Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 41 (2010) 70–75

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological andBiomedical Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate /shpsc

Hebrew and Latin astrology in the twelfth century: the example of thelocation of pain

Charles BurnettWarburg Institute, University of London, Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AB, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o

Keywords:Astrology

Abraham Ibn EzraJohn of SevilleEpitome totius astrologiaePainal-Qabıs: ıLiber quadripartitus

1369-8486/$ - see front matter � 2010 Elsevier Ltd. Adoi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2010.04.002

E-mail address: Charles.Burnett@sas.ac.uk1 Venice, Biblioteca nazionale Marciana, lat. XIV.1742 Smithuis (2006b), pp. 23–59.3 For fuller details and sources of the information in

a b s t r a c t

The formative period of Latin and Hebrew astrology occurred virtually simultaneously in both cultures. Inthe second quarter of the twelfth century the terminology of the subject was established and the text-books which became authoritative were written. The responsibility for this lay almost entirely withtwo scholars: John of Seville for the Latins, and Abraham ibn Ezra for the Jews. It is unlikely to have beenby coincidence that the same developments in astrology occurred in these two cultures. John of Sevilleand Abraham ibn Ezra were both brought up within the Islamic culture of Spain, and their astrologywas Arabic astrology. Moreover, some scholars have thought that John’s origins were Jewish, while IbnEzra is known to have collaborated with Latin scholars (whose names are not recorded). It cannot be acoincidence that they forged the science of astrology for their respect co-religionists at almost the sametime. Yet, very little research has been done on the possible relations between the two scholars. The pur-pose of this paper is to begin to explore this relationship, and to illustrate it in particular by their shareddoctrine concern the location of pain.

� 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

When citing this paper, please use the full journal title Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

1

The formative period of Latin and Hebrew astrology occurredvirtually simultaneously in both cultures. In the second quarterof the twelfth century the terminology of the subject was estab-lished and the textbooks which became authoritative were written.The responsibility for this lay almost entirely with two scholars:John of Seville for the Latins, and Abraham ibn Ezra for the Jews.Is it a coincidence that the same developments in astrology oc-curred in these two cultures? John of Seville and Abraham ibn Ezrawere both brought up within the Islamic culture of Spain, and theirastrology was Arabic astrology. Moreover, some scholars havethought that John’s origins were Jewish, and a text on astrologicalmagic (Toz Grecus’s Book of Venus) is described as having beentranslated by John from Hebrew into Latin.1 On the other handIbn Ezra is known to have collaborated with Latin scholars (whosenames are not recorded).2 It cannot be a coincidence that they forged

ll rights reserved.

(4606), fol. 23v. For the alleged Jew

the following paragraphs see Burn

the science of astrology for their respect co-religionists at almost thesame time. Yet, very little research has been done on the possiblerelations between the two scholars. The purpose of this paper is tobegin to explore this relationship, and to illustrate it in particularby their shared doctrine concern the location of pain.

There are in fact three corpora of astrological texts one shouldconsider. Those of John of Seville, those of Abraham ibn Ezra, andthose of an Epitome of the whole of astrology in five parts, whichis attributed to John of Seville, but is strikingly close in doctrineand terminology to the corpus of Ibn Ezra.

1) First, John of Seville.3 The only facts we can be reasonably cer-tain about in connection with John of Seville are those provided byhis extensive translations from Arabic. Aside from the regimen ofhealth from Pseudo-Aristotle’s Secret of secrets and the short medi-cal-philosophical treatise of Qusta ibn Luqa De differentia spiritus etanime (‘On the difference between the spirit and the soul’), the sub-ject of the translations is entirely the science of the stars, including

ish origin of John of Seville see Ab�u Ma‘šar al-Bal�hi (1995–1996), Vol. 4, pp. 306–315.

ett (2009a,b).

C. Burnett / Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 41 (2010) 70–75 71

works on how to construct and use an astrolabe, astronomical tables(a version of the Toledan Tables) and mathematical astronomy. Insheer bulk the largest element of his oeuvre is astrology. John’s astro-logical translations formed the basis of the curriculum in astrologyfor Western Christendom for centuries to come, and were, for themost part, printed in the Renaissance.

The only translations with dates are those of Ab�u Ma‘shar’s Liberintroductorii maioris ad scientiam iudiciorum astrorum (1171, possi-bly the Spanish era equivalent of 1133), and al-Farghani’s Liber inscientia astrorum (which gives the Spanish era equivalent to1135). Two further translations can be placed within the periodof office of their dedicatees: that of Pseudo-Aristotle’s Secret of se-crets, addressed to Teresa, the queen of the Portuguese from 1112to 1128, and that of Qusta ibn Luqa’s De differentia spiritus et ani-mae dedicated to Raymond de La Sauvetat, archbishop of Toledofrom 1125 to 1152. Hence we may describe John’s activity as mostprobably falling within the third, fourth and fifth decades of thetwelfth century. As for where he was active, certain phrases inthe colophons of his translations suggest that ‘Iohannes’ eithercame from a certain ‘Seville in Limia’ or made his translations in‘Limia’. This ‘Limia’ is most plausibly identified with the region ofthe Lima valley in Portugal—an identification which receives somesupport from the fact that the extract from the Secret of secrets isdedicated to the Queen of Portugal. I am inclined (provisionally)to believe that John originated from Seville (which, of course,was still in Islamic hands during this period), but became associ-ated also with Limia because of an extended stay in that area.

