A 12th Century Stellium in Libra

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https://books.openedition.org/psorbonne/12629?lang=fr
Google translation and free translation.
ENTRE SCIENCE ET NIGROMANCE
Astrologie, divination et magie dans l'Occident médiéval (XIIe-XVe siècle)
Jean-Patrice Boudet, 2006

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Why Michel Scot, the famous scholar of Frederick II's entourage, Guido Bonatti, the most famous astrologer of the thirteenth century, Asdente, a shoemaker from Parma who gave up his profession to become a prophet, and unhappy women "who left the needle? , the shuttle and the spindle, to be diviners and indulge in enchantments with herbs and images ???, they find themselves condemned together to undergo the punishment of the diviners by walking backwards, head upside down, in the fourth bolge from Dante Alighieri's eighth circle of Hell? It is on the basis of this question that this book examines, upstream and downstream from Dante's text, the development, both common and divergent, of astrology and of the divinatory and magical arts during the last four centuries of the Occidental Middle Ages. For many medieval ecclesiastics and some laymen in search of power, indeed, the twelfth century was one of the discovery of new prediction techniques and of a widening of the scope of magic, the thirteenth century that of the quest for a standard in the face of these innovations, and the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries those of the application of this standard, for the benefit of astrologers but at the expense of magicians and especially witches. At the crossroads between the history of science and magic and that of society and powers, Entre science et “nigromance??? thus emphasizes, in a first part devoted to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the role of translations in the evolution of astrological, divinatory and magical knowledge, on social demand and the impetus of courses and on the search for a theological and legal standard in the matter. The second part examines the socio-cultural and political promotion of star science at the end of the Middle Ages, that, to a lesser extent, of palmistry, geomancy and spell books, the practices and rituals of magicians and their motivations. , the book leading to a fresh reexamination of the condemnations of magic and divination and the medieval genesis of the witch hunt.

In the chapter, Les astrologues au travail : horoscopes et predictions (Astrologers at work: horoscopes and predictions), Jean-Patrice Boudet is exploring how the astrologers dealt with a moment in time of the 12th Century (16 September 1186) when all the planets were forming a stellium in Libra. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto not included as they were not discovered yet.
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Calculating a horoscope and drawing an astrological judgment from it involved, in the 12th-13th centuries, overcoming great technical difficulties, as the use of astronomical tables remained a delicate and inconvenient exercise, reserved for a small elite of scholars. We will therefore not be surprised at the scarcity of horoscopes preserved dating back to this period, and by the fact that some of them pose major dating and calculation problems: the horoscope of the birth, in 1141, of a child given as an example in the Liber Judorum of Raymond de Marseille (115) and that of the eldest son of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, in 1164 (116), include such deviations from the astronomical positions to which the authors of these genitures could have achieve that it is impossible to determine the origin. But errors of this magnitude are exceptions, which shows the seriousness with which most of these horoscopes have been drawn up. Let’s mention a few of them:

** a horoscope and a brief judgment on the birth of a boy born on October 29, 1135 were established in Béziers by Abraham ibn Ezra (117)

**around ten Anglo-Norman horoscopes dated to the years 1151-1160 and founded, according to John North, on the tables of al-Khwârizmî, are attributable to Adélard of Bath or Robert of Chester (118). These horoscopes relate in particular to political life at the court of the King of England, Etienne de Blois. One of them, relating to the autumn equinox of 1151, is accompanied by this note: “Here is the figure of the entry of the Sun into Libra, in the 6th hour of the 26th day of Ramadan, which corresponds to noon of September 16, that is to say at the hour of Mercury, the part of the wheat being in the 26th degree of Libra. And we judge that the king will force his barons to pay homage to his son, but he will not be able to combine what he wants to accomplish without the help of an astrologer ???(119) A fine example of pro domo plea which practitioners are fond of. star science!

**a few years later, Roger of Hereford authored a retrospective horoscope which seems to be that of the birth of Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen of England since 1154. (120);
**in a manuscript preserved in Saint Petersburg where there are several astrological and astronomical treatises, including the Theorica planetarum Gerardi, was drawn up, in Reggio Calabria, from the tables of Toledo, a horoscope for the spring equinox of 1178 (121);

**on June 22, 1186, Philippe Auguste is the subject of an interrogation in search of the king of which only the square is preserved, but of which it is interesting to note that it is in a codex which belonged to the king's doctor, Robert from Fournival (122).

