xm name of Jesus, fire, the sword, contumelies, suffumigations, the bell and even the shaking of keys and clash of arms! Unfortunately Pictorius took a very strong line against witches and would have them all put to death, not so much for their non-Christian or malefic activities, but for having carnal intercourse with spirits, which Pictorius thought were both fertile and potent! Johannes Weir, Agrippa's pupil already mentioned above, spoke rather slightingly of Pictorius' 'jejune writing ... concerning sublunar matters'. It may be that the publication of this work by Pictorius with the alleged Fourth Book by his master prompted Weir to deny the authenticity of the latter. V. Of Astronomical
Geomancy— Gerard Cremonensisf 1 1 14-87
')
Gerard of Cremona was pehaps one of the greatest translators of the twelfth century having been responsible for translating into Latin the Almagest of Ptolemy (the most influential book on astrology of the age) works by Aristotle, Euclid, Galen, Avicenna, and many more. Working at Toledo he is credited by his pupils with translating most of the Greek and Arabic texts available in the middle ages, a total of 71 different texts, some of immense size. Critics have suggested that our present text was translated by Gerard of Sabbionetta, a town near Cremona, but this seems unlikely. The Astronomical Geomancy offers a different system of geomancy to that outlined by Agrippa in the first treatise in this volume. Although the points are generated in the same manner, the figures are immediately translated into their planetary or zodiacal equivalents and placed into a horoscope. The bulk of the treatise is devoted to questions of the different astrological Houses and their intepretation according to the geomantically generated planets and signs occupying that house.
VI.
Of M&gic\a- Arbatel
This small treatise on the magic of the ancients was issued at Basel in 15 75 as Arbatel, De Magia Veterum. Despite the fact that the word Arbatel is also printed in Hebrew, it is obvious that the author was a Christian, by the liberal sprinkling of pious sentiments and Biblical quotes. Because of