The Mirror That Does Not Reflect: Saet’lo Xiromant’ia
(a 17th-Century Georgian Astronomical
Manuscript)
and the Almanacco
Perpetuo of Ottavio Beltrano (1639)
Timothy P. Grove, Biola University
International
Conference in Honor of the 50th Anniversary
of the National Centre of Manuscripts
Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia
21
October 2009
Saet’lo Xiromant’ia is a unique astronomical manuscript preserved
at the National Centre of Manuscripts in Tbilisi. The manuscript [Q 867], comprising 126 quarto pages, is
beautifully written in black and red ink and contains numerous hand-drawn
illustrations. This manuscript presents a fascinating miscellany of information
on a number of subjects. It has been described and its contents summarized by
Irakli Simonia.[1] No title appears either on the binding or at
the beginning of the text—the title Saet’lo
Xiromant’ia ("zodiacal chiromancy") was apparently suggested by
the first illustration (10v) of a human hand labeled with the principal lines
used in palmistry, along with their planetary associations; indeed, the third
chapter (10r – 13v) is a short treatise on astrological chiromancy.
Much of this manuscript is clearly original, including the extremely
interesting preface. However, a
careful study of the text reveals that its writer drew upon several
sources from Western Europe. Internal
evidence suggests that this manuscript was compiled around 1670 with the collaboration
of an Italian speaker (perhaps one of the Capuchin missionaries who were
dispatched to Georgia in 1661).[2]
Several passages point to the input of an Italian speaker, as on 36v, where the
Latin word caelum is transcribed as chelum, or on 46v, where four parts of a
diagram are labeled with the letters ani,
bani, chini, doni (i.e. A, B, C, D; where the Georgian convention would be ani, bani, gani, doni). In both cases, the use of the Georgian
letter chini reflects a uniquely
Italian pronunciation of the letter C.
It seems likely that one of the Italian missionaries arrived with a
collection of recent books in Latin and Italian. As we shall see, at least three of these books were used in
the compilation of Saet’lo Xiromant’ia.
The opening
chapter of Saet’lo Xiromant’ia (1r –
5r) begins with an allusion to Job 37:7 (“He seals the hand of every man”),
which the author connects to the practice of palmistry—codinaroba romelsa ec’odebis latinurad
k’iromancia (“the knowledge which is called Chiromancy in Latin”). Here we
have the first indication that parts of this work are based on Western sources.
1. Rodrigo
de Arriaga’s Cursus Philosophicus
(1632)
The writer proceeds to a very
interesting discussion of the structure of the heavens, and in this connection (1v) cites a certain “nobleman” (munajibi) named “Ariaga,” who he says
was “of Arabian race” (romeli iq’o
arabi guarita), and who is
supposed to have addressed various questions as to the number, nature, and
composition of the heavens. This person was none
other than the Jesuit Rodrigo de Arriaga Mendo (1592-1662), a professor at
Valladolid and Salamanca, and at Prague from 1625.[3]
In light of this, the Georgian writer’s comment that he was “of Arabian race”
is quite puzzling.
Arriaga’s Cursus Philosophicus (Antwerp, 1632) was extremely influential.
Arriaga was one of the first philosophers to take cognizance of Galileo’s
telescopic discoveries and to examine their philosophical implications: non multis autem ab hinc annis propter
quorumdam Mathematicorum & Astronomorum diligentes observationes, quas,
novis exquisitisque instrumentis adiuti, invenerunt, & praecipue tubi
optici subsidio, caelorum structura penitus a nonnullis inverti coepit. (Disputatio Unica Caelestis, sectio iii).[4]
[“Not many years ago, because of the careful observations of a number of
astrologers and astronomers which they made with the aid of excellent new
instruments, especially the telescope, some began to completely overturn the
structure of the heavens.”] This statement accords very well with the known
concerns of the writer of Saet’lo
Xiromant’ia, who makes reference to Galileo’s telescopic discoveries in
chapter eight (21v).[5] Arriaga
refers to a number of recent scientific discoveries, including the four
satellites of Jupiter (iii.3.25), sunspots (iii.3.28), and the diurnal
visibility of stars from the bottom of a mineshaft (vi.68). In the 5th edition of his Cursus Philosophicus (1669), Arriaga
describes how he replicated Galileo’s experiments with falling bodies by
dropping heavy objects from the cupola of the Prague Cathedral and from the
parapets of Karlstein Castle.[6]
The
specific passage referenced by the writer of Saet’lo Xiromant’ia is the Disputatio
Unica Caelestis, found on pages 497-508 of the 1632 edition of Arriaga’s Cursus Philosophicus. Here, Arriaga
addresses a number of questions: the composition and uniformity of the heavens,
their number and their motions, whether the heavens are animate or inanimate,
whether they are corruptible or incorruptible, and whether they are solid or
fluid.[7]
These correspond more or less to the questions inventoried in Saet’lo Xiromant’ia and attributed to
“Ariaga”: whether the heavens are composed of four elements, whether they are
spiritual, whether they are perfect, whether they are solid, whether they are
self-illuminated, and whether they are manifold.