This same year 1186 was the object of all the attentions on the part of astrologers, both Western and Eastern, due to a completely extraordinary astronomical situation: the concentration of all the planets in the sign of Libra (123 ). Here is how Rigord, the chronicler of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, reports the event:
“In this year [1186] the astrologers of East and West, Jews, Saracens and also Christians sent letters to various parts of the world, in which they predicted, without leaving room for doubt. , that in September there would be a very powerful windstorm, followed by earthquakes, great mortality among men, seditions and disturbances, as well as upheavals among kingdoms and a whole series of threats of this kind. But what followed showed that something quite different happened to what they had predicted by their divination (124). "
And Rigord to quote the letters in question, the first of which essentially says that the conjunction, in September 1186, of all the upper and lower planets and the tail of the Dragon in the sign of Libra, sign of air, preceded by he solar eclipse in April announces catastrophic storms that will bring earthquakes and mortalities, destruction of Mecca, Basra, Baghdad and Babylon, and great sedition and bloodshed in the West.
"And one can consider as certain that the future conjunction signifies the upheaval of the kingdoms, the superiority of the Franks, the doubt and the ignorance among the Jews, the destruction of the Saracen people, a greater piety and a very great exaltation of the Christian faith, as well as a longer lifespan of those who will be born, God willing ???(125).
The end of the year 1186 and the year 1187 having had nothing exceptional on the climatic level, but Saladin having seized Jerusalem, on October 2, 1187, one imagines the satisfaction of the adversaries of astrology in front of such a resounding fiasco. Yet in England a quality astrologer had not howled with the wolves. The most interesting testimony on the conjunction of 1186, both from a technical and chronological point of view, is, in fact, that of Roger de Howden's Chronica, when this chronicler reports, among other documents on the conjunction, the Epistola of an astrologer named William, clerk of the "constable" (constable, governor of the castle) of the town of Chester (126). As an appetizer, the cleric William announces a minor conjunction of Jupiter and Mars in the 29th degree of Virgo, August 30, 1186, a medium conjunction of Saturn and Mars, in the 4th degree of Libra, on September 7, and a major conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, in the 8th degree of Libra, on October 10 (127). Then comes the main course: all the planets, as well as the tail of the Dragon, fortune and war, will be in the sign of Libra, September 16, 1186, hora prima (time of March since we is a Tuesday), that is, at 6 a.m. (128).


Fig. 1 - Astrological square of the conjunction of September 16, 1186 around 6am in England, according to the clericalist William and the Chronica of Roger de Howden
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The horoscope that can be drawn up according to its own indications (fig. 1) and the comparative table of planetary positions provided by William, from software by Julio Samsò, based on the mathematical models followed by medieval tables (129 ), and by the Sky software of Pierre Brind'Amour, which gives the positions calculated by modern astronomers (fig. 12) (130), makes it possible to formulate hypotheses as to the astronomical substrate of the text.

Fig. 2 - Comparison of the planetary positions provided by the horoscope with those of the astronomical tables in use at the time and with the positions calculated by current astronomers (Software Sky)
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If Julio Samsò's Khwrln software is reliable, we can immediately eliminate the tables of al-Khwârizmî as William's potential working tool. On the other hand, one can hesitate between the tables of Toledo and those of al-Battânî. But it is quite unlikely that the latter were known and used in England at the end of the 12th century. On the other hand, the tables of Toledo were translated and adapted there at least twice, before 1186: the first time, by Robert de Chester, in 1149-1150, on the meridian of London, and a second time, by Roger de Hereford , in 1178, on the Hereford meridian. It therefore seems likely that the clericalist William used one or the other of the English adaptations of these tables for the planetary positions (131).

For the Ascendant and the houses, the round numbers he adopted for his figure suggest that he used an astrolabe. But the domification system which corresponds to the data of this figure is not clearly identifiable. As for the astrological interpretation of the horoscope of September 16, 1186 that William offers, it confirms its qualities and the value of his prediction on the technical level (132):

Saturn, in the ascendant in its sign of exaltation, Libra, can be considered as the ruler of the ascendant, while the Sun is on the contrary in fall (casus) when entering Libra. William considering Saturn as "the signifier of the pagans and of all enemies of the Christian faith" and the Sun as the "signifier" of the great Christian men, the horoscope seems logically unfavorable to the latter.

