With a group of scholars from Japan, we received a grant from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science and the Ministry of Education for a three-year KAKEN research project that addresses the interactions of various traditions of magic, astrology and alchemy between the Islamicate world and Latin Europe during the medieval and early modern periods. We will explore the texts attributed to Jābir, Ikhwān al-Safā’, the work known as Ghāyat al-ḥakīm, and the pseudo-Aristotelian Hermetica. In addition, we will study the medieval and early modern reception of such works in translation - Picatrix, Liber vaccae, Liber angeumis - and their impact on Marsilio Ficino, Heinrich Agrippa, Paracelsus or Ps.-Paracelsus. In addition to reinforcing scholarly networks via series of publications and workshops, we are planning an international conference to commemorate the works of Keiji Yamamoto, world renowned historian of Arabic astrology, to be held in Kyoto 2024.

Members of the team:

• Amadeo Murase* (Seigakuin University): Paracelsianism, early modern alchemy
• Liana Saif (University of Amsterdam): Arabic and Islamic magic
• Hiroaki Ito (Senshu University): Medieval and Renaissance mysticism
• Junichi Ono (Jichi Medical University): Islamic mysticism
• Yuki Nakanishi (Jichi Medical University/Keio University): Islamic theology and magic
• Hiro Hirai (Jichi Medical University/Columbia University): Renaissance alchemy

* Project leader