An Exposition upon The Sphere of the Cosmos

If one wishes to attain the science of medicine, therefore, it is necessary to elevate one's understanding in the science of the stars. Thus, this treatise called The Sphere of the Cosmos is sent ahead as a little ship of principles by means of which we reach more lofty things. — Cecco d’Ascoli

Until now Cecco d’Ascoli’s Commentary on the Sphaera of Sacrobosco has seemed obscure and largely irrelevant to grimoire studies. Mathew Hadfield and Brian Johnson demonstrate that in fact d’Ascoli’s lectures are instrumental to understanding how illicit religious practices, astrology, and philosophy were transmitted from Arabic and Byzantine Greek sources into Spain, France, and Italy in the late Middle Ages, and the profound influence this had on European magical practices and the evolution of both magical cosmology and spiritual ecology.

It is through Cecco d’Ascoli’s lectures on de Sphaera Mundi that we see the establishment of Astral Nigromancy in the European Middle Ages, now possessed of a refined Aristotelian and Ptolemaic rationale, coupled with an intricate and highly conceptualised cosmological framework, and it is this synthesis which would quietly propagate into modernity. It was here, in the crucible of this influx of translations and blending of cultures that the entire edifice of the European Grimoire Tradition emerged.

Written in the early fourteenth century and referencing many works which are now lost to history, the Commentary provides us with another missing piece in the early development of this tradition. Whilst challenging in its scope, this text is significant, containing important keys such as one of the first known attributions of the four kings of the directions, Oriens, Amaymon, Paymon, and Egyn, to the cardinal signs of the zodiac, as well as the first known appearance of the mysterious spirit Floron and his mirror.

An Exposition upon The Sphere of the Cosmos
Cecco d’Ascoli
Introduced by Mathew Hadfield & Translated by Brian Johnson
164 pages
234mm x 156mm
ISBN 978-1-915933-60-7 (HB)
ISBN 978-1-915933-61-4 (PB)
ISBN 978-1-915933-62-1 (eBook)