Profile and FIRB-Research Project
Pasquale Arfé is lecturer in History of Late Antique and Medieval Philosophy at the «Aldo Moro» University (Bari), where he is conducting research concern on the geomantic texts by Hugo of Santalla. After completing his PhD on the critical edition of the Clavis Physicae (316-529) by Honorius Augustodunensis (Liguori, Naples 2012), he taught History of Ancient and Medieval Scientific Thought at «L’Orientale» University (Naples). He has been a fellow at the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici (Naples), the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Rome) and the Warburg Institute (London) and is a member of the project «Hermes Latinus» (Brepols, Turnhout). His main research activities focus on Platonism and Hermetism within the late antique and medieval philosophical and scientific traditions. Two central strands of his research are related to Honorius Augustodunensis as witness to medieval Eriugenism, and Nicholas of Cusa and the Hermetic tradition. He has a particular interest in identifying and editing autographs by medieval authors such as Giovanni Andrea Bussi (Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 62, London 1999), Nicholas of Cusa (Cusanus-Texte III.5, Heidelberg 2004) and Gerbert d’Aurillac (Instrumenta Patristica et Mediaevalia 58, Turnhout 2011). He is a member of the editorial board of the A-grade journal «Studi Filosofici» and has twice been evaluated by the ASN Italian Committee as Associate Professor of History of Medieval Philosophy.
GEOMANTIC DIVINATION IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Forecasting events and controlling nature are human categories which ultimately seem to converge into every method of divination, that aims at assuming the form of a scientific practice. Arabic, Jewish and Latin Middle Ages experienced a wide circulation of a number of divinatory texts. In particular, geomancy played a very significant role in the development of the history of medieval Latin science. The Ars geomantiae, the first geomantic treatise hitherto known in the Latin West, was translated from Arabic by Hugo of Santalla in twelfth-century Spain. It raises both the problem of the historical origin of geomancy and of its relationship to astrological science.
The Aldo Moro University of Bari, Department of Humanistic Studies (DISUM), funded a three or five-year research post for a project on «Geomantic Divination in the Medieval Context» with the scholarly partnership of The Warburg Institute, University of London, School of Advanced Study (http://warburg.sas.ac.uk).
Prof Charles Burnett, an expert on Hugo of Santalla, and Co-Director of the Centre for the History of Arabic Studies in Europe (CHASE) at The Warburg Institute, will be the international referee of the project.
Prof Pasquale Porro and Dr Marienza Benedetto will provide the Italian academic coordination.
ASN-Assoc Prof Dr Pasquale Arfé, holder of the post at The Aldo Moro University of Bari and researcher of the project, will mainly focus his attention on the establishment of the critical edition of the text of the Ars geomantiae and on the theme of the interconnection between and unity of divinatory practices.
MS Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, 793, s. XV, f. 67r
PRODUCTS
– Le dimore delle stelle nel Prologus super Artem geomantiae di Ugo di Santalla (Appendix. Prologus super Artem geomantiae, ms. Paris, BnF Lat. 7354, ff. 1r-2r), in Labor limae. Atti in onore di Carmela Baffioni, eds C. De Angelo, A. Manzo, A. Straface, special issue of «Studi Maġrebini», 12-13 (2014-15), in print
– Ars geomantiae. Il testo e la sua tradizione (Appendix. Epilogus Artis geomantiae, ms. Paris, BnF Lat. 7354, ff. 55v-56v), in Geomancy and Other Forms of Divination. Foreseeing Events and Dominating Nature: Models of Operative Rationality and the Circulation of Knowledge in the Arab, Hebrew and Latin Middle Ages (Trento, June 11-12, 2015), in press
– Pharaonis induratio cordis. The Anti-Fatalism of Honorius Augustodunensis, in Moral Agency and its Constraints: Fate, Determinism and Free Will in the Middle Ages (Castro, 31 August-2 September 2015), in press
– I testi alchemici di Ermete Trismegisto nella biblioteca di Cusano (Appendix. La Tabula smaragdina di Cusano), in Niccolò Cusano: l’uomo, i libri, l’opera. Atti del LII Convegno storico internazionale CISBaM-Accademia Tudertina (Todi, 11-14 ottobre 2015), CISAM, Spoleto 2016, pp. 253-279, in print
– Hermetismus in der Mystik des Cusanus. Eine historische und philosophische Notiz (Dokumentarischer Anhang. Die Bezüge des Cusanus zur hermetischen Tradition: Tractatus, Sermones, Codices), in Dr Hans Gerhard Senger zu Ehren, ed. G. Guldentops, special issue of «Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales», 83, 1 (2016), pp. 133-141, in print
– Attorno all’edizione critica dell’Ars geomantiae, in Le stelle, i regni, le credenze e le masse. L’astrologia politica nel Mediterraneo fra Medioevo e Rinascimento (Bari, 8-10 giugno 2016), forthcoming
– Organization of the international conference on Le stelle, i regni, le credenze e le masse. L’astrologia politica nel Mediterraneo fra Medioevo e Rinascimento (Bari, 8-10 giugno 2016)
– Drafting of the Latin text of the Ars geomantiae according to MS Paris, BnF, lat. 7354, s. XIII, ff. 2r-55v
– Updating of the list of manuscripts of the Ars geomantiae
– Visiting researcher at the Warburg Institute. School of Advanced Study. University of London and the Cusanus-Bibliothek in Bernkastel-Kues
CODICES OF THE ARS GEOMANTIAE
Cambridge, Magdalene College Old Library, F. 4. 27, s. XIV, ff. 1r-66r
Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Palat. lat. 1457, s. XV, ff. 1r-85v
Dublin, Trinity College, 631, s. XIV, ff. 29v-90v
Erfurt, Universitätsbibliothek, Bibliotheca Amploniana, 4° 361, s. XIV, ff. 74vb-78rb
Erfurt, Universitätsbibliothek, Bibliotheca Amploniana, 4° 377, s. XIV, ff. 70vb-76rb
München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, lat. 483, s. XVI, ff. 110r-114v (incomplete)
München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, lat. 588, s. XIV, ff. 58va-87va
Nürnberg, Stadtbibliothek, Cent. V App. 54, s. XVI, ff. 21r-48v
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 625, s. XIV, ff. 54r-85v
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 50, s. XIII, ff. 1r-92v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, lat. 7354, s. XIII, ff. 2r-55v
Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, lat. 5327, s. XV, ff. 59r-114v (in German from f. 61r)
Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, lat. 5508, s. XIV, ff. 182ra-200ra
CONFERENCES
Castro, 31 August-2 September 2015