Picatrix

[MarcoP]

Picatrix is an Arabic treaty about astrological and talismanic magic. Like the often mentioned “Astromagia” ms You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., the Catalan translation of the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (from an Arabic original) was produced at the court of Alfonso X of Castile (XIII Century).

A few years ago, Darren Worley provided a few details about the Illustrated Latin Picatrix (Jagiellonian University Library, Poland, Ms. Krakow 793 – or BJ 793) on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. He included a link to the digital scans.

Prof. Ewa-Śnieżyńska Stolot of the Jagiellonian University (also author of a brief but very informative You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.) edited a monograph about the ms in 2009 (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.).

An extensive discussion of the Krakow ms (that contains several other texts) can be read in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. by Benedek Lang.
Lang (pg.97-98) points out that the Krakow manuscript, although incomplete, “is the earliest surviving Picatrix that is longer than a few folios”. “This Krakow manuscript is the only illustrated Picatrix known to us”. “According to the art historian [Zofia Ameisenowa], the clothes in the pictures point to the fourth decade of the [XV] Century, depicting the Bohemian style. In contrast -as it happens- the text editor supposes that the codex was copied from one or several Italian sources. The only certain fact is that the manuscript was copied by a Polish scribe....”