1 A study of this section can be found in Hutchison, Keith, “Dormitive Virtues, Scholastic Qualities, and the New Philosophies,” History of Science 29 (1991): 245–78, esp. 245.Google Scholar I wish to thank Gad Freudenthal, Danielle Jacquart, and Barbara Obrist for their readings and advice, and Azélina Jaboulet-Vercherre and Katelyn Mesler for their English emendations.Google Scholar The author is Maître de conférences in Medieval History at Université Paris 8 and Junior fellow of the Institut universitaire de France. This article was previously a presentation given at a workshop held by the team CHSPAM (UMR 7219) of the CNRS and organized by Freudenthal, Gad: “L'astrologie au Moyen Âge: Traditions arabe, hébraïque, latine” (Paris, 8 November 2008).Google Scholar

2 Augustine, , De civitate dei 21, 7, ed. Dombart, Bernhard and Kalb, Alfons with Divjak, Johannes, 5th ed. (Stuttgart, 1993), 501: “quibus licet vis insolita contra naturam inesse videatur, alia tamen de illis non redditur ratio, nisi ut dicatur hanc eorum esse naturam. Brevis sane ista ratio, fateor, sufficiensque responsio.” English translation: Augustine, , The City of God against the Pagans, vol. 7, Books XXI–XXII , trans. Green, William M. (Cambridge, MA, 1972), 43.Google Scholar

3 This distinction between amulets and talismans derives, with some emendation, from that suggested by Copenhaver, Brian P., “Scholastic Philosophy and Renaissance Magic in the De vita of Marsilio Ficino,” Renaissance Quarterly 37 (1984): 523–54, at 530.Google Scholar

4 Grant, Edward, “Medieval and Renaissance Scholastic Conception of the Influence of the Celestial Region on the Terrestrial,” Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 17 (1987): 1–23. See also North, John D., “Celestial Influence — the Major Premiss of Astrology,” in “Astrologi hallucinati”: Stars and the End of the World in Luther's Time , ed. Zambelli, Paola (Berlin, 1986), 45–100.Google Scholar

5 Weill-Parot, Nicolas, Les “images astrologiques” au Moyen Âge et à la Renaissance: Spéculations intellectuelles et pratiques magiques (xii ^e –xv ^e siècle) (Paris, 2002).Google Scholar

6 With the support of the Institut Universitaire de France, I am about to complete a work provisionally entitled Points aveugles de la nature: La rationalité scientifique médiévale face à l'occulte [les propriétés occultes], l'attraction magnétique et l'horreur du vide (xiii^e–xv^e siècle). Many scholars have tackled the question of occult properties in the Renaissance and early Modern Age; see notably Hutchison, Keith, “What Happened to Occult Qualities in the Scientific Revolution?” Isis 73 (1982): 233–53; idem, “Dormitive Virtues”; Clarke, Desmond M., Occult Powers and Hypotheses: Cartesian Natural Philosophy under Louis XIV (Oxford, 1989); Henry, John, “Occult Qualities and the Experimental Philosophy: Active Principles in Pre-Newtonian Matter Theory,” History of Science 24 (1986): 335–81; Copenhaver, , “Scholastic Philosophy”; Blum, Paul Richard, “Qualitates occultae: Zur philosophischen Vorgeschichte eines Schlüsselbegriffs zwischen Okkultismus und Wissenschaft,” in Die okkulten Wissenschaften in der Renaissance , ed. Buck, August (Wiesbaden, 1992), 45–64; Dagron, Tristan, “La doctrine des qualités occultes dans le De incantationibus de Pomponazzi,” Revue de métaphysique et de morale 49 (2006): 3–20.Google Scholar

7 The expression “reading in the heavens” is borrowed from Boudet, Jean-Patrice, Lire dans le ciel: La bibliothèque de Simon de Phares, astrologue du xiv^e siècle (Brussels, 1994).Google Scholar

8 de Libera, Alain, Penser au Moyen Âge (Paris, 1991), 262.Google Scholar

9 On Thomas's and Albertus's views, see notably Litt, Thomas, Les corps célestes dans l'univers de saint Thomas d'Aquin (Louvain, 1963); Zambelli, Paola, “Albert le Grand et l'astrologie,” Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 49 (1982): 145–58.Google Scholar

10 On the diffusion of Avicenna's Canon in the Middle Ages, see Jacquart, Danielle, “La réception du Canon d'Avicenne: Comparaison entre Montpellier et Paris aux xiii^e et xiv^e siècles,” in Histoire de l'Ecole médicale de Montpellier (Paris, 1985), 69–77; eadem, “Lectures universitaires du Canon d'Avicenne,” in Avicenna and His Heritage , ed. Janssens, J. and De Smet, D. (Louvain, 2002), 313–24; Siraisi, Nancy G., Avicenna in Renaissance Italy: The Canon and Medical Teaching in Italian Universities after 1500 (Princeton, 1987), 44–45; Chandelier, Joël, “La réception du Canon d'Avicenne: Médecine arabe et milieu universitaire en Italie avant la Peste Noire” (Ph.D. diss., École Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, 2007), 43–46.Google Scholar

11 See, for example, Galen, , De simplici medicina: “Et ostendi iterum quod de proprietate medicine est ut alteret corpus aut in qualitatem unam quecumque qualitas sit: quare calefacit aut infrigidat aut desiccat aut humectat aut per duas qualitates, quare efficit de istis operationibus quas diximus duas operationes combinatas, aut per totam substantiam sicut multe medicinarum previtiosarum et medicinarum conservativarum et omnes medicine solutive et multe medicinarum que nominantur attractive” (MS Paris, BNF lat. 11860, fols. 84r^a–124v^b, at 116v^b). See also Galen, , Opera omnia 11: 5, 1, ed. and trans. Kühn, C. G. (repr. Hildesheim, 1964), 705.Google Scholar

