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Methods of enchantment: examining the practical instructions of Ficino's musical magic

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METHODS OF ENCHANTMENT:
EXAMINING THE PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS OF
FICINO’S MUSICAL MAGIC

by

Mikael Sebag

________________________________________________________________

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(EARLY MUSIC)

August 2012

Copyright 2012 Mikael Sebag

ii

Table of Contents
List of Figures ................................................................................................................... iii
Abstract ............................................................................................................................. iv
Introduction .........................................................................................................................1
Previous Scholarship ...........................................................................................................3
Defining Magic ...................................................................................................................6
The Rationale for Magic .....................................................................................................8
Ficino’s Magic ..................................................................................................................12
The First Rule ...................................................................................................................16
The Second and Third Rules .............................................................................................18
Ficino’s Other Rules .........................................................................................................22
Musical Magic from Other Sources ..................................................................................25
Texts of the Orphic Hymns ................................................................................................28
Non-Musical Ritual Elements ............................................................................................30
Conclusions ........................................................................................................................34
References ..........................................................................................................................35
Appendix A: Planetary Rulerships from the Latin Picatrix...............................................38
Appendix B: Planetary Corporatures from Lily’s Christian Astrology .............................46
Appendix C: Texts of the Orphic Hymns in Translation ...................................................49

iii

List of Figures

Figure 1: The Planetary Hours ...........................................................................................24
Figure 2: Frontispiece to Gaffurius’ Practica musicae (1496) .........................................27

iv

Abstract
Despite extensive scholarship already conducted on the musical magic of Marsilio
Ficino, little attention has been given to the practical instructions set forth in his De vita
coelitus comparanda. This paper examines Ficino’s rules for constructing and performing
astrologically-effective music, drawing from both pre- and post-Ficinian texts to create a
cross-section of knowledge, one to which Renaissance magicians would have had access
and used in their own ritual performances of Ficino’s planetary songs.

1
Introduction
In Latin, the word carmen means both “song” and “incantation”; a testament to
the long, shared history of singing and the recitation of magic spells. In Greek
mythology, Orpheus’ music was so divinely inspired that it had the power to temper
beasts and cause rivers to run backwards to their source. In the Mediaeval Book of
Abramelin, the only magicians whom the author meets in his travels and credits with any
true power are those who he describes as “singing” their spells.
1
The ephemeral,
invisible, yet unmistakable power common to both music and magic binds them together
in the imagination of the Western esoteric tradition. In the Renaissance, occult
philosophers enthusiastically explored the rich and fascinating relationship between
music and magic, particularly in Florence.
Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) was a humanist philosopher, priest, astrologer, and
magician of the Italian Renaissance. Under the patronage of Cosimo de Medici, who
appointed him leader of the Platonic Academy, Ficino translated Plato into Latin and is
perhaps best known for his translation of the Corpus Hermeticum, a fragmentary body of
Hellenistic works on the nature of the cosmos attributed to the apocryphal figure Hermes
Trismegistus. These passages would later become the central text(s) of the Hermetic
philosophical/magical tradition. Ficino was also an avid musician and central to his
musical interests was the practice of a form of astrologically-effective music that he
called Orphic singing (which we shall also refer to as “astrological music” and “planetary
song”). Ficino believed that songs performed under certain circumstances had the power

1
Abraham of Worms, The Book of Abramelin: A New Translation, ed. Georg Dehn, trans. Steven Guth
(Lake Worth: Ibis Press, 2006), 25.
2
to attract beneficial astrological influences from the planets, a practice that he perceived
to be from a tradition of magic extending back to Orpheus himself. These planetary songs
have been the subject of greatest interest for scholars of early modern musical magic.
This paper does not seek to identify evidence of Ficino’s astrological music in
compositions of the Italian Renaissance, nor does it attempt a full reconstruction of a
Ficinian planetary song. Rather, this study aims to interpret the directions set forth by
Ficino in his De vita coelitus comparanda that have gone so overlooked by previous
scholars in this field. I attempt to identify sources of Renaissance magical knowledge
relevant to Ficino’s magic, specifically those which Renaissance magicians might have
used in their attempts to perform astrologically-effective music between the years 1400
and 1650.

3
Previous Scholarship
Previous scholarship has frequently presented an agenda in the study of
Renaissance musical magic. For D.P. Walker
2
and Frances Yates
3
, the study of Ficino
and his contemporaries served to place Renaissance magic squarely in the development
of early modern science and philosophy, rescuing its tradition from the pervasive stigma
that magic is a superstitious or regressive paradigm. Prior to Walker and Yates, it was the
prevailing belief among scholars that “the historian of science cannot devote much
attention to the study of superstition and magic, that is, of unreason, because this does not
help him very much to understand human progress. Magic is essentially unprogressive
and conservative; science is essentially progressive; the former goes backward; the latter
forward.”
4
Through their research, Walker and Yates recognized Hermeticism and
Rosicrucianism as not only coherent traditions, but as milestones in the development of
scientific thought.
5
Yates’ claims of magic as the parent discipline of modern science,
however, are only somewhat correct. Modern beliefs on the “Yates paradigm” are that
Western esotericism was only one of many traditions that contributed to the early
development of modern science.
6

Gary Tomlinson’s analysis of Agrippa and Ficino in Music in Renaissance Magic,
the most celebrated study of the subject to date, served mainly as a vehicle for his views

2
Allison P. Coudert, review of Spiritual and Demonic Magic: From Ficino to Campanella, by D.P.
Walker, Church History 74, no. 4. (December 2005): 850.
3
Gary Tomlinson, Music in Renaissance Magic (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 44.
4
George Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science, 3 vols. (Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1927-
47), 1:19.
5
Henrik Bogdan, Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation (Albany: SUNY Press, 2007), 9. For further
reading, Yates’ The Rosicrucian Enlightenment deals with this topic extensively.
6
William Eamon’s Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern
Culture expands on this discussion.
4
on traditional research methods, for his conspicuously anachronistic application of
Michel Foucault’s anti-humanist epistemology, and for espousing the advantages of
balancing his search for Renaissance epistemes with a hermeneutic approach towards the
subject.
7
That is not to say, however, that Tomlinson’s research isn’t thorough or
thoughtfully considered. In fact, this study’s emphasis on the works of Agrippa as they
pertain to Ficino’s musical magic is in large part due to Tomlinson’s scholarship.
However, Tomlinson’s skepticism prevents him from meeting Ficino on his own terms,
not out of a simple refusal to do so, but because he claims that he can’t. Kieckhefer
remarks, “Thus, writing on the magical songs of Marsilio Ficino, Gary Tomlinson argues
for an unbridgeable divide between the rationality Ficino perceived in his magic and any
rationality we might seek in it: we can view Ficino's magic from a ‘dialogical space’
between his world and ours, but we ‘cannot cross over to his side.’ Even to ask precisely
how his magical songs functioned, expecting an answer in terms of our own mental
categories, is unwarranted.”
8
Tomlinson fails to address even the potential for scholarship
that aims to transgress the dialogical space, chalking it up as impossible from where we
stand so far removed from Ficino’s place and time.
9
This study, in part, is an acceptance
of Tomlinson’s challenge. It is not our aim to prove the magical efficacy of Ficino’s
songs or harm its own credibility with an over-identification with its subject by waxing

7
Angela Voss, review of Music in Renaissance Magic: Toward a Historiography of Others, by Gary
Tomlinson, Music and Letters 74, no. 4 (November 1994): 593. Though Voss’ review of Tomlinson is, for
the most part, rather unforgiving, her observations strongly resonate with my own experiences regarding
the book. I daresay, the subtitle of Tomlinson’s book betrays the author’s true intent.
8
Richard Kieckhefer, “The Specific Rationality of Medieval Magic,” The American Historical Review 99,
no. 3 (June 1994), 813.
9
Gary Tomlinson, Music in Renaissance Magic (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 248.

5
metaphysical, but rather to approach the literature with the understanding that
Renaissance magicians believed in magic (as we shall discuss later) and would have
reason to consider how these songs worked with the assumption that they worked.
A scholar who has dedicated much of her research to the writings of Ficino,
Angela Voss, has perhaps most successfully reconciled the psychological divide that has
limited scholarship to Tomlinson’s “dialogical space.” Her numerous articles and
chapters all recognize Ficino’s own belief in his planetary songs as possessing magical
efficacy and extends the argument to interpret his songs as possessing theurgic potential,
which is addressed later in this study. Voss’ approach to Ficino’s magic, however, often
seems intent on better understanding Ficino’s cosmological paradigm rather than an
attempt to more fully comprehend the magic itself. This, however, is a minor complaint
as much of her work in the study of Ficino is evocative and well-researched. Her
scholarship in this field remains the most compelling to date.
Despite their detailed focus on Ficino and magic all of these authors have failed to
address the truly practical side of Ficino’s magic or the “nuts and bolts.”
10
This study
aims to approach a richer understanding of Renaissance musical magic by interpreting the
most salient features of Ficino’s writings and connecting them to other sources of
Renaissance magical knowledge, moving towards a practical model of astrologically-
effective music that is consistent with theory of magic in early modern Europe.

