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Ars Notoria
Dear RENSEPians,
Let’s carry on our discussion on the Ars Notoria in this forum room. Feel free to share your thoughts, questions, and resources! -
24 Replies
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Thanks to @drangelapuca and all those who participated today for the engaging discussion on the Ars Notoria!
I really enjoy to see how different viewpoints can enrich our understanding of the text.
For those interested in delving deeper into the text before our next session, here are some references:
https://www.esotericarchives.com/notoria/notoria.htm
Castle, Matthias. Ars Notoria: The Notory Art of Solomon. Inner Traditions, 2023. (new translation of the major variants)
Véronèse, Julien. L'”Ars notoria” au Moyen Age: Introduction et édition critique. Sismel, 2007. (in French)
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Cette réponse a été modifiée Il y a 8 mois, 3 semaines par Andrea Centore.
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Cette réponse a été modifiée Il y a 8 mois, 3 semaines par Andrea Centore.
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Cette réponse a été modifiée Il y a 8 mois, 3 semaines par Andrea Centore.
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Cette réponse a été modifiée Il y a 8 mois, 3 semaines par
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looking forward to the next discussion!
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Hello, everyone,
Thank you for creating this forum! Thank you to @drangelapuca for all your work, and to @Andrea for the helpful citations.
The first two meetings have been quite enjoyable and informative!
Before I make a couple more posts, I should ask: is the present post-thread “Ars Notoria” the intended forum room itself, or is that the parent-title, “Monthly Study Group”? I should probably know from the specificity of the subgroup Ars Notoria that it’s likely the former case but thought I should ask before populating one thread. (It being the former case makes sense when I consider that there could be multiple study groups in the future).
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Hi @Zoshua , yes, you are correct, the present post-thread is the forum room on the Ars Notoria itself. You can post here your reflections and/or questions.
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Prior to preparing for this study group, I’d never looked into the Ars Noria. I have worked with a number of ‘spirits’ and grimoires as an experienced practitioner, but that particular text was not among them. The opportunity to study it now reflects one of the primary benefits that a practitioner enjoys as a part of RENSEP and other such scholastic projects. These benefits include bolstering and correcting one’s historical knowledge and expanding one’s range of artistically inspiring material culture.
The benefits ripple outward as well, or at least, that’s my aspiration. As a scholar (albeit an amateur and under-trained one), I have the opportunity to implement corrective and expansive restructuring within my pedagogical duties by using updated research methodologies and engaging with contemporary scholars’ work. Even if I never use the text myself, I’m better as an instructor and practitioner for having learned about it and its cultural threads.
I’ve appreciated everyone’s input and questions in the first two discussions so far. Although I was not able to retain everything, a couple of points stand out.
First, in doing a close reading of one of the orations, Andrea mentioned that “mind” may not be the contextually correct choice for translating anima. That brought up further discussion about the contextuality of terms and their contingencies of connotation: it depends on the conventions of the time and place and the cultural intersections that they host. Not only that, but it is also unlikely that there is an exact match between the connotation of the author and that of the translator ~400 years later. Additionally, there are significant conceptual and temporal gulfs between the 17th-century translator and us.
It reminded me of the importance of not projecting anachronisms onto the past, whether back to the translator or to the author(s). It’s a challenging but rewarding process to tease apart those nuances, ultimately delivering a more robust picture.
I’ve a few more ideas percolating that I’ll share later, so I’ll leave it here for now. Thanks everyone!
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No edit button (or delete, for that matter!) so I just have to make fun of myself for the embarrassing typo, Ars Noria. Ha! Another tricksie lesson reminding me to proofread more carefully.
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Hi @Zoshua ,
Just so you know, the edit button is available for up to ten minutes after the post is published.
Hope this helps!
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It does help, thank you!
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Is there a Zoom link to today’s study?
I just saw it – Thanks-
Cette réponse a été modifiée Il y a 7 mois, 3 semaines par Se Anstapa.
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Cette réponse a été modifiée Il y a 7 mois, 3 semaines par
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Hi @Matthias ,
Is this the paper by Gal Sofer that you mentioned?
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/15/3/339
mdpi.com
The Jewish Reception of the Ars Notoria: Preliminary Insights into a Recent Discovery
Recent advancements in studying the Ars Notoria, notably through Julian Véronèse’s critical edition, have provided insights into its manuscripts and various interpretations. This progress sets the stage for exploring a less examined area: the Jewish reception of the Ars Notoria, … Continuer la lecture
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Yes, that is it. Gal Sofer has helped advance the study of the Ars Notoria. In appendix 5 of my book, I present one of the two known Hebrew texts of the Melekhet Muskelet (“The Enlightened Work” from the Wisdom of Solomon) but Sofer offers new research and dives deeper into the material. I am indebted to Rabbi Yosef M. Cohen for my knowledge of the Melekhet Muskelet.
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Hello, fellow Notorians!
I found a quite helpful and free secondary source while following up on @Andrea ‘s recommendation post mentioning Invoking Angels by Dr. Fanger (thanks, by the way) which synchronistically addressed cultural trends of the time that I had picked up on (Philo & Liberal Arts as purification in a magical agenda via Christian appropriation), although Dr. Fanger expressed it so much more succinctly and eloquently than I ever could (especially in short-form zoom meetings!)
“Sacred and Secular Knowledge Systems in the Ars notoria and the Flowers of Heavenly Teaching of John of Morigny” [linked] by Claire Fanger is an English chapter of Die Enzyklopädic Der Esoterik (2010), but the Conclusion and section entitled “Emanations and Similitudes in Medieval Neo-Platonic Sources really situate the milieu in ways I had only guessed at (imprecisely at that) in my initial readings of AN. It is available free on Dr. Fanger’s Academia page.
