Sederi Yearbook 35

Isabel de la Cruz Cabanillas / Irene Diego Rodríguez, “Astrologia Ypocratis and its vernacular early modern afterlives.” SEDERI 35 (2025): 11–28.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34136/sederi.2025.1                                                         Download PDF

Abstract

Astrologia Ypocratis is a Latin zodiacal lunary which deals with the prognosis, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases according to the phases of the moon in the twelve Zodiac signs. It circulated widely during the Middle Ages in Latin (Thorndike 1960; Kibre 1977, 1978), Middle English (De la Cruz Cabanillas and Diego Rodríguez, 2018), and Middle Dutch (Jansen-Sieben 1983). It endured throughout the early modern period due to the degree of confidence of sixteenth-century society in astrological medicine and the figure of Hippocrates. For the present study, two sixteenth-century witnesses – English and Spanish – are transcribed and collated following Thorndike’s methodology (1960). We aim to establish their genetic filiation, tracing the original versions from which both vernacular translations derive to continue tracing the transmission of the text.

Keywords: Astrologia Ypocratis, Þe boke of Ypocras, Hyppocrates de la significacion de la muerte y de la vida, manuscript filiation, early modern vernacular translations.

References

Primary sources

Manuscript Sources

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 621.

London, Wellcome Library, MS 7117.

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS 2818.

Handschrift Oxford, New College, MS 312.

Printed Sources

Giuntini, Franceso et al. 1583. Speculum Astrologiae. ‹https://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/detalle/bdh0000001298›.

Gundisalvus, Domenicus. 1550. Amicus medicorum. The Wellcome Library. ‹https://archive.org/details/hin-wel-all-00000926-001›.

Of Ephesus, Imbrasius. 1548. Hippocratis … Libellus, de significatione mortis et vitae secundum cursum lunae et aspectus planetarum. Apud Blondum. ‹https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p16003coll14/id/2085›.

Secondary sources

Astrological treatises, in Spanish, being excerpts from the books and translations of dr. Francisco Juntino Oxford, Bodleian Libraries. MS Bodl. 621. ‹https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/5675›.

Beullens, Pieter. 2023. The Friar and the Philosopher. William of Moerbeke and the Rise of Aristotle’s Science in Medieval Europe. Routledge.

Brams, Jozef and Willy Vanhamel. 1989. Guillaume de Moerbeke. Recuel d’études à l’occasion du 700e anniversaire de sa mort (1286). Leuven University Press.

Bull, Christian H 2018. The tradition of Hermes Trismegistus: the Egyptian priestly figure as a teacher of Hellenized wisdom. Brill.

Cumont, Franz. 1935. “Les ‘Prognostica de decubitu’ atribués à Galien.” Bulletin de l’Institut Historique Belge de Rome 15: 119–32.

De la Cruz Cabanillas, Isabel and Irene Diego Rodríguez. 2018. “Astrological Medicine in Middle English: The Case of Þe Booke of Ypocras.” In Textual Reception and Cultural Debate in Medieval English Studies, edited by J. Esteve Ramos and J R. Prado Pérez. Cambridge Scholars.

Diego Rodríguez, Irene. 2021. “The ‘Englishing’ of the Pseudo-Hippocratic zodiacal lunary contained in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ashmole MS 210 (ff 36v–42r).” Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny 68 (3): 334–50.

Diego Rodríguez, Irene. 2023. Þe boke of ypocras in Late Middle English Manuscripts. Studies in English Language and Literature, Servicio de Publicaciones y Difusión Científica de la Universidad de la ULPGC.

Durling, Richard J 1985. “A Guide to the Medical Manuscripts Mentioned in Kristeller’s ‘Iter Italicum’ .” Traditio 41: 341–65.

Durling, Richard J 1988. “A Guide to the Medical Manuscripts Mentioned in Kristeller’s ‘Iter Italicum’ –.” Traditio 44: 485–536.

Finkielman, Samuel. 2011. “Hipócrates, el arte médico, el racionalismo y la astrología.” MEDICINA (Buenos Aires) 71: 289–291

Jansen-Sieben, Ria. 1983. De pseudo-hippokratische iatromathematika in vier middelnederlandse versies. Omirel.

Kibre, Pearl. 1977. “Hippocrates Latinus: Repertorium of Hippocratic Writings in the Latin Middle Ages ().” Traditio 33: 253–95.

Kibre, Pearl. 1978. “Astronomia or Astrologia Ypocratis.” Science and History: Studies in Honor of Edward Rosen. Studia Corpenica 16: 133–166.

Maloney, Thomas S. 2018. Roger Bacon: Compendium of the Study of Philosophy. Oxford University Press.

Pahta, Päivi and Irma Taavitsainen. 1995. “Authorities in Medieval Medical Treatises.” In The New Courant 3, edited by J. J. Mary Hatakka and Kirsti Peitsara. Department of English, University of Helsinki.

Pahta, Päivi and Irma Taavitsainen. 2004. “Vernacularisation of scientific and medical writings.” In Medical and Scientific Writing in Late Medieval English, edited by Irma Taavitsainen and Päivi Pahta. Cambridge University Press.

Steinschneider, Moritz. 1856. Die europäischen Ubersetzungen aus dem Arabischen bis Mitte des 17 Jahrhunderts. Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt

Taavitsainen, Irma. 1987. “The Identification of Middle English Lunary MSS.” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 88: 18–26.

Taavitsainen, Irma. 1988. Middle English Lunaries, a Study of the Genre. Société Néophilologique.

Thorndike, Lynn. 1923. A History of Magic and Experimental Science: During the First Thirteen Centuries of our Era, vol. 2. Columbia University Press.

Thorndike, Lynn. 1960. “The Three Latin Translations of the Pseudo-Hippocratic Tract on Astrological Medicine.” Janus 49: 104–29.

Weinstock, Stefan. 1948. “The Author of Ps.-Galen’s Prognostica de Decubitu.” The Classical Quarterly 42 (1/2): 41–43.