Dear Leonidas,
Athanasius Kircher (d. 1680) is in fact a highly fascinating author, but I
suppose that his sources for arithmology and numerology were only in part
medieval. Yet there is at least one compilation of patristic and medieval
number exegesis that he could very well have known: Petrus Bungus,
_Numerorum Mysteria_ (Bergamo 1599), repr. with intr. by Ulrich Ernst,
Hildesheim / Zu"rich / New York: Olms, 1983; if you read German, see also
U. Ernst, _Kontinuita"t und Transformation der mittelalterlichen
Zahlensymbolik in der Renaissance. Die Numerorum Mysteria des Petrus
Bungus_, in: Euphorion 77 (1983), p.247-325.
As regards the medieval period, main channels for the transmission of Greek
arithmology to Latin authors were Macrobius, Chalcidius and Martianus
Capella. The most widely read was Martianus with his _De nutpiis
philologiae et Mercurii_, an allegorical poem where personifications of the
seven liberal arts present their disciplines, and where Arithmetica gives a
crash course not only about the arithmetic properties of the Tetraktis, but
also about the arithmological understanding: see William Harris Stahl (et
al.), _Martianus and the Seven Liberal Arts_, vol. I: _The Quadrivium of
Martianus Capella. Latin Traditions in the Mathematical Sciences 50 B.C. -
A.D. 1250_, New York: Columbia UP, 1971 (= Records of Civilization: Sources
and Studies, 84), esp. p.149-170. If Nicomachus of Gerasa had kept
arithmetic and arithmology less clearly apart, Boethius, too, would have
served as an intermediary, but he translated only the Nicomachean
_Introduction to arithmetic_, not the _Theologumena_, and his _De musica_
gives some emphasis to the psychagogic function of number only in the
introduction but is mostly descriptive and analytical in the remaining parts.
The main area of practical application was anyway biblical exegesis, where
Christian Fathers like Ambrose and Augustine, following their Alexandrine
predecessors and drawing largely on sources like Philon, used
arithomological lore for explaining biblical numbers. The best modern
compilation of patristic and medieval number exegesis in sources of
biblical exegesis is Heinz Meyer & Horst Suntrup (eds.), _Lexikon der
mittelalterlichen Zahlenbedeutungen_, Mu"nchen: Fink, 1987 (= Mu"nstersche
Mittelalter-Schriften, 56), see also Heinz Meyer, _Die Zahlenallegorese im
Mittelalter. Methode und Gebrauch_, ibd. 1975 (= MMS 25). Frequently
quoted, but to be used with some caution, are Vincent Hopper, _Medieval
Number Symbolism. Its Sources, Meaning and Influence on Thought and
Expression, New York: Cooper Quare Publishers, Inc., 1969 (= Columbia
University Studies in English and Comparative Literature, 132), and John
Macqueen, _Numerology. Theory and outline history of a literary mode_,
Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1985.
If you are interested in the medieval use of numerology for prognostics,
see, for instance, H. Sigerist, _The "Sphere of Life and Death" in Early
Mediaeval Manuscripts_, in: Bulletin of the History of Medicine 11 (1942),
p.292-303;
Charles S. F. Burnett, _The Eadwine Psalter and the Western Tradition of
the Onomancy in Pseudo-Aristotle's Secret of Secrets_, in: Archives
d'histoire doctrinale et litte/raire du Moyen Age 63 (1988, publ. 1989),
p.143-167; Linda Ehrsam Voigts, _The Latin Verse and Middle English Prose
Texts on the "Sphere of Life and Death" in Harley 3719_, in: Chaucer Review
21 (1986), p.291-305.
Best wishes,
Otfried
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