A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 1 (of 2) by Lynn Thorndike
1921. See also Thompson (1913), p. 14.
[116] Thompson (1913), p. 19.
[117] L. C. Karpinski, “Hindu Science,” in _The American Mathematical
Monthly_, XXVI (1919), 298-300.
[118] Sir Thomas Heath, _Aristarchus of Samos, the Ancient Copernicus:
a history of Greek astronomy to Aristarchus together with Aristarchus’s
treatise, “On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon,” a new
Greek text with translation and notes_, Oxford, 1913, admits that “our
treatise does not contain any suggestion of any but the geocentric
view of the universe, whereas Archimedes tells us that Aristarchus
wrote a book of hypotheses, one of which was that the sun and the
fixed stars remain unmoved and that the earth revolves round the sun
in the circumference of a circle.” Such evidence seems scarcely to
warrant applying the title of “The Ancient Copernicus” to Aristarchus.
And Heath thinks that Schiaparelli (_I precursori di Copernico
nell’antichità_, and other papers) went too far in ascribing the
Copernican hypothesis to Heraclides of Pontus. On Aristotle’s answer to
Pythagoreans who denied the geocentric theory see Orr (1913), pp. 100-2.
[119] “Farewell, Nature, parent of all things, and in thy manifold
multiplicity bless me who, alone of the Romans, has sung thy praise.”
[120] For the Latin text of the _Naturalis Historia_ I have used the
editions of D. Detlefsen, Berlin, 1866-1882, and L. Janus, Leipzig,
1870, 6 vols. in 3; 5 vols. in 3. There is, however, a good English
translation of the _Natural History_, with an introductory essay, by
J. Bostock and H. T. Riley, London, 1855, 6 vols. (Bohn Library),
which is superior to both the German editions in its explanatory
notes and subject index, and which also apparently antedates them
in some readings suggested for doubtful passages in the text. Three
modes of dividing the _Natural History_ into chapters are indicated
in the editions of Janus and Detlefsen. I shall employ that found in
the earlier editions of Hardouin, Valpy, Lemaire, and Ajasson, and
preferred in the English translation of Bostock and Riley.
[121] Bostock and Riley (1855), I, xvi.
[122] NH, Preface.
[123] NH, Preface.
[124] NH, XXII, 7.
[125] NH, II, 6.
[126] NH, II, 46.
[127] NH, II, 5. “Deus est mortali iuvare mortalem....”
[128] NH, VII, 56.
[129] Letter to Macer, Ep. III, 5, ed. Keil. Leipzig, 1896.
[130] NH, VII, 1; XXIII, 60; XXV, 1; XXVII, 1.
[131] XXVI, 76.
[132] XXXVII, 11.
[133] XXI, 88.
[134] XXXII, 24.
[135] Yet C. W. King, _Natural History of Precious Stones_, p. 2,
deplores the loss of Juba’s treatise, which he says, “considering
his position and opportunities for exact information, is perhaps the
greatest we have to deplore in this sad catalogue of _desiderata_.”
[136] NH, XXXII, 4.
[137] XXX, 30.
[138] Bouché-Leclercq (1899), p. 519, notes, however, that Aulus
Gellius (X, 12) protested against Pliny’s credulity in accepting
such works as genuine and that “Columelle (VII, 5) cite un certain
Bolus de Mendes comme l’auteur des ὑπομνήματα attribués à Démocrite.”
Bouché-Leclercq adds, however, “Rien n’y fit: Démocrite devint le grand
docteur de la magie.”
[139] NH, VII, 21.
[140] G. H. Lewes, _Aristotle; a Chapter from the History of Science_,
London. 1864.
[141] _Letters of Pliny the Younger_, III, 5, ed. Keil, Leipzig, 1896.
[142] NH, VIII, 34.
[143] XXVIII, 1.
[144] Rück, _Die Naturalis Historia des Plinius im Mittelalter_, in
_Sitzb. Bayer. Akad. Philos-Philol. Classe_ (1908) pp. 203-318. For
citations of Pliny by writers of the late Roman empire and early middle
ages, see Panckoucke, _Bibliothèque Latine-Française_, vol. CVI.
