The Sources for This Study

In this study I have used approximately a dozen texts of image magic and natu­ral magic in which connections between spiritual beings and illnesses or disor­ders appear. The origins of the selected texts are many, and they treat spirits or demons from several perspectives.

It might be easiest to begin with two texts mostly representing natural magic, edited by Louis Delatte in the early 1940s. Kyranides is a first- or second-century Greek product, which was translated into Latin in 1169 in Constantinople. This pseudepigraphic text ascribed to the Persian king Cyranos (and ultimately to Hermes Trismegistus) deals systematically with the occult properties of plants, animals and minerals in alphabetical order and is considered one of the basic texts for botanical medicine, natural magic and talismanic magic?² De XV stellis (‘On 15 Stars') lists fifteen fixed stars along with a stone, an herb and an image for each star. Latin tradition recognizes three different versions of the treatise, each probably based on three Arabian interpretations of a Greek exemplar, now lost: one attributed to Hermes, one to Enoch and one to Thebit (Thabit ben Qurra).^{[809] [810] [811] [812] In the De XVstellis ascribed to Hermes, the stars, stones, herbs and images are treated in separate sections, while the De XVstellis ascribed to Enoch and De proprietatibus quarundam stellarum attributed to Thebit (Thabit ben Qurra) represent all these auxiliaries as ritual entities whose purpose is to complete a ring dedicated to an appropriate star.}

Next can be mentioned two treatises of image magic, which sometimes cir­culated together. The first is a classic of astrological talismanic magic, Pseudo­Ptolemy's Opus imaginum (edited by Jean-Patrice Bouded⁵), classified as a licit book in Speculum Astronomiae. The Opus imaginum gives 46 talismanic instructions, including astrological timings, materials and iconographical guidelines. The second treatise, the anonymous De imaginibus, is similar in content. In the Florentine manuscript mentioned above it is located between De proprietatibus quarundam stellarum and Opus imaginum in folios 3v-8v. Opus imaginum is a twelfth- century translation of an Arabic original, while the origin of De imaginibus remains uncertain.

Then there are two horological Hermetic treatises: De imaginibus et horis^[813] and De viginti quattuor horis ascribed to Belenus (edited by Paolo Lucentini)?^{[814] [815]} In addition, I have included three unedited tractates that are possibly among those mentioned in Speculum in the category of abominable treatises, and rep­resent both image magic and Hermetic tradition: De imaginibus sive annulis septem planetarum,i^s Liber planetarumf^[816] and De imaginibus septem planeta­rum.^{[817] [818] They survive in only a few manuscripts among some similar Hermetic treatises (e.g. Liber Mercurii). All are based on astrological assumptions and use of personification of pagan planetary deities, and together they form one of the basic groups of the Hermetic image magic. The texts are very probably translations from Arabic. Many parallels with this group can be found in the Latin Picatrix, a large compilation of Arabic origin^ The volume has prob­ably incorporated material from traditions of Hermetic image magic, natural magic, ritual magic and sympathetic folk practices, and therefore is important testimony to magical beliefs in medieval Europe in general.}