10
D. P. Walker paints a vague picture of a Ficinian-Orphic ritual based on the writings of Francesco da
Diacceto at the start of the second chapter of Spiritual and Demonic Magic, but the description is
romanticized at best and misleading at worst.
6
Defining Magic
The German physician Henry Cornelius Agrippa (1486?-1535), arguably the most
celebrated scholar of Western occultism and author of the Renaissance treatise De
occulta philosophia (“Of Occult Philosophy”), describes magic as “a faculty of
wonderful virtue, full of most high mysteries . . . [performed] by uniting the virtues of
things through the application of them one to the other, and to their inferior suitable
subjects, joining and knitting them together thoroughly by the powers, and virtues of the
superior bodies.”
11
Agrippa uses the word “virtue” to describe the fundamental unit of
Renaissance magic, the idea of an occult or hidden influence.
To Renaissance thinkers, the world around them was littered with occult forces—
forces we can only perceive by their effects and not by the senses. To natural magicians,
magnetism was considered an occult force because its effect, the attraction and repulsion
of metals, was the only evidence of its existence. A manifest force, such as fire, for
example, is one that we can sense empirically, as we can use our eyes to see it and our
flesh to feel it (in addition to witnessing the effects produced by its burning). Once we
understand that for Renaissance occult philosophers magic was the manipulation of
forces defined solely by their efficacy, we can begin to dismiss modern assumptions that
magic acts solely on the symbolic or psychological level. This definition is also
consistent with modern scholarship on historical magic.
Recent scholarship by P.G. Maxwell-Stuart defines magic in somewhat broader
terms:

11
Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, ed. Donald Tyson, trans. James Freake (St.
Paul: Llewellyn, 1993), 5.
7
“Magic refers to the belief that human beings are able to control, coerce
and manipulate the occult forces of creation, whatever these may be, by
means of ritual techniques. It therefore differs from religion in one key
respect. God cannot be manipulated or coerced, although he may be
influenced by supplication, and so the individual person remains always
subordinate to divinity.”
12

For Maxwell-Stuart, this distinction between occult manipulator and divine
supplicant defines magic and, perhaps to a lesser extent, the magician. This discrepancy
is important because Renaissance magic was by no means a secular art form. In fact, for
early modern occult philosophers, the syncretic union of Christian theology and Neo-
Platonic philosophy in magic was what allowed them to reconcile their religious
convictions with the humanist rediscovery of classical thought. For the purposes of this
study, it is the combined definitions of magic set forth by Agrippa and Maxwell-Stuart
13

that we will use in our exploration of Renaissance musical magic. When using the term
“magic”, we are thus referring to a process of manipulating occult forces, i.e. “virtues”,
which are divine in origin, through the sympathetic application of them one to another.
The sympathy described above, which forms the backbone of much (perhaps all?)
magical practice, however, does not exist in a vacuum and is predicated on the
aforementioned Neo-Platonic network of correspondences.

12
P.G. Maxwell-Stuart, ed., The Occult in Early Modern Europe: A Documentary History (New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 1999), 115.
13
In many ways, by creating a single definition from our modern understanding of magic, combined with
earlier definitions, we are embodying the spirit of Renaissance humanist magic; reconciling contemporary
understanding with ancient authority.
8
The Rationale for Magic
To perceive magic as a real, efficacious force is a concept far removed from the
modern world of scientific skepticism. In fact, the rationality (and irrationality) of magic
has warranted scholarly research in and of itself. Tomlinson was never able to suspend
his own modern biases, a fact well-known to both Angela Voss
14
and Richard
Kieckhefer,
15
as noted earlier. However, the vast corpus of literature on magic would
suggest that early modern thinkers did in fact interpret magic as effective and rational.
This interpretation likely extends to Ficino’s magical songs as well, despite Walker’s
beliefs to the contrary.
16
Kieckhefer says:
To conceive of magic as rational was to believe, first of all, that it could
actually work (that its efficacy was shown by evidence recognized within
the culture as authentic) and, secondly, that its workings were governed by
principles (of theology or of physics) that could be coherently
articulated.
17

Though witchcraft trials were more common to the northern and German regions
of early modern Europe, surviving Florentine court records show that criminal magical
activity was a serious matter within the Italian city-states as well. Sorcery, the practice of
harmful magic, usually done by the conjuring of evil spirits, was believed to have been
such a real danger that accusations of such crimes were handled by secular, not
ecclesiastical, courts. In fact, in Renaissance Florence between the years 1375 and 1430,

14
Angela Voss, review of Music in Renaissance Magic: Toward a Historiography of Others, by Gary
Tomlinson, Music and Letters 74, no. 4 (November 1994): 593.
15
Richard Kieckhefer, “The Specific Rationality of Medieval Magic,” The American Historical Review 99,
no. 3 (June 1994), 813.
16
D. P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic: From Ficino to Campanella (University Park, PA:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1958), 82.
17
Richard Kieckhefer, “The Specific Rationality of Medieval Magic,” The American Historical Review 99,
no. 3 (June 1994), 814.
9
“no accused sorcerer brought to trial was ever declared innocent, and the jurisdiction of
the secular court was challenged only once, and then unsuccessfully.”
18
This was the sort
of world which Ficino was born into only three years later, giving him great reason to be
cautious with regards to the discussion of magic in his publications. The people who
feared magic, which is to say nearly everyone, likely saw little distinction between
magical operations aided by demons and those made possible by the manipulation of
occult forces. Considering that secular courts handled sorcery cases in Renaissance
Florence, we can see a prevailing cultural attitude that both believes in (and fears) the
efficacy of magic, satisfying Kieckhefer’s first requirement for rationality.
With regards to Kieckhefer’s second requirement, Frances Yates describes the
coherency of the Neo-Platonic rationale of magic below:
“For the All was One, united by an infinitely complex system of
relationships. The magician was one who knew how to enter into this
system, and use it, by knowing the links of the chains of influences
descending vertically from above, and establishing for himself a chain of
ascending links by correct use of the occult sympathies in terrestrial
things, of celestial images, of invocations and names, and the like.”
19

This Neo-Platonic view of the universe elevates the practice of magic from the
implicit demon-worship feared by Augustine and Aquinas
20
to a somewhat secular
exploitation of a pre-existing network of associations. James Hankins describes the Neo-
Platonic cosmology as “characterized by a web of sympathies and correspondences and

18
Gene A. Brucker, “Sorcery in Early Renaissance Florence”, Studies in the Renaissance 10, (1963), 23.
19
Frances A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1964), 45.
20
Brian P. Copenhaver, “Scholastic Philosophy and Renaissance Magic in the De Vita of Marsilio Ficino”,
Renaissance Quarterly 37, no. 4 (Winter, 1984), 531.
10
dependencies that hold it together in variegated unity beneath the One.”
21
In a Neo-
Platonic universe, the occult virtues described by Agrippa are not manifest in a subject
the same way that accidental forms are sensed. Instead occult virtues are linked to the
substantial forms that define an object, event, or person’s true Platonic form.
22
For
Ficino, the virtues are a part of the spiritus mundi, a concept introduced by Ficino into the
tripartite cosmological model of the 3
rd
-century Neo-Platonic philosopher Plotinus.
23

Though Brian P. Copenhaver shows Scholastic inheritances in the astrological
magic of Ficino, contrary to the assumption that Ficino’s systems were based entirely on
the newly rediscovered Neo-Platonic models of thinking, both Scholastic and Neo-
Platonic philosophies purport magical efficacy to astrological talismanic (and by
extension, astro-musical) magic.
24
It is song however, which Ficino describes as the
greatest imitator of all things and thus is the best vehicle for sympathetic magic.
25

Music as a tool for magic, i.e. magic as a vehicle for the transmission of occult
virtues, is repeatedly mentioned in the musical theory of antiquity through the early
modern period because of its perceived similarities to the harmonic proportions in the
movements of the planets. Translated by Tomlinson, Gaffurius in De harmonia states,
“Just as nothing beautiful can be found that is not consonant with the universe, so there

21
James Hankins, “Ficino, Avicenna, and the Occult Powers of the Rational Soul,” Tra antica sapienza e
filosofia naturale: La magia nell’Europa moderna I, ed. Fabrizio Meroi and Elisabetta Scapparone (2003),
38.
22
Ibid.
23
Jonathan Bain, Ficino’s Natural Magic. http://ls.poly.edu/~jbain/mms/handouts/mmsficino.htm
(Accessed April 30, 2012)
24
Brian P. Copenhaver, “Scholastic Philosophy and Renaissance Magic in the De Vita of Marsilio Ficino”,
Renaissance Quarterly 37, no. 4 (Winter, 1984), 532.
25
Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life, ed. & trans. Carol Kaske and John Clark (Tempe: Center for
Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1998), 359.
11
never was and never could be music able to act forcefully and show a stable, divine
power that did not have a great similarity to the heavens”.
26
Similar statements are made
by Plato, Plotinus, and Iamblichus.
27

For Ficino, the magical efficacy of his planetary songs is predicated on a
primarily Neo-Platonic philosophical worldview in which the spiritus, existing on the
same plane as the spiritus mundi, acts as an intermediary force between the mundane and
the divine.
28
Music moves the spirit and thus prepares it to receive celestial benefits,
which are then transmitted to the body, mind, and soul.