Mercury is in retrograde on September 16 (133). However, a retrograde planet sees its power reduced and the conjunction of Jupiter and Mercury signifies, according to De magnis conjunctionibus of Albumasar, I, 4, the Christian faith (134).
“From where the fear of a retreat, of a lowering (depressio) of the Christian law and of a concomitant rise of the opposing Christian law, a fear balanced by the situation, rather favorable, of Jupiter, but an accentuated fear , on the other hand, by that of Mars, in detriment in Libra and the conjunction between Saturn and the tail of the Dragon, both malefic.???
In short, it was not difficult to draw from the astrological judgment of Clericalist William a frankly unfavorable prognosis for the future of Christendom. Since there is no reason to believe that this text was subsequently manipulated, it seems that the poor circulation of Roger de Howden's Chronica must be attributed to its subsequent lack of success: while most of his colleagues saw in this conjunction of 1186 the forerunner of severe storms and a series of other disasters that did not happen, he alone, luckily, foreshadowed something that could have been identified with a serious defeat of the Christians vis-a-vis the infidels, defeat which took place shortly after, as one knows it, with the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin, in October 1187. For once that the astrologers had at hand a prediction which did not need too much to be manipulated to be seen as accurate, they did not take this chance. Like what, already in the twelfth century, it was necessary to think about using the media ...

However, this fiasco does not seem to have had a negative impact on the favor of the science of the stars. On the contrary, the corpus of predictions on the conjunction of 1186 allows us to measure the extent of the mutation introduced by the Arab-Latin translations of the twelfth century in the history of medieval astrology. From now on, the judgment of the stars (judicium stellarum, translation from the Arabic ahkâm al-nujûm) is fully operational in the Latin world, regardless of the resistance and criticism of this "judicial astrology". And followers of this high-level technical knowledge are taking advantage of this renewal to enjoy a certain freedom and to become aware of the intellectual power they wield. Gérard de Cremona, in a famous dialogue with one of his English pupils in Toledo, Daniel de Morley, takes up the theme of the simultaneous birth of the king and the slave, mentioned by Raymond of Marseille, and affirms that if a son of king and a son of villain are born under the same celestial configuration, they will reign each in their environment, whatever their natural condition. And the famous translator adds, not without superb: "I who speak to you, I am king, because I was born under the royal sign, that of the Sun" (i.e. the Leo, domicile of the Sun). "Where is your kingdom?" Asked Daniel de Morley ironically. "In my mind," answers Gérard de Cremona, "because I am not disposed to serve any mortal man" (135).
Sublime replica, worthy of one of the greatest intellectual adventurers of the Middle Ages, but without much connection with the real life of the astrologers, of whom we have seen in passing that their main employers were already, in the second half of the 12th century, the Kings of England and France and the Germanic Emperor. Hence the reaction of a number of clericalists who stigmatized the "futile uses" of the court of princes, such as John of Salisbury.

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Notes

115 Paris, BnF, ms. lat. 16208, fol. 18va.
116 L. Thorndike, "The Horoscope of Barbarossa's First-Born", American Historical Review, LXIV-2 (1959), p. 319-322.
117 See J. Lipton, The Rational Evaluation of Astrology in the Period of Arabo-Latin Translation, ca. 1126-1187 A.D., typed thesis. of the univ. of California, Los Angeles, 1978, p. 221-222, and J. D. North, Horoscopes and History, op. cit., p. 108-109.
118 See J. D. North, “Some Norman Horoscopes???, in Adelard of Bath, op, cit., P. 147-162 (who thinks the author of these horoscopes is Adélard of Bath), and C. Burnett, The Introduction of Arabic Learning into England, London, 1997, p. 46-47 and 96, η. 116 (which speculates that it could be Robert of Chester).
119 J. D. North, ibid., P. 151 (transcription corrected by E. Poulie): Hec figura de introitu Solis in Libram, vita hora xxviti diei Ramadan, hoc est media diet xviti septembris, hora videlicet Mercurii, pars tri tici in Libra, xxvimo gradu. Et judicamus regent barones suos ad humagium filii sut compellere, et tale quod machinari quod perpetrare non poterit sine astrologo. According to Alcabitius, diff. V, p. 361, the pars tritici is one of those to be taken into account in an equinoctial horoscope and is calculated by measuring the angular difference between the Sun and Mars. The selection of this economic parameter linked to the political situation may be explained by the fact that the year 1151 was particularly rainy: see P. Alexandre, Le climat en Europe au Moyen Age. Contribution to the history of climatic variations from 1000 to 1425, according to the narrative sources of Western Europe, Paris, 1987, p. 354-355.
120 N. Whyte, Roger of Hereford’s Liber de astronomice judicandi, op. cit., p. 64-70. If it is indeed Eleanor of Aquitaine, she would have been born on December 14, 1123, but this horoscope and the brief judgment which accompanies it are presented in the form of an exemple and pose serious problems of interpretation. .
121 St. Petersburg, Bibl. Akadem. Nauk, ms. F °. N. 8, fol. 77rb. The copy of Theorica, to fol. 13-18rb (incipit: Circulas eccentricus ...), is part of the same codicological set as the horoscope. This volume is described by R. Lemay in Abû Ma’Shar al-Balhî [Albumasar], Liber introductorii majoris, op. cit., vol. IV, p. 84-94. I thank Henri Bresc for having been kind enough to copy for me this celestial figure where the pars fortune, the pars of rain and the pars futurorum (of things to come) are indicated.
122 Paris, BnF, ms. lat. 16208, fol. I. Cf. E. Poulie, “The date of birth of Louis VIII???, BEC, 145 (1987), p. 427-430.

