medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Dear Juliette,

I can't help you with a source for the exorcism, alas. But, in your translation, wouldn't _cum oratione dominica_ be better rendered as "with the Lord's Prayer"?

Best,
John Dillon

On 10/31/14, Juliette Vuille wrote:

> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture 
> 
> 
> Dear All, 
> 
> 
> I would be most grateful for any help, information, or reference you would be able to give on a particularly thorny issue I am dealing with, regarding two short texts which I have found on the last folio of a late ninth century manuscript (Vercelli, Archivio Capitolare MS 177, Justinian compendium of the Historia Pompei Trogi ). 
> 
> 
> On the recto of this last folio appears a Pseudo-Apuleian Sphere of Life and Death, while the verso shows two texts, an exorcism and an abortion ritual, which have been difficult to place. I was however able to identify the second text as an abortion ritual excerpted from the Pseudo-Cleopatra Gynaecia, thanks to the most generous help of Prof. Monica Green. I am trying now to find a source, or at least a parallel, to the exorcism (the text and the translation of which I give below). I have had as yet no luck in this, as all the exorcisms I have read, all the texts found in leech books, the charms, or any other ritual text that I could think of, have not offered any parallel to it. Truly, the closest parallels I could find were Egyptian magical tablets… I am therefore going “fishing” on the listservs to see if, by a stroke of luck, somebody has come across a similar exorcism, and would be immensely grateful for any information, reference… that could help me in my “quest”!
> 
> 
> Here are the edited texts and my own, literal, translations of them:
> 
> Ad homines demoniosus: [Θ̣ Θ̣ ]Α̣OUN [Β Η̣ K] KOUΣ denarios duos et dimidio herba subt[..]a colliges cum oratione dominica, et uiscu de collore aut de cerro, cum aqua sancta, colotio capre virginis; dabis luna DEKΑ [Ρ̣]; prius tamen ut missas superfiant cantatas, et sedeat ipse homo sub altario diebus viiii postea dato; et c[usto]diat hanc penitentia annum plenum custodiat: uir si fu[e]rit a muliere et mulier a uiro; cum uitro non bibat et carne caprina non comedat dum uiuit; nec lente, nec carne p[or]cina, nec angu[i]la, nec barbium pisce, ne[que] tenca, neque caput ullius animalis, neque de pisce, panis de dominico die factum, non comedat; tan[dem si vir] fuerit colotio capri masculi si femina femine uirg[ini] sint et parui; hoc autem si custodierit liberabitur; si autem preterierit, statim reuocetur in pristinum locum.
> 
> For the person possessed: gather, with a Sunday prayer, two and a half pennyweights of the herb […], [and mix it] with the mistletoe of a hazel or of a Turkey oak, with holy water, [and] with the urine of a virginal goat; You will give [this] [to the person] on the tenth day of the moon; however, before [this], masses should have been sung over [it], and the man himself should sit underneath the altar for nine days after it was given; and he should observe this penance for a full year: if he were a man he should keep away from a woman, and [in the case of] a woman away from a man; he should not drink from a glass nor eat goat meat for as long as he lives. [neither should he eat] lentils, pig meat, eel, the fish [called] barbel, tench, the head of any animal or [of any] fish, [and] he should not eat of the bread baked on a Sunday; lastly, if he were a man [he should not drink] the urine of a male goat, if a woman [that] of a female [goat] [if they] are virginal and small/young; if on the one hand [the person] keeps away from all of this, he will be cured; if on the other he fails to observe this, he will immediately be returned to [his] original state.
> 
> Et ibi ter dicit: “extinguo cpncfp ckpnks hxkxs mxlkfrks bbpmnk cpktx xkrklk (conceptionis huius mulieris ab omni coitu virili) ex hac [die] uel ex hac hora quam uoluerit salus mfnstrxks, ita rect[e] suis temporibus purgetur. Deinde ip[se] statim in buxide recondis qua uolueris clauda ipsa buxide, in lenteola inuoluis diligenter [ligas] & signas & abscond[e] ea, ut non aperiatur it[a] ut illa nec spl nec lxnb aliquando uideat. Aliquando [……uolueris] ut iterum co[…..] | reddis [...]
> 
> 
> 
> And here it should be said three times: “I extinguish the fertilization of this woman [as a result] of any sexual encounter with a man from the day or from the hour she wants [to be] safe with regard to her menstrual discharges, so that she be directly purged by her periods.” Next, immediately store this in a the closed box/pyxis of your choice, wrap it up in a strip of linen cloth, bind and sign and hide the box with care for fear it be opened, so that neither sun nor moon ever see it.
> 
> 
> 
> I am interested in any similar text, especially one that is in close proximity, in a manuscript, to an apuleian sphere. I would further love your input into any reason you could think of that those two texts would be grouped together by the scribe. For now, my best guess would be the quasi-magic and medical aspect of both texts, the authority and antiquity of their auctores (the sphere was believed to have been written by Pythagoras or Apuleius, the abortion ritual by Cleopatra herself), or the fact that they are obviously intended for experts (the first text contains Greek, and the second a substitution cypher whereby the vowels are replaced by the consonant following them in the alphabet, mostly used for words related to woman’s sexuality). 
> 
> 
> If you have ideas and want to share, or have more questions, please do not hesitate to contact me off list!
> 
> 
> Thank you very much,
> 
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> 
> Juliette
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> __________________________
> 
> Dr Juliette Vuille
> FNS Early Postdoc.Mobility Fellow
> 
> English Faculty
> University of Oxford
> St Cross Building
> Manor Road
> Oxford 
> OX1 3UL
>

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