun occu~~ (1165) a book on dream interpretation conststmg ~argely ' kd b ks of Artemtdorus and chapters translated from the Gree ream 00 . . . which 'Achmet' (the Oneirocriticon); the complete Onetrocn~tcon, . . t d . a! from Greek mto Latm m is based on Arabic maten was tran~1a e 16 All these 1176 by another resident of Constantmople, Leo Tuscus.
14

S. Noegel, J. Walker and B. Wheeler, eds., Prayer Magic and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World (University Park, Penn., 2003), 39-56. See D. Pingree, 'The Preceptum Canonis Ptolomei', in J. Hamesse and M. Fattori, eds., Rencontres de cultures dans Ia phi/osophie medieva/es (Louvain-laNeuve and Cassino, 1990), 353-75. The canons have been edited by idem, Preceptum Canonis Ptolomei, CAB VIII (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1997). The extant tables deal only with the movements of the Sun and the Moon. 10 E.g., Preceptum Canonis, section 2: mecos civitatum et hiperoce earum computatio (a heading); isemerinam; ortho mecei; section 3: themelios; section 4: icosapenteeterida etc. 11 I give the column and line numbers of Friedrich's edition corrected from Sconocchia, Problemi (n. 8 above), followed by the equivalent ;erms in the later translation of Thessalus in brackets: p. 87, I (heading) Tauri peristereon orthos (verbena ... ); p. 87,7 epiphoram (malas dispositiones); 92, 12-13 pterygia quoque et sycoses, chalazia (omitted in the later translation); p. 107, 2 rhegmata (rapturas); P 107, 10 anabrosis (comestiones); p. 127,6 catapotia (pillule); p. 258, 3 acopum ~~nguentum), etc. , See ed. Halleux and Schamp, 230-231: "allophylis" and "hieratika." " "Sane ubi difficilis mihi translatio vel interpretatio fuit graeca ipsa nomina et "Anonyme latin traite de physiognomonie, ed.' J. Andre (Paris, 1981), verb SO. a posUJ:

. A Re/'quiae (Berlin, 1898), 1751 Edited by P. Maass, Commentariorum m ratum H Le Bourdelles, 306. For the dates and the characteristics of the transla/uo~ sedeans. le Nord de Ia Ia langue anne 1 L'Aratus Latinus. Etude sur la c~ Irure e . ), esp. 136-47. and the 111 1985 France au VIlle siecle (Umverstte de Ltlle S:..brid e 1997), 52-55. summary in Aratus, Pltaenomena, ed. D. Ktdd (C . /g ' ( 34-44 The works of "For these texts see Lucentini and Perrone Compagn ~ .testhl,e introduction to his . ed by Pasca ts m if Alexander and Thessalus are menuon k' Studies in the History o translation of the Kyranides: see C. H. Has ~;Z ) 219 . The pseudonymous Mediaeval Science, 2nd ed. (Cambrid~e, ~.assibenis" 'which betrays the Arable "Flaccus" describes himself as a puptl of Be Ail these works are edtted by form of the name of Apollonius of Tyan~: BIIIT~:ux Cyran ides (Li~ge and Par1s. L. Delatte in Textes latins et vieuxjranftltS relatl 1942). . . . Jahrhundert (Leiden. 1998), 12 "See T. Ricklin Der Traum der Phllosophle ~ k n Dream /nterpretatum: 00 0 chapter 3, 247-270; and M. Mavroudi, A Byztlnltne

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translations are written in a utilitarian but idiomatic Latin f?llowing th~ sense of_ the _Greek rather than giving a slavish!; literal rendenng. TransliteratiOns of Greek words are avoided or are accompanied by a Latin gloss. 17 In the case of the translation of Thessalus, many of the words which, in the late Antique translation, were retained in Greek, now appear in Latin or are absent, while the translation is altogether more free. 18 Pascalis himself describes his method of translation in his preface to the Kyranides: "I have striven faithfully to make <my translation> as good as the Greek book throughout, by picking up not the words, which are <in themselves> of a barbarous sterility, but rather the sense, which is useful." 19 The mid to late thirteenth century saw the completion of the translation of the works of Aristotle (including several pseudepigrapha) directly from Greek into Latin, along with several of the Greek commentaries. Probably as a result of the same zeal for completeness in respect to astrology, we find translations of astrological works, by Stephen of Messina and William of Moerbeke. Stephen, who dedicated his works to Manfred, king of Sicily from 1258 to 1266, translated from Greek the substantial text on anniversary horoscopes by Abo Ma'shar-the Liber de revolutionibus nativitatum 20 - and perhaps also the anecdotes
the Oneirocriticon of Achmet and its Arabic Sources (Leiden, 2002), 112-16. See also the introduction to, and edition of, the Liber thesauri occu/ti, by S. CollinRose! in Archives d'histoire doctrina/e et/iueraire du Moyen Age, 30 ( 1964), 11198. 17 This is necessary in the Kyranides, in which the Greek terms for the plants, animals, birds, and fish, have to be retained because the work is arranged alphabetically according to them. 18 See ~- II above. For a detailed comparison of the late Antique and medieval ~~.sl~tions ofThessalus, see Sconocchia, Problemi (n. 8 above). L1brum Grecum ... fideliter per omnia emulatus sum ... non verba, que de sterilitate barbarica sunt, sed sensum utilitatis recolligendo:" see Haskins Studies, 21~
"'The G~eek text of this work has been edited by David Pingree (Leipzig, 1968); the Arabic and Latin versions are currently being edited by Keiji y amamoto and the present author. A Renaissance edition of the Latin text by H. Wolf is printed un~e~ the tit~e "In~ipit brevis compilatio Hermetis Philosophi de revolutionibus natiVItatum hber pnmus translatus de graeco in latinum" in E~ ~ijv Te~Qa~lfl1..ov ~ii fi~o)..e~f.ou J\l;tjytjrlj~ clVWVUfJ.O~ ... In Claudii Ptolemaei quadripartitum narrator tgnoti nominis, quem ramen Proclum fuisse quidam existima/11. Item

- Ma'shar's pupil, Shl!dhl!n: the Liber Abu recollecte d by 21 tionum. William, in turn, translated Ptolemy's rememora 22 .,. b'blos from Greek before 1281. These trans 1 allons are Ietra I . L . . I tf cterised by a careful attention to findmg a atm eqmva en or h a car I' . ) A every word in the original text (Greek trans. IteratiOns are ra~e . s M f d himself wrote in a letter announcmg new translations of Gan {eand Arabic works of Aristotle and other philosophers to the st~~ents of Paris University, the Latin ~erely_ provided new cl_ot_hes for texts which had long languished m their unchanged ongmal dress. 23 Of uncertain, but presumably a late-medieval, date are (~} the substantial astrological work, the Liber de triginta sex decants that is attributed to Hermes and based directly on Greek sources, extant in one Latin manuscript of 1430 A.D. and an early fourte_enthcentury Picard translation of chapters 24 and 25;24 (b) the ~omma et virtutes herbarum secretarum septem p_lanetarum att~~u~:~f ~~ Ptolemy, and extant in only one manuscnpt of the seco
.. Ph .1 so hi introductio in Prolemaei Porphyriou philosophou Eisagoge... Porphyrll ~0 hi De revolutionibus opus de effectibus astrorum. Praeterea Hermells 'osop 15 nativitatum libri duo, incerto imerprete (~asel, ~~~- hen calls "the Centilvquiwn 21 This is the main source of the compendmm that ,/. h Arabic Greek. and . , S a' AM IYia s ar 10 of Hermes": see D. P10gree, The aymgs " ed Ratio et Superstitio Latin', in G. Marchetti, 0. Rignani and V. Sorge, s., (Louvain-la-Neuve, 2003), 41-57. . 1 of this translation: see L. "There is one completeand one fragmentary _man~scduillaume de Moerbeke du Anthonis, '/udicia/ia ad Synun: une traductron We V hamel eds. Guill<wme J Bamsand an Quadripartitum de Cl. Ptolt!mee 10 r . d 700 anniversaire de sa mort de Moerbeke: Recueil d'hudes ii l'occ~s/0~ u :. of Anthonis's licenlialc (1286) (Leuven 1989), 253-255. Ths article IS a sumk ary een anonieme latijnse . I . h onderzoe over . dissertation: 'Tekstkritisch en lexiCoogis~ 1984). vertaling van Cl. Ptolemaeus' Tetrabrblos (Leuven. deb t (1225-40) du premer 23 The letter is edited in R. Gauthier: 'Note~ sur l~srhe ~;iques. 66 (1982): 321Averro'isme' Revue des sciences plu/osophtques e ~ from Arabic into Luun 1 74 (see pp 323-4) and discussed in Burnett, '!_r~ns ~t10g S G Lofts and P. W. 111 in the Middle Age's: Theory Practice, and CnUcism ' .' nrethodc>logie ~ ' . . terpriter: essau Rosemann eds Edirer, rradurre. m 8) 67 .' N 1997) 55-78 (esp. - . . <leamis . phtlosophtque (Louvam-la- euve, . t De rr~gmta sex .' 24 Latin and Picard texts edited in Hermes T;s~~~~s ~~rk (in both language~) '-' 0 2 ed. S. Feraboli (Tumhout, 1994). Chapter . k der Tierkreiszeichen. 2 'ols. edited in W. HUbner, Grade und Gradbeztr e (Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1995).

p{/

de

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the fifteenth century; 25 and (c) the latromathematicum attributed to Hermes Trismegistus and addressed to Ammon, dealing with the diseases caused by the Moon in each of the twelve signs of the zodiac and their cures, translated anonymously before 1489.26 Aside from the preceding translations, which have been listed in roughly chronological order, there is the large and murky field of b~~f a~d untechnical prognostica, including lunaria, zodiologia, d1vmat10n by planetary days, onomantic texts and parapegmata. 21 Most of these would seem to derive ultimately from Greek prototypes: Greek words are frequent, and several parallels between Greek and Latin texts can be adduced. In the case of the onomantic text, the Letter of Petosiris to Nechepso, very similar Greek analogues are extant. 28 This Letter explains the use of a table that
"tv.'S Vat. lat. 11423, fols. lr-33v (acephalous; begins "De prima herba Solis quae pan stella vocatur ... "). A. Pazzini provides a detailed introduction to, and an Italian translation of, the text in Virtu delle erbe secondo i sel/e pianeti: l'erbario detto di Tolomeo e quelli de altri astrologi (Milan, 1959). Pazzini considers the Latin text to be a translation of a lost Greek text, first written before the eighth/ninth century :u'd then revised between the thirteenth and fifteenth century (during which time mformatmn from Arabic alchemy was incorporated): see ibid., 139. The Latin text has not yet been edited. The work lacks its first folio, but within the text there are several. apostrophes of Ptolemy to his daughter: foL 9r "Cara filia cognitionem hums ttbt ostendam ... ;" fol. l6v-l7r "Filia dulcissima secretum huius <h>erbe tibi manif~sto;" fol. 28r "filia dulcissima unica nata ut videas et cognoscas quod sub velamme met cordts te habeo radicatam:" Pazzini, 131. The presence of vernacular elements and apostrophes of this kind are reminiscent of the Judicia of Ptolemy discussed below. This needs further investigation. 26 See Lucentini and Perrone Campagni, /testi, 53-54. This text is extant in three manuscripts, and was published in Johannes Stadius, Ephemerides novae et ;xactae ab amw 1554 ad annum 1570 (Cologne, 1556), sig a3r-b3v. See D. Juste, Les Alchandreana primitifs: Etude sur les plus anciens traites astrolog1ques latins d'origine arabe (Xe siec/e) (in press). "' The Latin translation is found in manuscripts from the ninth century onwards, and ":as mcorporated into the earliest Latin astrological corpus to include Arabic matenal: the Alchandreana: see D. Juste, 'Les Doctrines du Liber Alchandrei', in I. Draelants, A. Tihon and B. van den Abeele, eds., Occident et Proche-Orient: Contacts s:ientifiques au temps des Croisades (Turnhout, 2000), 277-311 (esp. 284), and tdem, 'L' Astrologie latine du VIe au Xe siecle' (These de maitrise, Brussels, 1997), 127-9 and Plate VII. For transcriptions of a Latin manuscript and several Greek . ve~ions of the text, see E. Riess, 'Nechepsonis et Petosiridis fragmen.ta rnagtca , Phi/ologus 6, Supplementband (Gottingen, 1892), 383-87; for the ~~m text see Patrologia Latina, 90, cots 963-6, T. Tolles, 'The Latin l.radttion of the Episto/a Petosirldis', Manuscripta 26 (I 982), 50-60 and Juste,

~e number-equivalents of the letters of the client_'s name .and the

redicts the outcome of an illness, and other events, by means of

days of the Moon. 29 But, in the ~ase of. the Latm .~~~ana (each taking the form of predictions and mstruct10ns on activities for each of the days of the calendar month) and zodiologia (a similar g~nre, based on the position of the Moon in the signs of the zodtac), alth~ugh there are some striking similarities am?ng the e~tant Greek selenodromia, no Latin version can be descnbed as a direct 30 translation of a Greek version (or vice versa). The purpose of the remaining part of this article is to in_vestigate three texts which fall within this last field, the first of which deals with choosing activities (including the making of talismans) according to the position of the Moon in its "mansions"/' and the second and third of which are two versions of ultimately the same Greek parapegma. In no case is there a Greek text that .can be shown to be the origin of the Latin text, but it is my contention that
'L'astrologie latine' 128-29. Other Latin onomantic texts dating from the same ' . k al e g the Sphere ot k . eriod as the Letter of Petosins also have Gree an ogues. P h bl the Sphaera Demo ruon Apuleius (or Plato, or Pythagoras), whtc resem es . ., Jahrbuch edited by A Dieterich in 'Papyrus magica musei LugdunenSIS Batavl 898) 813 14 and the Tetra~onum ' t. '"r classische Philologie Supplementband 16 (I h' -h combmes ' . 1 J" . ) e1 emcn so . subiectum (also somellmes attnbuted to Pythagoras w tc 130. J te 'L'astro 1 ogre 1 aune the Letter of Petosiris and Sphere of Apulems: see us ' d1 ts Latin 33. The Letter of Petosiris, however, is the most literary of these texts an f th ther onomanttc texts. and Greek versions are closer than those 0 e0 . h i. engaged in a 29 The Letter of Petosiris uses "monomachu~" for the ~~~:;: ~f ~e divisions of contest, and the Greek names of the planets; 11 keeps th bl 'tself In the text . . . . h G k letters on the ta e ' . the table m Greek, wh1le retrumng t e ree 'kra thanatos megas, the Greek is transliterated as "zoe megale, mese zoe, zoe ~\ 29 'k .. J 'L'astrologte latme . meso thanato, thanato mt ro: see us 1e, . . v m Fortleben anuker 30 This was the conclusion of Max Forster 10 hts h Anglia 67/68 (194-l). Sammellunare im Englischen und. in anderen Volk:~c ;nSvenberg. De /atinsko l-171 (esp. 35-7), which has smce been nuanc d Luna~iastudien (Gothenbutg. lunaria (Gothenburg, 1936), 142-52, E. ~tstr:m 'tina Gothenburg. !963). 5-6. 1942), 19-20, E. Svenberg, Lunaria et Zodwlogw La kh <, lunar (Pattensen/Han .. and C. Weisser, Studien zum mittelalterlichen Kran e s 1982), 80-83. . . h's 1 Lunaria et Zodiologia 31 Svenberg included a text on the lunar manstons m , (12" c.) fols. 11v10 82 Latina 45-59 but this text [MS British Library, Ege!' ~. and "nativities", which 'th "chotces 24r], deals only with "nativities" rather than ~ 1 art of the Alchandrean rex I known are the subjects of the text discussed here. ltts P from its incipit as Benedictum (= ch. 18).

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all three texts are based on a Greek Vorlage, and that their study illuminates the processes whereby a Greek text is dressed in Latin.

K Copenhagen, MS Kongelige Biblioteket, Gl. Kgl. Sam/. 34 3499 (15th century). Fols. 92v-95v, DL. M Madrid, MS Biblioteca naciona/10053 (13'h century). Fols. 35 27r-32vb, Pseudo-Ptolemy, ludicia; fol. 32vb, DL. T Munich, MS Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, elm 18927 (13'h century). Fols. 76v-77r, 92v-93v, 97r-98r and 120v-129r, PseudoPtolemy, Iudicia; fols. 129r-129v, DL (breaks off after mansiOn 12). L Peter Liechtenstein, Sacratissime astronomie Ptholomei liber diversarum rerum, printed Venice, 1509. Fols. lr-l~6r, Pseudo-Ptolemy, Iudicia; fols. 13r-13v, DL; fols. 13v-14r, DTM.
DL and DTM have both been edited by the present author in o~her publications. 37 However, these editions have failed to take. mto account the Chantilly manuscript, which provides the most reliable_ readings for both texts, and is the only witness to the second hal~ of DL (lunar mansions 15-28). Hence editions based on the Chantilly manuscript have been provided in the Appendix.

* * * *
The first two texts accompany each other in the manuscripts and in a Renaissance printed edition. They will be referred to as De Luna secundum Aristotilem (= DL) and De temporum mutatione (= DTM) respectively. The context of these two works is as follows: H London, MS British Library, Harley 5402 (12'h century). Fols. lr-15r, Pseudo-Ptolemy, ludicia, including, on fol. 14v, DTM (after the chapter on "whether you will form a friendship with someone," and before the last chapter "whether you will have a wife whom you love"); fols. 15v-16r, two astrological tables; fols. 17r-69r, Sahl ibn Bishr's astrological collection; fol. 69r-v, astrological and divinatory notes; fols. 70r-104v, a later codex. 32 C Chantilly, MS Musee Conde 322 (641) (14'h century). Fols. 121 v-124v, texts from the Alchandreana; fols. 125r-136r, missing; fols. 137r-138r, DTM; fols. 138r-139r, DL; fol. 139v, the chapter on the fixed stars from the De utilitatibus astrolabii, fols. 140r14lr, Spheres of Pythagoras and Apuleius with an onomantic alphabet. 33

34

See Burnett, 'Latin Alphanumerical Notation and Annotation in Italian in the Twelfth Century: MS London, British Library, Harley 5402 , in M. Folkerts and R. Lorch, eds., Sic itur ad Astra: Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften. Festschrift fiir den Arabisten Paul Kunitzsch zum 70. Geburtstag (Wiesbaden, 2000), 76-90. 33 De utilitatibus astrolabii, c. xvii, in N. Bubnov, Gerberti postea Silvestri II papae Opera mathematica (972-1003) (Berlin, 1899), 136-38. Only the works of Sacrobosco, Bartholomew of Parma (his Geomancy) and Alcabitius are adequately described in the fullest catalogue description of this manuscript: L. Delisle.and G. Macon, Chantilly, le Cabinet des livres: manuscrits, 3 vols. (Paris, 1897-1900), I, 258--00. This catalogue describes the manuscript as having been written in Italy at the end of the fourteenth century. The date 29 November 1438 has been written on one of the flyleaves.