[145] Concerning the MSS see Detlefsen’s prefaces in each of his first
five volumes and his fuller dissertations in Jahn’s _Neue Jahrb._, 77,
653ff, _Rhein. Mus._, XV, 265ff; XVIII, 227ff, 327.
Detlefsen seems to have made no use of English MSS, but a folio of the
close of the 12th century at New College, Oxford, contains the first
nineteen books of the _Natural History_ and is described by Coxe as
“very well written and preserved.”
Nor does Detlefsen mention Le Mans 263, 12th century, containing all
37 books except that the last book is incomplete, and with a full page
miniature (fol. 10v) showing Pliny in the act of presenting his work to
Vespasian. Escorial Q-I-4 and R-I-5 are two other practically complete
texts of the fourteenth century which Detlefsen failed to use.
[146] See M. R. James, Eton Manuscripts, p. 63, MS 134, Bl. 4. 7.,
Roberti Crikeladensis Prioris Oxoniensis excerpta ex Plinii Historia
Naturali, 12-13th century, in a large English hand, giving extracts
extending from Book II to Book IX.
Of Balliol 124, fols. 1-138, _Cosmographia mundi_, by John Free,
born at Bristol or London, fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, later
professor of medicine at Padua and a doctor at Rome, also well
instructed in civil law and Greek, Coxe writes, “This work is nothing
but a series of excerpts from Pliny’s _Natural History_, beginning with
the second and leaving off with the twentieth.” I wonder if John Free
may not have used the very MS of the first nineteen books mentioned in
the foregoing note, since the second book of the _Natural History_ is
often reckoned as the first.
In Balliol 146A, 15th century, fol. 3-, the _Natural History_ appears
in epitome, with a prologue opening, “I, Reginald (_Retinaldus_),
servant of Christ, perusing the books of Pliny....”
[147] Bologna, 952, 15th century, fols. 157-60, “Tractatus optimus in
quo exposuit et aperte declaravit plinius philosophus quid sit lapis
philosophicus et ex qua materia debet fieri et quomodo.”
[148] Fossi, _Catalogus codicum saeculo XV impressorum qui in publica
Bibliotheca Magliabechiana Florentiae adservantur_, 1793-1795, II,
374-81.
[149] _De erroribus Plinii et aliorum in medicina_, Ferrara, 1492.
[150] _Pliniana defensio_, 1494.
[151] Escorial Q-I-4, and R-I-5, both of the 14th century.
[152] NH, V, 1, 12.
[153] XXVI, 6, “usu efficacissimo rerum omnium magistro”; XVII, 2, 12,
“quare experimentis optime creditur.”
[154] II, 66.
[155] XXIX, 23.
[156] XXIX, 11.
[157] XXV, 54, “coramque nobis”; XXV, 106, “nos eam Romanis
experimentis per usus digeremus.”
[158] Sometimes another term, as _usus_ in note 2 above, is employed.
[159] See II, 41, 1-2; II, 108; VII, 41; VII, 56; VIII, 7; XIV, 8;
XVI, 1; XVI, 64; XVII, 2; XVII, 35; XXII, 1; XXII, 43; XXII, 49; XXII,
51; XXV, 7; XXXIV, 39 and 51. Experience is also the idea in the
two following passages, although the word _experimentum_ could not
smoothly be rendered as “experience” in a literal translation: VII, 50,
“Accedunt experimenta et exempla recentissimi census ...”; XXVIII, 45,
“Nec uros aut bisontes habuerunt Graeci in experimentis.”
[160] XVI, 24; XXII, 57; XXVI, 60.
[161] X, 75.
[162] XXXV, 30.
[163] VII, 35
[164] XIII, 3.
[165] XIV, 25.
[166] XVII, 4; XX, 3 and 76; XXII, 23; XXIX, 12; XXXIII, 19 and 43 and
44 and 57; XXXIV, 26 and 48; XXXVI, 38 and 55; XXXVII, 22 and 76; such
phrases as _sinceri experimentum_ and _veri experimentum_ are used for
“test of genuineness.”
[167] XXIII, 31; XXXI, 28.
[168] XXXI, 27.
[169] XVII, 26.
[170] II, 75.
[171] IX, 7.
[172] XXVIII, 6.
