Picatrix () is a 400-page Arabic book of magic and astrology, which most scholars assume was originally written in the middle of the 11th century,e.g Dozy, Holmyard, Samsó, and Pingree; David Pingree, 'Some of the Sources of the Ghāyat al-hakīm', in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 43, (1980), p. 2; Willy Hartner, 'Notes On Picatrix', in Isis, Vol. 56, No. 4, (Winter, 1965), pp. 438 though an argument for composition in the first half of the 10th century has been made.Maribel Fierro, "Bāṭinism in Al-Andalus. Maslama b. Qāsim al-Qurṭubī (died 353/964), Author of the 'Rutbat al- Ḥakīm' and the 'Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm (Picatrix)'" in: Studia Islamica, No. 84, (1996), pp. 87–112. The work was translated into Spanish and then into Latin during the 13th century, at which time it got the Latin title Picatrix. The title Picatrix is also sometimes used to refer to the book's author.
Picatrix is a composite work that synthesizes older works on magic and astrology. One of the most influential interpretations suggests it is to be regarded as a "handbook of talismanic magic".Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, Chicago, 1964; Frances Yates, The Art of Memory, Chicago, 1966 Another researcher summarizes it as "the most thorough exposition of celestial magic in Arabic", indicating the sources for the work as "Arabic texts on Hermeticism, Sabianism, Ismailism, astrology, alchemy and magic produced in the Near East in the ninth and tenth centuries A.D."David Pingree, 'Some of the Sources of the Ghāyat al-hakīm', in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 43, (1980), pp. 1–15 Eugenio Garin declares, "In reality the Latin version of the Picatrix is as indispensable as the Corpus Hermeticum or the writings of Albumasar for understanding a conspicuous part of the production of the Renaissance, including the figurative arts."Eugenio Garin, Astrology in the Renaissance: The Zodiac of Life, Routledge, 1983, p. 47 It has significantly influenced West European esotericism from Marsilio Ficino in the 15th century, to Thomas Campanella in the 17th century. The manuscript in the British Library passed through several hands: Simon Forman, Richard Napier, Elias Ashmole and William Lilly.
According to the prologue of the Latin translation, Picatrix was translated into Spanish from the Arabic by order of Alphonso X of Castile at some time between 1256 and 1258.David Pingree, 'Between the Ghāya and Picatrix. I: The Spanish Version', in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 44, (1981), p. 27 The Latin version was produced sometime later, based on translation of the Spanish manuscripts. It has been attributed to Maslama ibn Ahmad al-Majriti (an Andalusian mathematician), but many have called this attribution into question. Consequently, the author is sometimes indicated as "Pseudo-Majriti".
The Spanish and Latin versions were the only ones known to Western scholars until Wilhelm Printz discovered an Arabic version in or around 1920.Willy Hartner, 'Notes On Picatrix', in Isis, Vol. 56, No. 4, (Winter, 1965), pp. 438–440; the Arabic text was published for the first time by the Warburg Library in 1927.
Content and sources
The work is divided into four books, which exhibit a marked absence of systematic exposition. Jean Seznec observed, "Picatrix prescribes propitious times and places and the attitude and gestures of the suppliant; he also indicates what terms must be used in petitioning the stars." As an example, Seznec then reproduces a prayer to Saturn from the work, noting that Fritz Saxl has pointed out that this invocation exhibits "the accent and even the very terms of a Greek astrological prayer to Kronos. This is one indication that the sources of Picatrix are in large part Hellenistic.":
According to Garin: According to the Prologue, the author researched over two hundred works in the creation of Picatrix.Later in the text, the author specifies two hundred fifty works. Bakhouche, Picatrix, p 37, 200 However, there are three significant Near/Middle Eastern influences: Jabir ibn Hayyan, the Brethren of Purity, and ibn Wahshiyya's Nabataean Agriculture. The influence of Jabir ibn Hayyan comes in the form of a cosmological background that removes magical practices from the context of diabolical influences and reasserts these practices as having a divine origin. The author of Picatrix utilizes Neoplatonic theories of hypostasis that mirror the work of Jabir ibn Hayyan.See also Bakhouche, Picatrix, pp. 32–33
The lunar mansions (mansiones Lunae) constitute one of the central organizing principles of the Picatrix, underpinning much of its electional astrology, talismanic image magic, and ritual operations. Throughout the work, the Moon’s passage through the twenty-eight mansions determines the timing, construction, and intended effects of magical images, suffumigations, and planetary rituals. The Latin text devotes substantial attention to the virtues of the lunar mansions, including an entire chapter on “the properties and compositions of the heavens for making images in the twenty-eight mansions of the Moon” (De generibus, proprietatibus et compositionibus caeli ad faciendum imagines in XXVIII mansionibus Lunae), followed by numerous practical operations organized according to the mansions.
The Picatrix also repeatedly presents the Indians (Hindus) as authoritative custodians of important branches of magical knowledge. In Book II, Chapter 5 (“The division of this science among nations, and which part of it each nation possesses”), the text explicitly states that “the Hindus are most versed in this last science” and further emphasizes that “the Hindus have their strength and power through words,” before describing Indian traditions of sacred speech, enchantment, and magical practice in considerable detail. Elsewhere, the work repeatedly attributes the knowledge of the lunar mansions and their magical virtues to Indian authorities (Nakshatra), treating Indian astrological doctrine as one of the principal sources from which this aspect of astral magic was derived. While modern scholarship generally understands the medieval lunar mansion tradition as the product of interaction between Indian, Persian, and Arabic astrological traditions, the Picatrix itself consistently presents Indian learning as a foundational authority for both mansion lore and several other branches of celestial magic.
