practice was sound and straightforward and sensible and free from the
superstition with which the holders of this opinion represent Arabic
and later medieval medicine as overburdened, is also probably illusory.
We have already seen evidence of rather extreme superstition in early
medieval Latin medicine which shows no trace of Arabic influence,
and the medical practitioners of Salerno are sometimes represented
in the sources as empiricists or old-wives. The place was peculiarly
noted for its female practitioners, of whom more anon; and one of the
earliest mentions of a physician of Salerno is the account in Richer’s
chronicle[2923] of the mutual poisoning of two rival physicians
in 946 A. D. Here the Salernitan is described as lacking in Latin
book-knowledge and skilful from natural talent and much experience.
He was the queen’s favorite physician, but was worsted by another
royal physician, Bishop Deroldus, in a debate which the king, Louis
IV, instituted in order to find out “which of them knew more of the
natures of things.” The defeated Salernitan then “prepared sorcery” and
tried to poison the bishop, who cured himself with theriac and secretly
poisoned his rival in turn. The Salernitan was then reduced to the
humiliating position of being forced to beseech the prelate to cure
him, but in his case the theriac only drove the poison into his foot,
which had to be amputated by a surgeon. This tale, be it true or not,
suggests that there were good Latin physicians and surgeons outside of
Salerno at an early date as well as that Salernitan medicine was far
from being free from magic and empiricism.
[Sidenote: The _Practica_ of Petrocellus.]
It is fairer, however, to judge Salerno by its own best written
productions rather than by the stories of perhaps jealous
northerners, and we may note Payne’s comparison of the _Practica_ of
Petrocellus,[2924] written probably in the early eleventh century,
with the earlier _Leech-Book of Bald and Cild_. Selected recipes,
it may first be said, were translated from the _Practica_ into
Anglo-Saxon.[2925] Dr. Payne was impressed by “the complete freedom
of the former from the magic and superstition which tainted the
Anglo-Saxon and all other European medicine of the time.” Payne noted
that the compounds of Petrocellus contained fewer ingredients, and
regarded the Salernitan selection of drugs as “more intelligent.”
The Salernitan formulae are “clear, simple, and written on a uniform
system which implies traditional skill and culture.”[2926] “The
pharmacy is generally very simple; and, as might be expected, there
is an entire absence of charms and superstitious rites.”[2927] Such
simplicity, however, is at best a negative sort of virtue; and we
wonder if this early specimen of the School of Salerno is free from
elaborate superstition for the very reason that the work is simple and
elementary. The less medicine, the less superstition perhaps. Moreover,
superstition is not quite absent, since Payne himself quotes the
following recipe: “For those who cannot see from sunrise to sunset....
This is the leechcraft which thereto belongeth. Take a kneecap of a
buck[2928] and roast it, and, when the roast sweats, then take the
sweat and therewith smear the eyes, and after that let him eat the same
roast; and then take fresh asses’ dung and squeeze it, and smear the
eyes therewith, and it will soon be better with them.”[2929]
[Sidenote: Its sources.]
Petrocellus is thought to have used Greek writings directly without
the intermediary of Arabic versions.[2930] He says in the introductory
letter which opens the _Practica_ that he reduces to brief form in the
Latin language those “authors who have culled the dogmas of all cases
from Greek places.”[2931] But these words might be taken to indicate
that he has used Greek sources only indirectly, while the fact that
the person to whom the work is addressed is called “dearest son” and
“sweetest son” is rather in the style of Arabian and Hebrew medieval
writers. He goes on to assure this person that everything in the work
has been tested by experience and that nothing should be added to or
subtracted from it.
[Sidenote: Fourfold origin of medicine.]
This introductory epistle also embodies an account of the origin of
medicine which, while not exactly superstitious, is quite in the usual
naïve and uncritical style so often employed by both ancient and
medieval writers in treating of a distant past. Apollo and his son
Esculapius, Asclepius and “Ypocras” are named as the four founders
of the medical art. Apollo discovered _methoyca_, which presumably
means methodism, but which Petrocellus proceeds to identify with
surgery. Esculapius invented _empirica_, which is described as
pharmacy rather than empiricism, although perhaps the distinction _is_
slight. Asclepius founded _loyca_, which is probably meant for the
dogmatic school. Hippocrates’ contribution was _theoperica_, which
may mean therapeutics but is further described as the prognostication
or “prevision of diseases.” It is in this same introductory epistle
that Petrocellus makes the division of the brain into three cells
of which we spoke in the chapter on Arabic occult science. Besides
distinguishing the three cells as phantastic, logical, and mnemonic, he
adds that good and evil are distinguished in the middle cell and that
the soul is in the posterior one.
[Sidenote: Therapeutics of Petrocellus.]
In the _Practica_ proper the method of Petrocellus is to take up one
disease at a time, tell what the Greeks call it, and briefly describe
it, sometimes listing its symptoms or causes, but devoting most of his
space to such methods of curing it as diet and bleeding, simples and
compounds. I saw no instance of astrological medicine nor of resort
to amulets and incantations in the version published by Renzi from a
twelfth century manuscript at Paris. But in a fragment of the work from
a Milan manuscript where twenty-six lines are devoted to the treatment
of epilepsy instead of but seven as in the other text,[2932] one is
advised to use antimony in the holy water “which the Greeks bless on
Epiphany” and to chant the Lord’s Prayer three times. If this passage
be a later addition, it shows that Petrocellus was less inclined
to superstitious methods than others and that his injunction that
nothing should be subtracted from or added to his work was not well
observed. But in any case it illustrates my previous point that the
more medicine, the more superstition. In twenty-six lines on epilepsy
one is much more likely to find something superstitious than in seven.
Indeed, the treatment of epilepsy was so generally superstitious that
my recollection is that any account of it of any considerable length
which I have seen in medieval writings contained some superstition. In
fact, even if Petrocellus wrote the longer passage, he could be praised
for having resorted to charms and formulae only in the case of that
mysterious disease.
[Sidenote: The _Regimen Salernitanum_.]
The work most generally known as a characteristic product of the
School of Salerno is the Latin poem[2933] which opens with the line,
“To the King of the English writes the whole School of Salerno.”[2934]
This poem has been variously entitled _Schola Salernitana_, _Regimen
Salernitanum_, and _Flos medicinae_. How much more influential and
widespread it was than the _Practica_ of Petrocellus may be seen
from the fact that manuscripts of the text of the latter are rare,
though the introductory letter is more common, and that it was first
published by Renzi in the nineteenth century, whereas about one
hundred manuscripts and two hundred and fifty printed editions of
the poem have been found. It was known chiefly through the brief
version of 362 verses, upon which Arnald of Villanova commented at the
close of the thirteenth century, until as a result of the researches
of Baudry de Balzac, Renzi, and Daremberg the number of lines was
increased to 3526. This patchwork from many manuscripts can scarcely
be regarded as the work of any one author, time, or even school,
and it may be seriously questioned how many of the verses really
emanated from Salerno. Certainly it is not free from Arabic influence,
since it cites Alfraganus as well as Ptolemy.[2935] Pliny is used a
great deal for the virtues of herbs. Much of it sounds like a late
versification of commonplaces for mnemonic purposes. Sudhoff has
recently pointed out that it was not generally known until the middle
of the thirteenth century, before which time Frederick II, the cultured
monarch, and Giles de Corbeil, the medical poet, appear unaware of its
existence.[2936]
[Sidenote: Its superstition.]
The brief version of the poem commented upon by Arnald of Villanova
naturally contains only one-tenth of the superstition found in the
fuller text which is ten times longer. In some respects this brief
version might pass as a restrained, though quaint, early set of
directions how to preserve health, to which later writers have added
superstitious recipes. But as a matter of fact it is too superstitious
for even one as hospitable to theories of occult influence as Arnald,
who rejects as false and worthless[2937] its assertion that the months
of April, May, and September are lunar and that in them consequently
fall the days upon which bleeding is prohibited. In the lines upon
which Arnald comments marvelous properties are mentioned in the case
of the plant rue, but the fuller text has many mentions of the occult
virtues of herbs, stones, and animals. Almost at a glance we read that
the urine of a dog or the blood of a mouse cures warts; that juice of
betony should be gathered on the eve of St. John the Baptist, that
rubbing the soles of the feet cures a stiff neck, and that pearls
or the stone found in a crab’s head are of equal virtue for heart
trouble.[2938] And not far away is a passage[2939] on the virtue of the
_Agnus Dei_, made of balsam, pure wax, and the Chrism. It protects
against lightning and the waves of the sea, aids women in child-birth,
saves from sudden death, and in short from “every kind of evil.”
Astrology is by no means omitted from the _Regimen Salernitanum_; in
fact Balzac seems to have taken the fact that verses were astrological
in character as a sign that they belonged in the Salernitan collection.
[Sidenote: The _Practica_ of Archimatthaeus.]
A third work which may be considered as an example of the medicine
of Salerno is the _Practica_ of Archimatthaeus which Renzi placed
in the twelfth century and conjectured to be the work of Matthaeus
Platearius the Elder.[2940] One or two expressions, however, might
be taken as indications that the writer is neither of early date nor
himself a Salernitan. He speaks of curing pleurisy in a different way
from the treatment recommended in the _Practica’s_ and tells how the
Salernitans try to prevent their hair from falling out by reason of
their pores opening too wide when they frequent the bath.[2941] Renzi
hailed this treatise with delight as “a true medical clinic,”[2942]
since the author describes some twenty-two specific cases. He states at
the beginning that he does not propose to write a systematic treatise
or to deal with every variety of disease, but only with those in which
he has learned new and better methods by experience, “and in which
God has put the desired effect in my hand.”[2943] Through the work
we encounter such phrases as _expertum est, aliud probatissimum_, “I
tell you what I have proved,” “We have tested this by experience and
rejoiced at the result.” These utterances seem really to refer to the
writer’s own experience and not to be copied from previous authors.
The following is an example of his cases. “A certain lady incurred
paralysis of the face during sleep after the bath,” which he attributes
to dissolution of humors which affected the muscles. First he bled the
cephalic vein, hoping thereby to draw off somewhat the humors from
the afflicted place. Then for three successive days he gave her “the
potion of St. Paul with wine of a decoction of salvia and castoria
which in part prevent dissolution, in part consume it.” He also had
her hold that wine in her mouth for a long time before swallowing it.
At length he gave her a purgative with pills of yerapiga (_sacrum
amarum_), mixed with golden pills. “Afterwards we injected pills of
diacastoria into her nostrils and placed her near the fire. Finally
we gave _opopira_ (bread free from furfure) with the aforesaid wine,
and so she was cured, only a certain tumor remained in her face and
made her eye water. We anointed her face with golden unguent and the
potion of St. Paul mixed together and the tumor disappeared; for the
tears we gave golden Alexandrina and they were checked; and thus it was
that this year in your presence we cured a certain paralytic.”[2944]
Like Galen’s accounts of his actual cases this makes us realize that
all the gruesome mixtures of which we read in the books were actually
forced upon patients, often several of them upon one poor sick person,
and that medical practice was rather worse than medical theory. An
interesting observation concerning the lot of the lower classes is let
fall by our author when, in discussing involuntary emission of urine,
he states that serfs and handmaids are especially subject to this
ailment, since they go about ill-clad and with bare feet and become
thoroughly chilled.[2945]
[Sidenote: A Salernitan treatise of about 1200.]
Giacosa classed one of the treatises which he published as Salernitan
because it was written in a Lombard or Monte Cassino hand of about
1200.[2946] He described its contents as purely therapeutical and
regarded its author as showing “a certain repugnance” to the popular
remedies and superstitions recommended by other contemporary treatises.
For this conclusion the chief evidence seems to be a passage where the
author, after listing such means to prevent a woman from conceiving as
binding her head with a red ribbon or holding the stone found in the
head of an ass, says that he thinks that such remedies “operate more
by faith than reason.”[2947] But he makes much use of parts of animals
and of suffumigations, advising for example on the same page that
after conception there should be fumigation with a root of mandragora
or peony or the excrement of an ass mixed with flour, an operation
which he characterizes as _expertissimum_. And on the preceding page,
as Giacosa has noted, he recommends a procedure which is even more
improbable than it is immoral, whereby patients who show themselves
ungrateful to the physician after they have been cured may be made to
suffer again.[2948]
[Sidenote: The wives of Salerno.]
We promised to say something of the female practitioners of Salerno.
Trotula is no longer believed to be a woman and we have to judge the
women of Salerno mainly by what others say of them. In a commentary
of a Master Bernard of Provence, who I suspect may be Bernard Gordon,
the medical writer at Montpellier of the closing thirteenth century,
are a number of practices attributed to the women of Salerno which
Renzi has already brought together.[2949] In these cases the practices
are chiefly those employed by the women themselves in child-birth.
We may note three from the list that savor strongly of magic. “The
women of Salerno cook doves with the acorns which the doves eat;
then they remove the acorns from the gizzard and eat them, whence
the retentive virtue is much comforted.” “When the women of Salerno
fear abortion, they carry with them the pregnant stone,” which our
author explains is not the magnet. The other recipe had perhaps better
remain untranslated: _Stercus asini comedunt mulieres Salernitanae
in crispellis et dant viris suis ut melius retineant sperma et sic
concipiant_. As we shall see in our chapter on Arnald of Villanova,
another medical writer of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth
century, he condemned the use of incantations in cases of child-birth
by old-wives of Salerno but approved of a very similar procedure by
which a priest had cured him of warts, and also mentioned favorably the
cures wrought by female practitioners at Rome and Montpellier.
CHAPTER XXXII
CONSTANTINUS AFRICANUS: C. 1015-1087.