26
Gary Tomlinson, Music in Renaissance Magic (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 94.
27
Joscelyn Godwin, Music, Mysticism, and Magic: A Sourcebook (London: Arkana, 1986), 3, 21, 26.
28
D. P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic: From Ficino to Campanella (University Park, PA:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1958), 12.
12
Ficino’s Magic
Ficino’s magical legacy is vast. His Latin translation of the Corpus Hermeticum
was the first step in the formation of a coherent tradition of Hermetic magic in the early
modern period and his ideas were borrowed, copied, and expanded on by later magicians
from both the Italian and German traditions.
29
Ficino was also somewhat of a hero in his
attempts to save magic, having “contributed to the mainstream of magic a theoretical
framework which he seemed to believe would emancipate it from evil powers.”
30
His
ideas, however, were not entirely original. Frank L. Borchardt remarks that Renaissance
magi “were moved especially by the novelty of the, paradoxically, ‘ancient’ sources. It
was precisely the general unavailability of the texts and their alien provenance which
endowed them with so much prestige and separated them radically from the familiar (and
hence contemptible) magical practice of living superstition.”
31
Ficino, as a man who
enjoyed a regular intake of ancient sources thanks to his patron’s interest in Platonic and
Neo-Platonic texts, was no different in his sentiments.
Ficino’s astrological magic, as described in the third book of his De triplici vita
(1489), draws from sources both ancient (Avicenna, Iamblichus, Plotinus, Porphyry,
Proclus, etc.) and eastern, most notably the Picatrix. Carol Kaske and John Clark, whose
English translation of Ficino’s De vita is the most critical and accurate edition to date,
observe that the Picatrix “seems never to have been ‘transferred’ verbatim into De vita,

29
Carol Kaske and John Clark, ed. & trans. of Marsilio Ficino’s Three Books on Life (Tempe: Center for
Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1998), 54.
30
Ibid, 48.
31
Frank L. Borchardt, “The Magus as Renaissance Man,” The Sixteenth Century Journal 21, no. 1 (Spring,
1990), 61-2.
13
but rather to have acted as a quarry for Ficino's original syntheses of Neoplatonic theurgy
with practical magic and of the cosmic with the medical spirit.”
32
Interestingly, though
Ficino performed the first translation of the Corpus Hermeticum into Latin, the writings
attributed to Hermes Trismegistus may have actually very little to do with Ficino’s
magic. According to Kaske and Clark, “Copenhaver will argue that because the
[fragments of the Corpus Hermeticum, which we also call] Hermetica are philosophically
incoherent … the more coherent and more frequently cited ‘Platonici’ in general and
[Proclus’] De sacrificio in particular are much more fundamental to Ficino's theory of
magic.”
33

In addition to the Picatrix, Ficino borrows ideas from another Arabic text, Al-
Kindi’s De radiis, which stresses the importance of the magician’s concentration and its
key role in the process of making magic. The same idea appears in two of Ficino’s earlier
works: his epitomes of the Laws (1484) and Platonic Theology (1482). Both of these
texts showcase a more ambitious theory of magic in which the human soul, also called
the animus or rational soul, “can exploit occult correspondences in the cosmos to cause
paranormal phenomena such as telepathy, levitation, prophecy, sorcery, and miracles.”
34

Though De vita “explicitly presents itself as a program for non-demonic, non-transitive
operations”
35
(at least, according to Walker), Ficino’s sources for De vita and his
previous writings both contain evidence of transitive magic, giving reason to consider

32
Carol Kaske and John Clark, ed. & trans. of Marsilio Ficino’s Three Books on Life (Tempe: Center for
Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1998), 54., 46.
33
Ibid, 47-8.
34
James Hankins, “Ficino, Avicenna, and the Occult Powers of the Rational Soul,” Tra antica sapienza e
filosofia naturale: La magia nell’Europa moderna I, ed. Fabrizio Meroi and Elisabetta Scapparone (2003),
36.
35
Ibid, 37.
14
that the Renaissance magician could interpret Ficino’s planetary songs as having similar
power.
Vacatio, described by Ficino in Book 13, Chapter 2 of his Platonic Theology, can
be defined as “a prophetic flight of the soul described in the writings of Hermes
Trismegistus during rapture (raptus) and divination through dreams (divinatio per
somnium).”
36
It is in this state that the soul, removed from its earthly tethers “can be
directly attuned to receive the power of the intelligences beyond the heavens, and that
these deities…can impart…certain paranormal powers, including the power to perform
wonders and to predict the future.”
37
The conditions of the vacatio state, sometimes
characterized by epilepsy in the De anima of Avicenna
38
bear a striking resemblance to
the divine frenzies central to Voss’ writings on Ficino’s theurgy.
Voss notes in Ficino’s writings that the divine frenzies (furores) are also a means
by which “the human soul was lifted beyond its earthly condition and achieved spiritual
possession” and to Ficino, “the frenzy of the poet or musician was the beginning of the
initiatory process, the awakening of that dormant memory of divinity which came to
fruition in the final rapture of love.”
39
The Renaissance magician may have recognized
that the divine frenzy of the poet-musician was the first step in the process to achieving
rapture, at which time the soul could enter vacatio. In this state, the soul of the magus

36
Stéphane Toussaint, “Ficino, Archimedes, and the Celestial Arts,” in Marsilio Ficino: His Theology, His
Philosophy, His Legacy, ed. Michael J.B. Allen and Valery Rees with Martin Davies (Leiden, the
Netherlands: Brill, 2002), 309.
37
James Hankins, “Ficino, Avicenna, and the Occult Powers of the Rational Soul,” Tra antica sapienza e
filosofia naturale: La magia nell’Europa moderna I, ed. Fabrizio Meroi and Elisabetta Scapparone (2003),
45-6.
38
Avicenna, De anima 4.2, ed. Simone van Riet (Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill, 1972), 15, 32.
39
Angela Voss, “Orpheus Redivivus: The Musical Magic of Marsilio Ficino,” in Marsilio Ficino: His
Theology, His Philosophy, His Legacy, ed. Michael J.B. Allen and Valery Rees with Martin Davies
(Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill, 2002), 230.
15
would be capable of performing miracles
40
by exploiting the occult correspondences of
the Neo-Platonic cosmology. Thus, we could argue that to the Renaissance magician,
Ficino’s astrological music may have possessed transitive, operative powers—powers
that served to reinforce Ficino’s view of Orpheus as prophet.

40
James Hankins, “Ficino, Avicenna, and the Occult Powers of the Rational Soul,” Tra antica sapienza e
filosofia naturale: La magia nell’Europa moderna I, ed. Fabrizio Meroi and Elisabetta Scapparone (2003),
46. “Miracles are defined as alterations to natural species, and among the miracles discussed are: the power
to command elements, change the weather, heal the sick, cast charms and spells, destroy another’s health
through the use of the evil eye, perform acts of sorcery, and to levitate. All of these occult powers belong to
the realm of soul-magic rather than naturalistic or demonic magic because they require the activity of a
strong soul working directly, by non-material causation, on physical objects.”

16
The First Rule
Though Ficino’s Orphic singing is perhaps the most widely-researched facets of
his magical practice, it was by no means the sole focus. In fact, in Ficino’s magic system
(which in and of itself constitutes only a small portion of his total writings), music is but
one of many things that one uses to draw down the benefits of celestial rays. The third
book of his De triplici vita is in many ways a “lifestyle plan”, detailing what sorts of
foods to eat, what fumigations to inhale, and what stones or gems to wear, all with the
same goal in mind: capturing the occult virtues of the planets. The planetary music was
not unique in its aims, but did enjoy a special place in Ficino’s schema because he saw it
as a recreation of ancient Orphic singing.
Pico della Mirandola said, “Nothing is more effective in natural magic than the
hymns of Orpheus, if the right kind of music, intention of the mind, and other
circumstances are applied which are known only to the wise.”
41
Let us examine these
“other circumstances” more closely. Despite the popularity of magic in the Renaissance,
discussions of its practical techniques in printed sources are rare and highly
circumspect.
42
Ficino’s instructions for the performance of planetary songs are
nevertheless thorough when compared to other extant sources of practical magic,
particularly those of European origin. In Chapter XXI of De vita, Ficino provides us with
“three principal rules” for attracting the beneficial rays of planetary influence. The rules
are each presented and interpreted below:

41
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Conclusiones nongentae: le novecento tesi dell’anno 1486, ed. Albano
Biondi, trans. Angela Voss (Florence, 1995), 120.
42
Frank Klaassen, “Medieval Ritual Magic in the Renaissance,” Aries 3, no. 2 (2003): 179.
17
“The first [rule] is to inquire diligently what powers in itself or what
effects from itself a given star, constellation, or aspect has—what do they
remove, what do they bring?—and to insert these into the meaning of our
words, so as to detest what they remove and to approve what they
bring.”
43

Ficino fails to list the spheres of influences specific to each planet (or
constellation or aspect). The Picatrix, however, an 11
th
-century Arabic work on
astrological talismans, known to have greatly influenced Ficino’s magic,
44
provides a
thorough discourse on the influences of the planets (as well as those terrestrial things
which correspond to them). The most pertinent descriptions, taken from the 1256 Latin
translation at the court of Alfonso the Wise, are presented in English in Appendix A.
These passages provide the magician with knowledge of what early things are ruled by
which star and offer to us a better understanding of what sorts of effects were believed to
be made possible through the use of astrological magic. Ficino’s second and third
instructions, however, are not as easily elucidated.

