chapter 20
, I, 473.
[2820] H. C. Lea, _A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages_, III, 440.
[2821] Diff. 2, BN 2598, fol. 109r.
[2822] Diff. 113.
[2823] Canon. Misc. 190, fol. 83r. Some of the figures may very likely have been miscopied by the writer of the MS.
[2824] See Diff. 9, 10, 16, 64, 101, 113.
[2825] Diff. 10.
[2826] Diff. 113.
[2827] Diff. 64.
[2828] _Idem._
[2829] Diff. 9.
[2830] Diff. 10.
[2831] Diff. 64.
[2832] _Firmicus Maternus_, ed. Kroll et Skutsch, II (1913), p. xxxii.
[2833] Diff. 113 and 156.
[2834] Diff. 135.
[2835] Diff. 64 and 156.
[2836] Diff. 9 and 156.
[2837] Diff. 10.
[2838] Diff. 9.
[2839] _De motu octave spere_, IV, 2, in Canon. Misc. 190, fol. 83r, “ut veritas fidei credere nos compellit cum agens liberius potentiam habeat super materiam omnifariam.”
[2840] _Conciliator_, Diff. 64, 113, 135.
[2841] BN 2598, fol. 101v, “fascinatio animalis occupans vires ut sui compos esse non valeat, actum venereum impediens.” It is hard to say if _animalis_ should be translated “animal” or “of the soul.”
[2842] _Conciliator_, Diff. 64.
[2843] _Ibid._, Diff. 135, “confidentia est intentio vehementer apprehensioni occulte impressa.”
[2844] _Ibid._, Diff. 156.
[2845] BN 2598, fol. 101r, “ars dicta notaria fortunati.”
[2846] Diff. 49.
[2847] Diff. 105.
[2848] Book XI, p. 933 (Stephanus).
[2849] Diff. 64.
[2850] A serpent of Nubia of the thickness of two fists, with a sharp-pointed head and of green color.
[2851] Colle (1824) III, 146.
[2852] Diff. 178. “Et iam testificati sunt mihi duo amicorum fideles argentum arte decoctionis fecisse verum omni examine non tamen valde lucrari aperte.”
[2853] See above pp. 262-3.
[2854] For a similar image mentioned by Arnald of Villanova see above, p. 858.
[2855] See above p. 546.
[2856] “De partibus occidentalibus”; this may be a slip of the copyist, or a careless retention by Peter of the wording of some Arabic writer.
[2857] Addit. 37079, fol. 106r, “Nunc autem periit fides sigillorum. Nota bene. Quoniam tam illegalis quam allegans ad vos sigillata portatur.”
[2858] J. G. Frazer (1911) I, 305, gives some instances from Mongolia of use of “bezoar stones as instruments of rain” combined with incantations. Here “bezoar” is used in the sense of a stone found in the stomach or intestines of an animal.
[2859] Diff. 1.
[2860] Naudé (1625), p. 381.
[2861] _Ibid._, p. 390.
[2862] Diff. 156.
[2863] Diff. 1.
[2864] Tomasini (1630), p. 22.
APPENDIX I
PREVIOUS ACCOUNTS OF PETER OF ABANO
[Sidenote: Original sources.]
As is usually the case with past authors and scholars, Peter of Abano’s own works[2865] are the best source concerning the events of his life as well as his learning and superstition. Another important document is his will, published by Verci, whose _History of the Trevisan Mark_ includes some other documents bearing upon Peter’s career.[2866] Other contemporary source-material connected with Peter or members of his family has been noted by Gloria in his collection of material concerning the University of Padua,[2867] or by even more recent investigators. Less valuable are the inscriptions, chiefly sepulchral or eulogistic, which older writers reported but whose dates are late or uncertain. In a MS of the fifteenth century[2868] a page between two of Peter’s treatises is devoted to a “Catalogue of writings which Peter of Abano partly composed himself, partly translated from the Greek.” The list has not, I think, been noted by previous writers on Peter of Abano, but adds little to our knowledge of his compositions. What the sources for Peter’s life are, however, appears in more detail in the appendices which follow and in the notes to the text.
[Sidenote: Michael Savonarola.]
What we have to consider further at present are the previous secondary accounts of Peter which may be reckoned as of some importance. The first occurs in the work on great citizens of Padua composed about the middle of the fifteenth century[2869] by Michael Savonarola, the noted physician and medical writer and grandfather of the Florentine reformer, Girolamo Savonarola. Michael at least appreciated Peter’s learning and shared in many respects his point of view, and, while he makes some assertions which we must regard as extremely exaggerated, if not entirely legendary, seems to have had access to documents which we no longer possess as well as to local tradition. He states that he treasures in his possession the original manuscript of the _Conciliator_ in Peter’s own handwriting; and he mentions having read with great pleasure an abundance of letters by which the people of Padua had recalled Peter from Paris to their midst. Savonarola’s account, however, is brief.[2870]
[Sidenote: Secondary accounts since 1500.]
Scardeone, who wrote in the sixteenth century _On the Antiquity of the City of Padua_,[2871] can scarcely be regarded as so good an authority as Savonarola, but he makes new assertions concerning Peter’s life and his account has been much followed by modern writers. In the early seventeenth century Naudé included Peter in his defense of great men who had been charged with magic,[2872] but incorrectly gave the date of his death as 1305, while Tomasini gave 1316 as the date and included a portrait of Peter in his _Eulogies of Illustrious Men adorned with pictures_.[2873] I have not seen the account of Peter in Duchastel’s _Lives of Illustrious Physicians_,[2874] published at Antwerp in 1618, nor Goulin’s _A Historical and Critical Notice on the Life of Abano_,[2875] printed in 1715; but have used an article with a similar title which Count Gian-Maria Mazzuchelli[2876] published in 1741 and which included a bibliography of Peter’s works. Tiraboschi, in his _History of Italian Literature_,[2877] corrected and supplemented Mazzuchelli on a number of points and in general displayed a sounder judgment than previous writers, although he still retained some of their errors. A further step in the study of Peter of Abano was taken by Colle who published a monograph concerning him in 1823,[2878] which he reprinted in 1825 with some variations in his _Scientific and Literary History of the University of Padua_.[2879] A monograph by Ronzoni in 1878[2880] does not seem to have made any new contributions, but in 1884 Gloria adduced new source-material in his _Monuments of the University of Padua_,[2881] and pointed out errors in Colle’s account. Sante Ferrari discussed Peter’s contributions to biology in a pamphlet published in 1900,[2882] when it was stated that he would soon issue a volume upon Peter, which has been supplemented in 1918 by a further study. Meanwhile in 1912 B. Nardi discussed “The theory of the soul and the generation of forms according to Peter of Abano,”[2883] and in 1916 Antonio Favaro wrote on “Pietro d’Abano ed suo ‘Lucidator astrologiae’.”[2884]
FOOTNOTES:
[2865] An account of the editions and MSS of them will be found in Appendix II.
[2866] G. B. Verci, _Storia della Marchia Trevigiana e Veronese_, Venice, 1786-1791, in Tome VII (not VIII, as it is usually incorrectly cited).
[2867] Andrea Gloria, _Monumenti della Università di Padova (1222-1318), Presentata il 29 dicembre 1884, Memorie del Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti_, vol. XXII, pp. 583-9. This publication, however, is rather an account from the monuments than the monuments themselves, of which Gloria printed only a limited number of copies and which I have not seen.