Reputation and influence—His studies in the Orient—His later life in
Italy—His works were mainly translations—_Pantegni_—_Viaticum_—Other
translations—_The book of degrees_—_On melancholy_—_On disorders
of the stomach_—Medical works ascribed to Alfanus—Constantinus
and experiment—“Experiments” involving incantations—Superstition
comparatively rare in Constantinus—And of Greek rather than Arabic
origin—Some signs of astrology and alchemy—Constantinus and the
School of Salerno—_Liber aureus_ and John Afflacius—Afflacius more
superstitious than his master.
[Sidenote: Reputation and influence.]
Constantinus Africanus will be here considered at perhaps greater
length than his connection with the history either of magic or
experimental science requires, but which his general importance in
the history of medicine and the lack of any good treatment of him in
English may justify.[2950] Our discussion of him as an importer of
Arabic medicine will also serve to support our attitude towards the
School of Salerno. Daremberg wrote in 1853, “We owe a great debt of
gratitude to Constantinus because he thus opened for Latin lands the
treasures of the east and consequently those of Greece. He has received
and he deserves from every point of view the title of restorer of
medical literature in the west.”[2951] Daremberg proceeded to propose
that a statue of Constantinus be erected in the center of the Gulf
of Salerno or on the summit of Monte Cassino. Yet in 1870 he made
the surprising assertion that “the voice of Constantinus towards the
close of the eleventh century is an isolated voice and almost without
an echo.”[2952] But as a matter of fact Constantinus was a much cited
authority during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the works both
of medicine and of natural science produced in Latin in western Europe,
and his translations were cited under his own name rather than those of
their original authors.[2953]
[Sidenote: His studies in the Orient.]
A brief sketch of Constantinus’ career and a list of his works[2954]
is twice supplied us by Peter the Deacon, who wrote in the next
century,[2955] and who treats of Constantinus both in the chronicle of
Monte Cassino, which he continued to the year 1138,[2956] and in his
work on the illustrious men of Monte Cassino.[2957] Peter tells that
Constantinus was born at Carthage, by which he probably means Tunis,
since Carthage was no longer in existence, but went to Babylon, by
which Cairo is presumably designated, since Babylon had ages before
been reduced to a dust heap,[2958] to improve his education. His birth
must have been in about 1015. There he is said to have studied grammar,
dialectic, geometry, arithmetic, “mathematics,” astronomy, and physics
or medicine (_physica_). To this curriculum in the _Chronicle_ Peter
adds in the _Lives of Illustrious Men_ the subjects of music and
necromancy. When so little was said of spirits in the occult science
of the Arabic authors of the ninth century whom we considered in an
earlier chapter, it is rather a surprise to hear that Constantinus
studied necromancy, but that subject is listed along with mathematical
and natural sciences by Al-Farabi in his _De ortu scientiarum_,[2959]
and we shall find this classification reproduced by two western
Christian scholars of the twelfth century.[2960] The _mathematica_
and astronomy which Constantinus studied very likely also included
considerable astrology and divination. At any rate we are told that he
not only pursued his studies among “the Chaldeans, Arabs, Persians, and
Saracens,” and was fully imbued with “all the arts of the Egyptians,”
but even, like Apollonius of Tyana, visited India and Ethiopia in
his quest for learning. It was only after a lapse of thirty-nine or
forty years that he returned to North Africa. Most modern secondary
accounts here state that Constantinus was soon forced to flee from
North Africa because of the jealousy of other physicians who accused
him of magic,[2961] or from fear that his fellow citizens would kill
him as a wizard. In view of his study of necromancy, this may well
have been the case. Peter the Deacon, however, simply states that when
the Africans saw him so fully instructed in the studies of all nations,
they plotted to kill him,[2962] and gives no further indication of
their motives.
[Sidenote: His later life in Italy.]
Constantinus secretly boarded ship and made his escape to Salerno,
where he lived for some time in poverty, until a brother of the caliph
(_regis Babiloniorum_) who chanced to come there recognized him, after
which he was held in great honor by Duke Robert Guiscard. The secondary
accounts say that he became Robert’s confidential secretary and that
he had previously occupied a similar position under the Byzantine
emperor, Constantine Monomachos,[2963] but of these matters again Peter
the Deacon is silent. When Constantinus left the Norman court, it was
to become a monk at Monte Cassino, where he remained until his death
in 1087. In a work addressed to the archbishop of Salerno he speaks
of himself as _Constantinus Africanus Cassinensis_[2964] and Albertus
Magnus cites him as _Constantinus Cassianensis_.[2965] What purports
to be a picture of Constantinus is preserved in a manuscript of the
fifteenth century at Oxford.[2966]
[Sidenote: His works were mainly translations.]
Peter the Deacon states both in the _Chronicle_ and in the _Illustrious
Men_ that while at the monastery of Monte Cassino Constantinus
Africanus “translated a great number of books from the languages
of various peoples.” Peter then lists the chief of these. It is
interesting to note, in view of the fact that Constantinus in prefaces
and introductions appears to claim some of the works as his own, and
that he was accused of fraud and plagiarism by medieval writers who
followed him as well as by modern investigators, that Peter the Deacon
speaks of _all_ his writings as translations from other languages.
Peter does not, however, give us much information as to who the Greek
or Arabic authorities were whom Constantine translated. It may be added
that if Constantinus claimed for himself the credit for Latin versions
which were essentially translations, he was merely continuing a
practice of which Arabic authors themselves had been repeatedly guilty.
Indeed, we are told that they sometimes even destroyed earlier works
which they had copied in order to receive sole credit for ideas which
were not their own.[2967]
[Sidenote: _Pantegni._]
The longest of Constantinus’ translations and the one most often cited
in the middle ages was the _Pantechni_ or _Pantegni_, comprising ten
books of theory and ten of practice as printed in 1515 with the works
of Isaac,[2968] although Peter the Deacon speaks of Constantinus’
dividing the _Pantegni_ into twelve books and then of a _Practica_
which also consisted of twelve books. What is the ninth book of the
_Practica_ in this printed version is listed as a separate book on
surgery by Peter in his _Illustrious Men_, although omitted from his
list in the _Chronicle_, and was so printed in the 1536 edition of the
works of Constantinus.[2969] And the _Antidotarium_ which Peter lists
as a separate title is probably simply the tenth book of the _Practica_
as printed with the works of Isaac.[2970] The _Pantegni_, however,
is not a translation of any work by Isaac, but an adaptation of the
_Khitaab el Maleki_, or Royal Art of Medicine, of Ali Ibn Abbas. The
preface of Constantinus[2971] says nothing of Ali but tells the abbot
Desiderius that, failing to find in the many works of the Latins or
even in “our own writers, ancient and modern,” such as Hippocrates,
Galen, Oribasius, Paulus, and Alexander, exactly the sort of treatise
desired, he has composed “this little work of our own” (_hoc nostrum
opusculum_). But Stephen of Pisa, who also translated Ali into Latin
in 1127,[2972] accused Constantinus of having suppressed both the
author’s name and title of the book and of having made many omissions
and changes of order both in preface and text but without really adding
any new contributions of his own.[2973] Stephen further justified his
own translation by asserting that not only had the first part of _The
Royal Art of Medicine_ of Ali Ibn Abbas been “corrupted by the shrewd
fraud of its translator,” but also that the last and greater portion
was missing in the version by Constantinus.[2974] Also Ferrarius
said in his gloss to the _Universal Diets_ of Isaac that Constantinus
had completed the translation of only three books of the _Practica_,
losing the rest in a shipwreck.[2975] A third medieval writer, Giraldus
Bituricensis, adds[2976] that Constantinus substituted in its place
the _Liber simplicis medicinae_ and _Liber graduum_, and that it was
Stephen of Pisa who translated the remainder of the work of Ali ben
Abbas which is called the _Practica Pantegni et Stephanonis_. Stephen’s
translation is indeed different from the ten books of the _Practica_
printed with the works of Isaac. From these facts and from an
examination of the manuscripts of the _Practica_ Rose concluded[2977]
that Constantinus wrote only its first two books[2978] and the first
part of the ninth, which is roughly the same as the _Surgery_ published
separately among Constantinus’ works. The rest of this ninth book was
translated into Latin at the time of the expedition to besiege Majorca,
that is, in 1114-1115, by a John[2979] who had recently been converted
to Christianity[2980] and whom Rose was inclined to identify with
John Afflacius, “a disciple of Constantinus,” of whom we shall have
more to say presently. Rose further held that this John completed the
_Practica_[2981] commonly ascribed to Constantinus with the exception
of its tenth book which, as we have suggested, seems originally to have
been a distinct _Antidotarium_. Different from the _Pantegni_ is the
_Compendium megategni Galeni_ by Constantinus published with the works
of Isaac, and the _Librum Tegni_, _Megategni_, _Microtegni_ listed by
Peter the Deacon.
[Sidenote: _Viaticum._]
Perhaps the next best known and the most frequently printed[2982]
of Constantinus’ translations or adaptations from the Arabic is his
_Viaticum_ which, as Peter the Deacon states, is divided into seven
books. In the preface Constantinus states that the _Pantegni_ was for
more advanced students, this is a brief manual for others. He also adds
that he appends his own name to it because there are persons who profit
by the labors of others and, “when the work of someone else has come
into their hands, furtively and like thieves inscribe their own names.”
Daremberg designated Abu Jafar Ahmed Ibn-al-Jezzar as author of the
Arabic original of the _Viaticum_. Moses Ibn Tibbon, who made a Hebrew
translation in 1259, criticized the Latin version of Constantinus as
often abbreviated, obscure, and seriously altered in arrangement.[2983]
Constantinus seems to be alluded to in the _Ephodia_ or Greek version
of the same work.[2984]
[Sidenote: Other translations.]
If neither the original of the _Pantegni_ nor of the _Viaticum_ is
to be assigned to Isaac, Constantinus nevertheless did translate
some of his works, namely, those on diets, urines, and fevers.[2985]
Moreover, Constantinus himself admits that these Latin works are
translations, stating in the preface to the treatise on urines that,
finding no satisfactory treatment of the subject in Latin, he turned to
the Arabic language and translated the work which Isaac had compiled
from the ancients. Constantinus also states that he translated the
treatise on fevers from the Arabic. We have already seen that the
alphabetical Latin version of Dioscorides which had most currency in
the middle ages is ascribed in at least one manuscript to Constantinus.
He also translated some treatises ascribed to Hippocrates and Galen,
such as Galen’s commentary on the _Aphorisms_ and _Prognostics_ of
Hippocrates[2986] and the _Tegni_ of Galen. Constantinus has also been
credited with translating works of Galen on the eyes, on diseases of
women, and on human nature, but these are not genuine works of Galen.
[Sidenote: _The book of degrees._]
In his list of the works which Constantinus translated from various
languages.[2987] Peter the Deacon includes _The book of degrees_, but
it has not yet been discovered from what earlier author, if any, it is
copied or adapted. The work is a development of Galen’s doctrine that
various medicinal simples are hot or cold, dry or moist, in varying
degrees. Constantinus presupposes four gradations of this sort. Thus
a food or medicine is hot in the first degree if its heating power is
below that of the normal human body; if it is of the same temperature
as the body, it ranks as of the second degree; if its heat is somewhat
greater than that of the body, it is of the third degree; if its heat
is extreme and unbearable, it is of the fourth degree. The rose is
cold in the first degree, is dry towards the end of the second degree,
while the violet is cold towards the end of the first degree and moist
in the beginning of the second degree. Thus Constantinus distinguishes
not only four degrees but a beginning, middle and end of each degree,
and Peter the Deacon once gives the title of the work as _The book of
twelve degrees_.[2988] This interesting though crude beginning in the
direction of scientific thermometry and hydrometry unfortunately rested
upon incorrect assumptions as to the nature and causation of heat and
moisture, and so was perhaps destined to do more harm than good.
[Sidenote: _On melancholy._]
A glossary of herbs and species and a work on the pulse, which
Peter the Deacon includes in both his lists of Constantinus’ works
or translations, do not seem to have been printed or identified as
Constantinus’. On the other hand, the printed edition of the works of
Constantinus includes treatises on melancholy and on the stomach[2989]
which are not mentioned in Peter’s list. In a preface to the _De
melancholia_ which is not included in the printed edition[2990]
Constantinus Africanus speaks of himself as a monk of Monte Cassino and
states that, while he has often touched on the disease of melancholy
in the many medical books which he has added to the Latin language, he
has decided also to write a separate brochure on the subject because
it is an important malady and because it is especially prevalent “in
these regions.” “Therefore I have collected this booklet from many
volumes of our adepts in this art.” Whether the word “our” here refers
to Greek or Arabic writers would be hard to say. Constantinus states
that melancholy is a disease to which those are especially liable who
are always intent on study and books of philosophy, “because of their
scientific investigations and tiring their memories and grieving over
the failure of their minds.” This ailment also afflicts “those who lose
their beloved possessions, such as their children and dearest friends
or some precious thing which cannot be restored, as when scholars
suddenly lose their books.” Constantinus also describes the melancholy
of “many religious persons who live lives to be revered, but fall into
this disease from their fear of God and contemplation of the last
judgment and desire of seeing the _summum bonum_. Such persons think of
nothing and seek for nothing save to love and fear God alone, and they
incur this complaint and become drunk as it were with their excessive
anxiety and vanity.”[2991] Such passages would seem to describe
Constantinus’ own associates and environment, but they may possibly be
a mere translation of some work of an earlier Christian Arab, such as
Honein ben Ishak who translated or pretended to translate a number of
works of Greek medicine into Arabic. In a later chapter[2992] we shall
find that Honein perhaps had something to do with another work called
_The Secrets of Galen_, in which remedies for religious ascetics who
have ruined their health by their austerities form a rather prominent
feature.
