About images of Moon mansions

In generation and corruption earthly forms are subordinate to the celestials; wherefore they that frame images, do then make use of them, by observing when the planets do enter into those constellations or forms (Ptolemy’s Centiloquium)

A recent post in Yuzuru’s blog made me think a little again about Moon mansions, i.e. the 28 (or 27) divisions of the ecliptic the Moon crosses every month, which are strictly connected with  the stars shining in the sky; generally in fact every mansion has a leading star, which the Moon visits every night in his sidereal revolution.

Scholars debate if their use comes from India, China or Babylon, but many think they come from  India: AlBiruni already wrote in his age “Hindus use the lunar mansions exactly in the same way as the zodiacal signs.”

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Hermes on Moon Mansions

The following text is an English translation from a Spanish book written at the court of Alphonse the Wise around  the second half of 13th century, and known as Vaticanus Reginensis 1283.

Alfonso D’Agostino, in his edition of the book, identifies two main sources for the manuscript, Ghayat al-hakim and the Great Introduction of Albumasar.

The Spanish manuscript shares some chapters with Latin Picatrix, translated at the court of Alphonse too.

PDF  version

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alfonso X, Astromagia : ms. Reg. lat. 1283 (cura Alfonso D’Agostino)

Barataria, 6 (Napoli: Liguori, 1992).

Alejandro García Avilés, “Two Astromagical Manuscripts of Alfonso X,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 59 (1996), 14-23

David Pingree, “Some of the Sources of the Ghāyat al-hakīm ,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 43 (1980), 1-15

David Pingree, “Between the Ghāya and Picatrix. I: The Spanish Version ”  Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 44 (1981), 27-56