[173] XXVIII, 14.
[174] XXIX, 8. “Discunt periculis nostris et experimenta per mortes
agunt.” Bostock and Riley translate the last clause, “And they
experimentalize by putting us to death.” Another possible translation
is, “And their experiments cost lives.“
[175] XXV, 17. ” ... adeo nullo omnia experiendi fine ut cogerentur
etiam venena prodesse.“
[176] XXIX, 4 ” ... ab experimentis se cognominans empiricen.“
[177] IX, 86.
[178] XXXVII, 15.
[179] According to Galen, as we shall hear later, the Empirics relied a
good deal upon chance experience and dreams.
[180] XXV, 6.
[181] XX, 52.
[182] XXV, 20.
[183] XXIII, 27.
[184] Among other virtues of vinegar, besides its supposed property of
breaking rocks, Pliny mentions that if one holds some in the mouth, it
will prevent one from feeling the heat in the baths.
[185] XXV, 6 and 21 and 50; XXVII, 2.
[186] XVI, 24; XXVI, 60.
[187] XXIII, 59.
[188] XXVIII, 7.
[189] In the opening chapters of Book XXX, unless otherwise indicated
by specific citation.
[190] Aulus Gellius, X, 12, and Columella, VII, 5, dispute this
(Bouché-Leclercq, _L’Astrologie grecque_, p. 519). Berthelot
(_Origines de l’alchimie_, p. 145) believes in a Democritan school at
the beginning of the Christian era which wrote the works of alchemy
attributed to Democritus as well as the books of medical and magical
recipes which are quoted in the _Geoponica_ and the _Natural History_.
[191] XVI, 95.
[192] XXX, 2. ” ... quamquam animadverto summam litterarum claritatem
gloriamque ex ea scientia antiquitus et paene semper petitam.”
[193] Examples are: XXV, 59, “Sed magi utique circa hanc insaniunt”;
XXIX, 20, “magorum mendacia”; XXXVII, 60, “magorum inpudentiae vel
manifestissimum ... exemplum”; XXXVII, 73, “dira mendacia magorum.”
[194] See XXII, 9; XXVI, 9; XXVII, 65; XXVIII, 23 and 27; XXIX, 26;
XXX, 7; XXXVII, 14.
[195] XXXVII, 40.
[196] XXX, 5-6.
[197] XXX, 6. “Proinde ita persuasum sit, intestabilem, inritam, inanem
esse, habentem tamen quasdam veritatis umbras, sed in his veneficas
artis pollere, non magicas.”
[198] XXV, 7.
[199] XXVIII, 23.
[200] XXVIII, 2.
[201] XXX, 4.
[202] XXVIII, 19; XXX, 6.
[203] XXVIII, 29.
[204] XXX, 7.
[205] XXIX, 26.
[206] For instance, XXX, 27, he mentions the magi, but not in XXX, 28.
Nor are they mentioned in XXX, 29, but in XXX, 30 “plura eorum remedia
ponemus” seems to refer to them, although we must look back three
chapters for the antecedent of _eorum_.
[207] XXXVII, 14, he says that he is going to confute “the unspeakable
nonsense of the magicians” concerning gems, but makes no specific
citation from them until the thirty-seventh chapter on jasper.
[208] XXX, 47.
[209] XXXVII, 11.
[210] XX, 30; XXI, 38, 94, 104; XXII, 24, 29.
[211] XXI, 36; XXIV, 99.
[212] XXV, 5.
[213] XXIV, 99-102.
[214] See XX, 30; XXI, 36, 38, 94, 104; XXII, 9, 24, 29; XXIV, 99, 102;
XXV, 59, 65, 80-81; XXVI, 9.
[215] XXI, 38.
[216] XXI, 104; XXII, 24.
[217] XXI, 94.
[218] XXII, 29.
[219] XX, 30.
[220] XXI, 38.
[221] XXIV, 99 and 102.
[222] XXV, 5.
[223] XXV, 59.
[224] XXVI, 9.
[225] XXX, 6.
[226] XXX, 7.
[227] XXVIII, 27.
[228] XXVIII, 25.
[229] XXX, 24.
[230] XXIX, 39.
[231] XXIX, 12.
[232] XXX, 6.
