CIMA 63 Titel Inhalt

16
lunar mansions was also translated into German by Johann Hartlieb between 1433 and
1435. 8 However, the ‗Tübingen Book‘ does not seem to correspond to Hartlieb‘s
translation. The Latin model from which the ‗Buch Archandrini‘ derives is at present
unknown, but future research should focus on the following versions, which are very
close in title and content: Liber Alcandrei (ms. Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale
Centrale, Magliabech XI.121, s. XIV, fols 193v-204v); Liber Archandrinus (sic) quem
tractavit et fecit Aristoteles secundum complexionem XII signa celorum et natura
eorum (ms. Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, lat. XIV.271 (4577), s. XIV, fols
5r-20v); Liber Alchandrini phylosophy de generali fortuna uniuscuiusque hominis (ms.
Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, 905, s. XV, fols 1r-35v); Liber Alkandrini (mss
London, British Library, Addit. 18752, s. XV, fols 60r-65v, and Oxford, All Souls
College, 81, s. XV, fols 118v-137v); and Liber Alchandrini philosophi de natiuitatibus
hominum secundum compositionem duodecim signorum celi (ms. Paris, Bibliothèque
nationale de France, lat. 10271, s. XV, fols 9r-52v).
3. Geomancy and onomancy
(fols 148r-250r and 274va-311v)
3.1. Geomancy. The longest part of the ‗Tübingen Book‘ is covered by geomancy.
Etymologically, geomancy is the divination through the earth, but, in the Arabic
sources and their Latin translations from the twelfth century onward, it relates to a
divinatory device whose aim is to form and interpret a ‗tableau‘ of 16 figures, each of
which is made of a number of dots (four to eight). The first four figures (called the
‗Mothers‘) are created by marking random lines on a piece of parchment (or any other
support, e.g. dust or sand) and the twelve remaining figures are drawn from
combinations of the first four figures according to specific rules. There are 16 possible
distinct geomantic figures, each of which has a name and a number of characteristics.
Furthermore, each figure is associated to one element (fire, air, water, earth), one
planet, one sign of the zodiac, etc. 9
Mondstationen (Naxatra) und das Buch Arcandam‘, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen
Gesellschaft, 18 (1864), pp. 118-201. The Book of Arcandam was first published by the
astrologer and doctor of medicine Richard ROUSSAT in Paris in 1542. A French translation
appeared in Paris in 1563 and an English translation (made from the French) in London in 1578.
All three versions were printed on several occasions.
8 See Frank FÜRBETH, Johannes Hartlieb. Untersuchungen zu Leben und Werk, Tübingen,
1992, pp. 49-57. The text is edited by Bodo WEIDEMANN, ‘Kunst der Gedächtnüss’ und ‘De
mansionibus’. Zwei frühe Traktate des Johann Hartlieb, Berlin, 1964, pp. 180-193.
9 On medieval geomancy, the most complete study is Thérèse CHARMASSON Recherches sur
une technique divinatoire: la géomancie dans l’Occident médiéval, Genève-Paris, 1980. See also
Laura MEANS, ‗A Translation of Martin of Spain‘s De geomancia‘, in Popular and Practical
Science of Medieval England, ed. L. M. Matheson, East Lansing (Mich.), 1994, pp. 61-121.
Emilie SAVAGE-SMITH and M. B. SMITH, ‗Islamic Geomancy and a Thirteenth Century