The illustrations on this page have been compiled from a variety of sources. If advised that copyright has been infringed I will immediately remove the particular illustration(s).
G: Greek Constellations
14: Sphaera Barbarica and Sphaera Graecanica
Zodiac of Cairo' or the 'Daressy Zodiac.' It dates from the Roman Imperial Period. It consists of 3 concentric circles and the various signs have been divided from each other. Outside the central roundel there are 2 rings, the inner ring containing the dodekaoros and the outer ring the Greek zodiac. In the centre are the busts of the Sun and the Moon gods, and a snake.
'Zodiac of Cairo' or the 'Daressy Zodiac'
Roman-period Greek zodiac that is loosely called the 'Zodiac of Cairo' or the 'Daressy Zodiac.' The grey marble plaque (also described as a disk or slab, and made of bronze) some 0.25 metre square was sighted by Georges Daressy in an antiquities dealer's shop in Cairo prior to 1901. (It has also been described as being found by Georges Daressy in (a) Cairo market at the beginning of the 20th-century.) Georges Daressy (1864-1938) was a leading French Egyptologist. The Daressy Zodiac remains one of the few extant examples of an Egyptian zodiac (Dodekaoros) from Roman times. (Another example is the 18th-century planisphere of the Italian philosopher and scientist Francesco Bianchini.) The Daressy Zodiac is now lost in that its present location remains unknown. What we have is a squeeze that was made by Georges Daressy. The squeeze is now kept in the French Archaeological Institute in Cairo.
The dodekaoros was a system of 36 "decans" according to which 3 "paranatellonta" were attached to each sign of the zodiac. Also, each zodiacal sign was divided into 12 equal parts or dodecatemories. The 'Daressy Zodiac' follows the the Egyptian tradition in that it includes the dodekaoros.
Depicted on the Daressy Zodiac are the Greek zodiacal signs and associated animals according to a doctrine called "Dodekaoros." (The astrological doctrine of Dodekaoros is known to us from the writings of the astrologer Teucrus (circa 1st-century BCE) and the Byzantine astrologer Rhetorios (circa 600 CE).) There are 2 concentric bands enclosing a central area. Depicted in the central area are busts of the sun (Sol) as Apollo and the moon (Luna) as Phoebe (with a bow); and a snake(?). The outer band has the clockwise depiction of the signs of the Greek zodiac. The inner band has 12 animals depicted. Twelve radial lines divide the bands into 12 individual sectors. In his book Sphaera (1903) the German philologist Franz Boll showed that the inner band contains representations of animals that are associated with the zodiacal signs according to an astrological doctrine called "Dodekaoros."
The pairs pictorially depicted (juxtapositioned) on the Daressy Zodiac are:
Aries (ram (with belt): cat (sitting),
Taurus (bull): dog, (or jackal)
Gemini (twins (man and woman): serpent,
Cancer (crab): scarabaeus/crab,
Leo (lion): donkey/ass,
Virgo (virgin): lion (walking),
Libra (balance (borne by a man): goat (or gazelle),
Scorpio (scorpion): bull/ox,
Sagittarius (archer (centaur)): falcon,
Capricorn (goatfish): baboon/ape,
Aquarius (waterman): ibis,
Pisces (fishes): crocodile.
The dodekaoros circle follows the description given by the astrologer Teucrus.
The 'Daressy Zodiac' has important connections with the 'Planisphaerium Bianchini' and the 'Ponza Zodiac.' All show Egyptian influences. (It appears that it was (like the 'Planisphaerium Bianchini') an astrological dicing board of the kind described by the Armenian Bishop Eustathius of Antioch. It involved divination by throwing and also served for casting horoscopes.)