12 Avicenna, , Canon (Venice, 1505), Liber I, Fen II, Doctrina II, Summa I, Cap. 15 (“De his que proveniunt ex his que comeduntur et bibuntur”), fol. 30r^a: “Et sua quidem operans substantia est illud quod forma sue speciei operatur quam acquisivit post complexionem; quod cum eius simplicia se commiscuerunt et ex eis generata fuit res una, preparavit se ad recipiendum speciem et formam additam super illud quod habent simplicia. Hec ergo forma non est qualitates prime quas habet materia, neque est complexio que generatur ex eis sed est perfectio quam acquisivit materia secundum aptitudinem que fuit ei acquisita ex complexione, sicut in magnete virtus attractiva, et sicut natura cuiuscumque specierum vegetabilium et animalium, scilicet illa quam habent post complexionem propter complexionis preparationem; neque est de simplicibus complexionibus, neque ipsamet complexio, quia non est caliditas neque frigiditas neque siccitas neque humiditas, neque simplices neque commixte, sed est verbi gratia color aut odor aut anima aut alia forma de non perceptis sensu…. Tota autem operatio hec non provenit ex eius complexione, immo ex eius forma specifica adveniente post complexionem. Unde propter hoc vocamus huiusmodi operationem a tota substantia, scilicet forma specifica, et non qualitate, scilicet non aliqua quatuor qualitatum, neque eo quod est earum commixtio.” Google Scholar

13 Weill-Parot, Nicolas, “Science et magie au Moyen Âge,” in Bilan et perspectives des études médiévales (1993–1998): Actes du II^e Congrès Européen d'Études Médiévales , ed. Hamesse, Jacqueline (Turnhout, 2004), 527–59; idem, “Encadrement ou dévoilement: L'occulte et le secret dans la nature chez Albert le Grand et Roger Bacon,” Micrologus 14 (2006): 151–70. The latter article points out that the occult must be distinguished from the secret (this distinction does not appear in Eamon, William, Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture [Princeton, 1994]); Weill-Parot, Nicolas, “The Elusive Hermes and the Occult in Medieval and Renaissance Scientific Thought: A Preliminary Survey,” in Hermetism and Rationalism in an Era of Cultural Change: Questions in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Metaphysics (with Excursions in the Seventeenth Century), ed. Veenstra, Jan R. (forthcoming); idem, “Pietro d'Abano et l'occulte dans la nature: Galien, Avicenne, Albert le Grand et la differentia 71 du Conciliator,” in Médecine, astrologie et magie entre Moyen Âge et Renaissance: Autour de Pietro d'Abano , ed. Boudet, Jean-Patrice, Collard, Franck, and Weill-Parot, Nicolas (forthcoming). Copenhaver (“Scholastic Philosophy”) emphasized the importance of the specific/substantial form in medieval speculations on magic. Recently Graziella Federici Vescovini has focused on “l'occulto,” borrowing some of my concepts — “objectivization of the occult,” occult as a “positive” property, and the occult as a “structurally unexplainable mystery” and as “void notion” — but ascribing to them a somewhat different meaning within her approach, which gives “occult” a very broad meaning (Medioevo magico: La magia tra religione e scienza nei secoli xiii e xiv [Turin, 2008], 169–222).Google Scholar

14 There are few exceptions, e.g., Roger Bacon, who could be viewed as a philosopher of the secret rather than a philosopher of the occult (see Weill-Parot, , “Encadrement ou dévoilement”) and, in a different way, Nicole Oresme and Henry of Langenstein, who criticized the model of occult properties (see below).Google Scholar

15 Avicenna, , De viribus cordis , 1.10, in Avicenna, , Liber Canonis (Venice, 1490), sign. n n iiir. This medical opuscule seems to have been translated by of Villanova, Arnald.Google Scholar

16 Latinus, Avicenna, Liber primus naturalium, Tractatus primus, De causis et principiis naturalium , ed. Riet, Simone Van (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1992), cap. 6, 59–60.Google Scholar

17 Latinus, Avicenna, Liber de philosophia prima sive scientia divina , ed. Riet, Simone Van (Louvain, 1980), 9, 4, 487; 9, 5, 489–90 and 492–93; and Introduction by Verbeke, Gérard, 63∗–66∗. See also Weisheipl, James A., “Aristotle's Concept of Nature: Avicenna and Aquinas,” in Approaches to Nature in the Middle Ages , ed. Roberts, Lawrence D. (Binghamton, NY, 1982), 137–60, at 150; Davidson, Herbert A., Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes on Intellect: Their Cosmologies, Theories of the Active Intellect, and Theories of the Human Intellect (New York, 1992).Google Scholar

18 McVaugh, Michael, “The Development of Medieval Pharmaceutical Theory,” in Aphorismi de gradibus , vol. 2 of Arnaldi de Villanova Opera medica omnia , ed. McVaugh, M. R. (Granada, 1975), 18–19 n. 11: “It is tempting to identify the physicians' forma specifica or forma a tota substantia with the philosophers' forma substantialis, and to refer to it as such. There is, however, a good reason not to do so: the medical writers concerned do not themselves make the identification, always referring to it in the terms used by the Canon. The only man I have so far found to explicitly equate the two is Peter of Abano.” Brian P. Copenhaver disagrees with McVaugh: “The same form called ‘substantial’ because it gives substantial being (esse) to a composite can also be called ‘specific’ because it makes the composite a member of its species (species). Avicenna had the latter point in mind when he said that specific form is ‘that by which a thing is what it is,’ and most medieval physicians were more interested in the abstract metaphysics of substantial form debated by philosophers” (Copenhaver, “Scholastic Philosophy,” 541 n. 48).Google Scholar