32

. . , ar mansions 2-13 into the This manuscript inserts DL's prescnpttons ,or 1 un . . d P . . . H siB I nus see Lucentml an errone L1ber 1maginum Lunae attnbuted to erme e e Campagni, I testi, 71. . entales en los " Described in J.-M. Millas Vallicrosa, Las tradu_ccwnes 202 94 2 manuscritos de Ia Biblioteca Catedral de Toledo (Madnd: ~ L )b, , Add 10775. ,. . d t MS Brlllsh 1 rar). The whole of this imprmt has been cope tn TM fols 330v-332v). fols. 298r-329r (for DL see fols. 329r-330v; for D . ~ Albertus Magnus Nicolas Weill-Parot has pointed out that the DIM ts also ctNt Wyll-Parot Magie . . . . . see . et , m h.ts Scripta super quattuor l1bros Sententwrun~. Ia magie astrale (Xlle-XVe solatre et magie lunaire: le soletl et Ia lune dan siocle)', Micrologus 12 (2004), 43-133 (esp. t69-70). k Astrological Magic 37 For DL see Burnett, 'Arabic, Greek, and Latin :~r ~hmitl, eds .. Pseudo attributed to Aristotle', in J. Kraye, W F. Ryan an 10 . Magic and Dil'immon Aristotle in the Middle Ages (London, 1986), 84-96 relpr.. nd Christian World.< . . h the Is am1c a . m the Middle Ages: Texts and Tee mques Ill An Unknown Latin Verston o1 in the /udicia of Pseudo(Aldershot, 1996), article III; for DTM see Bu~en, S an Ancient Paraplgma the Weather-Forecastmg tars nts Count Essars "" M k'ng Instrume Ptolemy', in R. G. W. Anderson et al., eds., a 1 Gerard L'Estrange Tumer Historical Scientific Instruments presented to (Aldershot, 1993), 27-41.

o;;0-

;,

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The first text, De Luna secundum Aristotilem (DL), is ultimately based on an Arabic work of which the most complete form is described as being the kitab al-makhzan ("the book of what is stored/the treasure") of Hermes. This work is included in a text called kittib al-ustuwwaras, which purports to be Aristotle's advice to Alexander the Great-hence the attribution of this text to Aristotle. 38 DL gives instructions on which talismans to make, and other things to do and avoid doing, and the character of the newborn girl or boy, when the Moon enters each of its 28 lunar mansions. The information on the characters of children in the Greek MS Oxoniensis, Cromwell 12, derives from the same Arabic source. 39 No equivalent has yet been found in Greek for the rest of the prescriptions in DL-in particular, the making of talismansbut there are several reasons for thinking that the Latin text has been transmitted via Greek rather than directly from Arabic. The first feature that one notices is the use of the word "selini" for Moon. This is not only Greek (selene) but exhibits Greek vernacular pronunciation. A Byzantine context is suggested by the use of "basileus" (with the Latin accusative ending "basileum") in addition to its Latin equivalent "imperator". It is noticeable, also, that the translator uses, by preference, Latin words of Greek origin throughout the text: e.g. "astrum" for "star/constellation" instead of the more usual words "stella", "sidus" or ''constellatio"; "idolum" for "talisman/statue" instead of the more usual "imago" or "statua"; "angelus" instead of "spiritus"; and "scandalum" for "harm" instead of "impedimentum". These features may suggest that the text is based on a Greek version of the Arabic text, in which the Greek cognates of these words may have been used, though one could also ascribe them to a Latin writer's predilection for Greek words, and the fact that a Latin vocabulary for talismans had not yet been forged. More striking is the evidence provided by the syntax. The formula for the Moon entering each of its mansions consists of a verb of motion ("descendere", "vadere", "ire", "pertransire", or
38

"venire") plus the Arabic preposition "bi"_ which_ ~as_ become similated into the Arabic name of the mansiOn (as tt ts m Arabtc ~~ript): e.g. "c~m vero descendit.,beltubarii (Ar.: b_i'l-dab_aran), ut utem descendtt beltarfa (Ar.: bt Harf), cum vadtt belctbe (Ar.. ~i'l-jabha)," etc. The formula "quando descendit be-", in partic~lar, is reminiscent of the Arabic "idhii !)alia bi" ("when it alights m"), the primary meaning of "!)alia" being to alight from one's. camel when one arrives at one's destination. On the only two occaswns on which the Arabic names of the lunar mansions do not appear, however, the author uses, respectively, a normal Latin expression 40 (mansion 3: "Cum hec astra p~rtransit"),_ and, ev_identl~ ... a direct equivalent in Greek of the Arabtc expressiOn: m_anst?n I 8. Quan_do vadit stincardiam scorpii" < "Quando vadtt ezs ten kardzan scorpii". 41 The transliteration of a Greek phrase here wo_uld suggest that an Arabic text has been transmitted via Greek to Latin. The Latin of DL is crude, and appears to be written by so~eone who does not know the language very well. This may expl~m th~ artt'bus " "gratia Det unidiomatic expressions-"Aristoteles plemor ubique" "infans aut mulier" (for "boy or girl"), "uxorem non prepost 'ftons after words of tollas," 'etc-and the absence of Latm motion. . T'M "th arapegma of PseudoThe De temporum mutatzone (D or eP h. h . f pegmata w tc Ptolemy") belongs to the Antique genre 0 para ' d the 1 . . ~ rm that corre ate were calendars in eptgraphtc or wntten o . . . 'th th nsmgs and settmgs days and months of the civil calendar WI e . t d with . . . d th weather assocta e of conspicuous stars, and mdtcate e d d that DTM these dates.42 In my earlier article I had cone 1 u e d by Aetios . denved from a lost Greek parapegma th at was also use
40

_see Burne!' 'Lunar Astrology. The Varieties of Texts Using Lunar Mansions, With EmphaSIS on Jafar Indus', Micrologus 12 (2004), 43-133 (esp. 47-9, and 51). 39 See the edition of S. Weinstock in CCAG, llCI (Brussels, 1951), 141-56, and Burnett, 'Arabic, Greek, and Latin Works on Astrological Magic', 95-96.

.. tra" may imply an alternative Paul Kunitzsch has pointed out to me that hec as "a! naim" ("the "al th yya") name 1 Y ' name for the Pleiades (usually ura ' Sternnomenk/amr der star/asterism"): cf. P. Kunitzsch, Untersuchungen zur . h t s found in the manuscripl. Araber (Wiesbaden, 1961), no. 186. 41 This seems to be the most likely explanauon of w ah~ to the following deftnlle and shows that the preposition in Greek h~s been attac . . article+ noun,just as happens in the ArabiC. h t'cal Astronomy (Berhn elc .. 1 " See 0. Neugebauer, A H1story 'A n. cient Mal ema ec L o, . f ancient paraptgmata. s 1975), 587-89. For a useful recent discuss~~;, 2003 ), 20--26. Taub, Ancient Meterology (London and New

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of Amida (early sixth century) in his Greek medical encyclopedia the Tetrabiblos, 43 but DTMs immediate Greek source (1) had bee~ revised to accommodate it to the Byzantine year, which started on 1 September; 44 and (2) had incorporated an Arabic element: the star name "Alferat" (=Pegasus). That DTM is a translation from Greek is indicated by the fact that all the star names are Greek. Some Greek star and constellation names had already been incorporated into Latin texts in the Classical period, but DTM includes many more, and the transliteration used indicates that the Latin author was simply transcribing the Greek words according to their Byzantine vernacular pronunciation. 45 Evidence for this vernacular pronunciation is the writing of Greek "e", "ei", "oi" and "u" as "i" (lampetes (?) > lapsidis; pleiades > pliades; protrugeter > protrigintis; eriphoi > erifi; stakhus > sichis; kuon > cion; hudra > idre gen.); 46 the writing of "ai" as "e" (aiga (?)>ega; khelai > kele); the vocalization of unvoiced consonants (lampetes (?) > lapsidis), and the dropping of the aspirate (hyades > yades; hippos > ipos). The colloquial nature of the Greek is also possibly indicated by the variants in the star/constellation names, implied by the Latin transcriptions: lapsidis < lampetes ="the lustrous one", rather than Iampros = "the bright (sci!. star)"; 47 esion/egon/exion < aigeion =
In Burnett, 'A parapegma', an English translation of the corresponding text of Aetios (Tetrabiblos, I, 3, ch. 164) is printed opposite the edition of DTM. This parapegma was evidently well known in Greek, since a version (again beginning in March), written in colloquial Greek in MS St Petersburg, Academy of Sciences, XX Aa-8, is printed in CCAG, XII, 109-12, and it was one of the sources of the text in MS Escoria/I.R.l4, printed in CCAG, IX. I, 129-37 (beginning in January). See also Lydus, Liber de Ostentis, ed. C. Wachsmuth (Leipzig, 1897) and F. Boll, Griechische Ka/ender II. Der Kalender der Quintilier und die Oberliefenmg der Geoponica, Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philos.-hist. Klasse, 1911, I (Heidelberg, 1911). 44 I owe. this observation to D. Pingree. In Aetios the paraptgma begins with 19 March (t.e. supposedly the Spring equinox). 45 This does not necessarily suggest dictation, because most non-learned Greek as~logical and magical texts at the time were written down as they were spoken. Thts can be seen from glancing at the apparatus criticus of any volume of the
CCAG.
46

"the goat-(star)", rather than "aix" = "the goat", and frictos < briktos for Hydra. The term used throughout the text for e tting"-"ponere" ("to put")-may be explained as a calque on se . . . " , the Greek "dunein", whose pnmary meamng IS to put on , combined with the vernacular use of derivatives of "ponens" for the West.
48

The unidiomatic Latin of the text suggests that it was writt~n by someone who was not well schooled in Latin. This rna~ exp.lam the use of expressions like "ut" + the perfect subJ.unchve. for "since/because"; "usque in" for "for" (expressing durah?n of ~~me): " arulum" used as a diminutive of "parum"; "anhcanus for p . . . " and" ponet" antecanis"; and the random vanatwn of" pomt At some stage (either when the text was translated, or afterwards), Latin equivalents to the Greek star/constellation names were added. Some of these show evidence of knowledge of the traditional Lat~n 10 literature on the constellations, especially of the parapeg~za . VIII fr hich a phrase- stella Pliny's Natural H1story, bk X , om w . , . L ccidit matutma -has regia appellata Tuberom 10 pectore eoms o d 'fi d 'th the been quoted. 49 Hence, too, the Pleiades are I enh 1 e WI . h " 1 " In other cases, "virgilie" and the Hyades With t e sucu e ' b d for the Greek word however, the Latin author seems to e prov1 mg
. ' Tetrabib/os in the fomls Aldebaran), which appears m Pt~lemy s AI gest: Die Synwxis "Lampadias!Larnpauras:" see P. Kumtzsch, Derh l "!ascher Oberliejerrmg Mathematica des Claudius Ptolemaus in arablsC ateml . k II 7 However. . G d und Gradbezlf e, . (Wiesbaden, 1974), 267 and W. HUbner, ra ~ . t 1 n the constellation ot Aetios and the Katowice manuscript are descnbtng a s ar ly for the Pleiades on Leo (Jan. 15), which DTM appears to have substituted wrong
48

43

~: Cf. "l~padas/-es". in the Katowice and Prague MSS (discussed below).

Lampros ts the techmcal description of the "bright star of the Hyades" (= ex Tau,

The only exception to this is kele < khelai.

6 Nov. . " . " back-formation appears in ,the E.g. Italian "ponente", Spantsh pontente, a . , rd MS Bodleian. (an. . ' L 'b rticu/arls (0 x,o ' . ik ) "a Ievante usque '" Italtanate Latin of Michael Scot s ' er pa misc. 555, fol. 2ra, transcribed by Oleg ~osk~r,~ :;;esense of"is calm" (cf. 1 10 ponentem." The use of "obscurari" for "kathtstas ~ ) 1 s exphcable. ... "serenare" in the Katowice manuscnpt ts es . t rm used for "setnng ., d' t d by the dtfferent e . 1. P That this is an insertion is also m tea e d m my earlier arttc < istrans1ate f 1h "occidit" rather than "ponit". (The phrase was m I' b Tubero in the breast 0 ' 40. The correct translation is: "the star called 'roy a lyustr't" is mentioned in lh< th " ustos P a \ Lion sets at dawn"). That Icarus. was e c , Phaenomena: see Bumen. ' h scholia to Germanicus's translatton of Aratus. parapegma', 38. I owe the correction to Paul Kumtzsc

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a translation that has no equivalent in Latin astronomical literature: e.g. "stakhus" = "suboles," "lampetes" = "lucidus," and "phriktos" = "<h>orridus." The single Arabic star-name-Alferat (i.e. alfaras)-is also translated literally, as "the horse" ("equus"), rather than identified with the constellation Pegasus. 5 At some stage both DL and DTM became associated with PseudoPtolemy's Judicia. This is shown not only by their occurrences adjacent to, or within copies of, the Judicia/' but also by phrases at the beginning and the ends of the texts, which recall phrases of the Judicia. The last sentence of DL is the same as a chapter within the Judicia, 52 while the opening words of DTM recall phrases in the Judicia in which "Ptolemy" addresses his son "Aristo/Eriston" in a familiar way, 53 and the terminology in the final section of DTM (provided by MS Conly) is that of the Judicia. 54 Further examples of this phraseology and terminology can be found in certain texts within the tenth-century Latin astrological corpus of the Alchandreana, to which Pseudo-Ptolemy's Judicia is related. 55 In the Chantilly manuscript, as it presently stands, DTM and DL immediately follow some texts which reflect an early stage of the Alchandreana, but a gap in the foliation indicates that 12 folios once separated them from these Alchandreana: these folios may have contained further Alchandreana, or even Pseudo-Ptolemy's Judicia.

The Alchandreana are the. earliest Latin texts to describe Arabic

cal doctrines whtch were probably drawn from Arab1c astroIogt ' . n Catalonia or al-Andalus. One text denved from Greeksources 1 . the Letter of Petosiris to Nechepso.- was added to th1s corpus by the scribe of Paris, Bibliotheque nauonale de France, MS lat. 17868 in the tenth century. It is plausible that DL an? DTM were also added to this corpus, perhaps at the same time that PseudoPtolemy's Judicia was composed. The provenance and sources of this substantial work on judicial astrology have ?,ot yet . been ascertained. 56 The presence of Arabic terms such as .~rags 1d es.~ gradibus" (Arabic "daraja" = "degree"), and "borges . est turres (Arabic "burj" ="tower") as well as the specific doctnne of the te:t indicates an ultimately Arabic origin. That the DL ?oes n tf however, derive from the same Arabic source as the Arabic parts o the Alchandreana is indicated, inter alia, by the fact that the nam~s for the lunar mansions differ considerably from those found m t e h h d close to those m the Alchandreana; they are, on the ot er57 an ' . . f DL Greek MS Oxoniensis, Cromwell 12. But the asso~auo~ ~kely 1 with this corpus has one further implication: nam~ly.' t at It IS ak . . . prescnpt10ns for m mg to be the earliest text m Latm concemmg talismans. a translation was made Sometime before the mid-fifteenth century, f DTM rar to the source o m turbantes in of a Greek parapegma that was very stmt Aetios, under the heading "Sequuntur ste~le fi~~ ae~~e air in each singulis mensibus" ("The fixed stars dtstur mg
- - - - - - - - - - - - - . . . . Ra mond of Marseilles's iudicia, " The earliest known use of the Judtcta ts m . Y rrently engaged on a completed in his native city in the year 11 4 1. Davtd Juste ts cu project of study of this text and its siblings. . t names in the Alclumdreatw d' ) but are the same " Mansions 1 5 8 19 and 26 in DL have dfferen ' ' ' ' d0 -Ptolemy's 111 tcw' . , 1 (lunar mansions are not menuoned m Pseu 39 above). The names ' 12 (with the exception of 8) as in MS Cromwe/1 (see nftransliteration used in the b tray the system o . a1 t. of the the lunar mansions do not, however, e o- 3 The equ1v ens . CCAG V 3 9 9 h. ry a > 1 Cromwell manuscript nor those m ' ' g the text's tsto Arabic letters in DL 'may give some hints ~~n~:~ > c (5, 6); 'ain > c (2llb<;; (mansion 10) or a> e (21, 26); u > o (2, ll, ' . ,~w > gw (13). Unexplmna .. 'ain > g (24); ghain > s [?] (15); sh > s ~1~ 19!,bi'l-nathra" (8), while "bd;~':::d through scribal error is the name "belsule or tive for "batn al-bOt" neverh' h't 1 (28) may be a corruption "bi'l-risha' ",an a_temally found in Greek (lowe t < ' . . . . f but occastOna oth erwtse m Latm transcnp ton~, . m paul Kunitzsch). statement to a personal commumcatton fro

"' This Arabic star-name does not occur in any of the Greek texts of this paraptgma listed above (n. 43). " See above 334-335. "See apparatus criticus ad lac. " Comp~ Judicia, MS H, fol. 2r: "Si enim hec, ftli mi, non ignoraveris, sine <h>esttattone ad preterita, presentia, futura tempora dicenda pervenire poteris"; and fol. 6v "hec regula que tibi dicetur ab animo tuo non labatur." "E.g. "turris" for sign of the zodiac. "Puncta" for "minutes" is also a characteristic of older Latin texts on astronomy (give examples), but, as far as I can see, minutes are never mentioned in Pseudo-Ptolemy's Judicia. " E.g., _the phrase "hec regula ab animo tuo non labatur" (vel. sim.) occurs in Proporhones 16.1, 42.1 and 56.1. Another text of the A/chandreana is headed 'De iudiciis vitae per XII turres' (I owe these references to David Juste, whose A!chantfr~ana: Les plus anciens traites astrologiques latins d'origine arabe (Xe &lecle) ts m the pressi

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month are as follows"). 58 This text is found in two manuscripts. In Prague, MS Narodnf Knihovna Ceske Republiky 1144, it has been copied on fols. l02r-v, within a collection of weather-forecasting texts, including al-Kindr's De mutatione temporum, 59 which was copied by Andreas Ruczel in 1447. In Katowice, MS Biblioteka Slqska, "Miscellanea astrologica", copied in ca. 1493, the text is found on fols. 146v-147r.60 In contrast to all the other variants of this parapegma known to me (see n. 43 above), the fixed stars are described here as causing the changes of the weather, rather than merely being the signs of those changes. The Latin translator, or a Greek redactor, has made the parapegma an astrological text, probably to accommodate it to the context of astrological works in which the planets and the fixed stars have an active role in affecting the weather. 61 The text begins with the month of January, as does the Greek version in the text printed in CCAG, IX.l, pp. 129-37. As might be expected from a fourteenth-century text, the Latin is of a higher quality than that of DTM. But the writer betrays some idiosyncrasies, among which are the tautological "in occidente" with "occidit/cadit" and "in oriente" with "oritur", the use of "altera dies" for "the next day", and a tendency to add prepositions where they are not necessary ("in ante", "in mane", "de/in vespere/ad vesperam", "per duos dies"), and to vary between using present and future forms of the verbs. The Greek names of the stars and

constel~at!Ons ar d t t any vernacular elements, aside from the

e so garbled (possibly because of the copyists), that

. . dtfficult to e ec . I. . . 11 IS . " , (" , for "hippos") and the occas10na wl!ctsm droppmg of h ypo.s ("hyriphy" for "eriph01").

