¹ There are numerous instances of the proverb listed in Hans Walther, Proverbia sententiaeque latinitatis medii aevi: Lateinische Sprichwörter und Sentenzen des Mittelalters in alphabetischerAnordnung,vol.2(Gottingen:Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht, 1963). See, e.g. 11787, 14224, 7310, 2748. Interestingly, in a sixteenth century medical text (Kindheart's Dream), the words "in verbis et in herbis, et in lapidibus sunt virtutes" appear as part of a spell for the cure of toothache [cited in Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1971), p. 180].

² As for example in Walther 2748: "Christus vim verbis, vim gemmis, vim dedit herbis:/Verbis maiorem, gemmis, herbisque minorem." ("Christ gave power to words, to gems, to herbs:/ The most to words, the least to gems and herbs.")

³ Confessio Amantis VII, 154, 549; from the edition of G.C. Macaulay, The English Works of John Gower, vol 2, EETS (e.s.) 82 (London: Oxford UP, 1901).

⁴ I have discussed the implication of Augustine's sign theory in his understanding of magic in Part I.2 of my dissertation, Signs of Power and the Power of Signs (University of Toronto, 1993).

⁵ Lynn Thorndike has discussed both writers' use of the term "natural magic"; see the chapters on Albertus Magnus and William of Auvergne in The History of Magic and Experimental Science, vol. 2 (New York: Macmillan and Columbia UP, 1929). Thorndike's interpretations of texts are often strongly colored by his own ideas and opinions and require a somewhat skeptical attention on the reader's part; his summaries of textual content, however, are generally fairly accurate.

⁶ In philosophy the conventionalist position is most obviously associated with the Aristotelian tradition via the opening chapter of Aristotle's De Interpretatione. It is through Augustine, however, that this position maintains its connections with the condemnation of magic.

⁷ See Edward Peters, "The Systematic Condemnation of Magic in the Thirteenth Century," chapter 4 of The Magician, the Witch and the Law (Philadephia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978) for analysis of some of the reasons behind the renewed hostility to magic in this period.

⁸ "Asserebat quippe, quia verba illa, nec homo, nec aliud animal audire poterat, quin moreretur continuo, nec etiam literas inspicere, quibus verba illa scripta essent. Propter quod & necesse habent, ea discere per scripturam eorum in aqua factam, ubi protractio literarum sicut fiebat, etiam abolebatur." De Legibus, c xxvii; in Guilielmi Alverni ... Opera Omnia (Parisiis, apud Andraeam Pralard, MDCLXXIV); facsimile reprint, Frankfurt: Minerva, 1963, p. 90, col. 1.

⁹ "Si enim ista virtus inesset verbis, esset eis ex necessitate uno quatuor modorum, hoc est, vel a parse materiae suae, hoc est acre, aut a parse formae suae, hoc est soni, sive sonationis, aut a parsesignificatorum, aut ex omnibus his, aut ex aliquibus illorum. " De Legibus, xxvii; p. 90, col. 1

¹⁰ "Si enim malitia & nocumenta signati praestarent hanc virtutem nocendi verbis atque nominibus, nomen mortis atque inferni mortem & tormentum intolerabile ... necessario inferrent audientibus; amplius, bonitas atque salubritas signati secundum hoc virtutem praestarent verbis atque nominibus ..." De Legibus, c. xxvii, p 90, col. 2.

¹¹ Edited by M.T. D'Alverny and F. Hudry, "Al -Kindi), De radiis," Archives d'histoire doctrinale et litteraire du moyen age, 41 (1974),139-260.

¹² The idea that stars exerted an influence of some sort over the lower world was universal in the thirteenth century, though there was much dispute over the precise scope, action, and range of operation of those powers. For discussion of the various positions held, see Edward Grant, "Medieval and Renaissance Scholastic Conceptions of the Influence of the Celestial Region on the Terrestrial," Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 17: 1 (1987), 123; and J.D. North, "Medieval Concepts of Celestial Influence: A Survey" in Astrology, Science and Society, ed. Patrick Curry (Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1987).

¹³ "... operaretur suds radiis in materiam ... virtus duplici, scilicet naturali et accidentali, et sic fortius surgeret in effectum. " All citations of Al-Kindi are drawn from the D'Alverny and Hudry edition.

¹⁴ Al-Kindi, 239.

¹⁵ Al-Kindi, 240

¹⁶ D'Alverny and Hudry note that the heart is the central organ of sensation and movement for Aristotle; Al-Kindi, 243n.