'Planisphaerium Bianchini' or 'Tabula Bianchini,' a marble astrological table. It is likely that dice were thrown on it to cast horoscopes. It is dated not earlier than the 2nd-century CE by Wilhelm Froehner (1869) but is now thought to likely date to the 3rd-century CE. The illustration above was included as 1 of 22 engravings (plates) in l'Origine de tous les cultes ou religion universelle by Charles-François Dupuis (1795) with the title/description 'Planisphere astrologique de style Egyptian.' The centre of the system is drawn on the pole of the ecliptic (with the constellation Draco or Dragon), not on the pole of the equator (with the constellation Ursa Major) because the Sun's passage through the sky along the ecliptic is the relevant path for the system of astrology. The separation of the 2 bear constellations is accurately represented in the central roundel. Around the central roundel are a series of concentric bands (rings). From the centre outwards the bands contain: (1) the dodekaoros (i.e., the Egyptian zodiacal signs), (2) and (3) the Greek zodiacal signs repeated in 2 identical bands, (4) the 36 decans (i.e., the guardians of each third of each sign, of Egyptian origin like the dodekaoros), and (5) the planetary deities corresponding to each decan. An inscription in Greek is on the black ribbon.
'Planisphaerium Bianchini' (or 'Tabula Bianchini')
'Planisphaerium Bianchini' (or 'Tabula Bianchini') now held in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. It is a remaining fragment of a largely damaged Roman (Egyptian-Roman) planisphere dated to the 2nd- or 3rd-century CE incorporating the Sphaera Barbarica (i.e., Greek, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian (zodiacal) constellations). The artifact is made of marble. It was found in several fragments in 1705 (1708?) on Mount Aventin (the Aventine Hill) in Rome and given to the French Academy by Francesco Bianchini. Though the exact find spot was not recorded it has been suggested by Maarten Vermaseren (1974) that it was perhaps discovered in the grounds of the Mithraeum of Santa Prisca (discovered in 1958 and located beneath the 4-century CE church of Santa Prisca). The Planisphaerium/Tabula shows 5 concentric circles and 4 of these concentric circles are divided into segments by radial lines.
It basically presents 3 circular zodiacs side-by-side. Depicted in the centre (innermost circle) are the 2 Bears (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) and the intertwined Dragon/Snake (= Draco). The 2 Bears are represented facing in opposite directions. The Dragon/Snake (= Draco) does not surround them both but coils between them. (The centre of the system is drawn on the pole of the ecliptic and, from the nature of the depiction, is obviously located in alpha Draconis. This placement is a concept within the scheme of the Sphaera Barbarica and is devoid of any precessional concept. That said, whilst the pole of the equator moves due to precession the stars in the region of the pole of the ecliptic are not subject to precessional movement. In the Classical Graeco-Roman sky the coils of Draco entwine the pole of the ecliptic.) There are then 4 concentric bands and an outermost ring of figures. The figures comprising a "Chaldean" zodiac are depicted in the first circle (i.e., the 12 animals of the Dodecahōros Chaldaikē). Two identical Greek zodiacs are depicted in bands 2 and 3 - meaning evidently the fixed and the movable ecliptic distinguished by Ptolemy and coinciding accurately as they were at the instant of the creation. (This dates the item to no earlier than the the 2nd-century CE.) We then have a zone of Greek numerals giving the oria or limits of the planetary influences in the several signs of the zodiac. The figures in the fourth band (the second most outer ring of depicted figures) depict the Egyptian decans (which appear in authentic Egyptian stylization), the Graeco-Egyptian names of each one inscribed below the figure. On the outermost ring, outside of the fourth band, we have the prosōpa, facies (= faces/persons) depicted. These faces are loosely the Greek decans. (The interpretation by Robert Eisler is they are the faces of the 7 planetary gods repeated again and again, in the septizonium order, each one co-ordinated with one of the decans.) On the planisphere each of the Egyptian decans is associated with a planetary ruler (dignitary) prosōpa, facies. Lines drawn from the circumference of the central circle, through the limits of the zodiacal signs, divide the whole planisphere into 12 sectors. In each of the 4 corners (extremities) the winged heads of the 4 main winds are depicted.
It has been commented that the decan system on the 'Tabula Bianchini' insinuates itself as a separate region between the fixed stars and the planets.