Because no collaborator or interpreter is mentioned (in contrastto the case of other translations from Arabic into Latin4), John of Se-ville was probably a native speaker of Arabic. In some manuscripts ofQusta ibn Luqa’s De differentia and ‘Umar ibn al-Farrukhan al-Tabari(Omar)’s De nativitatibus he is called ‘episcopus’ (‘bishop’). This lastwork, additionally (in certain manuscripts), refers to him as a ‘mag-ister’; but the absence of this epithet elsewhere makes it unlikelythat he was educated in the Latin Schools.

2) We know much more about the biography of Abraham IbnEzra.5 He was born between 1089 and 1092 at Tudela in the Muslimkingdom of Saragossa. This town fell to King Alfonso I of Aragon in1119, but evidence suggests that Ibn Ezra moved further south intoIslamic Spain, lived in Córdoba, and visited North Africa. In ca. 1140he left Islamic Spain, and began to wander throughout Christian Eur-ope. First he appears to have been based in Rome (1140–1142), Luc-ca and Pisa (1143–1145), visiting Mantua and Verona (1146); thenhe travelled through France—being in Béziers (1148), and subse-quently in Rouen—until he arrived in England (1154) where he pos-sibly died after 1160.

Among his prolific writings on Hebrew grammar, Biblical com-mentaries, poetry, and theological monographs an important con-stituent are his astrological treatises, which dealt with everybranch of astrology, and in which the Hebrew terminology of thesubject was established. One might surmise that Ibn Ezra was sosuccessful in providing a full curriculum in astrology, that therewas felt to be less need to translate individual Arabic texts onastrology into Hebrew, while Arabic texts on philosophy and med-icine were translated wholesale. His texts were grouped togetherin what modern scholars have called ‘encyclopedias’—successive

4 See Alverny (1994), and Zonta (2006).5 For the sources of the details in the following paragraph see Sela (2001, 2003).6 See Smithuis (2006a); see pp. 251, 273–274 for the French intermediary.7 Edited in Ibn Ezra (1947), and placed in context by Mercier (2004).8 A list of manuscripts is given in Burnett (2008b).9 Zambelli (1992), pp. 226, 230, 234 and 236. The references to the Epitome are excep

translations from Arabic.10 A detailed comparison has been made by Renate Smithuis in her doctoral thesis: Smith

and tables on pp. 358–383.11 See n. 16 below.

reworkings of the same material—of which the first was composedin Italy before 1148, the second in southern France (Béziers) in1148 and the third in the Angevin territories after 1148. The trans-lations of the Hebrew titles of the individual texts show the rangeof these texts: (1) the Beginning of wisdom (on the doctrines ofastrology), (2) the Book of reasons (a commentary on the doctrines),(3) the Book of nativities, (4) the Book of elections, (5) the Book ofinterrogations, (6) the Book of luminaries (on medical astrology),and (7) the Book of the world (on general astrology). As well asbeing copied into numerous Hebrew manuscripts and being thesource of many subsequent Hebrew works on astrology, all theseworks were translated into Latin, often more than once. Most ofthe Latin versions appear to derive from the late thirteenth-cen-tury French translations of Hagin the Jew;6 the most readily avail-able are those of Pietro d’Abano, printed by Peter Liechtenstein inVenice in 1507. But in addition to his Hebrew works on astrologythere are several Latin texts on the science of the stars, and on arith-metic and geometry, that are attributed to ‘magister Abraham’, orstate that they have been ‘dictated by magister Abraham’, and areclearly the result of Ibn Ezra’s collaboration with Latin scholars. Ofthese the major text is his translation of the tables of Pisa in 1143,and the various introductions to them, of which the most elaborateis the Book of the foundations of the astronomical tables, written in1154.7

3) The Epitome of the whole of astrology is a work that consists ofan introduction to astrology (Ysagoge) and four books on the mainbranches of astrology: general astrology, nativities, interrogationsand elections, collectively referred to as the Liber quadripartitus.This work has come down to us in at least twenty-nine manu-scripts, and was printed in 1548 by Joachim Heller, under the titleEpitome totius astrologiae.8 Separate parts of the work can be foundin numerous manuscripts, and the incipit and contents of each partwere described by the author of the Speculum astronomiae, the pop-ular critical biography of texts on astrology of the mid-thirteenthcentury.9 Its character as a comprehensive textbook on astrologythat is not a translation from Arabic immediately makes it compara-ble to Ibn Ezra’s astrological ‘encyclopedia’. Moreover, the ‘presentdate’ of the composition is given as ‘1142’, within a few years ofthe encyclopedia put together by Ibn Ezra in Béziers in 1148.