Both Arriaga and the writer of Saet’lo Xiromant’ia frequently quote the Scriptures to support
their ideas. One of the verses cited in Saet’lo
Xiromant’ia (II Corinthians 12:2) is also cited by Arriaga in the section
entitled De numero caelorum
(iv.1.48), in connection with the opinion of St. Ambrose and others that there
are three heavens. Arriaga ends by rejecting this opinion, concluding that the
heavens number not three or eleven, but nine (iv.2.52). Still, it seems likely
that the writer of Saet’lo Xiromant’ia
was following Arriaga in bringing this passage to bear on the same question.
After
this reference to Arriaga comes a fascinating but difficult passage, in which
the writer seems to be stating that the celestial spheres are self-similar in
the same way as an object and its reflection in a mirror. Thus, the earth is
like a mirror which reflects the heavens, and hell lies in the depths of this
same mirror. Hell is located at the center of the earth, and comprises four
concentric circles, the second of which is designated “Limbo”—a Roman Catholic
idea which again suggests Western influence. The writer proceeds to delineate
the precise diameters of each of these circles in Georgian leagues (aghaji), as well as a value of for the
diameter of the earth itself, according to “the earth-measurers who in Latin
are called Cosmographers” (kueq’nis
mzomelni romelsa ec’odebis latinurad k’ozmograpini).
Later, in the context of a
discussion of the probable dimensions of the sphere of the Moon, the writer
concludes, “but we concur with Ariaga
the Arab that the moon is one-third the size of the earth” (3v: magram chven vimoc’mebt ariaga arabsa rom
mtovare ars kueq’anis mesamedis odeni). Arriaga’s Cursus Philosophicus does touch briefly on this idea, which arises
from the apparent size of the earth’s shadow during a lunar eclipse (Disputatio Unica Caelestis, v.55).
2. An
Unidentified Astrological Work
Another source, as yet unidentified, provided the basis of the
planetary descriptions found on pages 5r – 9r. We
know this because the top half of page 7r has been left blank, with a note in
the margin: zoharis ambavi ak’lda dedans (“description of Venus is missing from
the original”).
3. Ottavio Beltrano’s Almanacco Perpetuo (1639)
One of
the more interesting features of Saet’lo
Xiromant’ia is its cryptic reference to a western philosopher named
“Beltrano,” whom the author compares to Aristotle and praises in the highest
terms: beltrano munajibi iq’o erti
vinme aseti mecnieri rome chuns dros amistana mecnieri da gonieri ar gamosula
tu es arist’ot’elis dros q’opiliq’o imasac ars axsenebda da aman q’ovltatvin
ase gvarad gaadvila es varsk’ulavt mricxveloba tu romels c’elic’ads romels
tveshi romels k’virashi romels dgheshi romels zhamshi romels burjze romels
nac’ilshi dabneldeba mze anu mtovare gvauc’q’ebs (30r) ["The noble Beltrano was a scientist who
for wisdom has no equal in our times.
Had he lived at the time of Aristotle, then the latter would have paled
before him. He greatly simplified
astronomy, and could determine in which year, in which month, in which week, on
what day, in which degree, in what constellation, and in what minute eclipses
of the Sun and Moon would take place."][8]
I have succeeded in identifying
this person as Ottavio Beltrano (fl. ca.1620-1671), a printer, bookseller, and
miscellaneous writer who worked in Cosenza, Naples, Terranova, and Ancona. Beltrano’s Almanacco Perpetuo (“perpetual almanac”) was first published in
1639, and proved to be an extremely popular work in Italy, where it appeared in
numerous editions throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Beltrano’s Almanacco Perpetuo was itself based upon
the earlier Almanacco Perpetuo di Rutilio Benincaso (1593).