19 In another field of research, an interesting view of Avicenna's philosophical approach on mixture and substantial form is provided by Stone, Abraham D., “Avicenna's Theory of Primary Qualities,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 18 (2008): 99–119. On Avicenna's criticism of astrology in medicine: Jacquart, D., “La scolastique médicale,” in Antiquité et Moyen Âge, vol. 1 of Histoire de la pensée médicale en Occident , ed. Grmek, Mirko D. (Paris, 1995), 175–210, at 205; concerning his treatise against astrology, which was not translated into Latin: Avicenne, Réfutation de l'astrologie , ed. and French trans. Michot, Y. (Beirut, 2006).Google Scholar

20 Jacquart, Danielle, La médecine médiévale dans le cadre parisien (Paris, 1998), 221 and 374.Google Scholar

21 Pseudo-Mesue, , Canones, versio antiqua (Venice, 1561), repr. in facsimile in Lieberknecht, Sieglinde, Die Canones des Pseudo-Mesue: Eine mittelalterliche Purgantien-Lehre; Übersetzung und Kommentar (Stuttgart, 1995), Intentio, Ia, cap. 1: “Dotatur enim omne duplici (ut aiunt philosophi) virtute, scilicet elementari et coelesti.” Google Scholar

22 Weisheipl, James A., “Appendix I: Albert's Works on Natural Science (libri naturales) in Probable Chronological Order,” in idem, Albertus Magnus and the Sciences: Commemorative Essays 1980 (Toronto, 1980), 565–77, at 568.Google Scholar

23 On the influence of Avicenna's Metaphysics on Albertus Magnus's commentary on Metaphysics, see notably Bertolacci, Amos, The Reception of Aristotle's Metaphysics in Avicenna's Kitâb al-Sifâ: A Milestone of Western Metaphysical Thought (Leiden, 2006).Google Scholar

24 Magnus, Albertus, De mineralibus , 2.1.2 (MS BNF lat. 6787, fol. 14r^b): “Avicenna autem et quidam alii sequentes eundem dixerunt in omnibus naturis quedam aliquando apparere prodigia ex ymaginatione motorum superiorum.” I have provided references to this thirteenth-century manuscript rather than to the editions of Jammy and Borgnet, which are not always reliable.Google Scholar

25 Ibid., 2.1.3 (fol. 15r^a): “Non enim ymaginatio aliquo modo potest intelligenciis celestibus convenire, neque enim sunt concepciones tales in eis que motu celi et elementalibus qualitatibus non explicentur, eo quod nihil est inordinatum in eis […]. Intellectus enim practici sunt et per se formales [ed. Borgnet; formale MS] ad opus nature quod celestis motus explicat sicut instrumentum. Neque unquam concepcio aliqua est in motore nisi talis.” Google Scholar

26 Ibid., 2.1.4 (fol. 15r^a): “Refutatis igitur omnibus hiis dicimus cum Constantino et aliis quibusdam quod virtus lapidis causatur ab ipsa lapidis specie et forma substantiali.” Google Scholar

27 Magnus, Albertus, Book of Minerals , trans. Wyckoff, Dorothy (Oxford, 1967), 65, 267, and 277.Google Scholar

28 Two recent editions of this text are available: Wilcox, John and Riddle, James, “Qustā ibn Lūqā's Physical Ligatures and the Recognition of the Placebo Effect,” in Medieval Encounters (Leiden, 1994), 1–25; and Casazza, Roberto, “El De physicis ligaturis de Costa ben Luca: Un tratado poco conocido sobre el uso de encantamientos y amuletos con fines terapéuticos,” Patristica et Mediaevalia 27 (2006): 87–113.Google Scholar

29 Saxo, Arnoldus, De floribus rerum naturalium, IV, Prologus, ed. Stange, E., Die Encyklopädie des Arnoldus Saxo, zum ersten Mal nach einem Erfurter Codex , II, III, IV, ed. Stange, E. (Erfurt, 1906), IV, 78 (Arnold's words are almost the same as those of Avicenna in the Canon). On Arnold of Saxony as a source for Albert the Great, see Magnus, Albertus, Book of Minerals , trans. Wyckoff, , 268.Google Scholar

30 According to the notes in Dorothy Wyckoff's translation of the De mineralibus, Albert the Great clearly refers twice to sections of Avicenna's Canon. In De mineralibus 2.2, when Albert writes that “Avicenna says it is called Jewstone because it is frequently found in Judaea,” he refers to Avicenna's Canon, 2.2.404 (Magnus, Albertus, Book of Minerals , trans. Wyckoff, , 100 n. 13). In Book 4, concerning sulfur, Albert refers to Canon, 2.2.612 (ibid., 204 n. 4).Google Scholar

31 De occultis operationibus naturae ad quemdam militem ultramontanum , in Thomae Aquinatis Opera omnia , editio Leonina, , vol. 43 (Rome, 1976), 159–86.Google Scholar

32 Freudenthal, Gad, “The Astrologization of the Aristotle Cosmos: Celestial Influences on the Sublunar World in Aristotle, Alexander of Aphrodisias, and Averroës,” in A Companion to Aristotle's Cosmology: Collected Papers on the De caelo, ed. Bowen, Alan C. and Wildberg, Christian, forthcoming. (I am grateful to the author for sending me this article before publication.) Google Scholar

33 Aquinas, Thomas, De occultis operationibus naturae: “ita quod totum opus naturae videtur esse opus cuiusdam sapientis.” The English translation of the few sentences quoted here is taken from Joseph Bernard McAllister, The Letter of Saint Thomas Aquinas De occultis operibus naturae ad quendam militem ultramontanum (Washington, 1939), §13. On this idea see notably Weisheipl, James A., “The Axiom ‘Opus naturae est opus intelligentiae’ and Its Origins,” in Albertus Magnus, Doctor universalis 1280–1980 , ed. Meyer, Gerbert and Zimmermann, Albert (Mainz, 1980), 441–63.Google Scholar