APPENDIX

AN EDfl'ION OF DE LV

. NA DE TEMPORUM MUTATION AND STELLE FIXEAEREMTURBANTES IN SINGULIS MENS/BUS

" Paul Kunitzsch first drew attention to this text, as it is found in the Katowice manuscript, in his 'Zur Tradition der Unwettersterne', Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenliindischen Gesel/schaft 122 (1972), 108-17, repr. in idem, The Arabs and the Stars (Northampton, !989), article XVI. I am grateful to him for sending me printouts of the two pages containing the text in the Katowice manuscript and for sharing his readings of the Katowice and the Prague manuscripts with me. " See G. Bos and C. Burnett, Scientific Weather Forecasting in the Middle Ages: The Writings of A/-Kindr (London and New York, 2000), 77-78. 60 I have not been able to ascertain the other contents of this manuscript. It is not clear whether this manuscript is the same as that described as "R 51 II" in P. 0. Kristeller, Iter ltalicum, IV (London and Leiden, 1989), 40 I. This is a paper manuscript of the 15~-16" c., written in a northern hand, containing various astrological and alchemical pieces, some of which are briefly described by Kristeller. " See Kunitzsch, 'Zur Tradition der Unwettersterne', and Bos and Burnett, Scientific Weather Forecasting in the Middle Ages, 77-78. The only hint of direct stellar influence in A~tios is in regard to 14 September, on which "Arktouros rises and changes the air on the next day."

d De temporum mutatione are based The editions of the De Lu~a an . f m other manuscripts and on the Chantilly manuscnpt; r~admgsl r~ orrect obvious errors in 0 the printed edition have been gtven ? Y c ut between angle c (additions from other ~anuscr~~S ~~he~ than c is provided brackets). A full list of readmgs for . ks on Astrological . G k d Latm wor in Burnett, "Arabtc, ree ' an " F the manuscript sigla see Magic," _and idem, "A parapegma. or culiar to the Chantilly above p. 334-336. In DL a feat~r~ ~e t the word "idolum" or manuscript is that, for the first half 0 1 e e.x 'th scn'be's exemplar d' t that m e "idola" is omitted; this may m tea e . symbol or spaces th a specta1 the word for talisman was wntten WI . k In DTM it is clear different m . d d had been left for it to be ad e m a . t d by Liechtenstetn (Ll that the Chantilly text is closer to that pnn e than to the Harley copy (H). n square d letters are pu t t For all three texts redundant wo:d~ an n Latin that can stand for brackets 'a' indicates the abbrevJattonft ner'tc abbreviation JS . age either 'an' or 'am'. The realtzatton 0 indicated by round brackets.

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Text I. Chantilly, MS Musie Conde 322 (641), fol. 138r-139r.

<De Luna secundum Aristotilem>62
Aristotiles plenior artibus dixit: Selini clare videtur habere .xx viii. astra per que transgreditur, et unumquodque astrum stat horis .xxiiii. Propterea sic ordinans, ut inferius prospicies, nomina locorum clare nominando mo<n>stravit ' et quicquid in hiis locis contineri ostendit, gratia Dei ubique. 63

cupidus masculus; femina similiter. Tauri .viii. gradus minus .ii. septimas.
67

Cum vero descendit belcata, venenum fac, 'et <idola~ .flagra: S. <angelos flagita>, non semi~es, u~(orem) non acctptas. S1 masculus fuerit natus, malus ent; femma bona./138v/ <Si> intrat helcana, fac ad amandum atque <idola>, ux.(orem) 6 ' accipe, compara, intra ad regem, semina, viam incipe. St homo vel mulier nati fuerint, boni erunt.

7. Ut intraverit aldiroan, fac pro amore, int~a ante dfo~itnu~~

l.

Quando vadit Selini, id est Luna, Sarta, fac pro amore, vestimentum novum non induas, neque vadas coram potentibus64 huius mundi. Si autem uxorem aliquis cep<er>it, et amor est inter utrosque. Compara, non semines neque negotium facias. Nulli medicari [non] incipias neque aliquam viam incipias. Si autem infans aut mulier natus fuerit, luxuria habundabit. ii Arietis, xxvi gradus minus ii. septimas. 65

semina, compara, vende, viam incipe. Si qu1s natus uen , en bonus et sapiens. 8. Quando vadit belsule, venenum fac et ~ca<nf>da1~7 a a~~: <idolum>, non novam vestem induas, Iter ac, m r . dorninum terre semina, ux(orem) non tolias, non comp~s. Sl : . t femina amab1tur ab quis natus fuent, penculosus m v1a en , Sl omnibus. . f datum linguam Iiga 9. Ut autem descendtt beltarfa, ac scan . cui vis novam vestem non induas, ad imperatorem non!! mtress: ' . . non vadas ad be urn. 1 ux(orem) non acc1p1as, non compares, quis natus fuerit, fornicator erit. . <'dolum> fac ad regem 10. Cum vadit belcibe, absolve hgamma, 1 f 't 1 .'nfans fiet Si natus uen ' intra, semina, ux(orem) acctpe. 68 " es t, absco<n>se amat. absque veri tate; s1 ,emma . f ro amore, <idolum> fac, 11. Cum autem pertranstt beldobra, ac P vam induas. Si . . compara vestem no coram dommo mtra, semma, ' . 1 .11 m sequetur. aliquis natus fuerit, erit bonus et prospentas u . dalum non semines, non 12. Quando <i>erit belsarf, flaglta scan 'am vestem induas, intres ante dominum, non emas, non nov
. ... > septimas"-is found at
" A more correct value-"Tauri .ix. gradus mmus <.m. the beginning of mansion 4 in T. " LT add "nubere."

2. Quando <descendit> Albotaim, fac ad dominatores 66 terre, <idola> confla, <angelos> ad te clama, coram dominis terre intra, ux(orem) non accipias, non compares, non novum vestimentum induas. Si aliquis natus fuerit, erit bonus, sapiens; fernina meretrix. 3. Cum hec astra pertransit, fac causa amoris, <idolum> fac, iter incipe, ante dominum intra, compera (sic), vestem novam indue, angelos iube venire, ux(orem) accipe. Si masculus aut fernina natus fuerit, erit dives. 4. Ut autem descendit beltubara, fac pro inimicitiis, non intres ante dominum, compara, vestem novam induas, non sernines, non accipias uxorem, non incipias iter. Si quis natus fuerit,
" This. is the title in T. There is no title in C, but the text is separated from the p,recedmg one by a space, and begins with a large capital "A." Tbe lunar mansions are numbered in the margin. 64 potestatibus LT :This value should be at the end of mansion 2. arnorem dominatorum LT

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Late Antique an

viam vade. Si natus fuerit homo, est dissimilis spiritu; si femina est, mala69 est. 13. Et ut <i>erit belugua/ 0 fac pro amore, semina, non preliare intra ante dominum terre, viam perge. Si aliquis natus fuerit' erit malus; femina amatur ab omnibus. ' 14. Quando descendit belscemel, fac pro scandala, <non semines>, non intres ante dominum, non compares, non incipias iter. Si aliquis homo natus fuerit, raptor et malus erit. 15. Cum ierit belsafre, fac pro amore et absolve ligamina, vade iter, et ad regem intra, uxorem accipe, novam vestem indue. Si aliquis natus fuerit, erit bonus. 16. Ut autem transit belroham, liga et absolve ac semina, viam non facias, intra ad dominum, novam vestem non induas, ux(orem) accipe. Si quis natus fuerit, erit ydoneus, set femina mala erit. 17. Cum autem vadit bellasil, fac inimicitiis gignendis et venenum fac, idola non facias, ad imperatorem non intres, non semines, non viam facias, vestem novam non induas, non compares. Si aliquis natus fuerit, est bonus apud parentes suos.

20. Quan do

vadit belnam pro amore fac et liga quicquid vis, ' . . . ido(la) fac, ad imperatorem mtra, vtam vade: semt~a, compara, novam vestem indue. Qui nascitur est bonus m ommbus. bebelde fac pro inimicitiis, non facias <idola>, non

1 21 Ut ten d non 1 ntres ad regem non novum vesttmentum m uas.

semmes, . ' . Qui natus fuerit, fiet malus m omm tempore.

22. Si ierit belsacd, fac ido(la) et liga, non intres ad dominu~ terre,

ux(orem) non ducas nee iter v~das, vest~m novam non mduas. Qui nascitur, sodomita est; femma meretnx.

23 Quando vadit belbula, fac pro inimicitiis, liga, absolv~, fac . ido(la), in viam perge, ad regem intra, ux(orem) non acctptas, non compares, vesti quid vis.< > 24 Cum vadit belfugat, fac causa amoris, abso~ve, fac <i~ola>, ovam mdue semma, m intra ante dominatorem terre, vestem ~ . ' viam vade, compara. Si natus fuerit qms, ent bonus. d 1 do (Ia) non facias, iter 0 1 25. Quando vadit belsat, fac pro scan .a ' s1 quis natus non facias, ante dominum non eas, non compares. fuerit, erit malus omnibus modis. fac absolve semina, ante 26. Ut iverit belmogden, pro am?re . ' fueri~ bonus fiet in potestatem intra, ido(la) fac. St qms natus ' . . . itias fac, liga, intra ~d ndue Si qu1s novam vestem t imperatorem, ido(la) fac: sem~na, ientia plena. natus fuerit, erit malus; st femma, bona, sap . ocia (?) absolve. f > causa amons, 28. Cum venerit beltaxn, < ac . t ad dominum terre. 10 ido(la) fac, semina, per iter vade, r~ndue Si quis natus . estimentum 1 ux(orem) acctpe, novum v . mnibus modts. fuerit, erit sapiens et bonus o . . omnibus.

18. Quando vadit stincardiam 71 scorpii, in amorem fac amantis,

absolve, idola fac, intra ad basileum, semina, indue novum vestimentum, accipe ux(orem). Si quis natus fuerit homo aut femina, erunt amatores hominum. 19. Si fuerit bessaule, fac ligamentum, ido(la) confla, viam fac, semina, non intres ad regem, non compares, vestem novam non induas. Si natus fuerit quis, malus erit et non est que amet eum.

27. Cum autem tent belatacer, tmmtc

69

10

LT add "lingua." belsanga C 71 In the first syllable, the "i" has been written above the "t" (which could also be
"c").

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Cum autem scire vis in qua harum (?) turrium sit Luna, incipe ab Ariete dando cuique turri .xiii. minus septimam partem, et ubi numerus defecerit, ibi erit Luna. 12

. mensis Octubris Stephano, Sexta d1e nimia mutatio aeris.

82 .

I.e. corona, appare e es

183

Text II. Chantilly, MS Musee Conde 322 (641), fol. 137r-138r. De temporum mutatione13 Ut autem de temporum mutatione particulariter nosse74 verum desideraveris, 75 regule que iam dicentur ab animo tuo non labantur.

. d' e mens is Erifi 84 i e <h>edi, vespertini apparent,8s et tunc Septima 1 . . ' .. fit86 magna turbatio aens. Vicesima tertia die illius men~is P~iades, i.e. Virgilie, cum Solis ortu ponunt, et fit magna turbatw aens.

s Lapsidis, id est lucidus, ponit, et Sexta die mensis Novembrl incipit tunc obscurari aer. Prima die mensis Septembris, Icarus, custos plaustri, apparet cum Solis ortu, et mutatur aer in .7. horis. Hoc fit inter diem et noctem. Septima die 76 mensis < ventum. Tertia decima87 die eius Lira apparet. 'd est sucule,88 ponunt et mutatur aer Vicesima prima dieYad es, I crastinum. . . . . . d < >89 vespertinus apparel et VIcesima septlma d1e ems em Stephanon, id est corona, ponit, et mutatur aer. apparet,91 et tunc

>77 vespertinus apparet, et mutatur aer in

Quarta78 decima die mensis eiusdem Arcturus, 79 i.e. Septemtrion, apparet cum Solis ortu, et mutatur aer in crastinum. Nonadecima die eiusdem mensis Sichis, i.e. subole<m> quam Virgo tenet in manu, apparet. Tunc mutatur aer infra80 duo dies. Vigesima quinta die eiusdem mensis Alferat, i.e. equus, ponet, et erit tunc calida mutatio. 81

Prima die mensis Decembris Cwn, Id est ca~us, fit turbatio magna aeris usque in aliquantos dies.

90

Decima die mensis eiusdem Erifi,92 id est <h>edi, ponunt.

81

72

This corresponds to Pseudo-Ptolemy, ludicia, <68>, MS H, fol. J4r: "Cum autem scire desideras in qua turrium sit Luna, incipito ab Ariete, dando unicuique turri .xiii. <minus> .vii. partem et ubi numerus defecerit, ibi est Luna." 73 This title is a later addition in the top margin. "nosceC " descideraveris C 76 HL add "eiusdem." n The parallel passage in Ai!tios indicates that the star "Aix" is the subject. 18 C omits. 79 Arturus C. 80 anteHL

82

83

HL add "aeris." Stephania H Comits. 84 ErisiC "apparetC 16 Comits. 81 C omits. 18 facule L, H omits. 89 Orion should be the subject. din of H. "'"Canis" written above "cinis", which is the rea g "Comits.

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Vicesima prima die Echon, i.e. aquila, apparet, et Esion, id est Eridanus, ponet, et erit turbatio aeris post unam diem. Vicesima tertia die Ega, i.e. caper, 93 apparet, et mutatur aer.

.. C aret tot Quartatoo die mensis Martn ancer app . eJusdem mensis Piscis Aquilonius. Octava dJe Nona die eiusdem Orion 103 apparet. Octava decima die <Kele> vespere ponet.
104
106 102

Quarta die mensis lanuarii Delphinus apparet. Quinta94 die Cetus vespertinus ponet. Vicesima quinta die Ectos, i.e. aquila, ponet, et stella regia appellata Tuberoni, in pectore Leonis occidit matutina, et turbatur aer ante tres dies. Vicesima octava die Delphinus vespertinus ponit95 et mutatur aer.

. . . dJ'e lpos id est equus v1 ces1ma pnma ' aeris.

105

<apparel>

et est tur allo

b .

e elusdem equinoc<t>ium fit et erit nimia Vicesima quinta dl 107 turbatio aeris.

. 1 108 apparent. Prima die Aprilis Pliades, Jd est VJrgl1 Je, paru urn
109

Vicesima nona die Lira vespere ponet. 96

<19 die mensis eiusdem Pliades vespere ponunt>.

fit gna turbatio aeris. Vicesima prima die Pliades appare<n>t, et 1 ma

/fol. 137v/ Sexta die Februarii Zephirus 97 flat. Vicesima secunda die Ipos, i.e. equus, vespertinus ponet. Vicesima tertia die Arcturus, 98 id est septemtrion, apparet.

. PI' des vespere ponunt. ] [Vicesima nona die eiusdem mens1s Ja

110

. . onit et mutatur aer usque Vicesima septima die Onon vespertmus P in .ix. horas diei.
100

Vicesima quinta die Kele, 99 i.e. Libra, apparet et mutatur aer.

101

102

92

93

erisi C. cap. CHL. Quinta HL, Sumpta (supra "septima") C. "' apparel L. 96 A later hand inC adds "fiunt (?) diversa mutatio et ventus magnus." 97 rafilus C. 91 Arturus C, Acturus H 99 Kle H, Kale L
94

Quinta HL. Aquilonis HL . Aquilonis HL . . . ndatio aquarum. Tonal em~ '" C adds in margin: "Orion dictus ab unna, td e~t m;e scholia to Gennantcus s tempore hyemis." The first phrase is found m Catasterismorum re/iquwe. translation of Aratus' Phaenomena: see Eratosthenes, ed. K. Robert (Berlin, 1878), 164-66. aret H eiusdem Esion id est 104 eiusdem Libra vespere pone! id est Eridanus app ' ~ridanus apparel L. Hends here. 106 All witnesses omit "apparel" 107 L omits "Vicesima quinta ... aeris." mably 108 paulum L ged "19" to "29" (presu ,.. to have chan tence later. C (or one of its ancestors) appears . . ") and puts the sen because "setting" would seem to come after "nsmg ' 110 Lomits.

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Prima die Maii Yades, id est sucule, cum Solis ortu appare<n>t, et mutatur aer usque in .4. horas diei. Quarta die Lira vespere apparet, et mutatur <aer> nimis una die. 111 Die sexta eiusdem Esion, id est Eridanus, apparet et mutatur aer nirnis. 112 Die septima cum Solis ortu Pliades cum Esion appare<n>t, et incipit aer obscurari. Decima 113 .ix. die eiusdem Lapsidis, id est lucidus, apparet, et mutatur aer ante duos dies. Vicesima 114 .iiii. die Exeon 115 vespertinus ponet, et movetur aer ante unamdiem.

'd' . 119 . . . Orion plenus apparel, et fit c al1 1tas m aere. Die tertia 1u111

Die quarta Prochion, id est Anticanus, apparel, et est mutatio aeris. e Cion id est canis, plenus apparel, et fit magna Octava .X. dl turbatio aeris ante duos dies. Vicesima .v. die Tetos'2o ponet, et movetur aer ante tres dies.