43
Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life, ed. & trans. Carol Kaske and John Clark (Tempe: Center for
Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1998), 357-9.
44
Frances A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1964), 69.
18
The Second and Third Rules

Ficino’s states:

“The second rule is to take note of what special star rules what place or
person and then to observe what sorts of tones and songs these regions and
persons generally use, so that you may supply similar ones, with the
meanings I have just mentioned, to the words which you are trying to
expose to the same stars.”
45

Ficino’s reasons for this rule are drawn from Ficino’s beliefs, stated earlier in De
vita, that the occult influences of the planetary rays manifest themselves in words,
speech, and song, which occupy the middle position in the seven steps towards the
heavens.
46
In Book I, Chapter 31 of De occulta philosophia, Agrippa outlines how the
provinces and kingdoms of the world are distributed among the planets. Though easily
found, scholars have curiously overlooked this resource, despite its direct references to
the ideas of planetary geographical rulership mentioned by Ficino above. Agrippa states:
“Morever, the whole orb of the earth is distributed by kingdoms and
provinces to the Planets and Signs: For Macedonia, Thracia, Illyria,
Arriana, Gordiana, India, many of which countries are in the lesser Asia,
are under Saturn with Capricornus; but with Aquarius under him are the
Sauromatian Country, Oxiana, Sogdiana, Arabia, Phazania, Media and
Æthiopia, which countries, for the most part, belong to the more inward
Asia. Under Jupiter, with Sagittarius, are Tuscana, Celtica, Spaine, and
happy Arabia; and under him, with Pisces, are Lycia, Lydia, Cilicia,
Pamphylia, Paphlagonia, Nasamonia, and Lybia. Mars, with Aries,
governs Britany, France, Germany, Bastarnia, the lower parts of Syria,
Idumea, and Judea; with Scorpio, he rules Syria, Comagena, Cappadocia,
Metagonium, Mauritania, and Getulia. The Sun, with Leo, governs Italy,
Apulia, Sicilia, Phenicia, Chaldea, and the Orchenians. Venus, with
Taurus, governs the Isles Cyclades, the seas of little Asia, Cyprus, Parthia,
Media, Persia; but, with Libra, she commands the people of the Island
Bractia, of Caspia, of Seres, of Thebais, of Oasis, and of Troglodys.

45
Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life, ed. & trans. Carol Kaske and John Clark (Tempe: Center for
Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1998), 359.
46
Ibid, 357.
19
Mercury, with Gemini, rules Hircania, Armenia, Mantiana, Cyrenaica,
Marmarica, and the lower Egypt; but, with Virgo, he rules Greece, Achaia,
Creta, Babylon, Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Ela, whence they of that place
are in Scripture called Elamites. The Moon, with Cancer, governs Bithivia,
Phrygia, Colchica, Numidia, Africa, Carthage, and all Carchedonia.”
47

In my interpretation, the most conceivable means the Renaissance magus
possessed to implement the “tones and songs” of these regions were to either borrow
melodies that had their origins in one of these kingdoms (provided that they possessed the
salient characteristics of songs appropriate to the planet in question) or to perhaps imitate
the accent or cadence of these regions. Agrippa notes
48
that the list above is not all-
encompassing and later work done by 19
th
-century astrologer Alan Leo (born William
Frederick Allan) expanded the geographical rulerships to include all nations of the known
world.
With regards to the planetary rulership of a person mentioned above, Ficino is
referring to the manner in which a person exhibiting an abundance of physical
characteristics, or a corporature, defined as pertaining to a planet is in fact governed by
said planet (most commonly the planet which rules the person’s sun sign in natal
astrology, but not always). Ficino makes mention of the sorts of characteristics exhibited
by men ruled by the Sun (yellow-haired, curly-haired, or bald) and Jovial men (sanguine,
venerable and handsome), but his descriptions are not all-inclusive.
49
In William Lilly’s
Christian Astrology (1647), the author, known to have used a copy of the Picatrix as his

47
Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, ed. Donald Tyson, trans. James Freake (St.
Paul: Llewellyn, 1993), 97.
48
Ibid.
49
Wayne Shumaker, The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance: A Study in Intellectual Patterns (Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1972), 124-5.
20
source, provides details specific to each of the ‘corporatures’ identified with each planet,
outlined in Appendix B.
In addition to the corporatures of men, Lily also describes herbs, beasts, colors,
trees, stones, professions, minerals, weather, and other facets of the natural world that are
ruled by the planets. All of the things which Ficino deems solar in De vita are found in
Lily’s Astrology, giving reasonable cause to assume that Lily drew directly from Ficino’s
writings and expanded on them and also drew from the same Arabic astrological sources
as Ficino.
50
Though the only planetary rulership for which the qualities of the voice is
especially mentioned in Lily’s Astrology is Jupiter, recall that Ficino says to take note “of
what special star rules what place or person and then to observe what sorts of tones and
songs these regions and persons generally use”. Bearing that it mind, we can identify the
human element of Ficino’s rule as a means to an end in which the Renaissance magus
must first identify the planetary rulership of a person and then make diligent observations
about the subject’s tones and songs.
In his third rule Ficino states:

“Thirdly, observe the daily positions and aspects of the stars and discover
to what principle speeches, songs, motions, dances, moral behavior, and
actions most people are usually incited by these, so that you may imitate
such things as far as possible in your song which aims to please the
particular part of heaven that resembles them and to catch an influence
that resembles them.”
51

Unfortunately, of the three rules outlined above, the last is the most difficult to
address. The sorts of observations to which Ficino refers are specific to unique moments

50
William Lilly, Christian Astrology (London: John Macock, 1659).
51
Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life, ed. & trans. Carol Kaske and John Clark (Tempe: Center for
Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1998), 359.
21
in time, each with their own aspects, conjuncts, lunar mansions, decans, and planetary
days and hours to consider. The need for observation in so much of Ficino’s instructions,
however, highlights his interest in the human agent and perhaps reinforces the
performance of Orphic singing with celestial magic. Giordano Bruno writes that
mathematical magic, under which he includes celestial magic, manipulates occult virtues
vis-à-vis ritual actions that are related to the mathematic discipline. He writes, “It is
similar to geometry in that it uses figures and symbols, to music in its chants, to
arithmetic in its numbers and manipulations, to astronomy in its concerns for times and
motions, and to optics in making observations.”
52
In light of this, the need to make
observations might be simply another, albeit non-musical, component in the practice of
his celestial magic, drawing on its sympathetic relationship to optics in the way that
chanting corresponds to music (as a theoretical discipline). Unfortunately, if Ficino
performed and wrote down any of the sorts of observations described in the third rule,
none of them have survived in either printed or manuscript form.

52
Giordano Bruno, Cause, Principle, and Unity and Essays on Magic, ed. & trans. Richard J. Blackwell
and Robert De Lucca (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 106-7.
22
Ficino’s Other Rules
In addition to the rules outlined above, Ficino provides further details on the
performance of his planetary songs:
“Now we attribute to Saturn voices that are slow, deep, harsh, and
plaintive; to Mars voices that are the opposite—quick, sharp, fierce, and
menacing; the Moon has the voices in between. The music, however, of
Jupiter is deep, earnest, sweet, and joyful with stability. To Venus, on the
contrary, we ascribe songs voluptuous with wantonness and softness. The
songs between these two extremes we ascribe to the Sun and Mercury: if
with their grace and smoothness they are reverential, simple, and earnest,
the songs are judged to be Apollo’s; if they are somewhat more relaxed,
along with their gaiety, but vigorous and complex, they are Mercury’s.
Accordingly, you will win over one of these four to yourself by using their
songs, especially if you supply musical notes that fit their songs.”
53

At first, it may seem arbitrary that Saturn, Mars, and the Moon do not have songs
and possess only voices, and reasonably so, as these planets are just as impactful as any
other. Joscelyn Godwin argues, however, that the reason for this is because the planets
Saturn and Mars are both malefic, planets whose astrological influences are largely
negative in scope. The Moon, Godwin states, is at best indifferent.
54
Already
conscientious to gird his works against assumptions that he endorses harmful magic,
Ficino mindfully restricts his instructions to drawing down celestial virtues that his
readers could only use beneficially.
In examining the qualities of each planetary song, the musician is likely to be
disappointed. Ficino’s descriptions are non-technical and arguably subjective. The only
possible musical clue that appears in the text above is the mention of the word “softness”

53
Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life, ed. & trans. Carol Kaske and John Clark (Tempe: Center for
Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1998), 361.
54
Music, Mysticism, and Magic: A Sourcebook. Ed. Joscelyn Godwin (London: Arkana, 1986), 318.
23
(mollitie) with regards to the songs of Venus. While softness in a general sense could
mean quietness or tenderness in performance, it could also refer to the quality of a
hexachord. A soft hexachord begins on F and lowers its B-natural to a B-flat.
Furthermore, the Hypolydian mode with which Venus is associated (see Agrippa’s
discussion of the modes below) is characterized by its F-final and the prevalence of the
B-flat
55
, giving further cause to suspect that Ficino may be implicitly referring to the
modal associations of the planets by way of a Venereal adjective. This hidden reference
to the soft hexachord, however, is largely conjectural, particularly in the absence of other
songs being described as either “hard” or “natural” (the other two forms of the
hexachord).
Last among Ficino’s instructions that we are examining is the element of
astrological timing. In many respects, this is the most crucial aspect of his musical magic
as it is one that is essential to all astrological magic.
56
Ficino writes, “When at the right
astrological hour you declaim aloud by singing . . . the four gods seem to be just about to
answer you like an echo or like a string in a lute trembling to the vibration of another has
been similarly tuned.”
57
This “right astrological hour” would be one of the planetary
hours, a segment of time that is equal to one-twelfth of the period between either sunrise
and sunset (the daytime hours) or between sunset and sunrise (the nighttime hours). The

55
Harold S. Powers. "Hypolydian." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.libproxy.usc.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/13663 (accessed May
31, 2012).
56
James H. Holden, A History of Horoscopic Astrology (Tempe: American Federation of Astrologers,
2006), 149.
57
Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life, ed. & trans. Carol Kaske and John Clark (Tempe: Center for
Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1998), 361.