[Sidenote: _On disorders of the stomach._]
That the treatise on disorders of the stomach is Constantinus’ own work
is indicated by its preface, which is addressed to Alfanus, archbishop
of Salerno from 1058 to 1087 and earlier a monk of Monte Cassino.
Alfanus had himself translated Nemesius Περὶ φύσεως ἀνθρώπου[2993]
and was the center of a group of learned writers: the dialectician,
Alberic the Deacon, the historian, Amatus of Salerno, and the
mathematician and astronomer, Pandulf of Capua.[2994] Constantinus
states that he writes this treatise for Alfanus as a compensation for
his recent failure to relieve a stomach-ache with which that prelate
was afflicted. Such instances of self-confessed failure, be it noted in
passing, are rare indeed in ancient and medieval medicine, and for this
reason we are the more inclined to deal charitably with the charges of
literary plagiarism which have been preferred against Constantinus. He
goes on to say that he has sought with great care but in vain among
ancient writings for any treatise devoted exclusively to the stomach,
and has only succeeded in finding here and there scattered discussions
which he now presumably combines in the present special treatise.
[Sidenote: Medical works ascribed to Alfanus.]
This archbishop Alfanus appears to have written on medicine himself,
since _A treatise of Alfanus of Salerno concerning certain medical
questions_ was listed among the books at Christchurch, Canterbury
about 1300.[2995] Also a collection of recipes entitled, _Experiments
of an archbishop of Salerno_, in a manuscript of the early twelfth
century are very likely by him.[2996] They follow a treatise on
melancholy which does not, however, appear to be that of Constantinus
Africanus.[2997]
[Sidenote: Constantinus and experiment.]
Peter the Deacon’s bibliography of the works of Constantinus includes
a _De experimentis_ which, if extant, has not been identified as
Constantinus’. In such works of his as are available, however, we find
a number of mentions of experience and its value. It is of course to
be remembered that such expressions as “we state what we have tested
and what our authorities have used,”[2998] and “we have had personal
experience of the confection which we now mention,”[2999] may refer to
the experience of the past authors whose works Constantinus is using
or translating rather than to his own. In the _Pantegni_[3000] “ancient
medical writers” are divided into _experientes_ and _rationabiles_,
and we are told that the empirics declare that compound medicines can
be discovered only in dreams and by chance, while the rationalists
hold that these can be deduced from a knowledge of the virtues and
qualities and accidents of bodies and diseases. This much is of
course simply Galen over again. Constantinus occasionally gives
medical “experiments,” as in the case of “proved experiments to eject
reptiles from the body,”[3001] or the placing of a live chicken on the
place bitten by a mad dog. The chicken will then die while the man
will be cured “beyond a doubt.”[3002] Such medical “experiments” by
Constantinus were often cited by subsequent medieval writers.
[Sidenote: “Experiments” involving incantations.]
Incantations are involved in some of these “experiments.” One approved
experiment, we are told, consists in whispering in the ear of the
patient the words, _Recede demon quia dee fanolcri precipiunt_. The
effect of this procedure is that when the epileptic rises, after
remaining like one dead for an hour, he will answer any question that
may be put to him. Another experiment to cure epilepsy is frequently
cited by subsequent medieval medical writers from Constantinus, and,
while it may not have originated with him, is apparently of Christian
rather than Greek or Mohammedan origin. If the epileptic has parents
living, they are to take him to church on the day of the four seasons
and have him hear mass on the sixth day and also on Saturday. When he
comes again on Sunday the priest is to write down the passage in the
Gospel where it says, “This kind is not cast out save by fasting and
prayer.” Presumably the epileptic is to wear this writing, in which
case a sure cure is promised, “be he epileptic or lunatic or demoniac.”
But it is added that the charm will not work in the case of persons
born of incestuous marriages.[3003]
[Sidenote: Superstition comparatively rare in Constantinus.]
But as a rule incantations and superstitious ceremony are comparatively
rare in the works of Constantinus, which contain little to justify
the charge of magic said to have been made against him in Africa or
the charge of superstition made against the Arabic medicine which his
writings so largely reflect. Also these superstitious passages seem
limited to the treatment of certain ailments of a mysterious character
like epilepsy and insanity, which, Constantinus says, the populace
call _divinatio_ and account for by possession by demons.[3004] It is
against epilepsy and phantasy that it is recommended to give a child to
swallow before it has been weaned the brains of a goat drawn through a
golden ring. And it is for epilepsy that we find such suspensions as
hairs from an entirely white dog or the small red stones in swallows’
gizzards, from which they must have been removed at midday. When
Constantinus is treating of eye and ear troubles, or even of paralysis
of the tongue and toothache, use of amulets is infrequent and there
is only an occasional suggestion of marvelous virtue. Gout is treated
with unguents and recipes but without the superstitious ligatures
often found in medieval works of medicine.[3005] Parts of animals are
employed a good deal: thus if you anoint the entire body with lion fat,
you will have no fear of serpents, and binding on the head the fresh
lung of an ox is good for frenzy.[3006] But Constantinus more often
explains the action of things in nature from their four qualities of
hot, cold, moist, and dry, than he does by assuming the existence of
occult virtues.
[Sidenote: And of Greek rather than Arabic origin.]
It is also to be noted that those passages where Constantinus’ medicine
borders most closely upon magic are apt to be borrowed from, or at
least credited to, Galen and Dioscorides. Neither Constantinus nor his
Arabic authorities introduced most of these superstitious elements into
medicine. In his work on degrees Constantinus repeats Galen’s story of
the boy who fell into an epileptic fit whenever the suspended peony was
removed from his neck.[3007] In the _Viaticum_[3008] he ascribes the
suspension of a white dog’s hairs and the use of various other parts of
animals for epileptics to Dioscorides, but they do not seem to be found
in that author’s extant works. Water in which blacksmiths have quenched
their irons is another remedy prescribed for various disorders upon the
authority of Dioscorides and Galen.[3009] Theriac and _terra sigillata_
are of course not forgotten. That there is a magnetic mountain on the
shore of the Indian Ocean which draws all the iron nails out of passing
ships, and that the magnet extracts arrows from wounds is stated on the
authority of the _Lapidary of Aristotle_, a spurious work. Constantinus
adds that Rufus says that the magnet comforts those afflicted with
melancholy and removes their fears and suspicions.[3010] However, it
is without citation of other authors that Constantinus states that the
plant _agnus castus_ will mortify lust if it is merely suspended over
the sleeper.[3011]
[Sidenote: Some signs of astrology and alchemy.]
There is not a great deal of astrological medicine in the works of
Constantinus Africanus. There are some allusions to the moon and
dog-days,[3012] Galen being twice cited to the effect that epilepsy
in a waxing moon is a very moist disease, while in a waning moon it
is very cold. In a chapter of the _Pantegni_[3013] the relation of
critical days to the course of the moon and also to the nature of
number is discussed. In another passage of the same work[3014] we
read that if other remedies fail in the case of a patient who cannot
hold his water while in bed, he should eat the bladder of a river
fish for eight days while the moon is waxing and waning and he will
be freed from the complaint. But Hippocrates testifies that in old
men the ailment is incurable. But the principal astrological passage
that I have found in the works of Constantinus is that in _De humana
natura_[3015] where he traces the formation of the child in the womb
and the influence of the planets upon the successive months of the
process, and explains why children born in the seventh or ninth month
live while those born in the eighth month die. This passage was cited
by Vincent of Beauvais in his _Speculum naturale_.[3016] Belief in
alchemy is suggested when Constantinus repeats the assertion of some
book on stones that lead would be silver except for its smell, its
softness, and its inability to endure fire.[3017]
[Sidenote: Constantinus and the School of Salerno.]
The relation of Constantinus Africanus to the School of Salerno has
been the subject of much dispute and of divergent views. Some have
held that Salerno’s medical importance practically began with him;
others have tried to maintain for Salernitan medicine a Neo-Latin
character quite distinct from Constantinus’ introduction of Arabic
influence. From the fact that Constantinus passed from Salerno to
Monte Cassino, where most, if not all, of his writing seems to have
been done, it has been assumed that there was an intimate connection
between the monks and the rise of a medical school at Salerno. On the
other hand, Renzi and Rashdall have ridiculed the notion, declaring
the distance and difficulty of communication between the two places
to be an insurmountable difficulty. It must be remembered, however,
that Constantinus himself both attended the archbishop of Salerno in
a case of stomach trouble and sent a treatise on the subject to him
afterwards. A strong personal influence by him upon the practice and
still more upon the literature of Salernitan medicine is therefore
not precluded, though his stay at Salerno may have been brief and his
literary labor performed entirely at the monastery. In any case a
Master John Afflacius, who is associated with other Salernitan writers
in a compilation from their works, was a disciple of Constantinus and,
as we are about to see, perhaps the author of some of the treatises
which have been published under Constantinus’ name. It certainly would
seem that Constantinus and his disciple have as good a right to be
called Salernitan as most of the authors included in Renzi’s collection.
[Sidenote: _Liber aureus_ and John Afflacius.]
In a medical manuscript which Henschel discovered at Breslau in
1837[3018] and which he regarded as a composition of the School of
Salerno and dated in the twelfth century, he found in the case of
two works compiled from various authors[3019] that the passages
ascribed to a Master John Afflacius, who was described as “a disciple
of Constantinus,”[3020] were identical with passages in the _Liber
aureus_ or _De remediorum et aegritudinum cognitione_ published as a
work of Constantinus in the Basel edition of 1536. He also identified
a _Liber urinarum_ attributed to the same John Afflacius, disciple of
Constantinus, in the Breslau manuscript with the _De urinis_ which
follows the _Liber aureus_ in the printed edition of Constantinus’
works. Thus either the pupil appropriated or completed and published
the work of his master, or Constantinus had the same good fortune in
having his own name attached to the compositions of his pupil[3021] as
in the case of the writings of his Arabic predecessors.
[Sidenote: Afflacius more superstitious than his master.]
It may be further noted that the disciple seems to have been more
superstitious than the master, for in one of the passages ascribed
to Afflacius in the aforesaid compilation, after the correspondence
with the _Liber aureus_ has ceased, the text goes on to prescribe the
suspension of goat’s horn over one’s head as a soporific and gives
the following “prognostic of life or death.” Smear the forehead of
the patient from ear to ear with _musam eneam_. “If he sleeps, he
will live; but if not, he will die; and this has been tested in acute
fevers.” Another method is to try if the patient’s urine will mix with
the milk of a woman who is suckling a male child. If it will, he will
live. Another procedure to induce sleep is then given, which consists
in reading the first verse of the Gospel of John nine times over the
patient’s head, placing beneath his head a missal or psalter and the
names of the seven sleepers written on a scroll. This is not the first
instance of such Christian magic that we have encountered in connection
with the School of Salerno and we begin to suspect that it was rather
characteristic. At any rate it was not uncommon in medieval medicine in
general and was almost certainly introduced before Innocent III who in
1215 forbade ordeals and who frowned on other superstitious practices.
Probably such Christian magic dates from a period before Arabic
influence began to be felt. Thus again we have reason to doubt whether
early medieval medicine or Salernitan medicine was less superstitious
than Arabic medicine or than medieval medicine after the introduction
of Arabic medicine. At least Constantinus Africanus who represents the
introduction of translations from the Arabic is comparatively free from
superstition.
CHAPTER XXXIII
TREATISES ON THE ARTS BEFORE THE INTRODUCTION OF ARABIC ALCHEMY
Latin treatises on the arts and colors—Progress of the
arts even during the early middle ages—Scantiness of the
sources—Character of Arabic alchemy—Different character of our
Latin treatises—_Compositiones ad tingenda_—_Mappe Clavicula_—Some
of its recipes—Question of symbolic nomenclature—Magical procedure
with goats: in _Mappe Clavicula_—Similar passages in Heraclius—And
Theophilus—A magic figure—Use of an incantation in tenth century
alchemy—Experimental character of the work of Theophilus—How to make
Spanish gold—The question of symbolic terminology again—Alchemy in the
eleventh century—St. Dunstan and alchemy and magic—Introduction of
Arabic alchemy in the twelfth century.
“ ... _campum latissimum diversarum artium perscrutari_....”
—_Theophilus, Schedula, I, Praefatio._
[Sidenote: Latin treatises on the arts and colors.]
We come to the consideration of several treatises dealing with colors
and the arts and dating from about the eighth to the twelfth centuries
and probably in part of earlier origin. These are the _Compositiones ad
tingenda_ in a manuscript of the eighth or ninth century, the _Mappe
clavicula_ found in part in a tenth century manuscript and more fully
in one of the twelfth century, the poem of Heraclius on _The colors
and arts of the Romans_, and the remarkable treatise of Theophilus
_On diverse arts_ in three books.[3022] The oldest known manuscripts
of Theophilus are of the twelfth century and he has been dated at the
beginning of that century or end of the eleventh, and Heraclius, from
whom he takes a number of his chapters, still earlier. But it scarcely
seems that some of Theophilus’ descriptions of ecclesiastical art
would have been written before the twelfth century. Mrs. Merrifield
regarded only the first two metrical books of _The colors and arts of
the Romans_ as the work of Heraclius, and the third book in prose as
a later addition of the twelfth or thirteenth century and probably
written by a Frenchman, whereas she believed that Heraclius wrote in
southern Italy under Byzantine influence.[3023] His poem sounds to
me like an attempt to imitate Lucretius, while one also is inclined
to associate it with the perhaps nearly contemporary poems in which
the so-called Macer and Marbod recounted in verse form some of the
properties of herbs and stones which they had learned from ancient
writers.
[Sidenote: Progress of the arts even during the early middle ages.]
