Misha ibn Attari (740-815) also known as Māshā’allāh (according to later translators, translators, Messahala, Messahalla, Messahalah,Messala, Macellama, Macelarma) was a famous Persian astrologer and astronomer of Jewish origin, living in Basra, from whom we have numerous surviving works.
In time, his fame caused him to be attributed with magical works, just as Solomon, Apollonius, Virgil and other esteemed men of culture.
In his Antipalus Malleficiorum (1508), Trithemius mentions it:
”[17] Liber quoque annulorum, septem planetarum, qui adscribitur Messalae, et incipit: Cum operari volueris. [Omnia sunt vana, quae continet, superstitiosa et Christiano penitus abiicienda.]”
”A book also about rings of the seven planets, ascribed to Messala, that begins thus: When you want to operate. (All that are contained therein are vane and superstitious and which the Christian thoroughly rejects.)”
Darmstadt Manuscript Circle
This short tract is contained in a few codices, at least partially, and only two partial texts have been published, to my knowledge:
- Cambridge University Library Dd. xi. 45, fols. 134v-135r, XVth century, edited, translated and published by Juris G. Lidaka in Conjuring Spirits:Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic (Clair Fanger Ed.), Penn State University Press, 1998.
-Bodleian Library Ms. Rawlinson D. 253, pp.177-182, edited and published by Stephen Skinner and David Rankine in A Cunning Man`s Grimoire, Golden Hoard Publishing, 2018.
-Bodleian Library Ms. Rawlinson D. 252, fols.79v-80r
The rest of the manuscripts I have consulted and will edit and publish here (in order) would be:
-Kassel University Library 4° Ms. chem. 66, fols.200r-202r.
-Darmstadt University Library Ms.1410, fols. 14v-19r, the most complete version to my knowledge.
-Wellcome 110. I have published the seals contained in fol.68r HERE, but the text is far beyond my palaeographical expertise.
And a few manuscripts I am yet to consult but know (many, thanks to Joseph Peterson) they contain this work or at least the seals:
-British Library Sloane Ms.3824
-British Library Sloane Ms. 3850
-British Library Sloane Ms. 3853
Possible leads:
-Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, II.III.214 (thank you Dan Schneider)
-‘Incipit liber de ieiuniis et sacrificiis et suffumigationibus septem planetarum. Capitulum de Saturno. Capitulum de Saturno primum. Septem stelle ad omnia valentes habent sacrificia…’ (23v-24v)
-Hermes, De imaginibus sive annulis septem planetarum (26r-26v, excerpt);
-Hermes, De imaginibus sive annulis septem planetarum (42v-43v);
-KØbenhavn (Copenhagen), Kongelike Bibliotek Gl. Kgl. S. 1658
-f. 235v Imagines et karactares planetarum-ff. 242v-246v De sigillis et annulis
-ff. 236v-240v De septem figuris planetarum cum earum orationibus nec non subsunigationes (subfumigationes?)
-f. 236r Sigilla planetarum
Other manuscripts might contain the work but are either inaccessible to me thus far, or completely unknown. As I cannot properly ascertain whether a work on planetary magical rings is indeed connected to our treatise by title or by incipit alone, I cannot list it here. But any help from more knowledgeable colleagues is welcomed.
Dependent on this treatise, the Experiment of Oberion, contained in even more codices, features only two of the spirits listed, the Angel of the Sun, Storax, and the Angel of the Moon, Carmelyon, but that merits another study altogether. In some cases, the experiment comes with a plethora of seals and variants of these angels, suggesting that the compilers had more than a few manuscript sources.
I will update this page once I will manage to edit these texts.
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Thank you.....
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