34 In the Summa contra Gentiles, book 3, at the end of chapter 105, Aquinas seems to accept the hypothesis of an “astrological image,” provided that artificial bodies can be considered as “quasi forme specifice.” I argued that this passage does not actually mean that Thomas accepts the theory of “astrological images”; see Weill-Parot, , Les “images astrologiques” (n. 5 above), 248–59. I demonstrated (ibid., 25–219) that the expression and concept of “astrological images” was coined in the anonymous Speculum astronomiae, a work that has been (probably wrongly) ascribed to Albertus Magnus. On the question of the authorship of this work, see Lucentini, Paolo, “L'ermetismo magico nel secolo XIII,” in Sic itur ad astra: Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften; Festschrift für den Arabisten Paul Kunitzsch zum 70. Geburtstag , ed. Folkerts, Menso and Lorch, Richard (Wiesbaden, 2000), 409–50; Roy, Bruno, “Richard de Fournival, auteur du Speculum astronomiae,” Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge 67 (2000): 159–80; Bagliani, Agostino Paravicini, Le Speculum astronomiae, une énigme? Enquête sur les manuscrits (Florence, 2001).Google Scholar

35 MS Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, 509/386, fols. 155v^a–206v^b .Google Scholar

36 Donati, Silvia, “Per lo studio dei commenti alla Fisica del xiii secolo: Commenti di probabile origine inglese degli anni 1250–70 ca.,” Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale 2 (1991): 361–441, esp. 425–26.Google Scholar

37 Averroës, , In physico auditu libri octo commentaria magna , in Aristoteles, Opera cum Averrois Commentariis (Venice, 1562–64; repr. Frankfurt, 1962), vol. 4, Liber 7, summa 3, text. 10, fols. 314r^a–315r^a. (See also Averroës, , Commentarium magnum in Aristotelis Physicorum: librum septimum [Vindobonensis, lat. 2334], ed. Schmieja, Horst, Averrois Opera, Series B: Averroes latinus [Paderborn, 2007], [chap. 10], 27). See Weill-Parot, Nicolas, “Magnetic Attraction as a Challenge to the Inanimate Realm: The Example of Walter Burley,” in Animate/Inanimate: From Theories of Matter to Medical Practices , ed. Jacquart, D. and Weill-Parot, N., forthcoming (and see my work mentioned above, n. 6).Google Scholar

38 On the part that light (lux or lumen) plays in medieval physical theories, we can refer, for instance, to Robert Grosseteste; see Crombie, Allistair C., Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science, 1100–1700 (Oxford, 1953).Google Scholar

39 MS Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, 509/386, fol. 200v^a: “Videtur quod in generatione adamantis incorporatur ei lux et in generatione ferri similiter, sed differenter, quia in adamante nobili modo et in ferro sub debili modo et in potentia; et ligata est materie, quia non potest in operationi, nisi per excitationem virtutis inmisse adamantis; et hoc per virtutem corporis celestis, et quando sic illuminatur et excitatur fit motor sui subiecti in quo est. Illa autem virtus inmissa ad adamantem invenit simile sibi in ferro, vehementi modo illuminat virtutem similiter repertam, et sua virtute regreditur per naturam lucis ad illud in quo incorporatur sub esse nobiliori; et, sic regrediendo, trahit secum ad adamantem. Unde est dupliciter loqui de ferro, scilicet, secundum quod ferrum est de se solum et sic habet motum deorsum, loquendo tamen de ferro et de virtute ei inmissa et ei unita secundum quod illa duo cedunt in unum mobile, sic est motus naturalis. Sic patet quis est motor proximus et simul est cum moto in toto motu.” Google Scholar

40 This universal power is one of the key concepts I am currently studying (see above, n. 6).Google Scholar

41 MS Cambridge, Gonville and Caius, 509/386, fol. 200v^b: “Videtur quod illa virtus est lux marcialis, que maxime participatur a ferro et adamante. Mars autem dominus belli est et participat suam virtutem cum adamante et ferro, quia in hec inferiora est causa aliquorum ex quibus fiunt arma belli.” Google Scholar

42 At least this seems to be the case according to the many commentaries on the Physics I have read.Google Scholar

43 MS Siena, Biblioteca degli Intronati, L III 21, fols. 1r^a–92r^a .Google Scholar

44 Donati, , “Per lo studio,” 396–409.Google Scholar

45 MS Siena, Biblioteca degli Intronati, L III 21, fol. 180r^b: “est tunc principaliter a virtute celesti que diffunditur per totum, et forte cum virtute eius stelle que Mars dicitur sicut dicunt [dicuntur MS] quidam; et sub esse compleciori recipitur in adamante quam in ferro.” Google Scholar

46 Weill-Parot, , Les “images astrologiques” (n. 5 above).Google Scholar

47 Magnus, Albertus, De mineralibus , 2.1.4 (MS BNF lat. 6787, fol. 15r^a): “Et hoc clarius videtur in hiis que melius aliis specificata et formata sunt, sicut est homo, qui operatione qua homo est, habet intelligere que ex nullo causatur complexionante.” Google Scholar

48 Concerning hylomorphism in Albertus Magnus and his concept of “inchoatio formarum,” see Nardi, Bruno, “La dottrina d'Alberto Magno sull' ‘inchoatio formae,”’ in idem, Studi di filosofia medievale (Rome, 1960), 69–101; Rodolfi, Anna, Il concetto di materia nell'opera di Alberto Magno (Florence, 2004). Form, as he points out, is intermediate between the celestial powers from which it comes and the material complexion to which it is given. In a way, he is summarizing the Aristotelian definition of form, which, unlike the Platonic idea, is not completely separate from matter.Google Scholar

49 Magnus, Albertus, De mineralibus , 2.2 (lapidary). The translation comes from idem, Book of Minerals , trans. Wyckoff, (n. 27 above), 76.Google Scholar

50 Magnus, Albertus, De mineralibus , 2.1.4 (MS BNF lat. 6787, fol. 15r^b): “Si ergo in se consideretur, ipsa est essentia simplex, unius tantum operativa, quodcumque est illud, quod unius est tantum efficere unum, et ab unico est unicum, sicut tradit tota universitas philosophorum.” Google Scholar