When one compares the Epitome with Ibn Ezra’s encyclopedia,they show some remarkable similarities. This is especially the casefor the Ysagoge and the Beginning of wisdom.10 While it may be ex-pected that introductions to astrology would have the same mate-rial, the choice of material, and the order of its arrangement, ismuch closer between the Ysagoge and the Beginning of wisdom thanbetween either of them and other twelfth century introductions. Par-ticularly striking is the inclusion, in the description of each sign ofthe zodiac, of ninth-parts and twelfth-parts, the fixed stars with theirplanetary temperaments, and the location of pain. A similarity instyle and approach to the respective subjects can be found through-out these two ‘astrological encyclopedias’.

The alleged authorities for both ‘the author of the Epitome’ andIbn Ezra are Ptolemy, Dorothius and Hermes. Both authors, how-ever, are critical of their authorities, and frequently appeal to thedeciding factor of ‘experience/observation’, though it may besignificant (as we shall see11) that Ibn Ezra refers to his personal

tional in that almost all the other astrological texts referred to in the Speculum are

uis (2004), pp. 169–199, Ch. 3, ‘The authorship of the Ysagoge and Liber quadripartitus’

Table 1Ibn Ezra on the second place.

Ibn Ezra, Beginning of wisdom, Ch. 3:‘The second place (house)indicates money and possessions,giving and receiving, food, andhelpers’.

Al-Qabı?ı, Introduction, 1 [58]: ‘Thesecond is the place of property,livelihood (Arabic MS H adds: ‘givingand receiving, and one’s allottedportion) and helpers’.

72 C. Burnett / Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 41 (2010) 70–75

experience, while ‘Iohannes Hispalensis’ usually refers to ‘experi-ence’ in impersonal terms. They both like giving testimonia (‘wit-nesses’), which can be ‘false’, ‘middling’ or ‘perfect/complete’. Theyboth avoid calques or transcriptions of Arabic terms. The kind ofastrology found in both collections is the same: aside from the com-monly found use of the houses, triplicities, terms and decans, it reg-ularly employs the ninth-parts and twelfth-parts.

While there are undoubted similarities between the Epitomeand the works of Ibn Ezra, the attribution of the Epitome to Johnof Seville raises problem. For, in many ways, the work is verydissimilar to the astrological texts of John of Seville mentionedabove.12 For example, there is no evidence in the Epitome of theuse of the Spanish era, of the Toledan Tables, or of the Hispaniccompendium for ‘40’, which gave rise to confusion with ‘10’ in sev-eral of John of Seville’s translations.13 The terminology of the Epit-ome differs considerably from that of John of Seville’s translations:for example ‘honor’ is used instead of ‘exaltatio’ (= exaltation), ‘lap-sum/domus lapsa’ instead of ‘cadens’ (= cadent place), and ‘domi-nus vigoris’ instead of ‘almubtaz’ (= dominant planet), and so on.The eccentricity of this terminology prompted the Renaissance edi-tor, Ioachim Heller, to give the current terms of many of the tech-nical words in the margin of the printed text, most of which are, infact, the terms found in John of Seville’s translations. Again, just asArabic authorities are rarely referred to, so too Arabic translitera-tions are avoided. This is obvious, for example, in the names theauthor has chosen for the lunar mansions, which are all Latintranslations, while in John of Seville’s translation of al-Farghani’sLiber in scientia astrorum or ‘The thirty chapters’ the Arabic namesof the lunar mansions are transliterated,14 and when translationsare given, they differ from those in the Epitome. The Epitome’savoidance of Arabic words is very unusual in astrological texts,particularly in regard to the lunar mansions.15 Above all, whenthe signs and planets assigned to various cities and regions (astro-logical chorography and ascendants of the foundation-horoscopesof cities) are mentioned in the Epitome, no city in the Iberian pen-insula is mentioned, but almost all the cities and regions are Ital-ian: Rome, Sicily, Sardinia, Pisa, Lucca and Palermo. It isparticularly significant that the author implies that the sign of Pisahas been confirmed by observation: ‘dixerunt Pise signum esse Pis-cem, experimento autem .2. gradus Aquarii’ (‘They have said thatPisces is the sign of Pisa; by experience, however, it is 2� Aquar-ius’),16 a point which also occurs in Ibn Ezra’s encyclopedia,17

and, as we have seen, Ibn Ezra was in Pisa, Lucca and Rome andother parts of Central and Northern Italy.

So we are left with a puzzle: three corpora of astrological workswritten at about the same time, one by John of Seville, the other byAbraham Ibn Ezra, and the third one falling somehow between thetwo. One way of tackling the problem is looking carefully at doc-trine which is common to the three works, and in order to do thatI have taken a particular astrological doctrine which is relevant tothe subject of this book, and which happens, as far as I know, to oc-cur only in these three corpora (and their derivatives),18 namely,the location of pain in the body.