[233] XXVIII, 57; XXX, 17.
[234] Use of goat, XXVIII, 56, 63, 78-79; cat, XXVIII, 66; puppy, XXIX,
38; dog, XXX, 24.
[235] XXVIII, 60, 66, 77; XXIX, 26.
[236] XXVIII, 66; XXIX, 15; XXX, 7; XXX, 27; XXXII, 38.
[237] XXX, 8 and 36; see also XXVIII, 60; XXXII, 19 and 24.
[238] XXIX, 23; XXX, 18, 20, 30, 49; XXXII, 14, 18, 24.
[239] XXX, 27.
[240] XXX, 24.
[241] XXX, 24.
[242] XXVIII, 27.
[243] XXVIII, 66; and see XXIX, 12.
[244] XXVIII, 60.
[245] XXVIII, 68.
[246] XXVIII, 78.
[247] XXX, 17.
[248] XXX, 18.
[249] XXXII, 38.
[250] XXIX, 26.
[251] XXVIII, 63.
[252] XXVIII, 56; XXIX, 15.
[253] XXIX, 19.
[254] XXIX, 20.
[255] XXIX, 26; XXX, 7.
[256] Pliny ascribes statements concerning stones to the _magi_ in the
following chapters: XXXVI, 34; XXXVII, 37, 40, 49, 51, 54, 56, 60, 70,
73.
[257] XXXVII, 54 and 40.
[258] XXXVII, 40, 60, 56, 73.
[259] XXVIII, 12, “Magorum haec commenta sunt....“
[260] XXVIII, 23.
[261] Some works upon animals in antiquity and Greece are:
Aubert und Wimmer, _Aristoteles Thierkunde_, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1868.
Baethgen, _De vi et significatione galli in religione et artibus
Graecorum et Romanorum_, Diss. Inaug., Göttingen, 1887.
Bernays, _Theophrasts Schrift über Frömmigkeit_.
Bikélas, O., _La nomenclature de la Faune grecque_, Paris, 1879.
Billerbeck, _De locis nonnullis Arist. Hist. Animal. difficilioribus_,
Hildesheim, 1806.
Dryoff, A., _Die Tierpsychologie des Plutarchs_, Progr. Würzburg, 1897.
_Über die stoische Tierpsychologie_, in _Bl. f. bayr. Gymn._, 33 (1897)
399ff.; 34 (1898) 416.
Erhard, _Fauna der Cykladen_, Leipzig, 1858.
Fowler, W. W., _A Year with the Birds_, 1895.
Hopf, L., _Thierorakel und Orakelthiere in alter und neuer Zeit_,
Stuttgart, 1888.
Hopfner, T., _Der Tierkult der alten Ægypter nach den
griechisch-römischen Berichten und den wichtigen Denkmälern_, in
_Denkschr. d. Akad. Wien_, 1913, ii Abh.
Imhoof-Blumer, F., und Keller, O., _Tier-und Pflanzenbilder auf Münzen
und Gemmen des klassischen Altertums_. illustrated, 1889.
Keller, O., _Thiere des class. Altertums_.
Krüper, _Zeiten des Gehens und Kommens und des Brütens der Vögel in
Griechenland und Ionien_, in Mommsen’s _Griech. Jahreszeiten_, 1875.
Küster, E., _Die Schlange in der griechischen Kunst und Religion_,
Giessen, 1913.
Lebour, _Zoologist_, 1866.
Lewysohn, _Zoologie des Talmuds_.
Lindermayer, A., _Die Vögel Griechenlands_, Passau, 1860.
Locard, _Histoire des mollusques dans l’antiquité_, Lyon, 1884.
Lorenz, _Die Taube im Alterthume_, 1886.
Marx, A., _Griech. Märchen von dankbaren Tieren_, Stuttgart, 1889.
Mühle, H. v. d., _Beiträge zur Ornithologie Griechenlands_, Leipzig,
1844.
Sundevall, _Thierarten des Aristoteles_, Stockholm, 1863.
Thompson, D’Arcy W., _A Glossary of Greek Birds_, 1895. _Aristotle as
a Biologist_, 1913. Also the notes to his translation of the _Historia
animalium_.
