De Incantationibus

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thought it could not act by physical contact, just as follows from Avicenna’s Ibn Sina (c. 980–1037), a Persian polymath whose views on the soul's power over matter were highly influential in Medieval and Renaissance thought. position. Therefore, it seems that no way of responding is left to the Peripatetics Peripatetics: followers of Aristotle's school of philosophy, known for their focus on natural causes.. You also say further that you once heard a certain response elsewhere from Pietro Trapolino of Padua Pietro Trapolino (1451–1509), a professor of philosophy at the University of Padua and teacher to many Renaissance thinkers., our common teacher, which he himself attributed to Albert Likely Albertus Magnus (c. 1200–1280), a medieval scholar famous for his work on natural science and the properties of minerals and plants.. This response was that words and characters characters: original "characteres," referring to written signs, sigils, or symbols used in rituals. are instruments of the celestial bodies; therefore, it is not impossible for things of this kind to produce such effects by the power of those bodies.

Truly, you add that this explanation does not please you at all, first because all such words and similar characters would then be able to produce similar effects, which is not true in the least. Second, because it is not clear what or how the celestial bodies The stars and planets, which were believed in this period to exert physical and "astrological" influence on the Earthly realm. could impress their power into such words and characters for the production of these effects. And the question arises whether they always impress them so, or only sometimes. Certainly not always, since that is contrary to experience experience: original "experimentum," which in this context refers to empirical observation or what is observed in practice.; but on-

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