51 Ibid.: “Si autem hec forma consideretur ut effluens a virtutibus celestibus [ut est virtutibus coelestibus ed. Borgnet] primo multiplicatis per superiores et inferiores, et omnes ymagines et circulos quos duodecim signa cum stellis suis describunt [distribuunt ed. Borgnet, ] super orizontem rei illius cui influitur forma; et secundo, secundum quod ad eam operate [operantem ed. Borgnet, ] sunt virtutes elementales, erit ipsa forma multiplex valde secundum potencias naturales suas que [ed. Borgnet; quas MS] circumstant essenciam suam [ed. Borgnet, ; sua MS] simplicem, et sic multorum effectuum erit effectiva, licet forte unicam habeat primam [propriam ed. Borgnet] operationem.” The translated sentences in quotation marks come from Magnus, Albertus, Book of Minerals , trans. Wyckoff, , 65–66.Google Scholar

52 Magnus, Albertus, De mineralibus 2.1.4 (MS BNF lat. 6787, fol. 15v^a): “Et ad memoriam hic [hoc ed. Borgnet, ] revocandum quod in libro metheorum diximus, lapidum species et [ad ed. Borgnet] individua quodammodo esse mortalia, sicut et homines, et extra loca generationis sue diu contenti corrumpuntur, et non nisi equivoce retinent nomen speciei, licet in figura et colore eorum hoc non nisi per longissimum tempus possit deprehendi. Et sicut in animalium factura et in complexione aliquando tanta <est> discrasia [tanta est disgracia ed. Borgnet, ] quod animam hominis non attingit, sed solum qualemcumque hominis figuram. Ita etiam est in lapidum generatione, aut propter inordinationem materie, aut propter vehementissimas virtutes celestium in contrarium moventes, sicut diximus in secundo nostrorum phisicorum.” +discrasia+[tanta+est+disgracia+ed.+Borgnet,+]+quod+animam+hominis+non+attingit,+sed+solum+qualemcumque+hominis+figuram.+Ita+etiam+est+in+lapidum+generatione,+aut+propter+inordinationem+materie,+aut+propter+vehementissimas+virtutes+celestium+in+contrarium+moventes,+sicut+diximus+in+secundo+nostrorum+phisicorum.”>Google Scholar

53 Ibid., 2.3.1 (MS BNF lat. 6787, fol. 25v^a): “De ymaginibus autem lapidum et sigillis post hec est dicendum, licet enim pars illa sciencie <sit> pars nigromancie secundum illam speciem nigromancie que astronomie subalternatur, que et de ymaginibus et sigillis vocatur, tamen propter bonitatem doctrine etc. […] [licet enim pars ista sit pars necromantiae secundum illam speciem necromantiae quae astronomiae subalternatur et quae de imaginibus et sigillis vocatur … ed. Borgnet, ]”; ibid.: “Antiquorum enim sapientum scripturam de sigillis lapidum pauci sciunt nec sciri potest nisi simul et astronomia et magica et nigromantice sciencie scientur [sciantur ed. Borgnet].” +pars+nigromancie+secundum+illam+speciem+nigromancie+que+astronomie+subalternatur,+que+et+de+ymaginibus+et+sigillis+vocatur,+tamen+propter+bonitatem+doctrine+etc.+[…]+[licet+enim+pars+ista+sit+pars+necromantiae+secundum+illam+speciem+necromantiae+quae+astronomiae+subalternatur+et+quae+de+imaginibus+et+sigillis+vocatur+…+ed.+Borgnet,+]”;+ibid.:+“Antiquorum+enim+sapientum+scripturam+de+sigillis+lapidum+pauci+sciunt+nec+sciri+potest+nisi+simul+et+astronomia+et+magica+et+nigromantice+sciencie+scientur+[sciantur+ed.+Borgnet].”>Google Scholar

54 Ibid., 2.3.2 (fol. 26v^a): “Non enim ignoramus quod sunt quedam loca in celo in quibus cum luminaria convenerunt [convenerint ed. Borgnet] impediunt etiam in propria et efficaci materia figuram humanam generari, et materia tunc concrescit in horribile monstrum.” The translation comes from: Magnus, Albertus, Book of Minerals , trans. Wyckoff, , 131.Google Scholar

55 I call them “corporeiform figures” in order to distinguish them from those that are symbols. See Weill-Parot, , Les “images astrologiques,” 103–9. A comprehensive typology of non-corporeiform magical figures is suggested by Grévin, Benoît and Véronèse, Julien, “Les ‘caractères’ magiques au Moyen Âge,” Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, 162 (2004): 305–79.Google Scholar

56 Magnus, Albertus, De mineralibus , 2.3.3 (MS BNF lat. 6787, fol. 15r^a).Google Scholar

57 Weill-Parot, , Les “images astrologiques”; idem, “Causalité astrale et science des images au Âge, Moyen: Éléments de réflexion,” Revue d'histoire des sciences 52 (1999): 207–40.Google Scholar

58 Albertus Magnus holds that astral figures influence species themselves: De mineralibus, 2.3.3 (MS BNF lat. 6787, fol. 27v^b): “Non intendimus hic de figuris mathematice sumptis, sed de figuris prout indicant [inducunt ed. Borgnet] diversitatem generancium et generatorum in ordine et speciebus et natura forme et materie sue.” But these are in fact particular occurrences, namely accidents.Google Scholar

59 I am grateful to Danielle Jacquart, who drew my attention to the distinction between general and more particular astral influences several years ago.Google Scholar