Westermarck, E., _The Origin and Development of Moral Ideas_, I (1906)
251-60, gives further bibliography on the subjects of animals as
witnesses and the punishment of animal culprits.
[262] VIII, 1-12.
[263] VIII, 17-21.
[264] XXXII, 5.
[265] VIII, 37.
[266] VIII, 11-12.
[267] XXVII, 2; XVIII, 1.
[268] XXVII, 2; VIII, 41.
[269] XX, 51 and 61; XXII, 37 and 45.
[270] XX, 26.
[271] VIII, 41; XX, 95.
[272] XXIX, 39.
[273] XXV, 50.
[274] XXV, 5.
[275] VIII, 40; XXVIII, 31.
[276] For further remedies used by animals see VIII, 41; XXIX, 14, 38;
XXV, 52-53; XXVIII, 81.
[277] XXVII, 2. “ ... quod certe casu repertum quis dubitet et quotiens
fiat etiam nunc ut novom nasci quoniam feris ratio et usus inter se
tradi non possit?” Perhaps Pliny would have denied the inheritance of
acquired characteristics.
[278] XXV, 51.
[279] XXXVII, 57.
[280] VIII, 4.
[281] VIII, 33.
[282] XXIX, 34; XXX, 10, 19; XXVIII, 46; XXIX, 11; XXX, 16.
[283] XXX, 46.
[284] XXXII, 14.
[285] XXVIII, 37.
[286] A recent work on the general theme is Joret, _Les plantes dans
l’antiquité_, Paris, 1904; see also F. Mentz, _De plantis quas ad rem
magicam facere crediderunt veteres_, Leipzig, 1705, 28 pp.; F. Unger,
_Die Pflanze als Zaubermittel_, Vienna, 1859.
[287] XXII, 3; XXV, 59; XXVII, 28.
[288] XXI, 105. “Halicacabi radicem bibunt qui vaticinari gallantesque
vere ad confirmandas superstitiones aspici se volunt.”
[289] XXV, 43-44.
[290] XXI, 21, 84.
[291] XXV, 5.
[292] XXIII, 64.
[293] XXV, 35.
[294] XXII, 36.
[295] XXIV, 94.
[296] XXV, 46.
[297] XXV, 54.
[298] XXV, 78.
[299] XXIII, 75.
[300] XXIV, 56-57.
[301] XXV, 18; XXVII, 100.
[302] XX, 14; XXIV, 82; XXV, 92.
[303] XXV, 10; XXVII, 60.
[304] XXIV, 6, 93.
[305] XXV, 6.
[306] XX, 49; XXI, 83; XXIII, 54; XXIV, 63; XXV, 59; XXVI, 12.
[307] XXIII, 59.
[308] XXIV, 62.
[309] XXV, 21, 94.
[310] XXIV, 63 and 118.
[311] XXI, 19.
[312] XXIV, 62; XXIII, 59.
[313] XXIII, 81; XXIV, 6, 62, 116.
[314] XXVI, 12.
[315] XXI, 19; XXV, 21, 94.
[316] XXIII, 71, 81; XXIV, 6; XXVII, 62.
[317] XXI, 83; XXV, 109; XXVI, 12.
[318] XXII, 16; XXIII, 54; XXIV, 82; XXVII, 113.
[319] XXIV, 116.
[320] XXV, 92.
[321] XXI, 19; XXV, 11.
[322] XXIV, 62; XXV, 21.
[323] XXIV, 62-63.
[324] XVI, 95.
[325] See XXIV, 6, for other methods of plucking the mistletoe.
[326] XVIII, 45.
[327] See also XXV, 6.
[328] XIX, 58.
[329] XVIII, 70.
[330] XVIII, 73.
[331] XXVIII, 81.
[332] XVIII, 8.
[333] XXXVII, 14, 73.
[334] XXXVII, 55-56.
[335] XXXVII, 13.
[336] For instance, XXXVII, 12 amber, 37 jasper, 39 aetites, 55
“baroptenus.”
[337] XXXVI, 31.
[338] XXXVII, 15, 58, 67.
[339] XXXVI, 25, 39.
[340] XVI, 20.
[341] XXXIII, 25.
[342] XXX, 12, 25.
