Abstract/Summary

The complex text known in Latin as 'Picatrix' provides important evidence concerning medieval concepts and practices of astral magic, due both to the range of sources upon which it is based and to its wide geographical dissemination in the later middle ages. 372 of its magical procedures relate to health and the treatment of disease. The only area with a larger total is that of ‘personal relations’, with no fewer than 751 rituals. It should be noted that approximately one quarter of the ‘medical’ rituals are intended to cause harm; but that still leaves some 280 dedicated to maintaining health or curing specified illnesses and conditions. That is a sufficiently large body of evidence for the roles and definitions of the senses in these rituals to be worth investigating. This article is the first analysis of those roles.