tAMICUS MEDICORUMJohannes Ganivetus

1431

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Extract from the 2nd edition, Lyon 1508translated by

Robert Zoller.

GANIVET’S AMICUS MEDICORUM

(Extract)

INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION

The following is a translation by Robert Zoller ofan extract from Amicus Medicorum by JohannesGanivetus {Friend of Physicians by Jean Ganivet}completed in 1431 and first published in 1496. It isalso referred to by the author as The Dictionary ofAstrology Made Medical. This translation is fromthe 2nd edition published in 1508 at Lyon byJohannes Cleyn {Clein Schwab}.

Ganivetus was a Minorite brother and professorof theology at Vienne in the Dauphine {modernday France}. Vienne being a city on the Rhonesouth of Lyon. The work is described by Thorndikeas “probably the most influential treatise composedin Europe during the fifteenth century” in the fieldof astrological medicine. It was last published inFrankfurt in 1614 indicating an influence onmedicine spanning two centuries.

Copyright Robert Zoller 1979 All Rights Reserved.

In the Year of our Lord Jesus 1431 and on theseventh day of the month of August, which wasthe day of Mars, with seven hours completed fromthe middle of the night, in the hour of the Sun, acertain master in arts and doctor in medicinenamed Henry Amici, a native of Brussels in theBrabant, asked on behalf of the lord dean ofVienne, who was ill, whether he would survive ornot. It happened that the figure of the heavenabove Vienne at that hour was as shown {refer tohoroscope in accompanying text extract fromoriginal}.

I looked at this figure or question and I gavethe Ascendant and Moon to the ill dean and sawthat the Moon was applying to the conjunction ofthe Sun and was already under the Sun’s rays. Thiswas one testimony of death.

I considered that the Part of the Killing Planetin the 14th degree of Leo between the Moon and theSun and within the rays of the Sun at the beginningof the 12th House to be a sign of the evil tormentingthe patient.

I considered in the third place that the Part ofDeath in the 26th degree of Virgo in the Ascendant,the House of Life, was an evil testimony.

Fourthly, I considered the Part of Life of thepresent figure in the 26th degree of Aries, in theHouse of Death; so that there was a certain evilcombination, i.e., life or the Part of Life in theHouse of Death, and the Part of Death in the Houseof Life; both in the same number of degrees in eachSign, which degrees are the terms of the malefics.

Furthermore, the Part of Fortune was in the 7 th

degree of Virgo in 12th House, with Mercury at theend of its direct motion coming to the beginning ofits retrogradation and corrupting the Ascendant.

From this I judged that the patient would cometo delirium within one natural day at the latest nomatter how prudent he was, and so it happenedthat he became delirious before one natural dayand died before two.

Extract ends

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www.new-library.com/zoller

Translated from the original Latin text by

Robert Zoller.