[343] XX, 3; XXVIII, 6, 9; etc.
[344] II, 63; XXIX, 23.
[345] XXXIII, 34
[346] XX, 51; XXVIII, 21.
[347] VII, 13; XXVIII, 23.
[348] XX, 33; XXII, 30; XXVIII, 18-19.
[349] XXVIII, 8.
[350] XXVIII, 9.
[351] XXVIII, 9-11.
[352] XXVIII, 7.
[353] VII, 2.
[354] XXVIII, 6.
[355] XXII, 49.
[356] XXIV, 102.
[357] In this paragraph I have combined views expressed by Pliny in
three different passages: XXII, 49 and 56; XXIV, 1.
[358] IX, 88; XXIV, 1; XXVIII, 23; XXXII, 12; XXXVII, 15; etc.
[359] XXIV, 1; XXIX, 17.
[360] VIII, 50; XXVIII, 42.
[361] XXIX, 17 and 23.
[362] XXVIII, 43.
[363] XX, 1. “Odia amicitiaque rerum surdarum ac sensu carentium ...
quod Graeci sympathiam appellavere.” XXIV, 1. “Surdis etiam rerum sua
cuique sunt venena ac minimis quoque ... Concordia valent.”
[364] XXVIII, 41; XXXVII, 15. Yet a note in Bostock and Riley’s
translation, IV, 207, asserts, “Pliny is the only author who makes
mention of this singularly absurd notion.”
[365] “Nunc quod totis voluminibus his docere conati summus de
discordia rerum concordiaque quam antipathiam Graeci vocavere ac
sympathiam non aliter clarius intelligi potest.”
[366] XXIV, 41.
[367] XXI, 47.
[368] XX, 36.
[369] XVI, 24.
[370] XXV, 55.
[371] XXXVII, 54.
[372] XXIII, 62; XXIV, 1.
[373] XXVIII, 41.
[374] XXIX, 32.
[375] XXVIII, 61.
[376] XXIX, 27.
[377] XXVII, 74.
[378] XXXVI, 11.
[379] XXV, 3.
[380] XXII, 29.
[381] XXVIII, 9.
[382] XXVIII, 17.
[383] XXVIII, 47.
[384] XXIX, 38.
[385] XXX, 20.
[386] XXVIII, 49.
[387] XXXII, 52.
[388] XXIX, 27.
[389] XXX, 7.
[390] XXXII, 14.
[391] XXX, 20 and 14.
[392] XXXII, 29; XXX, 11.
[393] XXVIII, 42.
[394] XXII, 65.
[395] XXII, 72.
[396] XXII, 32.
[397] XXX, 12.
[398] XXV, 106.
[399] XX, 81.
[400] XXVIII, 47.
[401] XXX, 12, 15.
[402] XXVII, 62.
[403] XXIX, 17.
[404] XXIX, 24.
[405] XXVI, 89.
[406] XXXII, 16; also XX, 39.
[407] XXII, 30.
[408] XXIV, 32, 38.
[409] XX, 72, 82.
[410] XXVI, 69.
[411] XXIX, 36.
[412] XXX, 8.
[413] XXVIII, 10.
[414] XXXII, 24.
[415] XXX, 18.
[416] See also XXX, 8.
[417] XXIV, 106 and 109.
[418] XXIV, 107 and 110.
[419] Some examples are: XVIII, 75, 79; XXII, 72; XXIII, 71; XXVIII,
47; XXIX, 36; XXXII, 14, 25, 38, 46.
[420] XXXII, 14.
[421] XXX, 12.
[422] XXIV, 112.
[423] VIII, 50.
[424] XXVIII, 6.
[425] XXIV, 17.
[426] XXX, 15.
[427] XXIX, 34.
[428] XXXII, 24.
[429] XXXII, 38.
[430] XVII, 47.
[431] XIX, 36.
[432] XVIII, 35.
[433] XXVI, 60.
[434] XXVIII, 7.
[435] XXVII, 75.
[436] XXVII, 106.
[437] XXVIII, 3-4.
[438] XXVII, 35. “Catanancen Thessalam herbam qualis sit describi a
nobis supervacuum est, cum sit usus eius ad amatoria tantum.” XXVII,