A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 2 (of 2): During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our EraThorndike, Lynn
History
A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 2 (of 2): During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era
Thorndike, Lynn
Magic -- History; Science -- History
Certain works may be mentioned which are ascribed to Solomon or to
Apollonius in the medieval manuscripts, and which do not seem to be
concerned with the notory art. Experiments ascribed to Solomon will be
mentioned in another place in connection with experimental literature.
Treatises of alchemy and astrology also were attributed to him.[896]
Under the name of Apollonius we find a work on the properties or occult
virtue of things, and another, or possibly the same, on the principal
causes of things.[897] One wonders if it may have any connection with
the book on six principles of things ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus
and which has been discussed in our chapter on _Hermetic Books in
the Middle Ages_. A treatise on palmistry is ascribed to Solomon in
a fourteenth century manuscript at Cambridge.[898] A “Philosophy of
Solomon” in a manuscript of the late twelfth century in the British
Museum consists of “notes perhaps from more than one source on the
analogy between the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the three
divisions of philosophy (_moralis_, _naturalis_, _inspectiva_), and the
three books of Solomon.”[899]
[Sidenote: _Liber sacratus_: preface.]
The _Liber sacratus_, as William of Auvergne twice entitles it, or
the _Liber sacer_ or _Liber juratus_, as it is also called in the
manuscripts,[900] is associated with the name Honorius as well as
Solomon, and is often spoken of as _The Sworn Book of Honorius_.
The preface, as given in the Latin manuscripts of the fourteenth
century--one of which once belonged to Ben Jonson--states that under
the influence of evil spirits the pope and cardinals had passed
a decree aiming at the complete extirpation of the magic art and
condemning magicians to death. The grounds for this action were that
magicians and necromancers were injuring everyone, transgressing the
statutes of holy mother church, making invocations and sacrifices
to demons, and dragging ignorant people down to damnation by their
marvelous illusions. These charges the magicians hotly deny as inspired
by the envy and cupidity of the devil who wished to keep a monopoly
of such marvels. The magicians declare that it is impossible for a
wicked or impure man to work truly by the magic art, in which they
assert that the spirits are compelled against their will by pure men.
The magicians further profess to have been forewarned by their art
of this legislation against them. They hesitate, however, to summon
the demons to their aid lest those spirits avail themselves of the
opportunity to destroy the populace utterly. Instead an assembly of 89
masters from Naples, Athens, and Toledo has chosen Honorius, son of
Euclid,[901] a master of Thebes, to reduce their magic books to one
volume containing 93 chapters, which they may more readily conceal
and preserve. And inasmuch as it has pleased the prelates and princes
to order the burning of their books and the destruction of schools of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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