A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 1 (of 2) by Lynn Thorndike

BOOK I. THE ROMAN EMPIRE

368 words  |  Chapter 30

FOREWORD [Sidenote: A trio of great names.] A trio of great names, Pliny, Galen, and Ptolemy, stand out above all others in the history of science under the Roman Empire. In the use or criticism which they make of earlier writers and investigators they are also our chief sources for the science of the preceding Hellenistic period. By their voluminousness, their generous scope in ground covered, and their broad, liberal, personal outlooks, they have painted, in colors for the most part imperishable, extensive canvasses of the scientific spirit and acquisitions of their own time. Pliny pursued politics and literature as well as natural science; Ptolemy was at once mathematician, astronomer, physicist, and geographer; Galen knew philosophy as well as medicine. The two latter men, moreover, made original contributions of their own of the very first order to scientific knowledge and method. It is characteristic of the homogeneous and widespread culture of the Roman Empire that these three representatives of different, although overlapping, fields of science were natives of the three continents that enclose the Mediterranean Sea. Pliny was born at Como where Italy verges on transalpine lands; Ptolemy, born somewhere in Egypt, did his work at Alexandria; Galen came from Pergamum in Asia Minor. Finally, these men were, after Aristotle, the three ancient scientists who directly or indirectly most powerfully influenced the middle ages. Thus they illuminate past, present, and future. [Sidenote: Plan of this section.] We shall therefore open the present section of our investigation by considering in turn chronologically, Pliny, Ptolemy, and Galen, coupling, however, with our consideration of Ptolemy the work of Seneca on _Natural Questions_ which shows the same combination of natural science and natural divination. Next we shall consider some representatives of ancient applied science and its relations to magic, and the more miscellaneous writings of Plutarch, Apuleius, and Philostratus’s _Life of Apollonius of Tyana_. From the hospitable attitude toward magic and occult science displayed by these last writers we shall then turn back again to consider some examples of literary and philosophical attacks upon superstition, before proceeding lastly to spurious mystic writings of the Roman Empire, Neo-Platonism and its relations to astrology and theurgy, and the works of Aelian, Solinus, and Horapollo.

Chapters

1. Chapter 1 2. BOOK I. THE ROMAN EMPIRE 3. 2. PLINY’S NATURAL HISTORY 41 4. 4. GALEN 117 5. 5. ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE AND MAGIC: VITRUVIUS, 6. 9. LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ATTACKS UPON SUPERSTITION: 7. 10. SPURIOUS MYSTIC WRITINGS OF HERMES, ORPHEUS, AND 8. 11. NEO-PLATONISM AND ITS RELATIONS TO ASTROLOGY AND 9. BOOK II. EARLY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT 10. 21. CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE: BASIL, EPIPHANIUS, 11. 23. THE FUSION OF PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT IN 12. 24. THE STORY OF NECTANEBUS, OR THE ALEXANDER LEGEND 13. 27. OTHER EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING: BOETHIUS, ISIDORE, 14. 29. LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION, ESPECIALLY IN THE 15. 31. ANGLO-SAXON, SALERNITAN AND OTHER LATIN MEDICINE 16. 33. TREATISES ON THE ARTS BEFORE THE INTRODUCTION OF 17. 34. MARBOD 775 18. 35. THE EARLY SCHOLASTICS: PETER ABELARD AND HUGH 19. 38. SOME TWELFTH CENTURY TRANSLATORS, CHIEFLY OF 20. BOOK V. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 21. 57. EARLY THIRTEENTH CENTURY MEDICINE: GILBERT OF 22. 59. ALBERTUS MAGNUS 517 23. 61. ROGER BACON 616 24. 72. CONCLUSION 969 25. Introduction à l’étude de la chimie des anciens et du moyen âge, 1889. 26. 1911. Popular. 27. INTRODUCTION 28. BOOK I. THE ROMAN EMPIRE 29. Chapter 2. Pliny’s Natural History. 30. BOOK I. THE ROMAN EMPIRE 31. CHAPTER II 32. CHAPTER III 33. CHAPTER IV 34. CHAPTER V 35. CHAPTER VI 36. CHAPTER VII 37. CHAPTER VIII 38. CHAPTER IX 39. CHAPTER X 40. introduction, which may be regarded as a piquant appetizer to whet the 41. CHAPTER XI 42. CHAPTER XII 43. BOOK II. EARLY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT 44. Chapter 13. The Book of Enoch. 45. BOOK II. EARLY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT 46. CHAPTER XIII 47. CHAPTER XIV 48. CHAPTER XV 49. CHAPTER XVI 50. CHAPTER XVII 51. CHAPTER XVIII 52. CHAPTER XIX 53. CHAPTER XX 54. CHAPTER XXI 55. 329. When or where the nine homilies which compose his _Hexaemeron_ 56. CHAPTER XXII 57. CHAPTER XXIII 58. Chapter 24. The Story of Nectanebus. 59. CHAPTER XXIV 60. prologue which is found only in the oldest extant manuscript, a Bamberg 61. CHAPTER XXV 62. CHAPTER XXVI 63. CHAPTER XXVII 64. CHAPTER XXVIII 65. CHAPTER XXIX 66. CHAPTER XXX 67. introduction? 68. introduction, it would be a more valuable bit of evidence as to his 69. CHAPTER XXXI 70. introduction of Arabic medicine to the western world. 71. CHAPTER XXXII 72. introduction of translations from the Arabic is comparatively free from 73. CHAPTER XXXIII 74. CHAPTER XXXIV 75. introduction of Arabic alchemy, 773; 76. 106. M. A. Ruffer, _Palaeopathology of Egypt_, 1921. 77. 8. Daimon and Hero, with Excursus on Ritual Forms preserved in Greek 78. 1921. See also Thompson (1913), p. 14. 79. 99. “Phyteuma quale sit describere supervacuum habeo cum sit usus eius 80. 4838. Arsenal 981, in an Italian hand, is presumably incorrectly dated 81. 1507. See Justin Winsor, _A Bibliography of Ptolemy’s Geography_, 1884, 82. 1895. Since then I believe that the only work of Galen to be translated 83. 66. Also II, 216; XIX, 19 and 41. 84. 330. Pliny, too (XXI, 88), states that trefoil is poisonous itself and 85. 1867. In English we have _The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria_, 86. 1890. I have found that Riess, while including some of the passages 87. 53. See below, II, 220-21. 88. 1860. Greek text in PG, vol. XVI, part 3; English translation in AN, 89. 3836. Other MSS are: BN 11624, 11th century; BN 12135, 9th century; BN 90. 1888. Schanz (1905) 138, mentions only continental MSS, although there 91. introduction by A. von Premerstein, C. Wessely, and J. Mantuani 92. 177. This is not, however, to be regarded as the invention of lead

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