Liber de secretis naturae

Lemmas:

Category:

Hermetica

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Description

Author:

Apollonius Tyaneus

Translator:

Ugo di Santalla

Century:

Form By:

Fabio Seller

It is the Latin version - achieved by Ugo of Santalla - of the Arab work Kitab sirr al-haliqa ("The book of the secret of Creation"), written in the first half of the 11th century.

The author introduces himself as Apollonius of Tyana (Balinusin the Arab text).

The origin of the Kitab sirr al-aliqais still debatable: some suppose a Greek original (also on the basis of a quotation about the translator, the priest Sagiyus), whilst others think it is an Arab apocrypha.

With the exception of some parts and the paraphrasis of Ugo, the Sirr and the De secretis naturae are corresponding.

In the prologue we can read the doctrine of the four elements and qualities, followed by a dissertation on the causae, according to two differet theories of two and four causes, from which everything existing come into being.

The first treatise includes an exposition of 24 God names, whose unique action over matter is the fundamentum of creation.

The second treatise deals with cosmological themes (particular attention is devoted to warm as intermediate cause), followed by a description of minerals: the third book is devoted to the formation of plants.

A second volume is a unique text; after a new prologue, it presents in an encyclopedic form the nature of animals and mankind.

Finally, there is the first occurrence of the famous Tabula smaragdina.

Media:

Digital Images

Manuscripts

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 13951, sec. XII, membr., ff. II+31: 1r-31r.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 13952, sec. XVII, cart., ff. 61: 4r-61r.

Antique Book

Modern Book

F. Hudry, "Le De secretis nature du ps.-Apollonius de Tyane, traduction latine par Hugues de Santalla du Kitab sirr al-aliqa", in Chrysopoeia, 6 (1997-1999), pp. 1-154.

P. Travaglia, Una cosmologia ermetica. Il Kitab sirr al-haliqa / De secretis naturae, Liguori, Napoli 2001 (antologia di testi, pp. 157-257).

Bibliography

J. Bowman, "A Lost Work of Apollonius of Tyana", in Glasgow University Oriental Society Transactions, 15 (1950-1952), pp. 1-10.

C. Burnett, "A Group of Arabic-Latin Translators working in Northern Spain in the mid-twelfth Century", in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, (1977), pp. 62-108.

C. Burnett, "Apollonius of Tyana", in Lagerlund H. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy: Philosophy between 500 and 1600, 2 voll., Springer, Dordrecht 2011, vol. I, pp. 82-83.

C. Burnett, "Literal Translation and Intelligent Adaptation amongst the Arabic-Latin Translators of the first half of the twelfth Century", in La diffusione delle scienze islamiche nel medioevo europeo, Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, Roma 1987, pp. 9-28.

C. Burnett, "The Establishment of Medieval Hermeticism", in P. Lineahan (ed.), The Medieval World, London - New York 2001, pp. 111-130.

I. Caiazzo - J.-M. Mandosio, "La Tabula smaragdina nel Medioevo latino", in P. Lucentini, I. Parri, V. Perrone Compagni (a cura di), Hermetism from Late Antiquity to Humanism. La tradizione ermetica dal mondo tardo-antico all'umanesimo, Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi. Napoli, 20-24 novembre 2001, Brepols, Turnhout 2003, pp. 681-746.

R. Duval, "Apollonius de Tyane", in Journal Asiatique, 9, 1 (1893), p. 178.

R.J.H. Gottheil, "Apollonius of Tyana", in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 46 (1892), pp. 466-470.

M. Goyens - P. de Leemans, A. Smets (eds.), Science Translated: Latin and Vernacular Translations of Scientific Treatise in Medieval Europe, Leuven University Press, Leuven 2008, pp. 48-49.

C. H. Haskins, "The Translations of Hugo Sanctalliensis", in The Romanic Review, 2 (1911), pp. 1-15 (ora in C. H. Haskins, Studies in the History of Medieval Science, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA) 1924, pp. 67-81).

D. Kahn (ed.), Hermès Trismégiste, La Table d'émeraude et sa tradition alchimique, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 2006 (1^a ed. 1995).

L. Leclerc, "De L'identité de Balinas et d'Apollonius de Tyane", in Journal Asiatique, 6, 14 (1869), pp. 111-131.

J.-M. Mandosio, "Humanisme ou barbarie? Formes de la latinité et mémoire de l'Antiquité dans quelques traductions médiévales de textes philosophiques arabes", in H. Casanova-Robin - P. Galand (eds.), Ecritures latines de la mémoire de l'Antiquité au XVIe siècle, Editions classiques Garnier, Paris 2010, pp. 227-263.

F. Nau, "Une ancienne traduction latine du Bélinous arabe (Apollonius de Tyana) faite par Hugo Sanctelliensis et conservée dans un manuscrit du XII siècle", in Revue de l'orient chrétien, 12, 2 (1908), pp. 99-106.

M. Pereira, Arcana Sapienza. L'alchimia dalle origini a Jung, Carocci, Roma 2001.

D. Pingree, "The Diffusion of Arabic Magical Texts in Western Europe", in La diffusione delle scienze islamiche nel medioevo europeo, Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, Roma 1987, pp. 57-102.

M. Plessner, "Neue Materialien zur Geschichte der Tabula Smaragdina", in Islam, 16 (1927), pp. 77-113.

J. Ruska (ed.), Tabula Smaragdina, ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der hermetischen Literatur, Carl Winter, Heidelberg 1926.

M. Steinschneider, Apollonius von Thyana (oder Balinas) bei den Arabern", in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 45 (1891), pp. 439-446.

P. Travaglia, "Note sulla dottrina degli elementi nel De Secretis naturae", in Studi Medievali, XXXIX, 1 (1998), pp. 121-157.

U. Weisser - A. Dietrich - O. Spies (Hrsg.), Das Buch über das Geheimnis der Schöpfung con Pseudo-Apollonios von Tyana, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin - New York 1980.

Works in Progress

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