Berthelot regarded these treatises on the arts as proof that the
knowledge of industrial and alchemical processes continued unbroken
even in western Europe from Egypt to the middle ages, although he
held that the theories of transmutation and the like reached the west
only in the twelfth century through the Arabs.[3024] Moreover, there
is progress in the technical processes just as there was progress in
Romanesque and Gothic art. New items and recipes appear in the lists.
Even in the declining Roman Empire and earliest middle age we have
evidence of new discoveries. The artificial fabrication of cinnabar
becomes known at some time after Dioscorides and Pliny and before the
eighth century.[3025] The hydrostatic balance is described not only in
the _Mappe clavicula_ but in the _Carmen de ponderibus_ of Priscian
or of Q. Remnius Fannius Palaemo of the fourth or fifth century A.
D.[3026] Heraclius speaks more than once in his poem with admiration
of the works of art of the Roman “kings” and people, and asks, “Who
now is capable of investigating these arts, is able to reveal to us
what those potent artificers of immense intellect discovered for
themselves?”[3027] However, his aim is to resurrect these arts; he
assures the reader that he writes nothing which he has not first
proved himself;[3028] and he tells in particular how he discovered
by close scrutiny of a piece of Roman glass that there was gold-leaf
placed between two layers of glass, a work which he successfully
imitated.[3029] On the other hand, lead glazing, according to Alexandre
Brongniart, director of the Sèvres manufactory, is not found in
European pottery before the twelfth century, when it was applied in
Pesaro about 1100 and is found on pottery in a tomb at Jumièges of
about 1120.[3030]
[Sidenote: Scantiness of the sources.]
During the early medieval centuries the Byzantine Empire, Syria
and Egypt after they were conquered by the Arabs, the busy streets
of Bagdad and Cordova, and Persia undoubtedly produced a far more
flourishing activity in the fine arts and the industrial arts than
was the case in backward western Christian Europe. Yet the surviving
evidence for such activity is disappointing, and seems limited to some
notices and allusions in Arabian and Jewish travelers and historians,
and to the dust-heaps of ruined cities like Fostat, Rai, and Rakka. As
the finest early specimens of Byzantine mosaics are preserved in Italy
at Ravenna, so our Latin treatises concerning the arts are perhaps the
best extant for the early medieval period up to the twelfth century.
[Sidenote: Character of Arabic alchemy.]
A number of treatises on alchemy in Arabic have reached us but they,
like the Byzantine, chiefly continue the fantastic mysticism and
obscurity, the astrology and magic, of the ancient Greek alchemists.
Thus in the _Book of Crates_ we have a virgin priestess of the temple
of Serapis at Alexandria, and the snake Ouroburos, also a vision of
the seven heavens of the planets. The _Book of Alhabib_ invokes Hermes
Trismegistus and says that the sages have not revealed the secret
of transmutation for fear of the anger of the demons. The _Book of
Ostanes_, in which Andalusia is mentioned, has eighty-four different
names for the philosopher’s stone, and a fantastic dream concerning
seven doors and three inscriptions in Egyptian, concerning the Persian
Magi, and a citation from an Indian sage concerning the healing virtues
of the urine of a white elephant. The _Book of Like Weights_ of Geber
states that the sage can discern the mixture of the four elements in
animals, plants, and stones by astrology and many other signs involving
varied superstition. His _Book of Sympathy_ again emphasizes the seven
planets as the key to alchemy and has much about the spirit in matter.
His _Book on Quicksilver_, although it promises clarity, is the most
mystic and incomprehensible of all. In it we read of raising the dead
and of use of such liquids as “a divine water” and the milk of an
uncorrupted virgin.[3031]
[Sidenote: Different character of our Latin treatises.]
Our Latin treatises are as free from mysticism and obscurity, from
dreams and visions, as they are from theoretical discussion. They are
collections of recipes and directions which are supposed at least to be
practical and which are written in a simple and straightforward style.
They are not, however, taken together, by any means entirely free
from astrological directions or belief in occult virtue or yet other
superstition, and they include recipes for making gold. Of this there
is least in the first treatise we have to consider.
[Sidenote: _Compositiones ad tingenda._]
The _Compositiones ad tingenda_,[3032] a treatise or collection of
notes and recipes preserved in a manuscript dating from the time of
Charlemagne, throws some light on the technical processes preserved in
the Latin west in the early middle ages and on the amount of knowledge
of natural phenomena preserved in connection with the arts,—applied
science in other words. It tells how to color glass and make mosaics,
and describes a glass furnace; how to dye skins and make parchment; how
to make gold-leaf, gold-thread, silver-leaf and tin-leaf; how to give
copper the color of gold; it gives various directions and preparations
for painting and gilding; and a description of various minerals and
herbs employed in the above processes. Much is repeated that is found
already in Pliny and Dioscorides, or in Aristotle and the Greek
alchemists. But several things are mentioned, at least so far as we
know, for the first time, although Berthelot believed that the compiler
of the _Compositiones ad tingenda_ had copied them from earlier works,
very probably Byzantine or late Roman, and not invented them himself.
We find here the first mention of vitriol and of “bronze,”—a word
apparently derived from Brundisium. _Amor aquae_ is used for the first
time for the scum formed on waters containing iron salts and other
metals, and we also meet the first instance of the preparation of
cinnabar by means of sulphur and mercury. The work contains very little
superstition with the exception of one passage which Berthelot has
already noted.[3033] Once a stone is spoken of as having solar virtue;
lead is distinguished as masculine and feminine; the gall of a tortoise
is used in a composition for writing golden letters, and pig’s blood
is employed in another connection. But these are trifling signs of
occult science.
[Sidenote: _Mappe Clavicula._]
More alchemistic in character is the _Mappe Clavicula_,[3034] which,
in its fuller twelfth century form, embodies the _Compositiones ad
tingenda_ in a different order,[3035] and adds about twice as many
more recipes for making gold, making colors, writing with gold, glues
and various other matters, including building directions. Berthelot
regarded two items instructing how to make images of the gods as
signs of an ancient pagan origin for the work.[3036] One of these
items occurs in the twelfth century text, the other in the tenth
century table of contents. On the other hand Berthelot believed that
the twelfth century version contained the oldest directions for the
distillation of alcohol.[3037] The _Mappe Clavicula_ adds a good deal
that is of a superstitious character to the _Compositiones ad tingenda_
which it includes, and at the same time lays considerable stress upon
experimental method.
[Sidenote: Some of its recipes.]
It opens with a recipe “for making the best gold,” the first of a long
series. One of the ingredients in this case is “a bit of moon-earth,
which the Greeks call _Affroselinum_.” The third recipe advises one to
experiment at first with only a little of the compound in question,
until one learns the process more thoroughly.[3038] The ingredients
for gold-making in the sixth recipe include the gall of a goat and of
a bull, and saffron from Lycia or Arabia, which is to be pounded in a
Theban mortar in the sun in dog-days. At the close of the fourteenth
recipe, into which the gall of a bull again enters we have one of the
injunctions to secrecy so dear to the alchemist: “Hide the sacred
secret which should be transmitted to no one, nor give to anyone the
prophetic.”[3039] It is also implied that alchemy is a religious or
divine art in the twentieth recipe where it is said that operators
should concede all things to divine works. But such mystic allusions
are infrequent as well as brief. In the same twentieth item gold is
supposed to be made from a mixture of iron rust, magnet, foreign alum,
myrrh, gold, and wine. It is also stated that those who will not credit
the great utility that there is in humors are those who do not make
demonstration for themselves, another instance of the experimental
character of the work. The forty-first recipe states that gold may be
dissolved in order to write with it by dipping it in the blood of an
Indian dragon, placing it in a glass vessel, and surrounding it with
coals. In the sixty-ninth item the blood of a dragon or of a cock is
mixed with urine and the stone _celidonius_. The gall of a bull and the
blood of a pig are used again in recipes sixty-eight and one hundred
and twenty-eight.
[Sidenote: Question of symbolic nomenclature.]
It has sometimes been contended, chiefly by persons who did not
realize how universal was the ascription of great virtue to the parts
of animals in ancient and medieval science and their use as remedies
in the medicine of the same periods, that they are not to be taken
literally in alchemical recipes but are to be understood symbolically
and are cryptic designations for common mineral substances. Thus
Berthelot cites a passage from the Latin _De anima_, ascribed to
Avicenna, which says, “I am going to tell you a secret: the eye of
a man or bull or cow or deer signifies mercury,” and so on.[3040]
But despite what Berthelot goes on to say about the “old prophetic
nomenclature” of the Egyptians, I am inclined to think that such
symbolism is mainly a refinement of later alchemists, and that
originally most such expressions were intended literally. Certainly
it would be impossible to explain all the medicinal use of parts of
animals in Pliny’s _Natural History_ as either symbolic or derived from
the Egyptian priests. Like the suggestion that Roger Bacon wrote in
cipher, the symbolic nomenclature theory is based on the assumption
that the men of old concealed great secrets under an appearance of
error. And where such cryptograms and symbols were employed, it was
almost invariably done, we may be sure, with the object of impressing
the reader with an exaggerated notion of the importance of what was
written rather than because the writer really had any great discovery
that he wished to conceal. That symbolic language was employed by
alchemists, especially in the latest middle age and early modern
centuries, is not to be questioned. The use of the names of the planets
for the corresponding metals is a familiar example. But most such
symbolic nomenclature is equally obvious, while there is no reason
for not taking the use of parts of animals literally. Indeed, in
many passages it must be so taken, as in a later item of the _Mappe
Clavicula_[3041] which has no concern with alchemy and where in order
to poison an arrow for use in battle, we are instructed to dip it in
the sweat from the right side of a horse between the hip-bones. The
following experiments with goats also illustrate the great value set
upon animal fluids and substances.
[Sidenote: Magical procedure with goats in the _Mappe Clavicula_.]
We are reminded of the directions given by Marcellus Empiricus for the
preparation of goat’s blood by a recipe for making figures of crystal
which occurs near the close of the _Mappe Clavicida_.[3042] A he-goat
which has never indulged in sexual intercourse is to be shut up in a
cask for three days until he has completely digested everything that
he had in his belly. He is then to be fed on ivy for four days, at the
end of which time he is to be slain and his blood mixed with his urine
which is now collected from the cask. By soaking the crystal overnight
in this mixture it can be moulded or carved at will. This experiment is
immediately preceded by a somewhat similar procedure for cutting glass
with steel.[3043] The glass is to be softened and the steel is to be
tempered by placing them either in the milk of a Saracen she-goat, who
has been fed upon ivy and milked by scratching her udders with nettles,
or in the lotion of a small girl of ruddy complexion, which must be
taken before sunrise.
[Sidenote: Similar passages in Heraclius.]
Very similar passages are found in the works of Heraclius and
Theophilus, the former of whom gives the following directions for glass
engraving: “Oh! all you artists who wish to engrave glass correctly,
now I will show you just as I myself have proven. I sought the fat
worms which the plow turns up from the earth, and the useful art in
such matters bade me at the same time seek vinegar and the hot blood of
a huge he-goat, which I had taken pains to tie up under cover and to
feed on strong ivy for a while. Next I mixed the worms and vinegar with
the warm blood and anointed all the bright shining phial. This done, I
tried to engrave the glass with the hard stone called pyrites.”[3044]
In another passage Heraclius recommends the use of the urine and blood
of a goat in engraving gems,[3045] and he also states that the blood of
a goat makes crystal easier to carve.[3046]
[Sidenote: And Theophilus.]
Theophilus states that poets and artificers have greatly cherished
the ivy, “because they recognized the occult powers which it contains
within itself.”[3047] He also affirms that the blood of a goat makes
crystal easier to carve, but he recommends the blood of a living
goat two or three years old and repeated insertion of the crystal
in an incision between the animal’s breast and abdomen.[3048] He
also recommends a somewhat similar procedure to that of the _Mappe
Clavicula_ with a goat and a cask.[3049] In this case the goat should
be three years old, and after being bound for three days without food
should be fed for two days on nothing but fern. The following night he
should be shut up in a cask with holes in the bottom through which his
urine can be collected in another vessel for two or three nights, when
the goat may be released and the urine employed to temper iron tools.
Or the urine of a small red-headed boy may be employed, as it is better
for tempering than plain water. Indeed, both Theophilus and Heraclius
make much use of parts of animals in the arts: various animals’ teeth
to shine and polish things with, horse dung mixed with clay, skins and
bladders, saliva and ear-wax to polish niello, and so forth.
[Sidenote: A magic figure.]
Returning to the _Mappe Clavicula_ we note the employment of a magic
figure called _arragab_, which Berthelot thinks is a small lead
image.[3050] By means of it the flow of a spring may be stopped; a cup
may be made either to retain or to empty its contents; if the cows
drink first from the trough, there will be enough water for both the
cows and the horses, but if the horses drink first, there will not be
enough for either. The same figure enables one to fill a pitcher from
a cask without diminishing the amount of liquid in the cask, or to
construct a lamp which will produce phantoms. It also makes soldiers
leave their camp without their spears and yet return with them. After
this flight into the realm of magic we come back to a more plausibly
physical basis for marvels in a description of four revolving hoops or
circles within which a vessel may be revolved in any direction without
spilling its contents.[3051]
[Sidenote: Use of an incantation in tenth century alchemy.]
The passages which we have just noted in the _Mappe Clavicula_ cannot
be surely traced back earlier than the twelfth century version of it
and do not appear in the table of contents which is preserved in the
tenth century Schlestadt manuscript and which covers only a portion of
the chapters of the twelfth century manuscript, but also some other
chapters which are not extant. But that magic was not entirely absent
from the earlier version to which this table of contents seems to apply
is evidenced by the fact that one of the chapter headings dealing with
the fabrication of gold mentions a prayer or incantation to be recited
during the process.[3052]
[Sidenote: Experimental character of the work of Theophilus.]