[2868] Canon. Misc. 46, fol. 30v.
[2869] Muratori estimated that Savonarola completed the _Libellus de magnificis ornamentis regiae civitatis Paduae_ soon after 1445.
[2870] It is contained in Muratori, _Rerum Italicarum Scriptores_, XXIV, 1135-8.
[2871] Bernardino Scardeone, _De antiquitate urbis Patavii et claris civibus Patavinis libri tres ... eiusdem appendix de sepulchris insignibus exterorum Patavii iacentium_, Venice, Volgrisi, 1558. I have used the edition of Basel, 1560, where the account of Peter occurs at pp. 260-2. It is also printed in Graevius, _Thesaurus antiquitatum et historiarum Italiae_, 1725, Tom. VI, Pars. 3.
[2872] Gabriel Naudé, _Apologie pour tous les grands personages qui ont esté faussement soupçonnez de Magie_, Paris, 1625, pp. 380-91.
[2873] Jac. Phil. Tomasini, _Illustrium virorum elogia iconibus exornata_, Padua, 1630, p. 20.
[2874] Duchastel, _Vitae illustrium medicorum qui toto orbe ad haec usque tempora floruerunt_, Anvers, 1618. I presume this is the “Castellan” whom Naudé cites.
[2875] Goulin, _Notice historique et critique sur la vie d’Abano, in Mémoires littéraires et critiques pour servir à l’histoire de la médecine_, Paris, 1715, p. 15.
[2876] Mazzuchelli, _Notizie storiche e critiche intorno alla vita di Pietro d’Abano, in Raccolta d’opuscoli scientifici e fisiologici_, vol. XXIII, Venice, 1741.
[2877] Tiraboschi, _Storia della Letteratura Italiana_, Modena, 1772-1795, vol. V (1775), pp. 152-9.
[2878] Francesco Maria Colle, _Notizie sulla vita e sulle opere di Pietro d’Abano, in Opuscoli Filologici_, Padua, 1823, pp. 7-36.
[2879] Colle, _Storia Scientifico-Letteraria dello Studio di Padova_, Padua, 1824, four vols., III (1825), 128-55.
[2880] Ronzoni, _Della vita e delle opere di Pietro d’Abano_, Rome, 1878, in _Atti della R. Accademia dei Lincei, serie terza, Memorie della classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche_, II (1878), 526-50.
[2881] See above, p. 914, note 3.
[2882] Sante Ferrari, _Contribuzioni alla storia della biologia_; _Pietro d’Abano_, Genoa, Ciminago, 1900, 23 pp.
[2883] B. Nardi, _La teoria dell’ anima e la generazione delle forme secondo Pietro d’Abano_, in _Rivista di filosofia neo-scolastica_, IV (1912), 723-37.
[2884] _Atti del R. Istituto Veneto_, LXXV, 515-27.
APPENDIX II
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PETER OF ABANO’S WRITINGS
[Sidenote: Arrangement.]
The following order will be observed in this list of Peter’s works. First those to which an exact or probable date can be assigned will be taken up in chronological order. Next will be listed those which are undated but undoubtedly genuine. Last will be mentioned those of dubious or spurious authorship. As Peter’s translations of the astrological treatises of Abraham Aben Ezra are closely connected with those of Henry Bate, and as Abraham and Bate are names of considerable importance in the history of astrological literature, a separate appendix following this one will be devoted to them and Peter’s relations to their work. The following lists of MSS for Peter’s various works can probably be greatly added to, but the present bibliography is fuller than any preceding one.
[Sidenote: Translation of Abraham Aben Ezra, 1293.]
Aside from Latin editions of single works (such as the _De nativitatibus_, Ratdolt, 1485, Cologne, 1537, which is not Peter’s original Latin version anyway; and the _De luminaribus et criticis diebus_, 1508, 1544; _de criticis diebus_, 1496, 1550) the only inclusive edition seems to be:
Abrahe Avenaris Judei ... in re judiciali opera, ab excellentissimo Philosopho Petro de Abano post accuratam castigationem in Latinum traducta, Ex officina Petri Liechtenstein, Venetiis, 1507. For further account of this edition and the MSS see Appendix III.
[Sidenote: The _Physiognomy_, 1295.]
Incipit liber compilationis phisonomie a Petro padubanensi in civitate Parisiensi.... Viro fulgenti domino Bardeloni de bocosis mantue honorandissimo capitaneo generali Petrus padubanensis parisius philosophie minimus alumnorum grata agere cum salute. Ed. Padua, 1474.
Decisiones Physionomiae ... a Blondo medico ... compertae inque lucem productae. Venice, 1548.
The earliest MS that I have seen is
BN 16089, 13-14th century, fols. 98r-113, “Incipit liber compilationis physonomie a magistro petro de padua in civitate parisiensi.... Nobilitate generis urbanitatum titulis viro fulgenti domino bardelloni mantue honorabilissimo capitaneo generali de bona coxis petrus de padua parisius philosofie minimus alumpnorum grata agere cum salute.”
Practically the same is
BN 2598, fols. 87r-98r, “Explicit liber compilationis physonomie per petrum de padua anno domini millesimo ducentesimo nonagesimo quinto.”
Other MSS, all of the 15th century, are:
BM Addit. 37079, fols. 3r-81v. Here the captain-general’s name is spelled “Bardeloni ... de Bonaconsis” and the Explicit gives the precise date, May 23, 1295.
BL Canon. Misc. 46, fols. 1-30, “Liber Physionomiae clarissimi viri Petri de Appono Patavini ab eo in civitate Parisiensi aeditus.”
CLM 637, fols. 12-66.
Vienna 5307, fols. 23-32.
The work is listed in the catalogue of the MSS of Amplonius at Erfurt, written in 1412, “Math. 29, Egregius liber Petri Paduani de phisionomia,” but seems to have disappeared from that collection since then.
[Sidenote: _Problems_ of Alexander of Aphrodisias.]
Escorial f-I-11, 14th century (here we first have the Problems of Aristotle, or perhaps Peter’s commentary on them “secundum speciem compilationis” and “secundum novam translationem,” then), fols. 31-42, “Incipiunt problemata alexandri affrodiseos translata p. M. petrum Aponensem padue de greco in latinum. Archo. tr. unico ... / ... aut diversa inferiorum et superiorum molle figuratione. Explicit liber problematum alexandrii affrodiseos translatus per petrum padubanensem padue de greco in latinum MCCC secundo XV die decembris et sunt omnia problemata numero 197.” On the other hand, the list of Peter’s works contained in Canon. Misc. 46, speaks of these Problems as having “differentiae quinquaginta.”
[Sidenote: Translations of Galen.]
CLM 5, written in 1304 A. D., fol. 181, Galeni de optima corporis nostri compositione et bona habitudine translatus per Petrum medicum Paduanum.
S. Marco XIV, 6, written at Bologna in 1305 A. D., fols. 68-106, contains Peter’s completion of the translation of the Therapeutic Method, begun by Burgundio of Pisa.
Vienna 2294, 14th century, fols. 1-82v, De ingenio sanitatis quod deficiebat de translatione Burgundionis (usque ad libri xiv, c. 12) complete translatum per P. de Albano de Padua.
