“Abominable Mixtures”: TheLiber vaccaein the Medieval West, or The Dangers and Attractions of Natural Magic

Abstract

In hismagnum opuson the history of magic, Lynn Thorndike devoted a few pioneering pages to theLiber vaccaeorBook of the Cow.He identified and described several of the manuscripts of this singular Arabic compilation of magical experiments, pointed out the many different titles under which it was known in the medieval West, and discussed its false attribution to Plato, Galen, and Hunayn ibn Ishâq. By contrast, given his habit of paraphrasing the texts he examined at great length, Thorndike's account of the content of the work is uncharacteristically patchy. He hastily referred to “elaborate experiments in unseemly generation and obstetrics,” the aim of which was “to make a rational animal from a cow or ape or other beast, or to make bees.” In his opinion, the experiments of theLiber vaccaewere, in fact, “unmentionable,” and “hardly such as can be described in detail in English translation.”