The Marvels of the World

My previous critical edition (Sannino 2011) and further studies on the sources of the Book of Marvels of the World (= BMW) showed the double links in terms of content between this work and the first and second cultural traditions of the Hermetic Magic, according to D. Pingree’s classification (Pingree 2006). As the Latin Hermetic Natural magic texts of the first tradition (for example, the Kyranides and the Hermetic Aristotelian Liber de quattuor confectionibus ad omnia genera animalium capienda), the BMW deals with sympathetic magic. As the Latin Hermetic magic based on Plato, Aristotle and Galen includes works such as the pseudo-Platonic Kitāb al-Nawāmīs or Liber Aneguemis minor (The book of sacred secrets of Hermes), the BMW can be located particularly in the form of organic magic that originates in this book but also in the others works. Thirty recipes of the Book of Marvels were excerpted from the Aneguemis minor, while others derive from Jabir’s De proprietatibus and Marcus Graecus’s Liber ignium The aim of my paper is to understand the precise interrelation between the Hermetic magical traditions that are found in the BMV. This research could also highlight how the magic of marvels employs alchemy and hallucinogenic herbs present in the texts of both the Hermetic Traditions.