In the list of his works in Canon. Misc. 46 Peter is credited with the translation of six of Galen’s treatises, namely: de cholera nigra, de utilitate particularium, de optima compositione, de tabe, liber creticorum, and a sixth title which I did not clearly make out, “Item transtulit librum eiusdem de re fa (or sa, perhaps sanitate) de verbo ad verbum non sicut ille abreviatur.” This last translation was in 18 chapters.
[Sidenote: The _Conciliator_, 1303.]
Conciliator differentiarum philosophorum et precipue medicorum. Printed eight times before 1500 and several times thereafter. Most editions are to be found in the British Museum, but it does not have the first edition of 1471, Venetiis apud Octavianum Scotum, although it possesses the Venetian editions of 1521 and 1526, which are omitted from the bibliographies of Mazzuchelli and Colle. I have chiefly used, at the John Crerar Library, Chicago, the edition of 1526, and at the British Museum the very rare second edition, Mantua, 1472. The editions of 1476, 1483, 1490, and 1496 are also found in America (CFCB).
Quaestiones de febribus, pp. 217-40, in a collection of various authors on fevers printed in 1576, are simply nine Differentiae from the Conciliator.
Not many MSS appear to have survived; some are:
BN 6961, 1384 A. D., conciliator discordiarum medicinalium.
BN 6962, 15th century.
Library of the Dukes of Burgundy, 10871, early 16th century, Petri de Abano, Conciliator de medicinis, “Ad melius intelligendum.”
Medic. 54, “Egregie questiones Petri Paduani consiliatoris,” in the 1412 A. D. catalogue of Amplonius, seems no longer in that collection.
Harleian 3747, 15th century, fol. 233, Petri de Ebano de balneis, is probably an extract from the Conciliator.
Vienna 5289, 15th century, fol. 15r, Cura epidimiae, “Recipe radices pedis corvini ... / ... adiustionem prohibitum,” ascribed to Peter and immediately followed by his De venenis, is perhaps also an extract from the Conciliator.
[Sidenote: _On the astrolabe._]
It appears to have been printed twice but I have not seen either edition:
Astrolabium planum in tabulis ascendens continens qualibet hora atque minuto aequationes domorum coeli significationes imaginum moram nati in utero matris cum quodam tractatus nativitatum necnon horas inaequales pro quolibet climate mundi, Venice, 1488; and 1502 (Luc’ Antonio de Giunta).
Perhaps it is the same as the following work ascribed to Peter in a MS at Munich which I have been unable to inspect:
CLM 22048, 15th century, 176 fols., De signis celestibus eorumque significatione et potestate, cum multis tabulis astronomicis.
Kroll and Skutsch, in their edition of Julius Firmicus Maternus, II (1913), xxviii, list what appears to be another edition of the same year, 1488, at Augsburg, and which they say was reprinted in 1494 and often thereafter.
Opus Astrolabii plani in tabulis: a Iohanne Angeli artium liberalium magistro a nouo elaboratum; explicit feliciter. Erhardi ratdolt Augustensis viri solertis: eximia industria: et mira imprimendi arte: qua nuper veneciis: nunc Auguste vindelicorum excellet nominatissimus. Vigesimoseptimo kalendas Novembris. M. CCCC. LXXXVIII. Laus deo.
This edition, Kroll and Skutsch state, contained portions of the Mathesis of Firmicus, and some notes which Peter of Abano had added to the astrological images (Kroll et Skutsch, II, xxxii). Whether these brief notes are Peter’s sole connection with the Astrolabium planum, they do not make clear.
[Sidenote: _On the motion of the eighth sphere_, 1310.]
I have seen it stated somewhere that it forms a part of the preceding work. I have read the treatise in the first of the following MSS:
Canon. Misc. 190, 1445 A. D., fols. 78r-83v, Tractatus motus octave spere.
Cod. Vatic. Palat. Lat. 1377, 14-15th century, fols. 1r-5r, “Incipit tractatus quem composuit magister Petrus Paduanus in motu octave spere et sequitur capitulum primum prohemiale in operis causa et ipsius intentione. Quoniam iuxta Ptholomeum rerum quippe causas ... / ... inde causa existit prefati. Explicit tractatus motus octave spere ordinatus a magistro Petro Paduanensi anno gratiae 1310.”
Vienna 5498, 15th century, fols. 60r-70v, “Libellus in motu octave sphere.”
[Sidenote: The _Lucidator_, 1310.]
The fuller title, “Lucidator dubitabilium astronomie,” is used by Peter himself in citing the work in the Prohemium to his treatise on the motion of the eighth sphere.
BN 2598, following the Physonomia, fols. 99r-125v, “Quoniam astrologyce considerationis ambiguitates....” At fol. 125v the copyist, Petrus Collensis, whom Duhem characterizes as “scribe aussi maladroit qu’ignorant latiniste,” adds his name and a table of contents comprising ten questions. But the last four of these do not seem to be discussed in the text, of which the last three pages contain rather the beginning of the treatise on the motion of the eighth sphere. Therefore we have only the preface and first six Differentiae of the Lucidator. No copy of the Lucidator was known before Duhem, Études sur Léonard de Vinci, 1906-1909, I, 50-51, called attention to this MS.
[Sidenote: Commentary on the _Problems_ of Aristotle, 1310.]
Expositio in librum problematum Aristotelis, Mantua 1475; Padua, 1482, 1501, 1520. The editio princeps of 1475 is not in the British Museum, although it has the other three editions, but copies of it exist in America (CFCB). The 1482 edition is said to have really been printed at Venice by Herbort. I have consulted the edition of 1482 in this country at the Columbia University Library. The Incipit in the 1482 edition reads, “Expositio praeclarissimi atque eximii artium ac medicinae doctoris Petri de Ebano Patavini in librum Problematum Aristotelis feliciter incipit.”
But the Explicit is given imperfectly in this 1482 edition and may better be repeated after a Venetian MS, S. Marco XII, 84, 14th century, fols. 1-139, “Explicit expositio succincta compilationis problematum Aristotelis quam Petrus edidit Padubanensis et a nullo prius interpretante; incepta quidem Parisius et laudabiliter Paduae terminata anno legis Christianorum millesimo trecentesimo decimo cum laude Dei altissimi cuius nomen sit benedictum per saecula, amen.” The Explicit as given in the first edition similarly stated that Peter composed the work
## partly in Paris and finished it in Padua in 1310. The
Venetian MS just mentioned omits the text of Aristotle and gives only Peter’s commentary.
BN 6540. An illuminated MS with a picture at the beginning of a smooth-shaven man in gown and hood which is possibly meant for Peter. This MS would presumably be the autograph, were the MSS Catalogue right in dating it in 1310 A. D.; but I think that the date when the Explicit states that the work was completed has been incorrectly assumed to be the time when the MS was written. There seems to be nothing about the MS to indicate that it was written as early as 1310.
BN 6541, 14th century.
BN 6541A, 15th century.
BN 6542, 1385 A. D., per m. de Jenduno (i.e. Jean de Jandun) elucidata et declarata.
BN 6543, 14th century.
Arsenal 723, 15th century, 286 fols. This also begins with the prologue of Jean de Jandun who lectured on the work at Paris from a copy of Peter’s Commentary given him by the famous Marsiglio of Padua.
Mazarine 3520, 14th century. According to the MSS Catalogue, the prologue differs from that in the 1519 (1520?) edition, but the text is the same except that it stops in the midst of the 28th problem under Particula X.
