The Texts
Picatrix
The Picatrix is the Latin name of the Ghayat al-Hakim ("The Goal of the Sage"), an Arabic handbook of astral magic, now attributed to Maslama al-Qurtubi, finished in al-Andalus around 959 CE and translated into Castilian for Alfonso X of Castile in the 1250s.
The Picatrix is not a dialogue on mind and rebirth like the Corpus Hermeticum but a working compendium: talismans, planetary prayers and suffumigations, set inside a theory of how the heavens act on matter. Its Arabic original, the Ghayat al-Hakim (“The Goal of the Sage”), was composed in al-Andalus; its author states he finished it around 348 AH (c. 959 CE), after completing its companion volume, the Rutbat al-Hakim. Joanna Komorowska, who translated Book I of the Latin version into Polish, calls that version one of the most important testimonies of medieval astral magic (2015, abstract).
Who wrote it
For centuries the book was misattributed to the mathematician Maslama al-Majriti. His dates did not fit the manuscripts, so older scholarship called the author “pseudo-Majriti”; it also dated the work to the mid-11th century, mainly on the strength of one argument from the companion volume (de Callataÿ 2013, p. 311). In 1996 Maribel Fierro identified the real author as Maslama al-Qurtubi (d. 964), a scholar from Córdoba. Godefroid de Callataÿ confirmed the identification with new evidence (2013) and notes that it fits the manuscripts: every known copy of the Arabic dates the work between 343 and 348 AH (954-960 CE; de Callataÿ 2013, pp. 309-313). Even the Latin name remains a puzzle: the Arabic text names a certain Buqratis as the translator of a book on talismans, and the Castilian translator, followed by the Latin one, rendered that name as Picatrix (Ritter and Plessner 1962, p. xxii). Who Buqratis was is unknown: Hippocrates is an unlikely candidate, since the book writes his name as Buqrat, and Pingree was not convinced by any identification with a Greek author (1986, p. xv n. 3).
What’s inside
Talismans, planetary invocations, elections of astrologically favourable moments, suffumigations, but embedded in a theory: rays, spiritus, a cosmic hierarchy through which celestial influence descends into matter. The book cites Hermes and Sabian rites extensively, synthesizing Hermetic, Sabian and Neoplatonic material. It is a compilation rather than a doctrinal Hermetic treatise, and the practical cousin of the statue-animating passages in the Asclepius, and of the technical tradition that also produced the Emerald Tablet. Its working premise is the one compressed into as above, so below. Iamblichus’ theurgy rested on the same premise, working through tokens and symbols (synthemata, symbola) tied to a god, but he held that the gods’ illumination is self-willed and is never drawn down by force (De mysteriis I.12), whereas the Picatrix conjures and constrains its spirits, mostly celestial ones. Its English translators sort the aims of its rituals into fourteen categories: the largest, relations with other people, is led by winning a superior’s favour, ahead of love, and the second is healing or harming health (Attrell and Porreca 2019, pp. 17, 22-23).
The prologue of the Latin version sets out the plan of its four books (Prologue 5, ed. Pingree 1986, p. 2), and the chapter headings show where each topic sits:
| Book | What the prologue says it covers | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| I (7 chapters) | The nature of the heavens and the effect they have through the images in them | Ch. 4: the 28 mansions of the Moon, which, the text says, the sages of India made the root of all their works (I.iv.30); ch. 6: the human being as a lesser world that resembles the greater one |
| II (12 chapters) | The figures of the heavens, the motion of the eighth sphere, and their effects in this world | Ch. 10: the stones and images of each planet; ch. 11: the figures of the decans |
| III (12 chapters) | The properties of the planets and signs, their figures and colours, and how to speak with the spirits of the planets | Ch. 1: what belongs to each planet among plants, animals and metals; ch. 7: drawing down the power of the planets, with prayers, sacrifices and suffumigations |
| IV (9 chapters) | The properties of spirits, what the art requires, and how images and suffumigations help it | Ch. 7: extracts from a book On Chaldean Agriculture which, the text says, Albubaer Abenuaxie (Ibn Wahshiyya, d. c. 935) translated into Arabic |
Much of the material is borrowed. De Callataÿ found the passages the book shares with the encyclopaedia of the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwan al-Safa) too many and too literal to explain except by direct use, and a chapter on the Moon in the Arabic Book II that closely follows the Nabataean Agriculture (2013, pp. 330-331).
The road to the Renaissance
Alfonso X of Castile had the Arabic translated into Castilian; the prologue of the Latin version dates that work to 1256 and gives the name Picatrix both to the book and to its compiler (Pingree 1986, p. 1). It was not the only Arabic book put into Castilian: the pseudo-Aristotelian Secretum secretorum was translated straight from the Arabic as the Poridat de las poridades, which Lloyd A. Kasten dated to the mid-thirteenth century (Bizzarri 2010, pp. 14-15). Of the Castilian text only fragments survive, in a 13th-century manuscript in the Vatican Library (Reg. lat. 1283a; Franchetto 2020, n. 1). A Latin version followed in the 13th century; Pingree names Yehuda ben Moshe as the Castilian translator and Aegidius de Thebaldis as the Latin one, each with a question mark (1986, p. xvi n. 10). Through that Latin text the book reached the Renaissance. Historians trace its influence in Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico and Cornelius Agrippa (Komorowska 2015, p. 147), and Pingree points to Vittoria Perrone Compagni’s 1977 study of its ceremonial magic in the Italian Renaissance (1986, p. xv n. 7). The route runs through the translation workshops of Iberia (Córdoba to Toledo), mapped in our Atlas, a later chapter of the story that began in Alexandria.