The great importance of the work of Theophilus in the history of art
is too generally recognized to need elaboration here. Our purpose is
rather to point out that in it information of great value is found
side by side with a considerable amount of misguided natural theory
and magical ceremony. The stress laid by Theophilus upon personal
observation, experience, and experimental method should not, however,
pass unnoticed. He has scrutinized the works of art in the church of
St. Sophia one by one “with diligent experience,” has tested everything
by eye and hand, has as a “curious explorer” made all sorts of
experiments, and appears to represent transparent stained glass as his
own discovery or idea.[3053] Nor is he the only experimenter; he also
speaks of “modern workmen” who deceive many incautious persons by their
imitation of the appearance of most precious Arabian gold which “is
frequently found employed in the most ancient vases.”[3054]
[Sidenote: How to make Spanish gold.]
Theophilus, however, believes that other metals can really be
transmuted into gold, and we may repeat his amusing account of how
Spanish gold “is made from red copper and powdered basilisk and human
blood and vinegar.” “For the Gentiles, whose skill in this art is well
known, create basilisks in this wise. They have an underground chamber
completely walled in on all sides with stone, and with two windows so
small as scarcely to admit any light. In this they put two cocks of
twelve or fifteen years and give them plenty of food. These, when they
have grown fat, from the heat of their fat have commerce together and
lay eggs. As soon as the eggs are laid the cocks are ejected and toads
are put in to sit on the eggs and are fed upon bread. When the eggs are
hatched chicks come forth who look like young roosters, but after seven
days they grow serpents’ tails and would straightway burrow into the
ground, were the chamber not paved with stone. Guarding against this,
their masters have round brazen vessels of great amplitude, perforated
on all sides, with narrow mouths, in which they put the chicks and
close the mouths with copper covers and bury them underground, and the
chicks are nourished for six months by the subtle earth which enters
through the perforations. After this they uncover them and apply a
strong fire until the beasts within are totally consumed. When this
is over and it has cooled off, they remove and carefully pulverize
them, adding a third part of the blood of a ruddy man, which blood
is dried and powdered. Having compounded these two they temper them
with strong vinegar in a clean vessel; then they take very thin plates
of the purest red copper and spread this mixture over them on both
sides and place them in the fire. And when they grow white hot, they
take them out and quench and wash them in the same mixture, and this
process they repeat until the mixture has eaten through the copper, and
so obtain the weight and color of gold. This gold is suited for all
operations.”[3055]
[Sidenote: The question of symbolic terminology again.]
Mr. Hendrie held that Theophilus was here describing in symbolic
language a process “for procuring pure gold by the means of the mineral
acids;” and that “the toads of Theophilus which hatch the eggs are
probably fragments of the mineral salt, nitrate of potash; ... the
blood of a red man ... probably a nitrate of ammonia; fine earth, a
muriate of soda (common salt); the cocks, the sulphates of copper and
iron; the eggs, gold ore; the hatched chickens, which require a stone
pavement, sulphuric acid produced by burning these in a stone vessel,
collecting the fumes.... The elements of nitro-muriatic acid are all
here, the solvent for gold.”[3056] Mr. Hendrie leaves, however, a
number of details unexplained and he admits that “Unfortunately each
chemist appears to have varied the symbols in use.” Certainly one
would have to vary them in almost every case to make any sense out of
such procedures as this of Theophilus. On the other hand, there is
nothing very surprising in his procedure taken literally to one who
is acquainted with the beliefs of ancient and medieval science and
magic. And certainly Shakespeare’s line concerning the precious jewel
in the toad’s head, which Hendrie quotes in this connection, is much
more likely to be meant literally than to be the symbolic “jargon of
the alchemist.” Later we shall hear again from Alexander Neckam, in a
passage which has no connection with alchemy, of the basilisk hatched
by a toad from an egg laid by a cock, and we shall hear from Albertus
Magnus of an experiment in which a toad’s eye was proved superior in
virtue to an emerald.
[Sidenote: Alchemy in the eleventh century.]
The treatises which we have been considering appear, at least for the
most part, to antedate the Latin translations of works of alchemy
from the Arabic, although it is possible that, just as the first
translations of mathematical and astronomical works from the Arabic go
back to the tenth century at least, so the reception of Arabic alchemy
may have begun in a small way before the twelfth century. At any rate
we find that in the eleventh century not only were Michael Psellus and
other Byzantine scholars spreading the doctrines of alchemy,[3057] but
a scholium to Adam of Bremen records the presence at the court of
Bishop Adalbert of Bremen of an alchemist in the person of a baptized
Jew.[3058]
[Sidenote: St. Dunstan and alchemy and magic.]
To St. Dunstan, the famous abbot of Glastonbury, archbishop of
Canterbury, and statesman of the tenth century (924 or 925 to 988), is
attributed a treatise on the philosopher’s stone contained in a Corpus
Christi manuscript of the fifteenth century at Oxford and printed at
Cassel in 1649. No genuine works by him seem to be extant, however, but
it is interesting to note that along with his reputation for learning
and mechanical skill went the association of his name with magic. In
his studious youth he was accused of magic, driven from court, and
thrown into a muddy pond. His contemporary biographer also narrates how
the devil appeared to him in various animal and other terrifying forms.
His favorite studies were mathematics and music, and he was said to own
a magic harp which played while hanging by itself on the wall.[3059]
[Sidenote: Introduction of Arabic alchemy in the twelfth century.]
Berthelot has associated the introduction of Arabic alchemy into
Christian western Europe with the Latin translation by Robert of
Chester of _The Book of Morienus_, but incorrectly dated it in 1182
A. D.,[3060] whereas the mention of that date in the manuscripts has
reference to the Spanish era and denotes the year 1144 A. D.[3061]
The main reason for regarding Robert’s translation as one of the
earliest is that he remarks in his preface, “What alchemy is and
what is its composition, your Latin world does not yet know truly.”
Of the work translated by Robert we shall treat more fully in a
later chapter on _Hermetic Books in the Middle Ages_. Here we may
further note the existence of a work of alchemy in another twelfth
century manuscript.[3062] It is a brief work in four chapters and its
superstitious character may be inferred from its opening instruction
to “take four hundred hen’s eggs laid in the month of March,” and
its citation of Artesius concerning divination by the reflection or
refraction of the sun’s rays or moon-beams in liquids or a mirror.
Since the treatise bears the title _Alchamia_, it is probably safe to
assume that it represents Arabic influence.
CHAPTER XXXIV
MARBOD, BISHOP OF RENNES, 1035—1123
Career of Marbod—Relation of his _Liber lapidum_ to the prose
_Evax_—Problem of Marbod’s sources—Influence of the _Liber
lapidum_—Occult virtue of gems—_Liber lapidum_ meant seriously—_De
fato et genesi_.
“_Nec dubium cuiquam debet falsumque videri
Quin sua sit gemmis divinitus insita virtus;
Ingens est herbis virtus data, maxima gemmis._”
—_Marbod, Liber lapidum._
[Sidenote: Career of Marbod.]
Of medieval Latin Lapidaries the earliest and what also seems to have
been the classic on the subject of the marvelous properties of stones
is the _Liber lapidum seu de gemmis_ by Marbod, bishop of Rennes,[3063]
who lived from 1035 to 1123 and so had very likely completed this
work before the close of the eleventh century. Indeed one manuscript
of it seems to date from that century[3064] and there are numerous
twelfth century manuscripts. These early manuscripts bear his name
and the style is the same as in his other writings. Born in the
county of Anjou, Marbod attended the church school there, became the
schoolmaster himself from 1067 to 1081, during which time he probably
composed the _Liber lapidum_, then served as archdeacon under three
successive bishops, and finally himself became a bishop in 1096. He
attended church councils in 1103 and 1104 and died in September,
1123, in an Angevin monastery, whose monks issued a eulogistic
encyclical letter on that occasion, while two archdeacons celebrated
his integrity, learning, and eloquence in admiring verse. Marbod’s own
productions are also in poetical form. It is interesting to note that
despite his early date he was eulogized not as a lone man of letters in
an uncultured age but as “the king of orators, although at that time
all Gaul resounded with varied studies.”
[Sidenote: Relation of the _Liber lapidum_ to the prose _Evax_.]
The _Liber lapidum_ is a Latin poem of 734 hexameters describing sixty
stones. In the opening lines Marbod writes:
“Evax, king of the Arabs, is said to have written to Nero,
Who after Augustus ruled next in the city.[3065]
How many the species of stones, what names, and what colors,
From what regions they came, and how great the power of each one.”
Making use of this worthy book, Marbod has decided to compose a
briefer account for himself and a few friends only, believing that he
who popularizes mysteries lessens their majesty. As a result of this
opening line and the fact that in some manuscripts Marbod’s own name
is not given, his poem is sometimes listed in the catalogues as the
work of Evax.[3066] There is also, however, extant a work in Latin
prose which opens, “Evax, king of Arabia, to the emperor Tiberius
greeting.”[3067] But as this prose work is not much longer than
Marbod’s poem, and seems to be known only from a single manuscript
of the fourteenth century, it is doubtful if it is the work which he
professed to abbreviate. This prose work is also ascribed to Amigeron
or Damigeron,[3068] to whom we have already seen that the author of
_Lithica_ was supposed to be indebted and whose name was regarded as
that of a famous magician. After alluding to the magnificent gifts
which the emperor had sent to Evax by the centurion Lucinius Fronto
and offering this book in return, the author of the prose version
lists seven stones appropriate, not, strangely enough, to the seven
planets, but to seven of the signs of the zodiac.[3069] Fifty chapters
are then devoted to as many stones, beginning with _Aetites_, which is
twenty-fifth in Marbod’s list, and ending with _Sardo_, while _Sardius_
comes tenth in Marbod’s poem. Marbod’s own order, however, sometimes
varies in the manuscripts.[3070]
[Sidenote: Problem of Marbod’s sources.]
King, and Rose after him, asserted[3071] that despite Marbod’s
professed abridgement of a work which Evax was supposed to have
presented to Tiberius, he drew largely from Isidore of Seville’s
_Etymologies_. Rose thought that some of the descriptions of stones
were from Solinus, the rest from Isidore, but that the account of their
virtues was from Evax. King also noted occasional extracts from the
Orphic work, _Lithica_, which is not surprising in view of the fact
that both Evax and the _Lithica_ seem based on Damigeron. This question
of sources and ultimate origins is, however, as usual of relatively
little moment to our investigation. My own impression would be that in
antiquity and the middle age there exists a sort of common fund of
information and stock of beliefs concerning gems which naturally is
drawn upon and appears in every individual treatise upon them. But the
number of gems discussed and the order in which they are considered
or classified varies with each new author, and there is apt to be a
similar variation in the number of statements made concerning any
particular stone and the way in which these are arranged. In fine, all
ancient and medieval accounts of the natures and virtues of stones bear
a general resemblance to one another which is more impressive than
is the similarity between any two given accounts, and testify to a
consensus of opinion and to a common learned tradition concerning gems
which is more significant than the possible borrowings of individual
authors from one another.
[Sidenote: Influence of the _Liber lapidum_.]
However, there seems to be little doubt that the poem of Marbod is
itself an outstanding work among medieval accounts of precious stones,
first because of the early date of its authorship, and second because
of its late persistence and popularity, which is indicated by the
fourteen editions that appeared after the invention of printing.[3072]
Its convenient form perhaps accounts to a considerable extent for
its popularity. At any rate the manuscripts of it are numerous, and
it was much used by subsequent writers of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, although citations of _Lapidarius_ cannot always be assumed
to refer to Marbod. But at least the notions concerning gems which we
find in his poem are a fair sample of what we should find in any Latin
treatment of the same subject for several centuries to come. It is
found also in a medieval French version.
[Sidenote: Occult virtue of gems.]
It does not make much difference where we begin or what stones we
select from Marbod’s list as examples, since the same sort of marvelous
powers are ascribed to all of them. In his prologue Marbod describes
the occult virtues of gems as those “whose hidden cause gives manifest
effects.” No one should doubt them or think them false, “since the
virtue in gems is divinely implanted. Enormous virtue is given to
herbs, but the greatest to gems.”
Adamant, hard as it is, cracks when heated with goat’s blood. It
counteracts the action of the magnet. It is used in the magic arts and
makes its bearer indomitable. It drives off nocturnal specters and idle
dreams. It routs black venom, heals quarrels and contentions, cures the
insane, and repels fierce foes.
Allectory, found inside cocks, slakes thirst. Milo overcame other
athletes, and kings have won battles by its aid. It restores promptly
those who have been banished, enables orators to speak with a flow of
language, makes one welcome on every occasion, and endears a wife to
her husband. It is advised to carry it concealed in the mouth.
The sapphire nourishes the body and preserves the limbs whole. Its
bearer, who should be most chaste, cannot be harmed by fraud or envy
and is unmoved by any terror. It leads those in bonds from prison.
It placates God and makes Him favorable to prayers. It is good for
peace-making and reconciliation. It is preferred to other gems in
hydromancy, since prophetic responses can be obtained by it. As for
medicinal qualities, it cools internal heat, checks perspiration,
powdered and applied with milk it heals ulcers, cleanses the eyes,
stops headache, and cures diseases of the tongue.
Gagates, worn as an amulet, benefits dropsy; diluted with water,
it prevents loose teeth from falling out; fumigation with it is
good for epileptics and it is thought to be hostile to demons; it
remedies indigestion and constipation and overcomes magical illusions
(_praestigia_) and evil incantations. Also
_Per suffumigium mulieri menstrua reddit_
* * * * *
_Et solet, ut perhibent, deprehendere virginitatem.
Praegnans potest aquam triduo qua mersus habetur
Quo vexabatur partum cito libera fundit._
Gagates burns when washed with water; is extinguished by anointing it
with olive oil.
