Medieval Tradition

Definition

The medieval tradition is the Arabic-mediated Latin school of astrology that grew up across the Islamic world (c. 750–1250 CE) and medieval Europe (c. 1100–1500 CE). It carries Hellenistic chart technique forward through Pahlavi and Arabic translation, broadens it with Persian and Indian material, and reaches Latin Europe through the twelfth-century translators working in al-Andalus and Sicily.

In Tradition

In Western traditional scholarship, the medieval school is the bridge between astrology's Hellenistic beginnings and its early-modern English-language practice. Its own contributions stand out: orderly tables of essential and accidental dignity, an elaborated horary doctrine (prohibition, refranation, frustration, the translation and collection of light, reception), the mundane astrology of Jupiter–Saturn great conjunctions, a wider use of lots beyond the Hellenistic core, and detailed techniques for the almuten — the planet with the strongest claim on a point — and for rectifying an uncertain birth time.

In Practice

Your primary sources here are Bonatti's *Liber Astronomiae*, Sahl ibn Bishr, Masha'allah, Abu Ma'shar (the *Great Introduction*; the *Book of Religions and Dynasties*; the *Book on Revolutions*), 'Umar al-Tabari, Abu Bakr, Al-Biruni's *Kitāb al-Tafhīm*, and the *Picatrix*. Today you reach them through the Project Hindsight (Zoller, Hand, Schmidt) and Benjamin Dykes English translations of the Arabic and medieval-Latin corpus. Lilly's *Christian Astrology* (1647) closes the tradition off into early-modern English-language horary.

Historical Origin

The Persian-Arabic phase runs through Theophilus of Edessa (8th c.), Masha'allah, Sahl ibn Bishr, Abu Ma'shar (787–886 CE), Al-Kindi, and Al-Biruni (973–1048). The Latin transmission came through Hugh of Santalla, John of Spain, Plato of Tivoli, Hermann of Carinthia, and Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century. The Latin synthesis runs through Bonatti (c. 1207–c. 1296), the *Picatrix* tradition, and Ibn Ezra. Holden traces the chain from Theophilus through Bonatti to Lilly as the principal line of Western chart-astrology transmission.

Further Reading

  • Benjamin N. Dykes, Persian Nativities (Vols 1-3)
  • Guido Bonatti, Liber Astronomiae
  • James H. Holden, A History of Horoscopic Astrology