The Italian polymath and Vatican courtier Francesco Bianchini was a noted antiquarian and director of antiquities in Rome. However, he is largely forgotten today. He was born in Verona (Northern Italy), studied in Bologna and Padua, and in 1684 permanently transferred his residence to Rome and became part of the scholarly circle there. He achieved high levels of church patronage through a combination of family connections, fortunate circumstances, and his demonstrated intellectual ability. (His enormous breadth of learning included expert knowledge of mathematics, physics, astronomy, and the natural sciences.) Throughout his life Francesco Bianchini remained financially dependent on the Roman Curia. On arriving in Rome he immediately found a patron in Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (later Pope Alexander VIII (1689-1691)) and became custodian of his library. He also held minor orders in the Roman Catholic Church. He studied theology and in 1699 achieved deaconship but never progressed to ordination as a priest. As presidente delle antichità di Roma (to which he was elected in 1703) he was enormously influential in the Vatican museums and also in the archaeological excavations in the Papal States. He was especially interested in the transmission of knowledge through images which functioned both as a form of illustration (historical evidence) and as a mnemotic aid (memory aid). During the course of several journeys in Europe he traveled with a wagon-load of scientific instruments.
Franz Boll (Sphaera (1903), Page 303) reproduces a similar fragment, now lost, known only through an old engraving by the French antiquarian Nicolas Peirese (1580-1637) that was later reproduced in a book by the French Benedictine monk and scholar Bernard Montfaucon (1655-1741).
The 'Planisphaerium Bianchini' has important connections with the 'Daressy Zodiac' and the 'Ponza Zodiac.' All show Egyptian influences. (It appears that it was (like the 'Daressy Zodiac') an astrological dicing board of the kind described by the Armenian Bishop Eustathius of Antioch. It involved divination by throwing a dice on to it and also served for casting horoscopes.) There are only 2 zodiacal monuments preserved from the whole of antiquity that show the sign of the North Pole in the centre. One of these is the 'Planisphaerium/Tabula Bianchini' and the other is the Ponza zodiac.
The Sphaera Babarica
The Sphaera Graecanica and the Sphaera Barbarica were the 2 main constellation systems of the classical Graeco-Roman world. The Sphaera Barbarica was an invention of the Greek world. After the traditional Greek constellations were established some Graeco-Roman astrologers began modifying the constellation set by introducing foreign (non-Greek) constellations and stars, both Babylonian and Egyptian, into the Greek scheme of constellations. (The Sphaera Barbarica was comprised primarily of Babylonian and Egyptian constellations. The Greek zodiac, however, was basically left unchanged. The Sphaera Barbarica was based on the 12 constellations of the Greek zodiac. Pictures of the signs of the zodiac of the Sphaera Barbarica were, however, different to the classical Greek pictures.) This Sphaera Barbarica has been described as a kind of parasite on the Sphaera Graecanica. It eventually came to rival the Sphaera Graecanica. (Sphaera Barbarica originally meant the star-map of the Babylonians. The Sphaera Barbarica texts often actually discuss (sky-maps consisting of) a mixture of Greek and Mesopotamian/Egyptian material.)
The term Sphaera Barbarica means the "barbarian sphere"/'sky-map of the foreigners" (predominantly Babylonian and Egyptian) and the Sphaera Graecanica means the "sky-map of the Greeks." The Sphaera Graecanica was based on the 12 (Greek) zodiacal constellations. Construction of a Sphaera Barbarica in antiquity was carried out from the 2nd-century BCE onwards. In Hellenistic times the non-Greek constellations were still well-known. It is doubtful whether there was a definitive Greek Sphaera. The Greek astronomer Eudoxus in the 4th-century BCE and the Greek poet Aratus in the 3rd-century BCE laid the basis of a Greek celestial picture-atlas. However, it was the Greek astronomer Hipparchus in the 2nd-century BCE who first defined the outlines of the constellations systematically in terms of individual stars identified by coordinates. Hipparchus basically followed the constellation scheme of Eudoxus and Aratus. The Greek Sphaera which was passed down to the West was that of the Hellenized astronomer Ptolemy (2nd-century CE), which owed much to Hipparchus. No addition was made to it until the 17th-century CE.