Quinta decima die Augusti Lira ponet,l21 et mutatur aer. . t F 'ctos id est De/fol. 138r/cima nona <die> Delfinus ponet e n , Idre pars prior, id est <h>orridus, apparet.
123 122

Secunda die Iunii Ectos, id est aquila, vespertinus apparet, et 116 movetur 117 aer. Die .v. eiusdem Ar<c>turus 118 ponet, et mutatur aer in duos dies. Die .ix. vespertinus apparel Delfinus, et mutatur aer usque in .x. horas diei. Decima quinta die Orion incipit apparere, et mutatur aer nimis ante tres dies.

. . ... . 'd st <Antevendemor>, apparel V1ces1ma .vm. d1e Protngmtls, 1 e et Oystos, id est < > . . . d st Canis ante unam E<te>sie des<in>unt, et est fims C1orus, I e diem. 124 . t Martis omnia signa Notandum est quod cum est annus Saturn! e mutationis validiora, in ceteris mi[c]tiora.
. fi . 1 bane certissimam Ut autem ratio inveniendi anm .non ~e IC~~ 'Martii quot gradus 1 1 damus regulam. Caute scias in tertia de~ .ma e e~t tribuas sex t de bus que reman P1scium et puncta Sol pretenent, e di 'dium faciunt unam bonis diei et .xv. puncta. Nam duo puncta ~t . nu Libre et sic de ent tnbUIS .v. horam. Reliqua puncta que reman
'" Ariete L. '"' Teros L (Aetos or Ketos). '" apparel L. 113 etL. 113 Lacuna in C. 124 Lends here.

111

112

113

aer nimis una die] nimis una die C, aer nimis L. L has wrongly placed this prediction on 18 March. Decisima (sic) C. "'Decima C. 115 C corrects from "Egon." 116 L adds "et fit calliditas (sic)" (cf. July 3). ::: C corrects from "mutatur", which is L's reading. Arturus C, Arctus L.

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.(Jteek Texts on AstrOlogy and Magtc

. d Medieval Latin Translations of t.are Anttque an . 1

355

ceteris, et ubi numerus defuerit, ibi est caput anni, et [si] planeta illius turris habetur dominium totius anni.

.;.!~~

. xta die Zephirusl31 (Zephuros) flabit, In Februano se . . 1132 II Icirosl33 (Oistos) occidit vespere in occidente, et mdie 2 ste a

Text III. Stelle fixe aerem turbantes in singulis mensibus.

P = Prague, MS Ndrodnf Knihovna Ceske Republiky 1144, ca. 1447, fols. 102r-v. S =Katowice, MS Biblioteka Slqska, 'Miscellanea astrologica', ca. 1493, fols.146v-147r. In the following edition, the Greek names of the stars have been added in brackets. Italics indicate passages not in Aetios.

et erit tempestas in aere, etl34 25 die stella Adictiron oriente, et 26 die apparent irundines. 135 (Arktouros) oritur in vespere in

. y 136 (Hippos= Pegasus), InMarcio in 18 die mane ontur ste11a pos

. in septima nocte que in 23 die apportat magnam tempestatem aens, jlabit ventus magnus,

Sequuntur stelle fixe aerem turbantes in singulis mensibus et erit initium veris.
137

In Ianuario quarta die oritur stella Delphin (Delphin), et in quinta die, occidit stella Arctos 125 (Aetos) in vespere io occidente, et fiet turbatio et tempestas 126 in aere et ante per tres 127 dies mutabit aerem, et in die 28 stella De1phin (Delphin) occidit de vespere et pariter stella Lira (Lura) in occidente, et in 25 die Lampadas 128 que 129 mutat aerem per 3 130 dies ante. In Aprili in prima die extremitates ungu!arum apparent, et in 18 139 die in vespere abscun dun tur
40 Pleyades, 1

IJS

Pleyad(um)

126

'" Orctos S tempestatis S 127 Aetios gives "2 days". 121 Lampades S
129
110

et

S's reading is unclear.

"' Sapherius S '" Aetios: 22. m lares S 134 S adds "in." '" This word has been corrected. 136 lpos S m" is a 137 et erit initium veris P] S unclear. th 1 "exuemitates ungul:. ("with 01 '" Wolfgang HUbner has pointed out I~ ~e 0~the night") as akr(Jnu mistranslation of akronukhoi ("at the begmmng the tips of one's nails"). '" Aetios: 19, ''" absconduntur P

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357

et in 24 in aere,

141

die oritur (sic) pariter cum Sole, et erit tempestas magna

d' tertia stella Orion (OriOn) oritur ex integro, In Iullo m Je . di arta 146 stella Prothrios 147 (ProkuOn) oritur in mane, etm e qu et in 28148 die stella Chyon (K~on) oritur in mane et erit tempestas'49 magna et sepe in ante unum d1em vel duos, et inl50 25 die stella Arctos (Aetos) occidit in mane et'5' post duos dies movet aerem.

et in 26 die stella Lira oritur in oriente et multum disturbat aerem.

In Mayo in sex to die mane oritur stella Y cos (Aix) que valde disturbat aerem, et in 7 die iterum apparent Pleyades (Pleiades) incipientes aerem serenare, et in 19 die 142 apparent stelle Yades (Huades) in mane, incipientes turbare aerem sepe unum diem vel duos in ante, et in 24 die 143 absconditur Y cos (Aix) et per duos dies <in ante> disturbat aerem.

281s2 die , stella Lira (Lura) occidit in mane, unde In Augusto m 153 parumfrigiditatis in seculo patet, 156 154 F (' )155 occidit in vespere et stella et eodem die stella ng1t IS 157 Hystos (Oistos) similiter, et Chion (Kuon) incipit evanescere propter quo habent calorem. d h .. d' Ius aliis u les p

In Iunio stella Arctos (Aetos) in secunda die 144 oritur ad vesperam in oriente, et in 6 die stella Arctos (Arktouros) occidit in mane, et in die nona stella Delphin (Delphin) oritur in vespere, et in 28 145 die stella Yrion (Orion) incipit oriri in mane, et tunc duos dies et tres in ante et post disturbat aerem.

spere In Septembre in die 7 stella Y cos (Aix) ontur m ve ' nte et in crastino . . et in die 4 158 stella Arctos (Arktouros) ontur m one aer mutatur,

147

141

142

Ai!tios: 21. S omits. 143 S omits. 144 die secunda S 145 Ai!tios: 25.

'" Aetios: 14. Prothtios P. '" Aetios: 19. "' intempestas S '"'Somits. 151 S omits. '" Aetios: 15. '" The reading in P is unclear. s!F . s "' S om1ts. . . th manuscripts). Cf Fricto ncco "' Frigid(is) S (the last syllable is unclear m bo (=Hydra) in a neighbouring context in DTM. 156 The reading in S is unclear. . ts "' Histis P (last letter unclear in both manuscnp ). "' Ai!tios: 14.

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_ A t'que and Medieval Latin Translations of I (lreek Texts on Astrology and Magtc

359

. die 18 159 ste11a Macahs . (Stakhus) oritur in mane et mov b't et m . . e 1 aerem duos d1es <m ante>,

170 zgt69 die stella Andiares (Orion) oritur in vespere in oriente d' . . etln et stella Stichimos (Stephanos) ca 1t m onente.

et in 25 die estas finitur ac subversio aeris exoritur [et] sepe in ant duos vel tres dies, unde necesse est 160 sanguinem non minuer: <a>ut ventrem purgare eo tempore aut ullo modo corpus evacuare ' et ista custodia servetur 18 die usque ad 28 diem. 161

In Decembre in die prima stella Chyon

(Ku.on) cadit ~n ma~e in occidente[m], et plures sapientes probant q~ahscumque.tlle pnmus dies sit, sive serenus sive tempestuosus, SIC permaneb1t usque ad
171

36 112 diem, In Octobre in die 6 oritur stella Zopherios (Stephanos) in mane et erit valida mutacio aeris, et in die Septima die stella Hyriphy (Eriphoi) oritur
162

et in die decima stella Hersa (Eriphoi) cadit in mane, et in die 21 stella Ycos (Aix) similiter cadit in mane et tempestas et subversio aeris fit.
173

in vespere,

et in die 16 163 stelle Yades (Huades) oriuntur similiter in vespere, unde fiet magna tempestas, et in die 23, quando Sol oritur, Pleyades (Pleiades) vere cadunt in occidente, et erit in ante 1>64 uno die mutatio aeris. 165

In Novembre in die 6 166 occidunt in mane Pleyades 167 (Pleiades), incipientes iterum celum serenare, et in die l3 stella Lira (Lura) oritur in mane, et in die 21 stelle Yades (Huades) cadunt in occidente in mane, congregantes tempestatem in altera die, 168

159

160
161

Aetios: 19. S adds "in." Aetios gives "from the 15th to the 24th day." 162 septima die oritur stella Hiriphi S 163 Aetios: 17. 164 S omits. ,., aeris mutacio S 166 S adds "ortum." 167 Pliades S 161 tempestates in alteram diem s

Aetios: 27. nated by a neighbouring Andraris/Andraus p. The Latin word might be ~"t:~7 , 6. "Antares" which rises on November 6; cf. CCAG. ' 171 ChionS 172 Aetios: 37. 113 Pomits.
169 170

George Saliba
Columbia University

Revisiting the Astronomical Contacts Between the World of Islam and Renaissance Europe: . The Byzantine connection
INTRODUCTION

It was the late Otto Neugabauer who first drew attention to the possible connections between Arabic and Renaissance astronomy, his now famous appendix to his Exact Sciences in Antiquity.' In It he remarked that one of the mathematical devices that was used by Copernicus (d. 1543) to generate linear motion from a combination of two circular motions had already been discovered some three hundred years earlier by Na~Ir al-Oin al-Tosr, the Muslim astronomer who first proposed it as a theorem in 1247 A.D. It was this same Tilsi who later became the director of the M~i!gha Observatory, which was founded in 1259 A.D., in the ctty of Mariigha, in modern-day North West Iran. This observatory, 10

!"

207 O. Neugebauer, Exact Sciences in Antiquity (Providence, 1957), 191 -

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363

tum, became the most influential :e:ore undertaking the building of Islamic times e ?re assum.ing its directorship, Tilsi ar g a Observatory and fruitful . AIhad already spent many ,ortress of' h years . . m the Isma'-II-I " muc of his mtellectual work. And it w am,ilt, where he produced proposed the theorem now k as at Alamilt where he fi The theorem itself is rathe as the Tilsi Couple. IrS! spheres [Figure 1]. one twi~es::~~~ !\states that if one took two spheres to be internally tangent t . IZe ho the other, and allowed the allowed the larger sphere to mo~:a~ oter at one point, and then any direction while the II ' m p ace, at any speed and . sma er spl m twice the speed in the opposite d' Jere moved, also in place at oscillate along a straight then the point of big sphere. me w ch forms the diameter of the

~f ~~;e~at~~

n~wn

~ould

l!recti~n,

tange~cy

connection with Tilsi's critique of Ptolemy's theory on the latitudinal motion of the planets; in that version the spheres were represented by circles. 2 The reason TOsi had to resort to such a theorem was necessitated by Ptolemy's statement, in the thirteenth book of his astronomical masterpiece, the Almagest [XIII.2]. that the inclined planes of the lower planets Venus and Mercury oscillated up and down as the planets' epicycles moved from the northernmost point to the southernmost point in their yearly rotations around the earth as he thought then. In order to allow for this oscillation, Ptolemy proposed to attach the diameters of the inclined planes to little circles, whose planes were, in turn, positioned perpendicular to the ecliptic plane, such that the tip of the diameter of the inclined plane would move along the circumference of those little circles, thus forcing the whole plane to oscillate up and down with respect to the plane of the ecliptic. What Ptolemy neglected to note is that the same plane that was forced to move up and down as a result of having its diameter pegged to a little circle, also had to wobble, due to the motion of the tip of its diameter along the circumference of a circle, rather than move up and down along a straight line. This wobbling would in effect destroy the longitudinal computations which had been painstakingly determined by Ptolemy in the preceding books of the

~zk.
F .

Almagest. In his redaction of Ptolemy's Almagest, called ta/Jrfr al-mi}is(T [Redaction of the Almagest], Tilsi reserved his most critical, and yet polite, comment to this very wobbling of Ptolemy's configuration. After narrating Ptolemy's description of the behavior of the inclined plane, which was pegged to the little circles that would cause Its oscillation up and down, Tilsi went on to say: "this kind of talk falls outside the craft of astronomy [htidhii kalam"" khilrif' .'an . al$inil'a]."3 In response ' and in order to preserve the longitudinal 1 a computations, as well as account for a seesawing actiOn a ong
2 G

tgure I. The full statem Vat. arab 3!9 Courtesyent andB proof of the 'bJ" of the Tilsi Couple as it appeated in MS I wteca Apostolica Vaticana

Medieval Arabi< . Saliba, 'The Role of the Almagest Comrnentanes m . AI . t' 10 Astronomy: A Preliminary Survey of TOsr's Redaction of PtolemY magesG. A 37 (t987) 3-20,s repr.

rchrves lnternationales d'Histoire des Scrences

'.

1h G0 /den Mr

In a separat . Tnsr was first e publication, proposed I have de monstrated that this theorem of m a rudi mentary form in 1247 A.D. in

Saliba, A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories Durrng e ' (New York, 1994), !43-60. . BN arabe 2485. fol. Nw;tr al-Drn al-Tosr (d. 1274), Ta/lrrr al-mijistr. pans. MS

~!Islam
95r.

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George Saliba

. . . the Astronomical Contacts Between the World of Islam and ReVISitmg . . Renaissance Europe: The Byzantme connectiOn

365

straight line, TUsi proposed then the rudimentary fonn of hi 8 theorem that accounted for both the longitudinal as well as th latitudinal motions of the planets. e Some ten years later, and certainly by 1259/60, the year when the Marllgha Obs~rvatory was founded, Tiisi came to realize the full power of h1s new mathematical proposition and the full implications it could bring to bear on other, related astronomical problems. For instance, the theorem could be generalized so that it could be used in any instance when linear, and in this case oscillatory, motion was to be produced as a result of simple circular motions. With the full statement of the theorem in terms of spheres, rather than circles, Tiisi went ahead and applied the theorem first to the model of the Moon, where such linear motion was also needed to be produced by simple circular motions, and later on applied it to the model of the upper planets, in order to generate the same phenomenon. From then on, most astronomers who succeeded Tilsi, including Copernicus, were to use this theorem for that very same purpose. Tnsi himself did not address the direct philosophical implications of this theorem to the Aristotelian cosmological distinction between the celestial and the sublunar motions. According to Aristotle, the celestial bodies moved "naturally" in circular motion, and thus remained unchanged over time because circular motion had no contraries. Sublunar elements on the other hand moved "naturally" in linear motion, and thus exhibited the phenomena of generation and corruption as a result of linear contrary motions. Generating linear motion from circular motion, as Tilsi proposed to do with his theorem, meant that the Aristotelian distinction regarding the nature ?f motion that pertained to various bodies was at least put in doubt If not altogether contradicted. But Tilsi did not make any claims in that regard. His commentators, however, made sure that this point was ~~pressly singled out, and went on to discuss the more general c?nditions (some of them mechanical) where continuous simple Circular motion could produce linear motion.4
4

As far as Copernicus was concerned, he also stressed the simple

:~ely,

thematical feature of the theorem [De Revolutionibus, III.4], that which produced _oscillatory motion as a result of Jar motions, and used It later on, for example, [De ~ . h" Revolutionibus, V.32] for exactly the sai?e purpose m Is construction of the Mercury model. Here agam no word was s_atd about the implications of such a theorem for the cosmologtcal assumptions of Aristotle. . . The complete break with the Aristotelian cosmology was not to e until the work of Newton (1643-1727). who was born a full 00m d . century after Copernicus's death. But one should not un eresumate the role of such early doubts against Aristotelian cosmology m empowering others to do away with that cosmology altogether.
CONNECTION WITH RENAISSANCE EUROPE

On the level of the mathematical theorem itself, its first appearance towards the middle of the thirteenth century in widely read and commented upon Arabic texts, and its later appearance some three . such Latm texts as the writings hundred years later m . of the venerable Copernicus naturally excited much debate smce 1957; . when the connectiOn was fi1rst establ"IShed by Neugebauer. . to Naturally much ink has already been sp1"IIed in attemptmg . , . f thi theorem directly or determine whether Copernicus knew o s . d Th . . yet to be deternune e through some mtermed1ary text t hat IS . h & t Copernican sc o1 ars. . latest studied Judgment of the two ,oremos h 1 text Mat ema1zca 1 Swerdlow and Neugebauer, in their no:-" ~ assic . that it "is not Astronomy in Copernicus's De Revoluuombus, c1 rumf s h' Muslim IS whether [Copernicus knew of the resuit o ,6 predecessors] but when and how. bl of connections In his usual. methodical attack of the ~ e~ uer must have when looking for evidence of contacts, euge a
. ed De Unon d"E/te tl Arabic Astronomy , in R. Morelon et A. Hasnawt, s., . Poincare (Louvain, 2004 ), 251-68, esp. 2~3f. N Swerdlow. 'Aristotelian 5 On the wide use of this theorem in La!l_n text~, :ttis;a Amico's HomocentriC Planetary Theory in the Renaissance: G!Ovan;r ) 36-48. . . 1972 Spheres', Journal for the History of Astronomy (. [Astronomy in CoperniCUS s 6 N. M. Swerdlow and 0. Neugebauer, Mathemauca De Revolutionibus (New York, 1984), 47.