Which Picatrix translation to read
For a scholarly English text, read Attrell and Porreca (2019), translated from Pingree’s Latin edition. For the Arabic text in English there is Hashem Atallah’s translation, in two volumes (2002-2008). The Warburg Institute, which published both the Latin edition and the German translation from the Arabic, now offers both as free PDFs. None of the English translations is in the public domain.
| Edition or translation | Language, made from | Publisher | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hellmut Ritter (ed.), 1933 | Arabic text | Leipzig and Berlin: Teubner (Studien der Bibliothek Warburg 12) | In libraries |
| Hellmut Ritter and Martin Plessner, 1962 | German, from the Arabic | London: Warburg Institute (Studies of the Warburg Institute 27) | Free PDF: Warburg Library Commons |
| Marcelino Villegas, 1982 | Spanish, from the Arabic | Madrid: Editora Nacional | In copyright |
| David Pingree (ed.), 1986 | Latin: the critical edition, from almost all surviving manuscripts, with plates of the planetary and decan figures from a manuscript in Kraków (Jagiellonian Library, MS 793) | London: Warburg Institute (Studies of the Warburg Institute 39) | Free PDF: Warburg Library Commons |
| Paolo Aldo Rossi (ed.), 1999 | Italian, from Pingree’s Latin | Milan: Mimesis | In copyright |
| Hashem Atallah, with Geylan Holmquest; ed. William Kiesel, 2002-2008 | English, from the Arabic; vol. 1 Books I-II, vol. 2 Books III-IV | Seattle: Ouroboros Press | In copyright |
| Béatrice Bakhouche, Frédéric Fauquier and Brigitte Pérez-Jean, 2003 | French, from Pingree’s Latin | Turnhout: Brepols | In copyright |
| John Michael Greer and Christopher Warnock, 2011 | English, from Pingree’s Latin; an edition for modern practitioners | Phoenix: Adocentyn Press (Liber Rubeus edition; the same translation is also sold as the Liber Atratus paperback and as The Illustrated Picatrix) | In copyright |
| Dan Attrell and David Porreca, 2019 | English, from Pingree’s Latin; aimed at students and scholars of the history of science and magic | University Park: Penn State University Press (Magic in History) | In copyright |
| Joanna Komorowska, 2015 | Polish, from Pingree’s Latin; Book I only | Terminus 17, no. 1, pp. 147-199 | Open access: article |
Modern occult publishing markets the book as a plug-and-play grimoire; historically it is a learned philosophical-magical compendium in which the theory matters as much as the recipes.
| Composed | al-Andalus, finished c. 959 CE (348 AH) |
|---|---|
| Author | Maslama al-Qurtubi (d. 964), identified by Maribel Fierro, 1996 |
| Arabic title | Ghayat al-Hakim: 'The Goal of the Sage' |
| Translation chain | Arabic → Castilian (for Alfonso X; 1256 in the Latin prologue) → Latin (13th c.), as 'Picatrix' |
| Influence | Traced in Ficino, Pico and Agrippa (Komorowska 2015) |
| Standard English | Attrell & Porreca (Penn State UP, 2019), from Pingree's 1986 Latin edition |
| From the Arabic | German: Ritter and Plessner 1962; Spanish: Villegas 1982; English: Atallah 2002-2008 |
| Free and legal | Latin (Pingree 1986) and German (Ritter and Plessner 1962): PDFs from the Warburg Institute |
Fair questions
Is the Picatrix dangerous?
It is a historical document (an Arabic work of the 10th century, read in Europe in a 13th-century Latin version), and we treat it as one. Its 'danger' in medieval and early modern eyes was real (astral magic sat at the edge of licit knowledge), but for a modern reader the risks are prosaic: bad translations, credulous framing, and occult marketing that sells a learned compendium as a spellbook. Read it with a historian's questions, not a shopping list.
Why is it called Picatrix?
Nobody is sure. The Arabic text names a certain Buqratis as the translator of a book on talismans; the Castilian translator, and the Latin one after him, rendered that name as Picatrix (Ritter and Plessner 1962, p. xxii), and the Latin prologue gives the name to the book's compiler (Pingree 1986, p. 1). Who Buqratis was is unresolved: the book writes Hippocrates as Buqrat, and Pingree was not convinced by any identification with a Greek author (1986, p. xv n. 3).
Is the Picatrix a Hermetic text?
It cites Hermes and Sabian rites extensively and carries Hermetic material, but it is a compilation of astral magic, not a doctrinal treatise like the Corpus Hermeticum. It belongs to the technical, practical side of the tradition.