In the 1st-century BCE the Roman senator and astrologer Nigidius Figulus (circa 100-45 BCE), a revivalist of Pythagoreanism, wrote his 2 books (now lost) on the Sphaera Barbarica and the Sphaera Graecanica. (The term Sphaera Barbarica and Sphaera Graecanica was first used by Nigidius Figulus.) It is thought that Nigidius' work on the Sphaera Barbarica was probably derived from the like-named work of Asclepiades of Myrlea. (Note: Perhaps a single book Sphaera graecanica et sphaera barbarica.) The Sphaera Barbarica dealt with the pre-Greek nomenclature of the stars and constellations, mostly Mesopotamian and Egyptian in origin. (It is most likely that there were two "barbaric" constellation schemes, a Mesopotamian one and an Egyptian one.) Teucrus the Babylonian (circa 1st-century BCE (circa 1st-century CE?)) also wrote a basic work (now lost) on the Sphaera Barbarica. (The Hellenistic astrologer Teucrus of Babylon lived between the 1st-century BCE and the 1st-century CE.) Traces of the Sphaera Barbarica also exist in the astrological writings of Marcus Manilius (circa 1st-century CE), of Vettius Valens (circa 2nd-century CE), of Antiochos of Athens (circa 2nd-century CE), and Firmicus Maternus (circa 4th-century CE). (The Sphaerica of Vettius Valens is not identifiable with treatises on the sphere written by Aratus, Eudoxus, or Hipparchus.) The fact of the Sphaera Barbarica being encountered in the astrological writings of Firmicus Maternus demonstrates that its progress into oblivion was not rapid. However, nearly all the constellations discussed by Marcus Manilius, including the paranatellonta he enumerates, which are commonly referred to as Sphaera Barbarica, are actually Greek. One of the few exceptions is the so-called Haedus (Kid), which is described as one of the paranatellonta of Libra.
Teucrus is (first?) called "the Babylonian" by the Greek philosopher Porphyrius (circa 270 CE). It is generally accepted that "Babylon" presumably designated Seleukeia on the Tigris. The historian Robert Eisler suggested (without evidence) that "Babylon" referred to the fortress-town of this names in Egypt (near Cairo). It is thought that Teucrus probably wrote his Sphaera Barbarica in Asia Minor.
Only fragments of the Sphaera Barbarica have come down to the present-day. Most of our knowledge about non-Greek constellations and star names comes from extant fragments of the Latin book on the Sphaera Barbarica by Nigidius Figulus. (Nigidius Figulus was a neo-Pythagorean and the leading figure among the Roman Pythagoreans.) Figulus seems to have dealt methodically with both the Greek and "barbaric" constellations. However, Teucrus also transmitted many names of the Sphaera Barbarica. The Sphaera Barbarica seems to have been a composite of Mesopotamian constellations and Egyptian constellations. (Additional information about this syncretic "barbaric" constellation scheme is contained in Greek astrological texts, especially those of the first and second centuries CE.)
A variety of sources from the classical period attest to knowledge of, and use of, non-Greek constellations i.e., constellations having Mesopotamian or Egyptian origins. However, these texts frequently discuss a mixture of Greek, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian constellations/asterisms. Katharina Volk (Manitius and his Intellectual Background (2009)) writes: "They do so typically without showing any awareness of their own syncretism or of the possibility that they may be describing the same stars over and over again - whether as parts of different constellations, or as the same constellation with a different name. ... The title [Sphaera Barbarica] appears to have been used in this strict sense only by Nigidius Figulus, who wrote both a Sphaera Graecanica and a Sphaera Barbarica, with the first containing the Greek and the second the non-Greek constellations ...." Also, proponents of the scheme of the Sphaera Barbarica, to a considerable extent, introduced fictitious constellations.