~ Saliba-~d E: S. Kennedy, 'The Spherical Case of the TOsi Couple', Arabic Sc1ences a,.., Philosophy 1 (1991) 2 N
Po ad' 85-91, repr. with minor mistakes m 1 et;z. Vesel eds .. r D ... eUl)av 1e (T h na$ r a1 rn ai-Tasr Philosophe et savant du xme Sl c e eran, 2000), 105-11. See also G. Salib~, 'Aristotelian Cosmology and

366

George Saliba

Revt~I

. 'tin the Astronomical Contacts Between the World of Islam and g Europe: The Byzantine connection Renrussance

367

reasoned as follows: Copernicus was a Renaissance man, and therefore must have been able to read Greek and of course could read and write Latin. As far as Neugebauer knew then, and as we now know, none of the Arabic texts in which this theorem was discussed were translated into Latin. Therefore it remained to determine if those Arabic texts were ever translated into Greek, the only other language Copernicus could read, for there is no evidence that he ever read Arabic. Since the Byzantine civilization continued to produce Greek astronomical texts, although different in quality and. sophistication from the earlier classical Greek texts, and since some of the later Greek Byzantine texts, already surveyed by Neugebauer in his Studies in Byzantine Astronomical Terminology,' had already exhibited Islamic influence, both on the technical as well as the linguistic level of Byzantine Greek, then it stood to reason that Neugebauer would scour the surviving Byzantine Greek manuscripts in search ofthis specific connection. Sure enough, his search gained tremendous importance when he established beyond doubt the existence of such a Byzantine manuscript, MS Vat. gr. 211, which included the Greek version of an astronomical treatise that was composed towards the beginning of the fourteenth century by a Byzantine astronomer, Gregory Chioniades, who expressly stated that he had sought the latest astronomy of his time from Islamic lands, and that he recorded in this Byzantine Greek text what he had heard from his masters in the east. On fol. 116r of the same Vatican manuscript, Chioniades's text included, among other things, a clear drawing of the TOsi Couple without much commentary [Figure 2]. But the very existence of the drawing itself allowed Neugebauer to publish that page 8 by way of directing attention to the possible solution of the riddle regarding the connections between TOsi and Copernicus through a systematic investigation of the Byzantine astronomical texts, especially the later ones, for the clues they could contain about these connections. The next page of the same 9 manuscript contained an additional drawing directly related to
7

TDsi's spherical version of the same couple, also without much comment.

h If ff 1 !16r MS Vat. Figure 2. The TOsi Couple as it appeared on the lowe~ a 0 0 gr. 211, Courtesy of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vat1cana

. f t'10n about those All this kicked off a long search for more m ormah ch These Jved m t e sear connections, and several people were mv? . n astronomy. activities produced a renewed interest m Cope~tca ublication of which, during the following two decades, .led .to t el~er work. the .. f C0 pemtcus s ear 1 the editiOn and commentary o to the most 10 nd later on . Commentariolus, by Swerd Iow, a my embodied m comprehensive study of the mathematical astronbo er 11 In !973, . dl nd Neuge au . . the De Revolutiombus by Swer ow a . if the Amencan 0 and in the same issue of the Proceedmgs
I ...... Th<Ol'Y fC 0 pernicus's Pan-, h 1 N. Swerdlow 'The Derivation and First Draft 0 ,.,.. proceedings of ' ' . 'th Commen-, A Translation of the CommentariOius WI _ . 512 American Philosophical Society 117 (1973), 423 omy 11 Swerdlow and Neugebauer, Mathematical Astron

0. Neugebauer, 'Studies in Byzantine Astronomical Terminology', Transactions ff the American Philosophical Society, New Series, 50.2 ( 1960). 0. Neugebauer, A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy (New York, 1975) flate IX, and Swerdlow and Neugebauer, Mathematical Astronomy, Figure 5. Swerdlow and Neugebauer, Mathematical Astronomy, Figure 6.

10

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Rena~ssan

.. in the Astronomical Contacts Between the World of Islam and

369

Philosophical Society where Swerdlow's translation of the Commentariolus was published, Willy Hartner drew attention to yet another important feature of the connection between Tosr and Copernicus which had, until then, gone unnoticed. 12 By comparing the proofs of the TOsi Couple theorem in the original Arabic manuscripts with Copernicus's proof of the same theorem in both the autograph version of the De Revolutionibus and the published edition, he arrived at the following remarkable realization: that the alphabetic letters given to specific geometric points in the Arabic texts were identical to the Latin phonetic equivalents as used by Copernicus except in one case [Figure 3]. That is, wherever the Arabic text had an a/if, Latin had "A"; when Arabic had ba', Latin had "B"; and so on, except where the Arabic had the letter zain, and the Latin had the letter "F". Hartner did not dwell on his important finding, except to say that he was convinced that it constituted a case of direct "borrowing". So far, no one has revisited this feature, as far as I know, until now. Since the publication of Hartner's finding, a new edition and translation of the Byzantine text of Chioniades has become available, and thus one hoped that some more attention could be devoted to this specific connection. 13 When I did that, the results were slightly disappointing. To start with, it became immediately obvious that the original Byzantine manuscript, though it included a drawing of the TOsi Couple, did not contain the specific picture illustrating the proof of that theorem, nor any mention of it in the accompanying text. This finding sheds an immediate light on both the nature of the Byzantine text itself and the likely source for the proof that Copernicus used in the De Revolutionibus. Regarding the Byzantine manuscript itself, it became obvious that it did not exhibit any interest in the proof of the theorem, which must mean that Chioniades was either only interested in a qualitative description of the theorem as he supplied the diagram, or the version that we now have of Chioniades 's work was left incomplete as he may have intended to revisit it and insert the proofs which were left out in the present text.
12

of of the rosi Couple as it Figure 3. A comparison between the formal pro . f ight appeared in the original Arabic, left, and the Copernican proo 'r .

Tius second possible explanation IS not unus d been subjected to medieval astronomers, whose works have alrea ~ t same route by some cursory study, demonstrably followed .t. a with the later . h'mg the1r . works m . more than one .edJtJon, 14 Shoul d one publ1s .. h th earlier ones. ed1t10ns being more elaborate t an e
G Saliba. Tht f th' phenomenon, see. c nturv For a relatively detailed discussion o , 18rt/T (d. J266): A Thirtttnl11 Astronomical Works of Mu 'ayyad ai-Drn al- U
14

~a~~~~

W. Hartner, 'Copernicus, the Man, the Work, and its History', Proceedings of . E. A. Pascbos and P. Sotiroudis, The Schemata of the Stars: Byzannne Astronomy from AD 1300 (Singapore, New Jersey and London, 1998).

:~American Philosophical Society 117 (1973), 413-22.

...

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Revt~tt g Europe: The Byzantine connection

Renrussance

.. in the Astronomical Contacts Between the World of Islam and

371

hope that some other Byzantine astronomical manuscript w ld then contain a l~ter version of Chioniades's work and includeo~e proof of the TUsi Couple? As the facts now stand, and given the absence of such a later version among the surviving Byzantine manuscripts of Chioniades's text, all we can conclude is that Copernicus must have gotten the proof directly from some Arabic source as Hartner's finding had already indicated. The only discrepancy that has to be accounted for still, and which was not confronted by Hartner, is the main difference between the two proofs. That is, in TUsi's Arabic Proof there is a geometric point which is designated with the Arabic letter zain and the corresponding point in Copernicus's Latin text is designated with the letter "F" instead of "Z" as one would have expected. All the other five points, a, b, g, d, h, have the correct corresponding Latin phonemes, all designating the very same points in the proof. The answer to this problem is very easy to all those who work with the Arabic orthographic tradition. For anyone who is familiar enough with Arabic hand-written manuscripts, and who has enough familiarity with the manner in which medieval writers used the' Arabic alphabet to designate geometric points, could easily convince himself that the Arabic letters zain and fa', as they usually appear in Arabic manuscripts, indeed look very similar, and thus could very easily be confused [See Figure 4]. Is it then possible that either Copernicus himself, or someone helping him decipher the Arabic text, which is more likely, misread the letter zain for its similarly written counterpart fa' and thus rendered the Arabic "Z' with the Latin "F"? By accepting the viability of this route, a new area of rese~ch would immediately become relevant, namely, whether Copernicus himself could decipher Arabic texts; I do not know of any evidence for that, nor that he depended on one of his contemporaries to help him with it. However, the latter possibility is not difficu~t. to document. We already know of people like the Venetian physician Andreas Alpagus (d. 1525) who lived in Damascus for an extended period of his life. There he translated such technical texts frolll

. t Latin as the medical and philosophical works of Arabic m o h . . h returned to Padua around the year 1503 to assume t e Av1cenna, e . . d 1 . f ed c ne at the UmversJty there. He apparent y staye tn chrur o m 1 1 . , .. . t'll he died We also know of Copernicus s viSitS to that position I . 496 b University of Bologna in Italy between the years I :~n~~J, his return to Padua between 1501. and 1.503, and his nt of a degree in canon law from the ne1ghbonng attamme

b' manuscripts demonstrating the Figure 4. Illustrations from several Ara IC dfi<7' similar representations of the Arabic letters zam an .
15 Could Copernicus have come in University of Ferrara, m 150 3 rth rn Italy? contact with Andreas while he was i~~o (l;I0-!5Si), the younger We also know of Guiiiaume Pos frequent traveler 10 . ho was also a . t . f Arabic manuscnp s. contemporary of Copernicus, w Italy and the Islamic world. Post~I's h~r~o~he Islamic world. has which he collected during his vanous tr p an collections of today: Europe ol apparently survived in the varwus of the benefictanes becrune one . J'b In particular, the Vat1can I rary

Reform of Ptolemaic Astronomy 3,. revised edition (Beirut, 2001), Bngllsh

- - - - - - - - - - - - . I Astronomy, 30...31.

Introduction, 31-36.

'

. J~~

"Swerdlow and Neugebauer, Mathematca

372

George Saliba

. Contacts Between the World of Islam and . . . the Astronomica1 . ReVJSIIing . The Byz.antine connection Renaissance Europe.

373

some of those manuscripts, for among its collections there is the famous Postel copy of Tnsi' s tadhkira, which is now kept under the shelf number MS Vat. arab. 319. This work of TOsi includes the most mature version of the TOsi Couple, full with clear statement of the theorem and the detailed proof that was used by Hartner for the comparison with the Copernican proof. Moreover, it appears that Postel obviously could read Arabic very well, as he has left his own handwritten annotations on the margins of this particular manuscript as well as the margins of other Arabic manuscripts that are still extant in various other libraries. In one instance, in the manuscript now kept at the Bibliotbeque Nationale in Paris, BN arabe 2499, which is heavily annotated on the margins by Postel, he even corrected the original Arabic text of the manuscript when it skipped the name of a month in the Hebrew calendar. 16 Could Copernicus have come in contact with either of those gentlemen, or with others like them whose names are still to be determined? Or could he have known their older colleagues who taught them Arabic in the first place and got them interested in their journeys to the Islamic world in order to collect the manuscripts? Could those collectors of manuscripts then translate them into Latin as was done by Andreas, or simply add marginal Latin annotations to the Arabic texts as was extensively done by Postel? Could someone like Leo Africanus, originally al-I:Iasan b. Mui)ammad alWazzlin (1485-1554), who converted to Christianity after his capture and who taught Arabic at Bologna, the first Italian university visited by Copernicus, have been one of his collaborators in deciphering Arabic texts? There are many such people with whom Copernicus could have come in contact. There are others, from other European cities, some of them older contemporaries of Copernicus like Andreas and Leo, who knew Arabic well enough to write their own grammars of Arabic as was done by Postel and Widmenstatter (1506-57) and who could have also helped Copernicus decipher such texts. At this point nothing can be said for certain. But there is enough evidence to indicate that a deepened research in this area will eventually prove to be very rewarding.
;

.tn the intellectual environment in . eems to b e ce rta One thmg s I the corridor extending from Florence to northern Italy, a ong b n in close contact with the contemporary Venic.e, seems to ~a~\a~e by then digested all those astronomi.cal Islanuc world whtc . . ulat'ton for more than two centunes. d been m ctrc h ideas that h a I t find Italian or other Arabtsts w o Thus, it would not unus~a ~t'es scattered along this northern d . th vartous umverst 1 worked m e C . s lived for close to ten years an Italian corridor where op~rn!CU obtained his university trammg. C . s's own works reveals a 'd f om opermcu ' Since the textual evt ence, r . 'cal material the answer 'th Arabtc astronomt ' . definite acquamtance WI b ht t'n the context of the t ts has to e soug . to the problem o f con a~. can hope that by tracmg the northern Italian universities. One h 'ther lt'ved in Italy or t lists w o et interests of those earIy onen a . ' d'd and by re-examining the . . Coperntcus 1 , d visited its umverstties as . th t are still preserve m . f Ar b manuscnpts a huge collections o a IC arth even more compelling one may une . .b l several European J ranes, 'th Islamic sctence. n contact WI dd documentation of Europea h ts own uninten e h can ave 1 . 'fi Furthermore, such researc d d I'ght on the sctentJ JC 1 may shed much nee . e orthern consequences as It Italy. AII the ssance m n 'fi I environment of the ear Y rena~ ki g the latest sctenU IC . f sctence see n ce evidence pomts to men b 'ld their own scten . ld n order to Ul th results from the Islarmc wor I h . scientific theories on e upon them, and not to reconstruct t etbr th n become obsolete. that had Y e ' basis of ancient Greek sctence '

?e

~ee the var~ous annotations on the margins of the MS Vat. arab. 319, an.d the ans astronoiDlCal MS BN arabe 2499 where Postel even corrects a mistake 1D the original Arabic text. '

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Sevcenko, I., Etudes sur/a polemique entre Theodore Metochite et Nicephore Choumnos (Brussels, 1962). Sezgin, F., Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums bis ca. 430 H., 12 vols.- (Leiden, 1967-). Sharf, A., 'Shabbetai Donnolo as Byzantine Jewish Figure', in idem, Jews and Other Minorities in Byzantium (Ramat-Gan, 1995). Sharf, A., The Universe ojShabbetai Donnolo (New York, 1976). Sherwood Taylor, F., 'The alchemical works of Stephanus of . Alexandria' Ambix 1 (1937), 116-39 and Ambix 2 (1938), 38-49. Silberman, L., 'Aggadah and Halakhah', in J. Edelheit, ed., The Life of the Covenant (Chicago, 1986), 223-34. Simonsohn, S., 'The Hebrew Revival among Early Medieval Jews' inS. Lieberman and A. Hyman, eds., Salo Wittmayer Baron Jubtlee Volume on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, 3 vols. (Jerusalem, 1974). Simpson, A., 'Studies on the Composition ofNiketas Choniates' Historia' (Ph. D. Diss., King's College London, 2004). Sinkewicz R E 'Christian Theology and the Renewal ofth Philosophicai a~d Scientific Studies in the Early F~.rteenl Studies Century: The Capita ]50 of Gregory PaJamas', Me weva 48 ( 1986), 334-51. . "d ?' n L Brubaker, ed., 73-84 Speck, P. 'Byzantium: cultural sutct e. ' I . Byzantium in the Ninth Century (Aldershot, 1998 ), Starr, J., The Jews in the Byzantme mp!r

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Index of Proper Names and Important Terms

'Aiarnat, 362 Aaron ben Meir, 314 Aaron, 24 abacus, 40 Abbasid Caliphate, 32 'AbMsid caliphs, 231 Abbasids, 48 Abgar, 23 Abimelech, 246,257 Abraham b. Hiyya, astronomer, 295,311,314 Seferha-ibbur, 314 Sefer sural ha-are~. 295 Abraham Ibn Ezra, 62,88,298 Abraham, Biblical patriarch, 36,133,245-263 Abramios, John, 25,72,238,239 Abo Al;lmad Khalaf ibn Al;lmad, 34 Tul,ifar al-mulak, 34 Abo Ma'shar, astrologer, 32,49,138,190,235,238,:i42,330,331, see also ai-Balkhr,

Ilal.xo,, A.:n:ofL(xoaQ, Albumasaris de revolutionibus nativitotum, !38 Kitab al-madkho/ al-kabrr i/a 'ilm al;kilm al-nujam, Liber introductorii moioris ad scientiam iudiciorum astrorum, 235
Achmet,.24,32,34, 60,78,84, 329,330 Oneirocriticon, 24,34, 60,75,78,84,160,329,330 .Achmet the Persian, 238

j j j j j j j

Ad Principem Aeni et Samothraces in Dionysium Ha/icamasensem

Adam, 246,250 Adelard of Bath, 62,235 Aeneas of Gaza, 226 Aetios of Amida, 23,338,339,341,342,348,354-359 Africa, 55 Africanus, 17 Agathodaimon!Agathodemon, 208,218 aggadah/aggadot, 294,312,313,317,318,319,320,322 aggadic, 318,319,321,322 agriculture, see also geoponika, 22,41,60,81,222,278 Agripp~, Cornelius, 29 Ahimal!Z b. Paltiel, 293,295,299 ,303,308-3ll 3~~;::;~S 3 JO 31 1,3 12,3 17,3 I 9, Chronicle ofAhimoaz, 293,294,295,299,301, ' 320,322 Ainos, 26,73 Akathist Hymn, 24

438

439 Index of Proper Names and Important Terms The Occult Sciences in Byzantium

Akropolites, Constantine, 277,278,290 Akropolites, George, 267,268,269,273,285 aktouarios, 268 al-Amrn, caliph, 232 AlamO!, 362 al-Andalus, 341 al-BalkhT, 238, see also Abo Ma'shar, Tial.xo<; Albertus Magnus, 335 Liber de septem llerbis, 329 Alc/wndreana, 332,334,340,341 Alchemical Corpus, 205,207,208,213,216,219,220,222,224,225,228 alchemical(manuscripts,texts,etc.) 44,45,73,82,86, 163,165,169,170,171,172,174, 175,180,182,184,186,187,188,191,194,195,196,198,202,207,209,210,217,218, 219,221,222,224,225,226,229 alchemist,s, 13, 205,214,215,216,217-221,223.224,226,227 alchemy, 11,13,18,21 ,25,32,36,37,41,73,81,82,86,98,139,165,169,173,188,194, 196,197,205-208,214,215,217,220-222,224-230 alchymica, 209,220,224 Alexander Magnus, 329 Alexander of Aphrodisias, 16,33 Alexander ofTralles, 83,84 Alexander Romance, 293,326 Alexander the Great (336-323), 75,293,336 Alexander (912-913), 126,127,129 Alexandria, 25,36,163,165,187,190,197,201,216 Alexandrinos, Theodore, 89,142 Alexios Axouch, protostrator,l46,148,150,155 Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118), 76,78,89,121,140,141,142,145,146,150,154, 156,269 Alexios II (1180-1182), 147,151 Alexios III (1195-1203), 151,152,153 al-FaZlil'!, 231 Alferat, 338,340,348 al-Hakam, caliph, 130 al-l:lasan b. Mul)ammad al-WazZlin, 372 Air b. Ri<;lwiin, 62 al-Kindr, 43,241,342 De mutatione temporum, 34 De radiis, 44 al-Ma'mnn, caliph, 232 al-Mahdr (r. 775-785), caliph, 87,128,193 Labors Concerning the Beginnings of Wars, 87 al-Mamun, caliph, 123 almanacs (ephemeredes), 276 al-Man~nr (754-775), caliph, 169 ai-Mu'izz, caliph, 310 ai-Mutawakkil, caliph, 85 ai-Yabrndr, 53