Digby 77, 14th century, fols. 57-82, Summa Problematum Aristotelis “secundum Petrum Paduanensem.”
BM Addit. 21978, 1477 A. D. Two other translations of Aristotle’s Problems accompany Peter’s work in this MS.
Peterhouse 79, 14th century, “Expl. prior exposicio huius libri per petrum padubanensem incepta parisius et finita padue cum gaudio magno, deo sit honor.”
[Sidenote: _On poisons_, 1316 (?).]
Tractatus de venenis (also in the MSS, “Pollex de venenis” or “Pollex venenorum”), Mantua 1472 (or 1473?); Padua, 1473; also in 1484, 1490, 1495, 1515, 1555, and, with the Conciliator, in 1476, 1496, 1499, and 1521. CFCB also lists separate editions of 1475, 1487, 1498, and 1500.
Amplon. Q. 222, mid. 14th century, fols. 227-37.
CLM 77, 1386 A. D., fols. 142-5.
CLM 184, 1439-1444 A. D., fol. 272-.
CLM 257, 15th century, fol. 111-.
Berlin 909, 15th century, fol. 107-.
Vienna 2358, fols. 150-7; 4751, fols. 218-37; 5289, fols. 16r-19v; 5398, fols. 197-204; all of 15th century.
BM Addit. 37079, 15th century, fols. 83r-131v.
Canon. Misc. 46, fol. 31-; 455, fols. 176-83; both 15th century.
Bodleian 484 (Bernard 2063, #26), fols. 206-26.
Vendôme 243, 18 Jan. 1441, fols. 176-83.
Arsenal 873, 15th century, fol. 97-.
BN nouv. acq. 1789, moyen format, fols. 99-110.
Library of Dukes of Burgundy, 8554, 15th century.
Bibl. Naz. Turin H-II-16, 15th century, fol. 115v.
Naples XII-G-78, 15th century, in Italian.
Vicenza 328, in Italian.
Volterra 1, 16th century.
Florence, Nelli 243, 16th century; 374, 18th century.
Riccard. 1177, 15th century, fols. 7-13.
[Sidenote: _Addition to Mesue._]
Petri Apponi in librum J. Mesue (Yuhanna ibn Masawaih) additio, fols. 100r-129 in the 1471 edition of Yuhanna ibn Masawaih, fols. 111-21 in the 1495 edition. Also printed in 1485, 1491, 1497, 1513, 1523, 1531, 1541, 1551, 1602, 1623.
S. Marco XIV, 42, 14th century, fols. 194-222.
CLM 8, completus Paduae ann. 1464, fols. 120-38, Additiones libri Mesuae ut communiter traditur Francisci pede montium, immo Conciliatoris. In the 1495 edition additions by Francis of Piedmont follow those of Peter of Abano.
CLM 13, fol. 223-; 81, 14-15th century; 25061, 15th century, fols. 337-8.
Sloane 3124, 15th century, fols. 276-323.
[Sidenote: Dioscorides.]
Dioscorides, De materia medica, Colle, 1478. “Explicit dyascorides quem petrus paduanensis legendo corexit et exponendo que utiliora sunt in lucem deduxit.”
Dioscorides digestus alphabetico ordine additis annotatiunculis brevibus et tractatu de aquarum natura, Lugduni, 1512. This is said to be a reproduction of the 1478 edition.
BN 6820, 14th century, fols. 1-72r, words the Explicit a little differently from the edition of 1478: “Explicit dyascorides quem petrus paduanensis legendo correxit et exponendo que occultiora in lucem deduxit.”
There are said to be a number of MSS of this medieval enlarged Latin Dioscorides, which indeed Wellman (“Dioskurides” in PW) calls “the most widely-disseminated handbook of pharmacy, which dominated the whole later middle ages,” but Peter’s edition of it is not well distinguished from preceding ones. Wellmann, for example, says nothing of Peter’s commentary and corrections.
[Sidenote: Pseudo-Hippocrates.]
Libellus de medicorum astrologia a Petro de Abbano in latinum traductus, Venice, Ratdolt, 1485 (in “Opusculum repertorii pronosticon in mutationes aeris”). Many copies in America (CFCB).
Tractatulus Hypocratis medicorum optimi De aspectibus planetarum versus Lunam (a Petro de abbano in latinum traductus), Leipzig, 1505.
Printed with Magninus, Regimen Sanitatis, 1500, 1517, 1524.
Printed in 1585 and 1626 by Z. T. Bovio.
Also found with the works of Hippocrates and Galen in various editions and in the 1497 edition of Rasis.
MSS are also numerous, but catalogues usually do not state whether William of Moerbeke or Peter of Abano is the translator. It is ascribed to the former, however, in
BN 7337, pp. 78-84, Liber hyppocratis de prognosticationibus egritudinum secundum motum lune traductus a domino fratre Guglielmo de Morbercha archiepiscopo Corintino ordinis predicatorum.
Vienna 5498, 15th century, fols. 53-59, our treatise precedes that of Peter on the motion of the eighth sphere.
Vienna 5275, 16th century, fol. 195, Pseudo-Hippocrates, Fragmentum libri de medicorum astrologia a Petro de Abano in latinum sermonem traducti.
Sloane 780, 15th century, fols. 55v-58v, “De iudiciis a lune observatione formandis de sanitate vita et morte infirmiorum,” is the Peter of Abano version, opening, “Cum legerem libros hypocratis medicorum optimi inveni hunc parvum sed magne utilitatis librum....”
Sloane 636, 15th century, fols. 98v-102v, has the Incipit of William of Moerbeke’s translation (Quetif and Echard, 1719, I, 390), “Sapientissimus ypocras omnium medicorum peritissimus ait, Inscius medicus est qui astronomiam ignorat....” This is also the Incipit of Digby 29, 15th century, fols. 167-72.
The recently revised catalogue of the Royal MSS notes that a third version, which apparently is neither by William of Moerbeke nor Peter, is found in
Royal 12-C-XVIII, 14th century, fols. 33v-36r, which opens, “Dixit ypocras qui fuit medicus et magister optimus et medicus non est qui astronomiam ignorat”;
Sloane 3171, fols. 104v-116, which opens, “Dixit ypocras medicorum optimus cuiusmodi medicus est qui astrononiam ignorat”;
Sloane 3282, fols. 89v-90, which opens, “Dixit ypocras qui fuit medicus et magister optimus cuiusmodi medicus est qui non astronomiam nossit”;
Cotton Appendix VI, fols. 5r-8r, which opens, “Dixit ypocras qui fuit medicus et magister optimus cuiusmodi medicus est qui astronomiam ignorat.”
Digby 28, early 14th century, fols. 81v-85, which opens, “Dixit Ypo. non est medicus qui astronomiam non novit,” is perhaps the same version; at any rate Coxe says that it differs from Digby 29, William of Moerbeke’s translation.
[Sidenote: Geomancy.]
Geomantia, in Latin according to Mazzuchelli, Venice, 1549 and 1586. I have not seen either.
Geomantia di Pietro d’Abano nuovamente tradotta di Latino in volgare per il Tricasso Mantuano, Venice, 1542.
Novamente dall’ eccell. M. S. Musio da Capoa ricorsa, 2 pts., Vinegia, 1546-1550. Another edition, Venice, 1550.