To some extent the 'Sphaera Barbarica' is a collective term for the catalogues of ancient astrologers known as paranotellonta. Prior to the time of Claudius Ptolemy (circa 85 - circa 165) a system of paranatellonta was developed that could be used to tell the hours of the night when the signs of the zodiac were hidden. Paranatellonta (or synanatellonta) are stars which rise at the same time as a given zodiacal sign, or bright stars such as Regulus or Sirius. Teucrus laid stress on the decans and their paranatellonta. The use of these paranatellonta for astrological purposes has been ascribed to Teucrus but is undoubtedly earlier. In the Sphaera Barbarica Figulus gave for each of the 360 degrees of the ecliptic the astral forecasts based on the character of the stars "rising together" (paranatellontes). (The references to constellations, in particular their simultaneous risings and settings, make it possible to distinguish between two different sets of uranography - a Sphaera Barbarica and a Sphaera Graecanica.)
The work of Teucrus on the Sphaera Barbarica has been described as being nothing more than a description of the Greek fixed-star sky with the addition of star names from Egypt, Babylonia, and Asia Minor (causing it to surpass the 'star catalogue' of Aratus almost 3 times over). The Sphaera Barbarica of Teucrus has come down to the present-day in several forms. In one of these forms the Sphaera Barbarica of Teucrus is arranged according to decans. This form of Teucrus' Sphaera Barbarica was transmitted to the Western Europe during the Middle Ages through Arab-Islamic star catalogues and lapidaria (books of precious stones).
Evidence for direct constellation borrowing from Mesopotamian is almost non-existent. During the Hellenistic period it is possible that Berossus and some Chaldaean contemporaries made the Babylonian sphaera familiar to the Greeks. It is possible that Babylonian uranography was passed to the Greeks through particular intermediaries such as the Phoenicians and Egyptians. In the early Ptolemaic period Hellenistic scholars were involved in the mass-translation of Egyptian texts into Greek and would have encountered the Egyptian sphaera.
The ultimate success of the Sphaera Graecanica (i.e., its complete acceptance by the Greek world and later the Roman world was largely due to the work of the Greek astronomer Eudoxus of Cnidus (4th-century BCE) and the Greek poet Aratus of Soli (3rd-century BCE). Eudoxus constellated and catalogued the entire Greek sky in his works Enoptron and Phaenomena. Aratus later turned these works into an astronomical poem concerning the constellations. The Phaenomena became hugely popular in the Graeco-Roman world. Without this popularisation by Aratus the works of Eudoxus may never have exerted the lasting influence they achieved. (The final consolidation of the Greek constellations was based Hipparchus and the writings of Ptolemy.)
The Sphaera Barbarica is thought to have originated in Asia Minor. (Aby Warburg proposed that the Sphaera Barbarica was devised in Asia Minor.) From there it eventually (1) passed to Egypt, and (2) passed eastward to the Orient (India and then the Islamic Persian Empire) and eventually became incorporated in the Kitab al-mudkhal al-kabir ila 'ilm ahkam an-nujjum (Latin title: Introductorium maius) by the Islamic scholar Abū Ma'shar. (The Sphaera Barbarica of Teucrus was translated into Pahlavi for the first time circa the 3rd-century CE.) This astrological tradition finally reached Latin Europe via the Arab-Islamic world toward the end of the Middle Ages (via Spain into France).
The first major modern work devoted to elucidating the Sphaera Barbarica was the classic book-length study Sphaera by the German philologist Franz Boll (1903). The masterly work Sphaera, published in 1903, was Franz Boll's ingenious recovery of the Sphaera Barbarica, based on the discovery of new manuscripts. Boll became aware of the Sphaera Barbarica through the discovery of excerpta (brief segments of writing taken from longer works) from the Byzantine period. He ingeniously reconstructed the Sphaera Barbarica and also traced the major stages of its journey to the Islamic Persian Empire and back to Europe. The French scholar Joseph Scalinger (1540-1609), in his 2nd edition (commentary) of Manilius (1600) (effectively a treatise on ancient astronomy), began the investigation of the Sphaera Barbarica on the basis of a version preserved in the writings of Rabbi Araham Ibn Ezra (1092-1167) - who had derived it from the writings of Abū Ma'shar.) It was Franz Boll who discovered and reconstructed the history of the passage of the Sphaera Barbarica. Later, it was Aby Warburg who first recognised the resurgence of the Sphaera Barbarica in the imagery of the Renaissance period. Perhaps the next most important study of the Sphaera Barbarica is the monograph-length study forming the last section of the Introduction to the book Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages, III, Volumes 1-2: Manuscripts in English Libraries by Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier, Edited by Harry Bober (1953, 2 Volumes).