The magnet is especially used in the illusions of magic. The great
Deendor is said to have first used it, realizing that there was no more
potent force in magic, and after him the famous witch Circe employed
it. Among the Medes experience revealed still further virtues of the
stone. It is used to test a wife’s chastity while she is sleeping; if
she is unchaste, she will fall out of bed when the gem is applied to
her head. A burglar can commit theft unmolested by sprinkling it over
hot coals and so driving away all the occupants of the house.
In the case of _Chelonitis_ Marbod’s account is very similar to that
in Pliny’s _Natural History_,[3073] citing the Magi for the power of
divination it bestows when carried under the tongue at certain times
of the moon, according to whose phases its power varies. Of the gems
hitherto described only in the case of adamant and gagates was there
any resemblance between Marbod and Pliny and there only partial.
Pliny also briefly states that the stone _diadochos_ resembles beryl,
but does not have Marbod’s statements that it is employed in water
divination to show varied images of demons, “nor is there other stone
stronger to evoke shades.” But if by chance it comes in contact with a
corpse, it loses its wonted force, since the stone is sacred and abhors
dead bodies.[3074]
[Sidenote: _Liber lapidum_ was meant to be taken seriously.]
The vast powers, not only medicinal and physical, but of divination
and magic, over the mind and affections, miraculous and supernatural,
even over God, as in the statement that the sapphire can be employed to
secure a more favorable answer to prayer, which Marbod assigns to gems
without a sign of scruple or scepticism or disapproval on his part,
have so shocked some moderns that suggestions have been made, in order
to explain away the acceptance of talismanic powers of gems to such a
degree by a Christian clergyman who became a bishop, that Marbod must
have composed his poem when quite young and lived to repent it, or
that he regarded it merely as a poetical flight and exercise, not as
an exposition of scientific fact. But wherefore then was it not only
widely read in the literary twelfth century but also widely cited as an
authority in the scientific and equally Christian thirteenth century?
No; everyone else took it precisely as Marbod meant it, as a serious
statement of the marvelous powers which had been divinely implanted
in gems. And why should not God be more easily reached through the
instrumentality of gems, since He had endowed them with their marvelous
virtues? Marbod affirms his own faith in the great virtues of gems not
only at the beginning but the close of his poem, stating that while
some have doubted the marvelous properties attributed to them, this has
been due to the fact that so many imitation gems are made of glass,
which deceive the unwary but of course lack the occult virtues of the
genuine stones. If the stones are genuine and duly consecrated, the
marvelous effects will without a doubt follow.
[Sidenote: _De fato et genesi._]
Marbod’s belief in the almost boundless talismanic virtues of gems
is thrown into the higher relief by the fact that in another of his
poems he makes an attack upon genethlialogy or the prediction of the
entire life of the individual from the constellations at his birth.
In _De fato et genesi_ he writes against “the common notion” (_opinio
vulgi_) that all things are ruled by fate, that the hour of nativity
controls man’s entire life, and the contention of the _mathematici_
that the seven planets control not only the external forces with which
man comes in contact but also human character. He objects to such a
doctrine as that, when Venus and Mars appear in certain relations to
the sun, the babe born under that constellation will be destined to
commit incest and adultery in later life. He objects that such beliefs
destroy all the foundations of morality, law, and future reward or
punishment; contends that there are certain races which never commit
adultery or crime, yet have the same seven planets; and argues that
since Jews are all circumcised on the eighth day, they should all have
the same horoscope. These are familiar contentions, at least as old
as Bardesanes. Marbod declares further that the astrological writer,
Firmicus, employs “infirm arguments,” and that his own horoscope,
taken according to Firmicus’ methods and interpreted likewise, turned
out to be false, “as I proved when once I dabbled in that art.” This
is interesting as showing that Gerard of York[3075] was not the only
bishop of the eleventh century who was acquainted with the work of
Julius Firmicus Maternus, and that even opponents of astrology are apt
to have once been dabblers in it. Marbod concludes his poem with this
neat turn:
“I thought I ought to write these lines briefly against
genethlialogy.
Nevertheless, that I may not seem to repel fate and horoscope
utterly,
I assert that my fate is the Word of the supreme Father,
By Whom should all things be ruled and all men confess;
And I say that the computation of my constellation is innate in me
And the liberty by which I can tend whither I will.
Therefore, if my will shall be in conjunction with reason
In the sign of the Balances with Christ regarding me,
All things will turn out prosperously for me here and everywhere:—
This is the favorable horoscope of all Christ’s followers.”
GENERAL INDEX
Names of men of learning will be found for the most part in the
bibliographical index.
Aaron, 357, 379, 464, 507
Abacus, 698, 704
Abbreviation, 135, 500, 624
Abdomen, diseases of, 577
Abimelech, 399
Abortion, 61, 94
Abraham the patriarch, astrology and science of 350, 353, 355, 411, 703;
magic use of name of, 437, 449, 726
Abraxas, 371, 379
_Abrotonum_, an herb, 495
Abscess, 93
Abstinence from animal food, 295, 308, 314
Academy, the, 268, 270, 602
Accusation of magic against, Galen, 125, 165-7;
alchemists, 194;
Apuleius, 222, 232-40;
Apollonius of Tyana, 246;
the emperor Julian, 318;
Jews, 337, 436-9;
Christ and Christians, 337, 383, 395-6, 415, 424, 433, 436-9, 463,
465, 505;
pagans, 415;
philosophers, 416;
heretics, 415, 424;
Origen, 461;
Priscillian, 380-1, 519-20;
Libanius, 538;
Bede, 635;
Gerbert, 704-5;
Constantinus Africanus, 744, 755;
Dunstan, 773
Achilles, ghost of, 264;
master of, 597
Aconite, 74, 171
Acorn, 740
Acoustics, 185
Acron, 56
Adalbert, bishop of Bremen, 773
Adam, first man, 681
Adamant, 81, 294, 636;
swords of, 253, 258;
breakable by goat’s blood, 56, 85, 511, 588, 779;
by lead, 657
Adder, 279, 721
Adonai, 365, 367, 451, 583, 726
Adrianaion, 434
Adultery, discovery of, 364, 644
Advertising, 186
Aeetes, 329
Aegina, 86, 301
Aelian, a consul, 262
Aemilianus, 224
Aeon, 363-4, 378, 383, 411
Aerimancy or Aeromancy, 344, 629
Aesculapius, shrine of, 283, 329, 379;
and see other index
_Aetites_, a gem, 257, 329, 330, 581, 777
_Affroselinum_, 765
Agate, 294, 721
Agathodaemon, 173, 292, 379, 587, 661;
and see other index
Aglaides, 431
Aglaonice, 203
_Agnus castus_, an herb, 756
_Agnus Dei_, 737
Agricultural magic, 21, 70, 79-80, 93-4, 216, 219, 294, 604-5, 626
Ague, 536
Air, importance of pure, 142, 151;
pressure of, 188;
experiments with, 190-2;
and continuity of universe, 206;
star in, 478
Albicerius, 518
Alchemy, Egyptian, 12-3;
Greek, 59, 131, 193-200, 320, 544-5, 764;
Pliny, 81, 193;
Arabic and Latin, chap. xxxiii, 368, 398, 649, 663-4, 669-70, 697,
757, 773
Alcmaeon, 324
Alcohol, 468, 765
Alcoholism, 253
Alexander the Great, chap. xxiv, 186, 496, 602;
and see other index
Alexander of Abonutichus, 277-8
Alexander V, pope, 106
Alexandria, as a center of ancient learning, 27, 39, 48, 105, 109, 123,
145, 187, 224, 291, 318, 348, 449, 541, 552, 763;
dissection at, 147;
measures of, 144;
relations with India, 245;
in the pseudo-Clementine _Homilies_, 404, 408
Alexandrina, golden, 739
Alexandrinus Olympius, 300
Alive, taken from, 580, 591;
burned, see Crab
Allectory, a gem, 779
Allegory and allegorical interpretation, in alchemy, 195-8;
of the Bible, 350, 479, 484, 633;
in zoology, 396, 500, 502;
miscellaneous, 545, 626;
and see Symbolism
Almanac, 318
Almond, 78
Aloaeus, see Eloeus
Alphabet in magic and divination, 197, 370, 380, 592, 664, 711;
and see Vowel
Alphabetical order, 166, 176, 606, 610
Alpheus, river, 102
Altar, 80, 239, 295, 378
Alum, 765
Amazons, 114, 564, 603
Ambassador, see Embassy
Amber, 49, 213
American Indians, 16-17
_Amiantus_, a gem, 81, 213
Ammon, the god, 546, 553, 561-2
Ammon (or, Hammon), King of Egypt, 291
Ammonia, 571
Amnael, an angel, 195
_Amor aquae_, 764
Amulet, Egyptian, 10;
in Pliny, 70, 77, 81, 85, 87, 89, 92;
in Galen, 166, 172-3, 176;
in Plutarch, 204, 294;
Gnostic, 380;
Aristotle represented as an adept in, 563;
post-classical and early medieval medicine, 572, 580, 755;
Arabic, 655-6;
and see Ligatures and suspensions
Amusements, ancient, 137, 486
Anaesthetics, 142, 626
Anastasius, Pope, 461
Anatomy, of Galen, 145-51;
Empirics hostile to, 157;
of Rasis, 668
Andrew, St., legend of, 435
Andronicus, the prefect, 542
Anemone, 65
Angel, see Spirit
Angitia, 329
Anglo-Saxon, manuscripts, chap. xxix, 597, 612-3;
medicine, chap. xxxi
_Angobatae_, 188
Animal, incapable of magic, 4;
in early Greek religion, 23;
habits, intelligence, jealousy, and remedies employed by, 26, 57,
73-5, 217-8, 254, chap. xii, 460, 490, 574, 626;
use of parts of, 11, 20, 67-70, 75-6, 87, 133, 167, 229, 587, 606,
721, 740, 755, 766;
living in fire, 240;
sacred, 311;
minute, 275;
in art, 502;
breeding and horoscopes of, 516;
and see Abstinence from animal food, Gods, Language, Sculpture,
Transformation, and the names of individual animals
Anise, 229
Annacus, king, 340
Annunciation, 263
Anonymity, 133, 728
Ant, 71-2, 75, 81, 98, 329, 331;
Indian, 636
Anthemius of Tralles, 575
Anthropology, 300
_Anthropos_, Gnostic, 380
Antichrist, 417
Antidote, 130, 154, 253, 441, 494
Antimony, 735
Antioch, 254, 296, 404, 421, 428, 431, 472, 662, 747
Antipathy, 84, 173, 213, 217, 219, 239, 581, 605
Antiphon, an interpreter of omens, 562
Antipodes, 219, 480-1
_Antiscia_, 537
Anubion, 420
Ape, 148, 256;
and see Cynocephalus
Apelles the painter, 55
Apollo, 23, 93, 212, 253, 294, 317, 326, 371, 429, 735
Apollobeches, 58
Apollonius of Tyana, chap. viii, 165, 244, 288, 295, 390, 435, 465
Apoplexy, 536
Apothecary, 84, 129
Apparatus, magical, 28, 190;
and see Magic, materials
Apparition, 66, 68, 204, 208, 215, 437-8, 455, 496, 509-10, 779;
and see Spirit
Appion, 419-20;
and see Apion in other index
Appius, friend of Cicero, 270
Applied science, ancient, chap. v, 408;
early medieval, chap. xxxiii
Aquila, disciple of Peter, chap. xvii
Aquileia, 124
Arab, Arabia, and Arabic, early poetry, 6;
drugs and spices from, 84, 129, 765;
Apollonius of Tyana in, 261, 295;
magic of, 280;
home of the Magi, 476;
learning, 31, 159, 174, 189, 578, chaps. xxviii, xxx, xxxii;
and see Middle Ages, Translations
Arcadia, 214, 249, 283
_Archiater_, 125, 161, 536
Architecture, 122, chap. v
Archon, see Spirit
Arcturus, 331, 636
Arena, 133, 147;
and see Gladiator
Areobindus, a consul, 607
Arethusa, 102
_Argemon_, an herb, 79
_Ariolus_, 629
_Aristochia_, an herb, 615
Arithmetic, 126, 319, 619, 628, 704
Armenian, 351, 374, 497, 554
Arms and armor, 344
Aromatics, 311;
and see Spice, Unguent
Arrow, extracted, 756;
poisoned, 767