Comincia la Geomantia di P. d’Abano tradotta di Lattina lingua, Venice, 1556.
CLM 392, 15th century, fol. 69-.
CLM 489, 16th century, fols. 222-33, “Desideravi verum et certum Iudicium dare secundum gloriosam et venerabilem scientiam Geomantiae ... / ... Explicit liber Petri de Abano. P.”
Sandaniele del Friuli 240, 15th century, “Incipit modum iudicandi questiones geomantie sive modum magistri Petri. Considerantibus (?) verum et certum ... / ... veluti nocturna. Explicit liber Geomantiae. Deo gratias Amen.”
[Sidenote: Prophecies.]
Questa sie la profetia composta per el reverendissimo negromante piero dabano ... Bologna, 1495.
Vatican 5356, fol. 28, Variae prophetiae Magistri Petri Patavini de Abano.
[Sidenote: _Heptameron_, or _Elements of magic_.]
Kiesewetter, Der Occultismus des Alterthums, mentions a Latin edition, Venice, 1496, which I have neither seen nor found mentioned elsewhere.
It was printed together with the Occult Philosophy of Henry Cornelius Agrippa in Latin at Paris, 1565, and in 1600 and 1655 in English translation.
Also in J. Scheible, Kleiner Wunder-Schauplatz, Theil 10, 1855.
In French as Les Oeuvres Magiques de Henri-Corneille Agrippa, par Pierre d’Aban (Heptameron ou les élémens magiques de Pierre Aban, Philosophe, Disciple de Henri-Corneille Agrippa), Liège, 1788.
Sloane 3850, 17th century, fols. 13v-23.
CLM 24936, 17th century, pp. 94-131, Petri de Abano doctoris urbis Pataviae Magia.
Vienna 11294, 17th century, fols. 41r-74v.
BN 17870, 18th century.
[Sidenote: _Elucidarium necromanticum._]
Vatican, Regina Sueviae 2014, according to Mazzuchelli (1741) p. liii, who, like Naudé, lists this as a separate treatise different from the Heptameron.
[Sidenote: _Annulorum experimenta._]
BN 7337, 15th century, pp. 131-8, “Peritissimi artium ac medicine doctoris in omnibusque scientiis excellentissimi magistri Petri de abbano annulorum experimenta feliciter incipiunt. Primo et principaliter in hac arte considerandum est quod 28 sunt mansiones lune.” This seems to be the work described by Naudé as “Liber experimentorum mirabilium de annulis secundum 28 mansiones Lunae.”
[Sidenote: _Circulus philosophicus._]
CLM 17711, 17th century, fols. 284-307, is perhaps identical with one of the three preceding works.
APPENDIX III
PETER OF ABANO, ABRAHAM ABEN EZRA, AND HENRY BATE
[Sidenote: French translation from the Hebrew.]
The French translation from the Hebrew of astrological treatises by Abraham Aben Ezra is preserved in BN, fonds de Sorbonne, 1825. I have not seen the MS but infer from the description in HL XXI, 500-3 that it includes only five of Abraham’s treatises, The Beginning of Wisdom, Nativities, Revolutions, Elections, and Interrogations. At the close of The Beginning of Wisdom we are told that it was written down by Obers de Montdidier from the dictation of Hagins the Jew in the house of Sire Henri Bate at Malines and finished December 22, 1273.
[Sidenote: Peter of Abano’s Latin version.]
One MS of Peter of Abano’s version, BN supplem. lat. 151, is partially described in HL 21, 501. Others which I have examined are BN 7336, BN 7438, Canon. Misc. 190. I have seen various other MSS noted in catalogues and elsewhere, but such notices seldom seem to give a full and accurate list of the treatises. They were printed in 1507 by Peter Liechtenstein as noted in Appendix II. All copies which I have seen contain at the close of the first treatise, the _Liber Introductorius_ or Beginning of Wisdom, the passage, of which HL 21, 501 has already quoted the Latin, stating that when Peter of Abano the Paduan found this work “in Gallic idiom, through the unskilfulness of the translator from the Hebrew defective in many ways, corrupt, and sometimes poorly arranged and failing to make sense, as far as he could he brought it back in the Latin tongue to Abraham’s original meaning.” The date is then given as 1293. Peter is also usually named as the translator at the beginning or end of the other treatises.
[Sidenote: Additional treatises in Peter’s version.]
In the Latin versions of Abraham’s astrological treatises besides the five named by the Histoire Littéraire are found the _Liber rationum_,[2885] the _Liber luminarium et de cognitione diei cretici_,[2886] and _Tractatus particulares_, which are really three treatises, namely: (1) “Incipit alius tractatus particulare. Incipit tractatus de partibus horarum in interrogationibus”;[2887] (2) “Tractatus in tredecim manieribus planetarum”;[2888] and (3) “Tractatus de significationibus planetarum in duodecim domibus Abrahe.”[2889] The _De consuetudinibus in judiciis astrorum et est centiloquium Bethen_, which occurs in the midst of Abraham’s treatises in the MSS, is probably not by him and is placed last in the 1507 edition. The _Tractatus particulares_ are not included by Steinschneider in his list of Abraham’s astrological writings.[2890]
[Sidenote: A Latin translation by Henry Bate.]
While in general the Latin translation of Abraham’s astrological treatises is ascribed to Peter, in all the editions and manuscripts that I have seen,[2891] one of them, entitled _De mundo vel seculo_ and dealing with conjunctions and revolutions, is ascribed to Henry Bate, the same under whose patronage the French translations were made.[2892] It would therefore seem that Peter found Henry Bate’s own Latin translation of 1281 more satisfactory than the French translation made at Bate’s house in 1273,[2893] and did not attempt to revise it. In some manuscripts Bate is also credited with a Latin translation of The Beginning of Wisdom or _Liber introductorius_, made in 1292.[2894]
[Sidenote: Other writings of Henry Bate.]
This Henry Bate was called by Pico della Mirandola “a disciple of Albertus Magnus.”[2895] In 1274 at Malines and in fulfilment of a promise made to William of Moerbeke, the noted translator of the Dominican Order and at that time papal chaplain and penitentiary, when they were together in Lyons, Bate composed a treatise on the astrolabe.[2896] Later Bate also wrote an account of his own horoscope and destiny.[2897] It gives the year of his birth as 1244. He was a canon, doctor of theology, and university professor; and seems to have spent his life mainly at Malines, Liège, and Paris. He also wrote on errors in the Alfonsine astronomical tables.[2898] Another unpublished work of his is entitled _Speculum divinorum et quorundam naturalium_.[2899]
[Sidenote: Other works by Abraham.]
There were also Latin versions of other astronomical and astrological works by Abraham than those translated by Bate or Peter.[2900] One cannot, however, be sure that “Abraham Judaeus” always refers to Abraham Avenezra, as there was a translator or translators of the thirteenth century by that name. Simon Cordo of Genoa was assisted in his Latin translation of the medical works of Serapion by an Abraham Judaeus of Tortosa;[2901] and Alfonso X of Castile employed a Jew named Abraham in astronomical translation from Arabic into Spanish.[2902] An Abraham Iudeus of Barcelona translated Haly on Elections from Arabic into Latin,[2903] and was perhaps the same as Abraham Bar Chasdai, a rabbi of Barcelona who translated the supposititious Aristotelian work _De pomo_ from Arabic into Hebrew, after which Manfred, the illegitimate son of Emperor Frederick II, translated it or had it translated from Hebrew into Latin.