123 The Arabic, Persian and Latin sources relating to this famous conjunction have been studied in particular by H. Grauert, Meister Johann non Toledo, Munich, 1901, G. de Callataÿ, “La grande conjunction de 1186???, in Occident et Proche-Orient , op. cit., p. 369-384, and G. Mentgen, Astrologie und Öffentlichkeit im Mittelalter, Stuttgart, 2005, p. 19-55.

124 Oeuvres de Rigord et de Guillaume Le Breton, H. F. Delaborde ed., t. I, Paris, 1882, p. 72-73: Eodem anno, astrologi orientales et occidentales, judei et sarraceni et etiam christiani, miserunt litteras per diversas mundi partes, predicentes et sine dubio asserentes in septembri futuram validorum ventorum tempestatem et terre motum et mortalitatem hominum et seditiones et discordias, regnorum mutationes et multa alia comminantes in hunc modum. Sed postea subsequens rerum eventus aliter quam diuinando predixerant, satis manifeste probavit.

125 Ibid., p. 74-75: But let it be known with certainty that the future conjunction of the kingdoms, the changes of the kingdoms, the excellence of the Franks, the doubt and ignorance among the Jews, the destruction of the Saracen race, and the greater piety of Christ's law, and the greatest exaltation, and of those who will be born afterwards signified a longer life, if God willed.

126 The Chronicle of Master Roger de Hoveden, W. Stubbs ed., London, 1866, reimpr. 1964, vol. II, p. 292-293.

127 The source of the typology of the planetary conjunctions in William's Letter on the things of the eclipse and the conjunctions of the planets in the revolutions of the old world from Messahala, éd. Venise, B. Locatello, 1493, following the Quadripartitum of Ptolemy, ch. 10 à 12, fol. 148vb-149ra.

128 Chronicle of Master Roger de Hoeden, op. cit., p. 292: But their conjunction having been omitted, respecting the conjunction of all the planets in Libra in our time is unknown by effects previously unknown, and not known to posterity; which others have uttered in a dark way, we may figuratively disclose. This conjunction will take place on the sixteenth of September, on the third weekday, the first hour, Mars lord of the hour, the rising sun, and the planets in their thongs, as follows: the horoscope of Libra, the first degree; The sun is thirty degrees in Virgo; Jupiter's 2 degrees 3 minutes ; Venus in 3 degrees, 49 minutes; Saturn's eigh degrees, 6 minutes; Mercury 4 degrees 0 minutes, Mars 9 degrees 18 minutes; Tail 18 degrees, 23 minutes; part of war of 15 degrees, the moon in 17 degrees 8 minutes; part of fortune 19 degrees; second house Libra, 25 degrees; the third Scorpio, degree 24; the fourth Capricorn first degree, the fifth Aquarius 6th degree, the 6th Pisces 7th degree and Aries, first degree.

129 These software programs, named Alfln, Battln, Khwrln, Plhrsc and Tolln, developed in 1988, give hourly planetary positions for the entire Christian era, according to the main medieval astronomical tables. But they are based on the mathematical models of these tables, not on the tables themselves, in their concrete presentation. This results in a relative reliability but nevertheless sufficient for the subject which interests us.

130 Developed in several stages, from 1988 to 1991, the Sky program of Pierre Brind'Amour, professor of ancient languages ​​at the University of Ottawa, gives the planetary positions for all eras, according to the calculations of modern astronomers, but allows also to identify the domification system (ie of calculating the position of the heavenly houses) used in a horoscope. Pierre Brind’Amour died prematurely in 1996 and I am happy to mention here the memory of this leading researcher who was the kindness itself.

