An additional witness to the Byzantine tradition of application of Psalms for amuletic and other ritual purposes, conventionally termed “magical”, in a fifteenth-century codex on medicine and the occult sciences (Bologna, BU Ms. 3632), is edited and translated, and its place in the tradition is considered. Combined with another, indirect witness, references to analogous uses of the Psalms by Theodore Balsamon and Matthew Blastares, this evidence strengthens a recent suggestion of broad popularity for the practice in Byzantium.

Publication of a papyrus sheet from Egypt of the Byzantine or Islamic period, bearing a complex assemblage of ritual designs and Greek text. Through an analysis of this assemblage into its constituents, an interpretation is proposed for the context of its composition, namely continued interest in this later period in the earlier tradition of Greek amulets. Specifically, the compiler may have consulted formularies for, or direct copies of, multiple gem amulets, and as such the papyrus could be situated in a (...) similar context as the amuletic “pattern-book” on a copper plaque recently studied by C.A. Faraone in this journal (2017). An alternative explanation, that of a composite amulet, is also considered. (shrink)

What moves the stars, and what do their movements mean for life on earth? As conventionally divided, even if the distinction of cognates was complicated already in antiquity, the answers to these questions belong respectively to astronomy and astrology. Graeco-Roman astrology generally dispensed with explanations of causes – perhaps because systems proposed by the likes of Aristotle, the topic of B. and C., were taken as given – to focus on describing and linking effects to the dispositions of celestial bodies (...) believed to produce them. This review article considers the substantial contributions of L. as well as B. and C., focused on astrology and astronomy respectively, to a growing field of interdisciplinary inquiry – besides Classics, key contributors are Assyriology, Egyptology and History of Science – on the astral sciences. This field takes account of scholarly engagement with the stars, of their alleged effects on earth and of a wider cultural and historical embedding, reflected in religion, literature and art. The three books under review provide richly contextualised studies of individual sources relevant to the astral sciences, from a primarily philological standpoint, which will be instrumental in assessing the place of their ancient authors in the history of knowledge. (shrink)