FOOTNOTES:
[2885] Incipit liber de rationibus habrabe avenerze quem transtulit petrus paduanus.... Explicit translatio libri de rationibus per petrum paduanum.
[2886] Explicit liber luminarium Abrabe Avenare quem Petrus de Padua Lombardus ordinavit quam melius potuit in planum ydioma latinum, qui liber potest de cognitione cause crisis intitulari. It was printed separately by Ratdolt, Venice, 1482.
[2887] This Titulus is wanting in the printed edition (1507), fol. lxxxv recto, but is found in BN 7336, fol. 109r and 7438. fol. 168v.
[2888] Or “Incipit liber significationum septem planetarum et earum generibus vel maneriebus.”
[2889] At its close “Finis quorundam tractatuum particularium Abrahe Avenare quos Petrus Paduanus ordinavit in latinum.”
[2890] In his article “Abraham Ibn Ezra” in _Abhandl. z. Gesch. d. Math. Wiss._ III, 2 (1880), p. 127, Steinschneider devoted only the four closing pages of this long article to Abraham’s astronomy and astrology, promising a future article on that subject, but I do not know if it ever appeared.
[2891] According to the recent catalogue of the Royal MSS, “_Elecciones Abraham_” in Royal 12-C-XVIII, 14th century, fols. 26-30, is “not the same translation as that (by Pietro of Abano) printed, Venice, 1507,” and this seems to be the case, although by a coincidence the opening and closing words are the same, “_Sapientes legis_” and “_dixerunt antiqui_.”
[2892] “Explicit liber de mundo vel seculo completus die lune hore post festum beati luce hora diei quasi 10, anno domini 1281, inceptus in leodio, perfectus in machilinia, translatus a magistro Henrico bate de hebreo in latinum”:--ed. of 1507, fol. lxxxv recto; BN 7336, fol. 1O9r; Canon. Misc. 190, fol. 69; Digby 114, fol. 175; Vienna 4146, fol. 264. CU Emmanuel 70, 15th century, fols. 137v-44, however, gives the date as 1292, “Expl. lib. de mundo et seculo completus die Jovis post fest. S. barnabe Ap. sub ascendente scorpionis a. d. 1292 in perside (?) translatus autem a mag. Henr. dicto bate de machelia de hebreo in latinum.” Sloane 312, 15th century, fols. 7Ov-97.
[2893] Apparently in the eight intervening years Bate had learned enough Hebrew to translate Abraham himself.
[2894] Cod. Lips. un. 1466, fols. 1-24; Berlin 963, 15th century, fols. 152-63; Vatic. Palat. Lat. 1377, 14th century, fols. 21r-37v, “Translatus est hic liber a magistro Henrico de Malinis dicto Bate cantore Leodiensis, et est hec translatio perfecta in urbe veteri a. d. 1292”; Wolfenbüttel 2816, anno 1461, fols. 84-111, “Abraham avenezre initium sapientiae.... Translatus est a magistro Henrico de Malynis dicto Bate, cantore Leodiensi. Perfecta est hec translatio in Urbe Veteri anno Domini 1292.” In this last MS follows a _De fortitudine planetarum_, said to have been translated “in the old city by master Henry of Malines, called Bate,” but the date is given as 1272. I have been unable to examine any of these MSS to see if the translation is really the same as that usually ascribed to Peter of Abano, but Björnbo (_Abhandl. z. Gesch. d. Math. Wiss._, XXVI, 1911, p. 135) gives that impression.
[2895] _Adversus astrologos_, IX, 3.
[2896] Digby, 48, 15th century, fols. 143v-152r. “Magistratus composicio astrolabi hanrici bate ... quod vobis promissum est cum apud vos essem Lugduniensis.... Expletum est hoc opusculum ab Hanrico Bate in villa Machliniensi Luna coniuncta Jovi in domo septima ascendente luna a. d. MCCLXXIIII quinto idus Octobris ad peticionem fratris Vuilhelmi de Morbeca, ordinis Predicatorum, domini pape penitenciarii et capellani”; also printed by Erhard Ratdolt, Venice, 1485, with a _De natiuitatibus_ ascribed to Abraham Judaeus (printed again, Cologne, 1537) which is quite different from the treatise on Revolutions and Nativities translated by Abano.
[2897] Contained in BN 7324, _Nativitas magistri Henrici Mechlinensis cum quibusdam revolutionibus_, and described in HL 26, 561-2.
[2898] HL 26, 558-61 and Wolfenbüttel 2816, anno 1461, fols. 9-12, “Tractatus in quo ostenditur defectus tabularum Alfonsi, compositus a magistro Henrico Bate de Machlinia A. D. 1347” (_sic_).
[2899] Library of Dukes of Burgundy 7500, 15th century, or, as it is entitled in two St. Omer MSS (Maurice de Wolf, “Henri de Bate de Malines” in _Bulletins de l’Académie Royale Belgique, Classe des lettres_, 1909), “Speculum divinarum humanarumque rerum.”
[2900] BN 7377A, No. 4 and BN 9335, 14th century, fols. 126v-135, liber augmenti et diminutionis qui vocatur numeratio divinationis secundum Indos. BN 16648, 13th century, fols. 106-46, liber qui dicitur abrahismus.... “Dixit habraham iudeus, cognitum est corpus solare....”
[2901] See the printed editions, _Liber Serapionis aggregatus in medicinis simplicibus_, 1479; _liber Servitoris liber xxviii_, 1471; etc.
[2902] Canon. Misc. 45, 15th century, 56 fols. “Abulhaze Abnelaiitan liber de mundo et coelo, de notibus planetarum, etc., in partes duas distinctus per Abraham Hebraeum jubente Alphonso Hispaniae rege de Arabico in Hispanum, postea ab anonymo quodam in Latinum versus cum figuris praeviis capitulorum elencho et Alphonso epistola.” Arundel 377, 13th century, fols. 56v-68, Magistri Habrahe de tabulis planetarum.
[2903] Sloane 312, 15th century, fols. 252-5, 215-51. The same MS contains two works by Abraham Avenezra with whom Scott, in his Index of the Sloane MSS has identified--probably incorrectly--this Abraham the translator.
APPENDIX IV
WAS PETER CALLED TO TREVISO IN 1314?
It was stated by Bonifazio in his _History of Treviso_,[2904] and repeated by Mazzuchelli[2905] and Tiraboschi,[2906] that on August 7, 1314, the Trevisans, wishing to establish a university, brought Peter to their city, where he taught and practiced medicine for a year. Colle[2907] agreed that he received a call but doubted if he accepted it because his will, drawn up in 1315, makes it appear that he is still in the employ of Padua. But it is not quite certain that he even received a call, if we judge from the extant original documents,[2908] a decree issued by the government of Treviso on August 9, 1314, and letters of the 15th and 16th of that month. The decree indeed aims at the institution of professorial chairs in the two laws and medicine (_phisica_) at Treviso, namely, Ordinary Lecturers in Civil and Canon Law, and Extraordinary Lecturers in Civil Law and Medicine. Under each of these four heads it lists three names, and that of “Master Peter of Abano” heads those in medicine. But the decree further states that “the doctors named below” are to be balloted upon, and apparently by lot,[2909] and thus arranged in order of first, second, and third choice. The position is then to be offered to the first one chosen; if he refuses, to the second; and so on. It is also stated that the incumbents “are to lecture and teach through three years continuously after their arrival,” not for one year. The normal salary is set at four hundred petty pounds annually, although the Council of Three Hundred are left some liberty in increasing or diminishing this amount. Moreover, we have a letter of August sixteenth notifying Peter of Suzara of his final appointment after he had indicated that he would accept the election. Similar letters were sent to five others of the twelve men named in the decree, and the name of Peter of Abano is not found among the five, the professor named in medicine being Henzelerius or Hengelerius. Either therefore Peter of Abano had not been elected or had refused to accept the appointment.