12 Some of the differences summarised below are described more fully in Burnett (200813 Burnett (2008a).14 For John of Seville’s translation of al-Farghani, Liber in scientia astrorum, Ch. 20, see Pa

edition Farghani (1546), pp. 76–79.15 Other versions of the translations of the lunar mansions can be found in the table in16 See Burnett (2008b), p. 246.17 The second Hebrew version of the Sefer ha-Olam, extant in MS Vat. Ebr. 477, fol. 89v,

emphasizes that this his own experience.18 See n. 21 below.19 Qabıs: ı (2004), pp. 137, 346–347.20 The likelihood that Ibn Ezra took these lots from al-Qabıs: ı has already been noted by

2

The first attested source of this doctrine is the Introduction toastrology by al-Qabıs: ı (fl. 945–967). Most of al-Qabıs: ı’s doctrinecan be found in earlier astrological works—especially those ofAb�u Ma‘shar, but in this case I have not located his source. HisIntroduction is one of the astrological texts translated by John of Se-ville. It was also used without acknowledgement by Ibn Ezra, whois economic in naming his Arabic sources (though he is not shyabout referring to Ptolemy, Dorotheus, Hermes, the Persians, Egyp-tians and Indians, and the Ancients in general as authorities). Al-Qabıs: ı’s Introduction to astrology was the most popular introduc-tion to astrology in the Middle Ages. It has survived in overtwenty-five Arabic manuscripts (two of which are written in He-brew script) and over 200 Latin manuscripts of the translation ofJohn of Seville.19 It provides a convenient summary of astrologicalconcepts and terms in the same way as does the Beginning of wisdom:the two texts belong to the same genre. The principal doctrines onwhich the Introduction and the Beginning of wisdom are in agreementwith each other are:

1) the description of the quarters of the circle of the twelveastrological places.

2) the description of the twelve places themselves, includingthe significance of each of the three lords of their triplicities.

3) The lots relating to historical astrology, to prices, and towater, foodstuffs, tastes, purgative drinks and poison.20

4) the days and nights of the planets, and the range of power oftheir bodies.

5) The location of pain in the body, depending on the combina-tions of planets and signs.

The question is whether Ibn Ezra is indebted to an Arabic text ofal-Qabıs: ı directly, rather than to a common source, and, if so,whether there are common features between his use of al-Qabıs: ıand that of John of Seville. In one passage where Ibn Ezra’s text,and the Arabic and Latin manuscripts of al-Qabıs: ı diverge fromeach other, it would seem that Ibn Ezra’s text is closer not onlyto the Arabic than to the Latin, but also to the readings of an Arabicmanuscript which comes from a different family from that usedJohn of Seville, namely, MS Hamidiye 856 (H) (see Table 1).

When we look at the extended passage on the location of painwe can discover more. It is continuous in the Arabic and Latinal-Qabıs: ı, but the information is inserted into the general

b).

ris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 14704, fols. 220vb–221ra and the printed

Burnett (2004), pp. 128–130, and Juste (2007), pp. 657–665.

quoted in Sela (2001), p. 102 n. 34. See now Ibn Ezra (2010), pp. 165–166. Ibn Ezra

Smithuis (2004), Ch. 5, pp. 227–228.

Table 2The locations of pain compared.

Al-Qabıs: ı, 1 [37]: In Ariete Saturnus habet pectus,Iupiter ventrem, Mars caput, Sol femora, Venuspedes, Mercurius crura, Luna genua.

Epitome, Vat. Reg. lat. 1452, fol. 58r: Dolor Saturni estibi in pectore, Iovis in corde, Martis in /B2r/ capite,Solis in coxis, Veneris in pedibus, Mercurii in tibiis,Lunae in poplite.

Ibn Ezra, Beginning of wisdom, pp. 39 ff.: But accordingto the opinion of the wise men of Egypt the painwhich Saturn arouses is in the chest, Jupiter, in theheart, Mars in the head, Sun in the testicles, Venus inthe feet, Mercury in the shanks, and the Moon in theknees.

1 [38] In Tauro, Saturnus ventrem, Iupiter dorsum,Mars collum, Sol genua, Venus caput, Mercuriuspedes, Luna crura.

Dolor Saturni in stomaco, Iovis in costis, Martis incollo, Solis in po<p>lite, Veneris in capite, Mercurii inpedibus, Lune in tybiis.

But according to the opinion of the masters of Egyptthe pains of Saturn in this sign are in the heart,Jupiter, in the belly, Mars in the neck, the Sun in theknees, Venus in the head, Mercury in the feet, and theMoon in the shanks.

1 [39] In Geminis, Saturnus ventrem, Iupiter verendaet que succedunt, Mars pectus, Sol crura [etcavillas], Venus collum, Mercurius caput, Lunafemora (pedes KW).

Dolor Saturni in ventre, Iovis in lumbis, Martis inbrachiis, Solis in tybiis, Veneris in collo, Mercurii incapite, Luna in pedibus.

