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Re: VMs: The Villard Portfolio



Hi Brett,

I enclose some text from Picatrix, which has a sort of recipe section:
Picatrix Latinus

Thanks - also, here's a nice list of ritual magic texts from Frank Klaassen at Duke which you may not have seen:-
http://duke.usask.ca/~frk302/MSS/ritual.html


Page 156-7
(the number 3 in the following text is a symbol that *looks* like
a 3 and according to Capelli means "una dramma, ditre scrupoli",
the upper case B by itself looks like a greek uppercase beta)

If we're talking about the same thing (which I'm 99% sure we are), then I refer to this as either "the apothecary ounce symbol" ("oncium/oncia", a reasonably standard unit of weight or liquid) [ie reference-by-meaning] or "cursive z bar" [ie reference-by-shape].


Ad idem. Recipe sanguinis galline eiusque cerebri, sanguinis leporis,
sanguinis algazel et sanguinis humani ana 3 iiii. Omnia vero ista insimul
misce et incorpora; et cum istis adde granorum mandragore 3 ii. Si ex istis
aliquem suffumigaveris, magna videbis mirabilia.
Ad idem. Recipe cerebri columbi albi euisque sanguinis et sanguinis aquile
ana 3 ii, coaguli leporis 3 i, cerebri asturis 3 B. Omnia ista in unum misce et
bene incorpora. Et ex eo cui volueris dabis in cibo, et ab eo amaberis.
Ad idem. Recipe sanguinis galli, sanguinis leopardi, sanginis leporis ana 3 i,
sanguinis humani 3 ii. Omnia ista insimul incorpora, et cum eis addas euforbii
3 i. Quemcumque autem cum ista confectione suffumigas, ab eo diligeris, et
eius spiritus et voluntates erga te movebuntur.
Ad idem. Recipe sanguinis passeris eiusque cerebri ana 3 i, sanguinis
musciple et eius cerebri ana 3 i, sanguinis humani 3 iiii, euforbii terciam
partem 3. Misceantur, ! et da in potu cui volueris.
Ad idem. Recipe cerebri gatti nigri, urine hominis ana. Misceantur, et da in
cibo cui volueris; et eius spiritus et voluntates erga te in amorem movebuntur.

Thanks for that! :-)


FWIW, every single recipe I look at brings me back to the numerous repetitions of "oncia i/ii/iii" (many magical recipes have numerous repetitions of "oncia iii", because three was thought to be a magic number): I just can't avoid seeing the VMS' 8-character as a steganographic "oncia" (if you left-right reflect a cursive z, you get an 8 - so there's a <cursive z> hidden inside the 8).

If I was a code-maker circa 1450-1500 encoding a load of (Roman numeral) recipes, I'd be sure to find a way of hiding all the weights and measures used so that they were both secure and invisible... so I'd have probably used something like dain daiin daiiin myself. :-)

While on the subject of steganography: IIRC, when we were discussing the "4" character a while back, GC pointed out that (circa 1500) "y" was rare and may have been (like "4" apparently is to the VMS' cipherbet, from its shape) a late addition. It just struck me that the "4" character on its own steganographically contains "y" - in fact, if you were to try to write a single-stroke continuous y (ie not reversing on itself), you'd probably end up with something like "4"... so "4", coding for "y", may have been a late addition to the VMS' underlying shorthand alphabet.

But quite what that means for "4o" is another matter entirely... :-)

You might also like the section "latin prescriptions" from Ince
"The Latin Grammar of Pharmacy", Balliere, London 1903. 8th Ed.

I'd love to see it - I'll be sure to check it out on my next visit to the British Library (who have a copy). I'll also have a look at Pingree's edition of the Latin Picatrix while I'm there... :-)


I assume from your email address that you are in the UK, if you want a few pages photocopied (I should get a digital camera soon) from Picatrix or Ince, let me know.

That would be great - I'll try to have a look for myself, and will remind you in a while... :-)


Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....


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