FOOTNOTES:
[2904] Bonifazio, _Storia di Trevigi_, 1591, P. 354.
[2905] Mazzuchelli (1741), p. xxii.
[2906] Tiraboschi (1775) V, 51 and 156.
[2907] Colle (1825) III, 133.
[2908] Verci (1787) VII, _Documenti_, pp. 39-40, 43-4, 46-7 (from Raccolta Scotti, IV, 376, 342, 388).
[2909] “... quod infrascripti Doctores per sortem eligantur ... quod illi qui scripti sunt inferius ad lecturam ordinariam per se sortiri debeant unus contra alium ad buffolos et ballotas.... Et simili forma observetur et debeat observari in scriptis ad extraordinariam lecturam....”
APPENDIX V
PETER’S SALARY AT PADUA
[Sidenote: Amount exaggerated.]
The amount of salary offered at Treviso was worth mentioning because the statement has been made over and over again that Peter in his will of 1315 bequeathed to the town government of Padua fifteen hundred lire or pounds that were due him for his past three months’ salary. From this it was inferred that his annual stipend was either six thousand pounds, or four thousand if reckoned on the basis of an academic year of eight months. This seemed to show that he was the highest paid professor of his own, not to mention our, age. On turning, however, to the will as printed by Verci[2910] we discover that the fifteen hundred pounds represent three years of back pay, and that Peter further bequeaths to the commune of Padua five hundred pounds of small _denarii_ due on his salary, presumably for the current year.[2911]
[Sidenote: Why was it so far in arrears?]
This puts an entirely different aspect upon the matter. It not only shows that Peter’s stipend was scarcely a tithe of what had been supposed, although a good salary for the times, as a comparison with that offered at Treviso and with the amounts of the other legacies made by Peter in his will indicates. It also raises the question, why was the payment of Peter’s salary some four years in arrears? And why does Peter make a distinction between five hundred pounds for which he holds papers (_Bulletas_) from the town officials and the fifteen hundred pounds due him for the previous three years and for which he apparently has nothing to show. Is there some question as to his claim for salary for those three years or even as to his having been in the Commune’s employ? Probably the simplest explanation is that after failing to receive his salary for these years Peter took the precaution to get a definite statement concerning it for the fourth. This might also serve to explain why Treviso had hopes of getting him away from Padua in 1314, and why he stayed on in 1315. The years just preceding 1315 seem to have been a troublous time for the city of Padua, which incurred a heavy sentence from the emperor Henry VII, and had wars with Vicenza and Can Grande, not to mention civil strife such as that of April, 1314, when another Peter--_Judex de Altichino_--was slain with his sons in the public square by the people, their goods confiscated, and the family banished to the fourth generation.[2912]
There seems to be no quarrel between Peter and the Commune of Padua, for he goes on in his will to entrust himself, his children, and his property to its tutelage and defense, besides leaving the Commune the two thousand pounds in question. Also as Peter makes his will in Padua, where most of his legatees live, where he still has his residence, and where he intends to be buried, it appears that in May, 1315, he still is in the employ of that city and has been for years past. So he has not yet gone to Treviso or elsewhere. Nor is his bequeathing the two thousand pounds arrears to the city a sure indication that he does not intend to teach there any more, either because he expects to die soon, or to accept a position in another university, or to cease teaching entirely because of old age. These arrears are an asset and he has to dispose of them somehow in making his will; he evidently has continued to teach when one and two years’ pay was owing him, and he may continue to do so now when three or four years’ salary is in arrears. However, it must be said that he shows no hope of ever recovering these arrears, nor is there any evidence that he ever did.
FOOTNOTES:
[2910] Which Colle, although he wrote after the publication of Verci’s work, did not take the trouble to do. Gloria was apparently the first to note that the time was three years and not three months.
[2911] Verci (1787) VII, _Documenti_, 117-8. “Item reliquit Communi Padue libras quingentas denariorum parvorum quas habere debebat a dicto Communi Padue pro suo debito salario de quo habebat Bulletas dominorum Potestatis Ancianorum et Gastaldionum Communis Padue supradicti. Item reliquit eidem Communi Padue libras mille et quingentas quas habere debebat a dicto Communi Padue pro suo salario de tribus annis retroactis.”
[2912] _Chronicon Patavinum ab 1174-1390_ in Muratori, _Antiquitates_ (1741) IV, 1156-7 (covering the years 1311-1315).
APPENDIX VI
WHEN DID PETER DIE?
The date of Peter’s death may be placed between May 25, 1315, when he made his will, and November 19, 1318, when the record of a legal transaction in which his sons were concerned appears to speak of him as dead.[2913] It has usually been assumed that he died in 1315 or 1316 and these dates are given in epitaphs,[2914] which, however, were composed long afterwards and cannot be accepted as sure proof. Peter’s making his will has been taken as a sign that he was at death’s door and died almost immediately afterward, but this inference does not seem necessarily to follow either from the will proper or from the accompanying confession of faith which he made on the day preceding. Arnald of Villanova, it will be recalled, made his will in 1305 but lived on until 1311. Peter concludes his confession of faith by affirming that such has been his belief in the past, is now, “and will be to the very end of his life.”[2915] Unless we assume that this last clause is added simply as a matter of form or as a safeguard against the possibility of the Inquisition’s making the charge that immediately after his confession Peter became a heretic or relapsed into his previous heresy--unless we make such an assumption, which may be entirely unwarranted--the natural conclusion is that Peter did not expect to die immediately.
The language of the will itself points in the same direction. Peter, “a provident and discreet man,” contemplating the unstable condition of human nature and noting that “those things which have the appearance of lasting for a long time” nevertheless “tend visibly toward their end,” has decided to meet such perils half-way and happily anticipate the last day of life by a will made when in full possession of his senses and intellectual faculties.[2916] No mention is made of his being in ill health, unlike another will of the same period quoted in the same volume of Verci, in which the testator speaks of himself as “of sound mind, although afflicted body, not wishing to depart this world intestate.”[2917]
Other indications that Peter not only did not die immediately after making his will, but continued to teach and write, are the fairly strong evidence and probability that the pope to whom his treatise on poisons is addressed is John XXII, who was not elected until August 7, 1316; and the dubious assertion in a fifteenth century manuscript that Peter was acting dean of Montpellier at that time. We might also add that a prefatory note in the 1555 edition of the _De venenis_ states that he lived to be almost an octogenarian.
FOOTNOTES:
[2913] Gloria (1884), p. 587, note 6, “Mill. trec. decimo octavo ind. prima die decimo nono mens. Nov. cora, d. B. (Bernardo) Dei gratia venerab. abbate monast. S. Marie de Pratalea--Benvenutus q. fil. mag. Petri fisici olim ser Constancii de Abano pro se--et vice Petri et Zifredi suorum fratrum q. eiusd. d. Petri et suorum heredum--vendidit.”
