The Experimenitarius has often been thought of as a witness to Bernardus Silvestris' attitude to astrology, and, therefore, as a potential key to the complex and apparently ambivalent status of the planets and stars in the Cosmographia. Bernardus is claimed to be the translator, rather than the author of the work, but we have no other evidence that he translated from, or was familiar with, Arabic. Hence Hermann of Carinthia has been summoned to his aid, on the grounds that both he and Bernardus had some connection with the School of Chartres, that Hermann addressed a work on the astrolabe to Bernardus, and that there is actually a picture of Hermann facing Euclid, and with his astrolabe in his hand, at the head of two MSS. of the Experimentarius. Of these three pieces of evidence, one is too tenuous and the other two are false. - [Author]

Language: English