A careful
comparison of the two texts has established that several sections of Saet’lo Xiromant’ia incorporate both
text and illustrations drawn from an early edition of the Almanacco Perpetuo.
These include page 30r, the series of eclipses (31r – 35r), pages 36v
and 46r – 47v, the Tables of Houses (48v – 54r), the horoscope for 21 June 1635
(58v – 59r), the Perpetual Almanac (60v – 74r), and additional material on
pages 76v and 99v.
In its original form, Saet’lo
Xiromant’ia presented a 28-year “perpetual almanac” covering the years 1652
through 1679, along with three further 28-year cycles (1680-1707, 1708-1735,
1736-1763). At some point, strips of paper were glued over the original dates,
in order to update the almanac by 84 years. It appears that the latest date listed (74r) corresponds to
the year 1847. Thus, Saet’lo Xiromant’ia remained in constant
use throughout the entire 18th century and probably into the 19th.
It appears probable that the manuscript was written during the second
half of the 17th century and that its writer made use of an early edition of
Beltrano’s almanac which began with the 1652-1679 series. Another indication that Saet’lo Xiromant’ia was written during
the 17th century is that the eclipses illustrated on pages 31r – 35r
are those of 1652-1664; this is the same series of eclipses described by
Beltrano.
The Georgian writer’s adaptations of Beltrano’s illustrations are
extremely interesting, involving numerous mirror-reversals and other mysterious
changes. A comparison of the
illustrations in the two works reveals that the Georgian illustrator has made
no fewer than 25 left-right reversals; in most cases, only certain elements of
Beltrano’s illustrations have been reversed, while in a few cases the entire
composition has been subjected to a mirror-reversal. It may be that these
mysterious reversals have something to do with the several references to a
“mirror” (sark’e) in the opening
chapter of the manuscript.
Some of the illustrations found in Saet’lo
Xiromant’ia demonstrate remarkable innovations in the iconography of
astrological representations—innovations which may be unique to this
manuscript. For example, one of the first things that caught my eye was the
curious representation of the crab (Cancer) on page 68r, with a crescent-shaped
head. I have made a careful study
of the iconography of the sign Cancer, as portrayed in numerous books and
manuscripts from Europe and the Near East, but can find no precedent for this.
However, since the moon rules the sign of Cancer, it seems probable that
this highly original variant was intended to suggest a crescent moon.
Another very interesting anomaly is
the fact that both Venus and Saturn are portrayed holding mirrors. In both cases, the mirror is held in
the figure’s left hand. While Venus is often conventionally represented as a
woman holding a mirror, I can find no precedent in the astrological literature
for Saturn holding a mirror. Both Beltrano’s Almanacco Perpetuo and Saet’lo
Xiromant’ia portray Saturn in this way. Not only are both Venus and Saturn holding mirrors, but they appear on
facing pages (69r – 70v)—another sort of mirroring.
Conclusion
Saet’lo Xiromant’ia is truly a unique and mysterious book. It raises many questions which remain
unanswered. When viewed alongside Vakht’ang VI’s Georgian translation of
a work by ‘Ali Qushji of Samarqand (Kmnulebis
Codnis C’igni, 1721), the use of Western sources by the writer of Saet’lo Xiromant’ia reveals that
Georgian intellectuals of this period were open to a complex network of
cultural and scientific influences from both the East and the West.
[1]Irakli Simonia, “Little
Known Aspects of the History of Georgian Astronomy,” Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 4(1) (2001), 59-73.
[3]Leen Spruit, Species Intelligibilis: From Perception to
Knowledge (Leiden: Brill, 1995), 327-30.
[4]Rodrigo de Arriaga, Cursus Philosophicus (Antverpiae: Ex Officina Plantiniana
Balthasaris Moreti, 1632), 499. Universidad de La Rioja. Biblioteca Digital de
Derecho. http://biblioteca.unirioja.es/digibur/obras/228826_0.html
(accessed March 14, 2009).
[5]Simonia, 69.
[6]Peter Robert Dear, Discipline & Experience: The
Mathematical Way in the Scientific Revolution (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1995), 85.
[7]Arriaga’s cosmological ideas
are discussed by Edward Grant in Planets,
Stars and Orbs: The Medieval Cosmos 1200-1687 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1996), 349-52.
[8]Simonia, 69.
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