24
planetary hours, taken from Agrippa, are shown in Figure 1 below with the daytime hours
shown on the left.
FIGURE 1
THE PLANETARY HOURS
58

In addition to the planetary hours, however, the strength of a planet’s astrological
influence was also affected by its relationships to the other planets (called aspects) as
well as the planetary rulership of the day of the week. The days and their ruling planets
are: Monday (Moon), Tuesday (Mars), Wednesday (Mercury), Thursday (Jupiter), Friday
(Venus), Saturday (Saturn), and Sunday (Sun). While the planetary hours are self-
evident, we must also consider the possibility that Ficino’s meaning behind “the right
astrological hour” might also include other astrological events. I believe that it would
ultimately be left to the Renaissance magician’s diligence and astrological knowledge to
determine the level of celestial strength needed for his music to be effective.

58
Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, ed. Donald Tyson, trans. James Freake (St.
Paul: Llewellyn, 1993), 372.
25
Musical Magic from Other Sources
In addition to Ficino’s rules, the voices and songs of the stars, and the planetary
hours outlined above, another musical element with astrological associations is the
planetary mode. Agrippa in his compendium, De occult philosophia, describes the
planetary associations as follows, “. . . Others respecting the number and virtue of the
heavens, have attributed the Dorian to the Sun, the Phrygian to Mars, the Lydian to
Jupiter, the mixed-Lydian to Saturn, the hypo-Phrygian to Mercury, the hypo-Lydian to
Venus, the hypo-Dorian to the Moon, the hypo-mixed-Lydian to the fixed stars.”
59
These
associations are completely consistent with the frontispiece (Figure 2) of Gaffurius’
Practica musicae (1496), which he borrowed from Ramos de Pareia’s Musica practica
(1482) with Ramos having borrowed them from Arabic origins.
60
The musical-planetary
associations found in both Gaffurius and Ramos also connect the finals of each mode
with its respective planet, giving the stars specific pitches with which they are
associated.
61
On the magical application of the modes Voss writes:
“Such heavenly harmonies must now derive from intelligences informed
by an ensouled cosmos, and indeed Ramos also matches the nine Muses to
each mode and planet. In other words, the means of effecting a connection
between heaven and earth is a magical one - in a universe of operative
affinities and correspondences modes can be seen as possessing occult
properties which bring man into relationship with the stars through
sympathetic resonance.”
62

59
Ibid, 339.
60
Gary Tomlinson, Music in Renaissance Magic (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 82.
61
Ibid, 80-81.
62
Angela Voss, “The Music of the Spheres; Marsilio Ficino and Renaissance Harmonia,” Culture and
Cosmos 2, no. 2 (1998), 20.
26
Voss also suggests that because Gaffurius writes for practicing musicians and not
theorists, he “opens the doors wide for [practical] music to be used in a magical context”
through the mode’s “evocation of planetary meaning.”
63

Agrippa gives further non-planetary associations to the four authentic modes, by
attaching correspondences to the four elements and their respective humors. He describes
Dorian mode “to be consonant to the Water and phlegm, the Phrygian to choler and Fire,
the Lydian to blood and air, the mixed-Lydian to melancholy and Earth”.
64
The elements
carry their own vast networks of associations, so linking them to the modes opens up
even more avenues for Renaissance musical magic that aren’t predicated on astrological
sympathies.
65

63
Ibid.
64
Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, ed. Donald Tyson, trans. James Freake (St.
Paul: Llewellyn, 1993), 339.
65
However, in the interest of avoiding assumptions on the part of the reader, it should be mentioned that
these associations appear in a chapter entitled “Concerning the agreement of them with the celestial bodies,
and what harmony and sound is correspondent of every star”.
27
FIGURE 2
FRONTISPIECE TO GAFFURIUS’ PRACTICA MUSICAE (1496)

28
Texts of the Orphic Hymns
D.P. Walker claims that whenever Ficino refers to Orphic singing, he is also
referring to his astrological music.
66
Interestingly, if Walker is correct and Ficino did in
fact use the Orphic hymns as the texts for his planetary songs, it offers further insight into
why Ficino wrote the Apologia for his De vita. The conspicuously pagan texts have their
origins in the Dionysian mystery cults of Hellenistic Greece and denying that the hymns
do not offer worship to the ancient gods is a challenge. It would also explain why the
hymns themselves are never given direct mention in De vita and the practice in general is
referred to as “Orphic singing” and not “the singing of Orphic hymns.”
Apostolos N. Athanassakis dates the composition for the Orphic hymns to the
second half of the third century CE, most likely from Asia Minor and possibly Pergamum
to be more specific.
67
Giovanni Aurispa carried the first manuscript of the Orphic hymns
to Venice 1423 and four years later (1427), a second manuscript arrived in Italy in the
hands of Franciscus Philelphus.
68
Both of these manuscripts and four others have since
been lost, but other Italian codices preserved the hymns, dated between 1450 and 1550.
Ficino translated the hymns in 1462, but they never saw publication.
69

With regards to the magical uses of the Orphic hymns within Ficino’s astrological
music, Voss states, “Although Ficino himself undoubtedly used the hymns for such

66
D. P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic: From Ficino to Campanella (University Park, PA:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1958), 22.
67
The Orphic Hymns: Text, Translation and Notes. Ed. & trans. Apostolos N. Athanassakis, (Missoula:
Scholar’s Press, 1977), viii.
68
Ibid, xii.
69
Angela Voss, “Orpheus Redivivus: The Musical Magic of Marsilio Ficino,” Marsilio Ficino: His
Theology, His Philosophy, His Legacy, ed. Michael J.B. Allen and Valery Rees with Martin Davies (The
Netherlands: Brill, 2002), 227.
29
religious, ritual purposes, his ‘rules for composition’ do not exclude the possibility of
specially-composed words to suit a particular individual – indeed he would hardly expect
his intended readership to have access to the Orphic texts or necessarily find them
meaningful.”
70
Be that as it may, even if Renaissance magi did not have direct knowledge
of the Orphic hymns (Ficino’s translations never saw publication and have since been
lost), I have included the texts in the third appendix for the sake of completeness.

70
Angela Voss, “The Natural Magic of Marsilio Ficino,” Historical Dance 3, no. 1 (1992), 29.
30
Non-Musical Ritual Elements
In a letter to Cosimo de Medici, Ficino writes, “A few days ago I was celebrating
[the hymn to the Cosmos] in an Orphic ritual, when my father brought me some letters. . .
.”
71
Returning to Maxwell-Stuart’s definition of magic, we see that in addition to the
specific criteria for Ficino’s music addressed above, there is the ritual element that we
must consider. Unfortunately, Ficino is deliberately vague in these matters because he
seeks to prevent confusion between his natural magic and the demonic magic used by
sorcerers and necromancers (though his Apologia later shows that perhaps he could have
been more cautious).
72
He explicitly articulates in both his De vita and beyond that he
does not endorse idolatry, demon worship, or necromancy and that his magic is
completely natural, writing, “Nor do affirm here a single word about profane magic
which depends on the worship of daemons, but I mention natural magic, which, by
natural things, seeks to obtain the services of the celestials”.
73
Walker claims
74
that
Ficino’s use of demonic magic is evident in his other writings (though he conspicuously
fails to mention where), but the system of musical magic studied herein is made possible
through celestial, not demonic, forces, rendering Walker’s allegations irrelevant.
In looking at the ritual elements of Ficino’s magic, we might consider that he so
adamantly defends Orphic singing because it bears some striking resemblances to the
very form of magic he was so outspokenly against. In the construction of astrological

71
Marsilio Ficino, Ad Cosmum Medicem, in Supplementum Ficinianum, ed. P.O. Kristeller, trans. Angela
Voss, vol. 2 (Florence: Olschki, 1937), 87-88.
72
Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life, ed. & trans. Carol Kaske and John Clark (Tempe: Center for
Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1998), 52.
73
Ibid, 397.
74
D. P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic: From Ficino to Campanella (University Park, PA:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1958), 75.
31
talismans, commonly referred to by modern scholars as ‘image magic,’ the magic’s
efficacy is a product of capturing and retaining celestial rays, a practice that Ficino
ambivalently discourages, yet intimately and comprehensively describes.
75
However, in
the magic of Orphic singing, the occult virtues are captured in the very act itself, making
it more akin to the demonic ritual magic than image magic.
The fumigations described by Ficino
76
, however, may have also given pause to
the practitioners of natural magic because of its associations with dark magic.
77

