Thābit ibn Qurra "On Talismans" and Ps.-Ptolemy "On images 1-9" together with the "Liber prestigiorum Thebidis" of Adelard of Bath

About this book

"This book contains a reconstruction of Thābit ibn Qurra's On Talismans, based on a recently-discovered Judaeo-Arabic text in the Cairo Genizah and the Latin versions. On Talismans, probably written in Baghdad in the late ninth century, was the most authoritative medieval text on the procedure for making talismans that depended for their efficacy on the natural influences of the stars. The Genizah manuscripts also include the first nine talismans of the On the Images on the Decans of the Signs attributed to Ptolemy, a work which forms a natural complement to Thābit's text and is therefore included in this edition. Editions of the major excerpts of, and quotations from, these two texts in Hebrew, Arabic and Greek, have been added, and the Latin translation of another (lost) Arabic version of Thabit's text - the Liber prestigiorum Thebidis - made by Adelard of Bath, completes the volume. Adelard's version adds elements of ceremonial magic (including prayers to spiritual forces) to the effects of the stars. The texts edited here are essential sources for our knowledge of the theory and practice of astrological talismans in the Middle Ages and early modern period"--