Picatrix Readers. The Survival and Impact of a Magic Book in the Works of Renaissance Thinkers Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Others

Abstract

This study seeks to answer the question: how was the reading of Picatrix present and how did it affect the coming centuries? The first part of the paper, published here, focuses on Ficino and Pico, the two 15th-century philosophers who, through their work, gave authority and credit the so-called “Learned magic” in the eyes of their contemporaries and immediate descendants, so the survival of Picatrix and similar magical writings, albeit mostly through secret channels, was assured. The second part of the study will appear in the next issue of Antiquity and the Renaissance. There, after discussing Francesco Cattani da Diacceto, Ludovico Lazzarelli, Johannes Trithemius, the latter’s followers, Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus will be examined. Then Giordano Bruno’s and Tommaso Campanella’s works will be discussed that were inspired at least in part by Picatrix. Finally, in a nutshell, it presents the research results of Benedek Láng and those of Márton Veszprémy on the Picatrix’s copies of Central Europe.