Furthermore, the descriptions of the incenses appropriate to each of the planets are
included in the texts of the Orphic hymns, a text of conspicuously pagan origin. In light
of that, there may be elements of Ficino’s magic system which were never articulated on
paper because of his fears of criminal and/or religious persecution (he was a priest, after
all). So then how did the enterprising Renaissance magician fill in the gaps to create a
coherent magic ritual? Frank Klaassen claims that the magus would look to manuscripts
instead of the printed page.
Though previous scholarship has made convincing arguments that the
introduction of Neo-Platonic systems of natural magic obliterated the practice of
ceremonial magic among learned Renaissance magicians, manuscript evidence of
personal compendia of practical magic from the 13
th
through the 16
th
centuries suggests
otherwise. Because passages on Neo-Platonic image magic were freely and widely

75
Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life, ed. & trans. Carol Kaske and John Clark (Tempe: Center for
Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1998), 333-339.
76
Ibid, 351-353.
77
Michael A. Ryan, A Kingdom of Stargazers: Astrology and Authority in Late Medieval Crown of Aragon
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011), 95.
32
printed, a decline in the appearance of manuscript sources of image magic occurred.
78

Meanwhile, copying ritual magic by hand actually enjoyed a steady increase
79
, and by the
start of the 15
th
-century there were more manuscript sources that included both image
magic and ritual magic in the same hand.
80

Klaassen suggests that the increase in the inclusion of both forms of magic in a
single source indicates the presence of medieval ritual magic in the practices of
Renaissance magi.
81
The mention of fumigations by Ficino (which in and of itself
supports Walker’s claims that the Orphic hymns and the planetary songs are one in the
same) and in the writings of Diacceto indicate that there may have been ritual elements to
Ficinian astrological music which were omitted from De vita so as to preserve his
reputation. This is operating under the assumption, however, that Ficino’s music
possessed a magical efficacy that was all its own.
Walker, drawing from Asclepius, implies that astrological music was perhaps
simply another tool in the arsenal of the Renaissance magician. He says, “The other
forces, of the imagination, word, music, things, are often applied during [a talisman’s]
manufacture or use to reinforce the image’s astrological power.”
82
In this sense, we might
interpret the singing of Orphic hymns as merely one component in the grander operations
of celestial magic.
83
The purpose of astrological music used in this sense then is to ferry

78
Frank Klaassen, “Medieval Ritual Magic in the Renaissance,” Aries 3, no. 2 (2003): 182.
79
Ibid, 181.
80
Ibid, 184.
81
Ibid, 188-190.
82
(D. P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic: From Ficino to Campanella (University Park, PA:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1958), 80.
83
Giordano Bruno, Cause, Principle, and Unity and Essays on Magic, ed. & trans. Richard J. Blackwell
and Robert De Lucca (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 105. Bruno lists “the use of words,
33
celestial influences into a talisman rather than into the body of the singer or his audience.
If that is indeed the case then any remaining ritual elements present in Ficino’s planetary
songs have nothing to do with the act of Orphic singing itself, but rather are in service to
the ceremonial construction of an astrological talisman.

chants, calculations of numbers and times, images, figures, symbols, characters, or letters” as all
components of celestial magic.
34
Conclusion
To gain a better understanding of the practical side of Ficino’s rules of
composition for his planetary songs, we have turned to the sources from which he
borrowed, such as Avicenna and the Picatrix, while also looking to the works of his
contemporaries and inheritors, like Agrippa and Lilly. In addition, we have also looked at
other Renaissance discussions of music and magic, in hopes that they might provide clues
to the knowledge a Renaissance magus would have used in performing astrologically-
effective music, especially those not explicitly (or even implicitly) described in Ficino’s
text. We have begun to collect the building blocks of reconstructing the magical practice
of Renaissance planetary song and in doing so, have reached a more complete
understanding of Ficino’s musical magic. This sort of improvised magic is as ephemeral
as it is intriguing, however, and we may never unearth the remaining fragments that
provide any real clue as to how Renaissance magicians performed their planetary songs.
Perhaps Walker, Tomlinson, and Voss most successfully addressed this highly
problematic issue after all. While I hope that I have convincingly demystified some
elements of Ficino’s musical magic, previous scholars recognized that the historian’s
craft cannot truly identify all the specifics of an improvised practice without arriving at
some haphazard conclusions. Instead, they chose to identify how his magic reflected on
the splendor of his time, his scholarship, and his legacy. Similarly, by examining Ficino’s
rules in the larger continuum of Renaissance magic and the texts from which that
tradition so heavily borrowed, we can expand our understanding of the form and function
of musical magic in the early modern period and beyond.
35
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Kristeller and translated by Angela Voss, vol. 2 Florence: Olschki, 1937.

—. Three Books on Life. Edited & translated by Carol Kaske and John Clark. Tempe:
Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1998.
36

Godwin, Joscelyn. Music, Mysticism, and Magic: A Sourcebook. London: Arkana, 1986.

Hankins, James. “Ficino, Avicenna, and the Occult Powers of the Rational Soul.” Tra
antica sapienza e filosofia naturale: La magia nell’Europa moderna I, ed.
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Holden, James H. A History of Horoscopic Astrology. Tempe: American Federation of
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Klaassen, Frank. “Medieval Ritual Magic in the Renaissance.” Aries 3, no. 2 (2003): 166-
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37
Voss, Angela. Review of Music in Renaissance Magic: Toward a Historiography of
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94.

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38
Appendix A: Planetary Rulerships from
the Latin Picatrix
84

Here we will briefly repeat the petitions proper to each planet. Ask Saturn in
petitions concerning old people or generous men, senators and rulers of cities, hermits,
those who labor in the earth, restoration of citizenship and inheritance, distinguished
men, farmers, builders of buildings, servants, thieves, fathers, grandfathers, and great-
grandfathers. If you find yourself in contemplation and sorrow, or in any thing that has
already been mentioned as belonging to Saturn, and you ask for something that belongs
to his nature, you may seek it from him in the manner we describe below and you may
also help yourself in your petition by means of Jupiter. The essence of all these petitions
is that you should not seek anything from any planet unless it belongs to his dominion.
Seek from Jupiter all that belongs to his portion, such as petitions concerning sublime
men, the powerful, prelates, safes, preachers of religion, judges, virtuous men,
interpreters of dreams, hermits, philosophers, kings, their sons, the children of their sons,
soldier, and cousins; and petitions for peace and profit; and anything similar may be
sought from him.
Seek from Mars what is consistent with his nature, such as petitions against
soldiers, officials, fighters, and those who busy themselves with warlike acts; and on
behalf of friends of kings, and those who destroy homes and citizens, and do evil to
humanity, killers, executioners, those who work with fire or in places such as stables,
litigators, shepherds, thieves, companions on the road, liars, traitors, and the like. Similar,

84
Al-Ḥakīm, Ġāyat (attr.). The Complete Picatrix: The Occult Classic of Astrological Magic (Liber Atratus
Edition), ed. & trans. John Michael Greer and Christopher Warnock (Adocentyn Press: 2011), 154-9.