¹⁷ "Desiderium enim hominis in corde est quod est centrum a quo sunt omnes operationes voluntarie et habet hoc centrum suam centricam naturam, in aliquo conformem centro mundi. " Al-Kindi,243.

¹⁸ "...vocum prolatione eiusdem desiderii radii consumativam assumunt virtutem, ut in rebus extra positis ... fiant motus .... " Al-Kindi, 2434

¹⁹ Al-Kindi, 242.

²⁰ Al-Kindi's theory would also tend to imply that the "occult qualities" of plants and stones are a kind of signification an interesting aspect of things which I will not follow up here.

²¹ 21 Al-Kindi, 236.

²² A complete summary and discussion of Siger's argument, as well as its relation to Renaissance magical theory, is found in Armand Maurer, "Between Reason and Faith: Siger of Brabant and Pomponazzi on the Magic Arts," Medieval Studies, 18 (1956), 118, rep. in Maurer, Being and Knowing, (Toronto: Pontifical Institute, 1990), 137-62.

²³ A summary of Avicenna's theory of the soul as it relates to matters discussed here is found in E. Ruth Harvey, The Inward Wits: Psychological theory in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (London: Warburg Institute, 1975) 21-30 and 43-53.

²⁴ ""non est mirum si anima nobilis et fortissima transcendat operationem suam in corpore proprio ut, cum non fuerit demersa in affectum illius corporis vehementer et praeter hoc fuerit naturae praevalentis constantis in habitu quo, sanet infirmos et debilitet pravos et contingat privari natures et permutari sibi elementa, ita ut quod non est ignis fiat ei ignis, et quod non est terra fiat ei terra, et pro voluntate eius contingent pluviae et fertilitas ... et hoc totum secundum necessitatem intelligibilem ... materia etenim omnino est oboediens animae et multo amplius ob o edit animae quam contrariis agentibus in se . " Liber de Anima seu Sextus de Naturalibus, ed S. Van Riet, vol. 2, Avicenna Latinus (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1968), 65-66.

²⁵ In the context of medieval medicine, the term spiritus referred to something a little more than breath and a little less than soul. Partaking of the physical nature of the body, the spiritus began as air breathed in, but acquired their characteristic essence passing through the various bodily organs including the brain. They thus formed a kind of intermediary between body and mind or soul. A brief history of the idea may be found in Harvey, 49.

²⁶ Summa Theologiae, 1a.11,4

²⁷ This is true both of Roger Bacon and of the author of the De Mirabilibus Mundi.

²⁸ This treatise, along with a related group of pseudoAlbertus Magnus texts, is discussed by Lynn Thorndike in The History of Magic and Experimental Science, vol. II, 730-38.

²⁹ "Et cum diu sollicitaverim animum super hoc invenimus sermonem probabilem Avicenne sexto naturalium: quod dum hominum anime inesset quedam virtus immutandi res et quod res alie essent obedientes ei quando ipsa fertur in magnum amoris excessum aut odii aut alicuius talium.... Et diu non credidi illud. Set postquam legi libros nigromanticos et libros imaginum et magicos invent quod affectio anime hominis est radix maxima omnium harum rerum.... " (Transcribed from an early printed edition of De mirabilibus mundi with Liber aggregationis, per Wilhelmum de Mechlina impressus in ... civitate Londoniarum (n.d.). A seventeenth century English translation of the De mirabilibus mundi was edited more recently by Michael Best and Frank Brightman as The Book of Secrets of Albertus Magnus of the Virtues of Herbs, Stones and Certain Beasts; AIso a Book of the Marvels of the World (Oxford: Clarendon, 1973), but this version does not contain the theoretical introduction from which I have just quoted.

³⁰ For a list of Bacon's cited sources see David Lindberg's introduction to his edition of De multiplicatione specierum, Roger Bacon's Philosophy of Nature (Oxford: Clarendon, 1983),xxxiiixxxiv. Lindberg also has an excellent general account of the philosophical background to Bacon's doctrine of multiplication of species pp xxxivliii. See also chapter one of K. Tachau, Vision and Certitude in the Age of Ockham (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1988), 226, for thirteenth century historical context of multiplication of species.

³¹ See Lindberg, Philosophy of Nature, xxxv; A.C. Crombie, Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science (Oxford:Clarendon, 1953), 144-48.