Alypios/Alipius, 262,263,276 Amittai, 308 Ammon. 270,332 amulets, 12,46 Anastasios I (491-518), 14,227 Anastasios of Sinai, 85 Disputatio contra Judaeos, 85 Anaxagoras, 16 Alpagus Andreas, 370,371,372 54 !55 160 Andronikos I Komnenos (1182-1185). 135,147,149,150,151,153,1 Andronikos II Palaiologos (1282-1328), 75,276,286,287 Andronikos J11 Palaiologos (1328-1341 ), 72,285 Andronikos IV Palaiologos (1376-1379), 12 Andros. 125 269 Anna Comnena, 27 ,76,121,140,141,142,143,144,145,

Tile Alexiad, 121 Anonymi Chronologica, 73 Anonymous Philosopher,209,216,218 Antichrist, 160 Antigonus ofNicaea, astrologer, 167 Antioch, 52,61,62,89,226 antipatheia, av1:13tU8elll, I 09 Antiphonetes, II 0 Aphrodite, 252 apocryphal, a:n:6xQu<j>o<;, 15 ' Apollo, 133, see also John the Gram~~an Apollonius ofTyana, 130,133, 135,3 Apotelesmata, 130,134,135 aporrheta (os), rut6QQf]'tU (O<;), ! 6 20 107 !IO
Apuleius, 334 Sphere, 333 Apulia, 293 Aquarius 178183,199,201 606162 636667,73,74,82,85,86, Arabic, 40,42,46,47,48,49,51,53,54~~~: ~ii 3J5,J36:337.3J8,340,341,343,361. 33 29 87,88,89,91,93,325,326,327,3 ' 363,364,365,366.368,369,370,371,372.373 Arabs,47,63,75,127,I29,132,143 I 35 Aratos/Aratus, 82,89,276.3 29339 51 Phaenomena, 82,89,329,3 22 Archelaos, poet-alchemist, 173,209,2 Ares (Mars), planet, 252 Aries, 178,181,183,184,186,198,269 Aristander of Telmessos, 75 Aristarchus, 276 94 196 202 365 36 337 J64 Aristotelian (cosmology etc.), 17;: '197 2t6,217,250,276,330.335,3 ' 75 16 114 ' ' Aristotle, !6,33,34,49,84 ' 365 De anima, !15

440

441 Index of Proper Names and ImpOrtant Terms The Occult Sciences in Byzantium

Politics,99 Meteorologica, 114,276 Kitilb al-ustuwwatlls, 336

Aristoxenus, 276 arithmetic,s, 158,194, 247,256,260,271,276 arrheta (os), clQQl]ta(o~). 16-20, 107, 110, 115 Artemidoros, 22 Oneirocritika, 22 Arsenios, monk, 82 art of jewelry-making, 169 Artemidoros/Artemidorus, 34,75,78,84,87, Onirocriticon libri, 22,34 Asclepius, 327 astral religion, 250,256 astrolabe, 23,192,196,198 astrologer,s, 13,23,26,29,67 ,71,75,89,90,91,93,120,126,132,135-139,141-143, 147,150,151,155-157,161 ,!66 -169,189,193,202,217,231,233,236,238,241' 245,253,255,256-260,262,270-272,275,278,279,282, 296,300, 321,328 see also'i~trologin, 321 astrological (herbals,poem,texts, treatises etc.), 21,25, 44,62,67 ,68,72,80,82,87, 94, 120,125,127 ,128,!30,132,134,135,138,139,140,141 '145,156, 163,165,166, 167,169,172,!86,189,190,191 ,192,193,194,202,236, 266,269,270,272,274,276, 277,278,281,289,290,292,295,301,303,310,311,319,327 astrology, 11,13,19,21,24,26,27,32,36,37, 40,41 ,43,45,48,49,54,55,59-71,73, 74,81,83,87-89,91-94,98,102,120,121,124,126-128,130,132,133,135-144,146, 147,149,150,153-157,161, 165-169,181,189,!93,194, 231-238,240-242,245248,251 ,253,254,257-263. 265,266,269-272,27 4,27 5,277,278,280-283,285' 289,290,291,293-304,308,310-3.!2,3!5,317-323, 325,326,330,336,341 astronomer,s, 14,23, 45,72,82,137,140,141 ,202,252,256,273,296,361 ,364,366,369 astronomical(treatises,etc.), 163,164,165,172,180,183,184,185, !86,187 ,188,193, 194,195,198,199,200,201,248,252,266, 270,271,274,276,278,279,283,285,290, 292,295,2%,309,311,314,316,317,319,322, 363,364,366,370,372,373 astronomy, 27,32,36,42,43,51,62,63,64,65,71 ,86,124,127,135,137,158,166,191, 194, 200,202' 247,248,25 2,253,254,256,259,260,261 ,262,263. 265,266,271 ,273' 274,275,276,277,279,281 ,283,288,289,291 ,294-298,301,304,308,311 ,312,314, 315,317-322,337,361,363,365-369,371 astrum, 344 Athenagoras, 99 Athinganoi, !59 Attaleiates, Michael, 122,137 Historia, 137 auguries, olwvooxwtlm, !59 augury, 16,26,98 Autolycus, 276 Avicenna, 370 Ayynb ibn Al)mad, 234 Azareus, 327

B
Babylon, 31,33,253,254 Baghdad, 32,48,53,61 ,62,80,81 ,91 ,!23,125,132,135,231,233,311 Bahya ibn Paquda

The Book of Direction in the Duties of the Heart, 300 Balaam, 133, see also John the Grammarian BiilTnOs, 329, see also Apollonius ofTyana Balkh, 238 Balsamon, 160 Bar Hebraeus, 62 Bar Hiyya, 317 Bardas, Caesar, 125 Bari, 310 Barlaam of Seminara, 285 89 202 284 Basil I (867-886), 122,124,125,126,!27,~28,131,138,139,1 ' ,
Basil II (960-1025), 52, !38 Basil of Caesarea, St, 69,272 Basil,eparch, 145 Basilakios, hermit, !54 Basra, 231 Berossus, 250 Beziers, 62 bird-seers, 26 Blachemae Palace, 152 225 267 268 Blemmydes, Nikephoros, 24,159,209: ' ;one istula universa/ior, 159

body ,ies, 31,99, I 00,101,1 03,106,1~~ ~; ,2; , ' 1 ,280,282,291 ,292,295,296, 188,206,207,210,212,213,226,227, ' ' 303,304,305,307,308,322,364 Bohemond, 145 Bologna, 372 Botaneiates, Nikephoros, 137 books on making gold and Silver, 165 botany,41 , Brachamios, 89 . f th tcome 240 burj a/- 'aqiba, the zodiacal sign e ou ' Branas, Alexios, 153,154 Bryennios, Joseph, 69,70 Bryennios, Manuel, 66,27 1

Autobiographia sive curriculum vtae, ~~ !58~68,176,177,178,179,180,182,

9 1 26

c
Cairo Genizah, 316,321 Cairo, 53,61,62,91 Calabria, 283

443 442 The Occult Sciences in Byzantium Index of Proper Names and Important Tenus Constans II (64!-668), 75 Constantine Doukas (1057-1078), 127 Constantine the Great (307-337), 168 Constantine V Kopronymos (741-775), 74,169 Constantine VI (780-797), 75 siP h rogenitus (945-959), 70,76, 122.127. Constantine VII Porphyrogenneto orp Y ' 128,130,131,132, 220,222,223,228,229 De administrando imperio, I 90,199 De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae, 22 Constantine, son of Basil I, 126 24 129 130 131,134,135,136,138,143,151. Constantinople, 14,24,35,109,120,12i\83 184187,188,189,197.200,201,214, 153 154 !58 160 161 163,167,168,17 ' 219:220:227:229:267:269,274,275,284,288,290.329 Constantius II (337-361), 71 8 319 320 336 304 307 31 constellation,s, 293,296,30l,302 / :37o',37t',37Z,373 368 36 Copernicus, 37,361 ,364,365,366, ' Commentario/us, 367 De Revolutionibus, 365,367,368 copper, 169,!76,!77,!80,!88,195 Cordoba, 130 Corfu,214 Corinth, 90 cosmic, 17,19,20,29,31,36,292 cosmological, 32, 364,365 217 305,320,322,365 cosmology, !6,20,29,!01,!05,1 74 195 ' ' cosmos, 20,146,156,206,313,31 7 Council in Troullo, 69,159 Council of Laodicaea, !58 also God and Lord Creator, !16,191,226,280,28;,306 see 6 creator, 246,249,256,258,2 Crete, 214 Critodemus, astrologer, 167 Crusade, 53,79,140 Crusaders, 63 Cyprus, !50

calendar, 313,314,315,316,317,333,337,372 calendation, 294,296,315,322 Cancer, 178,183,198,199,200,201,267,284 Canabutzes, John/Joannes, 26 Capricorn, 178,183,198,200 Capua,293 Cassius Dio, 120 Historia Augusta, 120,121,122,136 Catalonia, 325,341 celestial diviners, 296, see also i)ovrei shamayyim celestial (lore, phenomena, sciences etc.) 26, 246-251,253,262, 291,292,295,297, 300,301,304,305,307,308,312,315,322 Censorious, 326 De die natali, 326 Chaldaea, 21 ,254 Cha/daean Oracles, 15,17,27,30,31 ,104,105,106,113 Chaldaean,s, 15,17,27,30,31 ,36,48,104 -108,113,133,139,161,247,248,249,250, 253,254,255,257,260,262,27 8,300,321 charms, 12,30 chemical writings, 215,219 chemistry, 42 Chioniades, George, 366,368,370 Chloros, Demetrios, 85 Choirosphaktes, Leo, 132 Choniates, Niketas, 121,122,!35,146,147 Historia Nicetae Choniatae! Historia!History, 121,146-162 Panoplia Dogmatike, 149 Chora,66 Choumnos, Nikephoros, 270 Chronicon Pascha/e, 73 Chrysoberges, Loukas, Patriarch, 270 Chrysokokkes, George, 82,274,278,279,280 Persian Syntaxis, 274,279,289 Chrysokokkes, Michael, 26 Chrysoloras, John, 283,285 Chrysostom, John St, 24,69,70,98 Homilies, 112 chrysopoeia, 224,225 Church of the Holy Apostles, 158 Cicero, 101 De divinatione, 10 I Clement of Alexandria, 98 Clement of Rome, 256,258,259,261 Cleonides, 276 Cleopatra, 73,207,208 cloud-chasers, v$o6LiiJK"tat., !59 Codex Justinianus, 168 comet,s, 76,79,128,!36,138,145, 267,268,272,273

D
Damascus, 53,370 Damaskios/Damascius, 113 De principiis, 175 In Philebum, 113 Damigeron (Evax), 327 . rutibus, 327 De /apidibus et eorum vrr Daniel, 297,298,300 daydreams, 206 Ar' totilem. 334,336.344 De Luna secundum IS

444

Index of Proper Names and Important Terms

The Occult Sciences in Byzantium

445

Demiurge, 103 Demochares, 138 Demokritos/Democritus, 16,218,219 demon/daemon,s, 15,17,29,30,31,34,103,105,106.107,108,109,111,113,114124 149,150,151,157 demonic, 130,131,146,149,153,154,155,249 demonology, 24,30,31,35, 45,64,111 Demophilos, 138 determinism, 67 Deukalion, 87 Diocletian (284-305), 165,166 Dionysios of Halicamassos, 26,73,228 Dionysius the Areopagite, 70 Diophantus, 276 Arithmetic, 276 Dioscorides, 22, 83 dish-divining, AxaVOfL<XV1:Ea, 123,124,129 dish-scrutiny, 26 divination, fL<lvtLX~ (by earthquakes, planetary days, from birds, sacrificial victims grains ofbareley etc.), 11,16,17 ,20,21,23,28,30,37,40,41,43,45,46,54,57,60,67,68, 69,70,75,81,82,91' 121,124,129,131,133,139,147,150,152,153,159,160,161,332, 335 divinatory sciences, 326 Divine (authority, Intellect, Power, Will etc.), 103,104,105,106,108,109,110,111, 112,113,115,116,212,282 diviner,s, 26 doctors, 26,28 Shabbetai Donnolo, 293,297,301-308,315,319,320,322 Sejer hakhmoni, 293,294,296,301,303,304,305,306,307,308,311,312,317,320 Sefer maWJiot, 293,303,319,320 Dorotheos of Sidon, 167,233,234, 232,235,236 Carmen astrologicum, 138,235, 240 Dositheos, monk, 154 Dositheos, patriarch, 151,160 Doukas, Theodore, 28 Theodori Ducae epistulae,28 dream interpretation, 21,25,26,32,33,34,35,37 ,45,74,77 ,79,83,84,87,98 dream interpreters, 26,37 dream,s, 54,60,61,66,71,76,78,82,83,86,90 drugs, cpclQfL<lXU, 19,146

Egypt, 21,31,32,33,57 ,62,73,91 ,119,165,206,221,246,247,255,256,257,258, 260,310 Egyptian,&, 31 ,48,54,56,57 ,247,248,253,256,257,258,259,260,263 Eleutherios of Eleia, 143,238 Eleutherios of Sidon, 239 Empedocles, 16 enchantment, 123,148 England, 62 Enoch, 246,24 7,248,249,261 ,263 Ephemerides, 278,279,280 Epiphanios, merchant, 192,196,198,199 Epiphanios, monk, 84 Epiphanios/Epiphanius, 24,254 Physiologos (attributed to), 24, Panarion, 254 epistemology, 20 Eprios, 145 Eratosthenes, 276 Erythraean Sibyl, 161 eschatology, 45 esoteric antediluvian learning, 250 esotericism, 206,298,301 Euclid, 276 Eudoxos, astrologer, 141 Eulogios, patriarch, 197,~98 Euphrosyne,wife of AleXIOS nr (1195-1205), 152' 153 Eupolemos, 248 Europe, 43,47,49,51,55,59 Eusebia, 212,213,223 Eusebios of Caesarea, 248,257 Praeparatio evangelica, 248,257 Eustathios ofThessslonica, 156 Eutocius, astrologer/astronomer, 167276 Exaltation of the Cross, 150 d xa extraordinary phenomena, 13, see also para 0

F
fatalism, 67 Fatimids, 53 filioque, 83 Firmicus Matemus Mathesis, 243, 326 Flaccus Africus, 329 Compendium aureum, 329 flood, 253,254 Florence, 3 72

E
earthquake,s, 125,136, 266,275,276 eclipse,s, 14,70,76,267,268,269,270,272 273 275 276 283 284,285,286,287, 288,289,290 Bgg of the philosophers, 178

446

Index of Proper Names and Important Tenns

The Occult Sciences in Byzantium

447

folk, 39,42 folk-lore, 39 Forum of Arcadius, 127 Forum of Constantine, !52 Fourth Crusade, 151,153 France, 62,72,325,329,341

288,290 Epistulae, 266,278,283,285,286 Ca/cul de I'eclipse de Solei/ du 16 juillet 1330, 45,284 Byzantina Historia, 266,286,288 Gregory of N azianzus, 289 Gregory of Nyssa, 69,98,272

G
Gabala, 143 galaktites, 108 Galen, 22,83,279 Gandoubarios, 252 Gaudentius, 276 Gemini, 178,183 Genesios, 122 Genesis Rabbah, 319,320 Genesis, 88,257,280,305, genethlialogy, yeve8At.aAOyLx6v, 266 Gengis Khan, 273 geography, 42,49,55,56 geomancy, 21,24,45,98 geometry, 27,28,136,158,194,269,271,276, 269,271,276 George the Monk, 81,131,133,247,253,254,255,256,257,258,259,260,261,262,263 Chronicon/Chronikon, 133,253,254,255,257,258,259,260,262 George the Synkellos, 215,219,229 Chronographia, 219 Georgius Monachus Continuatus, 122,132 Ghazan Khan, 273 Giordano Bruno, 29 Glykas, Michael, 245,246,247,248,249,251,253,257,261,262,263 Chronicle, 247 E~ dJW(!ta,, 246,247,248,261,262,263 Annates, 261,262,263 Gnostic, 17, 206

H
h lakhah 294 300 312 313,317,318,320,321,322 h:lakhic, ,298,Z99 .3oo.3!2,313,314,315,317 ,318,319,320,322 Hananel, 303,308,309 Harpokration, 329 Harran, 249,256 Hay Gaon, 299,317 heavens 245 249,250,256,257,262 Hebrew: 293:294,295,297,298,300,305,314,316 Hecate, 105
Heliodoros, 167,173,209,222 d . ommentarium (attributed to), Heliodori ut dicitur in Paulum Alexan rmum c 167 Hellenes, 133 Hellenic, 254,255,259 hepatoscopy, 124 275 Hephaestio of Thebes, 24,26,235,236 269

Apote/esmatica, 26,138,235 5 126 129 164,167,170,171,172,173,183, Z28 see also Hiraql Heraclius!Heracleios, (610-64!), 7 ~j7 ; 184,186,189,197,199,202,213,2! 7, ' 19 ' ' Heraklion, 214 heresy, 300,305

Z2l

Ta,

God, 34, 75,85,88,101,102,103,104,106,107,109,110,111,112,113,114,115,116, 137,141,150,153,157,168,185,191' 195,246,247,249,251 ,253,255,256,257 ,258, 262,263,280,282,286,289,294,297,298,299,303,304,305,306,307,309,313,317' 319,321 gods, 251,254,255,256,259 gold, 165,169,172,174,176,177,180,182,195, 206,224,226,227 goldmaking, 207 goldsmiths, 169,206,225 gramma, YQ<ljl.f.l.a, Ill grammarians, 26 Great Palace, 126,149 , Gregoras, Nikephoros, 45,66,72,75,98,265,266,277,278,283,284,285,286,287,

heretics, 245 . , 9,327,331,332,335 Hennes Trismegtstos, 16,10 1' 208 '218 22 De triginta sex decanis, 331 Hermetica, 327 latromathematicum, 332 Kirab al-makhzan, 336 . Liber de triginta sex decams, 331 Liber imaginum Lunae, 335 Hennes,god, 252 Hermetic Corpus, 15,223 06 hennetic(thought, tradition), 17 29 ' 2 Henneticism, 327 Hennetism, 14,208,209,223 hexaemeron, 247 hibit, 311 hidden arts, 27 hieratic art, 17,27,3lh. . t 3 209,222 Hierotheos, poet-ale tnus ' 17 '