39
ask him concerning infirmities of the body from the groin downwards, and also for
phlebotomy, accumulations of gas, and the like. In these latter petitions you may also
help yourself with Venus, for the nature of Venus dissolves what is closed up by Mars,
and repairs what he damages.
Seek from the Sun those petitions that are appropriate to him, such as petitions
against kings, the sons of warriors and kings, exalted people who delight in justice and
truth and abhor falsehood and violence, desirous of good reputation and seeking popular
acclaim, officials, clergy, physicians, philosophers, exalted people who are humble,
perceptive and magnanimous, older brothers, fathers, and the like.
Seek from Venus all things that pertain to her, such as petitions of women, boys,
and girls, daughters, and generally everything pertaining to the love of women and the
carnal copulation with them, art, vocal and instrumental music, telling jokes and all those
who give themselves over to worldly pleasures, those who engage in vices, male and
female servants, brides and grooms, mothers, friends, sisters, and all those similar to
them, and in these petitions you may also help yourself with Mars.
Seek from Mercury petitions appropriate to notaries, scribes, arithmeticians,
geometers, astrologers, grammarians, lecturers, philosophers, rhetoricians, poets, sons of
kings, secretaries of kinds, halfbreeds, merchants, minstrels, lawyers, servants, boys,
girls, younger brothers, painters, designers, and those similar to them.
Seek from the Moon all things pertaining to her and attributed to her nature, such
as those who petition kings, urban and rural tenants, halfbreeds, messengers sent by land
or sea, farm laborers, plowmen, geometricians, stewards, portraitists, mariners and all
40
those who do work pertaining to water, the populace in general, geomancers, fiancées,
the wives of kinds, youths without beards, and the like.
Next I have determined to write the natures of each of the planets and the things
appropriate to them, and what each of them signifies. This begins with Saturn, as before.
Saturn is cold and dry, an infortune, destructive, the source of bad and foul odors, proud
and a traitor because when he makes any promise, he betrays it. He signifies farmers,
streams, those who work in the earth, controversies, great and long journeys, great and
enduring enmities, brining evils, battles and all things unwanted, and the power to make
and work. True speech, hope, blackness, age, buildings, fear, great thoughts, cares,
angers, betrayals, sorrows, anguish, death, inheritances, orphans, old places, appraisals,
proper elocution, secret sciences, secret meanings, and profound knowledge: he signifies
all the foregoing when he is direct in his motion.
When he is retrograde, however, he signifies misfortune, debilities or infirmities,
prisons and evils suffered in all things, and if he enters into aspect with any other planet,
he weakens it and damages all the qualities of the other planet. If he is retrograde and you
ask him for something, what you seek will come about with delays and miseries and great
labor. If he is retrograde in any of his dignities, his maledictions are augmented and
increased; while if he rises in his powers and dignities, then he will be easier and gentler.
Jupiter is warm and moist, temperate and fortunate (whence he is called the Greater
Fortune), and follows Saturn in the order of the planets. He signifies things that are subtly
made, the bodies of animals, beginnings, the growth of animals, right judgment,
collegiality and equality in all things, perception, gentleness, true speech, truth, right
41
belief, faithfulness, chastity, honor, gratitude, eloquence, the sustenance of good words,
good perception and intelligence, the sciences, philosophy, teaching, things obtained by
correct reasoning and peace, honor received from the people, improvement in all one’s
business, fulfillment of petitions, the will of kings, delighting in riches and accumulating
them, gentleness, liberality, sacrifices, helpers of people in all things and all works,
delighting in crowds and all crowded places, benefactors of humanity, piety, following
and upholding the law in all things, delighting in places of the faithful, people of honest
speech, decent ornament, beauty, joy, laughter and much conversation, speaking well and
gladly, benign faces, as well as lovers of the good and those who abhor evil, preachers of
good words and those who perform all good deeds and avoid bad ones.
Mars is hot and dry, an infortune, destructive, and the cause of evils. He signifies
destruction, wicked deeds, depopulation of homes and cities, drying up and damming of
rivers, fire, combustion, controversies blood, all pasions while they are being felt, bad
and distorted judgment, oppressions, sorrows, manslaughter and all manner of
destruction, demolition, lawsuits, wars, battles, terrors, discord between people, anxieties
and miseries, pain, wounds, prisons, misery, escape, litigation, stupidity, treacheries, and
all things that are cursed without sense or reason—ordinary happiness, lying,
ungratefulness, ordinary life, shame, encounters on the roads, landlessness and lack of
solace, discords, sharpness and angers, doing things that are prohibited by the laws, fear,
ordinary legalities, betrayals, all kinds of false promises and assessments, wicked deeds
involving copulation with women in forbidden ways, such as those who desire beasts and
other animals and strange women, infanticide and destroying living things and abortion,
42
robbery, treasons and deceptions, all manner of frauds, feeling miserable, brooding, thefts
of clothing and shoes, highway robbery, those who break walls by night, those who break
down doors, and evil deeds of every kinds, as well as all things remote from truth and
lawfulness.
The Sun is hot and dry, and of mixed good and ill in his influence; he repairs and
destroys, and brings both good and evil; he is both a fortune and an infortune. He
signifies and reveals perception and intellect, exaltations and high offices, but without
fear, and indeed easily, makes men to triumph over their enemies and easily inflict
violent deaths on them; he shows those who give great gifts to friends (that is, to those to
whom they are appropriate and merited); he destroys those who send many, which are cut
off all together, distributes good things and otherwise, and causes both good and evil;
those who observe the law, and those who keep promises; to all people, he gives delight
in good and pleasant things, great eloquence and giving ready responses in all things; he
increases the appetite for amassing wealth, and for people to desire good things, a good
reputation in the mouths of the people, and high positions and official posts, making all
legality and goodness, and all things that are proper for kings and great men in the world
and the mode of living that is necessary to them, as well as all exalted and ornate work
with minerals, and making the crowns of kings and sublime things, and making larger
books.
Venus is cold and moist, and a fortune. She signifies cleanliness, splendor,
preciousness, word games, delight in music, joy, adornments, laughter, pictures, beauty,
loveliness, playing music by the voice or stringed instruments; delighting in marriage,
43
desiring spices and things that have good odors; sending dreams; provoking games of
chess and dice; desiring to lie with women and to fall in love with them and receiving
promises from them; desiring to appear beautiful, loving liberty, magnanimity of heart,
and joy. She abhors anger, brawling, vengeance, and lawsuits; she desires to serve the
desires and wills of friends concerning the world’s opinion; tends toward false promises;
is inclined to cupidity; desires to drink much; incessantly desires much copulation, and of
shameful kinds, and to do it in inappropriate place, as women are accustomed to do with
one another; delighting in animals and children and in making them good; making things
equal; delighting in merchants and living with them and being loved by their women; and
that they may be delighted by men. When she is well received, she plays a part in the
making of crowns, building stables and working in stone, having sweet speech,
disdaining the world and having no fear of it; sustaining people so that neither anger,
strife, or discord can be felt by them; it designates a weak heart and a weak will in
lawsuits and combat, and signifies desire for all beautiful combinations of things which
may be in conformity with the will; making colors and laboring diligently in skills
involving them; selling merchandise, spices, and prayers; those who observe the religious
law; and those who adhere to sciences and philosophies of forbidden kinds.
Mercury is changeable, permuting himself from one nature to another, and
receives the nature of the other planets—that is, he is benefic with benefit planets and
malefic with malefic ones. He signifies perception and the rational intellect, fine
eloquence, powerful and profound understanding of things, good intelligence, good
memory, good perception, and an agile mind apt to learn sciences; those who labor in
44
science and philosophy; understanding how things will happen; arithmeticians,
geometers, astrologers, geomancers, magicians, augurs, scribes, grammarians, and
smooth talkers; ready understanding of the petitions of the wise, those who labor in
sciences and who desire to be exalted by those same sciences; those who want to make
books, verses, and rhymes; those who write books, calculations and sciences; those who
want to know the secrets of wisdom; expounders of philosophies; merciful and gentle
people, and those who love sensation and pleasure; those who waste and destroy their
wealth; merchandise; those who buy and sell things; having a part in the judgments and
reasonings of people; the astute and deceptive; those who contemplate wickedness in
their minds and keep these thoughts hidden; liars and makers of false instruments; fearful
of enemies, swift in all works, flitting from the things of one profession to those of
another; busying himself in everything; daring in all works that can be done by subtlety,
and desiring to do great things; those who become rich; supporters of their friends and the
people who mislead them to illicit ends.
The Moon is cold and moist. She signifies the beginning of works, great
cogitations about things, good perception and motion, the best discussions in councils,
utterances well spoken, daring in all things; fortunate concerning food that is necessary or
desirable; good manners with people; gracious and quick in all actions, clean, moving
quickly toward what is desired; having healthy and clear intentions toward people; a great
appetite for eating, but a small one for sex and delights with women; turning away from
evil so that things; thoroughly studying high sciences such as astrology, magic, and other
secret sciences; faithful spouses, desiring to produce sons and nephews, and to make the
45
society and home of their parents better; loved and honored by people, abhorring iniquity,
just in all her works, and according to one of her qualities she signifies oblivion and
necessity.

46
Appendix B: Planetary Corporatures from
Lilly’s Christian Astrology

Of Saturn, “Most part his Body more cold and dry, of a middle stature; his
complexion pale, swartish or muddy, his Eyes little and black, looking downward, a
broad Forehead, black or sad Hair, and it hard or rugged, great Eares; hanging, lowring
Eye-brows, thick Lips and Nose, a rare or thin Beard, a lumpish, unpleasant
Countenance, either holding his Head forward or stooping, his Shoulders broad and large,
and many times crooked, his Belly somewhat short and lank, his Thighs spare; lean and
not long; his Knees and Feet indecent, many times shoveling or hitting one against
another, &c.”
85

Of Jupiter, “He signifies an upright, straight and tall Stature; brown, ruddy and
lovely Complexion; of an ovall or long Visage, and it full and fleshy; high Forehead;
large gray Eyes; his Hair soft, and a kind of aburn brown; much Beard; a large, deep
Belly: Strong proportioned Thighs and Legs; his feet long, being the most indecent parts
of his whole Body; in his Speech he is Sober, and of grave Discourse.”
86

Of Mars, “Generally Martialists have this forme; they are but middle Stature, their
Bodies strong, and their Bones big, rather leane then fat; their Complexion of a brown,
ruddy colour, or flaxen, and many times crisping or curling, sharp hazle Eyes, and they
piercing, a bold confident countence, and the man active and fearlesse.”
87

Of the Sun, “Usually the Sun presents a man of a good, large and strong
Corporature, a yellow, saffron Complexion, a round, large Forehead: goggle eyes or

85
William Lilly, Christian Astrology (London: John Macock, 1659), 59.
86
Ibid, 63.
87
Ibid, 67.
47
large, sharp and piercing; a Body strong and well composed, not so beautifull as lovely,
full of health, their hair yellowish, and therefore quickly bald, much Hair on their Beard,
and usually an high ruddy Complexion, and their bodies fleshy, in conditions they are
very bountifull honest, sincere, wel-minded, of great and large Heart, High-minded, of
healthfull Constitution, very humane; yet sufficiently Spirited, not Loquacious.”
88