Although I’ve learned much in simply reading the AN itself, such as the character of the orations, the mixing of languages to create strings of names, and the tea ceremony, etc, reading these secondary sources has been tremendously helpful in situating the context of intertextuality and overlapping traditions in the work. Many thanks to @Andrea for suggesting Fanger! Although I still have to buy the one I originally set out to find, haha!
Oh, and I checked out @Matthias ‘ website which has numerous helpful articles, too — a treasure trove! I especially enjoyed the Visual Guide posts which mentioned that the “foundational and magical textbook of the Ars Notoria, the Flores Aurei (Golden Flowers) of Apollonius of Tyana[…]was of a Byzantine Greek and Hermetic provenance” and “why it was drastically refitted to suit a Christian agenda formed in northern Italy”:
Visual Guide to the Notory Art Figures of Angelic Magic, Part II (matthiascastle.com)
Also, I’ve a couple of passages which will be my contributive-suggestion for the next meeting.
Happy reading, everyone!
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Cette réponse a été modifiée Il y a 7 mois, 3 semaines par Joshua Michael Zintel.
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Cette réponse a été modifiée Il y a 7 mois, 3 semaines par Joshua Michael Zintel.
academia.edu
Sacred and Secular Knowledge Systems in the Ars notoria and the Flowers of Heavenly Teaching of John of Morigny
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Cette réponse a été modifiée Il y a 7 mois, 3 semaines par
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Here’s another secondary source, a PhD dissertation by Dr. Erika Mazzer, which I found helpful in situating historical and cultural contexts of the Ars Notoria in Medieval- and Renaissance-eras’ Christian incorporation of Greek philosophy and magic (as well as Hermeticism’s genealogy within them), and it makes extensive references and contextual links to the Ars Notoria. I haven’t read the whole thing yet but so far these sections have been most helpful in fleshing out historical contexts specific to AN:
1.1. Defining Magic in the Ancient World
1.2 The Middle Ages: from the East to the West, from Natural to Ritual Magic
1.3 The reception of magic in the Renaissance: Ficino, Pico, Agrippa’s theoretical approach
Magic Performances: Rituals and Practice in Italian Theatre and Culture, 1520–1650 (cuny.edu) [linked]
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There is a hymn by Hildegard of Bingen, written near the end of the 12th century titled “O Felix Anima,” which has been translated as “Oh Happy Soul.” “Happy mind” is translated from “leto animo” in the following quote by Nathaniel M. Campbell, although Google Translate says “leto animo” is “I read in my heart” :
“It is thus likely that they date sometime after 1170, reflecting Hildegard’s renewed interest in the cult of St. Disibod…after his strict discipline as a bishop in his native Ireland proved too controversial for the people of his see, he was driven out, ‘and so, with a happy mind [leto animo] and for the sake of eternal life, he undertook the pilgrimage [peregrinationem] he had long desired’ (Vita s. Dysibodi episcopi, ch. 12).”
https://www.hildegard-society.org/2023/03/o-felix-anima-responsory.html
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Cette réponse a été modifiée Il y a 7 mois par SEAN. Raison: html garbage
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Cette réponse a été modifiée Il y a 7 mois par
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A couple questions I had on the Ars Notoria:
1) In the passage, below, a number of prayers and psalms are mentioned, often by the first few words in Latin, followed by “etc.” I’m wondering if these might be well known prayers/psalms of the time easily recognizable by Christians of the time, although I don’t recognize them.
2) In the last half of the Ars Notoria, a number of interesting water related terms are used: waters above the heavens, fountain of sciences, waters of thy majesty, and others. Also, near the end is a marginal reference to a “Lectisternium” Ornament priests of the temple would sleep on. Anyone come across these terms before?
“On the first day of the new Moon, having beheld the new Moon, put the Figure
under your right Ear, and so consequently every other night, and seven times a day;
the first hour of the morning say this Psalm, ‘Qui habitat, etc.’ throughout; and the
Lords Prayer once, and this Oration ‘Theos Patyr’ once in the first hour of the day:
then say this Psalm, ‘Confitebor tibi Domine, etc.’ and the Lords Prayer twice, and the
Oration ‘Theos Patyr’ twice. In the third hour of the day say this Psalm ‘Benedicicat
anima mea Dominum, etc.’ the Lords Prayer thrice, and the Oration ‘Theos Patyr’.
In the sixth hour say this Psalm: ‘Appropinquet deprecato mea in conspectu tuo
Domine, secundun eloquium tuum’.
Grant unto me Memory, and hear my voyce according to thy great mercy, and
according unto thy word grant Eloquence, and my lips shall shew forth thy majesty,
when thou shalt teach me thy Glory: ‘Gloria patria, etc.’ Say the Lords Prayer nine
times, and ‘Theos Patyr’.
In the nineth hour say the Psalm ‘Beati immaculati in via’; the Lords Prayer 12
times, and ‘Theos Patyr’.
In the Evening say this Psalm, ‘Deus misereatur nostri’: the Lords Prayer 15 times,
and ‘Theos Patyr’ as often.
The last hour say this Psalm, ‘Deus Deus meus respice in me, etc.’, and ‘Deus in adj
utorium meum intende’, and ‘te Deum Lauadamus’; the Lords Prayer once, and ‘Theos
Patyr’: then say the Oration following twice.