³² Though the De Radiis is not mentioned in Bacon's De Multiplicatione Specierum, he does refer to it in his earlier work De Sensu et Sensato. The influence of the De Radiis on his idea of species is generally agreed upon; see Thorndike, 667; Lindberg, Philosophy of Nature, xliv xlvi; Stewart Easton, Roger Bacon and his Search for a Universal Science (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1952), 104n.

³³ On vision as the paradigm case of propagation of species see Tachau, 6-16; also David Lindberg, Theories of Vision from Al-Kindi to Kepler (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1976), 113-46; and A. Mark Smith, "Getting the Big Picture in Perspectivist Optics," Isis, 72 (1981), 568-89.

³⁴ "Hae quidem species facinnt omnem mundi alterationem et corporum nostrorum et animarum. Sed quia haec multiplicatio specierum non est note vulgo studentium, nec alicui nisi tribus vel quatuor Latinis, et hoc in perspectivis, scilicet in multiplicatione specierum lucis et coloris usque ad visum, ideo mirabiles actiones naturae, quae tote die fiunt in nobis et in rebus coram oculis nostris non percipimus; sed aestimamus eas fieri vel per specialem operationem divinam, vel per angelos, vel per daemones, vel a casu et fortune. Et non est ita, nisi secundum quod omnis operatio creaturae est quodammodo a Deo. Sed hoc non excludit quin operationes fiant secundum rationes naturales; quia nature est instrumentum divinae operationis." Opus Tertium, in Fr. Rogeri Bacon: Opera Qunedam Hactenus Inedita, vol. I, ed. J. S. Brewer (London: Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, 1859), 99-100.

³⁵ On the place of the doctrine of emanations in Bacon's theory see Lindberg, Philosophy of Nafure, xxxvxlix, and Tachau, 611.

³⁶ "Sicut stellae et omnia faciunt virtutes sues et species in rebus extra ... potest ergo anima rationalis, que est substantia maxime active inter omnia post Deum et angelos, facere et facit continue speciem suam et virtutem in corpus, cujus est actus, et in res extra.... De quibus operibus Avicenna in sexto Naturalium potenter eloquitur. Et ideo hujusmodi opera et verba de quibus loquor non solum recipiunt virtutem a coelo, sed ab anima rational) ...." The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon, ed. J.H. Bridges, vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon, 1897), 397.

³⁷ "Et ideo cum verba proferuntur profunda cogitatione et magno desiderio, et recta intentione, et cum forti confidentia, habent magnam virtutem. Nam cum haec quatuor contingunt excitatur substantia animae rationalis fortius ad faciendum suam speciem et virtutem a se in corpus suum et res extra, et in opera sua, et maxime in verba, quae ab intrinsecus formantur; et ideo plus de virtute animae recipiunt. " Brewer, Opus Tertium, 96.

³⁸ "...natura corpus obediet cogitationibus animae, et facit suam speciem fortiorem, quae etiam recipitur in aere formato per vocem;... et secundum quod est malae vel bonae complexionis sic accidit passio in aere et in rebus diverse. " Brewer, Opus Tertium, 97

³⁹ The separation is implicit in Bacon's carefully worked out distinction between natural signs and names imposed ad placitum. Species are natural signs of things; the species of a vocable is a natural sign of that vocable, whether the vocable represents sense or nonsense; but the significance of a name imposed ad placitum depends entirely on the volition of the namer. The fact that species are defined as natural signs precludes any identification between a word's species and the meaning imposed ad placitum. An analysis of the key ideas in Bacon's De Signis can be found in Thomas S. Maloney, "The Semiotics of Roger Bacon," Mediaeval Studies 45 (1983), 12054. The De Signis is edited by K.M. Fredborg, L. Nielsen and J. Pinborg, "An unedited Part of Roger Bacon's 'Opus Maius': 'De Signis'," Traditio 34 (1978), 75-136.

⁴⁰ It may be noted here that both Bacon and Al-Kindi would easily be able to counter the arguments brought by William of Auvergne against the idea that verbal power depended upon significance, Bacon because he makes no such claim formally, and Al-Kindi because in his scheme the conventional meaning of a vocable is only of secondary importance to the verbal effect, the celestial sensus being the primary source of the vocable's rays, and generally different from the meaning ascribed by human usage.

⁴¹ See below, note 49.

⁴² He suggests that it may be "a brief popular compilation from Bacon's three works of 12667 concocted by someone else later." History of Magic, vol II, 689 43 History of Magic, Vol. II, 659.

⁴³ History of Magic, Vol. II, 659.