Aby Warburg writes that Boll: "... discovered, for instance, a small book illustrated with woodcuts that is in fact a reproduction of an astrological diary of the kind used in Asia Minor: the Astrolabium Magnum, edited by the German scholar Engel, and first printed by Ratdolt in Ausburg in 1488. Yet the book was written by a world-famous Italian, Pietro d'Abano, the Paduan Faust of the Trecento, a contemporary of Dante and Giotto. ... And the book's journey can once again be followed all the way down to Pietro d'Abano; having made its way from Asia Minor, via Egypt, to India, the Sphaera landed (probably via Persia), in the aforementioned Introductorium majus [Great Introduction] of Abū Aā'sār, which then was translated into Hebrew by a Spanish Jew, Aben Esra (who died in 1167). The Hebrew translation was then translated in turn into French in Mecheln, by the Jewish scholar Hagins for the English-man, Henry Bates. And this French translation was finally the source of a Latin version completed in 1293 by Pietro d'Abano. The book was frequently reprinted ...."
Antonio Panaino has pointed out Teucrus' work was very important in the transmission of the astrological system of the decans. (This astrological system of decans (involving the subdivision of the zodiac into 36 decans, each decan of 10 degrees length, with 3 decans per constellation (sign)) also included the so-called paranatellonta (those constellations rising on the eastern horizon simultaneously with a certain decan).) The writings of Teucrus later influenced the Arabs. In his Sphaera (1903) Franz Boll showed that the Persian astrologer Abū Ma'shar (Latin name: Albumasar) (circa 787-886 CE) used a (Middle) Persian translation (or rearrangement) (made in 542 CE under Xusraw Anōširwān) of the Sphaera Barbarica of Teucrus the Babylonian in the writing of his Kitab al-mudkhal al-kabir ila 'ilm ahkam an-nujjum (Latin title: Introductorium maius). Abū Ma'shar also used Indian sources, derived from the 6th-century CE Indian astronomer Varāhamihira, about the iconography of the decans. (Varāhamihira had in turn used the Yavanajātaka of Sphujidhvaja (a 3rd-century CE Indian astrologer) which was a versification of a 2nd-century CE Sanskit translation of a Greek-Alexandrian astrological text.) In his book Abū Ma'shar Kitab al-mudkhal al-kabir ila 'ilm ahkam an-nujjum also linked astrology to both Neoplatonic Aristotelianism and to Hermeticism. (The titles of Latin translations of key books by Abū Ma'shar are: Flores astrologiae (1488), Introductorium maius (1489), Introductorium in astronomiam (1489), and De magnis conjunctionibus (1489).) In this way Abū Ma'shar is an important source for early Hellenistic constellation lore. Abū Ma'shar was also the father of European Medieval and Renaissance astrology. (Abū Ma'shar was born in northern Afghanistan and settled permanently in Baghdad during the reign of Caliph al-Ma'mum (813-833).) For scholars in western Europe the principal source of scientific astrology was the Graeco-Roman tradition of Ptolemy.
The main source for the transmission of Persian astrological iconography to the West was Introductorium maius (Great Introduction) by Abū Ma'shar. This book was also the main authority for Western medieval astrology.