60 Weill-Parot, , Les “images astrologiques,” 461–70 and 514–16; idem, “La magie et l'astrologie à l'intérieur et à l'extérieur de l'université: Recherches de ponts conceptuels,” in Actes du congrès d'histoire des sciences et des techniques organisé à Poitiers [2004] par la SFHST , ed. Bonnefoy, Anne and Joly, Bernard, Cahiers d'histoire et de philosophie des sciences (Paris, 2006), 282–83 (brief summary of a presentation).Google Scholar

61 McVaugh, , “The Development of Medieval Pharmaceutical Theory” (n. 18 above).Google Scholar

62 The question of the latitude of forms can be found in Arabic and Jewish sources. With regard to the debate in the Latin world in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, see notably Duhem, Pierre, Le système du monde (Paris, 1906–13), 7:480–533; Maier, Anneliese, “Das Problem der intensiven Grösse,” in eadem, Studien zur Naturphilosophie der Spätscholastik, 2: Zwei Grundprobleme der scholastischen Naturphilosophie, Storia e Letteratura: Raccolta di studi e testi 37 (Rome, 1968), 3–109; Sylla, Edith Dudley, “Medieval Concepts of the Latitude of Forms: The Oxford Calculators,” Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge 40 (1973): 223–83; Solère, Jean-Luc, “Plus ou moins: le vocabulaire de la latitude des formes,” in L'élaboration du vocabulaire philosophique au Moyen Âge , ed. Hamesse, Jacqueline and Steel, Carlos G. (Turnhout, 2000), 437–88; Biard, Joël, “L'être et la mesure dans l'intension et la rémission des formes (Jean Buridan, Blaise de Parme),” Medioevo 27 (2002): 415–48.Google Scholar

63 McVaugh, , “The Development of Medieval Pharmaceutical Theory,” 18–19 and n. 11.Google Scholar

64 Weill-Parot, Nicolas, “L'impossible mesure de l'occulte et les tentatives de quantification (fin du xiii^e–xiv^e siècle),” Micrologus (= La mesure), forthcoming.Google Scholar

65 de Villanova, Arnaldus, De parte operativa , in idem, Opera omnia (Lyons, 1532), fol. 127r^a: “Proprietas enim licet naturaliter adveniat generato ab impressione celesti, tamen illud quod disponit generatum ad susceptionem ipsius quandoque est tota latitudo mixtionis vel complexionis que convenit speciei. Et sic proprietas est virtus specifica id est consequens speciem. Ideo convenit omnibus individuis speciei. Quandoque vero illud quod disponit generatum ad susceptionem proprietatis est aliquis particularis gradus mixtionis qui sub speciei latitudine continetur, sed accidentaliter ei subvenit in hora generationis ex fortitudine causarum concurrentium, utpote forti aspectu celestium corporum, sive hora generationis, sive hora casus principii seminalis in agro nature, seu hora nativitatis, seu hora qua res sui esse perfectionem accipit ut in figuris artificialibus.” Google Scholar

66 Ibid.: “In omni enim hora influunt partes orbis aliam et aliam virtutem generabilibus secundum quod requirit figura orbis determinata per oroscopum vel ascendens in hora relata ad generabile vel generatum quecumque sit.” Google Scholar

67 On Arnald of Villanova's view concerning “astrological images,” see Weill-Parot, , Les “images astrologiques,” 456–500; idem, “Astrologie, médecine et art talismanique à Montpellier: Les sceaux astrologiques pseudo-arnaldiens,” in L'Université de Médecine de Montpellier et son rayonnement(xiii^e–xv^e siècles), ed. Le Blévec, Daniel and Granier, Thomas (Turnhout, 2004), 157–74; Vescovini, Graziella Federici, “I cosiddetti sigilli arnaldiani,” Traditio 60 (2005): 201–42. (Despite my great respect for Prof. Federici Vescovini's scholarship, I should note that in this article she unfortunately confuses what I wrote in Les “images astrologiques” about De sigillis and what I said about another opuscule, the hermetic De duodecim imaginibus Hermetis or Liber formarum. As a result she criticizes an argument she believes I advanced in this book but which in fact I never defended.) On Arnald's attitude to magic and occult properties, see also Giralt, Sebastià, “Estudi introductori,” in de Villanova, Arnaldi, Opera medica omnia, 7: Epistola de reprobatione necromantice ficcionis (De improbatione maleficiorum), ed. Giralt, Sebastià (Barcelona, 2005), 11–198 (esp. 143–98); idem, “Proprietats: Las propiedades ocultas según Arnau de Vilanova,” Traditio 63 (2008): 327–60.Google Scholar

68 de Villanova, Arnaldus, De parte operativa , fol. 127r^a: “Sed tamen virtutem quam superiora influunt non suscipiunt nisi corpora disposita vel solum per agentia naturalia vel adminiculo artis, ut ex parte quedam individua cuiuslibet speciei acquirunt aliquam proprietatem que ceteris eiusdem speciei non convenit.” Google Scholar

69 I call “addressative” magic (in French “magie destinative”) the magic that implies acts (prayers, invocations, rituals, or other signs) by means of which the magician addresses a sign to a separate intelligence (a demon, an angel, or some other spirit); see Weill-Parot, , Les “images astrologiques,” esp. 36–37, 905; idem, “Astral Magic and Intellectual Changes (Twelfth-Fifteenth Centuries): ‘Astrological Images’ and the Concept of ‘Addressative’ Magic,” in The Metamorphosis of Magic from Late Antiquity to Early Modern Period , ed, Bremmer, J. et Veenstra, J. R. (Leuven, 2002), 167–87; idem, “L'irréductible ‘destinativité’ des images: Les voies de l'explication naturaliste des talismans dans la seconde moitié du xv^e siècle,” in L'art de la Renaissance entre science et magie , ed. Morel, Ph. (Paris, 2006), 469–81.Google Scholar

70 Weill-Parot, , Les “images astrologiques,” 456–500. Arnald also mentions the seal of the constellation of Serpentarius against poison (ibid.).Google Scholar