But according to the opinion of the wise men of Egyptthe pain of Saturn in this sign is in the belly, Jupiter inthe loins, Mars in the shoulders, the Sun in the legs,Venus in the neck, Mercury in the head, and the Moonin the feet.

1 [40] In Cancro, Saturnus virilia [et eius succedentia],Iupiter femora, Mars pectus, Sol pedes, Venusbrachia [et humeros], Mercurius oculos (L adds ‘etcollum’), Luna caput.

Dolor Saturni in lumbis, Iovis in pene, Martis inpectore, Solis in pedibus, Veneris in manibus,Mercurius in collo, Lune in capite.

But according to the wise men of Egypt the illness ofSaturn is in the loins, Jupiter in the sexual organs,Mars in the upper belly, the Sun in the feet, Venus inthe hands, Mercury in the neck, the Moon in the head.

1 [41] In Leone, Saturnus verenda [et eiussuccedentia], Iupiter femora [et genua], Marsventrem, Sol caput, Venus cor, Mercurius humeros[et guttur], Luna collum.

Dolor Saturni in pene, Iovis in natibus, Martis in core,Solis in capite, Veneris in pectore, Mercurii in brachio,Lune in collo.

But according to the opinion of the Egyptians thepains of Saturn in it are in the sexual organs, Jupiter inthe testicles, Mars in the heart, the Sun in the head,Venus in chest, Mercury in the shoulders, the Moon inthe neck (but it also effects the seeing of the eyes).

1 [42] In Virgine, Saturnus pedes (Ar.: thighs), Iupitergenua [et eorum succedentia], Mars ventrem, Solcollum, Venus ventrem, Mercurius cor, Lunahumeros.

Dolor Saturni in natibus, Iovis in po<p>lite, Martis inventre, Solis in collo, Veneris in stomaco, Mercurius inpectore, Lune in brachiis.

But according to the opinion of the Egyptians thepains of Saturn in it Saturn are in the testicles, Jupiterin the knees, Mars in the stomach, Sun in the neck,Venus in the heart, Mercury in the chest, Moon in thearms.

1 [43] In Libra, Saturnus genua [et eorumsuccedentia], Iupiter oculos [et eorumsuccedentia], Mars verenda [et eorumsuccedentia], Sol humeros, Venus caput (Ar. HC:belly), Mercurius ventrem, Luna cor.

Dolor Saturni in oculis, Iovis in tybiis, Martis inlumbis, Solis in brachiis, Veneris in ventre, Mercurii instomaco, Luna in pectore.

But according to the opinion of the wise men of Egyptthe illness of Saturn is in the knees, Jupiter in theshanks, Mars under the belly, the Sun in the hands,Venus in the belly, Mercury in the heart, and theMoon in the chest.

1 [44] In Scorpione, Saturnus cavillas [et eorumsuccedentia], Iupiter pedes, Mars caput, [brachia etfemora], Sol cor, Venus verenda [et succedentiaeorum], Mercurius dorsum, Luna ventrem.

Dolor Saturni in tybiis, Iovis in pede, Martis in capite,Solis in pectore, Veneris in lumbis, Mercurii in ventre,Lune in stomaco.

But according to the opinion of the wise men of Egyptthe illness of Saturn is in the shanks, Jupiter in thefoot, Mars in the testicles, the Sun in the heart, Venusin the loins, Mercury in the belly and the Moon in theupper belly.

1 [45] In Sagittario, Saturnus pedes, Iupiter [crura et]caput, Mars pedes et manus, Sol ventrem, Venusfemora et brachia (Ar. HC omit), Mercuriusverenda [et cor], Luna dorsum.

Dolor Saturni in pedibus, Iovis in capite, Martis incoxis, Solis in stomaco, Veneris in pene, Mercurii inlumbis, Lune in ventre.

But according the opinion of the wise men of Egyptthe illness of Saturn is in the foot, Jupiter in the head,Mars in the testicles, the Sun in the heart, Venus inthe sexual organs, Mercury in the loins, the Moon inthe lower belly.

1 [46] In Capricorno, Saturnus caput [et pedes], Iupiter[genua et] oculos, Mars crura et humeros, Soldorsum, Venus femora [et cor], Mercurius verenda[et eorum succedentia], Luna [femora et]verendorum [succedentia].

Dolor Saturni in capite, Iovis in collo, Martis in oculo,Solis in ventre, Veneris in coxis, Mercurii in pene,Lune in lumbis.

But according to the opinion of the wise men of Egyptthe illness of Saturn Is in the head, Jupiter in the neck,Mars in the knees, the Sun in the lower belly, Venus inthe testicles and thighs, Mercury in the sexual organs,the Moon in the loins.

1 [47] In Aquario, Saturnus [caput et] collum, Iupiterhumeros, pectus [et pedes], Mars cavillas [et cor],Sol verenda [et eorum succedentia], Venus genua[et succedentia eorum], Mercurius femora [et cor],Luna verenda.