131 G. de Callataÿ, “The great conjunction of 1186???, art. cited, p. 381-383, agrees with this opinion by also relying on the Deviations software by Raymond Mercier, which indicates, for the Toledo tables, positions close to those of the Tolln software by Julio Samsò.

132 The chronicle of the master Roger of Hoveden, op. rit., p. 292-293: Therefore, since Saturn is higher than any circle, let us first say of it. He is the signifier of the pagans, and of all the law of the advancing Christians. Since, therefore, the shape of the sphere is in its exaltation, in the triple Tr. They judge about their victory when the sun is in its chance, making for the conjunction of the planets higher. And yet we feel very different from the figure of justice. For the sun signifies the great Christians, who in this figure seek the conjunction of Jupiter. Jupiter, uncontrollable, commits it to Venus, and herself to Saturn. Mercury by retrogradation, by retrograding it would show the elevation of their law, and our depression, by nature. Mercury transports the same arrangement to Jupiter, but when Jupiter commits none, he points to the perseverance of our law. But since the sun is a powerful figure, a Christian among us rises to great fame, whose name even to the end will be preached as Arin. But since there is conjunction in the movable sign, the limit of the same man before Saturn has traveled through his sign will end. And because Jupiter signifies prophecies, he will at length be numbered among the prophets. In this figure Mars, separated from Saturn, joins the nature of Saturn's tail. And not retaining this disposition, he again, as it were, by retrogradation, carries back to Mars what had been committed to him. But because Mars is burned by the Sun and embarrassed between the two evils, Saturn and its tail, obsessed and retaining their nature in themselves, it signifies from its very nature sadness, strife, fears, horrendous interjections, removals of substances. also the tail of separations, losses, dangers, and diminution of property; And because Mars commits evil with its tail in ascending order, therefore I refrain from judging this figure according to Albumasar in the Centiloquium: "Turn your eyes away from the figure in which Mars was in a corner, especially when Scorpius was ascending, out with his tail. And since it is clear to every astronomer that Saturn presides over this climate, and the moon participates in it, it cannot be considered that it is immune to the aforesaid malice. Whence only there remains a remedy, that the chief men may consult for themselves, serve God.

133 Recall that in Ptolemy's system, retrogradation is the situation of a planet which, at a given moment of its revolution and because of the illusion caused by its apparent movement around the Earth, follows its march in the reverse order to the usual order, that of the signs of the zodiac, and is therefore referred to as retrograde.

134 Abû Ma’Shar on Historical Astrology, op. cit., vol. II, p. 28: “And if [Jupiter] Mercury has embraced it, symbolizes the Christian faith and all the faith in which there is concealment and heaviness and toil???. Personal note here: The sentence in Latin reads “complexus fuerit ei Mercurius, significat fidem Christianam and omnem fidem in qua fuerit occultatio et gravitas et labor.??? This famous passage from De magnis conjunctionibus is the basis of the Christian interpretation of the theme of the horoscope of religions: see J. D. North, "Horoscopes and the Fortune of Churches", Centaurus, 24 (1980), p. 181-211, repr. in Id., Stars, Minds and Fate. Essays in Ancient and Medieval Cosmology, London-Ronceverte, 1989.

135 Daniel de Morley, Philosophie, G. Maurach ed., In Mittelateinisches Jahrbuch, 14 (1979), p. 245: “Si ergo, ut ais, in eadem constellatione natifuerintfilius regis et filius rustici, ambo quidem reges erunt, sed non uno et eodem modo, quia jîlius regis de natura habet, ut succedat patri suo in regno. Natura enim filii rustici, licet deroget sue constellationi, tamen inter rusticos regnabit and omnibus, qui in suo genere erunt, potentior ac validior erit. Quid miraris? Ego etiam, qui loquor, rex sum, utpote qui sub regali signo natus fui, Sole dominant, ceteris etiam convenientibus circumstanciis. "Cum vero ironice interrogarem, ubi regnaret, replied:" In animo, quia nemini mortalium Serveem. "
Google translation: “Therefore, if, as you say, the son of a king and a peasant were born in the same constellation, they will both be kings, but not in one and the same way, because the king's son has the nature to succeed his father in the kingdom. For the nature of the peasant's son, although he derogates from his constellation, will still reign among the peasants, and will be stronger and stronger than all who will be in his own race. Why are you surprised? I, too, who speak, am a king, since I was born under a royal banner, under the rule of the sun, even when other circumstances are convenient. But when I asked ironically where he reigned, he replied: "In my mind, I would serve no mortal." »
Blessings!