448

Index of Proper Names and Important Tenns

TbeOccu1tSciences in Byzantium

449

Hipparchus, 276 Hippiatrica, 222 Hippocrates, 172,197,279 De alimento, 99 Hippocratic Collection, 221 Hippocratic corpus, 99 hippocratic, 202 Hippodrome, 123,126,142,152 Holy Land, 62 Holy Theotokos of Dorothea, church, 197 homily, aggadah, 294 Horace, 78 horoscope,s, 43,70,125,126,130,132,136,138,143,144,147, 156,165-168, 189, 190,191,192,193,198,199,200,201,202, 231,232,233,234,236,237,239,240, 241,257,258,266,271,272,328,330 Horus,223 (wvrei sluunayyim, 296, see also celesta! diviners Hugo of Santalla Liber Aristotilis, 237,238 Hiilagii, 273 l:lunain ibn lsbaq, 62 hurricanes, 266 Hyades, 338,339 Hydra, 339,357 Hypsicles, 276
~ozim,311

I
lamblichosllamblicus, 34,134 De mysteriis, 34,113 !annes, 128 iatromathematica, medical astrology, 166 Ibn Abl U~ybi'ah, 53,62 Kitab 'uyan al-anba' ft tabaqat a/-a(ibba', 62 Ibn al-Nadim, 173 Kitllb ai-Fihrist, 171,173 Ibn ai-QiftJ, 62,91 ' Ibn Bu!lan, 53,61,62,91 Ibn Qutayba, 89 Ibn Rldwan of Cairo, 53,62,91 Ibn Tibbon, 300 Icarus, 339,348 idolatry, 245,254,255 idolum, 343,344,345,336 Ignatius, patriarch, 131 imago,336

]mouth, 215 . 8 280 ~89 impedimentum, 336 . M uel Comneni et Michael Glycae drsputatw, 16 "' Jmperatons an incantation, 13,18 India, 240 Indians, 302 Indicopleustes, Cosmas, 270,289 Interpretation of the twenty-four letters, 17 Iran, 233,361 Irene/Eirene (797-802), 75,267 iron, 180,181,195 Isaac Aaron, 89,148,149,155,161 Isaac Argyros, 66 5 160 Isaac II Angelos (1185-1195), 151,152,153,154,1 5 ' Isaac I Komnenos (1057-1059),150 Isaac Newton, 174 Isauria (Cilicia), 150 Isidore of Seville, 60,292,296 Isis, 208,223 , , 73,190,191,192,193,194,198, 127 167 170 1 ' Islam, 21,33,41,46,54,68,73,8 7 90 126 ' 199,201, 234,235,242,273,310 46 47 49,51,52,55,56,57,59,60,61,65,85,88,90.91, Islamic (world, etc,) 32,33,35,41 ' ' 119,232,242,335,362,366,371.372 373 Isma'III fortress, 362 dria 173 Israel, 302,303,306,309,316,319AI Istafllnos, see also Stephanos of exan ' Istanbul, 234 Isthmeos John, 226 142 Italikos, Michael, 17,27,105,! 39 Lettres et discours, 27 Italos Johnlloannes, 34,140 Q~estiones quodlibetales, 34
Italy, 371,373

J
Jabir ibn l:layyan. 173 Jehudah Halevi, 300 Kuzari, 300 95 296 297,298,299. 33 231 Jew, 32,37 ,59,62,68,82,~5~i~ ,is .z63,291 ,292,29:o~~. :iJ Jewish, 37,231,247,248, j2,3 13 ,314,316,318,319, ' 300,301,302,303,305.3 10 3 Job, 125 nnum !570, 332 Stadius, Johannes. 332 ctae ab anno }554 ad a Ephemerides novae et exa 1 John and Niketas, monk~~ Sl,l36,145 John I Tzimiskes (969-9 ' '

2 9

'

76

450

Index of Proper Names and Important Tenns

The Occult Sciences in Byzantium

451

John II Komnenos (1118-1143), 146 John of Damascus, St, 98 John ofNikiu, 120 Chronicle, 120 John the Cappadocian, 71 John VII the Grammarian, patriarch, 35,81,89,123,124,128,129,132,133,135 John V Palaeologos (1332-1391 ), 72 John, astronomer, 127 John, son of Andronikos I, 150 John, St, Evangelist and Theologian, 112, 145 Joseph Kara, 293,319 Josephus, Flavius, 247,249,250,251 ,252,256,257,260,261,293 Antiquities, 249,250,251,257 Joshua, 280 Jubilees, 249,250,252,254,255,256,261 Judah the Prince, 302 Judaism, 246,250,294,299,310,313,315,319 Judea, 249 Julian the Chaldaean, 17 Julian the Theurgist, 17 Julius Africanus, 22 Kestoi, 15,22 Jupiter, 137,180,183,186,199,200,201,232,233,272 Justinian I (527-565), 71,73,75,120

Deeds of John and Manuel Comnenus, 122 Kitllb Hiraql al-akbar (=Book ofHeraclius the Great), 173 ldedon, 159
knowers of secret things, 27

kokhav, 296
Konrad III, 79 Kosmas the Monk, 83,209,225 kritriai, prophetesses who frequented icons and churches, 159 Kronos, see also John the Grammarian, 133 Kronos, 252 Kyr Alypios,247, 262 Kyranos, 74 Kyranides, 25,74,84,85,160,329,329,330

L
lapidaires, 41,327 Laskaris, Theodoros, 272 37 338,339,340,341,342, Latin, 325,326,327,329,330,331,332,333334' 335 '336'3 '

law,halakhah, 42,52,68,80,120,158,159,

343,359,366,368,370,372

167 294 300 313,314,315,316,317,318, ' ' '

K
Kabbalah, 299
Kabasilas, Nicholas, 288

In Gregorae deliramenta, 288 Kainan, 247,249,252,253,261 Kaloeidas, Michael, 283 Kalydonian boar, 126,152 Kamateros, Johnlloannes, 77,156 Eisagoge astronomies, 156, Kanaboutzes, John, 25,228 Commentarius, 228 Karaite,s, 315,316 Kariye Djami, 66 Katanankes, 142,269 kawktJb (planet), 238 Kedrenos, George History, 199 Keroularios, Michael, 18,81 ,90 K~llid ibn Yaz:rd ibn Mu'awiya,prince, 171,221 Kinnamos,John, 78,90,122,146,122,146 155 156161

320,321,322 lead, 169,180,188,195 lecanomancy, 21,45,133,155,159,160 Leo Africanus, 372 Leo IV (775-780), 128 Leo the Deacon, 121,136,137,145 Leo Grammaticus, 122,131,132 Chronographia, 131 l29l32 Leo the Mathematician, 80,124,125,l 28 ' Leo the Philosopher, 125,130,160 Leo v (814-820), 123,130,135,154 132 145 160 Leo VI (886-912), 69,70,76,8 1 126 12 ~ ' ' 2 269 Leo, zodiacal sign, 178,198,2 1 Letter of Petosiris, 333,~ 4 ~. "bus auctoribus", 328 Liber de physiognomoma Ex tn L~bra, 88,178,198,201 5 L1echtenstem, Peter, 335 'lr'ber diversarum rerum. 33 . . ie Ptho1 ome1 Sacratssrme astronom 133

Life of St Theodora the Empress,

Liudprand ofCremona, 13 161 Lord, 258,260,262,303,38321 see

Opera omnia,l30

also God and Creator

Epitome rerum ab Joanne et Alexio C~mn~nis ~estarum, 78,122,146,156

Lucca, 62 .. l65 u.t Lucius Domitius DonuuanusJ04 333 ,335,336,337,341,.,-.-. 278 lunar (mansions,nodes), ' lunaria, 332,333

452

Index of Proper Names and Important Terms

The Occult Sciences in Byzantium

453

Lydos, John, 75 Lydus, 338 Liber Alchandrei, 332 Uber de Ostentis, 338

M
Ma'aser Sheni, 317 Macedonia, 152 Magi/magoi, 12,13 magic, 11,12,14,19-23,26,30,37, 39,40,41,44,46,57,63,65,68,69,82,84,90, 97 ,98,104,!05,107 ,I 09,!15,123,130,134,135,157 ,162,178,254,257 ,259,260,299, . 300,304,325-328 ,335 ,336,343. magical (practices,tradition etc.), 97,98,104,105,107,108,109,111,113,!14,115, 293,299,303,326,327,329,338 magician,s, 14,26,29,106,128,131,169,253,260 Magog,260 Magousaioi/Magousians, 254,260 Maimonides, Moses, 270, 291,292,295,296,297,298,299,300,305,306,311, 315,317,318,321,322 Epistle to Yemen, 292 Guide for the Perplexed, 292 Letter on Astrology, 292,299,300 Mishneh Torah, 295,296,299,300,317,322 Sefer ha-mi~vot, 299,315 Malalas, John, 14,73,226,227,251,252,253,254,255 Chronographia/Chronicle, 227 Mamalos, 151,!55,161 Manasse, 231 Manetho, astrologer, 141 Manfred, king of Sicily, 330 Manganeios Prodromos, 147 Mantua,62 Manuel I Komnenos (1143-1180), 55,73,74,77,78,80,81,!42,145,146,!54,!56, !57 ,168,245,246,247,251,253,257,261,263,280,289 Letter in defence of astrology, 280 Manuel II Palaeologos (1391-1425), 72,74 Manuel of Trebizond, 278 manuscript,s, 15,17 ,21,22,23,24,25,27 ,30,37 ,41,44,48,49,54,70,82,130,132,135, 139,143,144,165,167,169,172,185,189,191,198,199,207,208,214,218,220,222, 223,224,!65,!69,172,185,189,191,198,199,234,236,238,242,331,332,334,335, 337 ,339,340,341,342,343,366,368,370,37!,372,373 Many, 167,175 Mar Samuel Mishnah (attributed to), 302 Mar&gha Observatory, 361,364 Mar&gha, 361

Marciana, 83 Maria, 86 Marianas, monk, 86,87 Book of the Monk, 86 Marinus, 269,273 Vita ProcH, 269,273 Mars, 27 ,180,181,!82,!83,184,185,186,199,200,201,283 Mary the Jewess, 208 Mary, 218,219 al Yazd Kh ast MnsM' allah ibn Athari, astrologer, 36,231-237,239-243 see so nn w Manasse, Maad.Ua, 231 , Kittlb nwsa'il Mtlsha'al/tlh (The Book of Questions to Mnsbn allllh), 236,237,241 Kittlb al-usturlilb, 235 . nd Faiths Kittlb ft al-qirtJntlt wa al-adytln wa al-milal (Book on ConJunctwns a

and Religions), 232 De receptione, 237,241 Epistola de rebus eclipsium, 238 k if the Elections Kittlb al-ikhtiytJrtlt 'alii al-buyat ~l-ithnay 'ash~r ~~~r ~e electionibus), 236 according to the Twelve Astrological Houses, t. mathematicianslmathenwtikoi, 26,136,141,! 58 mathematics, 18,32,42,296,314 Maximos, Patriarch of Constantinople, 82 mazzal, mazzalot, wdiacal sign, 296,~21166 176 197 201,202,274,275,279 medicine, 21,24,31, 40,41,43,53,84,8 ' ' ' Meliteniotes, Theodore, 271,289 ,200,201,363,365 199 198 Mercury, 26,180,18!,182,183,184,185, 186' ' Mesarites, Nicholas, !58 Mesopotamia, 62 Messina, 91 metallurgy, 18 Metaphrastes, Symeon, 76,13 6 !,225,226,228 206 21 metals, 176,177,179,180,182,195196' ' meteorologoi, 71 meteorology, 42,108,278,337 270 271 274,276,28!,282,283,289 Metochites, Theodore. 66,266, ' ' Stoicheiosis, 274,276,281 Methodios, 123,!33 13 4 Michael! Rangabe (811-813), 131 29 Michael IT (820-829), 123,1 Michael III (842-867), 125,! 28 159 Michael V (104!-1042), 136 139 137 Michael VII Doukas (1071-I078 ) 273 1259"1282), Michael VIII Palaiologos < Michael the Syrian, !28 Midrash, 305,308,317,318 mimesis, 206,226 . 354 Miscellanea astrologlca, 342 '

4:14

Index of Proper Names and Important Terms

The Occult Sciences in Byzantium

455

Mitylene, 238 monastery of the Hodegoi, 72 monk, 245,246 monophysite, 202 monotheism, 64,67 monothelite, 202 Monotropos, Philip, 227 Dioptra, 227, Moon, 14,27,70,126,144,150,180,181,182,183,184,185,186,187 ,198,199,200, 20 I, 249,256,267,268,269,271,275,278,280,281,284,286,287,289,295,296,307, 309,316,317,322,326,328,332,333,336,364 see also selene selene, 336 see also Moon Morienus (Marianas), 221,222 Morning Star, 185 see also Venus Morocco,62 Moschos/Moscus, John, 78,197,198 Leimonarion, 197 Moses, 128 Mu'ayyad al-Drn al-'Un;II, 369 Mubammad, 192 music, 40,42,77,158,194,271,276 Muslim world, 33,47,68,90 Muslims, 32,67 ,86,94,133,192,302,31 0,361,365

Nomokanon, 158,160 numerology, 21,273

0
observatory at Maragha, 273 occult (science,s, etc,), 11,12,14,15,16,19,20,21,22,25-32,35,36,37,39,40,41,44. 46,47,54,57 ,58,59,60,63-70,73,74,75,80,83,86,89,90,92,98,99,121,133,162,165, 119,120,122,125,126,127 ,128,!32,135,138,139,142,144,146,148,151,153,154, !61 ,206,247,249,252,253,254,257,292,294,297 ,298,299,301,303,304,311,315, 322 see also apocryphal Old Testament, 134 Olympiodore, 207,208,216,217,229 omoplatoskopia, 23 oneiromancy, 78 onomantic texts, 332,333 optics, 40 oracle, XQ1JOJ.i6, !41 Oracles of Leo the Wise, 135 oracular incantations, 28 143 odless heretics 69 oracular method, fl8obo XQ111J.<ilv, Oration on pseudo-prophets, pseudo-teachers, and g ' Oria, 293,310 Oribasios, 83 Orion, 349,351,352,353,357 omithoscopy, 160 Orpheus, 16 Orphism, 14 Ostanes, 208,219 Otranto, 310 Ouriel, 247,248,263 Ovid, 78

N
Narl>onne, 62 N~Ir ad-Din at-Tnsi, 273,279,36!,362,363,364,366,368,370,371 Tal)rrr al-mijis(T, 363 Nechepso, 332,341 necromancers, 300,321 necromancy, 26,97,124 Nehardea, 302 Neoplatonic (philosopher etc.), 13,19,20,29,36,105,115,139,216 Neoplatonism, 35,175 Neoplatonists, 31,36,103,104,105,106,107,108,109 Nestorius, 70 Newton, 365 Nicaea, 267,270 Nicholas, physician, 268 Nikephoros, patriarch Shon History, 189 Niketas, deacons, 82 Niketas the Paphlagonian, 131 Vita lgnatii, 131 Nimrod, 253,254

p
1 272 273,285,289 ' Pachymeres, George, 269 27 ' 73 Relations historiques, 269,272 ,2 Padua, 370 PaJamas, Gregory, 53 Palatine Anthology, 223 Palchus, astrologer, 167 palmistry, 94,159 palmomancy, 24,45 Paltiel, 310 Pammenes, 208,219 Panaretos, Michael, 285

Noah, 247,249

456 Index of Proper Names and I mportant Terms The Occult Sciences in Byzantium 457

Chronicle, 285 Pantale<:m, metropolitan of Synada, 70,126,129 Pankrabos, 120,135 Pantokrator monastery, 168,245 Papyri Graecae Magicae, 113 paradoxa, 13 Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai 14 134
parapegma, 332,333,335,337,338,339,340,34l, 343

phylacteries, 46

Physio/ogos, 23 see also selenodromion

Pisa, 62 Pisces,178,181,184,186,287 Pizimentius, Dominicus, 173 plttakion, 245 planet,s, 21,112,113,169,177,178,180,181,182,183,184,185,186,187,192,198,200, 201, 272,278,279,281,296, 327,333,342,363,364, see also kokhav,296 Planetary Theory, 365,367 Planoudes, Maximos, 82,276 Plato, 16,18,112,163,179,217,226,250 Crary/us, 112 Timaeus, 102,103,179,185 Phaedo, 167,171 Theaetetus, 112 Plato, 333 see also Apuleus or Pythagoras Platonists, 102,103,104,107,109 Pleiades, 319,3 37,339,356,358 Plethon, George Gemistos, 17,30,32,33,72 Manuel d'astronomie, 72 Pliny, 339 Natural History, 339 Plotinus, 102,103,104 Enneades, 102,103 Plutarch, 100,112,221 Conjuga/ia praecepta, 100 De E apud Delphos, 112 pneuma, 1tVeO!J.C!, 100,101,102,103 Polyainos, 22 polymatheia, 31 polytheism, 13,36, 253,255 Porphyry Eisagoge, 202 Posidonius, I 00 Postel, Guillaume, 371,372 practitioners, 12,28,29 Preceptum Canonis Ptolomei, 327,328 ISO 154 !66 !89,192,194,233,265, prediction,s, 123,124,125,130,136,141,1 42 ' ' ' 268,272,277,278,280,281,283,285,286,287,288,290 6 269 27 Proclus, 14,17,20,31,32,103,104,105,ll 3 :~ 26 ' ' In Platonis rem publicam commentam, 103 In Platonis Timaeum commentaria, 103

Parmenides, 16 ' ' Pascalis Romanus, 84,160,329 Liber thesauri occulti, 329 Patria of Constantinople, 129,130,131 Paul of Alexandria, 132,167,276 Eisagogika, 167 Paul, apostle, 263 Pe'ah, 317 Pegasus, 338,340,355 Pelagonia, 152 Pep~gomenos, George, 277,278,283,284 Pers~a, 37,254,273,275,273,275 Perstans, 124,129,143,254,260 Pesahim, 300,320 Pesiqta Rabbati, 318 Peter the Philosopher, 270 Petosiris Letter, 332,333 Petra,227 Pharaoh, 128,257,258,260 pharmacology, 23 pharmacy, 40,42 Philebus, 112 Philo Judaeus, 103,104, De specialibus legibus, 103 De opificio mundi, 103 _De migratione Abrahami, 104 phtlomatheia, 139 Philopatris, 130 Philoponus, John, 175,276 _Treatise on the Astrolabe, 276 phtlosophers 1314171820 21 26 32 141 164 17 17 19 .33,34,51,83,98,1oo,lo7,112,116,134,135, . 7 202 214 ,217,331 ph~losophers' stone, 175 phtlosophy 13 14 17 18 19 2 68,125,139:14i, 164.i 67: ~iN 3 1.33.34,36,42.46,47,49.50.51.54,60,63.67. 170 79,194,201,202,268,269 Philostratus, 7S