71 Concerning Pietro d'Abano's approach to occult properties, see Vescovini, Graziella Federici, “La concezione della virtus occulta nella dottrina medica di Arnaldo di Villanova e di Pietro d'Abano,” in Écriture et réécriture des textes philosophiques médiévaux: Volume d'hommage offert à Colette Sirat , ed. Hamesse, Jacqueline and Weijers, Olga (Turnhout, 2006), 107–35; Weill-Parot, , “Pietro d'Abano et l'occulte” (n. 13 above).Google Scholar

72 Weill-Parot, , “Pietro d'Abano et l'occulte.” Google Scholar

73 de Abano, Petrus, Conciliator controversiarum quae inter philosophos et medicos versantur (Venice, 1565; repr. in facsimile, Padua, 1985), differentia 10, propter 3, fol. 16v^a–b ; Jacquart, Danielle, “L'influence des astres sur le corps humain chez Pietro d'Abano,” in Le corps et ses énigmes au Moyen Âge , ed. Ribémont, Bernard (Caen, 1993), 73–86.Google Scholar

74 de Abano, Petrus, Conciliator, differentia 71, propter 3, fol. 108v^b (see also differentia 101, propter primum, fol. 150v^a).Google Scholar

75 Ibid., differentia 10, propter tertium, fol. 16v^b: “Modus vero particularis est quidam influxus stellaris unicuique individuo fere differenter ab alio propria nativitate aut revolutione eiusdem inditus.” Google Scholar

76 Pietro is probably thinking of Petrus Peregrinus's De magnete. Here, the arctic pole means the northern pole of the celestial sphere (it is not the arctic pole of the earth).Google Scholar

77 de Abano, Petrus, Conciliator, differentia 71, propter 3, fol. 108v^b: “et altera impressio particularis sine motu et luce proprie absque medii alteratione susceptis impressa ab aliqua virtute stellarum particulari et situ causata; cuiusmodi virtus ferri attractiva magnetis existit ex polo arctico, ut experimur, derivata. Quam quidem virtutem formae specificae cum earum consequentibus sunt secutae.” Google Scholar

78 Ibid.: “Propter quod sciendum deinceps quod haec forma cum suis appenditiis speciei datur, et non individuo, unde et forma dicitur speciei.” Google Scholar

79 Note that in differentia 10, just after the section quoted, Pietro d'Abano offers the paradigmatic example of the torpedo, a fish that paralyzes the fisherman's hand but not his net. (On the use of this example, see Copenhaver, Brian P., “A Tale of Two Fishes: Magical Objects in Natural History from Antiquity through the Scientific Revolution,” Journal of the History of Ideas 52 [1991]: 373–98.) Through this example, Pietro d'Abano asserts that the particular astral influx acts in the same way on an individual being without acting on the medium between the stars and this individual; that is the reason why the source quoted here is Alexander of Aphrodisias. In his Comment on Meteorology Alexander addresses the problem of the medium and mentions this example (on the influence of this source on debates concerning action at a distance, see my work mentioned above, n. 6). Therefore Pietro d'Abano in differentia 10 does not really link the particular astral influx and the form of a species.Google Scholar

80 d'Abano, Pietro, Conciliator, differentia 71, propter 3, fol. 108v^b: “Et quia species magis non suscipit et minus secundum rationem eiusdem, secundum tamen esse individuorum et actionis principium in magis participatur et minus: secundum amplius et minus appropinquare aut distare formae vel materiae. Videmus enim a quibus individuis speciei operationes provenire nobiliores, ut ab homine temperato, et aloe succotrino, ab aliis vero viliores sicut a morione: hic enim et si figurationem videatur habere humanam, operationibus tamen illius minime participat, sicut aloes arabicum in eius specie. Huiusmodi quoque nobilitas et imperfectio potest contingere propter homogeneitatem materiae et bonam proportionem complexionis ad eam, et propter materiei confusionem et ipsius ad complexionem improportionem aut propter virtutes seu alia a quibus forma introducitur specifica, eo quod sint materiae optime configuratae vel inconfiguratae secundum tamen magis et minus. Et ideo videmus interdum monstruosa quaedam animalia ad formam tendere humanam secundum vero minus et contra.” Google Scholar

81 Aquinas, Thomas, De operationibus occultis naturae (n. 33 above), 185–86: “Quia igitur huiusmodi virtutes et actiones a forma specifica derivantur, que est communis omnibus individuis eiusdem speciei, non est possibile quod aliquod individuum alicuius speciei aliquam talem virtutem vel actionem obtineat preter alia individua similis speciei, ex eo scilicet quod est sub determinato situ celestium corporum generatum.” Trans. McAllister, , The Letter of Saint Thomas Aquinas (n. 33 above), §16.Google Scholar

82 Aquinas, Thomas, De operationibus occultis naturae , 186: “Possibile est tamen quod in uno individuo eiusdem speciei virtus et operatio consequens speciem vel intensius vel remissius inveniatur, secundum diversam dispositionem materie et diversum situm celestium corporum in generatione huius vel illius individui.” Trans. McAllister, The Letter of Saint Thomas Aquinas, §16.Google Scholar

83 Ferrarensis, Petrus Bonus, Pretiosa margarita novella , in Manget, J.-J., Bibliotheca chemica curiosa , vol. 2 (Geneva, 1702), 8–80, cap. 16, 58b: “Virtus enim cœlestis est valde communis ad omnia, et recipit terminationem per virtutes et dispositiones eorum, quae sunt subjectum ejus in rebus elementatis et elementis, quia sicut operantur virtutes cœlestes in tota natura generabilium et corruptibilium continuo secundum materiam sibi dispositam, aut proprie aut communiter.” On this book, see notably Crisciani, Chiara, “The Conceptions of Alchemy as Expressed in the Pretiosa Margarita Novella of Petrus Bonus of Ferrare,” Ambix 20 (1973): 165–81; da Ferrara, Pietro Bono, Preziosa margherita novella , introd. and ed. Crisciani, Chiara (Florence, 1976). Note that the question of the relationship between ars and natura in the speculations about “astrological images” (see above, nn. 5 and 57) is also an issue in alchemy; see Obrist, Barbara, “Art et nature dans l'alchimie médiévale,” Revue d'histoire des sciences 49 (1996): 215–86.Google Scholar