Dolor Saturni in collo, Iovis in brachiis, Martis intybiis, Solis in lumbis, Veneris in oculis, Mercurii incoxis, Lune in pectore.

But according to the opinion of the Egyptians, theillness of Saturn is in the neck, Jupiter in the handsand shoulders, Mars in the shanks, the Sun in theloins, Venus in the knees, Mercury in the thigh andtesticles, the Moon in the sexual organs.

1 [48] In Pisce, Saturnus, humeros, brachia [etcollum], Iupiter cor [et caput], Mars cavillas [etventrem], Sol femora [et eorum succedentia],Venus collum et dorsum, Mercurius crura [etverenda], Luna femora.

Dolor Saturni in brachiis, Iovis in pectore, Martis inpedibus, Solis in pene, Veneris in tybiis, Mercurii inoculis, Lune in coxis.

The Egyptians say that the illness of Saturn in it is inthe hands and shoulders, Jupiter in the chest, Mars inthe feet, Sun in the sexual organs, Venus in theshanks, Mercury in the knees, the Moon in thetesticles and thighs.

C. Burnett / Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 41 (2010) 70–75 73

description of the characteristics of each of the zodiac signs inturn in the Epitome and Ibn Ezra.21 The information is simply a listof the positions of pain or illnesses within the body depending on

21 The information is also inserted into Roger of Hereford’s Liber de tribus generalibus judiAnother derivative text is an anonymous astrological miscellany which occurs in Florence,cases John of Seville’s translation of al-Qabıs: ı is clearly the source. Erfurt, Wissenschaftlicheof the planets detached from the rest of the Introduction.

where each of the seven planets (including the Sun and Moon) isin the signs of the zodiac. No rationale is given in al-Qabıs: ı or theBeginning of wisdom, but Ibn Ezra explains the rationale in his Book

ciis astronomie, and displayed in tabular form in Appendix 2 of French (1996), p. 480Biblioteca nazionale centrale, MS Conv. soppr. J.III.28 (San Marco 180), f. 79rb. In bothAllgemeinbibliothek, Quarto 343, s. XIV, fol. 185r–v presents the passage on the pains

.

Table 3The terminology of the body parts compared.

Body part (translation of Arabic al-Qabı?ı) Latin al-Qabı?ı (Alcabitius) Epitome Ibn Ezra

1. head caput caput head2. neck collum, guttur collum neck3. shoulders, arms, hands, and throat humeri, brachia, manus, guttur brachia, manus shoulder, arms, hands4. chest, heart (fu’ad) pectus, cor pectus chest, upper belly, heart5. belly venter stomachus, cor heart, belly, upper belly6. belly, back venter, dorsum venter, costae belly, stomach, lower belly7. pubes (‘ana) verenda, virilia, venter lumbi loins, under the belly (motnayim)8. pubes (‘ana), thighs (fakhidan) femora, verenda penis sexual organs (ervah)9. thighs, upper leg (fakhidhan) femora coxae, nates testicles/thighs (pechadim)10. knees genua poples knees11. shanks, lower leg, ankles crura, cavillae tibiae shanks12. feet pedes pedes feet

74 C. Burnett / Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 41 (2010) 70–75

of reasons (which explains the astrological doctrine in his Beginningof wisdom).22

One may place the text of al-Qabıs: ı (both Arabic and Latin), theEpitome and Ibn Ezra in parallel columns (Table 2). Bold typefaceindicates cases in which the Epitome and/or Ibn Ezra diverge fromthe rationale given by Ibn Ezra in his Book of reasons; italics indi-cate where the ‘second’ house of the planet is used instead of, oras well, as the first; square brackets indicate extra words orphrases in al-Qabıs: ı. What one notices immediately is the differ-ence in terminology between the Latin al-Qabıs: ı, on the one hand,and the Epitome together with Ibn Ezra on the other. One can seethis clearly if the body parts in all three texts are arranged a capitead calcem (Table 3), in the order of the melothesia (the assignmentof the twelve signs of the zodiac to the corresponding parts of thebody).

