A collection of instructions for crafting various talismans. The beginning of the text survives in two incomplete twelfth- or thirteenth-century Judaeo-Arabic manuscripts mentioning neither Ptolemy’s name nor the work’s title. These fragments match talismans nos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 6, and 9 in De imaginibus super facies signorum (Latin B.14), a collection of 46 talismans consistently attributed to Ptolemy in Latin manuscripts and evidently based on a lost Arabic text closely related to the Judaeo-Arabic manuscripts. The Arabic source text circulated under Ptolemy’s name by the early twelfth century, as shown by a reference in Adelard of Bath’s Liber prestigiorum Thebidis (‘whatever talismans arise in each decan, which Ptolemy discussed’, cf. Bohak & Burnett, p. 33). In addition to the Judaeo-Arabic fragments and the full Latin translation, the source text partially survives in some 30 excerpts scattered over a compilation on talismans that combines material from multiple sources in a sixteenth-century Arabic manuscript from Tunis (Milan, BA, M 21 sup., ff. 72r–80r). Finally, a seventeenth-century Hebrew manuscript from Italy (New York, Jewish Theological Seminar, 8117) contains a partial translation of the Arabic source text (ff. 117v–118v) and some excerpts derived from it (ff. 110r–115v). On all these sources and their attribution to Ptolemy, see Bohak & Burnett, pp. 32–34. The Latin and Hebrew evidence points to the original Arabic title being Kitāb al-Ṣuwar or the like, as already surmised by Sezgin.

According to the Judaeo-Arabic fragment, the only astrological condition to be observed when crafting a certain talisman is that the decan associated with it be in the ascendant. However, a chapter found at the end of the Latin translation specifies that the ascendant should be aspected by benefics and free from malefics, while the planets should be with benefics (cf. Jean-Patrice Boudet, ‘Un traité de magie astrale arabo-latin: Le Liber de imaginibus du Pseudo-Ptolémée’, in Claudio Leonardi and Francesco Santi (eds), Natura, scienze e società medievali. Studi in onore di Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, Firenze: SISMEL - Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2008, pp. 17–35, here p. 35, and Bohak & Burnett, p. 35). Typically, a talisman’s description mentions its purpose, shape, and corresponding decan, as well as the formula to ‘bind’ the talisman’s target and the place where it should be deposited (cf. Bohak & Burnett, pp. 35–36).

Text: [ed. Bohak & Burnett]

[Talisman no. 1] (p. 183) باب إذا أردت أن تعقد السارق لئلّا يدخل دار رجل من الرجال تصوّر صورة الرجل من نحاس إذا طلع الوجه الأوّل من الحمل ثمّ تقول عقدت كلّ سارق عن هذه الدار بهذه الصورة وتدفنها في وسط الدار فإنّه لا يدخلها سارق أبدًا.

[Talisman no. 9] (p. 189) برج الثور إذا أردت تعقد المدينة لا يدخلها عدو أبدًا فصوّر صورة رجل في يده سيف بطالع الوجه الأوّل {من} الثور نحاس وتقول على الصورة عقد{ت} هذه المدينة لا يحاربها عدو و{لا} عسكر ثمّ تدفن الصورة في وسط جـ{…} بقياس فإنّه لا يدخل المدينة {عدو} أبدًا ولا عسكر.

Bibl.: GAS VIIFuat Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, Vol. VII: Astrologie – Meteorologie und Verwandtes bis ca. 430 H., Leiden: Brill, 1979, p. 47 (no. 12); Charles Burnett and Gideon Bohak, ‘A Judaeo-Arabic Version of Ṯābit ibn Qurra’s De Imaginibus and Pseudo-Ptolemy’s Opus Imaginum’, in Felicitas Opwis and David Reisman (eds), Islamic Philosophy, Science, Culture, and Religion. Studies in Honor of Dimitri Gutas, Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2012, pp. 179–200; Gideon Bohak and Charles Burnett, Thabit ibn Qurra «On Talismans» and Ps.-Ptolemy «On Images 1-9». Together with the «Liber prestigiorum Thebidis» of Adelard of Bath, Firenze: SISMEL - Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2021.

Ed.: Edition of the Judaeo-Arabic text in Bohak & Burnett, pp. 110–112 (T.-S. Ar. 29. 51) and p. 116 (T.-S. Ar. 43.274); edition in Arabic script, together with the corresponding Latin text and an English translation, on pp. 182–189; edition of the corresponding Milan excerpts, with an English translation, on pp. 244–249. An edition and translation of the remaining Milan excerpts is in preparation by Emanuele Rovati.