Art and the Arts, magic and, 6, 28;
standards of, 187, 407;
early medieval, chap. xxxiii;
and see Artisan and the names of various arts
Artemis Tauropolos, 429
Artemisia, 89
Artery, 147
Artisan, 482, 486
_Aruspex_, see _Haruspex_
Asbestos, 213-4, 434
Ascension, of Romulus, 274;
of Simon Magus, 422
Ascetic, see Monasticism
Asclepius, a god, 253, 277, 546, 735;
and see other index
Ash, tree, 86
Ashes, reduced to, 68, 80, 91, 170, 571-4, 581, 586-8, 590, 721
Ashthroat, an herb, 722
Asp, 57, 85, 324, 494, 571, 580, 587, 626
Asparagus, 599
Asphalt, 132, 574
Asphodel, 88
Ass, 76, 88, 230, 275, 326, 367, 734, 740
Assurbanipal, 15, 27
Assyria, magic of, 11, 15-20, 58, 295, 629;
bibliography, 33-5
Astanphaeus, 365, 367
Asthma, 76
Astral theology, 15, 17, 360-1;
and see Astrology, Star
Astrolabe, 115, 501, 542, 559, chap. xxx, 728
Astrological medicine, 179, 575, 633, 738
Astrology, chaps, iii, ix, xi, xv, xxix, xxx;
also, Egyptian, 13-4;
Sumerian or Chaldean, 15-7,
and see Chaldean;
Greek, 22, 25-6;
Pliny, 91, 94-7;
popular Roman, 127, 285;
Galen, 127, 166, 178;
Greek philosophy and, 180-1;
Vitruvius, 184-5, 187;
Hero, 193;
alchemy and, 197;
Plutarch, 207, 209;
Apuleius, 231, 239-40;
Brahmans, 253;
Lucian, 282-3;
Nechepso, Petosiris, and Manetho, 292-3;
Solinus, 330;
Horapollo, 333;
Hermes, 290-2;
Enoch, 340-1;
Philo Judaeus and Jewish, 353-6;
Pseudo-Clement, 410-3;
church fathers, 444, 455-8, 464, 466, 471-5, 492;
Augustine, 513-21;
Firmicus, 529-38;
Pseudo-Quintilian, 540;
Synesius, 543;
Nectanebus, 560-3;
Alexander of Tralles, 583;
_Herbarium of Apuleius_, 598;
_Geoponica_, 604-5;
Boethius, 621-2;
Isidore, 632-3;
Arabic, 644-52, 661-6, 670;
Salernitan, 738;
Constantinus Africanus, 756;
Marbod, 781-2;
alchemy and, 763;
magic and, 300, 432, 464, 538, 540;
and see Christ, birth of; Image; Magi; Planet; Star
Astronomy, of Egypt, 13, 542, 545, 559;
Tigris-Euphrates, 15-6, 34;
India, 31;
Greek, 31-2;
benefits of, 47, 96;
of Ptolemy, 105, 107;
and architecture, 122, 185;
history of, 366, 707;
miscellaneous, 219, 395, 520, 536, 663, 704
Atavism, 141
Atheism, 234
Athens, 28, 95, 142, 217, 230, 249, 429;
as center of learning, 135, 200, 222, 242, 269, 277, 538, 541, 602
Athlete, 186, 248, 486
Atlas, Mt., 54
Atom, Atomic theory, Atomism, 140, 169, 178, 205, 408
Attalus, king of Pergamum, 135, 171
Attalus III, 236
Augury, in Assyria, 17;
Rome, 95;
Seneca, 103;
Galen, 171;
denied by Atomists, 178;
accepted by Stoics, 180;
Neo-Platonists, 315;
Jews and early Christians on, 352, 458-9, 466, 511, 513, 534, 630;
miscellaneous, 560, 629, 673, 705
Auspices, 430, 629
Authority and Authorities, attitude to, citation by, Pliny, 46, 49, 75;
Ptolemy, 107;
Galen, 118, 152-8, 167;
Vitruvius, 186-7;
Zosimus, 198;
bogus, 215;
Cicero, 270;
Solinus, 327-8;
Hippolytus, 469;
Firmicus, 537;
Aëtius, 570;
Marcellus, 585-6;
medieval freedom with, 611;
Macer, 614;
Isidore, 624-5;
Petrocellus, 734;
miscellaneous, 32, 215, 778
Automaton, 188, 192, 230, 440
Axle-grease, 92
Baal, priest of, 386
Babel, 453
Babylon and Babylonia, 11, 14-21, 23-4, 31, 33-5, 95, 97, 227, 239,
247-8, 266, 283, 360-1, 376, 383-4, 414, 527, 537, 652, 661, 744
Bagdad, 661-2, 667, 744, 762
Balaam, prophet or magician? 267, 352-3, 385, 445-8, 459;
and the Magi, 385, 444, 474, 479, 519
Balach or Balak, 447
Baldness, 536
_Balis_, an herb, 75
Balsam, 392, 738
Baptism, 368, 373, 405, 408, 432
Barbarians, 148, 376, 445, 449, 619, 638
Barbarossa, see Frederick I
Barber, 229
Barcelona, 699
Barefoot, 599
Barley, 88;
water, 143
_Baroptenus_, a gem, 81
_Barrocus_, an herb, 615
Basilica at Fano, 187
Basilides, the heretic, 372
Basilisk, 67, 70, 75, 169, 494, 573, 603, 626, 636;
and cock, 324, 771
Basilius the magician, 639
Basin, 560
Bat, 68-9, 159, 331, 587
Bath, 142-3, 281, 587, 676, 729;
public, 140, 295, 434-5;
sea, 231-2, 405
Battle predicted, 275
Bayeux Tapestry, 502, 675
Bean, 591
Bear, 75, 92, 219, 367, 490;
licks cubs into shape, 168, 177, 331;
constellation of the, 179
Beard, 416
Beast, name of the, 582
Beasts, wild, 216, 229, 564, 669;
dealers in, 133
Beauty, 300, 486
Beaver, 502, 636;
castration of, 231, 332, 574
Bed-bug, 68, 85, 89, 175
Bee, 76, 85, 219, 615, 636, 721;
and see Honey
Beech tree, 213
Beetle, 81, 219, 581
Behbit el-Hagar, 559
Behemoth, 346-7, 367
Bektanis, 559
Bell, church, 722
Bellerophon, 282
Bell’s palsy, 738
Belt, see Girdle
Bemarchius, rival of Libanius, 538
Berenice, 463, 558
Beryl, 780
Bethlehem, star of, see Christ, birth of; Magi, who came to
Christ child
Betony, 77, 86, 737
Bibliography, of Pliny, 46, 215;
Isidore, 623;
Peter the Deacon, 746
Bile, 171, 177
Bird, 73, 78, 80, 201, 218, 236, 325, 460, 544;
rite of strangling, 301;
mechanical, 192, 266;
and see Augury and the names of individual birds
Birth-control, 94
Birth-mark, 713
Bishop, 542
Bishopwort, 722
Bitumen, 571, 574, 603
Bituminous trefoil, 175
Black, 68, 175, 582, 591
Bladder, 536, 599, 769
Bleeding, 75, 125, 141-2, 162, 177, 576, 676, 679, 681, 684-5, 688,
724, 728, 735, 737-8
Blind, 536, 590
Blood, miraculous, 231;
human, use of, 61, 102, 175, 227, 581, 603, 629, 721;
human, and the moon, 98, 146, 391;
circulation of, 409, 430;
of various animals used, 86-7, 89, 131, 159, 166, 175, 587, 590,
727, 729, 737, 766-7;
and see Adamant, Bleeding, Hemorrhage
Blotch, 640
Boar, 69, 92, 580, 599
Boëthus, 134
Boil, 88
Bones, stuck in throat, 71, 583;
number in body, 372;
prehistoric, 407;
use of, 573, 583, 656
Book, trade in Roman empire, 134-5;
magic, 432, 435, 472, 505, 705;
loss of, 752
Bordeaux, 568
Borellus, duke, 704
Botany, 20, 65, 129, 343, 463;
and see Herb
Box, 229, 250
Boy, in divination and magic, 81, 239, 249, 416-9, 463;
and peony, 173
Bracelet, 81, 89
Brahmans, 248-54, 258, 266, 376, 407, 410, 412, 450-1, 556, 564
Brain, center of nervous system, 145-6;
cavities of, 659-60, 735;
inflammation of, 536;
of various animals used, see names of individual animals
Bread, 89, 424;
blessing and breaking, 727
Breastplate of high priest, 495
Breath and breathing, 134, 146, 207, 658
Brindisi, 764
Britain and Briton, 59, 141, 206-7, 376, 489
Bronze, 764
Buddha, 251
Bugloss, viper’s, an herb, 722
_Buglossa_, an herb, 615
Bull, 79, 86, 168, 261, 367, 599, 765-6;
tamed by fig-tree, 77, 213, 332, 626
Bulrush, 92
_Buprestis_, 77, 494
Burial, magic, 69-70, 80, 88, 662, 666;
alive, 421
Burned to death, 433, 571, 639
Business, 97, 107, 128, 248, 666;
early Christian attitude to, 494
Butter, 154, 721-2
Byzantine, 189, 194-5, 323, 398, 482, 555, 569, 607, 732, 745, 761-2
Cabbage, 86, 175
Cabbala, 7, 365
Caesarea, 404-6
Cairo, 8
Calchas, 271
_Calculus_, 536
Calendar, 13-4, 327, 345, 676, 686, 712
Calf, 150, 571
Caligula, emperor, 193, 349
Caliph, 607, 653, 670, 745
_Camaleon_, 600;
and see Chameleon
Camel, 396, 636
Campus Martius, 424-5
Canal, Isthmian, 262
Candelabrum, 380
Candle, magic, 87, 380, 385, 469
Candlestick, seven-branched, 385, 676
Cannibal, 61-2, 573
Canute, king, 351
Carolingian, 616, 635
Carpenter, 393
_Carpesium_, a drug, 132
Carpocrates, a heretic, 371
Cart rut, 81, 88-91, 721
Carthage, 222, 269, 553, 744
Carton, 129
Carystus, 213
Cask, 767-8
Caspian Sea, 489
Castoria, 739
Cat, 68, 636
Cataract, in eye, 175, 729
Catarrh, 82, 88-9, 142, 176
Caterpillar, 80
Cathedral, 501-2, 761
_Catochites_, a gem, 330
Caul of an ox, 469
Cauldron, 468
Cauterization, 536, 723
Cecrops, 415
Cedar, 20
_Celidonius_, see Swallow-stone
Celt and Celtic, 245, 567-8, 722, 732
Cemetery, 434
Cenchrea, 136
Centaur, 603;
and see Chiron in other index
Centipede, 76, 494, 587
Cerberus, 280
Ceremonial, Egypt, 10;
Assyria, 18, 20;
Pliny, 64, 69, 71, 77-82, 90;
Apuleius, 230, 235;
Orphic, 295;
rite of strangling birds, 301;
Gnostic, 378;
Marcellus, 590-2;
Arabic, 663;
medieval medicine, 726;
and see Herb, plucking of; Spirit, invocation of; etc.
Chalcite, 132
Chaldean (mostly mere mentions of), 16-7, 98, 102, 185, 201, 230, 239,
250, 253, 272-4, 279, 281, 287, 316, 323, 353, 375-6, 380, 399, 430,
444, 456, 469, 476, 479, 519, 560, 632, 703, 711, 744
_Chalkydri_, 347
Cham, see Ham
Chameleon, 62, 175, 581
Chance, experience, 36, 75, 156, 172, 754;
and fate, 210
Chaplet, 295
Characters, magic use of, 229, 257, 314, 317, 512, 579, 592-3, 604,
630, 645, 654, 724-30
Charicles, 232
Chariot, 423
Charlatan, 668-9;
and see Old-wives
Charlemagne, 214, 556, 672, 764
Charon, 277
Chastisements, 204
Chastity, 78, 81, 83, 204, 216, 295, 308, 326, 564, 581, 588, 590,
599, 799-80;
and see Virgin
Cheese, 142, 325, 509
Chelidonia and Chelidonius, see Swallow-wort and Swallow-stone
_Chelonitis_, a gem, 780
Chemical and Chemistry, 132-40, 467-9;
and see Alchemy
Chick, 76, 754, 771;
Aristotle on embryology of, 30, 146
Chickpea, 88
Child-bearing and Child-birth, 76, 78, 84, 87, 92, 94, 102, 175, 177,
216, 253, 260, 295, 325, 496, 581, 685, 713, 726, 738, 740;
formation of child in womb, 150, 545, 557, 757;
child born after eight months dies, 181, 356, 757;
monstrous birth, 627;
and see Abortion, Birth-control
Chimaera, 367
China and Chinese, 6-7, 214;
and see Seres
Chiromancy, 386
Chneph or Chnuphis, 379
Chrism, 738
Christ, 137-9, 243, 363, 379, 386, 404-5, 422, 510, 527, 529, 620,
674-5, 782;
accused of magic, see Accusation;
birth of, and astrology, 386, 438, 457, 464, 471-9, 703;
birth, virgin, 460;
child, chap. xvi, 390;
power of name of, 434, 452, 466, 638-9, 725, 729-30
Christian and Christianity, Book II, _passim_; 137, 139, 207, 275-6,
285, 296, 298, 306, 312, 320, 327, 554, 568, 584, 602, chap. xxvii,
642, 715;
and see Religion, Theology
Christmas, 678
Chronology, 135, 209, 624, 711;
and see Calendar
Church fathers, Book II, _passim_, 180, 225, 241, 302, 618
Cicada, 169
_Cinaedia_, 590
Cinnabar, 626, 761, 764
Cinnamon, 129-30, 256
Circe, 21, 65, 324, 434, 509, 629
Circle, magic, 78, 86-7, 91, 197, 281, 366, 599;
squaring the, 706;
Cardan’s concentric, 769
Circumcision, 449, 475, 781
Circus, 295, 486
City, fortune of, predicted, 273, 283;
ancient, 489, 504;
ideal, 349-50, 460
Civilization, magic and origin of, 5-6;
Pliny as source for history of, 43
Clairvoyance, 647;
and see Divination, natural
Clarus, 224
Classical heritage, 555, 618, 636;
and see Middle Ages
Classics, superstition in, 21-4
Claudia, 55
Clay, animals, 393, 769;
and see Pottery
Climate, 184
Cloak, virtue of, 397, 435
Clock, see Time
Clothing, virtue in, 136, 295, 382, chap. xvi, 407, 441, 534, 598, 666;
and see names of various articles of
Clyster, 142
Cock, 168, 175, 320, 324-5, 766, 771, 779;
cock-crow, 280, 405
Cog-wheel, 192
Cold, quality, 140, 161, 219;
drink, 141;
disease, 589
Colic, 87, 169, 579, 582, 590
Cologne, three kings of, 446, 477
_Colonus_, 638
Colony, Greek, 318
Color, discussed, 140, 486;
changing, 216;
in magic, 90, 367, 369, 590, 721;
and see the names of individual colors
Combustible compounds, see Candle
Comedy, Greek, 22-4
Comet, 96, 115, 457, 543, 633, 635, 673
Commodus, emperor, 125, 129
Compass, points of, 91, 114, 378, 586, 591, 724
_Compotus_ or _Computus_, 536, 676-7, 728
Compound, magical or medicinal, 10, 83, 140, 152, 159-60, 172, 571,
586-7, 722, 734
Conception, 562, 656, 724, 740
_Condrion_, an herb, 74
Confederate, in magic fraud, 467
Conjunction, astrological, 104, 642, 648-9
Conjuration of an herb, 583;
and see Incantation, Spirit, invocation of
Consecration, of a painted grape, 80;
of gems, 295, 781;
and see Holy
Constantine the Great, 525ff.