The Egyptian iconography of the decans, modified with Indian and Sasanian elements, was transferred through the Arabic work of Abū Ma'shar, Kitab al-mudkhal al-kabir ila 'ilm ahkam an-nujjum (Latin title: Introductorium maius) to Spain, and then to France. A Latin translation of the treatise Kitab al-mudkhal al-kabir ila 'ilm ahkam an-nujjum was completed by Hermann of Dalmatia in 1143 CE. An abridgement based on this version was made in the second half of the 12th-century CE by Georgius Fendulus. Numerous copies of both Latin manuscripts were made and circulated in Europe. One of the sources of astrological imagery of the Renaissance was the Sphaera Barbarica. The Egyptian iconography of the decans in Introductorium maius finally became embedded in the book Astrolabium planum by Pietro d'Abano (a famous Italian physician, philosopher, and astrologer; circa 1257-circa 1316). The 14th-century CE program of decoration of the so-called Salone (begun in 1306) in the Palazzo della Ragione (Padua's massive secular and civil centre) was inspired by the Sphaera Barbarica and astrological concepts in Astrolabium planum. (An early appearance in Europe of the Sphaera Barabarica was also the small book Astrolabium magnum (1448) by Pietro d'Abano.) Later, the Sphaera Barbarica and astrological concepts in Astrolabium planum also played an important role in the decoration (begun in 1470) of the Salone dei Mesi at the Palazzo Schifanoia (Schifanoja) in Ferrara (commissioned by Duke Borso d'Este and executed by Farrarese artists led by the painter Cosimo Tura). The fresco cycle of the months in the Schifanoia Palace is unique of its kind, such is its range and complexity: it contains a triple register of allegories, astrological decans and scenes of court life. Aby Warburg ("Italienische Kunst und internationale Astrologie im Palazzo Schifanoja zu Ferrara" (1912)) identified that the 15th-century frescoes of constellations with their decans in the Palazzo Schifanoja - based on the calendar illustrations that were in frequent use in Northern European manuscripts - were ultimately those of the Sphaera Barbarica of Teucrus the Babylonian. Seven of the 12 original wall areas survive in good condition, and traces of the other five are more or less visible. (The series of allegorical frescoes in each building each depict the concept of the "yearly astrological cycle" and comprise a compendium of symbolic, astrological, religious, scientific, and philosophical beliefs of the Middle Ages.)
Aby Warburg's study, Heidnisch-antike Weissagung in Wort und Bild zu Luthers Zeiten (1920) was a ground-breaking assessment of the role of astronomical iconography in the Renaissance. Decanal images at the Palazzo Schifanoia and the Palazzo della Ragione were first studied by Aby Warburg. With the help of certain types of historical astrological texts Warburg succeeded in explaining the enigmatic cycle of frescoes from the 15th-century in the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara. Aby Warburg's iconographical analysis of frescos in the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara showed that they represented the signs of the zodiac and their divisions into 36 decans. His most famous paper, "Italienische Kunst und internationale Astrologie im Palazzo Schifanoja zu Ferrara" was delivered at the height of his career to the 10th Art-Historical Congress in Rome in October, 1912. Following his pioneering work Warburg (an independent Privatgelehrter = independent[private scholar) explained his discovery that each of the 3 figures marking each month are decans. The Indian decans of Abū Ma'shar dominate the central plane (of frescoes) in the Palazzo Schifanoia. (See: Die Erneuerung der heidnischen Antike (1932) by Aby Warburg.) The Warburg scholar Eugenio Garin in his short book, Astrology in the Renaissance: The Zodiac of Life (1983)) has provided a fuller understanding of astrology in the Renaissance. See also the important study: La Tirannia degli astri: Aby Warburg e l'astrologia di Palazzo Schifanoia (1985) by M. Bertozzi
The Sphaera Barbarica did not obtain wide popularity in western Europe and interest in it remained within the domain of specialist scholars. There were 3 different iconographic schemes for illustrated versions of the Sphaera Barbarica. The most common iconographic scheme involved the depiction of the Persian, Indian, and Graeco-Roman spheres in separate strips placed one above the other. (MS M.785 (A Latin translation, circa 1400, of a work originating from Abū Ma'shar) now in the Pierpont Morgan Library is a typical example. The Sphaera Persica (i.e., Sphaera Barbarica) appears in the top register, the Sphaera Indica appears in the middle register, and the Sphaera Graeca appears in the lower register.) This artistic tradition originated with manuscripts produced in southern Italy in the 12th-century CE and continued through to the 15th-century CE. The illustrations accompanied the translated Latin text of Introductorium maius by Abū Ma'shar and were primarily for manuscripts made for the (educated and/or wealthy) layperson.