84 da Ferrara, Pietro Bono, Pretiosa margarita novella , 58b–59a: “Sed de rebus, in quibus infunditur forma accidentalis nova et occulta a cœlestibus, ut patet in arte imaginum, oportet necessario, ut sciamus et custodiamus determinatos situs et aspectus corporum cœlestium tempore proposito: quia a solis illis imprimitur forma talis, et tempore tali, et non alio, sicut patet in libris Astrologiae de electionibus horarum, imaginum et bellorum, aedificiorum et itinere etc. Quia ergo Alchemiae ars non est talis, ideo non expedit ut haec sciat.” Google Scholar

85 Clagett, Marshall, Nicole Oresme and the Medieval Geometry of Qualities and Motions: A Treatise on the Uniformity and Difformity of Intensities Known as Tractatus de configurationibus qualitatum et motuum (Madison, WI, 1968), 113 n. 2 and 127–31; McVaugh, Michael, “Theriac at Montpellier 1285–1325 (with an Edition of the Questiones de tyriaca of William of Brescia),” Sudhoffs Archiv 56 (1972): 113–44 (esp. 126 n. 48); Hansen, Bert, Nicole Oresme and the Marvels of Nature: A Study of His ‘De causis mirabilium’ with Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary (Toronto, 1985), 45; Grant, Edward, Planets, Stars, and Orbs: The Medieval Cosmos, 1200–1687 (Cambridge, 1994), 613–14. On Oresme and astrology, see Caroti, Stefano, “La critica contro l'astrologia di Nicole Oresme e la sua influenza nel Medioevo e nel Rinascimento,” Atti della Academia nazionale dei Lincei: Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche, Memorie ser. 8, 23 (1979): 564–685.Google Scholar

86 Thorndike, Lynn, A History of Magic and Experimental Science , 8 vols. (New York, 1923–58), 3:472–510. See also Pruckner, Hubert, Studien zu den astrologischen Schriften des Heinrich von Langenstein (Leipzig, 1933); Caroti, , “La critica contro l'astrologia di Nicole Oresme,” 564–685, at 613–29; van der Lugt, Maaike, Le ver, le démon et la vierge: Les théories de la génération extraordinaire (Paris, 2004), 146–48.Google Scholar

87 Grant, , Planets, Stars, and Orbs , 613–14 n. 177.Google Scholar

88 Oresme fights against the idea of “astrological images,” especially in the different works that are part of his Quodlibet; see Weill-Parot, , Les “images astrologiques” (n. 5 above), 422–33. In the De configurationibus qualitatum et motuum he presents the view of those who argue that such images are possible, only to reject it: “Et patet alia ratione, putant enim aliqui quod figure et ymagines quedam facte in certis materiis sub quibusdam constellationibus celi mirabiles habeant efficatias et virtutes, quod, sive verum sive non, tamen multo probabilius est corpora habere efficatiam seu virtutem ex naturali figuratione qualitatis active quam ex figuratione artificiali qualitatis que secundum philosophos non est de genere activarum virtutum” (Part 1, chap. 22, ed. in Clagett, , Nicole Oresme and the Medieval Geometry of Qualities and Motions, 230.) Google Scholar

89 Torrella, Jérôme (Hieronymus Torrella), Opus praeclarum de imaginibus astrologicis , ed. Weill-Parot, Nicolas (Florence, 2008), part 4, 202: “Quaedam [vires] enim sunt quae non simul cum formis substantialibus compositorum naturalium producuntur sed post aliquod tempus productionis eorum, sicut patet de proprietate occulta adueniente homini alicui per quam abhorret pisces et hoc post longum tempus suae generationis, sicut in me expertus sum; postquam enim XXX natus sum annos, si comedo nonnulla piscium genera, mihi accidentia eueniunt grauissima, quum tamen prius non me molestarent. Et iste vires non consequntur, id est non simul sequntur generationem formarum substantialium aut earum productionem, quia videlicet quam primum tales vires seu proprietates abhorrendi pisces et huiusmodi in nato appareant, sed post tempus generationis atque natiuitatis eius, tales vires introducuntur, neque in omnibus individuis eiusdem speciei competuntur.” Google Scholar

90 See my works, n. 13 above.Google Scholar

91 Concerning the power of imagination, see notably Thorndike, Lynn, “Imagination and Magic: The Force of Imagination on the Human Body and of Magic on the Human Mind,” in Mélanges Eugène Tisserant (Vatican City, 1964), 7/2, 353–58; Jacquart, Danielle, “De la science à la magie: Le cas d'Antonio Guaineri, médecin italien du xv^e siècle,” Médecines, Littératures, Sociétés 9 (1988): 137–56; Zambelli, Paola, “L'immaginazione e il suo potere: Desiderio e fantasia psicosomatica o transitiva,” in eadem, L'ambigua natura della magia (Milan, 1991), 53–75; Wilcox, and Riddle, , “Qustâ ibn LÛqâ's Physical Ligatures” (n. 28 above); Salmón, Fernando and Cabré, Monserrat, “Fascinating Women: The Evil Eye in Medieval Scholasticism,” in Practical Medicine from Salerno to the Black Death , ed. Ballester, Luís García et al. (Cambridge, 1994), 237–88; Delaurenti, Béatrice, “La fascination et l'action à distance: Questions médiévales (1230–1370),” Médiévales 50 (2006): 137–54.Google Scholar

92 Weill-Parot, , “Science et magie” (n. 13 above).Google Scholar

93 Copenhaver, , “Scholastic Philosophy” (n. 3 above).Google Scholar