The first thing to notice is the closeness of the Epitome and IbnEzra, in comparison to al-Qabıs: ı. On three occasions (1.46, 47 and48) the author of the Epitome evidently mistook a word for kneefor ‘eyes’ (oculi), but the terminology is generally more consistentthan that of Ibn Ezra’s The beginning of wisdom. Al-Qabıs: ı tends toinclude two body-parts under one planet-sign combination, whilethe Epitome and Ibn Ezra give only one. On the other hand, al-Qabıs: ı repeats two of the body parts (the belly and the pubes),while all four parts are clearly distinguished in the Epitome. Onething that is noticeable is a discrepancy among the different textsbetween genitalia and thighs. This confusion may arise from thefact that pechadim is the Hebrew cognate of the Arabic fakhidhan(‘thighs’), but becomes associated with pachad = fear; hence pecha-dim may mean either ‘thighs’ or ‘parts to be feared’ or ‘shamefulparts’ (the equivalent of the Latin ‘verenda’ and ‘pudenda’). Onother occasions, the differences between al-Qabıs: ı, on the onehand, and the Epitome together with Ibn Ezra on the other suggestthat different Arabic words were being translated. On two of theseoccasions we can actual recognize the differing Arabic reading inArabic manuscripts HC where John’s reading follows that of MS B(1.43 and 1.45), while on a third (1.42) Ibn Ezra and the Epitomefollow all three Arabic manuscripts against the reading of the LatinQabıs: ı. In 1.39 the Epitome and Ibn Ezra give a reading found in twoof the Latin manuscripts. The most likely explanation is that theseLatin manuscripts give an alternative Arabic reading, which corre-sponds to that in the Arabic manuscript used by Ibn Ezra. We maybe looking at the same situation in 1.40 where one Latin manu-

22 See Ibn Ezra (2007), pp. 41–42 and 215. Ibn Ezra’s explanation is summarised by Schlozodiacal sign consists basically of two steps: (a) The zodiacal sign in which the pains of the pthe head, the following sign is assigned to the neck, and so on; (b) the pain of some planet iseparate the ‘‘first” house of this planet from this zodiacal sign; if the ‘‘first” house of the plabody assigned to Aries. If, for example, the ‘‘first” house is separated by five signs from the rAries, namely, Leo, and the pain of this planet in this sign is the heart, which is the part of th21, and was glimpsed in French (1996), p. 480.

script adds ‘et collum’ (‘and the neck’) after ‘oculos’, and the Epit-ome and Ibn Ezra both have ‘collum’/‘neck’ and not ‘oculi’. Butwhen we find in 1.46 that the Epitome and Ibn Ezra have ‘col-lum’/‘neck’ where all the Latin manuscripts have ‘oculi’, anotherexplanation immediately comes to mind: the Arabic words for‘neck’ and ‘eye’ look very similar to each other when written down.The Latin translator of al-Qabıs: ı read the text one way (though MSL in 1.40 shows that there may have been some hesitation on hispart); Ibn Ezra read it the other. This is corroborated by the Hebrewtext of 1.41, in which both translations (‘neck’ and ‘eye’) are given.

There is no instance in this passage on the location of painwhere a reading of John of Seville’s Latin translation of al-Qabıs: ıcan explain a reading in Ibn Ezra or the Epitome. Moreover, if IbnEzra did use a text of al-Qabıs: ı (most likely in Arabic), he must havecorrected it in the light of the rationale of the planet–sign correla-tion which he detected; for there are several mistakes in theassignments, which are shared by all the Arabic and Latin manu-scripts known to us. On the other hand, it might still be possibleeventually to find a common source for Ibn Ezra and al-Qabıs: ı—perhaps even among the ‘wise man of Egypt’ to whom Ibn Ezracredits the theory.

If this conclusion can be sustained by comparing Ibn Ezra’s useof other Arabic astrological sources with the translations of thosesources by John of Seville (for example, Ab�u Ma‘shar’s Great intro-duction to astrology) we have confirmation that the second quarterof the twelfth century shows the independent introduction of Ara-bic astrological material into the West–through Latin translationson the one hand, and through Hebrew translations (in turn trans-lated into Latin) on the other. The Epitome totius astrologiae, in turn,would show a remarkably early introduction of the Hebrew mate-rial into Latin and would prove that, at least by the early 1140s, He-brew and Latin scholars were collaborating with each other.

Acknowledgements

I am most grateful to Renate Smithuis, Shlomo Sela, and ananonymous reader for some valuable corrections and suggestions.

References

Ab�u Ma‘šar al-Bal�hi. (1995–1996). Kitab al-mudkhal al-kabır ila ‘ilm ah:kam al-nuj�um;

Liber introductorii maioris ad scientiam judiciorum astrorum (R. Lemay, Ed.) (9vols.). Napoli: Istituto universitario Orientale.

mo Sela as follows (ibid., p. 300): ‘The procedure to find the pain of a planet in somelanets are being sought is considered as equivalent to Aries, i.e., this sign is assigned to

n this sign is then established by counting, counterclockwise, the number of signs thatnet coincides with this sign, the planet in this sign is the head, namely, the part of the

elevant zodiacal sign, the ‘‘first” house is considered as equivalent to the fifth sign aftere body normally assigned to Leo’. The rationale is also explained in Ibn Ezra (1998), p.

C. Burnett / Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 41 (2010) 70–75 75

Alverny, M.-T. d’. (1994). Les traductions à deux interprètes, d’arabe en languevernaculaire et de langue vernaculaire en latin. In eadem, La transmission destextes philosophiques et scientifiques au Moyen Age (art. III). Aldershot: Variorum.(First published in Traduction et traducteurs au Moyen Age: Actes du colloqueinternational du CNRS organise a Paris, Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes,les 26–28 mai 1986 (pp. 193–206). Paris: Editions du CNRS, 1989)

Burnett, C. (2004). Lunar astrology: The varieties of texts using lunar mansion, withemphasis on Jafar Indus. Micrologus, 12, 43–133.