Of Venus, “A man of fair, but not tall Stature, his Complexion, being white,
tending to a little darknesse, which makes him more Lovely; very fair Lovely Eyes, and a
little black; a round Face, and not large, fair Hair, smooth, and plenty of it, and it usually
of a light brown colour, a lovely Mouth and cherry Lips, the Face pretty fleshy, a rolling
wandering Eye, a Body very delightful, Lovely and exceeding wel shaped, one desirous
of Trimming and making himself neat and compleat both in Cloaths and Body, a love
dimple in his Cheeks, a stedfast Eye, and ful amarous enticements.”
89

Of Mercury, “Vulgarly he denotes one of an high stature and straight thin spare
body, an high forehead and somewhat narrow long face, long nose; fair eyes, neither
perfectly black or gray, thin lips and nose, little hair on the chin, but much on his head,
and it a sad brown inclining to blacknesse; long arms, fingers and hands; his complexion
like an olive or Chestnut colour. You must more observe Mercury then all the Planets; for
having any aspect to a Planet, he doth more usually partake of the influence of that Planet
then nay other doth: if with Saturn then heavy, with Jupiter more temperate, with Mars
more rash, with Sun more genteele, with Venus more jesting, with Moon more shifter.”
90

88
Ibid, 70.
89
Ibid, 74.
90
Ibid, 78.
48
Of the Moon, “She [the Moon] generally presenteth a man of fair stature, whitely
coloured, the Face round, gray Eyes, and a little Touring; much Hair both on the Head,
Face, and other parts; usually one Eye a little larger then the other; short Hands and
fleshy, the whole Body inclining to be fleshy, plump, corpulent and flegmatique: if she be
impedited of the Sun in a Nativity or Question, she usually signifies some blemish in, or
neer the Eye: a blemish neer the Eye, if she be impedited in Succedant Houses; in the
Sight, if she be unfortunate in Angles and with fixed Starres, called Nebulose.”
91

91
Ibid, 81.
49
Appendix C: Texts of the Orphic Hymns in Translation
92

Hymn to the Moon, incense—aromatic herbs

Harken, O divine queen, light-bringing and splendid Selene,
bull-horned Moon traversing the air in a race with night.
Nocturnal, torch-bearing, maiden of fair stars, Moon
waxing and waning, feminine and masculine,
glittering lover of horses, mother of time, bearer of fruit,
amber-colored, brooding, shining in the night,
all-seeing, vigilant, surrounded by beautiful stars,
you delight in quiet and in the richness of the night.
Shining in the night, like a jewel, you grant fulfillment and favor;
long-cloaked marshal of the stars, wise maiden whose motion is circular,
come! Blessed and gentle lady of the stars, in three ways
shine your redeeming light upon your new initiates.

Hymn to Mercury, incense—frankincense

Hear me, Hermes, messenger of Zeus, son of Maia;
almighty is your heart, O lord of the deceased and judge of contests;
gentle and clever, O Argeiphontes, you are a guide
whose sandals fly, and a man-loving prophet to mortals.
You are vigorous and you delight in exercise and deceit;
interpreter of all, you are a profiteer who frees us of cares
and who holds in his hands the blameless tool of peace.
Lord of Korykos, blessed, helpful and skilled in words,
you assist in work, you are a friend of mortals in speech.
Hear my prayer and grant a good end to a life
of industry, gracious talk, and mindfulness.

Hymn to Venus, no incense listed (though possibly frankincense, see mention in hymn
below)

Heavenly, smiling Aphrodite, praised in many hymns,
sea-born, revered goddess of generation, you like the nightlong revel
and you couple lovers at night, O scheming mother of Necessity.
Everything comes from you; you have yoked the world,
and you control all three realms. You give to all,
to everything in heaven, upon the fruitful earth
and in the depths of the sea, O venerable companion of Bacchos.

92
The Orphic Hymns: Text, Translation and Notes. Ed. & trans. Apostolos N. Athanassakis (Missoula:
Scholar’s Press, 1977), 13-87.
50
You delight in festivities, O bridelike mother of the Erotes,
O Persuasion whose joy is in the bed of love, secretive giver of grace,
visible and invisible, lovely-tressed daughter of a noble father,
bridal feast companion of the gods, sceptered she-wolf,
beloved and man-loving giver of birth and of life,
with your maddening love-charms you yoke mortals
and the many races of beasts to unbridled passion.
Come, O goddess born in Cyprus, whether you are on Olympos,
O queen, exulting in the beauty if your face,
or you wander in Syria, country of fine frankincense,
or, yet, driving your golden chariot in the plain,
you lord it over Egypt’s fertile river bed.
Come, whether you ride your swan-drawn chariot over the sea’s billows,
joying in the creatures of the deep as they dance in circles,
or you delight in the company of the dark-faced nymphs on land,
(as, light-footed, they frisk over the sandy beaches).
Come, lady, even if you are in Cyprus that cherishes you,
where fair maidens and chaste nymphs throughout the year
sing of you, O blessed one, and of immortal, pure Adonis.
Come, O beautiful and comely goddess;
I summon you with holy words and pious soul.

Hymn to Apollo, incense—pounded frankincense

Harken, O blessed one, whose eternal eye sees all,
Titan radiant as gold, Hyperion, celestial light,
self-born, untiring, sweet sight to living creatures,
on the right you beget dawn and on the left night.
You temper the seasons as you ride your dancing horses,
and rushing swiftly, O fiery and bright-faced charioteer,
you press on your course in endless whirl
and, harsh to the impious, you teach good to the pious.
Yours the golden lyre and the harmony of cosmic motion,
and you command noble deeds and nurture the seasons.
Piping lord of the world, a fiery circle of light
is your course, and, O Paian, your light gives life and fruit.
Eternal, pure, father of time, O immortal Zeus[sic],
you are the clear, brilliant, and all-encompassing cosmic eye,
both when you set and when you shine your lovely and radiant light.
A paragon of justice, O water-loving lord of the cosmos,
you guard pledges and, ever the highest, you help all.

51
Hymn to Mars, incense—frankincense

Unbreakable, strong-spirited, mighty and powerful demon,
delighting in arms, indomitable, man-slaying, wall-battering;
lord Ares, yours is the din of arms, and ever bespattered with blood
you find joy in killing and in the fray of battle, O horrid one,
whose desire is for the rude clash of swords and spears.
Stay the raging strife, relax pain’s grip on my soul,
and yield to the wish of Kypris and to the revels of Lyaios,
exchanging the might of arms for the works of Deo,
yearning for peace that nurtures youths and brings wealth.

Hymn to Jupiter, incense—storax

Much-honored Zeus, indestructible Zeus, we lay
before you this redeeming testimony and this prayer:
O King, you have brought to light divine works,
and earth, goddess and mother, the hills swept by the shrill winds,
the sea, and the host of stars marshaled by the sky.
Kronian Zeus, whose scepter is the thunderbolt, strong-spirited,
father of all, beginning and end of all,
earth-shaker, increaser and purifier; indeed, All-Shaker,
god of thunder and lightning, Zeus the planter.
Hear me, O many-faced one, and grant me unblemished health,
divine peace, and riches and glory without blame.

Hymn to Saturn, incense—storax

Everlasting father of blessed gods and men,
resourceful, pure, mighty and powerful and powerful Titan,
you consume all things and replenish them, too.
Unbreakable is the hold you have on the boundless cosmos,
O Kronos, begetter of time, Kronos of contrasting discourse,
child of earth and starry sky.
In you there is birth and decline, august and prudent lord of Rhea,
who, as progenitor, dwell in every part of the world.
Hear my suppliant voice, O wily and brave one,
and bring an ever blameless end to a good life.

52
Hymn to the Stars, incense—aromatic herbs

I call forth the sacred light of the heavenly stars
and with devotional prayers I summon the holy demons.
Heavenly stars, dear children of dark Night,
On circles you march and whirl about,
O brilliant and fiery begetters of all.
Fate, everyone’s fate you reveal,
and you determine the divine path for mortals
as, wandering in midair, you gaze upon the seven luminous orbits.
In heaven and on earth, ever indestructible on your blazing trail,
you shine upon night’s cloak of darkness.
Coruscating, gleaming, kindly and nocturnal,
visit the learned contests of this sacred rite,
finishing a noble race for works of glory.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Despite extensive scholarship already conducted on the musical magic of Marsilio Ficino, little attention has been given to the practical instructions set forth in his De vita coelitus comparanda. This paper examines Ficino’s rules for constructing and performing astrologically-effective music, drawing from both pre- and post-Ficinian texts to create a cross-section of knowledge, one to which Renaissance magicians would have had access and used in their own ritual performances of Ficino’s planetary songs.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Sebag, Mikael (author)

Core Title Methods of enchantment: examining the practical instructions of Ficino's musical magic

School Thornton School of Music

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Early Music Performance

Publication Date 07/27/2012

Defense Date 07/26/2012

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag astrology,Ficino,hymn,Italian,magic,Music,OAI-PMH Harvest,Orpheus,Orphic,planetary,renaissance,song

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Gilbert, Adam Knight (committee chair), Fox, Rachelle (committee member), Gilbert, Rotem (committee member)

Creator Email sebag@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-72292

Unique identifier UC11288969

Identifier usctheses-c3-72292 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-SebagMikae-1040.pdf

Dmrecord 72292

Document Type Thesis

Rights Sebag, Mikael

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA