AN INDISPENSABLE TREATISE FOR KNOWING THE PAST AND PREDICTING THE FUTURE
The conquest of Toledo by Alfonso VI in 1085 and the refuge found in the city of the Tagus by the Jews expelled from Andalusia by the Almohads in the time of Alfonso VII, turned the Court of Castile into a centre of coexistence of three cultures, Christian, Arab and Jewish: the Jewish community was especially favoured by Alfonso VII, Sancho III and Alfonso VIII. The coexistence – not mixing – of such different cultures promoted the need for mutual knowledge that could only be satisfied through the study of the works of thought created by the men of letters of the three religions. This need was the origin of the study centres known as the schools of translators in Toledo.
MERGES KABALISTIC TALISMANIC THEORY AND PRACTICE
What has been called the Second School of Translators was the cultural centre through which Alfonso X the Wise, King of Castile and León (1252-1284), carried out his task of incorporating Eastern culture into European culture.
A literary work such as that directed by Alfonso X cannot be sustained without a collection of books. The activity of the royal desk in the field of translation, Los Libros del Saber de Astronomía, La Grande e General Estoria, La Estoria de Espanna, the historical compilation that culminated in the Code of the Siete Partidas and, finally, the work of compiling the Cantigas, reflect a varied bibliography in which the Bible and the Koran, Eastern science – especially Astrology -, the Greek and Latin classics, all medieval sacred and profane literature, epics and history are all represented.
The idea of compiling a collection on the subject of astrological-magical subjects on a considerable scale dates back to the last years of the king’s life (1280-1283 ca.). There is a noticeable change between the astrological works of the so-called first period, in which Alfonso tried to maintain a conciliatory stance between the dogmas of the Church and the depth of Arabic knowledge, and the texts of the third period: the king, frustrated in his imperial aspirations, now saw himself with his hands free to develop, in all their breadth, the contents of the most theologically debatable works of the magical tradition of Eastern origin. To this end, he used a number of texts that he had already had translated (Ghayat al-hakim, the so-called Picatrix and the Book of Raziel) and added chapters from more recent compilations (Book of Forms and Images), as well as parts of works that may have appeared for the first time in his scriptorium, such as the Great Introduction to the astrology of Albumasar and others that have yet to be identified. Contents:
I) Pseudo-Pythagoras, Book of zodiacal moirogenesis.
II) Book of the Decans
III) Book of the Moon
IV) Pseudo-Aristotle, Book of the Images of the Twelve Signs
V) Book of Mars
VI) Book of Mercury
THIS MANUSCRIPT IS A SOURCE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN THE FIELD OF ASTROLOGY, WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC.
It is an important text because it reveals the Arabic astrology of the year 1000, the most advanced in this field, based on the Theory of the Faces of Ptolemy and the Alexandrians, which the Arabs compiled by adding the Babylonian, Indian and Sassanid contribution, unifying all the regions of the ancient cultures from Patna to Cordoba. It is an important source for understanding the general theory of the influence of the zodiacal and extrazodiacal constellations and, even further, that of each individual star. The rescued text provides us with information about the lunar houses, an archaic astrology and therefore mixed with witchcraft and magic coming from the Palaeolithic. It forms a body with the Parts of Manilius, and is also a source of historical research, once its basis has been correctly interpreted.
We are convinced that the publication of this original manuscript will serve as a starting point to broaden the field of serious astrology, where, devoid of prejudice, we can discover the successive layers left by ancient cultures, in their cosmological, medical, religious and intellectual facets that have accumulated in it through the ages up to the present day.
Demetrio Santos
