The Magical Treatise of Solomon Nikolaos Politis, the founder of folkloric studies in Greece, was the first modem scholar to draw attention to this text, in an article included in the first issue of the periodical
Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 1892.
He edited the
sections concerning the construction of the parchment and the planetary inks, using three manuscripts: Atheniensis
•ron'IIDlteia is a · a
number
of
terial seems
as
the
Key of
Monacensis Gr.
1265,
115
Atheniensis
and
70.1
Hygromanteia found in Monacensis Gr. 70 was Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, vol. VIII 2,
A full edition of the included in the series in
1911. Joseph Heeg edited the text, and he also provided a list of four other 15, Parisinus Gr. 2419, plus two
relevant manuscripts: Taurinensis C VII
Codices Athenienses, possessed by Politis but not examined by Heeg himsel£.2 Judging from the description of the latter two manuscripts, they probably , a famous
11111:rus
in
1718:
hoc titule:
in the Library
Monacensis
were Atheniensis
115 and Atheniensis 167.
When volume X of the
Catalogus was published in 1924, dedicated to the
Athenian manuscripts, Armand Delatte described the Codices Athenienses
1265, 115,
and
167
and included certain extracts from them. However, he
confined himself mostly to the astrological sections of the work, as the title of the series demanded. Afterwards, in
1927,
he published the evocation and divination related
material that was included in the Athenian manuscripts under the title
Anecdota Atheniensia I. In an extensive appendix, Delatte also published major
5596, 33, 108, Mediolanensis E 37
parts of other manuscripts with relevant material, namely Harleianus Parisinus
2419,
Mediolanensis H
Bononiensis
2
3632,
Neapolitanus
infer., Vindobonensis Phil. Gr.
sup. and Athonicus Dion. The
Univers.
Catalogus series
II
C
282.
was completed in
1936 with
volume XII, dedicated
to the manuscripts of Saint Petersburg. Three more codices mentioned in that volume seemed to have close connections with the
Magical Treatise,
Petropolitanus Academicus Musaei Palaeographici, Bibl. Publicae Bibl. Publicae Gr. in
1949,
646.
and
Delatte published certain parts of the first manuscript
in his monograph Le
Leningrad.
namely
575
traite des Plantes Planetaires d'un manuscript de
In the same monograph, Delatte cited a list of the fifteen relevant
manuscripts known at the time, along with their abbreviations. These same abbreviations will be used in the present book:
1 2
Politis, Palaiographike Stakhyologia, p. 557. Boll (ed.), Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, VIII 2, pp. 139-140.
15