Appendix 1: Teucrus/Teucer and the Sphaera Barbarica
The Sphaera Barbarica of Teucrus survived in the form of a Greek manuscript with partial contents, the Arabic work of Abū Ma'shar, Kitab al-mudkhal al-kabir ila 'ilm ahkam an-nujjum [Great Introduction], and Arab-Islamic star catalogs and lapidaria. (The Sphaera Barbarica were mostly based on the writings of Teucrus.)
According to Aby Warburg, writing on the Sphaera Barbarica of Teucrus: "This work is nothing more than a description of the fixed-star heaven, which with the addition of star names from Egypt, Babylonia, and Asia Minor, surpasses the star catalog of Aratus almost three times over. ... The Sphara Barbarica of Teukros comes down to us in yet another form , corresponding to the surviving Greek text [of Teucrus' Sphaera Barbarica], a form arranged according to decans, that is, thirds of months, each of which encompasses ten degrees of the respective zodiacal sign. This type came to the western Middle Ages via the star catalogs and lapidaria (books of precious stones) of the Arabs. So the "Great Introduction" of Abū Aā'sār (who died in 886), the main authority for medieval astrology, contains a synopsis of three different conceptions of the fixed-star heaven, each apparently quite peculiar and belonging to a different nation. Closer examination reveals, however, that these disparate parts can all be traced back to the Greek Sphaera of Teukros, expanded by barbaric additions."
The Sphaera Barbarica with its elements of paranatellonta (the system of constellations "which accompany" certain points of the ecliptic in the north and south = the constellations rising on the horizon simultaneously with a certain decan) and Dōdekaōros (the system of subdivision of each zodiac sign into 3 parts (10 degrees of the ecliptic) - making a system of 36 "decans" according to which 3 "paranatellonta" were attached to each sign of the zodiac) gained fixed form in the 1st-century CE(BCE?) in the Sphaera Barbarica devised by Teucer of Babylon (Egypt?). Paranatellonta are stars or star groups that are viewed as attendants. In ancient astrology the term was applied to the constellations that rose with the zodiacal decans. Teucer is supposed to have lived in the 1st-century CE(BCE?). The Sphaera Barbarica of Teucrus/Teucer also established the subdivision of each zodiac sign into 3 parts (10 degrees of the ecliptic), each subdivision (= the decans) controlled/ruled over by specific gods/goddesses of ancient Egyptian or Asiatic origin (Mesopotamian, or Persian, or Indian).
A fragmentary list attributed to Teucrus/Teucer associates each of the zodiacal signs with a specific country. As example: The Ram represents Persia, and the He-goat represents Syria. To date the connection of the signs of the zodiac with particular countries is unattested in the 2nd-century CE.
Appendix 2: Daivajna Varāhamihira and the Sphaera Indica
Daivajna Varāhamihira (505-587 CE) was an Indian astronomer, (outstanding) mathematician, and astrologer who lived most of his life in Ujjain. The Indian sphaera is attested in Chapter 27 of the Brhajjātaka (a treatise on astronomy and horoscopic astrology) written by Daivajna Varāhamihira. Varāhamihira was Abū Ma'shar's unnamed influential source for information on the decans and their gods. (Franz Boll showed that prior to the 6th-century CE knowledge of the Egyptian decans had reached India.) Abū Ma'shar's Kitāb al-madkhal al-kabīr contains Indian material and is one of the principle conduits for the transmission of genuine Indian astrological doctrines to the West. It contains information about Indian terms and decans. It has been determined by David Pingree (1963 paper) that Varāhamihira's decan descriptions are a mixture of those of the decans and horās (Vedic jyotish unit of time, the Egyptian decans were sidereal gods of time) in the Yavanajätaka of Sphujidhvaja. Pingree also determined that these decans and horās are misinterpretations (influenced by Śaivite iconography) of the Greco-Egyptian pictures in a Greek manuscript translated into Sanskrit by Yavaneśvara in 149/150 CE.
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