Burnett, C. (2008a). Ten or forty? A confusing numerical symbol in the Middle Ages.In J. W. Dauben et al. (Eds.), Mathematics celestial and terrestrial: Festchrift fürMenso Folkerts zum 65. Geburtstag (pp. 81–89). Acta Historica Leopoldina, 54.Halle: Deutsche Academie der Naturforscher Leopoldina.

Burnett, C. (2008b). Weather forecasting, lunar mansions and a disputedattribution: The Tractatus pluviarum et aeris mutationis and Epitome totiusastrologiae of ‘Iohannes Hispalensis’. In A. Akasoy, & W. Ravens (Eds.), Islamicthought in the Middle Ages: Studies in text, translation and transmission in honourof Hans Daiber (pp. 219–265). Leiden: Brill.

Burnett, C. (2009a). John of Seville and John of Spain: A mise au point. In idem,Arabic into Latin in the Middle Ages: The translators and their intellectual and socialcontext (art. VI). Farnham: Ashgate. (First published in Bulletin de philosophiemédévale, 44, 2002, 59–78)

Burnett, C. (2009b). Magister Iohannes Hispalensis et Limiensis’ and Qusta ibnLuqa’s De differentia spiritus et animae: A Portuguese contribution to the artscurriculum? In idem, Arabic into Latin in the Middle Ages: The translators and theirintellectual and social context (art. V). Farnham: Ashgate. (First published inMedaevalia, Textos e Estudos, 7–8, 1995, 221–267)

Farghani. (1546). Alfragani astronomorum peritissimi compendium id omne quod adAstronomica rudimenta spectat complectens Ioanne Hispalense interprete (John ofSeville, Trans.). Paris.

French, R. (1996). Foretelling the future: Arabic astrology and English medicine inthe late twelfth century. Isis, 87, 453–480.

Ibn Ezra, A. (1939). The beginning of wisdom. An astrological treatise by Abraham ibnEzra (1148) (R. Levy, & F. Cantera, Eds.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.

Ibn Ezra, A. (1947). El libro de los fundamentos de las Tablas astronómicas (J. M. MillàsVallicrosa, Ed.) Madrid: [s.n.].

Ibn Ezra, A. (1998). The beginning of wisdom. (M. B. Epstein, Trans. & Annotat.). [S.l.]:ARHAT.

Ibn Ezra, A. (2007). The book of reasons (S. Sela, Ed., Trans. & Annotat.). Leiden: Brill.Ibn Ezra, A. (2010). The book of the world (S. Sela, Ed., Trans. & Annotat.). Leiden:

Brill.Ioannes Hispalensis. (1548). Epitome totius astrologiae (I. Heller, Ed.). Nuremberg: I.

Montanus et U. Neuber.Juste, D. (2007). Les Alchandreana primitifs. Leiden: Brill.Mercier, R. (2004). The lost Zij of al-Sufi in the twelfth-century tables for London

and Pisa. In idem, Studies on the transmission of medieval mathematicalastronomy (art. VIII). Aldershot: Ashgate.

Qabıs: ı. (2004). Al-Qabıs: ı (Alcabitius). The introduction to astrology (C. Burnett, K.Yamamoto, & M. Yano, Eds.). London & Turin: The Warburg Institute–NinoAragno Editore.

Sela, S. (2001). Abraham Ibn Ezra’s scientific corpus: Basic constituents and generalcharacterization. Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 11, 91–149.

Sela, S. (2003). Abraham ibn Ezra and the rise of medieval Hebrew science. Leiden:Brill.

Smithuis, R. (2004). Abraham Ibn Ezra the astrologer and the transmission of Arabicscience to the Christian West. Ph.D. thesis, University of Manchester.

Smithuis, R. (2006a). Abraham Ibn Ezra’s astrological works in Hebrew and Latin:New discoveries and exhaustive listing. Aleph, 6, 239–338.

Smithuis, R. (2006b). Science in Normandy and England under the Angevins: Thecreation of Avraham ibn Ezra’s Latin works on astronomy and astrology. In G. Busi(Ed.), Hebrew to Latin, Latin to Hebrew: The mirroring of two cultures in the age ofhumanism (pp. 23–59). Berlin: Institut für Judaistik, Freie Universität Berlin.

Zambelli, P. (1992). The ‘Speculum astronomiae’ and its enigma. Dordrecht: KluwerAcademic.

Zonta, M. (2006). The Jewish mediation in the transmission of Arabo-Islamic scienceand philosophy to the Latin Middle Ages. Historical overview and perspectivesof research. In A. Speer, & L. Wegener (Eds.), Wissen über Grenzen: ArabischesWissen und lateinisches Mittelalter (pp. 89–105). Miscellanea Mediaevalia, 33.Berlin: W. de Gruyter.