Constantine Monomachos, 745
Constantine Porphyrygennetos, 604
Constantius, emperor, 525ff.
Constans, emperor, 525ff.
Constantinople, 472, 477, 494, 533, 541;
and see Byzantine
Constellation, 14, 114, 178, 304, 709
Constipation, 779
Consumption, 213, 373, 536, 588
Cook, 148
Copernican theory, 32
Copperas, 467
Coptic, 361, 377
Coral, 656
Cordova, 704, 762
Corinth, 123, 136, 230, 262, 280
Corn extracted, 71
Corpse, 147, 229, 309, 629, 780;
and see Necromancy, Resurrection
Cosmetics, 152, 668
Cotton, 252
Couch, 561
Cough, 88, 176
Counter-irritant, 723
Cow, 77, 79, 81, 85, 325, 769
Crab, and snake, 99;
river, use of eye of, 68-9;
burned alive, 80, 178;
use of ash of, 170, 572;
stone in head of, 737
Crane, sentinel, 217;
windpipe of, used in magic, 278, 467
Craw-fish, 217
Creation, 16, 346, 408, chap. xxi, 504-5, 627-8;
position of stars at, 711, 713
Credulity and scepticism, chap. ix;
in Pliny, 50-1, 61-4, 67, 70, 77, 80-1, 88, 98;
Galen and the Empirics, 157-8, 168-9, 175;
Seneca, 102-3;
Plutarch, 204, 212-3;
other cases, 225, 244, 255, 388, 440, 491-2, 539, 573-4, 626, 637,
655, 671, 780
Crete, 129, 135, 249, 260
Cricket, 67, 737
Crime and criminal, 147, 167, 171, 207, 225, 581;
and see Magic, evil and criminal; Sin
Critical days, 158, 161, 164, 179-80, 356, 756
Crocodile, 74, 166, 218, 238, 280
Cropleek, 722
Cross, nail from, 280;
in sky, 475;
sign of, 432, 434, 466, 638-9, 722
Crow, 207, 314, 324, 409, 636, 655
Cruelty, 136, 225
Crystal, 294, 767
Cube, 184
Cuckoo, 81
Cummin seed, 93
Cuneiform, 15
Cup, Joseph’s divining, 386
Cupping glass, 192
Curlew, 217
Curse, 28, 93, 366, 434
Cynics, 277
_Cynocephalia_, an herb, 67
Cynocephalus, 70, 333
Cyprus, magic of, 59;
oil of, 68;
Galen’s visit to, 131-2
Cyrene, 541
Dacian, 597
Daedalus, 283
Daily life, magic in, 9-10, 20;
experience from, 54
Danish, 612
Dardanus, a magician, 58-9, 463, 558
Darius, 256, 260
“Dark Ages,” 618
Date, the fruit, 20
Date, discussed of, Ptolemy, 105;
Hero, 188;
Greek alchemists, 193-4;
works of Apuleius, 222-5;
Solinus, 326-7;
Horapollo, 331;
Enoch literature, 341-2;
apocryphal Gospels, 388-9;
_Pseudo-Clementines_, 404-6;
_Physiologus_, 497-9;
Augustine, 504;
_Mathesis_ of Firmicus, 526-7;
Synesius, 541;
Pseudo-Callisthenes and Julius Valerius, 552-5;
Aëtius, 570;
Marcellus, 584-5;
early medieval pseudo-literature, 594-6;
Macer, 612-3;
Thebit, 661;
introduction of Arabic alchemy, 773;
and see Calendar,
Chronology, _Compotus_, Creation, Easter
Day, observance of, lucky and unlucky, 14, 21, 106, 383, 513, 582, 588,
590, 592, 661, chap. xxix, 721, 725, 727, 754;
and see Critical; Egyptian; Moon, day of; Planetary week
Dead Sea, 138
Deaf, 536
Decans, 178, 291, 315, 376, 453
Deendor, a magician, 780
Deer, 68, 70, 74, 84, 94, 207, 294, 324, 586, 734
Degree, academic, 619;
medical, 751-2
Delirium, 536
Delphic oracle, 201, 266, 283, 326, 538, 582
Demeter, 429
Demigod, 546
Demiurge, 212, 383
Demon, see Spirit
Dentistry, 12;
and see Tooth
Depilatories, see Hair
Deroldus, bishop, 733
Desert, herbs in, 54
Desiderius, abbot, 747
Design, argument from, 139, 148, 408, 490
Desire, as a factor in magic, 644
Deucalion, 341
_Devotio_, see Curse
Dew, 102
Diacastoria, 739
_Diadochos_, a gem, 780
Diagram, 366-7, 674
Dialectic, 420, 439, 536
Diana, 130
Dice, 136, 486
Dick, Mr., 64
_Dictamnon_, see Dittany
Dictation, ancient, 45, 134
Dictionary, 599, 624
Dictynna, 249
Die, 582;
and see Dice
Diet, 98, 137, 142, 159, 282, 414, 429, 577, 587, 668, 684, 735
Digestion, 137, 205, 585
Dinocrates, 186
Diocletian, emperor, 194
Diomedes, 330
Dionysius, an Egyptian, 440
Dionysus, the god, 251, 546
Dioptrics, 108
Dipsas, a snake, 172, 284, 494
Direction, observance of, in magic, 90-1, 666;
and see Compass, Right, Left
Disease, 25, 98, 150, 208, 219, 310, 430, 434, 536;
magic transfer of, 19, 61, 71, 79, 213, 588-9;
and see Spirit, Woman, and the names of individual diseases
Dissection, 88, 134, 146-8, 164, 581, 746
Dittany, 218, 495
Dives and Lazarus, 448
_Divinatio_, a disease, 755; and see 150-1
Divination, chaps. ix, xxix, 86, 127, 143, 165, 180, 253, 285, 533,
539-40, 713;
varieties listed, 560;
in China, 6-7;
Egypt, 13;
Tigris-Euphrates, 17;
India, 251;
relation to magic, 5, 14, 17, 60, 226, 233, 295, 432, 512, 543, 629;
by divine revelation, 205, 249, 314, 364, 533,
and see Prophecy;
by demons, 442-3, 510, 546;
natural, 103, 205, 239, 305, 314, 318-9, 419, 518, 542-3;
by animals, 315, 325-6, 490,
and see Augury;
by eating parts of animals, 70, 257, 314;
by boys, 249, 418-9, 463;
by enthusiasm, 180;
by herbs, 66, 77, 614;
by drinking or inhaling, 313;
by Kalends, 677, 684;
by lots, numbers, names, 112, 679, 682, 711, 713,
and see Lot-casting;
by polished surfaces, 774;
by sounds, 313, 430;
by stones, 70;
by symbols, 166;
by winds, 676, 678;
and see Aerimancy, Cup, Dream, Geomancy, Haruspex, Hydromancy, Knot,
Liver, Moon, Omen, Pyromancy, Sacrifice, Sieve, Selenomancy,
Thunder
Dog, kennel, 69;
jealous, 75;
puppyhood, 150;
omens from, 231;
prescience of, 325;
as symbol, 367;
demons as, 435;
and mandragora, 607;
torn to pieces by, 277, 425;
to stop bark or attack of, 77, 216, 249, 424, 605;
disease transferred to, 88, 590-1;
use of parts of, 68, 70, 89, 90, 159, 168-9, 573-4, 737, 755;
mad, and bite of, 68, 82, 86, 131, 169, 178, 259, 263-4, 284, 373,
391, 572, 656, 713, 754
Dog-days, 572, 728, 756, 765
Dogmatism, 154, 159, 735
Dog-star, 66, 98, 178, 604
Dolphin, 55, 218, 260
Domitian, emperor, 249-50, 259-65
Door, used in magic, 71, 591;
affected by magic, 226-7, 314, 449;
trap, 469
Dorians, 219
Dositheus, 365, 417
Dove, 142, 168, 324, 332, 636, 740
_Draconites_, a gem, 75
Dragon, 75, 231, 257, 326, 367, 392, 429, 561, 603, 766;
use of parts of, 68, 70;
combat with elephant, 74, 257, 626;
flying, 347
_Dragontes_, an herb, 614
Drama, and magic, 22-3, 324;
liturgical, 476-7
Dream and divination from, in Egypt, 13-4;
in cuneiform texts, 17;
Pliny, 56, 81;
Galen, 123, 154, 156, 166, 170, 177-80;
Plutarch, 204, 205;
Apuleius, 231;
Apollonius, 260;
Lucian, 283;
Neo-Platonists, 314, 545;
Philo, 354, 358;
Pilate’s wife, 395;
Origen, 459;
Nectanebus, 560-2;
Alkindi, 646;
miscellaneous, 197, 329, 412, 434, 437, 459, 463, 487, 509, 534,
627, 671, 680-1, 720, 754, 763, 779
“Dream-senders,” 368
Dropsy, 69, 213, 536, 779
Drugs, 55, 61, 84, 89, 128, 132, 370, 467, 561, 668
Druid, 46, 59, 67, 79, 640
Drum, 204, 313
Dualism, 361, 409
Duck, 87-8
Dung, 68, 69, 86, 166, 168, 588, 656, 734, 740, 769
Dye, 324, 467, chap. xxxiii
Ea, a god, 18
Eagle, 87, 90, 176, 217, 257, 325-6, 332, 441, 496, 574, 636
Ear, 536
Earache, 169, 579, 755
Ear-wax, 721, 769
Earth, appeased, conjured, personified, and deified, 66, 79, 86, 251,
295, 583, 598;
virtue of, 81, 88, 592, and see Cart rut, Terra sigillata;
things not allowed to touch the ground, 70, 79, 81, 173, 582, 588;
sphericity of, 480;
miscellaneous, 211, 373;
and see Burial, Land and Water, Underground
Earthquake, 97, 101, 250, 254, 264, 271, 430, 469, 562
Earthworm, 68-9, 89, 176, 573-4, 587, 720
Easter, 521, 677;
mystery of, 677
Ebionites, 405
Ebony, 560
Echeneis, 212, 491, 626
Eclipse, 96, 98, 203-4, 209, 262, 333, 386, 564, 673
Editions, especially early printed, Pliny, 53;
Ptolemy, 106, 110;
Galen, 119;
Solinus, 326;
Firmicus, 525;
Pseudo-Callisthenes and Julius Valerius, 551-2;
_Letter of Alexander_, 555;
post-classical medicine, 566-7, 577;
_Herbarium of Apuleius_, 597;
Ethicus, 601;
_Geoponica_, 604;
Dioscorides, 606-10;
Macer, 612;
Isidore, 623;
Latin translations from Arabic, 642, 649ff., 653, 657, 665, 668, 716;
_Regimen Salernitanum_, 736;
Constantinus Africanus, chap. xxxii;
treatises on arts, 760;
Marbod, 775, 778
Education, as experienced or discussed by, Galen, 118-28;
Vitruvius, 187;
Plutarch, 200-1;
Apuleius, 222-4;
Lucian, 277;
Christ child, 394;
Cyprian, 429-31;
Firmicus, 525;
Synesius, 540-1;
Bede, 634-5;
Rasis, 667;
Gerbert, 704;
Constantinus, 744;
Dunstan, 773;
Marbod, 775
Eel, 491
Egg, shell, 54;
test of freshness, 55;
made by hiss of snakes, 67;
addled by certain men, 83;
so-called, of alchemy, 198;
goose, 277;
filled with dye, 467;
portents from, 562, 773;
raw, 729
Egypt, 7-14, 27-8, 30-1, 193-5, 198, 206, 228-30, 239, 248, 250, 287,
289, 300, 325, 331-4, 360, 376, 379, 391, 414-6, 430, 437-8, 446,
450, 452, 459, 503, 527, 537, 543, 558-60, 598, 744;
and see Plagues of
Egyptian Days, 14, chap. xxix, 728
Elchasaites, 373
Elections, astrological, 372-3, 386, 517
Electrum, 590
Elements, various theories of, 25, 139, 157, 218, 254, 382, 408, 410,
478, 485, 488, 528-9, 622, 645, 720;
not found in a pure state, 140, 489
Elephant, intelligence of, 73, 75, 169, 218, 256, 636;
habits, 213, 322, 324, 332, 460;
dissection of, 148;
compared with fly, 408;
white, 763;
and see Dragon for combat with
Elephantiasis, 57, 170, 572
Eleusinian mysteries, 101, 148
Elijah, 386, 555
Elixir, 670
Eloeus, 365, 367
Eloi, 583
Elymas the sorcerer, 461
Elysian fields, 207
Embalming, magic in, 8
Embassy, of Philo, 349; Synesius, 541;
Leo, 557
Embryology, see Chick, Child-birth
Emerald, 434, 656, 772
Emperor, Roman, 47, 50, 124, 129-30, 135, 176, 186, 194, 529;
and see names of individual emperors
Empiric, _Empirica_, Empiricism, 56-7, 155-7, 172, 735, 754
_Empousa_, 310
Empyrean, see Heaven
Enceladus, 254