Picatrix

Picatrix the Latin title of Gayat al -Hakim al - wa aḥaqq natīǧatain bi- 'l- taqdīm is ( " The aim of the wise, and the primacy of the worthier of the two arts" ), an Arabic compilation of texts on magic, astrology and Talismankunde. The Arabic text was written in the middle of the 10th or 11th century in Al- Andalus and was translated to 1256 on behalf of Alfonso the Wise into Spanish. From the Spanish translation, of which only a fragment is received, the later Latin versions took the output, in which the work partly in the Middle Ages and especially in the early modern period exercised considerable influence in the Western world.

Dating and authorship of the Gayat al -Hakim

The Arab authors of the Gayat al -Hakim called his name, but return to, also the author of the alchemical book Rutbat al -Hakim ( " rank of the wise " ) and to be the Gayat al -Hakim immediately after completion of that other work in 343 H ( ie 954/55 AD) started and 348 H ( 959/60 AD) completed to have. The Rutbat al -Hakim 's turn to, in the years 439-442 H ( 1047/48-1050/51 AD) to be created, which would be a century later. Although the manuscripts also provide the different reading 339-342 H ( ie 951/2-953/4 AD) that would not have this problem, but was rejected by Ritter ( 1933, 1962), because the work is already seems to refer to the period after the civil war turmoil from 1009 to 1018. Therefore, according to the time of origin Knight 439-442 H ( 1047/48-1050/51 AD) were for Rutbat al -Hakim and al -Hakim preferable to raise the annual figures by 100 in Gayat, so that this work is the result in the time 443-448 H ( 1050/51 bis 1056/57 AD) would have occurred. Both works can be found on the author otherwise nor that he lived in Spain and also wrote a not yet known history of Arabic philosophy ..

In the later Arab tradition, including Ibn Khaldun, both works the mathematician and astronomer Abu l - Qāsim Maslamah ibn Aḥmad al - Maǧrīṭī were attributed, who came " from Madrid " (al- Maǧrīṭī ), was born around 950 and between 1005 and 1008 died. Due to the incompatibility of life data with those adopted later dates of his works in question since Knight took you but at most that both works al - Maǧrīṭī had merely been foisted later. The author was since then as a pseudo - Maǧrīṭī, who wrote to the Rutbat al -Hakim in the mid- 11th century, the Gayat al -Hakim in port.

More recently, this view has been challenged from various sides again. After Sezgin (1971 ), although the late emergence of data in the 11th century should be maintained, but as the author of both works is instead of the famous Abu l - Qāsim Maslamah ibn Aḥmad al - Maǧrīṭī a younger and with this often confounded Abū Maslamah Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿ Abdaddā ʾ in al to set - Maǧrīṭī who have lived in the first half of the 11th century. Fierro (1996) and Carusi (2000), in turn, take as a writer not a Maslamah from Madrid, but a Maslamah from Cordoba ( al - Qurtubi ), namely, Maslamah Ibn al - Qāsim Ibn Ibraaheem Ibn ʿ Abd Allāh ibn Hatim al - Qurtubi al - Zayyat, who was born 906 in Cordoba, in 932 long trips began, which have led him to Syria, Mecca, Baghdad and Yemen, after losing his eyesight again returned to Spain, where 964 died at the age of 58 years. If he were to be regarded as a writer, so consequently would be in accordance with the dates shown in the texts themselves, the emergence of Rutbat al -Hakim according to the warped version of Knight on 339-342 H ( ie 951/2-953/4 AD) and the emergence of Gayat al -Hakim according to the matching reading of all manuscripts to 343-348 H ( ie 954/55-959/60 AD) to be set.

The name and title Picatrix

During the Arab author conceals his name, he is called in the Latin transmissions as " sapientissimus philosophus Picatrix ", have also agreed with the variant " Picatris ", the assembled the book from many other books of philosophy or magic, and gave him his name as a title.

In the Spanish and the Latin versions " Picatrix " also appears as a transfer of the Arabic name Buqrāṭis or Biqrāṭis, which is mentioned in the Arabic text as a translator of a book on talismans. Starting from this point took Knight first that Picatrix / Biqrāṭis is a corruption of the name of Hippocrates, moved away from this assumption later, but again, since the name is otherwise reproduced Hippocrates in the Arabic text in the otherwise usual form Buqrāṭ. Alternatively, a derivation from Harpocration was proposed. Sezgin takes on the other hand, that the Latin name was originated from " Bucasis " normal Latinization of Abu l - Qāsim. According to L. Thomann again " Picatrix " was created not as a transcription of a Greek or Arabic name, but as a translation of the honorable epithet Maslamah by its root slm meaning " sting, bite like a snake " with Latin / Roman picar (s ) ( " prick ") was reproduced so that the feminine Picatrix as the " stinging, biting " would be understood thus.

Reception

The work was common in the Middle Ages and the early modern period in many manuscripts and known to the 18th century and an important source of magicians and Hermetic like Peter of Abano, Johannes Trithemius, Agrippa of Nettesheim. Johannes Hartlieb warns in his puch all verpotten Art ( 1456 ) Emperor Maximilian I in front of the Picatrix as the most perfect and most dangerous magical book that has brought eternal damnation already many readers ( the emperor owned two manuscripts of it). In Rabelais ' Gargantua and Pantagruel Pantagruel indicates to have studied in Toledo when Reverend " Père en Diable Piccatrix, docteur de la faculté diabolique ".

See also: List of magical writings

Expenditure

• Hellmut Ritter: Gayat al -Hakim al - wa aḥaqq natīǧatain bi- 'l- taqdīm. Teubner, Leipzig / Berlin 1933 ( = Studies of the Warburg Library, 12)

• Hellmut Ritter / Martin Plessner: Picatrix: The aim of the Elders of pseudo - Magriti. Translation from the Arabic. University of London, London, 1962 ( = Studies of the Warburg Institute, 27). Online: PDF, 47 MB
• Marcelino Villegas: Picatrix: el fin del sabio y el mejor de los medios 2 para avanzar. Edición Nacional, Madrid, 1982 ( = Biblioteca de Visionarios, heterodoxos y marginados, series 2, 20 ) [ translation without scientific claim ]

• David Pingree: Picatrix: the Latin version of the Ghayat al -Hakim. University of London, London, 1986 ( = Studies of the Warburg Institute, 39)

• Paolo A. Rossi (Ed.), Davide Arecco / Ida Li Vigni / Stefano Zuffi: Picatrix: Gayat al -Hakim, " il fine del saggio " dello pseudo Maslamah al - Magriti. Edizione Mimesis, Milan 1999
• Béatrice Bakhouche / Frédéric Fauquier / Brigitte Pérez -Jean: Picatrix: un traité de magic médiévale. Brepols, Turnhout 2003