[2914] Mazzuchelli (1741), pp. xxxv-xxxvi; Gloria (1884), p. 586; Tomasini (1630), p. 22.
[2915] Verci (1787) VII, _Documenti_, 119, “et in hac credulitate fuit, est, et erit usque ad extremum vite exitum.”
[2916] Verci (1787) VII, _Documenti_, 116. “Providus et discretus vir Magister Petrus filius qu. domini Constancii de Abano de contrata Sancte Lucie de Padua, Artis Medicine Philosophie et Astrologie professor, attendens et considerans quod instabilis sit humane nature status et condicio et quod ea que verisimiliter diu duratura habere videntur essentiam tendunt visibiliter ad non esse. Ideoque tantis periculis occurrere cupiens et dispositione Testamentaria vite diem extremum feliciter et salubriter prevenire sana integra et plena mentis sensus et intellectus cognitione ut quieti corporis et anime sue provideat et saluti tale de suis bonis per nuncupationem suam condidit Testamentum sic dicens....”
[2917] Verci (1787) VII, 77, “... sane mentis, tamen de corpore gravatus, nolens de hoc mundo decedere intestatus.”
APPENDIX VII
WAS THE DE VENENIS ADDRESSED TO POPE JOHN XXII (1316-1334)?
[Sidenote: Survey of the editions and MSS]
In some nine printed editions which I have examined the pope addressed is denoted simply by the letter “N”; and most of the MSS do not specify the pope by name, or if they do, it is not so stated in the catalogues. Giacosa[2918] says that the treatise is dedicated in some MSS to Pope Honorius IV, but he does not specify them, and I do not know of any such. Where the pope is named, he is either John without enumeration,[2919] or John XXII.[2920] It is perhaps worth noting that there never was any John XX, and that John XXI is sometimes called John XX, and John XXII is called John XXI, but that the converse is impossible. In view of this uncertainty in the enumeration, it would also not be surprising to find either John XXI or XXII named without enumeration. Scardeone[2921] in the sixteenth century asserted that the _De venenis_ was dedicated to John XXII, although this conflicts with his statement that Peter died in 1315. Mazzuchelli[2922] spoke of an Italian translation in which the pope is called Giacomo. There never was a pope so styled, but both Honorius IV and John XXII (called John XXI by Mazzuchelli owing to the error above noted) bore the name Giacomo before they assumed their pontifical designations. Another cogent reason for dismissing John XXI (1276-1277) from consideration is that Peter at the age of twenty-six or twenty-seven would neither have adopted the authoritative tone that he employs in the _De venenis_ in addressing a pope who had himself, as Petrus Hispanus, been a medical writer of note, nor have failed to advert to that pope’s own medical works.
[Sidenote: Inference from a citation of Avenzoar.]
In the _De venenis_[2923] Peter cites the Latin translation of a treatise by Avenzoar (ʿAbd al Malik ibn Zuhr ibn ʿAbd al Malik, Abu Marwan) concerning the power of a powdered emerald as an antidote against poison. In the printed editions Avenzoar’s work is referred to as that translated for Pope Boniface.[2924] If we could only rely upon this as Peter’s original wording, it would mean that he was himself addressing some pope later than Boniface VIII (1294-1303), and so would support the other evidence that the _De venenis_ was addressed to John XXII. But in at least one manuscript of the _De venenis_ the work of Avenzoar is said to have been translated “for the Roman people.”[2925] Moreover, the Latin translation of Avenzoar in question is extant and in the printed version[2926] we read at the close that it was translated at Venice, August 21, 1281, from Hebrew into Latin by a master of medicine from Padua[2927] with the aid of a Jew named Jacob. The work would thus seem to have been translated long before Boniface became pope. In a Paris manuscript,[2928] however, the translator gives his name as John of Capua, a baptized Jew, of whom we know as a translator of other works from Hebrew into Latin,[2929] and addresses his present translation to the archbishop of Braga in Portugal,[2930] whom Hartwig believed to be Martin de Oliviera who held that office from 1292 to 1313. Now this John of Capua also translated the work on Diets of Maimonides, at the suggestion of William of Brescia who was Pope Boniface VIII’s physician, and Hartwig believes that he met the archbishop of Braga at Rome. But more than this, in a Vienna manuscript the translation of Avenzoar is addressed to Pope Boniface VIII himself.[2931] Apparently therefore there is justification for Peter of Abano’s speaking of the work as translated for Boniface VIII. And whether it was or not, in any case it was translated at too late a date for Peter to have cited it in his _De venenis_, had that treatise been addressed to Pope John XXI who died in 1277. So if we admit that the _De venenis_ was addressed to a Pope John, it must have been addressed to John XXII who became pope on August 7, 1316.
[Sidenote: Popes and poisons.]
Returning for a moment to Boniface VIII, it may be remarked that he was presumably the pope who, as Peter himself states in the _Conciliator_, had protected him from certain persecutors. That there was nothing strange in addressing a work on poisons to a pope of that time is shown by the fact that Ermengard Blasius (or Blasii)[2932] of Montpellier, physician of Philip the Fair of France, translated the work of Moses Maimonides on poisons for Clement V, the predecessor of John XXII, in 1307.[2933] But there is no evidence so far as I know to indicate that Peter of Abano addressed his work on poisons to Clement V, although chronologically it is possible.
FOOTNOTES:
[2918] P. Giacosa, _Magistri Salernitani nondum editi_, 1901, p. 495.
[2919] Addit. 37079, 15th century, fols. 83r-131v, “Pollex incipit de venenis editus a petro de abano peritissimo pad. Sanctissimo ac Reverendissimo in Christo domino Domino Johanni divi providentia pape et summo pontifici.” Some later hand, presumably Protestant, has drawn a line through the words _pape_ and _summo_.
Amplon. Q. 222, mid 14th century, fols. 227-37, “Reverendissimo in Christo patri Iohanni divina providentia summo pontifici.”
Riccard. 1177, 15th century, fols. 7-13, is said to be written at the request of Pope John.
[2920] Bibl. Naz. Turin H-II-16, 15th century, fols. 111-115v, “Incipit tractatus de venenis et eorum medicinis appropriatis transmissis summo pontifici Joh. XXII.” “Explicit tractatus de venenis et eorum medicinis appropriatis qui pollox (_sic_) venenorum appellatur. Compillatus ab egregio artium et medicine doctore petro de ebano et temporis decano studii montisspessulani directus sanctissimo in Xo patri et domino domino Johanni divina providentia pape XXII. Deo gratias amen.” I take this description of the MS from Giacosa (1901), p. 495. The MS was somewhat damaged in the fire of 1904 and in the description of it in the catalogue of MSS which survived the fire, published in the same year, Abano’s treatise is not mentioned: “Marsilia Sancta Sophia Receptae super prima quarti Avicennae De febribus; et alia.”
Canon. Misc. 46, 15th century, fols. 31-47r, described by Coxe as, “Eiusdem Petri libellus de venenis ad Johannem Papam XXII,” but the pope’s name does not appear in the MS itself.
[2921] Scardeone (1560), p. 201.
[2922] Mazzuchelli (1741), p. xlii.
[2923] In the fourth chapter or fifth, if, as in most printed editions, the preface is reckoned as