{"id":14527,"date":"2020-11-19T20:32:52","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T20:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/?page_id=14527"},"modified":"2020-11-23T02:02:56","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T02:02:56","slug":"porreca-2021-congress","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/abstracts\/porreca-2021-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Porreca (2021 Congress)"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Porreca
\n(Department of Classics, University of Waterloo<\/em>)
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

“Introducing the\u00a0Picatrix:
\nThe Prologue\u2019s Balancing Act between Content and Perception”<\/em><\/h2>\n
\"Hermes

Hermes Trismegistus. Frontispiece image (Lyons, 1669) via Wikimedia Commons and Wellcome Images.<\/p><\/div>\n

Abstract of Paper
\nTo be presented at the 56th International Congress on Medieval Studies
\n(Kalamazoo, 2021)<\/h3>\n

Session on “Prologues in Medieval Texts of Magic, Astrology, and Prophecy”<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence (for the 2020 Congress)
\nand<\/em>
\nCo-Sponsored by the RGME and the Societas Magica (for the 2021 Congress)
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Organized by Vajra Regan<\/strong><\/h4>\n

(Session Rescheduled from the cancelled 2020 Congress, and partly Rearranged for the 2021 Congress
\nFor example, compare the Abstract for the Paper which David intended for the 2020 Congress:\u00a0 Porreca (Congress 2020)<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2020 Congress Program<\/a><\/h4>\n

2021 Congress Program Planning<\/a><\/h4>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n

The astral magic text known as\u00a0Picatrix<\/em>\u00a0was the target of substantial opprobrium by many of the intellectual luminaries of the 15th<\/sup>\u201317th<\/sup>\u00a0centuries, including Fran\u00e7ois Rabelais, Symphorien Champier, Gabriel Naud\u00e9, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and Johannes Hartlieb.\u00a0 Although some made profitable use of the text within their own work, they were so concerned about the cloud of controversy surrounding the text that they rarely (if ever) mentioned it by name.\u00a0 (Examples are Marsilio Ficino<\/a> in\u00a0De vita libri tres<\/em>; and the frescos by Cosimo Tura<\/a> and Francesco del Cossa<\/a> of allegorical scenes of the Zodiac at the Palazzo Schifanoia<\/a> in Ferrara). Moreover, the text was popular enough to survive in seventeen complete manuscripts between the 15th<\/sup>\u00a0and the 17th<\/sup>\u00a0centuries (in addition to multiple abridged or fragmentary versions), yet it never appeared in print until the 20th<\/sup>\u00a0century.<\/p>\n

The potential for controversy surrounding the text was also known to its original author Maslama bin Q\u0101sim al-Qur\u1e6dub\u012b (died 353 AH \/ 964 CE) and its subsequent translators (into Spanish, 1250\u2019s; thence into Latin, later 13th<\/sup>\u00a0century). Indeed, the text\u2019s prologue strikes a delicate balancing act between providing the reader with an authentic reflection of its contents vs. trying to allay the negative reaction to said contents that could be expected from an insufficiently prepared readership.<\/p>\n

This paper will explore the rhetorical devices, as well as the historical, theological, philosophical, and factual claims made therein, and discuss how that assemblage presents an accurate \u2014 yet almost completely whitewashed \u2014 picture of the text as a whole. For the most part, the\u00a0Picatrix<\/em>\u00a0falls well beyond the window of acceptable discourse of the 10th<\/sup>\u201317th<\/sup>centuries, and its prologue offers a vigorous attempt to distract the reader from that fact.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Note<\/em><\/p>\n

Now available:<\/p>\n

Picatrix:\u00a0 A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic<\/em>, translated with an Introduction by Dan Attrell and David Porreca, based on the Latin edition by David Pingree.\u00a0 Magic in History Series (University Park, Pennsylvania:\u00a0 The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2019).\u00a0 The Prologue to the Picatrix<\/em> stands on pages 37\u201338.<\/p>\n

\"The

The Book Signing at the 2019 Congress. Photography Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n

*****<\/p>\n

We thank David for his many contributions to Research Group activities over the years.<\/p>\n

See, for example, the Abstracts for<\/p>\n