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Secretum SecretorumImage:Secret of secrets a.jpg Secretum secretorum is a medieval treatise also known as Secret of Secrets, or The Book of the Secret of Secrets, or in ArabicKitab sirr al-asrar, or the Book of the science of government: on the good ordering of statecraft. It is a mid-12th century Latintranslation of a 9th century Arabic encyclopedic treatise on a wide range of topics including statecraft, ethics, physiognomy, astrology, alchemy, magic, and medicine. It was influential in Europe during the High Middle Ages.
OriginThe origins of the treatise are uncertain. No Greekoriginal exists, though there are claims in the Arabic treatise that it was translated from the Greek into Syriacand from Syriac into Arabic by a well-known 9th century translator, Yahya al-Bitriq. It appears, however, that the treatise was actually composed originally in Arabic. As for its date of origin, we can say with certainty that the section on physiognomywas circulating in Arabic before AD 940, for there is a manuscript now in the British Library(OIOC, MS Or. 12070) copied in 941 by one Muhammad ibn ?Ali ibn Durustawayh of Isfahanwhich contains this particular fragment of the treatise, though it is not called Sirr al-asrar. It antedates all references to the Sirr al-asrar (Secret of Secrets) and is earlier than all other known manuscript copies. It is likely that the treatise now known as The Secret of Secrets gradually evolved over a long period through the accretion of material. A Latin translation of the Secret of Secrets from the Arabic was made in 1130 by John of Sevillein Toledo, Spain (preserved today in some 150 copies) and again in the first half of the 13th century by Philippus Tripolitanus(preserved in more than 350 copies). It was translated into English by Robert Coplandand printed in 1528. The Latin Secretum secretorum was eventually translated into Czech, Croatian, German, Icelandic, English, Castilian, Catalan, Portuguese, French, and Italian. It was also translated from the Arabic into Hebrew and then into Russian. There is another book called "Kitab al-asrar" (Secret of Secrets) on practical technical recipes, clasification of mineral substances, description of the alchemical laboratory, etc. by Abu Bakr Muhammed ibn Zakariya al-Razi. A latin translation appears in Europe as Liber secretorum. This is a completely separate book entirely and is a common source of confusion because of the same names and similair subject matter and time period. In addition it is distinctly different from a treatise on physiognomy with the title Kitab fi al-firasah attributed to Aristotle and said to have been translated into Arabic in the 9th century by Hunayn ibn Ishaq. The SecretsSecrets of Secrets takes the form of a pseudoepigraphicalletter supposedly from Aristotleto Alexander the Greatduring his campaigns in Persia. The text ranged from ethical questions that faced a ruler to astrologyand magical/medical properties properties of plants, gems, numbers, and a strange account of a unified science, of which only a person with the proper moral and intellectual background could discover. An enlarged version appearing in the 13th century includes some alchemical references and an early version of the tabula smaragdina (the Emerald Tablet). The Arabic treatise is preserved in two forms: a long version of 10 books and a short version of 7 or 8 books, preserved in a total of about fifty copies. InfluencesIt was one of the most widely-read texts of the High Middle Ages. Medieval readers took the ascription to Aristotle as authentic and treated this work among Aristotle's genuine works. It was on the medieval "best-seller" list for hundreds of years. Scholarly attention waned around 1550 but lay interest has continued to this day in particular with devotés of the Occult. Scholars today see it as a window onto medieval intellectual life: it was used in a variety of scholarly contexts, and had some part to play in the scholarly controversies of the day. When Roger Bacon found the treatise he believed it was a path to discovery that would yield more divine revelation than a lifetime of study of Albertusor Aquinas. He spent his familys fortune on "secret books and various experiments, and on languages and instruments, and astronomical tables" but the materials that he sought were "difficult and most expensive, for which reason those who know the art ... are not able to operate and the books on that science are so secreted that a man car scarcely find them". Eventually Bacon accomplished little on his own experimentation, depending instead on first-hand accounts from others who had tried. In his quest to discover the secrets from others, he learned from travelers returning from China, of a substance called "blackpowder" and a device "a size as small as the human thumb" packed with this powder produced "a horrible noise" when set on fire. Secret of Secrets was influential in Tudorstatecraft. References
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Categories: Medieval literature| Pseudepigraphy
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