Picatrix

Picatrix is the name used in Christian Europe for a text originally written in Arabic, probably in the 10th or 11th century, entitled غاية الحكيم ArabDIN|"Ġāyat al-Ḥakīm". This title is sometimes translated as "The Aim of the Sage" or "The Goal of The Wise". [However the Arabic translated as "goal" ("ghaya", pl. "ghayat") also suggests the sense of "utmost limit" or "boundary".]

Under the name "Picatrix", the work became available in the West through a Latin translation of the 13th century, based on an earlier Spanish translation, both of which appear to have been produced at the court of Alphonso The Wise. [David Pingree, 'Between the Ghāya and Picatrix. I: The Spanish Version', in "Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes", Vol. 44, (1981), pp. 27-56]

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]

The odd Latin title is usually explained as a sloppy transliteration of one "Buqratis", mentioned several times in the second of the four books of the work. [This is sometimes explained as a distortion of "Hippocrates", see: Willy Hartner, 'Notes On Picatrix', in "Isis", Vol. 56, No. 4, (Winter, 1965), pp. 438] However, another interpretation, perhaps more convincing, suggests that "Picatrix" is a translation of the first name of the individual often indicated as the author of the work, (pseudo) Maslama al-Majriti. "Maslama" derives from the Arabic root "s-l-m", of which one of the meanings offered in Arabic lexica is "to sting". According to this view "Maslama" would have been translated as "Picatrix", which is a feminine variant of the Latin "picator" "one who stings or pricks" (nomen agentis), based on the supposition of the translator that "Maslama" was a feminine form. [J. Thomann, 'The Name Picatrix: Transcription or Translation?', in "Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes", Vol. 53, (1990), pp. 289-296]

Attributions of authorship range from "the Arabic version is anonymous" to the assertion 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 suggests that the authorship of this work should be attributed to Maslama b. Qasim al-Qurtubi (d. 353/964). See Maribel Fierro, 'Bāṭinism in Al-Andalus. Maslama b. Qāsim al-Qurṭubī (d. 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 is divided into four books, which exhibit a marked absence of systematic exposition. It has significantly influenced West European magical thinking from Marsilio Ficino in the 1400s, to Thomas Campanella in the 1600s. The edition in the British Library passed through several hands: Simon Forman, Richard Napier, Elias Ashmole and William Lilly.

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 ]

Notes

Editions

*"Picatrix: Das Ziel des Weisen von Pseudo-Magriti", aus dem Arabischen ins Deutsche übersetzt von Hellmut Ritter und Martin Plessner ["Picatrix: The Goal of the Wise Man by Pseudo-Magriti", translated from Arabic into German by Ritter and Plessner] . London: Warburg Institute, 1962 (=Studies of the Warburg Institute 27).
*David Pingree, "The Latin Version of the Ghayat al-hakim", Studies of the [http://www2.sas.ac.uk/warburg/publications/philbook.htm Warburg Institute] , University of London (1986), ISBN 0854810692 [http://www.bivionline.it/en/PicatrixTOC_sections.html]
**review: Brian Vickers, Isis, The History of Science Society, University of Chicago Press (1990).
**review: William R. Newman, The Journal of the American Oriental Society (1993).
*"Ouroboros Press" has published the first English translation available in two volumes, Ouroborous Press (2002), Vol. 1 ASIN: B0006S6LAO [http://www.bookarts.org/]
* [http://recherche.univ-montp3.fr/cercam/article.php3?id_article=371 Béatrice Bakhouche] , Frédéric Fauquier, Brigitte Pérez-Jean, "Picatrix: Un Traite De Magie Medieval", Brepols Pub (2003), 388 p., ISBN 978-2-503-51068-2.

ee also

*Alchemy and chemistry in Islam
*Islamic astrology

External links

* [http://www.renaissanceastrology.com/picatrix.html Christopher Warnock presents his astrological use and interpretation of the work]
* [http://www.bookarts.org Publishing Company offering the English Translation]
* [http://picatrix.mike-rock.com Partial online English translation of Picatrix]
* [http://digitaloccultmanuscripts.blogspot.com/2008/07/ghayetu-al-hakim-picatrix.html Arabic version غاية الحكيم]