While tracing the correlates for the Kabbalistic notion of the astral body (Hebrew: tselem), pp. 255–260. Related terms throughout the associated traditions include pure self, personal daemon, perfected nature (ha-teva ha-mushlam), and fathomless father of nature. Cf. guardian angel. Gershom Scholem cited its occurrence in the Picatrix, and pointed out the background of this concept in Greek papyri and philosophical texts,For example, the Greek philosopher, Iamblichus, The Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldean, and Assyrians, IX, 1-9. in Gnostic texts,The Hymn of the Pearl in the apocryphal Acts of Thomas. in Iranian eschatology, and in Islamic and Renaissance Neoplatonism. Scholem also specifically noted Henry Corbin's work in documenting the concept of the perfected nature in Iranian and Islamic religion..
According to Scholem, the following passage from the Picatrix (itself similar to a passage in an earlier Hermetic text called the Secret of Creation) tracks very closely with the Kabbalistic concept of tselem:. For the passage in the Secret of Creation, see pp. 246–247. When I wished to find knowledge of the secrets of Creation, I came upon a dark vault within the depths of the earth, filled with blowing winds. ... Then there appeared to me in my sleep a shape of most wondrous beauty [giving me instructions how to conduct myself in order to attain knowledge of the highest things]. I then said to him: "Who are you?" And he answered: "I am your perfected nature."
Authorship and significance of title
The Arab historian, Ibn Khaldun, in his Muqaddimah, ascribed authorship of Picatrix (referring to the original Arabic version, under the title Ġāyat al-Ḥakīm غاية الحكيم ) to the astronomer and mathematician Maslama Al-Majriti, who died between 1005 CE and 1008 CE (398 AH).Eugenio Garin, Astrology in the Renaissance: The Zodiac of Life, Routledge, 1983, p. 47 This attribution is problematic: the author of the Arabic original states in its introduction that he completed the book on 348 AH, which is ~ 959 CE. Moreover, the author states that he started writing the Picatrix after he completed his previous book, Rutbat al-Ḥakīm رتبة الحكيم in 343 AH (~ 954 CE). This makes the authoring more than five decades before Al-Majriti's death, and if his estimated birth year is to be accepted, he would have only been around 5 years old when he started writing it. As well, according to Holmyard, the earliest manuscript attribution of the work to Maslama al-Majriti was made by the alchemist al-Jildaki, who died shortly after 1360, while Ibn Khaldun died some 20 years later. However, no biography of al-Majriti mentions him as the author of this work.Maribel Fierro, Bāṭinism in Al-Andalus. Maslama b. Qāsim al-Qurṭubī (died 353/964), Author of the Rutbat al- Ḥakīm and the Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm (Picatrix), in Studia Islamica, No. 84, (1996), p. 93, 95
More recent attributions of authorship range from "the Arabic version is anonymous" to reiterations of the old claim that the author is "the celebrated astronomer and mathematician Abu l-Qasim Maslama b. Ahmad Al-Majriti".H. Kahane et al. 'Picatrix and the talismans', in Romance Philology, xix, 1966, p 575; E.J. Holmyard, 'Maslama al-Majriti and the Rutba 'l-Hakim', in Isis, vi, 1924, p 294. One recent study in Studia Islamica suggests that the authorship of this work should be attributed to Maslama b. Qasim al-Qurtubi, who died 964 CE (353 AH) and, according to Ibn al-Faradi, was "a man of charms and talismans".Maribel Fierro, 'Bāṭinism in Al-Andalus. Maslama b. Qāsim al-Qurṭubī (died 353/964), Author of the "Rutbat al- Ḥakīm" and the "Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm (Picatrix)"', in Studia Islamica, No. 84, (1996), pp. 87–112 If this suggestion is correct it would place the work in the context of Andalusian sufism and batinism.Maribel Fierro, 'Bāṭinism in Al-Andalus. Maslama b. Qāsim al-Qurṭubī (died 353/964), Author of the "Rutbat al- Ḥakīm" and the "Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm (Picatrix)"', in Studia Islamica, No. 84, (1996), pp. 105–107 The odd Latin title is sometimes explained as a sloppy transliteration of one "Buqratis", mentioned several times in the second of the four books of the work.Willy Hartner, 'Notes On Picatrix', in Isis, Vol. 56, No. 4, (Winter, 1965), pp. 438 Others have suggested that the title (or the name of the author) is a way of attributing the work to Hippocrates (via a transcription of the name Burqratis or Biqratis in the Arabic text).Bakhouche, Beatrice, Frederic Fauquier, and Brigitte Perez-Jean (Translators), Picatrix: Un traite de magie medieval, Turnhout: Brepols, p. 22 and 141 Where it appears in the Arabic original, the Latin text does translate the name Burqratis as Picatrix, but this still does not establish the identity of Burqratis. Ultimately, linking the name, Picatrix, with Hippocrates,Ritter, Hellmut and Martin Plessner (translators), "Picatrix:" Das Ziel des Weisen von Pseudo-Magriti. London: Warburg Institute, 1962. p.XXII.See also: Willy Hartner, 'Notes On Picatrix', in Isis, Vol. 56, No. 4, (Winter, 1965), pp. 438 has fallen into disfavor because the text separately cites Hippocrates under the name Ypocras.Bakhouche, Picatrix, p. 22, 193, 332.