⁴⁴ His opinion is approved by Easton (137, 194), and is implicitly relied on by Edward Peters in his important historical study The Magician, the Witch and the Law (Philadelphia, 1978). Peters refers to Thorndike's History for his opinion that "Bacon denounced magia with greater vehemence than Scot" (88, note 12); but Thorndike's influence can also be felt in the rather misleading statement that "(Aquinas') views of the inefficacy of magic without demonic aid are similar to those of Roger Bacon ... " (98). A similar attitude also comes through in Jeremiah Hackett's article on Bacon in the Dictionary of the Middle Ages, vol. II (New York: Scribner, 1983); Hackett writes of Bacon's "forthright criticism of magic" and calls this criticism "a great apologia of mathematicsand of science" (p 38, end col. 2).

⁴⁵ History of Ma:gic, vol. II, 661

⁴⁶ Si igitur hujusmodi voces quae vocantur incantationes et carmine, non fiant consideratis speciebus quatuor, et conditionibus animae et corporis, sed a casu et secundum nutum cujuslibet, tune sunt magica; et non habent virtutem naturalem alterandi; sed si est operatio tune daemones faciunt. Si vero fiant secundum species et conditiones dictas, tune sunt philosophica et sapientis incantantis sapienter...." Brewer, Opus Tertium, 99

⁴⁷ History of Magic, Vol. II, 677.

⁴⁸ "Non solum pro consideratione sapientiali haec scribo, sed propter pericula quae contingunt et contingent Christianis et ecclesiae Dei per infideles, et maxime per Antichristum, quia ipse utetur potestate sapientiae, et omnia convertet in malum. Et per hujusmodi verba et opera stellificanda, et magno desiderio malignandi componenda cum intentione certissima et confidentia vehement), ipse infortunabit et infascinabit non solum personas singulares, sed civitates et regiones. Et per hanc viam magnificam faciet sine bello quid voles, et obedient homines ei sicut bestiae, et faciet regna et civitates pugnare ad invicem pro se, ut amici destruant amicos suos, et sic de mundo faciet quod desiderabit." Opus Maius, vol. I, 399.

⁴⁹ "Nam Gratianus, sicut multa scripsit jura quae nunc abrogate sunt, sententia saniore praevalente, sic, cum de scientiis locutus est, multa dixit quae debent in parse alteram commutari, ut inferius abundantius explicabo." Opus Maius, vol. I, 396.

⁵⁰ "Et creditur ab omnibus sapientibus quod non sumus multum remoti a temporibus Antichristi, sicut in capitulo de sectis per astronomiam in uno revolutis pates. Si igitur Christiani scirent haec opera auctoritate papal) facienda ad impedienda male Christianorum, satis esset laudabile, et non solum propter male repellenda, sed ad promotionem quorumcunque utilium." Opus Maius, vol. I, 402.

⁵¹ It may be wondered why she felt it necessary to remove the amulet; this point is not made clear in the story as Bacon tells it. One may speculate that she feared, superstitiously, that the amulet conferred on the wearer some arcane power of seeing hidden things.

⁵² "Quis erit ausus interpretari hoc in malum, et daemonibus ascribere, sicut aliqui inexperti et insipientes multa daemonibus ascripserunt quae Dei gratia aut per opus naturae et artium sublimium potestatem multoties facta sunt? Quomodo enim probavit mihi aliquis quod opus daemonis funistud, quondam nec puer decipere sciebat nec volebat? Et mulier, quae decip ere voleb at non solum virum sed se per fornicationem dum ab stulit scriptu ram, vi so miracul o pietate mote cedulam religavit. Malo hic pie sentire ad laudem baneficiorum Dei quam ex praesumptione magna damnare quod verum est." Opus Maius, supplementary volume, 123-24.

⁵³ "Nam tanta virtus potest in verbis consistere quod nullus mortalium sufficiat indagare. Et ad hoc volo innuere per multas vies, quia materia difficilis est et magnae contradictionis. Nam videmus quod verba sacramentorum habent infinitam virtutem. Et scimus quod ad imperium et verba sanctorum a mundi principio mutabantur jura naturae, et obediebant elia (sic elementa?) et brute alla ita ut innumerabilia miracula facta sins. " Opus Maius, supplementary volume, 123.

"Nam quia verbum ... propriissimum est instrumentum animae rationalis, ideo maximam eff~caciam habet inter omnia quae fiunt ab homine ...; cuius signum est, quod omnia fere miracula quae facta sunt per sanctos a principio fiebant per virtutem verborum, uncle in verbis summa est potestas, sicut explicavi." Opus Maius, vol. I, 399.