5' 6

Hypotyposis, 276 De arte hieratica, 104,105

prognostica, 332 . Procopius!Prokoptos of Caesarea, 71 Anecdota, 120 Persian Wars, 71

Phokaia, 26 Ph"

op~~BIPUhotius, 81,98,131,133,219 220 227 229

wt eplstu/ae, 132
' ' '

459 458 Index of Proper Names and Important Tenns The Occult Sciences in Byzantium

prophecies, 129,130,137,151,154,160,161 protective (gold table,rings), 46 Psellos, 15,16,17 ,18,19,20,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35, 77,81,90,106,107,114, 137,139,142,154,219,223,224,225, 335,341,348 De Onmifaria Doctrina, 116 Demonologie, 108 Chronographia, 18,109,121,136,139,140,154 Epistula, 108 Leller of Chrysopoeia, 18,1 70 Mereorologie, 108 Theologica,107,ll1,ll5,ll6 Orationes hagiographicae!Orat.hag., 108,109,110,114,115,116 Oratorio minora, 106,115 Phi/osophica minora, 16,17,18,29,34,107,108,110,111,115,116 On the properties ofprecious stones, 16 Allegory on the Sphinx, 17 Praise of Italos, 33 To his students on the ventriloquist, 30 Epitaphius in patriarchem Joannem Xiphilinum, 33 Pseudo-Chrysostom,69, 70 Pseudo-Ciement!Pseudo-C1ementine, 254,256,258,259,260,326 Recognitions!Recognitiones, 256,258,326 Homilies, 254,258,259,260 Pseudo-Demokritos,208 Pseudo-Galen,326 De spermate,326 pseudo-Jabir,86,87 Book of the Monk,86 Pseudo-Manetho,26 Pseudo-Ptolemy ,334,337,340,341 Judicia, 332,334,335,340,341,348 De temporum mutatione, 334,337,343,348 pseudo-science,s,40,43,47 Pseudo-Symeon Magistros,81,122,125 ,131,13 2,13 3 Ptolemy, 27,48,82,88,166,167 ,202,233,265,266,268,269,276,279,281,282,284, 287,328,331,332,335,339,341,348,363 Almagest/ Megiste Syntaxis,195,266,281,363 Tetrabiblos,24,48,266,268,269 ,281,287,331,338,339 Handy Tables,I87 ,193,202,328 Syntaxis Tetrabiblos,195 Nomina et virtutes herbarum secretarum septem planetarum, 331 (attributed to) Geography, 23,276 Pythagoras,l33,333,334, see also John the Grammarian,133 Spheres, 334

Q
quadrivium, 63,76164,167,271,272,276 quicksilver,l76,177,180 Qirqisani, 298

R
Rabbi Pal tiel, 310 Rabad of Posquieres, 315 Rabbanites, 315,316 Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, 292 Rabbi Eliezer b. Jacob, 321 . Rabbi Hananel, 309,311,317,320 Rabbi Hanina, 321 Rabbi Nathan, 305 Avot de Rabbi Nathan, 305 Rabbi Samuel bar Nahman, 305 Rabbi Simon, 320 Rabbi Yonatan, 305 Rllhu, 240 Raidestos, 154 Raitho, 85 'b 'b n 'Abdallllh al-I:Iast ' 241 1q 1 R ash278 Raoulaina,Theodora, 277 remedies, 42 rhetoric, 269 Rhetorius of Egypt, 234 Rhetorius, astrologer, 167 rhetors, 26 145 1 Robert Guiscard. 1 41 (~j _ . Romanos I Lekapenos Rome,258 Rosarium philosophicum, I 73 Rosinus, 173 Ruczel, Andreas, 342

9 944),127-129

s
98,300 314,315 Sa'adiah Gaon, 297 ,2 ' sacrificers, 26 242 87 Sagittarius, 17~,269,2 al-Isra 'TIT, astrologer, 236, Sahl ibn Bishr tbn l:l~b~ Samonas, charnberlam. sarnothrake, 26,7 3 samuel. 30

26

460

Index of Proper Names and Important Terms

The Occult Sciences in Byzantium

461

Samuel the Interpreter, 302,303,322

Baraita of Samuel the Interpreter, 302,303,322

Santabarenos, 126,127,131,132 Sarah, 257 sardonyx, 108 Satan, 30,34 Saturn, 113,137, 180,181,182,183,184,185,186,198,200,201,232,233,272,283 scandalum, 336,345 scapulomancy, 23,45 see also omoplatoskopia,23 science,s, 11,12,14,18,19,20,21,22,27 ,28,29,32,36,37, 39,40,41 ,42,43,46-54,56, 62,63,65,66,70,73,74, 75,86,91,92,165,173,174,176,20 I ,270,274,275,279,286,288, 291,292,294-297,300,301,302,308,311,312,315,322,325,329 Scorpio, 178 Scot, Micael, 339 Liber particularis, 339 Scripta super quattuor libros Sententiarum, 335 Scriptores rerum Constantinopolitanarum, 129 Sea of Marmara, 149 Second Crusade, 145 Second Temple, 246,247 secret practices, 19 Sefer ye~irah, 293,303,323 Sefer Yosippon, 293 Seiris, 250,261 selenodromia, selenodromion,a, 23,333 see also Physiologos selini, 336 Septuagint, 88 Sergios, patriarch, 197 Seruch, 254,255 Seth, son of Adam, 245,246,247,248,250,252,253,261,262,263 Seth, Skleros, 149,150,155,156 Seth, Symeon, 61,83,89,141,142,143,144,157 Sextus Empiricus Adversus mathematico, I 00 Shahbat, 317,318,319,321 Shadhlln, 331 Liber rememorationum, 331 Shlomo Seta, 295 Sicily, 62,75 Siculus, Diodorus, 48,251 Bibliotheca historica, 48 Sijistan, 35 Sikidites, Michael, 146,149,155,156 157 247 si~~er, 169,174,180,182,195,325,329 ' Smm, father of Achmet, 325,329 Skleros, Bardas, 138 Skylitzes, John, 122,132

Solomon, 15,37,149 Sophronios, patriarch of Jerusalem, 192,196,197,198 sorcerer,s, y61'], 124,126,127,129,131,134,146,156,254 sorcery ,yoT]'tE(a, !3,21,28,123,124,126,127 ,131,132,146,147 ,148,149,151,153, 154,155,156,161,162 soul,s, 19,30,176,177,227,321 Spain, 32,311,325 Speculum astronomiae, 326 spellbinding agents, 123 spells, 12 Sphaera Demokriton, 333 sphere,s, 334,362,363,364 spirit,s, 13,29,30,150,157 spiritus, see also angelus, 336 St Auxentios, 108,!10,114 St Basil, 24,98 StJames, 24 St Nicolas of Casole, 82 St Panteleemon, monastery, 24 St Panteleemon, 24 Staphidakes, John, 23,24 Star of Hermes, 185 245 247,249 250 251, star,s, 20,91,92,93,136,141,152,153,157,168,185,191,1~5289 :293 294 i95 i96, 298,30 I ,302,303,304,305,306,307 ,317,341 342,354,368 see also mazz.al or lcokhav 341,342,354,329,328,334,335,336,33 astrum or sidus, 336 star/constellation, 336,338,339 star-gazing, 251 , , 4,135,137,139,152,154. 129 130 131 13 statua/statue,s, 14,21,123,125,126 128 ' ' 161 ,336 359 see also star stella, 336,339,350,354,355,356,357,358dria/~e Alexanrian, philosopher, 35,36. Stephanos/Stephanus/Stephen of Alex~82 !84,187,188,189.190.191,192-199. 126,129.163,164,165,167,170,1 72- 18 201 202 208 213,217,218,220,221,223 . 167 189190 !92,!93,194,195,196.

252,253,254,256,258,260,262,263 ,27~;i~;~~;~~;~l:322:329:334:335:337.

Apo;eles:narike Pragmateia /pragmalla,

!98,202

'

'

Lessons, Letter to Theodorus. 171 011 making gold, 192 Makin Gold, 170,172,173 . 011 the Great and Sacred Art of 1 g Stephanos of Alexandna
Stephanos of Athens, 172.197,20 I a sollT]IllltLXO!;. J90,see also Stephanos o Stephanos the Astrologer, ~tt<j>avo;; [.Ill Alexandria . . see also Stephanos of Alexandria Stephanos, the Chnsuan. 216 1 33 Stephen of Messina, 33 . 76 136138 Stephen of Nicomedia . ~et~~t=~ als~ St;phanos of Alexandria Stephen the Mathemauctan, ' Stethatos, Niketas. 138

sb

Synopsis histor/Qrum,138,132

462 Index of Proper Names and Important Terms The Occult Sciences in Byzantium

463

Vie de Symeon le Nouveau Theologien, 138 Styppeiotes, Theodors, 146,161,247 Stoic,s, 13,19,36,100,101,102,103,104,107,109,110,139,165,182 stoicheion, <n:mxetov, 111,134 stoicheiosis, 129,152,157 Stoicism, 106 Stylianos, bishop of Neokaisarieia Letter to Pope Stephen, 132 Suda, 215,219,227,229, see also Suidae Lexicon Suetonius, 120 Suidae Lexicon, 165 Suleimaniye library, 234 Sumer, 76,112,116,119,144,153,
Sun, 112,116,119,144,153,177,180,181,182,183,184,185,186,187,198,199,200, 201,249,256267,268,269,271,272,273,275,278,280,281,283,284,285,286,287,307 superstition, 40,44,58 Silvestrus IT, papa, 334 De utilitatibus astrolabii, 334 symbol,s, OVV8T)Iillta, au!IJ3ol..a, 110, 111,113,115,116,178 symbola, 274,280 Symeon of Bulgaria (913-927), 127 Symeon the Logothete, 76,136 Symeon the New Theologian, 138 Symeon, monk and chrysographos, 82 symmone, 100 114,115,116 Synadinos, John, 144 Synesios, 208 synkellos, 123,138 Synodicon Vetus, 133 Syria, 61,143

Tertulian, 78 Tessalus of Tralles, 327 Testament of Solomon, 15,24,25,26 textes alchimiques, 206,209,218,220,222,226,227 Theodora (1042), 71 Theodore II Laskaris (1254-1258), 27,28 Theodore, (poet?), 213,218,221,223 Theodosius, 276,284 theology, 16,18,31,300 Theon of Alexandria, 14 Theon, 266 Theophanes Continua/us, 122,123,124,125,126,130,131,133,189 Theophanes, 71,75,76,80,273 Chronographia, 75,76,273 Theophilos of Edessa, astrologer, 24,87,232,234,243 Theophilos, son of Thomas, astrologer, 193 Theophilos (829-842), 80,89 Theophrastos, poet-alchimist, 173,209,222 De causis plan/arum, 100 Theophylact ofOchrid, 77,83,91 theorem of rosr, 361,362,364,366,368,372 Theosebia, 212,215 Thessaloniki, 75,77,80 Thessalus ofTralles,

sympatheia,ov!J1t(t8eta, 98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109,110,

~27,32~ 329 tis subiectis (De virtutibus De plantis duodecun slgms et septem p1 ane herbarum), 327,329
330

T
Tabernacle, 270 Tabriz, 61,273

tabrrr al-mijistr, 363

talisman,s, 14,178,333,336,341, see also statue and idolum Talmud, 300,314,315,318,319,321,323 Tarentum, 310 Ta'rrkh al-bukama', 62 Ta'rrkh mukhta$ar al-duwa/, 62 Taurus, 178,184 Techel (Zethel), 327 . Uber sigillorum, 327 technoparadotos, 86

theurgy, 104,105,106,109,299 Thoth, 198,199 Thrace, 286,287 Thrax, Doinysios, 112 Thucydides, 273 Timotheos, 194,196 tin, 180 Toledo, 325,335 topazion, I 08 Torah, 298,305,322 Tomikes, Demetrios, 142 Tomikes, George, 142 Tomikes, Leo, 137 Trebizond, 33,61,278,279,280,285 trivium, 63 Tubero, 339 Tubfat al-mulak, 34 Tunis, 91 Turba philosophorum, 173 69 370 372 Tuscus, Leo, 160,329 3 rosi Couple, 362,36777,386~9 80 SJ,8S,227 Tzetzes, John, 73,7 ' ' '

464

Index of Proper Names and Important Terins

The Occult Sciences in Byzantium

465

Chiliades, 73

neei xaraexwv Otai/JIJQWV, 238

u
Umara ibn l;lamza, 169 Ur, 249,250,256 utterances, xl.t]bovLOf!OUS, 150

v
Varahamihira, 233 Venice, 60,62,66,372 ventriloquist spirit, 1:0 eyyaO"tQ(J.LuOov, 30,31 ventriloquist woman, yuv!) eyyaO"tQ(J.LuOos, 30 Venus, 26,62,180,181,182,183,184,185,186,188,198,199,200,201,240,363 Verona, 62 veterinary medicine, 22, see also hippiatrika Vettius Valens, astrologer, 26,167,168,232,233,234,235,276 Vettii Va/entis Antiocheni Antho/ogiarum libri novem, 26 Virgin Mary ofBiachernai, 109,110,114,116 Virgo, 178,183,198,200 VitaBasilii, 122

w
Widmenstatter, 372 William of Moerbeke, 330 William ofTyre, historian, 156 Wi/lemi Tyrensis Chronicon, 156 Witch of Endor, 30,32 wonder-working, 18,26,299

Zebel, 143 Zebelenos, Eleutherios, 89,142,143 Zeus, 73,252 zrj al- 'Ala'r, 274 zrj-i Ukhanr, 274;2.78,279 Zoanes, 26 zodiac, 21 ,144,177:17~,180,185,18;,~~~i31~~31~~~4;200;241 ,296,305 zodiacal (melothesia, smg,s, etc.), I ' ' ' ' zodiologia, 332 Zoe, (1042), 109,136 Zonaras, John, 69,84,122,!54,158,!61 Epitome historiarum, 154,162 zoology, 24,41 zoon, ~<!Jov, 100 Zoroaster, 16,252 ;l0 ;209;210,211,212,213,214, Zoroastrian,s, 90,233;2.34 . 205 '207 8 Zosimos!Zosimus of Panopohs, 36,66 113 215,216,217,218,219,221 ,222,223;2.27~29 Authentic Memoirs, 209,210;2.11 ;2 . . Art of Making Gold and Silver, 212 Authentic Writing on the Sacred and Dtvme Book ojSophe (attributed to), 209,214 Chapters to Eusebia, 209;2.12,213,223 Chapters to Theodore, 209,212,213 Final Count, 209,214,216 Kat'energeian, 216,219 Letter Kappa, 214,215 Letter Omega, 210,211,214,215 Letter on chrysopoeia, 18,139 Letter Sigma, 214,215 dA I 'Making Gold,I10,211 On the Great and Sacre r o, On divine Water, 214 On Excellence, 214

X
Xerolophos, 127 Xerxes, 78 Xiphilinos, John, 33,81

y
Yabi11d, 53 Yazdln Khwi!Bt, 231 Ystoria Beale Vlrginis Marie, 84

Index of Manuscripts
Amsterdam, Amstelodamensis Graecus VIE 8,135 Athens, Atheniensis 1493,23 Athos, Karakallou 14,81,130,160 Bologna, Bononiensis 3632,24 Copenhagen, Kongelige Biblioteket, Gl. Kgl. Saml. 3499,335 Escorial, l.R.14,338 Florence, Laurentian us gr. 28, 13,82, 143,164,191 Florence, Laurent. plut. 74, 23,22 Florence, Laurentianus gr. 86.16 (L),207 Istanbul, Laleli 2122b,234,236,237 ,240,241 Katowice, Biblioteka Slqska,342,354 Leiden, Or. 891,235,236,237,238,239,240,241 London, British Library, Add. 10775,335 London, British Library, Egerton 821,333 London, British Library, Harley 5402,334 London, British Library, Harley 5402,334 London, British Library, Harley 5596,24 London, British Library, Harley 5624,271 Madrid, Biblioteca nacional !0053,335 Milan, Ambrosianus B 38 sup.,l64 Milan, Ambrosianus E 16 sup.,23 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, elm 18927,335 Munich, Monacensis gr. 105,164 Munich, Monacensis gr. 287,271 Munich, Monacensis gr. 525,278 Naples, Neapol. gr. II C 33,144 Naples, Neapol. gr. II. C.33,91 Oxford, Baroccianus gr. 131,79 Oxford, Bodleian, Can. misc. 555,339 Oxford, Cromwe/1!2,336,341 Oxford, Holkhamicus 110,271 Oxford, Seldenianus 16,144,270,271 Paris, BN arabe 2485,363 Paris, BN arabe 2499,372 Paris, BN Coislin 349,70 Paris, BN Coislin 77,70 Paris, BN gr. 2315,24 Paris, BN gr. 2325,207 Paris, BN gr. 2419,164 Paris, BN gr. 2424,143 Paris, BN gr. 2506,143 Paris, BN gr. 2509,24,82 Paris, BN gr. 2510,24 Paris, BN gr. 2644,79 Paris, BN gr. 3085,270

468

Index of Manuscripts

Paris, BN lat. 17868,341 Paris, Musee Conde 322 (641),334,344,348 Prague, Narodn( Knihovna Ceske Republiky 1144,342,354 Rome, Angelicus gr. 29, 164,189,238,239 Rome, Vat. gr. 191,275 Rome, Vat. arab. 319,362 Rome, Vat. arab. 319,371,372 Rome, Vat. gr. 1056,237,241,242 Rome, Vat. gr. 1056,164,189,237,241,242 Rome, Vat. gr. 1056,189 Rome, Vat. gr. 1058,66 Rome, Vat. gr. 1059,164 Rome, Vat. gr. 178,23 Rome, Vat. gr. 191,275,276 Rome, Vat. gr. 210,279,280 Rome, Vat. gr. 211,366,367 Rome, Vat. gr. 304,187 Rome, Vat. lat. 11423,332 Rome, Vat. Urbinas gr. 107,22 Turin, Taurin. C, VII, 10 (B, VI, 12),164 Venice, Marc. gr. 299,66,73,82,170,173,178,185,207,208,209,215,220,221,228 Venice, Marc. gr. 324,164,239 Venice, Marc. gr. 324,239 Venice, Marc. gr. 335,164 Venice, Marc. gr. 336, 143,164 Vienna, Vindob.phil.gr.I08,164,191 Vienna, Vindob.phil. gr. 162,24 Vienna, Vindob. phil. gr. 287,24 Vienna,Vindob.phil. gr. 262,164