Which English translation of the Picatrix should I read?
For study, read Dan Attrell and David Porreca (Penn State UP, 2019), translated from David Pingree's Latin edition for students and scholars. John Michael Greer and Christopher Warnock (Adocentyn Press, 2011) translate the same Latin for modern practitioners; their translation is sold in several editions, including the Liber Rubeus, the Liber Atratus and The Illustrated Picatrix. For the Arabic Ghayat al-Hakim in English, there is Hashem Atallah's translation, in two volumes (Ouroboros Press, 2002-2008).
Can I read the Picatrix for free?
Yes, legally, in Latin and German: the Warburg Institute offers free PDFs of David Pingree's critical edition of the Latin (1986) and of Hellmut Ritter and Martin Plessner's German translation from the Arabic (1962) on Warburg Library Commons. Book I is free in Polish (Joanna Komorowska, Terminus, 2015). No English translation is in the public domain.
Listen & watch
Sources & further reading
- Maribel Fierro, 'Batinism in al-Andalus. Maslama b. Qasim al-Qurtubi (d. 353/964), author of the Rutbat al-Hakim and the Ghayat al-Hakim (Picatrix)', Studia Islamica 84 (1996), pp. 87-112: authorship; doi:10.2307/1595996.
- Godefroid de Callataÿ, “Magia en al-Andalus: Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’, Rutbat al-hakim y Ghayat al-hakim (Picatrix)”, Al-Qantara 34, no. 2 (2013), pp. 297-344, DOI (open access): manuscript dates 343-348 AH (p. 309), the older dating and the identification (pp. 311-313), shared passages with the Brethren of Purity and the Nabataean Agriculture (pp. 330-331).
- David Pingree (ed.), Picatrix: The Latin Version of the Ghayat al-Hakim (London: Warburg Institute, 1986; Studies of the Warburg Institute 39): foreword by J. B. Trapp (Ritter 1933, Ritter and Plessner 1962); introduction, p. xv nn. 2 (Villegas 1982), 3 (the name) and 7 (Perrone Compagni 1977), p. xvi n. 10 (translators), pp. xvi-xvii (Kraków manuscript); prologue, pp. 1-2; chapter lists of Books I-IV; free PDF at Warburg Library Commons.
- Hellmut Ritter and Martin Plessner (trans.), ‘Picatrix’: Das Ziel des Weisen von Pseudo-Magriti (London: Warburg Institute, 1962; Studies of the Warburg Institute 27): introduction, p. xxii (Buqratis rendered as Picatrix; doubts about Hippocrates); Book IV, ch. 7, whose heading names Abu Bakr Ibn Wahshiyya as the translator of the Nabataeans’ magical operations and talismans, and which opens with his book called Agriculture (p. 366); free PDF at Warburg Library Commons (both Warburg PDFs checked 30 October 2026).
- Joanna Komorowska, “Picatrix Latinus: kilka słów wprowadzenia”, Terminus 17, no. 1 (2015), pp. 147-199, open access: Polish translation of Book I from Pingree’s edition, with the prologue of the Latin version (p. 153); the assessment in the abstract; influence on Ficino, Pico and Agrippa (p. 147).
- Hashem Atallah and Geylan Holmquest (trans.), William Kiesel (ed.), Picatrix: Ghayat al-Hakim, The Goal of the Wise, 2 vols (Seattle: Ouroboros Press, 2002-2008), from the Arabic: MedCat record.
- Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon & Jackson P. Hershbell (trans.), Iamblichus: De mysteriis (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003): I.12, II.11.
- Dan Attrell and David Porreca (trans.), Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic (University Park: Penn State UP, 2019), translated from Pingree’s Latin edition; introduction, section “The Picatrix, Social History, and Material Culture”, pp. 16-26: table 1, ritual objectives by category (p. 17); table 6, healing and health rituals (p. 22); table 8, interpersonal relations rituals, with the remark that rituals aimed at social superiors outnumber those for love, sex or relationships (p. 23).
- Michael D. Bailey, review of Attrell & Porreca, Picatrix, The Medieval Review 19.09.12 (2019), IU ScholarWorks (open access): summarises the translators’ tally and notes that, counted separately, favour-seeking and love magic would rank below healing and gaining knowledge.
- Andrea Franchetto, review of Attrell & Porreca, Picatrix, Correspondences 8, no. 1 (2020), pp. 121-127, PDF (open access): on p. 123 quotes the translators on rituals for the favour of social superiors (p. 23 of the book); notes 1-2 (pp. 121-122): the surviving Castilian fragments (Vat. Reg. lat. 1283a, ed. Alfonso D’Agostino, Astromagia, 1992) and the translations of Rossi (1999); Bakhouche, Fauquier and Pérez-Jean (2003); and Greer and Warnock (2011), all from Pingree’s Latin.
- Christopher Warnock, Picatrix page at renaissanceastrology.com/picatrix.html (checked 30 October 2026): the Greer and Warnock translation of the Latin is sold in several editions, among them the Liber Atratus paperback (the standard edition), The Illustrated Picatrix (an illustrated hardcover of the Liber Atratus) and the Liber Rubeus.